Reggie Bannister, best known for playing ice-cream-truck driver Reggie in the cult horror Phantasm franchise, has died at 80. Bannister died on Sunday after years of health problems, his wife, Gigi, announced Monday. She said she checked on him at 3:45 a.m. and found him “panting but quiet and asleep.” A few hours later, she discovered he had died. “He no longer suffers. He’s no longer in pain. That gives me solace,” Gigi wrote in a post on Facebook, calling her husband her “best friend, my confidant, my partner, my soul mate.” Bannister had entered home hospice care in February 2025 after his condition worsened. A fundraiser for his care said he was battling Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease. His career was defined by the Phantasm franchise, beginning with Don Coscarelli’s 1979 original. Bannister reprised the role in four sequels, including Phantasm II, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Phantasm IV: Oblivion and 2016’s Phantasm: Ravager. Born in Long Beach, California, in 1945, Bannister served in the military during the Vietnam War before using the GI Bill to study acting. He later appeared in Wishmaster, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation and Not Another B Movie.
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