Final goodbye: Influential people who died in 2020
In a year defined by a devastating pandemic, the world lost iconic defenders of civil rights, great athletes and entertainers who helped define their genres.
Many of their names hold a prominent place in the collective consciousness — RBG, Kobe, Maradona, Eddie Van Halen, Little Richard, Sean Connery, Alex Trebek, Christo — but pandemic restrictions often limited the public’s ability to mourn their loss in a year that saw more than a million people die from the coronavirus.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg— known as the Notorious RBG to her many admirers — was one of the many
noteworthy figures who died in 2020.
Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):
January
Elizabeth Wurtzel, 52. Her blunt and painful confessions of her struggles with addiction and depression in the bestselling “ProzacNation” made her a voice and a target for an anxious generation. Jan. 7. Cancer.
Kobe Bryant, 41. The 18time NBA All-Star who won five championships and becameone of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career spent entirely with the Los Angeles Lakers. Jan. 26. Helicopter crash.
February
Kirk Douglas, 103. The intense, muscular actor with the dimpled chin who starred in “Spartacus,” “Lust for Life” and dozens of other films, helped fatally weaken the blacklist against suspected communists and reigned for decades as a Hollywoodmaverick and patriarch. Feb. 5.
Katherine Johnson, 101. A mathematician who calculated rocket trajectories and Earth orbits for NASA’s early space missions and was later portrayed in the 2016 hit film “Hidden Figures,” about pioneering Black female aerospace workers. Feb. 24.
March
Kenny Rogers, 81. The Grammy-winning balladeer who spanned jazz, folk, country and pop with such hits as “Lucille,” “Lady” and “Islands in the Stream” and embraced his persona
as “The Gambler” on records and TV. March 20.
Tom Coburn, 72. A formerU.S. senator fromOklahoma who earned a reputation as a conservative political maverick when he railed against federal earmarks and subsidies for the rich. March 28.
April
Earl Graves Sr., 85. He championed Black businesses as the founder of the first African Americanmagazine focusing on black entrepreneurs. April 6.
Linda Tripp, 70. Her secretly taped conversations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky provided evidence of an affair with President Bill Clinton that led to his impeachment. April 8.
May.
Little Richard, 87. Hewas one of the chief architects of rock ‘n’ roll whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popularmusic while introducing Black R&B towhite America. May 9. Bone cancer.
Larry Kramer, 84. The playwright whose angry voice and pen raised theatergoers’ consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to militant protests
in the early years of the epidemic. May 27. Pneumonia.
June
Jean Kennedy Smith, 92. She was the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy and who as a U.S. ambassador played a key role in the peace process in Northern Ireland. June 17.
Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., 82. He was the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement. June 26.
July
John Lewis, 80. An icon of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress. July 17.
Olivia de Havilland, 104. The doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of “Gone With the Wind,” but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood’s contract system. July 26.
Connie Culp, 57. She was
the recipient of the first partial face transplant in the U.S. July 29.
August
John Hume, 83. The visionary politician who won aNobelPeacePrize for fashioning the agreement that ended violence in his native Northern Ireland. Aug. 3.
September
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87. TheU.S. Supreme Court justice developed a cultlike following over her more than 27 years on the bench, especially among young women who appreciated her lifelong, fierce defense of women’s rights. Sept. 18.
October
Eddie Van Halen, 65. The guitar virtuoso whose blinding speed, control and innovation propelled his band Van Halen into one of hard rock’s biggest groups and became elevated to the status of rock god. Oct. 6. Cancer.
Sean Connery, 90. The charismatic Scottish actor who rose to international superstardom as the suave secret agent James Bond and then abandoned the role to carve out an Oscarwinning career in other rugged roles. Oct. 31.
November
Alex Trebek, 80. He presided over the beloved quiz show “Jeopardy!” for more than 30 years with dapper charmand a touch of schoolmaster strictness. Nov. 8.
December
Charles “Chuck” Yeager, 97. TheWorldWar II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound. Dec. 7.
Online: For a full list, go to our website at THEOAKLANDPRESS.COM.