33 of the Biggest Celebrities Who Died in 2023
A host of beloved cultural figures died in 2023, from sitcom stars to behind-the-scenes giants, from music icons to up-and-comers taken tragically early in their lives. Here we reflect on 33 of them—remembering who they were and why they’ll loom large in culture for years to come.
Greg Lotus/Trunk Archive.Lisa Marie Presley
The musician and daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley died suddenly on January 12, following complications of prior weight-loss surgery. Her death led to a legal dispute over Graceland, Elvis’s widely visited estate. “She was a very powerful presence and extremely loving and extremely loyal and sort of a lioness—a fierce woman, and a really wonderful mother,” Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough, said in a Vanity Fair cover story this fall.
NBC/Getty Images.Matthew Perry
Perry, the beloved Friends star who was open about his decades-long struggle with alcoholism and opioid dependency, died from the acute effects of ketamine on October 28. “When I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people,” he once wrote.
Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images.Tina Turner
The musician, style icon, and archetypal survivor died May 24 in her home near Zurich, Switzerland. “With her, the world loses a music legend and role model,” one of her agents said in a statement.
Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.Harry Belafonte
Belafonte, an honorary Oscar winner whose work on behalf of civil rights made an even greater mark than his work on stage and screen, died in April at the age of 96.
PAT MARTIN/The New York Times/Redux.Angus Cloud
Cloud’s soulful drug dealer Fezco was the heart of HBO’s hit series Euphoria. The actor was only 25 when he died on July 31 of an accidental overdose.
John Kisch Archive/Getty Images.Paul Reubens
The man behind a host of gloriously weird screen creations—none more so than Pee-wee Herman, host of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, died July 30 after a long, private battle with cancer.
Photograph by Mark Seliger.Tony Bennett
The archetypal crooner (and close personal pal of Lady Gaga) enjoyed a career that stretched nearly 70 years, even past his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2016. He died July 21 at the age of 96.
Ronald Dumont/Daily Express/Getty Images.Jane Birkin
We have the actor and singer to thank for the Birkin bag, an ultra-luxury accessory named for her—but there was more to Birkin than style, as her life in pictures can attest. She died July 16 at the age of 76.
Gioncarlo Valentine/Variety/Penske Media/Getty Images.Andre Braugher
A television star who could move between comedy and drama with ease and grace, Braugher died of cancer on December 11. “Braugher regularly summoned the rare skill that elevates a good performance into something approaching a miracle: He made the words and the moment feel new,” writes VF’s Maureen Ryan.
Herbert Dorfman/Corbis/Getty Images.Raquel Welch
The Golden Globe winner and ’60s bombshell, best known for her roles in One Million Years B.C. and Fantastic Voyage, died February 15 following “a brief illness.”
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.Jimmy Buffett
The singer, songwriter, and author made aspirational relaxation an art form as he built an empire of drinking and dining (and one Broadway jukebox musical, called—of course—Escape to Margaritaville). He died September 1 of complications from skin cancer.
Saxon/IMAGES/Getty ImagesSuzanne Somers
Somers had a long and varied career as a sitcom star and a fitness mogul, and one of her greatest achievements may have been her marriage to Alan Hamel. “I can’t imagine a night without him,” she told People in 2017. “It sounds corny, but we are one.”
Bob Riha Jr/Getty Images.Norman Lear
He lived to be 101, but Norman Lear’s influence on television will span at least another century. The creator of All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, and One Day at a Time died December 5.
David Levene/Guardian/eyevine/Redux.Jerry Springer
The politician turned TV host—whose salacious syndicated talk show defined a genre that presaged reality television—died on April 27 at the age of 79.
By Frans Schellekens/Getty Images.Sinéad O’Connor
“She sang about miscarriages, child abuse, police brutality, the shite government,” VF’s Mike Hogan wrote of the fiery singer, who died July 26 at the age of 56. “She sang love songs that sounded like fuck-you songs, and fuck-you songs that sounded like love songs. She whispered. She keened. She wailed. She belted. She dared you to take her side, making it clear it wouldn’t be easy.”
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.David Crosby
The former Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young front man, who died January 18 at the age of 81, was famously cantankerous and candid, as a 2019 VF interview proves. Its headline? “Think David Crosby Is Too Gruff? ‘Tough Shit’”
Wesley/Getty Images.Barry Humphries
The Australian comedian best known for his alter ego Dame Edna Everage died April 22 at the age of 89.
Archive Photos/Getty Images.Alan Arkin
What did the Oscar-winning actor, who died June 29 at the age of 89, want to be reincarnated as? “A slightly better version of myself,” he told VF in 2013.
Screen Archives/Getty Images.Cindy Williams
The star of Laverne & Shirley, who died January 25 at the age of 75, was also the engine behind a beloved movie remake: “What few people know is that it was Cindy’s idea to remake Father of the Bride. She told me she was watching the Spencer Tracey version on TV one night and thought it would be a great movie to remake. And she made it happen,” Nancy Meyers wrote after Williams’s death.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.Ryan O’Neal
A captivating, complicated actor and man, the ’70s heartthrob who struggled in his later years died December 8 at the age of 82.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.Burt Bacharach
“Burt’s transition is like losing a family member,” said Dionne Warwick of saying goodbye to the songwriter, the man behind classics like “Walk On By,” “A House Is Not a Home,” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.”
Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images.Piper Laurie
The three-time Oscar nominee and star of Twin Peaks and Carrie died October 14 at the age of 91.
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.Chaim Topol
Israeli actor Topol, who died in March at the age of 87, received both Oscar and Tony nominations for his performance as comic milkman Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank.Richard Belzer
The comedian and actor who died February 19 at age 78 spent more than 20 years playing Detective John Munch on various iterations of Law & Order. “He had lots of health issues, and his last words were, ‘Fuck you, motherfucker,’” a longtime friend told the Hollywood Reporter.
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images.Bob Barker
Asked how he wanted to be remembered, Bob Barker—the longtime host of The Price Is Right who died August 26 at the age of 99— replied the way you might imagine he would: “As the man who said, ‘Have your pets spayed or neutered.’”
Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images.Ron Cephas Jones
The Emmy-winning actor best known for his role in This Is Us died in August at the age of 66 after suffering chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for several years.
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.Richard Roundtree
A blaxploitation icon best known for starring as Detective John Shaft in the original 1971 film, Roundtree died October 24 at the age of 81.
Larry Ellis Collection/Getty Images.Michael Gambon
Though millennials and younger moviegoers will know him best as Albus Dumbledore, Sir Gambon is among the most celebrated British and Irish stage and screen actors of his generation. He died of pneumonia at the age of 82, on September 27.
Kurt Krieger/Corbis/Getty Images.Julian Sands
The English actor went missing in January while hiking in Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains. His body was discovered five months later, though an exact cause of death could not be determined.
Chris Weeks/WireImage.Tom Sizemore
61-year-old Sizemore, best known for his work in films like Saving Private Ryan, Heat, and Black Hawk Down, suffered a brain aneurysm on February 18 and died a few weeks later, on March 3.
Alan Zenuk/USA Network.Mark Margolis
The character actor best known for his silent but imposing appearances on Breaking Bad had a career that spanned projects as different as Scarface and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. He died at 83 on August 3.
Larry Busacca/Getty Images.Lance Reddick
The actor known for his work on The Wire and in the John Wick film franchise died March 17 at the age of 60.
Harold Barkley/Toronto Star/Getty Images.William Friedkin
As the director of The Exorcist, The French Connection, and Cruising, Friedkin was one of the quintessential New Hollywood filmmakers. He died August 7 at the age of 87.
