Celebrity deaths 2022: The Famous Faces And Notable Figures We Said Goodbye To This Year

Pele, Vivienne Westwood, Maxi Jazz, Terry Hall, Robbie Coltrane, Olivia Newton-John, Ray Liotta, Coolio, Taylor Hawkins, and of course the Queen, are among the people who sadly died this year.

From one of Hollywood's last Golden Age stars and the first black man to win the Oscar for best actor, to a cricketing legend, an EastEnders icon and the incomparable singer who would do Anything For Love - it's time to commemorate the stars and notable faces we have said goodbye to in 2022. 

Among those who passed away in the last 12 months was of course the Queen, who died peacefully at Balmoral, in Scotland, on 8 September, aged 96 - ending the longest reign in British history.

We have also said farewell to the likes of Robbie Coltrane, Olivia Newton-John, Ray Liotta, Coolio, Taylor Hawkins, Dame Deborah James, The Specials frontman Terry Hall, Faithless star Maxi Jazz, and many more.

As another year draws to a close, here's a look back at the life and careers of the famous faces from the worlds of music, film, TV, fashion, sport, royalty and politics who sadly died in the last 12 months.

JANUARY

Actor and diplomat Sidney Poiter was the first black man to win the Oscar for best actor, taking home the famous statuette in 1964 for his performance in Lilies Of The Field.

Known for highlighting issues faced by black people at the time, the Hollywood star appeared in dozens of films and TV shows throughout his career, including In The Heat Of The Night, To Sir, With Love, and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. He also directed a number of projects, including Stir Crazy, Hanky Panky, and Ghost Dad.

As well as being a decorated actor, he was also an international diplomat, serving as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan between 1997 and 2007, and to UNESCO between 2002 and 2007. Knighted in 1974, in 2009 he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the US, by Barack Obama.

Poitier died aged 94, primarily of heart failure after also suffering from Alzheimer's disease and prostate cancer, according to his death certificate. Mr Obama led the tributes to a star who "epitomised dignity and grace, revealing the power of movies to bring us closer together".

Real name, Michael Lee Aday, the performer known to the world as Meat Loaf sold more than 100 million albums worldwide throughout his career.

He also starred in dozens of films, including Fight Club, Focus, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Spiceworld, Wayne's World and The 51st State.

Meat Loaf's hits included Dead Ringer For Love, Paradise By The Dashboard Lights, Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad and I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), but it was his debut album and its titular song, Bat Out Of Hell, released in 1977, that made him a household name.

The album remains one of the biggest-selling records of all time (alongside the likes of Michael Jackson, AC/DC and Whitney Houston), despite never reaching number one in the US or UK.

The star died aged 74 after speaking openly of struggles with health issues including asthma in recent years.

Comedy great Barry Cryer started out as a variety performer before going on to write for and with some of the biggest names in the industry in the UK.

During a career that spanned seven decades, he was a presence on many much-loved TV series, a long-serving panellist on radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, and wrote for a generation of British comedians such as Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, and Tommy Cooper, as well as US stars including Bob Hope and Richard Prior.

Born in Leeds in 1935, he received an OBE in 2001 and in 2018 was given a lifetime achievement award for his comedy career by the British Music Hall Society.

Stars including Stephen Fry, Gyles Brandreth and David Baddiel were among those paying tribute after he died in hospital, aged 86, surrounded by his family.

Other stars and notable figures who died in January 2021 include:

Singer Ronnie Spector
Director Peter Bogdanovich
Conservationist and fossil hunter Richard Leakey
Fashion designer Thierry Mugler
Oscar-winning lyricist Marilyn Bergman
Comedian Bob Saget
Rapper Wavy Navy Pooh
EastEnders' Dr Legg
Former Vogue creative director Andre Leon Talley
French actor Gaspard Ulliel
Actor and comedian Louie Anderson
Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst
French TV star Igor Bogdanoff
Grange Hill's Mr MacKenzie
Neighbours child actor Miranda Fryer
Vicar Of Dibley star Gary Waldhorn
Seinfeld and Orange Is The New Black star Kathryn Kates
Emmerdale star Andy Devine
Woodstock co-creator Michael Lang
Broadway and film star Joan Copeland
Parliament-Funkadelic musician Calvin Simon
Bachelorette reality TV star Clint Arlis
The Dixie Cups singer Rosa Lee Hawkins
US actress Yvette Mimieux
Reality TV star Jordan Cashmyer
German actor Hardy Kruger
Charlie Brown voice actor Peter Robbins

FEBRUARY

While Jamal Edwards' name was not widely known outside the music industry before his death, the outpouring of love for the entrepreneur demonstrated just how instrumental he was in the careers of some of the UK's biggest stars.

Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, Dave and Dua Lipa were among those who paid tribute to the YouTuber, who founded the online urban music platform SBTV which helped dozens of artists rise to prominence over the years.

He died at home aged 31 after taking recreational drugs, with his mother Brenda Edwards - a singer and Loose Women panellist - later warning others of their danger.

She also set up the Jamal Edwards Self Belief Trust, helping good causes in her son's memory, and he became the first person to be honoured posthumously at the annual Music Industry Trusts Award ceremony in November 2022.

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar was one of India's biggest cultural icons, with a career spanning eight decades - from the era of Frank Sinatra to Adele, having begun singing on stage aged just nine.

At 13 she acted in a Marathi film and had some small roles in Hindi cinema, but singing was her passion. She went on to perform an estimated 15,000 songs in more than a dozen languages and was considered the voice of Bollywood, working with nearly every director, actor and actress in the industry.

Fondly revered as the "Melody Queen" and "Nightingale of India", a state funeral was held following her death at the age of 92.

Gary Brooker was the frontman of Procol Harum for more than five decades, the lead voice on the group's 13 albums.

Their biggest hit was the 1967 debut A Whiter Shade Of Pale, which held the number one spot on the UK singles charts for six weeks and was widely regarded as defining "The Summer of Love".

In 1977, the track was named joint winner alongside Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody as best British pop single 1952-1977 at the Brits and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

The singer, pianist and composer had been having cancer treatment before he died peacefully at home, aged 76, his bandmates said.

Other stars and notable figures who died in February 2022 include:

Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan
Drum and bass MC Skibadee
Italian actress Monica Vitti
Former University Challenge host Bamber Gascoigne
Writer and political satirist PJ O'Rourke
Bollywood 'disco king' Bappi Lahiri
On The Buses and EastEnders actress Anna Karen
Love Thy Neighbour star Jack Smethurst
M*A*S*H actress Sally Kellerman

MARCH

Widely considered one of the greatest bowlers in history, having made his Test debut in 1992 against India in Sydney despite playing only seven first-class games, Shane Warne was a cricketing legend.

He retired from international cricket in 2007, after a stellar career during which he took 708 Test wickets in 145 matches. He won the 1999 50-over World Cup and claimed 293 dismissals in 194 one-day internationals between 1993 and 2004.

Following his international retirement, he continued to play franchise Twenty20 cricket until 2013 and worked as a cricket commentator and in various coaching roles, including with the London Spirit in the inaugural edition of The Hundred in 2021.

"Shane Warne didn't just inspire a cricket generation - he defined it," said Daniel Andrews, the premier of the Australian state of Victoria, following his sudden death at the age of 52.

Taylor Hawkins joined the Foo Fighters in 1997 after previously touring with singer Alanis Morissette, one of the biggest stars of the '90s, taking on the rather daunting task of playing drums behind master drummer Dave Grohl.

The Foos were just completing second album The Colour And The Shape, which includes one of their best-loved songs, Everlong, when he joined. With Hawkins on board, the band transitioned from the alternative rock scene to major mainstream success, becoming one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

Hawkins was a huge presence in the band, often coming front of stage at live gigs to sing songs by Queen, one of his favourite acts, while Grohl would return to the sticks.

His sudden death at the age of 50, as the band were touring South America, shocked the world. In September 2022, the Foo Fighters put on two star-studded gigs in London and LA to raise money for charity in memory of their "badass bandmate, our beloved brother".

Oscar-winning actor William Hurt was one of the leading men of film in the 1980s and best known for his roles in Broadcast News, Body Heat and The Big Chill.

He was nominated for an Academy Award three times in a row during his career, winning for 1985's Kiss Of The Spider Woman, in which he played a gay man who shared a cell with a political prisoner in Brazil.

He also got best actor nominations for 1987's news industry satire Broadcast News, and a year before for Children Of A Lesser God, a romantic drama set in a school for the deaf; and later received a fourth in 2005 for his supporting role in A History Of Violence, starring Viggo Mortensen.

He died peacefully aged 71 with his family around him, his son said, after previously being diagnosed with cancer.

Tom Parker was was one of five members of British-Irish boyband The Wanted, known for hits including Glad You Came, All Time Low, and Chasing The Sun.

In October 2020 he revealed he had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour and had gone through chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In later interviews, he told how the growth had shrunk and said he was feeling well - and even reunited with his bandmates on stage for their first show in seven years.

In the last few months of his life, he used his platform to raise funds and call for better treatment for those suffering from brain illnesses, telling an all-parliamentary group that he was "staggered" the COVID vaccine had been developed so quickly "but, for decades on end, they haven't found better treatments let alone a cure for brain tumours".

Parker died aged 33, leaving behind his wife Kelsey and their two children, Aurelia Rose, born in 2019, and Bodhi, who born in October 2021, as the star was being treated.

The Brain Tumour Research charity joined his bandmates and other stars who paid tribute following his death, saying he would be remembered for his "passion, intelligence, eloquence and determination in the face of such adversity".

Other stars and notable figures who died in March 2022 include:

Royal and celeb photographer Patrick Demarchelier
Sesame Street star Emilio Delgado
Open All Hours star Lynda Baron
WWE legend Scott Hall
To The Manor Born star Peter Bowles
First female secretary of state Madeleine Albright
Production and costume designer Tony Walton
Sopranos actor Paul Herman

APRIL

EastEnders stars led the tributes following the death of soap iconJune Brown at the age of 95.

Brown was on our screens as chain-smoking, hypochondriac laundrette worker Dot Cotton, one of Albert Square's most beloved characters, for 35 years - first joining in 1985, shortly after the series began, after being recommended to producers by actor Leslie Grantham, who played Dirty Den.

Dot famously wed Jim Branning (played by John Bardon) in 2002, but it was her career-criminal son, Nick Cotton - or "Nasty Nick" (played by John Altman) - who really ruled her heart.

The only soap actor to have single-handedly led an entire episode, she was nominated for a BAFTA for her performance in the 2008 half-an-hour special in which her character looked back on her life.

Jordan Mooney, real name Pamela Rooke, was best known for her work with the Sex Pistols, and was hailed as the "Queen of Punk".

She modelled for fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and was known for her daring outfits which helped shape punk's aesthetic.

Mooney is played by Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams in Pistol, Danny Boyle's TV series about the Sex Pistols.

She died aged 66 after a short battle with cancer, her family said.

Art Rupe was the music executive who helped R&B go mainstream, founding Specialty Records in Los Angeles in 1946 and giving an early break to the likes of Sam Cooke, Little Richard and John Lee Hooker.

In a 2011 interview for the Rock Hall archives, Rupe said: "There was something in Little Richard's voice I liked." Initial recording sessions were uninspiring - but during a lunch break at a nearby inn, Little Richard sat down at a piano and pounded out a song he had performed during club dates, Tutti Frutti, with its immortal opening shout: "A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-wop-bam-boom!"

Rock-and-roll historian and musician Billy Vera described Rupe as "one of the great men I've known" following his death at the age of 104.

Other stars and notable figures who died in April 2022 include:

Bodybuilding champion Cedric McMillan
Seinfeld actress Liz Sheridan
US actor and comedian Gilbert Gottfried
Mr Benn and Elmer author David McKee
The Eagle Has Landed writer Jack Higgins
Die Another Day and Rush Hour 2 actor Kenneth Tsang
Longest-serving Republican senator Orrin Hatch
Earth, Wind & Fire saxophonist Andrew Woolfolk
Doctor Who actress Ann Davies

MAY

Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Kevin Costner led the tributes to the "uniquely gifted" Ray Liotta following his sudden death while shooting a film in the Caribbean.

Liotta was best known for Scorsese's Goodfellas, released in 1990, in which he played real-life mobster Henry Hill, and also starred in films including Field Of Dreams with Costner, Blow, Narc, and The Rat Pack - playing Frank Sinatra.

Recent projects included Marriage Story, Sopranos prequel The Many Saints Of Newark, and the Apple series Black Bird, starring Taron Egerton, which was released following his death.

He was shooting a film called Dangerous Waters in the Dominican Republic when he passed away in his sleep, aged 67.

Veteran British actor Dennis Waterman was best known for TV shows including Minder and The Sweeney.

In Minder, he starred as Terry McCann from the late 1970s, running around the criminal underworld of west London for seven series. He also performed the show's theme tune, I Could Be So Good For You, which became a hit in the UK and Australia.

Waterman also starred in The Sweeney in the 1970s, and later in New Tricks. He wrapped his final project in 2020, filming Never Too Late, a comedy drama, in Australia.

The actor was also the target of a caricature in TV comedy Little Britain, in which David Walliams impersonated him as a comically small man who would "write the theme tune and sing the theme tune" for new job offers - a joke he accepted with good grace, even joining Walliams and co-star Matt Lucas on stage for a live show.

He died at home in Spain, aged 74, with his wife Pam by his side, his agent said.

A founding member of Depeche Mode, keyboardist Andy Fletchersold more than 100 million records worldwide with the band, and had international chart success with songs such as Personal Jesus and Just Can't Get Enough.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.

He died at the age of 60 after suffering a tear in the main artery from his heart, with his bandmates paying tribute to a man with "a true heart of gold".

Legendary jockey Lester Piggott won the Derby nine times during a career lasting almost 50 years; he rode 4,493 winners, the first coming at the age of 12 at Haydock Park in 1948.

His final victory was on the same Merseyside course in 1994, a few weeks before his 59th birthday, before he retired the following year. Piggott was crowned champion jockey 11 times between 1960 and 1982 and was inducted into the British Champions Series Hall of Fame in 2021.

In a low point, he served 366 days of a three-year prison sentence handed down in 1987 for tax evasion and was stripped of his OBE.

He died in hospital in Switzerland, aged 86, a family member confirmed.

Other stars and notable figures who died in May 2022 include:

Rugby player Kelly Meafua
Tremors and The Right Stuff star Fred Ward
Fat Friends writer Kay Mellor
Chariots Of Fire composer Vangelis
Star Wars designer Colin Cantwell
ER, The X-Files and West Wing actor John Aylward
Basketball star Bob Lanier
Rapper Lil Keed
Friends actor Mike Hagerty

JUNE

Podcaster and campaigner Dame Deborah James's frank accounts of life with bowel cancer sparked an extraordinary deluge of charity donations in the weeks before and after her death.

The driving force behind the BBC podcast You, Me and The Big C, Dame Deborah broke the news to followers that she had moved into end-of-life hospice care at home in May 2022, and within 24 hours had raised more than £1.6m for research into the disease.

The Bowel Babe fund continued to rise, reaching more than £7.5m following her death.

Her family said the 40-year-old passed away peacefully, saying she had told them: "I am not brave - I am not dignified going towards my death - I am simply a scared girl who is doing something she has no choice in but I know I am grateful for the life that I have had."

Philip Baker Hall enjoyed a prolific career which spanned more than 40 years in both film and theatre, including playing a library detective on the long-running American comedy Seinfeld.

His film credits included Magnolia, Boogie Nights and The Truman Show, and he was hailed as "one of Hollywood's top character actors" by Seinfeld producers following his death at the age of 90.

"His talent will be cherished," the show's official account tweeted in tribute.

US rapper Trouble, who had collaborated with artists including Drake and The Weeknd, was killed in a shooting just outside the city of Atlanta, Georgia, aged 34.

Real name Mariel Semonte Orr, he was best known for his music showing the grittier side of life in his hometown city.

Def Jam, one of the musician's record labels, described him as "a true voice for his city and an inspiration to the community he proudly represented".

Dame Paula Rego's career in the art world spanned more than five decades and she was known for her magical pictures based on her childhood memories and fairy tales.

The Portuguese artist challenged gender stereotypes and denounced abuses of power through her works, some of which sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds and featured in collections owned by famous names such as Charles Saatchi and Madonna.

She described herself as a feminist artist and subjects such as sex trafficking and honour killings also provided inspiration for her work.

Dame Paula died at home in north London at the age of 87. "Portuguese culture has lost one of its most important and irreverent creators," said Carlos Carreiras, mayor of the town of Cascais, home to a museum dedicated to her work.

Other stars and notable figures who died in June 2022 include:

Bon Jovi founding member Alec John Such
ER and Ray Donovan actress Mary Mara
Former Dragons' Den star Hilary Devey
Hells Angels founding member Sonny Barger
Big Eyes artist Margaret Keane
TikTok star Cooper Noriega
Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade 
Seals And Crofts star Jim Seals
NBA star Caleb Swanigan

JULY

Actor James Caan's big break came in 1972, when he played the hot-headed and turbulent Sonny in The Godfather - a role which saw him nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor, as well as a Golden Globe. He later reprised the role in Godfather II.

He also played Paul Sheldon, the author held captive by Kathy Bates' manic Annie Wilkes in Stephen King horror Misery, and found a different generation of fans with his performance in Christmas comedy Elf, playing the strict businessman father of Will Ferrell's Santa's helper.

Other films included Honeymoon In Vegas, Bulletproof, Mickey Blue Eyes and Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead.

He died at the age of 82, his family confirmed.

Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe, the country's longest-serving leader, was assassinated in a close-range shooting at a campaign rally in the city of Nara.

More than 4,300 people attended his state funeral, which sparked protests across the country over its cost and widening economic disparities caused by the former prime minister's policies. State funerals in Japan have historically been reserved for the emperor.

Mr Abe served two terms as prime minister before stepping down in 2020, saying a chronic health problem had resurfaced. He had suffered from ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager.

The first wife of former US president Donald Trump, Ivana Trumpwas the mother of his three eldest children, Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric.

Partners in love and business - with her playing roles such as manager of one of his Atlantic City casinos - they were fixtures of New York's social scene before their divorce in 1992; this came after Mr Trump met Marla Maples, the woman who would become his second wife.

Following the divorce, Ivana Trump went on to become an entrepreneur in her own right, starting a fashion line and writing various books. She married and divorced her third and fourth husbands and even made a movie cameo as America's most famous ex-wife in The First Wives Club, in which she delivered the line: "Don't get mad - get everything!"

She died aged 73 after falling down a flight of stairs at her home in New York City, suffering "blunt impact injuries" to her torso.

From Carry On, The Railway Children and Jackanory, to Doctor Who and The Wombles, Bernard Cribbins was a veteran of British film and TV.

The beloved actor had a long and varied CV, including the original Casino Royale, a role in Coronation Street, and playing the grandfather of Catherine Tate's character in the noughties reboot of Doctor Who - appearing in one of the show's most watched episodes of all time, Voyage Of The Damned, in 2007, which also starred Kylie Minogue and Russell Tovey.

But it is his role in the film adaptation of The Railway Children from 1970 which he will perhaps best be remembered for, playing station porter Albert Perks.

After working into his 90s, he died at the age of 93, with his agent paying tribute to a "unique" performer who typified "the best of his generation".

Actress Nichelle Nichols found worldwide fame in the original Star Trek series and led the way for black women in TV playing Lieutenant Nyota Uhura.

Her scenes during her time on the show included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner, something that was unheard of at the time.

The original Star Trek's overriding message to viewers was that in the far-off future - the 23rd century - human diversity would be fully accepted. "I think many people took it into their hearts... that what was being said on TV at that time was a reason to celebrate," Nichols said in 1992.

Like other original cast members, she also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs, starting in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and frequented Star Trek fan conventions.

She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.

Nichols died aged 89, with her former Star Trek co-star George Takei paying tribute to a "trailblazing, incomparable" woman.

Other stars and notable figures who died in July 2022 include:

EastEnders and Desmonds star Mona Hammond
Theatre and film director Peter Brook
Sopranos star Tony Sirico
Happy Mondays star and Shaun Ryder's brother Paul Ryder
Tron, Titanic and Omen star David Warner
Goodfellas and Law & Order actor Paul Sorvino
Creator of Gaia hypothesis James Lovelock
Elvis star Shonka Dukureh
Voice of Little Mermaid's Ursula Pat Carroll

AUGUST

"Tell me about it, stud!" Dame Olivia Newton-John will be best remembered for playing the shy, quiet Sandy in the 1978 film adaptation of the musical Grease, delivering this famous line to John Travolta's leader of the T-Birds Danny Zuko following her transformation at the end of the film.

Prior to her starring role, she represented the UK at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fourth, in the year ABBA won with Waterloo.

Also a four-time Grammy Award winner, she featured in five number one hits on America's Billboard Hot 100, and sold more than 100 million records.

Following the first of three cancer diagnoses in 1992, she became a prominent breast cancer campaigner.

Dame Olivia died aged 73, with Travolta saying in tribute: "Yours from the moment I saw you and forever!"

One of the most significant figures of the 20th century, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was known for ending the Cold War without bloodshed, but failed to prevent the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

He forged arms reduction agreements with the US and partnerships with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the Second World War - leading to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. His efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

He died aged 91, with US President Joe Biden leading tributes and calling him "a man of remarkable vision" who helped avert the prospect of nuclear war.

Darius Danesh rose to fame on the ITV show Popstars - which formed the group Hear'Say - in 2001, becoming known for his audition performance of Britney Spears's Baby One More Time.

He later came third on the first series of Pop Idol, which was won by Will Young, and his memorable performances included renditions of Tom Jones's hit It's Not Unusual and Atomic Kitten's Whole Again.

His debut single, Colourblind, was released in July 2002 and went straight to number one, and he went on to have a successful theatre career, appearing in West End shows such as Chicago, playing Billy Flynn, Guys And Dolls, Gone With The Wind and Funny Girl.

He died at his home in Rochester, Minnesota, aged 41, with a medical examiner saying he died from "inhalation of chloroethane" and ruling his dea