2006’s Passings of Cryptozoologists and Others
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 18th, 2006
Who Did We Lose This Year?
by Loren Coleman, author of the biography, Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology.
The following is a roundup of 25 notable people linked to cryptozoology, cryptids, Bigfoot studies, aligned fields, and cryptocinema who died in 2006.
Death is a milestone. This gathering is given out-of-respect and in celebration of the significant lives of these people who have passed before us.
It is chronological and begins with an ordinary man unknown to but a few, is followed quickly by a bona fide cryptozoology celebrity, and ends with a writer of whose art inspired many to start their quest and an online friend to several people at Cryptomundo and beyond. Our condolences to their families and friends, good-bye to them, and much appreciation for the many forms of cryptozoology they shared with all of us.
January 5, 2006.
Paul Diehl, 53, died from hypothermia, on Brush Mountain, near Greenwood, Pennsylvania, while looking for Bigfoot. More.
February 4, 2006.
Jacques Boisvert, 73, Memphré researcher, Lake Monster hunter, scuba diver, historian, and ecologist, died in Magog, Quebec. He coined "dracontology" and thus was the first person in the world to see himself as a dracontologist. More.
February 12, 2006
Reinhold E. Rau, 74, the founder of the Quagga Project and a taxidermist, died at his home in South Africa. More.
February 18, 2006.
Roger Cowburn, 77, of Galeton, Pennslyvania, died. He was an active field researcher for the Eastern Puma Research Network. More.
February 25, 2006.
Darren McGavin, 83, the Night Stalker died in California. Playing "Carl Kolchak," McGavin frequently found himself in plots chasing creatures. His role was based on John A. Keel’s early newspaper work. More.
March 7, 2006.
Vance Orchard, 88, long-time Sasquatch researcher and author of Bigfoot of the Blues, died in Walla Walla, Washington State. More here and here.
March 25, 2006.
Richard Fleischer, 89, the director of the 1954 sci-fi movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, died of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. More.
March 29, 2006.
Jacqueline Roumeguere-Eberhardt, 78, a French anthropologist, who formulated the theory that surviving fossil hominoids still live in Africa, died in Nairobi, Kenya. She authored Les Hominidés non-identifiés des forêts d’Afrique (The Unidentified Hominids of the African Forest). More.
May 10, 2006.
Val Guest, 94, motion picture writer, director and producer, died in Palm Springs, California. Guest directed Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957) and wrote and directed When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970). More.
May 27, 2006.
Paul Gleason, 67, died. Actor Gleason appeared as the no-nonsense disbelieving Sheriff Halderman in Ryan Schifrin’s Abominable, which aired in May 2006, on the SciFi Channel. More.
June 4, 2006.
Matt Lattimore, 45, Sasquatch Hunters’ lead actor died in Long Beach, California. More.
June 5, 2006.
Karl Pflock, 63, passed away at his home in Placitas, New Mexico. A skeptic, Pflock engaged in a memorable examination of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film. More here and here.
June 17, 2006.
Arthur Franz, 86, died in Oxnard, California. He is remembered as the narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness (1976), and earlier as the cryptozoological equal to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as Professor Donald Blake in Monster on The Campus, involving a coelacanth and Neanderthal man. More.
June 24, 2006.
Lyle Stuart, 83, a book publisher, died in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and had shepherded the publication of many paperbacks filled with material on Fortean wonders, Bigfoot, and flying saucers in their heyday, the 1970s. More.
July 20, 2006.
Robert Cornthwaite, 89, the actor who played mad scientist Dr. Carrington, in the 1951 Howard Hawks horror thriller, The Thing, died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. More.
July 25, 2006.
Lisa McIntosh, 42, the producer of Mothman: Man, Myth or Monster? died in California of a rare form of cancer. More.
July 29, 2006.
Edwin Tobolowsky, 86, a creature features producer, died in Texas. He produced classic drive-in films, including Creature of Destruction (1967), Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966), and The Eye Creatures (1965) a/k/a Attack of the the Eye Creatures. More.
August 9, 2006.
Sam X. Abarbanel, 92, who wrote the screenplay and produced the 1950s’ Prehistoric Women, died in Los Angeles in a freak accident. More.
August 12, 2006.
Nicholas Webster, 94, an award-winning TV documentary writer-producer-director died in Santa Monica. His 1978 documentary Manbeast: Myth or Monster dealt with Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Honey Island Swamp Monster (not to be confused with Man Beast, the earlier drive-in movie, whose poster is pictured.) More.
August 15, 2006.
Star C. Sams, 37, the co-host of the 2005 Sasquatch Research Conference and wife of Bigfoot researcher Jason Valenti, died in a car crash in Washington State. More.
August 25, 2006.
Joseph Stefano, 84, scriptwriter for Eye of the Cat (1969), Snowbeast (1977) and "Swamp Thing” (1990, the series), died in Thousand Oaks, California. More.
September 4, 2006.
Steve Irwin, 44, The Crocodile Hunter, who once devoted time in the hunt for the Thylacine, died in a freak accident involving a stringray off the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.. More here, here, here, and here.
September 23, 2006.
Mingma Norbu Sherpa, 51, Nepali environmentalist, World Wildlife Fund consultant and Yeti scholar, died in the crash of a helicopter in Nepal. More here and here.
October 29, 2006.
Nigel Kneale, 84, the screenwriter who adapted his own BBC serial "The Creature" for Hammer Films as The Abominable Snowman (1957), died in the U.K. More.
November 1, 2006.
Mark K. Bayless, 46, a herpetoculturist, a moderator of a Bigfoot group list, and an active cryptozoology correspondent, died in Berkeley, California. More.
"Leadership is like the Abominable Snowman. You never see it, but you know by the footprints that it’s there." - Ann Richards, first woman elected governor of Texas (1991-1995), who died September 13, 2006.
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To find the master list of all links to every 2006 lists created at Cryptomundo about the top cryptozoology stories, the top Bigfoot stories, top mystery photographs, best cryptozoology books, best cryptofiction books, top creepy fossil discoveries, gifts, passings, top cryptids, and more, please click here.
An incredibly comprehensive and detailed tribute to those enthusiasts, Loren ~ thank you.
It’s cool to be remembered.
And it’s cool to be somebody who knows that.
Thanks.
Considering the relatively small size of our community, does this list strike anyone as a bit long? Seems like an awful lot of people to lose…they will be missed.
An eclectic list of personalities to say the least with some more notable and others less. I am familiar with several and their works with others being new to me. Regardless of this each was a unique individual who directly or indirectly contributed something to cryptozoology in the mediums they represented. I salute and honor their memory with heartfelt condolences to their families and friends. Thanks for sharing this list with us Loren.
A moment of silence. Pause for reflection.
Excellent tribute, Loren.
Rest in peace all.
Ken