A dozen or so celebrities submit themselves to learning ballroom
each season for a stint on "Dancing With the Stars." Sadly,
a few fan favorite performers have passed away after making memorable appearances on the show.
Here are the "Dancing with the Stars" contestants whose deaths may have been overlooked.
Florence Henderson had a long career, but she is certainly best remembered for playing TV's most
iconic mom, Carol Brady, on "The Brady Bunch," a cheerful sitcom about a blended family that has
been rerun almost endlessly since its 1969 debut. Henderson remained active in entertainment well
after "The Brady Bunch" ended its original run in 1974. She co-starred on numerous spinoffs
and revivals, and appeared in musicals and stage shows well into the 21st century.
Henderson returned to ABC, home of "The Brady Bunch," for Season 11 of "Dancing
With the Stars" in the fall of 2010. She made it fairly deep into the competition,
before being voted off during a week in which she earned perfect 7 scores from the judges,
for dancing the tango to the theme song from "The Brady Bunch."
In November 2016, Henderson returned to "Dancing With the Stars" to support her
"Brady Bunch" TV daughter Maureen McCormick on the series. A few days later, Henderson
died from heart failure, at the age of 82. Back in the 1960s, Mary Wilson was crucial to
the success of one of the most popular American musical acts of all time. According to AllMusic,
Wilson was a founding member of The Supremes, a vocal trio who helped put Motown Records
on the map with a whopping 12 singles that went to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2019, and at the age of 75, Wilson appeared on the 28th season of "Dancing With the Stars."
The singer lasted just one week on the show before being eliminated, dancing on the season premiere,
garnering the fewest votes, and losing out on a judges' save to football star Ray Lewis.
According to Variety, Wilson announced plans to release new
and unreleased music with Universal in February 2021. But two days later,
she died suddenly in her sleep at her home outside Las Vegas. Wilson was 76.
In the 1970s, Valerie Harper played Rhoda,
the affable bohemian best friend to journalist Mary Richards on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show,"
winning three Emmy Awards for her work before CBS spun off the character onto the hit "Rhoda," which
won Harper another Emmy. In the '80s, Harper made her triumphant return to television with
the family comedy "Valerie," portraying a Chicago working mom, until producers killed
off her character after a contract dispute and renamed the series "The Hogan Family."
"You weren't on the 'Valerie' show anymore."
"I was wrongfully fired."
Harper performed on Season 17 of "Dancing With the Stars" in 2013,
seven months after she was told she had three months to live following a lung cancer diagnosis,
per Us Weekly. The sitcom legend made it four weeks, ending her run with a Viennese waltz.
Her dancing didn't thrill the judges, who gave her a very low total score of 18 points.
According to ABC 7, Harper began cancer treatments in 2009, and after her body responded well,
she was able to keep working for a decade. In 2019, Harper died at the age of 80.
From the 1950s up until the 2020s, Cloris Leachman appeared in nearly 300 TV and movie projects,
making for a varied and acclaimed career. Her breakout role of cynical small-town resident
Ruth Popper in the 1971 film "The Last Picture Show" won her an Academy Award,
not long before she received her first of 22 Emmy nominations. She played
Phyllis on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," reprising the role on a spinoff series.
"Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary. Rhoda."
Then, Leachman memorably jumped back into film with "Young Frankenstein." In more recent years,
she had recurring, scene-stealing roles on "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Raising Hope."
Leachman competed on Season 7 of "Dancing with the Stars" in fall 2008.
She outlasted Kim Kardashian, but was sent home after weeks of low judge scores.
Leachman's cha-cha-cha earned a paltry 15 out of 30 points, and the star would dance no more.
Upon learning of her dismissal, she joked, "I'm not leaving."
In January 2021, Leachman died in her sleep at her home in California,
at 94 years old. According to a death certificate obtained by Entertainment Tonight,
Leachman suffered a stroke soon after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
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