No holiday for the Grim Reaper – takes Starsky and Hutch‘s boss and Point Blank author.
Sadly, Msr. Grim took Donald E Westlake, 75, one of the world’s greatest mystery writers. He received an Oscar nom for his screenplay based on his novel The Grifters as well as 3 Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America.
Of his 90 novels (!), 15 were turned into films including The Hot Rock (Robert Redford) and Point Blank (Lee Marvin). Westlake was taken New Year’s Eve after suffering a heart attack In Mexico.
The night prior, Death called on actor Bernie Hamilton, 80, best known for playing TV crime busters Starsky & Hutch‘s boss Captain Harold Dobey. Bernie gave both Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul a hard time from 1975 to 1979 on the popular series.
Hamilton also appeared in more than 20 films including The Devil at Four O’clock (with Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy) and The Swimmer (with Burt Lancaster).
In recent years, Hamilton produced R&B gospel LPs for his own label Chocolate Snowman.
