Photos: Notable deaths in 2015
Grammy winning singer-songwriter Natalie Cole, the daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, who carved out her own success with R&B hits like “Our Love” and “This Will Be” before triumphantly intertwining their legacies to make his “Unforgettable” their signature hit through technological wizardry, died Dec. 31 at age 65. Read the obituary
(Victoria Will / AP)Chicago Tribune
Notable deaths in 2015: Remembering legends, celebrities and other newsmakers who died this year.
Wayne Rogers, as Captain Trapper John McIntyre, center, on the television series ‘M.A.S.H.,’ in 1972. Rogers died on Dec. 31 of complications from pneumonia at 82 in Los Angeles. Also pictured are actors Alan Alda and Loretta Swit.
(CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images)Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, seen here onstage in Germany in November 2015, died of cancer on Dec. 28 at the age of 70.
(Andreas Gebert / EPA)Influential cinematographer and social documentarian Haskell Wexler, who won Oscars for his work in both arenas, has died. He was 93.
(Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images)In this Jan. 17, 1996, file photo, Gladys Knight, center, William Guest, left, and Merald Knight take the stage as they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during ceremonies in New York. William Guest, a member of Gladys Knight and the Pips, has died. He was 74. Guest’s daughter, Monique Guest, said her father died Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015.
(Mark Lennihan / AP)This undated photo provided the Spitzer family shows Dr. Robert Sptizer, a psychiatrist who played a leading role in establishing agreed-upon standards to describe mental disorders and eliminating homosexuality’s designation as a pathology. Spitzer died Friday, Dec. 25, 2015, in Seattle. He was 83.
(Brian Chapman / AP)Lillian Vernon, who created a sprawling catalog business that specialized in personalized gifts and ingenious gadgets and made her an American household name, died on Dec. 14, 2015, in New York. She was 88.
(BETH BERGMAN / Associated Press)North Face founder and environmental activist Doug Tompkins died on December 8, 2015 after suffering severe hypothermia when his kayak capsized on southern Chile’s Lake General Carrera. He was 72.
(WOLFGANG KUMM / EPA)In this March 20, 2007 file photo, Chuck Williams stands in front of his original store location in Sonoma, Calif, during a reception celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary. Williams, who founded the Williams-Sonoma empire and ushered in an era of aspirational culinary retailing, died Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. He was 100.
(Mark Aronoff/The Press Democrat via AP, File)Robert Loggia poses for a portrait Jan. 22, 2009, during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Loggia, who played drug lords and mobsters and danced with Tom Hanks in “Big,” has died at age 85.
(Peter Kramer / AP)Cynthia Robinson, trumpeter, vocalist and co-founder of Sly and the Family Stone, died Nov. 23, 2015, at 69.
(Tim Mosenfelder / Getty Images)Actor Nathaniel Marston, known for his work on the soap opera “One Life to Live,” died Nov. 11, 2015, following a car accident in late October.
(David Klein / Getty Images)Legendary New Orleans musician and composer Toussaint died Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, after suffering a heart attack following a concert he performed in Madrid. He was 77.
(David Grunfeld / AP)Former Sen. Fred Thompson, a folksy former Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee who appeared in feature films and television including a role on “Law & Order,” died Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, his family said. He was 73.
(Steve Helber / AP)Maureen O’Hara, the flame-haired Irish movie star who appeared in classics ranging from the grim “How Green Was My Valley” to the uplifting “Miracle on 34th Street,” died in her sleep on Oct. 24, 2015, at her home in Boise, Idaho. She was 95.
(Chris Pizzello / AP)Marty Ingels, a raspy-voiced comedian, actor and talent agent who was married to singer and actress Shirley Jones for nearly 40 years, died at 79 following complications of stroke.
(Chris Carlson / AP)Thomas Stemberg, founder of Staples office supply stores, died Friday, Oct. 23, 2015, in Massachusetts. He was 66.
(J. Scott Applewhite / AP)Promotional portrait of, from left, American actresses Pat Woodell (as Bobbie Jo Bradley), Jeannine Riley (as Billie Jo Bradley), and Linda Henning (as Betty Jo Bradley Elliot) on the set of an episode of ‘Petticoat Junction’ entitled ‘The Art Game,’ Los Angeles, California, January 7, 1964. Woodell died Sept. 29 in Fallbrook, Calif., according to the LA Times. She was 71.
(CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images)Chef Paul Prudhomme in 2005.
(LM Otero/AP)Baseball Hall of Famer and former New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra died at the age of 90 of natural causes on September 22, 2015.
(JASON SZENES / EPA)Jack Larson, right, who was better known as the cub reporter Jimmy Olsen in the television series “Adventures of Superman,” died at age 87.
(ABC / Getty Images)Dennis Greene, founding member of the 50s retro-rock/doo-wop group Sha Na Na who later became a movie studio executive and law professor, died Sept. 5 at age 66.
(Jeff Barnard / AP)Jean Darling and Joe Cobb in, “Noisy Noises,” an Our Gang comedy, later to be known as The Little Rascals. Darling died in Rodgau, Germany at the age of 93, according to the New York Times.
(CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images)Actor Martin Milner attends the 49th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 7, 1997 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California.
(Ron Galella / WireImage)Actor Dean Jones, seen here on the set of “Any Wednesday” in New York in 1966, was a favorite in lighthearted Disnehy films such as ‘That Darn Cat’ and ‘The Love Bug.’ He died on Sept. 1 in Los Angeles of Parkinson’s disease at 84.
(Dan Grossi / AP)Wes Craven, whose “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream” movies made him one of the most recognizable names in the horror film genre, has died at 76. Craven’s family said in a statement that he died in his Los Angeles home Sunday after battling brain cancer.
(Matt Sayles / AP)Indy Car driver Justin Wilson died on Aug. 24, 2015, from a head injury he suffered during a Pocono IndyCar 500 race a day earlier. Wilson, who was hit in the head by a piece of debris from another car, was 37.
(Derik Hamilton / AP)American ballet dancer and actress Yvonne Craig, best known for her role as Batgirl from the TV series ‘Batman’ died of breast cancer at age 78 on August 18, 2015, in her home in Pacific Palisades, California.
(Len Trievnor / AP)Film and television director, producer and writer, Bud Yorkin, best known for his work on the pioneering sitcom “All in the Family” died on Aug. 18, 2015, in Los Angeles. He was 89.
(Harry Langdon / AP)Julian Bond, a civil rights activist and longtime board chairman of the NAACP, died Aug. 15, 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75.
(MARY ANN CHASTAIN / AP)In this Oct. 10, 2002 file photo, fashion designer Arnold Scaasi talks about his designs at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Scaasi, whose flamboyant creations adorned first ladies, movie stars and socialites, died Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital of cardiac arrest. He was 85.
(SUZANNE PLUNKETT / AP)True-crime author Ann Rule, who wrote more than 30 books, including one about serial killer Gary Ridgway and a profile of serial killer Ted Bundy, died at age 83 on July 26, 2015.
(Betty Udeson / AP)In this Feb. 12, 2011, file photo, singer Whitney Houston, left, and daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown arrive at an event in Beverly Hills, Calif. Brown, who was in hospice after months of receiving medical care, died on July 26, 2015.
(Dan Steinberg / AP)Alex Rocco, the character actor best known for playing the bespectacled Las Vegas mobster Moe Greene in “The Godfather,” has died, his daughter announced on July 18, 2015. He was 79.
(Matt Sayles / AP)Jerry Weintraub, who made his name as a music manager working with Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin before moving on to the movie business, where he produced such hits as “The Karate Kid,” “Diner” and the “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise, died July 6 in Santa Monica at 77.
Scot Alexander Breithaupt, who organized bicycle races on dirt motorcycle courses in the early 1970s, becoming a founder of BMX and later a champion and one of the cycling sport’s best known figures, died in Indio, Calif., authorities said Monday, July 6, 2015. Breithaupt was 57.
(Russ Okawa / AP)Amanda Peterson, best known for her role in the 1987 romantic comedy “Can’t Buy Me Love,” died on July 5 in Greeley, Colo. She was 43.
(Ron Galella, Ltd. / WireImage)Burt Shavitz, a former beekeeper, is the Burt behind Burt’s Bees. The co-founder behind Burt’s Bees died on July 5, 2015 at the age of 80.
(Robert F. Bukaty / AP)Chris Squire, the bassist and co-founder of the band Yes, died on July 4 at age 67. He had been diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia months earlier.
(Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images)Avengers star Patrick Macnee died on June 25, 2015. He was 93.
Dick Van Patten, the genial comic actor best known as the patriarch of TV’s “Eight is Enough,” died on June 23. He was 86.
(Rene Macura/AP)Composer James Horner, who won two Oscars for the film “Titanic,” was killed when his plane crashed in Southern California on June 22, 2015. He was 61. Horner also received Oscar nominations for the scores to “Alien,” ’’Apollo 13,” ’’Field of Dreams,” ’’Braveheart,” ’’A Beautiful Mind,” ’’House of Sand and Fog” and “Avatar.”
(Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images)Darryl Hamilton, seen here in 2011, a member of the New York Mets team that reached the 2000 World Series, was killed in a murder-suicide in a suburban Houston home on June 22, 2015, police said. Hamilton, who also played for the Giants, Brewers, Rangers and Rockies over 13 seasons, had worked for the MLB Network since 2013.
(Cheryl Gerber / Associated Press)Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who made a fortune in Las Vegas hotels, MGM deals, died on June 16, 2015 at the age of 98, according to the MGM.
Christopher Lee, the prolific, aristocratic British actor who brought dramatic gravitas to the low-budget thrills of Hammer Studios’ 1950s and 1960s horror films and to the more recent “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and two of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels, has died at age 93.
(CARL COURT / AFP/Getty Images)Horst Brandstaetter who launched the popular Playmobil range of plastic toys in the 1970s, has died. He was 81. Playmobil manufacturer Geobra Brandstaetter Stiftung said in a statement that he died on June 3, 2015.
(Daniel Karmann / AP)Actress and philanthropist Mary Ellen Trainor, who appeared in every “Lethal Weapon” film and played the mother in “Goonies,” died at her home in Montecito, Calif., on May 20. She was 62.
(ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images)Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Beau, died from brain cancer on Saturday, May 30, 2015. Beau Biden was 46. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
(Paul Sancya / AP)Actress and comedian Anne Meara died May 23, 2015 at the age of 85. She was married to Jerry
Dean Potter, 43, died during a wingsuit flight in Yosemite National Park on Saturday May 16, 2015.
(David Cannon, AFP/Getty Images)John Nash, the
Pop artist Chris Burden, noted performance artist and sculptor has died. He was 69. His friend, Paul Schimmel, tells the L.A. Times that Burden died Sunday, May 10, 2015 from melanoma at his home in Topanga Canyon. He made complex installations, some with thousands of pieces, and works that had automated functions. Other works are in museums in New York, London and around the world.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)Guy Carawan, whose rendition of “We Shall Overcome” became a civil rights anthem, died on May 2, 2015, at age 87.
(Saul Young / AP)Errol Brown, former singer and founder of the British pop band ‘Hot Chocolate’, has died at his home in Bahamas at the age of 71, his manager said on May 6, 2015.
(Maurizio Gambarini / EPA)