She appeared in 23 of the series 26 episodes, with probably her most memorable appearance being in "Sub Smash," a tension-filled hour of drama where her character was trapped on a crippled SHADO submarine with Ed Bishop's Commander Straker and very little air.
Although a busy actress on British television during the Sixties, she retired from acting in 1972 to devote her attentions to her family. Rest in peace, Ms. Mantez.
Sometime in the next few days, I'll be shipping out the Dark Horse Star Wars Omnibus Vol. 2 and the adaptations of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Keep an eye on the mail, Mark!
• Press: Last friday, Huffington Post blogger Jason Apuzzo wrote an article about the upcoming Disney Star Wars sequels and 70s science fiction cinema. I enjoyed the article for the most part (especially the parts that seemed to be borrowed from - or at least influenced by - my writings here), but the best part was that he included a link to Space: 1970 at the end of his post. This resulted in a nice uptick in hits from new readers. Hopefully, some of them stuck around!
• Blatant Cross-Promotion: And here's my usual shameless plug: anyone who enjoys my writing and the DVD reviews on this blog should check out my DVD Late Show site, where I have been reviewing B-movies, cult films and genre television shows on DVD and Blu-ray disc since 2005. Among the over 700 reviews on the site are plenty of Space: 1970-era favorites, like Battle Beyond The Stars, Damnation Alley, Starcrash, The Starlost, the Space: 1999 Blu-rays, and many more.
Congrats of the Huff Post mention!
ReplyDeleteThis is sad news. I am lucky enough to have a signed photo of her in her Moonbase Uniform but this doesn't make up for the fact that I never got the chance to meet her at a convention or signing.
ReplyDeleteSad news indeed. It's a sobering reminder of the passage of time and just how long ago the shows we enjoyed were filmed as cast members slip away. So many of the familiar faces in UFO are gone, including the actors who played Straker, Foster, Freeman, Jackson, Henderson, Miss Ealand, Captain Carlin, Mark Bradley and the voice of SID. Minor correction, though: her name was Dolores Mantez, not Mendez.
ReplyDeleteNot a minor correction at all.I don't know why I got it wrong, when I was looking right at her IMDb page when I wrote the post. Dammit.
DeleteFixed it. Thanks.