Every year, we remember some of the writers, actors, musicians, filmmakers and artists who died over the past year, and whose lifetime of creative work helped shape our world. Here are just a few of them. (You can find a tribute to many more musicians here.)
Counterculture auteur David Lynch
He directed off-kilter cinematic classics in the 1980s and 1990s, including Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Mulholland Drive, and he co-created the groundbreaking TV series Twin Peaks. David Lynch's surreal, sinister vision, he said, came from a happy 1950s childhood in Boise, Idaho, that was punctuated by startling glimpses of violence. An eye-catching figure known for his messy pompadour, Lynch was also a longtime devotee of transcendental meditation. Read Kyle Norris' remembrance.
Cartoonist Jules Feiffer, beloved for The Phantom Tollbooth
Jules Feiffer's gloriously loopy visual style and satirical sensibility helped define The Village Voice for four decades; his editorial cartoons won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986. His numerous other awards included an Oscar for a 1961 animated short film inspired by his Army service. Feiffer's illustrations for the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth are inked into the memories of generations of young people. Besides contributing cartoons to Vanity Fair and The New York Times, Feiffer was also a graphic novelist, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Read Etelka Lehoczky's remembrance.
"Killing Me Softly" singer Roberta Flack
A beloved superstar of the 1970s and beyond, Flack grew up in Washington, D.C., and won a scholarship to Howard University when she was only 15. A classically-trained musician, she came to national prominence by appearing on a Bill Cosby TV special. Over the next 20 years, she earned eight Grammy nominations and four wins. Flack remains the only solo artist to win a Grammy for Record of the Year two years in a row. Read Marissa Lorusso and Elizabeth Blair's remembrance.
Michelle Trachtenberg, an exuberant former child star who shone on screen
Michelle Trachtenberg was nine years old when she started acting in the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete. She was intrepid, yet goofy, making her a natural fit for the title role in the popular film adaptation of Harriet the Spy a year later. As a teenager, Trachtenberg popped up as a supernatural suburban high schooler in later seasons of the hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as an adult, as a scheming socialite in Gossip Girl. Read Neda Ulaby's remembrance.
Gene Hackman, a tough guy who made his mark in movies
Gene Hackman epitomized an edgy, tightly wound masculinity in movies such as The French Connection and Unforgiven, both of which won him acting Oscars. He was a coiled snake of an actor, often with a hint of menace, who appeared in more than 100 TV shows and films, from the Superman movies, where he played the hero's wealthy nemesis Lex Luthor, to an inspirational coach in Hoosiers to the crusty father in The Royal Tenenbaums. Hackman also experimented with writing novels, painting and collecting art. Read Neda Ulaby's remembrance.
Composer of catchy Broadway classics Charles Strouse
Anyone who has hummed the tunes "Put On a Happy Face" or "It's the Hard-Knock Life" knows the work of Charles Strouse. Classically trained, he supported himself by playing the piano during rehearsals of Broadway shows before writing the scores for several memorable musicals, including Bye Bye Birdie, Annie and Applause. Strouse also wrote a beloved theme song for the TV show All in the Family, performed at the piano by the two main characters. Read Jeff Lunden's remembrance.
Kenyan literary giant Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's childhood was shaped by British colonial rule. He spent his adulthood writing against it. His first novel, Weep Not, Child, is set during the Mau Mau rebellion that claimed the lives of thousands of people. It became celebrated as an anti-colonial classic in the African literary canon. Ngũgĩ wrote many of his acclaimed books and plays in the language of his people, Gikuyu; he aspired to reconnect Africa's elite with its linguistic base. Ngũgĩ, who was imprisoned for a year by the Kenyan government for his political writing, was often mentioned as a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature. Read Andrew Limbong's remembrance.
Sly Stone, visionary funk frontman of the Family Stone
A child prodigy who was recording gospel music with his siblings at age 8, Stone emerged as one of his era's most remarkable singers, songwriters and producers. His transformative musical group challenged racial barriers and created classics such as "Dance to the Music," "Everyday People" and "There's a Riot Goin' On." Widely recognized for his innovative fusion of psychedelic rock, soul, jazz, Latin and gospel sounds, Stone won a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2017. Read Brandon Gates' remembrance.
The Beach Boys' troubled genius, Brian Wilson
When Brian Wilson co-founded the iconic Southern California band, he turned the era's spritely teen pop into a modernist, often melancholy musical art form alongside the band he cofounded with two of his brothers, a cousin and a friend. Traumatized by an abusive upbringing, Wilson struggled with addiction and severe mental health issues for much of his life. But the ambitious, otherworldly music he left behind includes Pet Sounds, now widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. Read Ann Powers and Chloe Veltman's remembrance.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Cosby Show star who felt like a member of the family
A generation of Americans watched young Theo Huxtable grow up on television, and actor Malcolm Jamal-Warner made every second on screen relatable. An effortlessly appealing actor, he was 13 when he began playing the only son on The Cosby Show in 1984 and 21 when it ended. Warner acted in dozens of other TV shows, including his own sitcom with comedian Eddie Griffin in the mid-1990s. He also appeared in the medical drama The Resident, playing a charismatic cardiothoracic surgeon. Warner was also a musician, directed TV episodes, and won a Grammy in 2015 for his spoken-word poetry. Read Anastasia Tsioulcas's remembrance.
A heavy metal Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne
The lead singer of Black Sabbath, from Birmingham, England, co-founded the band after serving a brief prison term for theft. Critics hated it, but their first album was a runaway success. Osbourne's showmanship soon made his live performances legendary, orchestrated partly by his manager and wife, with whom he eventually created a reality show that laid the groundwork for other unfiltered portraits of celebrity families. Osbourne, whose struggles with sobriety often made headlines, released numerous records throughout his life, and his music festival Ozzfest became an influential showcase for many musicians. Read Andrew Flanagan and Andrew Limbong's remembrance.
Latin music legend, Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri grew up in Puerto Rico playing drums and timbales in his uncle's band. He developed a highly percussive, full-bodied style of piano playing that fused jazz with syncopated Afro-Caribbean rhythms. With his orchestra, La Perfecta, he released a string of acclaimed albums in the 1960s and '70s. He would win more than half a dozen Grammy awards and was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2013. Read Luis Trelles' remembrance.
Graham Greene, who inhabited Native stories on screen
Graham Greene broke out in the 1990 blockbuster Dances With Wolves as a Lakota medicine man who teams up with a Civil War soldier played by Kevin Costner. The role was one of more than 200 characters Greene played over the years, including in hugely successful films such as The Green Mile, Die Hard with a Vengeance and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Greene was part of the Oneida Nation. He was born in Canada on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Ontario. Greene appeared on theater stages in Canada and in a number of TV shows, including two critically acclaimed series by Sterlin Harjo, a member of the Seminole and Muskogee nations. He also appeared in The Lowdown and Reservation Dogs. Read Neda Ulaby's remembrance.
Giorgio Armani: a name synonymous with luxury
Growing up in an Italy ravaged by World War II, Giorgio Armani was fascinated by architecture and design. He founded his fashion house in Milan in 1975, which became internationally famous thanks to the hit film American Gigolo. It begins with Richard Gere in a fancy boutique, trying on a relaxed, single-breasted, brown Armani jacket. Armani's sleek, streamlined silhouettes became associated with red carpet chic, and he retained control over his privately held company, which generated billions of dollars annually before his death. Read Diana Opong's remembrance.
Robert Redford: A golden presence on the silver screen
Robert Redford gleamed through more than 80 movies, including such classics as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Natural and A River Runs Through It. Before becoming one of his generation's great heartthrobs, Redford studied art and worked on oil rigs, an experience that informed his later environmental activism. Redford was also a transformative industry figure. By co-founding what would become the Sundance Film Festival in the late 1970s and later, the Sundance Institute, he helped launch generations of independent filmmakers and theater artists. Read Neda Ulaby's remembrance.
Diane Keaton: Known for playing quirky, intelligent leading ladies
In her trademark bowler hat, tinted glasses and floppy fits, Diane Keaton was instantly recognizable. Her individuality manifested early. As a cast member in the original Broadway production of Hair, she refused to appear nude onstage. Her creative – and for a while, romantic - relationship with director Woody Allen resulted in starring roles in many of his best-known films, including Manhattan and Annie Hall, the latter of which won her a best actress Oscar in 1978. She starred in dozens of other television shows and movies, including The Godfather, Reds, The First Wives Club and Something's Gotta Give. Read Mandalit Del Barco's remembrance.
Reluctant R&B superstar D'Angelo
A visionary singer who helped pioneer the neo-soul sub-genre, D'Angelo signed a record deal two years after a breakout performance at Amateur Night at the Apollo. He found acclaim behind the scenes as a writer and producer for other musicians, but his debut album Brown Sugar went platinum, and its follow-up, Voodoo, solidified D'Angelo as a definitive voice of the early 2000s and established him as an unwilling sex symbol. He retreated from the public eye for long stretches and released albums at a pace that suited his meticulous, reflective creativity. Read Sheldon Pearce's remembrance.
Susan Stamberg, founding mother of NPR
The warmth, humor and intelligence of her voice anchored NPR listeners in the world's events, quite literally. Susan Stamberg was one of NPR's original staffers when the network started in 1971, and she became the first U.S. woman to anchor a nightly national news program when she began hosting All Things Considered the following year. She brought signature toughness – and a deep, searching curiosity – to everything she covered, from breaking news and matters of state to behind-the-scenes visits to museums and Hollywood backlots. To this day, her colleagues can hear recordings of her in the elevator at NPR's D.C. headquarters, cheerfully intoning "Going up!" Read David Folkenflik's remembrance.
Cerebral, celebrated British playwright Tom Stoppard
He broke through in the 1960s with the dazzlingly witty Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, an absurdist take on Hamlet. It won the first of Tom Stoppard's five Tony Awards for best play – the most of any playwright in history. Tom Stoppard, who never graduated from college, dreamed up fiercely intellectual, relentlessly entertaining plays such as Travesties, The Real Thing and Arcadia, and he won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay for Shakespeare In Love. Born in Czechoslovakia to a Jewish family during World War II, Stoppard was raised in Britain and knew nothing of his heritage until middle age. He explored it in his final play, Leopoldstadt. Read Tom Vitale's remembrance.
Gravity-defying architect Frank Gehry
He designed the Guggenheim Museum in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Frank Gehry changed the way we see architecture, with striking, exuberant buildings known for swirls and swooshes. He hated the term "starchitect," but Gehry racked up numerous top awards over the course of his glittering career, including a National Medal of the Arts and architecture's top award, the Pritzker Prize. Read Susan Stamberg's remembrance.
Rob Reiner, an activist, actor and director of beloved movies
Born into show business, Reiner grew up on his father's TV sets and became a household name for his role on the popular 1970s sitcom All In The Family. He went on to direct an array of now-classic films, including This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally… Reiner was also known for his support of liberal causes, ranging from same-sex marriage to an initiative to fund early childhood education in California. Read Linda Holmes' remembrance.
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