Dead in 1999 or early 2000 were: A. E. van Vogt, 89, one of the giants of the “golden age” of science fiction in the ‘30s and ’40s, winner of SFWA’s prestigious Grand Master Award, author of such seminal works as Slan, The World of Null-A, The War Against the Rull, The Weapon Shops of Isher, Voyage of the Space Beagle, and many other novels, and whose famous story “Black Destroyer” is seen by many as a direct inspiration for later media work such as Alien and the original Star Trek television series; James White, 71, famed Irish SF writer and fan, best known for his “Sector General” novels about a hospital in space, such as Hospital Station, Star Surgeon, Sector General, Final Diagnosis, and many others, as well as for stand-alone novels such as The Watch Below, The Silent Stars Go By, and All Judgment Fled; Marion Zimmer Bradley, 69, author of the best-selling The Mists of Avalon, one of the most acclaimed and influential Arthurian novels of the last thirty years, as well as many novels in the popular Darkover series, including The Door Through Space, The Planet Savers, and The Sword of Aldones, the editor of a large number of anthologies in the long-running Sword and Sorceress series, and founder and editor of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine; Joseph Heller, 76, whose best-selling cult classic World War II novel Catch-22 had fantastic/surreal elements, also the author of fantasy novel Picture This, as well as novels such as Something Happened, Good as Gold, and Closing Time; Paul Bowles, 88, writer, composer, and artist, best known for the mainstream novel The Sheltering Sky, but who also wrote horror stories, some collected in The Delicate Prey; Robert “Buck” Coulson, 70, writer, critic, and well-known fan personality, coauthor (with Gene DeWeese) of the comic SF novels Now You See It/Him/Them and Charles Fort Never Mentioned Wombats, and coeditor (with wife, Juanita Coulson) of the Hugo-winning fanzine Yandro; Gary Jennings, 70, SF short story writer who achieved best-seller status with a series of historical novels such as Aztecs, Spangle, Raptor, The Journeyer, and Aztec Autumn; Michael Avallone, 74, prolific author best known for his “Ed Noon” series of detective novels, who also published horror, novelizations, and erotica; Shel Silverstein, humorist and cartoonist, author of several best-selling books for children, such as the infamous Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book: A Primer for Young Minds, The Giving Tree, and Falling Up; Eddie Jones, 64, well-known British SF artist whose covers adorned many books in the ‘60s and ’70s; Gil Kane, 74, well-known comic-book artist, best known for his work on the comic book Green Lantern; Stanley Kubrick, 70, world-famous film director, director and cocreator (with Arthur C. Clarke) of one of the most famous SF movies of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as other genre movies such as A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, films with fantastic/surreal elements such as the fierce black comedy. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and nongenre films such as Paths of Glory, Lolita, and Eyes Wide Shut; astronomical artist Ludek Pesek, 80; Adolfo Bioy Casares, 84, Argentine writer of SF and magic realism; Carl Johan Holzhausen, 99, Swedish SF writer and translator; Jerry Yulsman, 75, author of the alternate-history novel Elleander Morning; Robert J. Sobel, history professor and author of the alternate-history book For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Lost the Battle of Saratoga; John Broome, 85, veteran pulp and comic-book writer; Jim Turner, 54, longtime editor of Arkham House, later founder and editor of Golden Gryphon Press, an editor almost singlehandedly responsible for publishing many (if not most) of the best short-story collections of the ’80s and ’90s, bringing out seminal collections by writers such as Greg Bear, Lucius Shepard, Nancy Kress, James Tiptree, Jr., Michael Swanwick, John Kessel, Mary Rosenblum, James Patrick Kelly, Tony Daniel, Robert Reed, and many others, at a time when most trade publishers refused to publish collections at all; Ray Russell, 74, writer and longtime executive editor of Playboy, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the World Fantasy Convention and the Horror Writers of America, editor of the influential anthologies The Playboy Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy and The Playboy Book of Horror and the Supernatural author, among many others, of the famous story “Mr. Sardonicus”; Art Saha, 76, SF editor, anthologist, and well-known fan, coeditor (with Donald Wollheim) of the long-running The World’s Best SF anthology series, and editor of The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories anthology series; Howard Browne, 91, onetime editor of Amazing Stories and founder and first editor of Fantastic; Charles D. Hornig, 83, onetime editor of Wonder Stories, Future Fiction, and Science Fiction Quarterly; Clifton Fadiman, 95, writer, editor, and ’30s radio personality, whose introductions added a much-needed boost of literary respectability to many early SF books in the ’50s and ’60s, editor of the anthology Fantasia Mathematica; Terry Hodel, 61, producer of the long-running SF radio show Mike Hodel’s Hour 25, founded by her late husband, Mike Hodel; Frank McDonnell, 59, scholar, science fiction critic, and mystery writer; Tad Dembinski, 27, former managing editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction and former editorial assistant to David Hartwell at Tor Books; Larry Sternig, 90, longtime literary agent; Walt Willis, 79, legendary British fan, fan writer, and fanzine editor, editor of the famous fanzine Slant; George “Lan” Laskowski, 50, well-known fan and editor of the Hugo-winning fanzine Lan’s Lantern; DeForest Kelley, 79, actor best known to genre audiences for his long-running role as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the original Star Trek series, and in subsequent Star Trek theatrical movies; Marjii Ellers, 81, longtime fan and costumer; Joe Mayhar, 69, husband of SF writer Ardath Mayhar; Muriel Gold, widow of the late SF editor H. L. Gold; L. Allen Chalker, 70, brother of SF writer Jack Chalker; Andrew Keith, 41, brother of and sometimes collaborator with SF author William H. Keith; Jeanne Porter, 86, mother of Science Fiction Chronicle editor/publisher Andrew I. Porter; Edythe Marinoff, 76, mother of SF writer Karen Haber Silverberg; Beatrice Friesner, mother of SF writer Esther M. Friesner; Eric Felice, 33, son of SF writer Cynthia Felice; W. H. “Pete” Rowland, father of SF writer Diana Rowland; and Sarah Delany, 109, coauthor of the memoir Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years, and great-aunt of SF writer Samuel R. Delany.