I don’t get the sense this has been an easy year for anyone. We all have our personal battles to face on an every-day basis, but sometimes there’s a noticeable surplus of hardship. It sure does seem like the news has been almost unrelentingly grim and infuriating lately, and on top of that, the world of arts and entertainment has taken some heavy, heavy hits throughout 2015. Daily Grindhouse would like to dedicate this post to all the wonderful talent we lost in 2015.

One bright spot of 2015 for me has been the running of Daily Grindhouse, such as it is, and getting to work with and publish some truly interesting and thoughtful writers. (Please stick around our site and click at random. You can’t go wrong. I recommend starting with one of our team-up pieces.) But when you’re in the editor seat, part of the gig is staying constantly hyper-attuned to the twin cycles of news and life, and I don’t know if it’s this over-informed perspective I’m experiencing, or if we really did lose that many talented people, but my God — it feels like such a massive fraction of excellence and creativity has passed along this year. Rough year for us horror fans in particular.

So this post is a meager attempt to honor those talented people whose hard work has even briefly brightened the days of total strangers like you and me. That’s the real magic of movies and of storytelling and of artwork. It’s a pathway to uniting people who may never know each other in the quote-unquote real world.

What follows is a gathering of pictures and names and, where applicable, Daily Grindhouse’s written tributes to all the beloved film figures and entertainment personalities who we lost in 2015. Wherever DG wrote anything, a link is embedded in the name and picture.

This is hardly a complete list, but it’s as close as possible, horseshoes-and-hand-grenades-wise.  Please let us know– with ready-made sincerest apologies — if there’s someone we missed. They will be added immediately.

 

 

(for musical accompaniment purposes)

IN MEMORIAM

 

CHANTAL AKERMAN (filmmaker)

LAURA ANTONELLI (actor)

GEORGE BARRIS (custom car designer)

LUIS BERMEJO (illustrator)

YOGI BERRA (baseball legend & philosopher)

JAMES BEST (actor)

THEODORE BIKEL (actor)

JUDY CARNE (actor)

DAVID CARR (New York Times columnist & author)

JACK CARTER (comedian)

ROBERT CHARTOFF (producer)

BRIAN CLEMENS (writer & producer)

ORNETTE COLEMAN (saxophonist)

JACKIE COLLINS (novelist)

RICHARD CORLISS (critic)

YVONNE CRAIG (actor, superhero)

WES CRAVEN (director)

JEAN DARLING (actor, seen here with Pete the dog)

MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA (director)

DONNA DOUGLAS (actor)

ELLEN ALBERTINI DOW (actor)

RICK DUCOMMUN (actor)

RICHARD DYSART (actor)

ANITA EKBERG (actor)

DAN FANTE (author & poet)

GABRIELLE FERZETTI (actor)

JOE FRANKLIN (radio & TV personality)

JOHNNY FRATTO (radio personality & entrepeneur)

STAN FREBERG (humorist)

BRIAN FRIEL (playwright)

EDGAR FROESE (founder of Tangerine Dream)

FRANK GIFFORD (broadcaster)

SAMUEL GOLDWYN, JR. (producer)

LESLEY GORE (singer)

COLEEN GRAY (actor)

MICHAEL C. GROSS (artist & designer)

JOHN GUILLERMIN (director)

GUNNAR HANSEN (actor & writer)

JAMES HORNER (composer)

GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON (writer)

DEAN JONES (actor)

LOUIS JOURDAN (actor)

IRWIN KEYES (character actor)

LEMMY KILMISTER (Lemmy)

B.B. KING (blues legend)

BEN E. KING (R&B singer)

JACK LARSON (actor)

CHRISTOPHER LEE (actor, poet, rock star, vampire, Lord, knight)

MEADOWLARK LEMON (basketball legend)

JOAN LESLIE (actor)

ANDREW LESNIE (cinematographer)

GEOFFREY LEWIS (actor)

MONICA LEWIS (singer, actor)

ROBERT LOGGIA (actor)

EDMUND LYNDECK (actor)

NICOLETTA MACHIAVELLI (actor)

STEVE MACKAY (saxophonist)

WILL MACMILLAN (actor)

PATRICK MACNEE (actor)

RILEY MARTIN (friend of the aliens)

KURT MASUR (conductor)

MELISSA MATHISON (screenwriter)

ALBERT MAYSLES (documentary filmmaker)

BROOKE McCARTER (actor)

JAYNE MEADOWS (actor)

ANNE MEARA (comedian)

WINDELL MIDDLEBROOKS (actor)

AL MOLINARO (actor)

DICKIE MOORE (actor)

TAYLOR NEGRON (comedian & actor)

LEONARD NIMOY (actor, director, singer)

MAUREEN O’HARA (actor)

GARY OWENS (television announcer and voice actor)

BETSY PALMER (actor)

MELODY PATTERSON (actor)

AMANDA PETERSON (actor)

TOM PICCIRILLI (author)

RODDY PIPER (wrestler & legend)

PAUL PRUDHOMME (celebrity chef, not Dom DeLuise)

DAVID A. PRIOR (filmmaker)

ROGER REES (actor)

REYNALDO REY (actor & comedian)

DUSTY RHODES (wrestler)

ALEX ROCCO (actor)

CANDIDA ROYALLE (performer, producer, director)

GENE SAKS (stage & film director)

JOSEPH SARGENT (director)

LIZABETH SCOTT (actor)

STEVE SHAGAN (writer, on the right)

OMAR SHARIF (actor)

LEE SHAW (pianist)

SADHANA SHIVDASANI (Bollywood icon)

SAM SIMON (television producer)

BRUCE SINOFSKY (documentary filmmaker)

PERCY SLEDGE (R&B singer)

SERGIO SOLLIMA (director)

BLAZE STARR (stripper, burlesque performer)

LEONARD STARR (cartoonist)

STEWART STERN (screenwriter)

ROD TAYLOR (actor)

FRED THOMPSON (actor & politician)

ALLEN TOUSSAINT (musician & songwriter)

TOM TOWLES (actor)

MARY ELLEN TRAINOR (actor)

HERB TRIMPE (comic book legend)

JOHN TRUDELL (Native American author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist)

UGGIE (actor)

DICK VAN PATTEN (actor)

DANIEL VON BARGEN (actor)

SCOTT WEILAND (rock star)

JERRY WEINTRAUB (producer)

HASKELL WEXLER (cinematographer)

ELMO WILLIAMS (editor)

MELVIN WILLIAMS (reformed drug dealer & actor on The Wire)

BUD YORKIN (director)

ROBERT Z’DAR (actor, icon)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tags: Tributes