1) Stage, screen, radio and television actor Barry Morse died February 2 at age 89 after a brief illness in London. Morse was best known for playing the detective pursuing the wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimble in the 1960s t.v. series The Fugitive, but also starred as Professor Victor Bergman in the 1970’s SF series Space 1999 with Barbara Bain and Martin Landau, and in the t.v. series The Zoo Gang and The Adventurer. He guest appeared on many t.v. shows, such as The Twilight Zone, The New Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits, and was the host of t.v.’s Strange but True series. He appeared in numerous films, t.v. films and miniseries, including The Golden Bowl and The Martian Chronicles. He began his career with London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as one of its youngest students and emigrated to Canada, where he became a five-time winner of Canada’s Best Television Actor award and Artistic Director of the famed Shaw Festival of Canada. It is estimated that he played more than 3,000 roles in a six decade career. He also was a director of film, t.v. and stage productions.

2) Actor Allan Melvin, best known for his television work, died January 17 of cancer at the age of 85. Melvin starred on Broadway in Stalag 17 and broke into television as Corporal Steve Henshaw on the hit The Phil Silvers Show, followed by a role as Sergeant Charley Hacker on Gomer Pyle, USMC. He guest appeared on such shows as The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Lost in Space and My Favorite Martian. He also became well known playing the recurring characters of Sam, the Butcher, on The Brady Bunch series and Barney Hefner, Archie Bunker’s neighbor and friend on All In the Family and Archie Bunker’s Place. Melvin also did voice work for The New Adventures of Flash Gordon and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and was the voice of H.R. Pufnstuf.

3) Actress Lois Nettleton died on January 18 of lung cancer at the age of 80. She appeared in numerous television shows, such as Babylon 5, The Twilight Zone, The Flash, Cagney & Lacey, Seinfeld, and Murder She Wrote. She also did voice work for such animated shows as Spider-Man. She won two Daytime Emmys for her work on the soap opera General Hospital and received several Emmy nominations during her career. In recent years, she worked for Disney, doing voices for Mickey’s House of Villains, House of Mouse and Herc’s Adventures.

4) Actor Christopher Allport, born 1947, died January 25 in a series of avalanches near the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood, California in the States, along with Michael McKay and Darin Coffey. A fourth man, snowboarder Oscar Gonzales, Jr., survived. Allport, whose second marriage was to novelist Susan Hayden, starred in such movies as Invaders from Mars and Jack Frost and appeared in episodes of such television series as The X-Files, Quantum Leap, The Twilight Zone, ER, Felicity and most recently, cable series Mad Men.