Celebrity Deaths in 2022
Stephen “tWITCH” Boss
Sept. 29, 1982-Dec. 13, 2022 Stephen “tWITCH” Boss was a regular on The Ellen DeGeneres Show talk show and a runner-up on So You Think You Can Dance shocked and saddened fans when he died of suicide. The dancer/DJ had become executive producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2020 before it wrapped up its run in May 2022. The host of Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings with his wife Allison Holker left behind three children.
Kirstie Alley
Jan. 12, 1951-Dec. 5, 2022 “Be funny.” Kirstie Alley told Parade that was the only direction Woody Allen gave her when she asked for advice on the set of his movie, Deconstructing Harry. That was no problem at all for the actress, who’d kept everyone laughing for six seasons of Cheers (winning her an Emmy) and who’d had success with John Travolta in the Look Who’s Talking movies. During the 1987 Parade interview, Alley talked about the joy of working on a new TV series, Veronica’s Closet. “I love it,” she said. “It’s so natural and funny.” Her children, Lillie and True Stevenson, announced her death at 71: “As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother. Our mother’s zest and passion for life, her children, grandchildren and her many animals, not to mention her eternal joy of creating, were unparalleled and leave us inspired to live life to the fullest just as she did.” Alley died after a recent diagnosis of colon cancer.
Irene Cara
March 18, 1959-Nov. 25, 2022 A Bronx native, singer/songwriter Irene Cara’s route to stardom began as a 13-year-old actress and band member on the children’s show The Electric Company. Then she was the lead in the 1976 film Sparkle. But it was starring in and performing the title track for the 1980 film Fame, as well as writing and singing “Flashdance … What a Feeling,” from Flashdance that became her biggest successes. (She and Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey earned an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy for the song), Cara died (no cause was given) at age 63.
Gallagher
July 24, 1946-Nov. 11, 2022 There may only be one person who has crushed tens of thousands of melons with a sledgehammer. That man is Gallagher, the self-proclaimed “Wizard of Odd” and 1980s comedian known for his beret and striped shirt and for destroying fruit and other food commodities at the end of his act. He performed more than 100 shows a year for more than 30 years and appeared in commercials for Budweiser and Geico, but he had been criticized for non-physical jokes targeting racial groups, homosexuals and women. Gallagher died of organ failure at age 76 after numerous heart attacks.
Keith Levene
July 18, 1957-Nov. 11, 2022 Born in London in 1957, multi-instrumentalist Keith Levene was a 15-year-old roadie for the progressive rock band Yes before he helped found the iconic post-punk band the Clash. Though he left the Clash before their first studio recordings, he performed in early gigs and contributed to songs. He then founded Public Image Ltd (PiL) alongside Jah Wobble, Jim Walker and Johnny Rotten, singer of the Sex Pistols, and his later years were spent producing music for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ice T and Tone Loc and releasing solo music. Levene died of liver cancer at age 65.
Aaron Carter
Dec. 7, 1987-Nov. 5, 2022 In 1997, 9-year-old singer and rapper Aaron Carter, the younger brother of the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, released his debut self-titled album and became Nick’s band’s tour opener. His next album scored hits with “I Want Candy,” “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)” and “That’s How I Beat Shaq.” He soon made TV appearances in Lizzie McGuire and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and charted two Top 20 albums, but his next release wouldn’t be until 2018. After his childhood stardom, Carter infamously struggled with drug addiction; he died of suspicious circumstances—a bathtub drowning—Nov. 5 at the age of 34.
Takeoff
June 18, 1984-Nov. 1, 2022 Remember when dabbing was all the rage? For the irresistible dance move quarterback Cam Newton uses as a touchdown celebration, you can thank the North Atlanta rap group Migos for the etymological hit “Look at My Dab.” Composed of Quavo, his nephew Takeoff and his cousin Offset, Migos have created numerous hits over the last decade, including “Versace,” “Bad and Boujee,” “Stir Fry,” “Walk It Talk It” and “T-Shirt,” and many mixtapes and albums, most notably their Culture trilogy. On Nov. 1, the youngest member, 28-year-old Takeoff, was killed by a stray bullet at a Houston, Texas bowling alley.
Jerry Lee Lewis
Sept. 29. 1935-Oct. 28, 2022 The 1957 singles “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” turned the world upside down with Jerry Lee Lewis’ wild boogie-woogie songwriting and performing. “The Killer’s” piano-banging career was on fire, but that changed when a British journalist found out the rock ‘n roll musician had married his 13-year-old cousin. Gigs slowed and his label dropped him, but he later resurged with Nashville country, duets albums and more. Though controversial, Lewis is credited with pioneering rock ‘n roll. He died at age 87; no cause was given, though he had suffered from various afflictions.
Julie Powell
April 20, 1973-Oct. 26, 2022 In 2002, an aspiring New York writer not adept at cooking attempted to cook all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. An exercise in editorial satirical competency, Julie Powell’s blog about this experiment garnered thousands of readers anticipating the completion of the monumental task. The project greatly influenced digital food writing and was turned into a book, which was adapted into a film starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Powell, also the author of Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, died of cardiac arrest at age 49.
Leslie Jordan
April 29, 1955-Oct. 24, 2022 Leslie Jordan appeared in a number of television shows, including Ally McBeal, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and Reba, and films like The Help and The United States vs. Billie Holiday. But the diminutive actor (he was just under 5 feet tall) may be best known for his Emmy-winning role in Will & Grace, three roles in American Horror Story and his social media presence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The man behind the play Hysterical Blindness and Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far, about growing up gay in Chattanooga, Tenn., was a beloved gay icon to many. “He was one of the funniest people I ever had the pleasure of working with,” posted Sean Hayes who worked with Jordan on Will & Grace. “Everyone who ever met him, loved him.” Jordan had most recently been playing Phil on Call Me Kat, starring with Mayim Bialik, who called him a “mentor and a beloved friend. They broke the mold when they made Leslie Jordan.” He was 67 when he died in a car wreck (it is suspected a medical emergency caused him to crash).
Robbie Coltrane
March, 30 1950- Oct. 14, 2022 Born Anthony Robert McMillan (his stage name is in honor of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane), the star of the 1990s British crime series Cracker also played a Russian mafia ally to Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond, a gangster in the comedy Nuns on the Run, the Duke in Disney’s The Adventures of Huck Finn and Lord Dingwall in Brave. But Coltrane may be best known for playing Rubeus Hagrid, the half-giant friend of Harry Potter in the magical book series. He died of sepsis and heart block at age 72. “Robbie was one of the funniest people I’ve met and use to keep us laughing constantly as kids on the set,” Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry, said in tribute. “He was an incredible actor and a lovely man.”
Angela Lansbury
Oct. 16, 1925-Oct. 11, 2022 With a career spanning seven decades—in music, film and musical theater—you wouldn’t be wrong to think that Angela Lansbury could do anything. Her death at 96 brought out the stars, remembering her talents and warmth. “Nobody did Mame quite like her,” Kristin Chenoweth said in a tribute. “Angela Lansbury, who graced the stage for decades winning five Tony awards, and brought the sleuthing Jessica Fletcher into our living rooms for a dozen years, has passed,” tweeted George Takei. “A tale old as time, our beloved Mrs. Potts will sing lullabies to us now from the stars.” Before Mame or Beauty and the Beast or Sweeney Todd, Lansbury started out hot with her first film role playing a maid in 1944’s Gaslight, for which she earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She went on to appear in The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Manchurian Candidate (she earned Oscar nominations in both), State of the Union, Death on the Nile and many more. But it was her performance as mystery writer J. B. Fletcher on TV’s popular Murder, She Wrote that really won over the masses. For the role, Lansbury earned an Emmy nomination every year for the 12 years the show was on. She didn’t win, but she certainly won our hearts. When Parade interviewed her in 1989, she was talking up her own “health and beauty” plan, called “Angela Lansbury’s Positive Moves,” that she’d created for “women her age” (she was 64). The Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire died of natural causes at age 96.
Loretta Lynn
April 14, 1932-Oct. 4, 2022 Country music singer-songwriter Travis Tritt echoed many other celebrities and musicians when he paid tribute to the woman whose song-titled autobiography inspired a Sissy Spacek-starring biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter. “She was always an inspiration to those of us grew up listening to and loving real country music. Her kindness, strength and devotion to country music and her fans will be deeply missed,” he said. “They don’t make ’em like her anymore.” Loretta Lynn, who was famously born in Butcher’s Hollow, Kentucky, died at her Tennessee home after seven decades of trailblazing female country music. Although she saw some success in the early 1960s and held regular performances alongside Patsy Cline at the Grand Ole Opry, it wasn’t until 1966 that her song “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” made Lynn the first female country artist to write a No. 1 hit. Soon she became what many consider the first successful female songwriter in Nashville. Other early hits included “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” “Whispering Sea,” “Blue Kentucky Girl,” “Success” and “Don’t Come Home a’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” Later songs sometimes had a more progressive twist, including “I Wanna Be Free,” “Portland, Oregon,” “As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone,” “Rated ‘X’” and “The Pill.” Lynn won three Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, eight from the Country Music Association and 26 fan-voted Music City News awards.
Sacheen Littlefeather
Nov 14, 1946-Oct. 2, 2022 When Marlon Brando won the Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather in 1973, Sacheen Littlefeather, a Native American actress and activist, walked onstage instead. She spoke of Hollywood’s ill portrayal of Native Americans and how the Wounded Knee protest in South Dakota kept Brando away from the ceremony. The first Native American woman to grace the Oscars stage joined the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island, posed for Playboy, acted with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and spent her life advocating for Indigenous causes. She died of breast cancer at age 75.
Coolio
Aug.1, 1963-Sept. 28, 2022 Growing up in Compton, Calif., in 1963, rapper Coolio found hits with “Watcha Gonna Do,” “Fantastic Voyage,” “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)” and “Too Hot,” but it’s the Grammy-winning “Gangsta’s Paradise” that brought him superstardom, with a famous Michelle Pfeiffer–starring music video (the song propelled the Dangerous Minds film soundtrack to No. 1) and an iconic parody in the form of Weird Al Yankovic’s “Amish Paradise.” The man who was a regular on Hollywood Squares and who performed the theme song to Nickelodeon’s Kenan & Kel died of cardiac arrest at age 59.
Hilaree Nelson
Dec. 13, 1972-Sept. 26, 2022 Hilaree Nelson was the first female captain of the North Face athlete team, a National Geographic “adventurer of the year” and “the most accomplished female ski pioneer of her generation,” according to Outside magazine in 2019. Nelson was the first woman to summit both Mount Everest and nearby Lhotse within 24 hours and the first person to ski down India’s 21,165-foot “Peak of Evil.” Nelson reached the top of the Himalayas’ Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest mountain, with her partner but was swept away by an avalanche. She died at age 49.
Farrell Sanders
Oct. 13, 1940-Sept. 24, 2022 Sleeping on the subway and pawning his saxophone is where Arkansas-born Farrell Sanders found himself in New York City, but he soon began working with Sun Ra (who inspired him to go by Pharoah Sanders), Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. Sanders joined Coltrane’s group in 1965, playing tenor saxophone at a time when Coltrane began experimenting with jazz. He then began releasing solo music, including the spiritual jazz relic Karma, and worked through 2021’s Promises, made with electronic musician Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra. Sanders died at age 81; no cause was given.
Louise Fletcher
July 22, 1934-Sept. 23, 2022 The American Film Institute once named the Wicked Witch of the West the most memorable villain in film history. No. 2 was Nurse Ratched, the surly mental ward overlord in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, adapted from the Ken Kesey novel. (They now sit at four and five, respectively.) Nurse Ratched was played by Louise Fletcher, a relatively unknown 40-year-old actress who previously found work in Westerns, yet she won the Best Actress Oscar for the role. Fletcher, who is also in Exorcist II, Brainstorm and Shameless, died of natural causes at age 88.
Jean-Luc Godard
Dec. 3, 1930-Sept. 13, 2022 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave the French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard an honorary award in 2010 for pioneering the 1960s’ French New Wave film movement. With films like Breathless, Vivre sa vie Contempt, Band of Outsiders, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou and Masculin Féminin, Godard spearheaded using a disjointed narrative, new camera techniques and politics in his work in what came to be trademarks of the movement. His last films were 2014’s Goodbye to Language and 2018’s The Image Book, and he died of assisted suicide (after suffering multiple ailments) at age 91.
Ken Starr
July 21, 1946-Sept. 13, 2022 The Starr Report is the U.S. federal government’s report on its investigation into President Bill Clinton’s abuses of power, including its finding that the president had sexual encounters with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to his impeachment. Heading the investigation was Ken Starr, a lawyer, judge and former solicitor general who later became the president and the chancellor of Baylor University (his tenure ended when he mishanded sexual assault investigations at the school) and who joined President Donald Trump’s legal team for his first impeachment trial. Starr died from surgery complications at age 76.
Queen Elizabeth II
April 21, 1926-Sept. 8, 2022 More than 75 years ago, Parade featured a cover story on Princess Elizabeth celebrating her upcoming 21st birthday. “For her, 1947 is a year when things will happen,” the magazine said. “She will have her stipend from the states raised to $60,000 annually, will become Britain’s most important emissary of good will and indisputably the world’s most eligible girl.” Rumors of the princess’s attraction to 25-year-old Prince Philip of Greece were noted in the article, which outlined Elizabeth’s duties, including changing a tire as part of her war service as a Waac. No one knew that this first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) would indeed marry Prince Phillip in a few months’ time and inherit the English throne in 1952 at the young age of 25. As queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries, she oversaw the Northern Irish Troubles, United Kingdom devolution, African decolonization, the U.K. both joining and leaving the European Union and more. Her royal family—including sons (now King) Charles and Andrew, daughter-in-law Diana and grandsons William and Harry, have been fodder for much pop culture discussion—as has the continued relevance of the British monarchy. The Queen died of old age at 96.
Marsha Hunt
Oct. 17, 1917-Sept. 7, 2022 From 1937 to 1947, Marsha Hunt starred in Born to the West, Pride and Prejudice, Cry ‘Havoc’, The Human Comedy and other Hollywood films. But her career floundered in 1947 when the Second Red Scare—during which left-wing individuals were falsely accused of promoting communism and ousted from influential positions—hit the entertainment industry. She was blacklisted and didn’t appear in many films for about a decade, but did find television work in The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, Matlock and Murder, She Wrote. She then focused her attention on global humanitarian efforts. Hunt died of natural causes at age 104.
Bernard Shaw
May 22, 1940-Sept. 7, 2022 CNN’s first chief anchor, Bernard Shaw, retired from the network in 2001 after a 21-year career in which he covered the Tiananmen Square student revolt, the First Gulf war, presidential elections and much more. “Bernie Shaw started out with all of us CNN babies back in 1980 as the Chief Washington Anchor,” Katie Couric wrote on instagram. “He was sometimes gruff, sometimes sarcastic, but always a sweetheart. Back when the backdrop of the newscast was a working newsroom, he would whip around in his chair and yell, ‘Typewriters!’ and we’d all lift our hands from the keys while the cameras were rolling, pretending to type so we wouldn’t make any noise.” Before CNN, Shaw was a Marine who asked Walter Cronkite how to be a journalist, a radio reporter who interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (he told Shaw “one day you’ll make it, just do some good”), a CBS correspondent covering Watergate and an ABC correspondent whose team snapped the only aerial pictures of the Jonestown massacre. He died of pneumonia at age 82.
Mikhail Gorbachev
March 2, 1931-Aug. 30, 2022 After a long illness, the last leader of the former Soviet Union and the man who tore down the Iron Curtain died at age 91. Born into a peasant farming family in 1931, Mikhail Gorbachev reached the top of the Communist Party in 1985, and during his six-year tenure he worked with Ronald Reagan to reduce nuclear arsenals, won the Nobel Peace Prize and introduced economic reforms known as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). In 1994, Parade interviewed the then-private citizen who was traveling and speaking around the world. He’d become president of the newly formed Green Cross International, an organization whose aim was to focus attention on policies that create environment hazards. “We need a global focus,” he said, via an interpreter. “We can’t build an ecologically safe future unless nations work together.” You may also remember the internationally broadcast (except in Russia) Pizza Hut commercial in 1998 that featured the former leader.
Charlbdi Dean
Feb. 5, 1990-Aug. 29, 2022 France’s Cannes Film Festival gave Triangle of Sadness, a satirical comedy targeting the ultrarich and social media famous, its top award this year. Its star, 32-year-old South African actress ChDean, died before the theater release. She had a viral infection in her lungs and submitted herself to a hospital feeling unwell, where her condition rapidly deteriorated. (Her spleen was removed after a 2008 car crash, which increased her risk of infection.) She also appeared in the CW’s Black Lightning and the Spud film series.
Mable John
Nov. 3, 1930-Aug. 25, 2022 Mable John was the first female recording act signed to Motown Records. The blues singer recorded songs like “Who Wouldn’t Love a Man Like That,” “I’m Finally Through With You” and “Take Me,” but she left the label in 1965 as it moved towards pop music. She then signed with Memphis’ Stax Records, and after leaving Stax joined Ray Charles’ backing band where she wrote more than 50 songs. Later, John focused on gospel music and founded Los Angeles’ Joy Community Outreach, a charity that helps the homeless. No cause was given for her death at age 91.
Anne Heche
May 25, 1969–August 12, 2022 On August 5, the actress Heche, known for playing twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love in the soap opera Another World (for which she won a 1991 Daytime Emmy), Broadway productions of Proof and Twentieth Century and film roles in Donnie Brasco, Wag the Dog, Six Days, Seven Nights, Gracie’s Choice and more—as well as publicly dating Ellen DeGeneres at a time when the comedian had just come out as gay and both were outcast by Hollywood—crashed her vehicle into a Los Angeles home, creating a fiery blaze that sent her to the hospital with severe burns and a brain injury. She died nine days later at age 53.
Olivia Newton-John
September 26, 1948–August 8, 2022 Olivia Newton-John had five No. 1 Billboard hits, including “I Love You, I Honestly Love You,” “Have You Never Been Mellow” and “Physical. She won 4 Grammy awards, all in different categories and sang “Hopelessly Devoted to You” in Grease, which was nominated for the Best Song Oscar, and founded the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund for research into plant-based cancer treatments. “I don’t know what this year will bring, but I’m enjoying the moment and appreciating the day and not thinking too far ahead,” the Australian singer-actor-dancer told Parade in early 2021. A three-time cancer “thriver” as she called it, Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, 2012 and 2017. “Many people have gone on this journey, and I feel extremely lucky that I’ve been on it for so long—the alternative is not so good,” she said. Over the years, she’d learned to live in the present. “When I was younger, I worried more about the past and future. But going through a lot of experiences and hospitalizations made me realize that this is all we have—right now,” she said. When she died at age 73, her former Grease castmate John Travolta said, “My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better. Your impact was incredible.” Her foundation lives on, still searching for a cure.
David McCullough
July 7, 1933–August 7, 2022 His extensive research and narrative style won him two Pulitzer Prizes, for the presidential biographies Truman and John Adams; two National Book Awards, for The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal and Mornings on Horseback (about a young Teddy Roosevelt); and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded in 2006. The prolific author, film narrator and subject of the 2008 HBO documentary Painting With Words died at his home at age 89.
Vin Scully
November 29, 1927–August 2, 2022 For 67 years Los Angeles (and Brooklyn) fans of Major League Baseball’s Dodgers heard Vin Scully’s voice on the radio and watched him on television as he gave play-by-play commentary on games. (He holds the broadcasting record for most years spent with a single team in pro sports history, as well as the record for youngest person to call a World Series game.) The 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and man behind the phrase “Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be” died August 2 (no cause was given) at age 94.
Bill Russell
February 12, 1934–July 31, 2022 A winner of eight straight NBA championship titles and 11 total with the Boston Celtics (as both a player and the league’s—any professional league, for that matter—first Black coach), Bill Russell first won two straight NCAA championships and led the University of San Francisco to 55 consecutive wins. He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics, led Mississippi’s first integrated basketball camp and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. No cause was given for his death at age 88.
Tony Dow
April 13, 1945–July 27, 2022 He later appeared on General Hospital, Mr. Novak, Lassie, Square Pegs and The Love Boat (as himself), as well as became a sculptor, started a construction company and survived two rounds of cancer, but Dow is best known for playing older brother Wally Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver. Dow died of cancer at age 77.
Paul Sorvino
April 13, 1939–July 25, 2022 Outside of being father to Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino, Sorvino was a traveled man in the film world—alongside actor-director Warren Beatty in Reds, Dick Tracy, Bulworth and Rules Don’t Apply; as Lord Capulet in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet; as Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s Nixon; with James Caan in The Gambler; on set with Martin Scorsese in Goodfellas and more. The Tony nominee for 1973’s Pulitzer Prize–winning That Championship Season, Frank Costello in Godfather of Harlem and Phil Cerreta on Law & Order died of natural causes at age 83.
Bob Rafelson
February 21, 1933–July 23, 2022 Remember the Monkees? Some forget the band was created by television producers Bert Schneider and Rafelson for the comedy show of the same name. For Rafelson, they were just a jumping off point for a career in the American New Wave film movement, in which he produced such classics as Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, his own Five Easy Pieces, Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show, the Vietnam documentary Hearts and Minds and more. (The last film he produced is 1981’s The Postman Always Rings Twice.) The writer, director and producer died of lung cancer at age 89.
William Hart
January 17, 1945–July 14, 2022 First known as the Orphonics, Philadelphia’s Grammy-winning Delfonics was formed in 1964 by William Hart, his brother Wilbert and their friend Randy Cain; they created R&B and Philly soul hits like “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love),” “La-La (Means I Love You),” “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” “Hey! Love” and “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time).” William died from surgery complications at age 77.
James Caan
March 26, 1940–July 6, 2022 A civil rights era football player alongside Billy Dee Williams in Brian’s Song; hothead Sonny Corleone in The Godfather; an English professor in debt in The Gambler; a jewel robber in Thief; criminal attorney Spaldoni in Dick Tracy; author Paul Sheldon in Misery; renowned performer Eddie Sparks in For the Boys; lawbreaker Dignan in Bottle Rocket; “the Big Man” in Dogville; Buddy the Elf’s father in Elf; tackle shop owner Tim Lockwood in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. These are just some of the famous roles played by Caan, who died of a heart attack at age 82.
Kazuki Takahashi
October 4, 1961–July 4, 2022 Takahashi, a Japanese comic book artist, began his career in the 1980s and found an international audience in 1996 with his manga Yu-Gi-Oh!; with 8 years as a series in the comic magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, it was adapted into movies, television shows, video games and, perhaps most notably, a collectible trading card game—in 2011 it set the Guinness World Record for the world’s best-selling. He was snorkeling alone in Nago, Japan, then found dead at age 60.
Sonny Barger
October 8, 1938–June 29, 2022 “I’ve lived a long and good life filled with adventure. And I’ve had the privilege to be part of an amazing club…Keep your head up high, stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor” wrote Barger, longtime leader of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, just before his death of liver cancer at age 83. Featured often in Hunter S. Thompson’s book about the group (as well as at the infamous, deadly Rolling Stones’ Altamont Free Concert), Barger would spend his life with the Angels, behind bars, writing books and playing Lenny the Pimp on Sons of Anarchy.
Joe Turkel
July 15, 1927–June 27, 2022 With television roles in Bonanza, Ironside, Fantasy Island and more and film roles in the likes of Hellcats of the Navy and The Sand Pebbles, Turkel—who began his acting career in 1949’s City Across the River after leaving the Army in 1946—formed a friendship with director Stanley Kubrick and appeared in three of his films: The Killing, Paths of Glory and The Shining. Turkel is best known as the surreal, smiling bartender in the latter and as a robot creator in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Turkel died of liver failure at age 94.
Marlin Briscoe
September 10, 1945–June 27, 2022 Briscoe was a star quarterback at Omaha University when the Denver Broncos drafted him at a different position in 1968. He told the team he’d leave and become a teacher if they didn’t let him try out for his former position, and on October 6 he started a game as quarterback, thereby becoming the first Black man to do so professionally in the Super Bowl era. Also the first Black quarterback to win an NFL playoff game and a two-time Super Bowl winner with the Miami Dolphins, Briscoe died of pneumonia at age 76.
Margaret Keane
Sept. 15, 1927-June 26, 2022 Her work, including White House portraits of John-John and Caroline Kennedy and art bought by UNICEF, has been described as kitschy and formulaic, but Margaret Keane’s paintings of gloomy children with giant eyes earned millions of dollars beginning in the late 1950s. Yet she didn’t initially receive credit, as her first husband was fraudulently passing off her paintings as his own. A judge ordered a 1986 court paint-off to prove the rightful artist, which she won. Her story was turned into the 2014 biopic Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams. She died of heart failure at age 94.
Jim Seals
October 17, 1941–June 6, 2022 The singer Seals and singer and mandolinist Darrell “Dash” Crofts, both Texans, joined forces in California in 1969 as the group Seals and Crofts and recorded such songs as “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl,” “We Will Never Pass This Way (Again),” “Get Closer” and “My Fair Share” (from their soundtrack for the 1977 film One on One). Seals went on to run a coffee farm in Costa Rica before suffering a stroke in 2017, then dying of an ongoing chronic illness at age 79.
Alan White
June 14, 1949–May 26, 2022 In 1969, the 20-year-old Londoner White, who had been playing drums since he was 12, received a call from John Lennon asking him to play a gig in Toronto. White then recorded on Lennon’s Imagine album and its title track as well as George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. He joined the progressive rock band Yes in 1972 and stayed with them until his death at age 72, following a brief illness.
Ray Liotta
December 18, 1954–May 26, 2022 Born in New Jersey, the actor Liotta played a slew of Hollywood roles, including Frank Sinatra in the HBO movie The Rat Pack, Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World, an ex-convict husband in Something Wild and a man with a mentally impaired brother in Dominick and Eugene. But perhaps his most famous roles are as Henry Hill in Martin Scorcese’s Goodfellas, Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams and drug trafficker George Jung’s father in Dope. Liotta was filming a new movie, Dangerous Waters, when he died in his sleep at age 67.
Colin Cantwell
April 3, 1932– May 21, 2022 This UCLA animation graduate received a personal invitation from Frank Lloyd Wright to study at his School of Architecture. After working at the NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory—and giving in-person updates from NASA to Walter Kronkite during the 1969 moon landing—Cantwell entered Hollywood designing space sequences for 2001: A Space Odyssey, writing technical dialogue for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and creating the X-wing and Death Star for Star Wars. The man who helped build the first color displays for desktop computers (which began with his work on the film WarGames), wrote two science fiction books and reportedly had his own U.F.O. experience died of dementia at age 90.
Vangelis
March 29, 1943–May 17, 2022 His Chariots of Fire soundtrack reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts and won him an Oscar, his Blade Runner music is legendary and his Heaven and Hell LP was used as the soundtrack to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos TV series. But before his days scoring for Hollywood, Vangelis grew up in Athens, Greece, wrote scores for Greek movies and recorded a No. 1 song on French, Belgian and Italian charts, “Rain and Tears,” with his group Aphrodite’s Child. He also recorded music for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the 2002 Japanese and South Korean World Cup and the 2004 Athens Olympics. The man whose choral symphony Mythodea was appointed as the official music for the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission died of heart failure at age 79.
Maggie Peterson
January 10, 1941–May 15, 2022 Born in Greeley, Colorado, Peterson was a successful singer with her family vocal group the Ja-Da Quartet (later known as Margaret Ann & the Ja-Da Quartet) before she appeared in several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as Charlene Darlin (whose brothers were the family musical group the Darlings, played by the real-life group the Dillards); she later portrayed different characters on the show and in the spinoffs Mayberry R.F.D. and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. The actress, who also appeared in The Odd Couple and Green Acres, died in her sleep at age 81.
Robert McFarlane
July 12, 1937–May 12, 2022 A decorated Marine named Robert McFarlane became President Ronald Reagan’s third national security adviser in 1983. In 1985, the Reagan administration and CIA began secretly and illegally selling weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages; the profits then unlawfully funded Nicaraguan contra rebels attempting to overthrow the Marxist Sandinistas. What came to be known as the Iran-Contra Affair was almost entirely blamed on McFarlane, the only player to admit guilt. He attempted suicide in 1987, survived and later founded an energy-focused international business consulting company. McFarlane died of a lung condition at age 84.
Naomi Judd
January 11, 1946–April 30, 2022 Born in the coal-mining town Ashland, Kentucky, the singer-songwriter Judd lived in California before moving to Nashville in 1979 as a single mother with two kids (singer Wynonna and actress Ashley). As a duo with Wynonna, they won nine Country Music Association Awards and five Grammys and created 14 No. 1 hits, including “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout The Good Old Days),” “Have Mercy,” “Why Not Me,” “Love Is Alive” and “Cry Myself to Sleep.” Naomi died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her Tennessee home at age 76.
Joanna Barnes
November 15, 1934–April 29, 2022 Starting her entertainment career in the 1950s in the television series Playhouse 90 and Cheyenne, Barnes had supporting roles in Auntie Mame, Tarzan, the Ape Man, Spartacus and 1961’s The Parent Trap, in which she played a hateable girlfriend who two twins attempt to separate from their father. (In the 1998 remake, Barnes played that character’s mother.) The host of 1967’s Dateline: Hollywood and author of the novels The Deceivers, Pastora and more died in her home at age 87.
Mike Hagerty
May 10, 1954–April 29, 2022 A frequent guest star on TV programs, with appearances in Married… With Children, Murphy Brown, Martin, The Drew Carey Show and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the actor from The George Carlin Show and Somebody Somewhere snagged roles in the films Dick Tracy, V.I. Warshawski, Wayne’s World and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me—but Hagerty is best known as a vintage clothing store owner in Seinfeld and the building super in Friends. Hagerty died while in a coma (after suffering a bad reaction to an antibiotic) at age 67.
Andrew Woolfork
October 11, 1950–April 24, 2022 When Earth, Wind, and Fire was first finding success, Woolfork was considering a career in banking. But when saxophonist Ronnie Laws left the group, Woolfork, who was studying with jazz legend Joe Henderson, joined in 1973 and contributed to the group’s first platinum album Head to the Sky. He played with the group until 1993 and worked with other artists like Deniece Williams, Valerie Carter, Phil Collins and Earth, Wind, and Fire singer (and childhood friend) Philip Bailey. Woolfork died after battling a six-year illness at age 71.
Gilbert Gottfried
February 28, 1955–April 12, 2022 Beginning his stand-up comedy career at the young age of 15, he spent a short 12 episodes at Saturday Night Live in 1980 before appearing in Beverly Hills Cop II alongside Eddie Murphy. He had notable presences in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, Problem Child, Look Who’s Talking Too, Highway to Hell, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (as the voice of Jared Kushner), but he’s most memorable for voicing Digit in PBS Kids’ Cyberchase, the Aflac duck and Iago the parrot in Aladdin. The regular at Comedy Central’s celebrity roasts died of myotonic dystrophy type 2 at 67.
Shirley Spork
May 14, 1927–April 12, 2022 Spork, a golfer and one of the 13 founding members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (created in 1950), never won a women’s tour but finished second in 1962’s L.P.G.A. Championship. Beyond forming the L.P.G.A., she is famed for her prolific teaching career, culminating in her receiving the L.P.G.A.’s highest teaching honor, the Ellen Griffin Rolex Award, in 1998. The 2022 L.P.G.A. Hall of Fame inductee and former tutor to Nat King Cole, Harpo Marx and Dean Martin died at 94.
Dwayne Haskins
May 3, 1997–April 9, 2022 At just 24 years old, the backup quarterback for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and former Ohio State University star was attempting to cross a South Florida highway when he was fatally struck by a dump truck. At Ohio State, he set Big Ten single-season records for passing yards, touchdown passes and total offensive yards and was a Heisman Trophy finalist. In the 2019 NFL draft, he was selected 15th overall by the Washington Commanders who later released him before he was signed by the Steelers.
Estelle Harris
April 22, 1928–April 2, 2022 Once a homemaker while working to be a professional actress, she became known for playing mother to Jason Alexander’s George Costanza in Seinfeld, Mrs. Potato Head in Pixar’s Toy Story franchise and Muriel in the Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Fans also know her from the films Out to Sea, My Giant and Brother Bear, as well as a slew of TV appearances, including a 1983 Handi-Wrap commercial. Harris died of natural causes at 93.
Taylor Hawkins
February 17, 1972–March 25, 2022 While on tour in South America, the Foo Fighters drummer Hawkins was pronounced dead at 50 at their hotel in Bogotá, Colombia, after emergency services treated him for chest pain and attempted resuscitation; 10 substances, including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids, were later found in his system. The musician was once Alanis Morissette’s touring drummer before joining the Foo Fighters after the original drummer left during their second album’s recording sessions. He also recorded music with Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders and NHC.
Madeleine Albright
May 15, 1937–March 23, 2022 Born to Czech refugees who fled both Nazi and Communist invaders and who secretly converted from Judaism to Catholicism in the face World War II, Albright, who had 26 family members murdered in the Holocaust, studied political science and edited the school newspaper at Wellesley College, graduating in 1959 (two years after becoming an American citizen). She earned a doctorate in international relations from Columbia University, later becoming a congressional liaison for President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council and President Bill Clinton’s representative to the United Nations and Secretary of State; as the first woman to hold the position, she was, at the time, the highest-ranking woman in the history of American government. She died of cancer at 84.
Don Young
June 9, 1933–March 18, 2022 First elected in 1973 during the Nixon administration, Young became the longest-serving Republican in the House of Representatives and the oldest member of both the House and Senate before he died at 88 during his 25th term and 49th year in Congress. An opponent of environmentalism and proponent of oil, mineral and logging industries, he helped fund highways, bridges, pipelines and other projects for his home state of Alaska through securing billions of dollars through pork-barrel legislation. He was under federal investigation in 2007 for bribes, illegal gratuities and unreported gifts and was fined for using campaign funds to pay personal expenses, though no formal charges were ever brought against him. The lawmaker, who won more than 70 percent of the vote five times, died at 88 while traveling home to Alaska.
John Clayton
May 11, 1954–March 18, 2022 From Braddock, Pennsylvania, the teenager Clayton began his career covering the National Football League in 1972 by reporting on the Pittsburgh Steelers in a season that included the famed “Immaculate Reception.’’ After working for the Pittsburgh Press, he spent more than 10 years at the Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune before beginning a 20+ year tenure at ESPN. “The Professor” became an NFL expert, insider and trusted source for information who also contributed to the Washington Post and Denver’s KKFN-FM (104.3 FM) and was a five-season sideline reporter for the Seahawks radio network. In 2007, the longtime member of the Board of Selectors for the Pro Football Hall of Fame received his profession’s highest honor, what’s now known as the Bill Nunn Memorial Award. Clayton died at 67 after a brief illness.
Oksana Shvets
February 10, 1955–March 17, 2022 Born in 1955 and a member of the Young Theater troupe since 1980, Shvets received a Merited Artist of Ukraine award for her career onstage, in films like Tomorrow Will Be Tomorrow and The Return of Mukhtar and in the TV shows The Secret of St. Patrick and House With Lilies. Svets died in the capital of Kyiv during a Russian rocket attack on a residential building at age 67. Ukraine has suffered over 10,000 civilian casualties since Russia invaded the country this February, according to the United Nations.
William Hurt
March 20, 1950–March 13, 2022 He was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for A History of Violence and Best Actor for Children of a Lesser God, Inside the News - Broadcast News and The Kiss of the Spider Woman (which he won), though fans of Altered States, Body Heat, The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist, Lost in Space, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Into the Wild, Vantage Point, Robin Hood, the Avengers films and more may know him for his popular non-nominated film roles. He also played memorable characters on TV in Dune, Frankenstein, Humans and Damages. The Juilliard graduate and actor, also prolific in theater with a Best Actor Tony award win for Hurlyburly, died of prostate cancer at 71.
Johnny Brown
June 11, 1937–March 2, 2022 Raised in Harlem, New York, the young entertainer Brown won an amateur night competition at the Apollo Theater that led him to Broadway and Los Angeles theater, appearing in Don’t Forget 127th Street, the Sidney Poitier–directed Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights and The Out of Towners. He was in the films The Wiz, Hanky Panky, Life, Town & Country and more, but it was on TV in shows like Laugh-in, Maude, Moonlighting, Family Matters, Martin, Sister, Sister and most notably Good Times, as the super Bookman, that he delighted audiences. (You may also recognize him from a series of musical commercials for Papermate, proclaiming “Write on brothers, write on!”) Brown died of an unannounced cause at 84.
Sally Kellerman
June 2, 1937–February 24, 2022 Kellerman is best known for her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Hot Lips in the 1970 MAS*H film, which with the book inspired the television series, and as a professor and love interest to Rodney Dangerfield in 1986’s Back to School. She also starred in Star Trek’s third episode as a human Starfleet officer who sacrifices her life and in Marc Maron’s IFC series Maron as his mother, and she appeared on TV in shows like The Outer Limits, Mannix and The Young and the Restless and in films like Welcome to L.A., Brewster McCloud, Ready to Wear and A Little Romance. Also a theater actress who appeared on Broadway in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and a voice actress who did Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing commercials, Kellerman died of dementia at 84.
Brad Johnson
October 24, 1959–February 18, 2022 Always and Melrose Place star Brad Johnson died on Feb. 18, 2022, from complications from COVID-19, though his passing wasn’t reported until nearly four months later. The former Marlboro Man was 62 years old and died in Fort Worth, Texas.
Leonard Kessler
October 28, 1920–February 16, 2022 I Have Twenty Teeth — Do You?, Mr. Pine’s Purple House, Last One in Is a Rotten Egg, Crunch Crunch, Plink Plink, Do Baby Bears Sit in Chairs? and The Big Red Bus are just a few of the more than 300 books written and illustrated by Kessler, with 45 worked on alongside his wife, Ethel, whom he married in 1946 after returning home from World War II. The one-time roommate of artist Andy Warhol died at 101.
Ivan Reitman
October 27, 1946–February 12, 2022 As a producer behind National Lampoon’s Animal House, Beethoven, Space Jam, Killing Me Softly, Old School, I Love You, Man and Up in the Air and producer and director of Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Dave and No Strings Attached, Reitman became a movie-comedy legend whose hits have delighted audiences for ages. The Czechoslovakia-born Oscar-nominated filmmaker died of unspecified causes at 75.
Betty Davis
July 26, 1944-Feb. 9, 2022 For a decade between the mid-1960s and 70s, Davis made funk music that, though not entirely commercially successful at the time, has gained a cult following in the years since. Hits include “They Say I’m Different,” “Shoo‐B‐Doop and Cop Him” and “Nasty Gal,” and she wrote the Chambers Brothers song “Uptown (to Harlem).” She was also the second wife of Miles Davis and is credited with introducing the jazz trumpeter to experimental rock music, influencing his transition to fusion music. (She appears on his Filles de Kilimanjaro album cover.) Davis died of natural causes at age 77.
Thierry Mugler
December 21, 1948–January 23, 2022 Fashion icon Mugler, who was born in Strasbourg, France, started his career in London and Paris in the 1960s with creations like the ones he described as a “pure, Parisian silhouette: the little black suit, the trench coat, the black dress, the siren dress” and “the first nude body-conscious dress.” He dressed celebrities like Demi Moore (her dress from the 1993 film Indecent Proposal), Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, George Michael, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian, who wowed the internet with a latex-corset look of his. With a successful foray into perfumes and a retrospective at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Mugler died of natural causes at 73.
Louie Anderson
March 24, 1953–January 21, 2022 An Emmy-winner for the Zach Galifianakis–starring comedy series Baskets, a two-time Daytime Emmy winner for the animated children’s show Life With Louie, author and standup comedian who was lauded for his Johnny Carson–hosted The Tonight Show debut appearance in 1984, the Minnesotan Anderson found a wide beloved audience with his honest and family-friendly funnyman style. Anderson died of blood cancer complications at 68.
Meat Loaf
September 27, 1947–January 20, 2022 Born Marvin Lee Aday, the theatrical rocker recorded operatic music at a time when the genre was moving towards punk, pop and disco. But that didn’t stop him from releasing 12 albums, including three iterations of Bat Out of Hell which sold millions of copies and won him a best solo rock vocal performance Grammy (for the song “I’d Do Anything for Love (but I Won’t Do That)”). He was also an actor with memorable roles as a murdered delivery boy in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a cancer-support-group member in Fight Club, a doorman named Tiny in Wayne’s World and more. A vocal opponent of COVID vaccine mandates, Aday fell ill to the virus and died at 74.
André Leon Talley
October 16, 1948–January 18, 2022 Talley was front row to the international fashion world for four decades, beginning in 1974 with an unpaid internship at the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute; this came on the heels of writing a master’s thesis about Black women in 19th-century French art and literature at Brown University, where he arrived after a childhood in Durham, North Carolina. (It’s there that the nine-year old Black kid found his first Vogue magazine at a library and walked to the white side of town to buy a copy.) After working as a receptionist at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, Talley was sent to Paris as bureau chief of Women’s Wear Daily, became news editor at US Vogue, took Anna Wintour’s job as creative editor when she was promoted then later took over as editor-at-large. He was dispensed from the fashion world in 2013, but not before interviewing and profiling First Lady Michelle Obama for Vogue in 2009. Talley died of a heart attack at 73.
Ronnie Spector
August 10, 1943–January 12, 2022 The summer of 1963 sounded like “Be My Baby,” the year’s seminal track from the Ronettes, led in voice by Ronnie Spector; the song forced the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson to pull over his car on his first listen and later claim, “It’s the greatest record ever produced. No one will ever top that one.” The group’s other chart-makers include “Baby, I Love You,” “Walking in the Rain,” “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up” and “Do I Love You,” and Spector’s own hits include covering (with the E Street Band) Billy Joel’s ”Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight,” as he asked her to record a live “Be My Baby” sample for it. Much of the Ronettes’ success, like touring with the Rolling Stones, can be attributed to their producer’s “wall of sound” recording style; Phil Spector, who began an affair with Ronnie after signing and recording the group and married, abused and divorced her, died last year while serving a prison sentence for murder. Ronnie continued to record music through 2016, when she released English Heart, an album of covers of British Invasion songs. She died of cancer at 78.
Bob Saget
May 17, 1956–January 9, 2022 As a Temple University pupil, he won a student documentary Academy Award for Through Adam’s Eyes, about his nephew who underwent facial reconstructive surgery. And in 1996, he directed the television movie For Hope, about his sister who died of the autoimmune disease systemic scleroderma. (He later became a Scleroderma Research Foundation board member.) But it was comedy that took him to new heights and dueling public images—one as the raunchy standup comic who was the target of a Comedy Central roast, and the other as the standup father on ABC’s Full House and nice-guy host of America’s Funniest Home Videos. Blunt head trauma after a purported fall caused Saget’s death at 65.
Marilyn Bergman
November 10, 1928–January 8, 2022 Bergman and her husband, Alan, were a songwriting duo whose lyrics apply to “Where Do You Start?,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” the title track of Frank Sinatra’s Nice ’n’ Easy album and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” (from the 1969 movie The Happy Ending); the television openings for Maude, Good Times, Alice, Sybil and more, resulting in four Emmy awards; and the Academy Award for Best Song–winning “The Windmills of Your Mind” (for 1968’s The Thomas Crown Affair) and “The Way We Were” (for the film of the same name, whose score earned them their only Grammy), as well as 1983’s Yentl soundtrack which won them their other Oscar. The first female president of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and half of the inspiration for Barbra Streisand’s 2011 album What Matters Most, her take on the Bergmans’ songs, died of respiratory failure at 93.
Peter Bogdanovich
July 30, 1939–January 6, 2022 As director of The Last Picture Show (for which he was nominated for Best Director), Paper Moon, What’s Up, Doc?, Saint Jack, Mask, Cat’s Meow and They All Laughed—the last big-screen appearance for Audrey Hepburn—Bogdanovich embossed himself in Hollywood royalty. Before moviemaking, he programmed films at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, then also found success writing articles for Esquire and books about film. Though at times his personal life overshadowed his professional one—like when he dumped his wife for Picture Show star Cybill Shepherd, or when he had an affair with Playboy bunny and They All Laughed star Dorothy Stratten, who was then murdered by her husband and manager before the movie was released—Bogdanovich’s critical acclaim persists and landed him acting gigs in The Sopranos, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 and The Simpsons. He died of Parkinson’s disease at 82.
Sidney Poitier
February 20, 1927–January 6, 2022 Poitier grew up in the Bahamas, quit school at 12, was sent by his worrisome parents to Miami at 14 and moved to New York less than a year later, where he worked odd jobs and saved nickels to sleep in bathroom stalls. He was also the first Black actor to win a Best Actor Oscar, for 1963’s Lilies of the Field. It was buying a radio after a failed theater audition and a friendly fellow dishwasher who taught him English syntax and reading that led him to the top ranks of the acting world (with films and mini series like The Defiant Ones, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, Separate But Equal and Mandela and de Klerk). The civil-rights-movement icon was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974, received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1995 and was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2009. And in 2002, he earned a career-memorializing honorary Oscar, the same year Denzel Washington became the award ceremony’s second Black Best-Actor winner and Halle Berry became the first Black female to win Best Actress. No cause was given for Poitier’s death at 94.
Joan Copeland
June 1, 1922–January 4, 2022 Her Broadway career began in the 1940s as an original member of the Actors Studio and with plays like Sundown Beach, Detective Story and Not For Children. She won awards for 1981’s The American Clock (written by her older brother, Death of a Salesman writer Arthur Miller) and 1991’s The American Plan and was nominated for 1976’s Pal Joey. With her first TV appearance on Suspense in the 1950s, she was seen on Love of Life, Search For Tomorrow, How To Survive a Marriage, As The World Turns, One Life To Live, ER, Law & Order and more. The actress whose film credits include The Goddess, American Playhouse, The Peacemaker, Brother Bear and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee died in her sleep at 99.
Dan Reeves
January 19, 1944–January 1, 2022 As a 1965 NFL rookie playing for the Dallas Cowboys, Reeves began an eight-year career that included two Super Bowl appearances, one of them winning. He then transitioned from player to assistant coach of the Cowboys, visiting the Super Bowl three more times, winning one. Next, he was hired by the Denver Broncos as head coach, a position he held for 12 years, and thrice took them to the big game, though winning none. After then serving as head coach of the New York Giant for four seasons, he took his talents to Atlanta, and in his seven-season career there he led the Falcons to the team’s first Super Bowl, which they lost. Reeves died of dementia complications at 77 as one of only nine NFL coaches to ever win 200 games, and whose total number of Super Bowl appearances have only been topped by Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
Max Julien
July 12, 1933–January 1, 2022 Aside from writing the 1973 film Cleopatra Jones (featuring Tamara Dobson as an undercover agent ridding drugs from her community) and the 1974 Western Thomasine & Bushrod (in which he appeared with Vonetta McGee) and playing roles alongside Candice Bergen in 1968’s Uptight and Elliott Gould in 1970’s Getting Straight, Julien is best known for starring in 1973’s blaxploitation hit The Mack, about the rise and fall of a pimp named Goldie. (With Richard Pryor at Julien’s side, the movie, which was written in prison by a real-life convict, was filmed in Oakland, California, with the protection of crime boss Frank Ward.) Though Julien died of cardiopulmonary arrest at 88, the white fur coat Goldie donned rests in a permanent collection at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Next, Remembering the Stars and Legends We Lost In 2021
