2020 hasn't been an easy year for anybody, not least due to the tragic loss of these
beloved stars.
Nonetheless, their legacies will endure: in the loved ones who survive them, and the memories
they've left for their fans.
Here are the celebrities who have died in 2020.
Kobe Bryant died at the age of 41 on January 26th 2020, in a helicopter crash over Calabasas,
California.
The crash also killed his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who Kobe was reportedly taking to
basketball practice at the time of the tragic crash.
Bryant, who joined the NBA right out of high school, was widely regarded as one of the
greatest basketball players of all time.
He won five NBA championships and was named NBA Finals MVP twice and league MVP once throughout
his celebrated 20-year career.
The Los Angeles Lakers retired both of Bryant's jersey numbers: 8 and 24.
In addition to being one of the most decorated NBA stars of all time, he was also an Oscar
winner, taking home an award for his 2018 short animated film Dear Basketball.
Kobe is survived by wife Vanessa, whom he married in 2001 after six months of dating.
In 2012, Vanessa filed for divorce, but they reconciled in January 2013.
Kobe and Gianna are also survived by his three other daughters, Natalia, Bianca, and Capri.
"We love you both and miss you, forever and always.
Mommy."
Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas died on February 5th, 2020, at 103 years old.
Born Issur Danielovitch Demsky to a Russian Jewish immigrant family, Douglas grew up in
New York with six sisters.
His acting career kicked off when fellow Manhattan American Academy of Dramatic Arts student
Lauren Bacall helped him land his first movie role, in the 1946 noir drama The Strange Love
of Martha Ivers.
He won two Golden Globes and was nominated for three Oscars in the 1950s, finally receiving
an honorary Oscar in 1996.
He was best known, however, for Spartacus, for which he hired blacklisted screenwriter
Dalton Trumbo at the height of America's McCarthyist attacks on alleged Communists.
Douglas later told People magazine:
"Dalton was in prison because he refused to answer questions, so I decided, the hell with
it!
I'm going to put his name on it.
I think that's the thing I'm most proud of because it broke the blacklist."
"Like a lot of things that we do in life, it wasn't until much later that I realized
the importance of it."
Douglas survived a helicopter crash in 1991 and a stroke in 1996.
He was a proud father of two sons with first wife Diana Dill; the actor Michael Douglas
and producer Joel Douglas.
He remarried to Anne Buydens in 1956, with whom he shared producer son Peter Douglas
and actor son Eric Douglas, the latter of whom died of a drug overdose in 2004.
Kirk and Anne were together until his death.
After his father's passing, Michael Douglas said in a statement to People magazine:
"To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into
his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set
a standard for all of us to aspire to."
Legendary actor Max Von Sydow passed away on March 8th 2020, at the age of 90.
In his youth, the Swedish actor served two years in the Swedish military, before studying
acting at Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre.
Von Sydow worked with iconic filmmaker Ingmar Bergman in both Sweden and Hollywood, with
one of his first prominent roles being the knight Antonius Block in The Seventh Seal.
He remains the only Swedish actor to date to earn an Oscar nomination, which was a doubly
rare accomplishment since he received his best actor nom after starring in a foreign-language
film: Pelle The Conqueror.
His more recent roles included Lor San Tekka in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the Three-Eyed
Raven in Game of Thrones.
Von Sydow famously portrayed characters much older than he was in real life.
When he was 43, he played 80-year-old priest Father Merrin in The Exorcist.
He also portrayed Jesus Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told, which the actor admitted
was his most difficult role, since he felt the need to stay in character even off-set.
He once lamented:
"I couldn't smoke or drink in public.
The most difficult part of playing Christ was that I had to keep up the image around
the clock.
As soon as the picture finished, I returned home to Sweden and tried to find my old self.
It took six months to get back to normal."
Kenny Rogers died of natural causes on March 20th 2020, at 81 years old.
Raised in a housing project in Houston, the musician joined a doo-wop group when he was
18, and had his first solo hit with "That Crazy Feeling" two years later.
In 1967, Rogers found further success when he joined First Edition alongside Glen Campbell.
However, Rogers' first Number 1 singles as a solo artist came in 1977 with "Lucille"
and "Coward of the County," followed by his magnum opus "The Gambler," as well the Grammy-winning
"You Decorated My Life."
Rogers' 1983 duet with Dolly Parton, "Islands in the Stream," became an instant classic,
and Parton performed the song with Rogers at his 2017 farewell concert in Nashville.
After Rogers' passing, Parton tweeted:
"You never know how much you love somebody until they're gone.
I've had so many wonderful years and wonderful times with my friend Kenny, but above all
the music and the success, I loved him as a wonderful man and a true friend."
While Rogers sold 100 million records, country radio often refused to play his crossover
music.
The singer told Rolling Stone in 2001:
"You know, country music has a box, and there's four corners.
You can be all the way out to any one of those corners and still get played.
But the minute you step outside that box, you're gonna get shut down.
The trick is to be so successful that you can move the box."
Rapper Pop Smoke was killed in a home invasion on February 19th, 2020.
He was just 20 years old.
Real name Bashar Jackson, Pope Smoke was reportedly renting the home owned by The Real Housewives
of Beverly Hills star Teddi Mellencamp and her husband Edwin Arroyave.
According to The New York Times, four suspects made their way into the property after a party
had taken place in the home, although it's unclear what the burglars' motives were.
Jackson was shot and rushed by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood,
California, where he was pronounced dead.
In their report on the incident, TMZ pointed out that Jackson may have given away his location
to his killers on social media: He posted a photo on Instagram of a gift bag he had
received with his address on it.
The same day, he appeared in a photo with a friend holding a huge stack of dollar bills
in the driveway of the property.
"Money starting to come, there's just a lot more eyeballs, and a lot more at stake."
"Exactly."
"Yeah.
So my hope for you is that you-"
"We good, though."
Just days before his death, Pop Smoke's mixtape hit No. 7 on the Billboard 200, largely thanks
to his summer 2018 smash "Welcome to the Party."
His family said in a statement:
"Every prayer, call, and act of kindness is deeply appreciated as we mourn the loss of
our son, brother, and friend."
In the same statement, his family paid tribute to the city in which he had grown up.
They said:
"Brooklyn knew him as Bashar.
He was educated and nurtured in Brooklyn and his rise to fame all developed from the place
he proudly represented.
Within the last year, his extraordinary giftedness was revealed to the world, introducing Pop
Smoke."
Rapper Lexii Alijai died at just 21 years old on January 1st, 2020.
Born Alexis Alijai Lynch, Lexii had amassed nearly 90,000 Instagram followers and millions
of SoundCloud streams.
Her debut single, Feel Less, dropped in 2014.
A press release stated,
"This individual died due to mixed fentanyl and ethanol toxicity."
Emergency services were called to check on an unconscious Lynch, who was suspected of
possibly suffering cardiac arrest before EMTs arrived and was reported as being "cold to
the touch."
Though attempts at revival were made, Lynch was pronounced dead at the scene.
Singer Kehlani, who featured Lynch on her song "Jealous," expressed her sorrow at Lynch's
passing, tweeting:
"Weakest saddest way to start a new year.
I'm off this 'happy new year;' please please please please be safe out here.
Love on your people please."
Lynch's mother, Jessica Owen, told the Star Tribune that Lynch was working on a new album,
and was supposed to head to the studio on the day of her passing.
Her completed music will now likely be released posthumously.
Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton died following a battle with bladder cancer
on March 2nd 2020, at the age of 93.
Lipton first developed his hit Bravo series in 1994.
His first guest was screen legend Paul Newman, and the students featured on the show included
future Oscar-nominee Bradley Cooper.
Over the course of its run, Inside the Actors Studio was viewed in tens of millions of homes
across America, broadcast to 125 countries around the world, and received 16 Emmy nominations,
making it the fifth-most-nominated series in TV history.
Lipton himself also received a Critics' Choice Award for best reality series host.
The famously verbose host interviewed nearly 300 stars on the long-running series, and
once told The Hollywood Reporter that, if someone had put a gun to his head and told
him to predict his show's runaway success or die, he would have said: "Pull the trigger."
Lipton hosted the show until his 2018 retirement, when it moved to Ovation TV.
Following his death, his wife told The Hollywood Reporter:
"He lived each day as if it were his last.
His work was his passion, loved what he did and all the people he worked with.
He empowered people to do their best, and hopefully his spirit, curiosity and passion
will live on."
Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist of the Canadian progressive rock band Rush, died on January
7th, 2020.
He was 67 years old.
In a statement made after his passing, Rush told CBC:
"It is with broken hearts and the deepest sadness that we must share the terrible news
that on Tuesday our friend, soul brother and bandmate of over 45 years, Neil, has lost
his incredibly brave three-and-a-half-year battle with brain cancer."
Peart famously performed with a drum kit that completely surrounded him.
He and Rush last toured in 2015, at the conclusion of which he revealed he had been suffering
from pain throughout.
Peart had famously suffered two major tragedies in 1997: His 19-year-old daughter Selena died
in a car accident, and he lost his wife to cancer just 10 months later.
He remarried, however, and is survived by his wife, Carrie, and daughter Olivia.
A number of stars and celebrities paid their respects to Peart on social media in the days
following his death, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who wrote:
"We've lost a legend.
But his influence and legacy will live on forever in the hearts of music lovers in Canada
and around the world.
RIP Neil Peart."
British television personality Caroline Flack died of an apparent suicide on February 15th,
2020.
She was 40 years old.
Flack was most well-known for hosting a number of popular reality shows, the most recent
of which was Love Island.
But she was as famous for the scandals surrounding her personal life as she was for her work.
Famously, she faced backlash over dating then-One Direction crooner Harry Styles when he was
just 17 years old and she was 31.
She also claimed to have had a brief fling with Prince Harry in 2009, which she said
ended once the press got wind of the affair.
"And it's not just showbiz journalists going 'ooh what's happened', it's people standing
outside my dad's house, my mum's house, my brother's house, my sister's house, my nan's
house, and literally just going for my family."
Flack's most recent relationship with Lewis Burton made headlines when she was arrested
in December 2019, after allegedly assaulting Burton with a lamp while he slept.
Burton declined to press charges, but Crown Prosecution Services moved forward with the
case.
Breaking his silence on the matter, Burton vowed to be Flack's "voice" moving forward
on Instagram, writing in part:
"My heart is broken.
We had something so special.
I am so lost for words I am in so much pain I miss you so much…I love you with all my
heart."
Jim Lehrer, the founder and longtime anchor of PBS Newshour, died peacefully at his home
on January 23rd, 2020, at the age of 85.
Lehrer was born in Wichita, Kansas, and studied journalism at the University of Missouri before
serving in the Marines.
He began his journalism career in Dallas, Texas in 1959.
In 1975, Lehrer joined forces with Robert MacNeil to cover the Watergate scandal on
what was then The Robert MacNeil Report.
The show eventually became The MacNeil Lehrer Report and later The MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour.
In 1995, MacNeil retired, and the show became The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.
Throughout Lehrer's 36-year PBS career, he covered just about every major American news
story, including the Kennedy assassination and Bill Clinton's impeachment.
He moderated 12 presidential debates, the most of anyone in history, from 1988 through
2012.
He retired from NewsHour in 2011.
Lehrer was also a writer, and the subject and host of the 1986 Emmy-winning documentary
My Heart, Your Heart, in which he detailed his 1983 heart attack.
In 2011, Lehrer told The American Journalism Review:
"I have an old-fashioned view that news is not a commodity.
News is information that's required in a democratic society, and Thomas Jefferson said a democracy
is dependent on an informed citizenry.
That sounds corny, but I don't care whether it sounds corny or not.
It's the truth."
DJ, music manager, and producer A$AP Snacks, real name J. Scott, died on February 2nd,
2020.
However, no cause of death has been reported, nor have the circumstances surrounding his
passing.
Scott was a member of the A$AP Mob hip-hop collective and served as a DJ for its most
famous member, A$AP Rocky, as well as one half of the duo Cozy Boys with A$AP Lou.
Scott, an Atlanta native, moved to New York City and began DJing at parties before officially
joining the A$AP Mob.
A number of celebs in the music industry paid their respects to Scott on social media, including
A$AP Rocky, who wrote on Instagram that he was lost for words at Scott's passing.
Meanwhile, A$AP Ferg wrote in a post:
"Man, words can't even describe how I feel right now.
Rest In Peace to my brother.
This was one of the healthiest guys I knew but I guess God needed him."
Ja'Net DuBois, most famous for her role as Willona on Good Times, died on February 17th,
2020.
The New York Times reports that DuBois' family listed her age as 74, but that she may have
actually been older.
DuBois also performed and co-wrote "Movin' On Up," the theme song to The Jeffersons.
DuBois' daughter, Kesha Gupta-Fields, said:
"She wrote that song as a promise to her mother, that when she obtained a certain level of
stardom, that her dream was to essentially have her mom live in a deluxe apartment."
DuBois grew up in Philadelphia, before moving to Brooklyn in her youth.
She had an illustrious Broadway career with roles in A Raisin In The Sun and Golden Boy,
then started a young actors' workshop before moving to Los Angeles.
After Good Times, DuBois kept acting, with roles in movies such as Charlie's Angels:
Full Throttle and an Emmy-nominated turn as Mrs. Avery on The PJs.
Janet Jackson, who co-starred with DuBois on Good Times, expressed her sadness over
DuBois' death on Instagram.
She wrote:
"I saw first hand how she broke stereotypes and changed the landscape for Black women
in entertainment.
I'm grateful in recent years I had a chance to see her and create more lasting memories."
Norman Lear, creator of Good Times, tweeted:
"Ja'Net DuBois was all light and will be missed.
I love that she wrote the theme song for her passing, 'Movin' on Up.'"
Joe Diffie, a country singer best known for his song "John Deere Green," died on March
29th 2020, from coronavirus complications.
Just days earlier, Diffie revealed his diagnosis on Facebook, writing:
"I am under the care of medical professionals and currently receiving treatment after testing
positive for coronavirus.
My family and I are asking for privacy at this time.
We want to remind the public and all my fans to be vigilant, cautious and careful during
this pandemic."
Diffie had 18 country top 10 singles and five Number 1 country hits, including "Home," "If
the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)," "Third Rock from the Sun," "Bigger Than the Beatles,"
and "Pickup Man."
He won a Grammy for "Same Old Train" in 1998.
Known for his honky tonk style and down-home, working man sensibility, the Oklahoma native
released a new track, "As Long As There's A Bar," in July 2019, and his first vinyl
LP, Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie!, that November.
He told Rolling Stone of his artistic process:
"I just like the songs themselves.
I went that route, finding songs I really liked and that I related to.
Really, it's not any more complicated than that."
Diffie is survived by wife Tara Terpening Diffie and several children from his numerous
marriages.
Sadly, these aren't the only celebs who have left us in 2020 so far.
Here are some of the other stars who enhanced our lives before leaving us all too soon.
John Callahan
Mark Blum
Nick Gordon
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.