in memory of the actors, musicians, authors, and other famous faces who have died in 2023,
including Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Raquel Welch, Lisa Marie Presley, among others. Read on to remember their life and work.
Milton ‘Big Pokey’ Powell
Milton “Big Pokey” Powell
| CREDIT: BOB LEVEY/GETTY
Milton Powell, known as rapper Big Pokey, died June 18 at the age of 45. Powell collapsed on stage during a Juneteenth performance in Texas before being taken to the hospital, where he later died. Part of the Screwed Up Click rap collective, Powell was an influential figure in the Houston rap scene. His first full-length album Hardest Pit in the Litter was released in 1999, which he followed up the next year with D-Game 2000. His other albums included Da Sky’s Da Limit, Evacuation Notice, and Sensei. He also collaborated with the Wreckshop Wolfpack on 2001’s Tha Collabo.
Paxton Whitehead
Paxton Whitehead
| CREDIT: JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY
Paxton Whitehead, the veteran British stage actor, died June 16 at the age of 85. Whitehead made his Broadway debut in 1962’s The Affair and appeared in 16 different Broadway productions, including a 1980 revival of Camelot for which he earned a Tony nomination for his work as Pellinore. Whitehead also had a memorable turn as the uptight school dean in 1986’s Back to School, which marked his feature film debut. He was best known to audiences for his long string of guest appearances on television, most notably recurring on Mad About You and Friends.
Jim Tweto
Jim Tweto
| CREDIT: DISCOVERY
Jim Tweto, a pilot featured on Discovery Channel’s Flying Wild Alaska, died June 16 at the age of 68. Tweto died as a result of a plane crash while flying his Cessna 180, which appeared to have trouble immediately after take-off. He was flying the plane and accompanied by hunting and fishing guide Shane Reynolds. Tweto featured alongside his family on Flying Wild Alaska, which ran from 2011 to 2012. At that time, Tweto was operating their Era Alaska airline.
Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson in 1971
| CREDIT: EVENING STANDARD/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY
Glenda Jackson, the Oscar-winning actress and former British politician, died June 15 after a short illness. She was 87. After making a name for herself on the British stage in the ’60s, Jackson moved into movies and earned two Academy Awards for Best Actress in quick succession: The first was for 1970’s Women in Love, and the second came a few years later for 1973’s A Touch of Class. She also earned two Emmys for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth R. In the early ’90s, Jackson left acting to pursue politics. She was elected a member of Parliament in 1992, served as a transport minister in Tony Blair’s first government, and held her seat until 2015. She then returned to the theater, winning a Tony Award for her role in a Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women and playing the traditionally male lead of King Lear in a 2019 production.
Brett Hadley
Brett Hadley
| CREDIT: EVERETT COLLECTION
Brett Hadley, a longtime member of The Young and The Restless cast, died June 14 at the age of 92. Hadley spent 10 years on the daytime soap portraying Genoa City police detective Carl Williams, father of Doug Davidson’s Paul Williams. After his stint from 1980 to 1990, Hadley left the show, with Williams mysteriously disappearing. He returned in 1998 as Jim Bradley, supposedly Carl returning with a serious case of amnesia. Hadley worked steadily as a guest actor on television in the 1970s and’80s, including on shows such as Room 222, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Waltons, Ironside, Kojak, The Rockford Files, The F.B.I., and Police Story.
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy
| CREDIT: JIM SPELLMAN/WIREIMAGE
Cormac McCarthy, the celebrated author whose distinctive writing style blended sparse punctuation with eloquent meditations on the darkness of the human spirit, died of natural causes June 13, at 89. His work found both mainstream and critical success. All the Pretty Horses, which won the National Book Award, and The Road, which won the Pulitzer Prize, were both best-sellers, and No Country for Old Men was adapted into an Oscar-winning film by Joel and Ethan Coen. McCarthy published his final two novels in October and December 2022: The Passenger and Stella Maris.
John Romita Sr.
John Romita Sr.
| CREDIT: JOHN ROMITA JR/TWITTER
John Romita Sr., the influential comic artist who shaped Marvel’s art style for generations, died June 12 of natural causes. He was 93. Romita had the unenviable task of succeeding Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko as the artist on Amazing Spider-Man, but his gorgeous art (shaped by the many romance comics he drew in the ’50s) propelled Peter Parker to his lasting status as Marvel’s most iconic superhero. Romita then became Marvel’s art director for decades, a position that allowed him to help design subsequent Marvel creations like Wolverine and the Punisher while mentoring younger artists. His son, John Romita Jr., is a celebrated comic artist in his own right and currently works on Amazing Spider-Man.
Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson
| CREDIT: WALLY MCNAMEE/CORBIS/GETTY
Pat Robertson, the controversial religious television personality and former 700 Club host who influenced a generation of conservative politics, died June 8 at age 93. He is best known as the face of CBN’s The 700 Club talk show, which allowed him to build an audience around the nation and welcome guests like Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump. Though he was popular with his religious base, Robertson, who also co-founded the Christian Coalition, drew heavy criticism during his life for his radical views, including fierce condemnations of abortion, feminism, and homosexuality.
The Iron Sheik
The Iron Sheik
| CREDIT: BOBBY BANK/WIREIMAGE
Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, the Iranian-born pro wrestler better known as the Iron Sheik, died June 7 at age 81. Initially dubbed “the Great Hossein Arab,” Vaziri made his World Wrestling Federation debut by winning the first-ever Battle Royal at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1979. Vaziri spent a few years wrestling in regional companies and officially changed his stage name to the Iron Sheik before returning to the WWF in 1983. He also partnered with Nikolai Volkoff and the pair became tag-team wrestlers in the late ’80s. They continued to make sporadic appearances in the WWF and its successor the WWE for decades. Vaziri was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
Pat Cooper
Pat Cooper
| CREDIT: DONALDSON COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Pat Cooper, the veteran stand-up comedian whose decades-long career included appearances on Seinfeld and the Howard Stern Show, died June 6 at age 93. Cooper, whose onstage persona earned him the nickname “Comedian of Outrage,” was a frequent guest host on the Mike Douglas Show, made regular appearances on the Howard Stern Show, and later appeared in films and TV shows, including Seinfeld, 1999 crime comedy Analyze This, and 2005 comedy documentary The Aristocrats, among other titles. He also released well-regarded comedy albums Our Hero and Spaghetti Sauce & Other Delights.
Kerri-Anne Donaldson
Kerri-Anne Donaldson
| CREDIT: TOM DYMOND/THAMES/SHUTTERSTOCK
Kerri-Anne Donaldson, a former contestant on Britain’s Got Talent, died at the age of 38. She performed on the talent show as part of the dance group Kings and Queens, which reached the season 8 semi-finals in 2014. Donaldson also worked as a choreographer on The Masked Dancer UK.
Anna Shay
Anna Shay
| CREDIT: RODIN ECKENROTH/GETTY
Anna Shay, the heiress who rose to fame on the Netflix reality series Bling Empire, died June 5 at the age of 62. The daughter of late billionaire Edward Shay, founder of the American defense and government services contractor Pacific Architects and Engineers, Shay appeared on all three seasons of Bling Empire, which followed a group of wildly wealthy Asian and Asian Americans as they navigated life, love, and glamor in Los Angeles.
Mike Batayeh
Mike Batayeh on ‘Breaking Bad’
| CREDIT: AMC
Mike Batayeh, the actor and comedian best known for his role on Breaking Bad, died June 1 of a heart attack at the age of 52. Born in Detroit, Batayeh moved to L.A. to pursue his acting career, though his family said he always kept in touch with his Michigan roots. His comedy career took him as far as the Middle East, where he performed at the Amman Stand-up Comedy Festival in Jordan two years in a row. Batayeh showed up on shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Shield over the course of his career, but his most prominent performance was as Dennis Markowski, the manager of Gus Fring’s industrial laundromat on Breaking Bad.
Cynthia Weil
Cynthia Weil
| CREDIT: RODIN ECKENROTH/WIREIMAGE
Award-winning songwriter Cynthia Weil died June 1 at the age of 82. Weil, who built a career co-writing hits with husband Barry Mann, was responsible for songs such as “On Broadway,” “Uptown,” and “Here It Comes Again.” She and Mann co-wrote The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” which has been credited as one of the 20th century’s most-played songs on radio and television. Weil also co-wrote “Somewhere Out There,” the Oscar-nominated track from An American Tail. Her songwriting partnership and relationship with Mann was chronicled in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, recounting her early days as a songwriter working in the legendary Brill Building in New York City.
Sergio Calderón
Sergio Calderón
| CREDIT: JON KOPALOFF/GETTY
Sergio Calderón, a veteran character actor best known for his appearances in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Men In Black franchises, died on May 31 at 77. The Mexican-born actor starred as Captain Eduardo Villanueva in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and as Jose — who was secretly just a head on a stick operated by an undercover alien — in 1997’s Men in Black. Before becoming Captain Villaneuva, Calderón also played river pirate El Cajon, as well as bandit Malavida Valdez, in several episodes of The A-Team from 1983 to 1984. His other credits include roles in 2003’s The Missing, the 2008 horror film The Ruins, and 2010’s Little Fockers alongside Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, and more.
George Maharis
George Maharis
| CREDIT: KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK
George Maharis, the actor best known for his role as Buz Murdock on the 1960 drama series Route 66, died May 24 at the age of 94, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan told The Hollywood Reporter. His part in the crime drama, a spin-off of Naked City, in which he also starred, earned him an Emmy nomination and led to roles in other TV series including Search for Tomorrow, Love Story, Journey to the Unknown, The Most Deadly Game, The Bionic Woman, Police Story, and Fantasy Island. His movie credits include Quick Before It Melts, Sylvia, A Covenant With Death, The Happening, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and Doppelganger. Maharis also recorded a few albums early in his career, with his 1962 single “Teach Me Tonight” charting on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tina Turner
Tina Turner in 1999
| CREDIT: STEPHANE RUET/SYGMA/GETTY
Tina Turner, the legendary singer often dubbed the Queen of Rock & Roll, died May 24, at 83. She first achieved musical success in the ’60s and ’70s as part of a duo with then-husband Ike Turner, but divorced him in 1976 after years of verbal and physical abuse. In the ’80s, Turner reinvented herself as a global rock superstar with songs like “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “Let’s Stay Together,” and “The Best.” Turner performed in films like 1975’s Tommy and 1985’s Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, while her 1986 memoir I, Tina inspired the 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It — which earned Angela Bassett an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the musician. Turner’s life and legacy also inspired the jukebox musical Tina, which premiered in London in 2018.
Ray Stevenson
Ray Stevenson
| CREDIT: STUART WILSON/GETTY
Ray Stevenson, the Irish actor who played the Asgardian warrior Volstagg in the Thor movies and the antihero Frank Castle in Punisher: War Zone, died May 21 at 58. Stevenson began his acting career in the 1990s, appearing in a string of TV shows before making his big-screen debut in Paul Greengrass’ romantic drama The Theory of Flight. A role in the HBO drama Rome introduced him to a wider U.S. audience, and he went on to star in King Arthur, Punisher: War Zone, Kill the Irishman, Thor, Thor: Ragnarok, RRR, the Divergent films, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Stevenson also voiced Gar Saxon on Star Wars: Rebels and The Clone Wars. His posthumous credits include the Disney+ series Ahsoka and the movies Cassino in Ischia and Gateway to the West.
