Godspeed Reggie Bannister

Reggie Bannister, best known for playing Reggie in the Phantasm movies, died on August 9, 2026, at the age of 80. In 2016, he had been diagnosed with both Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease.

Reggie Bannister was born on September 29, 1945 in Long Beach, California. He was only three years old when he sang "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd Have Baked a Cake" on the Los Angeles area program The Walkin’ Talkin’ Charlie Aldridge Show. He became a folk singer in the Sixties, performing with The Young Americans before joining The Greenwood County Singers. They appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, Hullabaloo, and other shows, In 1965, he ws drafted into the United States Army. He served as a radio operator and suffered some hearing loss due to exposure to .30- and .50-caliber weapons. He returned to music after his service ended, and would ultimately release six albums.

Reggie Bannister made his film debut in Jim, the World's Greatest in 1975. It as the first film produced, written, and directed by Don Coscarelli, who go onto direct Phantasm (1979). The two would become frequent collaborators, with Reggie Bannister not only appearing in the Phantasm movies, but Don Coscarelli's other movies as well. In the late Seventies, these included Kenny and Company (1976) and Phantasm (1979).

In the Eighties, Reggie Bannister appeared in Phantasm II (1988) and Survival Quest (1989). On television, he appeared on L.A. Law. In the Nineties, he appeared in Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994), That Little Monster (1994), The Demolitionist (1995), Wishmaster (1997), Drop Off (1997), Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998), and Up Against Amanda (2000).

In the Naughts, he appeared in Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), Wolfsbayne (2005), Song of the Dead (2005), Journeyman (2005), Cemetery Gates (2006), Fallen Angels (2006), Interstate (2007), The Final Curtin (2007), The Rage (2007), Sigma Die! (2007), Necronaut (2007), Text (2008), It Came from Trafalgar (2009), Psychic Experiment (2009), Small Town Saturday Night (2010), The Quiet Ones (2010), Satan Hates You (2010), Sawblade (2010), and Not Another B Movie (2010). He provided a voice in an episode of the animated series Transformers Prime.

In the Teens, he guest starred on the show Zombie Family. He appeared in the movies Abolition (2011), Primitive (2011), Red and Blue Marbles (2011), The Ghastly Love of Johnny X (2012), Bloody Bloody Bible Camp (2012), Disaster Wars: Earthquake vs. Tsunami (2013), Doctor Spine (2015), Phantasm: Ravager (2016), The Obsidian Curse (2016), Bonejangles (2017), and Killer Waves 2 (2020).

Chances are good that Reggie Bannister will always be remembered as Reggie in the Phantasm movies. Indeed, Don Coscarelli based on the character on his friendship with Reggie Bannister. The gun-toting ice cream an would prove to be influential as an ordinary man turned action hero. Reggie pre-dated Bruce Campbell's character Ash form the Evil Dead movies by a couple of years. Arguably, he was the first everyman monster fighter in the history of horror movies. Along with Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man, he was the only actor to appear in every Phantasm move (A. Michael Baldwin was replaced as Mike Pearson by James LeGros in Phantasm II and then resumed the role with the third movie).

Of course, Reggie Bannister played other roles beyond Reggie in the Phantasm movies. One of his best roles was also one of his earliest, the somewhat eccentric teacher Mr. Donovan in Kenny & Company. In Buba Ho-Tep, he played the strict rest home administrator who runs afoul of Elvis (Bruce Campbell). In the short 'One for the Road," adapted from the Stephen King story of the same name, he played Herb Tooklander, who finds himself in 'Salems's Lot. Reggie Bannister was a talented actor and very much a horror icon.