PETER CUSHING, 81, British actor famed for Hammer horror film roles, died of cancer Aug. 11 in Canterbury, England. Though he appeared in such films as “A Chump at Oxford” with Laurel & Hardy, Laurence Olivier’s “Hamlet” and “Moulin Rouge” (and starred in a memorable 1954 BBC staging of “1984”), he found his niche at Hammer Studios. Beginning as Dr. Frankenstein in 1957’s “The Curse of Frankenstein,” with Christopher Lee as the monster, and as Van Helsing to Lee’s Dracula in 1958, Cushing went on to dozens of sequels and other genre roles, including Sherlock Holmes in “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” the TV Time Lord in “Dr. Who and the Daleks” and Grand Moff Tarkin in “Star Wars.”

HANS J. SALTER, 98, film composer best remembered for his work in Universal horror films, died July 23 in Los Angeles. Born in Vienna in 1896, Salter fled the Nazis and landed in Hollywood in 1937 and at Universal in 1938, going on to score some 150 pictures (and working uncredited on dozens more), including “Scarlet Street,” “The Magnificent Doll,” “Against All Flags” and “The Spoilers.” Three of his six Academy Award nominations were for Deanna Durbin musicals. But his fame rests on the classic fright music written for such pictures as “The Mummy’s Hand,” “The Wolf Man,” “The Ghost of Frankenstein,” “Son of Dracula,” “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man,” “House of Frankenstein,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”

JAMES T. AUBREY, 75, controversial president of CBS Television from 1959 to 1965, died Sept. 3 in Los Angeles after a heart attack. Known throughout the industry as “the smiling cobra” and widely feared for his ruthless demeanor, Aubrey was the champion of the dopey sitcoms CBS ran in the early ’60s (The Beverly Hillbillies, Mister Ed, Gilligan’s Island, et. al.—although the network did air more highly regarded series such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Twilight Zone, Route 66 and The Defenders under Aubrey’s regime). Rumors about his bizarre personal life and questionable dealings with program suppliers came to a head in the 1964-65 season when Keefe Brasselle, an actor of little note, formed a production company that was able to sell three prime time series to CBS. The shows—The Reporter, The Baileys of Balboa and The Cara Williams Show—were all bought without pilots and all flopped. Aubrey’s exit from the network was arranged soon thereafter. However, Aubrey resurfaced in 1969 at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had just come under the control of financier Kirk Kerkorian. As MGM president, Aubrey oversaw the dismantling of the company, selling off the back-lot acreage in Culver City, the overseas theater chain, the studio in Borehamwood, England, the distribution offices and 40 years of props and costumes at the famous 1970 auction, while turning out a string of low-budget flop pictures. He worked as an independent producer since leaving MGM in 1973.

BARRY SULLIVAN, 81, familiar face in 40 years of television, died June 6 from a respiratory ailment in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He starred in four short-lived series: The Man Called X, an early spy show based on an old radio series; Harbourmaster, as a New England waterman; The Tall Man, as Sheriff Pat Garrett to Clu Gulager’s Billy the Kid; and The Road West, another western about a family of settlers. Sullivan was better known for countless guest shots in leading series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible, Run For Your Life, Twelve O’Clock High, It Takes a Thief, Hawaii Five-0, The Name of the Game, Night Gallery, The Immortal, Kung Fu, Harry O and many others. Sullivan started on Broadway, where his career peaked with his role as the defense attorney in “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial”; he was also in the TV version seen on Ford Star Jubilee in 1955. His film roles included “The Great Gatsby,” “The Bad and the Beautiful,” “Earthquake” and “Oh, God.”

HERBERT ANDERSON, 77, accomplished actor best known as the patient father of Dennis the Menace, died June 11 in Palm Springs, Calif. His long Broadway career included parts in “The Male Animal” and “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial”; he also appeared in the film versions and in supporting parts in numerous other pictures. Dennis the Menace, on CBS from 1959 to 1963, was his only series role. He had guest shots on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Rawhide, Batman, I Dream of Jeannie, Dragnet and many other shows. He retired in 1982 after heart surgery.

DICK SARGENT, veteran supporting player whose greatest fame came as “the second Darrin,” died July 8 in Los Angeles from prostate cancer. After roles in the unsuccessful series One Happy Family, Broadside and The Tammy Grimes Show (canceled in four weeks in the fall of 1966, a record flop at the time), Sargent replaced Dick York as Darrin Stephens on Bewitched in 1969, after the show had been on for five seasons. Sargent played the role for three years. He also appeared in episodes of such series as Gunsmoke, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Wagon Train, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, I Dream of Jeannie, Love American Style, Charlie’s Angels and Murder, She Wrote.

JANE DULO, 75, comic actress in dozens of TV roles, died May 22 in Los Angeles following heart surgery. Best remembered as 99’s Mother (which is how the nameless role was billed), introduced when Max and 99 married during the fourth season of Get Smart, she played raucous housewives, man-hungry spinsters and bewildered tourists in everything from Sgt. Bilko to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. As a navy nurse she chased Ernest Borgnine for the first two seasons of McHale’s Navy and had a straight role as a nurse for one season of Medical Center.

BILL QUINN, 81, character actor whose career spanned television, died April 29 in Camarillo, Calif. Seen as Sweeney the bartender on The Rifleman and blind bar patron Mr. Van Ranseleer on Archie Bunker’s Place, he played hundreds of roles in episodes of The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Maverick, Wanted Dead or Alive, Hawaiian Eye, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Munsters, The FBI, Alias Smith and Jones, The Rockford Files and more. He also played the recurring role of Mary’s father on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. His film credits included “Advise and Consent,” “Twilight Zone, The Movie” and “Star Trek V.”

PATRICK O’NEAL, 66, smooth character actor and sometime leading man in uppercrust roles, died of cancer Sept. 9 in New York. He starred in several short-lived series: the 1957 comedy-mystery, Dick and the Duchess; in a 1960 summer-replacement mystery, Diagnosis: Unknown; as the senior law partner in Kaz; and in the naval soap opera, Emerald Point NAS. He also had many roles in episodes of The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train, The Millionaire, Naked City, The Defenders, Route 66, The Outer Limits, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Coronet Blue, Alias Smith and Jones, Night Gallery, Columbo, Murder, She Wrote and many others. His film roles included “King Rat,” “In Harm’s Way,” “The Kremlin Letter” and “The Stepford Wives.”

JOHN DOUCETTE, 73, character actor seen in countless western pictures and TV shows, died Aug. 16 of cancer. With some 130 film roles in a 40-year career, his better-known credits included “Julius Caesar,” “True Grit” and “Patton.” On television he played good guys and bad guys on everything from The Lone Ranger to Kung Fu, also portraying masterminds on The Wild Wild West, dimwits on The Adventures of Superman and a Ruritanian count on Get Smart. As a series regular, he played cops in the early TV drama Big Town and in Don Adams’ short-lived comedy series The Partners.

HARRIET NELSON, 85, quintessential TV mom, died Oct. 2 at her home in Laguna Beach, Calif. As singer Harriet Hilliard, she joined Ozzie Nelson’s band in 1932 and married him in 1935. She had a few film roles, most notably in “Follow the Fleet” (1936) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. She and Ozzie were regulars on Joe Penner’s and Red Skelton’s radio shows before launching The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet on CBS Radio in 1944. The show moved to television on ABC in 1952 and ran until 1966. Ozzie and Harriet later appeared together in episodes of Night Gallery and Love American Style, and in the syndicated series Ozzie’s Girls, which was discontinued when Ozzie became seriously ill. He died in 1975. Harriet appeared more recently in an episode of Father Dowling Mysteries with granddaughter Tracy Nelson. Son Ricky, who became a singing teen idol on their series, died in a plane crash in 1985. She’s survived by her older son David, nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild.