People who died in 2015
by lezliegoodwin-143-663289 | created - 04 Jan 2019 | updated - 23 Apr 2021 | Public
1. Roddy Piper
Actor | They Live
Roddy Piper was born Roderick George Toombs on April 17, 1954 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a pro wrestler from 1973-1987 in the NWA, Pacific Northwest, California. He was a longtime mainstay in the WWF, and was one of the biggest "bad guys" in the WWF during the early '80s, before ...
2. Christopher Lee
Actor | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it ...
3. Martin Milner
Actor | Sweet Smell of Success
Martin Sam Milner was born December 28, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Jerre Martin, originally from Oregon, was a dancer with the Paramount Theater circuit. His father, Sam Gordon Milner, a Polish Jewish immigrant, was a film distributor. The Milners moved to Seattle when Martin was a baby...
4. Geoffrey Lewis
Actor | The Way of the Gun
Talented and highly capable character actor Geoffrey Lewis, with rustic (sometimes sour-faced) looks, grew up in Rhode Island but was moved out to California at the age of ten. Lewis was very keen on the dramatic arts at high school, but often preferred to put on his own one-man shows rather than ...
5. Patrick Macnee
Actor | The Avengers
British actor Patrick Macnee was born on February 6, 1922 in London, England into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her ...
6. Natalie Cole
Soundtrack | Taxi
Growing up and living under the huge, daunting shadow of a singing icon can intimidate a son or daughter enough to want to look anywhere else to find their station in life. Those who dared to try to follow in their footsteps, such as Frank Sinatra Jr., found success branching out in other areas of ...
7. Ellen Albertini Dow
Actress | The Wedding Singer
The multifaceted Ellen Albertini was a student of dance and piano at the age of five, and obtained a B.A. and M.A. in theater from Cornell University. She moved to New York, and studied and worked with the legendary likes of Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Michael Shurtleff, Uta Hagen, Marcel Marceau, ...
8. Yvonne Craig
Actress | Batgirl
Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young teenager, Yvonne showed such promise as a dancer that she was accepted to Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her training progressed until she left the company in 1957 over a disagreement on casting changes. She ...
9. James Best
Actor | The Dukes of Hazzard
American character actor and teacher. Born Jewel Guy in Powderly, Kentucky, on July 26, 1926, he was orphaned at three and adopted by Armen and Essa Knowland Best, who renamed him James Knowland Best and raised him in Corydon, Indiana. Following high school he worked briefly as a metalworker before...
10. Beth Howland
Actress | Alice
Beth Howland was born on May 28, 1941 in Brighton, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Alice (1976), A Caribbean Mystery (1983) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970). She was married to Charles Kimbrough and Michael J. Pollard. She died on December 31, 2015 in Santa Monica...
11. Meadowlark Lemon
Actor | The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
Meadowlark Lemon was born on April 25, 1932 in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA. He was an actor, known for The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979), Modern Romance (1981) and Imps* (1983). He was married to Dr. Cynthia Lemon and Willye Maultsby. He died on December 27, 2015 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
12. Ann Rule
Writer | Danger in the Dorm
Ann Rule was born on October 22, 1931 in Lowell, Michigan, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for Danger in the Dorm, Dead by Sunset (1995) and 12 Desperate Hours (2023). She was married to William John Rule. She died on July 26, 2015 in Burien, Washington, USA.
13. Nicholas Smith
Actor | The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Nicholas Smith was born on March 5, 1934 in Banstead, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Are You Being Served? (1972) and Are You Being Served? (1977). He was married to Mary Wall. He died on December 6, 2015 in Sutton, Surrey,...
14. Terry Pratchett
Writer | Good Omens
Terry Pratchett was born on April 28, 1948 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Good Omens (2019), Untitled Discworld Project and The Wee Free Men. He was married to Lyn Marian Purves. He died on March 12, 2015 in Broadchalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire, ...
15. Betsy Palmer
Actress | Friday the 13th
Betsy Palmer was probably best known for playing Jason Voorhees' mother in the horror film Friday the 13th (1980), but her career as an actress began many years before.
Palmer was born Patricia Betsy Hrunek in East Chicago, Indiana, to Marie (née Love), who launched the Chicago Business College, and...
16. David Canary
Actor | All My Children
David Canary was born on August 25, 1938 in Elwood, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for All My Children (1970), One Life to Live (1968) and Hombre (1967). He was married to Maureen Maloney and Julie M. Anderson. He died on November 16, 2015 in Wilton, Connecticut, USA.
17. Leonard Nimoy
Actor | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit ...
18. Grace Lee Whitney
Actress | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Grace Lee Whitney was a versatile actress and vocalist born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Beginning as a "girl singer" on Detroit's WJR radio, she soon opened in nightclubs for Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, and toured with the Spike Jones and Fred Waring Bands. Grace debuted on Broadway in "Top Banana",...
19. Amanda Peterson
Actress | Can't Buy Me Love
Amanda Peterson was born on July 8, in Greeley, Colorado. With a natural beauty, powerful charm and a strong personality this talented and truly gifted actress began her career in film industry at age 9, with the feature film Annie (1982), directed by Academy Award-winner John Huston. To ...
20. Donna Douglas
Actress | The Beverly Hillbillies
An honest-to-goodness Southern Belle, similar to her most famous character role, "Elly May Clampett" on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Donna Douglas grew up in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area, loving "critters". She got married soon after high school, had a son, divorced and won a couple of beauty...
21. Bruce Hyde
Actor | Star Trek
Bruce Hyde (BA Northwestern University 1963; MS University of North Texas 1984; PhD University of Southern California 1990) divided his SCSU teaching duties between the Department of Theatre, Film Studies and Dance, where he taught Acting, and the Department of Communication Studies, teaching ...
22. Al Molinaro
Actor | The Odd Couple
Albert was born on June 24, 1919 to Raffaele Molinaro and Teresa Marrone. His father was born in Calabria, Italy and immigrated to the US when he was 15 years old and worked as a water boy with a railroad crew going west from New York. He ended up in Kenosha Wisconsin where he met and married ...
23. Gunnar Hansen
Actor | The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
He was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and moved to the United States at the age of 5. Gunnar lived in Maine till he was 11, his family then moving to Texas, where he went to high school before attending the University of Texas. At the university, he did some theater work and majored in English and ...
24. Dick Van Patten
Actor | Spaceballs
Dick Van Patten began acting as a child. He made his first of 27 Broadway appearances at age seven in "Tapestry in Grey". After, he appeared in numerous films, including Freaky Friday (1976), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Spaceballs (1987). His television credits include his best-known role...
25. Lynn Borden
Actress | Black Mama White Mama
Most famous for her role in the 1972 low-budget shocker Frogs (1972) (a far cry from her role on Hazel (1961)), Lynn Borden rarely garnered large or leading roles. She was originally going to play the lead in 1964's Roustabout (1964) but this did not materialize. She had a memorable role in the ...
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