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Joe Melson, 91. Helped re-direct Roy Orbison from rockabilly to operatic pop singer. Along with the Big O, Melson co-wrote Only the Lonely (1960), Running Scared & Crying in '61, Blue Bayou and other songs. That's Melson contributing the dum dum dum, dumby-doo-wa on Only the Lonely. Wrote songs for many artists and had his ow small solo career.

English born Australian actor Terence Donovan, 90, star of the small & large screen: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-19/ ... /106933112

William Wisher, co-writer of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Exorcist: The Beginning/Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, and The 13th Warrior

Peter Lassally

Born in Germany, went to school with Anne Frank, survived two concentration camps and WWII proper (all before he was 18!). Ended up being the actual producer of Carson while De Cordova schmoozed, then did the same for Letterman/Ferguson. What a life.

Kaylee Hottle, the young deaf actress who appeared in the last two Legendary Godzilla films.

Saxophonist Plas Johnson, known for solo on The Pink Panther Theme, dies aged 94

My kids watched the Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection DVD set many, many times, and I was usually in the room or the next room, so I logged countless hours with that song, which was usually used as background music in those cartoons, but I never got sick of it.

Gregory wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 1:12 am Saxophonist Plas Johnson, known for solo on The Pink Panther Theme, dies aged 94

My kids watched the Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection DVD set many, many times, and I was usually in the room or the next room, so I logged countless hours with that song, which was usually used as background music in those cartoons, but I never got sick of it.

Not mentioned in the obituary notice is the fact that Plas Johnson was a notable LA session presence on pop and rock albums throughout the 60s and 70s; his woodwinds work is featured on half of the tracks off the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album including the single "Wouldn't It Be Nice".

He's got a pretty humongous resume, which is probably given for a top session player. I scanned what's likely an incomplete list, but personal favorites include Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees, Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On, three of Ella Fitzgerald's great "songbook" albums for Verve (the ones for Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer), Dr. John's Gris-Gris, Ry Cooder's Paradise and Lunch, and quite a few of Sam Cooke's latter day studio recordings (not the pop ones, the great soul/R&B ones).

Nothing against Pink Panther though, for whatever reason the Pink Panther cartoon was all that played on a cafeteria's TV monitor whenever I had my freshman year lunch breaks, and that became a ritual for maybe eight straight months: lunch watching the Pink Panther with a humongous pink lemonade to go with it. (Somehow I can't remember a single episode.)

English Australian actor Mike Preston (aka Michael Preston), 93?, known for TV and films such as The Last of the Knucklemen (1979) & Mad Max 2 (1981) passed away in Florida in early June: https://variety.com/2026/film/news/mike ... 236817624/

I'm only posting this because it is from Variety. imdb has Preston listed as being born in 1938 but Wikipedia has him listed as being born in 1934 so I am only posting in this based on the Variety obituary. There was no mention to my knowledge in Australian media. I may have missed it but reporting of the passing of Australians in public life regardless of what they did (from politicians to sports to the arts) is very poor at the best of times. The Australian media is pathetic.

Chuck Russell, director of A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors, The Blob (1988), and The Mask (1994)

beamish14 wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 8:01 pm Chuck Russell, director of A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors, The Blob (1988), and The Mask (1994)

I'm very sorry to hear that. I was not too big a fan of The Mask even at the time, perhaps strangely for the same reasons that I love his remake of The Blob and Dream Warriors, because there was a dark edge to the mania there that just put me off a bit from just enjoying the goofy fun of it. But that live action Tex Avery-style mania along with the Jim Carrey performance (and the discovery of Cameron Diaz, particularly with her entrance into that film) all seemingly worked to make it a massive hit, so I have to respect that!

I really love the remake of The Blob, because I caught its UK TV premiere during the Christmas period of 1993 at the very impressionable age of 13. It was probably one of the first visceral 'body horror' films I had ever seen at that point (part of the trifecta of 1980s gory remakes of 1950s horrors along with The Thing and The Fly) completely unexpectedly and unprepared for its content just through randomly catching it on television, a year before seeing Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and two years before John Carpenter's remake of The Thing (though I seem to remember seeing the Cronenberg remake of The Fly earlier that year, when it also received its UK television premiere). That has quite a nasty and gloopy tone to it as well, especially in the first section with the Psycho-esque swap out of one leading man for another as the clean cut Steve McQueen figure (but played with a bit of preppy edge to him by Donovan Leitch, and his reprobate pal: "Ribbed") gets replaced by the delinquent biker (Kevin Dillon, from the period when he seemed everywhere as a slightly younger member of a replacement Brat Pack generation) as Shawnee Smith's love interest.

So some of the set piece deaths that occur in that film were really impactful (even with the nerve to bump off a kid in the carnage as well), particularly the movie theatre scene and the diner one (which features Candy Clark's spectacular phone booth exit moment as her sweet tentative subplot romance with the local Sheriff comes to a sudden conclusion), and whilst some of the action in the final battle against a lot of hazmat suited soldiers and scientists gets a bit far away from the one to one horror, it still has a couple of well defined members of the army in those suits, including a well-spoken guy who nevertheless entirely deserves his comeuppance as the ultimate bad guy, played by Joe Seneca! And it does have a darkly amusing poke at religion at the end, which may have been a set up for a sequel that never came!

Here's the Red Letter Media review of The Blob, which reminded me that the cinematographer on this was Mark Irwin, at the time David Cronenberg's regular cinematographer. The Blob was actually the cause of a significant shift for Cronenberg as mentioned on Irwin's contribution to the commentary track for the Criterion edition of Videodrome. After the success of the Fly remake Irwin was brought in for this next remake of a 50s horror film, and unfortunately Irwin's commitment with this film clashed with Cronenberg making Dead Ringers. Which caused Cronenberg to go with Peter Suschitzky, and continue on with him as a cinematographer for the next cycle of his films.

Weirdly, the closest film afterwards that ever came close to capturing the tone of the remake of The Blob (including the turn into it being a big scientific operation at the mid-point after the intriguing Silent Hill-anticipating exploration of the empty town) is that adaptation of Dean Koontz's Phantoms a decade later! (Which has Peter O'Toole in the Joe Seneca equivalent part!)

Bill Oddie, 85, from The Goodies. I absolutely loved their show as a child: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... aster-dies

Aunt Peg wrote:Bill Oddie, 85, from The Goodies. I absolutely loved their show as a child: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... aster-dies

Bugger. If you were a child of a certain age who watched Australian public broadcasting after school in the 80s, the Goodies was the best show going. Tim died of Covid in 2020, and now only Graham’s left. Very sad.

ivuernis wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 11:54 am Glen Hansard

That’s heartbreaking. Apart from being an impressive singer-songwriter, his lead performance in Once was just wonderful; an understated interpretation of a man staying true to his love of music even as his hoped-for relationship crumbles. RIP.

Oh no, how awful! I love his music, and Once is one of my all-time faves.

He was hilariously bitchy and had zero filter. When I had a Twitter account he messaged me to talk about Paula Prentiss (one of the good ones, according to him)

What'd he say? I regret not DMing him; he followed everyone that followed him (including me) and he was definitely not shy about talking to whoever about whatever

As I recall he liked that she was so tall, so not exactly insights on the level of his more public posts (and I think he was speaking more as a fan, I don’t think he dressed her but I could be wrong)

Kavinsky

Known for the song "Nightcall" used in the opening credits of Drive.

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 4:39 pm Jean-Pierre Dorléac, costume designer and Twitter gadfly

This is a massive bummer, always enjoyed his legitimately unhinged account. I'm not surprised given he pulled back from tweeting constantly to not tweeting at all. His account also appears to have been deleted. Hopefully there are screenshots out there of the more deranged stuff.

I remember an instance where he had made a mistake in a particularly nasty tweet and people were correcting him. He then edited the tweet and started quote tweeting those people with insults and telling them they were wrong. One of a kind.

Him posting that pic he took of disgraced Seventh Heaven actor Stephen Collins checking out Oliver Reed's tattooed dick in a driveway was an all timer

Mark L. wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 6:55 pm

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 4:39 pm Jean-Pierre Dorléac, costume designer and Twitter gadfly

This is a massive bummer, always enjoyed his legitimately unhinged account. I'm not surprised given he pulled back from tweeting constantly to not tweeting at all. His account also appears to have been deleted. Hopefully there are screenshots out there of the more deranged stuff.

I remember an instance where he had made a mistake in a particularly nasty tweet and people were correcting him. He then edited the tweet and started quote tweeting those people with insults and telling them they were wrong. One of a kind.

I always meant to get around to purchasing his autobiography The Naked Truth, which apparently is an endless stream of these kinds of anecdotes. Now it seems as though his eBay account has stopped selling it. This is what I get for my impulse control