From The David Gemmell Legend Awards:

We’re very sad to pass on the news that Deborah Miller, author and principal founder of the David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy, passed away on Monday. Deborah had been battling breast cancer for some years, and went into remission several times. The condition recently surfaced again, and she fought it with her usual resolve, but treatment proved ineffective. She passed peacefully, with her husband, Bill, at her side. Deborah faced her illness with courage and good humour.

Her fiction and the Gemmell Awards will stand as permanent memorials to an exceptional person, an indomitable spirit and a good friend.

The inspirational visual effects wizard has died in London at the age of 92, according to the BBC.

His hand-made models and frame-by-frame animation style have graced movies since 1949 and influenced many directors from Steven Spielberg to Tim Burton.

Various sources are reporting that Basil Copper, author of horror and mystery fiction, died yesterday aged 89.

His first short story, The Curse, was published when he was just 14 but his first professionally published story was The Spider in the fifth Pan Book of Horror Stories in 1964 when Copper was 40. He went on to publish many more short stories and books including over fifty novels featuring private detective Mike Faraday.

In 2008, Stephen Jones compiled and edited a biographical bibliography titled Basil Copper: A Life in Books which won the British Fantasy Award for Non-Fiction in 2009.

Obituaries from Locus and SF Site can be seen HERE and HERE

The BBC have confirmed the death of one of the greats of horror fiction, James Herbert, who died this morning at his home in Sussex.

Since publishing The Rats in 1974, which sold 100,000 copies in two weeks, Herbert published another 23 novels and sold 54 million copies worldwide.

Herbert received the OBE in 2010. He is survived by his wife, Eileen, and three daughters Kerry, Emma and Casey.

Reports from the BBC and The Guardian can be read HERE and HERE

Oscar-winning sound editor Michael Hopkins, who won awards for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2003 and the King Kong remake in 2006, has died at the age of 53 following a rafting accident in New Zealand it has been confirmed. Other films he worked on include Blade Runner and Superman.

The full BBC report can be found HERE

Gerry Anderson, creator of a host of childhood TV favourites from the 1960s and 1970s, has died at the age of 83, it has been announced.

His puppet-led TV shows included Thunderbirds, Stingray, Joe 90, UFO, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Fireball XL5. In 1975, he created his first SF series using actors rather than puppets – Space: 1999, which starred Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Barry Morse.

Read the BBC obituary HERE

And The Guardian obituary HERE

Andrew Porter reports that British fan-artist Alan Hunter died on 1 August 2012 after a long illness.

Porter published many pieces of Hunter’s artwork in Algol/Starship and Science Fiction Chronicle. The back cover of the final issue of Starship was by him.

Hunter also illustrated many BFS publications including Chills and Dark Horizons. He was Artist Guest of Honour at the 1981 FantasyCon.

Details of his passing and some examples of his artwork can be found HERE

Photo (c) Andrew Porter

Veteran actor Herbert Lom has died at the age of 95, it has been reported.

The Czech-born actor, probably best known for his portrayal of Inspector Clouseau’s boss, Charles Dreyfus, in the Pink Panther films, also had numerous genre credits to his name. His striking features, penetrating stare, and foreign accent often saw him cast as the villain.

In 1962 he played the Phantom in the Hammer Films production of The Phantom of the Opera. He also starred in the controversial 1970 film Mark of the Devil. His other genre credits include: Mysterious Island (1961) (picture shown above); Doppelgänger (1969); Jess Franco’s Count Dracula (1970), in which he played van Helsing opposite Christopher Lee as Dracula; Dorian Grey (1970); Asylum (1971), one of Amicus’ portmanteau films; Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971); And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973); and the 1989 remake of Masque of the Red Death.

In 1983 Lom worked with director David Cronenberg in The Dead Zone opposite Christopher Walken, in an adaptation of the Stephen King novel.

Read the BBC’s obituary HERE and the Guardian obituary HERE

It has been announced by family on the official Mervyn Peake website that Sebastian Peake, son of the Gormenghast writer, passed away on 6 September 2012.

The eldest son of the writer, Sebastian Peake strove tirelessly to keep knowledge of his father’s literary and artistic work in the public eye, writing books such as Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art, attending events and giving talks. He was Guest of Honour at FantasyCon in 2009.

The BBC reports that Michael Clarke Duncan, best known for his role as convicted murderer John Coffey in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Green Mile, has died at the age of 54 after suffering a heart attack.

Duncan, a former bodyguard, only began acting in his thirties. While he had a variety of roles, The Green Mile was the film which brought him instant fame and much acclaim as an actor. He was Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actor for the role.

He had other genre roles in films such as Armageddon, alongside Bruce Willis, Daredevil, with Ben Affleck, and Sin City. The Guardian‘s obituary contains a number of film clips from Duncan’s short-lived, but highly memorable, film career.