Reggie Bannister, the actor known for playing the shotgun-wielding, guitar-strumming ice cream man Reggie across all five films in the cult horror franchise Phantasm, has died at 80.
His wife, Gigi Bannister, told TMZ he passed away peacefully early Sunday morning at the couple’s cabin in Crestline, in California’s San Bernardino County mountains.
Gigi said Bannister had been battling Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease, conditions his family has linked to exposure to Agent Orange during his military service in Vietnam.
His health had declined significantly in recent months, leaving him largely immobile, and he had entered hospice care.
Bannister starred opposite the late Angus Scrimm’s villainous Tall Man across the entire Phantasm series, 1979’s original, 1988’s Phantasm II, 1994’s Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, 1998’s Phantasm: Oblivion and 2016’s Phantasm: Ravager, making him one of only two actors to appear in all five installments.
Beyond the franchise, he was a familiar face in the horror genre, appearing in Wishmaster, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation and Bubba Ho-Tep, the latter reuniting him with director Don Coscarelli and pairing him in a memorable scene with Bruce Campbell.
He was also an active musician throughout his life, releasing several albums, and ran a production company, Production Magic Inc., alongside Gigi, whom he married in 2001 after being introduced by fellow horror actor Michael Berryman.
Coscarelli, who first met Bannister at 18 and cast him in his earliest films, paid tribute in an emotional statement: “I lost my hero yesterday. I am very sorry to report that my dear friend and collaborator, Reggie Bannister, died yesterday at age 80.”
He added that Bannister embodied the same qualities as his on-screen counterpart, writing, “In real life, he embodied all the qualities of his character in Phantasm and no one questioned that Reg was that guy, the one willing to lay his body down on the fires of hell for his friends.”
Bannister is survived by Gigi and his daughter, Ellen.
