RIP
by TheSeaLion | created - 24 Feb 2014 | updated - 2 months ago | PublicA list of celebrities and figures I like or respect that passed away. List in alphabetical order by last name.
101. Donald Moffat
Actor | The Thing
The cinema took a while to discover him. Born in England, the son of an insurance agent, RADA-trained Donald Moffat first appeared on the Shakespearean stage with the Old Vic. In 1954, he stage managed the popular revue "Salad Days". Then, 'discontentment' (which, he later explained, had much to do...
1930-2018 (87)- Complications from a stroke
102. Richard Moll
Actor | But I'm a Cheerleader
Charles Richard Moll was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Aristotle Nostradamus "Bull" Shannon, the bailiff on the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1984 to 1992. He has also done extensive work as a voice actor, typically using his deep voice to portray villainous ...
1943-2023 (80)
103. Eddie Money
Soundtrack | Over the Top
Eddie Money was born on March 21, 1949 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Over the Top (1987), The Iron Claw (2023) and Sideways (2004). He was married to Laurie Money and Margo Lee Walker. He died on September 13, 2019 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1949-2019 (70)- Esophageal cancer
104. Ricardo Montalban
Actor | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Legendary actor Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of Latin elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority...
1920-2009 (88)- Congestive heart failure
105. Toni Morrison
Writer | Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Song of Solomon, Beloved (1998) and American Experience (1987). She was married to Harold Morrison. She died on August 5, 2019 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA.
1931-2019 (88)- Complications from pneumonia
106. Brittany Murphy
Actress | Clueless
Brittany Murphy was born Brittany Anne Bertolotti on November 10, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Sharon Kathleen Murphy and Angelo Joseph Bertolotti. Her father's ancestry is Italian, and her mother is of Irish and Slovak descent. Her father moved the family back to Edison, New Jersey as a native New...
1977-2009 (32)- Pneumonia and anemia
107. Haruo Nakajima
Actor | Shichinin no samurai
Haruo Nakajima was born on January 1, 1929 in Yamagata, Japan. He was an actor, known for Seven Samurai (1954), Godzilla (1954) and Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972). He died on August 7, 2017 in Japan.
1929-2017 (88)- Complications from pneumonia
108. Johnny Nash
Soundtrack | Grosse Pointe Blank
Johnny Nash was born on August 19, 1940 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Deep Blue Sea (1999) and Take a Giant Step (1959). He was married to Carlie Collins and Doris Vann. He died on October 6, 2020 in Houston, Texas, USA.
1940-2020 (80)- Natural causes
109. Ricky Nelson
Actor | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
Ricky Nelson was born on May 8, 1940 in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA as Eric Hilliard Nelson. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (1952) and Rio Bravo (1959). He was married to Kristin Harmon. He died on December 31, 1985 in De Kalb, Texas, USA.
1940-1985 (45)- Plane crash
110. Paul Newman
Actor | The Hustler
Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...
1925-2008 (83)- Lung cancer
111. Nichelle Nichols
Actress | Star Trek
Nichelle Nichols was one of 10 children born to parents Lishia and Samuel Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. She was a singer and dancer before turning to acting and finding fame in her groundbreaking role of Lt. Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek (1966) series.
As long as she could remember,...
1932-2022 (89)- Heart failure
112. Leslie Nielsen
Actor | Airplane!
Leslie William Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and raised in Tulita (formerly Fort Norman), Northwest Territories. His mother, Mabel Elizabeth (Davies), was Welsh. His father, Ingvard Eversen Nielsen, was a Danish-born Mountie and a strict disciplinarian. Leslie studied at the Academy of ...
1926-2010 (84)- Pneumonia
113. Leonard Nimoy
Actor | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit ...
1931-2015 (83)- COPD
114. Ric Ocasek
Soundtrack | Super 8
Ric Ocasek was born on March 23, 1944 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Super 8 (2011), The Saint (1997) and Transformers (2007). He was married to Paulina Porizkova, Suzanne LaPointe and Constance Campbell. He died on September 15, 2019 in Manhattan, New York ...
1944-2019 (75)- Heart disease
115. Patrice O'Neal
Actor | 25th Hour
O'Neal was born in New York in 1969, but moved to Boston when he was just 1 year old. He was educated at West Roxbury High School and went on to attend Northeastern University, both in Boston. After this, various jobs followed including a sausage cart vendor at a train station, flower seller and ...
1969-2011 (41)- Stroke
116. Ryan O'Neal
Actor | Love Story
Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal was an American actor and former boxer. He trained as an amateur boxer before beginning his career in acting in 1960. In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place. It was an instant hit and boosted O'Neal's career. He ...
1941-2023 (82)- Congestive heart failure
117. Heather O'Rourke
Actress | Poltergeist
Heather Michele O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975 in Santee, San Diego, California, to Kathleen, a seamstress, and Michael O'Rourke, a construction worker. She had German, Danish, English, and Irish ancestry.
Heather entered American cinematic pop-culture before first grade. She was sitting ...
1975-1988 (12)- Cardiopulmonary arrest and intestinal stenosis
118. George Orwell
Writer | Nineteen Eighty-Four
Born the son of an Opium Agent in Bengal, Eric Blair was educated in England (Eton 1921). The joined the British Imperial Police in Burma, serving until 1927. He then travelled around England and Europe, doing various odd jobs to support his writing. By 1935 he had adopted the 'pen-name' of 'George...
1903-1950 (46)- Tuberculosis
119. Bill Paxton
Actor | Aliens
Bill Paxton was born on May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the son of Mary Lou (Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman and actor (as John Paxton). Bill moved to Los Angeles, California at age eighteen, where he found work in the film industry as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World ...
1955-2017 (61)- Stroke following heart surgery
120. Bob Peck
Actor | Jurassic Park
British actor Bob Peck was born in Leeds in north England on August 23, 1945. He attended Leeds Modern School and then graduated from Leeds College of Art before starting professional stage acting. Peck acted for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. He also starred in more than ...
1945-1999 (53)- Cancer
121. Anthony Perkins
Actor | Psycho
Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & ...
1932-1992 (60)- Pneumonia as a complication of AIDS
122. Wolfgang Petersen
Director | Das Boot
A controversial film maker, Wolfgang Petersen has at once been lauded for his professionalism and attention to detail and decried for turning out a string of standard commercial Hollywood blockbusters. The son of a naval officer, Petersen held a lifelong fascination with the sea and naval subjects....
1941-2022 (81)- Pancreatic cancer
123. Tom Petty
Actor | The Postman
Thomas Earl Petty was an American musician and actor who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the late 1980s super-group the Traveling Wilburys, and had success as a solo artist.
Petty had many ...
1950-2017 (66)- Cardiac arrest
124. River Phoenix
Actor | My Own Private Idaho
River Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom in Madras, Oregon. His mother, Arlyn (Dunetz), a Bronx-born secretary, and his father, John Bottom, a carpenter, met in California in 1968. They worked as itinerant fruit pickers, and later joined the Children of God religious group (John was originally ...
1970-1993 (23)- Drug-induced heart failure
125. Michael Piller
Writer | Star Trek: Insurrection
Michael went to school in New York before taking a creative writing course. The professor for this course told everyone, "There are enough bad writers out there. There needn't be anymore". Michael recalls that the professor would rip up his writing and he would be so broken-hearted. This professor ...
1948-2005 (57)- Cancer
126. Edward Platt
Actor | North by Northwest
Forever and fondly remembered as Don Adams' foil on the popular Mel Brooks/Buck Henry spy series Get Smart (1965), character actor Ed Platt (also billed as Edward C. Platt) had been around for two decades prior to copping that rare comedy role. Born in Staten Island, New York, on Valentine's Day, ...
1916-1974 (58)- Suicide
127. Christopher Plummer
Actor | Beginners
Legendary actor Christopher Plummer, perhaps Canada's greatest thespian, delivered outstanding performances as Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979), the chilling villain in The Silent Partner (1978), the iconoclastic Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999), the empathetic psychiatrist in A ...
1929-2021 (91)- Complications from a fall
128. Pete Postlethwaite
Actor | The Usual Suspects
An oddly fascinating bloke with prominent bony cheeks and rawboned figure, Peter William (Pete) Postlethwaite was born on February 16, 1946 and was a distinguished character actor on stage, TV and film. Growing up the youngest of four siblings in a Catholic family in Warrington, Lancashire (near ...
1946-2011 (64)- Pancreatic cancer
129. Vincent Price
Actor | The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Actor, raconteur, art collector and connoisseur of haute cuisine are just some of the attributes associated with Vincent Price. He was born Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, to Marguerite Cobb "Daisy" (Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, who was President of the National Candy ...
1911-1993 (82)- Lung cancer and emphysema
130. David Prowse
Actor | Star Wars
David "Dave" Prowse was born into a working class family on 1 July, 1935 in Bristol, England, UK. He was raised by his mother and never knew his father. As a child, David was disadvantaged and a poor student, he found a passion for bodybuilding and weight training in his early teens, as a young ...
1935-2020 (85)
131. Douglas Rain
Actor | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Cinema lovers and sci-fi fans will always remember the great Douglas Rain not exactly by his face but specially because of his vocal talents that brought him attention and eternity in the cinema world as the soothing voice of computer HAL 9000 in the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and its ...
1928-2018 (90)- Natural causes
132. Harold Ramis
Writer | Ghostbusters
Born on November 21, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, Harold Allen Ramis got his start in comedy as Playboy magazine's joke editor and reviewer. In 1969, he joined Chicago's Second City's Improvisational Theatre Troupe before moving to New York to help write and perform in "The National Lampoon Show" ...
1944-2014 (69)- Autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis
133. Roger Rees
Actor | Frida
Like a number of British actors of the same generation (John Hurt and Alan Rickman, to name two), Roger Rees originally trained for the visual arts. He was born on May 5 1944 in Aberystwyth, Wales, and acted in church and Boy Scouts stage productions while growing up in South London, but studied ...
1944-2015 (71)- Brain cancer
134. Christopher Reeve
Actor | Superman
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was born September 25, 1952, in New York City, to journalist Barbara Johnson (née Barbara Pitney Lamb) and writer/professor F.D. Reeve (Franklin D'Olier Reeve). He came from an upper-class family; his paternal grandfather was CEO of Prudential Financial, and one of his ...
1952-2004 (52)- Heart failure
135. Ivan Reitman
Producer | Up in the Air
Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which ...
1946-2022 (75)- Natural causes
136. Don Rickles
Actor | Kelly's Heroes
Donald Jay Rickles was born May 8, 1926 in New York. Following the Golden Era of Hollywood, he remained active until early 2017. He got his start in night clubs, toiling for over 20 years, until 1958, when he made his film debut in Run Silent Run Deep (1958). The movie was a big hit. Afterward, ...
1926-2017 (90)- Kidney failure
137. Alan Rickman
Actor | Die Hard
Alan Rickman was born on a council estate in Acton, West London, to Margaret Doreen Rose (Bartlett), of English and Welsh descent, and Bernard Rickman, of Irish descent, who worked at a factory. Alan Rickman had an older brother (David), a younger brother (Michael), and a younger sister (Sheila). ...
1946-2016 (69)- Pancreatic cancer
138. Diana Rigg
Actress | Last Night in Soho
British actress Dame Diana Rigg was born on July 20, 1938 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. She has had an extensive career in film and theatre, including playing the title role in "Medea", both in London and New York, for which she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Rigg made her ...
1938-2020 (82)- Cancer
139. John Ritter
Actor | Sling Blade
Jonathan Southworth Ritter was born in Burbank, California, on September 17, 1948. He was the son of legendary country singer/actor Tex Ritter (born Woodward Maurice Ritter) and his wife, actress Dorothy Fay (née Dorothy Fay Southworth). The couple married in 1941 and had their first child, Tom ...
1948-2003 (54)- Aortic dissection
140. Gene Roddenberry
Writer | Star Trek
While in junior high school, he became interested in science fiction, and years later while reading a copy of 'Astounding Stories' when he was working as an airline pilot, he decided to give it up and become a writer. He moved West and joined the Los Angeles police force to gain experience that ...
1921-1991 (70)- Cardiac arrest
141. Fred Rogers
Actor | Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Fred Rogers was the host of the popular long-running public television children's show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The show debuted in Pittsburgh in 1967 and was picked up by PBS the next year, becoming a staple of public TV stations around the United States. Rogers' mild manner, cardigan sweaters...
1928-2003 (74)- Stomach cancer
142. Cesar Romero
Actor | Batman: The Movie
Tall, suave and sophisticated Cesar Romero actually had two claims to fame in Hollywood. To one generation, he was the distinguished Latin lover of numerous musicals and romantic comedies, and the rogue bandit The Cisco Kid in a string of low-budget westerns. However, to a younger generation weaned...
1907-1994 (86)- Blood clot stemming from bronchitis and pneumonia
143. George A. Romero
Writer | Land of the Dead
George A. Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure; by all indications, though, he was very successful. The director of the groundbreaking "Living Dead" films was born February 4, 1940 ,in New York City to Ann (Dvorsky) and Jorge Romero. His father was born in Spain and raised in Cuba, and...
1940-2017 (77)- Lung cancer
144. William Schallert
Actor | Innerspace
The son of Edwin Schallert, drama editor of the "Los Angeles Times" and the dean of West Coast critics, William Schallert became interested in an acting career while at UCLA in 1942. After graduation, he became involved with the Circle Theater (eventually becoming one of its owners) and made his ...
1922-2016 (93)
145. Roy Scheider
Actor | Jaws
Lean, angular-faced and authoritatively spoken lead / supporting actor Roy Scheider obviously never heard the old actor's axiom about "never appearing with kids or animals" lest they overshadow your performance. Breaking that rule did him no harm, though, as he achieved pop cult status by finding, ...
1932-2008 (75)- Multiple myeloma
146. Peter Sellers
Actor | Being There
Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers to a well-off acting family in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. He was the son of Agnes Doreen "Peg" (Marks) and William "Bill" Sellers. His parents worked in an acting company run by his ...
1925-1980 (54)- Heart attack
147. Rod Serling
Writer | The Twilight Zone
A former boxer, paratrooper and general all-around angry young man, Rod Serling was one of the radical new voices that made the "Golden Age" of television. Long before The Twilight Zone (1959), he was known for writing such high-quality scripts as "Patterns" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight," both ...
1924-1975 (50)- Complications arising from a coronary bypass operation
148. Dr. Seuss
Writer | How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Acclaimed writer, Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, March 2nd, 1904. After attending Dartmouth College and Oxford University, he began a career in advertising. His advertising cartoons, featuring Quick, Henry, the Flit!, appeared in several leading ...
1904-1991 (87)- Throat cancer
149. Robert Shaw
Actor | Jaws
Robert Archibald Shaw was born on August 9, 1927, in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, the eldest son of Doreen Nora (Avery), a nurse, and Thomas Archibald Shaw, a doctor. His paternal grandfather was Scottish, from Argyll. Shaw's mother, who was born in Piggs Peak, Swaziland, met his father while...
1927-1978 (51)- Heart attack
150. Amir Shervan
Director | Samurai Cop
Amir Shervan, was born Amir Hosein Ghaffar in Tehran, Iran on May 24, 1929. In the U.S. he is mostly known for directing the movies Hollywood cop and Samurai Cop but was better known in Iran for his directing, writing and acting in numerous films.
Shervan studied theater in Pasadena California in ...
1929-2006 (77)
151. Sylvia Sidney
Actress | Beetlejuice
Sylvia Sidney was born in The Bronx, New York City, on August 8, 1910 as Sophia Kosow to Jewish parents. Her father was born in Russia and her mother was born in Romania. They divorced not long after her birth. Her mother subsequently remarried and young Sophia was adopted by her stepfather, ...
1910-1999 (88)- Throat cancer
152. Sam Simon
Producer | The Simpsons
Sam Simon was born on June 6, 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for The Simpsons (1989), The Tracey Ullman Show (1987) and Shanghai Noon (2000). He was married to Jami Ferrell and Jennifer Tilly. He died on March 8, 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1955-2015 (59)- Colorectal cancer
153. Gene Siskel
Self | Siskel & Ebert & the Movies
Gene Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He partnered with fellow critic Roger Ebert to present a series of television shows which centered on film reviews. Their partnership lasted from 1975 to Siskel's death in 1999. Siskel became famous for his heated ...
1946-1999 (53)- Complications from brain surgery
154. Arleen Sorkin
Actress | Days of Our Lives
Arleen Sorkin was born on October 14, 1955 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Days of Our Lives (1965), Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000). She was married to Christopher Lloyd. She died on August 24, 2023 in ...
1955-2023 (67)- Complications from multiple sclerosis
155. John Spencer
Actor | The West Wing
John Spencer was born John Speshock III in Paterson, New Jersey, the only son of Mildred (Benzeroski), a homemaker and occasional waitress, and John Speshock, a truck driver. He grew up near Paterson, New Jersey, and left at age 16 to attend the Professional Children's School. In 1963, he landed a ...
1946-2005 (58)- Heart attack
156. Robert Stack
Actor | Written on the Wind
"Straight Shooting" -- whether skeet shooting, or portraying Eliot Ness -- Robert Stack always told it like it was, and shot straight. Born in Los Angeles, California, the younger son of James Langford Stack (1860-1928), the owner of an advertising agency, and Mary Elizabeth Modini Wood (1891-1975)...
1919-2003 (84)- Heart attack
157. Harry Dean Stanton
Actor | Lucky
Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during ...
1926-2017 (91)- Natural causes
158. Rod Steiger
Actor | In the Heat of the Night
Rodney Stephen Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, to Augusta Amelia (Driver) and Frederick Jacob Steiger, both vaudevillians. He was of German and Austrian ancestry. After his parents' divorce, Steiger was raised by his mother in Newark, New Jersey. He dropped out of Westside High school at...
1925-2002 (77)- Pneumonia and kidney failure
159. James Stewart
Actor | Vertigo
James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...
1908-1997 (89)- Cardiac arrest and pulmonary embolism following respiratory problems
160. Joe Strummer
Soundtrack | Grosse Pointe Blank
Although best known as the outspoken front man for legendary punk rock group The Clash, Joe Strummer also carved out an interesting niche as an actor once the band broke up. The Clash formed in 1976, and along with the Sex Pistols spearheaded the British punk rock scene. By 1979, The Clash had ...
1952-2002 (50)- Heart attack
161. Stephen Stucker
Actor | Airplane!
Stephen Stucker was a marvelously wild and dynamic free-spirited actor who specialized in deliciously broad portrayals of memorably outrageous characters in a handful of comedies made in the 70's and 80's. Stucker was born on July 2, 1947 in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Lincoln School in Alameda, ...
1947-1986 (38)- AIDS
162. Akira Takarada
Actor | Gojira
Akira Takarada was born on April 29, 1934, in Chongjin, North Korea. He rose from the Toho New Face program to become 1 of the most recognizable men associated with the original Godzilla series, though he appeared in only 6 installments. He began in 1949 w/ a small role in When the Liberty Bell ...
1934-2022 (87)- Pneumonia
163. Ron Taylor
Actor | Trading Places
Ron Taylor was born on October 16, 1952 in Galveston, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Trading Places (1983), Matlock (1986) and Twin Peaks (1990). He was married to Deborah Sharpe-Taylor. He died on January 16, 2002 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1952-2002 (49)- Heart attack
164. Mary Allin Travers
Writer | Mary: Rhymes and Reasons
Mary Allin Travers was born on November 7, 1936 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She was a writer, known for Mary: Rhymes and Reasons (1972), Great Performances (1971) and Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal (2004). She was married to Ethan Robbins, Gerald L. Taylor, Barry ...
1936-2009 (72)- Leukemia
165. Douglas Trumbull
Visual_effects | Blade Runner
Legendary filmmaker and visual effects pioneer, Douglas Trumbull, was one of the Special Photographic Effects Supervisors for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He went on to become the Visual Effects Supervisor for such classics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Star Trek: The Motion Picture...
1942-2022 (79)- Several illnesses
166. Joe Turkel
Actor | The Shining
Joseph Turkel was an American character actor. He is known for his roles in Stanley Kubrick's films The Killing, Paths of Glory, and The Shining, and as Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner. He also had roles in three of Bert I. Gordon's films. Joseph Turkel was born in Brooklyn on July 15, 1927, to ...
1927-2022 (94)- Liver failure
167. Vangelis
Composer | Blade Runner
Vangelis was a composer and performer who worked almost exclusively with electronic instruments. With Jean-Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield in the 1970s, Vangelis was a pioneer in the instrumental music and a main influence in the creation of the musical genre "new age," a style related to spiritual,...
1943-2022 (79)- Complications from COVID-19
168. Jim Varney
Actor | Ernest Goes to Camp
James Albert Varney, Jr. was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nancy Louise (Howard) and James Albert Varney, Sr. He became interested in theater as a teenager, winning state titles in drama competitions while a student at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky. At age 15 he played Ebeneezer ...
1949-2000 (50)- Lung cancer
169. Max von Sydow
Actor | Flash Gordon
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.
...
1929-2020 (90)
170. Marcia Wallace
Actress | The Simpsons
Born on November 1, 1942, the eldest of three born to an Iowa general storeowner, Marcia Wallace endured a troubled childhood (alcoholism, physical abuse). Performing in high school plays as a teenager, she studied at Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa, where she majored in English and theatre.
...
1942-2013 (70)- Pneumonia
171. David Warner
Actor | Titanic
Distinguished character actor David Hattersley Warner was born on July 29, 1941 in Manchester, England, to Ada Doreen (Hattersley) and Herbert Simon Warner. He was born out of wedlock and raised by each of his parents, eventually settling with his itinerant father and stepmother. He only saw his ...
1941-2022 (80)- Cancer
172. Carl Weathers
Actor | Predator
Carl Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A famous and successful football star at San Diego State, he played with the Oakland Raiders and retired from the sport in 1974, in order to give full attention to his goal: to be a real actor.
Weathers first played small parts ...
1948-2024 (76)- Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
173. Adam West
Actor | Batman
Adam West was born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington, to parents Otto West Anderson, a farmer, and his wife Audrey V. (Speer), an opera singer. At age 10, in 1938, West had a cache of comic books; and starting in 1939, Batman, who appeared in Detective Comics, ...
1928-2017 (88)- Leukemia
174. Betty White
Actress | The Proposal
Betty White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, to Christine Tess (Cachikis), a homemaker, and Horace Logan White, a lighting company executive for the Crouse-Hinds Electric Company. She was of Danish, Greek, English, and Welsh descent.
Although she was best known as the devious Sue Ann Nivens on the ...
1922-2021 (99)- Cerebrovascular accident
175. Grace Lee Whitney
Actress | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Grace Lee Whitney was a versatile actress and vocalist born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Beginning as a "girl singer" on Detroit's WJR radio, she soon opened in nightclubs for Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, and toured with the Spike Jones and Fred Waring Bands. Grace debuted on Broadway in "Top Banana",...
1930-2015 (85)- Natural causes
176. Elie Wiesel
Writer | L'aube
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in the Kingdom of Romania and emigrated after WWII to the United States. Wiesel is famous as a writer and human rights activist. He is a survivor of the Holocaust and his books often deal with this subject. In 1985 Wiesel was awarded the Congressional Gold...
1928-2016 (87)
177. Robin Williams
Actor | Mrs. Doubtfire
Robin McLaurin Williams was born on Saturday, July 21st, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Governor and Senator, Anselm J. McLaurin. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (née Janin), was a former model from Mississippi, and his father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a Ford ...
1951-2014 (63)- Suicide
178. Paul Winfield
Actor | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Signifying intelligence, eloquence, versatility and quiet intensity, one of the more important, critically acclaimed black actors to gain a Hollywood foothold in the 1970s was Paul Winfield. He was born in 1939 in Dallas, Texas, where he lived in his early years before moving with his family to Los...
1939-2004 (64)- Heart attack
179. Richard D. Winters
Self | Band of Brothers
Richard D. Winters was born on January 21, 1918 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. He is known for Band of Brothers (2001), Dick Winters: Hang Tough (2012) and The Last Days of World War II (2005). He was married to Ethel. He died on January 2, 2011 in Palmyra, Pennsylvania, USA.
1918-2011 (92)- Complications from Parkinson's disease
180. Bill Withers
Soundtrack | The Bodyguard
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Bill Withers was born on July 4, 1938 in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia and was raised in the nearby town of Beckley. He was the youngest of six children of Mattie (Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. His father died when Withers...
1938-2020 (81)- Heart complications
181. Harris Wittels
Writer | Parks and Recreation
Harris Wittels was born on April 20, 1984 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Parks and Recreation (2009), Master of None (2015) and Eastbound & Down (2009). He died on February 19, 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1984-2015 (30)- Heroine overdose
182. Anton Yelchin
Actor | Star Trek
Anton Yelchin was an American actor, known for playing Bobby in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Chekov in the Star Trek (2009) reboot, Charlie Brewster in the Fright Night (2011) remake, and Jacob in Like Crazy (2011).
He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, USSR, to a Jewish family. His ...
1989-2016 (27)- Car accident
183. Lee Thompson Young
Actor | Friday Night Lights
Lee Thompson Young was born as the son of Velma Love and Tommy Scott Young. When he was in second grade his parents split up and he went to live with his mother. At age ten, he portrayed Dr. Martin Luther King in a play called "A Night of Stars and Dreams". That's when Lee decided he wanted to be ...
1984-2013 (29)- Suicide
184. Malcolm Young
Soundtrack | School of Rock
Malcolm Young was born on January 6, 1953 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was a composer and actor, known for School of Rock (2003), Last Action Hero (1993) and Maximum Overdrive (1986). He was married to Linda. He died on November 18, 2017.
1953-2017 (64)- Complications from dementia
185. Terence Young
Director | Dr. No
Born in Shanghai and Cambridge-educated, Terence Young began in the industry as a scriptwriter. In the 1940s he worked on a variety of subjects, including the hugely popular wartime romance Suicide Squadron (1941), set to Richard Addinsell's rousing "Warsaw Concerto". His original story was devised...
1915-1994 (79)- Heart attack
186. Robert Z'Dar
Actor | Tango & Cash
Robert Z'Dar was born Robert James Zdarsky on June 3, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois. He caught the acting bug while attending Proviso West High School in Hillside. He received a BFA from Arizona State University. Prior to acting Z'Dar was a singer/keyboardist/guitar player for the Chicago-based rock ...
1950-2015 (64)- Cardiac arrest
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