Paul Newman, 83, actor and philanthropist. 09/26
David Foster Wallace, 46, author ( Infinite Jest). 09/12
Isaac Hayes, 65, singer, songwriter, actor. 08/10
Jerry Wexler, 91, music producer. 08/15
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, 89, author and Soviet dissident. 08/04
George Carlin, 71, comedian and actor. 06/22
Cyd Charisse, 86, dancer and actress. 06/17
Tim Russert, 58, anchor of ” Meet the Press”. 06/13
Bo Diddley, 79, guitarist, one of the godfathers of Rock and Roll. 06/02
Yves Saint Laurent, 71, famed fashion designer. 06/01
Dick Martin, 86, comedian and host of ” Laugh-In” with partner Dan Rowan. 05/24
Sydney Pollack, 73, Oscar winning director and actor. 05/26
Robert Rauschenberg, 82, artist. 05/12
Eddy Arnold, 89, musician. 05/08
Charlton Heston, 84, actor and Conservative activist, President of the National Rifle Association. 04/05
Richard Widmark, 93, actor. 03/24
Paul Scofield, 86, Oscar Winning actor. 03/19
Arthur C. Clarke, 90, author ( 2001: A Space Odyessy). 03/19
William F. Buckley, 82, famed Conservative pundit. 02/27
Roy Scheider, 75, actor. 02/10
Heath Ledger, 28, Oscar nominated actor. 01/22
Suzanne Pleshette, 70, actress. 01/19
Van Johnson, 92, actor. 12/12
Bobby Fischer, 64, chess prodigy turned eccentric. 1/17
Steve Fossett, 64, billionaire adventurer. Declared dead on 2/15, though missing since September 2, 2007, and his remains were found September 2008.
Will Elder, 87, artist and satirical cartoonist ( MAD, Playboy). 5/17
Mildred Loving, 68.
This fascinating woman was a pregnant eighteen year old when she married Richard Loving in Washington D.C. The year was 1958, and they would have been like any other normal Virginia couple if the police hadn’t arrested them under arcane miscegenation laws. This black woman married to a white man would in 1963 ask the ACLU to take her and her husband’s case to the Supreme Court, where the Warren Bench overturned their convictions. The woman at the heart of Loving v. Virginia would toward the end of her life never give interviews, but would later release a statement supporting gay marriage, as she, better than most, understood that marriage is not always about children and religion, but always, always about human rights and love. 5/2
Levi Stubbs, 72, singer ( The Four Tops). 10/17
Harold Pinter, 78, playwright. 12/25
Eartha Kitt, 81, singer and actress and Catwoman. 12/25
Mark Felt, 95, Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal. 12/18
Bettie Page, 85, legendary pin up girl. 12/12
Odetta, 77, folk singer. 12/2
Miriam Makeba, 76, singer and anti-apartheid activist. 11/9
Michael Crichton, 66, author and co-creator of the TV series ER. 11/4
Studs Terkel, 96, journalist, author, and radio host. 10/31
