Actors We Lost In 2020

There were some huge deaths in Hollywood this past decade, from legends of the silver screen to actors so young their careers had barely had time to bloom. Star Trek veteran Leonard Nimoy bid us farewell, as did Lauren Bacall, Doris Day and Burt Reynolds. Fast & Furious star Paul Walker left far too early, as did '90s heartthrob Luke Perry, comedic genius Robin Williams, and adored Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher. The loss of so many iconic names serves as a stark reminder that while they might portray superheroes and all manner of fantastical characters, actors are, like us, mere mortals.

Sadly, 2020 is proving to be another busy year for the Tinsel Town obituaries. We've already parted ways with a number of actors, and we're paying tribute to them all. From founding fathers of comedy and veteran character actors, to up-and-coming stars that never got a chance to truly shine, here are the actors we lost in 2020.

Terry Jones, best known for his work with the groundbreaking British comedy troupe Monty Python, passed away in January 2020 after battling a rare form of dementia, London's Evening Standard confirmed. "We have all lost a kind, funny, warm, creative and truly loving man whose uncompromising individuality, relentless intellect and extraordinary humor has given pleasure to countless millions across six decades," his family said in a statement. He was 77.

Jones was instrumental in developing the unique stream-of-consciousness style that made Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974) such a game-changing TV show, and he would go on to spearhead three of the group's original feature films. 1975's Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Terry Gilliam, is regularly ranked among the funniest films ever made. Jones went on to helm 1979's Monty Python's Life of Brian, in which he played the titular character's cantankerous mother and delivered the film's most iconic line, and 1983's Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, the last movie to feature all six pythons.

The remaining members of the influential troupe paid tribute to Jones following his passing. "He was far more than one of the funniest writer-performers of his generation, he was the complete Renaissance comedian — writer, director, presenter, historian, brilliant children's author, and the warmest, most wonderful company you could wish to have," Michael Palin said. Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker and Simon Pegg (who starred in Jones' final feature film, 2015's Absolutely Anything) were among the many mourners.

Character actor Norma Michaels, who was best known for playing Josephine opposite Jerry Stiller in the CBS sitcom King of Queens, died in January 2020. Her obituary, published in The Desert Sun, confirmed that she passed away peacefully at her Palm Springs home. She was 95.

Michaels worked on seven episodes of King of Queens, one of the many comedies she popped up in over the course of a career that began back in the mid-50s when she played a patron on the half-hour variety series The George Gobel Show. In later years she appeared on Malcolm in the Middle, Ally McBeal, Gilmore Girls, Everybody Loves Raymond, Modern Family, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine to name just a few. She was in a handful of feature-length comedies, too, including Wedding Crashers, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Easy A. She wasn't a one-trick pony, however. In fact, she had some acting chops.

Paying tribute to Michaels, screenwriter Christopher Kubasik recalled being blown away by her ability when he worked with her on the fantasy drama series The Booth at the End. She portrayed an elderly woman named Mrs. Tyler, who is building a bomb in an effort to save her husband. "It was so committed and sensitive a performance," Kubasik tweeted. "I could feel an unexpected energy spread across the crew as everyone got the show... In that moment I was so grateful to Norma."

TV and theater actress Marsha Kramer, best known for her role as Ed O'Neill's long time assistant Margaret on Modern Family, passed away in January 2020. Her death was confirmed by director Jeff Greenberg, who worked with her on the ABC sitcom. "So sad to hear that my long time friend, Marsha Kramer, passed away yesterday at the age of 74," Greenberg tweeted. "She was so delightful in the 14 episodes she shot as Margaret on Modern Family over the last 7 years, but I'll always remember her soaring aloft as Wendy."

Greenberg was referring to the 1979 Broadway revival of Peter Pan, in which Kramer played Wendy Darling opposite Sandy Duncan in the title role. She appeared in productions of Stepping Out, The Secret Garden, and Showboat, among many others, successfully balancing a career on the stage with supporting roles on the small screen. Kramer popped up in everything from medical dramas (General Hospital) and soaps (Days of Our Lives) to police procedurals (NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service), but sitcoms were her bread and butter.

Modern Family was her most notable screen role, but Kramer also has credits for Malcolm in the Middle, Ally McBeal, and Cheers She also played a talk radio host named Tooty on Frasier. She only physically appeared on screen in two episodes ("Good Grief" and "Sweet Dreams"), but her character was mentioned on several occasions. She is survived by her husband, Jim Keller, and numerous pet cats, including her pride and joy, Dylann. 

Described as a "brilliant character actor who appeared in significant Oscar-winning movies" in his Los Angeles Times obituary, New Yorker Jack Kehoe passed away in January 2020. The Queens-born actor lived in the Hollywood Hills, but had been out of the spotlight since suffering a stroke in 2015. He was 85.

Kehoe joined the Army straight out of high school and served three years with 101st Airborne Division. He trained under Stella Adler (whose NYC acting school produced the likes of Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, and Marlon Brando) after leaving the military and started hitting the stage, putting in an acclaimed performance in the late Eugene O'Neill play A Moon for the Misbegotten. This opened the door to Hollywood, where Kehoe would establish himself as a capable foil for some of the biggest stars of the time.

He appeared alongside Al Pacino in Serpico, Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting, and Warren Beatty in his historical drama, Reds. Other notable movie appearances include Midnight Run, The Untouchables, and Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory. In terms of television, Kehoe worked on episodes of The Twilight Zone, Fame, and Miami Vice.

Sally Kirkland, who co-starred with Kehoe in The Sting, paid tribute to her late colleague on Twitter. "He was a wonderful character actor who was unforgettable in Serpico and The Untouchables," she said. "God bless his beautiful soul, journey home to the heart of God." Kehoe is survived by his companion of four decades, Sherry Smith.

Raspy-voiced actor Kevin Conway, known for his explosive performances on the stage and screen, passed away in February 2020. His long-time partner Geraldine Newman told The New York Times that the Harlem native died of a heart attack. He was 77.

Conway joined the Navy after graduating from Brooklyn's Bishop Loughlin High School in 1959. When he left the military he secured a mail room job at IBM and was actively working his way up the company ladder when he decided he wanted a change of direction. He enrolled in acting classes and began landing stage roles, first in Off-Broadway productions (he starred as McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and later on Broadway proper — Conway played Doctor Treves in Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man, a role he reprised for a televised performance of the play.

Hollywood saw Conway as a tough guy when he first went west. The New Yorker threw his weight about in late-'70s Sylvester Stallone flicks F.I.S.T. and Paradise Alley (he stood his ground when Sly reportedly suggested he get a real face tattoo for the part), but as he got older the offers became more varied. He turned down the chance to play King Theoden in The Lord of the Rings ("I really suffered about it," he admitted) and he would never get an opportunity that big again. Still, Conway worked steadily as a voice actor and narrator in the last few years of his life.

Missouri born actress Lynn Cohen, who appeared in dozens of big films and TV shows but was perhaps best known for her role as hilariously frank housekeeper Magda in Sex and the City, passed away in February 2020. She was 86.

Described as "a staple in the New York Theater community" by Deadline, Cohen earned several awards for her work on the stage. Her film debut came in 1983 when she played a minor part in mystery drama Without a Trace, but her career on the screen wouldn't start to pick up steam until the late '90s. She appeared in ten feature films between 1996 and 2000, when she made her debut on Sex and the City. Cohen had done TV before (she started playing Judge Elizabeth Mizener on Law & Order in 1993, a character she would play a dozen times between then and 2006), but portraying Cynthia Nixon's Ukrainian maid/nanny on the smash hit HBO show exposed her to new levels of fame. She reprised the role of Magda in the 2008 Sex and the City movie, as well as its 2010 sequel.

Several former Sex and the City cast members took to social media after hearing about Cohen's passing, the leading lady included. "Beautiful Lynn Cohen," Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw) said in an Instagram post. "Miranda's dear and necessary Magda. Our dear SATC colleague. Talent, grace, inspiration. RIP." Elsewhere, Willie Garson (Stanford Blatch) thanked Cohen for her "friendship and amazing talent" in a tweet.

Ugandan actress Nikita Waligwa, who starred in the 2016 Disney film Queen of Katwe, died from a brain tumor in February 2020. She was first diagnosed with a tumor in 2016, but (thanks to the fundraising efforts of Queen of Katwe director Mira Nair and some contributions from Disney) she was flown to India for treatment and soon got the all-clear. A second tumor developed, however, and this time she couldn't be saved. She was 15.

Queen of Katwe is a biographical drama about real life chess player Phiona Mutesi, a poor Ugandan girl who went from the slums of Katwe to the World Chess Olympiads. Walinga played Mutesi's real-life friend and fellow chess star Gloria Nansubuga, who was shocked when she heard the news. "I couldn't bear to hear that someone who acted as me in a film had died," she told the BBC. "I loved her from my heart."

David Oyelowo and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, who played Mutesi's parents in the movie, both took to Instagram to pay tribute to the teen. "She played Gloria with such vibrancy," Nyong'o said. "In her real life she had the enormous challenge of battling brain cancer. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and community as they come to terms with having to say goodbye so soon." Oyelowo echoed those sentiments, calling Waligwa's battle "humbling to witness" in his own post. "She was a ball of light," he added. "Her light will live on."

Hawaii-born actress Kellye Nakahara, best known for her role as Nurse Kellye Yamato in the classic army hospital dramedy M*A*S*H, died of cancer in February 2020. She passed away surrounded by loved ones at her home in California, her sister Nalani Coleman told CNN. "She was a performer and an artist, and she did her artwork to make people happy, which in turn gave her joy," Coleman said. "People wanted to be near her, she was genuine in her persona." She was 72.

Nakahara was only supposed to be an extra on M*A*S*H, but she had different plans. "I put myself in every scene and nobody told me to get out," she once said (via The New York Times). Her tactic worked perfectly. She ended up featuring in 167 episodes of the Korean War-set show, even playing the lead on occasion. "She began as a background performer and worked her way up to playing the lead in an episode I wrote for her," Alan Alda, who portrayed surgeon (and Nurse Kellye's secret crush) Hawkeye Pierce, told Fox News. "She was adorable and brilliant in the part, but you couldn't beat what she was as a person, funnier and warmer and kinder than most people I've known."

Other notable credits include Little House on the Prairie, Growing Pains, NYPD Blue, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and The Wild Thornberrys, her last role. Besides her daughter, Nakahara is survived by her husband, David Wallett, her son, William Wallet, and her four grandchildren.

Actress and musician Ja'Net DuBois, best known for playing fashionable divorcee Willona Woods on the '70s sitcom Good Times, passed away in her California home in February 2020. According to her family she was 74 at the time, however "public records indicate she may have been older," The New York Times reported.

DuBois was born in Philadelphia, but she moved to New York to pursue a career in acting. She appeared in several Broadway productions and ran her own acting workshop for kids at one stage, but by the 1960s Hollywood was calling. The ambitious performer was cast in Good Times in 1974 and she went on to portray Willona Woods until 1979, appearing in 133 episodes of the Norman Lear sitcom.

During her stint on Good Times she told Lear that she wanted to explore new avenues, and he suggested that she create a song for The Jeffersons, one of the prolific producer's many shows. The result was "Movin' On Up", which became a "jubilant, aspirational theme song for black Americans," DuBois' daughter, Kesha Gupta-Fields, said. "It provided a lot of black people with an anthem."

The Philly native went on to appear in a few feature films in the years that followed (most notably 2003's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle), but she was always more celebrated for her TV work. DuBois won two Primetime Emmys for her work on Eddie Murphy and Larry Wilmore's animated series The PJs, in which she voiced quarrelsome housing project resident Mrs. Avery.

Newark native Mark Blum, who starred opposite Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan and played Paul Hogan's love rival in Crocodile Dundee, passed away in March 2020. The stage and screen actor died "as a result of complications from the coronavirus," Rebecca Damon, executive vice-president of Blum's union Sag-Aftra, confirmed in a tweet. He was 69.

Blum was perhaps best known for playing Gary Glass in the 1985 comedy-drama Desperately Seeking Susan, Madonna's first major film role. She took to Instagram when she learned of her co-star's passing, remembering Blum as "funny, warm, loving and professional" in a tribute post. "I want to acknowledge the passing of a remarkable human, fellow actor and friend Mark Blum, who succumbed to coronavirus," the Queen of Pop said. "This is really tragic and my heart goes out to him, his family and his loved ones." Star Wars legend Mark Hamill, Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek, and Sex and the City alum Cynthia Nixon (who called Blum "one of the loveliest humans ever") were among the many who paid tribute to the versatile thesp.

Younger viewers are more likely to recognize Blum as either Union Bob (the piccolo player in Amazon's classical music comedy-drama Mozart in the Jungle) or Mr. Mooney (the bookstore owner in Netflix's super popular stalker show, YOU). Blum's final role was Dr. Mark Rutenberg, a one-off character in Showtime's hit legal series, Billions. He is survived by his wife, actress Janet Zarish.

English actor Andrew Jack, who played Caluan Ematt in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens and reprised the role in 2017 sequel Star Wars: The Last Jedi, died of coronavirus in March 2020. The 76-year-old passed away just two days after contracting COVID-19, his wife confirmed. "He was in no pain, and he slipped away peacefully knowing that his family were all 'with' him," Gabrielle Rogers tweeted. Tragically, Rogers wasn't able to be with her husband in person during his final moments as she was quarantined in Australia.

Jack also worked on 2018 spin-off Solo: A Star Wars Story, voicing a Grindalid character named Moloch. In fact, the Brit was actually more famous for his voice in Hollywood circles. He was a sought-after dialect coach who plied his trade on some of the biggest movies of recent years, working closely with Chris Hemsworth on a number of occasions — Jack helped the Australian actor get his accent right in Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Men in Black: International. According to Jack's agent (via the BBC), he was coaching on Robert Pattinson's The Batman when he fell ill.

Tributes from former colleagues began to pour in when news of Jack's death broke. Elijah Wood and Sean Astin worked with him on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and both actors remember him fondly. "He was a kind and lovely human being," Wood said, while Astin recalled how Jack "made a mean curry."

California-born actor Jay Benedict, who played Newt's father in the James Cameron classic Aliens and later appeared in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, died in April 2020. His agency confirmed that he passed away after contracting coronavirus. "It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our dear client Jay Benedict, who this afternoon lost his battle with COVID-19," TCG tweeted. "Our thoughts are with his family." He was 68.

Benedict became fluent in French after moving to Europe as a child, and he put that to good use throughout his career, appearing in numerous French productions. In 2013 he played the French Foreign Minister in The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, adapted from the hit novel of the same name. When Benedict spoke in his mother tongue he did so with an English accent, though he was still routinely cast as an American. In fact, the role he was best known for was U.S. Army officer John Kieffer, friend of the eponymous Christopher Foyle in British TV series Foyle's War.

He was also a voice actor, whose pleasant tones were often utilized by movie theater chains. "The irritatingly soothing voice requesting that you take your seat and switch off your mobile phone is quite probably him," the bio on the late actor's website reads. Benedict's voice was also well known to gamers — he voiced characters in dozens of video games, including Miami Vice, Spartan: Total Warrior, and Perfect Dark Zero.

Respected character actor Allen Garfield, who made a career out of playing corrupt businessmen and scheming politicians, passed away in April 2020. Garfield's sister told the Press Herald that the Newark-born actor died of complications from COVID-19. He was 80.

Garfield was once an aspiring boxer with a passion for writing. "I thought I was going to be the first boxer-journalist, like a Hemingway character," he once said. "I'd be like the Jewish Hemingway — box, and also write about boxing." He had a change of heart when he saw the 1944 movie adaptation of Broadway play Tomorrow, the World!, a film about a German boy who was raised as a Nazi after his father was executed for speaking out against the Third Reich. Garfield decided to perform a section of the story on stage just to see what it felt like, and he knew right away that he loved acting. He began taking night classes and would eventually end up at New York's famous Actor's Studio, learning from legendary tutor Lee Strasberg.

He went on to appear in a number of '70s classics, playing supporting roles in films like Robert Altman's Nashville, Richard Rush's The Stunt Man, and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, Garfield's personal favorite. Other notable credits include Beverly Hills Cop II (he played the foul-mouthed police chief) and Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate. Garfield was a resident at The Motion Picture Television Fund Home, industry retirement facility, at the time of his death.

Connecticut-born actor Brian Dennehy, best known for playing dogged small-town sheriff Will Teasle in Sylvester Stallone classic First Blood, died in April 2020. His daughter Elizabeth Dennehy (an actor whose credits include Red Dragon and Hancock) confirmed his passing in a tweet. "It is with heavy hearts we announce that our father, Brian, passed away last night from natural causes, not COVID-related," she said. "Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed by his wife Jennifer, family and many friends." He was 81.

Dennehy won a football scholarship to Columbia after leaving the military in 1963 (he spent four years as a Marine, per Variety), and from there he got into Yale, where he studied dramatic arts. He made his debut in 1977, which turned into a very productive year — Dennehy appeared in over a dozen TV shows and movies. He landed a recurring role on Dynasty in 1981, and his career got another boost the following year we he played John Rambo's nemesis. Dennehy had already worked with Stallone on 1978's F.I.S.T, and when they reunited for First Blood in 1982, both actors benefited. 

Other notable appearances include Ron Howard sci-fi Cocoon and Lawrence Kasdan western Silverado, both released in 1985. Dennehy made his overdue Broadway debut in the mid-'90s, and he would later voice the character Django in Pixar hit Ratatouille. His final appearance was on a 2019 episode of NBC's The Blacklist.

Actor and producer Hilary Heath, best known for starring opposite Vincent Price in a trio of classic horror movies, passed away in April 2020. The Brit died after contracting coronavirus, her godson revealed. "We lost my wonderful godmother Hilary Heath to COVID-19 last week," Alex Williams confirmed in a Facebook post (via The Wrap). "She was a force of nature, and I can't bear it that she is no longer with us." She was 74.

Heath (who was going by maiden name Hilary Dwyer at the time) only had a handful of TV appearances under her belt when she was cast as Vincent Price's quarry Sara in 1968's Witchfinder General, released as The Conqueror Worm in the United States. The following year she appeared in The Oblong Box, the first film to co-star both Price and fellow horror icon Christopher Lee. She reunited with Price once again for Cry of the Banshee in 1970, a fruitful year for the actress — she also appeared in a big screen adaption of Wuthering Heights alongside Timothy Dalton.

She reinvented herself as a producer in the '90s, making films like Nil by Mouth with Gary Oldman and An Awfully Big Adventure, starring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. Heath was also an Oxford graduate and an addiction counsellor, her godson revealed. "She worked at clinics all over the world, often for free, often with very deprived and distressed individuals, and she regarded this as her most valuable work by far," Williams said.

Red-headed New Yorker Julie Bennett, best known for providing the distinctly Southern voice of Cindy Bear on The Yogi Bear Show, passed away on March 31, 2020. Her agent and longtime friend Mark Scroggs confirmed that she had succumbed to coronavirus in a statement released to Entertainment Weekly. "She was definitely a personality and a throwback to Hollywood glamour," he said. Scroggs also thanked the "amazing" staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where Bennett died. She was 88.

Bennett bounced between theater productions and radio soaps when she first started acing in the 1950s. Her career received a boost when she returned to California (the Manhattan native had moved there for a spell when she was a child), winning a number of small TV roles, including a part on a 1956 episode of Adventures of Superman. Bennett would actually go on to play famous characters from both the DC and the Marvel universes after she broke into voice acting the following decade. She'll always be best remembered for bringing Yogi Bear's parasol-carrying girlfriend to life, but Bennett also voiced the iconic Lois Lane in The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (1967-1968) and she provided the worried tones of Aunt May in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998).

She only appeared on screen a handful of times, but her voice could be heard across five decades. She was divorced, her agent confirmed, but "she leaves behind her mutually adopted family."

Film and TV actor Dimitri Diatchenko, best known for his turn as reckless tour guide Uri in the nuclear horror Chernobyl Diaries, passed away in April 2020. Diatchenko, who was a first-generation American of Ukrainian, Swedish, and Greek heritage, died suddenly at his home in Florida, his agent confirmed. He was 52.

Roger Paul told Deadline that his client may have suffered a heart attack, though the agent also claimed that an electric shock could have been to blame. According to CNN, Diatchenko had been taking time off work after being electrocuted on the job and was only discovered when a co-worker contacted authorities after they didn't hear from him for a number of days. Police found the actor unresponsive. They couldn't reveal the cause of death (autopsy results are pending), but they confirmed that there were no signs of foul play.

2012's Chernobyl Diaries didn't go over well with the majority of critics, but Diatchenko's performance was considered a highlight of the film. He had made his big screen debut 15 years earlier, playing a Navy SEAL in Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane. He went on to appear as Russian enforcers in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Get Smart, and he played a similar role in Sons of Anarchy. Other notable TV credits include How I Met Your Mother, Bones, and Criminal Minds. Diatchenko was also a prolific voice actor who worked on over 30 video games. He's survived by his siblings, nieces, and nephews.

New Zealander Bruce Allpress, who accidentally fired the first arrow during the climactic battle in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, passed away in April 2020. The actor died surrounded by loved ones at his home in Auckland, The New Zealand Herald confirmed. "Dad lived an extremely full life," his son Michael said in a statement. "He was very accepting of the vast diversity that humanity presents and very much an independent thinker." He was 89.

Allpress was in the textiles trade before becoming an actor, and traveled extensively in Asia for work during the 1960s. He made his screen debut in 1977, playing Gordon Hunter in the kids' adventure series Hunter's Gold. Roles in beloved Kiwi soap opera Close to Home and popular cop show Mortimer's Patch followed, and he would go on to star as the titular jack-of-all-trades in the rural drama Jocko. Allpress won the Feltex Actor of the Year award twice for his work on the show.

In terms of feature films, Allpress was best known for playing a blind piano tuner in critically acclaimed romance flick The Piano, and for his turn as Rohan bowman Aldor in The Two Towers. He famously let loose early as Saruman's forces surrounded the stronghold of Helm's Deep in Peter Jackson's second The Lord of the Rings film, killing an unsuspecting Uruk-hai and kickstarting the epic battle.

Apart from acting, Allpress owned an antique store and was a founding shareholder in Allpress Espresso. Survivors include his five children.

Vermont-born actor Sam Lloyd, best known for playing downtrodden lawyer Ted Buckland on the medical comedy-drama Scrubs, passed away in April 2020. He died as "a result of complications from lung cancer," his family confirmed in a statement. Lloyd was informed that he had terminal cancer in 2019, just weeks after his wife gave birth to their first child. "The overwhelming outpouring of love and sharing your stories about working with or knowing Sam keeps his memory alive and our hearts strong," his wife Vanessa told Variety. He was 56.

Lloyd appeared in a few feature films in his career (most notably Robin Williams' Flubber and the sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest), but he was best known for his TV work. He made his debut in a 1988 episode of the courtroom comedy Night Court, and in the years that followed he became a regular face on the small screen. Lloyd's deadpan delivery and hangdog features made him a go-to character actor in the comedy genre, landing him parts in the likes of Seinfeld, The Drew Carey Show, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Malcolm in the Middle, and Spin City, another show from Scrubs creator, Bill Lawrence.

Lawrence took to Twitter to pay tribute to Lloyd (who was also a talented musician) after news of his death broke, as did former Scrubs star Zach Braff. "Rest In Peace to one of the funniest actors I've ever had the joy of working with," Braff said. "He could not have been a kinder man."

Ohio-born actor Fred Willard, best known for his numerous collaborations with actor and filmmaker Christopher Guest, died of natural causes in May 2020. "My father passed away very peacefully last night at the fantastic age of 86 years old," his daughter, Hope Mulbarger, told People. "He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end."

Willard got started in sketch comedy in 1965 when he was hired by the Second City improv troupe. He made his TV debut in the sitcom Pistols 'n' Petticoats the following year, but wouldn't get his big break until 1977, when he started playing Jerry Hubbard on the parody talk show Fernwood Tonight. His brief but memorable performance in director Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap in 1984 began his fruitful relationship with Tap's Guest, which would truly flourish the following decade when he played travel agent/amateur actor Ron Albertson in 1996's Waiting for Guffman. "That started to change everything," Willard told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. He worked with Guest again on Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Family Tree, and Mascots.

Willard was a four-time Emmy nominee (three for his work on Everybody Loves Raymond, one for Modern Family) who made over 300 screen appearances throughout his career. He passed away just weeks before the premiere of the Steve Carell-led Netflix series Space Force. In his final role, Willard plays Fred Naird, the Secretary of Defense and father of Carell's character. "He was a sweet, wonderful man," Carell tweeted after his co-star's passing.

Actor Gregory Tyree Boyce, who played Forks High School student Tyler Crowley in 2008's Twilight, passed away in May 2020. The 30-year-old California native was found dead alongside his girlfriend, 27-year-old Natalie Adenike Adepoju, at their condo in Las Vegas. Clark county coroner John Fudenberg confirmed that foul play was not suspected.

According to one source, the actor and his partner of around one year were discovered by a member of Boyce's family. "Greg's cousin woke up and noticed that Greg's car was still at the house," the insider told E! News. "He was worried because Greg was to be in L.A. His cousin went to check on him and found them." The source went on to say that Boyce had moved to Las Vegas to be closer to his mother, but was still visiting Los Angeles on a regular basis to pursue acting jobs and to see his daughter, ten-year-old Alaya. His late partner was also a parent, her family confirmed on a GoFundMe page. "Natalie had so much life to live [and] we are saddened that her life was cut short," they said. "Natalie leaves behind her one and only baby boy, Egypt."

Boyce only had one credit outside of Twilight (he appeared in 2018's Apocalypse), but his role in the teen vampire movie was a crucial one — he's the guy who forces Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) to use his powers when he almost kills Bella Swan (Kirsten Stewart) with his van by mistake.

Boston native Richard Herd, who played Mr. Wilhelm on Seinfeld and later appeared in Jordan Peele's horror hit Get Out, died in May 2020. The actor passed away at his home in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer, Variety confirmed. He was 87.

Herd got his start on New York's theater circuit and would make his feature film debut in the same city, landing a role in 1970's Hercules in New York. He went on to become a prolific character actor, making memorable appearances in Sylvester Stallone's F.I.S.T. and the classic '80s comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He played the Klingon L'Kor on Star Trek: The Next Generation before returning to the franchise as Admiral Owen Paris in Star Trek: Voyager and the fan film Star Trek: Renegades. He appeared as Mr. Wilhelm in 11 episodes of Seinfeld between 1995 and 1998.

In Get Out, he "nailed" the role of Roman Armitage, the founder of the secretive Order of the Coagula and the patriarch of the Armitage Family. "RIP Richard Herd," director Jordan Peele tweeted. "A wonderful man and a true professional. We hadn't talked much before he arrived on set for Get Out. I asked him to think of the scene as a Viagra ad trying to hide deep rage. He responded 'That sounds like all Viagra ads to me!' Then he absolutely nailed it."

Herd is survived by his daughter Erica, his son Rick, his stepdaughter Alicia, and his wife of 40 years, Patricia Crowder Herd.

Beloved character actor Mary Pat Gleason, best known for her small roles in films like The Crucible, Intolerable Cruelty, and A Cinderella Story, died in June 2020. She passed away following a battle with cancer, her manager confirmed to Variety. "She was so much more than a wonderful actress: she was one of a kind," friend and actor Ron Fassler said in a Facebook tribute. "So caring, so funny, and so delicious to be around, that I find it hard to imagine a world without her shining presence and smiling face." She was 70.

The Minnesota native made her screen debut in 1982, appearing in a episode of Another World spin-off Texas. She appeared in comedy film Easy Money the following year, and from that moment onward would bounce between the small screen and the big one. She won a Daytime Emmy for her writing work on the long-running radio and TV drama Guiding Light, which she also starred on for a spell. She played Nurse Sizemore in a 1994 episode of Friends and later featured in Shameless, Will & Grace, The Blacklist. More recently, she recurred on CBS sitcom Mom, appearing in eight episodes between 2014 and 2019.

In terms of movies, Gleason largely featured in comedies later in her career, plying her trade in the likes of the James Franco/Bryan Cranston caper Why Him? and the Netflix teen flick Sierra Burgess Is a Loser. Her final film, a drama entitled Pencil Town, is yet to be released.

Singer and actor Chris Trousdale, who appeared on Broadway as a child and went on to become a pop star before returning to acting, passed away in June 2020. He died of complications from COVID-19, former Dream Street bandmate Jesse McCartney confirmed. "Chris, in my opinion, was the most popular among us, who had a way of drawing every eye to what he was doing on stage," McCartney recalled in a tribute Instagram post. He was 34.

Trousdale was drawn to the stage from a young age and would end up making his debut when he was just eight years old, embarking on a tour of Les Misérables alongside future High School Musical star, Ashley Tisdale. After that he managed to secure a role in the Broadway production of the play, this time featuring alongside Lea Michele of Glee fame. At age 11, he moved to New York City to be closer to the production.

Trousdale fell off the radar for a number of years when Dream Street broke up in 2002, but would later reemerge as a screen actor, making appearances in TV shows like Shake It Up and Austin & Ally. He also appeared in the pilot episode of Lucifer in 2015, and prior to that he had an uncredited role on the long-running soap opera Day of Our Lives. His final performance is yet to be seen — he stars as a wedding singer in the upcoming indie romance flick New York Christmas Wedding.

Two-time Oscar nominee Shirley Knight, who recurred on Desperate Housewives and later played Kevin James' mother in the Paul Blart: Mall Cop movies, died in April 2020. The Kansas native passed away at her daughter's home in Texas at the age of 83, the Associated Press confirmed.

Knight made her TV debut in 1955, and by the early 1960s was a household name in Hollywood. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn as lovelorn Oklahoman Reenie Flood in the 1960 adaptation of William Inges' play The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, just her second-ever credited appearance on the big screen. She was back at the Academy Awards two years later when she picked up another Best Supporting Actress nod for playing Heavenly Finley (the woman seduced and subsequently abandoned by Paul Newman) in the film version of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth.

She lived in New York and London for spells during her successful theater phase, but would return to Hollywood in the late '70s. Knight announced her comeback with a role in the Michael Caine-led disaster movie Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, and she would become a regular on American TV screens in the decades that followed, winning three of the eight Emmys she was nominated for. Her final Emmy nod was in 2006, when she was recognized for her work as Phyllis Van de Kamp in Desperate Housewives. Knight was also the proud owner of a Tony Award.

Versatile actor Mel Winkler, who played Melvin the mechanic in the Michael J. Fox rom-com Doc Hollywood and voiced numerous beloved animated characters, passed away in June 2020. Winkler died in his sleep at his home in Hollywood, Deadline confirmed. He was 78.

Winkler made his Broadway bow in 1968 and debuted on television the following year when he took on the role of Dr. Simon Harris in the long-running soap opera The Doctors. He played Harris for a total of 68 episodes before he left to work on movies. He played a club manager in his first feature (1972's Across 110th Street) and would appear in a handful of films in the years to come, though he would regularly switch between the big and the small screen. Notable TV credits include The Young Riders, NYPD Blue, The Shield, Star Trek: Voyager and The New Adventures of Superman, one of numerous DC projects that he worked on during the 1990s.

The St. Louis native played Inspector Bill Henderson in The New Adventures of Superman, and he voiced the same character in Superman: The Animated Series a few years later. He's perhaps better known for his work on The New Batman Adventures, however — Winkler provided the voice of Wayne Enterprises big wig Lucius Fox, the guy who takes care of all the actual business stuff while Bruce Wayne is out being Batman. Gamers, meanwhile, will no doubt remember him as the voice of Aku Aku in the Crash Bandicoot series.

English actress Jill Gascoine, who became the first woman to headline a British police drama and later moved to the U.S. with her second husband, American actor Alfred Molina, died in April 2020. Molina revealed that his wife was "in a very advanced stage" of Alzheimer's disease when he spoke to The Guardian in 2016, telling the newspaper that Gascoine had already been living in a specialist home for over two years by that stage. She was 83 when she passed away.

Gascoine earned her first real credit in 1970, when she appeared in an episode of medical drama Dr. Finlay's Casebook. She would spend the next ten years chipping away at the male-dominated TV industry, appearing in 45 episodes of the drama Rooms and then playing Letty Onedin in the 1880's-set shipping company drama The Onedin Line. In 1980 all of her hard work paid off — the Londoner was cast as lead character Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes in ITV's The Gentle Touch, a role she would reprise in spin-off series C.A.T.S. Eyes. "My very first TV job was aged 11 in The Gentle Touch," actor Jake Wood (The Illusionist) said in a tribute tweet. "I have never forgotten her generosity and kindness to me."

She moved to Los Angeles with Molina in the 1990s and became a novelist, though she still popped up on-screen every now and again, sometimes where you'd least expect to see her — for instance, Gascoine was the nurse in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's BASEketball.

Canadian actor Nick Cordero, who played Victor Lugo in Blue Bloods but was best known for his work on Broadway, died of COVID-19 in July 2020. He fought the virus for 95 days before passing away at hospital in Los Angeles. "God has another angel in heaven now," Cordero's wife Amanda Kloots, who regularly kept fans up to date as the actor fought for his life, said in a heartbreaking Instagram post. "My darling husband passed away this morning. He was surrounded in love by his family, singing and praying as he gently left this earth." He was 41.

Cordero got his break in Toronto, starring in a local production of Tony n' Tina's Wedding. He made his Off-Broadway bow in 2009 and went on to join the Rock of Ages touring company, getting his first taste of Broadway proper in 2012. He delivered the most lauded performance of his career two years later when he played Cheech in Bullets Over Broadway, picking up a Tony nomination for his work in the jukebox musical.

The Ontario native worked on a couple of big TV shows (he made an early appearance in Queer as Folk and later popped up in Lilyhammer and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and he was no stranger to feature films, either. Cordero played Sal in the 2016 comedy A Stand Up Guy and was directed by good friend Zach Braff in 2017's Going in Style. "I have honestly never known a kinder person," Braff said.

Actress and model Kelly Preston, who played Tom Cruise's fiancée in the 1996 rom-com smash Jerry Maguire and starred alongside husband John Travolta in several feature films, died in July 2020. Preston passed away after a two year battle with breast cancer, her family confirmed. "Choosing to keep her fight private, she had been undergoing medical treatment for some time, supported by her closest family and friends," a spokesperson told People. "She was a bright, beautiful and loving soul who cared deeply about others and who brought life to everything she touched." She was 57.

Preston was born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu, Hawaii. She moved to California to study acting at USC and would quickly get a foothold in the industry upon graduating, scoring roles in a handful of TV shows and movies, including a minor part in John Carpenter's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's Christine. Her big breakthrough came two years later when she played her first major role in the teen comedy Mischief. She would appear in SpaceCamp (1986) and Twins (1988) before starring in the 1989 comedy The Experts, which is where she met Travolta. She married her co-star in 1991, and they would go on to have three children: Ella, Benjamin, and Jett, who sadly passed away in 2009 aged just 16.

Other notable appearances alongside her husband include Battlefield Earth (2000), Old Dogs (2009), From Paris With Love (2010), and Gotti (2018). Preston played mob wife Victoria Gotti in what would become her final film role.

Los Angeles-born actor Galyn Görg, best known for her turn as the supporting antagonist in RoboCop 2 and a memorable appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, passed away in July 2020. She died a day before her 56th birthday, relatives told Today. "Our beautiful Galyn has crossed over," a family spokesperson said. "She quietly and privately fought a good fight but unfortunately passed away one day before her birthday in Hawaii to cancer. Galyn had been very private about her battle with cancer the last nine months, but remained positive and continued to enjoy life in Hawaii."

Görg made her acting debut in the music video for ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" in 1983, but her big break came at the end of the decade when she was cast in 1990's RoboCop 2. Her character Angie helped ambush RoboCop in one scene, watching over him as men loyal to Cain (the fanatical leader of the Nuke Cult and Angie's lover) dismantled the cyborg. She appeared in Twin Peaks that same year, and in 1991 she shared the screen with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in Point Break. She would pop up in a number of big TV shows during the remainder of the '90s, including Xena: Warrior Princess, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and as the titular love interest in the Fresh Prince episode "Boxing Helena." Later notable credits include Lost, Parks and Recreation, and How to Get Away with Murder.

Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland, who was the last surviving star of 1939's Gone with the Wind, passed away in July 2020. The two-time Academy Award winner died of natural causes at her home in Paris, her publicist confirmed to CNN. She was 104.

De Havilland was born in Tokyo to British parents. She and her younger sister (the late Joan Fontaine) were often sick as children, so their mother decided to take them back to the UK. There was a stopover in San Francisco, however, and they never left. The family settled in California, and De Havilland would go on to become one of the biggest names of the classic movie era. She starred opposite Errol Flynn (who she once described as "so naughty and so charming") in no less than eight films, though her most famous role was undoubtedly Melanie Hamilton Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara's sister-in-law and best friend in Gone with the Wind. The Best Picture winner is still considered the most financially successful film of all time after inflation adjustments.

She would later become famous for taking Warner Bros. to court after the studio attempted to extend her contract beyond the legal term. "I was very proud of that decision, for it corrected a serious abuse of the contract system," she told the Screen Actors Guild in 1994. She won the landmark case and was free to pursue her own roles. She chose those roles wisely — De Havilland went on to win Best Actress statuettes for 1946's To Each His Own and 1949's The Heiress.

Singer and actor Annie Ross, who had a long and distinguished career in music and film, passed away in July 2020. The jazz icon died of emphysema and heart disease, her former manager confirmed (via Variety). She was 89.

Ross was born in the United Kingdom, but she didn't stay there very long. Her parents (Vaudeville actors John and Mary Short) decided to relocate to the States, which proved to be good move for their talented daughter. Ross ended up winning a six-month contact with MGM after impressing at a talent show, and would go on to billed as "the Scottish Shirley Temple" in Hollywood, she told the Daily Record in 2012. She would become best known as one third of vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross in the years that followed, though her name was always well known all over Tinsel Town.

She made her silver screen debut as Judy Garland's little sister in the musical comedy Presenting Lily Mars (1943) and went on to notch dozens of screen credits, balancing her acting career with her music. Ross recurred on The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Send in the Girls, and Charles Endell, Esq in the 1970s, and would pop up in a number of feature films the following decade, including 1983's Superman III and 1987's Throw Momma From the Train. She made her most memorable film appearance in Robert Altman's dramedy Short Cuts (1993), playing the nightclub singer mother of cellist Zoe Trainer (Lori Singer).

New York-born actress Royana Black, who made her Broadway debut aged 10 and later played the title role in the 1988 sitcom Raising Miranda, passed away in July 2020. The actress died following a battle with cancer, her family confirmed on a GoFundMe page set up in aid of her late husband, actor J.P. Hubbell. "We lost Royana Black Hubbell to acute myeloid leukemia very suddenly on July 14," a statement read. "Royana's incredible energy and spirit will be a part of our lives forever, and her friends and family want to remember her and assist her husband, J.P., at this most difficult time." She was 47.

The Poughkeepsie native got her big break when she was cast as a replacement in Broadway's Brighton Beach Memoirs aged just 10. Getting the chance to play Laurie (cousin of Matthew Broderick's Eugene) gave her the acting bug, and by age 13 she had successfully transitioned to television. She made her bow in a 1986 episode of Comedy Factory, and would go on to appear in two TV movies (Adam: His Song Continues and Almost Partners) in quick succession. In 1988, she landed the part of Miranda Marshack in the short-lived CBS show Raising Miranda, which followed a girl attempting to cope without her runaway mother.

Black graduated from Yale in 1994 and continued to work in TV, popping up in shows like Touched By An Angel and Medium. She also worked on one of Woody Allen's movies, her obituary confirmed.

New Yorker Reni Santoni, who played the rookie partner of Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry and later recurred on Seinfeld, passed away in August 2020. He had been "sick for quite a while," producer and friend Tracy Newman revealed in a Facebook post, hailing him as "a terrific actor, improviser [and] performer." Newman later told The Hollywood Reporter that Santoni had died of cancer. He was 82.

Santoni got his start on the stage, earning his stripes in a number of off-Broadway shows before transitioning into film with the 1962 drama Strangers in the City. He followed that up with an uncredited role in Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker (1964), playing a desperate junkie attempting to sell a radio. After a handful of TV roles he got what was supposed to be his big break — despite being a relative unknown, he won the lead role of David Kolowitz (an aspiring actor from the Bronx) in the film adaptation of Enter Laughing (1967). Veteran film critic Roger Ebert approved of Santoni's performance, but the film flopped.

He bounced back in 1971 when he appeared as detective Chico Gonzalez in Dirty Harry, which led to roles in Bad Boys (1983), Brewster's Millions (1985), and Cobra (1986), in which he portrayed the partner of Sylvester Stallone's Lieutenant Marion Cobretti. He would make four appearances on Seinfeld between 1994 and 1998, playing Poppie the pizza chef. Santoni is survived by his wife Rae Ann, his son Nick, and his sister Amelia.

London born actor Ben Cross, best known for his portrayal of real life Jewish athlete Harold Abrahams in Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire, died of an unspecified illness in August 2020. His daughter, Lauren, confirmed that he passed away in Vienna, Austria. "I am utterly heartbroken," she said in a Facebook post. "He had been sick for a while but there was a rapid decline over the past week." The family later released a statement (via the Associated Press), hailing Cross as "a man who taught us to embrace our feelings, whatever they may be." He was 72.

Cross graduated from RADA in 1972 and spent five years on London's theater circuit before making his feature debut with a minor role in Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far. He wouldn't appear in another film until 1981, when Chariots of Fire came along. "In those days when I had a script to read I would lie in bed and see at what point I went to sleep," he told The JC in 2012. "With that, I read it all the way through and ended up crying my eyes out." The Brit's turn as Olympic runner Abrahams led to plenty of offers — he would go on to star alongside Sean Connery and Richard Gere in the Arthurian adventure film First Knight and later played Spock's father Sarek in the Star Trek reboot — but nothing would ever top Chariots for him. "A film like that, it is professionally life-changing," he said.

Allan Rich, who made a triumphant comeback in Sidney Lumet's Serpico after being blacklisted in Hollywood, died in August 2020. Rich passed away from progressive dementia at an assisted-living facility in New Jersey. He was 94.

Born Benjamin Norman Schultz, Rich made his Broadway debut in 1943 and would go on to establish himself as a reliable character actor, but his career was derailed a decade later when he was accused of being a communist. His name soon appeared in Red Channels, the infamous industry blacklist. "My agent never sent me out [on another audition]," he said in 2007 (via The Hollywood Reporter). "I would walk into an office, making the rounds, and I'd walk out going 'phhffffft.' It took a year until an actor said to me, 'Hey, we're on Red Channels.' If your name was on that list, goodbye! You never worked."

According to Rich, he was blacklisted because he spoke out in favor of freeing a Black man who had been wrongly convicted of rape. He reinvented himself as a stockbroker and later opened the high-class Allan Rich Art Gallery in Manhattan, but he wasn't quite done with acting. Rich burst back onto the Hollywood scene playing a district attorney in Serpico (1973) and went on to become a regular on American TV screens, appearing in the likes of Hawaii Five-O, Kojak and Happy Days. Other notable film credits include Disclosure (1994), Quiz Show (1994), and Man in the Chair (2007).

Dame Diana Rigg, who played Bond girl Tracy di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and later appeared as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, passed away in September 2020. Her daughter, actress Rachael Stirling, told the BBC that Rigg died surrounded by family members after a six-month cancer battle. "She spent her last months joyfully reflecting on her extraordinary life, full of love, laughter and a deep pride in her profession," Stirling said. She was 82.

Rigg began her career as a stage actor, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. She made her screen debut that same year when she appeared in a made-for-TV version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, though she wouldn't become a household name in the U.K. until the mid-1960s, when she debuted as secret agent Emma Peel in the classic spy show The Avengers. She became a fashion icon and sex symbol in Britain, which led to her casting in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Rigg holds a special place in cinema history as the only Bond girl to actually marry 007.

She went on to appear in dozens of movies and TV shows in the decades that followed, but younger viewers will remember her as Lady Olenna, a.k.a. the Queen of Thorns. Rigg loved playing the scheming matriarch of House Tyrell, because it gave her a chance to be bad. "I love to be disliked," she said. "Olenna had the best lines." Her final feature film, Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho, is set to arrive in 2021.

Anglo-French actor Michael Lonsdale, who starred as detective Claude Lebel in the political thriller The Day of the Jackal and played Bond villain Hugo Drax opposite Roger Moore in Moonraker, died in September 2020. Lonsdale passed away in Paris, his agent told Deadline. He was 89.

Born in France but raised on British soil (his childhood was split between the island of Guernsey and London), Lonsdale studied painting before becoming an actor. He made his stage debut at the age of 24 and his first screen appearance quickly followed — the bilingual thesp landed a part in 1956's C'est arrivé à Aden (It Happened in Aden), the first of many French genre films he would pop up in throughout the '50s. He worked under some of the most respected directors of the day during the decade that followed, including Orson Welles (The Trial), René Clément (Is Paris Burning?) and French New Wave visionary François Truffaut (The Bride Wore Black, Stolen Kisses).

In 1973 he played the cop trying to stop the assassination of Charles de Gaulle by a British hitman in The Day of the Jackal, and his face became known all over the world as the power mad industrialist attempting to wipe out humanity from space in 1979's Moonraker. He would go on to appear alongside Robert De Niro and Jean Reno in action flick Ronin (1998), and later played the character Papa in Steven Spielberg's historical thriller Munich (2005). Lonsdale's final film was 2016 sci-fi Sculpt.

Singer and actress Helen Reddy, who became synonymous with the feminist movement and appeared in the films Airport 1975 and Pete's Dragon, died in September 2020. The Australian Grammy winner passed away in Los Angeles, per CNN. "It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Helen Reddy," her children, Traci and Jordan, said in a statement. "She was a wonderful mother, grandmother and a truly formidable woman." She was 78.

Reddy was born to actor parents in Melbourne and would enter into the family business at the tender age of 4. In 1966, she flew to New York to audition at Mercury Records, but was unsuccessful and ended up taking gigs as a club singer instead. It wasn't until she moved to Los Angeles and tried her luck at Capitol Records that Reddy's career took off. She would go on to record over a dozen top 40 singles, though she will always be remembered for "I Am Woman," her feminist anthem. "I would like to thank God, because she makes everything possible," Reddy said while accepting her Grammy for best female pop vocal in 1973 (via The Guardian).

She played Sister Ruth in airborne thriller Airport 1975 the following year, and in 1977 she took on the role of Nora in Pete's Dragon. Notable TV credits include Fantasy Island, The Jeffersons, and Diagnosis Murder. I Am Woman, a movie biopic about Reddy's rise to stardom, premiered just a month before her death.

Actor Clark Middleton, who worked with some of Hollywood's biggest directors during a career that spanned four decades, passed away in October 2020. He was a "beloved actor, writer, director, teacher, hero, husband, beacon [and] friend," according to his wife, Elissa. "With heavy hearts we announce the passing of a life eminently worthy of celebration: Clark Tinsley Middleton," she said in a statement (via Variety). "Clark transitioned on October 4th as a result of West Nile Virus, for which there is no known cure. Clark was a beautiful soul who spent a lifetime defying limits and advocating for people with disabilities." He was 63.

Middleton lived with Rheumatoid Arthritis for most of his life, but he never let it stop him from pursuing his passion. He made his stage debut in 1983 and would go on to ply his trade alongside some top talent (he was in the Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh with Denzel Washington), a habit he would continue as he developed into a dependable big screen actor — Middleton worked with Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill Vol. 2), Ang Lee (Taking Woodstock), Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer), and Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Best Picture winner Birdman).

In terms of television, he was best known for his roles in Fringe, The Path, David Lynch's Twin Peaks revival, and The Blacklist, in which he played DMV worker Glen Carter from 2014 to 2020. The show's creator, Jon Bokenkamp, called Middleton a "truly unique and gifted actor" via Twitter.

Veteran actress and dancer Marge Champion, who starred in a series of musicals opposite her husband in the 1950s, passed away in October 2020 at the age 101, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed.

The California native was the daughter of renowned Tinsel Town dance instructor Ernest Belcher, a friend of Walt Disney. When Disney embarked on his first ever animated feature film in the 1930's (the seminal Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), he needed a model for the titular character, and Belcher's 14-year-old daughter fit the bill. Champion performed in front of Mouse House animators on-and-off for two years as they finetuned the now-iconic princess, and Snow White wouldn't be the last Disney character she inspired — she modeled for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940), Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasia (1940), and Mr. Stork in Dumbo (1941).

Champion struck up a relationship with Disney animator Art Babbitt and they tied the knot, but the marriage ended in 1940. She made her Broadway debut in 1945, and would become a movie star the following decade with a string of MGM musicals. She and second husband Gower Champion performed memorable numbers in Mr. Music (1950), Lovely to Look At (1952), Give a Girl a Break (1953) and Jupiter's Darling (1955), to name but a few. Champion would later scoop an Emmy Award for her choreography work on the critically acclaimed 1975 telefilm Queen of the Stardust Ballroom. Her third and final husband, filmmaker Boris Sagal, died in 1981.

Sean Connery, the Scottish movie icon best known for originating the role of James Bond on the big screen, died in October 2020. Connery passed away peacefully in his sleep after being "unwell for some time," his son, Jason Connery, told the BBC. He was 90.

Filmmakers were unable to look past Connery's good looks to begin with, but that all changed after he turned in a stellar performance as Count Vronsky in the BBC's Anna Karenina, a TV movie that aired in 1961. The former model made his debut as 007 in Dr. No the following year, and, despite the furor over his casting (he was still a relative unknown at the time), the film was a hit. Connery became a globally recognized star, and his influence grew with every installment — he went on to play Bond in From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

Post-Bond, Connery appeared in films like Highlander, The Untouchables (he was named Best Supporting Actor for his turn as a Depression-era cop), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October and The Rock. He was knighted in 2000, and would appear in his final film, the widely-panned The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, three years later. The experience soured Connery on the industry and he decided to leave it all behind for the Bahamas, where he would later pass away, surrounded by family.

Bert Belasco, best known for playing Charles Whitmore in the BET sitcom Let's Stay Together, passed away in November 2020. Belasco was pronounced dead at a hotel in Virginia, where he had been quarantining prior to shooting a movie. The circumstances did not appear suspicious, police confirmed. The actor's father told TMZ that he suspects his son died of an aneurysm. He was 38.

According to Variety, Belasco studied theater at Southern Illinois University and later finetuned his craft as a member of renowned Chicago improv school The Second City. He started to branch out in 2007, doing some work on the NBA video game series and securing his first screen role. After making his bow in an episode of House, he went on to become a regular on American TV, recurring on the baseball dramedy Pitch and the Jim Carrey-produced I'm Dying Up Here. Other notable appearances include Justified, Key and Peele, NCIS: New Orleans, and American Princess, though Belasco will undoubtedly be remembered for his 52-episode stint on Let's Stay Together.

When news of his shocking death broke, Belasco's former castmates took to social media to express their shock and grief. "Heartbroken at the passing of Bert Belasco — a talented, kind young man who I had the [pleasure] of working with numerous times on Let's Stay Together," Jackée Harry tweeted. Nadine Ellis called him a "gentle giant" in an Instagram tribute, while Joyful Drake said that Belasco "had a big heart full of love and compassion."

Character actress Elsa Raven, known for small but memorable roles in films like Back to the Future and The Amityville Horror, passed away in November 2020. The South Carolina native died at her home in Los Angeles, her agent confirmed (via Deadline). She was 91.

Born Elsa Rabinowitz, she adopted the stage name Raven and set about cracking the New York theater circuit. She appeared on New York Television Theatre in the late '60s, and would spend the next several decades establishing herself as a reliable foil in the movies. Horror fans will no doubt remember Raven as Mrs. Townsend, the realtor who offloads the house in 1979's The Amityville Horror. She was the lady campaigning to save the clock tower in 1985's Back to the Future, and she popped up as John Malkovich's landlady in 1993's In the Line of Fire. She would go on to play Ida Straus (the wife of Macy's co-founder Isidor Straus) in James Cameron's Titanic.

Straus and her husband died during the sinking of the RMS Titanic, but we didn't get to see that play out in the movie, as most of Raven's scenes were cut (she did feature in Celine Dion's accompanying music video, however). She went on to play Lucille in 39 episodes of Days of Our Lives during the late '90s, but she remained best-known for Back to the Future. According to star Michael J. Fox, Raven used to walk around conventions urging people to save the clock tower.

English actor David Prowse, best known as the man beneath Darth Vader's famous black armor in the original Star Wars trilogy, passed away in November 2020. The former bodybuilder died after a short illness, his manager told the BBC. "May the Force be with him, always!" Thomas Bowington said. "Though famous for playing many monsters, for myself and all who knew Dave and worked with him, he was a hero in our lives." He was 85.

Prowse was a successful weightlifter before he started working in film, representing his country at the Commonwealth Games. He got close to fellow bodybuilders Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno during that time, and he would later pave a path to Hollywood for them. Prowse played Frankenstein's monster in three films: the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale (his big screen debut), 1970's Horror Of Frankenstein and 1974's Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell. He also played an imposing bodyguard in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, which was where George Lucas first saw him.

The hulking Brit was invited to audition for the roles of Chewbacca and Darth Vader, and was offered his choice of the two. He opted for the latter because "you always remember the bad guys," he once told the BBC. His lines were ultimately dubbed over by the great James Earl Jones, but Prowse remained a fan favorite up until his death. Mark Hamill led the tributes, calling Prowse "a kind man and much more than Darth Vader" in a tweet.

Louisiana native Natalie Desselle Reid, best known for playing Halle Berry's sidekick in the '90s comedy B*A*P*S and for her regular role on the early 2000s sitcom Eve, passed away surrounded by family in December 2020. The actress died after a private battle with colon cancer, her family confirmed to TMZ. "It is with extremely heavy hearts that we share the loss of our beautiful Natalie," they said in a statement. "She was a bright light in this world. A queen. An extraordinary mother and wife. Her diverse career touched so many and she will be loved forever." She was 53.

Reid made her debut in 1996 with a one-off appearance on Family Matters. She would go on to land meatier roles in shows like Built to Last, For Your Love, and Eve, the sitcom led by the musician of the same name. Reid played Janie in all 66 episodes of the UPN show, which was canceled after three seasons on air. Eve was among the many former colleagues to pay tribute to the late comedienne, asking her Instagram followers to pray for her family. "Can't believe it," the rapper and TV host said. "Rest in peace Natalie Desselle Reid. Thank you for your light and spirit."

She would later take on the role of Tammy in the Tyler Perry comedy Madea's Big Happy Family, but B*A*P*S was the film that defined her career. Co-star Halle Berry called her "one of the most precious people I've ever known" in a heartfelt post.

British icon Barbara Windsor, best known for numerous appearances in the Carry On film franchise and her 22-year stint on the U.K. soap opera EastEnders, passed away in December 2020. The actress died peacefully in a care home after a battle with Alzheimer's, her husband told the BBC. She was 83.

Born in London in 1937, Windsor made her screen debut as a teenager, appearing in several minor and uncredited TV roles throughout the mid- to late-1950s. She signed up for her first Carry On project the following decade (portraying Daphne Honeybutt in 1964's Carry On Spying) and would go on to feature in over a dozen more in the years that followed. Windsor became known for playing chaste and cheeky blondes because of the bawdy franchise, but her Carry On work would ultimately be eclipsed by EastEnders. She debuted as no-nonsense pub landlady Peggy Mitchell in 1994, and would star in over 1,500 episodes of the long-running show, the crew of which was "deeply saddened" by her passing.

Windsor's death was mourned by actors, politicians and even royals. She became Dame Barbara Windsor in 2016 and was known to have been friendly with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, who called her "a great British actor and tireless charity campaigner" in a tweet. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also paid tribute, tweeting that Windsor "cheered the world up with her own British brand of harmless sauciness." Her final feature film was 2016's Alice Through the Looking Glass, in which she voiced Mallymkun.

Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who played Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy, passed away in December 2020. The Brit "died peacefully in hospital surrounded by his family, from health complications following his many years living with Parkinson's disease," his agency told Variety. "He had a long and happy career spanning more than 45 years. He was devoted to his wife, three sons, and ten grandchildren and they will miss him terribly." He was 75.

The Leicestershire native made his acting debut as a child, appearing in his first commercial in 1958. He was just 17 when he landed a part alongside crooner Cliff Richard in Summer Holiday (1963), and over the next few decades he bounced between film and television. Bulloch appeared in seven episodes of Doctor Who across the 1960s and '70s, and he shared the screen with Roger Moore's James Bond in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me.

He debuted as Boba Fett in 1980's Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and played him again in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. While the bounty hunter's dialogue was dubbed over by Jason Wingreen originally and later by Temuera Morrison (who returned to play Fett in The Mandalorian), it was Bulloch inside the iconic armor. He returned to the Star Wars universe to play Captain Jeremoch (an obvious portmanteau of his name) Colton in 2005's Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, his final feature film appearance.

Dawn Wells, best known for her turn as Kansas farmgirl Mary Ann Summers in the feelgood '60s sitcom Gilligan's Island, passed away in December 2020. The Nevada native died of causes related to COVID-19, her publicist confirmed (via The Hollywood Reporter). She was 82.

Wells was born in Reno to a homemaker mother and a real estate developer father. Her parents split when she was just four, but it didn't stop her from having a happy childhood. "I was raised by a very good mother and a great dad," she wrote in her 2014 memoir What Would Mary Ann Do?: A Guide to Life. She was crowned Miss Nevada in 1959 and competed in the Miss America pageant the following year. Soon after, Wells graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in theater arts and began landing minor roles in TV Westerns like Maverick, Cheyenne and Wagon Train.

The petite starlet was 25 when she debuted as Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island, a character that she built "from scratch." She appeared in 98 episodes of the show, which became a syndication hit after its cancelation. Fan favorite Wells reprised her role in a handful of TV movies in the late '70s and early '80s, and she cameoed as the ever-cheerful Mary Ann on Baywatch and Roseanne in the '90s. "The core of Mary Ann is really me," Wells wrote. "If you play a character long enough on stage or screen, I think your true self shows through."