A Look Back at the Notable Individuals Lost in 2016

2016 has seen the deaths of many individuals who shaped the world and brought joy to many. All were iconic in their own right, whether in politics, art, or popular culture. In chronological order below are brief descriptions of each notable person's contribution to the world and a YouTube clip to remember them.

David Bowie (Jan. 10)

"In over fifth years from his very first recordings right through to his last album Blackstar, David Bowie was at the vanguard of contemporary culture as a musician, artist, icon and a constant influence on generations of writers, artists and designers. He was, and remains to be, a unique presence in contemporary culture."
-taken from the legacy page on David Bowie's official website.

David Bowie died of liver cancer in his New York City apartment two days after his 69th birthday and release date of his most recent album Blackstar.

Alan Rickman (Jan. 14)

"His sonorous, languid voice was his calling card - making even throwaway lines of dialogue sound thought-out and authoritative. It could also be laced with threat, something he employed to great effect in Die Hard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and the eight [Harry] Potter films, where he played scheming potions master Severus Snape. But he could also take on romantic leads, as in Anthony Minghella's 1991 drama Truly, Madly, Deeply and later turned his hand to directing... The star was notoriously reluctant to discuss the art of acting, saying it was 'too, too hard' to explain. But speaking to BAFTA last year, he described his profession as 'the act of giving yourself over to once upon a time.'"
-taken from his obituary published by the BBC

Alan Rickman died of cancer at the age of 69.

Glenn Frey (Jan. 18)

"Glenn Frey [was] the guitarist, singer and songwriter who co-founded the Eagles, whose country-tinged, melodic rock tunes, wistful love ballads, philosophical anthems, observations of the outlaw life and testaments to the wages of decadence made it perhaps the leading American band of the 1970." The Eagles' most popular song "Hotel California" reached Number 1 on Billboard's singles chart in 1977 and won the Eagles Record of the Year at the annual Grammy Awards.
-taken from the New York Times

Glenn Frey died of rheumatoid arthritis in New York City at the age of 67.

Abe Vigoda (Jan. 26)

"Vigoda began acting while in his teens, working with the American Theatre Wing. His career as a professional actor began in 1947. He gained acting notability int he 1960s with his work in Broadway productions... His best known film role is that of Salvatore Tessio in "The Godfather" (1972)."
-taken from Wikipedia

Abe Vigoda died in his sleep in New Jersey at the age of 94.

Joe Alaskey (Feb. 3)

Joe Alaskey was one of the most prominent voice actors in Hollywood. Below are some of his most notable roles:
 - Yosemite Sam in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
 - Grandpa Lou Pickles in "Rugrats" post-1997
 - Mermaid Man in "Spongebob Squarepants"
 - Stinkie in "Casper"
 - Bugs Bunny in "Looney Tunes" post-2003
 - Daffy Duck in "Looney Tunes" post-2003
 - Plucky Duck in "Tiny Tunes Adventures"
 - Sylvester the Cat in "Father of the Bird"
 - Droopy the Dog in "Tom and Jerry's Adventures"

Joe Alaskey died of cancer in New York at the age of 63.

Maurice White (Feb. 4)

"White, who formed the group with [his brother] Verdine in 1969, helped innovate a lush, eclectic style with Earth, Wind and Fire that drew inspiration from funk, jazz, R&B, and Latin music - as well as Sly Stone and James Brown - for a unique sound that set the tone for soul music in the Seventies. The springy, elastic soul-pop of "Shining Star," which White co-wrote, earned them their first Number One, and paved the way for hits like the joyful "Sing a Song," the percussive and brassy "September," their swining cover of the Beatles' "Got to Get You Into My Life" and the robotic disco of "Let's Groove." Rolling Stone included the group's sweetly smooth 1975 single, "That's the Way of the World," on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Earth, Wind and Fire have sold more than 90 million albums around the world... They won six Grammys over the course of their careeer. In 2000, they were inducted into the Rock and Rol Hall of Fame."
-taken from Rolling Stone

Maurice White died in his sleep in Los Angeles at the age of 74.

Harper Lee (Feb. 19)

"Harper Lee, whose first novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," about racial injustice in a small Alabama town, sold more than 40 million copies and became one of the most beloved and most taught works of fiction [literature] ever written by an American... The instant success of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which was published in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the next year, turned Ms. Lee into a literary celebrity, a role she found oppressieve and never learned to accept... The enormous popularity of the film version of the novel, released in 1962 with Gregory Peck in the starring role of Atticus Finch, a small-town Southern lawyer who defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, only added to Ms. Lee's fame."
​-taken from the New York Times

Harper Lee died in her sleep at the age of 89 in her hometown Monroeville.

Nancy Reagan (Mar. 6)

"While Ronald Reagan was governor of California from 1967-1975, Nancy Reagan worked with numerous charitable groups, and spent hours visiting veterans, the elderly, adn the emotionally and physically disabled... When her husband became President of the United States, First Lady Reagan continued her interest in these groups, and arguably became best known for her "Just Say No" program fighting against drug abuse among youth."
-taken from NBC News

Prior to the Reagans' jump into politics, Nancy Reagan (maiden name Davis) was a hollywood actress. In the mid-1990s, she was approached to come out of retirement to star in the 1996 movie "Mother," but she declined to care for her husband suffering with alzheimers and the role instead went to Debbie Reynolds.

Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure at the age of 94

Frank Sinatra Jr. (Mar. 16)

"Frank Sinatra Jr., [was] the son of the legendary entertainer who had a long musical career of his own... Sinatra, whose voice and looks were very much like his father's, released about a half dozen albums... Sinatra also did some acting, appearing in almost 20 shows, including the animated series "Family Guy" playing himself."
​-taken from CNN

Frank Sinatra Jr. died of cardiac arrest in Daytona Beach at the age of 72.

Garry Schandling (Mar. 24)

Garry Schandling was a pioneer comedian who helped reshape stand-up comedy and revive observational humor later spearheaded by another comedian he mentored, Jerry Seinfeld. 

Garry Schandling died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 66.

Patty Duke (Mar. 29)

Patty Duke was an "oscar-winning actress and the star of an eponymous TV show... Duke became a star as a teenager when she appeared as Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" on broadway alongside Anne Bancroft. The play was later turned into a film, for which Duke won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1963... Duke became a staunch advocate for mental health, while continuing her acting career. Duke primarily worked in television, most recently appeared in shows including Glee, Live and Maddie, and Hawaii Five-0."
​-taken from ABC News

Patty Duke died of a ruptured intestine at the age of 69.

Erik Bauersfeld (April 3)

"Erik Bauersfeld [memorably] voiced the Rebellion's Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens... In the 1983 space opera, Bauerfeld voiced Ackbar, delivering the iconic line, "It's trap!" when the fate of the alliance looks grim during the Death Star fleet attack... Bauersfeld's other roles include voice work in last year's Guillermo Del Toro film "Crimson Peak" and Steven Spielberg's 2001 film "A.I. Artificial Intelligence."

Erik Bauerfeld died in Berkeley at the age of 93.

Merle Haggard (April 6)

"From the start, he commanded attention with his voice. In contrast to Hank Williams' nervy drawl or Johnny Cash's rough-hewn, colloquial way of sharing predicaments, Haggard began with an implossibly beautiful voice. His brandy-toned, barroom plea could glide up a scale fluidly, without any discernible steps; it was a prodigy's feat, like Frank Sinatra's young mellifluence or Jim Reeves' plaintive Western croon. Haggard's voice yielded hard truths - songs about hearts lost in alcohol's shadow, men who couldn't find honest support and lived outside the law. Though his audience didn't know it for years, he was often singing about himself. Of all the country artists who bore or brandished an outlaw image, Haggard had come up against that life, and paid for it. That authenticity helped make him one of the most revered singers and songwriters that country music ever delivered."
-taken from CMT

Merle Haggard died of pneumonia in Central California on his 79th birthday.

Doris Roberts (April 17)

"Roberts played Marie Barone, who was a constant thorn int he side of her daughter-in-law, played by Patricia Heaton. The role earned her four Emmy awards, a Screen Actors Guild aware and three Emmy nominations... A veteran character actress, Roberts appeared in scores of TV shows and movies during her more than six decades in show business. She had a recurring role on the 1980s TV series "Remington Steele" playing Mildred Krebs, the secretary to Pierce Brosnan's title character... [Lastly, she] guest-starred on some of the most popular TV shows from the 1970s to the 1990s, including Mary Tyler Moore, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, and Murder, She Wrote."
​-taken from CNN

Doris Roberts died of a stroke in her home at the age of 90.

Chyna (April 20)

"Kicked out of her home at age 16, [Chyna] hadn't seen her mother in 30 years. She cut off communication with her sister more than a decade ago, infuriated at the suggestion that she enter a drug rehabilitation facility. [Chyna] cherished the identity and acceptance she found in WWE, where former colleagues say she became one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster. But she alienated many of them after leaving the company in 2001, when her life began a 14-year spiral peppered with arrests, porn films, reality shows, suicide attempts, and videos on TMZ... Two months after her death, no family members traveled to Redondo Beach for [her] public memorial service on June 22 or her burial the next morning. Instead, as the ashes of the most famous female pro wrestler in history danced away into the Pacific, her mourners included the manager and his four children, an ex-boyfriend she hadn't seen in 11 years, a rented preacher reciting a prayer off a wrinked notecard and two members of [her] social media team she had never met."
-taken from Bleacher Report

Chyna died of drug overdose in Redondo Beach at the age of 46.

Prince (April 21)

"Prince was a man bursting with music - a wildly prolific songwriter, a virtuoso on guitars, keyboards and drums, and a master architect of funk, rock, R&B and pop, even as his music defied genres. In a career that lasted from the late 1970s until his solo "Piano and a Microphone" tour this year, he was acclaimed as a sex symbol, a musical prodigy and an artist who shaped his career his way, often battling with accepted music-business practices... In a statement, President Obama said, "Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent... He was a viruoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performed. 'A strong spirit transcends rules,' Prince once said - and nobody's spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative.'"
-taken from the New York Times

Prince died of an opioid overdose in Minnesota at the age of 57.

Morley Safer (May 19)

Morley Safer died of Pneumonia in Manhatten at the age of 84.

Harambe (May 28)

"[Harambe] was moved to the Cincinnati Zoo in 2014 after outgrowing his environment at Gladys Porter [Zoo], and quickly became a beloved fixture at their gorilla World habitat. He was described as "intelligent and curious" by his handlers... Harambe was one of the last remaining [Silverback] lowland gorillas. Only aout 175,000 still exist."
-taken from his obituary 

On May 28, a young child fell into Harambe's habitat pit at the Cincinnati Zoo and Harambe retrieved the boy out of the water, standing over top of him and dragging him to other places in the habitat. Zoo officials and first responders believed Harambe posed a serious threat to the child, but after his death it was argued by gorilla expert Dr. Jane Goodall that the video evidence demonstrated Harambe's behavior was protective not aggressive.

Harambe died of gunshot wound at the age of 17.

Muhammad Ali (June 3)

"Even as his health declined, Ali did not shy from politics or controversy, releasing a statement in December [2015] criticizing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. 'We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda,' he said. The remark bookended the life of a man who burst into the national consciousness in the early 1960s, when as a young heavyweight champion he converted to Islam and refused to serve in the Vietnam War, and became an emblem of strength, eloquence, conscience, and courage. Ali was an anti-establishment showman who transcended borders and barriers, race and religion. His fights against other men became spectacles, but he embodied much greater battles."
​-taken from NBC News

Muhammad Ali died of respiratory complications in Phoenix at the age of 74.

Gordie Howe (June 10)

Gordie Howe died of natural causes in Toronto at the age of 88.

Anton Yelchin (June 19)

Anton Yelchin died of a car accident in Studio City at the age of 27.

Elie Wiesel (July 2)

"[Elie Wiesel] was fifteen years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister perished, his two older sisters durvived. Elie and his father were later transported to Nuchenwald, where his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in April 1945... Elie Wiesel is the author of more than sixty boks of fiction and non-fiction... For his literary and human rights activities, he has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US Congressional Gold Medal, the National Humanities Medal, the Medal of Liberty, and the rank of Grand Croix in the French Legion of Honor. In 1986, Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for Peace, and soon after, Marion and Elie Wiesel established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity."
-taken from Elie Wiesel Foundation

​Elie Wiesel died in at home Manhatten at the age of 87.

Nate Thurmond (July 16)

Nate Thurmond died of leukemia in San Francisco at the age of 74.

David Huddleston (Aug. 2)

"A Longtime favorite NBC character actor, Huddleston specialized in big, blustery characters. Such was the title character he placed in 1998's "The Big Lobowski." Huddleston, known for the line "Strong men also cry," appeared in only a few scenes, but they are among the most memorable in the film. His knack was to play puffed-up dons, but with a wink. He managed to act comic parts with an air of being in on the joke, a device served to deflate the very grandiosity he projected... In addition to playing guest roles on numerous TV dramas, he starred in the 205 film "The Producers," "Santa Claus: The Movie" (1985) and in 1974's "Blazing Saddles.""
​-taken from the Los Angeles Times

David Huddleston died of advanced heart and kidney disease in Santa Fe at the age of 85.

John Saunders (Aug. 10)

John Saunders died in his home at the age of 61. His cause of death is still to be determined but is believed to stem from heart problems and diabetes.

Kenny Baker (Aug. 13)

Kenny Baker died of heart attack in the U.K. at the age of 81.

Steven Hill (Aug. 23)

"Steven Hill [was] a versatile character actor in theater, films, and television who achieved his greatest success late in life as grumpy District Attorney Adam Schiff on TV's long-running "Law and Order"... Hill, whose more than two dozen films included "Billy Bathgate," "White Palace" and "Yentl," recalled in 1999 how his presence as "Law and Order;s" groughy legal stickler developed gradually during his 10 years with the show... Hill had honed his craft in the years immediately after World War II, taking classes at the Actors Studio in New York with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift."
-taken from Los Angeles Times

Steven Hill died in Manhatten at the age of 94.

Juan Gabriel (Aug. 28)

"He was a legend, an artist who marked an era in people's lives. Every major Mexican newspaper had news of his Sunday death on its front page, along with large photos of his flamboyant costumes... Juan Gabriel was Mexico's leading singer-songwriter and top-selling artist. His bouncy mariachi tunes and ballads about love and heartbreak became hymns throughout Latin America and Spain as well as with Spanish speakers in the United States."
​-taken from Fox News

Juan Gabriel died of diabetes in Santa Monica at the age of 66.

Gene Wilder (Aug. 29)

"Gene Wilder [established] himself as one of America's foremost comic actors with his delightfully neurotic performances in three films directed by Mel Brooks; his eccentric star turn in the family classic "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"; and his winning chemistry with Richard Pryor in the box-office smash "Stir Crazy"... In "Blazing Saddles," a raunchy, no-holds-barred spoof of Hollywood westerns, Mr. Wilder had the relatively quiet role of the Waco Kid, a boozy ex-gunfighter who helps an improbably black sheriff save a town from railroad barons and venal politicains. The film's once-daring humor may have lost some of its edge over the years, but Mr. Wilder's next Brooks film, "Young Frankenstein," has never grown old."
​-taken from New York Times

Gene Wilder died of Alzheimer's at home in Connecticut at the age of 83.

Alexis Arquette (Sept. 11)

Alexis Arquette was a transgendered actress and activist, whose brother David Arquette and sister Patricia Arquette are famed actors. Her most prominent acting role was in the Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler.

Alexis Arquette died of cardiac arrest and HIV at the age of 47. 

Edward Albee (Sept. 16)

"Edward Albee [was] widely considerd the foremost American playwright of his generation, whose psychologically astute and piercing dramas explored the conentiousness of intimacy, the gap between self-delusion and truth, and the roiling desperation beneath the facade of contemporary life... Mr. Albee's Broadway debut, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" the famously scabrous portrait of a withered marriage, won a Tony Award in 1963 for best play, ran for more than a year and a half and enthralled and shocked theatergoers with its depiction of stifling academic and of a couple whose relationship has been corroded by dashed hopes, wounding recriminations and drink."
​-taken from New York Times

Edward Albee died of a short illness in New York at the age of 88.

Jose Fernandez (Sept. 25)

Jose Fernandez died of a boating accident near Miami at the age of 24.

Arnold Palmer (Sept. 25)

Arnold Palmer died of heart complications in Pittsburgh at the age of 87.

Pete Burns (Oct. 23)

"He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul, and he will be missed by all who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories that he has left us with... Earlier this year, Burns admitted he has endured more than 300 procedures to fix botched surgery on his face, which left him depressed and fighting for his life. The star - who likened himself to Frankenstein's monster - vowed to never stop going under the knife int he pursuit for physical perfection... Burns said his obsession with changing his face started more than two decades ago at the time of his chart success with "You Spin Me Round.""
​-taken from the Daily Mail

Pete Burns died of cardiac arrest in London at the age of 57.

Tammy Grimes (Oct. 30)

"Tammy Grimes [was] the throaty actress and singer who conquered Broadway at the age of 26, winning a Tony Award for her performance in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," and went on to a distinguished stage career... She quickly developed a reputaiton for star attitude. In 1961, Earl Wilson referred to her in his New York Post column as "terrible-tempered Tammy Grimes" and reported that she had been known to "hit or bite her fellow actors." Sometimes she was more politely called mercurial."
-taken from New York Times

Tammy Grimes died in New Jersey at the age of 82.

Janet Reno (Nov. 7)

Janet Reno died of Parkinson's disease in Miami at the age of 78.

Leonard Cohen (Nov. 7)

"Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet. Cohen's haunting bass voice, nylon-stringed guitar patterns and Greek-chorus backing vocals shaped evocative songs that dealt with love and hate, sex and spirituality, war and peace, ecstasy and depression."
-taken from Rolling Stone

Leonard Cohen died unexpectedly in Los Angeles at the age of 82.

Gwen Ifill (Nov. 14)

Gwen Ifill died of cancer in Washington DC at the age of 61.

Florence Henderson (Nov. 24)

Florence Henderson died of heart failure in Los Angeles at the age of 82.

Fidel Castro (Nov. 25)

"Fidel Castro [was] the fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba's maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American presidents and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war... Fidel Castro had held on to power longer than any other living national leader except Queen Elizabeth II. He became a towering international figure whose importance in the 20th century far exceeded what might have been expected from the head of state of a Caribbean island nation of 11 million people."
-taken from New York Times

​Fidel Castro died in Havan at the age of 90.

Peter Vaughan (Dec. 6)

Peter Vaughan died in the United Kingdom at the age of 93.

John Glenn (Dec. 8)

In 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth and reinvigorated the space race between the US and the USSR. He later became a United States Senator from the state of Ohio serving four terms until his retirement in January 1999. He also was an unsuccessful candidate for president in 1984, losing to Walter Wondale, who eventually lost to President Ronald Reagan, but remained a strong advocate for federal funding for the space program and math and science education. John Glenn was on an exhibition in Antartica before being rushed home for safety purposes, dying shortly thereafter.

John Glenn died in Ohio at the age of 95.

Alan Thicke (Dec. 13)

Alan Thicke died of a ruptured aorta artery in Burbank at the age of 69.

Craig Sager (Dec. 15)

"The suits and ties were so loud; at times they were screaming. But Craig Sager wore them so well. Sager [was] the longtime Turner Sports sideline reporter best known for his colorful - and at times fluorescent - wardrobe... With his bold, colorful and sometimes downright crazy combinations, seemingly nothing was off limits for Sager. He donned velvet, plaid, checkered, bright pink or deep purple. He wore ties with polka dots and flowers. The list of his sartorial flourishes was endless."
​-taken from CNN

Craig Sager died of Leukemia at the age of 65, just days after he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Zsa Zsa Gabor (Dec. 18)

"Long before reality television minted stars for their behavior, Gabor was famous for being famous, despite appearing in several movites including Moulin Rouge and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. In the 1940s Gabor began her ascent from beauty queen to millionaire's wife to minor television personality to minor film acress to major public character. Decked out in diamongs and lavish clothes, Zsa Zsa joked often about the droll burders of wealth and her ability to attract men."
-taken from USA Today

​Zsa Zsa Gabor died of cardiac arrest in Bel Air at the age of 99

Dr. Henry Heimlich (Dec. 18)

"Dr. Henry J. Heimlich [was] the thoracic surgeon and medical maverick who developed and crusaded for the antichocking technique that has been credited with saving an estimated 100,000 lives... More than four decades after inventing his maneuver, Dr. Heimlich used it himself on May 23 to save the life of an 87-year-old woman choking on a morsel of meat at Deupree House, their senior residence in Cincinatti. He said it was the first time he had ever used the maneuver in an emergency."
-taken from New York Times

Dr. Heimlich died of a heart attack at home at the age of 96.

George Michael (Dec. 25)

"[George Michael] was Britain's biggest pop star of the 1980s, first with the pop duo Wham! and then as a solo artist. After Wham! made their initial chart breakthrough with the single Young Guns, Michael's songwriting gift brough them giant hits including Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, and I'm Your Man, and they became leading lights of the 80s boom in British pop music, alongside Culture Club and Duran Duran. His first solo album, Faith, sold 25 million copies, and Michael sold more than 100 million albums worldwide with Wham! and under his own name."
​-taken from The Guardian

George Michael died in his sleep of heart failure at the age of 53.

Carrie Fisher (Dec. 27)

"As the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, though, the future Princess Leia was hollywood royality before she was even born in 1956... Perhaps it's no surpirse that the bookish Fisher eventually caught the acting bug herself... In 1977, she starred in a sci-fi movie from the director of American Graffiti, featuring a cast of unknownes (and Sir Alec Guinness). The film, of course, was Star Wars... Though she never stopped acting, writing would turn out to be Fisher's salvation. She channeled her experiences with drug addition and rehab into her first book, the 1987 novel Postcards from the Edge, which was later adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep." She also worked as a screenplay editor, working on Hook, The Wedding Singer, Sister Act, the Star Wars prequels, and Austin Powers.
​-taken from Vanity Fair

Carrie Fisher died of a heart attack on a place to LA at the age of 60.

Debbie Reynolds (Dec. 28)

"Debbie Reynolds burst into the national scene at the age of 19 in one of the greatest musicals ever made, Singing in the Rain. She went on to a legendary career that spanned seven decades, including the epic How the West was Won, and an oscar nominated performance in the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Debbie's marriage to pop singer Eddie Fisher ended in one of the great scandals in Hollywood history. Eddie abandoned Debbie to marry her best friend screen star Elizabeth Taylor... Married three times, Debbie candidly admitted she had terrible taste in men."
​-taken from Inside Edition 

Debbie Reynolds died of a broken heart in los Angeles at the age of 84 one day following the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher.

Barbara Tarbuck (Dec. 30)

"Barbara Tarbuck [was] a stage and screen actress who played Jane Jacks on General Hospital and Mother Superior Claudia on American Horror Story: Asylum... Tarbuck appeared in ABC's popular soap operate from 1996 to 2010, playing the Austrailian billionaire Lady Jane. Her more recent work was in Ryan Murphy's horron anthology, appearing alongside Jessica Lange as the compassionate Mother Superior Claudia."
-taken from USA Today

Barbara Tarbuck died of brain disease in Los Angeles at the age of 74.

Tyrus Wong (Dec. 30)

"When Walt Disney's 'Bambi' opened in 1942, critics praised its spare, haunting visual style, vastly different from anything Disney had done before. But what they did not know was that the film's striking appearance had been created by a Chinese immigrant artist... Like the film's title character, the artist, Tyrus Wong, weathered irrevocable separation from his mother - and, in the hope of making a life in America, incarceration, isolation and rigorous interrogration - all when he was still a child. In the years that followed, he endured poverty, discrimination and chronic lack of recognition, not only for his work at Disney but also for his fine art, before finding acclaim in his 90s... A Hollywood studio artist, painter, printmaker, calligrapher, greeting-card illustrator and, in later years, maker of fantastic kites, he was one of the most celebrated Chinese-American artists of the 20th century."
-taken from the New York Times

​Tyrus Wong died in Los Angeles at the age of 106.