Actors Who Have Died In 2026 (So Far)

While every year is filled with actor deaths that break millions of hearts, 2025 seemed especially intent on doing so. Moreover, we didn't even get a reprieve over the holidays — German character actor Udo Kier died just before Thanksgiving, and December brought the shocking death of legendary actor and director Rob Reiner. Sadly, 2026 wasted no time in joining suit.

By the end of January, we'd already experienced one of the toughest actor losses in a long time, if not ever. The news of Catherine O'Hara's death took the world's collective breath away, especially when nobody had been publicly aware of any major health issues and she was still actively working. 

One could choose to be optimistic and say that that's bad as it's going to get in 2026 for actor deaths, but realistically, we know that isn't going to be the case. As of this writing, there's a whole lot of year ahead, and it's inevitably going to bring more losses of beloved movie and television actors. It'll be tough to top O'Hara, but don't defy the fates to do so or they most definitely will. 

If you are primarily a movie and TV watcher and less of a theater maven, you might not be as aware of Bret Hanna-Shuford. Half of the popular social media account Broadway Husbands, Hanna-Shuford has appeared in Broadway productions of "Wicked," "The Little Mermaid," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and "Beauty and the Beast." He also performed in the famous Radio City Christmas Spectacular. But the actor does have a few minor screen credits under his belt as well, including the shows "Only Murders in the Building," "Law and Order: SVU," and "The Good Fight."

In the summer of 2025, Hanna-Shuford was diagnosed with a serious immune disorder as well as an aggressive form of cancer. He was hospitalized for several months while being treated — at one point, unconscious and in intensive care — during which time he kept his fans updated with his progress on social media as often as he could. Sadly, his December 17 post, thanking his fans for their love and support, would be his last. Hanna-Shuford died on January 3. 

While his only English-language film is the entirely forgettable 2015 actioner "Last Knights," Ahn Sung-ki is one of the most famous actors of all time in his native South Korea. In fact, the media in his native country often affectionately refer to him as "the nation's actor." Ahn was the first of two South Korean actors — Lee Byung-hun of eventual "Squid Game" fame being the other — to leave hand and footprints outside of Hollywood's famed Grauman's Chinese Theater, and still one of only a handful of actors from Asia to be given that honor. With Lee already having crossed over thanks to his role in the "G.I. Joe" films, Ahn did so entirely due to his popularity in South Korea.

First diagnosed with blood cancer in 2019, Ahn nonetheless added a handful of films to his already impressive filmography in the first few years of the 2020s. During that time, Ahn was also bestowed with several lifetime achievement awards for his decades of acclaimed acting work, adding to an already crowded shelf of over two dozen acting prizes. He was hospitalized in December 2025 after collapsing at his home, and later passed away in the hospital on January 5 at the age of 74. 

After getting his start on a few episodes of "Good Times," "The Jeffersons," and "The Waltons," actor T.K. Carter was soon racking up roles in '80s cult classics. Most notably, he played station cook Nauls in the best sci-fi horror movie of all time: "The Thing." He also showed up in "Corvette Summer," "The Hollywood Knights," "Doctor Detroit," and "Southern Comfort" during that same era.

Other than playing Bill Cosby in Mario Van Peebles' 2003 autobiographical drama "Baadasssss!" and a few other minor film roles, Carter's acting output for the bulk of his career was dominated by television work. He was a main cast member on the shows "Just Our Luck," "Turbo Teen" (a voice role), "Good Morning, Miss Bliss," and "The Sinbad Show," as well as a recurring character on "Punky Brewster," "The Steve Harvey Show," and the FXX series "Dave." In 2018, he portrayed another real person, playing musician Bobby Brown's father Herbert Brown in the BET miniseries "The Bobby Brown Story."

Carter's final acting roles both occurred in 2023. On January 9, 2026, Carter was found dead in his home. The cause of has not been released to the public, though his family has confirmed that Carter had ongoing struggles with high blood pressure and diabetes. The actor was 69 years old. 

Former actor Kianna Underwood had been living out of the public eye in recent years, leaving celebrity status behind after being a cast member for Season 10 of "All That" in 2005. Before that, Underwood was best known for voicing the recurring character Fuchsia on the animated series "Little Bill," also on Nickelodeon. She has only two other screen credits, neither of which were in well-known projects.

In November 2023, one of Underwood's former "All That" castmates — Angelique Bates — had found out that Underwood was unhoused. She called on fellow "All That" cast and crew to help out, pointing out that Underwood was one of the youngest actors on the show at the time and that she had become yet another casualty of an industry that doesn't do enough to support child stars who struggle to maintain their careers. 

Unfortunately, Underwood's troubled life would be cut short less than three years later, when she was struck by one vehicle and then run over and dragged by another while crossing a street in Brooklyn. She was only 33 at the time of her gruesome death. 

Every year, the number of still-living actors from the golden age of Hollywood dwindles ever further. 2026 added another person to that list with the death of Yvonne Lime at the age of 90 on January 23. Lime was only active in the '50s and '60s, but she racked up some well-known film and movie credits during that time. She is most famous for starring in cult classics "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "High School Hellcats," while also appearing in the films "The Rainmaker," "Untamed Youth," and the Elvis Presley musical "Loving You."

It was via the small screen where Lime compiled the most famous titles in her filmography, however. In addition to a recurring role on the pioneering variety show "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show," Lime also appeared on "The Mickey Mouse Club," "The Andy Griffith Show," "My Three Sons," "Father Knows Best," "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," and "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." 

However, Lime's screen credits didn't keep rolling into the '70s or beyond. Instead, she shifted her focus to full-time philanthropy, mainly through the child abuse-focused nonprofit Childhelp that she co-founded in 1959. She was eventually nominated for five Nobel Peace Prizes as a result of that work, with Childhelp remaining active to this day. 

As previously mentioned, the world was blindsided by the death of Catherine O'Hara on January 30. Other than looking a bit thinner than usual in her last few public appearances, nobody had any indication that she was ill. It's still a fairly recent development at the time of this writing, so more information could eventually be made public. But as of now, no cause of death or any sort of serious medical issues have been disclosed. All that has been revealed thus far is that her passing followed a brief illness, one that was apparently unknown to anyone but O'Hara's closest family members. 

Two projects seemed to dominate the headlines about O'Hara's passing: "Home Alone" and "Schitt's Creek." That makes sense, as the former represents two films that many families have watched annually for over 30 holiday seasons now, while the latter marks one of O'Hara's last major roles. Of course, O'Hara's body of work can't be reduced to just two films and one television show. 

From her beginnings on "SCTV," to being a frequent collaborator of filmmakers Tim Burton and Christopher Guest, O'Hara has never been far from our screens over her 50+ year career. Most recently, O'Hara was a cast member on the acclaimed shows "The Last of Us" and "The Studio," scoring Primetime Emmy nominations for both.

Sometimes news of an actor's death gets missed due to being overshadowed by the passing of a more well-known performer. Such was the case with Demond Wilson, most famous for playing the titular son to Redd Foxx's Fred Sanford on the classic sitcom "Sanford and Son." The announcement of Wilson's January 30 death at age 79 due to complications from colon cancer didn't get the same level of attention as Catherine O'Hara's, so there's a chance that you're learning about his passing right here for the very first time.

While Wilson appeared in a handful of films, the small screen is where he was the most prolific. After "Sanford and Son," the actor played the main role in a short-lived 1978 sitcom called "Baby... I'm Back!" He also portrayed Oscar Madison against Ron Glass's Felix Unger in 1982's "The New Odd Couple." After the 1990s, Wilson would add only two more screen credits to his filmography — a 2000 film called "Hammerlock," and a recurring role on the UPN/CW sitcom "Girlfriends."