Their Lives All Mattered

In the past, I have found time at each year’s end to write about the people from the broader crime-fiction community who died during the previous 12 months. No such flexibility presents itself this week. Therefore, I am glad that Mystery Fanfare’s Janet Rudolph put together this record of contributors to the genre who passed away in 2023. It includes authors as diverse as Carol Higgins Clark, Tim Dorsey, Patricia Holt, Tom Savage, and Anne Perry. Mentioned, as well, is Jim Napier, a longtime Rap Sheet contributor from Canada, who apparently died on December 23 at age 81—though this is the first I’ve heard of it.

Born in 1942 and reared in California, James E. Napier later moved to Ontario to study philosophy at the University of Waterloo. He went on to pursue a teaching career, but retired in 2004 to take up crime-fiction reviewing and writing. “Author of the Colin McDermott series in Legacy (2017) and Ridley’s War (2020), Jim was writing his third novel and looking forward to publishing it in 2024,” according to this obituary. In addition to critiquing books for the Montreal Review of Books, the Ottawa Review of Books, and January Magazine, and maintaining an award-winning crime-fiction site called Deadly Diversions, Jim composed occasional reviews for The Rap Sheet. Since 2014, he had also participated in this blog’s annual “favorite crime fiction of the year” features. However, he never responded to my requests this last fall that he submit a favorites list for 2023; I might have recognized that as being significant, but did not.

I knew Jim had suffered vision problems in his right eye for a long while, which limited his print-reading opportunities to a mere 20-30 minutes at a stretch. I didn’t think, though, that he was on the verge of leaving us. I’m only glad to read in his obituary that he “died peacefully surrounded by loved ones.” I offer my condolences to Jim’s family. Thank you for sharing him with the rest of us.

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In addition to the late authors Mystery Fanfare recognizes, let us remember several people who, before they breathed their last in 2023, lent their abundant talents to crime and mystery films or television shows: Peter S. Fischer, who, among other things, co-created the CBS-TV series Murder, She Wrote; Richard Roundtree, who played super-cool, super-tough New York City private eye John Shaft on both the large and small screens; Man From U.N.C.L.E. co-star David McCallum; actress Sharon Farrell, who appeared with James Garner in Marlowe (1969) and later featured in series such as The Name of the Game and Harry O; Canadian-born Sharon Acker, who was seen regularly on Hec Ramsey and The New Perry Mason; Barry Newman, who led the 1974-1976 NBC-TV legal drama Petrocelli; Rupert Heath, the founder and publisher of Dean Street Press; Robert Blake, who went from headlining ABC-TV’s Baretta to defending himself from charges that he murdered his wife in 2001; Barbara Bosson, a frequent fixture in her husband, Steven Bochco’s shows, from Hill Street Blues to Hooperman; and two familiar faces from Homicide: Life on the Street—Andre Braugher and Richard Belzer.

READ MORE: “Notable Deaths of 2023” (The Washington Post).

Never Can Say Good-bye

James Garner reading in The Rockford Files.

There have been several recent posts on this page wrapping things up for 2014. We’ve looked back at our favorite new crime novels from last year as well as the best book covers. Now comes the necessary but not so cheery record of deaths over the last 12 months. We lost a great number of folks who were important in crime-fiction circles during 2014 (though not nearly so many as went to their graves in 2013). We know this list isn’t exhaustive, but please let us know in the Comments section at the end of this post if we forgot anyone of prominence.

Harold Adams, 91, the author of 17 novels featuring Carl Wilcox, an itinerant sign painter and “happenstance private eye” who operated in the small South Dakota town of Corden during the Great Depression. That Shamus Award-winning series began with Murder (1981) and concluded with Lead, So I Can Follow (1999). Adams also penned two novels (1987’s When Rich Men Die and 2003’s The Fourth of July Wake) about a wise-ass contemporary TV news anchor, Kyle Champion, who winds up taking on P.I. work himself. The “kind, intelligent, and very nice” Adams breathed his last on April 4.

Bill Adler, 84, who--according to Jiro Kimura of The Gumshoe Site--“‘conceptualized’ contest mystery novels including Who Killed the Robins Family? (Morrow, 1983) and its sequel, The Revenge of the Robins Family (Morrow, 1984; both written by Thomas Chastain); The Agent (Doubleday, 1986; written by David R. Slavitt); and Murder on the Internet (Morrow, 1999; written by Bruce Cassiday). He also conceptualized two mystery anthologies: Murder in Manhattan (Morrow, 1986) with stories by NY writer[s], and Murder in Los Angeles (Morrow, 1987) with stories by L.A. writers.” Adler passed away on February 28 as a consequence of abdominal cancer.

Lou Allin, 69, a Canadian mystery writer (Twilight Is Not Good for Maidens) died on July 10, following a lengthy bout with pancreatic cancer. More about her life and career can be found here and here.

Lauren Bacall, 89, “the actress whose provocative glamour elevated her to stardom in Hollywood’s golden age and whose lasting mystique put her on a plateau in American culture that few stars reach,” according to this obituary in The New York Times. Born Betty Joan Perske in The Bronx, New York, back in 1924, Bacall was just a sultry 19-year-old when she first encountered 44-year-old Humphrey Bogart on the set of the motion-picture To Have and Have Not (1944). The two married the next year and went on to make four famous crime movies together, the last being 1948’s Key Largo. Her film career waned after Bogart’s death in 1957, but she appeared sporadically on the big and small screens into the early 21st century. Her later movie credits included roles in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Shootist (1976), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), and The Forger (2012). She also appeared in a classic two-part episode of The Rockford Files (“Lions, Tigers, Monkeys, and Dogs,” 1979) and a 2006 episode of The Sopranos (“Luxury Lounge”). A self-described liberal Democrat (“[B]eing a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be,” she once told TV interviewer Larry King. “You are welcoming to everyone when you’re a liberal. You do not have a small mind.”), Lauren Bacall died of a “massive stroke” on August 12 at her home in New York City’s famous Dakota Apartments.

(Right) Bacall and Bogart, 1944

Juanita Bartlett, 86, an American TV screenwriter-producer who worked with James Garner on Nichols, The Rockford Files, and the 1978 TV pilot The New Maverick. Her credits also included contributions to The Greatest American Hero, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, Alias Smith and Jones, and The Magician. Bartlett was brought in to “fix” Spenser: For Hire during its second season (sadly, its least appealing one). She died on February 25, just three days short of her 87th birthday.

Alexandra Bastedo, 67, a British screen star and activist who was probably best known for playing sexy secret agent Sharron Macready in the 1968-1969 espionage/science-fiction adventure series The Champions. “Of course, Alexandra Bastedo was more than an actress,” Terence Towles Canote wrote in A Shroud of Thoughts. “Through the [Alexandra Bastedo Champions (ABC) Animal Sanctuary] and other activities over the years she saved hundreds of abandoned animals. She was also active in several other animal-rights organizations. The first thing anyone might have noticed about Alexandra Bastedo may have been her beauty, but she was so much more than that.” Cancer took her Bastedo’s life on January 12.

Eric Bercovici, 80, a writer and producer for U.S. television. Over the years he wrote for small-screen crime dramas such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, Hawaii Five-O, Assignment: Vienna, Police Story, and McClain’s Law (the last of which he also created). In addition, Bercovici penned the screenplays for the 1977 ABC miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors and the 1988 NBC miniseries adaptation of James Clavell’s novel Noble House. With Clavell he shared a 1980 Emmy Award for scripting the miniseries Shōgun. He died on February 9 at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Thomas Berger, 89, an Ohio-born novelist perhaps best remembered for publishing the 1964 Western picaresque Little Big Man and its 1999 sequel, The Return of Little Big Man. However, Berger also gave readers 1977’s pot-boilerish detective novel, Who Is Teddy Villanova?, which one Goodreads reviewer described as “at once a farce, a parody, and [a] loving exercise in genre fiction.” There’s more on Teddy Villanova here. Berger died on July 13.

Marshall Browne, 78, an ex-banker and the Ned Kelly Award-winning Australian author of such crime novels as The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders (1999), Inspector Anders and the Ship of Fools (2001), and Rendezvous at Kamakura Inn (2006). He died of cancer on February 14. You’ll find The Rap Sheet’s obituary of Browne here.

Warren Clarke, 67, an English actor best known for his portrayal of the blunt, politically incorrect, and ever-grumpy Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel in the 1996-2007 BBC One series Dalziel and Pascoe. An obituary on the BBC News site says Clarke died on November 12 “after a short illness.”

(Left) Warren Clarke

Judy Crider, 71, who for 49 years was married to Bill Crider, Texas author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes novels, the Professor Sally Good and Carl Burns mysteries, and an assortment of other works in the crime fiction, horror, and Western genres. Her obituary in Texas’ Alvin Sun-Advertiser explains that “Judy was a full partner in Bill’s writing career. She was the first reader and editor of every book and story he wrote and was the business manager for the entire enterprise. She was his co-author on several stories, and one of them won the Anthony Award for Best Short Story in 2002.” Not long after Judy’s demise (from cancer) on November 27, Bill Crider wrote in his blog: “From the day we married, I more or less ceased to exist as an individual. There was no more Bill Crider. There was BillandJudy. It’s been that way ever since. My sister said today that she was worried about me because Judy and I had never been separated for more than a couple of days in all our years together. I’ll be okay, though, I think. It’s still BillandJudy as far as I’m concerned. She may have left the world, but she’ll never leave me.”

Dorothy Salisbury Davis, 98, an author who, explained the Los Angeles Times, produced “tautly spun novels and short stories that portrayed women as strong, complex characters instead of the more usual helpless damsels and femmes fatale …” The paper added that “Davis wrote 20 novels and dozens of stories during a five-decade career that brought six Edgar Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America. She was an early member of the group, which included Ellery Queen and Georges Simenon, and served as president in 1956. She was named a grand master of the society in 1985 for lifetime achievement.” The New York Times recalled that Davis “wrote mainly standalone novels [such as 1951’s successful A Gentle Murderer] and stories, but developed a few stock characters. One, Julie Hayes, was a wacky young lady who set up a fortunetelling shop in Times Square as a way to reinvent her life. In reviewing the first of the four “Julie’ books, A Death in the Life (1976), in The Times, Anatole Broyard wrote, ‘Mrs. Davis is one of that disappearing breed of novelists who still believes in likable women.’” The author had spent several years in failing health before passing away at a New York senior residence facility on August 3.

James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner), 86, an actor whose friendly, whimsical style attracted millions of followers to his TV series, including Maverick (1957-1962) and The Rockford Files (1974-1980), and his many films over the years, among them The Great Escape (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964), Grand Prix (1966), Hour of the Gun (1967), Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969), Marlowe (1969), Support Your Local Gunfighter! (1971), Skin Game (1971), Victor Victoria (1982), Murphy’s Romance (1985), Sunset (1988), Twilight (1998), and … well, this list could go on and on. Garner was nominated for upwards of a dozen Emmy Awards during his more than 60-year career, and in 1977 he won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series as a result of his work on The Rockford Files. For his contributions to the entertainment industry, the Oklahoma-born Garner was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard), and in 2005 he received the Screen Actors Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award. A lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, Garner was approached by party leaders in California in 2010 to run for that state’s governorship, but declined the opportunity. Of all the celebrity deaths last year, Garner’s certainly hit me the hardest, as I’d been a fan of his acting ever since I was boy. I’d even had the privilege of interviewing him, via e-mail, back in 2011, following the publication of his memoir, The Garner Files. He perished on July 19, reportedly as a result of acute myocardial infarction. My thoughts on his passing, as well as numerous links to Garner tributes online, can be found here. Additional links are here.

Curt Gentry, 83, a Colorado-born writer best remembered for having worked with Vincent Bugliosi on the 1974 non-fiction book Helter Skelter, about the Charles Manson murders. Gentry’s 1967 book, Frame-up: The Incredible Case of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, was nominated for an Edgar Award, but it’s actually for another of his works, 1964’s The Madams of San Francisco, that I remember him best. A paperback copy of Madams sits prominently on my office shelves even now--one of the first books that made me curious about the seedier side of history around California’s Golden Gate. Lung cancer took Gentry’s life on July 10, in (of course) San Francisco.

Jeremiah Healy, 66, author of the Boston-based John Francis Cuddy private-eye series. Born in New Jersey, he was a graduate of Rutgers College and Harvard Law School, and had been a military police lieutenant, a trial attorney, and later a professor at the New England School of Law. He’d served as the chair for the Shamus Awards, president of the Private Eye Writers of America, and president of the International Association of Crime Writers. In addition to his acclaimed Cuddy books, Healy produced--under the pseudonym “Terry Devane”--novels about Boston lawyer Mairead O’Clare. He had evidently suffered for many years from depression, and he took his own life on August 14 in Pompano Beach, Florida. My only interview with him appeared in January Magazine back in 2000. The Boston Globe’s obituary of Healy can be found here, while more information about his passing is available in this Rap Sheet post.

Edward Herrmann, 71, a versatile but very recognizable (by either face or voice) character actor, born in Wshington, D.C. Although he may now be most familiar for his role as patriarch Richard Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, Herrmann’s résumé also includes appearances on St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Crossing Jordan, The Practice, Law & Order, and The Good Wife. Additionally, he portrayed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the late-1970s made-for-TV-movie Eleanor and Franklin and its sequel, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, and put in a superior performance as newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst in The Cat’s Meow (2001). Herrmann succumbed to brain cancer on New Year’s Eve.

Geoffrey Holder, 84, a Trinidadian-American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer whose portrayal of Baron Samedi--a particularly sinister villain in the 1973 James Bond flick, Live and Let Die--and his appearances in a series of 7-Up commercials (watch here) brought him worldwide recognition. The BBC News site has more on his career.

P.D. James (aka Lady James of Holland Park), 91, “the [English] grande dame of mystery, and a link with the golden age of detective writing that flourished between the wars,” according to The Guardian’s obituary. Phyllis Dorothy James didn’t begin penning fiction until she was in her 40s, but she went on from there to produce the Adam Dalgliesh mysteries (beginning with 1962’s Cover Her Face), a couple of novels starring private detective Cordelia Gray (including An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, 1972), and standalones such as her 2011 Jane Austen tribute, Death Comes to Pemberley. The British Crime Writers’ Association gave her three Macallan Silver Daggers for Fiction as well as its 1987 Cartier Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement. James was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1983. She died at her home in Oxford, England, on November 27. Read more here.

Richard Kiel, 74, a 7-foot-1 Detroit-born actor who featured in such theatrical releases as The Longest Yard (1974), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), and Happy Gilmore (1996). Kiel was also a regular on the 1975-1976 ABC-TV Western/crime series Barbary Coast, but may have made his most lasting impression playing Jaws, an imposing criminal henchman with steel-capped teeth, in two James Bond films, 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me and 1979’s Moonraker. (The blog James Bond Memes offers more commentary on Jaws here.) Kiel died on September 10, just short of his 75th birthday.

(Left) Richard Kiel as Jaws

Glen A. Larson, 77, was an Emmy Award-nominated American producer and screenwriter who brought to television a number of memorable hits during the 1970s and ’80s, among them Magnum, P.I., Quincy, M.E., The Fugitive, Alias Smith and Jones, McCloud, The Six Million Dollar Man, Switch, Knight Rider, Night Man, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and The Fall Guy. He also served as executive producer of the 1968-1970 Robert Wagner spy series It Takes a Thief. A lengthy accounting of Larson’s TV credits is here. He died on November 14.

Audrey Long, 92, an actress who appeared in such motion pictures as Tall in the Saddle (1944) and Born to Kill (1947). No matter her other accomplishments, however, this Orlando, Florida, native may always be remembered best for having wed UK novelist Leslie Charteris--creator of the Saint series starring Simon Templer--on April 26, 1952. The couple remained married until his demise in 1993. Long reportedly died on September 19 in Surrey, England, “after a long illness.”

Roy Peter Martin, 83, who--as “James Melville”--composed more than a dozen novels featuring Japanese police Superintendent Otani (beginning with 1979’s The Wages of Zen). As well, in the late 1980s this native Londoner stepped in to continue a cozy crime series starring retired art teacher Emily D. Seeton, after that series’ creator, Heron Carvic, went to her grave in 1980; Martin ultimately contributed three Miss Seeton novels under the nom de plume “Hampton Charles.” Martin “was intelligent, amusing and genial company, and he also wrote very well,” fellow author Martin Edwards recalled in this post. “The Otani books were crisp and entertaining and made excellent use of his knowledge of Japan and the Japanese way of life. He was also a reviewer, and I was one of many younger writers who benefited from his generosity and his willingness to cover books that were not necessarily destined to be best-sellers. I shall remember him fondly.” Martin passed away on March 23. Click here to read his obituary in The Guardian, composed by his sons.

Martin Meyers, 79, who with his wife, Annette, wrote the historical “Dutchman” mysteries under the joint pseudonym “Maan Meyers.” Meyers died in New York City on May 14.

James Shigeta, 85, a Hawaii-born actor-singer of Japanese descent who, according to Wikipedia, “first came on screen in the U.S., in 1959, as Detective Joe Kojaku in The Crimson Kimono, a detective story that featured an interracial romantic triangle between Kojaku, his partner Sgt. Charlie Bancroft (played by Glenn Corbett), and Christine Downes (portrayed by Victoria Shaw). Shigeta’s character was somewhat groundbreaking for the 1950s, an Asian detective played by an Asian actor with regular speech patterns, rather than a non-Asian made up to pass as Asian who speaks in broken English.” Shigata went on to star on the big screen in Flower Drum Song (1961) and Lost Horizon (1973), but was more frequently spotted doing guest spots on TV series such as Perry Mason, It Takes a Thief, Matt Helm, Magnum, P.I., and Murder, She Wrote. He died in his sleep on July 28.

Seymour Shubin, 93, the Philadelphia-born author of such novels as Anyone’s My Name (1953), The Captain (a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award, published in 1982), and Witness to Myself (released in 2006 by Hard Case Crime). He perished on November 2 “of complications from an earlier fall.”

Mary Stewart, 97, an English writer credited with bringing renown to the field of romantic mystery fiction. “Mary Stewart was arguably one of the most influential suspense novelists of the mid-20th century …,” opines author Julia Buckley. “All of the staples of romantic suspense can be found in Stewart’s suspense novels: beautiful settings, adventurous heroines, and a brooding mystery. Stewart, however, takes those basic elements and embellishes them enough to create a new genre: the literary romantic suspense novel. By marrying history and setting, she allows her reader to feel both intelligent and invested in place.” An obit at Tor.com, by science fiction/fantasy writer Jo Walton, emphasizes the importance of Stewart’s four Arthurian novels, beginning with The Crystal Cave (1970). Stewart died on May 9.

Leslie Thomas, 83, a Wales-born author who first enjoyed fame after the publication of his 1966 comic novel, The Virgin Soldiers. My own experience with Thomas’ fiction began courtesy of the 1976 Dell paperback release of Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective. As The Gumshoe Site recalled, that novel “was turned into the 1981 TV movie of the same name starring Bernard Cribbins as the CID officer in the London borough of Willesden, with Thomas and director Val Guest co-writing the script. Also, The Last Detective became [a] TV series starring Peter Davison, with 17 episodes broadcast from 2003 [to] 2007.” The New York Times explains that Thomas “died on May 6 at his home near Salisbury, England.”

James Thompson, 49, the author of four novels starring Finnish homicide inspector Kari Vaara (including 2012’s Helsinki Blood). Although he was born in eastern Kentucky in 1964, Thompson moved to Finland in 1998, where he earned his Master's degree in English philology and became a full-time writer. Prior to that, he’d worked as a “bartender, bouncer, construction worker, photographer, rare coin dealer, soldier, and wrestling announcer.” His U.S. publisher, Putnam, noted after his passing that Thompson’s debut novel, Snow Angels (2010), was nominated for the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Strand Magazine Critics award and was selected as a Booklist Best Crime Novel Debut of the Year.” He wrote about his fiction-writing endeavors in this piece for the blog Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White. Thompson died on August 2.

Aimée Thurlo, 62, who penned novels in the mystery, romance, and young adult categories, often with her husband, David. The FantasticFiction Web site explains that the Thurlos had “three ongoing mystery series: the Sister Agatha series, starring a cloistered nun, the Lee Nez series, featuring a Navajo vampire who teams up with a female FBI agent to fight crimes that have elements of the supernatural, and their flagship series, the critically acclaimed Ella Clah novels. Several Ella Clah novels, including Tracking Bear, Red Mesa, and Shooting Chant, have received starred reviews from Booklist.” This obituary says Thurlo succumbed on February 28 “after a brief struggle with cancer and related complications.”

Stanford Whitmore, 88, a Chicago-reared screenwriter who, wrote Stephen Bowie in The Classic TV Blog, “was best known as the author of ‘Fear in a Desert City,’ the pilot for The Fugitive, which was based on a premise written by the unavailable Roy Huggins. Whitmore contributed three other excellent first-season scripts to The Fugitive, including the crucial flashback episode ‘The Girl from Little Egypt,’ which filled in the back story of the murder and the trial that sent Richard Kimble to the death house. Other significant Whitmore credits include the teleplay for The Hanged Man (based on the 1947 film Ride the Pink Horse), the first made-for-television movie, and a shared credit (with William Link and Richard Levinson) on the pilot telefilm for the long-running McCloud.” Whitmore’s contributions ran also to episodes of Johnny Staccato, The Wild Wild West, Ironside, Sarge, and Night Gallery. He died on May 8.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr., 95, the Golden Globe-winning American actor who played L.A. private eye Stuart Bailey on the 1958-1964 ABC-TV series 77 Sunset Strip and straight-laced Inspector Lewis Erskine on the 1965-1974 crime drama The F.B.I. Zimbalist (the father of Remington Steele star Stephanie Zimbalist) also did what I thought was a fine turn as Sergeant Harry Hansen in the 1975 teleflick Who Is the Black Dahlia? He died May 2 from “natural causes” at his ranch in Solvang, California. The Rap Sheet’s obit of Zimbalist is here.

READ MORE: “In Memoriam,” by Maltese Condor (Read Me Deadly).

Lost Friends, Lasting Influences

One of the saddest tasks I undertake at the end of each year is to compile a list of people who--for various reasons--were significant to the crime-fiction community, and who perished during the previous 12 months. I keep hoping that every new such inventory will be shorter than the last, that the folks so familiar to us through their fiction writing or their roles in mystery/thriller-related films and TV shows will do a better job of surviving. Unfortunately, even more names appear below than were featured in my 2012 rundown.

Michael Ansara, 91, a Syrian-born American actor who came to prominence playing Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise in the 1956-1958 ABC-TV series Broken Arrow. Ansara later appeared on Law of the Plainsman, Daniel Boone, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, McMillan & Wife, Police Story, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and many other programs.

Jakob Arjouni (né Jakob Bothe), 48, a German crime novelist who saw his first book, Happy Birthday, Türke!, published in 1985, when he was just 20 years old. Arjouni went on to create four more novels starring private detective Kemal Kayankaya, including Brother Kemal, which was released in the States earlier this year.

Robert Barnard, 76, an English crime writer who in 2003 won the Cartier Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement. “Robert Barnard,” explained British critic-columnist Mike Ripley, “was one of a quartet of writers born in 1936--his contemporaries being Reginald Hill, Jonathan Gash and Peter Lovesey--who formed a solid backbone for traditional English crime writing of the highest order in the last quarter of the twentieth century.” Barnard’s first novel was Death of an Old Goat (1974). He also wrote under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, producing two alternative historical mysteries starring an elderly Wolfgang Mozart in a sleuthing role.

Eileen Brennan, 80, the Los Angeles-born actress who appeared in so many roles, including that of Captain Doreen Lewis in the 1980 comedy Private Benjamin, and as singer Betty DeBoop in the 1978 Neil Simon comedy, The Cheap Detective, which starred Peter Falk.

Gwendoline Butler, 90, the British author of more than two dozen novels featuring Inspector John Coffin (beginning with 1958’s Receipt for Murder, in which the character was introduced playing second fiddle to another detective, Inspector Winter). Butler also concocted a series of women’s police procedurals under the pseudonym Jennie Melville. She won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Silver Dagger Award in 1973 for her novel A Coffin for Pandora.

Tom Clancy, 66, the American author of more than 20 thriller and espionage novels, among them The Hunt for Red October (1984), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and his latest, Command Authority, which was released by Putnam earlier this month. Clancy, wrote Dave Rosenthal in the Baltimore Sun, “almost single-handedly created the techno-thriller genre …”

Robert H. Colfelt, 79. He wasn’t a famous author, although he did publish one collection of personal essays, Together in the Dark: Mysteries of Healing (1987). He wasn’t a movie producer or a Hollywood star. But Seattle neurologist Bob Colfelt was an avid reader of crime and thriller fiction--particularly works by Philip Kerr, Dan Fesperman, and Ian Rankin--and he was a strong supporter of independent bookstores. He was also my friend. For all of those reasons he deserves a place among these remembrances.

Basil Copper, 89. He was best-known as a writer of horror fiction, but from the 1960s through the ’80s he also concocted dozens of stories featuring Los Angeles P.I. Mike Faraday. Following the death in 1971 of August Derleth, Copper continued the former’s series of pastiches featuring Sherlockian sleuth Solar Pons.

Gordon Cotler, 89, whose screenwriting credits included episodes of McMillan & Wife and Lanigan’s Rabbi, as well as the 1987 TV movie Deadly Deception, which was nominated for an Edgar Award. He wrote half a dozen mystery novels, among them The Bottletop Affair (1959), which was adapted to film in 1962 as The Horizontal Lieutenant. Cotler also produced nine short stories about Detective Lieutenant Bernie Farber for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine during the first decade of the 21st century.

Ava Dianne Day, 75, a psychologist turned author who penned romantic suspense fiction before finding a place among mystery tale-makers. She created half a dozen novels featuring turn-of-the-last-century San Francisco heroine Caroline Fremont Jones, beginning with 1996’s The Strange Files of Fremont Jones.

Gérard de Villiers, 83, a French fictionist and journalist. According to The Gumshoe Site, de Villiers “wrote 200 spy novels featuring an Austrian prince called Malko Linge, who worked as a freelance CIA agent, starting with SAS in Istanbul in 1965 (SAS stands for Son Altesse Serenissime, meaning His Most Serene Highness), and ending with SAS: The Kremlin Revenge, his last and 200th, in 2012. He was almost unknown in the USA and UK, but … sold about 100 million copies worldwide. Less than 20 SAS titles in English have been published in the U.S., but Vintage Books will start publishing SAS novels in the U.S. and Canada in 2014.”

Nate Esformes, 79, a New York City-born character actor who appeared in TV series such as Quincy, M.E., The Streets of San Francisco, Barbary Coast, Mission: Impossible, Ironside, Mannix, Police Story, and Search. Stephen Bowie adds, in The Classic TV History Blog, that “He played one of the Watergate burglars in All the President’s Men, and most of his other films have achieved either critical acclaim or cult fame: Petulia, [James Garner’s] Marlowe, Black Belt Jones, Henry Jaglom’s Tracks, Battle Beyond the Stars, Vice Squad, Invasion U.S.A.”

Dennis Farina, 69, a Chicago policeman turned performer who starred in the television series Law & Order, Buddy Faro, and Crime Story. His other credits include appearances in such films as Get Shorty, Saving Private Ryan, Out of Sight, and Snatch.

Vince Flynn, 47, a popular author of political thrillers, including 13 books starring undercover CIA counter-terrorism operative Mitch Rapp.

Joan Fontaine, 96, a British-American actress (and the elder sister of fellow star Olivia de Havilland), who appeared as a haunted wife in the Alfred Hitchcock film Rebecca (1940) and subsequently picked up the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a spooked newlywed in Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941). You can find out much more about Fontaine in her New York Times obituary.

Steve Forrest, 87, who starred in the 1966-1967 British crime drama The Baron as well as in the 1975-1976 ABC police drama S.W.A.T.

Gail Frazer, 66, who--with her journalist friend, Mary Monica Pulver Kuhfeld, and under the pseudonym Margaret Frazer--created the Sister Frevisee mystery series. Kuhfeld ceased to be involved in that historical series after its first six installments, but Gail Frazer carried on to pen another 11 Sister (later Dame) Frevisee books.

Leighton Gage, 71, the author of seven novels featuring Brazilian Chief Inspector Mario Silva, including this year’s Perfect Hatred and The Ways of Evil Men, to be published next month by Soho Crime.

James Gandolfini, 51, who played patriarch Tony Soprano in the 1999-2007 New Jersey-based mobster drama, The Sopranos.

Andrew M. Greeley, 85, a Catholic priest turned prolific novelist. Although he is surely best known to readers of this blog for creating the part-time sleuth Father Blackie Ryan, Greeley was also an outspoken critic of George W. Bush’s Iraq war.

Noel Harrison, 79, who co-starred with Stefanie Powers in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966-1967), playing British secret agent Mark Slate.

Robin Hathaway, 79, author of the Dr. Fenimore and Jo Banks series. Fellow author Elizabeth Zelvin had more to say about Hathaway’s passing here.

Mitchell Hooks, 89, a Detroit-born artist-illustrator who created numerous memorable paperback crime-novel covers during the latter half of the 20th century.

Ed Koch, 88, a former U.S. congressman and New York City mayor, who co-authored a succession of four mystery novels, all featuring a fictional character named Ed Koch. That series began with Murder at City Hall (1995, composed with Herbert Resnicow) and concluded with The Senator Must Die (1998; with Wendy Corsi Staub).

Ed Lauter, 74, who for four decades was a fixture on U.S. television and movie screens. He appeared in an abundance of TV series, including Longstreet, Ironside, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Nero Wolfe, Magnum,P.I., The A-Team, Cold Case, Miami Vice, NYPD Blue, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lauter also starred in Last Hours Before Morning, an unsuccessful 1975 pilot film for NBC. He played Bud Delaney, a 1940s Los Angeles cop who was booted from the force “after being framed by a mysterious higher-up,” and took a job as the house detective at a B-grade Hollywood hotel.

Elmore Leonard, 87, the author of more than 45 novels--including Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Hombre, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, Mr. Majestyk, LaBrava, Tishomingo Blues, and Rum Punch--many of which were adapted over the years for entertainment screens large and small. His contributions were recognized during the National Book Awards presentations in 2012, when this Detroit-area storyteller won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution. Leonard was also given the Crime Writers’ Association’s Diamond Dagger award in 2006, the F. Scott Fitzgerald award in 2008, and the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. The Rap Sheet paid homage to Leonard’s legacy in two large posts. Click here and here to find those tributes.

Richard Matheson, 87. Although he was principally recognized as the author of fantasy, horror, and science fiction (1954’s I Am Legend being perhaps his most popular work of the imagination), Matheson also concocted a trio of nourish novels, including 1953’s Someone Is Bleeding, and he won 1973 Edgar Award in the TV feature category for his work on The Night Stalker, a 1972 ABC “movie of the week” starring Darren McGavin as a seersucker-wrapped reporter and part-time monster hunter.

Cortright McMeel, 41, a Boston-born novelist and short-story writer, and the founder of Murdaland, a high-quality publication devoted to crime fiction that (sadly) lasted only two issues.

Barbara Mertz, 85, the author and Egyptologist best known under two pseudonyms, Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. Wikipedia notes that Mertz--who, as Peters, produced a popular historical mysteries series starring Victorian archaeologist Amelia Peabody--was “the recipient of a number of grandmaster and lifetime achievement awards, including being named Grand Master at the Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1998; in 2003, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malice Domestic Convention. In 2012 she was honored with the first Amelia Peabody Award at the Malice Domestic Convention ...”

Don Mitchell, 70, the Houston-born actor best known for playing delinquent-turned-bodyguard Mark Sanger in the 1967-1975 NBC-TV crime drama Ironside. Mitchell also appeared in The Fugitive, McMillan & Wife, and Matlock. In what was evidently his last role, he resurrected Mark Sanger for the 1993 TV movie The Return of Ironside.

Tony Musante, 77, who starred in the 1973-1974 ABC-TV crime drama Toma, based on the real-life undercover exploits of Newark, New Jersey, police detective David Toma.

Hal Needham, 82, a stuntman who worked “for the television series Mike Hammer before getting his big break serving as Richard Boone’s stunt double on the popular Western series Have Gun--Will Travel.” At one point, writes blogger Terence Towles Canote, Needham was said to be “the highest paid stuntman in the world.”

Michael Palmer, 71, a doctor turned novelist who penned 18 medical thrillers, the last two of which--Oath of Office (2012) and Political Suicide (2013)--featured Washington, D.C., physician Lou Welcome. Palmer’s 20th novel, Resistant, is scheduled for publication (by St. Martin’s Press) on May 20 of next year.

Joan H. Parker, 80, a psychologist and specialist in early childhood development--and not incidentally the only wife of prominent private-eye novelist Robert B. Parker, who died back in January 2010 at age 77. Joan Parker is said to have inspired the character Susan Silverman, the girlfriend of her husband’s fictional Boston private eye, Spenser. Read more about Joan Parker’s life here and here.

Dale Robertson, 89, who starred in a couple of small-screen western dramas, Tales of Wells Fargo (1957-1962) and The Iron Horse (1966-1968), as well as the Stephen J. Cannell-created series, J.J. Starbuck, on which he played Jerome Jeremiah “J.J.” Starbuck, an oil-rich Texan inclined toward detective work.

Nick Robinson, 58, the chairman at publisher Constable & Robinson.

Harry Sims, 90. As The HMSS Weblog explains, Sims was “an announcer best known for [uttering] the words ‘a Quinn Martin production!’” on such TV programs as The Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, and Banyon. Click here to learn more about Sims’ life and career.

Malachi Throne, 84, who played thief-turned-spy Alexander Mundy’s SIA boss, Noah Bain, on the 1968-1970 ABC-TV series It Takes a Thief, Throne also appeared on episodes of The Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek. A more extensive rundown of his professional roles can be found here.

Jack Vance, 96, who picked up three Hugo Awards as well as a Nebula, and was familiar as a prolific science-fiction writer. In addition, though, Vance penned a number of mystery novels, including the Edgar Award-winning The Man in the Cage (1960) and three that were released under the “Ellery Queen” house name: The Four Johns (1964), A Room to Die In (1965), and The Madman Theory (1966).

Colin Wilson, 82, the English author who, according to The Gumshoe Site, “became famous at 26 when his first book, The Outsider (Gollancz, 1956), hit the street … He was a prolific writer of philosophy, literature, history, and the occult. He also wrote science fiction as well as crime fiction, including Ritual in the Dark (Gollancz, 1960), The Glass Cage (Barker 1966), and The Schoolgirl Murder Case (Hart-Davis, 1974), which is the first of the Inspector Gregory Saltfleet series.” Learn more from The Daily Telegraph’s obituary.

So, have I forgotten to include anybody? Please feel free to suggest any additions in the Comments section of this post.

READ MORE: “Good-bye 2013, Good-bye Audrey Totter!,” by Terence Faherty (SleuthSayers).

Remembering Those We Left Behind

Before we move too deep into this bright new year, I just want to take a moment to recognize a few of the people--all of them somehow important in creating or contributing to contemporary crime fiction--whom we lost to the Grim Reaper in 2012.

Jacques Barzun, 104, a French-born American historian and literary critic who, among his other accomplishments, co-authored (with Wendell Hertig Taylor) a “magisterial critique of crime fiction,” 1971’s A Catalogue of Crime. In 1996 the Mystery Writers of America gave Barzun its Ellery Queen Award, which honors “writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.”

Ray Bradbury, 91, who was most justly renowned for penning science-fiction classics on the order of The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, but who dabbled as well in the mystery-storytelling field, producing Death Is a Lonely Business (1985), A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990), and Let’s All Kill Constance (2002).

Maxine Clarke, 58, an editor of the British scientific journal Nature, an expert on Scandinavian crime fiction, and the author of the excellent blog Petrona. She died after what’s been described as a “lengthy” battle with cancer.

Hal David, 91, a music writer who “contributed lyrics to songs in three James Bond movies” and became especially famous for his collaborations with Burt Bacharach. Among his best-recognized works is “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” which figured into the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Henry Denker, 99, an American lawyer, playwright, and novelist who composed more than 30 novels in a variety of genres, including the legal thrillers Outrage (1982) and Labyrinth (1994).

Phyllis Diller, 95, the wild-haired American comedienne who, according to TheGumshoe Site, not only “wrote four best-selling funny books, including Housekeeping Hints and The Joys of Aging and How to Avoid Them,” but also “8 short stories for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, whose [June] 1990 issue featured her on its cover.”

James D. Doss, 73, a former electrical engineer in New Mexico, who produced 17 mysteries (most recently, The Old Gray Wolf) featuring Colorado rancher and sometime tribal investigator Charlie Moon.

Robert Dozier, 81, a film and television writer whose numerous credits included episodes of Have Gun--Will Travel, Dan August, Batman, Harry O, and The Devlin Connection.

Charles Durning, 89, a prolific, New York-born actor who appeared in such movies as Breakheart Pass (based on Alistair MacLean’s novel of the same name), True Confessions, The Rosary Murders, V.I. Warshawski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? In addition, Durning was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his appearance in a 1998 episode of Homicide: Life on the Street titled “Finnegan’s Wake.”

Biff Elliot, 89, the first actor to portray New York gumshoe Mike Hammer in the movies, specifically in 1953’s I, the Jury.

James Farentino, 73, who played lawyer Neil Darrell for three years (1968-1972) on The Bold Ones before taking the lead as spy-turned-private eye Jefferson Keyes in Cool Million (1972), a short-lived component of the original NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie. Farentino later starred in the much-hyped high-tech helicopter drama Blue Thunder, a spinoff from Roy Scheider’s 1983 film of the same name.

Sally Fellowes, 77, an enthusiastic mystery-fiction reader and reviewer, retired history teacher and coordinator of the Mayhem in the Midlands convention.

Norman Felton, 99, a British-born writer-director who produced a number of early television series, including Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and the latter’s less-successful spinoff series, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. starring Stefanie Powers.

Charles E. Fritch, 85, an author of science-fiction and mystery yarns, and the onetime editor (1979-1985) of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. William F. Nolan posted a fine tribute to Fritch here.

Ben Gazzara, 81, who starred with Chuck Connors in a short-lived 1960s ABC-TV series called Arrest and Trial, before starring in the NBC drama Run for Your Life, playing a lawyer who’s informed that he has no more than 18 more months to live, and so embarks on a cross-country journey, trying to make the most of whatever time he has remaining. Gazzara also directed two episodes of the NBC Mystery Movie series Columbo in the mid-’70s.

Dorothy Gilman, 88, creator of the long-running Mrs. (Emily) Pollifax mystery series. In 2010, Gilman received the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award.

William F. “Bill” Granger, 70, a veteran Chicago newspaper reporter and columnist who, in his spare time, composed political thrillers such as The November Man (1979), Hemingway’s Notebook (1985), and Burning the Apostle (1993).

Andy Griffith, 86, best known for starring in two very different small-screen series, a half-hour sitcom called The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968) and the legal drama Matlock (1986–1995). Griffith said at least once that Ben Matlock was his favorite role. (Some of his less-well-recalled roles are highlighted here.)

Larry Hagman, 81, an American actor who’s undoubtedly best recognized for his starring roles in the TV series I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas, but who also appeared in myriad boob-tube crime dramas over the years, from The Name of the Game and Ellery Queen to McMillan & Wife and Barnaby Jones.

Marvin Hamlisch, 68, the American composer--winner of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards, as well as a Pulitzer Prize--fondly remembered for giving us the music for motion pictures such as The Sting, The Way We Were, and Sophie’s Choice. Hamlisch also co-wrote (with Carole Bayer Sager) the song “Nobody Does It Better” for the 1977 James Bond flick, The Spy Who Loved Me, and he created the theme music for TV series such as Needles and Pins and Doc Elliot. Hamlisch also left us with the haunting, hum-able theme for the 1974 teleflick The Underground Man, which was the pilot for a series starring Peter Graves as Ross Macdonald’s fictional P.I., Lew Archer.

Reginald Hill, 75, an English crime writer who created the Yorkshire-based detective team of Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe in 1970’s A Clubbable Woman, and then continued exploring those characters’ lives and cases in more than 20 more books penned over the next four decades. The novels inspired a successful BBC-TV series (1996-2007). Hill picked up the Crime Writers Association’s Golden Dagger in 1990 for Bones and Silence, and scored the CWA’s Diamond Dagger for his body of work in 1995.

Ed Kaufman, 82, a once-prominent corporate finance attorney who, in 1996, founded San Mateo, California’s “M” Is for Mystery ... and More bookstore. Under his management, that Third Avenue shop became a regular stop for touring authors and a popular resource for Silicon Valley crime-fiction fans. But Kaufman retired in late 2011, and “M” Is for Mystery was sold; it reopened in 2012 as Otter Books. The Mystery Writers of America gave Kaufman a Raven Award last year for outstanding achievement in the mystery-fiction field outside the realm of creative writing. The San Francisco Chronicle reported his cause of death as complications of kidney disease.

Jack Klugman, 90, who played Dr. R. Quincy in the classic NBC-TV crime drama Quincy, M.E., and before that, co-starred with Tony Randall in the sitcom The Odd Couple. Employing his celebrity to good advantage, Klugman also “played an instrumental role in passing critical health-care legislation, the Orphan Drug Act, through Congress in the early 1980s,” recalled The Washington Post.

Margaret Lawrence (aka Lorrain “Margaret” Keilstrup), 66, who composed three midwife Hannah Trevor historical novels, starting with Hearts and Bones in 1996.

Judi McCoy, 62, author of the Dog Walker Mystery series and assorted other novels. A newspaper obituary explains that this Virginia resident’s 2010 novel, Death in Show, won the Romantic Times Most Humorous Mystery award.

George Murdock, 81, a Kansas-born actor with an enviably extensive résumé of television credits, including appearances on Banyon, Ironside, The Magician, McCloud, Harry O, Police Story, and The Rockford Files. In addition, Murdock had recurring roles as Lieutenant Ben Scanlon on Barney Miller and as a harried insurance company executive on Banacek.

Cliff Osmond, 75, an American character actor whose big ugly mug will be recognizable, even if his name isn’t. As Terence Towles Canote recalls in his blog, A Shroud of Thoughts, Osmond “appeared in such films as Sweet Sugar (1972), Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973), The Front Page (1974), Sharks’ Treasure (1975), The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979), and Hangar 81 (1980).” Osmond also did guest shots on 77 Sunset Strip, It Takes a Thief, The Mod Squad, Kojak, McMillan & Wife, Matt Houston, and other small-screen crime dramas.

Charles “Skip” Pitts, 65, a Memphis soul and blues guitarist. As the Los Angeles Times recounts, Pitts “helped create the distinctive sound of Isaac Hayes’ ‘Theme from Shaft.’ ... Pitts’ riff was angry and bristling with menace, capturing a dangerous vibe that transcended the screen and translated to the streets of a tense nation.” (To learn more about the novel and film Shaft, click here.)

Jerome Ross, 101, a screenwriter whose credits included episodes of The Untouchables, The Defenders, Arrest and Trial, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and Young Maverick.

Jeff Sherratt, 70, a Southern California businessman who wrote four works of mystery fiction featuring Los Angeles cop-turned-defense attorney Jimmy O’Brien, including last year’s Detour to Murder.

Donald J. Sobol, 87, an American author of children’s books who was best known for writing the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series.

Paul Sussman, 44, an English author and archaeologist who, according to The Gumshoe Site, wrote his “first novel, The Lost Army of Cabyses (Transworld, 2002), featuring Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police in Egypt, in 2002, and Khalifa returns in The Last Secret of the Temple (Transworld, 2005). The third novel was a one-off (or standalone in [the] U.S.), The Hidden Oasis (Bantam Press, 2009). His last one is a Khalifa novel, TheLabyrinth of Osiris, to be out in July [2012] from Bantam Press.”

Gore Vidal, 86, who in addition to composing such unforgettable works of historical fiction as Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984), also concocted a trio of mystery novels in the 1950s under the pseudonym Edgar Box (Death Before Bedtime, Death in the Fifth Position, and Death Likes It Hot). On top of his being an author, Vidal was known as a spirited raconteur and as a sharp observer of contemporary society.

Robert Wade, 92, who with his high-school friend, Bill Miller, produced dozens of crime and mystery novels under the joint pseudonym Wade Miller, including half a dozen featuring San Diego, California, private eye Max Thursday. In 1988, the Private Eye Writers of America gave Wade The Eye, its lifetime achievement award.

Nicol Williamson, 75, who I remember best for his role as a cocaine-addled Sherlock Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a 1976 film adapted from Nicholas Meyer’s 1974 novel of that same name.

William Windom, 88, an actor I first recall seeing in the 1969-1970 NBC sitcom My World and Welcome to It. (He won an Emmy Award for that role.) Windom had previously played a prosecutor in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He went on to deliver a powerful performance as the captain of a destroyed starship in the 1967 Star Trek episode “The Doomsday Machine,” and later guest-starred in installments of Columbo, The Streets of San Francisco, Banacek, and other series. He had a regular role as Dr. Seth Hazlitt on Murder, She Wrote.

Margaret Yorke, 88, an English crime novelist who penned more than 40 books, five of them starring her Oxford Don sleuth, Dr. Patrick Grant. Yorke once chaired Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), and she won the CWA’s Cartier Diamond Dagger Award in 1999.

So, who have I forgotten in this year-end accounting? Please feel free to suggest additions in the Comments section of this post.

And So Comes the End

As 2011 slips into the darkness, to be replaced by a fresh new year, we look back at some of the people--all significant to the world of crime and mystery fiction--who passed away during the last 12 months.

Gilbert Adair, 66, Scottish-born novelist, poet, and critic, who penned three Agatha Christie-ish whodunits--The Act of Roger Murgatroyd (2006), A Mysterious Affair of Style (2007), and And Then There Was No One (2009)--starring the “formidable” Evadne Mount.

Dick Adler, 74, a former magazine and newspaper editor in New York, and a contributor to TV Guide, who became the crime-fiction critic of the Chicago Tribune and much later jointed The Rap Sheet as a frequent blogger. In 2006, Adler received the Ellen Nehr Award for Best Mystery Reviewer from the American Crime Writers League.

James Arness, 88, who not only starred as Marshal Matt Dillon on the long-running Gunsmoke, but led the casts of two other small-screen dramas: How the West Was Won (1976-1979) and McClain’s Law. Arness was the elder brother of Mission: Impossible star Peter Graves.

John Barry, 77, a British film and television composer who developed the music for 11 James Bond films. He also created scores for the movies Born Free (1966), Out of Africa (1985), and Dances with Wolves (1990), and the theme for the 1971-1972 Tony Curtis/Roger Moore TV series The Persuaders!

Lilian Jackson Braun (Bettinger), 97, who for four decades wrote the popular Cat Who series of mystery novels, beginning with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966).

Alfred Burke, 92, who played Frank Marker, the lonely, unglamorous star of Public Eye, a 1965-1975 British TV series.

Milton T. Burton, 64, the author of four Texas-set crime novels: The Rogues’ Game (2005), The Sweet and the Dead (2006), Nights of the Red Moon (2010), and the forthcoming The Devil’s Odds (2012).

Charlie Callas, 83, a fast-talking and elastic-faced comedian who regularly appeared on The Andy Williams Show and The ABC Comedy Hour, and co-hosted The Joey Bishop Show. Callas played a small-time thief in the 1972 pilot for NBC’s The Snoop Sisters and a con man in the CBS private-eye drama Switch (1975-1978).

Ruth Cavin, 92, who distinguished herself for many years in the role of crime-fiction editor at St. Martin’s Press.

Jackie Cooper, 88, a child star turned TV director who portrayed Metropolis newspaper editor Perry White in the Superman films of the 1970s and ’80s, but also made appearances in such shows as Hawaii Five-O, McCloud, Ironside, Hec Ramsey, Police Story, and The Rockford Files. Cooper won Emmy Awards for his directorial efforts.

Peter Falk, 83, who starred as a disheveled but brilliant Los Angeles police detective in the TV series Columbo.

Gerald Perry Finnerman, 79, who served as the primary director of photography for the original Star Trek series, and later worked on The Bold Ones, Hec Ramsey, Kojak, Police Woman, The New Mike Hammer, and Moonlighting.

Robert Foster, 73, a television writer and producer whose credits included episodes of Run for Your Life, The Bold Ones, The Snoop Sisters, Nichols, Kate McShane, and Chicago Story. He was also executive producer of the 1980s action series Knight Rider.

Anne Francis, 80, who co-starred (with Leslie Nielsen) in the 1956 science-fiction film Forbidden Planet before capturing the sexy title role in Honey West, a 1965-1966 ABC-TV series based on characters created by Forrest E. “Skip” Fickling and his wife, Gloria. Francis later guest-starred in such shows as Banacek, Ellery Queen, Search, Assignment: Vienna, and Riptide.

Ariana Franklin (aka Diana Norman), 77, a Fleet Street journalist turned author who composed four novels featuring 12th-century English coroner-investigator Adelia Aguilar, including Mistress of the Art of Death, which won the Ellis Peters Historical Award in 2007.

Joe Gores, 79, a onetime private eye and repo man who wrote the Dan Kearney and Associates (DKA) detective series, the 1975 novel Hammett (based on the life of Dashiell Hammett), and 2009’s Spade & Archer, a prequel to The Maltese Falcon. During his career, Gores won three Edgar Awards as well as the Maltese Falcon Award (Japan’s highest commendation in the mystery-fiction field), and he served for a time as president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Martin H. Greenberg, 70, a prolific editor-anthologist whose mystery and crime-fiction works included Holmes for the Holidays (1998), The Big Book of Noir (1998), Purr-Fect Crime (1997), and Murder Most Irish (1996). Greenberg was given the 1995 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Edward Hardwicke, 78, who for many years played Doctor John Watson opposite Jeremy Brett in the memorable British TV series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Joyce Harrington, 79, the author of No One Knows My Name (1981), Family Reunion (1982), and Dreamz of the Night (1987). She was given an Edgar Award in 1973 for her first short story, “The Purple Shroud.”

Clark Hulings, 88, a Florida-born painter who, early in his career, produced a wide variety of paperback fronts for mainstream, historical, and crime-fiction works.

William Johnston, 86, the author of numerous movie and TV tie-in novels, including Get Smart! (1965), Banyon (1971), and Klute (1971). In 2010, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers’ gave Johnston The Faust, its Grand Master Award for excellence.

H.R.F. (Henry Reymond Fitzwalter) Keating, 84, the British crime novelist and scholar who concocted standalone thrillers as well as a prominent series of books featuring Indian detective Inspector Ganesh Ghote. In 1996 the Crime Writers’ Association gave Keating its Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement.

Paul Lindsay, 68, a former Detroit-based FBI agent who--under the pseudonym Noah Boyd--penned the broadly acclaimed novels The Bricklayer (2010) and Agent X (2011).

Sidney Lumet, 86, an American film producer whose work included 12 Angry Men (1957), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Prince of the City (1981), and Paul Newman’s The Verdict (1982).

Arthur Marx, 89, the only son of comedian Groucho Marx, who--in addition to writing TV scripts, biographies, and memoirs--penned three mystery novels, beginning with Set to Kill (1993).

James McKimmey (aka James Earl McKimmey Jr.), 87, a once-prominent, Nebraska-born author of the Gold Medal paperbacks era, who is remembered for such books as The Perfect Victim (1958), Winner Take All (1959), The Long Ride (1961), and Squeeze Play (1962). McKimmey reportedly died in Nevada on January 19, 2011. An excellent, two-part interview with the author can be found in Allan Guthrie’s Noir Originals (part I is here, part II is here).

Harry Morgan, 96, who was cast as Los Angeles Police Officer Bill Gannon in Dragnet 1967, opposite Jack Webb. Morgan went on to co-star with Robert Conrad in The D.A., appear as Doctor Amos Coogan in Hec Ramsey, join the M*A*S*H cast as stern but soft-hearted Colonel Sherman T. Potter, and play Hal Linden’s con man father in Blacke’s Magic. In addition, Morgan portrayed New York Police Inspector Richard Queen in the unsold 1971 TV pilot film Ellery Queen: Don’t Look Behind You, opposite former Rat Pack member Peter Lawford.

Francesco Quinn, 48, the son of film legend Anthony Quinn. He appeared earlier this year as Gilberto Nieddu, police detective Aurelio Zen’s private-eye friend, in the Masterpiece Mystery! mini-series Zen. But Quinn had been previously featured in The Glades, The Shield, CSI: Miami, and Miami Vice.

Stanley Robertson, 85, a former Ebony magazine associate editor who became NBC-TV’s manager of film program operations on the West Coast and later that same network’s vice president of motion pictures for television. Robertson helped bring the now-famous NBC Mystery Movie “wheel series” to the air in the 1970s.

Pietro “Pete” Rugolo, 95, a onetime chief arranger for the Stan Kenton Orchestra, who later became the music director of Capitol Records and a composer for films and television series. The Sicilian-born Rugolo counted among his credits the themes to such TV shows as The Thin Man, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Fugitive, The Outsider, Run for Your Life, and Cool Million.

Enid Schantz, 72, a Colorado book critic and bookseller, and the co-founder (with her husband, Tom Schantz) of The Rue Morgue Press. The Schantzes received the Mystery Writers of America’ Raven Award in 2001 by for their contributions to the genre.

Leonard B. Stern, 88, a Hollywood screenwriter and the producer behind such familiar TV series as Get Smart, McMillan & Wife, The Snoop Sisters, Faraday and Company, and Rosetti and Ryan.

Craig Thomas (aka David Craig Owen Thomas), 68, the Welsh author of such thrillers as Firefox (1977), Snow Falcon (1980), and Jade Tiger (1982). Jiro Kimura of The Gumshoe Site describes Thomas as “the inventor of the techno-thriller genre.”

George J. “Rhino” Thompson, 69, the author of Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion (1993) and Hammett’s Moral Vision (2007).

Newton Thornburg, 81, who is certainly remembered best as the author of Cutter and Bone (1976).

Michael Van Rooy, 42, the Canadian author of An Ordinary Decent Criminal (2005) and A Criminal to Remember (2010), who died of an apparent heart attack in Montreal while on a book tour.

Barbara Whitehead, 80, an ex-chair of England’s York Family History Society, who started out writing historical romances but switched to mysteries with Playing God (1988). She went on to produce eight novels about York Police Chief Inspector Robert Southwell. As fellow author Martin Edwards writes, “she was especially good at evoking the atmosphere of York Minster and the wonderful old city around it.”

Peter Yates, 81, a British film director best known for making the 1968 cop thriller Bullitt, which starred Steve McQueen and his GT V8 Ford Mustang. Yates also gave us The Hot Rock (1972), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Dresser (1983), and The House on Carroll Street (1988). And in the 1960s he directed episodes of the TV programs The Saint and Danger Man.

Have we forgotten anyone in our accounting? Feel free to suggest additions in the Comments section of this post.

READ MORE: “Passages,” by Linda L. Richards (January Magazine); “The Ones We Lost,” by David Abrams (The Quivering Pen).