In a sad coincidence, just weeks after the death of actress Susan Tyrrell (see story here) comes word that the director of her finest genre hour has also passed on.

Variety reports that William Asher (pictured), who helmed Tyrrell’s 1983 psychochiller NIGHT WARNING, died at age 90 in Palm Desert, CA. NIGHT WARNING, in which Tyrrell plays a woman who has an unhealthy fixation on her teenage nephew (Jimmy McNichol), and who commits a brutal murder that precipitates a string of further violent events, was actually an anomaly in Asher’s career. He was better known as a director of TV comedies, including BEWITCHED (for which he won an Emmy), I LOVE LUCY, GIDGET and many other classics, and for AIP’s Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello beach party movies, including BEACH PARTY, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY, BEACH BLANKET BINGO and HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI. He did have horror in his blood, though; his father E.M. (Ephriam Milton) Asher was an associate producer on the Universal classics DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN and MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE and producer of DRACULA’S DAUGHTER. 

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