<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Captain Thomas Mantell dies (1948). While pursuing a flying saucer in his F-51 Mustang, pilot Thomas Mantell was killed in what came to be known as the Mantell Incident.

---

Alan Napier is born (1903). British supporting actor Alan Napier could play suave or sinister with equal aplomb in such films as The Invisible Man Returns (1939), The House of the Seven Gables (1940), The Cat People (1942), The Uninvited (1944), Hangover Square (1945), Isle of the Dead (1945), House of Horrors (1946), Master Minds (1949), The Strange Door (1951), The Mole People (1956) and Premature Burial (1962). He is best known today for his portrayal as Alfred the butler in the popular TV series Batman (1966-1968) and the 1966 spin-off movie. Napier died August 8, 1988.

---

William Peter Blatty is born (1928). Blatty is the author of The Exorcist, still a seminal work of horror and the occult more than 30 years after its debut. He adapted his best-selling novel for William Friedkin's classic, 1973 big-screen version (which was theatrically re-released in the U.S. in 2000) and earned an Oscar for his effort. Blatty also wrote and directed The Ninth Configuration (1980), which he based on his novel Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane, and directed 1990's Exorcist III. Blatty was born in New York, New York.

---

SCIFIpedia Timeline for January 7