In Memoriam 2025: artists who died this year… Singers, Dancers, Actors, Musicians, Writers, Directors

In memoriam 2025: a personal list remembering some of the artists who died in 2025.

Links lead to Wikipedia articles.

January

Marianne Faithfull, 78, English singer (“As Tears Go By“), songwriter (“Broken English“) and actress (The Girl on a Motorcycle).

David Lynch, 78, American film director (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) and television producer (Twin Peaks), cardiac arrest.

Phyllis Dalton, 99, English costume designer (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, The Princess Bride), Oscar winner (1966, 1990).

Carolyn Brown, 97, American dancer, choreographer and writer.

Vsevolod Nemolyaev, 87, Russian ballet dancer and director of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Otto Schenk, 94, Austrian actor (Dunja, Always Trouble with the Reverend), film (Die Fledermaus) and theatre director.

Tony Slattery, 65, British actor (The Crying Game, Peter’s Friends), comedian and television personality (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), heart attack.

Merle Louise, 90, American actress (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Into the Woods, Gypsy).

Dame Joan Plowright, 95, English actress (Enchanted April, A Taste of Honey, 101 Dalmatians), Tony winner (1961).

Laurie Holloway, 86, English pianist, musical director (Strictly Come Dancing, Parkinson) and composer.

Nora Orlandi, 91, Italian musician and film composer (The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh, Johnny Yuma, Clint the Stranger).

Elgar Howarth, 89, English conductor, composer and trumpeter.

Rosita Missoni, 93, Italian knitwear designer, co-founder of Missoni, pneumonia.

Wayne Osmond, 73, American singer (The Osmonds) and songwriter (“Crazy Horses“, “Let Me In“), stroke.

Peter Yarrow, 86, American singer (Peter, Paul and Mary) and songwriter (“Puff, the Magic Dragon“), bladder cancer.

Linda Nolan, 65, Irish singer (The Nolans), actress and television personality (Celebrity Big Brother), double pneumonia.

Richard Foreman, 87, American playwright (Rhoda in Potatoland), pneumonia.

February

Roberta Flack, 88, American singer (“Killing Me Softly with His Song“, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face“, “Feel Like Makin’ Love“), Grammy winner (1973, 1974), complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Paul Plishka, 83, American operatic bass.

Edith Mathis, 86, Swiss operatic soprano (Deutsche Oper Berlin) and voice teacher.

Sara Luzita, 102, British ballet dancer.

Brian Murphy, 92, English actor (Man About the House, George and Mildred, Last of the Summer Wine), cancer.

Tony Roberts, 85, American actor (Annie Hall, Play It Again, Sam, Serpico), lung cancer.

Gene Hackman, 95, American actor (The French Connection, Mississippi Burning, Unforgiven), Oscar winner (1972, 1993), heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

Geneviève Page, 97, French actress (Belle de Jour, Grand Prix, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes).

Vladimír Válek, 89, Czech conductor (Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic).

James Lockhart, 94, Scottish conductor, pianist and organist, complications from dementia.

March

Richard Chamberlain, 90, American actor (Dr Kildare, The Thorn Birds, Shōgun), complications from a stroke.

Eleonora Giorgi, 71, Italian actress (Talcum Powder, To Forget Venice, Inferno) and film director, pancreatic cancer.

Maria Grazia Spina, 88, Italian actress (Samson and the Slave Queen, Toto vs. the Black Pirate, Rugantino).

Ray Barra, 95, American ballet dancer (Stuttgart Ballet) and choreographer (Berlin State Ballet, Spanish National Dance Company).

Andria Hall, 68–69, British ballerina (English National Ballet).

Bill Dare, 64, English television producer and writer (Dead Ringers, The Now Show, Spitting Image), traffic collision.

Sofia Gubaidulina, 93, Russian composer (Offertorium, The Canticle of the Sun, Concerto for violin, cello and bayan), cancer.

John Nelson, 83, American conductor.

April

Jean-Pierre Bonnefous, 82, French ballet dancer and instructor (Charlotte Ballet).

Clodagh Rodgers, 78, Northern Irish singer (“Come Back and Shake Me“, “Jack in the Box“).

Peter Seiffert, 71, German operatic tenor.

George Lee, 90, American ballet dancer.

Val Kilmer, 65, American actor (Top Gun, The Doors, Batman Forever), pneumonia.

Jean Marsh, 90, English actress (Upstairs, Downstairs, Doctor Who, Willow) and television writer, Emmy winner (1975), complications from dementia.

Roberto De Simone, 91, Italian stage director and composer (La Gatta Cenerentola).

William Finn, 73, American composer (Falsettos, A New Brain, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Tony Award winner (1992), pulmonary fibrosis.

Mario Vargas Llosa, 89, Peruvian writer (The Time of the Hero, The War of the End of the World, The Feast of the Goat), Nobel Prize laureate (2010).

May

Matthew Best, 68, English conductor and singer, cancer.

Joan O’Brien, 89, American actress (It Happened at the World’s Fair, Operation Petticoat, Get Yourself a College Girl).

Luigi Alva, 98, Peruvian tenor (La Scala, Metropolitan Opera).

Yury Grigorovich, 98, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (Bolshoi Ballet).

Yuri Vladimirov, 83, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (Bolshoi Ballet).

Alla Osipenko, 92, Russian ballerina (Kirov Ballet, Yacobson Ballet).

Roger Nichols, 84, American songwriter (“We’ve Only Just Begun“, “Times of Your Life“) and composer.

Alan Yentob, 78, British television executive, director (Cracked Actor) and presenter, controller of BBC2 (1987–1993) and BBC1 (1993–1996).

Charles Strouse, 96, American composer (Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, Annie).

Robert Benton, 92, American film director (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart) and screenwriter (Bonnie and Clyde), Oscar winner (1980, 1985).

Arthur Hamilton, 98, American songwriter (“Cry Me a River“, “I Can Sing a Rainbow“).

Pierre Audi, 67, French-Lebanese theatre director and artistic director.

Leslie Dilley, 84, Welsh art director (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien) and production designer, Oscar winner (1978, 1982), complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

William Dudley, 78, British theatre designer, dementia.

Per Nørgård, 92, Danish composer (Gilgamesh, Symphony No. 3) and academic teacher (Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg).

June

Peter Baillie, 91, New Zealand operatic tenor.

Gilda Cruz-Romo, 85, Mexican operatic soprano (Metropolitan Opera).

Alvaro Vitali, 75, Italian actor (Amarcord, The School Teacher, Pierino contro tutti), bronchopneumonia.

Stuart Burrows, 92, Welsh operatic tenor.

Enzo Staiola, 85, Italian child actor (Bicycle Thieves, The Barefoot Contessa, I’ll Get You for This), fall.

Lea Massari, 91, Italian actress (L’Avventura, Murmur of the Heart, Christ Stopped at Eboli).

Alfred Brendel, 94, Austrian pianist, writer, and composer.

Lalo Schifrin, 93, Argentine-born American film and television composer (Mission: Impossible, Dirty Harry, Rush Hour), five-time Grammy Award winner, complications from pneumonia.

Edmund White, 85, American writer (Nocturnes for the King of Naples, A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty), gastroenteritis.

Frederick Forsyth, 86, English novelist (The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol).

July

Connie Francis, 87, American pop singer (“Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool“, “Pretty Little Baby“, “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own“), pneumonia.

Dame Cleo Laine, 97, English jazz singer (On the Town), Grammy winner (1986).

Tom Lehrer, 97, American singer-songwriter (“The Elements“, “The Old Dope Peddler“, “The Vatican Rag“), satirist, and mathematician.

David Rendall, 76, English operatic tenor.

Gerald Harper, 96, English actor (Hadleigh, Adam Adamant Lives!, A Night to Remember).

Judy Loe, 78, English actress (Singles, Space Island One, Casualty), cancer.

Adriana Asti, 94, Italian actress (Rocco and His Brothers, Accattone, The Phantom of Liberty).

Alan Bergman, 99, American songwriter (“The Way We Were“, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers“), Oscar winner (1968, 1974, 1984).

Ozzy Osbourne, 76, English Hall of Fame musician (Black Sabbath), songwriter (“Paranoid“), and television personality (The Osbournes), heart attack.

Sir Roger Norrington, 91, British conductor (London Classical Players, Camerata Salzburg, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra).

Robert Wilson, 83, American experimental theatre director and playwright (Einstein on the Beach), founder of The Watermill Center.

August

Mirella Parutto, 89, Italian operatic soprano.

Terence Stamp, 87, English actor (Billy Budd, Superman II, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).

Loni Anderson, 79, American actress (WKRP in Cincinnati, All Dogs Go to Heaven, A Night at the Roxbury), uterine leiomyosarcoma.

Rodion Shchedrin, 92, Russian composer (Lolita, Carmen Suite, Anna Karenina) and pianist.

Pippo Baudo, 89, Italian television presenter (Settevoci, Sanremo Music Festival, Domenica in).

Maria di Freda, 75, General Manager of Teatro alla Scala 2008-2021.

September

Siegmund Nimsgern, 85, German operatic bass-baritone.

Ian Judge, 79, English theatre and opera director.

Robert Redford, 89, American actor (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men) and film director (Ordinary People), Oscar winner (1980).

Claudia Cardinale, 87, Italian actress (Once Upon a Time in the West, The Leopard, 8½).

Christoph von Dohnányi, 95, German conductor (Oper Frankfurt, Cleveland Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra).

Giorgio Armani, 91, Italian fashion designer, founder of Armani, liver failure.

Stuart Craig, 83, English production designer (Harry Potter, Gandhi, The English Patient), Oscar winner (1983, 1989, 1997), complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Gianni Quaranta, 82, Italian production designer (A Room with a View, La Traviata, 1900), Oscar winner (1987).

October

Dame Patricia Routledge, 96, English actress (Keeping Up Appearances, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Darling of the Day) and singer, Tony winner (1968).

Roberta Alexander, 76, American operatic soprano.

Patrice Bart, 80, French dancer and choreographer.

John Woodvine, 96, English actor (An American Werewolf in London, Z-Cars, Doctor Who).

Paolo Bonacelli, 88, Italian actor (Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Mission Impossible III, Midnight Express).

Björn Andrésen, 70, Swedish actor (Death in Venice, Midsommar, Shelley) and musician.

Diane Keaton, 79, American actress (Annie Hall, The Godfather, Something’s Gotta Give), Oscar winner (1978), bacterial pneumonia.

Samantha Eggar, 86, English-American actress (The Collector, Doctor Dolittle, The Brood), chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

June Lockhart, 100, American actress (Lost in Space, Lassie, Petticoat Junction).

Prunella Scales, 93, English actress (Fawlty Towers, A Question of Attribution, Howards End).

Maria Riva, 100, German-born American actress (The Scarlet Empress, The Burning Glass, Scrooged).

Ian Freebairn-Smith, 93, American composer and arranger (“Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)“).

Bernhard Klee, 89, German orchestral conductor (Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra).

Cesare Paciotti, 67, Italian shoe designer.

November

Sir Donald McIntyre, 91, New Zealand opera singer, Grammy winner (1983), AFNZ Icon (since 2004)

Alice Kessler, 89, German singer (Kessler Twins) and actress (Love and the Frenchwoman, Dead Woman from Beverly Hills), assisted suicide.

Ellen Kessler, 89, German singer (Kessler Twins) and actress (Love and the Frenchwoman, Dead Woman from Beverly Hills), assisted suicide.

Ornella Vanoni, 91, Italian singer (“Senza fine“, “L’appuntamento“) and actress (Duel of the Titans), heart attack.

Gary Lakes, 75, American operatic heldentenor.

Giuseppe Vessicchio, 69, Italian conductor and composer, pneumonia.

Sir Tom Stoppard, 88, Czech-born British playwright (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) and screenwriter (Shakespeare in Love, Empire of the Sun), five-time Tony winner.

Diane Ladd, 89, American actress (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Wild at Heart, Rambling Rose), BAFTA winner (1976), respiratory failure complicated by idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Elizabeth Franz, 84, American actress (Death of a Salesman, Sabrina, Christmas with the Kranks), Tony winner (1999), cancer.

Pauline Collins, 85, British actress (Shirley Valentine, Upstairs, Downstairs, City of Joy), complications from Parkinson’s disease.

December

Chris Rea, 74, English singer-songwriter (“Fool (If You Think It’s Over)“, “Driving Home for Christmas“, “The Road to Hell“).^[171]

Mick Abrahams, 82, English guitarist and singer (Jethro Tull, Blodwyn Pig).

Gustave Botiaux, 99, French operatic tenor.

Robert Massard, 100, French operatic baritone.

Ortrun Wenkel, 83, German operatic contralto.

Thomas Johannes Mayer, 56, German operatic baritone (Hamburg State Opera, Munich State Opera).

Anda-Louise Bogza, 60, Romanian opera singer.

Tiit Härm, 79, Estonian ballet dancer, master and choreographer.

Hans van Manen, 93, Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.

Susie Figgis, 77, British casting director (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Full Monty, The Killing Fields), cancer.

Rob Reiner, 78, American actor (All in the Family) and film director (This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally…), Emmy winner (1974, 1978), stabbed.

Stanley Baxter, 99, Scottish actor (Crooks Anonymous, Very Important Person) and comedian (The Stanley Baxter Show), BAFTA winner (1961).

Brigitte Bardot, 91, French actress (And God Created Woman, Contempt, La Vérité) and animal rights activist.