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.
Thomas Hoyt "Slim" Bryant was a country music singer/songwriter and guitarist born in Atlanta, Georgia. After spending nearly 18 years working with Georgia fiddler Clayton McMichen as part of his band the Georgia Wildcats, Bryant and most of the band separated from McMichen and moved to Pittsburgh in 1940.
(December 7, 1908 – May 28, 2010)
He is considered by many to be the father of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, country music scene, having performed on the first television program to air in that city, a musical variety show broadcast live on WDTV from Syria Mosque in Oakland, Pennsylvania, in 1949. He was the last surviving musician to have recorded with the legendary country singer Jimmie Rodgers, who died in 1933.
In 1932, Rodgers recorded Bryant's song Mother, the Queen of My Heart, with Bryant accompanying him on guitar. Rodgers not only gave him writing credit, but had them list Bryant's name first, which is something many big stars refuse to do. He also recorded nine other songs with Rodgers. With his back-up group, the Wildcats, he wrote and recorded such novelty songs during his career as Eeny Meeny Dixie Deeny, the closest he ever came to having a "hit" on the Billboard charts.[1]
Bryant resided in the Pittsburgh suburb of Dormont, Pennsylvania.[2] He was the subject of an extensive profile by Rich Kienzle in the January–February 2004 issue of No Depression.[3]
Stella Nova was an English guitarist & singer, has died of cancer he was , 50. Nova known for his work with a number of Britishpunk rock and New Wave bands in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was once known as Steve New, during the time he was guitarist of punk band Rich Kids.
(16 May 1960 – 24 May 2010)
He was born on May 16th 1960 in London.[1] Attended Quintin Kynaston School in St. John's Wood, London, and started playing with the London Jazz Orchestra at the age of 14. He came to attention with his connections with the city's punk scene at the age of 15 after being asked to audition for the Sex Pistols as a second guitarist alongside Steve Jones[2] When Pistols' bass player Glenn Matlock was ousted from the band, he invited New to join his new group Rich Kids alongside Rusty Egan and former Slik singer Midge Ure.
He would later prefer to be known as Stella Nova and was the composer/musician/producer in Beastellabeast along with lyricist/vocalist Beatrice Brown. [3]
Nova faced terminal cancer, so he played with a reformed Rich Kids in London in January 2010 at a benefit concert for his family.[4][5]
New died on 24 May 2010. He leaves his children Diva Atlanta New and Frank James Lightning Hopkins-New[6].
Born as Patricia Szczepaniak in Linden, New Jersey,[2] she was known professionally as Pat Stevens. She voiced the character of Velma Dinkley from 1976 to 1979, leaving the show midway through Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. She appeared in the recurring role of "Nurse Baker" on the CBSsitcomM*A*S*H during the same period (1976 to 1979).
Stevens died May 26, 2010, after a long battle with breast cancer in Massachusetts.[1] She was survived by her husband, Jess Nadelman and their two children, Sara and David, as well as six siblings.
Dennis Lee Hopper has died he was 74. Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1955, and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). Over the next ten years, Hopper appeared frequently on television in guest roles, and by the end of the 1960s had played supporting roles in several films. He directed and starred in Easy Rider (1969), winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer of the film's script.
He was unable to build on his success for several years, until a featured role in Apocalypse Now (1979) brought him attention. He subsequently appeared in Rumble Fish (1983) and The Osterman Weekend (1983), and received critical recognition for his work in Blue Velvet and Hoosiers, with the latter film garnering him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He directed Colors (1988), and played the villain in Speed (1994). Hopper's more recent work includes a leading role in the television series Crash.
(May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010)
Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas, the son of Marjorie Mae (née Davis, died 2006)[1] and Jay Millard Hopper[2] (June 1916 – August[3] 1982).[4]
After World War II, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where the young Hopper attended Saturday art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute taught by Thomas Hart Benton. At the age of 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego, where his mother worked as a lifeguard instructor and his father was a post office manager (Hopper has acknowledged, though, that his father was in the OSS, the precursor to the CIA).[5] Hopper was voted most likely to succeed by his high school class (Helix High School, La Mesa, California, a suburb of San Diego). It was there he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California and the Actors Studio in New York City (studied with Lee Strasberg for five years). Hopper struck up a friendship with actor Vincent Price, whose passion for art influenced Hopper's interest in art. He was especially fond of the plays of William Shakespeare. He discussed his youth, early career, and training, during an interview for the "Actor's Studio" in 1994: watch.
Hopper was reported to have an uncredited role in Johnny Guitar in 1954 but he has stated that he was not even in Hollywood when this film was made.[6] Hopper made his debut on film cast in two roles with James Dean (whom he admired immensely) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). Dean's death in a 1955 car accident affected the young Hopper deeply and it was shortly afterwards that he got into a confrontation with veteran director Henry Hathaway on the film From Hell To Texas. Hopper refused directions for eighty takes over several days.
In his book Last Train to Memphis, American popular music historianPeter Guralnick says that in 1956, when Elvis Presley was making his first film in Hollywood, Hopper was roommates with fellow actor Nick Adams and the three became friends and socialized together. Hopper moved to New York and studied at Lee Strasberg's acting school.
Hopper had a supporting role as "Babalugats," the bet-taker in Cool Hand Luke (1967). Hopper acted in mainstream films including The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and True Grit (1969). Both of these films starred John Wayne, and in both Hopper's character is killed. During the production of True Grit, he became well acquainted with Wayne.
In 1969, Hopper teamed with Peter Fonda, Terry Southern, and Jack Nicholson to make Easy Rider. Hopper won wide acclaim as the director for his improvisational methods and innovative editing. The production was plagued by creative differences and personal acrimony between Fonda and Hopper, the dissolution of Hopper's marriage to Hayward, his unwillingness to leave the editor's desk, and his accelerating abuse of drugs and alcohol.
In 1971, Hopper released The Last Movie. Expecting an accessible follow-up to Easy Rider, audiences were treated to artistic flourishes (the inclusion of "scene missing" cards) and a hazily existentialist plot that dabbled in non-linearity and the absurd. After finishing first at the Venice Film Festival, the film was dismissed by audiences and critics alike during its first domestic engagement in New York City. During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself in Taos, New Mexico for almost an entire year. In between contesting Fonda's rights to the majority of the residual profits from Easy Rider, he married Michelle Phillips in October 1970. Citing spousal abuse and his various addictions, she filed for divorce a week after their wedding.[citation needed]
Hopper was able to sustain his lifestyle and a measure of celebrity by acting in numerous low budget and European films throughout the 1970s as the archetypical "tormented maniac", including Mad Dog Morgan (1976), Tracks (1976), and The American Friend (1977). With Francis Ford Coppola's blockbuster Apocalypse Now (1979), Hopper returned to prominence as a hypomanic Vietnam-era photojournalist. Stepping in for an overwhelmed director, Hopper won praise in 1980 for his directing and acting in Out of the Blue. Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the Neil Young/Dean Stockwell low-budget collaboration Human Highway. Production was reportedly often delayed by his unreliable behavior. Peter Biskind states in the New Hollywood history Easy Riders, Raging Bulls that Hopper's cocaine intake had reached three grams a day by this time period, complemented by an additional thirty beers, marijuana, and Cuba libres.[citation needed]
After staging a "suicide attempt" (really more of a daredevil act) in a coffin using 17 sticks of dynamite during an "art happening" at the Rice University Media Center (reportedly filmed by film professor Brian Huberman) and later disappearing into the Mexican desert during a particularly extravagant bender, Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program in 1983. During this period, he gave critically-acclaimed performances in Rumble Fish (1983) and The Osterman Weekend (1983).
It was not until he portrayed the gas-huffing, obscenity-screaming iconic villain Frank Booth in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) that his career revived. After reading the script, Hopper called Lynch and told him "You have to let me play Frank Booth. Because I am Frank Booth!"[7] Hopper won critical acclaim and several awards for this role and the same year received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Hoosiers.
In 1988, Hopper directed the critically-acclaimed Colors. He was nominated for an Emmy award for the 1991 HBO films Paris Trout and Doublecrossed (in which he played real life drug smuggler and DEA informant Barry Seal). He starred as King Koopa in Super Mario Bros., a 1993 critical and commercial failure loosely based on the video game of the same name.[8] Despite the failure of the film, it led to several villainous roles in the following years. He co-starred in the 1994 blockbuster Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
In 1995, Hopper played a greedy TV self help guru, Dr. Luther Waxling in Search and Destroy. The same year, he starred as Deacon, the one-eyed nemesis of Kevin Costner in Waterworld. In 2003, Hopper was in the running for the dual lead in the indie horror drama Firecracker, but was ousted at the last minute in favor of Mike Patton. His last major feature film appearance was in the 2008 film Elegy with Sir Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruz and Debbie Harry.
Hopper debuted in an episode of the Richard Boone television series Medic in 1955, portraying a young epileptic.
He appeared as an arrogant young gunfighter, the Utah Kid, in the 1956 episode "Quicksand" of the first hour-long television westerntelevision series, ABC's Cheyenne, starring Clint Walker. In the story line, the Kid gave Cheyenne Bodie no choice but to kill him in a gunfight.
Hopper teamed with Nike in the early 1990s to make a series of television commercials. He appeared as a "crazed referee" in those ads. He portrayed villain Victor Drazen in the first season of the popular drama 24 on the Fox television network.
Hopper starred in the NBC 2005 television series E-Ring, a drama set at The Pentagon, but the series was cancelled after fourteen episodes aired in the USA. Hopper appeared in all 22 episodes that were filmed. He also played the part of record producer Ben Cendars in the Starz television series Crash.
Hopper also did a cameo as himself in a 2007 episode of Entourage on HBO.
Hopper was a prolific photographer, painter, and sculptor. His photography is known for portraits from the 1960s. His painting style ranges from abstract impressionism to photorealism and often includes references to his cinematic work and to other artists.[10]
Ostracized by the Hollywood film studios due to his reputation for being a "difficult" actor, Hopper eventually turned to photography in the 1960s with a camera bought for him by his first wife, Brooke Hayward. During this period he created the cover art for the Ike & Tina Turner album River Deep – Mountain High (released in 1966).[11]
He began working as a painter and a poet as well as a collector of art in the 1960s as well, particularly Pop Art. One of the first art works Hopper owned was an early print of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans bought for $75.
On April 15, 2010, Deitch confirmed that Hopper's work, curated by Julian Schnabel, will indeed be the focus of his debut at MOCA.[13]
On May 14, 2010, it was announced that Hopper's wide-ranging career and place in American popular culture in art, music, photography and film will be the subject of an upcoming biography by American writer Tom Folsom, Hopper: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.[14] The subtitle is a direct reference to the Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.[15]
Michelle Phillips (born 1944); married 31 October 1970 – divorced 8 November 1970
Daria Halprin (born 1948); married 1972 – divorced 1976, 1 child, daughter Ruthanna Hopper (born circa 1974)
Katherine LaNasa (born 1966); married June 17, 1989 – divorced April 1992, 1 child, son Henry Lee Hopper (born on September 11, 1990)
Victoria Duffy (born 1968); married April 13, 1996 – separated January 12, 2010,[16] 1 child, daughter Galen Grier Hopper (born on March 26, 2003)
Hopper had two granddaughters, Violet Goldstone and Ella Brill.[17]
In 1999, actor Rip Torn filed a defamation lawsuit against Hopper over a story Hopper told on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Hopper claimed that Torn pulled a knife on him during pre-production of the film Easy Rider. According to Hopper, Torn was originally cast in the film but was replaced with Jack Nicholson after the incident. According to Torn's suit, it was actually Hopper who pulled the knife on him. A judge ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was ordered to pay US$475,000 in damages. Hopper then appealed but the judge again ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was required to pay another US$475,000 in punitive damages.[18]
On January 14, 2010, he filed for divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy.[23] After citing her "outrageous conduct", and stating Duffy was "insane", "inhuman", and "volatile", Hopper was granted a restraining order against her on February 11, 2010, and as a result, she has been forbidden to come within ten feet of him or contact him in any way.[24] On March 9, 2010, Duffy refused to move out of the Hopper home, despite the court's order that she do so by March 15.[25]
On March 23, 2010, Hopper filed papers in court alleging Duffy had absconded with $1.5 million of his art, refused his requests to return it, and then had "left town."[26][27] In March 2010, a judge ruled that Duffy must stay at least 10 feet away from Hopper.
On April 5, 2010, a court ruled that Duffy can continue living on Hopper's property, and that he must pay $12,000 per month spousal and child support for their daughter Galen. Hopper did not attend the hearing.[28] On May 12, 2010, a hearing was held in front of Judge Amy Pellman in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court to decide who to designate on Hopper's life insurance policy which currently lists his wife as beneficiary.[29] A very ill Hopper did not appear in court though his estranged wife did – case BD518046. The judge ruled that the policy should not be changed at present.
On September 30, 2009, news media reported that Hopper had been rushed to a New York hospital for an unspecified condition. Hopper, 73, was reportedly brought into an unidentified Manhattan hospital by an ambulance on Monday wearing an oxygen mask and “with numerous tubes visible.”[30] On October 2, he was discharged, after receiving treatment for dehydration.[31]
On October 29, Hopper's manager reported that Hopper has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.[32] In January 2010, it was reported that Hopper's cancer had metastasized to his bones.[33]
As of March 23, 2010, Hopper reportedly weighed only 100 pounds and was unable to carry on long conversations.[34] According to papers filed in his divorce court case, Hopper was terminally ill and was unable to undergo chemotherapy to treat his prostate cancer.[35] His lawyer reported on March 25 that he was dying from cancer.[36][37]
Hopper died at his home in the coastal Los Angeles suburb of Venice at 8:15 a.m. PDT (15:15 p.m. GMT) on May 29, 2010, surrounded by family and friends, of complications from prostate cancer.[38]
Coleman was born in Zion, Illinois. He was adopted by Edmonia Sue, a nurse practitioner, and W.G. Coleman, a fork-lift operator.[1] He suffers from a congenitalkidney disease caused by focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (an autoimmune destruction and alteration of the kidney), which halted his growth at an early age, leading to a small stature (4 ft 8 in; 1.42 m). He has undergone two kidney transplants, one in 1973 and one in 1984, and requires daily dialysis.
Coleman secretly wed his girlfriend of five months, Shannon Price, 22, on August 28, 2007.[2] They met on the set of the 2006 comedy film Church Ball.
On May 1 and 2, 2008, Coleman and his wife appeared on the show Divorce Court to air their differences in front of Judge Lynn Toler.[3] Unlike regular Divorce Court participants, they appeared on the show with the intent to save their marriage rather than adjudicate a separation.
Coleman suffered a seizure on the set of The Insider on February 26, 2010. Dr. Drew Pinsky, who was with Coleman at the time, assisted him until paramedics arrived.[4]
On May 26, 2010, Coleman was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, after falling and hitting his head.[5]
Coleman was cast in the role of Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes, portraying a child adopted by a wealthy widower. The show was broadcast from 1978 to 1986, and was a huge success.
Coleman became the most popular fixture of the show, enhanced by his character's catchphrase "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" At the height of his fame on Diff'rent Strokes, he earned as much as $100,000 per episode. It is estimated he was left with a quarter of the original amount after paying his parents, advisers, lawyers, and taxes.[6] He later successfully sued his parents and his ex-advisers for misappropriation of his finances.
Coleman is parodied in the hit 2003 BroadwaymusicalAvenue Q, which won the 2004 Tony Award for best musical. A character presented as Coleman works as the superintendent of the apartment complex where the musical takes place. In the song, "It Sucks to be Me", he laments his fate. On Broadway, the role was originally played by Natalie Venetia Belcon.
In 2005, Coleman announced his intention to sue the producers of Avenue Q for their depiction of him, although as of 2010[update] the lawsuit had not materialized. At the 2007 New York Comic Con, Coleman said, "I wish there was a lawyer on Earth that would sue them for me."[7]
In 1989, Coleman sued his parents and former manager over misappropriation of his $3.8 million trust fund.[8] He won a $1,280,000 ruling on February 23, 1993.[9] Coleman later filed for bankruptcy in 1999; he attributed his financial problems to mismanagement of his trust.[10]
Coleman was charged with assault in 1998 after he punched a woman. Coleman had been working as a security guard, and bus driver Tracy Fields requested his autograph while he was shopping for a bulletproof vest in a California mall. The two argued about the autograph, and Fields mocked Coleman's lackluster career as an adult actor. Coleman testified that "I was getting scared, and she was getting ugly"; he said that he thought Fields was going to hit him, so he punched her. Coleman pleaded no contest and received a suspended sentence. He was also ordered to pay Fields $1,665 for hospital bills resulting from the fight.[11] The incident was later parodied on Chappelle's Show.
On July 26, 2007, Coleman was cited for misdemeanordisorderly conduct by a Provo, Utah, police officer after Coleman was seen having a "heated discussion" with his wife, Shannon Price.[12][13]
Coleman and his wife, Shannon Price, appeared on TV's Divorce Court on May 1 and May 2, 2008, due to marital difficulties.
Coleman was involved in an automobile accident in Payson, Utah on September 6, 2008. According to Payson police, Coleman was backing up his truck in a Payson bowling alley parking lot when he allegedly hit 24-year-old Colt Rushton. According to a witness, the tire of Coleman's truck hit Rushton's knee and pulled him under the truck. Coleman's vehicle then hit another car. Rushton was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released with minor injuries. Police said Coleman's driving speed was not excessive. Witnesses told police the incident stemmed from an argument that started in the bowling alley after Rushton photographed Coleman. Coleman objected to Rushton taking his picture and the two men started arguing, according to witnesses. There was no citation or arrest for either man. Police said neither man would make a statement at the scene.[15][16]
On December 2, 2008, Coleman pleaded no contest to charges of disorderly conduct and reckless driving. The court ordered him to pay a $100 fine for disorderly conduct. The reckless driving charge was to be waived in one year if Coleman did not commit any further violations. On January 14, 2010, Coleman settled a civil suit related to the incident for an undisclosed amount.[17][18][19]
On January 24, 2010, Coleman was arrested on a domestic violence assault warrant in Santaquin, Utah. Coleman was subsequently booked into the Utah County Jail[20] and released on January 25, 2010.[21]
Gary Coleman has died when he was taken off life support on Friday morning and passed away.
Gary Coleman, the child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" whose later Coleman was in his home and had a seizure and fell and hit his head, and was rushed to a hospital in Utah. Coleman career was marred by medical and legal problems but died after suffering an intercranial hemorrhage, He was 42.
First appeared in a commercial for Harris Bank. His line, after the announcer says "You should have a Harris banker" was "You should have a Hubert doll". "Hubert" was a stuffed lion representing the Harris bank logo.
Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadianradio and television personality and the former host of two long-running United States television shows: House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years died of natural causes he was 97. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on House Party and Kids Say the Darndest Things, which led to a successful series of books quoting children.
(July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010)
Linkletter was born Gordon Arthur Kelly in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. In his autobiography, Confessions of a Happy Man (1960), he revealed that he had had no contact with his natural parents or his sister or two brothers since he was abandoned when only a few weeks old. He was adopted by Mary (née Metzler) and Fulton John Linkletter,[1][2] an evangelical preacher. When age 5 his family moved to San Diego, where he graduated from high school at age 16. During the early years of the Great Depression, he rode trains around the country doing odd jobs and meeting a wide variety of people.[3] In 1934, he earned a bachelor's degree from San Diego State Teacher College (now San Diego State University) (SDSU), where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. While he attended San Diego State, he played for the basketball team, and swam for the swim team. He had previously planned to attend Springfield College, but did not for financial reasons.
In his junior year as he earned a degree in teaching, he took a job as a radio announcer at KGB in San Diego. Radio paid better than teaching, and Linkletter directed radio programs for fairs and expositions in the mid-1930s. In the 1940s, Linkletter worked in Hollywood with John Guedel on their pioneering radio show, People Are Funny, which employed audience participation, contests, and gags and served as a prototype of future game shows on radio and television.[3]People Are Funny became a television show in 1954 and ran until 1961.[4]
Other early television shows Linkletter worked on included Life With Linkletter (1950-1952) and Hollywood Talent Scouts (1965-1966). He also acted in two movies, People Are Funny (1946) and Champagne for Caesar (1950).
In 1963, Linkletter became the endorser and spokesman for Milton Bradley's Game of Life. His picture appeared on the box with the statement "I Heartily Endorse This Game", and also on the $100,000 bills featured in the game.
Linkletter was a shrewd businessman and made considerable wealth from a variety of investments. This financial success led to considerable philanthropy.
In 2005, at the age of 93, he opened the Happiest Homecoming on Earth celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of Disneyland. Half a century earlier, he commentated on the opening day celebrations in 1955. For this, he was named a Disney Legend.
Linkletter had one of the longest marriages of any celebrity in America, at over 74 years. He married Lois Foerster on November 25, 1935, and they had five children: Arthur Jack (known as Jack Linkletter, a TV host), Dawn, Robert, Sharon, and Diane. He was also a good friend of Walt Disney.
Linkletter outlived three of his five children. His 20-year-old daughter, Diane Linkletter, died on October 4, 1969, by jumping out of her sixth-floor kitchen window.[1][8] Linkletter claimed that she committed suicide because she was on, or having a flashback from, an LSDtrip, but toxicology tests done after the incident detected no signs of LSD use, and it is quite likely that the drug played no part in her suicide.[9] Linkletter spoke out against drugs to prevent children from straying into a drug habit. His record, We Love You, Call Collect, recorded before her death, featured a discussion about permissiveness in modern society. It featured a rebuttal by Diane, called Dear Mom and Dad. The record won a 1970 Grammy Award for the "Best Spoken Word Recording".
His son Robert died in an automobile accident on September 12, 1980.[10]
His son Arthur Jack Linkletter, (1937–2007), died from lymphoma.[11]
Thomas Hoyt "Slim" Bryant was a country music singer/songwriter and guitarist born in Atlanta, Georgia. After spending nearly 18 years working with Georgia fiddler Clayton McMichen as part of his band the Georgia Wildcats, Bryant and most of the band separated from McMichen and moved to Pittsburgh in 1940.
Bryant resided in the Pittsburgh suburb of Dormont, Pennsylvania.[2] He was the subject of an extensive profile by Rich Kienzle in the January–February 2004 issue of No Depression.[3]
Gary Wayne Coleman died he was an 
