There was the boxer nicknamed The Greatest, the musician known as Prince, the revolutionary leader saluted as El Comandante.
The year 2016 saw the deaths of an unusually long list of political titans and sports icons, famous musicians and Hollywood greats.
“If we consider the body of people that are nationally known and recognized, and consider that as a certain kind of family,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, “2016 was a really, really bad year for the family.”
– Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight boxing champion who transformed himself into a global hero, died June 3 at 74. Ali, who fought a high-profile battle with Parkinson’s disease, died of septic shock.
– The death of Fidel Castro, the cigar-chomping despot who ruled Communist Cuba for nearly half a century, sent shock waves around the world. Castro died Nov. 25 at 90.
– The sudden demise of Prince shocked fans from Minnesota to Mozambique. The 57-year-old singer-songwriter-hitmaker was found dead in his Paisley Park, Minn., home on April 21. Toxicology reports revealed that Prince died of an accidental prescription drug overdose.
– David Bowie, the British rocker whose sound and style defied categorization, died Jan. 10 after a secret battle with cancer. He was 69.
– True American hero John Glenn, who in 1962 was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth — and who was aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1998 at age 77, making him the oldest person to fly in space — died Dec. 8. Glenn, also a decorated Korean War fighter pilot and U.S. senator for 24 years, was 95.
– Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez died Sept. 25 when his speedboat slammed into a jetty near South Beach. The 24-year-old flamethrower was drunk and had traces of cocaine in his system at the time of the crash.
– Former First Lady Nancy Reagan died March 6 of congestive heart failure. She was 94.
– Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general, died Nov. 7 at age 78. The cause was Parkinson’s disease.
– Arnold Palmer, the gentleman golfer hailed as the King, died Sept. 25 at age 87. The cause was cardiovascular disease.
– Gordie Howe, the 23-time NHL All-Star known as Mr. Hockey, died June 10 at 88.
– Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at a Texas resort on Feb. 13. The 79-year-old jurist died of natural causes.
– Former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating with the Palestinians, died Sept. 28 at 93.
– Keith Emerson, the keyboardist who founded Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died March 11. The 71-year-old rocker died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His bandmate Greg Lake, 69, who was also a founding member of King Crimson, died Dec. 7.
– Actor Alan Thicke, 69, who played the father in the ’80s sitcom “Growing Pains,” died Dec. 13 after his aorta artery ruptured.
– Florence Henderson, best known as quintessential TV mom Carol Brady in “The Brady Bunch,” died Nov. 24 of heart failure. She was 82.
– Comedian Garry Shandling died March 24, apparently of a heart attack. He was 66.
– Gene Wilder, whose four-decade acting career included unforgettable comic roles in “Blazing Saddles” and “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” was 83 when he died Aug. 29 due to complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
– Patty Duke, who won an Oscar for “The Miracle Worker” and later played “identical cousins” on her own TV show, died March 29 at 69. The cause was sepsis from a ruptured intestine.
– Edward Albee — the playwright who penned “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” — died Sept. 16 at 88.
– Harper Lee, an author who shunned the spotlight and who penned “To Kill a Mockingbird,” died in her sleep Feb. 19 at age 89.
– Joe Garagiola, the baseball catcher and colorful TV announcer, died March 23 at 90.
– John McLaughlin, the political commentator and prickly host of TV’s “The McLaughlin Group,” died Aug. 16 at 89.
– Abe Vigoda, best known for playing mob capo Sal Tessio in “The Godfather” and as Detective Fish on “Barney Miller,” died Jan. 26 at 94.
– George Kennedy, who co-starred in “Cool Hand Luke,” “Airport” and “Naked Gun,” died Feb. 28 at 91.
– Garry Marshall, creator of TV’s “Happy Days” and “The Odd Couple,” died July 19 at 81.
– Robert Vaughn, who played a spy in the cult ’60s series “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” died Nov. 11 after a battle with acute leukemia. He was 83.
– Doris Roberts, a five-time Emmy-winner best known as the grandmother on TV’s “Everybody Loves Raymond,” died April 17 at 90.
– Ron Glass, the 71-year-old actor best known for his role in the TV sitcom “Barney Miller,” died Nov. 25 due to respiratory failure.
– Phyllis Schlafly, an activist who fueled modern social conservativism by denouncing feminism, died Sept. 5 at 92.
– Tom Hayden, the 1960s radical who was once married to Jane Fonda, died Oct. 23 at 76.
– Kenny Baker, the diminutive 81-year-old British actor who played the droid R2-D2 in six “Star Wars” films, died Aug. 13 after a long illness.
– Leonard Cohen, the legendary singer-songwriter, died Nov. 7 at 82. He died in his sleep following a fall.
– Singer Maurice White, founder of Earth, Wind & Fire, died Feb. 3 at 74, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
– Country music outlaw Merle Haggard died April 6 on his 79th birthday. The cause was pneumonia.
– Malik Taylor, the rapper with A Tribe Called Quest known as Phife Dawg, died March 22 due to complications from diabetes. He was 45.
– Glenn Frey, the rocker who co-founded the Eagles, died Jan. 18 at 67. The cause was complications from rheumatoid arthritis and pneumonia.
– Sharon Jones, lead singer of the Dap-Kings, died Nov. 18 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 60.
– Attrell Cordes, known as Prince Be of the ’90s R&B duo P.M. Dawn, died June 17 from kidney disease. He was 46.
– Pat Summitt, the former coach of the University of Tennessee’s Lady Volunteers who notched the most wins in NCAA basketball history, died June 28 after a five-year battle with dementia. She was 64.
– Craig Sager, the NBA sideline reporter known as much for his outrageous suits as his deep knowledge of the game, died Dec. 15 of leukemia. He was 65.
– ESPN broadcaster John Saunders, 61, passed away Aug. 10 after his wife found him unresponsive at their Westchester County home. A cause of death wasn’t announced.
– Globetrotting CBS journalist Morley Safer, who filed more than 900 reports for “60 Minutes,” died May 19 of pneumonia. He was 84.
– Gwen Ifill, the pioneering journalist who died Nov. 14 of uterine cancer. The 61-year-old co-anchor of “The PBS NewsHour” went on leave a week before her death without disclosing her condition.
– Rob Ford, the ex-Toronto mayor whose many scandals included smoking crack and cavorting with suspected prostitutes, died March 22 at 46. The cause was a rare form of cancer.
– On the opposite end of the moral spectrum was Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who died July 2 at 87.
– Egyptian statesman Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who became the United Nations’ sixth secretary general in the early 1990s, died Feb. 16. He was 93.
– Henry Heimlich, the surgeon who created the eponymous anti-choking technique, died Dec. 17 at 96.
– Alan Rickman, 69, the British actor who lent his elegant charm to dark roles in “Die Hard” and the Harry Potter movies, died Jan. 14 from pancreatic cancer.
– Anton Yelchin, best known for playing a young Chekov in the reboot “Star Trek” films, died on June 19 when he was crushed by his Jeep Grand Cherokee outside his Los Angeles home. He was 27.
– Zsa Zsa Gabor, a Hungarian model-turned-Hollywood socialite whose turbulent romances titillated the public long before the rise of celebrity reality shows, died Dec. 18 of a heart attack. Gabor, who wed nine times, was 99.
– George Michael, ’80s pop music icon and former member of Wham!, died on Christmas Day.
– Carrie Fisher, forever known as “Star Wars” heroine Princess Leia, died Dec. 27 after suffering a heart attack several days earlier. The actress and writer was 60.
– Debbie Reynolds, a silver-screen icon — and Fisher’s brokenhearted mother — died Dec. 28, one day after her daughter. She was 84.
