Author, screenwriter, and actor Tim Sullivan has passed away at the age of 76. The former book reviewer who also wrote, directed, and starred in micro-budget horror films passed away in hospice on November 10, according to The Hollywood Reporter, who received the news from John R. Ellis, Sullivan’s friend of over fifty years.
Born in Bangor, Maine — home to another horror great — in 1948, Sullivan was the son of a U.S. Postal Service worker. After growing up next to the Richard Tozier who would eventually become a character in Stephen King’s It, Sullivan earned his degree in literature from Florida Atlantic University, before moving around the country, eventually settling in California in 1988.
Sullivan wrote seven novels in his career, including three based on the NBC miniseries V from Kenneth Johnson as well as Destiny’s End, The Parasite War, and The Dinosaur Trackers, and dozens of short stories, including the Nebula Award-nominated Zeke. His film work includes writing and directing Vampyre Femmes, and appearing in low-budget B-movies like The Laughing Dead, Hollywood Mortuary, and Deadly Scavengers.
He co-wrote and starred in 1995’s Twilight of the Dogs, directed by John R. Ellis, as a military pilot who battles giant mutant spiders. According to Ellis, he and Sullivan had been working on a restoration of the film, which will soon be available in the U.S. for the first time.
Sullivan passed away with his friends Aprille Canniff and Christina Pichlmaier by his side. We at FANGORIA send our condolences to them, Ellis, and the rest of Sullivan’s community.