Director of Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas Dies

Just yesterday, I wrote about the new Abominable Snowman movie being developed, based on the old Hammer film, Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas. Moments ago, I learned the director of that movie, Val Guest has died. He was 94.

Variety is reporting late on May 12, 2006: "Cult film writer, director and producer Val Guest, known for his eclectic career emphasizing British sci fi pics, died Wednesday, May 10 in Palm Springs, California."

Val Guest will be most remembered in cryptozoological circles for his uncredited writing and outstanding directing of Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957), and for directing and writing the screenplay to When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970). Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas was a unique Yeti film for its time, actually basing part of the plot on a highly fictionalized version of the events then occurring in Nepal, during the Tom Slick expeditions. In Guest’s movie, the character "Tom Friend" played by Forrest Tucker, was loosely based on Tom Slick.

Among science fiction fans and Forteans, Guest will be recalled for his work as the director of The Quatermass Experiment (1955), Quatermass II (1957), and The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961).

Among the general movie-going public, Val Guest will forever be most associated with the James Bond spoof, Casino Royale (1967).

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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