• David Watkin (1925-2008) - Oscar-winning cinematographer of Out of Africa. He also shot the Beatles movie Help! and the John Lennon film How I Won the War, both directed by Richard Lester, for whom he also worked on Robin and Marian, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. He also was the cinematographer for Catch-22, Chariots of Fire, Moonstruck, Memphis Belle, This Boy's Life, Yentl, Return to Oz, White Nights and the opening sequence of Goldfinger. He shot Sidney Lumet's Gloria, Critical Care and Night Falls on Manhattan and Zeffirelli's Hamlet, Jane Eyre, Tea With Mussolini and Endless Love. He died February 19 in Sussex Mews, Brighton, England. (Telegraph)

• Barry Barclay (1944-2008) - Maori filmmaker who directed Sam Neill in 1975's Ashes, which was based on the work of T.S. Eliot. He also directed Ngati and wrote and directed The Feathers of Peace. He died after suffering a stroke February 17, in Omapere, New Zealand. (Variety)
• Natalya Bessmertnova (1941-2008) - Legendary Russian dancer who was a member of the Bolshoi Ballet. She can be seen in the Soviet ballet films The Secret of Success (aka Bolshoi Ballet '67), Giselle, Ivan the Terrible and Spartakus, as well as other in other video-captured performances of Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. She died of kidney failure February 19, in Moscow. (UPI)

• Ben Chapman (1925-2008) - Actor who was one of two men who portrayed the titular monster in the 1954 horror classic Creature from the Black Lagoon. Although he was originally uncredited, his official role is now know as "The Gill Man (On Land)". He died February 21 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (ShockTilYouDrop.com)
• Paul S. Green (1917-2008) - Publicist who worked as Hollywood's inside man inside Washington D.C. He once managed to have a senator promote The Kentuckian by wearing a coonskin hat and buckskin jacket and he made arrangements so Otto Preminger could shoot Advise & Consent nearly anywhere on Capitol Hill. He also appears momentarily in that film. He died February 6. (Washington Post)
• Clément Hurel (1927-2008) - Illustrator who painted posters for Stagecoach, Breathless, Once Upon a Time in America, Forbidden Games, The Quiet Man, The Naughty Girl, Elevator to the Galows, Le Petit Soldad, Dance of the Vampires and Fassbinder's Fist-Fight of Freedom (aka Fox and His Friends). He died February 12 in Paris. (Le Film Francais)
• Michael Lambert (1965-2008) - Electrician (gaffer, grip, dimmer board operator) who worked on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Alien: Resurrection, Scary Movie 2, The Sum of All Fears, Swordfish, Bewitched and Cellular, among others. He died February 7. (Entertainment Insiders) Teo Macero (1925-2008) - Composer, producer and musician who wrote original music for End of the Road, the documentary A.k.a. Cassius Clay and Kinji Fukasaku's Virus (aka Day of Resurrection aka The End). He also appears as himself, as a Columbia Records producer, in the documentary Thelonius Monk: Straight, No Chaser. He died February 19. (Times Online)
• Manorama (c.1927-2008) - Indian actress who began films as a child in the 1920s and went on to co-star in films such as Seeta Aur Geeta before eventually falling out of favor in the Bollywood industry. She most recently appeared in Deepa Mehta's Water, a Canadian production. She died February 15 in Mumbai. (Bollywood.com)
• Robin L. Moore (1925-2008) - Novelist who wrote the books The French Connection, The Green Berets and The Happy Hooker, each of which was turned into a feature film. He also co-wrote the screenplay to Inchon. He died February 19 in Kentucky. (NY Times)
  
• Max L. Raab (1926-2008) - Garment-maker-turned-filmmaker, who outfitted Janet Margolin's titular character in David and Lisa and then went on to executive produce A Clockwork Orange, Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout and Robert Downey, Sr.'s Rittenhouse Square and Moment to Moment. He also produced and directed the documentary Strut! He died of complications relating to Parkinson's disease February 21, in Philadelphia. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Lydia Shum (1945-2008) - Chinese actress and comedienne who co-starred in Tiger on the Beat, Drunken Tai-Chi, Shanghai Express and Wayne Wang's Eat a Bowl of Tea. She died of liver cancer February 19, in Hong Kong. (Variety)
• Lionel Mark Smith (1946-2008) - Actor who appears in a number of David Mamet films, including The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, Things Change, Spartan, Homicide and the Mamet-scripted Edmond, which he also co-produced. He also appears in Magnolia,Youngblood, Galaxina, The Mod Squad, Above Suspicion and Bob Rafelson's The Postman Always Rings Twice. He died of cancer February 13, in Inglewood, California. (LA Times)
• Jacek Stachlewski (1939-2008) - Polish cinematographer who worked on Von Trier's Europa and Kawalerowicz's Pharaoh, both as a cameraman. He died February 17 in Warsaw. (Polish Film Institute)

Tags: cinematical, creature from the black lagoon, CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon