In 2024, we've experienced the loss of several luminaries in the world of entertainment. These beloved figures—actors, comedians, musicians, singers, and coaches—have touched our lives with their talent, passion, and dedication. They've left an indelible mark on our hearts and shaped the world of entertainment in ways that will continue to inspire and influence generations to come.
Among the incredible actors who bid farewell this year, we mourn the loss of a true chameleon who effortlessly.
Hines was one of four children born in Dedham, Massachusetts to an actress mother and a Boston-based teacher/acting coach father. As a child, she appeared in many of her father's stock-company plays. A member of the class of 1948 at Dedham High School, she was voted the most popular girl in her class. She also dated the captain of the football team and was class secretary. She tried out for a part in the senior class play, but did not get it.[1]
After her father's death, she went on to marry an insurance agent and moved to Jacksonville, Florida. She worked as a model there and as a radio and stage actress, joining a stock company in Miami. By the time she was divorced, Hines traveled to New York City to study with the Helen Hayes Equity Group. When she came to Hollywood, California, she lived in an apartment, rented a car and got her start in acting on an episode of Whirlybirds. Her first film role was in 1960's Thunder in Carolina.
Hines auditioned and won the role of appropriate wife, Carol Post, on Mister Ed, which was, arguably, her best-known character. Hines considered her role to be just getting a steady paycheck as the storylines focused more on the relationship of Wilbur and Mr. Ed (the talking horse) than her. Her biggest line in the show was “lunch is ready!” [2] She also said that playing the same role wasn't the greatest part in the world. Around the same time, she took some acting, dancing and music classes. She continued playing that role until 1966. After the series ended she took guest parts on television shows (Bonanza, The Mod Squad) before retiring in 1971. Young and Hines performed together in 1996 in Irvine in the two-person play Love Letters, which deals with the correspondence of a man and woman over 50 years.
A divorcee, she remarried in 1970 to Lee Savin, an entertainment lawyer and producer. They retired to Dana Point in 1989 on the recommendation of Young, who had been living there. Hines hosted a local cable access show about animals, interviewing veterinarians and animal behaviorists and offering animals for adoption. They remained together until Lee Savin's death in 1995.[3]
Hines died from heart problems at her home in Beverly Hills, California. She was 79 years old. (The LA Times obituary originally listed her age as 78, but corrected her birth date and updated her age as 79.)[4]
Kim Peek was born with macrocephaly, damage to the cerebellum, and, perhaps most important, agenesis of the corpus callosum, a condition in which the bundle of nerves that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is missing; in Peek's case, secondary connectors such as the anterior commissure were also missing. There is speculation that his neurons made other connections in the absence of a corpus callosum, which results in an increased memory capacity.[4] According to Peek's father, Fran, Peek was able to memorize things from the age of 16-20 months. He read books, memorized them, and then placed them upside down on the shelf to show that he had finished reading them, a practice he maintained. He read a book in about an hour, and remembered almost everything he had read, memorizing vast amounts of information in subjects ranging from history and literature, geography, and numbers to sports, music, and dates. His reading technique consisted of reading the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye and in this way he could read two pages at time with a rate of about 8-10 seconds per page. It is believed he could recall the content of at least 12,000 books from memory. [5] Peek resided in Salt Lake City, Utah and was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[6] Peek died of a heart attack on December 19, 2009.[7]
Peek did not walk until the age of four and walked in a sidelong manner.[4] He could not button up his shirt and had difficulty with other ordinary motor skills, presumably due to his damaged cerebellum, which normally coordinates motor activities. In psychological testing, Peek scored below average (73) on general IQ tests.
Unlike many savants, Peek had shown increasing social skills, perhaps due to the attention that had come with being perceived as the "real Rain Man". His father says that his sense of humor had been emerging since 2004 or so. Also, he had developed well beyond the stage of being a mere repository of vast amounts of information; his skills at associating information he remembers were at least one of the signs of creativity. He displayed difficulty with abstractions such as interpreting the meanings of proverbs or metaphorical terms of speech.
Although never a musical prodigy, Peek's musical abilities as an adult were receiving more notice when he started to study the piano. He apparently remembered music he heard decades ago and could play it on the piano, to the extent permitted by his limited physical dexterity. He was able to give running spoken commentary on the music as he played, for example, comparing a piece of music to other music he had heard. In listening to recordings he could distinguish which instruments play which part and was adept at guessing the composers of new music by comparing the music to the many thousands of music samples in his memory.
In 1984, script writer Barry Morrow met Peek in Arlington, Texas; the result of the meeting was the 1988 movie Rain Man. The character of Raymond Babbitt, although inspired by Peek, was portrayed as having autism. Dustin Hoffman, who played Babbitt, met Peek and other savants to get an understanding of their nature and to play the role with accuracy (see Method acting). The movie caused a number of requests for appearances, which increased Peek's self-confidence. Barry Morrow gave Kim his Oscar statuette to carry with him and show at these appearances. It has been referred to as the "Most Loved Oscar Statue" since it's been held by more people than any other Oscar statue. Kim also enjoyed approaching strangers and showing them his talent for calendar calculations by telling them on which day of the week they were born and what news items were on the front page of major newspapers. Peek had also appeared on television. He traveled with his father, who took care of him and performed many motor tasks that Peek found difficult.[4]
Peek died on 19 December 2009, of a heart attack. He was survived by his father.
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Arnold Stang[1] died he was 91. Stang was an American comicactor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.
Stang once described himself thus: "I look like a frightened chipmunk who's been out in the rain too long."[2] As for his squawky, Brooklyn voice, he said "I'm kind of attached to it...[it's]a personal logo. It's like you're Jell-O or Xerox.[3]
Stang once claimed he got his break in radio by sending a postcard to a New York station requesting an audition, was accepted, and then bought his own ticket to New York from Chelsea, Massachusetts with the money set aside for his mother's anniversary gift.[4]. True or not, Stang worked on New York-based network radio shows as a boy, appearing on children's programs such as The Horn and Hardart Hour and Let's Pretend.[5]. By 1941, he had graduated to teenaged roles, appearing on The Goldbergs. Director Don Bernard hired him in October that year to do the commercials on the CBS program Meet Mr. Meek but decided his voice cracking between soprano and bass would hurt the commercial so he ordered scriptwriters to come up with a role for him.[6]. He next appeared on the summer replacement show The Remarkable Miss Tuttle with Edna May Oliver in 1942[7] and replaced Eddie Firestone Jr. in the title role of That Brewster Boy when Firestone joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943[8].
Cantankerous comedian Henry Morgan made him a sidekick on his program in fall of 1946, and Stang appeared in similar roles the following year on radio shows with Eddie Cantor[9] and Milton Berle[10].
At this time, Stang had appeared in a number of movies, including Seven Days Leave, My Sister Eileen and They Got Me Covered. He had also appeared on the Broadway stage in Sailor Beware, All In Favor and Same Time Next Week where he first worked with Berle.[11]
Stang moved to television at the start of the Golden Age. He had a recurring role in the TV show The School House on the DuMont Television Network in 1949. He was a regular on Eddie Mayehoff's short-lived situation comedy Doc Corkle in fall of 1952[12]. Then, he made a guest appearance on on Berle's Texaco Star Theater on May 12, 1953[13] and joined him as a regular the following September, often berating or heckling the big-egoed star for big laughs. Stang also had guest roles on several variety shows of the day including The Colgate Comedy Hour.
As a voice actor for animated cartoons, Stang provided the voice for Popeye's pal Shorty (a caricature of Stang), Herman the mouse in a number of Famous Studios cartoons, Tubby Tompkins in a few Little Lulu shorts, the famous Hanna-Barbera lead character Top Cat (modeled explicitly on Phil Silvers's Sgt. Bilko), and Catfish on Misterjaw. He also provided many extra voices for the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog. On television, he appeared in commercials for the Chunky candy bar, where he would list all of its ingredients, smile and say, "Chunky, what a chunk of chocolate!" He provided the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee in the 1980s and was also a spokesman for Vicks Vapo-Rub.
Stang appeared on an episode of The Cosby Show with guest star Sammy Davis Jr. In one TV ad he played Luther Burbank, proudly showing off his newly-invented "square tomato" to fit neatly in typical square slices of commercial bread, then being informed that the advertising bakery had beat him to it by producing round loaves of bread. He played the photographer in the 1993 film Dennis the Menace with Walter Matthau. [14]
Ann Louise Nixon Cooper died she was 107, Cooper was an American activist for African-American people's rights.
(January 9, 1902 – December 21, 2009)
Cooper was born in Shelbyville, Tennessee, on January 9, 1902. She was raised in Nashville.[1] She moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in her early twenties with her husband, Albert Berry Cooper, a dentist,[1] and they had four children together.[2] During that time, she served more than fifty years in public work on the board of Gate City Nursery Association and also helped found the Girls Club for African American Youth.[3] When her husband died, Martin Luther King, Jr. sent Cooper a telegram; she also met with Coretta Scott King and saved photographs of the occasion.[4] Cooper first registered to vote on September 1, 1941. Though she was friends with elite black Atlantans like W. E. B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and Benjamin Mays, she didn't exercise her right to vote for years, because of her status as a black woman in a segregated and sexist society.[5]
During the 1970s, she served as a tutor to non-readers at Ebenezer Baptist Church. She also served on the Friends of the Library Board, serving at one time as vice president of the board. In 1980 she received a Community Service Award from Channel 11 for being one of the organizers of the black Cub Scouts and serving as the first den mother for four years.
Still living in Atlanta, Cooper voted early for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.[6] After Obama won the election, she came to international attention when Obama mentioned her and compared various stages of her life to the present day during his acceptance speech at a rally in Chicago on November 4, 2008.
"She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin,"
President Obama also made reference to Cooper in his popular campaign chant, Yes We Can:
"And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: 'Yes we can'."
Alaina Reed Hall died she was 63. Reed was an American actress best known for her roles as Olivia, Gordon's younger sister, on the long-running children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.
In 1976, she won the role of Olivia on the children's series Sesame Street. Her character was a photographer and kid sister of Gordon. In 1985, Hall co-starred on the sitcom 227, frequently traveling between New York (where Sesame Street is taped) and Los Angeles (where 227 was taped). Due to this frantic schedule, she left Sesame Street in 1988.
Hall was married three times. Her first marriage, which produced two children, ended in divorce. In December 1988, she married actor Kevin Peter Hall after meeting him when he guest starred on 227.[2] She was widowed in 1991 after her husband died of pneumonia-related complications after contracting AIDS through a blood transfusion.[3][4]
Alaina Reed Hall died on December 17, 2009, aged 63, from breast cancer. At the time of her death she was married to Tamim Amini.[5]
Brittany Murphy died she was 32. Murphy got her start in the sleeper hit "Clueless" and rose to stardom in "8 Mile", she was Gloria the penguin in the 2006 feature "Happy Feet." before her movie roles declined in recent years. (10 November1977, 20 December2009) Murphy was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Edison, New Jersey. Brittany first honed her acting skills in regional theater at the age of 9. By age 13, she had signed on with a manager and began appearing in television commercials. In 1991, at the age of 13, Brittany and her mother moved to Burbank, California, where she landed her first television role on the show "Blossom" (1991). This lead to a starring role on "Drexell's Class" (1991), a series that proved to be short lived. Brittany's major breakthrough film appearance was in Clueless (1995), the Emma meets "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) comedy, in which she starred opposite of Alicia Silverstone. She has gone on to demonstrate her versatility and talent for not only comedy but drama; Brittany was nominated for best leading female performance in the Young Artist Awards for her role in the television film David and Lisa (1998) (TV). Aside from the 25 screen appearances since her Clueless (1995) breakthrough, Brittany has lean her vocal talents, established in the early 1990s as a lead singer of her band "Blessed Soul", to the cartoon "King of the Hill" (1997) as the voice of Luanne. Los Angeles police have opened an investigation into Murphy's death, Officer Norma Eisenman said. Detectives and coroner's officials were at Murphy and Monjack's home Sunday afternoon but did not talk to reporters. Paparazzi were camped outside the multistory home, located above the Sunset Strip.
She is due to appear in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming film, "The Expendables," set for release next year.
Her role in "8 Mile" led to more recognition, Murphy told AP in 2003. "That changed a lot," she said. "That was the difference between people knowing my first and last name as opposed to not."
Murphy credited her mother, Sharon, with being a key to her success.
She dated Ashton Kutcher, who costarred with Murphy in 2003's romantic comedy "Just Married."
Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae (née Suber) and Phillip Ross Isley.[1] Her parents toured the Midwest in a traveling tent show they owned and operated. Jones attended Monte Cassino Junior College in Tulsa and Northwestern University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority before transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1938. It was here she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker. The couple married on January 2, 1939.
They returned to Tulsa for a 13-week radio program arranged by her father, and then made their way to Hollywood. Isley landed two small roles, first in a 1939 John Wayne western titled New Frontier, followed by a serial entitled Dick Tracy's G-Men. In these two films, she was billed as 'Phyllis Isley' (Phyllis now spelled with two Ls). However, they failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures and decided to return to New York City.
While Walker found steady work in radio programs, Isley worked part-time modeling hats for the Powers Agency while looking for possible acting jobs. When she learned of auditions for the lead role in Claudia, Rose Franken’s hit play, she presented herself to David O. Selznick’s New York office but fled in tears after what she thought was a bad reading. Selznick, however, overheard her audition and was impressed enough to have his secretary call her back. Following an interview, she was signed to a seven-year contract.
She was carefully groomed for stardom and given a new name: Jennifer Jones. Director Henry King was impressed by her screen test as Bernadette Soubirous for The Song of Bernadette (1943) and she won the coveted role over hundreds of applicants. In 1944, on her 25th birthday, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as St. Bernadette. That year, Jones' friend, Ingrid Bergman, was also a Best Actress nominee for her work in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jones apologized to Bergman, who replied, "No, Jennifer, your Bernadette was better than my Maria." Jones presented the Best Actress Oscar the following year to Bergman for Gaslight.[2]
Her last big-screen appearance came in the spectacular disaster film The Towering Inferno (1974), in which she danced with Fred Astaire before a fire threatened partygoers in a new San Francisco skyscraper who were celebrating its official opening as tallest building in the world. Her exit from the picture was also the most sympathetic when, after helping to assist two children to escape the disaster, her character fell 110 stories to her death from a scenic elevator on the outside of the building which was derailed following an explosion. Her touching performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. As luck would have it, scenes from early on in the movie showed paintings loaned to the production from the Norton Simon art gallery. Simon was her husband at the time the movie was produced.
Jones' first marriage produced two sons, Robert Walker Jr. (born April 15, 1940; Jones's only child who would not predecease her), and Michael Walker (March 13, 1941-December 27, 2007). Both later became actors. Jones had a love affair with David O. Selznick, which eventually led to her separation from Walker in November 1943 and divorce in June 1945.
Jones married Selznick on July 13, 1949, a union which lasted until his death on June 22, 1965. After his death, she semi-retired from acting. According to media reports, Jones attempted suicide in November 1967; she was hospitalized in a coma before eventually recovering.[4] Her daughter, Mary Jennifer Selznick (1954-1976), committed suicide by jumping from a 20th-floor window on May 11, 1976. This led to Jones' interest in mental health issues.
On May 29, 1971, Jones married multi-millionaire industrialist, art collector and philanthropist Norton Simon, whose son Robert had committed suicide in 1969. Years before, Simon had attempted to buy the portrait of her used in the film Portrait of Jennie. Simon later met Jones at a party hosted by fellow industrialist/art collector Walter Annenberg. Norton Simon died in June 1993. Jennifer Jones-Simon was Trustee Emeritus of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Jones attempted suicide in 1967 by jumping off a cliff.[5]
Jones was a breast cancer survivor. Actress Susan Strasberg, who would die of the disease in 1999, who was then married to actor Christopher Jones, named her own daughter as Jennifer Robin Jones in the older actress's honor.
Robert Walker (Married: January 2, 1939 – June 20, 1945)
Jones filed for divorce in April 1945. Robert Walker was distraught over the divorce and was soon prone to drinking, emotional outbursts and eventually, a nervous breakdown. He spent time at the Menninger Clinic in 1949 where he was treated for a psychiatric disorder. [6] According to the book Cut!: Hollywood Murders, Accidents, and Other Tragedies, while filming My Son John, on the night of August 28, 1951, Walker had a severe emotional outburst. Failing to calm him down, his housekeeper called his psychiatrist, who, upon arrival administered sodium amytal. Walker suffered an acute allergic reaction to the drug, and stopped breathing. All efforts to resuscitate him failed. Walker was 32 years old.[7]
Mary Jennifer Selznick (August 12, 1954 – May 11, 1976). She had developed deep emotional problems and had never fully gotten over her father's death. She had, according to sources[who?] experimented with drugs, and suffered a nervous breakdown.[citation needed] While her mother was in Tulsa to visit her dying father, Mary Jennifer jumped to her death from a 22-story building in Los Angeles.
Norton Simon (Married: May 30, 1971 – June 1, 1993)
She enjoyed a quiet retirement in Southern California close to her son. She granted no interviews and rarely appeared in public. She died of natural causes at her home on December 17, 2009, aged 90.
Connie Hines died she was 78. Hines was a retired American actress, best-remembered for playing Alan Young's wife, Carol Post, on the 1960s syndicated and then CBS sitcom Mister Ed.
A divorcee, she remarried in 1970 to Lee Savin, an entertainment lawyer and producer. They retired to Dana Point in 1989 on the recommendation of Young, who had been living there. Hines hosted a local cable access show about animals, interviewing veterinarians and animal behaviorists and offering animals for adoption. They remained together until Lee Savin's death in 1995.[3]
In 1984, script writer 
