JEREMY BRETT, 59, English actor internationally acclaimed for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the Granada TV productions seen on Public Television’s Mystery series, died Sept. 12 at his London home from heart disease.

     After years in numerous British stage and TV parts and a few film roles (his best known being Eliza’s suitor Freddie in “My Fair Lady”), Brett was cast as the Great Detective in 1984 in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the first of Granada’s 41 loving adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. Brett was hailed as at least the best Holmes since Basil Rathbone and frequently as the greatest ever. He gave up the role in 1993 after collapsing on the set from heart problems. Those final episodes will be seen in January on Mystery.

ELISHA COOK JR., 91, definitive movie character actor, died May 18 in Big Pine, Calif. In a five-decade, 100-film career running from “Her Unborn Child,” his 1930 feature debut, to the 1984 TV-movie “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” he is best remembered for his favorite role as Wilmer the gunsel in the 1941 classic “The Maltese Falcon.”

     His other credits include such memorable films as “Sergeant York,” “The Big Sleep,” “Shane,” “Tin Pan Alley,” “In This Our Life,” “Dillinger,” “Welcome to Hard Times” and “Rosemary’s Baby.” He also appeared in countless TV roles, including episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Millionaire, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Bat Masterson, Thriller, Surfside 6, The Fugitive, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, Batman and Star Trek.

CLARICE BLACKBURN, 74, New York stage and television actress best known as Collinwood’s taciturn housekeeper Mrs. Johnson on Dark Shadows, died Aug. 5 in New York of cancer. Her Broadway credits include “American Gothic,” “Desk Set,” “Juno” and “The Miracle Worker.” She acted on many New York-based soap operas and won Emmy awards as part of the writing staff on All My Children. TV fame came with Dark Shadows. She appeared as Sarah Johnson, the Collins family’s unsmiling and suspicious housekeeper, through most of the series’ run. She also, like most of the cast, played other characters when the show visited the past.

PHIL HARRIS, 89, singer, band leader and comic in radio, TV and film, died Aug. 11 in Rancho Mirage, Calif., of heart failure. After years of one-night stands with his orchestra, Harris became the band leader on The Jack Benny Program in 1936. As his character developed into a hard-drinking, swinging Southern boy, he became one of the show’s favorites. He stayed with Benny for 16 years, even after he and actress wife Alice Faye started their own series in 1946. It ran until 1954. He later provided the voices of Baloo in Disney’s animated feature “The Jungle Book” and O’Malley in “The Aristocats.” On TV he appeared in many variety shows, including some of Benny’s, and on such series as Burke’s Law, The Lucy Show, The Bing Crosby Show and F Troop.

GALE GORDON, 89, comic actor in many of radio and television’s funniest shows and longtime foil to Lucille Ball, died June 30 of cancer in Escondido, Calif. Best known for his fussy, grumpy and blustery roles in The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy from 1963 to 1974 (and in the mercifully short-lived Life With Lucy in 1986), Gordon originally co-starred with Lucille Ball on her radio series My Favorite Husband and would have played Fred Mertz in the classic I Love Lucy had he not been committed to another show.

     His best known radio role was high school principal Osgood Conklin on Our Miss Brooks. At the same time he was playing Mayor LaTrivia on Fibber McGee and Molly and the “sponsor” of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show while also working on The Halls of Ivy, The Dennis Day Show, The Great Gildersleeve and My Favorite Husband.

     On TV he played Principal Conklin on Our Miss Brooks and was a regular on Pete and Gladys. He was the second Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace before joining The Lucy Show, and appeared in episodes of I Love Lucy, The Real McCoys, The Donna Reed Show and other comedy series.

HARRY GUARDINO, 69, veteran film and TV actor, died July 17 in Palm Springs of lung cancer. Brooklyn-born and specializing in tough-talking roles, Guardino appeared in such films as “Pork Chop Hill,” “Houseboat,” “King of Kings,” “Hell is for Heroes,” “Lovers and Other Strangers,” “Dirty Harry” and “Any Which Way You Can.” He starred in three short-lived TV series: The Reporter (1964), Monty Nash (1971) and as DA Hamilton Burger in the 1973 revival of Perry Mason. He also appeared in dozens of episodes of The Untouchables, Checkmate, Dr. Kildare, Route 66, Ben Casey, Run For Your Life, Hawaii Five-0, The Name of the Game, The FBI, Night Gallery, Kojak, Police Story and others.

JOHN CAMERON SWAYZE, 89, pioneer TV newsman and Timex salesman, died Aug. 15 at his home in Sarasota, Fla. He hosted Camel News Caravan, NBC’s first nightly television news program, sponsored by Camel cigarettes, from its debut in 1949 until Chet Huntley and David Brinkley became NBC’s news anchors in 1956. Swayze then went to work for Timex, appearing in 20 years of commercials in which he subjected Timex wristwatches to ever escalating and increasingly bizarre forms of abuse. The watches always emerged intact and operating as Swayze announced, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”

ELLESTON TREVOR, 75, British author and creator of the English spy Quiller, died July 21 of cancer at his home in Cave Creek, Ariz. He wrote more than 80 books, 18 of which featured Quiller. The first, The Quiller Memorandum, won the 1965 Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America. It was filmed in 1966 with George Segal as Quiller. Another of his famous novels, The Flight of the Phoenix, was also filmed in 1966 with Jimmy Stewart. Last year, United Artists purchased the rights to film all of the Quiller stories but has not announced any production plans.

TONY HAMILTON, 42, English-born, Australian-reared actor in the ABC revival of Mission: Impossible, died March 29 in Los Angeles from AIDS-related pneumonia. Hamilton starred with Jennifer O’Neill in the 1983-84 spy series Cover Up, replacing Jon-Erik Hexum on the show after Hexum accidentally killed himself on the set with a prop gun. In 1988, when ABC planned to circumvent a Writers Guild strike by filming old Mission: Impossible scripts in Australia, Hamilton was cast in the Willie Armitage role originally played by Peter Lupus. When the strike suddenly ended, new scripts were written and the characters renamed. Hamilton became Max Harte but remained the Willie-like strongman of the team.

HOWARD KOCH, 93, Oscar-winning author of two iconographic pieces of American entertainment, died Aug. 17 of pneumonia in Woodstock, N.Y. He began as a playwright in the late 1920s and moved into radio, where his most famous work was his adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds for Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater on the Air. Broadcast as “a Halloween prank” according to Welles, the show’s skillful use of then current conventions of broadcasting actually scared some listeners into believing Martians had landed in New Jersey—and led the FCC to ban phony newscasts as a dramatic device.

     Koch then moved to Hollywood to write screenplays for Warner Bros. and quickly won the Oscar (with co-writers Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein) for “Casablanca,” now generally considered everyone’s all-time favorite American movie. He also wrote such popular films as “Sergeant York,” “The Sea Hawk,” “Letter from an Unknown Woman,” “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Virginia City” and “The Best Years of Our Lives.”

     Koch also scripted, at the insistence of studio boss Jack Warner, the 1943 picture “Mission to Moscow,” produced to polish the image of America’s wartime ally, the Soviet Union. Warner later used the film to demonstrate Koch’s supposed Communist sympathies to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Koch was blacklisted for six years and his career never recovered. In the ’60s, he wrote a few British films such as “The War Lover” before moving to Woodstock to write plays.