Friday, August 18, 2006

RIP Monty Berman and the 'gong man'

Kenneth Richmond, the man who famously struck the gong for J Arthur Rank, has died at the age of 80. Read more here.

And Monty Berman, film and TV producer, is dead at 93. While he was most famous for a string of ITC hits in the 1960s - The Saint, Jason King, The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk Deceased - I will remember him for the horror films he produced with Robert S Baker in the late '50s, including Jack the Ripper (1958) and The Flesh and the Fiends (1959), a surprisingly good take on the Burke and Hare story, with Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance. A worthy competitor to Hammer Studios, the invincible horror-makers at that time.

According to IMDB, he died on June 12. It just made the Guardian this week.

The New York Times, on the other hand, seems to think the poor chap passed away in Monte Carlo in 2002. If so, I guess you just can't keep a good man down.

(Actually, my bad - The NY Times was talking about Monty M Berman, a costume designer born in the same year!)

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