CASUALTIES OF 2006

A year-end wrap-up is an annual tradition for my PAGE X column. I always present a list of selected pop-culture heroes we lost in the previous year -- "selected" because space does not permit me to list everyone. Let me tell you -- some of the chops I must make are painful. So I thought I'd use my Web column to list those folks who didn't make it in print. 2006 claimed:

"Jaws" author Peter Benchley
"The Jeffersons" Tom Willis Franklin Cover
"Rocky Theme" trumpeter Maynard Ferguson
"Green Lantern" artist Seth Fisher
"Superman" Pa Kent Glenn Ford
"Across 110th Street" weasel Anthony Franciosa
"Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man" invisible man Arthur Franz
"Breakfast Club" principal Paul Gleason
1967 "Casino Royale" director Val Guest
Mr. Jayne Mansfield Mickey Hargitay
"Svengali" Trilby Marian Marsh
"Hello Mary Lou" composer Gene Pitney
Christopher Reeve's widow, Dana Reeve
"Village of the Giants" kid Tim Rooney
"Return of Dr. X" director Vincent Sherman
"Interiors" star Maureen Stapleton
"Brian's Song" coach Jack Warden
Ed Wood's widow, Kathy Wood

Regular readers of PAGE X may sense that two cuts were particularly painful: Marian Marsh and Kathy Wood. Make it your mission to see Marsh in "Svengali" (1931). Her transformation from virginal to zombified is amazing. And anyone who can steal a scene from the great John Barrymore, sometimes unknowingly, deserves a lot more respect than Marsh got. As for Kathy Wood -- who was played by Patricia Arquette in Tim Burton's 1994 biopic "Ed Wood" -- she was at poor Eddie's side when he died a homeless alcoholic wreck, and remained one of our vanishing links to the weird world of Wood.

REST IN PEACE.