Entertainment
Celebrity Deaths in 2022
We lost many well-known celebrities this year, including Bob Saget, Nichelle Nichols, Ray Liotta, Anne Heche, Aaron Carter, and Loretta Lynn. We’re looking back at several of them as 2022 comes to an end to see what audiences most strongly associated with them.
Here is a longer list.
Peter Bogdanovich
Date: Jan. 6
Cause of death: Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease complications
Age: 82
During his career that began in the 1960s, Bogdanovich directed acclaimed movies like What’s Up Doc?, Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show, and Mask, and was the writer of a few. In addition to TV productions like The Sopranos and How I Met Your Mother, he earned actor credits in his 2006 Truman Capote film, Infamous.
Ronnie Spector
Date: Jan. 12
Cause of death: Cancer
Age: 78
After a brief fight with cancer, The Ronettes’ vivacious, cat-eyed leader passed away. The singer was a teenager when her sister Estelle Bennett and her cousin Nedra Talley formed the Darling Sisters, later known as the Ronettes. She was born in East Harlem to a biracial marriage (her mother was Black and Cherokee and her father was Irish). The trio’s collaborations include the chart-topping singles “Walking in the Rain,” “Be My Baby,” and “Do I Love You?”
Bob Saget
Date: Jan. 9
Cause of death: Blunt head trauma
Age: 65
During a comedy tour, the comic was staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando when he was discovered dead in his room. Saget was well-known for hosting America’s Funniest Home Videos, lending his voice to Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, and playing the exemplary Danny Tanner in the hit television shows Full House and Fuller House. Saget was also known for cracking dirty jokes that would make Danny blush.
Meat Loaf
Date: Jan 20
Cause of death: Undisclosed
Age: 74
Born Marvin Lee Aday, the “Bat out of Hell” rocker passed away surrounded by his loved ones. He died from COVID problems, according to an unsubstantiated TMZ report, albeit they withheld the cause of death. . Among the more than 65 films he appeared in was Fight Club (1999). Don’t ever stop rocking, his family pleaded to his followers in the statement they released upon learning of his passing.
S. D. Poitier
Date: 20 January
Cause of death: Heart failure
Age: 94
The leading man, who opened the way for Black actors in cinema, passed away from cardiopulmonary failure in his Beverly Hills, California, home, with prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s disease as contributing factors. He was an inspiration to many who came after him and the lone Black cinema star in the middle of the 20th century, according to Denzel Washington, who claimed the Porgy and Bess star “meant everything to me.”
Louie Anderson
Date: Jan. 21
Cause of death: Complications from cancer
Age: 68
In movies like 1988’s Coming to America, where he played Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall’s enthusiastic coworker at McDowell’s, and TV shows like Baskets, where he received an Emmy and two additional nominations for playing mother Christine Baskets from 2016 to 2019, the comedian brought the humor for almost four decades. Although the exact date of his cancer diagnosis was unknown, his publicist said that he had been admitted to the hospital the previous week for diffuse large B cell lymphoma, a kind of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, before passing away.
Cheslie Kryst
Date: Jan. 30
Cause of death: Suicide
Age: 30
In the midst of a personal mental health battle, Miss USA 2019, an attorney who later became an Extra TV correspondent, passed away in front of her New York City home. She was “coping with high-functioning depression,” according to her mother. Her mother asked people to “take care of your mental health” at her open memorial ceremony.
Ivan Reitman
Date: Feb 12
Cause of death: Undisclosed
Age: 75
At his home in Montecito, California, the director of Ghostbusters, Kindergarten Cop, Junior, and Stripes passed away in his sleep. After 1998’s Six Days, Seven Nights, Reitman’s career as a director had slowed down, but he kept up his production work. Reitman’s legacy was complicated by Anna Faris’ claims that he was violent on the My Super Ex-Girlfriend set in 2006, which came to light after his passing.
Sally Kellerman
Date: Feb. 24
Cause of death: Heart failure
Age: 84
The role of Maj. “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s 1970 film M*A*S*H earned Kellerman an Oscar nomination, but she also had notable roles in Back to School (1986) and the TV series Young and the Restless, for which she received an Emmy nomination.
Mark Lanegan
Date: March 3
Cause of death: Unknown
Age: 57
The booming-voiced leader of Screaming Trees was the grunge pioneer’s most well-known role. According to rumors, Bourdain had urged Lanegan to pen his autobiography. In 2020, Sing Backwards and Weep, Lanegan’s debut book was released. Devil in a Coma, which detailed his terrifying encounter with COVID-19, came next in 2021. It is unknown if the singer’s lengthy COVID played a role in his passing.
Emilio DelGado
Date: March 10
Cause of death: Blood cancer
Age: 81
Generations of kids have watched the trailblazing DelGado portray Luis on Sesame Street and in its films, like 1985’s Follow That Bird, for over 50 years. According to the program, Delgado even held the record for the longest-running Mexican-American character in a TV series. And he felt it was crucial to provide that representation, frequently educating audiences about Latino culture and Spanish terminology.
Traci Braxton
Date: March 12
Cause of death: Esophageal cancer
Age: 50
The singer-turned-reality star passed away following a personal cancer struggle. She joined a group with Toni, Towanda, Trina, and Tama Braxton, sisters known for their singing. Kevin Surratt and Traci were married for 25 years, and they both participated in Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars.
William Hurt
Date: March 13
Cause of death: Natural causes
Age: 71
Hurt, who has been in numerous critically acclaimed movies, won the Best Actor Oscar in 1986 for his performance in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Following his significant victory, Hurt had two nominations in a row for the same category for his leading performances in Broadcast News and Children of a Lesser God. A History of Violence earned Hurt his fourth Oscar nomination in 2006.
Taylor Hawkins
Date: March 25
Cause of death: Unkown
Age: 50
He was a talented and in-demand drummer who achieved his first success while working with Canadian musician Alanis Morissette. His significant success came to him after he joined The Foo Fighters. For the first time, The Foo Fighters performed since Hawkins’ passing at all-star memorial concerts in September 2022 in London and Los Angeles.
Tom Paker
Date: March 30
Cause of death: Brain cancer
Age: 33
The British pop artist, whose boy band The Wanted became an international sensation and had a top three Billboard Hot 100 hit with “Glad You Came” in 2012, received an incurable stage four glioblastoma diagnosis in 2020 while his wife was expecting their second child. Just two days before his passing, he posted his last Instagram picture, which featured him onstage with the Wanted and included the caption “Dream Team.”
Estelle Harris
Date: April 2
Cause of death: Natural causes
Age: 93
She made a memorable impression on viewers of Seinfeld as George Costanza’s mother, Estelle, and fans will remember her distinctive voice as that of the witty and endearing Mrs. Potato Head in the Toy Story film series. Throughout her career, Harris contributed her vocal talents to various animated movies, including Hercules, Tarzan II, Brother Bear, and Godzilla: The Series.
Bobby Rydell
Date: April 5
Cause of death: Pneumonia complications
Age: 79
Bobby Rydell, who amassed a number of sock-hop successes, including “Volare,” “Wild One,” “Wildwood Days,” “Kissin’ Time,” “The Cha-Cha-Cha,” “Swingin’ School,” “We Got Love,” and “Little Bitty Girl,” was one of the first prominent teen idols of the 1950s and 1960s.
Gilbert Gottfried
Date: April 12
Cause of death: Recurrent ventricular tachycardia due to type II myotonic dystrophy
Age: 67
The family of the outspoken stand-up comedian requested that people “keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor” when they broke the news of his passing, and there is no doubt that he would have enjoyed that. The comic with the nasal voice was notorious for being irreverent, which occasionally got him into trouble.
Robert Morse
Date: April 20
Cause of death: Brief illness
Age: 90
Morse, a Broadway star since the 1960s and winner of two Tony Awards, is best known to modern audiences for one of his many TV roles: Bertram Cooper, the bow-tie-wearing co-founder of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper on AMC’s Mad Men. Morse also won an Emmy for the televised version of his one-man show.
Naomi Judd
Date: April 30
Cause of death: Suicide
Age: 76
The mother-daughter country music duet The Judds’ legendary singer passed away due to mental illness. The “Love Can Build a Bridge” singer, who struggled with anxiety, melancholy, bipolar disorder, and suicidal thoughts, was set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame with her daughter Wynonna Judd the day before her suicide at her Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, home.
