From the voice of a beloved children’s cartoon to a star whose career didn’t begin until 50,
these actors may be gone, but their mark on the entertainment world is everlasting.
French actor Gaspard Ulliel, who was best known to international audiences
for his turn as a young Hannibal Lecter, died due to a skiing accident in January
2022. He was 37. Ulliel began his career on French television in the late 1990s,
and was landing film roles by the early 2000s. His big break arrived in 2004,
when he landed a role in "A Very Long Engagement," for which he won his first Cesar award. His second
Cesar came in 2017, when he scooped up Best Actor for "It's Only the End of the World."
Ulliel would make the transition to Hollywood soon after, playing the titular killer in the
2007 prequel film "Hannibal Rising." It was his biggest role at the time of his death,
though that likely won't remain the case. Sadly, Ulliel died a few months before
Marvel's "Moon Knight" dropped, in which he plays Anton Mogart, aka Midnight Man,
a black market antiquities dealer who goes head to head with the titular hero.
Peter Robbins, who was best known as the original voice of Charlie Brown,
died in January 2022. Dylan Novak, Robbins' friend and agent, told the Los Angeles Times
that the cause of death was suicide. He was 65. The convention regular made his on screen
debut in the 60s and appeared on TV shows like "Rawhide" and "The Munsters." Robbins
began voicing Charlie Brown in 1965 and went on to play the classic "Peanuts" character
seven times before the end of the decade, most notably in the feature-length films "A
Charlie Brown Christmas," "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown."
According to the Times, Robbins was so proud of his work on the franchise that he got a tattoo of
Charlie Brown and Snoopy on his arm. Robbins was also known for another comic adaptation: He played
Alexander Bumstead on the live-action "Blondie" series, based on the long-running strip of the
same name. Other notable credits include the TV shows "F Troop," "Get Smart," and "My Three Sons."
Up-and-coming actor Moses J. Moseley, who appeared on shows like "Queen of the South"
and "The Walking Dead," was found dead in Georgia in January 2022. His agent,
Tabatha Minchew, told The Hollywood Reporter,
"Moses was a very talented person, with a bright light around him. He will be missed
deeply by his friends, family and fans. Always a ball of happy energy around him."
The cause of death was not immediately revealed by authorities, who launched
an investigation to determine the circumstances. He was 31.
Moseley worked as a model before transitioning into acting. He got his foot in the door with
a number of uncredited appearances in films like "Trouble with the Curve," "The Internship," and
"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." Moseley began playing Michonne's pet walker Mike on "The Walking
Dead" in 2012, and would appear on the hit AMC show half a dozen times over the next few years.
His most notable feature film was 2017's "Attack of the Southern Fried Zombies." Moseley had
several projects in various stages of production when he was reported missing by his family.
Robert Morse is probably best known to contemporary audiences for his
role as old-school ad man and co-founder Bert Cooper on "Mad Men." With its 1960s setting,
business world plots, and one very memorable musical number,
"Mad Men" easily brings Morse's first claim to fame to mind: He won a Tony Award in 1962 for
his role as the accidentally successful window washer-turned-corporate star J.
Pierrepont Finch in the Broadway musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."
Morse appeared in many other stage productions before and after that breakthrough hit,
including "The Front Page" and "Tru," a one-man play about writer Truman Capote,
which won Morse his second Tony Award — and an Emmy for the TV adaptation. He was all
over TV and film for decades as well, including appearances on "Teen Titans Go!," "American Crime
Story," and the movie version of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." On April 20,
2022, Morse's son, Charlie, reported to KABC that his father had died. Morse was 90 years old.
Mike Hagerty was among the most prolific and recognizable character actors of the last 40
years, popping up in more than 100 movies and TV shows. He usually played a gruff,
blue-collar, working man type with a big mustache and pronounced Chicagoan accent.
"My mom was right. I'm just a big potato with arms and legs and a head."
Among Hagerty's most familiar roles was Davey, a cable TV station employee in "Wayne's World,"
apartment building superintendent Mr. Treeger on "Friends," the best friend of the main
character in the original "Overboard," an auto shop owner on "Lucky Louie," and
a main cast role on "The George Carlin Show." Hagerty recently played a captain on multiple
episodes of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and played farmer Ed Miller on "Somebody Somewhere."
On Instagram, "Somebody Somewhere" star Bridget Everett reported that Hagerty had died on May 5,
2022, in Los Angeles. Cause of death wasn't revealed for the actor, who was 67 years old.
In a career spanning more than 200 roles back to the early 1970s,
Philip Baker Hall became a quintessential character actor, lending his raspy voice
and intense stare to countless movies and TV shows. Hall became a favorite of filmmakers
relatively late in his career. He's probably best known to audiences as Lt. Joe Bookman,
a taciturn "library cop" tenaciously investigating Jerry Seineld for a decades-overdue book on the
comedian's titular show. You'll also likely recognize him as the intimidating but secretly
sweet neighbor Walt on "Modern Family," Doctor Morrison on "Curb Your Enthusiasm,"
and hippo game show host Hank Hippopopalous on "BoJack Horseman." Writer-director Paul
Thomas Anderson also cast Hall in prominent roles in "Hard Eight" and "Boogie Nights."
Hall's daughter shared that the actor died at home in Glendale, California,
on June 12, 2022. Hall was 90 years old.
While he had a long career as a character actor for more than 40 years, Gregory Itzin was likely
best known for his role on the smash-hit action drama "24." Itzin portrayed Charles Logan,
a conniving vice president who finagles his way into the presidency. The part
earned Itzin two Emmy Award nominations, one for Outstanding Supporting Actor in
a Drama Series and one for Guest Actor when he returned late in the "24" run.
In addition to roles on various "Star Trek" shows,
"The Mentalist," "NCIS," "Covert Affairs," and "Friends," Itzin performed a bit part in 1980's
"Airplane!" as an airport-working cult recruiter. Tragically, Itzin underwent an emergency surgery
in July 2022, but complications from the procedure proved fatal. He was 74.
Perhaps the quintessential supporting actor specializing in playing elegant but
intimidating mobsters, Tony Sirico found the role of his life as Paulie Walnuts,
on HBO's universally acclaimed modern-day Mafia saga "The Sopranos."
"You do what you're told. When you’re told."
He played similar characters in "Goodfellas," "Bullets Over Broadway," and "Mighty Aphrodite."
His first film work came as an extra in the organized crime drama "Crazy Joe." Sirico
turned to playing fictional law-breakers in order to escape a real life of actual
crime. He was arrested 28 times as a kid and young adult, and he had connections to the
Colombo crime family. In recent years, and after "The Sopranos," Sirico traded
on his image and tendency to be typecast, playing tough characters on comedy shows,
like a gangster on "American Dad" and a gruff dog on "Family Guy."
Sirico's manager confirmed to media outlets that the actor died July 8, 2022. He was 79.
Paul Sorvino worked in character roles and on stage throughout the '60s and '70s,
earning a Tony nomination for "That Championship Season" on Broadway in
1973. Following a starring role on the short-lived "The Streets of San Francisco"
spinoff "Bert D'Angelo/Superstar," Sorvino reprised his role as Phil Romano for the film
version of "That Championship Season." It was his screen acting breakthrough.
In 1990, Sorvino landed roles in major movies that would amount to his signature
work — gangster Lips Manlis in the big-screen adaptation of "Dick Tracy," and as the paternal,
calculating mob boss Paulie Cicero in the crime saga "Goodfellas." In addition to criminals,
Sorvino played a lot of authority figures, like a sergeant early in the run of "Law
and Order," Juliet's father in Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," Henry
Kissinger in Oliver Stone's "Nixon," and Frank Costello in "Godfather of Harlem."
Sorvino died on July 25, 2022. According to the actor's publicist,
natural causes were to blame. Sorvino was 83.
Tony Dow is most remembered for a signature role that came early in his life and career.
From 1957 to 1963, he played squeaky-clean 1950s teenager Wally Cleaver on "Leave It to Beaver," a
hit show of the golden age of TV. After "Beaver" wrapped up, Dow played Chet on the melodramatic,
teen-oriented soap opera "Never Too Young," but he would only act occasionally in the decades
thereafter. Dow guest-starred on shows like "Adam-12" and "Murder She Wrote."
He frequently returned to the role that made him famous, whether it was co-starring on the
1980s reboot "The New Leave It to Beaver" or sending up his character in a "Kentucky
Fried Movie" cameo. Dow segued into a career as TV show director in the '80s,
ultimately helming episodes of shows like "Coach" and "Babylon 5."
Dow received a cancer diagnosis in May 2022. In July 2022, the actor died at the age of 77.
Leslie Phillips had roles in more than 170 projects, in a career that lasted for well
over 80 years. And yet he's best known — to younger, American audiences, at least — for a
role in which he didn't appear on-screen at all: He voiced the mischievous Sorting Hat
in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."
"Mmm, difficult, very difficult."
Other major career-topping performances came in the drama "Venus," for which he
was nominated for a BAFTA and other awards in 2007, and in 2001's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."
One of the most prolific and quintessentially British actors,
Phillips often played British archetypes, appearing in made-for-TV stage adaptations
and in multiple roles in the long-running "Carry On" franchise in the mid-20th century,
which lampooned British life and sensibilities.
Phillips died in his sleep on November 7, 2022, after a lengthy illness. The actor was 98.
Clarence Gilyard Jr. found success in both acting and academia. On the educational side of things,
he earned his bachelor's degree in acting at California State University,
Long Beach and California State University, Dominguez Hills. Later on, he would earn an
MFA in Theatre Performance at Southern Methodist University.
On the entertainment side, Gilyard made his cinematic debut in 1986's "Top Gun," playing
the pilot with the call sign "Sundown." He would then join one of the most memorable
bad guy crews in action history, teaming up with Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber in "Die Hard."
"Theo!" "Yo!"
But he truly endeared himself to TV fans in "Walker, Texas Ranger" as Chuck Norris' sidekick,
Jimmy Trivette. Sadly, Gilyard died in November 2022 at the age of 66, with the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas confirming his death and film chair Heather Addison saying, via Deadline,
"Professor Gilyard was a beacon of light and strength for everyone around him at UNLV."
Helen Slayton-Hughes was best known for playing the incredibly cranky Ethel Beavers on "Parks and
Recreation." Ethel was a court stenographer who was immune to Tom Haverford's charms and
was adopted by Andy and April to be their grandmother. Of course, that's far from the
only role she played. Born in 1930, Slayton-Hughes didn't begin acting until age 50. Over the years,
she's popped up in television shows such as "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," "New Girl," "Arrested
Development," "True Blood," and "The West Wing." She also appeared in movies
like the Oscar-nominated "Good Night, and Good Luck" and the "Veronica Mars" movie.
Slayton-Hughes' death was confirmed by her family on Facebook on December 8,
2022, with a statement that read,
"Helen passed away last night. Her pain has ended,
but her fierce spirit lives on. Thank you for the love and support of her work."