Obituaries - June 24, 1999

Patricia Halbriter Doheny; Community Leader

Patricia Halbriter Doheny, 75, community leader who supported schools and libraries. A native of Los Angeles, Doheny attended the 110-year-old Marlborough School and served as its student body president. After her years at Stanford and UCLA and marriage to Patrick Anson Doheny, she served on the Marlborough board of trustees. Doheny was active in the Junior League and was president of Las Madrinas support group. She also served on the board of the Friends of USC Libraries, which include the Doheny Memorial Library, named for her husband’s grandfather, Edward Lawrence Doheny Jr. On Saturday in Beverly Hills.

George E. Turner; Illustrator, Magazine Editor

George E. Turner, 73, illustrator, film historian and veteran editor of American Cinematographer magazine. Born in Burkburnette, Texas, Turner served in the Navy during World War II and studied illustration at the Art Institute of Chicago and art at West Texas State University. He began his career as a cartoonist and illustrator for magazines and books, then spent 16 years as a Hollywood special effects illustrator and creator for films and television. Among his credits were the television series “Zorro” and such films as “The Shape of Things to Come,” “One From the Heart,” “Ray Bradbury’s Infinite Horizons” and “Creature.” Turner was a lifelong film buff and was making his own movies by age 14. One of his earliest articles, published in Popular Photography, described how to shoot 8-millimeter home movies. In 1983, he went to work for American Cinematographer and two years later was named editor, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. Turner continued his association with the magazine as consultant, writer and book reviewer. He wrote, co-wrote, edited or illustrated more than 15 books, including “Wildlife in the American West,” “Hoofbeats to Vengeance” and “The Cinema of Adventure, Romance & Terror.” Turner was active in the American Society of Cinematographers, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. On Sunday in Pasadena.

Jack Wilson; Stuntman Known as Human Torch

Jack Wilson, 73, Roller Derby daredevil who became a Hollywood stuntman promoting himself as the Human Torch. After an adventurous childhood in Chattanooga, Tenn., Wilson left home at 16 to pursue car and motorcycle racing and join the International Roller Derby. He became a star skater billed as Fearless Jack or Black Jack. He was also an announcer and trainer for the derby and traveled the world with the show for 15 years. Settling in Los Angeles, he turned his energy toward Hollywood stunt work, building a new career at Universal Studios. His first major stunt was skating through a ring of fire on television’s “You Asked for It.” Becoming known as the Human Torch, Wilson later set himself on fire in the 1967 Rock Hudson film “Tobruk,” about World War II. On Monday in Mission Hills after a heart attack.