Tag: Film

As we approach the end of another year, The Independent is reflecting on some of the famous faces we lost in 2024.

Over the past 12 months, the world said goodbye to a number of cultural icons, including award-winning TV and film actors, lauded musicians, acclaimed authors, directors and comedians.

The year began with the deaths of Mary Poppins actor Glynis Johns, Broadway legend Chita Rivera, and Happy Gilmore star Carl Weathers. Then, in the fall, One Direction star Liam Payne died unexpectedly, marking one of the year’s most shocking losses.

Below is a list of notable figures who died this year.

JANUARY

Glynis Johns

The British stage and screen actor, best known for her role as the peppy Mrs. Banks in the musical classic Mary Poppins, died “peacefully” at an assisted living home in Los Angeles on January 4. The Tony-winning actor was 100.

David Soul

The singer and actor, who appeared in the TV series Starsky & Hutch, died on January 4, following a “valiant battle for life.”

At the time of his death, aged 80, he was surrounded by family, who said in a statement: “His smile, laughter and passion for life will be remembered by the many whose lives he has touched.”

Adan Canto

The Mexican actor, who starred alongside Halle Berry in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), died on January 8 following a battle with appendiceal cancer.

Berry honored her 42-year-old co-star, writing on Instagram: “I don’t have the words just yet…. but my dear sweet friend Adan just gained his wings.”

Alec Musser

The model and actor, who appeared in All My Children and the 2010 Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups, died by suicide on January 12. He was 50.

Joyce Randolph

The Honeymooners star died of natural causes on January 13 at her home in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where she spent the final months of her life in hospice.

Randolph, who was the last surviving cast member of the 1950s sitcom, was 99.

Gary Graham

The Star Trek and Alien Nation alum died suddenly on January 22. The 73-year-old actor died after suffering a cardiac arrest, his wife of 25 years announced.

Chita Rivera

The two-time Tony winner, who originated the role of West Side Story’s Anita in the original Broadway production, died on January 30. She was 91.

Rivera’s passing came after a brief illness.

FEBRUARY

Carl Weathers

The Rocky franchise’s Apollo Creed and star of films including Predator and Happy Gilmore died in his sleep at his Los Angeles home on February 1.

Weathers, 76, was saluted by his Happy Gilmore co-star Adam Sandler as being “a true great man. Great dad. Great actor. Great athlete.”

Ian Lavender

The Dad’s Army star, best known for his longtime role as Private Frank Pike on the BBC sitcom, died on February 2 at the age of 77.

Toby Keith

The country music star behind hit songs including “Red Solo Cup” and “I Wanna Talk About Me,” as well as the controversial “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” died on February 5. His death, at the age of 62, came years after he announced his stomach cancer diagnosis in 2021.

Richard Lewis

The acclaimed stand-up comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm actor died on February 27 after suffering a heart attack at his Los Angeles home. He was 76.

MARCH

Chance Perdomo

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Gen V actor was only 27 when he died in a motorcycle accident on March 30.

The untimely death of the American-born actor, who was raised in the U.K., brought production on the second season of Gen V — Prime Video’s spinoff to its acclaimed series The Boys — to a halt.

Barbara Rush

The actor, best known for her starring role in classic Fifties sci-fi horror It Came from Outer Space, died on March 31. She died “peacefully” at the age of 97, her daughter Claudia Cowan said in a statement.

APRIL

Joe Flaherty

The comedian and actor, who played sitcom dad Harold Weir in Freaks and Geeks, died on April 1 after a brief illness.

Remembered by his daughter Gudrun as an “extraordinary man, known for his boundless heart and an unwavering passion for movies from the ’40s and ’50s,” Flaherty was 82.

Adrian Schiller

The British actor, best known for his roles in the historical series The Last Kingdom and ITV’s Victoria, died “suddenly and unexpectedly” on April 3.

His cause of death, at the age of 60, was a major ischaemic stroke.

Simpson, who had been living with prostate cancer, was 76.

Eleanor Coppola

The Emmy-winning director and wife of Francis Ford Coppola died at home on April 12 at the age of 83.

Coppola was best known for her documentaries, including the 1991 Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse film, which documented her husband’s infamously tortured production of Apocalypse Now (1979).

MAY

Bernard Hill

The celebrated actor, best known for his roles in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Titanic, died on May 5 at the age of 79. The King Theoden actor’s cause of death was not released. He had been expected to appear at Liverpool Comic Con the week of his death.

JUNE

Arthur “Gaps” Hendrickson

The frontman of the Ska band The Selecter died on June 11, after a short illness, at the age of 73. The British musician had been diagnosed with cancer in 2023.

Donald Sutherland

The esteemed Canadian star of Klute, M*A*S*H* and The Hunger Games died on June 20, at the age of 88, following a long illness.

Bill Cobbs

The veteran actor, best known for his much-loved movie appearances in Night at the Museum, The Bodyguard and The Hudsucker Proxy, as well as television shows The Sopranos, The West Wing and Six Feet Under, passed away on June 26 at the age of 90.

He died from natural causes, his agent confirmed.

JULY

Shelley Duvall

The Shining star, whose wide eyes expressed vulnerable depths, passed away in her sleep on July 11 four days after her 75th birthday.

Duvall, who played the wife of Nicholson’s axe-wielding maniac in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 Stephen King adaptation, died of complications from diabetes.

Shannen Doherty

The Charmed and Beverly Hills 90210 alum, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, died on July 13 at the age of 53.

Richard Simmons

The famed TV fitness instructor died on July 13, the day after his 76th birthday. His housekeeper found him dead at his Los Angeles home. According to the coroner’s report, his death was ruled an accident “due to complications from recent falls and heart disease as a contributing factor.”

Bob Newhart

The comedy legend and sitcom star of The Bob Newhart Show died of natural causes on July 18. Newhart, who made memorable appearances in the 2003 family Christmas classic Elf and The Big Bang Theory, was 94.

AUGUST

Patti Yasutake

The Beef and Star Trek: The Next Generation star died at the age of 70 on August 5 after a long battle with cancer. She had a rare form of T-cell lymphoma, her manager Kyle Fritz said.

Ángel Salazar

The actor, who played Al Pacino’s trusted sidekick “Chi-Chi” in the 1983 cult classic Scarface, died aged 68 on August 14.

He was reported to have died from acute intoxication from drug use. According to TMZ, the New York Chief Medical Examiner’s office said Salazar was found with cocaine, cyclobenzaprine (a muscle relaxant) and diphenhydramine (an antihistamine) in his system.

Gena Rowlands

The famed actor, known for her featured role in The Notebook, died on August 14 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Rowlands, who was 94, passed away at her home in Indian Wells, California, surrounded by family.

John Amos

The actor, who had starring roles in the Seventies sitcom Good Times, the 1977 drama miniseries Roots and the Coming to America film series, died on August 21 of congestive heart failure. His death at 84 was announced by his son, film producer Kelly Christopher Amos, months after the fact.

SEPTEMBER

James Earl Jones

The booming voice behind classic villains Mufasa and Dark Vader died September 9 at 93 years old. The actor, who had been living with type 2 diabetes since the mid-1990s, received three Tony Awards, two Emmys and a Grammy across his illustrious career.

Chad McQueen

The actor and son of iconic actor Steve McQueen died from organ failure on September 11. Best known for playing the bully Dutch in the Karate Kid films, McQueen was 63.

John Ashton

The actor, who played John Taggart in Eddie Murphy’s Beverly Hills Cops films, died “peacefully” on September 26 at the age of 76, following a battle with cancer.

Maggie Smith

The legendary British actor, better known to younger generations for her portrayal of Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series, passed away peacefully in hospital on September 27. The 89-year-old giant of the screen and stage was considered one of Britain’s most successful stars.

Kris Kristofferson

The country music legend and Blade star died “peacefully” at his home in Maui on September 28. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter was 88.

Ken Page

The prolific voice and stage actor, who originated the role of Ken in the Broadway stage production of Ain’t Misbehavin’, died “very peacefully” at his Missouri home on September 30.

Page, who also appeared alongside Beyoncé in Dreamgirls, was 70.

Gavin Creel

The Tony-winning actor, who also appeared in two 2021 episodes of American Horror Stories, died on September 30 at the age of 48.

His death was caused by a metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a type of nerve cancer that the actor learned he had in July.

OCTOBER

Liam Payne

The One Direction star tragically died on October 16 after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. His death, at 31, sent shockwaves around the world, with his “devastated” bandmates releasing a joint statement at the time, saying: “We will miss him terribly.”

Terri Gar

The beloved comedic actor, known for her performances in Young Frankenstein, Friends and Tootsie, died on October 29.

Gar, who was 79, died from complications from multiple sclerosis.

NOVEMBER

Quincy Jones

The music industry titan, who worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and Celine Dion, died from pancreatic cancer on November 3. Jones, the father of Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones, was 91.

Tony Todd

The star of classic horror films Candyman and Final Destination died at his Los Angeles home on November 6, following a long illness. He was 69.

Charles Dumont

The French composer behind Edith Piaf’s timeless classic, “Non Je ne Regrette Rien,” died on November 18, at the age of 95. His death followed a long illness.

Chuck Woolery

The original Wheel of Fortune presenter died at his home in Texas on November 23, at the age of 83. No cause of death was given.

Barbara Taylor Bradford

The best-selling A Woman of Substance novelist died peacefully at her home on November 24 following a short illness. The British-American author was 91.

DECEMBER

Nikki Giovanni

Referred to as “The Princess of Black Poetry,” the revered poet and activist died on December 9 at the age of 81. Over the course of her decades-long career, the multifaceted author, educator and public speaker published more than 25 books, including her best-selling poetry collections Black Judgement and Black Feeling Black Talk.

Hudson Meek

The 16-year-old Baby Driver child actor died on December 21 after falling from a moving vehicle in Alabama. Meek, also known for his role in MacGyver, reportedly sustained blunt-force traumas in the accident and was rushed to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

Olivia Hussey

The Argentinian-born actor, who catapulted to fame for her role as the female lead in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet at just 15, died on December 27 “at home, surrounded by her loved ones.” She was 73.

Charles Shyer

The Oscar-nominated Private Benjamin screenwriter and Father of the Bride director died on December 27 at the age of 83. No cause of death was given.

Linda Lavin

The Tony Award-winning Broadway legend died on December 29 of complications from recently discovered lung cancer. Lavin, who also became a working-class icon for her starring role as the titular waiter in the sitcom Alice, was 87.

Johnnie Walker

The popular radio presenter died on 31 December, just two months after retiring from a career spanning almost 60 years, having been diagnosed with a deblilatating lung disease. After starting out on pirate radio, he began presenting on the BBC in 1969, and closed out his career with a final episode of The Rock Show on Friday 25 October and Sounds of the 70s on Sunday 27 October. He was 79.