Betty White, Hollywood’s “Golden Girl,” died Friday, Dec. 31, 2021. She was 99.
John Madden, the Hall of Fame coach turned broadcaster whose exuberant calls combined with simple explanations provided a weekly soundtrack to NFL games for three decades, died Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021, the NFL said. He was 85.
Sen. Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader and Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, died Dec. 28, 2021. He was 82.
Chicago sports radio host Jeff Dickerson, a longtime Chicago Bears reporter for ESPN 1000, died at age 44 Dec. 28, 2021 after a bout with cancer.
Director and producer Jean-Marc Vallée, who won an Emmy for directing the HBO series “Big Little Lies” and whose 2013 film “Dallas Buyers Club” earned multiple Oscar nominations, died suddenly at age 58 his representative announced Dec. 26, 2021.
South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, died Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90.
Joan Didion, the author and essayist whose provocative social commentary and detached, methodical literary voice made her a uniquely clear-eyed critic of a uniquely turbulent time, died Dec. 23, 2021. She was 87.
Dr. Lester E. Fisher, the former Lincoln Park Zoo director, died on Dec. 22, 2021 at the age of 100.
Roland Hemond was the general manager of the Chicago White Sox from 1970-85. He died Dec. 12, 2021 at the age of 92.
The Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez whose powerful voice immortalized songs like “El rey”, “Volver, Volver” and “Pity that you are alien” died Dec. 12, 2021. He was 81.
Gothic novelist Anne Rice, who wrote the blockbuster “Interview with the Vampire”, died Dec. 11, 2021 of complications from a stroke. She was 80.
Michael Nesmith, the singer-songwriter, author, actor-director and entrepreneur who will likely be best remembered as the wool-hatted, guitar-strumming member of the made-for-television rock band The Monkees, died on Dec. 10, 2021. He was 78.
Four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, Al Unser, died Dec. 9, 2021, following years of health issues. He was 82.
Bob Dole, who overcame disabling war wounds to become a sharp-tongued Senate leader from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate and then a symbol and celebrant of his dwindling generation of World War II veterans, died at age 98 on Dec. 5, 2021.
Virgil Abloh, a leading fashion executive hailed as the Karl Lagerfeld of his generation, died after a private battle with cancer it was announced on Nov. 28, 2021. He was 41.
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the songwriter who reshaped the American musical theater in the second half of the 20th century, died Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. He was 91.
Actor Dean Stockwell who gained success in “Married to the Mob” and “Quantum Leap,” died of natural causes at his home on Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. He was 85.
Satirist Mort Sahl, who helped revolutionize stand-up comedy during the Cold War, died Oct. 26, 2021 at the age of 94.
Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell died Oct. 18, 2021 from complications of COVID-19. He was 84.
Melvin Van Peebles, the groundbreaking filmmaker best known for writing, co-producing, scoring, editing and starring in the 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” died Sept. 22, 2021. He was 89.
Actor Willie Garson, known for playing Stanford on “Sex and the City” and Mozzie on White Collar, died on Sept. 21, 2021 at the age of 57.
Norm Macdonald, comedian and former cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” died Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, after a nine-year battle with cancer that he kept private. He was 61.
Singer Sarah Harding from British band Girls Aloud has died after a battle with breast cancer, her mother said Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021. She was 39.
Weatherman Willard Scott, a sunny presence TV for decades, died Sept. 4, 2021 at 87.
Legendary actor Ed Asner, who played Lou Grant on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” died on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. He was 91.
Charlie Watts, the drummer who provided the backbone of the Rolling Stones’ songs for more than half a century, died Aug. 24, 2021. He was 80.
Singer Don Everly (right) of The Everly Brothers died August 21, 2021 at age 84.
In this Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012 file photo, Tom T. Hall accepts the Icon Award at the 60th Annual BMI Country Awards in Nashville, Tenn.
Richard Trumka, the powerful president of the AFL-CIO labor union, died Aug. 5, 2021. He was 72.
Ron Popeil, the quintessential TV pitchman and inventor known to generations of viewers for hawking products including the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone and the Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ, has died July 28, 2021. He was 86.
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, one of the Texas blues trio’s bearded figures, died July 28, 2021. He was 72.
Actor/comedian Jackie Mason died July 24, 2021. He was 93.
Biz Markie, a hip-hop staple known for his beatboxing prowess, turntable mastery and the 1989 classic “Just a Friend,” died July 16, 2021. He was 57.
Suzzanne Douglas, best known for starring in the WB sitcom “The Parent ‘Hood” and in the 1989 dance drama “Tap,” died July 6, 2021. She was 64.
Robert Downey Sr., the accomplished countercultural filmmaker, actor and father of superstar Robert Downey Jr., died July 6, 2021. He was 85.
Richard Donner, the prolific, genre-crossing film and TV director who helmed 1978’s “Superman” and reinvented the buddy cop action-comedy genre with the “Lethal Weapon” movies, died July 5, 2021, in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was soiled by the long and costly Iraq war, died June 29, 2021. He was 88.
Ned Beatty, an actor known for roles in “Deliverance” and “Network,” died June 13, 2021. He was 83.
Clarence Williams III, an actor known for portraying Linc Hayes on “The Mod Squad” and Prince’s father in “Purple Rain,” died on June 4, 2021, of colon cancer. He was 81.
Gavin MacLeod, a sitcom veteran who played seaman “Happy” Haines on “McHale’s Navy,” Murray on “Mary Tyler Moore” and Captain Stubing on “The Love Boat,” died on May 29, 2021. He was 90.
B.J. Thomas, the Grammy-winning singer who enjoyed success on the pop, country and gospel charts with such hits as “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” and “Hooked on a Feeling,” died on May 29, 2021, of complications from lung cancer. He was 78.
Former Sen. John Warner of Virginia, a former Navy secretary who was once married to Elizabeth Taylor, died of heart failure on May 25, 2021. He was 94.
Paul Mooney, the comedian, actor and writer for Richard Pryor, died on May 19, 2021, after suffering a heart attack. He was 79.
Charles Grodin, best known for the neurotic comic wit he demonstrated in such films as “The Heartbreak Kid,” “Heaven Can Wait” and “Midnight Run” and for his role in the “Beethoven” movies, died on May 18 at his home in Connecticut. He was 86.
Pervis Staples, second from left, a member of the legendary gospel group The Staple Singers, died on May 6, 2021, at his home in Dalton, Illinois. He was 85.
Actress Tawny Kitaen, who appeared on the big screen with Tom Hanks and, perhaps more famously, in a series of music videos for Whitesnake, died on May 7 at 59.
Helmut Jahn, the famous German architect behind some of Chicago’s most impressive buildings, including the Thompson Center, died when he was struck by two vehicles while riding his bicycle on May 8, 2021. He was 81.
Lloyd Price, known for such hits as “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and “Stagger Lee” died May 3, 2021. He was 88.
Bobby Unser, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and part of the only pair of brothers to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” died of natural causes at his home in New Mexico on May 2, 2021. He was 87.
Olympia Dukakis, best known for her Oscar-winning supporting turn in Norman Jewison’s “Moonstruck,” died on May 1, 2021. She was 89.
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who piloted the ship from which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left to make their historic first steps on the moon in 1969, died on April 28 of cancer, his family said. He was 90.
Shock G, frontman of the 1990s hip-hop group Digital Underground and widely known as his alter-ego “Humpty Hump,” died on April 22, 2021. He was 57.
Les McKeown, former lead singer for the Bay City Rollers, the group that became a global phenomenon in the 1970s with songs like “Saturday Night” and “Money Honey,” died on April 21, 2021. He was 65.
Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, a liberal icon who lost the most lopsided presidential election after bluntly telling voters to expect a tax increase if he won, died April 19, 2021. He was 93.
Charles “Chuck” Geschke — the co-founder of the major software company Adobe Inc. who helped develop Portable Document Format technology, or PDFs — died on April 16, 2021. He was 81.
British actress Helen McCrory, who starred in the television show “Peaky Blinders” and the “Harry Potter” movies, has died, her husband said. She was 52 and had been suffering from cancer.
Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, died in a federal prison on April 14, 2021. He was 82.
Ramsey Clark, the attorney general in the Johnson administration who became an outspoken activist for unpopular causes and a harsh critic of U.S. policy, died on Friday, April 9, 2021. He was 93.
DMX, one of the most popular and successful rappers to emerge in the 1990s, died on April 9. He was 50.
Prince Philip, the irascible and tough-minded husband of Queen Elizabeth II who spent more than seven decades supporting his wife in a role that both defined and constricted his life, died on April 9, 2021. He was 99.
James Hampton, “Teen Wolf,” “F Troop” and “Longest Yard,” star died Wednesday, April 7, 2021, in his home from complications due to Parkinson’s. His acting career spanned decades. He was 84.
Walter Olkewicz, who played the bartender Jacques Renault on “Twin Peaks,” died April 6 in Reseda. He was 72.
Anne Beatts, a pioneering female comedy writer who helped launch “Saturday Night Live” and created the 1980s cult-favorite sitcom “Square Pegs,” died April 7 at her home in West Hollywood. She was 74.
Midwin Charles, defense attorney and legal analyst for MSNBC, CNN and other cable outlets, died April 6. She was 47.
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a longtime Democratic Florida congressman who was dogged throughout his tenure by an impeachment that ended his fast-rising judicial career, died on April 6, 2021. He was 84.
British actor Paul Ritter, whose credits include HBO drama “Chernobyl” and the wizard Eldred Worple in “Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince,” died of a brain tumor on April 5, 2021. He was 54.
G. Gordon Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, died March 30, 2021. He was 90.
Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer whose novels, such as “The Last Picture Show,” “Terms of Endearment” and “Lonesome Dove,” were turned into award-winning films and who won an Oscar for co-adapting “Brokeback Mountain,” died on March 26, 2021. He was 84.
Beloved children’s author Beverly Cleary, whose characters Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins enthralled generations of youngsters, has died. She was 104.
Jessica Walter, “Arrested Development” and “Archer” star, died on March 24, 2021. She was 80.
Houston Tumlin, known for his role in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” as a young actor died on March 23. He was 28.
George Segal, whose long career included playing Albert “Pops” Solomon on “The Goldbergs,” and garnering an Oscar nom for supporting actor for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” died on March 24, 2021. He was 87.
Elgin Baylor, a Hall of Famer and 11-time NBA All-Star for the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers in the 1960s, died on March 22, 2021. He was 86.
Actor Yaphet Kotto, known for roles in “Alien,” the James Bond film “Live and Let Die” and the television series “Homicide: Life on the Street,” died on March 15, 2021. He was 81.
Marvin Hagler, of the great middleweights in boxing history, died on March 13, 2021. He was 66.
Conductor James Levine, who ruled over the Metropolitan Opera for more than four decades before he was fired for sexual improprieties, died on March 9, 2021, of natural causes He was 77.
Roger Mudd, a longtime political correspondent and anchor for NBC and CBS, died on March 9, 2021, of complications from kidney failure. He was 93.
Vernon Jordan, a champion of civil rights and former advisor to President Bill Clinton died on March 1, 2021. He was 85.
Chicago comedian and actor Erica Watson, best known for playing Miss Tiny on Season 1 of “The Chi,” died Feb. 27, 2021, in Jamaica due to complications from COVID-19. She was 48. Watson also appeared in the 2015 Spike Lee movie “Chi-Raq” and the Oscar nominated film “Precious.”
Irv Cross, a former NFL player who gained fame on CBS’ “The NFL Today” in the 1970s and ’80s — the first full-time sports analyst job on network television for a Black man — died on Feb. 28, 2021. He was 81.
Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who ripped into liberals and laid waste to political correctness with a merry brand of malice that made him one of the most powerful voices on the American right and foretold the rise of Donald Trump, died on Feb 17, 2021. He was 70.
Larry Flynt, who turned Hustler magazine into an adult entertainment empire while championing First Amendment rights, died on Feb. 10, 2021. He was 78.
Mary Wilson, an original member of the 1960s Motown group The Supremes, died on Feb. 8, 2021 in Las Vegas. She was 76.
Marty Schottenheimer, who won 200 regular-season NFL games as coach of the Chiefs, Chargers, Browns and Redskins, died on Feb. 8, 2021. He was 77.
George Shultz, President Ronald Reagan’s longtime secretary of state who focused on improving relations with the Soviet Union and seeking peace in the Middle East, died on Feb. 6, 2021. He was 100.
Leon Spinks, who won Olympic gold and later shocked the boxing world by beating Muhammad Ali to win the heavyweight title, died on Feb. 5, 2021. He was 67.
Christopher Plummer, who starred in films including “The Sound of Music” and “Beginners,” for which he became the oldest actor to win an Academy Award for supporting actor, died on Feb. 5, 2021, at his home in Connecticut. He was 91.
Dianne Durham was the first Black woman to win a USA Gymnastics national championship and a Gary, Indiana native.
Emmy and Tony winner Hal Holbrook, an actor best known for his role as Mark Twain, whom he portrayed for decades in one-man shows, died on Jan. 23, 2021. He was 95.
John Chaney, one of the nation’s leading basketball coaches and a commanding figure during a Hall of Fame career at Temple University and Cheyney State University, died on Jan. 29, 2021. He was 89.
Cicely Tyson, a groundbreaking Tony award-winning and Oscar-nominated actress died on Jan. 28, 2021. She was 96.
Oscar winner and multiple Emmy winner Cloris Leachman, best remembered as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her own subsequent sitcom, died of natural causes on Jan. 27, 2021. She was 94.
Larry King, the suspenders-wearing broadcaster who interviewed world leaders, movie stars and more over a decadeslong career, including a long stint on CNN, died on Jan. 23, 2021 after being hospitalized with COVID-19. He was 87.
Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record during his Hall of Fame career, mostly with the Braves in Milwaukee and Atlanta, died of natural causes on Jan. 22, 2021. He was 86.
Don Sutton, a Hall of Fame pitcher who won 324 games over 23 years for five teams, most notably the Los Angeles Dodgers, died of cancer on Jan. 19, 2021. He was 75.
Phil Spector, the music producer who transformed rock music with his “Wall of Sound” method and who later was convicted of murder, died of natural causes on Jan. 16, 2021. He was 81.
Siegfried Fischbacher, of the magic duo Siegfried & Roy who entertained millions with illusions using rare animals, died of pancreatic cancer on Jan. 13, 2021. He was 81.
Casino magnate and Republican kingmaker Sheldon Adelson, who used his billions to back conservative causes and candidates, died Jan. 11, 2021, after a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 87.
Tommy Lasorda, the fiery and lovable Hall of Fame manager who led the Los Angeles Dodgers to 2 World Series titles, died on Jan. 7, 2021. He was 93.
Actor Tanya Roberts, known for roles in the 1985 James Bond film “A View to a Kill” and the sitcom “That ’70s Show”, died Jan. 4, 2021. She was 65.
Eric Jerome Dickey, the bestselling novelist who blended crime, romance and eroticism in “Sister, Sister,” “Waking With Enemies” and other stories about contemporary Black life, died on Jan. 3, 2021, after a long illness. He was 59.
