2025 deaths

Roberta Flack was born February 10, 1937 (1939 according to some sources), in Black Mountain, North Carolina, a small town located about 10 miles (18 kilometers) from the city of Asheville, North Carolina. She is best known for her love ballad "Killing Me Softly With His Song", released in 1969. She earned a music scholarship to Howard University and graduated with a BA in Music. She briefly taught music after graduation from college. She was discovered singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub by pianist Les McCann, and she later signed a contract with Atlantic Records in the late 1960s. The rest is music history. Roberta's most recent album is a 1997 anthology of Christmas standards simply titled "Christmas Album".

Angie Stone was born on 18 December 1961 in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. She was an actress and director, known for The Hot Chick (2002), Ride Along (2014) and Brown Sugar (2002). She was married to Lil' Rodney Cee. She died on 1 March 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA.

Roy Ayers was born on 10 September 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Ant-Man (2015), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and Jackie Brown (1997). He was married to Argerie Julia Johnson-Ayers. He died on 4 March 2025 in New York City, New York, USA.

Chris Jasper was born on 30 December 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was a composer, known for Okja (2017), Thunder Force (2021) and Rush Hour (1998). He was married to Margie Jasper. He died on 23 February 2025 in New York, USA.

Wayne Osmond was born on 28 August 1951 in Ogden, Utah, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Cemetery Junction (2010), Harrigan (2013) and Land of the Lost (1974). He was married to Kathlyn Louise White. He died on 1 January 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

Jytte Abildstrøm was born on 25 March 1934 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was an actress and director, known for Kameldamen (1969), Flyvende farmor (2001) and Forelsket i København (1960). She was married to Soren Mygind. She died on 2 January 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jeff Baena was born on 29 June 1977 in Miami, Florida, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Little Hours (2017), Life After Beth (2014) and Joshy (2016). He was married to Aubrey Plaza. He died on 3 January 2025 in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Harvey Laidman was a member of the legendary Kenley Players in Warren, Ohio for three seasons. After graduating from USC Cinema School and three years with KTTV (Metromedia) in Los Angeles, he was accepted into the Directors Guild of America Producer Training program, working at Universal Studios and on series such as The High Chaparral (1967) and Bonanza (1959). He continued at Universal studios as an Assistant Director on features and television and then worked at Lorimar Productions, where he was a production manager and assistant director, getting his first directing assignment on The Waltons (1972) in 1975. He continued to direct, working on all kinds of series, pilots, movies and long forms. In 2006 he decided to continue his education, pursuing advanced degrees, receiving a doctorate degree in education in September, 2018.

Barbara Marshall was born on 9 March 1939 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. She is an actress, known for Raising Helen (2004), New Year's Eve (2011) and Frankie and Johnny (1991). She was previously married to Garry Marshall.

Emilio Echevarría was born on 3 July 1944 in Mexico City, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Amores Perros (2000), Die Another Day (2002) and Y tu mamá también (2001). He died on 4 January 2025.

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Ann Lydia Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After several moves, his family settled in Danville, Illinois. Gene grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of sixteen for a hitch with the US Marines.

Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois. Hackman would be over 30 years old when he finally decided to take his chance at acting by enrolling at the Pasadena Playhouse. Legend says that Hackman and friend Dustin Hoffman were voted "least likely to succeed."

Hackman next moved back to New York, where he worked in summer stock and off-Broadway. In 1964 he was cast as the young suitor in the Broadway play "Any Wednesday." This role would lead to him being cast in the small role of Norman in Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty. When Beatty was casting for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), he cast Hackman as Buck Barrow, Clyde Barrow's brother. That role earned Hackman a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, an award for which he would again be nominated in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). In 1972 he won the Oscar for his role as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971). At 40 years old Hackman was a Hollywood star whose work would rise to new heights with Night Moves (1975) and Bite the Bullet (1975), or fall to new depths with The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Eureka (1983). Hackman is a versatile actor who can play comedy (the blind man in Young Frankenstein (1974)) or villainy (the evil Lex Luthor in Superman (1978)). He is the doctor who puts his work above people in Extreme Measures (1996) and the captain on the edge of nuclear destruction in Crimson Tide (1995). After initially turning down the role of Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992), Hackman finally accepted it, as its different slant on the western interested him. For his performance he won the Oscar and Golden Globe and decided that he wasn't tired of westerns after all. He has since appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and The Quick and the Dead (1995).

Gunvor Eleonora Grundel Nelson, born in Stockholm, Sweden, is director, cinematographer and editor of avant-garde film. She studied at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts & Design and after moving to California, USA, art and art history. Gunvor met her future husband Robert Nelson at California School of Fine Arts. The Nelson couple was a vital part of the new film culture that grew up in the San Francisco area and they played a significant role in the film cooperative Canyon Cinema, one of America's oldest and most respected. Gunvor Nelson made her first two films along with Dorothy Wiley. Wiley was married to artist William T. Wiley, made movies with Robert Nelson. Gunvor Nelson and Dorothy Wiley's debut "Schmeerguntz" (1966) is a humorous and grotesque feminist classics where young mother's everyday contrasted with the American ideal of women. Gunvor Nelson's filmmaking is uncompromising and she represents a unique voice in the experimental film. Self denotes she her films as "personal films". A common feature is the strong link to her own life and her own experiences. The early films based on a young woman's world of experience, and culminates in "My Name Is Oona" (1969), an expressive portrait of her daughter, and the "Moon Pool "(1973), an existential-expressive underwater journey, circling around the own body. Gunvor Nelson was engaged as film teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1970 to 1992. She returned to Sweden in December 1992. Gunvor Nelson has so far directed a large number of short, documentary and feature films.

Dale Wilson was born on 31 December 1942 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was an actor, known for Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002), Smallville (2001) and Stay Tuned (1992). He was married to Gail. He died on 6 January 2025 in the USA.

Barbara Clegg was born on 1 March 1926 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Doctor Who (1963), Coronation Street (1960) and Doctor Who: Target Novelisation Audiobooks (2005). She was married to Paul Johnstone. She died on 7 January 2025 in the UK.

English stage and screen character actor, born in Coventry, the son of Charles Beckingham Piff and his wife Frances (née Petty). He was educated at Warwick School and Birmingham University and first studied dental surgery before joining RADA. He graduated in 1957 and made his stage debut the following year with the Belgrade Theatre Company in Coventry. In 1963, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his key portrayals included Octavius in Julius Caesar, the Duke of Clarence in Richard III, Shylock's comical servant Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice and Pyotr Dobchinsky in The Government Inspector. From 1967 to 1970, Kay was engaged at the National Theatre and later also appeared frequently on the West End stage and at Birmingham Rep. He declared his favorite theatrical role (in 1975) to have been that of playboy Lord Fancourt 'Babbs' Babberly in the farce Charley's Aunt. In 1986, Kay won a Clarence Derwent Award as Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Tory MP Sir Charles Canteloupe in Waste.

On screen from 1958, Kay has essayed a long gallery of academics, judges and barristers, lords and princes, senior police officers, high ranking clergy, diplomats and politicians. As perhaps befitting a classically-trained thespian, he has tended to gravitate towards period drama. In addition to recreating his stage role as the Duke of Clarence for the mini-series The Wars of the Roses (1965), he appeared as Prince of Aragon in The Merchant of Venice (1973), Tsar Nicholas II in the excellent Fall of Eagles (1974), the parliamentarian general Sir Thomas Fairfax in the anthology series Churchill's People (1974), Roman senator Gaius Asinius Gallus in I, Claudius (1976), French King Louis VII in The Devil's Crown (1978), Count Franz Orsini-Rosenberg in Amadeus (1984) and the Archbishop of Canterbury in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (1989) .

Diverse other roles of note have been in mainstream TV dramas like Bergerac (1981), Crown Court (1972), Minder (1979) , Rumpole of the Bailey (1978), The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991), The Darling Buds of May (1991), The Bill (1984), Midsomer Murders (1997) and Marple (2004).

Kay retired from acting in 2013.

Bill Byrge worked for the Metro Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Tennessee, for over 20 years. He has had a successful career with the library, but retired in the summer of 1995 to work full-time on his movie career. He appeared in several movies with Jim Varney (Ernest). He also appeared in a few music videos with Ray Stevens, such as "Sitting up with the Dead", wherein he was the one in the coffin.

Christopher Benjamin was fifteen when he made up his mind to become an actor. He recollected having already performed in school plays playing Oberon in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Later acting opportunities arose in amateur dramatics in Bath while Benjamin was undergoing a two year stint of national service with the Royal Air Force. His father died during his first term at RADA. After graduating in 1958, Benjamin began his professional career in repertory at the Manchester Library Theatre. He often played old men, because "they couldn't afford real old men". From 1958 to 1965, he became prolific as a leading actor at the Salisbury Arts Theatre, taking on any classical part from Willy Loman and James Tyrone to Falstaff. Benjamin spent several seasons at the Bristol Old Vic (1962-67) and was later (1978-2002) regularly engaged by the RSC, headlining several times in the mid 90's in the title role of Julius Caesar. In addition to frequent portrayals of Shakespearean clowns Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing) and Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Benjamin also reprised his dual roles of Vincent Crummles and Walter Bray in Trevor Nunn's production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (upon the play's transfer to Broadway's Plymouth Theatre in October 1981). He also played Falstaff again at Shakespeare's Globe, two years before his retirement from the stage in 2012.

While the theatre always remained his favorite medium, Benjamin was equally prolific on screen since 1961, albeit in smaller roles. He usually portrayed amiable, garrulous or avuncular characters with a comedic edge. Early on, Benjamin was featured on three occasions in The Prisoner (1967) and made other guest appearances in popular ITC series The Baron (1966), The Avengers (1961), The Saint (1962) and Jason King (1971). He also made a strong run in period drama, his notable roles in this genre having included Annette's Belgian lover Prosper Profond in BBC's acclaimed The Forsyte Saga (1967); the roguish bachelor Sir Hugh Bodrugan in the original series of Poldark (1975); corrupt landowner Sir John Glutton, chief nemesis of Dick Turpin (1979); the amicable, though none-too-bright Bennet family friend Sir William Lucas in BBC's famous adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1995); and the inept hack actor Montfleury in the made-for-TV movie Cyrano de Bergerac (1985) (a role Benjamin had previously performed several times on the stage).

Television director David Maloney, who had been a BBC floor manager at the time of Benjamin's work on The Forsyth Saga, remembered the actor and cast him in the part of bluff theatrical impresario and reluctant hero Henry Gordon Jago in the Doctor Who (1963) serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, alongside Trevor Baxter in the role of Professor George Litefoot. The duo proved immensely popular with audiences. In fact so much so, that Benjamin reprised his role as Jago in a fourteen-part series of audio plays ('Jago and Litefoor') for Big Finish Productions, released between 2010 and 2021. Benjamin had previously appeared as project director Sir Keith Gold in the Doctor Who serial Inferno and later played Boer War veteran Colonel Hugh Curbishley in the 'Agatha Christie episode' The Unicorn and the Wasp. In 1996, Benjamin and Amanda Redman co-starred as MI6 agents in the BBC radio drama Colvil and Soames, a six part murder mystery created and written by Christopher Lee.

An avid cricket fan, Benjamin retired in 2021 and lived in Hampstead, London. His was married to the actress Anna Fox. The union produced three children.

Christopher Benjamin passed away in January 2025 at the age of 90.

Merle Louise was born on 15 April 1934 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for American Playhouse (1980), Law & Order (1990) and Into the Woods (1987). She was married to Peter Simon. She died on 11 January 2025 in New York City, New York, USA.

Leslie Charleson was born on 22 February 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for General Hospital (1963), Kung Fu (1972) and Cannon (1971). She was married to George William Demms. She died on 12 January 2025 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Claude was the son of a railroad accountant. With no intentions of becoming a screen actor at the time, 12-year-old Claude Jarman, Jr. was discovered during an MGM nationwide talent search for their upcoming film, The Yearling (1946), and won the coveted role of Jody Baxter in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' classic story. The critics raved over Claude's tremendously moving debut, and the boy was awarded a miniature Oscar on Academy Awards night.

His family moved to California permanently, and Claude studied at the MGM studio school while being built up as a child star. Sad to say, his film success would not last all that long. He seemed to lack the requisite good looks and natural boyish appeal necessary to forge on ahead. His follow-up films were mediocre, however, including High Barbaree (1947) with Van Johnson, The Sun Comes Up (1949) with Jeanette MacDonald, and Roughshod (1949) starring Robert Sterling. His next best role would be in Intruder in the Dust (1949) with David Brian and Juano Hernandez, but it wasn't enough to sustain his career.

By the early 1950s, MGM was loaning him out to Republic Studios in minor programmers and the now-awkward teen lost ground rapidly. Discouraged, Claude returned to Nashville to complete high school and then attended Vanderbilt University where he took a pre-law course. Following his studies, he served three years in the Navy. By the time he returned to Hollywood in 1959, he found no film work at all but did manage to guest on a few TV shows. He later moved to behind-the-scenes work and made minor strides as a producer and film-festival executive director. He once served as director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Francisco.

Tony Slattery is an actor, comedian, and singer best known for his seven years as a regular on the UK improvisational comedy Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988). Anthony Declan James Slattery was born on November 9, 1959 in Northern London to working-class Irish immigrants. He is the youngest of five, including one sister and triplet brothers. After completing his schooling at Gunnersbury Boys' Grammar School in West London, Tony won a scholarship to study medieval and modern languages at Cambridge University. His special studies there were Spanish Poetry and French Literature, and while he was there he was introduced to the entertainment business when he met aspiring actor Stephen Fry, who invited him to join the renowned Cambridge Footlights. Tony has stated that from that point on, "getting up on stage and hearing laughter took over." The Footlights won the very first Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1981 for their production of "The Cellar Tapes." In 1982 Tony earned the prestigious honor of being named President of the Footlights, following such luminaries as Eric Idle, Clive Anderson, and Peter Cook. Tony spent his early career appearing in London clubs doing "kind of a variety act with bizarre turns." He also made guest appearances on a number of British television shows, including a stint as host of the children's program TX (1985). Tony's big break came in 1986, when he landed a starring role in the West End musical "Me and My Girl." His other theatrical endeavors included "Radio Times," "Neville's Island," and "Privates on Parade." He earned an Olivier Award nomination for his role as Gordon in "Neville's Island." Tony has also had numerous big-screen roles such as How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), The Crying Game (1992), "Peter's Friends," "To Die For," released in the US as "Heaven's A Drag," "Up 'N Under," and "The Wedding Tackle". Tony has made his biggest mark in television, having starred in and hosted many programs, including "Saturday Night Stayback," "Just A Gigolo," The Music Game (1992), and Whose Line Is It Anyway? are some of the many shows with which Tony has been involved. After taking a break from performing for personal reasons, Tony has recently resumed his work, starring in a feature film and doing a number of projects for the BBC.

Paul Danan was born on 2 July 1978 in Waltham Forest, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Queen's Nose (1995), Good Girls Club (2015) and Amoc (2017). He died on 16 January 2025 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, UK.

Jack De Mave was born in New Jersey and spent most of his formative years exposed to the two exciting worlds of theater and boxing. The roar of the crowd was music to his ears. Jack's dad was the original "Golden Boy", a leading contender for the heavyweight championship of the world in the late 1920s. he fought 87 professional bouts, losing only 11. After seeing De Mave, Sr., fight, Clifford Odets got the idea for the play "Golden Boy", although the story line was in no way based on real life. Jack's father retired from the ring years before Jack was born, but, as a boy, Jack loved to frequent Stillman's Gym or Dempsey's restaurant, meeting his dad's friends such as Gene Tunney, Rocky Marciano, Mickey walker and Jack Dempsey. Jack's godfather was Primo Carnera). As a very young man, jack was considering boxing as a career. But that changed after seeing Paul Muni in "Inherit the Wind" on Broadway. Jack's mother had been casting director for Broadway producer John Golden years before and it was under the Golden banner that Muni had his first big stage success. Jack visited Muni back stage after the performance and the actor's words turned Jack to acting. Jack's training was solidly launched when he won a scholarship to work with Mary Welch and he was schooled in the classical and contemporary theater. His first professional stage appearance was playing opposite Inger Stevens in "Picnic". His portrayal of "Hal" won rave notices. He thane appeared as "Mannion" in the New York City Center Production of "Mr. Roberts" starring Charlton Heston. That brought him to the attention of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, with whom he appeared as "Pedro Cabral" in "The Visit", the Lunt's last play. Jack considers working with the famed acting couple one of his most rewarding experiences. During his association with them (both on Broadway and in the national touring company) Jack met such theatrical legends as Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward. Jack feels his greatest mistake was in not taking advantage of a scholarship arranged by the Lunts for him at the Royal Academy in London. Jack did, however, study for two years with Lee Strasberg, which he feels was of great value to him. Marilyn Monroe was studying with Strasberg at that time and Jack fondly remembers working on a scene with her for class just before she left to film "Bus Stop." He acted opposite another news-making lady in the person of Princess Lee Radziwill, co-starring with Lee in "The Philadelphia Story." The public interest attending the Princess' stage debut landed them in the center of Life magazine, plus many other magazine and newspaper layouts around the country. Some of Mr. De Mave's other stage experiences include co-starring with Ann Blyth in "Sound of Music," Nanette Fabray in Applause" and with Maureen Reagan in "Any Wednesday." He also co-starred in "Sweeney Todd," "Guys and Dolls" and "The Hasty Heart." Jack most recently appeared in the Ray Milland role of "Dial M for Murder" opposite Hope Lange and in the off-Broadway productions of "Richard the Second" and "Macbeth" in New York. Jack's first television appearance was in the Kraft Theater production of "Kings Bounty," with Christopher Plummer. Jack then moved to Hollywood where his TV career continued with guest-starring roles on "Daniel Boone," The F.B.I," "The Fugitive," "Adam -12," "Marcus Welby, M.D." "Ellery Queen'" and a "TV Pilot film called "Boot Hill." He then took the starring role of "Ranger Bob Ericson" on the new "Lassie" TV series, which he did for three years. Upon leaving the "Lassie" series, Jack guest-starred in the recurring role of Armond Linton on the "Mary Tyler Moore" show. Jack also kept busy as a romantic interest for leading ladies such as Doris Day, Valerie Harper, Kelly McGillis, Susan Lucci and Sandy Duncan. One of Jack's happiest experiences was costarring with Bette Davis in a TV Movie for NBC entitled "Hello Mother, Goodbye" in which he appeared as her newscaster son. Jack says Ms. Davis was one of his all-time favorites. Jack also appeared in recurring roles on several daytime dramas such as "General Hospital," "Loving" and "The Bold and The Beautiful." Jack's first theatrical film was "Splendor in the Grass," wherein he seduced Natalie Wood, a scene added by Eli Kazan and Willian Inge during production. However, in editing the film they thought the scene was too graphic for that time to include. Other films followed and featured Jack with Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale in "Blindfold." "Seventeen Seventy-Six" as John Penn and "Man Without a Face" with Mel Gibson.

Linda Nolan was born on 23 February 1959 in Dublin, Ireland. She was an actress, known for Breaking and Entering (2004), The Nolans: I'm in the Mood for Dancing (1979) and Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987). She was married to Brian Hudson. She died on 15 January 2025 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK.

Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future director Jennifer Lynch shortly after he turned 21. That experience, plus attending art school in a particularly violent and run-down area of Philadelphia, inspired Eraserhead (1977), a film that he began in the early 1970s (after a couple of shorts) and which he would work on obsessively for five years. The final film was initially judged to be almost unreleasable weird, but thanks to the efforts of distributor Ben Barenholtz, it secured a cult following and enabled Lynch to make his first mainstream film (in an unlikely alliance with Mel Brooks), though The Elephant Man (1980) was shot through with his unique sensibility. Its enormous critical and commercial success led to Dune (1984), a hugely expensive commercial disaster, but Lynch redeemed himself with the now classic Blue Velvet (1986), his most personal and original work since his debut. He subsequently won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the dark, violent road movie Wild at Heart (1990), and achieved a huge cult following with his surreal TV series Twin Peaks (1990), which he adapted for the big screen, though his comedy series On the Air (1992) was less successful. He also draws comic strips and has devised multimedia stage events with regular composer Angelo Badalamenti. He had a much-publicized affair with Isabella Rossellini in the late 1980s.