You summarize a year often by recalling people who were lost. People of fame, fortune, misdeeds, or crimes, Cut down by the constant path of the Angel of Death. By the ultimate judge and jury of life.
2016 was an amazingly horrible year for deaths. 2017 began almost immediately the same and stayed that way for the duration of 365 days.
We are seemingly going through a change of age. Those figures we came to either distain or admire for a generation are gone. In January, wrestling legend and potential murderer Jimmy Snuka began it all. In December we ended with the most famous criminal mastermind of our time, Charles Manson.
All in a year.
All in twelve months.
Those we lost in 2017.
x x x x x x
Not much love lost with this loss. Charles Manson dead in 17.
Fats Domino, famous for his boogie-woogie piano music during the birth of modern rock, dead.. He was one of the biggest stars of the early rock ’n’ roll era. He died on Tuesday at his home in Harvey, La., across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. He was 89.
Robert Guillaume, the urbane actor who received two Emmy Awards for portraying the acidic butler Benson on a pair of ABC sitcoms, died Tuesday. He was 89. Guillaume, a baritone who also starred on the stage and voiced the wise mandrill Rafiki in The Lion King (1994) and its related sequels, video games and TV series, died at his home in Los Angeles, his wife, Donna Brown Guillaume, told the Associated Press. He had been battling prostate cancer.
One of the biggest losses in music happened in 2017.
Tom Petty dead.
A relic of a sexist era gone.. Hugh Hefner dead at 91..
Hugh Hefner – the silk-robed Casanova whose Playboy men’s magazine popularized the term “centerfold,” glamorized an urbane bachelor lifestyle and helped spur the ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1960s – has died, his company said late Wednesday. He was 91. Hefner founded Playboy in 1953 with $600 of his own money and built the magazine into a multimillion-dollar entertainment empire that at its 1970s peak included TV shows, a jazz festival and a string of Playboy Clubs whose cocktail waitresses wore bunny ears and cottontails.
Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, quite possibly the best manager and the best color commentator in American pro wrestling history, has died. The news was broken by Jim Ross. Heenan was 73. Somewhere in the sky the Brain and Gorilla Monsoon are calling a match.
Tobe Hooper, director of
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, has died aged 74, the Los Angeles County Coroner has confirmed. The cause of death is not yet known. Hooper was born in Austin, Texas in 1943. For much of the 1960s he worked as a university professor and a documentary cameraman. He made his directing debut with Eggshells, a low-budget hippie movie released in 1969.
Jay Thomas, who is best remembered for his roles as talk show host Jerry Gold on”Murphy Brown” and hockey player Eddie Lebec on “Cheers” has died at age 69.
His agent Don Buchwald told the New York Daily News that he had cancer.
Jerry Lewis, the comedian and filmmaker who was adored by many, disdained by others, but unquestionably a defining figure of American entertainment in the 20th century, died on Sunday morning at his home in Las Vegas. He was 91.
DICK GREGORY, famed civil rights leader and American humorist, dead at 84..
Dick Gregory came into my consciousness in 1968 (I was 11) because he made headlines for going on a hunger strike. This was after he was already famous as humorist and comic. This was shocking. He protested the lack of rights for Native Americans in Washington state. It would become the first of many hunger strikes Gregory would use as a method of protest from his early days right up until age 80…
John Decamp,
famous for his book and investigation of the Franklin Credit Union and abuse scandals, has succumbed to his earthly fate.
Chester Bennington, Linkin Park’s frontman, dead at the age of 41.. He hanged himself at his residence ..
In May of this year, Bennington penned an open letter to his friend Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, who also committed suicide.. Cornell died at the age of 52.
MARTIN LANDAU DEAD AT 89.. He had just celebrated his birthday.
Landau was the crafty master of disguise for the TV version of “Mission: Impossible,” then capped a long and versatile career with an Oscar for his poignant portrayal of aging horror movie star Bela Lugosi in 1994’s “Ed Wood.”
George A. Romero, who launched the zombie film genre with his 1968 “Night of the Living Dead,” died on Sunday, Variety has confirmed. He was 77.
The director died in his sleep following a battle with lung cancer
Nelsan Ellis, best known for playing Lafayette Reynolds on HBO’s
True Blood, has died due to complications from heart failure. He was 39.
Joan Lee, the wife of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, died Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 95.
Animal House actor Stephen Furst passes away at age 62 from complications of diabetes ..
Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl has died, aged 87. Having led Germany for 16 years, he is remembered for reuniting the country..
Adam West, the ardent actor who managed to keep his tongue in cheek while wearing the iconic cowl of the Caped Crusader on the classic 1960s series Batman. He was 88. West, who was at the pinnacle of pop culture after Batman debuted in January 1966, only to see his career fall victim to typecasting after the ABC show flamed out, died in Los Angeles after a short battle with leukemia, a family spokesperson said. West died peacefully surrounded by his family and is survived by his wife Marcelle, six children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Manuel Noriega dead at 83
Zbigniew Brzezinski dead at 89
ROGER AILES. CREATOR OF ALL THINGS CONSERVATIVE. DEAD AT 77
Aaron Hernandez commits suicide in prison cell »
Don Rickles… dead at 90. And with him also does the fine art of insult comedy
David Rockefeller dead at 101..
Chuck Berry
dead at 90..
Alan Colmes dead at 66..
Norma McCorvey, whose legal challenge under the pseudonym “Jane Roe” led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision that legalized abortion but who later became an outspoken opponent of the procedure, died Saturday. She was 69.
Ivan Koloff, knowing among wrestling fans as “The Russian Bear,” has died. He was 74.
Wrestling legend George ‘The Animal’ Steele has died at the age of 79.
The WWE Hall of Fame star passed away after suffering from kidney failure.
His wife told TMZ he had been in and out of hospice care since April.
RETAIL GIANT AL BOSCOV DEAD AT 87!May he rest in retail peace..
TV icon Mary Tyler Moore died on Wednesday after being hospitalized in Connecticut, her rep confirmed . She was 80.
Miguel Ferrer, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ Actor, Dies at 61
In December 2016, wrestling legend Jimmy ‘Super Fly’ Snuka was put into hospice and given 6 months to live. In January, he succumbed to his fate.. He was ruled unfit to stand trial in the death of his girlfriend from the 1980s. Snuka was charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter over the death of his girlfriend Nancy Argentino in 1983. He was declared mentally incompetent at a hearing in June 2016 and was due to attend a hearing to re-evaluate his condition. Nancy, 23, was taken to hospital gasping for air and oozing yellow liquid from her mouth on May 10, 1983, having spent the night in a hotel room with Snuka. That is the sad legacy of the wrestling giant– he was famous in his prime.. He couldn’t stand trial to do his time. And he is gone rot a greater judge and jury beyond the earthly realm in 2017.
