Much has been made that this is THE worst year for beloved celebrity deaths. No doubt there have been almost too many to count. Just scroll down and down and down, and your jaw will hang open and your eyes will get moist. The sad fact is, we are all getting older and those that we’ve looked up to are reaching their expiration date. Along with the fact that, that it’s the flip side of life –death. It reminds us that this isn’t a permanent gig.
Jeffrey Slonim
I’m sorry if you lost someone you loved. I sadly said goodbye to my old pal and colleague, writer Jeffrey Slonim. I was unfortunately out of the city a few weeks ago when his friends and family got together to pay tribute to him. I heard it was lovely. He’ll be missed by many. If you wonder why I put him among all these famous faces, it’s because it’s where he thrived. For years he has been a red carpet staple and if there’s a step-and-repeat photo opp at the pearly gate’s welcome party, Jeff will be there asking questions like,
“If you could take just ONE THING to heaven, what would it be…?“
I think he’d like that joke, but honestly he’d have a better question.
So why not use this as a positive, don’t be bummed. Go out in 2017 and live every day like it’s your last and, as the cliché goes, one day you’ll be right.
David Bowie – 69, beloved musician, actor, cult-hero, our Man Who Fell To Earth
Pat Harrington, Jr. – 86, actor, One Day at a Time
Rene Angelil – 73, Celine Dion’s husband and manager
Alan Rickman – 69, actor, Harry Potter films
Dan Haggerty – 74, actor, Grizzly Adams
Glenn Frey – 67, musician, The Eagles
Abe Vigoda – 94, actor, Barney Miller
Paul Kantner – 74, founding member, Jefferson Airplane
Joe Alaskey – 63, voice actor, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck
Maurice White – 74, founder, Earth, Wind & Fire
Dave Mirra – 41, BMX racer
Edgar Mitchell – 85, the Apollo 14 astronaut
Vanity (Denise Katrina Matthews) – 57, Prince protege
Antonin Scalia – 79, U.S. Supreme Court judge
George Gaynes – 89, actor, Punky Brewster
Boutros Boutros-Ghali – 93, former U.N. secretary-general
Angela “Big Ang” Raiola – 55, Mob Wives
Harper Lee – 89, To Kill a Mockingbird author
Umberto Eco – 84, Italian author
Sonny James – 87, country singer
Tony Burton – 78, actor who played Apollo Creed’s boxing trainer
George Kennedy – 91, Cool Hand Luke actor
Lee Reherman – 49, American Gladiator
Joey Feek – 40, one half Joey + Rory
Pete Burns – singer, Dead or Alive
Pat Conroy – 70, The Prince of Tides author
Nancy Reagan – 94, former FLOTUS
George Martin – 90, The Beatles‘ producer
Keith Emerson – 71, founder of Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Frank Sinatra Jr. – 72, singer
Bob Ebeling – 89, booster rocket engineer
Phife Dawg – 45, songwriter, Tribe Called Quest
Rob Ford – 46, former mayor of Toronto
Joe Garagiola – 90, the former Today show anchor
Garry Shandling – 66, actor and comedian, The Larry Sanders Show
Jim Harrison – 78, fiction writer, Legends of the Fall
Mother Mary Angelica – 92, Roman Catholic nun, EWTN
Patty Duke – 69, Oscar-winner, The Miracle Worker
Erik Bauersfeld – 93, Star Wars actor
Merle Haggard – 79, country singer
David Gest – 62, former husband of Liza Minnelli
Doris Roberts – 90, actor, Everybody Loves Raymond
Les Waas – 94, advertising legend behind the Mister Softee jingle
Chyna – 46, pro-wrestler
Prince – 57, legend
Michelle McNamara – crime writer, wife of Patton Oswalt
Isabelle Dinoire – 49, the French woman who received the world’s first partial face transplant, died on April 22.
Papa Wemba – 66, “the king of Congolese rumba”
Billy Paul – 80, jazz/ souls singer, Me and Mrs. Jones
Afeni Shakur Davis – 69, the former Black Panther
Jane Little – 87, Guinness World Record, “world’s longest serving symphony player” (71 years)
Emilio Navaira – 53, the Grammy award winning Tejano musician
Guy Clark – 74, singer-songwriter, L.A. Freeway
Morley Safer – 84, 60 Minutes correspondent
Alan Young – 96, the actor-comedian, Mister Ed
Nick Menza – 51, former drummer, Megadeth
Muhammad Ali – 74, “the Greatest of All Time”
Kimbo Slice – 42, street fighter
Theresa Saldana – 61, Raging Bull actress
Gordie Howe – 88, “Mr. Hockey,
Christina Grimmie – 22, singer-songwriter
Ron Lester – 45, actor, Varsity Blues
Anton Yelchin – 27, actor, Star Trek
Ralph Stanley – 89, the godfather of traditional bluegrass music
Bernie Worrell – 72, keyboard player, Parliament-Funkadelic
Bill Cunningham – 87, beloved NYC street photographer
Alvin Toffler – 87, author, Future Shock
Buddy Ryan – NFL coach
Scotty Moore – 84, pioneering rock guitarist best known
Pat Summitt – 64, winningest coach in Division I college basketball history
Elie Wiesel – 87, Holocaust survivor/ author, Night
Michael Cimino – 77, Oscar-winning director, The Deer Hunter & Heaven’s Gate
Noel Neill – 95, first actress to play Lois Lane
Abbas Kiarostami – 76, Iranian director, Taste of Cherry
Garry Marshall – 81, writer/director, Happy Days, The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy
Mark Takai – 49, U.S. representative, war veteran
Rev. Tim LaHaye – 90, co-author, Left Behind
Youree Del Cleomill Harris (Miss Cleo) – 53, actress/ Jamaican psychic
David Huddleston – 85, actor, The Big Lebowski
Pete Fountain – 86, Dixieland jazz clarinetist
Barry Jenner – 75, actor, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Kenny Baker – 81, actor, R2-D2 in Star Wars films
Fyvush Finkel – 93, Emmy Award-winning actor
John McLaughlin – 89, conservative commentator, The McLaughlin Group
Lou Pearlman – 62, band boy mogul, Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync
Matt Roberts – guitarist and founding member, 3 Doors Down, died on Aug. 20.
Toots Thielemans – 94, Belgian harmonica player
Steven Hill – 94, actor, Law & Order
Sonia Rykiel – 86, French fashion designer
Juan Gabriel – 66, latin songwriter/ singer
Gene Wilder – 83, actor, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Jon Polito – 65, actor The Big Lebowski
Jerry Heller – 75, producer N.W.A.
Greta Zimmer Friedman – 92, woman in the iconic photo shown kissing a sailor celebrating the end of World War II
Alexis Arquette – 47, transgender actress
Edward Albee – 88, the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
W.P. Kinsella – 81, Canadian novelist, Field of Dreams
Curtis Hanson – 71, Oscar-winning writer & director, L.A. Confidential, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Carlos (Shawty Lo) Walker – 40, Atlanta rapper
Bill Nunn – 62, actor, Do the Right Thing
Lady Chablis – 59, transgender performer, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
José Fernández – 24, Miami Marlins pitcher
Arnold Palmer – 87, golf legend
Shimon Peres – 93, Nobel prize-winning former Israeli president and prime minister,
Tommy Mykal Ford – 52, actor, Martin
King Bhumibol Adulyadej – 88, the world’s longest reigning monarch, Thailand
Steve Dillon – 54, comic book artist, The Punisher
Janet Reno – 78, the first female U.S. Attorney General
Leonard Cohen – 82, Canadian singer-songwriter, Hallelujah
Robert Vaughn – 83, Oscar-nominated actor, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Leon Russell – 74, singer-songwriter, member Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Gwen Ifill – 61, the co-anchor of PBS’ NewsHour
Holly Dunn – 59, country singer, Daddy’s Hands
Sharon Jones – 60, powerhouse singer, Sharon Jones ad the Dap Kings
Florence Henderson – 82, actress, The Brady Bunch
Fidel Castro – 90, Cuban dictator
Ron Glass – 71, , actor, Barney Miller
Grant Tinker – 90, former NBC chairman
Greg Lake – 69, co-founder, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer
John Glenn – 95, American hero, first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, U.S. Senator
Joseph Mascolo – 87, actor, Days of Our Lives
E.R. Braithwaite – 104, Guyanese educator and diplomat, inspired To Sir, With Love
Alan Thicke – 69, actor, Growing Pains
Craig Sager – 65, sports broadcaster
China Machado – 87, a groundbreaking model and fashion editor
Zsa Zsa Gabor – 99, actress, Hollywood icon
George Michael – 53, pop superstar, LGBT hero
Ricky Harris – actor, Everybody Hates Chris
Richard Adams – author, Watership Down
Barbara Tarbuck – actress, General Hospital
Franca Sozzani, 66, editor of Vogue Italia
Carrie Fisher – 60, actress, author, Hollywood royalty
Debbie Reynolds – 84, actress, singer, dancer, Hollywood icon
(via NBC News)
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