While 2022 ushered in new talent and amazing movies and television, there were also many great artists lost this year. To remember their lives and their work is to honor them, and sadly, there was a lot of honor to go around this year. Some incredible actors, directors, singers, and stars in general passed away this year:

  • Louie Anderson Sidney Poitier Peter Bogdanovich Monica Vitti William Hurt Meat Loaf Estelle Harris Jean-Luc Godard Jacques Perrin Gilbert Gottfried Naomi Judd Fred Ward Philip Baker Hall Jean-Louis Trintignant James Caan Bob Rafelson Paul Sorvino John Eastman Anne Heche Julia Reicher Kevin Conroy

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That litany of tragic passings doesn’t even get into the names below, some of the most recent deaths of stars whose lives and work personally touched us.

Stephen “tWitch” Boss

     Warner Bros. TV

Stephen “tWitch” Boss died on December 13th, and he was 40 years old. He rose to fame in 2008 after competing on So You Think You Can Dance and earning second place. He was a jack of all trades working as a dancer, choreographer, DJ, and actor. His legacy lives on through his work on Ellen’s Game of Games, Step Up, Magic Mike XXL, and Stomp The Yard 2: Homecoming.

Kirstie Alley

     NBC

Kirstie Alley died on December 5th at age 71 after battling cancer. She was an actress best known for her Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning role, Rebecca Howe, on the legendary show Cheers. Additionally, she was nominated for awards for her role in Veronica’s Closet, won an Emmy for her role in the TV movie David’s Mother, and earned a nomination for The Last Don.

She had her own sitcom, Kirstie, was featured in Scream Queens, and was in the Look Who’s Talking movies and the film Drop Dead Gorgeous. She has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and her influence and mark on Hollywood is not one that will soon be forgotten.

Bob McGrath

     Sesame Workshop

Bob McGrath died on December 4th at 90 years old. He was an original and founding casting member of Sesame Street and played the neighborhood teacher for almost 50 years. His legacy lives on in all the lives he touched as an actor, children’s author, and musician.

Leslie Jordan

Leslie Jordan died on October 24th at the age of 76. While he lived a long life and had a prosperous career, it’s hard not to feel that he was gone too soon. Even at 76 years old, he was not slowing down anytime soon and was even on his way to work at the time of his death. His career was jump-started in the 1980s commercial world, and he quickly became a star. Some of his most notable credits are from Desperate Housewives, American Horror Story, Ally McBeal, Will and Grace, and most recently Call Me Kat. His work did not stop on camera, as he has various credits in Los Angeles and off-Broadway theatre.

Robbie Coltrane

     Warner Bros.

Robbie Coltrane died on October 14th at 72 years old. He won the hearts of everyone in his role in the Harry Potter movies as Hagrid, a gentle giant. He is a decorated actor and outside the wizarding franchise is best known for roles in Cracker, Golden Eye, Van Helsing, and The World Is Not Enough. He was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from British Academy of Television Awards Scotland in 2011 as well as three British Academy of Television Awards for his titular role in the excellent series Cracker.

Louise Fletcher

     United Artists

Louise Fletcher died on September 26th at age 88. She earned her fame playing Nuse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. A role in which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, a British Academy of Television Awards Award, and a Golden Globe Award. Fletcher ever-so-iconically sair in her Oscar acceptance speech, “It looks like you all hated me so much that you’ve given me this award for it.” The character was so iconic that it even became a TV series, Ratched. She had a long career and worked on titles such as Flowers in the Attic, Firestarter, and Two Moon Junction. Her memory lives on in the fierce, yet subtle work that will be relevant and beloved for many years to come.

Bob Saget

     ABC

Bob Saget died on January 9th at the age of 65. Saget was known for his iconic role as Danny Tanner in the television show Full House. He was a standup comedian, actor, and television host who devoted part of his life to raising money and awareness for scleroderma. He voiced the narrator in How I Met Your Mother, hosted America’s Funniest Home Videos, and had various standup specials. He was America’s dad and will live on in the people he brought laughter to.

Olivia Newton-John

     Paramount Pictures

Olivia Newton-John died August 8th at age 73. She was an actor, activist, and Grammy-winning singer. She battled breast cancer and championed research in plant-based medicine with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund. As a star, she is known for her role as Sandy in Grease as well as Kira in Xanadu.

Irene Cara

     Paramount

Irene Cara was an American singer, songwriter, and actress who died on November 25th at age 63. She was a child performer who starred in the musical drama Sparkle. She is best known for her role in the movie Fame as Coco Hernandez and for the Oscar-winning song she co-wrote for Flashdance.

Angela Lansbury

     NBCUniversal

Dame Angela Lansbury died on October 11th at 96 years old, only a few days shy of her 97th birthday. In her 80-year-long career, she touched the lives of many through a series of performances we’ll never forget. Manchurian Candidate, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Death on the Nile are only some of the Oscar-winner’s great roles, but Lansbury is remembered most for her role as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote.