Notable People Who Have Passed Away So Far In 2024
With the passage of time comes — sadly — the inevitability of death. Already in 2024, we've seen some noteworthy people pass away — from aging stars of the past to those who were cut down in their prime.
We've seen beloved stars like Carl Weathers and controversial figures like O.J. Simpson pass away in 2024. Let's take a look back at some of the more notable people we've said goodbye to so far this year. Read on to see them all.
Susan Buckner
Susan Buckner spent her early years as a beauty queen, with the Seattle native winning Miss Washington in 1971 and becoming a Miss America finalist the following year. She was able to parlay this success into a successful movie and TV career in the 1970s.
Buckner's most noteworthy role came in 1978's Grease, in which she played cheerleader Patty Simcox. Her family announced in May of 2024 that she'd died in Miami at the age of 72.
Joe Flaherty
One of many alums of Chicago's Second City Theater to make it big in the '70s and '80s, actor and comedian Joe Flaherty appeared in innumerable productions over the years, from the sketch comedy classic SCTV to a supporting role in Freaks and Geeks.
Flaherty frequently collaborated with SCTV castmates Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, and John Candy. On April 1st, it was announced that Flaherty had passed away at his Toronto home after a short illness. He was 82.
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Richard Lewis
In recent years, Lewis played a fictionalized version of himself alongside a fictionalized version of his friend Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, but the comedian's career represented a long and winding road.
From his early days as a neurotic, self-deprecating standup comedian to his star turn in the sitcom Anything But Love, Lewis was a reliable figure on both the big and small screens for many decades. He died of a heart attack in February at the age of 76.
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy never quite achieved the same recognition as some of his contemporaries, but the rock and roller was a significant influence on some of the acts to follow, including heavy hitters like the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen.
Eddy's most successful era came in the '50s and early '60s with twangy hits like "Rebel 'Rouser" and "Peter Gunn." His 23rd and final album was released in 2011. He passed away on April 30, 2024, four days after his 86th birthday.
Bernard Hill
The gruff British actor was a steady presence in Hollywood during a career that spanned nearly five decades. He's best remembered for playing Captain Smith in Titanic and Théoden, King of Rohan, in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Hill was born in Manchester to a mining family and remained a Mancunian through and through, supporting his beloved Manchester United through thick and thin. He passed away in Suffolk on May 5th at the age of 79.
Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers had a relatively successful pro football career, playing for the Oakland Raiders and BC Lions in the early '70s. But he made his mark on the world as an actor, first appearing as an extra during his football days.
Weathers' most iconic role may have come as Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, but he also had memorable roles as Chubbs in Happy Gilmore and as a fictionalized version of himself in Arrested Development. He died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at his Los Angeles home in February, aged 76.
Eleanor Coppola
Eleanor Coppola was the beloved wife of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola for more than six decades, from 1963 until her death in April of 2024. The two originally met on a movie set.
Coppola made a name for herself as an artist and documentary filmmaker, often offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse at her husband's movies. Her best-remembered work is likely Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which chronicled the production of Apocalypse Now. Eleanor Coppola was 87.
Joyce Randolph
Joyce Randolph started out as a Broadway actress and parlayed this success into her most iconic role: That of bossy housewife Trixie Norton, who she played on both The Jackie Gleason Show and The Honeymooners (along with a 1991 episode of Hi Honey, I'm Home!).
Following her roles as Trixie Norton in the 1950s, Randolph found it hard to get work in TV as she was too closely associated with the character. She passed away at the age of 99 in Manhattan.
Toby Keith
Keith was one of modern country music's most enduring draws, rolling out a slew of chart-topping singles and albums since the early '90s. In all, 61 of his singles charted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
He announced in June 2022 that he'd been diagnosed with stomach cancer and had been undergoing treatment since the previous year. After a long battle with the illness, he passed away in February at the age of 62. He was immediately inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Chita Rivera
Born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, this acclaimed singer and dancer was best known by her stage name, Chita Rivera. She was a venerable presence on Broadway, appearing in blockbusters like Guys and Dolls and West Side Story.
Rivera was a ten-time Tony nominee, winning the award twice. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and continued her career on Broadway into the 2010s. On January 30, the 91-year-old died after a brief illness.
Steve Albini
Steve Albini played in various bands but was best known as the brilliant sound engineer behind hundreds of albums throughout his long career, including seminal works from Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Pixies, and Bush.
Albini was famously critical of the recording industry and refused to take royalties from bands he worked with. He worked in music right up until the end, dying of a heart attack while in a recording studio on May 7th.
Barbara Rush
Barbara Rush made her stage debut as a ten-year-old in 1937, and her long career took her from theater to early sci-fi films to various television productions over the course of more than 60 years.
Rush first became a mainstream star in 1953's It Came From Outer Space and also enjoyed runs on soap operas like Peyton Place and All My Children. The 97-year-old Rush passed away on March 31st at a care home in Westlake Village, California.
Marla Adams
Soap star Marla Adams dabbled in conventional television and movies, but she's best remembered for her long run on The Young and the Restless as Dina Abbott Mergeron. She portrayed the character for nearly four decades, from 1983 to 2020.
Adams also popped up in The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, and Walker, Texas Ranger. Her acting career took her well into her 80s. Adams died in April at the age of 85.
Sonja Christopher
It's easy to forget just what a massive phenomenon Survivor was during its first season. Sonja Christopher didn't win the show's big prize, but she made history as the first contestant ever to be voted off the show.
Remembered as a kind-hearted person, Christopher's sweet nature and ukulele playing made her a memorable contestant for the show's millions of viewers, and she remained a big fan of the show's later seasons. She passed away in April at the age of 87.
Louis Gossett Jr.
Louis Gossett Jr. won major awards for his work as an actor, including an Emmy for the TV series Roots, along with the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in An Officer and a Gentleman.
The Brooklyn native's career began with stage work in the late 1950s during his teen years and continued into the 2020s. He was also well known for his humanitarian activities and his Eracism nonprofit group. Gossett Jr. died in Santa Monica at the age of 87.
Meg Bennett
Bennett found work as a model in her youth, appearing in catalogs and Life magazine. She was able to parlay a game show appearance into a role on the Broadway production of Grease, and later was cast on the soap operas Search for Tomorrow and The Young and the Restless.
She was soon noticed for her ability to write and rewrite scripts and became a capable script writer for soap operas into the 2000s. The 75-year-old Bennett died on April 11 after a battle with cancer.
M. Emmet Walsh
A compelling character actor who specialized in playing no-nonsense everyman types, M. Emmet Walsh, has a five-decade career on the big and small screen, starting with a small role in 1969's Midnight Cowboy.
While Walsh generally appeared in smaller roles, he was memorable in them. His most notable role may have come as Captain Harry Bryant in Blade Runner, along with comedic turns in Fletch and The Righteous Gemstones. He died in Vermont at the age of 88.
Cole Brings Plenty
Actor Cole Brings Plenty was reported missing on March 31st, and found dead five days later in a wooded area in Kansas. Police have not revealed any specific details about the case or the cause of death other than saying that foul play is not suspected.
The 27-year-old was best known for his role in the Yellowstone spinoff, 1923. His father said, "We would like to thank everyone who came to walk beside us as we searched for my son."
Christian Oliver
The German actor died in a plane crash, along with his two daughters and the plane's pilot, in the Caribbean in January at the age of 51. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Oliver appeared in numerous German productions but was also well known stateside for his roles in Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Valkyrie, The Three Musketeers, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Rico Wade
Rico Wade was a member of Atlanta-based music producers Organized Noize, the hitmakers who worked on Outkast albums, TLC's Waterfalls, and various other late '90s and early 2000s hip-hop icons. They're considered to be a big reason for the resurgence of southern hip-hop around this time.
Wade passed away on April 12, 2024, of heart failure at the age of 52. Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens credited Wade with leaving "an indelible mark on music and culture around the world."
Mandisa
Mandisa Lynn Hundley first entered the spotlight during the fifth season of American Idol, in which she finished in ninth place. She parlayed this success into a career singing gospel and contemporary Christian music, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album in 2014.
The 47-year-old was found dead inside her Franklin, Tennessee home on April 18th. Her father said that she was found unresponsive on the opposite side of her bed from her phone, speculating that she was unable to call for help.
Adam Canto
Mexican singer and actor Adam Canto was best known for roles in The Cleaning Lady, Narcos, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Aside from his work as an actor and a singer-songwriter, Canto also dabbled in directing.
Canto passed away in January 2024 at the age of 42. His publicist said that Canto died of appendiceal cancer — a diagnosis that he'd kept private in favor of continuing his acting career until the very end.
C.J. Snare
Carl Jeffrey Snare, known as C.J. Snare, was the frontman and main singer of the hard rock band FireHouse. The band released eight studio albums and one live album between 1990 and 2011, and Snare himself released several solo singles.
Following a 2020 colon cancer diagnosis, Snare took a hiatus from the music world in order to undergo abdominal surgery. He was hopeful for a return to touring but died in April at the age of 64.
Chris King
Rapper Chris King was shot and killed in Nashville in April at the age of 32. The California native, whose real name was Christopher Cheeks, was allegedly the target of a robbery when he and his friend were accosted.
King wasn't a big name in mainstream music, but he was close friends with Justin Bieber and Trippie Redd. Following King's death, there was an outpouring of grief and support from the music world.
Terry Carter
The Brooklyn native flirted with a career in the legal field before opting for life as an actor. He appeared in numerous Broadway productions and also served as a weekend newscaster in Boston in the late '60s.
Carter's most remembered roles came on the TV series McCloud and the original 1978 version of Battlestar Galactica. Starting in the 1970s, he became a producer of educational productions, some of which were distributed worldwide. The 95-year-old passed away in April.
O.J. Simpson
O.J. Simpson spent his first 40-plus years as a beloved icon, known as much for his star turn in Hollywood as he was for his legendary exploits on the football field. But following his acquittal for the 1994 double homicide of his ex and her friend, he became a pariah.
In the decades to follow, Simpson would encounter more legal issues and was essentially blacklisted from Hollywood. Following a battle with prostate cancer, Simpson died on April 10th at the age of 76.
Paul Auster
Novelist Paul Auster was one of the biggest names in contemporary literature, blending autobiographical details with dreamlike narratives that touched on several different genres. Novels like Moon Palace and The New York Trilogy have been translated into dozens of different languages.
Auster's wife announced in March of 2023 that he had lung cancer and was receiving treatment in New York. Following a battle with the illness, he passed away in Brooklyn at the age of 77.
Chance Perdomo
Perdomo was killed in a late-night motorcycle crash in upstate New York in late March. The young actor had a seemingly promising career ahead of him after appearing in BBC productions along with Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Perdomo was noted as a "Star of Tomorrow" by Screen International, along with a "Breakthrough Brit" by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. His last role came in Gen V, a spin-off of The Boys.
Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns, who passed away in January at the age of 100, was one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The British actress got started on the stage in 1923 at the tender age of three weeks old, and continued acting through the close of the 20th century.
Throughout her seven-decade career, Johns won numerous minor awards for her work on stage and screen. Her final film was 1999's Superstar.
Richard Tandy
A creative and groundbreaking keyboard player, Richard Tandy was a major part of the Electric Light Orchestra's unique sound in the 1970s and an influence on symphonic and prog rock moving forward.
Tandy, as a member of ELO, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. His career slowed down in the '90s, aside from collaborations with his former ELO bandmates. He passed away on May 1st at the age of 76.
Akira Toriyama
Even those who don't know of Akira Toriyama are almost certainly familiar with his famous work, as he created the incredibly popular Dragon Ball manga series back in 1984. According to the BBC, he remained prolific right until the end and had several works left unfinished at the time of his passing.
He passed away on March 1 after experiencing an acute subdural hematoma, which refers to bleeding near the brain. Toriyama was 68 years old and fell eight months before the 40th anniversary of his world-conquering series.
Alice Munro
Although novelists tend to get the most attention in the literary world, Canadian author Alice Munro was credited for perfecting the short story. Her mastery of this medium was confirmed worldwide in 2013 when Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
According to the CBC, Munro was one of only 13 women to receive that honor in history. She had retired from writing by then and spent her final years content with her career until her death on May 13, 2024.
Dickey Betts
Although Duane and Gregg Allman tended to attract the most attention during the heyday of the famous Allman Brother Band, Dickey Betts' melodic and skillful guitar playing was also an essential part of their music. Indeed, the way his playing complemented Duane's all but set the blueprint for Southern rock to come.
According to Rolling Stone, Betts split with the Allman Brothers Band in 2000 and released his own music until his retirement in 2014. He passed away from cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on April 18, 2024. He was 80 years old.
Jim Otto
According to the NFL, Jim Otto's 210 games with the then-Oakland Raiders underscored the type of dedication that set records both among his team and for the NFL at large. No Raider has attended more games, and no offensive lineman in the decades since his Hall Of Fame enshrinement in 1980 has matched his ten All-Pro nods.
His career spanned from 1960 to 1974, and he contributed strongly to the Raiders' 1967 AFL Championship victory, which led to a Super Bowl appearance that year. Sadly, his time in the league also resulted in enough injuries to necessitate over 70 surgeries, and he had his right leg amputated in 2007. He passed away at the age of 86 on May 19, 2024.
Ebrahim Raisi
After his election in 2021, Ebrahim Raisi served as Iran's president until his sudden passing on May 19, 2024. According to the BBC, his final day saw him board a helicopter bound for eastern Azerbaijan, where he attended a ceremony inaugurating the Qiz Qalasi and Khoda Afarin dams that straddle the Aras River.
However, he would never make it to his next stop, which was the inauguration of an oil refinery in Tabriz. His helicopter crashed down near Azerbaijan's border, killing Raisi and seven other people who were on board.
Susan Backlinie
As US Magazine reported, Susan Backlinie was an actress and stuntwoman who made a big impression on audiences in one of the most memorable scenes in Jaws. As the photo behind her suggests, that's because she played Chrissie Watkins — the shark's first victim — in the film's opening scene.
Backlinie's husband of 30 years, Harvey Swindall, spoke out after she passed away from an unexpected heart attack on May 11, 2024. In his words, she "was the most amazing person I've ever met in my life. And I’ve never loved anybody like her."
Dabney Coleman
According to CBS News, Dabney Coleman's acting career saw him specialize in playing smarmy, unlikable characters in Norman Lear's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, 9 To Five, Tootsie, and Boardwalk Empire. These are only a few highlights from his respectable acting résumé, but he's certainly a man who found his niche.
As he said, "I was pretty good at doing that kind of humor. So that was a huge turning point, and it was a lot of fun." Coleman passed away at his home at the age of 92 on May 16, 2024.
Roger Corman
Although he's best known for the original (and non-musical) 1960 version of Little Shop Of Horrors, that was just one of the 56 movies Roger Corman directed and the 491 movies he produced. It's also true that his work was rarely critically acclaimed, but he nonetheless carved his own path as an independent filmmaker before most others could.
As such, Corman was known as the "King of B Movies" and continued producing them as late as 2021. According to the CBC, he died at home at age 98 in Santa Monica, California.
Joe Lieberman
Known for his bipartisan spirit and reviled within some circles for his distaste for controversial video games, the former Connecticut senator sparked some controversy of his own for breaking with his fellow Democrats on some key issues. One of these was the invasion of Iraq, which Lieberman supported.
Nonetheless, he made history within his party for being the first Jewish vice-presidential nominee for a major party after running alongside Al Gore in the 2000 election. According to CNN, he passed away due to complications from a fall at the age of 82 on March 27, 2024.
David Sanborn
Although the gifted and versatile alto saxophonist may not be a household name, his career has proved accomplished and respectful enough to work with many who are. Although The Guardian credited him for collaborating with Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren, Paul Simon, BB King, Chaka Khan, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen, one of his most famous projects saw him work with David Bowie on "Young Americans."
The Grammy-winning saxophonist passed away at age 78 on May 12, 2024. His passing was the result of a long battle with prostate cancer that began in 2018 but only recently hampered his touring schedule. Indeed, he had tour dates for 2025 booked at the time of his death.
Diane Ford
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Diane Ford was a veteran stand-up comedian who had multiple successful HBO specials to her name, as well as a headlining act in Las Vegas. She was known for her frank, cynical style and was deeply admired by Tim Allen, who had her write an episode of Home Improvement.
According to the publication, Ford passed away at age 68 following a battle with cancer in Sarasota, Florida, on April 30, 2024. Her death was announced by her nephew, Wes Roberts.
Bud Harrelson
Some players become so important to an organization that they can be described as an institution and this was exactly the impact that Bud Harrelson had on the New York Mets. According to ESPN, he made his name as a shortstop who was as infamous for fighting Pete Rose during a playoff game as he was celebrated for helping win championships and World Series titles for the Mets.
After his playing days were over, the Gold Glove winner both coached and managed the Mets before finding another passion as co-owner of the Long Island Ducks. He died in hospice care at 78 in East Northport, New York, on January 11, 2024. He had battled Alzheimer's disease since 2016.
Rudy Moreno
According to Entertainment Weekly, Rudy Moreno was known as the "Godfather of Latino Comedy." This respect within the stand-up comedy community earned him spots on various acclaimed TV shows, but it also allowed him to give some other comedians their big break.
One of these protégés was Ken Jeong, who paid tribute to Moreno after his death was announced on May 11, 2024. He was being hospitalized for pneumonia at the time of his passing and was 66 years old.
Trina Robbins
Although she's not as well-known as Todd McFarlane or Stan Lee, Trina Robbins nonetheless rivaled both figures in importance within the comics industry. As CBS News explained, that's because she was instrumental to the first ever comic book created entirely by women, which was published in 1970.
This comic — titled It Ain't Me, Babe — led to a longer series called "Wimmen's Comix," and Robbins also earned accolades as the first woman to draw an entire Wonder Woman comic in 1986 and as the creator of the Marvel character Misty. She passed away following a stroke on April 10, 2024. She was 85.
Christopher Durang
Christopher Durang was a playwright who specialized in satirical, absurdist dark comedies. He first rose to prominence and won an Obie Award for Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, but later won a Tony for A History of the American Film in 1978 and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006 for Miss Witherspoon.
Durang passed away from complications of logopenic progressive aphasia, which prompted his retirement in 2016. He died at home at age 75 on April 2, 2024.
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