A beloved University of Texas at Austin icon and mainstay of the student union died Monday.
William Christopher, 1932-2016:
William Christopher, the actor best known for his role as Father Francis
Mulcahy on the hit 1970s-1980s sitcom "M.A.S.H," died on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016, at his
home in Pasadena, California. He was 84. In this photo, Christopher, left, Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell, Alan Alda, and Jamie Farr, take a break on the set during taping in Los Angeles.
: Actress Barbara Tarbuck held a recurring role on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital for more than a decade. She played Lady Jane Jacks, an Australian billionaire, between 1996 and 2010.
Frazer Harrison
Debbie Reynolds, 1932-2016: Debbie Reynolds, an actress and singer who became famous for her film roles in "Singin' in the Rain," "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," and "How the West Was Won," died December 28, 2016 of a stroke she suffered at her son's home in Beverly Hills. She died just one day after her daughter, actress and writer Carrie Fisher passed.
Carrie Fisher, who earned a permanent place in film culture and modern mythology for her role as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" films, died Tuesday, Dec. 27. Fisher experienced a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles, just 15 minutes before landing on Friday, Dec. 23. She was revived and rushed to the hospital, where she died four days later. She was 60 years old.
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George Michael, who rocketed to stardom with WHAM! and went on to enjoy a long and celebrated solo career lined with controversies, died, his publicist said Sunday, Dec. 25. He was 53.
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British author Richard Adams, whose 1972 book "Watership Down" became a classic of children’s literature, died Dec. 24, 2016, in Oxfordshire, England. He was 96. Adams’ lyrical and poignant novel about the plight of rabbits whose home was under threat has sold millions of copies and was made into a film, with a remake scheduled for next year.
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Zsa Zsa Gabor, the jet-setting Hungarian actress who made a career out of multiple marriages, conspicuous wealth and jaded wisdom about the glamorous life, died Sunday, Dec. 18, 2016. She was 99. The middle and most famous of the sisters Gabor died Sunday of a heart attack at her Los Angeles home.
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Craig Sager, the longtime NBA sideline reporter famous for his flashy
suits and probing questions, died Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, after a battle with cancer. He was 65.
Bernard Fox, at left, the mustachioed actor known to TV viewers as Dr. Bombay on "Bewitched" and Col. Crittendon on "Hogan’s Heroes," died Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016. He was 89. The Welsh-born actor’s extensive, wide-ranging film and TV credits included "The Mummy," "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "McHale’s Navy" and "Columbo."
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Alan Thicke, a Canadian singer, songwriter and actor best remembered for his portrayal of a father who was the ultimate suburban middlebrow dispenser of advice to his children on the television sitcom "Growing Pains," died Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016. He was 69. He died of a heart attack, a publicist for one of his sons, the singer-songwriter Robin Thicke, said.
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John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.
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Greg Lake, the prog-rock pioneer who co-founded King Crimson and
Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died Wednesday Dec.
7, 2016, after "a long and stubborn battle with cancer," according to his
manager. He was 69. This file photo shows Greg Lake, left, Keith Emerson, centre, and Carl Palmer after an award ceremony in London in 1972.
Van Williams, who starred as the emerald-suited superhero in the short-lived TV series "The Green Hornet, died Nov. 28, 2016. He was 82.
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Former President Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable
victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of
10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule, died Friday, Nov. 25, 2016, at age 90.
Ron Glass, 1945-2016: Ron Glass, the handsome, prolific character actor best known for his role as the gregarious, sometimes sardonic detective Ron Harris in the long-running cop comedy "Barney Miller," died Friday, Nov. 25, 2016, at age 71 of respiratory failure.
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Florence Henderson, 1934-2016: Florence Henderson, who went from Broadway star to become one of America’s most beloved television moms in "The Brady Bunch," died Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016. She was 82. Henderson died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after being hospitalized the day before. Henderson had suffered heart failure.
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Sharon Jones, the stout powerhouse who shepherded a soul revival despite not finding stardom until middle age, died Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. She was 60. Jones died at a Cooperstown, N.Y., hospital after battling pancreatic cancer. Loved ones and members of her retro-soul band, the Dap-Kings, were among those surrounding her.
Jake Coyle
Gwen Ifill, co-anchor of PBS' "NewsHour" with Judy Woodruff and a veteran journalist who moderated two vice presidential debates, died Monday, Nov. 14, 2016 of cancer. She was 61.
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Robert Vaughn, 1932-2016: The urbane actor who starred as the American spy Napoleon Solo on the slick 1960s NBC series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. died on Nov. 11, 2016. Vaughn, who received an Oscar nomination for playing Paul Newman's hard-drinking buddy Chet in the 1959 drama "The Young Philadelphians," died of acute leukemia in a hospital on the East Coast, his manager Matthew Sullivan told The Hollywood Reporter. A resident of Richfield, Conn., he had been undergoing treatment for his illness in New York and Connecticut.
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Leonard Cohen, the baritone-voiced Canadian singer-songwriter who seamlessly blended spirituality and sexuality in songs like "Hallelujah," ''Suzanne" and "Bird on a Wire," died on Nov. 11, 2016.
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Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general and the epicenter of several political storms during the Clinton administration, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease in Miami Monday, November 7, 2016. She was 78.
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Famed '60s anti-war activist Tom Hayden, whose name became forever linked with the celebrated Chicago 7 trial, Vietnam War protests and his ex-wife actress Jane Fonda, died Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016, in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 76. Hayden had suffered a stroke in 2015.
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Meaney, a comic’s comic who worked the standup circuit, was a staple on late-night TV and starred in the short-lived 1990s CBS series "Uncle Buck," died Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, at age 60. Meaney was found dead at his home in Forestburgh, in upstate New York. The cause of death was not immediately known.
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Peres, a former Israeli president and prime minister, whose life story mirrored that of the Jewish state and who was celebrated around the world as a Nobel prize-winning visionary who pushed his country toward peace, died early Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. He was 93.
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Palmer ranked among the most important figures in golf history, and it went well beyond his seven major championships and 62 PGA Tour wins. He died Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016 at the age of 87.
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Carr, the actress best known for sweetly portraying the eldest von Trapp daughter in Rogers & Hammerstein’s "The Sound of Music," died Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016, in Los Angeles of complications from a rare form of dementia. She was 73.
Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, who challenged theatrical convention in masterworks such as "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "A Delicate Balance," died Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, at his home in Montauk, east of New York. He was 88. With the deaths of Arthur Miller and August Wilson in 2005, he was arguably America’s greatest living playwright.
SARA KRULWICH
Schlafly, the outspoken conservative activist who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group, died Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. She was 92.
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O'Brian, who shot to fame as Sheriff Wyatt Earp in what was hailed as television’s first adult Western, died at home Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, in Beverly Hills. He was 91. Above, he confers with James Stewart, left, on the set of "Cheyenne Autumn." O'Brian went on to found HOBY, a youth leadership philanthropic organization.
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Gene Wilder, 1933-2016: Wilder, the frizzy-haired actor who brought his deft comedic touch to such unforgettable roles as the neurotic accountant in "The Producers" and the mad scientist of "Young Frankenstein," died on August 29, 2016. He was 83.
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Gabriel, a superstar Mexican songwriter and singer who was an icon in the Latin music world, died August 28, 2016 at his home in Southern California at age 66. Mr. Gabriel was Mexico’s leading singer-songwriter and top-selling artist. His ballads about love and heartbreak and bouncy mariachi tunes became hymns throughout Latin America and Spain and with Spanish speakers in the United States.
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Hill, 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 & Order," died Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016. He was 94.
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Jack Riley, who played the grumpy, self-absorbed Mr. Carlin on the 1970s "The Bob Newhart Show" sitcom and provided the voice for absent-minded dad Stu Pickles on "Rugrats," died Aug. 19, 2016. He was 80.
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John McLaughlin, the conservative political commentator and host of the namesake long-running television show that pioneered hollering-heads discussions of Washington politics, died Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. He was 89.
Actor Fyvush Finkel, the plastic-faced Emmy Award-winning character actor whose career in stage and screen started in Yiddish theater and led to memorable roles in "Fiddler on the Roof" on Broadway and on TV in "Boston Public" and "Picket Fences" died Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. He was 93.
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Kenny Baker, the 3-foot 8-inch actor who played R2-D2 in the "Star Wars" films, died Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, at his home in Preston, northwest England. He was 81.
Reed Saxon
Writer-director Garry Marshall, whose deft touch with comedy and romance led to a string of TV hits that included "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley" and the box-office successes “Pretty Woman” and "Runaway Bride," died Tuesday, July 19, 2016. He was 81. Marshall died at a hospital in Burbank, California, of complications from pneumonia after having a stroke. Marshall was the brother of actress-director Penny Marshall.
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Sydney H. Schanberg, a former correspondent for The New York Times awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the genocide in Cambodia in 1975 — and whose story of the survival of his assistant inspired the film "The Killing Fields" — died Saturday, July 9, 2016, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 82. Above, Schanberg, left, talks with his former assistant Dith Pran at the New York Times office in New York. Dith died in 2008.
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Noel Neill, the petit film and television actress who played Lois Lane in 1940s "Superman" movie serials and on television in the 1950s, died on Sunday, July 3, 2016, at her home in Tucson, Ariz. She was 95. In this 2010 file photo, she appeared at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Ill.
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Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director whose film "The Deer Hunter" became one of the great triumphs of Hollywood’s 1970s heyday and whose disastrous "Heaven’s Gate" helped bring that era to a close, died Saturday, July 2, 2016, at age 77.
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Pat Summitt, who was at the forefront of a broad ascendance of women’s sports, winning eight national basketball championships at the University of Tennessee and more games than any other Division I college coach, male or female, died Tuesday, June 28, 2016. She was 64. Summitt stepped down after 38 seasons and 1,098 victories at Tennessee in April 2012, at 59, less than a year after she learned she had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
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Buddy Ryan, pro football’s famously combative defensive innovator who helped propel the New York Jets and the Chicago Bears to Super Bowl championships, died Tuesday, June 28, 2016, in Kentucky. He was 82. He had been treated for skin cancer in recent years.
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Anton Yelchin, a rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the new "Star Trek" films, was killed June 19, 2016, after being pinned by his own car when it rolled down his driveway in Los Angeles. He was 27.
Richard Shotwell
Gordie Howe, the hockey great who set scoring records that stood for decades, died Friday, June 10, 2016. He was 88. Howe set NHL marks with 801 goals and 1,850 points that held up until Wayne Gretzky surpassed his idol in the record books.
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Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, died Friday, June 3, 2016. He was 74.
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Theresa Saldana, the "Raging Bull" actress who survived a stalker’s brutal attack to become a crime victim’s advocate and reclaimed her entertainment career with "The Commish”" and other TV shows, died Monday, June 6, 2016, in Los Angeles. She was 61. Saldana had been suffering from pneumonia.
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Playwright Peter Shaffer, whose durable, award-winning hits included "Equus" and "Amadeus," died Monday, June 6, 2016. He was 90. In this photo from 2008, Shaffer stands with Daniel Radcliffe, as they celebrate being awarded by for Best Play Revival to Shaffer and Best Newcomer to Radcliffe for "Equus."
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Morley Safer, the veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent who was equally at home reporting on social injustices, the Orient Express and abstract art, and who exposed a military atrocity in Vietnam that played an early role in changing Americans’ view of the war, died Thursday, May 19, 2016. He was 84. Safer, who had been in declining health, died at his home in Manhattan. He announced his retirement last week.
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Pop superstar Prince, one of the best selling pop artists of all time and widely acclaimed as among the most inventive musicians of his era, was found dead at his home on Thursday, April 21, 2016, in suburban Minneapolis. He was 57.
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Chyna, the tall, muscle-bound, raven-haired pro-wrestler who rocketed to popularity in the 1990s after taking on both women and men in the ring and later revealed her struggles with addiction on reality TV, dies Wednesåay, April 20, 2016. She was 46. The former World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler was found her dead in her Redondo Beach, Calif., apartment.
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Roberts, who played the tart-tongued, endlessly meddling mother on "Everybody Loves Raymond," died Sunday, April 17, 2016. She was 90. Roberts won four Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Marie Barone on CBS' "Raymond."
Jordan Strauss
Country giant Merle Haggard, who rose from poverty and prison to international fame through his songs about outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as "Okie From Muskogee" and "Sing Me Back Home," died Wednesday, April 6, 2016, at 79, on his birthday. The country icon died in Palo Cedro, Calif., of pneumonia that he had been battling for months.
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Patty Duke, who as a teen won an Oscar for playing Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker," then maintained a long career while battling personal demons, died Tuesday, March 29, 2016, at the age of 69 of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She died in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where she had lived for the past quarter-century. Duke starred in her own sitcom, The Patty Duke Show," which aired for three seasons. She played dual roles as identical cousins.
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James Noble, a Broadway-seasoned actor who appeared on soap operas and films like "10" and "Being There," but perhaps was best known for playing the absent-minded governor to Robert Guillaume's patient head of household in the 1980s sitcom "Benson," died in Connecticut Monday, March 28, 2016. He was 94.
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Mother Mary Angelica, a folksy Roman Catholic nun who used a monastery garage to begin a television ministry that grew into a global religious media empire, has died. She was 92. Known to millions of viewers simply as "Mother Angelica," the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network died Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016, at the rural Alabama monastery where she lived about 45 miles north of Birmingham.
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The fiction writer, poet, outdoorsman and reveler who wrote with gruff affection for the country’s landscape and rural life and enjoyed mainstream success in middle age with his historical saga "Legends of the Fall," died Saturday, March 26, 2016, at age 78 at his home in Patagonia, Arizona.
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Garry Shandling, who as an actor and comedian pioneered a pretend brand of self-focused docudrama with "The Larry Sanders Show," died Thursday, March 24, 2016, in Los Angeles of an undisclosed cause.
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The versatile and prolific writer who drew upon his Depression-era upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to create one of television’s most beloved family shows, "The Waltons," died Thursday, March 24, 2016, in Los Angeles. He was 92. Above, he poses, in back, with the cast of "The Waltons."
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The strapping character actor who starred in the 1970s TV drama "The White Shadow" and was currently serving as president of SAG-AFTRA, died Wednesday, March 23, 2016, at age 71. No cause was given.
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Phife Dawg, a masterful lyricist whose witty wordplay was a linchpin of the groundbreaking hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, died Tuesday, March 22, 2016, from complications resulting from diabetes. He was 45.
Brian Ach
he pugnacious, populist former mayor of Toronto whose career crashed in a drug-driven, obscenity-laced debacle, died Tuesday, March 22, 2016, after a battle with cancer, his family said. He was 46.
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Joe Santos, right, who played Lieutenant Dennis Becker on “The Rockford Files” and had a recurring role on “The Sopranos,” died Friday, March 18, 2016, at 84 in Santa Monica, Calif., following a heart attack.
Larry Drake, who earned back-to-back Emmy Awards for his sensitive portrayal of mentally challenged character Benny Stulwicz in "L.A. Law," was found dead in his Los Angeles-area home on Thursday, March 17, 2016. He was 66.
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Frank Sinatra Jr., who followed in his father’s footsteps with a singing career but never had a hit of his own, died of cardiac arrest on tour in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, March 16, 2016. He was 72.
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Keith Emerson, founder and keyboardist of the progressive-rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died Thursday, March 10, 2016. He was 71. The cause appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Emerson, drummer Carl Palmer and vocalist guitarist Greg Lake were giants of progressive rock in the 1970s, recording six platinum-selling albums.
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George Martin, second from right, the Beatles’ urbane producer who quietly guided the band’s swift, historic transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, died Tuesday, March 8, 2016. He was 90.
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Nancy Reagan, the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president — and finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease — died Sunday, March 6, 2016, at her home in Bel-Air, California. She was 94.
Dennis Cook
Author Pat Conroy, whose beloved works "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides" are set against the vistas of the South Carolina coast that was his home, died Friday, March 4, 2016, at his home in Beaufort, S.C.
Richard Shiro
George Kennedy, the hulking, tough-guy character actor who won an
Academy Award for his portrayal of a savage chain-gang convict in the
1960s classic "Cool Hand Luke," died Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, of old
age in Boise, Idaho. He was 91.
The Italian writer best known for the international best-seller "The Name of the Rose," died Friday, Feb. 19, 2016.
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Antonin Scalia, the influential conservative and most provocative member of the U.S. Supreme Court, has died Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, of natural causes at age 79. Scalia was found dead in his room at a West Texas resort ranch.
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The founder and leader of Earth, Wind & Fire, died at home in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. He was 74.
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Bob Elliott, half of the enduring television and radio comedy team Bob and Ray, died at his home in Cundy’s Harbor, Maine, on Feb. 2, 2016. He was 92.
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Paul Kantner, a founding member of the Jefferson Airplane who stayed with the seminal San Francisco band through its transformation from 1960s hippies to 1970s hit makers as the eventual leader of successor group Jefferson Starship, died at age 74.
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Character actor Abe Vigoda, whose leathery, sunken-eyed face made him ideal for playing the over-the-hill detective Phil Fish in the 1970s TV series "Barney Miller" and the doomed Mafia soldier in "The Godfather," died at age 94.
Frey who co-founded the Eagles and with Don Henley became one of history's most successful songwriting teams with such hits as "Hotel California" and "Life in the Fast Lane," died Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Frey was 67 and had been battling multiple ailments.
Dan Haggerty, the rugged, bearded actor who starred in the film and TV series "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams" about a mountain man and animal trainer, died Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, in Burbank, Calif. Haggerty was 74 and had been battling cancer of the spine.
British actor Alan Rickman, whose career ranged from Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company to the "Harry Potter" films, died Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. He was 69. Rickman’s family said that the actor had died after a battle with cancer.
David Bowie, the chameleon-like star who transformed the sound — and the look — of rock with his audacious creativity and his sexually ambiguous makeup and costumes, died of cancer Sunday. Bowie, whose hits included "Space Oddity," ''Fame," ''Heroes" and "Let's Dance," died surrounded by family on Jan. 11, 2016. The singer, who was 69, had fought cancer for 18 months.
Harrington, who played apartment super Dwayne Schneider on the hit CBS sitcom,"One Day at a Time," died Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 86.
Beth Howland, an actress best known for her role as a ditsy waitress on the 1970s and '80s CBS sitcom "Alice," died Dec. 31, 2015, of lung cancer. She was 74.
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Ishmael Mohammed Jr., better known as Junior the Wendy’s Guy, was found unconscious at a bus stop Friday morning in Austin, according to his daughter Kimberly Guerin. He was rushed to the emergency room where doctors said Mohammed had severe brain bleeding. Surgery was unsuccessful, and he died not long afterwards. The Austin Chronicle first reported his death.
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Mohammed, 61, spent a decade working at a Wendy’s restaurant inside the University of Texas at Austin’s student union. On Facebook, former UT students mourned the loss of Junior, remembering his enthusiasm and infectious joy.
He was one of the most memorable icons of the Longhorn community while he worked there. Filmmakers made a SXSW short documentary about him in 2006. In 2014, an Austin American Statesman article on “Junior the Wendy’s Guy,” referred to him as “the Rachmaninoff of the register holding the record making the most orders and sales within a 30-minute span…one order every 7.3 seconds.” He would yell “Touchdown!” and give high fives to customers while making their orders.
He left Austin in 2012 to take care of his ailing mother in New York. After she died, Mohammed’s life took a bad turn that left him living on Austin's streets as early as 2014. A viral campaign helped raise some $30,000 for Mohammed, but he continued to struggle.
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“I know he had been mugged before and that he has had stitches before,” Guerin told the Daily Texan about his death. “There have been altercations with people on the street, so they think it was probably a fall, but no one really knows because no one was there.”
Guerin set up a GoFundMe page originally to pay for her father’s funeral. Those expenses were later covered by the company that employs her half-brother, the Austin Chronicle reported. The funds will now go toward a memorial event in Austin. Contributions to the campaign can be made here.
