The time has come to look back over the previous year and consider the careers and contributions of all those we lost. Some legitimate film legends passed on this year, and it can only do them respect – not to mention give audiences a wonderful service – to revisit their life and work; you could do much worse than to revisit some of the films of Omar Sharif, or listen to the excellent scores of James Horner.
This year was especially rough to fans of horror and genre cinema, as we lost not only one of horror’s great directors, Wes Craven, but several notable and/or prolific genre actors passed as well, including Leonard Nimoy, iconic monster performers Gunnar Hansen and Betsy Palmer, notable B-movie presence Robert Z’Dar, and the legendary Christopher Lee.
Notable directors were lost this year. Chantal Akerman made quiet realist dramas that were no less powerful than anything written by Chekhov. Albert Maysles made some of the best documentaries ever made.
One prolific director you may not hear about come Academy Awards night is filmmaker and author of feminist erotic films Candida Royalle, one of the first industry professionals to make an attempt at pornography for women. Royalle was a thoughtful filmmaker with an aesthetic drive, and her work is no less important than others on this list.
Let us look back at the careers of the following people on this list, and raise a glass to the talent, the hard work, and the amazing movies they all left behind.
Slideshow: The Filmmakers we Lost in 2015
Top Image: Paramount
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia, and Blumhouse. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
In Memoriam: The Filmmakers We Lost 2015
-
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. (January 9, 2015)
Producer: Academy Awards telecasts, Mystic Pizza (1988), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Photo: 20th Century Fox
-
Anita Ekberg (January 11, 2015)
Actress/Model: La Dolce Vita (1960), Boccaccio '70 (1962).
Photo: Cineriz
-
Leonard Nimoy (February 27, 2015)
Actor/Director: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Star Trek (1979 – 2013), 3 Men and a Baby (1987)
Photo: Paramount
-
Albert Maysles (March 5, 2015)
Documentarian: Salesman (1968), Monterey Pop (1968), Gimme Shelter (1970), Grey Gardens (1975), When We Were Kings (1996)
Photo: 20th Century Fox
-
Gregory Walcott (March 20, 2015)
Actor: Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), The Sugarland Express (1974), House II: The Second Story (1987)
Photo: Valiant Pictures
-
Robert Z'Dar (March 30, 2015)
Actor: Maniac Cop (1988), Tango & Cash (1989), Soultaker (1990), Killing American Style (1990), Samurai Cop (1991), Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991)
Photo: Cinema Epoch
-
Geoffrey Lewis (April 7, 2015)
Actor: Smile (1975), Every Which Way But Loose (1978), 'Salem's Lot (1979), Heaven's Gate (1980), Night of the Comet (1984), Double Impact (1991), The Lawnmower Man (1992), Maverick (1994), The Devil's Rejects (2005)
Photo: Warner Bros.
-
Mary Ellen Trainor (May 20, 2015)
Actress: The Goonies (1985), The Monster Squad (1987), Lethal Weapon (1987), Die Hard (1988)
Photo: Warner Bros.
-
Betsy Palmer (May 29th, 2015)
Actress: Mister Roberts (1955), Friday the 13th (1980)
Photo: Paramount
-
Christopher Lee (June 7, 2015)
Actor: Horror of Dracula (1958), The Wicker Man (1973), 1941 (1979), The Return of Captain Invincible (1983), Howling II: … Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Lord of the Rings (2001 – 2012), Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
Photo: British Lion Films
-
James Horner (June 22, 2015)
Composer: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Krull (1983), Willow (1988), Glory (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Sneakers (1992), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Braveheart (1995), Apollo 13 (1995), Titanic (1997), The New World (2005), Avatar (2009)
Photo: Paramount
-
Dick Van Patten (June 23, 2015)
Actor: Westworld (1973), High Anxiety (1977), Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Photo: MGM
-
Omar Sharif (July 10, 2015)
Actor: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Funny Girl (1968), The Tamarind Seed (1974), Top Secret! (1984), Monsieur Ibrahim (2003)
Photo: MGM
-
Aubrey Morris (July 15, 2015)
Actor: A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Wicker Man (1973), Lifeforce (1985)
Photo: Warner Bros.
-
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper (July 30, 2015)
Actor: Wrestlemania 2 (1986), They Live (1988), Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)
Photo: Universal
-
Wes Craven (August 30, 2015)
Director: The Last House on the Left (1972), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The People Under the Stairs (1991), Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), Scream (1996), Music of the Heart (1999).
Photo: New Line Cinema
-
Dean Jones (September 1, 2015)
Actor: That Darn Cat! (1965), The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968), The Love Bug (1968), Mr. Superinvisible (1970), Million Dollar Duck (1971), Beethoven (1992)
Photo: Disney
-
Setsuko Hara (September 5, 2015)
Actress: Late Spring (1949), Early Summer (1951), Tokyo Story (1953), Late Autumn (1960)
Photo: Shochiku
-
Candida Royalle (September 7, 2015)
Director: Femme (1984), Christine's Secret (1986), Sensual Escape (1991), Eyes of Desire (1998)
Photo: Smashing Interviews
-
John Guillerman (September 27, 2015)
Director: El Condor (1970), Shaft in Africa (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), King Kong (1976), Sheena (1984)
Photo: 20th Century Fox
-
Chantal Akerman (October 5, 2015)
Writer/Director: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), The Meetings of Anna (1978), Night and Day (1991), The Captive (2000)
Photo: Janus Films
-
Maureen O'Hara (October 24, 2015)
Actress: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), The Quiet Man (1952), The Parent Trap (1961)
Photo: 20th Century Fox
-
Gunnar Hansen (November 7, 2015)
Actor: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
Photo: Bryanston Pictures
-
Robert Loggia (December 4, 2015)
Actor: Scarface (1983), Over the Top (1987), Big (1988), Innocent Blood (1992), Independence Day (1996), Lost Highway (1997)
Photo: October Films
-
Haskell Wexler (December 27, 2015)
Cinematographer: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), The Conversation (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Colors (1988), The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
Photo: United Artists
