"UFO" Stars Ed Bishop and Michael Billington Have Died

June 10, 2005 12:44 PM

U.F.O., R.I.P. The two lead actors in the cult 1970 TV series "UFO ", Ed Bishop and Michael Billington, have both died this week within days of each other.
posted by matteo (23 comments total)

Damn, the MAN obviously got to them.
posted by modernerd at 12:55 PM on June 10, 2005

. .
posted by bowline at 1:08 PM on June 10, 2005

What hope is there now for women to wear string mesh vests and no bra? Obviously it's a conspiracy, of the magnitude of the 'no flying car and it's goddamn 2005'.
posted by Sparx at 1:21 PM on June 10, 2005

Damn matteo did you have to point this out? Now we are all going to "disappear".
posted by arse_hat at 1:23 PM on June 10, 2005

if this isn't a reason to don a tinfoil hat, i don't know what is.
posted by mcstayinskool at 1:45 PM on June 10, 2005

Really sad about this. When I was 6, I had a "Dinky" Interceptor, the one with the missle that could take a kid's eye out.

Later on, I came to appreciate the charms of Gabrielle Drake.
posted by gdav at 2:20 PM on June 10, 2005

Wherever they are now, I hope there's hot chicks in purple wigs.
posted by fleetmouse at 3:24 PM on June 10, 2005

Wow, that's a bummer. When I was about 6, UFO made it over to the States and was one of my favorite shows. I still have have old sketchbooks (actually they were just calendar books with nice unlined pages for each day that my mom gave me) from back then full of drawings of all the hardware - the UFOs, Interceptors, Sky 1 and the Skydiver sub, S.I.D, the moonbase, Straker's car, SHADO atv crawler, etc. etc. Ya know, those epic "battle" scenes you do when you're 6, except instead of the usual army men stuff all mine were populated with the above (and Star Trek ships, of course... and Gigantor, too). Oh yeah, and hot chicks with purple hair in mesh clothes. Hubba hubba!

Reading their bios, I had no idea that Ed Bishop appeared in so many productions... what voice did he do on Trek Animated? I'll have to listen for him... And I want that BBC4 radio version of The Caves of Steel - one of my very favorite books.

And with that...

. .

Thanks for the link, matteo.
posted by zoogleplex at 4:04 PM on June 10, 2005

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posted by shmegegge at 4:21 PM on June 10, 2005

I hope they play the theme tune at the funerals. That's a great tune.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:22 PM on June 10, 2005

"Jefferson still lives."
posted by orthogonality at 6:25 PM on June 10, 2005

What P_G said: the UFO theme is one of the best TV themes ever created. What a great show -- fond memories of watching it so many years ago. Damn.

..
posted by davidmsc at 7:28 PM on June 10, 2005

Quite sad. I got into the series while going through a rather involved Gerry Anderson phase.

I developed a crush on Gabrielle Drake even before I found out she was Nick Drake's sister. She's not yet dead, though, so I'll keep my mouth shut about it.
posted by Item at 8:07 PM on June 10, 2005

What hope is there now for women to wear string mesh vests and no bra?

I was always partial to the purple-haired chicks in aluminized mylar miniskirts on Moonbase myself.
posted by Fat Guy at 8:12 PM on June 10, 2005

Oh man ... you mean there's a complete UFO series available?

AND a complete series for The Thunderbirds as well?!

Damn!

When I was a kid, I thought Gerry Anderson was the dog's bollocks.

Now, where'd I put that disposable income?
posted by Relay at 9:17 PM on June 10, 2005

the UFO theme is one of the best TV themes ever created

Especially looking back, because (to me anyhow) it fits in *perfectly* with the FUTURE OF 1980!!!! vision of the show, where everything got funkier and jazzier until we had purple-haired moon maidens vectoring atomic interceptors.

I wish someone would make a show / movie set in the 1980 of UFO or 50's serials, but somehow take it seriously -- as an alternate timeline or something, but still with stuff that's ATOMIC!! and such. That, or the world is due for a new Buck Rogers series now that Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica have come back, though I don't know who they'd find to fill Erin Grey's spandex.

Hope your son met you on the other side, Commander Straker.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:20 PM on June 10, 2005

i just loved the series. it certainly had quite an effect on my young self.

here's a good ufo site
posted by quarsan at 12:44 AM on June 11, 2005

I was into that show as a kid, but it's all very vague now. I remember the faces, though.

Nick Drake's sister - that is some serious trivia. I had no idea. Nick was so great and tragic. Norah covered one of his tunes, you know. /derail
posted by wsg at 12:57 AM on June 11, 2005

A non-smoking, non-drinking supporter of CND and the Green Party, Ed Bishop is survived by his third wife Jane Skinner, whom he met while dressed up as General Pinochet in a demonstration against the arms trade

Goodnight, Commander. Goodnight, Colonel.

. .
posted by matteo at 2:20 AM on June 11, 2005

RIP

Used to scare the dickens out of me as a little shaver - now with the complete series on DVD - I love looking at the retro future world of 1980!
posted by fairmettle at 5:53 AM on June 11, 2005

I remember watching (and loving) the show as a little tyke in Iran. It was dubbed in Farsi. The only specific thing I remember about the show is that in just about every episode three interceptors would face off against three UFO's in space. Good times...good times.
posted by Devils Slide at 10:58 AM on June 11, 2005

I watched this growing up in Hong Kong. Scared the crap out of me too fairmettle. It is my earliest tv memory. UFO and Kimba the White Lion.
posted by vronsky at 11:49 AM on June 11, 2005

I've never even heard of this show, and it's right in my T.V. viewing wheelhouse, timewise. One season of 26 episodes? Meh.
posted by Doohickie at 6:05 PM on June 12, 2005