As 2025 slips into 2026, it invites reflection on the famous names who left us this year. The year began with the loss of luminaries like actor Joan Plowright and singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull and ended with the shocking murder of director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. We lost many actors this year, including Val Kilmer, Michael Madsen, Loretta Swit, Diane Ladd, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Michelle Trachtenberg, and musical legends including reggae artist Jimmy Cliff and founding Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley. Below, we have singled out 13 of the artists we lost.
Rob Reiner
It’s difficult not to be overcome by a warm, fuzzy sense of nostalgia when thinking about Rob Reiner’s filmography. The legendary American director, actor and producer had a knack for making movies that appealed to both cinephiles and ordinary folks; endlessly rewatchable films that were both entertaining and deeply human. Reiner was also incredibly versatile — over a decades-long career, he perfected the comedy (“This Is Spinal Tap”), created one of the most beloved films in rom-com history (“When Harry Met Sally …”), directed a timeless legal drama (“A Few Good Men”), a timeless coming-of-age drama (“Stand By Me”), and charmed a generation of children and parents with a fantasy film like no other (“The Princess Bride”). The shocking murder of Reiner and his wife Michele in December remains almost impossible to fathom, but his legacy and impact on the history of Hollywood has already been canonized. To quote film critic and Star contributor Corey Atad, “When people say ‘they don’t make ’em like that anymore,’ they’re talking about Rob Reiner movies.”
Diane Keaton
Talent, charm, style: Diane Keaton had it all and she made it look effortless. The iconic American actor, who died unexpectedly at the age of 79 in October, possessed a singular vibrancy and quirky charm that she brought to each of her roles, elevating each film she starred in, whether a comedy or drama. Keaton’s breakout role came in 1972 with Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” and she became a favourite lead for directors Woody Allen and Nancy Meyers. Over her more than five-decade career, Keaton was nominated for the best actress Academy Awards four times, winning in 1978 for “Annie Hall.” Beyond her work as an actor, Keaton was also a bestselling author, photographer, director, producer, interior designer and a style icon. Following her passing, Nathalie Atkinson wrote in the Star, “Keaton remained an eccentric free spirit unaffected by trends in fashion and an inspiration in how to be true to yourself.”
Ozzy Osbourne
Just weeks before he died at the age of 76, Ozzy Osbourne performed for the last time in front of some 42,000 fans as part of a star-studded tribute concert in his hometown of Birmingham, England. It was a fitting farewell for the legendary singer, also known as the Prince of Darkness, who has been rightly canonized as the godfather of heavy metal. Osbourne’s journey was an unlikely one: after working in a slaughterhouse, he became the frontman of Black Sabbath, a pioneering rock band whose self-titled 1970 debut was likened to the Big Bang of heavy metal. Untrained as a vocalist, Osbourne’s idiosyncratic and hauntingly affective voice was key to the band’s success, but he was fired in 1979 for his excessive partying and unpredictable behaviour. He forged forward as a successful solo artist, releasing a dozen albums and landing a number of massive commercial hits, from 1980’s Crazy Train to 1991’s “Mama I’m Coming Home.” Later in his life, Osbourne’s larger-than-life persona made him a reality television star on the popular MTV series “The Osbournes,” in which he appeared alongside his wife and children. But Ozzy’s legacy will always be his voice. Twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — once with Black Sabbath in 2006 and again in 2024 as a solo artist — he sold more than 100 million records in his lifetime and inspired several generations of heavy music.
Robert Redford
Trying to summarize the career of the late Robert Redford with just a few sentences is a fool’s errand. The American actor first gained prominence in ’60s and early ’70s with roles in classics like “The Candidate,” “All the President’s Men” and “The Way We Were,” cementing his place as one of Hollywood’s quintessential leading men. In 1981, he won an Oscar for directing the film “Ordinary People,” which also won best picture. Over the next four decades, Redford remained a constant, if less prolific, presence on the silver screen, while emerging as a champion of independent cinema — in 1981, he launched the Sundance Institute, an organization supporting indie filmmakers named after his 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” — and a liberal activist who lobbied the government to take action on environmental protection. He died in September at the age of 89.
Graham Greene
As an actor, Graham Greene always managed to locate that sweet spot between seriousness and humour, bringing depth and subtlety to each of his roles. Following his death at the age of 73 in September, the Oneida actor from Six Nations of the Grand River was remembered as a trail-blazing actor who brought nuance to his portrayal of Indigenous characters, who were too often flattened or misrepresented in Hollywood by racist tropes. Greene’s most famous role was Kicking Bird in 1990’s “Dances With Wolves,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar, but he was a steady presence on the screen, appearing in movies like “The Green Mile,” “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” and “Maverick,” and more recently in television series like “Reservation Dogs” and “The Last Of Us.” In a tribute posted on Instagram, actor Lily Gladstone called Greene “one of the best to ever do it. He lived on the screen in an absolutely unparalleled way. He made everything he was in better. Funnier. Deeper. Memorable.”
Gene Hackman
The prolific American actor Gene Hackman appeared in dozens of films (at least 77, according to IMDb) spanning from the 1960s to his retirement in the early 2000s, establishing himself as one of the most respected actors in the business. A relative late bloomer, Hackman was 37 when he landed his breakout role in 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde” and was over 40 when he won his first of two Oscars for his role in 1971’s “The French Connection.” Gruff but charming, intense but vulnerable, Hackman distinguished himself as a remarkably versatile actor, moving easily between drama and comedy. He seemed just as comfortable portraying villains as reluctant heroes, and was equally compelling as an FBI agent or a college basketball coach. “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen,” “Star Trek” actor George Takei wrote on X following Hackman’s death from heart disease at 95 in February. “(He) could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it. He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was.”
David Lynch
There will never be an auteur quite like David Lynch. The influential director of classic films like “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” and the television series “Twin Peaks,” had such a distinct visual and storytelling style — a style characterized by its surrealist and dreamlike qualities, its juxtaposition of the mundane and the grotesque, its unsettling use of music — that it birthed its own adjective. “His mysterious, disturbing, and endlessly suggestive films are inexhaustible terrains for thought and feeling,” film critic Will Sloan told the Star after Lynch’s passing in January. “No filmmaker has better captured what a dream feels like, nor has any filmmaker more incisively identified how the line between dream and reality can be porous.”
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack’s rise to the pantheon of great American vocalists was slow, but inevitable. A classically trained pianist equipped with an intimate and sophisticated voice, Flack was discovered by jazz legend Les McCann in the 1960s, who later wrote that “her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known.” Her music — which moved effortlessly between R&B, jazz, flamenco, folk and pop — had many admirers, but only found mainstream success in her 30s, when she went on an all-time run, releasing a string of timeless classics including “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Flack also recorded multiple hits with her close friend Donny Hathaway, which helped her become one of the top recording artists of the 1970s and a defining voice of that generation. During the height of her career, Flack was also a bold champion of the civil rights movement, and a close friend of Rev. Jesse Jackson and activist Angela Davis. “Her existence was a form of resistance,” artist Lauryn Hill said during a memorial following Flack’s death at the age of 88 in February.
Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry belongs on a very short list of architects whose work elevated them to global household names. The Toronto-born designer, who died at 96 in December, was internationally regarded for his bold, unconventional approach to architecture, and for creating structures and buildings that doubled as visual art masterpieces. Over a half-century, Gehry designed 150 structures around the world, many distinguished by their curving, sculptural shapes and their innovative use of titanium or stainless steel, among them the iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. But in Toronto, Gehry is perhaps best known for transforming the Art Gallery of Ontario in the mid-2000s, adding a soaring, 600-foot facade of curved glass and timber, and the spiral staircase in the museum’s Walker Court.
Brian Wilson
The word “genius” gets thrown around a lot, but there are few artists in the history of popular music more deserving of the title than Brian Wilson. The prodigious but troubled singer-songwriter was a key architect behind the sunny melodies and bright harmonies that made the Beach Boys a global sensation in the 1960s. But it was with 1966’s “Pet Sounds” that Wilson’s true brilliance first materialized. Painstakingly crafted with top studio musicians, the record built on the incorporated elements of jazz, psychedelia and avant-garde music, and involved complex and meticulously rendered arrangements and harmonies that pushed the boundaries of pop music. Featuring tracks like “God Only Knows” — which Paul McCartney famously called his favourite song of all-time — and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Pet Sounds” became Wilson’s crowning achievement, and is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential albums of all-time. Unfortunately, Wilson’s ambitions were derailed by his struggles with mental illness, substance abuse and a troubling relationship with Eugene Landy, a psychotherapist accused of holding a Svengali-like power over him. In his later years, Wilson re-emerged from seclusion to record and perform as a solo artist. In 2004, he finally released the unfinished Beach Boys album “Smile,” an intense, emotionally taxing project that he’d struggled to complete for decades. “It’s a singular event, that Brian Wilson lived in our time,” Canadian singer Ron Sexsmith told the Star following Wilson’s death at the age of 82 this June. “It’s like living in the time of Mozart or Beethoven.”
Garth Hudson
In January, Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of the Band, died at 87. Born in Windsor, Ont., Hudson played organ, piano, accordion and occasionally saxophone for the legendary Canadian-American rock group, which he joined in 1961. Once dubbed “the most brilliant organist in the rock world,” he was revered as a key architect of the Band’s dual keyboard sound. Following Hudson’s death, Bob Dylan — who toured and collaborated extensively with the Band in the late 1960s — paid tribute to Hudson, calling him “a beautiful guy and the real driving force behind the Band.”
Sly Stone
Sly Stone, the inimitable frontman of the revolutionary and genre-smashing group Sly and the Family Stone, spent less than half a decade in the spotlight, but his incredible influence on the history of popular music is perhaps unparalleled. Formed in 1966, Sly and the Family Stone was made up of Black and white musicians, both men and women — considered a radical act at the time. But it was the band’s ability to distil and express the wild freedom associated with the Woodstock era that made them truly unique. Led by the explosively charismatic Stone, who often wore leather jumpsuits and oversized sunglasses, the Family Stone played a central role in the development of funk and psychedelic soul music, landing major hits with euphoric but politically engaged tracks like “Everyday People,” “Family Affair,” and “I Want to Take You Higher.” Sadly, Stone’s erratic behaviour and substance abuse forced him to leave the band in the early ’70s. He retreated from the spotlight and spent much of his life in isolation. And yet, his brief, glorious run is credited with inspiring the Jackson Five, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Prince, OutKast and many more. Stone died at 82 in June, sparking an outpouring of tributes. “Sly was a giant — not just for his groundbreaking work with the Family Stone, but for the radical inclusivity and deep human truths he poured into every note,” musician Questlove, who directed a documentary on Stone earlier this year, wrote on Instagram. “His songs weren’t just about fighting injustice; they were about transforming the self to transform the world.”
D’Angelo
The world of music was left in utter shock in October following news that D’Angelo had died following a private battle with cancer. The 51-year-old, born Michael Eugene Archer, was a trail-blazing and visionary artist who helped define and expand the sound of modern R&B and soul music. Though he released just three albums over his three-decade career, 1995’s “Brown Sugar,” 2000’s “Voodoo” and 2014’s “Black Messiah,” each was heralded as an era-defining classic that combined the steeliness of hip-hop, the sensuality of soul and the emotional intensity of gospel music. A key figure in the ’90s neo-soul revival, D’Angelo’s inventive approach to groove and melody built upon the legacies of Black musical luminaries like Marvin Gaye, Prince and Sly Stone. “We thank you for your beautiful music, your voice, your proficiency on the piano, your artistry,” Beyoncé wrote on her website following D’Angelo’s death. “You were the pioneer of neo-soul, and that changed and transformed rhythm & blues forever.”
