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Look in this gallery the celebrities who have died in 2022 →
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Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, best known for her original portrayal of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on "Star Trek: The Original Series," has died at the age of 89, according to a statement from her son, Kyle Johnson, released on Monday. Sunday July 31.
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NBA and Celtics legend Bill Russell passed away at the age of 88 on July 31.
Here he is photographed in 1969.
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Tony Dow, an actor best known for playing Wally Cleaver on the sitcom "Leave It to Beaver," died on July 27, according to his manager Frank Bilotta.
He was 77 years old.
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Darío Gómez, a Colombian popular music singer who was called the "king of spite," died on July 26 in Medellín, reported Las Américas Clinic.
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David Warner, known for his villains in "Titanic", "Tron" and "Time Bandits", among others, has died at the age of 80, his family reported on Monday, July 25.
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Actor Paul Sorvino, known for his role in "Goodfellas," died on July 25 at the age of 83.
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Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of former President Trump, died on July 15.
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Tony Sirico, best known for playing Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri on HBO's "The Sopranos," died on July 8 at the age of 79.
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James Caan, who acted in "The Godfather", died on July 6, 2022 at the age of 82.
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TV presenter, model and actor Fernando del Solar died on June 30 at the age of 49.
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Alec John Such, founding member and original bassist of the band Bon Jovi, has died, the group reported Sunday, June 5 on Twitter.
He was 70 years old.
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Andy Fletcher, keyboardist and founding member of Depeche Mode, has died at the age of 60, the band reported on May 26.
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American actor Ray Liotta passed away at the age of 67 on May 26.
He was world famous for his role as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's 1990 film "Goodfellas" as well as the character Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field of Dreams."
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Vangelis, the iconic Greek composer and musician who was best known for his electronic theme to the Oscar-winning 'Chariots of Fire', died at the age of 79 on May 19.
(Credit: GEORGES BENDRIHEM/AFP via Getty Images)
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Marnie Schulenburg, actress of soap operas such as 'As the World Turns' and 'One Life to Live', died on Tuesday, May 17 at the age of 37, her representative reported on Thursday, May 19.
She died after battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.
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Robert Morse, Broadway star known to viewers as the boss of "Mad Men," Bertram Cooper died at the age of 90 on April 21.
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Mexican activist Rosario Ibarra passed away on April 16.
Ibarra was the founder of the ¡Eureka! Committee, an organization for relatives of the disappeared.
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Liz Sheridan, a veteran stage and screen actress who played Jerry Seinfeld's mother, Helen, on "Seinfeld," died on April 15.
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Former soccer player Freddy Rincón died on April 13 after suffering a serious car accident, announced the Imbanaco Grupo Quirónsalu Clinic, in the Colombian city of Cali.
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Gilbert Gottfried, a comedian and film and television actor with a distinctly memorable voice, died on April 12 at the age of 67 after a long illness.
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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins was struck by a garbage truck in Florida, police reported April 9.
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Estelle Harris, the actress known for playing George Costanza's mother on the series "Seinfeld," died on April 2, her agent told CNN.
She was 93 years old.
(Credit: Tibrina Hobson/FilmMagic)
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Paul Herman, an actor known for his roles in "The Sopranos," "Goodfellas" and "The Irishman," has died, his manager said Wednesday, March 30.
He was 76 years old, says the IMDb page of him.
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Tom Parker, a member of the British band The Wanted, died at the age of 33 on March 30, 2022. His death came less than two years after announcing his diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumor.
In October 2020, Parker announced that he had been diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain tumor.
He was diagnosed after experiencing two seizures, he said at the time.
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Belgian footballer Miguel Van Damme has died of leukemia, leaving behind his wife and young daughter, his club Cercle Brugge said on Tuesday, March 29.
He was 28 years old.
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Taylor Hawkins, drummer for the Foo Fighters, died on March 25.
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Madeleine Albright passed away at the age of 84 on March 23, 2022. She was the first female US Secretary of State and helped lead Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War.
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William Hurt, the Oscar-winning star of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "The Big Chill" and "Broadcast News," died Sunday, March 13. He was 71.
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Mark Lanegan, a pioneer of Seattle's grunge music scene and leader of the influential band Screaming Trees, has died at the age of 57, his family and friends reported on his verified Twitter account on Tuesday, February 22.
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Ivan Reitman, a storied producer and director behind some of Hollywood's biggest comedies, has died, it was reported on February 14.
He was 75 years old.
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Monica Vitti, known as the 'queen of Italian cinema', died on February 2 at the age of 90.
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Moses J. Moseley, who played one of the zombies on "The Walking Dead," died at the age of 31 on February 1.
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Colombian actress Dora Cadavid, recognized for her role as "Inesita" in the telenovela "Yo soy Betty, la fea", died at the age of 84, reported the Colombian Ministry of Culture on January 31. (Source: account of Twitter of Maria Cecilia Botero)
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Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst died on January 30.
She was 30 years old.
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Born in Buenos Aires, Diego Verdaguer became a Mexican national and had an outstanding career in the world of music.
He was an interpreter of hits like "He lied to me", "My good heart", "I'll be back" and "La ladrona". He died on Thursday, January 27, 2022 at the age of 70.
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Actress Kathryn Kates, who starred in hit television shows such as Orange is the New Black and Seinfeld, died on January 26.
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Louie Anderson, an acclaimed comedian who appeared in numerous TV shows and movies, passed away at age 68 on Jan. 21, 2022, his publicist Glenn Schwartz told CNN in a statement.
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Meat Loaf, the singer whose 1977 album "Bat out of Hell" is one of the best-selling albums of all time, died Thursday, January 20, at the age of 74, according to a statement on his verified Facebook page.
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French actor Gaspard Ulliel, best known for playing Hannibal Lecter in "Hannibal Rising," died on January 19 at the age of 37 after a skiing accident in southeastern France.
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André Leon Talley, former creative director of Vogue and a fashion icon in his own right, has died at the age of 73, according to a statement posted Tuesday, January 18, on his official Instagram account.
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Francisco "Paco" Gento, honorary president and former Real Madrid player, died on Tuesday, January 18 at the age of 88, the Spanish club reported.
(VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images)
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Ronnie Spector, frontman of the pop group The Ronettes and the powerful central voice of such hits as "Be My Baby" and "Baby I love You," passed away on Wednesday, January 11.
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David Sassoli, president of the European Parliament, has died at the age of 65, his spokeswoman reported on Tuesday, January 11.
Sassoli had been hospitalized in Italy since December 26 due to a serious complication related to a dysfunction of his immune system.
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Bob Saget, the comedian and actor best known to audiences as Danny Tanner on the sitcom "Full House," died Jan. 9 at age 65 in Orlando, Florida.
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Michael Lang, co-creator of Woodstock, died on January 8 at the age of 77.
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Sidney Poitier, the first black actor to win an Oscar, died at the age of 94 on January 7.
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Director Peter Bogdanovich died on January 6 in Los Angeles.
He was 82 years old.
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Kim Mi-soo, a South Korean actress who appeared in the Disney+ series "Snowdrop" and Netflix's "Hellbound," died at age 29 on January 5.
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French TV star Igor Bogdanoff died of covid-19 on January 4, six days after his twin brother Grichka died of the same cause.
(CNN) --
Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, best known for her original portrayal of Lt. Nyota Uhura on "Star Trek: The Original Series," has died at age 89, according to a statement from her son, Kyle Johnson.
"Last night my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. However, her light, like ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from and be inspired by," Johnson said in a statement shared on Nichols' official website on Sunday.
"His was a life well lived and as such a model for all of us."
Nichols died of natural causes, he said.
Nichelle Nichols, in her role as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in "Star Trek: The Original Series."
Nichols played communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on the television series "Star Trek" and in many of its film sequels.
When "Star Trek" began in 1966, Nichols was a television oddity: a black woman in a notable role in a prime-time television series.
There used to be black women on television, but they often played domestic workers and had small roles.
Meanwhile, Uhura was an integral part of the multicultural "Star Trek" team.
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said it was "the first non-stereotypical role played by a black woman in television history".
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Nichols is widely known for participating in one of the first interracial kisses on American television when her character kissed James T. Kirk, played by white Canadian actor William Shatner.
In an interview with CNN in 2014, Nichols said that the kiss scene "changed television forever and also changed the way people looked at each other."
After three seasons of "Trek," Nichols turned to the space program.
He helped NASA make the agency more diverse, helping recruit astronauts Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, and Guion Bluford, among others.
George Takei, who played USS Enterprise helmsman Hikaru Sulu, posted a touching tribute to his co-star.
"I will have more to say about the pioneering and incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed away today at age 89," Takei wrote on Twitter.
"For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shine like the stars among which you now rest, my dear friend."
"We live long and prosper together," he added with a photo of the couple doing the iconic Vulcan salute.
On Twitter, the National Air and Space Museum called Nichols "an inspiration to many, not only for her groundbreaking work on Star Trek, but also for her work with NASA to recruit women and people of color to apply to become in astronauts".
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, also posted a tribute to the actress.
"Good luck to Nichelle Nichols, champion, warrior and tremendous actress," Abrams wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of her with Nichols.
"Her kindness of hers and her bravery lit the path of many. May she live forever among the stars."
Nichols was born Grace Dell Nichols near Chicago in 1932. (Unhappy with Grace, she changed her name to Nichelle as a teenager.)
Her grandfather was a white southerner who married a black woman, causing a rift in her family.
Blessed with a four-octave vocal range, Nichols was performing in local clubs by the time she was 14 years old.
Among the artists she met was Duke Ellington, who later took her on tour.
She also worked extensively in Chicago clubs and on the stage.
He moved to Los Angeles in the early '60s and landed a role in a Gene Roddenberry series, "The Lieutenant."
Several "Star Trek" veterans, including Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig and Majel Barrett, also worked on the show.
When Roddenberry was creating "Trek," he remembered Nichols.
He was in Europe when he got the call.
"(My agent said), 'They're doing 'Star Trek,' and I didn't know what 'Star Trek' was," he said in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation.
Uhura was not in the original script and Nichols was responsible for the name.
He was reading a book called "Uhuru" ("freedom" in Swahili) and suggested that his character take the name.
Roddenberry thought that was too harsh.
"I said, 'Well, why don't you alter it, soften the ending with an 'A' and it will be Uhura?'
she recalled.
“He said, 'That's right, that's your name!
You gave him the name;
it's yours'.
Nichols is survived by his son, Kyle Johnson.
star trek