David Del Valle, the encyclopedic horror film historian, author and raconteur who contributed to dozens of laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray commentary tracks during his eclectic career, has died. He was 77.

Del Valle died Wednesday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank after a battle with esophageal cancer, his caregiver and friend, producer Dano Marino, told The Hollywood Reporter .

He was living down the street from the apartment on Harold Way in Los Angeles where Dracula star Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack in 1956. “The only way out of Harold Way is apparently feet first,” he joked.

Del Valle produced and hosted a series of cable TV interviews under the Sinister Image umbrella in which he spoke with the likes of Vincent Price, Cameron Mitchell, Russ Meyer and Curtis Harrington.…