Voice actor Jim Ward , 66, died on Dec. 10 of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Ward was the voice of Captain Qwark ( Ratchet & Clank ), Chet Ubetcha ( The Fairly OddParents ), the River Spirit ( Spirited Away ), Abe Lincoln ( Hard Drinkin' Lincoln ), and Krackus ( My Life as a Teenage Robot ); he won an Emmy for voicing Stoker in Biker Mice from Mars . Ward also co-hosted radio’s The Stephanie Miller Show .

Porn actor Scott Finn , 27, died on Nov. 23; his family has not released the cause of death. His family wrote in his obituary that Finn “will be remembered for his incredible capacity to help others. He was especially sympathetic to women in need, whether it was helping them dig out their car from the snow, providing a meal or helping them feel safe in their circumstances. Throughout his life, friends were drawn to him because of his immense capacity for accepting people for

Actress Wenne Alton Davis , 60, was struck and killed by a car while crossing Broadway at 53rd Street in Manhattan on Dec. 8. Davis had small or supporting roles in such movies and TV shows as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Rescue Me, The Normal Heart, American Odyssey, Blind Spot, New Amsterdam , and the short Ladies Room . “She was very driven, compassionate, giving,” said her friend Edward Reynoso. “I will miss her smile, laugh, and joie de vivre.”

Comic and voice actor Jeffrey Garcia , 50, died on Dec. 10. He had been in poor health since a cerebral aneurysm, and died of a collapsed lung. Gracia was a popular stand-up comic in the ’90s, and acted in such TV shows and movies as Caroline in the City  and Dangerous Minds , till finding his life’s work as a voice actor. He played Sheen Estevez in the Jimmy Neutron  series (TV shows, movie, video games), and also voiced characters in Clone High, Ozzy & Drix, ChalkZone, Barn

British chick-lit novelist Sophie Kinsella (who sometimes published as Madeleine Wickham), 55, died of cancer on Dec. 10. The Oxford grad started her career as a financial journalist, then published her first novel, The Tennis Party , in 1995. Kinsella’s books were similar to Elinor Lipman’s and Helen Fielding’s: well-crafted comfort-food novels about women finding love and careers. Her Shopaholic books were made into the film Confessions of a Shopaholic , as was Can You Kee

Bluegrass/jazz country musician Rory Macleod , 70, was killed on Dec. 6 in Hopkinton, RI, while walking his dog (the driver who struck him had more than 100 arrests and dozens of traffic violations). Over a 50-year career, Macleod performed with the Roomful of Blues band (and had a Grammy nomination for his work with them), with musicians Duke Robillard and Paul Geremia, and with Jack Smith & The Rockabilly Planet. Roomful of Blues manager Bob Bell posted, "Having Rory in the

Tex-Mex singer/songwriter Raul Malo , 60, died of cancer on Dec. 8. Malo was lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for The Mavericks, a Miami-based band he formed in 1989 (the Mavericks broke up in 2004, but have reunited for frequent gigs). When not with the Mavericks, Malo performed solo, as well as with the shifting collective Los Super Seven. He cut nine albums from 2000-23, and such singles as "I Said I Love You,” “Today,” "Feels Like Home,” "Lucky One,” and “Moonlight K

I know we are not supposed to laugh at foreign names, but I am basically eight years old, so “ Tiit Härm ”— HA -hahahaha! Härm (whose death at 79 was announced on Dec. 7) was born in Tallinn, Estonia, the brother of actress Viiu Härm. He attended the Tallinn Choreographic School and the Leningrad Choreographic School, and was soon dancing at the Estonia Theater. He eventually became the ballet manager, principal ballet master and choreographer there, and in 2014 formed his o

Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry , 96, died on Dec. 5. Just a few days ago, I was struggling with the works of Robert A.M. Stern, and here I am, taking on Gehry. He is described in his obits as a “post-modernist deconstructivist,” but I find many of his buildings to be just plain agreeably silly. I cannot stand the big box school of architecture, which has destroyed the skylines of so many cities. Gehry’s buildings ranged from the aggressively hideous (the Chiat/Day Buildi

Actor  Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat ) died on Dec. 4. He was 75. Born in Tokyo but raised in the US, Tagawa began acting in the 1980s, and was soon playing juicy character roles, notably in the Mortal Kombat  films, TV series and video game. His other vehicles included The Last Emperor , License to Kill , Showdown in Little Tokyo , Rising Sun , The Phantom , Snow Falling on Cedars , Pearl Harbor , Planet of the Apes , Memoirs of a Geisha , 47 Ronin , and

Actress and dancer Donnyelle Denise Jones , 46, died of cancer on Dec. 2. Jones appeared in the films Be Cool  and Spirited , and choreographed for The Wayne Brady Show  and Missy Elliott’s “Pass That Dutch” video. She was also a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance (she came in third, in season 2). Jones was also seen in America's Best Dance Crew , and taught dance. Her dance partner Benji Schwimmer posted that “There are many times in the arts, in the dance world, wher

TV cartoon writer and artist Tony Benedict , 89, died on Nov. 29. A Marine veteran, Benedict started his career at Disney in 1948 as an in-betweener on such films as Sleeping Beauty ; he moved to UPA and worked on Mr. Magoo , and that same year settled in at Hanna-Barbera, where he helped to create The Flintstones . Benedict worked as a writer—and sometimes artist—on such Baby Boomer classics as The Jetsons, Top Cat, Huckleberry Hound, Magilla Gorilla, Secret Squirrel , and L

I’m sure singer/songwriter Leslie Fish  (who died on Nov. 29, aged 72) was a very nice lady and had a lot of friends, but she was the sort of person I would cross the street—against the light—to avoid. She was an anarchist and gun-rights advocate (because those two things go well together), belonged to the hugely annoying Society for Creative Anachronism, was a Trekkie (Trekker?) and role-playing gamer, nuclear war prepper, and she tried to breed domestic cats for intelligenc

Yet another  online “influencer” has been killed by her boyfriend—it really doesn’t pay to even have  a boyfriend, does it? I’m glad I have not been on a date since McKinley was in office. Austrian makeup artist Stefanie Pieper , 31, went missing on Nov. 23 and was found dead in a Slovenian forest on the 29 th . Her boyfriend was arrested and has reportedly confessed to her killing. Pieper, a professional makeup artist, was an online star with with her beauty tips and pluggin

French actress and model Lise Bourdin , 99, died on Nov. 28. The sister of playwright Roland Bourdin, Lise worked various office jobs before being discovered by Pierre Balmain and shot to stardom as one of Paris’s most successful post-War models (“There were pictures of me everywhere. Sometimes I was on three magazine covers at the same time”). She enjoyed a brief but successful career in films and TV in the 1950s, including costarring with Sophia Loren in The River Girl , an

Playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard , 88, died on Nov. 29. Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard grew up in England; his father died in the war (Kenneth Stoppard was his stepfather). His most famous plays—often brimming with witty and deep dialogue and touching on social issues of the day—included Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead , Jumpers , Travesties , Night and Day , The Real Thing , Arcadia , The Invention of Love , The Coast of Utopia , and Leopoldstadt ; he also wr

Australian musical-comedy actress Toni Lamond , 93, died on Nov. 29. The daughter of performers Stella Lamond and Joe Lawman, she was a star in the waning days of vaudeville, as well as musical-comedy and variety. She also appeared in a few films and TV series (including the US shows The Bob Newhart Show, Punky Brewster, Starsky and Hutch, The Love Boat , and Murder She Wrote ). She starred in touring companies of Oliver!, Annie Get Your Gun, The Pajama Game, 42nd Street, The

Brazilian actor Tony Germano , 55, died on Nov. 26 when he fell from the roof of his house in Sao Paulo, which was undergoing renovation. No foul play is suspected. Germano appeared in theater productions of Beauty and the Beast, Fiddler on the Roof, The Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll & Hyde , and Miss Saigon , and recorded several albums of show tunes. He provided Portuguese voice-overs for Beauty and the Beast , Nickelodeon's Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn , and Netflix’s Go, Dog

Architect and historian Robert A.M. Stern , 86, died on Nov. 27. Stern designed such buildings as 15 Central Park West, resorts for Disney World, the George W. Bush Center in Dallas, the Museum of the American Revolution, and Philadelphia’s Comcast Center, among many others. His style varied from gawd-awful glass and concrete slabs to really rather charming post-modern designs (520 Park, the Gerald R. Ford school in Michigan, and the Jacksonville Main Library in Florida are a

German actress and boyfriend-killer Ingrid van Bergen , 94, died on Nov. 28. Born in Poland, she began her career onstage in Germany and eventually appeared in nearly 200 films and TV series. She was seen in the US in Town Without Pity  and The Counterfeit Traitor , though her career was mostly in Germany. “Acting was my whole life,” van Bergen said. “I always found my job very exciting; I loved my colleagues, the crew on set, the cameramen.” Her career was interrupted when s