Celebrities who died in the 2020's (Still in Progress):
by mattrcampbell | created - 23 Nov 2021 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicThis is a list of celebrities who died in the 2020's:
1. Robert Blanche
Actor | Men of Honor
The youngest of five children, Robert Clinton Blanche was born to Mary Edith Blanche (Heavner) and Richard Keith Blanche on March 30, 1962 in Pomona, California, but spent most of his life in Oregon. He joined SAG (Screen Actors Guild) in 1995 and served as Portland SAG Branch President for many ...
1962-2020
2. Edd Byrnes
Actor | Grease
Edd Byrnes was born Edward Byrne Breitenberger on July 30, 1932 in New York City, the son of Mary (Byrne) and Augustus "Gus" Breitenberger. Edd shared an impoverished and unhappy childhood with brother Vincent and sister Jo-Ann. Their mother worked hard at various jobs to keep the family together ...
1932-2020
3. Buck Henry
Writer | The Graduate
Prolific, multi-talented comedy writer, story editor, actor and director. His father was an Air Force general (Paul Steinberg Zuckerman) turned stockbroker and his mother was silent screen star Ruth Taylor, formerly a member of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. Buck Henry's first fling with comedy ...
1930-2020
4. John Karlen
Actor | Cagney & Lacey
John Karlen was born on May 28, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Cagney & Lacey (1981), Dark Shadows (1966) and House of Dark Shadows (1970). He was married to Betty Karlen. He died on January 22, 2020 in Burbank, California, USA.
1932-2020
5. Kirk Douglas
Actor | The Final Countdown
Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. ...
1916-2020
6. Orson Bean
Actor | Being John Malkovich
Orson Bean, the American actor, television personality and author, was born Dallas Frederick Burrows on July 22, 1928 in Burlington, Vermont to George Frederick Burrows, a policeman who later went on to become the chief of campus police at Harvard University, and the former Marion Ainsworth Pollard...
1928-2020
7. Robert Conrad
Actor | Jingle All the Way
Robert Conrad was a graduate of Northwestern University, spending his first few years out of school supporting himself and his family by driving a milk truck and singing in a Chicago cabaret. Conrad befriended up-and-coming actor Nick Adams during this period, and it was Adams who helped Conrad get...
1935-2020
8. Lynn Cohen
Actress | Munich
Lynn Cohen was born on August 10, 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Munich (2005), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) and The Cobbler (2014). She was married to Ronald Theodore Cohen and Gilbert Laman Frazen. She died on February 14, 2020 in New York City, New York, USA.
1933-2020
9. Kellye Nakahara
Actress | Clue
Kellye Nakahara was born on January 16, 1948 in Oahu, Hawaii, USA. She was an actress, known for Clue (1985), M*A*S*H (1972) and Doctor Dolittle (1998). She was married to David Wallett. She died on February 16, 2020 in Pasadena, California, USA.
1947-2020
10. Ja'net DuBois
Soundtrack | Good Times
Ja'Net DuBois was a multi-talented and diverse performer. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York and began her career on Broadway. She has appeared in various plays, including "Golden Boy" with Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Gossett Jr., and "A Raisin in the Sun". She moved onto TV roles, receiving a Peabody...
1932-2020
11. 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
12. Stuart Whitman
Actor | The Comancheros
American leading man Stuart Maxwell Whitman was known for his rugged roles. He was born in San Francisco, California, the elder of two sons of Cecilia (Gold) and Joseph Whitman, a realtor. His mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant, while his paternal grandparents were Polish Jews. His family moved ...
1928-2020
13. Lyle Waggoner
Actor | Surf II
The television heartthrob from the 1960s and 1970s was the proverbial tall, dark and classically handsome actor. Completing the solid package was a great, muscular build, smooth charm, and an almost perfect set of teeth. Born in 1935 in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, he ...
1935-2020
14. Kenny Rogers
Soundtrack | Polar
Born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1938, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, actor, record producer and entrepreneur Kenneth Ray Rogers was the fourth of eight children born to a carpenter father who worked in a shipyard and a mother who was a hospital nurse's assistant. Of humble Irish and Native...
1938-2020
15. Mark Blum
Actor | Desperately Seeking Susan
Mark Blum was born on May 14, 1950 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Crocodile Dundee (1986) and The Sopranos (1999). He was married to Janet Zarish. He died on March 26, 2020 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
1950-2020
16. David Schramm
Actor | Wings
A Kentucky native, Schramm attended Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky and majored in English while also becoming intensely involved in theater. At the urging of his college acting teacher, he applied for and won a four-year graduate scholarship to Juilliard's newly formed drama...
1946-2020
17. Honor Blackman
Actress | Goldfinger
One of four children, Blackman was born in London's East End, to Edith Eliza (Stokes), a homemaker, and Frederick Thomas Blackman, a statistician employed with the Civil Service. She received elocution lessons for her 16th birthday (at her own request), and later attended the Guildhall School of ...
1926-2020
18. James Drury
Actor | The Virginian
Laconic, dark and handsome were the essential attributes for Hollywood western leading men in the 50s and 60s. James Drury fit the bill, keeping in mind that his most famous screen persona - that of the stalwart Shiloh estate ranch foreman known only as 'the Virginian' - took a while to properly ...
1934-2020
19. Brian Dennehy
Actor | First Blood
Imposing, barrel-chested and often silver-haired Brian Dennehy was a prolific US actor, well respected on both screen and stage over many decades. He was born in July 1938 in Bridgeport, CT, and attended Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship. Brian majored in history, ...
1938-2020
20. Tom Lester
Actor | Benji
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Lester was brought up on his grandfather's farm, shucking corn, fishing, hunting, and picking cotton. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, majoring in Chemistry. He taught science and biology at a school in Purcell, Oklahoma, before moving to California. He...
1938-2020
21. Shirley Knight
Actress | As Good as It Gets
Shirley Knight was an American actress who appeared in more than 180 feature films, television movies, television series, and Broadway productions in her career playing leading and character roles.
She was a member of the Actors Studio. Knight was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best ...
1936-2020
22. Irrfan Khan
Actor | The Lunchbox
Born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan, in Jaipur, Rajasthan (NW India) January 7, 1967 to a Pashto-speaking Muslim family. Khan's mother, Begum Khan, was from the Tonk Hakim family and his father, Jagirdar Khan, from the Khajuriya village near the Tonk district, ran a tire business.
The Khan family name ...
1967-2020
23. Sam Lloyd
Actor | Scrubs
Sam Lloyd was born on November 12, 1963 in Springfield, Vermont, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Scrubs (2001), Galaxy Quest (1999) and Flubber (1997). He was married to Vanessa Villalovos. He died on April 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1963-2020
24. Jerry Stiller
Actor | The Heartbreak Kid
As the short, straight-man counterpart of the stellar husband-and-wife comedy team "Stiller & Meara", Jerry Stiller and wife Anne Meara were on top of the comedy game in the 1960s, a steady and hilarious presence on television variety, notably The Ed Sullivan Show (1948), on which they appeared 36 ...
1927-2020
25. Fred Willard
Actor | Best in Show
Fred Willard radiated a unique charm that established him as one of the industry's most gifted comic actors, first coming to prominence as ambitious but dimwitted sidekick Jerry Hubbard to Martin Mull's smarmy talk-show host Barth Gimble in the devastating satirical series Fernwood Tonight (1977). ...
1933-2020
26. Ken Osmond
Actor | Leave It to Beaver
Forever tagged as the unctuous, trouble-making truant Eddie Haskell on the quintessential 50s family show Leave It to Beaver (1957), actor Ken Osmond did not manage much of a career after the stereotype. So inextricably typed was he that he gave up on any semblance of a career within a short time ...
1943-2020
27. Richard Herd
Actor | All the President's Men
Utilitarian character actor Richard Herd was one of those stern familiar faces you saw countless times on film and TV but couldn't quite place the name. The stage-trained actor, who shared a striking resemblance to actor Karl Malden, never found the one role that would make him a household name, ...
1932-2020
28. Ian Holm
Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Sir Ian Holm was one of the world's greatest actors, a Laurence Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning, BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated British star of films and the stage. He was a member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and has played more than 100 roles in films and on ...
1931-2020
29. Carl Reiner
Writer | The Dick Van Dyke Show
Carl Reiner is a legend of American comedy, who achieved great success as a comic actor, a director, producer and recording artist. He won nine Emmy Awards, three as an actor, four as a writer and two as a producer. He also won a Grammy Award for his album "The 2,000 Year Old Man", based on his ...
1922-2020
30. Naya Rivera
Actress | Glee
Naya Rivera was an Afro-Latina American actress, model and singer known for playing Santana Lopez from Glee and Hillary Winston from The Royal Family. She also was in The Master of Disguise, Baywatch, CSI: Miami, American Dad, Batman: The Long Halloween Parts 1 and 2, Even Stevens and The Bernie ...
1987-2020
31. Kelly Preston
Actress | Battlefield Earth
Kelly Preston was born on October 13, 1962 in Honolulu, Hawaii. A talented and captivating performer, she first garnered international attention with her role as "Marnie Mason" in Ivan Reitman's Twins (1988), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. With her diverse character portrayals in ...
1962-2020
32. Phyllis Somerville
Actress | Little Children
Phyllis Somerville was born on December 12, 1943 in Iowa City, Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for Little Children (2006), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Stoker (2013). She died on July 16, 2020 in New York City, New York, USA.
1943-2020
33. Regis Philbin
Actor | Little Nicky
TV-talk show host, game-show host, singer, author, and TV personality, Regis Philbin became one of the most popular talk-show hosts in America and in Canada, especially. Growing up as an only child in The Bronx, New York, Philbin went to the University of Notre Dame and got a degree in sociology. ...
1931-2020
34. John Saxon
Actor | A Nightmare on Elm Street
John Saxon appeared in nearly 200 roles in the movies and on television in a more-than half-century-long career that has stretched over seven decades since he made his big screen debut in 1954 in uncredited small roles in It Should Happen to You (1954) and George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954). Born...
1936-2020
35. Olivia de Havilland
Actress | Gone with the Wind
Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her sister Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her ...
1916-2020
36. Wilford Brimley
Actor | The Natural
Wilford Brimley was born on September 27, 1934 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for The Natural (1984), In & Out (1997) and Cocoon (1985). He was married to Beverly Berry and Lynne Brimley. He died on August 1, 2020 in St. George, Utah, USA.
1934-2020
37. Ben Cross
Actor | Star Trek
Ben Cross was born Harry Bernard Cross on December 16, 1947, in London, England. He was the son of Catherine (O'Donovan), a cleaning woman, from Keelraheen, Dunmanway, Ireland, and Harry Cross, an English doorman and nurse. He began acting at a very young age and participated in grammar school ...
1947-2020
38. Chadwick Boseman
Actor | Black Panther
Chadwick Boseman was an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of T'Challa / Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from 2016 to 2019, particularly in Black Panther (2018), and for his starring roles as several pioneering Americans, Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013), James Brown in Get on...
1976-2020
39. Kevin Dobson
Actor | Knots Landing
At his best playing blue-collared tough guys, curly dark-haired Irish-American actor Kevin Patrick Dobson was born in Queens, New York, on March 18, 1943, and raised in the Jackson Heights area of that borough. One of seven children born to a school janitor father and a homemaker mother, the future...
1943-2020
40. 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
41. Conchata Ferrell
Actress | Two and a Half Men
It took 30 years since it was first predicted, but Conchata Ferrell finally achieved television stardom, albeit of the supporting variety, as the housekeeper "Berta" in the situation-comedy Two and a Half Men (2003). Ferrell originally had been tipped for stardom with her turn as the prostitute "...
1943-2020
42. Rhonda Fleming
Actress | Out of the Past
A native-born Californian, Rhonda Fleming attended Beverly Hills public and private schools. Her father was Harold Cheverton Louis (1896-1951). Her mother, Effie Olivia Graham (1891-1985), was a famous model and actress in New York. She has a son (Kent Lane), two granddaughters (Kimberly and Kelly)...
1923-2020
43. Sean Connery
Actor | The Rock
The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he ...
1930-2020
44. Alex Trebek
Producer | Jeopardy!
Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, Alex Trebek graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in Philosophy. After his first decision to become a newscaster, he joined the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company), Canada's premier network in 1961. As he was working, he helped organize national ...
1940-2020
45. David L. Lander
Actor | Laverne & Shirley
David L. Lander was born on June 22, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Laverne & Shirley (1976), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Used Cars (1980). He was married to Kathy Fields and Thea (Pool) Markus. He died on December 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, ...
1947-2020
46. Natalie Desselle Reid
Actress | B*A*P*S
Actress Natalie Desselle Reid hailed from Alexandria, Louisiana. She graduated from Peabody Magnet High School and attended Grambling State University for 2 1/2 years. The acting bug bit her after a starring role in Grambling's production of "Bubbling Brown Sugar." After several productions as a ...
1968-2020
47. Tom Lister Jr.
Actor | Le Cinquième Élément
If you ever wanted a 6' 5", musclebound, broad-shouldered, shaved-head actor to play a terrifying bodyguard, a soldier of fortune or a fearsome gangster, then Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr. was your man. The basketball player turned actor, who notched up appearances in roughly 132 films, first popped up ...
1958-2020
48. Ann Reinking
Actress | All That Jazz
Ann Reinking was born on November 10, 1949, in Seattle, Washington. Renowned more for her dancing than acting, Reinking has danced in many Broadway shows. She made her film debut in Movie Movie (1978) and the following year starred opposite Roy Scheider and Jessica Lange in the Bob Fosse biopic All...
1949-2020
49. Dawn Wells
Actress | Gilligan's Island
A wholesome beauty with comedic appeal, Dawn Elberta Wells was born on October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. Wells' childhood was a happy and healthy one. She and her mother grew their own fruits and vegetables in their gardens and Dawn rode horses. In her high school years, she was the class treasurer...
1938-2020
50. Tanya Roberts
Actress | A View to a Kill
The second daughter of manufacturing executive Oscar Blum and his wife Dorothy, Tanya Roberts was born 1949 in Manhattan and grew up in the elite Westchester County suburbs Scarsdale and Greenburgh. Tanya reportedly dropped out of high school, got married and hitchhiked around the country until her...
1955-2021
51. Gregory Sierra
Actor | The Towering Inferno
Lanky, balding, intense American character actor of Puerto Rican ancestry, born in New York's Spanish Harlem. Deserted by his parents, Sierra was brought up by an aunt in a rough, predominantly Irish neighbourhood from the age of six. Though briefly tempted by gang life as a teenager, he took up ...
1937-2021
52. Deezer D
Actor | Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
Deezer D was born in 1965 in Los Angeles, California. He is not only an actor but a popular performer in the Christian and underground hip hop communities. His latest release is titled "Unpredictable". He also briefly hosted a Christian Rap radio show in Los Angeles on station 96.3 KFSG.
1966-2021
53. Marion Ramsey
Actress | Police Academy
Marion Ramsey was an American actress and singer from Philadelphia. She is primarily known for her role as the soft-spoken policewoman Laverne Hooks in the "Police Academy" film series (1984-1994). Hooks was depicted as a "diminutive, soft-spoken and unassertive woman" with a high-pitched voice. ...
1947-2021
54. Peter Mark Richman
Actor | Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
This durable, granite-faced actor with the matching steel-edged voice was one of the most interesting and recognisable leads in 1950s and 1960s television. He was born Marvin Jack Richman in South Philadelphia to paper and roofing contractor Benjamin Richman and his wife Yetta Dora (née Peck), the ...
1927-2021
55. Hal Holbrook
Actor | Into the Wild
Hal Holbrook was an Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor who was one of the great craftsmen of stage and screen. He was best known for his performance as Mark Twain, for which he won a Tony and the first of his ten Emmy Award nominations. Aside from the stage, Holbrook made his reputation primarily on...
1925-2021
56. Larry King
Actor | Ghostbusters
Larry King was born on November 19, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Ghostbusters (1984), Shrek 2 (2004) and Enemy of the State (1998). He was married to Shawn Ora Engemann, Julie Alexander, Sharon Lepore, Alene Akins, Mickey Sutphin, Annette ...
1933-2021
57. Bruce Kirby
Actor | The Muppet Movie
One of those hard-working supporting actors whose face you know but whose name might not ring any bells. Italian-American Bruce Kirby (real name Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu) was steadily employed--primarily on the small screen--to play a gallery of often likeable, mainly unimposing characters in a ...
1927-2021
58. Cloris Leachman
Actress | The Last Picture Show
The legendary actress set a record when at age 82, she appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2005). Cloris Leachman was born on April 30, 1926 in Des Moines, Iowa to Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman and the former Cloris Wallace. Her father's family owned a lumber company, Leachman Lumber Co. She ...
1926-2021
59. Cicely Tyson
Actress | The Help
Cicely Tyson was born in Harlem, New York City, where she was raised by her devoutly religious parents, who had come from the Caribbean island of Nevis. Her mother Theodosia was a domestic worker and her her father William was a carpenter and painter. Tyson was discovered by a fashion editor at ...
1924-2021
60. Dustin Diamond
Actor | Saved by the Bell
Attended Zion Lutheran School in Anaheim, California. While in fifth grade, he portrayed 8th-grader Samuel "Screech" Powers in the television series Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987), which evolved into Saved by the Bell (1989) and its various television movies and spin-offs. Also appeared in the ...
1977-2021
61. 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
62. Henry Darrow
Actor | The Hitcher
In the late 1960s, Henry Darrow was THE ultimate Latin heartthrob on television. With a smooth, ingratiating style and a killer smile that brightened up the small screen, he also hit a cultural acting landmark as the first Hispanic actor to portray Zorro on television.
He was born Enrique Tomás ...
1933-2021
63. Yaphet Kotto
Actor | Alien
Physically imposing, intense Yaphet Kotto was one of the few actors of his generation to succeed in breaking racial stereotypes in Hollywood. He was born in Harlem, New York, the son of Gladys, a nurse and army officer, and Abraham Kotto, a businessman-turned-construction worker. His father was a ...
1939-2021
64. Richard Gilliland
Actor | Airplane II: The Sequel
Richard Gilliland was born on January 23, 1950 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Designing Women (1986) and CBS Summer Playhouse (1987). He was married to Jean Smart and Lindsay Harrison. He died on March 18, 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1950-2021
65. George Segal
Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
George Segal was born on February 13, 1934 in New York City, New York, to Fannie Blanche (Bodkin) and George Segal Sr., a malt and hop agent. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. After a stint in the military, he made his bones as a stage actor before being cast in his first ...
1934-2021
66. Jessica Walter
Actress | Arrested Development
Acclaimed actress Jessica Walter was born on January 31, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Esther (Groisser), a teacher, and David Walter (his original surname was Warshawsky), a musician who was a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the NYC Ballet Orchestra. She was of Russian ...
1942-2021
67. Walter Olkewicz
Actor | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Walter Olkewicz was born on May 14, 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), The Client (1994) and 1941 (1979). He died on April 6, 2021 in Reseda, California, USA.
1947-2021
68. James Hampton
Actor | Teen Wolf
Raised in Dallas, Texas, James Hampton attended John H. Reagan Elementary, N.R. Crozier Technical High School and the University of North Texas (Theatre Arts Major). He studied acting with Michael Howard in New York and Leonard Nimoy in Los Angeles. He worked with Baruch Lumet at Knox Street ...
1936-2021
69. DMX
Soundtrack | Exit Wounds
Earl Simmons (December 18, 1970 - April 9, 2021), known by his stage name DMX ("Dark Man X"), was an American rapper and actor. He began rapping in the early 1990s and released his debut album It's Dark and Hell Is Hot in 1998, to both critical acclaim and commercial success, selling 251,000 copies...
1970-2021
70. Helen McCrory
Actress | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Award-winning actress Helen Elizabeth McCrory was born in London, England, to Welsh-born Anne (Morgans) and Scottish-born Iain McCrory, a diplomat from Glasgow. After training at the Drama Centre London, Helen began her career on stage in the UK and won the Manchester Evening News' Best Actress ...
1968-2021
71. Johnny Crawford
Actor | The Rifleman
Johnny Crawford was born on March 26, 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Rifleman (1958), Hellboy (2004) and The Thirteenth Floor (1999). He was married to Charlotte Samco. He died on April 29, 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1946-2021
72. Frank McRae
Actor | Loaded Weapon 1
African-American former NFL player, with plenty of height and built like an ox, Frank McRae scored over 40 film appearances predominantly as physically imposing men and authority figures, sometimes in quite comedic roles. McRae first came to attention playing a grinning jail inmate, "Reed ...
1944-2021
73. Olympia Dukakis
Actress | Moonstruck
Long a vital, respected thespian of the classic and contemporary stage, this grand lady did not become a household name and sought-after film actress until age 56 when she turned in a glorious, Oscar-winning performance as Cher's sardonic mother in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987). Movie (and ...
1931-2021
74. Norman Lloyd
Actor | Dead Poets Society
Norman Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Sadie (Horowitz), a housewife and singer, and Max Perlmutter, a furniture store manager. His family was Jewish (from Hungary and Russia). He began his acting career in the theater, first "treading the boards" at Eva Le Gallienne...
1914-2021
75. Charles Grodin
Actor | Midnight Run
Deadpan comedian Charles Sydney Grodin (originally Grodinsky) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania of Russian/Polish ancestry and raised in a Jewish orthodox home. He attended the University of Miami but dropped out, opting instead for the life of a struggling actor. The movie A Place in the Sun (...
1935-2021
76. Paul Mooney
Actor | Bamboozled
Paul Mooney was born on August 4, 1941 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Bamboozled (2000), Brewster's Millions (1985) and Pryor's Place (1984). He was married to Yvonne Mooney. He died on May 19, 2021 in Oakland, California, USA.
1941-2021
77. Samuel E. Wright
Actor | The Little Mermaid
Samuel Ernest Wright was an African-American actor and singer from Camden, South Carolina. He notably voiced Sebastian the Crab from Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise and Kron the Iguanodon from Dinosaur. He also played Mufasa in the original Broadway run of The Lion King. He passed away in May...
1946-2021
78. Gavin MacLeod
Actor | Mary Tyler Moore
Gavin MacLeod's pleasing, agreeable manner on two hit TV series in the 1970s and '80s belied a number of shady villains he portrayed in his early career. Born Allan George See in Mt. Kisco, New York, on February 28, 1931, and raised in Pleasantville, he was the son of Margaret (Shea) and George See...
1931-2021
79. Arlene Golonka
Actress | Hang 'Em High
A native Chicagoan of Polish descent, veteran character actress Arlene Golonka seemed destined for acting from the start, having been named after silver screen actress Arline Judge, and her childhood was dominated by singing and acting classes. She headed to New York at the age of 19 and began a ...
1936-2021
80. Clarence Williams III
Actor | The General's Daughter
Born on August 21, 1939, the son of a displaced musician, Harlem-born actor Clarence Williams III was raised by his musical grandparents, the legendary jazz and boogie-woogie composer/pianist Clarence Williams, who wrote such classics as "T'Aint Nobody's Business If I Do" and "Baby, Won't You ...
1939-2021
81. Ned Beatty
Actor | Network
Stocky, genial-looking supporting actor Ned Beatty was once hailed by Daily Variety as the "busiest actor in Hollywood."
Ned Thomas Beatty was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Margaret (Fortney) and Charles William Beatty. He grew up fishing and working on farms. His hometown of St. Matthews, ...
1937-2021
82. Lisa Banes
Actress | Gone Girl
Lisa Lou Banes was an American actress known for more than 80 film and television roles, as well as stage appearances on Broadway and elsewhere.
She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1984 for Isn't it Romantic? and won a 1981 Theatre World Award for her ...
1955-2021
83. Frank Bonner
Actor | WKRP in Cincinnati
Frank Bonner was born on February 28, 1942 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor and director, known for WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), Equinox (1970) and The New WKRP in Cincinnati (1991). He was married to Gayle Hardage, Catherine Sherwood, Lillian Garrett, Mary Alice Rings and Sharon Gray. ...
1942-2021
84. William Smith
Actor | Any Which Way You Can
William Smith was probably best known for his portrayal as "Falconetti" in Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). He first came to the screen as a child actor in films such as Going My Way (1944) and The Song of Bernadette (1943), before entering the service during the Korean War, where his fluency in foreign ...
1933-2021
85. Suzzanne Douglas
Actress | School of Rock
Suzzanne Douglas is an award-winning actress of both screen and stage, whose work has led her through all walks of creative life. Driven by her desire to constantly grow as an artist, Suzzanne has developed a canon of enigmatic and complex roles, and hopes to encourage younger artists to do the ...
1957-2021
86. Charles Robinson
Actor | Night Court
In the late 1960s, Charlie attended, and was enrolled in, Studio 7, an acting school operated by Chris Wilson at the Houston Music Theatre. He stayed with Chris when the school was moved to another location in Southwest Houston where mainly children's theater was presented. Charlie was cast in a ...
1945-2021
87. Jackie Mason
Actor | The Jerk
Jackie Mason was born on June 9, 1928 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Jerk (1979), History of the World: Part I (1981) and Caddyshack II (1988). He was married to Jyll Rosenfeld. He died on July 24, 2021 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
1928-2021
88. Saginaw Grant
Actor | The Lone Ranger
Saginaw is the Hereditary Chief and a respected member of the Sac and Fox, Iowa and Otoe-Missouria Nations.
In 1936, Saginaw Morgan Grant was born to Sarah and Austin Grant Sr. at Pawnee Indian Hospital in Pawnee, Oklahoma. He was raised on a farm in Cushing, Oklahoma with two brothers and one ...
1936-2021
89. Markie Post
Actress | There's Something About Mary
Markie Post grew up in Walnut Creek, California and started her career on films and TV shows, such as Card Sharks (1978) and "The New Card Sharks" (1986) and went on to even produce such projects as Double Dare (1976) and has made appearances on such television projects as 1st to Die (2003), E! ...
1949-2021
90. Jane Withers
Actress | Giant
During the early times of the Depression when life was more famine than feast, child stars became the blue plate special of the day, served up by Hollywood to help nourish a nation besieged with troubles. Following 20th Century-Fox monumental success with Shirley Temple in the early 1930s, every ...
1925-2021
91. Alex Cord
Actor | Airwolf
Born Alexander Viespi, Jr. in Floral Park, New York in 1933, handsome, often mustachioed Alex Cord was stricken with polio at the age of 12. Confined to a hospital and iron lung for a long time, he overcame the illness after being sent to a Wyoming ranch for therapy. He soon regained his dream and ...
1933-2021
92. Una Stubbs
Actress | Sherlock
Her dancing career started in Leicestershire where her father worked in an aircraft factory. She went into pantomime as a chorus girl and eventually became known when she did a chocolate commercial which led to work on television and films, Despite what other people say she doesn't think that shes ...
1937-2021
93. Shin'ichi Chiba
Actor | Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Sonny Chiba was born as Sadao Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan on January 22, 1939. His father was a military test pilot. During his youth, he had an interest in both theater & gymnastics. He was talented enough to make the Japanese Olympic Team until a chronic back injury ended his career. However, he took...
1939-2021
94. Michael Nader
Actor | Dynasty
Michael Nader was born on February 19, 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Dynasty (1981), Pajama Party (1964) and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965). He was married to Jody Lister, Beth Windsor and Robin Weiss. He died on August 23, 2021 in Lake Tahoe, California, USA.
1945-2021
95. Edward Asner
Actor | Up
Edward Asner was born of Russian Jewish parentage in Kansas City, to Morris David Asner (founder and owner of the Kansas City-based Asner Iron & Metal Company) and his wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Seliger). After attending college, Ed worked various jobs, including in a steel mill, as a door-to-door ...
1929-2021
96. Michael Constantine
Actor | My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Award-winning Greek-American actor Michael Constantine (born 22 May 1927) is best known for his portrayal of the Windex bottle-toting family patriarch "Gus Portokalos" in the sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). Before his appearance in that movie and the subsequent TV series based on it, ...
1927-2021
97. Jean-Paul Belmondo
Actor | Pierrot le fou
The son of the renowned French sculptor Paul Belmondo, he studied at Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique (CNSAD); after the minor stage performances he made his screen debut in À pied, à cheval et en voiture (1957) but the episodes with his participation were cut before ...
1933-2021
98. Michael Kenneth Williams
Actor | The Wire
Emmy-nominated actor and producer Michael Kenneth Williams was one of his generation's most respected and acclaimed talents. By bringing complicated and charismatic characters to life--often with surprising tenderness--Williams established himself as a gifted and versatile performer with a unique ...
1966-2021
99. Art Metrano
Actor | Police Academy 3: Back in Training
Art Metrano was born on September 22, 1936 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986), Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) and History of the World: Part I (1981). He was married to Rebecca Elizabeth Chute...
1936-2021
100. Norm MacDonald
Actor | Dirty Work
Macdonald was born Norman Gene Macdonald in Quebec City, Quebec. He began his career in stand-up comedy. Macdonald's first job was writing for The Dennis Miller Show (1992) and then Roseanne (1988). While writing for Roseanne (1988), he was noticed by Lorne Michaels, who liked Norm's stand up, and ...
1959-2021
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