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Tom Cranham; Special Effects Illustrator for TV,...

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Tom Cranham; Special Effects Illustrator for TV, Films

Tom Cranham, 63, special effects illustrator for 14 television series and movies and more than 60 feature films. A native of Los Angeles, Cranham served in the Air Force and attended the Art Center College of Design. Working with Irwin Allen’s production company, Cranham drew special effects scenes for television’s “Time Tunnel,” “Lost in Space” and “Land of the Giants.” Other television series include “Battlestar Galactica” and “Buck Rogers.” He went on to create effects for such films as “The Poseidon Adventure,” “The Towering Inferno” and “The Swarm.” Other memorable films with the Cranham touch include “Jurassic Park,” “True Lies,” “Jumanji,” “Ghost,” “Blade Runner,” “Tora! Tora! Tora!” “Never Say Never Again” and “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Cranham, who painted landscapes in his spare time, served as vice president of the Motion Picture Illustrators and Matte Artists Guild No. 790 for 18 years. On Nov. 19 in Houston of cancer.

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* Linda Elstad; TV Writer Won Humanitas Award

Linda Elstad, 65, veteran television writer who won the Humanitas Award. Born in Los Angeles and educated at UCLA, Elstad won the Humanitas Award given by the Human Family Institute for “humanizing achievement in television” in 1982. Her winning script was for the television movie “Divorce Wars,” co-scripted by Donald Wrye. Elstad was also a staff writer on the series “One Day at a Time,” “Dallas” and “Quincy.” She served as a director of the Writers Guild and trustee of the Writers Guild Foundation. In 1990 and 1991 she organized a Russian Writers Exchange to give American and Russian screenwriters an opportunity to meet with colleagues in each other’s country. On Friday in Los Angeles of undetermined causes.

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* Robert Lewis; Actor, Director Co-Founded Actors Studio

Robert Lewis, 88, Broadway and film actor, director and acting coach who co-founded New York’s Actors Studio. After performing on Broadway in the 1930s, Lewis appeared in such motion pictures as “Dragon Seed,” “Ziegfeld Follies” and “Son of Lassie.” In the late 1940s he returned to Broadway as a director and in 1947 helped set up Actors Studio. In more than 60 years as acting coach at the studio, at his own Robert Lewis Theater Workshop and professor at the Yale School of Drama, he helped shape the careers of such stars as Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Anne Bancroft and Sigourney Weaver. In 1991, Lewis was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. On Sunday in New York City of a heart attack.

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* Joanna Moore; Actress, Mother of Tatum O’Neal

Joanna Moore, 63, actress remembered for her 1950s roles in television’s “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Born in Americus, Ga., Moore was often cast by Hitchcock as a Southern belle. She also appeared in the television series “Maverick,” “The FBI Story,” “Bewitched,” “The Untouchables” and “The Andy Griffith Show.” Her motion pictures include “Slim Carter,” “The Last Angry Man,” “Son of Flubber,” “The Man from Galveston” and “The Hindenburg.” She was married to actor Ryan O’Neal from 1963 to 1967 and is the mother of actors Griffin O’Neal and Academy Award-winner Tatum O’Neal. During the last two decades, Moore was active in the Muses at McCallum Theater in the desert. On Saturday in Indian Wells, Calif., of lung cancer.

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