Tag: Celebrities

Saying goodbye to people we love and respect is a part of life, and while it’s often to our loved ones, sometimes it’s to the people who touched our hearts and influenced our lives with their talent.

In 2024, sadly, we lost many people with colossal talent; musicians who kept our toes tapping, actors who lit up the stage and screen, authors who wrote books we couldn’t put down and other high-profile personalities.

Among them were Canadians Donald Sutherland and Alice Munro, stars of the screen Shannen Doherty, Dame Maggie Smith and James Earl Jones, and influential musicians Liam Payne and Quincy Jones.

We’re taking the time to celebrate the legacy of this group of people by remembering some of the celebrities we lost in 2024.

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Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie Mary Poppins and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be Send in the Clowns by Stephen Sondheim, died on Jan. 4 at the age of 100.

Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multi-faceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.

Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony in 1973. Other highlights include playing the mother in Mary Poppins, the movie that introduced Julie Andrews, and starring in the 1989 Broadway revival of The Circle, W. Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.

David Soul, who earned fame as the blond half of crime-fighting duo Starsky & Hutch in the popular 1970s television series, died Jan. 4 at the age of 80.

Soul portrayed detective Ken (Hutch) Hutchinson alongside Paul Michael Glaser as detective David Starsky in Starsky & Hutch. It ran on ABC between 1975 and 1979, and grew so popular it spawned a host of children’s toys.

At the height of his fame, Soul also hit the music charts with the single Don’t Give Up on Us.

Joyce Randolph, a veteran stage and television actor whose role as the savvy Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners provided the perfect foil to her dim-witted TV husband, died Jan. 13. She was 99.

Randolph was the last surviving main character of the beloved comedy from television’s golden age of the 1950s.

Decades after leaving the show, Randolph still had many admirers and received dozens of letters a week. She was a regular into her 80s at the downstairs bar at Sardi’s, where she liked to sip her favourite White Cadillac concoction — Dewar’s and milk — and chat with patrons who recognized her from a portrait of the sitcom’s four characters over the bar.

Nerene Virgin, a Canadian children’s entertainer most beloved for her role as Jodie on the 1980s TV series Today’s Special, died on Jan. 15 at the age of 77.

She was a familiar staple in kids’ before-and-after school television programming in the ’80s, starring not just on Today’s Special but also in other Canadian classics like Ramona, Polka Dot Door, Night Heat and The Littlest Hobo.

Virgin’s television career continued on in the late 1980s and early ’90s, when she went on to host and broadcast on CTV and later, on CBC.

In 2016, Virgin was awarded a place on the list of 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women.

Norman Jewison, the Canadian director of numerous Oscar-recognized titles — including Moonstruck and Fiddler on the Roof — and a champion of homegrown cinematic talent at the Canadian Film Centre, died on Jan. 20 at the age of 97.

The charming, strong-willed director-producer tackled a wide range of genres throughout his distinguished career, but was particularly drawn to projects that had a social message and explored the human condition. His five-time Oscar-winning 1967 crime drama In the Heat of the Night, for example, was the first of several Jewison films that probed the effects of racism.

Soap opera star David Gail, best known for his roles in Beverly Hills, 90210 and Port Charles, died on Jan. 20 at the age of 58.

In 1993, Gail guest starred as Stuart Carson on Beverly Hills, 90210, the rich boy fiancé of Brenda Walsh (played by Shannen Doherty). He appeared in eight episodes before his character’s engagement to Walsh came to an end amid revelations about Carson’s drug-dealing history.

He would eventually go on to star in the General Hospital spinoff Port Charles as Dr. Joe Scanlon beginning in 1999. Gail was the second actor to play the role after Michael Dietz’s departure from the show. Gail left Port Charles in 2000.

Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actor who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, in a long Broadway career that forged a path for Latina artists and who shrugged off a near-fatal car accident, died Jan. 30. She was 91.

Rivera first gained wide notice in 1957 as Anita in the original production of West Side Story and was still dancing on Broadway with her trademark energy a half-century later in 2015’s The Visit.

She won Tonys for The Rink in 1984 and Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1993. When accepting a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, she said, “I wouldn’t trade my life in the theatre for anything, because theatre is life.”

Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator and teaching golf in Happy Gilmore, died on Feb. 1. He was 76.

Comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in Action Jackson as he was joking around on the small screen in such shows as Arrested Development, Weathers was perhaps most closely associated with Creed, who made his first appearance as the cocky, undisputed heavyweight world champion in 1976’s Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone.

Most recently, Weathers starred in the Disney+ hit The Mandalorian, appearing in all three seasons.

Country music fans around the world lifted their red Solo cups to the legendary singer and songwriter Toby Keith, who died on Feb. 5. He was 62 years old.

Keith’s death came 18 months after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. The country singer earlier said he’d been receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatment and undergoing surgery to treat his cancer.

Keith was a giant within the country music scene and, according to his website, released 32 No. 1 songs, including Red Solo Cup, Should’ve Been A Cowboy and How Do You Like Me Now!?

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Rebellious, revered, and red, white and blue: country music giant Toby Keith dies at 62

Canadian actor Kenneth Mitchell, best known for his roles in Star Trek: Discovery and Captain Marvel, died on Feb. 24, five years after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 49.

He played several different roles across numerous episodes in the Star Trek: Discovery franchise, namely the Klingon warrior Kol-Sha, Tenavik and Aurellio. He also provided voice work for Star Trek: Lower Decks. Outside of the Star Trek universe, Mitchell was best known for playing Joseph Danvers, the father of the titular superhero Captain Marvel, and Eric Green from the TV series Jericho.

He revealed he was diagnosed with ALS after experiencing constant muscle twitching, which he thought could have been a pinched nerve or multiple sclerosis (MS). Mitchell said learning that he had ALS was “a complete disbelief, a shock.”

Richard Lewis, an acclaimed comedian known for exploring his neuroses in frantic, stream-of-consciousness diatribes while dressed in all-black, leading to his nickname “The Prince of Pain,” died on Feb. 28. He was 76.

A regular performer in clubs and on late-night TV for decades, Lewis also played Marty Gold, the romantic co-lead opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, in the ABC series Anything But Love and the reliably neurotic Prince John in Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men In Tights. He re-introduced himself to a new generation opposite Larry David in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, kvetching regularly.

Comedy Central named Lewis one of the top 50 stand-up comedians of all time and he earned a berth in GQ magazine’s list of the “20th Century’s Most Influential Humorists.” He lent his humour to charity causes, including Comic Relief and Comedy Gives Back.

Lou Gossett Jr.

Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries Roots, died on March 29. He was 87.

He always thought of his early career as a reverse Cinderella story, with success finding him from an early age and propelling him forward, toward his Academy Award for An Officer and a Gentleman.

Gossett broke through on the small screen as Fiddler in the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries Roots, which depicted the atrocities of slavery on TV. The sprawling cast included Ben Vereen, LeVar Burton and John Amos.

Gossett became the third Black Oscar nominee in the supporting actor category in 1983.

Chance Perdomo, whose spotlight was only growing amid his success found in Gen V and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, died in a motorcycle crash on Apr. 1. He was 27.

Perdomo, who was British American, was a rising star in Hollywood. He was best known for playing Ambrose Spellman in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and the superhuman character Andre Anderson from The Boys spinoff series Gen V.

Comedian Joe Flaherty, a founding member of the Canadian sketch series SCTV, died on April 1 at the age of 82.

Flaherty first made his mark on the comedy scene while at SCTV, playing characters like Count Floyd, news anchor Floyd Robertson and the iconic character of SCTV station manager Guy Caballero.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., Flaherty moved to Toronto and helped establish the Toronto Second City theatre troupe, which led to a starring role on SCTV as one of the original performers and writers.

He also made his foray into the world of cinema, including the role of a sabotaging golf fan who yelled “Jackass!” every time Adam Sandler stepped up to the tee in Happy Gilmore.

O.J. Simpson died on April 10, following a battle with cancer. He was 76.

Simpson, an ex-NFL great, was most widely known for the notorious ’90s court case watched around the world, when he stood trial for the double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

He was acquitted of the charges, but it became one of the most talked-about court cases of the last century, and its live, of-the-minute coverage on TV changed everything.

The trial transfixed America. In the White House, President Bill Clinton left the Oval Office and watched the verdict on his secretary’s TV. Many Black Americans celebrated his acquittal, seeing Simpson as the victim of bigoted police. Many white Americans were appalled by his exoneration.

His case sparked debates on race, gender, domestic abuse, celebrity justice and police misconduct.

He appeared in multiple cameo roles, most notably the ’90s Naked Gun movie series.

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O.J. Simpson: Reactions to the downfall and death of controversial ex-NFL star

Mike Pinder

Moody Blues founding member Mike Pinder died on April 24 at the age of 82.

Pinder was the Moody Blues’ co-founder, keyboardist and the last surviving original member of the band, which was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Notably, Pinder was one of the first musicians to use the mellotron, a type of electronic keyboard, in rock music.

Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and went down with the ship as the captain in Titanic, died on May 4 at the age of 79.

Hill joined The Lord Of The Rings franchise in the second film of the trilogy, 2002’s The Two Towers, as Théoden, king of Rohan. The following year, he reprised the role in Return of the King, a movie that won 11 Oscars.

Hill first made a name for himself as Yosser Hughes in Boys From the Blackstuff, a 1982 British TV miniseries about five unemployed men.

In Titanic, Hill played Captain Edward Smith, one of the only characters based on a real person in the 1997 tragic romance starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The film also won 11 Academy Awards.

Susan Buckner

Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical Grease, died on May 7. She was 72.

She got her start as a beauty queen. She won Miss Washington in 1971 and went on to place in the Top 10 in the 1972 Miss America pageant, tying for first in the swimsuit competition.

Throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Buckner appeared in a number of TV series including Starsky and Hutch, The Love Boat and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, and co-starred in the ABC series When the Whistle Blows alongside Dolph Sweet.

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Ian Gelder

Ian Gelder, who played Kevan Lannister in Game of Thrones, died on May 7 at the age of 74.

Gelder had a long career on the stage, appearing in productions on London’s West End and at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and he also played Mr. Dekker on Torchwood along with roles on Doctor Who and His Dark Materials.

But he might be best known to TV fans as Kevan Lannister — the younger brother of Tywin and uncle to Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion — on the HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones.

Short story legend Alice Munro, whose intricate tales depicting small-town southwestern Ontario earned her an international fanbase and the Nobel Prize in literature, died May 13 at age 92.

Though often lauded for bringing depth and universal appeal to her rural settings and characters, she said she was particularly proud of having given a voice to women through her stories, especially considering that at one time critics belittled her work.

The Swedish Academy summed up the thoughts of many in the global literary community when it hailed Munro as the “master of the contemporary short story” in awarding her the Nobel Prize in fall 2013.

It was one of countless honours she received throughout her distinguished career. Others included the Man Booker International Prize for her entire body of work, as well as two Scotiabank Giller Prizes.

Dabney Coleman

Dabney Coleman, best known for his portrayal of cantankerous characters in films such as Tootsie and 9 to 5, died May 16 at age 92.

He was best known for playing nasty men for laughs, but he also took on a range of dramatic roles and voice-over work and won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for his TV appearances.

More recently he appeared in the western drama Yellowstone, and had a recurring role as an influential businessman in the HBO gangster saga Boardwalk Empire.

Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker best known for his documentary Super Size Me, died May 23 at the age of 53.

Super Size Me, which hit theatres in 2004, earned Spurlock an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. In the film, he challenged himself to only eat meals from McDonald’s for a month — never being allowed to turn down the “super-size” option of the meal, if offered — while monitoring the effects on his mental and physical health and taking a deep dive into the inner workings of the fast food industry.

The movie, which grossed US$22 million in theatres worldwide, prompted McDonald’s to cut its “super-size” option from menus. It also preceded the release of Eric Schlosser’s influential Fast Food Nation, which accused the industry of being bad for the environment and rife with labour issues.

Actor Johnny Wactor of General Hospital was shot and killed in Los Angeles on May 25 during a suspected car robbery. He was 37.

He appeared in nearly 200 episodes of General Hospital as Brando Corbin. He remained a recurring character in the series from 2020 until 2022, when the character was written off.

Wactor also appeared in NCIS, Westworld and Criminal Minds, and had many other acting roles.

Benji Gregory, who starred as a child in the 1980s comedy sitcom ALF, died June 13 at the age of 46.

Gregory starred as Brian Tanner in 101 episodes of ALF from 1986 to 1990, where he became on-screen best friends with the title character, a pointy-eared, sarcastic alien from the planet Melmac that arrived on Earth when he crash-landed through the Tanner family garage.

Gregory was a fixture on ’80s television sets, with roles on The A-Team, T.J. Hooker and Punky Brewster. He also appeared in the 1986 movie Jumpin’ Jack Flash, alongside Whoopi Goldberg.

Donald Sutherland, the gravelly-voiced Canadian actor who graced both TV and movie screens, died June 20 in Miami from a long illness. He was 88.

Known for his easily identifiable baritone, Sutherland starred in a multitude of recognizable and memorable films, including 1980’s Ordinary People, 1991’s JFK, 1998’s Without Limits and the Hunger Games franchise. He also played the lovable Hawkeye in the movie version of M*A*S*H*. He did a lot of TV work as well, appearing on shows like Lawmen: Bass Reeves, The Simpsons, Dirty Sexy Money and Commander in Chief, among many others.

Sutherland was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1978 and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2000. He got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.

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Donald Sutherland death: Trudeau remembers ‘brilliance’ of actor’s legacy

Bill Cobbs, the veteran character actor who became a ubiquitous and sage screen presence as an older man, died on June 26. He was 90.

A Cleveland native, Cobbs acted in such films as The Hudsucker Proxy, The Bodyguard and Night at the Museum. He made his first big-screen appearance in a fleeting role in 1974’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. He became a lifelong actor with some 200 film and TV credits. The lion’s share of those came in his 50s, 60s and 70s, as filmmakers and TV producers turned to him again and again to imbue small but pivotal parts with a wizened and worn soulfulness.

Cobbs appeared on television shows including The Sopranos, The West Wing, Sesame Street and Good Times. He was Whitney Houston’s manager in The Bodyguard (1992), the mystical clock man of the Coen brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and the doctor of John Sayles’ Sunshine State (2002). He played the coach in Air Bud (1997), the security guard in Night at the Museum (2006) and the father on The Gregory Hines Show.

Martin Mull

Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including Roseanne and Arrested Development, died on June 27 at the age of 80.

Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters. The 1980s brought what many thought was his best work, A History of White People in America, a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as a 60 Minutes-style investigative reporter probing all things milquetoast and mundane.

In the 1990s he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons on Roseanne, in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Fred Willard, who died in 2020.

Mull would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on Arrested Development, a cult-classic character on a cult-classic show, and would be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a guest run on Veep.

Shifty Shellshock

Shifty Shellshock, the lead singer of the late-1990s rap-rock band Crazy Town known for the hit song Butterfly, died on June 29. He was 49.

The singer, whose real name was Seth Binzer, was open about his struggles with substance abuse. He appeared on two seasons of the VH1 series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2008 and also on the spinoff series Sober House from 2009 to 2010.

He formed Crazy Town with bandmate Bret Mazur, known as Epic, in 1995, but the band was initially known as the Brimstone Sluggers. The idea to form the band began when the pair wrote each other letters from rehabilitation clinics, according to the band’s Spotify biography.

Shelley Duvall, the cult-favourite character actor best-known for her work in The Shining and Annie Hall, died on July 10. She had just turned 75.

At her peak, Duvall was a regular star in some of the defining movies of the 1970s and 1980s. In The Shining, she played Wendy Torrance, who watches in horror as her husband, Jack (Jack Nicholson), goes crazy while their family is isolated in the Overlook Hotel. It was Duvall’s screaming face that made up half of the film’s most iconic image, along with Jack’s axe coming through the door.

The Texas native had dozens of acting credits to her name, spanning from 1973 to as recently as 2023, as well as several producing and writing credits. The last time she appeared on screen was in 2023’s The Forest Hill, alongside Edward Furlong and Dee Wallace.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and bestselling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, died on July 12. She was 96.

Westheimer’s giggly, German-accented voice, coupled with her four-foot-seven frame, made her an unlikely looking — and sounding — outlet for “sexual literacy.” The contradiction was one of the keys to her success.

Westheimer never advocated risky sexual behaviour. Instead, she encouraged open dialogue on previously closeted issues that affected her audience of millions. Her one recurring theme was there was nothing to be ashamed of.

Richard Simmons, television’s hyperactive court jester of physical fitness who built a mini-empire in his trademark tank tops and short shorts by urging overweight people to exercise and eat better, died on July 13 at age 76.

Simmons was a former 268-pound teen who shared his hard-won weight-loss tips as host of the Emmy-winning daytime Richard Simmons Show, author of best-selling books and the diet plan Deal-A-Meal, as well as opening exercise studios and starring in millions of exercise videos, including the successful Sweatin’ to the Oldies line.

After years with breast cancer, Shannen Doherty died on July 13 surrounded by her family.

A native of Memphis, Tenn., Doherty moved to Los Angeles with her family at age seven and, within a few years, became an actor. She was well-known for her roles on TV shows Little House on the Prairie, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed, among others.

Doherty’s fame came with media scrutiny and accounts of outbursts, drinking and impulsiveness — the latter most notably after a very brief marriage to actor George Hamilton’s son, Ashley. She always claimed her personality was “grotesquely misconstrued” by the media.

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Shannen Doherty, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ and ‘Charmed’ star, dead at 53

James Sikking, who starred as a hardened police lieutenant on Hill Street Blues and as the titular character’s kindhearted dad on Doogie Howser, M.D., died at 90 on July 13. He died of complications from dementia.

Before Hill Street Blues, Sikking also had guest spots in a litany of popular 1970s television series, from the action-packed Mission: Impossible, M.A.S.H., The F.B.I., The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O and Charlie’s Angels to Eight is Enough and Little House on the Prairie.

Bob Newhart, the deadpan accountant-turned-comedian who became one of the most popular TV stars of his time after striking gold with a classic comedy album, died at 94 on July 18 after a series of short illnesses.

Newhart, best remembered now as the star of two hit television shows of the 1970s and 1980s that bore his name, launched his career as a standup comic in the late 1950s.

While other comedians of his time frequently got laughs with aggressive attacks on modern mores, Newhart was an anomaly. His outlook was modern, but he rarely raised his voice above a hesitant, almost stammering delivery. Over the years, Newhart also appeared in several movies, usually in comedic roles.

He continued appearing on television occasionally after his fourth sitcom ended and vowed in 2003 that he would work as long as he could.

Abdul (Duke) Fakir, the last surviving original member of the beloved Motown group the Four Tops that was known for such hits as Reach Out, I’ll Be There and Standing in the Shadows of Love, died at age 88 on July 22.

He died of heart failure at his home in Detroit, according to a family spokesperson, with his wife and other loved ones by his side.

Besides the Rock Hall of Fame, the group’s honours included being voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and receiving a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2009. More recently, Fakir was working on a planned Broadway musical based on their lives and completed the memoir I’ll Be There, published in 2022.

Rachael Lillis, a voice actor who brought to life many of Pokémon‘s most beloved characters, died at the age of 55 on Aug. 10 after a battle with breast cancer.

Lillis is best known for voicing the character of Misty in the English version of the Pokémon anime series. She also brought to life one of the show’s main antagonists, Jessie, a member of Team Rocket along with James and a talking Pokémon, Meowth.

Beyond Misty and Jessie, Lillis also voiced Jigglypuff, a pink singing Pokémon.

Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practise the craft, died at age 94 on Aug. 14 due to complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

She was considered a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son’s tear-jerker The Notebook.

Operating outside the studio system, the husband-and-wife team of Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class strivers and small-timers in such films as A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria and Faces.

In addition to two Oscar nominations, Rowlands earned three Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy and two Golden Globes. She was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2015 in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood.

Phil Donahue

Longtime TV talk show host Phil Donahue died on Aug. 18 following a long illness, his family said. He was 88.

Donahue, a television pioneer who introduced the world to the modern format of daytime talk shows that featured audience participation, died at home surrounded by his family, including his wife of 44 years, Marlo Thomas.

Dubbed “the king of daytime talk,” Phil Donahue was the first to incorporate audience participation in a talk show, typically during a full hour with a single guest.

The Phil Donahue Show became a trend-setter in daytime television, where it was particularly popular with female audiences, and spurred a new category of talk shows that would dive into social issues and current events.

Sidney Raymond Eudy, a professional wrestler known as Sid Vicious, characterized by his intense persona and imposing stature, died on Aug. 25. He was 63.

The six-foot-nine Eudy went by many names in the ring, including Sid Justice and Sycho Sid, and rose to prominence at the height of the WrestleMania craze in the 1990s. He was a two-time champion in the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) and also performed for its ’90s rival World Championship Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association.

He faced off against Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker, among other stars.

James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, The Lion King and Darth Vader — died on Sept 9. He was 93.

The pioneering Jones, who in 1965 became one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama (As the World Turns) and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was also given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theatre was renamed in his honour.

Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in Field of Dreams, the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit The Great White Hope, the writer Alex Haley in Roots: The Next Generation and a South African minister in Cry, the Beloved Country.

He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader (“No, I am your father,” commonly misremembered as “Luke, I am your father”), as well as the benign dignity of King Mufasa in both the 1994 and 2019 versions of Disney’s The Lion King and announcing “This is CNN” during station breaks. He won a 1977 Grammy for his performance on the Great American Documents audiobook.

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James Earl Jones, iconic voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, dies at 93

Chad McQueen, an actor known for his performances in the Karate Kid movies and the son of the late actor and race car driver Steve McQueen, died Sept. 12. He was 63.

McQueen followed in his father’s footsteps, pursuing both acting and race car driving. He became well-known for his role as Dutch, the antagonist in 1984’s The Karate Kid, and its sequel two years later.

While he starred in several films after the hit action franchise, including New York Cop, Squanderers and Red Line, he ultimately engaged more in racing than acting, and he eventually founded McQueen Racing, a company that creates custom cars, motorcycles and accessories.

Tito Jackson, one of the brothers who made up the beloved pop group the Jackson 5, died Sept. 15 at age 70.

Tito was the third of nine Jackson children, which include global superstars Michael and sister Janet, part of a music-making family whose songs are still beloved today.

Tito was the last of the nine Jackson siblings to release a solo project with his 2016 debut, Tito Time. He released a song in 2017, One Way Street, and told The Associated Press in 2019 that he was working on a sophomore album.

Jackson said he purposely held back from pursuing a solo career because he wanted to focus on raising his three sons, TJ, Taj and Taryll, who formed their own music group, 3T.

Dame Maggie Smith, best known for her roles in the Harry Potter franchise and Downton Abbey, died Sept. 27. She was 89 years old.

Smith was one of the most recognizable British actors in film and television. Her illustrious career spanned over seven decades, though she earned international admiration particularly for roles as Prof. Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series and as Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey.

She won two Oscars during her lifetime, for 1970 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and later for California Suite in 1979. She also received Academy Award nominations as a supporting actress in Othello, Travels with My Aunt, Room with a View and Gosford Park.

Drake Hogestyn, the Days of Our Lives star who appeared on the show for 38 years, died Sept. 29 after a fight with pancreatic cancer. He was 70.

The actor played the beloved character John Black in more than 4,200 episodes of the popular soap opera, joining in 1986. He broke into the television world just four years before with a role in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He appeared in several other projects throughout his career but is most synonymous with his long-running soap opera role.

His final appearance on the show was in an episode that aired on Sept. 9. On Days of Our Lives, Hogestyn’s John and Marlena Evans (played by Deidre Hall) were a longtime super couple.

Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, died on Sept. 29 at the age of 88.

Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas, native wrote such country and rock ‘n’ roll standards as Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, Help Me Make it Through the Night, For the Good Times and Me and Bobby McGee. Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning For the Good Times or Janis Joplin belting out Me and Bobby McGee.

He starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 movie A Star Is Born and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s Blade in 1998.

John Amos, who starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom Good Times and earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries Roots, died on Oct. 1. He was 84.

He played James Evans Sr. on Good Times, which featured one of television’s first Black two-parent families. Produced by Norman Lear and co-created by actor Mike Evans, who co-starred on All in the Family and The Jeffersons, it ran from 1974 to 1979 on CBS.

Later, he landed the role of an adult Kunta Kinte, the centrepiece of Roots, based on Alex Haley’s novel set during and after the era of slavery in the U.S. The miniseries was a critical and ratings blockbuster, and Amos earned one of its 37 Emmy nominations.

Among Amos’s film credits were Let’s Do It Again with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and its 2021 sequel, Die Hard 2, Madea’s Witness Protection and Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler. He was in Ice Cube and Dr. Dre’s 1994 video Natural Born Killaz.

Gavin Creel, a Broadway musical theatre veteran who won a Tony Award for Hello, Dolly! opposite Bette Midler and earned nominations for Hair and Thoroughly Modern Millie, died Oct. 1 of a rare and aggressive form of cancer. He was 48.

Creel had a knack for Golden Age Broadway revivals, but he also performed in modern fare, like in the role of Dr. Pomatter in Sara Bareilles’s musical Waitress on Broadway in 2019 and on the West End in 2020. He won an Olivier Award for The Book of Mormon.

A key role was as the fastidious missionary Elder Price in The Book of Mormon. He starred in the show’s first national tour in 2012 and took the role to London’s West End, where he won a Olivier Award in 2014.

He played Jean-Michel in the revival of La Cage Aux Folles in 2004 and returned to Broadway in 2009 as Claude Hooper Bukowski in the Public Theater’s revival of Hair.

Frank Fritz, one of the co-hosts of American Pickers, died Oct. 1 at age 60, two years after he suffered a serious stroke.

Fritz appeared in 308 episodes of the popular History Channel show alongside his co-star Mike Wolfe, before leaving American Pickers in 2021. The pair travelled around America looking for rare artifacts and treasures to sell or add to their personal collections.

Fritz had largely been out of the public eye after suffering a severe stroke in 2022. A year before that, in 2021, Fritz told The Sun he hadn’t talked to Wolfe in two years amid a feud between the two. The last time he appeared on a show was in March 2020, The Sun reported at the time.

When Fritz had his stroke, the pair seemed to put their differences behind them.

Cissy Houston, the mother of the late Whitney Houston and a two-time Grammy winner who performed alongside superstar musicians like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, died Oct. 6. She was 91.

Houston was in the well-known vocal group the Sweet Inspirations, with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warrick. The group sang backup for a variety of soul singers including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, The Drifters and Dionne Warwick.

Houston won Grammys for her albums Face to Face in 1997 and He Leadeth Me the following year in the best traditional soul gospel album category.

Canadian comedian and former talk show host Mike Bullard died on Oct. 13 at age 67.

Bullard got his start in comedy doing live standup at comedy clubs across Ontario, before moving to television.

He shot to prominence in 1997 as the host of the late night talk show Open Mike With Mike Bullard on CTV, which he hosted until 2003 when he was hired away by Global Television to host The Mike Bullard Show. That program lasted 13 weeks.

During his career Bullard won two Gemini awards for his show Open Mike With Mike Bullard. In 2013, he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his volunteer work. In 2022, Bullard travelled to Ukraine to volunteer with humanitarian organizations in the country following Russia’s invasion.

Liam Payne, British musician and a former member of One Direction, died on Oct. 16 after falling from the third floor of a Buenos Aires hotel. He was 31.

Born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1993, Payne rose to fame as part of the since-disbanded pop band One Direction, alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson.

The group broke up in 2016 as its members pursued different projects including solo careers. Payne released his sole studio album, LP1, in 2019. His last release was a single called Teardrops, in March.

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Liam Payne funeral: One Direction bandmates among mourners at private church service

Actor Michael Newman of Baywatch died on Oct. 20, 18 years after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was 68.

Newman appeared in 150 episodes of Baywatch, which ran from 1989 to 2001. He was the only cast member to have actual lifeguarding experience. The series famously starred David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, Nicole Eggert and Alexandra Paul, among many others.

Besides acting, Newman was also a full-time firefighter and retired after 25 years of service, even balancing firefighting with his Baywatch filming schedule.

Ron Ely, the tall, musclebound actor who played the title character in the 1960s NBC series Tarzan, died Oct. 23 at age 86.

While he was not quite as well-known as Johnny Weismuller, the Olympic swimmer who played Tarzan in movies in the 1930s and 1940s, Ely helped form the image of the shirtless, loincloth-wearing character further immortalized by Disney.

In 2019, he tragically returned to the news when his 62-year-old wife, Valerie Lundeen Ely, was stabbed to death at their Santa Barbara, Calif., home by their 30-year-old son, Cameron Ely, who was subsequently shot and killed by police.

Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, died on Oct. 29. She was 79.

Her big film break came as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in 1974’s Francis Ford Coppola thriller The Conversation. That led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who said he would hire her for the role of Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant in 1974’s Young Frankenstein — if she could speak with a German accent.

Her big smile and off-centre appeal helped land her roles in Oh God! opposite George Burns and John Denver, Mr. Mom (as Michael Keaton’s wife) and Tootsie in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and learns that he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career. (She also lost the supporting actress Oscar at that year’s Academy Awards to Lange.)

Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic Thriller album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, died on Nov. 3 at 91.

In a career that began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, top honours likely go to his productions with Jackson: Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad were albums near-universal in their style and appeal.

As a music executive, he overcame racial barriers by becoming a vice-president at Mercury Records in the early ’60s. In 1971, he became the first Black musical director for the Academy Awards ceremony. The first movie he produced, The Color Purple, received 11 Oscar nominations in 1986. In a partnership with Time Warner, he created Quincy Jones Entertainment, which included the pop-culture magazine Vibe and Qwest Broadcasting. The company was sold for $270 million in 1999.

Jones was dedicated to philanthropy, saying “the best and only useful aspect of fame and celebrity is having a platform to help others.”

His causes included fighting HIV and AIDS, educating children and providing for the poor around the world. He founded the Quincy Jones Listen Up! Foundation to connect young people with music, culture and technology, and said he was driven throughout his life “by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism.”

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Quincy Jones dead: A titan in the industry leaves a lasting legacy on music

Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of Wheel of Fortune, Love Connection and Scrabble who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, died on Nov. 24. He was 83.

Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.

In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV’s Love Connection, for which he coined the phrase, “We’ll be back in two minutes and two seconds,” a two-fingered signature dubbed the “2 and 2.” In 1984, he hosted TV’s Scrabble, simultaneously hosting two game shows on TV until 1990.

Hudson Meek

Teenage actor Hudson Meek died two days after he fell out of a moving vehicle in Alabama on Dec. 21. He was 16.

Meek made his on-screen debut in 2014’s The Santa Con and had roles in various TV series, including MacGyver. He was perhaps best known for his role in the 2017 film Baby Driver, in which he played a younger version of Ansel Elgort’s titular character.

Dayle Haddon

Dayle Haddon, a Canadian actor, activist and trailblazing former Sports Illustrated model who pushed back against age discrimination by reentering the industry as a widow, died on Dec. 27 from what authorities believe was carbon monoxide poisoning. She was 76.

As a model, Haddon appeared on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Esquire in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the 1973 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She also appeared in about two dozen films from the 1970s to 1990s, according to IMDb.com, including 1994’s Bullets Over Broadway, starring John Cusack.

Haddon left modeling after giving birth to her daughter, Ryan, in the mid-1970s, but then had to reenter the workforce after her husband’s 1991 death. This time she found the modeling industry far less friendly: “They said to me, ‘At 38, you’re not viable,’” Haddon told The New York Times in 2003.

Working a menial job at an advertising agency, Haddon began reaching out to cosmetic companies, telling them there was a growing market to sell beauty products to aging baby boomers. She eventually landed a contract with Clairol, followed by Estée Lauder and then L’Oreal, for which she promoted the company’s anti-aging products for more than a decade. She also hosted beauty segments for CBS’s The Early Show.

Linda Lavin

Linda Lavin, a Tony Award-winning stage actor who became a working class icon as a paper-hat wearing waitress on the TV sitcom Alice, died on Dec. 29. She was 87.

A success on Broadway, Lavin tried her luck in Hollywood in the mid-1970s. She was chosen to star in a new CBS sitcom based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the Martin Scorsese-directed film that won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar for playing the title waitress.

She was working as recently as Dec. 2024, promoting a new Netflix series in which she appears, No Good Deed, and filming a forthcoming Hulu series, Mid-Century Modern, according to Deadline, which first reported her death.

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—with files from The Associated Press and Reuters