They were athletes, artists, leaders, thinkers, warriors and revolutionaries. An almost endless list of adjectives applies to at least one of them, but not “immortal.” The famous people who died in 2025 all made their mark on the world, not necessarily in a way everyone would celebrate. Here are they are with their own words (along with some musings by the non-famous), to shed light on who they were, what they did and what they learned.
“I remember a surgeon, after one operation, pointing to another patient who was smoking and reading the racing paper. ‘He is going to get better more quickly than you,’ he told me. ‘You are asking questions all the time and have seen too many books and pictures.’ ”
— Chris Rea, Grammy-nominated British singer-songwriter who scored hits with “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)” and “The Road to Hell” but battled health problems for decades, 74, Dec. 22
“The typed AP story, my passport and 20 $10 bills were clamped in my teeth … I had to get the story out as fast as I could.”
— Peter Arnett, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent, on swimming across the Mekong River to evade roadblocks and file a scoop about a 1960 coup in Laos, 91, Dec. 17
“I had teachers tell me I wouldn’t make it to 21 when I was going to high school, so I beat the odds, you know? I’ve travelled millions of miles, zigging and zagging in every kind of vehicle known to man, trying to get from one place to another to create some more music.”
— Joe Ely, the influential Texas-born singer-songwriter whose blend of honky-tonk, rock and roadhouse blues led to collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and the Clash, 78, Dec. 15
Rob Reiner on the set of “The American President.”
TNS
“All I’ve ever done is say, ‘Is this something that is an extension of me?’ For ‘Stand by Me,’ I didn’t know if it was going to be successful or not. All I thought was, ‘I like this because I know what it feels like.’”
— Rob Reiner, the son of comedy giant Carl who became one himself as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation with movies such as “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally …” and “This Is Spinal Tap,” 78, Dec. 14
“It was once very difficult for me to realize that more than likely my obituary in the paper will read, ‘Luke of Luke and Laura fame died today.’ ”
— Anthony Geary, the actor who defined soap opera stardom as Luke Spencer over 1,900 episodes of “General Hospital,” 78, Dec. 13
“It is a grave mistake to think there is more significance in great things than in little things.”
— British writer Joanna Trollope, whose bestselling novels such as “The Rector’s Wife” and “Other People’s Children” charted domestic and romantic travails in well-heeled rural England, 82, Dec. 11
— Sophie Kinsella, born Madeleine Wickham, writer whose effervescent novel “Confessions of a Shopaholic” sparked a millions-selling series, 55, Dec. 10
“This whole time I have been shown nothing but the best of humanity. I see kindness. I see empathy. I see understanding, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, does everybody need to have cancer to see this side of humanity?’ ”
— Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of the genre-defying, Grammy-winning band The Mavericks, 60, Dec. 8
— Frank Gehry, the Toronto-born architect whose undulating, dynamic buildings defied convention, cemented him as one of the most important and influential designers of his generation, and turned little-known Bilbao, Spain, into an international travel destination, 96, Dec. 5
“My playing has always sucked, but it sells … I’m not a guitar player. I never took the time.”
— Steve Cropper, the modest, soulful guitarist and songwriter who helped anchor the celebrated band Booker T. and the M.G.’s and co-wrote the classics “Green Onions,” ”(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” and “In the Midnight Hour,” 84, Dec. 3
“Ukraine is a very sad situation … In 1944, I landed on these beaches and we thought we’d bring peace to the world. But it’s not possible.”
— Charles Shay, a decorated Native American veteran who was a 19-year-old U.S. army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and helped save lives, 101, Dec. 3
“I wanted to be a great journalist. My first ambition was to be lying on the floor of an African airport while machine-gun bullets zoomed over my typewriter. But I wasn’t much use as a reporter. I felt I didn’t have the right to ask people questions. I always thought they’d throw the teapot at me or call the police.”
— Tom Stoppard, giant among British playwrights, known for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” “Arcadia” and more, 88, Nov. 29
“If people wanted me to feel the same hurt I projected on others, I’m here to tell you they got their way … I’ve come to terms with the fact that this incident will never, ever go away.”
— Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time major champion and one of golf’s most gregarious characters whose career was tainted by a racially insensitive joke about Tiger Woods (beginning with “That little boy is driving well”), 74, Nov. 27
Team Canada skip Colleen Jones at the world curling championships in Gavle Sweden in 2004.
ANDREW VAUGHAN CP
“There are so many moments that sport has given me. My life is better for it. Part of it is the friendships, part of it is the discipline, part of it is that joy of winning. Part of it is that hatred of failing that you went through. All of that has combined to make you who you are.”
— Colleen Jones, a world champion Nova Scotian curler whose effervescent personality made her a popular presence on the CBC over nearly four decades, 65, Nov. 25
“All I really wanted to do was to get out this creative yearning that was inside of me.”
— Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican musician and actor who helped popularize reggae around the world and paved the way for future stars of the genre such as Bob Marley, 81, Nov. 24
“Violence is a part of America’s culture. It is as American as cherry pie. Americans taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression if necessary. We will be free, by any means necessary.”
— Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, one of the most vocal leaders of the Black Power movement, later sentenced to life in prison for killing a sheriff’s deputy, 82, Nov. 23
“Put a sheet full of dots in front of me and I wouldn’t have a bloody clue what’s going on.”
— Gary “Mani” Mounfield, the intuitive, untutored former bass player of the Stone Roses and Primal Scream, two of the most influential British rock bands of the past four decades, 63, Nov. 20
“I’m certain I don’t have any answers, and I want the people who listen to my songs to know that. If someone learns something from me, that would be their fault.”
— Todd Snider, a singer whose thoughtfully freewheeling tunes and cosmic-stoner songwriting made him a beloved figure in American roots music, 59, Nov. 14
”(Anna) was a role where I knew I was going to be able to use my entire acting instrument … I’m happiest when I’m being fully utilized. I’ve done so many cameos and I feel great whenever I work, but one always wishes to be the leading lady.”
— Sally Kirkland, a one-time model who became a regular on stage, film and TV, best known for “The Sting” and her Oscar-nominated title role in the 1987 movie “Anna,” 84, Nov. 11
Raptors coach Lenny Wilkens in 2000.
Tony Bock/Toronto Star
— Lenny Wilkens, a three-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame who was enshrined as both a player and a famously graceful coach, including a stint with the Raptors, 88, Nov. 9
— Mel Bridgman, Ontarian NHL star turned first Ottawa Senators general manager, after repeated stumbles at the new team’s expansion draft, 70, Nov. 8
“Idle youth in every small town goes to the movies cause it’s fantasy, it’s escape, it’s the only way out … we only had comic books. I had Jack Kirby, and then I had Sergio Leone.”
— Lee Tamahori, describing his origins as a New Zealand film director whose acclaimed Maori crime drama “Once Were Warriors” led him to Hollywood films including the Bond instalment “Die Another Day,” 75, Nov. 7
“(To succeed as a scientist) You have to avoid dumb people … Never do anything that bores you … If you can’t stand to be with your real peers (including scientific competitors) get out of science … To make a huge success, a scientist has to be prepared to get into deep trouble.”
James D. Watson in Toronto in 2002.
Steve Russell/The Toronto Star
— James D. Watson, whose codiscovery of the twisted-ladder structure of DNA in 1953 helped light the long fuse on a revolution in medicine, crime-fighting, genealogy and ethics, 97, Nov. 6
“The ones who spend all their time trying to be loved by everybody probably aren’t doing much.”
— Dick Cheney, whose campaign for a military response to the 9/11 terror attacks cleared the path for an unpopular war in Iraq and established his reputation as one of the most powerful and polarizing vice-presidents in U.S. history, 84, Nov. 3
— Victor Conte, jailed for months after creating a scheme to provide undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including baseball star Barry Bonds and Olympic track champion Marion Jones, 75, Nov. 3
“I’m not an actor. I’m a teacher. The screen or the stage is my blackboard, and so whatever I taught is what’s in you. It’s reflecting you, saint or sinner, male or female, child or old person. I’m reflecting parts of your soul, parts of who you are. The work is for you.”
— Diane Ladd, a three-time Academy Award nominee and actor of rare timing and intensity, 89, Nov. 3
Owner of Fred’s Not Here, Fred Luk, poses for pictures outside his restaurant.
Vince Talotta Toronto Star
“There really is a lack of understanding of who we are and how our collective small business achievements really do add up to something significant. We should not be made to feel like we are too small to matter.”
— Fred Luk, whose Toronto restaurants like The Red Tomato and the familiar Fred’s Not Here helped shaped Toronto’s Entertainment District, 70, Oct. 29
“I always say I want to die on the eighth curtain call. Eight will mean the show’s been rather a success. I just hope I’m somewhere near the middle and have been reasonably good in the part.”
— Actor Prunella Scales, best known as acid-tongued Sybil Fawlty in the classic British sitcom “Fawlty Towers,” 93, Oct. 27
— Tim Cook, Canada’s leading war historian, a prolific writer and chief historian and research director with The Canadian War Museum, 54, Oct. 25
“I can control my reputation, but not my image, because my image is how you see me. I love rock ‘n’ roll and going to the concerts. I have driven army tanks and flown in hot air balloons. And I go plane-gliding — the ones with no motors. I do a lot of things that don’t go with my image.”
— June Lockhart, actress who became a familiar mother figure from TV roles in “Lassie” and “Lost in Space,” 100, Oct. 23
“KISS started out as a great idea, but after a while, it became a nightmare … I fell asleep (in Paris) with my makeup on, and when I woke up, my eyes were swollen shut from an allergic reaction to the silver paint.”
— Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist and founding member of the glam rock band, 74, Oct. 16
“This is a very powerful medium that we are involved in. I learned at an early age that what we were doing in the choir was just as important as the preacher. It was a ministry in itself.”
— D’Angelo (born Michael Eugene Archer), the Grammy-winning R&B singer recognized by his raspy yet smooth voice in “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” and more, 51, Oct. 14
Diane Keaton in 2003 in Los Angeles.
NAM Y HUH AP
“I figured the only way to realize my number-one dream of becoming an actual Broadway musical comedy star was to remain an adoring daughter. Loving a man, a man, and becoming a wife, would have to be put aside … The names changed, from Dave to Woody (Allen), then Warren (Beatty), and finally Al (Pacino). Could I have made a lasting commitment to them? Hard to say. Subconsciously I must have known it could never work, and because of this they’d never get in the way of achieving my dreams.”
— Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning star of “Annie Hall,” “The Godfather” films and “Father of the Bride,” whose quirky, vibrant manner and depth made her one of the most singular actors of a generation, 79, Oct. 11
“The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.”
— Jilly Cooper, the bestselling British author known for her chronicles of class and sex in risqué novels, including “Rivals” and “Riders,” 88, Oct. 5
“We’ve sent a rocket up to Mars with a little camera … We’ve got the internet. These are feats that no animal, however intelligent, could do. But we’re not intelligent, are we? If we were intelligent — Homo sapiens, the wise creature — we wouldn’t be destroying our planet, our only home.”
— Jane Goodall, the British conservationist and researcher renowned for her work with chimpanzees, 91, Oct. 1
“I believed that my actions were always in the public interest and lawful. The outcome of the RCMP’s detailed and thorough investigation has now upheld my position.”
— Nigel Wright, the former chief of staff to ex-prime minister Stephen Harper who was near the heart of the expenses scandal regarding Sen. Mike Duffy, 62, Sept. 30
“It was my decision (not to marry or have children) and I have to live with it, so I won’t complain about it … I knew politics would consume all my time, and at times I regret that. But I’m also having a direct influence on the lives of many people.”
— Jim Bradley, an Ontario MPP for 41 years often regarded as the province’s best environment minister, 80, Sept. 26
Joanne Deborah Chesimard, a.k.a. Assata Shakur.
assatashakur.org
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
— Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist who got political asylum in Cuba after her 1979 escape from a U.S. prison where she had been serving a life sentence for killing a police officer, 78, Sept. 25
— Acclaimed Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and 1970s such as Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2,” 87, Sept. 23
Bernie Parent.
B Bennett Getty Images
“We were able to just sit back, look at the Stanley Cup (in the aisle) and just savour it.”
— Bernie Parent, star goalie recalling a flight home with his fellow Philadelphia Flyers after one of their two consecutive Stanley Cup championships in the 1970s, 80, Sept. 21
“I was born in a dugout. My dad dug a hole in the ground, put a corrugated tin roof on top of it, and that’s where I was born. I beat my sister ahead of me. She was born in a tent.”
— Sonny Curtis, a vintage rock ‘n’ roller who wrote the raw classic “I Fought the Law” and posed the enduring question “Who can turn the world on with her smile?” as the writer-crooner of the theme song to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” 88, Sept. 19
“At my stage in life, I’m not going to write about driving around in pickup trucks, chasing girls. It needed to feel more classic, lyrically. They all wound up being love songs, but hopefully love songs with a twist, that haven’t all been written before.”
— Brett James, Grammy award-winning country songwriter whose string of top hits includes “Jesus, Take the Wheel” by Carrie Underwood, 57, Sept. 18
“We have (tens of thousands of Canadian) dead people whose deaths might have been avoided if we had acted with speed. And if we had acted from a science point of view, as opposed to from a political point of view.”
— Elaine Dewar, veteran Canadian journalist and author whose final book, in 2021, before her passing challenged the wet-market theory of COVID’s origin, 77, Sept. 18
“I think the lines we have drawn historically, whether between cable and phone, wireless and wired, are starting to blur, if not disappear. The customer is going to pick up a device and say, ‘I want to be connected,’ and how we deliver it is the company’s issue, not the customer’s.”
— Nadir Mohamed, former Rogers Communication chief executive, 69, Sept. 18
Robert Redford in “The Sting.”
Kitchener Staff GRMP
“The idea of the outlaw has always been very appealing to me … From the time I was just a kid, I was always trying to break free of the bounds that I was stuck with, and always wanted to go outside.”
— Robert Redford, the Hollywood golden boy who became an Oscar-winning director, liberal activist and godfather for independent cinema, 89, Sept. 16
“(I was told) ‘Our anchor didn’t show up, we need you now.’ In those days the newscast didn’t start until 6:30. It was 6:21 p.m.”
— Canadian journalist Beverly Thomson, longtime CTV News journalist, recalling her first time as anchor, 61, Sept. 14
“Keep one thing perfectly clear: The players never asked for more money; they only asked for a marketplace.”
— Bob Goodenow, former NHL Players’ Association executive director whose fight against a salary cap played a part in cancelling an entire season, 72, Sept. 13
“The other morning I went into the office at 6:30 a.m. Got up, grabbed my coffee and drove over the (Burlington Skyway) bridge, and I’m looking out, and the sun was coming up. I just sat there smiling as I drove, thinking, `Man, I’m 17 minutes from home.’ I do love southern Ontario and appreciate the opportunity to work back at home, for sure.”
— Burlington native Ted Goveia, longtime veteran CFL executive who was GM of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at his passing, 55, Sept. 12
Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot in Orem, Utah on Sept. 10, 2025.
Tess Crowley AP
“I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage. But, it is very effective when it comes to politics. Sympathy, I prefer more than empathy.”
— Charlie Kirk, U.S. conservative activist gunned down in Utah, 31, Sept. 10
Ken Dryden at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1999.
Rick Eglinton/Toronto Star
“For each of us, it’s a race, a short, quick race we don’t know we’re in until we start to lose.”
— Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame hockey goaltender who won six Stanley Cups for Montreal and helped Canada triumph at the 1972 Summit Series before turning to politics and becoming a federal cabinet minister, 78, Sept. 5
“I wouldn’t say proud of (leaving royal life), but I was glad I did it. I was supported through it as well. The Queen said: ‘Yes, go and do it,’ so I did.’ ”
— Katharine, Duchess of Kent, who married queen Elizabeth’s cousin Prince Edward and stepped away from family duties to teach music in a public school, 92, Sept. 4
“I design for real people. There is no virtue whatsoever in creating clothes and accessories that are not practical.”
— Giorgio Armani, the iconic Italian designer who turned the concept of understated elegance into a multibillion-dollar fashion empire, 91, Sept. 4
Graham Greene in 2007’s Stratford Festival production of “The Merchant of Venice.”
Richard Bain
“Everybody’s getting political on me. I tell them to take those questions to the politicians. I’m sort of a passive activist.”
— Graham Greene, Canadian trail-blazing Indigenous actor whose long and successful career on the big and small screen included an Oscar nomination for his role in “Dances with Wolves,” 73, Sept. 1
“When I hear players say they need to hear the ball, I smile. I couldn’t.”
— Angela Mortimer Barrett, English 1961 Wimbledon champion who credited her partial deafness with her superior focus, 93, Aug. 25
— Ron Turcotte, famed Canadian-born jockey who rode the fabled Secretariat to a Triple Crown in 1973 including a record time in the Belmont Stakes, 84, Aug. 22
“Whether you like Donald Trump or not, whether you supported or voted for him or not, if you are supportive of this Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v. Wade, you have to mention in the same breath the man who made it possible.”
— James Dobson, a child psychologist who founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was a politically influential campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, 89, Aug. 21
— Terence Stamp, British actor whose presence, notably his voice, aided his portrayal of villains, including that of General Zod in the early Superman films, 87, Aug. 17
Astronaut James Lovell, Apollo 13 commander, in 1970.
AP
“I don’t worry about crises any longer … I say, ‘I could have been gone back in 1970. I’m still here.’ ”
— James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 who helped turn a failed moon mission into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering, 97, Aug. 7
“I never thought I would be Loni Anderson, sex symbol… I took whatever my career threw at me.”
— Loni Anderson, who played a struggling radio station’s empowered receptionist on the hit TV comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati,” 79, Aug. 3
“Years back, they considered the accordion like a party joke or even something that grandpa played. The way I learned to play the accordion was on the wild and happy side, much like Cajun and zydeco music … I like to make my accordion yell and scream and make it happy.”
— Flaco Jimenez, the legendary accordionist from San Antonio who won multiple Grammys and helped expand the popularity of conjunto, Tejano and Tex-Mex music, 86, July 31
“I didn’t play the game right because I saw a reward at the end of the tunnel. I played it right because that’s what you’re supposed to do — play it right and with respect. If this validates anything, it’s that learning how to bunt and hit and run and turning two is more important than knowing where to find the little red light at the dugout camera.”
— Ryne Sandberg, Hall of Fame second baseman for the Chicago Cubs, 65, July 28
Susan Eng.
Chinese Canadian National Council
“I don’t know if I can make anybody like me, but what I hope at the end of my term (chairing Toronto’s police services board) is that people respect me for what I’ve done.”
— Susan Eng, a Toronto-born lawyer and lifelong human-rights activist and civil leader, 72, July 26
“The Vietnam War is what changed it. Everybody got earnest. My purpose was to make people laugh and not applaud. If the audience applauds, they’re just showing they agree with me.”
— Tom Lehrer, popular song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and beyond, 97, July 26
“I don’t dance around like Ali … The name they call me is the Buzzsaw, ‘cause I be getting in there and be doing what I got to do and staying right there.”
— Dwight Muhammad Qawi, who took up boxing in prison and won world titles in two different weight classes, 72, July 25
“When I wrote my autobiography I realized it was quite a Cinderella story in some ways. To me the wonderful thing is actually having done it, not the accolade, but to be singing, and to be singing at the age I am now. That is the best part of it.”
— Cleo Laine, whose husky contralto was one of the most distinctive voices in jazz and who was regarded by many as Britain’s greatest contribution to the quintessentially American music, has died. She was 97, July 24
” I (went) through eight back surgeries … I was basically bedridden for almost two years … And right before that, I went through a divorce and I had a situation where — financially and personally — I had the carpet pulled out from underneath me. The one thing that was always there, and was always loyal to me, was the fans.”
— Terry Bollea, alias Hulk Hogan, who helped lead professional wrestling’s rise in popularity in the 1980s and beyond before embarrassments and a lawsuit came to dominate his life, 71, July 24
“People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? … If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy.”
— John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne, frontman of the 1970s heavy metal band Black Sabbath, who earned his infamy biting the head off a bat on stage and pursuing a drug-fuelled lifestyle before reinventing himself as a lovable if often foul-mouthed reality TV star, 76, July 22
“If you just take a minute to stop, I guarantee you can find at least one reason to smile. If for some reason you can’t find a reason to smile, then that’s probably the best time to be the reason for somebody else’s smile.”
— Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who as teenage son Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” was central to a cultural phenomenon that helped define the 1980s, 54, July 21
Connie Francis.
“It was the first time I ever recorded that I didn’t try to imitate somebody else … I hated the song so much that I didn’t care what I sounded like.”
— Connie Francis, wholesome pop star of the 1950s and ‘60s, on recording the smash “Who’s Sorry Now,” 87, July 16
Jim Clancy.
Tony Bock/Toronto Star
“If I’m not doing the job, they’ll move me … I feel I’m pitching real good. The record just doesn’t quite say it.”
— Jim Clancy, who made his Major League Baseball debut during the Toronto Blue Jays’ expansion season and spent 12 seasons as a starter with the club, losing the most games of any pitcher in the 1980s along the way, 69, July 14
“What I’m always hoping for is that readers feel that I’m making time disappear when they pick up one of my books.”
— Martin Cruz Smith, the bestselling mystery novelist who engaged readers for decades with “Gorky Park” and other thrillers featuring Moscow investigator Arkady Renko, 82, July 11
Abra Shiner at Swan Dive.
Toronto Star
“The chances of finding a home within my restricted budget are very low (due to the amount of time I spend dealing with my cancer I cannot work very much) … I only ask that my life is valued more than a few thousand dollars.”
— Abra Shiner, co-owner of the beloved Toronto bar and bottle shop Swan Dive, who spent the last months of her life fighting both cancer and eviction from her home, 44, July 10
“I’ve been working on bumblebees since 2003 (and) I spent a good 10 years just driving around looking for some rare species and not really finding any … we kind of thought maybe it makes more sense to get more eyes on the ground.”
— Sheila Colla, York University professor hailed as a brilliant scientist and a fierce bee-population advocate, 43, July 6
“We’re always trying to make a cogent story out of our existence, and people in my plays often feel they have the story, but almost invariably they’re wrong.”
— Richard Greenberg, playwright who won a Tony Award in 2003 for “Take Me Out,” his play about a gay baseball player, 67, July 4
— Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star baseball pitcher and World Series champion with the Chicago White Sox, who died battling cancer in Sintra, Portugal, 44, July 4
“The hard thing is not to reach the top of the mountain but to stay there … You can never let (rivals) have more will than you.”
— Diogo Jota, Portuguese soccer star who died in a car crash that also killed his brother, 28, July 3
“You think about people’s dreams, you know, because Hollywood is a dream factory. The malevolence of it is the darkest part about it — (Harvey Weinstein) taking advantage of somebody’s dream. It’s monstrous.”
— Michael Madsen, a stoic actor who worked with Quentin Tarantino among other directors in various acclaimed films from the 1980s onward, 67, July 3
“You don’t get hurt in this game if you keep your head up and watch what’s going on around you.”
— Alex Delvecchio, Fort William, Ont.-born member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who helped the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup three times in the 1950s, 93, July 1
Rev. Jimmy Swaggart in 1987.
Mark Avery AP
“Everything seemed different after that day in front of the Arcade Theater (in Ferridale, Louisiana, when I heard the call of God at age 8). I felt better inside. Almost like taking a bath.”
— Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who became a household name amassing an enormous following and multimillion-dollar ministry only to be undone by his penchant for prostitutes, 90, July 1
“If you have to crawl, if you’re tired, you get back in there. If they beat you down, come back at them. They might be smarter, they might have better resources and more assets, but don’t ever let them outwork you.”
— D. Wayne Lukas, Hall of Fame horse trainer who saddled the winners of 15 Triple Crown and 20 Breeders’ Cup races and who revolutionized thoroughbred racing with a modern-day corporate approach, 89, June 28
— Dave Parker, a hard-hitting Major League outfielder and two-time batting champion, explaining his Star of David necklace, 74, June 28
“The producer called me and told me (only) ‘You’re going to have to write something exciting, almost like a logo, something that will be a signature, and it’s going to start with a fuse.’ … I wrote something that came from inside me.”
— Lalo Schifrin, the composer who wrote the endlessly catchy theme for “Mission: Impossible” and more than 100 other arrangements for film and television, 93, June 26
“I think my peers in commercial television are talented and devoted (but) you do not get rewarded for telling the hard truths about America in a profit-seeking environment.”
— Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary who on PBS became one of U.S. television’s most honoured journalists, 91, June 26
“We were working on a hemorrhaging woman who had passed out … Her husband kept staring at me. Finally he said, ‘Look, honey, it’s Bobby Sherman!’ … She said, ‘Oh great, I must look a mess!’ ”
— Bobby Sherman, who became an EMT after his winsome smile helped make him into a teen idol in the 1960s and ’70s with bubblegum pop hits like “Little Woman,” 81, June 24
“I don’t think we understood our real goal when we first started FedEx. We thought we were in the transportation of goods. In fact, we were selling peace of mind.”
— Fred Smith, the FedEx founder who revolutionized the express delivery industry, 80, June 21
John McCallum in 2002.
JONATHAN HAYWARD CP
Stephen Leckie in 1977.
Frank Lennon/Toronto Star
“Above all, a good (visual) artist has to be sexy, and to have some obvious relationship with violence. You have to engender a sense of evil that has currency.”
’‘We have shown the world an example of civic duty, demonstrating that we Nicaraguans want to live in democracy, want to live in peace and, above all, that we want to live in liberty.’’
— Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaragua’s former president and the first elected female head of state in Latin America, 95, June 14
Brian Wilson in concert at Toronto’s then-Molson Amphitheatre in 2001.
R.J. Johnston/Toronto Star
Sly Stone in 2006.
Mark J. Terrill AP
Juliette Powell.
Claude Grunitzky
“When I arrived in Canada I was seven years old and my mom had $50 in her pocket. I promised my mother, and myself, at that moment that we were going to survive … You can do it if you just believe in what you’re doing.”
Loretta Swit in 2018.
Richard Shotwell/l/Invision/AP
— Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards playing Maj. Margaret Houlihan, the demanding head nurse of a behind-the-lines surgical unit during the Korean War on the pioneering hit TV series “M.A.S.H.,” 87, May 30
“I like to say I can make you feel five ways in 13 seconds on this show.”
— Alf Clausen, the Emmy-winning composer whose music provided essential accompaniment for the animated antics of “The Simpsons” for 27 years, 84, May 29
“I’d much rather have a Bible study with all of (ISIS) and show them the error of their ways and point them to Jesus Christ … However, if it’s a gunfight and a gunfight alone, if that’s what they’re looking for, me personally, I am prepared for either one.”
— Phil Robertson, who turned his small duck-calling interest in northern Louisiana into a big business and was the head of the family featured on the reality show “Duck Dynasty,” 79, May 25
“I’ve had to put up with all this bullshit about it being a prosecutorial film. It doesn’t attempt to prosecute the French. Who can say their nation would have behaved better in the same circumstances?”
— Marcel Ophuls, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker whose landmark 1969 documentary “The Sorrow and the Pity” shattered the comforting myth that most of France had resisted the Nazis during World War Two, 97, May 24
“Man’s structural capacity to rape and woman’s corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself.”
— Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author of the 1960s and ‘70s whose “Against Our Will” was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, 90, May 24
George Wendt, left, on “Cheers” with Woody Harrelson.
file photo
“It not only tastes disgusting, I was afraid of keeling over from high blood pressure. Then I got the knack. I didn’t have to put all those brews away. It only mattered when the camera was pointing my way.”
— George Wendt, who had to drink salty fake beer for years while playing bar regular Norm Peterson on TV’s “Cheers,” 76, May 20
“In those days in the early ’70s, I think a lot of people wanted to take a stick to Nixon and all those Watergate guys … (the film) touched a vigilante nerve in everybody who would like to do in the bad guys but don’t have the power.”
— Joe Don Baker, veteran actor best remembered as the small-town avenger Buford Pusser in “Walking Tall,” 89, May 7
“When you enjoy doing what you’re doing, which I do very much, I have something to get up for.”
— Charles Strouse, three-time Tony Award-winning composer behind such classic musical theatre hits as “Annie” and “Bye Bye Birdie,” 96, May 15
“This is the tragedy of life, on the one hand it’s beautiful, but it ends. Therefore, paradise is here. As is hell.”
— José Mujica, ex-Marxist guerrilla turned democrat and Uruguayan president who oversaw the transformation of his nation into one of the world’s healthiest and most socially liberal democracies, 89, May 13
“(After one match) I was holding my jaw in place, but with every step, I felt it move. There were pieces of bone and jaw moving around in there … Once the swelling was down and after I spat out as much blood as I possibly could without needing a transfusion, I took to the mirror. I turned my lower lip inside out and saw the jagged line where my teeth went through the puffy flesh. (A fellow wrestler) came by just in time to see me supergluing the gash closed in my mouth.”
— Terry “Sabu” Brunk, high-risk, high-flying “hardcore” professional wrestling pioneer who helped bring tables, chairs, barbed wire and other instruments of brutality into the mainstream, 60, May 11
— Robert Benton, the low-profile three-time Oscar-winner who helped reset the rules in Hollywood as the co-creator of “Bonnie and Clyde,” and later received mainstream validation as the writer-director of “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Places in the Heart,” 92, May 11
“I would like you to be the witnesses we (Holocaust survivors) can’t be for much longer.”
— Margot Friedländer, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, 103, May 9
“Behind most dreams of a simpler Constitution there lies a basic human hunger (for) certainty and control … in an indeterminate world I cannot control, it is still possible to live fully in the trust that a way will be found leading through the uncertain future.”
— David Souter, retired U.S. Supreme Court justice and ascetic bachelor and Republican who became a favourite of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, 85, May 8
“What’s best and what’s worst (about the movie business) are almost the same to me. Because what’s worst is you get pigeonholed and what’s best is I haven’t been … I’m still making movies, despite hopping all over the place.”
— Filmmaker James Foley, whose directing career spanned music videos, television and film, with stars including Madonna (“Who’s That Girl?”), Al Pacino (“Glengarry Glen Ross”) and Bruce Dern, 71, May 6
“So many people ask me to hit them with my purse … (at a party Elton John). immediately made his way over to me and said, ‘For God’s sakes, Ruth, please hit me with your purse. That’s been on my bucket list for years!’ ”
— Ruth Buzzi, who rose to fame as the frumpy, purse-swinging Gladys Ormphby on the sketch comedy series “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and made over 200 television appearances during a 45-year career, 88, May 1
“All and all, I’m down with the whole patron thing. Bring back the Medicis. Maybe, I’m not just a lefty, but a royalist.”
— Jill Sobule, award-winning singer-songwriter whose work addressed such complex topics as the death penalty and anorexia nervosa, 66, May 1
Virginia Roberts Giuffre in 2019.
Barry Williams TNS
“They (Jeffrey Epstein’s team) seemed like nice people, so I trusted them, and I told them I’d had a really hard time in my life up until then — I’d been a runaway, I’d been sexually abused, physically abused. That was the worst thing I could have told them, because now they knew how vulnerable I was.”
— Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by disgraced financier Epstein, 41, April 25
’‘There might have been better defences, but they probably played in Russia.”
— Steve McMichael, NFL star and pillar of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ nigh-impenetrable “Monsters of the Midway” defence, 67, April 23
“I should like to emphasize once more that whatever its imperfections, Levittown is a good place to live … (T)he most urgent priority is to make the benefits of suburban living available to the poor and nonwhite families, now condemned to slum ghettos.”
— Herbert Gans, a groundbreaking sociologist and media analyst who advocated for greater diversity and public participation in everything from the suburbs (1967’s book “The Levittowners”), 97, April 21
Pope Francis arrives for an audience with members of Entrepreneurs for Economy of Communion, at the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017.
Andrew Medichini AP
“If one has the answers to all the questions-that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.”
— Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change, 88, April 21
Mario Vargas Llosa in 1989.
KEVIN LARKIN AFP via Getty Image
“I never get the feeling that I’ve decided rationally, cold-bloodedly to write a story. On the contrary, certain events or people, sometimes dreams or readings, impose themselves suddenly and demand attention … The novels that have fascinated me most are the ones that have reached me less through the channels of the intellect or reason than bewitched me.”
— Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian author behind “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,” and many other novels, a Nobel laureate and a giant of Latin American letters, 89, April 13
“If you don’t have that identifiable sound, you are getting merged in. If the DJ isn’t mentioning who it is, then nobody will know who it is. It will just be another band, and nothing is worse than being anonymous. That is exactly what you don’t want.”
— Roy Thomas Baker, the hitmaking record producer behind some of the biggest and most proudly polished songs and albums of the rock era, including Queen’s chart-topping, multipart “Bohemian Rhapsody,” 78, April 12
“I read the whole book at one sitting … and said, ‘Mordecai, not only is this one of the great Canadian novels ever written, but one day I’m going to go back to Canada and make a film out of it.’ We laughed like crazy because of course at that time there was no Canadian film industry whatsoever.”
— Ted Kotcheff, Canadian filmmaker famous for big-name Hollywood movies including “Weekend at Bernie’s” and the initial Rambo flick “First Blood,” as well as bringing Richler’s “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” 94, April 10
“I earlier didn’t know why Kim Il Sung wanted to kill President Park … But I came to know the reason as I spent time here. Kim must have been afraid of a poor country such as South Korea becoming rich.”
— Kim Shin-jo, a prominent ex-North Korean commando who resettled in South Korea as a pastor after his daring mission to assassinate then South Korean president Park Chung-hee in 1968 failed, 82, April 9
“You have a bad game, you don’t have to put it in your mind. You say, ‘Tomorrow’s another day.’ ”
— Octavio Dotel, former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Blue Jays and others, 51, April 8
“We have far too many (youth) coaches now who are coaching to win. Very few kids get the honour to play at the elite level, so I think our job as volunteers is to develop good people.”
— Greg Millen, a Peterborough, Ont. native who served as a longtime NHL goaltender and hockey analyst, 67, April 7
“My Utopia is THIS, believe it or not. All my dreams come true is actually all this, so it really makes me feel good to see people writing reviews about us, to actually say, ‘Well, the drummer played off beat there’ … That makes me feel so great that they actually take notice.”
— Clem Burke, whose versatile drumming propelled the iconic rock group Blondie during its decades performing everything from new-wave punk to disco-infused tunes, 70, April 5
“I had got more (by childhood busking than schoolmates) had got by fishing, and a voice inside me said: ‘Amadou, your illness prevented you from going into the water. But your music got you more fish.’ ”
— Amadou Bagayoko, renowned blind guitarist and singer of Mali’s music duo Amadou & Mariam has died, 70, April 4
Val Kilmer in 2003.
Ron Bull/Toronto Star
— Kevan Staples, the co-founder of the provocative avant-garde Toronto rock band Rough Trade of “High School Confidential” fame, 75, March 23
George Foreman, left, hits Michael Moorer with a left during the second round of their heavyweight championship fight in Las Vegas in 1994.
Lennox McLendon AP
“God gave me this gift and I have shared it with the world. Even at this point I am asking my creator what is next because I have so much more to give.”
— Angie Stone, who rose to fame as a member of pioneering female hip-hop trio the Sequence and later became a prominent soul singer, 63, March 1
Juul Hallmeyer with some of his clothing.
Ron Bull/Toronto Star file photo
“I’ve done many a hem with a staple gun, a glue gun and created so many hats with a glue gun, because there’s no time to do it properly. I travel with usually about a dozen of them.”
— David Johansen, the wiry, gravelly-voiced singer and last surviving member of the glam and protopunk band the New York Dolls who later performed as his campy, pompadoured alter ego, Buster Poindexter, 75, Feb. 28
“If you want love, join the fire department. People needy of approval should not become cops.”
— Joseph Wambaugh, who wrote the gripping, true-crime bestseller “The Onion Field” and numerous gritty but darkly humorous novels about day-to-day police work drawn from his own experiences as a Los Angeles cop, 88, Feb. 28
“You can’t imagine how relieved I was when I stopped being the world champion. Those were the hardest years of my life — I was crushed by my responsibilities and got no outside help. I was the king, and I had to answer for my every word.”
— Boris Spassky, a Soviet-era world chess champion who lost his title to American Bobby Fischer in a legendary 1972 match, 88, Feb. 27
Gene Hackman in “Unforgiven.”
Imago TNS
“I wasn’t going to let those (detractors) get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you’re really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle.”
— Gene Hackman, legendary film actor who got past early struggles to win two Oscars for “The French Connection” and “Unforgiven,” 95, Feb. 27
“Filmport will bring the big budget feature films to Toronto. What Filmport is going to do is attract business into Toronto that has otherwise gone to Vancouver and Montreal because of the lack of studio space.”
— Paul Bronfman, Canadian screen industry entrepreneur and founding partner of the waterfront filming complex Filmport Studios, later rebranded Pinewood Toronto Studios, 67, Feb. 27
Michelle Trachtenberg in 2017 in Los Angeles.
Matt Winkelmeyer Getty Images fo
“I write this to every child, teen, person out there who is bullied. You are something. Do not put your value in someone else. Not letting them win, is your win.”
— Michelle Trachtenberg, a bullied child turned movie and TV star in the film “Harriet the Spy” and the series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” 39, Feb. 26
“You have to do all sorts of things when you’re dealing with kids in the inner-city … I knew they’d like the part where (her future hit ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’) goes ‘The first time ever I kissed your mouth.’ Ooh, ‘Kissed your mouth!’ Once the kids got past the giggles, we were good.”
“Did I make 40, 50 million dollars? No. Did I keep one or two? Yes. The old guys on the street used to say, ‘It’s not how much you make. It’s how much you keep.’ ”
— Jerry Butler, a premier soul singer of the 1960s and after whose rich, intimate baritone graced such hits as “For Your Precious Love” and “Only the Strong Survive,” 85, Feb. 20
“If I have one claim to fame, it’s that I took the Acadian language from oral tradition to the written word.”
— Antonine Maillet, acclaimed Canadian novelist and playwright known for drawing on and elevating Acadian folklore and traditions, 95, Feb. 17
Canadian Jerome Drayton, 32, of Toronto, crosses the finish line to win the 1977 Boston Marathon in two hours, 14 minutes and 46 seconds.
AP
“Trying to explain the agony of a first marathon is like trying to explain colour to someone who is born blind.”
— Jerome Drayton, legendary Toronto-based long-distance runner who won the Boston Marathon in 1977 and held the Canadian men’s marathon record for 43 years, 80, Feb. 10
“Faulkner had his inbred Southern gothic freak show, Hemingway his European battlefields and cafes, Melville his New England with its tall ships. I had … a cultural phenomenon such as the world had not quite seen before, has not seen since; a psychic upheaval, a paradigm shift, a widespread if ultimately unsustainable egalitarian leap in consciousness. And it was all very up close and personal.”
— Tom Robbins, the novelist and prankster-philosopher who charmed and addled millions of readers with such screwball adventures as “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” 92, Feb. 9
“It’s home … (Maple Leaf Gardens) always has been home because my father (Doug, who became the Gardens’ chief technician) started on the building when they put the shovel in the ground. And he was here until he died”
— Paul Morris, who served as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ PA announcer for 38 years, 86, Feb. 6
“People get confused because it sells like pop music. But we make black music first and foremost, and all our records is ‘hood first.”
— Irv Gotti, the boisterous music mogul who founded Murder Inc. Records and was behind major hip-hop and R&B artists, 54, Feb. 5
Prince Karim Aga Khan IV claps during the inauguration ceremony of The Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad, India in 2013.
NOAH SEELAM- AFP via Getty Image
“Pluralism is no longer simply an asset or a prerequisite for development, it is essential for the functioning of civil society. Indeed, it is vital to our existence.”
— Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, who became the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims at age 20 and poured a material empire built on billions of dollars in tithes into building homes, hospitals and schools in developing countries, 88, Feb. 4
“I’m sitting here looking at my horn now, feeling guilty because I didn’t get enough practice time in today — I’m mad because I didn’t write a song, or the intro to a song. I got things to do. I’m not looking back.”
— Gene “Daddy G” Barge, an admired and durable saxophone player, songwriter and producer who worked on hits by Natalie Cole, performed with the Rolling Stones and helped inspire the dance classic “Quarter to Three,” 98, Feb. 2
“The tragedy of baseball is the single biggest thing I left undone was to build a decent relationship between the owners and the players … the players and the owners still have to make some commitment to each other to be partners and to build the game.”
— Fay Vincent, who became an unexpected baseball commissioner in 1989 and then was forced out three years later by owners intent on a labour confrontation with players, 86, Feb. 1
“The best successes I’ve ever had, I never thought about the future or what it meant. You just concentrated on what you were doing, not what the reviews were or what the success was.”
— Dick Button, five-time world figure skating champion and inventor of the flying camel spin who sustained his fame with decades of TV coverage of the sport, 95, Jan. 30
Marianne Faithfull at the Diamond Club in Toronto in 1989.
Mike Slaughter/Toronto Star file photo
“One of the hazards of reforming your evil ways is that some people won’t let go of their mind’s eye of you as a wild thing.”
— Marianne Faithfull, the British pop star, muse, libertine and old soul who inspired and helped write some of the Rolling Stones’ greatest songs, 78, Jan. 30
“A millworker in South Carolina once said, ‘Franklin Roosevelt is the only president we’ve ever had who understands that my boss is a son of a gun.’ ”
— William E. Leuchtenburg, a prizewinning historian widely admired as the reigning scholar on Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, 102, Jan. 28
“You see, my people treated me as a god, and I treat my children as gods. And I think we should all treat each other as gods. We may not be, but it’s a lot better than dumping on each other.”
— Bill Wilson, hereditary Indigenous chief (and the father of former federal cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould) who helped get Indigenous title to land and treaty rights enshrined in the Constitution, 80, Jan. 24
Garth Hudson, left, Levon Helm and Rick Danko at the CNE bandshell in 1983.
Dick Darrell/Toronto Star file photo
“We looked for words, phrases and situations that were worth writing about. I think that Bob Dylan showed us discipline, and ageless concern about the quality of his art.”
— Garth Hudson, the Band’s virtuoso keyboardist and last surviving member who did much to elevate the ensemble’s classics such as “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight” and “Rag Mama Rag,” 87, Jan. 21
“Humour seems to me one of the best ways of espousing ideas. It gets people to listen with their guard down.”
— Jules Feiffer, Oscar- and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer whose prolific output ranged from a long-running comic strip to plays, screenplays and children’s books, 95, Jan. 17
“We are all full of several personalities. Kierkegaard said, ‘An actor is essentially a hysteric,’ because he, for two hours, believes he’s somebody else … I needed to be an actress; I needed what it gave me. I needed to explore all the I’s that were within me.”
— Joan Plowright, acclaimed British actress who with her late husband Laurence Olivier did much to revitalize the U.K.‘s theatrical scene after the Second World War, 95, Jan. 16
“I signed a very modest $3,000 bonus with the Braves in Milwaukee. And my old man didn’t have that kinda money to put out.”
— Bob Uecker, undistinguished Major League Baseball player turned comic raconteur, actor and broadcaster, on the start of his pro ball career, 90, Jan. 16
“I like watercolours. I like acrylic paint … a little bit. I like house paint. I like oil-based paint, and I love oil paint. I love the smell of turpentine and I like that world of oil paint very, very, very much.”
— David Lynch, gently eccentric filmmaker celebrated for his uniquely dark and dreamlike vision in such movies as “Blue Velvet,” 78, Jan. 16
Sam Moore.
file photo
“If you’re making a profit off of me, give me some too. Don’t give me cornbread and tell me it’s biscuits.”
— Sam Moore, half and higher voice of the 1960s duo Sam & Dave that was known for such hits as “Soul Man” who in later years sued giant entertainment companies over royalties, 89, Jan. 10
“I’m a moral authority for the movement … and I don’t have the habit of keeping my opinions to myself.”
— Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and for minimizing the Holocaust, 96, Jan. 7
— Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of folk-music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, on his beginnings in music, 86, Jan. 7
“(Mexican-Americans) kind of picked me out of the whole batch, and they keep me going. I appreciate it, because if I was waiting for the big boys to call, I’d have died a long time ago.”
— Brenton Wood, African-American soul singer-songwriter known for hits “The Oogum Boogum Song” and “Gimme Little Sign,” 83, Jan. 3
— Shigemi Fukahori, a survivor of the 1945 Nagasaki atomic bombing, who devoted his life to advocating for peace has died. 93, Jan. 3
Canadian author Andrew Pyper.
Courtesy Andrew Pyper
“I enjoy a special collegiality among other writers in the thriller community. They call me ‘Canada’s scariest writer,’ and I love that.”
— Toronto award-winning literary thriller writer Andrew Pyper, 56, Jan. 3
“These 100 years felt to me like 60.”
— Ágnes Keleti, a Holocaust survivor and oldest living Olympic medal winner at her death, having won a total of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics, including five golds for Hungary, 103, Jan. 2
