Celebrities we lost in 2020

Actor Chadwick Boseman, age 43. Best known for his star turn in the blockbuster Marvel superhero film "Black Panther," Boseman died in August after a four-year battle with colon cancer. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Actor Sean Connery, age 90. The Scottish movie legend shot to international stardom as the suave, sexy and sophisticated British agent James Bond and went on to grace the silver screen for four decades. REUTERS/David Moir

Game show host Alex Trebek, age 80. The brainy quizmaster of "Jeopardy!" became one of the most recognizable personalities on American television, hosting more than 7,000 episodes of the show. He was known for engaging contestants with straight-faced...more

"Glee" star Naya Rivera, age 33. Rivera, who played cheerleader Santana Lopez on the 2009-2015 TV series about a high-school choir, died of accidental drowning after going missing on a boating trip with her young son at California's Lake Piru in...more

Actor Jerry Stiller, age 92. Stiller played two of American television's most cantankerous fathers on the sitcoms "Seinfeld" and "The King of Queens." REUTERS/Eric Thayer

NBA great Kobe Bryant, age 41. One of the NBA's all-time greatest players, Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in January. Bryant rocketed to fame as an 18-year-old...more

Regis Philbin, age 88. A familiar face to TV viewers as an energetic and funny talk and game show host, Philbin logged more hours in front of the camera than anyone else in the history of U.S. television. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Actor Kirk Douglas, age 103. The cleft-chinned movie star who fought gladiators, cowboys and boxers on the screen and the Hollywood establishment, died in February. Douglas made more than 90 movies in a career that stretched across seven decades,...more

Rocker Eddie Van Halen, age 65. The guitarist and founding member of the hugely successful rock band named after him and his drummer brother died in October. Van Halen's pioneering, virtuoso technique earned him a place along with the likes of Jimi...more

"Gone With the Wind" star Olivia de Havilland, age 104. Considered the last surviving actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood, De Havilland's acting career included two Academy Awards and a victory over Hollywood's studio system. She first drew...more

Musician Little Richard, age 87. The self-proclaimed "architect of rock 'n' roll" who built his ground-breaking sound with a boiling blend of boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues and gospel, died in May of cancer. Richard, whose electrifying 1950s hits...more

Actress Kelly Preston, age 57. Preston, who appeared in films including "Jerry Maguire" and "Twins," died in July after battling breast cancer for nearly two years, her husband John Travolta announced. Preston and Travolta met in 1988 when they...more

Country singer Kenny Rogers, age 81. The three-time Grammy winner and Country Music Hall of Famer was best known for songs like "The Gambler" and his 1983 duet with Dolly Parton "Islands in the Stream." After beginning his career in the 1950s with a...more

World soccer great Diego Armando Maradona, age 60. Rising to stardom from a grimy Buenos Aires slum to lead Argentina to World Cup victory, Maradona was a rags-to-riches story in his soccer-mad homeland. A magician with the ball - deceptively quick...more

Musician John Prine, age 73. The Grammy-winning singer, who wrote his early songs in his head while delivering mail and later emerged from Chicago's folk revival scene in the 1970s to become one of the most influential songwriters of his generation,...more

Magician Roy Horn, age 75. Horn, who alongside Siegfried Fischbacher starred in the popular, long-running Las Vegas act built around rare tigers, died in May of complications from COVID-19. Horn was seriously injured in 2003 when he was mauled by a...more

Actor Irrfan Khan, age 54. Khan, among the first Indian actors to make a consistent mark in Western cinema, brought versatility and style to Hollywood movies such as "Life of Pi" and "The Namesake." REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Musician Bill Withers, age 81. A soulful singer best known for the 1970s hits "Lean on Me," "Lovely Day" and "Ain't No Sunshine," Withers died in March from heart complications. REUTERS/Chris Pizzello

Actor Fred Willard, age 86. The comic actor known for his genial but dunderheaded characters died in May. Willard was nominated four times for Emmy Awards, three of them for his role as Hank on "Everybody Loves Raymond." REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Composer Ennio Morricone, age 91. Morricone, whose scores for movies such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," "The Mission" and "Cinema Paradiso" made him one of the world's most famous screen composers, died in July. He won two Oscars and dozens of...more

Actor Terry Jones, age 77. Jones was one of the creators of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the British TV show that rewrote the rules of comedy with surreal sketches, characters and catchphrases, in 1969. He co-directed the team's first film "Monty...more

Musician Toots Hibbert, age 77. The influential and veteran Jamaican ska and reggae singer and founder of the band the Maytals died in September. Hibbert was one of the early proponents of reggae in the late 1960s and is often credited with giving...more

Singer Helen Reddy, age 78. Reddy, whose 1972 song "I Am Woman" became a global feminist anthem, was the world's top-selling female vocalist in 1973 and 1974. REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian

Carl Reiner, a driving force in American comedy as a writer for television pioneer Sid Caesar, partner of Mel Brooks and creator and co-star of the classic sitcom "The Dick Van Dyke Show," died June 30 at age 98. His career spanned seven decades and...more

Musician Manu Dibango, age 86. The Cameroon-born Dibango arrived in France in the early 1950s and studied jazz and saxophone in Reims, where he started playing in clubs. In 1972 he had a major hit with "Soul Makossa," a song that brought him...more

Journalist Jim Lehrer, age 85. The legendary news anchor, who co-founded "PBS NewsHour," anchored the show for almost four decades before retiring in 2011. He moderated 12 president debates -- including all of the debates in 1996 and 2000 -- more...more

Drummer Neil Peart, age 67. Among the most admired drummers in rock music, Peart was famous for his massive drum kits -- more than 40 different drums were not out of the norm -- precise playing style and onstage showmanship. He joined Rush in 1974...more

James Lipton, age 93. The creator and host of the long-running U.S. television show "Inside the Actors Studio" hosted in-depth interviews with hundreds of Hollywood stars for more than 20 years. His interviews ended with a list of rapid-fire...more