Sue Grafton, the mystery writer who penned best-selling novels with alphabet-based titles, starting with "A Is for Alibi" and ending with "Y Is for Yesterday," died December 28 after a bout with cancer, her daughter, Jamie Clark, said in a social media post. Grafton was 77.
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Broadway and television actress Rose Marie, best known for her role as Sally Rogers on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," died December 28, her publicist said, citing her family. She was 94.
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More than 50 years after her star turn in "The Sound of Music," actress Heather Menzies Urich died of brain cancer on December 24. She was 68 years old. Menzies Urich played Louisa von Trapp in the classic 1965 movie.
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Former astronaut Bruce McCandless II, famously captured in a 1984 photo documenting the first untethered flight in space, died December 21, NASA said. He was 80.
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Legendary sports broadcaster Dick Enberg died on December 21. He was 82. Most recently, Enberg was the play-by-play voice of the San Diego Padres.
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Beloved Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor died December 4 at a hospital in Mumbai, India, a hospital spokesman said. The 79-year-old actor had been battling chronic kidney disease, local media reported.
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Jim Nabors, a singer and actor best known for his role as Gomer Pyle on "The Andy Griffith Show," died November 30, according to family friend and CNN affiliate KHNL-KGMB producer Phil Arnone. Nabors was 87. His popular character was the center of a spinoff series, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," which ran for five seasons.
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Rance Howard, a stage, film and TV actor, died November 25 at the age of 89, according to the Twitter account of his son, movie director Ron Howard.
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David Cassidy, who came to fame as a '70s teen heartthrob and lead singer on "The Partridge Family," died on November 21, according to his publicist Jo-Ann Geffen. He was 67.
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Della Reese, who rose to fame as a jazz singer and later found television stardom on the drama "Touched by an Angel," died on November 19. She was 86.
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Country music legend Mel Tillis died early on November 19, according to a statement from his publicist. He was 85. Tillis was a prolific singer-songwriter who penned more than 1,000 songs and recorded more than 60 albums in a career that spanned six decades.
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Earle Hyman, a longtime stage and TV actor who was best known for playing Bill Cosby's father on "The Cosby Show," died Friday, November 17. Hyman was 91.
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Longtime gossip columnist Liz Smith, who started her column at the New York Daily News in 1976, died on November 12, according to the newspaper. She was 94. Known affectionately as the "the Grand Dame of Dish," Smith's legendary work included a chronicle of Donald and Ivana Trump's divorce, which made front-page news.
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Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roy Halladay, a two-time winner of the Cy Young Award, died in a plane crash on November 7, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office in Florida. Halladay was 40.
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Former NASA astronaut Dick Gordon, the command module pilot on the second lunar landing mission, died on November 6. He was 88. Gordon spent more than 316 hours in space over two missions.
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Antoine "Fats" Domino, a titan of early rock 'n' roll whose piano-based hits -- such as "Ain't That a Shame," "Blueberry Hill" and "Blue Monday" -- influenced artists including Paul McCartney and Randy Newman, died on October 24. He was 89.
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Robert Guillaume, best known for his lead role in the TV series "Benson" and as the voice of Rafiki in "The Lion King," died October 24 after a battle with prostate cancer, according to his wife, Donna. He was 89.
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Fashion designer and popular "Project Runway" contestant Mychael Knight died October 17 outside Atlanta, family spokesman Jerris Madison told CNN. Knight was 39. No cause of death was released.
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Hall of Fame football quarterback Y.A. Tittle died October 8 at the age of 90. Tittle made the Pro Bowl seven times over his 17-year career, and he was the NFL's MVP in 1963. In this photo, Tittle squats on the field after being hit hard during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1964. This became an iconic photograph that helped cement Tittle's name in football history.
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Rock legend Tom Petty died October 2 after suffering cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, California, according to Tony Dimitriades, longtime manager of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Petty was 66.
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Monty Hall, best known as the cheerful and friendly host of the game show "Let's Make a Deal," died September 30 in Los Angeles, his daughter Sharon Hall said. He was 96.
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Hugh Hefner -- the silk-robed Casanova whose Playboy magazine popularized the term "centerfold," glamorized an urbane bachelor lifestyle and helped spur the sexual revolution of the 1960s -- died September 27 at the age of 91, the magazine said.
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Singer Charles Bradley, who was known as the "Screaming Eagle of Soul" because of his raspy voice and stirring performances, died September 23 at the age of 68.
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Former boxing champion Jake LaMotta, right, died September 19 at the age of 95. LaMotta was played by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning movie "Raging Bull."
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Longtime character actor Harry Dean Stanton died September 15 at the age of 91, according to his agent, John S. Kelly. Stanton, whose gaunt, worn looks were more recognizable to many than his name, appeared in more than 100 movies and 50 TV shows, including "Alien," "Repo Man," "Paris, Texas" and "Pretty in Pink."
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Troy Gentry, of the country duo Montgomery Gentry, died following a helicopter crash in New Jersey on September 8, according to a statement posted on the group's official site. He was 50.
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Jay Thomas, a comic and character actor whose credits include roles on "Cheers" and "Murphy Brown," died of cancer, his publicist said on August 24. Thomas was 69.
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Jerry Lewis, the slapstick-loving comedian, innovative filmmaker and generous fundraiser, died August 20 after a brief illness. He was 91.
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Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory, who broke barriers in the 1960s and became one of the first African-Americans to perform at white clubs, died on August 19. He was 84.
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Glen Campbell, the upbeat guitarist from Delight, Arkansas, whose smooth vocals and down-home manner made him a mainstay of music and television for decades, died August 8 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease, his family announced on Facebook. The six-time Grammy Award winner was 81.
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Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor, died at his home in Kentucky on July 27. He was 73. Shepard authored more than 40 plays, winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1979 for his play "Buried Child," which explored the breakdown of the traditional American family. Shepard also received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 astronaut drama "The Right Stuff."
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June Foray, the iconic voice of Rocky and Natasha in the popular and memorable "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show," died July 26. She was 99. Foray also was the voice of Nell in "Dudley Do-Right," Granny in the "Tweety and Sylvester" cartoons and Cindy Lou Who in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
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John Heard, a character actor best known as the father in the "Home Alone" movies, died July 21, according to the medical examiner's office in Santa Clara County, California. It said the actor was 71, but other reports listed his age as 72.
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Chester Bennington, the lead singer of the rock band Linkin Park, was found dead on July 20, according to a spokesman for the LA County Coroner. Bennington was 41. Authorities said they were treating the case as a possible suicide.
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Actor Martin Landau, who starred in the 1960s television show "Mission Impossible" and won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in the movie "Ed Wood," died July 15 following "unexpected complications during a short hospitalization," his publicist Dick Guttman said. Landau was 89.
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Stephen Furst, the actor who played Flounder in the 1978 movie "Animal House," died at age 63, his son Nathan Furst told CNN on June 17.
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Adam West, star of the popular and campy 1960s "Batman" TV show, died June 9 after "a short but brave battle with leukemia," his family said in a statement. He was 88.
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Frank Deford, a renowned sportswriter and commentator, died May 28 at the age of 78. Here, Deford holds the final front page of The National Sports Daily when it folded in 1991. Deford was well known for his NPR commentaries as well as his decades-long career at Sports Illustrated.
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Gregg Allman, the founding member of the Allman Brothers Band who overcame family tragedy, drug addiction and health problems to become a grizzled elder statesman for the blues music he loved, died May 27. He was 69.
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Former US Sen. Jim Bunning, the only National Baseball Hall of Fame member ever to serve in Congress, died May 26 at the age of 85.
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Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, died May 26 at age 89. Brzezinski is seen here at right talking with Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin in 1978.
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Roger Moore, the actor famous for portraying James Bond in seven films between 1973 and 1985, died May 23 after a battle with cancer, according to his family. He was 89.
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Roger Ailes, who transformed cable news and then American politics by building the Fox News Channel into a ratings powerhouse, died May 18. He was 77.
