Hollywoods Notable Deaths of 2011: THR Year In Review

May 17, 2024

Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2011: THR Year In Review

Dobie Gray
The "Drift Away" singer, whose 1973 song became a top 5 hit, died at the age of 71 it was revealed via his official website Dec. 6. No cause of death was listed.
STORY: Dobie Gray, 'Drift Away' Singer, Dies at 71
Harry Morgan
The actor, who was best known for his long-running portrayal of Col. Potter on M*A*S*H, died Dec. 7 at his Los Angeles home. He was 96 years old.
VIDEO: 5 of Harry Morgan's Most Memorable Roles
Patrice O’Neal
The raunchy, irreverant comic died Nov. 29 from complications of a stroke he suffered in October. He was 41.
O'Neal was a frequest guest on the Opie & Anthony radio show as well as late night programs and talk shows including Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Dane Cook wrote of O'Neal, "I started my career w/ Patrice O'Neal. He was 1 of the best ever. Fond memories of road gigs, late night eats & laughs."
Heavy D
Rapper Heavy D, a highly influential artist of the 1990s, died on Tuesday, Nov. 8. He was 44-years-old. Among Heavy D's acting credits are roles in The Cider House Rules, The Tracy Morgan Show, Bones, Law & Order: SVU and most recently, Brett Ratner's Tower Heist.
Sue Mengers
During her heyday in the 1970s, Sue Mengers, brassy, dynamic, always quick with a wisecrack, was at the red-hot center of the Hollywood action. She represented such stars as Barbra Streisand, Bob Fosse, Michael Caine, Peter Bogdanovich, Ryan O’Neal and Faye Dunaway, and blazed a trail for women agents in Hollywood.
She died Oct. 15 at her home in Beverly Hills after a series of small strokes.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder who used digital technology to resurrect animated feature films, reshape the music industry and shake up film and television distribution models, died Wednesday. He was 56.
Jobs, a computer genius who, with fellow college dropout Steve Wozniak, built the first Apple computers from the Jobs’ family garage, died in California.
Steve Jobs: Complete Coverage
John Calley
John Calley, who headed up three major Hollywood Studios and was behind wide-ranging hits from Catch-22 to The Da Vinci Code, died on Sept. 13, 2011. He was 81.
Andy Whitfield
Andy Whitfield, the former star of Starz's drama series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, died Sept. 11, 2011, of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in Sydney at age 39. The actor had been diagnosed with the disease 18 months before his death while he was prepping for season two. With his blessing, the network recast the role with another Australian actor, Liam McIntyre. "Andy was an inspiration to all of us as he faced this very personal battle with courage, strength and grace," Starz president and CEO Chris Albrecht said.
Cliff Robertson
The Oscar winner died Sept. 10, 2011, one day after his 88th birthday. An Oscar winner for 1968's Charly, Robertson was suggested by John F. Kennedy to play a young version of the president in PT-109 and blew the lid off a check-forging scandal at Columbia Pictures in 1977. But he's probably best known to younger audiences for his role as Uncle Ben to Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.
George Kuchar
Experimental filmmaker George Kuchar died of prostate cancer Tuesday. He was 69. Kuchar made more than 500 films and video, often alongside his twin brother, Mike, with whom he lived in San Francisco's Mission District for more than 30 years. They moved from New York City's The Bronx in 1971, when Kuchar became a teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Annette Charles
The actress died Aug. 3 of cancer in her Los Angeles home. She was 63, and best known for playing Charlene “Cha Cha” DiGregorio in the 1978 movie Grease.
Grease star Olivia Newton-John said of the actress in a statement to THR, "Annette was such a beautiful and talented woman who made a great contribution in her life to both the arts and her fellow man."
Bubba Smith
The football star and Police Academy actor died Aug. 3 in Los Angeles. In the slapstick Police Academy films, Smith’s character hovered over his fellow misfit cadets in the franchise’s first film in 1984 and its five sequels. Smith also starred in the short-lived television series Blue Thunder and had regular roles in such other series as Semi-Tough, Open All Night and Half Nelson. He appeared in Blood River, a 2010 indie film.
The 6-foot-7 Charles Aaron Smith was a defensive lineman at Michigan State, then played nine seasons in the pros with the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers from 1967-76.
Christopher “Chip” Mayer
Mayer died July 23 in Sherman Oaks, CA. The Dukes of Hazzard actor, who stepped in to the CBS series as Vance Duke, the replacement to Tom Wopat's Luke while Wopat was going through a contract dispute for the 1982-83 season, was 57.
He also appeared in such series as Glitter, Weird Science, Silk Stalkings and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; the daytime soap opera Santa Barbara; and the 1997 Jim Carrey film Liar Liar.
Amy Winehouse
Winehouse was found dead in her North London home on July 23.
She shot to international fame with her single “Rehab,” a throwback to the American girl-group sound of the 1960s. Released in the U.S. in early 2007, months after debuting overseas, the song made the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 and sold more than 1 million units. It fueled double-platinum sales of her album Back to Black, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
Winehouse, 27, had a history of drug and alcohol abuse.
Lucian Freud
A noted nude portrait artist, died Wednesday night in London. He was 88.
Peter Falk
The 83 year-old actor, shown here in 1965, died June 23 in Beverly Hills. Falk was best known as TV detective Columbo and won four Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the unconventional sleuth.
On the big screen, Falk had prominent roles in The Great Race, The Princess Bride, Wings of Desire and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
In the 1970s, he made a number of films with director John Cassavetes including Husbands and A Woman Under the Influence.
Ryan Dunn
The Jackass star died early June 20 in a fiery car crash at age 34. Dunn, who infamously shoved a toy car up his rectum in the 2002 movie, posted a photo of himself drinking online hours before the crash, but However, "DUI" was not checked on the police report. His Jackass costarJohnny Knoxville took Twitter to mourn. “Today I lost my brother Ryan Dunn,” Knoxville tweeted. “My heart goes out to his family and his beloved Angie. RIP Ryan,” he added, finishing with: “I love you buddy.”
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons performs during the first show of the "Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band" 2002-2003 world tour at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, August 7, 2002.
Laura Ziskin
The Hollywood pioneer, who produced Pretty Woman and the Spider-Man films and was a driving force behind the Stand Up to Cancer research movement, died June 12 at age 61. Ziskin, who became the first woman to produce the Academy Awards telecast alone in 2002, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2004. "She was the creative guiding light for all of us who loved and worked with her. She was also a frustrating perfectionist and that's why she was simply the best," Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal said in a statement to THR. "We are heartbroken and miss her terribly already — as a producer, as an advocate for cancer research, but most importantly, as an irreplaceable friend."
Jeff Conaway
Jeff Conaway, best known for his roles in the TV series Taxi and movie musical Grease, battled addiction problems which were well chronicled for years by reality TV and the media. The 60-year old actor was taken off life support Thursday, May 26, 2011 and died the following Friday at 10:30 a.m. in Encino, nine days after being put into a medically induced coma. He was surrounded by his sisters, nieces, nephews and ministers.
Jackie Cooper
Cooper, who went from Oscar-nominated child star to TV executive and director while amassing scores of acting credits — including playing Perry White in the four Christopher ReeveSuperman films — died in May at age 88. Cooper enjoyed a 60-year acting career. Before Shirley Temple won the world’s hearts, he was the most popular and widely recognized child star of the early 1930s and the first kid to shine in “talkies.” His pug nose, crinkly smile and pouty lip endeared him to a nationwide audience, first as Jackie in Hal Roach’s Our Gang comedies. Cooper was so popular, he was known as “America’s Boy.” Cooper virtually retired from show business in 1989.
Elizabeth Taylor
The two-time Oscar winner, whose beauty and outsized lifestyle epitomized the quintessence of Hollywood movie stars, died in March at age 79, surrounded by her children. Taylor won her first best actress Academy Award for Butterfield 8 (1960) after having been nominated the three previous years for Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). She added a second Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Known for her tempestuous marriages and personal battles with weight and health as well as her movie roles, Taylor were never far from the public eye. "My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love," her son, Michael, said in a statement to ABC New s. "Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world. Her remarkable body of work in film, her ongoing success as a businesswoman, and her brave and relentless advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS, all make us all incredibly proud of what she accomplished."
Nate Dogg
Nate Dogg died in March at age 41 of complications from multiple strokes. Nate – – real name: Nathaniel D. Hale — suffered a stroke in 2007 that left him partially paralyzed and another the following year. The four-time Grammy nominee rose to fame in the 90s with the Warren Gtrack "Regulate" and made his debut on Dr. Dre's seminal 1992 album The Chronic. Tweeted close friend and frequent collaborator Snoop Dogg: “I am so sad but so happy I got to grow up wit u and I will c u again n heaven cuz u know d slogan.”