TERRY O'NEILL : MASTER PHOTOGRAPHER OF ICONS SADLY DIES AGED 81

TERRY O'NEILL , the photographer who chronicled London’s 1960s culture by capturing the celebrities and public figures who defined the era, has died aged 81.

O'NEILL, who was awarded a CBE last month for services to photography and was known for his work with the likes of #FrankSinatra, #DavidBowie and Elizabeth Taylor and #EltonJohn died at home on Saturday night after a long illness, his agency said. He had prostate cancer.

MANY #PeterCushing #ChristopherLee, #VincentPrice and #JohnCarradine Fans, will know Terry's work from the outstanding promotional photograph he created of all four movie icons for the 1983 film, 'House of the Long Shadows'. The film brought all four actors together for the first time, but it was O'Neill who captured it in an amazing photograph!

“IT IS WITH a heavy heart that Iconic Images announces the passing of Terence ‘Terry’ O’Neill, CBE,” a spokeswoman for the agency said. “As one of the most iconic photographers of the last 60 years, his legendary pictures will for ever remain imprinted in our memories, as well as in our hearts and minds 

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HAMMER FILMS PRODUCER ROY SKEGGS DIES AGED 83

VERY SAD TO HEAR ROY SKEGGS, one of the very few left of the Hammer films 'home guard' sadly passed away on the weekend. Roy was a producer for Hammer Films and began his connection with the company way back at Bray studios in 1963 as production accountant. Roy was then promoted to 'company accountant' and secretary. He became production supervisor in 1970 and (with Brian Lawrence) took over the reins of the company when it fell into receivership in 1979. Was latterly chairman of Hammer films, based in Elstree.

ROY WAS BORN in 1934. He was a very capable and respected producer and production manager, and probably best known for his work with Hammer films. He was responsible for Peter Cushing's last return to the company with the tv series, Hammer House of Horrpr' in 1980. The series expanded into 'Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense' in 1984, and became a winner overseas and the US. He worked alongside Peter on 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' (1974), Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. 

A PERIOD OF ILLNESS took Roy away from his love of Hammer films in the 1990's... but in the last few years, although always having been a very shy man, he stepped out to one or two conventions and signing days .. and was surprised not only how much he enjoyed the attention...but how fans and the public remembered him and his work with Hammer films. A hard worker, very good at 'math' and was responsible for bringing Hammer back to the small screen and Cushing's final bow as Frankenstein. Thank you Roy 

REMEMBERING SHELIA KEITH

TODAY WE REMEMBER British character actress SHELIA KEITH, whose career spanned nearly 40 Years. She made a number of appearances in British TV programmes during the 60's and 70's. However, she is perhaps best known for her frequent collaborations with horror director, Pete Walker who she worked with in FIVE FILMS!

IN HER OBITUARY, The Times described her as an "Actress of film, stage and television who became a ‘British horror icon’"...... It was with her portrayal of sinister, sadistic and deranged women in the horror movies of the director Pete Walker, that she acquired her most devoted following"

KEITH CO STARRED with Peter Cushing in 'The House Of The Long Shadows ' (1983) as Victoria Grisbane, daughter to John Carradine's, Lord Elijah Grisbane sister to Vincent Price and Peter Cushing. She was Pete Walker's first choice when veteran, Elsa Lanchester was thought too frail to travel to the UK and work in the film.

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GEOFFREY BAYLDON DIES TODAY AGED 93

Very sad to hear today that, British actor Geoffrey Bayldon has died at the age of 93. Geoffrey had a very good relationship with PCAS over the years. He was our first interview subject back in 1988, recorded several audio jingles for our PCAS Audio Magazine. Always wonderful company, accommodating to friends and fans alike. 

His career was long and extensive, appearing in many films with Peter Cushing including his first, Hammer films 1958 'DRACULA', which he once told me, he watched at his local cinema at the time of it's release, with 'horror'...not anything in connection to the subject matter, but the shock of himself on a 15 foot cinema screen! A gentle, kind and sensitive human being. He will be missed by everyone... goodnight Geoffrey . . .

A full tribute feature to Geoffrey Bayldon will appear at our website later today...

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DIRECTOR EDITOR JIM CLARK DIES AT 84

We are just getting some very sad news, that has been announced in official obituary notice, that director Jim Clark died on February 25th. His obituary has been released today.

Jim Clark worked with Peter and Vincent Price on Amicus films, Madhouse in 1974. A film loved by many, but gets the rough end from critics who say, it could have been so much more...! Me? I'll take it as it is. It's a fun film, clever and enjoys leading it's audience up a very winding path of red herrings, and pays off with a fabulous black comedy twist, with Peter...or is that Vincent??

Clark had some interesting credentials, as a film editor he started working in 1956, right through to 2008. He won a Oscar for Best film editing for The Killing Fields (1984) and was nominated again in 1986 for 'The Mission' starring Robert De Nero, was editor on the 1999 Bond film, The World Is Not Enough' and more recently was nominated for a BAFTA for Vera Drake (2004)

Clark’s memoir “Dream Repairman: Adventures in Film Editing” was published in 2011.

He is survived by his wife, fellow editor Laurence Méry-Clark, and three children.

ACTOR GEORGE COLE DIES 1925 - 2015

I am very sad to hear today that the wonderfully gifted actor and perfect gentleman, George Cole has died. George Edward Cole OBE had career that spanned more than 70 years in show business. George lived a very full life that started when he was given up for adoption at just ten days old, as a youth he worked himself up from working as a butcher boy aged 10....to finally becoming one of one of our most loved actors... on the cinema screen and popular TV.

At 15 he was cast in the film Cottage to Let (1941) where he starred opposite Scottish actor Alastair Sim. Sim liked Cole, and agreed with his family to take in Cole and his adoptive mother to their home. Acting as his mentor, Sim helped Cole lose his Cockney accent and he stayed with the Sim family until he was 27. Cole later attributed his career success to Sim, with whom he appeared in a total of 11 films. Cole really became familiar to audiences in British comedy films in the 1950s, when appeared with Sim in Scrooge (as the young Scrooge) in 1951.

George Cole as the loveable rogue 'Flash Harry' and Alistair Sim as Headmistress in  The Belles of St Trinian's (1954)

But for many he will be remembered "Flash Harry" in the St Trinian's films (two of which also star Sim) and as the crooked used-car dealer Arthur Daley in the Thames Television series Minder, in which he played from 1979 until the show's conclusion in 1994.

We remember George here today also for his role as Roger Morton with Peter Cushing in Hammer films, 'The Vampire Lovers', starring also Ingrid Pitt. I have always thought it was an odd piece of casting, but was glad to see him there, none the less. God Bless, George. Sleep Well.

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IT ALL LOOKS SO EASY: PETER CUSHING ON CHRISTOPHER LEE FALL 1973

RICHARD PASCO CBE DIES 1926 - 2014

Very sad to hear of Richard Pasco passing recently. Richard Pasco appeared with Peter Cushing in: Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) The Gorgon (1964)

'Richard Pasco, who has died aged 88, was one of the finest classical actors of his generation. Though he did not achieve the star status that would have come from appearing in a long-running TV series, no one who saw it will ever forget his alternation of the roles of Richard II and Bolingbroke in a famous 1973 RSC production. Gifted with a mellifluous voice and a strong presence, he worked with all the major companies, including long stints at Bristol Old Vic and Birmingham Rep in their heyday. Pasco had a prolific, stage-driven career that few young actors today can hope to emulate.'

The Stage Obituary 21st November 2014

SIMON WARD REMEMBERED : THE BARON'S APPRENTICE!

REMEMBERING: Born today, Simon Ward. If you take a look at the raft of obituaries for Simon Ward who sadly passed away in 2012, it's a common fault that they state that his career was kick started when he was 'plucked from obscurity' and appeared in Richard Richard Attenborough’s 'Young Winston' in 1972. Maybe that is how the press and publicity agents remember it....but for Ward, it was not so.

Ward acknowledged Hammer films 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' made in 1969 as the film 'that started it all' and the generous help and assistance from his co star Peter Cushing, that made anything afterwards possible... In a interview with pcasuk in 1979, Ward acknowledges his debt to Cushing, who he said, '..had time and patience with me. I knew nothing of the technique needed for working with a camera or about the studio floor. Peter was extremely kind, taking time to explain the simple but very important rules of pace and nuance, so the editor can get in there. This and try to not fall over the cables. He did so much for me. Quite extraordinary. I mean, no one has the time to do that, everyone is busy. But he did it for me, many times through out the film. And it's something I've always remembered, and not come across since... a very kind, gentle, gracious man. He really did save my skin'.

Simon Ward sadly left us in 2012.

REMEMBERING ROBERT URQUHART : BORN TODAY 1921

REMEMBERING Robert Urquhart. 'Quiet, well-read and a lover of classical music, Robert Urquhart was an actor who grew frustrated with his career as he grew older. It was, he bemoaned, an honorable profession but so much of the material he was offered did not deserve any respect...' Robert Urquhart Obituary. 'The Independent' newspaper, 24th March 1995.

In the early 1950's Urquhart was building himself quite a reputation for his theatre work. A reputation that would eventually bring him to the attention of studio casting agents and land him supporting roles on the big screen. But it was in the medium of film, that Urquhart was not such a happy chap...

That one film was 'The Curse of Frankenstein' with Peter Cushing in 1957 for Hammer film. He detested it. It is said he left the premier screening, refused to make appearances to promote it and only in the last years of his revived career on television, could he find the stomach to even mention it, if it was brought up in interviews.

By 1980, Urquhart had cooled off a little..and appeared in another Hammer production, the Hammer House of Horror' television series, in an episode entitled, - Children of the Full Moon. However, we remember him today for his sterling performance in The Curse of Frankenstein'! 

ANTHONY HINDS DIES AGED 91

We are very sad to hear of the passing of Anthony Hinds yesterday.. A writer and producer, who was not only the backbone Hammer Films, but was the driving force behind the building of Bray Studios. How painfully ironic then, that the bulldozers start their work on the Bray Studios lot tomorrow...