CHARLES AIDMAN, 68, familiar TV actor for more than three decades, died of cancer Nov. 7, 1993, in Beverly Hills. He was the narrator on the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone and appeared in countless roles in series ranging from the original Twilight Zone to The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Night Stalker and Bosom Buddies. He may have been best known for his role in the last season of The Wild Wild West as Secret Service agent Jeremy Pike, who was teamed with Jim West when series co-star Ross Martin was laid up after a heart attack.

WILLIAM CONRAD, 73, died Feb. 11 in Hollywood following a heart attack. Accomplished in voice and screen work as well as behind the scenes, Conrad debuted in the 1946 feature, “The Killers,” and played a succession of bad guys in ’40s and ’50s movies. At the same time, his distinctive basso profundo voice won him hundreds of radio jobs, including the starring role of Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, which ran on CBS Radio from 1952 to 1961. Though his appearance ruled out typical TV leading man parts, Conrad continued to play the occasional villain even as he became a producer for such series as Bat Masterson and 77 Sunset Strip, and directed many TV episodes, including segments of Gunsmoke. His voice work continued in the manic narration for Bullwinkle and the somber voice-overs of The Fugitive. Conrad became an unexpected star as Cannon, the portly, epicurean private eye seen on CBS from 1971 to 1976. He followed that role by playing Rex Stout’s similarly rotund detective Nero Wolfe in NBC’s short-lived series. His Jake and the Fatman series ran from 1987 to 1992.

ROBERT JOHNSON, 73, the voice of Mission: Impossible, died Dec. 31, 1993, in Hawaii of heart failure. Johnson was an accountant in the entertainment industry who sang and took announcing jobs on the side. He was working in both accounting and voice-overs for The Outer Limits when recruited for the Mission pilot, going on to a seven-year run as the mysterious voice who issued the recorded mission orders to Dan Briggs and Jim Phelps at the beginning of each episode. He returned for the 1980s revival of Mission, still warning Phelps that his orders would self-destruct in five seconds.

FRITZ FELD, 93, veteran character actor who specialized in playing pompous headwaiters, officious floorwalkers, preening chefs, comic spies and other such roles, died Nov. 18, 1993, at a nursing home in Santa Monica. Beginning his career in silent movies, Feld appeared in more than 400 pictures including “Bringing Up Baby,” the 1943 “Phantom of the Opera,” “Barefoot in the Park” and “History of the World Part I.” He also made countless TV appearances in I Love Lucy, Dobie Gillis, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Batman, The Odd Couple, Magnum P.I. and many other series. Feld is best remembered for his trademark gimmick, slapping his hand over his mouth to produce a popping sound.

OLAN SOULE, 84, longtime radio and TV actor, died Feb. 1 in Los Angeles of lung cancer. In radio’s heyday he used his versatile voice to play a variety of roles, starring as the suave First Nighter throughout the ’40s. On television, the slight, bespectacled actor was more typecast as milquetoasts or many a dry lab technician on Dragnet (both the ’50s and ’60s series), I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Have Gun Will Travel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Batman and The Six Million Dollar Man’s pilot film. In the ’50s he played Aristotle “Tut” Jones, scientific sidekick to Captain Midnight. In the ’70s he was a regular on Arnie and supplied the voice of Batman on the Super Friends cartoon show.

MARTIN KOSLECK, 89, German-born actor usually seen as enemy agents and mad scientists, died Jan. 16 in Los Angeles. Kosleck started out playing Nazis in such World War II era films as “All Through the Night” and “Berlin Correspondent,” often appeared as psychos in pictures like “She-Wolf of London” and “The Mad Doctor,” and had villainous roles in episodes of many TV series, including The Wild Wild West, Get Smart and It Takes a Thief.

PAT BUTTRAM, 78, comic sidekick to cowboy star Gene Autry and hayseed con-man on Green Acres, died Jan. 8 from kidney failure in Los Angeles. In the 1940s he served as comedy relief to singing cowboy Autry in dozens of B-westerns and on Autry’s radio show, and played the same role on The Gene Autry Show on CBS-TV (1950-56). He’s probably better remembered as the incredibly irritating Mr. Haney, nemesis to Eddie Albert on Green Acres.

CESAR ROMERO, 86, self-described “Latin from Manhattan” in dozens of films beginning with the classic “Thin Man” (1934), but who found his greatest fame as The Joker in TV’s Batman, died Jan. 1 in Santa Monica. In 15 years at Fox, he appeared in musicals, westerns, Shirley Temple films and a string of Cisco Kid pictures. On television, Romero starred in the international intrigue series Passport to Danger and guested in countless TV shows including Zorro, Burke’s Law, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., It Takes a Thief and T.H.E. Cat, as well as 19 episodes of Batman.

JOSEPH COTTEN, 88, actor seen in such landmark pictures as “Citizen Kane,” “Shadow of a Doubt” and “The Third Man,” died Feb. 6 of pneumonia. As part of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre troupe, Cotten made his film debut with Welles in “Citizen Kane,” going on to notable roles in “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “Gaslight,” “Duel in the Sun” and “Portrait of Jennie.” Numerous TV roles included the memorable Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode with Cotten as a man paralyzed in a car crash and believed dead. He hosted the anthology series The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955-56) and The Joseph Cotten Show (1956-57), and was host and narrator of NBC’s notable documentary series, Hollywood and the Stars (1963-64). During the last season of It Takes a Thief, Cotten had a recurring role as Mr. Jack, head of the spy agency that employed master thief Alexander Mundy. He had not acted since suffering a stroke in 1981.

TELLY SAVALAS, 70, died of prostate cancer Jan. 22 in Los Angeles. The popular actor became a star in Kojak (1973-78) after years in notable motion picture roles, including “Bird Man of Alcatraz,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Kelly’s Heroes” and “MacKenna’s Gold.” He played Ernst Stavro Blofeld in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” a high point in the James Bond film series. On television, he co-starred with James Coburn in the short-lived 1961 series Acapulco, and guested on 77 Sunset Strip, The Aquanauts, The Twilight Zone, Burke’s Law, The Rogues, The Fugitive, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and many more.

JACK BERNARDI, 85, stage, film and television character actor, brother of the late actor Herschel Bernardi, died March 23 of a heart attack. With many credits over the years, Bernardi was best known to spy fans as one of the actors who played Mr. Del Floria in the tailor shop scenes on The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

WALTER LANTZ, 93, creator of Woody Woodpecker, died March 22 from heart ailments in Burbank, Calif. He organized Universal’s animation studio in 1929 to produce “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” cartoons (Walt Disney created Oswald but Universal owned the rights and took over the character, forcing Disney to come up with a replacement: Mickey Mouse). Lantz created other popular characters such as Andy Panda and Chilly Willy, but Woody was his star. The woodpecker first appeared in a 1940 Andy Panda cartoon, with Mel Blanc providing the voice. Lantz’s wife, stage actress Grace Stafford, assumed the role in 1948. The legend of Woody’s creation—he was inspired by a noisy woodpecker that interrupted Lantz’s honeymoon—is amusing but untrue. The wedding took place a year after Woody’s debut. Lantz went independent in 1936 but continued to distribute through Universal, with Woody long outliving his contemporaries; the last Woody Woodpecker shorts were released in 1972. His characters first appeared on television in 1957, with Lantz himself hosting and demonstrating animation techniques. The cartoons have since been repackaged in several network and syndicated series.

HENRY MORGAN, 79, acerbic radio and television comedian, died May 19 in New York from lung cancer. Throughout the 1940s his introduction, “Good evening, anybody, here’s Morgan,” was followed by a witty skewering of American institutions, network executives and his sponsors, who regularly dropped him after much on-air abuse. His irreverence even led to a Red Channels listing as a communist sympathizer, but he survived a brief blacklisting and moved into television. He made numerous appearances on quiz show panels, including a regular spot on I’ve Got a Secret during its 14-year run. In 1964 he was part of the troupe on NBC’s That Was the Week That Was and in 1969 appeared on the Thurber-inspired My World and Welcome to It.