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.

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.

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

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

The full BBC report can be found HERE

Gerry Anderson

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

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

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

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.

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.

The director was mostly known for his fast-paced action adventures such as Top Gun, but had involvement in several genre blockbusters which included directing The Hunger (1983) and producing Prometheus (2012), directed by his brother Ridley.

Read the full BBC report HERE

You can read Christopher Priest’s tribute to him in the Guardian HERE

In 1976, he founded the Kubert School with his wife. Through this academy, he helped train a generation of comic-book artists. As the USA’s only accredited trade school for comic-book artists, it enrolls students from around the world.

Read the New York Times obituary HERE

Tributes have been paid to Kubert on numerous comic-book sites including ComicVine and Newsarama and the Forbidden Planet blog

Rambaldi was a “monster-maker” who created special effects for many films besides ET, including Alien, King Kong, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Dune. He received Oscars for his work on ET, Alien and King Kong.

Read the full BBC report HERE

Chris Marker

His 1962 dystopian short inspired authors such as William Gibson and J.G. Ballard. Terry Gilliam‘s 1995 film 12 Monkeys was also directly inspired by La Jetée.

You can read tributes to the film-maker HERE and HERE

Read the full BBC report HERE

Photo shows Mary Tamm and Tom Baker in “The Stones of Blood” (c) BBC

A prolific award-winning producer, his genre films include Jaws, Cocoon, Deep Impact, Planet of the Apes, and more recently with Tim Burton as director, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows.

Read the full BBC report HERE

Lynch also appeared in numerous TV SF series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Read the BBC report HERE

Read the full BBC report HERE

The author of more than thirty books, including Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury is best known for his ‘soft’ SF – works with a strong nostalgic and humanistic element which broke the mold as far as genre writing was concerned. He influenced many writers and has certainly left his fans a truly great literary legacy.

Obituaries appear HERE and HERE

Photo © Jacques Sassior

They are the only artist team to jointly win a Hugo for Best Professional Artist (1971), and they received a joint World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

An obituary for Leo Dillon can be found at Tor.com HERE

Photo (c) Andrew Porter shows Leo and Diane Dillon at the opening of Fusion Designs, the gallery run by their son Lee and his partner, Greg Schmitz

During his career he was nominated for three Emmys, for his work on Stargate SG-1 (1998) and Stargate: Atlantis (2005 and 2006). He composed the music for more than 350 episodes in the Stargate franchise.

His other genre work includes: War of the Dead (2011), Sanctuary (2008-09), Witchblade (2000), Monster! (1999), The Outer Limits (1997), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Vampirella (1996), Rattled (1996), Corpse Killer (1994), Man’s Best Friend (1993), The Rift (1990), Watchers (1988), Robot Holocaust (1986), The Man with Two Brains (1983), Island of Blood (1982), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Piranha (1978), Laserblast (1978), and End of the World (1977).

A Bram Stoker finalist twice, with his 2007 novel I Will Rise and this year with his novella 7 Brains, his other books include Death & Desires in the Age of Women, Blood & Gristle, Bleed for You, and Blood Hunter. His final novel, Lambs, is scheduled to be published by Dark Fuse shortly. A tribute to him is featured on the Dark Fuse website.

Whilst working at Pan, Webb commissioned Douglas Adams to adapt his radio play The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy into a novel, resulting in the bestselling book. He also wrote Adams’ official biography, Wish You Were Here, following Adams’ death in 2001.

Read the full BBC story HERE

Ralph McQuarrie

His conceptual designs whilst working on the original Star Wars trilogy were the basis of some of the film franchise’s best-loved characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO. Star Wars director George Lucas said that he was saddened by McQuarrie’s passing, calling him a visionary artist and a humble man.

Read the BBC obituary HERE

Peter Halliday

Read the BBC’s obituary HERE

Still from A For Andromeda (c) BBC

He will be best remembered for his outstanding apocalyptic novel, The Death of Grass, and was often viewed as the successor to John Wyndham.

Read the SF Scope obituary HERE

Lord received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1978 and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the professional fanzine, The Cimmerian, in 2005. The following year, he was Guest of Honor at the Centennial Robert E. Howard Days festival in Howard’s hometown of Cross Plains, Texas. In his final years he was Director Emeritus of the Robert E. Howard Foundation.

Read the full Locus story HERE

Darrell K. Sweet

Since the 1970s, his instantly recognisable cover artwork has graced many epic fantasy novels, including Robert Jordan’s series The Wheel of Time.

You can read his obituary, and see some of his amazing artwork, HERE

You can read The Independent’s obituary HERE