RIP, 2016

It's one hell of a list...

Natalie Cole (US singer)
Guru Josh (Paul Walden) (British club DJ and musician)
Stevie Wright (Australian singer, the Easybeats)
André Courrèges (French modernist/futurist fashion designer)
Robert Stigwood (Australian band manager: Cream, the Bee Gees; producer: Saturday Night Fever, Grease)
Pierre Boulez (French modernist composer and conductor)
Kitty Kallen (US singer and UK "one-hit wonder", Little Things Mean A Lot)
Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart (British radio DJ, Junior Choice)
David Bowie (British singer-songwriter and icon, an influence on everybody)
Sylvana Pampanini (Italian actress and singer)
Alan Rickman (British theatre and screen actor, Truly Madly Deeply)
Robert Banks Stewart (British television producer, Shoestring, Bergerac, Lovejoy)
Dan Haggerty (US actor, Grizzly Adams)
Dale Griffin (British rock drummer, Mott the Hoople)
Glenn Frey (US guitarist, co-founder of The Eagles)
Lord (George) Weidenfeld (Austrian-British book publisher and politician)
Sheila Sim (British actress, Lady (Richard) Attenborough)
Lord (Cecil) Parkinson (British politician and former cabinet minister)
Colin Vearncombe (British singer aka Black, Wonderful Life)
Sir Terry Wogan (Irish-British broadcaster and "national treasure", Radio 2, Eurovision)
Frank Finlay (British actor, Three Musketeers, Bouquet of Barbed Wire)
Maurice White (US singer and musician, co-founder of Earth Wind & Fire)
George Gaynes (US actor, Police Academy)
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egyptian statesman, former UN Secretary-General)
Harper Lee (US author, To Kill A Mockingbird)
Umberto Eco (Italian author, The Name of the Rose)
Vlasta Dalibor (Czech-British puppeteer, created "Pinky and Perky")
Frank Kelly (Irish actor and performer, "Father Jack" in Father Ted)
John Chilton (British Trad Jazz musician, George Melly's "Feetwarmers")
George Kennedy (US actor, Naked Gun )
Tony Warren (British screenwriter, creator of Coronation Street)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (German orchestra conductor)
Nancy Reagan (US First Lady)
Ray Tomlinson (US computer scientist, inventor of email)
Sir George Martin (British record producer: The Beatles, Cilla Black)
Keith Emerson (British rock musician, Emerson Lake & Palmer)
Anita Brookner (British author and art historian)
Asa Briggs (British historian and co-founder of the Open University)



Sylvia Anderson (British producer and co-creator of the "Supermarionation" children's TV programmes, voice of "Lady Penelope")
Cliff Michelmore (British broadcaster and presenter, the Moon landings, Tonight programme)
Sir Ken Adam (British film production designer, James Bond films, created the car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
Frank Sinatra Junior (US singer)
Adrienne Corri (British actress, A Clockwork Orange, had a famous on-air spat with Dorothy Squires)
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (British composer, former Master of the Queen's Music)
Paul Daniels (British magician and TV host)
Rob Ford (Canadian politician, controversial mayor of Toronto)
Johan Cruyff (Dutch footballer)
Garry Shandling (US comedian)
Paolo Poli (Italian actor and drag queen)
Patty Duke (US actress, The Miracle Worker, Valley of the Dolls)
Ronnie Corbett (British comedian and "national treasure", The Two Ronnies)
Andy "Thunderclap" Newman (British pop pianist, Something In The Air)
Ernestine Anderson (US jazz singer)
Zaha Hadid (Iraqi-British modernist architect)
Denise Robertson (British writer and television broadcaster)
Leon Haywood (US soul singer, Don't Push It Don't Force It)
Merle Haggard (US Country & Western singer)
Linda Woodward (British (Welsh) wife of Sir Tom Jones for 59 years)
David Gest (US producer and entertainer, notoriously former Mr Liza Minnelli)
Gareth Thomas (British (Welsh) actor, star of Blake's 7)
David Swift (British actor, Drop the Dead Donkey)
Guy Hamilton (British film director, Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever)
Emile Ford (US singer, What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?)
Victoria Wood (British comedienne, actress, writer and legend)
Prince (US singer, musician and superstar)
Billy Paul (US singer, Me & Mrs Jones)
Philip Townsend (British celebrity photographer of the 1960s)
Barry Howard (British actor, Hi-De-Hi)
Valerie Lush (British character actress, And Mother Makes Three)
Corry Brokken (Dutch singer, Eurovision Song Contest)
Marisol (French-Venezuelan "Pop Art" sculptor, friend of Warhol)
Reg Grundy (Australian TV producer, Neighbours)
Gareth Gwenlan (British (Welsh) TV producer, Reginald Perrin, Only Fools and Horses)
Barry Kent (British singer, The Good Old Days)
Burt Kwouk (British-Chinese actor, "Cato" in the Pink Panther films)
Carla Lane (British TV scriptwriter, The Liver Birds, Bread, Butterflies)
Muhammad Ali (US boxer and civil rights spokesman)



Peter Shaffer (British playwright/screenwriter, Amadeus, Equus)
Janet Waldo (US voice-over artist, "Penelope Pitstop" in Wacky Races)
Jo Cox (British MP, murdered)
Patrick Mayhew, Lord Mayhew of Twysden (British politician, senior negotiator in Northern Ireland peace talks in the 1990s)
Ronnie Claire Edwards (US actress, "Corabeth" in The Waltons)
Scotty Moore (US rock'n'roll guitarist, Elvis's accompanist)
Gordon Murray (British animator and puppeteer, Trumpton, Camberwick Green)
Caroline Aherne (British comedienne and scriptwriter, Mrs Merton, The Royle Family)
James Gilgert (British TV executive and commissioner, The Two Ronnies, Last of the Summer Wine)
Frank Dickens (British satirical cartoon strip creator, Bristow)
Garry Marshall (US director and producer, creator of Happy Days and Pretty Woman)
Marni Nixon (US singer, dubbed for Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn in movies)
Vivean Gray (Australian actress, "Mrs Mangel" in Neighbours)
Sylvia Peters (British broadcaster, BBC continuity announcer for HM The Queen's coronation)
Gloria de Haven (US musical film actress and singer)
Queen Anne of Romania
Ruby Winters (US soul singer, I Will)
Duke of Westminster (Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Britain's third richest man)
Kenny Baker (British actor, "R2-D2" in Star Wars)
Arthur Hiller (US film director, Love Story, The Out-of-Towners)
Lord Brian Rix (British actor and campaigner, pioneer of the charity Mencap)
Antony Jay (British writer and producer, Yes, Minister)
Toots Thielemans (Belgian jazz harmonica player, theme from Midnight Cowboy)
Sonia Rykiel (French fashion designer)
Gene Wilder (US comic actor, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers)
David Jenkins (British clergyman, controversial former Bishop of Durham)
Prince Buster (Jamaican Ska musician)
Alexis Arquette (US transgender actress)
Edward Albee (US playwright, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Charmian Carr (US actress, "Liesl" in The Sound of Music)
Arnold Palmer (US champion golfer)
Shimon Peres (Israeli statesman, Nobel Peace Prize winner and president)
Ann Emery (British actress)
Sir Neville Marriner (British conductor and violinist)
Rod Temperton (British songwriter, Michael Jackson's Off The Wall and Thriller, Heatwave)
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand
Dario Fo (Italian playwright)
Jean Alexander (British actress, "Hilda Ogden" in Coronation Street)



Countess Raine Spencer (step-mother of Princess Diana, daughter of Barbara Cartland)
Jimmy Perry (British TV comedy writer, Dad’s Army, Hi-de-Hi!, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum)
Bobby Vee (US singer, Rubber Ball, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes)
Pete Burns (British singer and style pioneer, Dead or Alive)
Tammy Grimes (US actress and singer)
Janet Reno (first female US attorney general)
Kay Starr (US singer, The Rock And Roll Waltz, Wheel of Fortune)
Sir Jimmy Young (British radio broadcaster and legend)
Leonard Cohen (Canadian singer-songwriter)
Robert Vaughn (US actor, The Man From UNCLE)
Mose Allison (US jazz pianist, singer and composer)
David Mancuso (US DJ and pioneer of the New York Disco scene)
Florence Henderson (US actress, The Brady Bunch)
Fidel Castro (Cuban former president and revolutionary)
Margaret Rhodes (British nobility, HM The Queen's first cousin)
"Leonard of Mayfair" (British celebrity hairdresser: Twiggy, The Beatles)
Colonel Abrams (US dance music singer, Trapped)
Andrew Sachs (British actor, "Manuel" in Fawlty Towers)
Bernard Gallagher (British actor, "Ewart Plimmer" in Casualty)
Peter Vaughan (British actor, Citizen Smith, Porridge)
Greg Lake (British rock musician and singer, Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson)
John Glenn (US astronaut)
AA Gill (British journalist, restaurant critic and social commentator)
Ian McCaskill (British TV weather forecaster and national treasure)
Lord (Jim) Prior (British former MP and cabinet minister)
Mike Nicholson (British television reporter and broadcaster, ITN)
Bernard Fox (British actor, Bewitched)
Henry Heimlich (US doctor, invented the "Heimlich manouevre")
Zsa Zsa Gabor (Hungarian-American actress and socialite)
Rabbi Lionel Blue (British cleric and broadcaster, first out-gay Rabbi in the UK)
Jean Dawnay (British model of the 1950s, later Princess George Galitzine)
Michèle Morgan (French actress)
Coral Atkins (British television actress, A Family At War)
Rick Parfitt (British rock musician, Status Quo)
George Michael (British singer and songwriter, Wham!)
Liz Smith (British character actress and "national treasure", "Nana" in The Royle Family)
Richard Adams (British author, Watership Down)
Carrie Fisher (US actress, Star Wars)
Debbie Reynolds (US film star, singer and dancer)
China Machado (Chinese-Portuguese fashion model)

Rest in peace, one and all.