People who died in 2020
by lezliegoodwin-143-663289 | created - 12 Jan 2020 | updated - 08 Oct 2022 | Public
1. Edd Byrnes
Actor | Grease
Edd Byrnes was born Edward Byrne Breitenberger on July 30, 1932 in New York City, the son of Mary (Byrne) and Augustus "Gus" Breitenberger. Edd shared an impoverished and unhappy childhood with brother Vincent and sister Jo-Ann. Their mother worked hard at various jobs to keep the family together ...
2. Stan Kirsch
Actor | Highlander
Stan Kirsch was an American actor and acting coach from New York City. He appeared in television commercials as a child. His most notable acting role was that of young immortal Richie Ryan in the fantasy television series "Highlander: The Series" (1992-1998). His character was introduced as a ...
3. Christopher Tolkien
Writer | The Fall of Gondolin
Christopher Tolkien is the third son of the author J. R. R. Tolkien, and the editor of much of his father's posthumously published work. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T.
After his father's death, Christopher Tolkien, whom his father had ...
4. Terry Jones
Writer | The Meaning of Life
Terry Jones was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, the son of Dilys Louisa (Newnes), a homemaker, and Alick George Parry Jones, a bank clerk. His older brother is production designer Nigel Jones. His grandparents were involved in the entertainment business, having managed the local Amateur Operatic ...
5. Kobe Bryant
Producer | Dear Basketball
Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Bryant won five NBA championships, ...
6. Marj Dusay
Actress | All My Children
Marj Dusay was born on February 20, 1936 in Hays, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for All My Children (1970), Guiding Light (1952) and Star Trek (1966). She was married to Thomas Allen Perine Jr. and John Murray Dusay. She died on January 28, 2020 in New York City, New York, USA.
7. Ja'net DuBois
Soundtrack | Good Times
Ja'Net DuBois was a multi-talented and diverse performer. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York and began her career on Broadway. She has appeared in various plays, including "Golden Boy" with Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Gossett Jr., and "A Raisin in the Sun". She moved onto TV roles, receiving a Peabody...
8. Max von Sydow
Actor | Flash Gordon
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.
...
9. Kenny Rogers
Soundtrack | Polar
Born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1938, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, actor, record producer and entrepreneur Kenneth Ray Rogers was the fourth of eight children born to a carpenter father who worked in a shipyard and a mother who was a hospital nurse's assistant. Of humble Irish and Native...
10. Mark Blum
Actor | Desperately Seeking Susan
Mark Blum was born on May 14, 1950 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Crocodile Dundee (1986) and The Sopranos (1999). He was married to Janet Zarish. He died on March 26, 2020 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
11. Eddie Large
Actor | The Impressionable Jon Culshaw
Eddie Large was born on June 25, 1941 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for The Impressionable Jon Culshaw (2004), Opportunity Knocks (1956) and The ITV Play (1968). He was married to Patsy Ann Scott and Sandra Baywood. He died on April 2, 2020 in Bristol, England, UK.
12. Bill Withers
Soundtrack | The Bodyguard
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Bill Withers was born on July 4, 1938 in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia and was raised in the nearby town of Beckley. He was the youngest of six children of Mattie (Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. His father died when Withers...
13. Dieter Laser
Actor | The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
Dieter Laser is a German actor. He is known to English-speaking audiences for his roles: Mantrid in Lexx, Prof. Otto Blaettchen in The Ogre and Dr. Joseph Heiter in The Human Centipede (First Sequence), for which he won Best Actor at the Austin Fantastic Fest. In 1975, he was awarded the German ...
14. Timothy Brown
Actor | MASH
Timothy Brown was born on May 24, 1937 in Knightstown, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for M*A*S*H (1970), Nashville (1975) and Frequency (2000). He died on April 4, 2020 in California, USA.
15. Brian Dennehy
Actor | First Blood
Imposing, barrel-chested and often silver-haired Brian Dennehy was a prolific US actor, well respected on both screen and stage over many decades. He was born in July 1938 in Bridgeport, CT, and attended Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship. Brian majored in history, ...
16. Roy Horn
Actor | Vegas Vacation
He grew up in broken circumstances. The father was a drug addict and he ran away from his parents' home when he was still a child. Attracted by big cats, he found a job at the zoo, where he became particularly friendly with a cheetah named "Chico." Here Roy found his talent for dressage, which he ...
17. Little Richard
Actor | Last Action Hero
Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, the self-proclaimed "Architect of Rock 'n' Roll", traveled in his early days with the legendary vaudeville star Spencer "Snake" Anthony. One of Richard's early bands had the young, then unknown singer James Brown (the Godfather of Soul), a ...
18. Alan Merrill
Soundtrack | The Covenant
Alan Merrill was the singer and songwriter of the original version of the 1975 Arrows version of the classic song "I love rock n roll." The song has since been covered by Joan Jett and Britney Spears. Alan Merrill started his career as a foreign domestic pop-star in the Japanese market, and was ...
19. Hilary Heath
Actress | Wuthering Heights
British 60s leading lady and latterly producer, born Hilary Dwyer in Liverpool, the daughter of an orthopaedic surgeon. She studied ballet and piano as a child and in her teens embarked on an acting career on the repertory stage. On screen from 1965, she became best known for three horror films ...
20. Allen Daviau
Cinematographer | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Allen Daviau was born on June 14, 1942 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a cinematographer and writer, known for E.T. (1982), Empire of the Sun (1987) and Bugsy (1991). He died on April 15, 2020 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
21. Joel Rogosin
Producer | The Virginian
Joel Rogosin was born on October 30, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for The Virginian (1962), Ironside (1967) and The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1969). He was married to Deborah. He died on April 21, 2020 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
22. Matteo De Cosmo
Art_director | 21 Bridges
Matteo De Cosmo was born on April 4, 1968 in Italy. He was an art director and production designer, known for 21 Bridges (2019), Precious (2009) and Choke (2008). He was married to Aris Mejías. He died on April 21, 2020 in New York, New York, USA.
23. Ian Holm
Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sir Ian Holm was one of the world's greatest actors, a Laurence Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning, BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated British star of films and the stage. He was a member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and has played more than 100 roles in films and on ...
24. Carl Reiner
Writer | The Dick Van Dyke Show
Carl Reiner is a legend of American comedy, who achieved great success as a comic actor, a director, producer and recording artist. He won nine Emmy Awards, three as an actor, four as a writer and two as a producer. He also won a Grammy Award for his album "The 2,000 Year Old Man", based on his ...
25. Thomas Jefferson Byrd
Actor | Set It Off
Born in Georgia, Byrd earned a bachelor of science degree in education from Morris Brown College and later received a master of fine arts degree in dance from California Institute of the Arts. He has starred in numerous regional stage productions including the San Diego Repertory Theater's ...
26. Eddie Hassell
Actor | The Kids Are All Right
Eddie Hassell was born on July 16, 1990 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Kids Are All Right (2010), Surface (2005) and 2012 (2009). He died on November 1, 2020 in Grand Prairie, Texas, USA.
27. Alex Trebek
Producer | Jeopardy!
Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, Alex Trebek graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in Philosophy. After his first decision to become a newscaster, he joined the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company), Canada's premier network in 1961. As he was working, he helped organize national ...
28. Diana Rigg
Actress | Last Night in Soho
British actress Dame Diana Rigg was born on July 20, 1938 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. She has had an extensive career in film and theatre, including playing the title role in "Medea", both in London and New York, for which she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Rigg made her ...
29. David L. Lander
Actor | Laverne & Shirley
David L. Lander was born on June 22, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Laverne & Shirley (1976), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Used Cars (1980). He was married to Kathy Fields and Thea (Pool) Markus. He died on December 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, ...
30. Jerry Stiller
Actor | The Heartbreak Kid
As the short, straight-man counterpart of the stellar husband-and-wife comedy team "Stiller & Meara", Jerry Stiller and wife Anne Meara were on top of the comedy game in the 1960s, a steady and hilarious presence on television variety, notably The Ed Sullivan Show (1948), on which they appeared 36 ...
31. Tom Lister Jr.
Actor | Le Cinquième Élément
If you ever wanted a 6' 5", musclebound, broad-shouldered, shaved-head actor to play a terrifying bodyguard, a soldier of fortune or a fearsome gangster, then Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr. was your man. The basketball player turned actor, who notched up appearances in roughly 132 films, first popped up ...
32. Ken Osmond
Actor | Leave It to Beaver
Forever tagged as the unctuous, trouble-making truant Eddie Haskell on the quintessential 50s family show Leave It to Beaver (1957), actor Ken Osmond did not manage much of a career after the stereotype. So inextricably typed was he that he gave up on any semblance of a career within a short time ...
33. Lyle Waggoner
Actor | Wonder Woman
The television heartthrob from the 1960s and 1970s was the proverbial tall, dark and classically handsome actor. Completing the solid package was a great, muscular build, smooth charm, and an almost perfect set of teeth. Born in 1935 in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, he ...
34. Kevin Conway
Actor | Gettysburg
Kevin Conway was born on May 29, 1942 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Gettysburg (1993), Thirteen Days (2000) and Invincible (2006). He was married to Mila Burnette. He died on February 5, 2020 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
35. Elsa Raven
Actress | Back to the Future
Elsa Raven was born on September 21, 1929 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. She was an actress, known for Back to the Future (1985), The Amityville Horror (1979) and Titanic (1997). She died on November 2, 2020 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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