I got the shocking news recently: my friend Christopher
Wicking died suddenly of a heart attack at his new home in France.
He wasn’t famous—unless you were a fan of AIP and Hammer horror pictures back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Then you probably would know that Chris wrote Scream and Scream Again, City of the Banshee, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Medusa, Venom, Demons of the Mind, and To the Devil a Daughter.
He also wrote TV episodes and TV movies and did feature script doctoring. We split one assignment: the idea was to do two mini-series, both based on books by Jack Higgins. I adapted one that become Midnight Man, Chris did On Dangerous Ground. Both starred Rob Lowe and aired on Sky here and on Showtime in the US.
Chris
was kind of a mentor in my first days of scriptwriting and was always a
supportive and loving friend. He left us far too soon, at the age of 65. He’s
survived by his wife, Lily Susan Todd, and two children…and a lot of others,
including me, who will miss him.
