SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

Don Adams, 72, actor. Adams voiced Inspector Gadget for the popular children's cartoon and played the bumbling agent Maxwell Smart in the TV series Get Smart, a character The 40-Year-Old Virgin's Steve Carell will revive in next year's big-screen remake.

Eddie Albert, 99, actor. Albert played Eva Gabor's husband in the TV sitcom Green Acres. He and the rest of the cast were frequently upstaged by the show's resident pig, Arnold.

Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, 115, world-record holder. At the time of her death, Andel-Schipper was reported to be the oldest living human. She also had the coolest name ever.

Anne Bancroft, 73, actress. Bancroft is best-known for playing Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate and Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker. She was married to Mel Brooks.

Saul Bellow, 89, novelist. Nobel Prize winner Bellow wrote the landmark novel Herzog, but his greatest achievement may have been fathering a child at 84 years old.

Lamont Bentley, 31, actor. Bentley played Hakeem on the sitcom Moesha. He died in an automobile accident.

Stan Berenstain, 82, cartoonist and writer. This popular children's-book author and his wife wrote and illustrated more than 200 books in the Berenstain Bears series.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 81, singer-guitarist. Gatemouth excelled at every genre of music he attempted, including blues, jazz, swing, rock and country. The man was a badass.

Danny Joe Brown, 53, singer. Brown founded the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet, only to spend the rest of his life telling people, "My name isn't Molly." He died at his home in Davie.

R.L. Burnside, 78, bluesman. Burnside experienced fame in the United States late in life when he started recording for the Fat Possum label in the 1990s. His raw, humorous, groove-oriented style reached a new generation of fans when he recorded with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and DJs remixed his songs on his later albums.

Johnny Carson, 79, TV legend. As host of The Tonight Show for 30 years, Carson helped to break comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling and his eventual replacement, Jay Leno.

Johnnie Cochran, 67, lawyer. "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit."

Henry Corden, 85, voice actor. Corden supplied the voice of Fred Flintstone in the popular cartoon. And no, his last word was not Willlllmaaaa!

Ossie Davis, 87, actor. Davis, who starred in Do the Right Thing and Grumpy Old Men, died in Miami Beach while working on a movie.

Nicole DeHuff, 31, actress. Remember the woman whose nose Ben Stiller broke with a spiked volleyball in Meet the Parents? That was DeHuff. She died of pneumonia.

John DeLorean, 80, automotive designer. DeLorean created the Pontiac GTO and a car he named after himself that, when powered with the appropriate amount of jigowatts, could travel back to the future.

Bob Denver, 70, actor. Denver played the Skipper's little buddy on Gilligan's Island.

James Doohan, 85, actor. Best known for playing Scotty on Star Trek, Doohan was still able to beam himself up at age 80, when he became a father for the ninth time. The middle finger of his right hand was shot off in World War II while he was fighting for the Royal Canadian Artillery. Yes, Scotty was Canadian.

John Fiedler, 80, actor. Fiedler provided the voice of Piglet in many Winnie-the-Pooh movies. He died one day after Paul Winchell (see below), who starred opposite him in the Pooh films as the voice of Tigger.

H. Bentley Glass, 98, geneticist. Glass popularized the theory that the only species capable of surviving a nuclear war is the cockroach. This was, of course, before he'd ever heard of Kathy Griffin.

Frank Gorshin, 72, actor. Gorshin played the Riddler in the Batman TV series.

Mitch Hedberg, 37, comedian. This popular standup comic proved his stoner persona was not an act when he died from reportedly drug-related causes.

Peter Jennings, 67, journalist. One of the last remaining trustworthy journalists on television, Jennings succumbed to lung cancer after a long and distinguished career anchoring ABC World News Tonight.

Jack Kilby, 81, engineer. This Nobel Prize winner invented the microchip and the pocket calculator. Let's see you top that.

Chris LeDoux, 56, country singer and rodeo star. LeDoux gave up working the rodeo circuit to make it in Nashville. Garth Brooks recently recorded the song "Good Ride Cowboy" in his memory.

Barney Martin, 82, actor. Proud wearer of the "No. 1 Dad" T-shirt, Martin played Jerry's father on Seinfeld.

Eugene McCarthy, 89, U.S. senator. One of the rare politicians to be respected on both sides of the aisle, this Democrat from Minnesota twice ran for president and had the guts to campaign not only against a sitting president from his own party (Lyndon B. Johnson) but also against a member of the Democratic royal family (Robert F. Kennedy).

Arthur Miller, 89, playwright. Miller wrote Death of a Salesman, which inspired Jerry Seinfeld to call George Costanza "Biff" on Seinfeld. Miller also married Marilyn Monroe, which inspired a nation of men to go, "What the fuck?"

Pat Morita, 73, actor. Wax on, wax off.

Rosa Parks, 92, civil-rights activist. After her death, Parks became the first woman ever to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol building.

Frank Perdue, 84, chicken man. Sharing a place in the poultry pantheon with Col. Sanders and Foghorn Leghorn, Perdue never asked if the chicken came before the egg or vice versa. He only wanted people to eat the damn bird.

Richard Pryor, 65, comedian. One of the funniest motherfuckers ever.

Amrish Puri, 72, actor. Puri played the priest who attempts to sacrifice Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Thurl Ravenscroft, 91, voice actor. Ravenscroft gave voice to Tony the Tiger in commercials for Frosted Flakes and sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" for the animated version of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He also possessed the second-coolest name after Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper. (See above.)

William H. Rehnquist, 80, jurist. When he died, Rehnquist was the sitting chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was replaced by some guy who looks like Greg Kinnear.

Charles Rocket, 56, actor. Rocket was fired from the cast of Saturday Night Live when he said "fuck" during a 1981 broadcast.

Nipsey Russell, 80, pop culture's poet laureate. Nipsey Russell/He starred in The Wiz/Acted with Michael Jackson/Whom he kept away from his kids.

Max Schmeling, 99, boxer. This World War II-era German pugilist beat American heavyweight Joe Louis in their first meeting, only to be knocked out by Louis in the first round of their rematch.

Michael Sheard, 67, actor. Admit it: The geek in you recognizes Sheard's name as that of the actor who played the admiral killed by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.

Wendie Jo Sperber, 47, actress. Sperber co-starred opposite Tom Hanks in Bosom Buddies on TV and played Michael J. Fox's sister in the Back to the Future movies.

Gerry Thomas, 83, inventor. While Thomas should be hailed for inventing the TV dinner, he never could figure out a way to make the dessert portions palatable.

Hunter S. Thompson, 67, crazy son of a bitch. Thompson popularized gonzo journalism, penned the classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and inspired generations of journalism students who couldn't hold a candle to his hash pipe.

Luther Vandross, 54, R&B singer. This smooth-voiced singer set the standard R. Kelly, Usher and Ruben Studdard will spend their entire careers trying to match.

John Vernon, 72, actor. As Dean Wormer in Animal House, Vernon uttered the greatest words of advice in movie history: "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

Thelma White, 94, actress. White starred in the classic 1936 anti-drug film Reefer Madness, which most people watch stoned.

Paul Winchell, 82, actor and ventriloquist. Winchell was the voice of Tigger in Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh movies.

Karol Wojtyla, 84, pope. Pope John Paul II's funeral was such an important event, WSVN-Channel 7 dispatched ace reporter Belkys Nerey to Rome to cover every last ghoulish detail.