Amid the chaos that was 2019, the show business industry lost some major players. There were icons of the big screen (Peter Fonda, Doris Day) and TV (Valerie Harper, Rip Torn, Tim Conway), along with such legends as Broadway director Harold Prince and actress Carol Channing; singers Eddie Money, Ric Ocasek and José José; musicians Peter Tork, Ginger Baker and Dr. John; and composers Michel Legrand, André Previn and Jerry Herman, to name just a few of the year’s high-profile passings.
Hollywood also lost groundbreaking directors (John Singleton, Stanley Donen, Franco Zeffirelli, D.A. Pennebaker), unforgettable writers (Herman Wouk, Toni Morrison), and executives (Robert Evans, Sid Sheinberg, Michael Lynne, Frank Biondi Jr., Leonard Goldberg).
Familiar actors who left us this year include Robert Forster, Luke Perry, Katherine Helmond, Rutger Hauer, Jan-Michael Vincent, Arte Johnson, Rip Torn, Diahann Carroll, Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew, Cameron Boyce, Bob Einstein, Seymour Cassel, Michael J. Pollard and Danny Aiello.
Reality TV stars Beth Chapman, Rudy Boesch and Fatima Ali died during 2019, and we also heard the final bell for a pair of WWE legends: “Mean” Gene Okerlund and King King Bundy.
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