The Decade of the Dead Celebrity
I've called it such several times in the privacy of my own head, but the death of George Carlin on Sunday prompted me to discuss this with April, and she agreed with me that the first ten years of the 21st Century are the Decade of the Dead Celebrity.
Qualifications: Must display some degree of ubiquity (this is my definition of "celebrity" for the purposes of this list). Must have died in the years 2001 - 2010.
Count = 145
*updated 28 June 2008*
*updated 29 June 2008*
*updated 1 July 2008*
*updated 13 July 2008*
*updated 22 July 2008*
*updated 26 July 2008*
*updated 29 July 2008*
*updated 5 August 2008*
*updated 10 August 2008*
*updated 11 August 2008*
*updated 15 September 2008*
*updated 18 September 2008*
*updated 21 September 2008*
*updated 28 September 2008*
*updated 30 September 2008*
*updated 21 October 2008*
*updated 27 October 2008*
*updated 9 November 2008*
*updated 15 December 2008*
*updated 16 December 2008*
*updated 22 December 2008*
*updated 14 January 2009*
*updated 2 March 2009*
*updated 26 April 2009*
*updated 27 April 2009*
*updated 28 April 2009*
*updated 4 June 2009*
*updated 15 June 2009*
*updated 25 June 2009*
*updated 29 June 2009*
*updated 1 July 2009*
*updated 12 July 2009*
*updated 6 August 2009*
*Updated 30 August 2009*
*Updated 20 September 2009*
2001
--Dale Earnhardt [29 April 1951 - 18 Feb 2001]
--Morton Downey, Jr. [9 Dec 1933 - 12 March 2001]
--Perry Como [18 May 1912 - 12 May 2001]
--Jack Lemmon [8 Feb 1925 - 27 June 2001]
--Aaliyah [16 Jan 1979 - 25 Aug 2001]
--Dr. Christiaan Barnard [8 Nov 1922 - 2 Sept 2001] Performed first heart transplant.
--George Harrison [25 Feb 1943 - 29 Nov 2001]
2002
--Dave Thomas (Wendy's founder) [2 July 1932 - 8 Jan 2002]
--Princess Margaret of England [21 Aug 1930 - 9 Feb 2002]
--Chuck Jones [21 Sept 1911 - 22 Feb 2002]
--Milton Berle [12 July 1908 - 27 March 2002] Mr. Television
--Dudley Moore [19 April 1935 - 27 March 2002]
--Queen Elizabeth (Queen Mother) [4 Aug 1900 - 30 March 2002]
--Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes [27 May 1971 - 25 April 2002]
--Ann Landers [4 July 1918 - 22 June 2002]
--Rosemary Clooney [23 May 1928 - 29 June 2002]
--Joe Strummer (of The Clash) [21 Aug 1952 - 22 Dec 2002]
2003
--Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers) [20 March 1928 - 27 Feb 2003]
--June Carter Cash [23 June 1929 - 15 May 2003]
--Bob Hope [Died July 27, 2003. Born May 29, 1903]
--Gregory Peck [5 April 1916 - 12 June 2003]
--Strom Thurmond [5 Dec 1902 - 26 June 2003]
--Buddy Hackett [31 Aug 1924 - 29 June 2003]
--Katharine Hepburn [12 May 1907 - 29 June 2003]
--Barry White [12 Sept 1944 - 4 July 2003]
--Gregory Hines [14 Feb 1946 - 9 Aug 2003]
--John Ritter [17 Sept 1947 - 11 Sept 2003]
--Johnny Cash [26 Feb 1932 - 12 Sept 2003]
--Robert Palmer [19 Jan 1949 - 25 Sept 2003]
--Art Carney [4 Nov 1918 - 9 Nov 2003]
2004
--Estée Lauder [1 July 1906 - 24 April 2004]
--Ronald Reagan [6 Feb 1911 - 5 June 2004]
--Ray Charles [23 Sept 1930 - 10 June 2004]
--Marlon Brando [3 April 1924 - 1 July, 2004]
--Francis Crick [8 June 1916 - 28 July 2004] Co-discovered the structure of DNA.
--Rick James [1 Feb 1948 - 6 Aug 2004]
--Julia Child [15 Aug 1912 - 13 Aug 2004]
--Christopher Reeve [25 Sept 1952 - 10 Oct 2004]
--Rodney Dangerfield [22 Nov 1922 - 5 Oct 2004]
--Yasser Arafat [24 Aug 1929 - 11 Nov 2004]
--Jerry Orbach [20 Oct 1935 - 28 Dec 2004]
2005
--Pope John Paul II [18 May 1920 - 2 April 2005]
--Hunter S. Thompson [18 July 1937 - 20 Feb 2005]
--Peter Jennings [29 July 1938 - 7 Aug 2005]
--Arthur Miller [17 Oct 1915 - 10 Feb 2005]
--James Doohan [March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005]
--Anne Bancroft [September 17, 1931 - June 6, 2005]
--Johnny Carson [October 23, 1925 - January 23, 2005]
--John Vernon [February 24, 1932 - February 1, 2005]
--Ossie Davis [December 18, 1917 - February 4, 2005]
--Frank Perdue [May 9, 1920 - March 31, 2005]
--Luther Vandross [April 20, 1951 - July 1, 2005]
--Rosa Parks [February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005]
--Richard Pryor [December 1, 1940 - December 10, 2005]
2006
--Saddam Hussein
--Aaron Spelling [2006]
--James Brown [2006]
--Syd Barrett
--Dana Reeve
--Al Lewis
--Chris Penn [2006]
--Coretta Scott King [2006]
--Don Knotts [2006]
--Oleg Cassini [2006]
--Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) [2006]
--Peter Boyle [2006]
--President Gerald Ford [2006]
2007
--Anna Nicole Smith [2007]
--Molly Ivins [2007]
--Robert Anton Wilson [2007]
--Jerry Falwell
--Luciano Pavarotti [2007]
--Evel Knievel [2007]
--Yvonne DeCarlo
--Kurt Vonnegut [2007]
--Casey Calvert (Hawthorne Heights) [2007]
--Don Ho [2007]
--Boris Yeltsin [2007]
--Liz Claiborne [2007]
--Joel Siegel [2007]
--Beverly Sills (Soprano) [2007]
--Merv Griffin [2007]
--Robert Jordan (author of the Wheel of Time books) [2007]
--Marcel Marceau [2007]
--Ike Turner [2007]
2008
--Heath Ledger [2008]
--George Carlin [2008]
--Gary Gygax [2008]
--Brad Renfro [2008]
--Estelle Getty
--Bernie Mac
--Isaac Hayes
--Charlton Heston
--Albert Hoffman [2008] Discovered LSD.
--Yves Saint-Laurent [2008]
--Harvey Korman [2008]
--Arthur C. Clarke [2008]
--Sir Edmund Hillary [2008]
--Don LaFontaine (the movie trailer voiceover guy who did that Geico commercial) [2008]
--Richard Wright (from The Pink Floyd) [2008]
--LeRoi Moore (Dave Matthews Band saxophonist) [2008]
--Paul Newman [2008]
--Bobby "Boris" Pickett [2007]
--Levi Stubbs (voice of Audrey II, Little Shop of Horrors) [2008]
--Douglas Adams [2001]
--Michael Crichton [2008]
--Bettie Page [2008]
--John "Mitch" Mitchell (of The Jimi Hendrix Experience) [2008]
--Louis "Studs" Terkel [2008]
--Dee Dee Warwick [2008]
--Eartha Kitt [2008]
--Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn [2008]
--Tony Snow [2008]
--Tim Russert [2008]
--Bo Diddley [2008]
--Sydney Pollack [2008]
--Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel from ST:TOS) [2008]
2009
--Cornelia Wallace (2nd wife of Gov. George Wallace) [2009]
--Patrick McGoohan [2009]
--Ricardo Montalbán [2009]
--Andrew Wyeth (painter) [2008]
--Bob May (Robot in Lost in Space) [2009]
--James Whitmore (The Law and Mr. Jones) [2009]
--Paul Harvey [2009]
--Dave Arneson (co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons with Gary Gygax) [2009]
--Bea Arthur [2009]
--Frankie Manning [2009]
--Natasha Richardson [2009]
--"England" Dan Seals [ - 2009]
--David Carradine [2009]
--Dom DeLuise [2009]
--Ed McMahon [6 March 1923 - 23 June 2009]
--Farrah Fawcett [2009]
--Michael Jackson [2009]
--Billy Mays [2009]
--Karl Malden [2009]
--Mollie Sugden [2009]
--Oscar G. Mayer, Jr. [16 March 1914 - 6 July 2009] 3rd generation of the cold cut company
--Walter Cronkite [4 Nov 1916 -17 July 2009]
--Corazon Aquino [25 January 1933 - 1 August 2009] Former Philippine president
--John Hughes [18 Feb 1950 - 6 Aug 2009]
--Eunice Kennedy Shriver [9 June 1915 - 11 August 2009] Founded the Special Olympics
--Les Paul [9 June 1915 - 13 August 2009] Inventor of the electric guitar
--Don Hewitt [14 December 1922 - 19 August 2009] Creator of Sixty Minutes
--Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy [2 February 1922 - 25 August 2009] Long-time Senator; last of the Kennedy brothers
--Crystal Lee Sutton [31 December 1940 - 11 September 2009] 70's union organizer
--Henry Gibson [21 September 1935 - 14 September 2009]
--Patrick Swayze [18 August 1952 - 14 September 2009]
--Mary Travers [9 November 1936 - 16 September 2009] of Peter, Paul, & Mary
Anybody else think of any more? (Hmmm, I wonder if I will be adding Fred Phelps to this list?)
Qualifications: Must display some degree of ubiquity (this is my definition of "celebrity" for the purposes of this list). Must have died in the years 2001 - 2010.
Count = 145
*updated 28 June 2008*
*updated 29 June 2008*
*updated 1 July 2008*
*updated 13 July 2008*
*updated 22 July 2008*
*updated 26 July 2008*
*updated 29 July 2008*
*updated 5 August 2008*
*updated 10 August 2008*
*updated 11 August 2008*
*updated 15 September 2008*
*updated 18 September 2008*
*updated 21 September 2008*
*updated 28 September 2008*
*updated 30 September 2008*
*updated 21 October 2008*
*updated 27 October 2008*
*updated 9 November 2008*
*updated 15 December 2008*
*updated 16 December 2008*
*updated 22 December 2008*
*updated 14 January 2009*
*updated 2 March 2009*
*updated 26 April 2009*
*updated 27 April 2009*
*updated 28 April 2009*
*updated 4 June 2009*
*updated 15 June 2009*
*updated 25 June 2009*
*updated 29 June 2009*
*updated 1 July 2009*
*updated 12 July 2009*
*updated 6 August 2009*
*Updated 30 August 2009*
*Updated 20 September 2009*
2001
--Dale Earnhardt [29 April 1951 - 18 Feb 2001]
--Morton Downey, Jr. [9 Dec 1933 - 12 March 2001]
--Perry Como [18 May 1912 - 12 May 2001]
--Jack Lemmon [8 Feb 1925 - 27 June 2001]
--Aaliyah [16 Jan 1979 - 25 Aug 2001]
--Dr. Christiaan Barnard [8 Nov 1922 - 2 Sept 2001] Performed first heart transplant.
--George Harrison [25 Feb 1943 - 29 Nov 2001]
2002
--Dave Thomas (Wendy's founder) [2 July 1932 - 8 Jan 2002]
--Princess Margaret of England [21 Aug 1930 - 9 Feb 2002]
--Chuck Jones [21 Sept 1911 - 22 Feb 2002]
--Milton Berle [12 July 1908 - 27 March 2002] Mr. Television
--Dudley Moore [19 April 1935 - 27 March 2002]
--Queen Elizabeth (Queen Mother) [4 Aug 1900 - 30 March 2002]
--Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes [27 May 1971 - 25 April 2002]
--Ann Landers [4 July 1918 - 22 June 2002]
--Rosemary Clooney [23 May 1928 - 29 June 2002]
--Joe Strummer (of The Clash) [21 Aug 1952 - 22 Dec 2002]
2003
--Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers) [20 March 1928 - 27 Feb 2003]
--June Carter Cash [23 June 1929 - 15 May 2003]
--Bob Hope [Died July 27, 2003. Born May 29, 1903]
--Gregory Peck [5 April 1916 - 12 June 2003]
--Strom Thurmond [5 Dec 1902 - 26 June 2003]
--Buddy Hackett [31 Aug 1924 - 29 June 2003]
--Katharine Hepburn [12 May 1907 - 29 June 2003]
--Barry White [12 Sept 1944 - 4 July 2003]
--Gregory Hines [14 Feb 1946 - 9 Aug 2003]
--John Ritter [17 Sept 1947 - 11 Sept 2003]
--Johnny Cash [26 Feb 1932 - 12 Sept 2003]
--Robert Palmer [19 Jan 1949 - 25 Sept 2003]
--Art Carney [4 Nov 1918 - 9 Nov 2003]
2004
--Estée Lauder [1 July 1906 - 24 April 2004]
--Ronald Reagan [6 Feb 1911 - 5 June 2004]
--Ray Charles [23 Sept 1930 - 10 June 2004]
--Marlon Brando [3 April 1924 - 1 July, 2004]
--Francis Crick [8 June 1916 - 28 July 2004] Co-discovered the structure of DNA.
--Rick James [1 Feb 1948 - 6 Aug 2004]
--Julia Child [15 Aug 1912 - 13 Aug 2004]
--Christopher Reeve [25 Sept 1952 - 10 Oct 2004]
--Rodney Dangerfield [22 Nov 1922 - 5 Oct 2004]
--Yasser Arafat [24 Aug 1929 - 11 Nov 2004]
--Jerry Orbach [20 Oct 1935 - 28 Dec 2004]
2005
--Pope John Paul II [18 May 1920 - 2 April 2005]
--Hunter S. Thompson [18 July 1937 - 20 Feb 2005]
--Peter Jennings [29 July 1938 - 7 Aug 2005]
--Arthur Miller [17 Oct 1915 - 10 Feb 2005]
--James Doohan [March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005]
--Anne Bancroft [September 17, 1931 - June 6, 2005]
--Johnny Carson [October 23, 1925 - January 23, 2005]
--John Vernon [February 24, 1932 - February 1, 2005]
--Ossie Davis [December 18, 1917 - February 4, 2005]
--Frank Perdue [May 9, 1920 - March 31, 2005]
--Luther Vandross [April 20, 1951 - July 1, 2005]
--Rosa Parks [February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005]
--Richard Pryor [December 1, 1940 - December 10, 2005]
2006
--Saddam Hussein
--Aaron Spelling [2006]
--James Brown [2006]
--Syd Barrett
--Dana Reeve
--Al Lewis
--Chris Penn [2006]
--Coretta Scott King [2006]
--Don Knotts [2006]
--Oleg Cassini [2006]
--Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) [2006]
--Peter Boyle [2006]
--President Gerald Ford [2006]
2007
--Anna Nicole Smith [2007]
--Molly Ivins [2007]
--Robert Anton Wilson [2007]
--Jerry Falwell
--Luciano Pavarotti [2007]
--Evel Knievel [2007]
--Yvonne DeCarlo
--Kurt Vonnegut [2007]
--Casey Calvert (Hawthorne Heights) [2007]
--Don Ho [2007]
--Boris Yeltsin [2007]
--Liz Claiborne [2007]
--Joel Siegel [2007]
--Beverly Sills (Soprano) [2007]
--Merv Griffin [2007]
--Robert Jordan (author of the Wheel of Time books) [2007]
--Marcel Marceau [2007]
--Ike Turner [2007]
2008
--Heath Ledger [2008]
--George Carlin [2008]
--Gary Gygax [2008]
--Brad Renfro [2008]
--Estelle Getty
--Bernie Mac
--Isaac Hayes
--Charlton Heston
--Albert Hoffman [2008] Discovered LSD.
--Yves Saint-Laurent [2008]
--Harvey Korman [2008]
--Arthur C. Clarke [2008]
--Sir Edmund Hillary [2008]
--Don LaFontaine (the movie trailer voiceover guy who did that Geico commercial) [2008]
--Richard Wright (from The Pink Floyd) [2008]
--LeRoi Moore (Dave Matthews Band saxophonist) [2008]
--Paul Newman [2008]
--Bobby "Boris" Pickett [2007]
--Levi Stubbs (voice of Audrey II, Little Shop of Horrors) [2008]
--Douglas Adams [2001]
--Michael Crichton [2008]
--Bettie Page [2008]
--John "Mitch" Mitchell (of The Jimi Hendrix Experience) [2008]
--Louis "Studs" Terkel [2008]
--Dee Dee Warwick [2008]
--Eartha Kitt [2008]
--Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn [2008]
--Tony Snow [2008]
--Tim Russert [2008]
--Bo Diddley [2008]
--Sydney Pollack [2008]
--Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel from ST:TOS) [2008]
2009
--Cornelia Wallace (2nd wife of Gov. George Wallace) [2009]
--Patrick McGoohan [2009]
--Ricardo Montalbán [2009]
--Andrew Wyeth (painter) [2008]
--Bob May (Robot in Lost in Space) [2009]
--James Whitmore (The Law and Mr. Jones) [2009]
--Paul Harvey [2009]
--Dave Arneson (co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons with Gary Gygax) [2009]
--Bea Arthur [2009]
--Frankie Manning [2009]
--Natasha Richardson [2009]
--"England" Dan Seals [ - 2009]
--David Carradine [2009]
--Dom DeLuise [2009]
--Ed McMahon [6 March 1923 - 23 June 2009]
--Farrah Fawcett [2009]
--Michael Jackson [2009]
--Billy Mays [2009]
--Karl Malden [2009]
--Mollie Sugden [2009]
--Oscar G. Mayer, Jr. [16 March 1914 - 6 July 2009] 3rd generation of the cold cut company
--Walter Cronkite [4 Nov 1916 -17 July 2009]
--Corazon Aquino [25 January 1933 - 1 August 2009] Former Philippine president
--John Hughes [18 Feb 1950 - 6 Aug 2009]
--Eunice Kennedy Shriver [9 June 1915 - 11 August 2009] Founded the Special Olympics
--Les Paul [9 June 1915 - 13 August 2009] Inventor of the electric guitar
--Don Hewitt [14 December 1922 - 19 August 2009] Creator of Sixty Minutes
--Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy [2 February 1922 - 25 August 2009] Long-time Senator; last of the Kennedy brothers
--Crystal Lee Sutton [31 December 1940 - 11 September 2009] 70's union organizer
--Henry Gibson [21 September 1935 - 14 September 2009]
--Patrick Swayze [18 August 1952 - 14 September 2009]
--Mary Travers [9 November 1936 - 16 September 2009] of Peter, Paul, & Mary
Anybody else think of any more? (Hmmm, I wonder if I will be adding Fred Phelps to this list?)