Phantasm star Reggie Bannister dies at 80

A horror icon thanks to his fan favorite role as Reggie in Don Coscarelli’s multi-decade Phantasm franchise, actor Reggie Bannister has passed away at the age of 80 years old.

via: EW

Reggie Bannister, who portrayed the nemesis of “The Tall Man” in all five Phantasm films, has died after a decade-long battle with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease. He was 80.

The horror icon passed away peacefully on Sunday at his cabin in Crestline, Calif., his wife Gigi Bannister wrote on Facebook.

“At 0345 am on Sunday, August 9, 2026, I last checked on my beloved Reggie Bannister’s condition. He was panting but quiet and asleep. I was exhausted so I went back to sleep,” Gigi wrote. “At 0600 hours, our kitty, GG (Grey Guy) who has been sleeping on Reggie’s bed at night, came running upstairs and jumped onto the bed meowing! I went down to see what the problem was...Somewhere inside... in my soul... I knew.”

“Reggie was gone,” Gigi continued. “He looked so quiet and peaceful. Like he was asleep. In his bed, ‘In Our Mountain Home’ as his song goes. In the snap of fingers, my best friend, my confidant, my partner, my soul mate was transitioned to another dimension - a higher plane. He no longer suffers. He’s no longer in pain. That gives me solace. I will see you on the flip side, honey bunny. Save me a hug! Wait for me.”

Reggie had been in hospice care since February 2025, after receiving treatment at a VA hospital.

“It is his wish to be home and around family, in their little mountain cabin,” friend Russell “GreWolf” Mauck wrote on Facebook at the time.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Gigi Bannister.

Multiple memorial services will be held for relatives and friends as well as a public celebration for “phans” of Reggie and the cult film franchise.

Loved ones sought help from the public in February to raise aid for Reggie, as his family struggled to afford his hospice care. A GoFundMe ultimately raised nearly $80,000.

Born and raised in Long Beach, Calif., Reggie served in the Vietnam War, during which he was exposed to Agent Orange. He used his G.I. Bill to study acting.

In 1979, he starred in Phantasm as Reggie, a gun-toting ice cream vendor that writer-director Don Coscarelli based on Bannister, his friend. The first film follows Reggie and his friends Jody (Bill Thornbury) and Mike (A. Michael Brown) as they hunt the Tall Man, a mortician they suspect is responsible for a series of local deaths.

Made for around $300,000, Phantasm grossed nearly $12 million at the box office.

Reggie reprised the character in four additional installments of the franchise, most recently in 2016’s Phantasm: Ravager.

“He’s every man’s man, he’s just a regular guy,” Reggie said of his character in 2017, to HorrorGeekLife.com. “I loved, I love actually, playing that role because he’s an ice cream man, okay? It’s as if an ice cream man had to go and save all the evil in the world, and I just love that he built the four-barrel shotgun himself, very creative.”