Actor Graham Greene (September 1, 2025) had a five-decade career in theatre, television, and film. Movies include Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Green Mile, and Dances with Wolves.
Giorgio Armani (September 4, 2025) was a big name in fashion. He also worked in clothing design in film, including John Travolta in American Gigolo.
Musician Mark Volman (September 5, 2025) was a founding member of the Turtles and later joined the Mothers of Invention.
Keyboardist-songwriter Rick Davies (September 6, 2025) was a founder of Supertramp and responsible for such songs as “Bloody Well Right” and “Goodbye Stranger.”
Polly Holliday (September 9, 2025) began showbiz giving piano lessons and acting onstage. She appeared in many films and TV, mast famously as Flo on TV’s Alice. Kiss my grits!
Bobby Hart (September 10, 2025), with Sidney Boyce, wrote lots of songs for 1960s acts including Chubby Checker and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Their biggest splash came from providing songs for the Monkees such as the Monkees theme and “Last Train to Clarksville.”
Actress Pat Crowley (September 14, 2025) sang and danced on variety shows in the Sixties and had roles on several soaps. She was also the “innocent” recruited by Napoleon Solo for the 1964 pilot of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Oscar and Golden Globe winner (among others) Robert Redford (September 16, 2025) was a Hollywood golden boy who leveraged his stardom to get into directing. He founded the Sundance Film Festival, several production companies, and supported independent film.
Astrophysicist and Nobel laureate George Smoot (September 18, 2025) was instrumental in developing the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer), which detected signs of the birth of the universe.
Sultry Claudia Cardinale (September 23, 2025) appeared in 175 films, from Spaghetti Westerns and comedy (The Pink Panther) to art films for Fellini.
George Hardy (September 24, 2025) was the last surviving Tuskegee airman. He grew up in Philly and served in the USAF 1943-71, piloting missions over Germany in WWII and later Korea.
AOL’s dial-up service was officially discontinued September 30, 2025. Its sound of beeps, screeches, and echoing tones continue to generate horror and/or nostalgia for millions.
Dame Jane Goodall (October 1, 2025) studied primates, especially chimps, and inspired many youngsters to investigate science and sociology. Established in 1977, her Institute supports research in Tanzania and elsewhere.
Sir John Gurdon (October 7, 2025) was at the bottom in biology class in school, but progressed to things like the first cloning of a frog (1958), early mRNA work, and a 2012 Nobel Prize regarding ways to regress adult cells to the nifty, pluripotent stem-cell state.
Guitarist-singer-songwriter John Lodge (October 10, 2025) joined the Moody Blues in 1966 and helped define their sound with songs like “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)” and “Isn’t Life Strange.”
Actress Diane Keaton (October 11, 2025) began her career on Broadway in the original production of Hair. Overall she earned many awards including two Golden Globes and an Oscar. Among her films are Looking for Mr Goodbar, Reds, the Godfather series, and The First Wives Club.
Writer-producer-singer D’Angelo (October 14, 2025) was considered one of the greatest R&B artists, and one of the founders of the neo-soul movement, winning four Grammys along the way.
“Space Ace” Paul Frehley (October 16, 2025) was original guitarist for KISS and was known for using guitars with built-in lights, smoke, or flame emitters.
Barbara Gips (October 16, 2025) wrote effective marketing taglines for several successful films from the 1970s to the 1990s, including Kramer vs Kramer, Desperately Seeking Susan, and Fatal Attraction. Her most notable (and chilling) poster line was for 1979’s Alien: “In space no one can hear you scream.”
Actress June Lockhart (October 23, 2025) appeared in great films like Meet Me in St Louis, Sergeant York, and starred in the low-rent She-Wolf of London. However, she holds hearts forever for her TV work as Ruth Martin in 200 episodes of Lassie, and as Maureen Robinson, the matriarch of Lost in Space.
Andrew John Stofan (October 26, 2025) was an American aviation engineer. He developed expertise in the field of sloshing. He helped design the American space station Freedom, and the Voyager space-exploration craft.
Actress Prunella Scales (October 27, 2025) was best known as the energetic, longsuffering mistress of Fawlty Towers, Sybil Fawlty.
Burt Meyer (October 30, 2025) was an American inventor. He created or participated in the design of such classic toys as Lite-Brite, Toss Across, Mouse Trap, and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
Cinematographer Adam Greenberg (October 31, 2025) worked on the first two Terminator films, Three Men and a Baby, Alien Nation, Snakes on a Plane, and First Knight, among dozens of others.
American businessman Duane Roberts (November 1, 2025) ran a butcher business in the 1950s which provided hamburger patties to restaurants, including the first McDonald’s. Around 1956, at the prompting of an employee, he invented the frozen burrito.
Screenwriter-director Ralph Senensky (November 1, 2025) worked on many classic series including Mission: Impossible, Ironside, The Wild Wild West, The Twilight Zone, and six-and-a-half episodes of Star Trek.
Actress Diane Ladd (November 3, 2025) appeared in many films, notably Chinatown, Primary Colors, and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
The last US penny was minted on November 12, 2025.
Writer and advocate Alice Wong (November 14, 2025) authored a memoir and edited several works as an activist for access and awareness for the disabled. In 2015 she was the first person to visit the White House via telepresence robot.
Producer-writer Stephen Downing (November 20, 2025) was involved in such series as Knight Rider, TJ Hooker, Robocop the Series, Kojak, and MacGyver.
Cherokee playwright Vicki Mooney (November 20, 2025) was known for such works as Armadillo Chili and the Broken Heart Land Trilogy. Her monologue about the OKC bombing, “Sparrow,” provided a Native Oklahoman perspective.
Actor John Eimen (November 21, 2025) was most known for his childhood TV appearances in such shows as Leave It to Beaver and The Twilight Zone.
German actor Udo Kier (November 23, 2025) appeared in over 200 films on both sides of the Atlantic. Two momentous roles were in Paul Morrissey films, Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974), titled Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and Andy Warhol’s Dracula for American release. Other appearances include Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Grindhouse, and 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire.
Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff (November 24, 2025) won two Grammys and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. He had several local hits before moving to the UK where his career grew. He helped popularize reggae and ska worldwide.
Singer-writer Leslie Fish (November 29, 2025) didn’t invent filk, but she popularized it across fandom. She released the first commercial filk album in 1976; her song “Banned from Argo” appeared on her second release, achieving an unholy life of its own across the decades. Her fan fiction included some of the earliest Kirk/Spock slash tales.
Playwright-screenwriter Tom Stoppard (November 29, 2025) wrote the screenplays for films like Shakespeare in Love and Brazil; his most famous play is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
English author Madeleine Sophie Wickham (December 10, 2025) wrote dozens of books, and is best known for her Shopaholic series under the pen name Sophie Kinsella.
Bob Burns (December 12, 2025) fulfilled the dreams of monster kids by amassing a collections of thousands of movie props, including costumes from movie serials, a model from the original King Kong, and one of the largest collections of stuff from the Alien franchise. He appeared in Invasion of the Saucer Men and 2005’s King Kong, and recorded ten or more audio commentaries for monster or sci-fi flicks.
Character actor Peter Greene (December 12, 2025) appeared in several films, but is most remembered for playing bad guys in The Mask and Pulp Fiction.
Actor Anthony Geary (December 14, 2025) had a role in Weird Al’s 1989 UHF, but his place in pop culture (along with eight Emmys) is anchored by his role as half of the Luke-and-Laura combo on General Hospital, 1979-2017.
Michele Singer Reiner (December 14, 2025) was a photographer for magazines like Fortune. After meeting Rob Reiner, they became activists for many progressive causes including marriage rights and the wrongly imprisoned.
Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner (December 14, 2025) entered US households as Mike Stivic on All in the Family in 1971. He later directed such pop-culture basics as This Is Spinal Tap, Misery, When Harry Met Sally, The American President, Stand by Me, and The Princess Bride.
Actor Gil Gerard (December 16, 2025) appeared in hundreds of commercials and several TV guest stints in the 1970s before landing the sci-fi role of a lifetime as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-81).
Vince Zampella (December 21, 2025) was a video-game designer, working on such titles as Titanfall, Star Wars Jedi, and Call of Duty.
Brigette Bardot (December 29, 2025) used her forum as a model and actress to take a decades-long stand as an animal-rights activist, including turning vegetarian and posing with seal pups on an ice floe.
John Mulrooney (December 29, 2025) was a comedian, radio host, actor, and TV host.
Most of MTV’s music-only channels worldwide went dark December 31, 2025.
Artist Harvey Pratt (December 31, 2025) worked for forty-some years in law enforcement, beginning in Midwest City. His forensic art aided in hundreds of investigations. His 12-foot sculpture Warriors’ Circle of Honor is the centerpiece of the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. He included cryptozoology in his interests, creating Bigfoot sketches from witness descriptions and otherwise aiding researchers.
These people and things impacted the pop-culture REALM, and thus the whole world. Thanks for reflecting on some of those who went before.
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