Farewell
Among those who died in 2009 ...
Media and publishing
John Updike, Pulitzer Prize–winning fiction writer and critic, died Jan. 27, age 76.
Philip José Farmer, science fiction author, died Feb. 25, age 91.
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Paul Harvey, folksy radio personality, died Feb. 28, age 90.
Amos Elon, Israeli author and critic, died May 25, age 82.
Walter Cronkite, longtime CBS Evening News anchor, died July 17, age 92.
Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes, died July 19, age 78.
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Robert Novak, syndicated columnist known as the “Prince of Darkness,” died Aug. 18, age 78.
Don Hewitt, creator and executive producer of 60 Minutes, died Aug. 19, age 86.
Dominick Dunne, crime chronicler of the rich and famous, died Aug. 26, age 83.
William Safire, Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times columnist, died Sept. 27, age 79.
Stage and screen
Patrick McGoohan, star of The Prisoner, died Jan. 13, age 80.
Ricardo Montalban, charismatic Mexican-American actor, died Jan. 14, age 88.
James Whitmore, Emmy Award–winning character actor, died Feb. 6, age 87.
Ron Silver, edgy actor and political activist, died March 15, age 62.
Natasha Richardson, Tony Award–winning actress, died March 18, age 45.
Marilyn Chambers, star of Behind the Green Door and other pornographic films, died April 12, age 56.
Beatrice Arthur, star of Maude and The Golden Girls, died April 25, age 86.
Dom DeLuise, rotund comedian, died May 4, age 75.
David Carradine, star of Kung Fu, died June 3, age 72.
Ed McMahon, Tonight Show sidekick, died June 23, age 86.
Farrah Fawcett, star of Charlie’s Angels, died June 25, age 62.
Karl Malden, Oscar–winning actor, died July 1, age 97.
Budd Schulberg, Oscar-winning screenwriter of On the Waterfront, died Aug. 5, age 95.
John Hughes, writer/director of “Brat Pack” films, died Aug. 6, age 59.
Larry Gelbart, developer of M*A*S*H* for TV, died Sept. 11, age 81.
Henry Gibson, deadpan comedian, died Sept. 14, age 73.
Patrick Swayze, hunky star of Dirty Dancing, died Sept. 14, age 57.
Soupy Sales, children’s TV show host, died Oct. 22, age 83.
Gene Barry, star of TV’s Bat Masterson and Burke’s Law, died Dec. 9, age 90.
Music and the arts
Andrew Wyeth, painter of bleak Americana, died Jan. 16, age 91.
Estelle Bennett, one-third of the Ronettes, died Feb. 11, age 67.
Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop,” died June 25, age 50.
Merce Cunningham, groundbreaking choreographer, died July 26, age 90.
Les Paul, developer of the solid-body electric guitar, died Aug. 12, age 94.
Ellie Greenwich, composer of Be My Baby and Chapel of Love, died Aug. 26, age 68.
Mary Travers, singer for Peter, Paul and Mary, died Sept. 16, age 72.
Irving Penn, fashion photographer, died Oct. 7, age 92.
Jeanne-Claude, wife of and collaborator with the artist Christo, died Nov. 18, age 74.
Politics
Claiborne Pell, Rhode Island senator and federal education grant creator, died Jan. 1, age 90.
Leonore Annenberg, U.S. chief of protocol and philanthropist, died March 12, age 91.
Raúl Alfonsín, Argentine president who championed democracy, died March 31, age 82.
Jack Kemp, Republican congressman and vice presidential candidate, died May 2, age 73.
Robert McNamara, secretary of defense, died July 6, age 93.
Corazon Aquino, president of the Philippines, died Aug. 1, age 76.
Kim Dae-jung, president of South Korea and Nobel laureate, died Aug. 18, age 83.
Edward M. Kennedy, U.S. senator from Massachusetts, died Aug. 25, age 77.
Jody Powell, press secretary for President Jimmy Carter, died Sept. 14, age 65.
Irving Kristol, godfather of neoconservatism, died Sept. 18, age 89.
General
Richard John Neuhaus, influential Catholic theologian, died Jan. 8, age 72.
John Hope Franklin, pioneering historian of the African-American experience, died March 25, age 94.
Mark Fidrych, Detroit Tigers pitcher known as “the Bird,” died April 13, age 54.
Dom DiMaggio, Boston Red Sox center fielder, died May 8, age 92.
Millvina Dean, last survivor of the Titanic, died May 31, age 97.
Allen Klein, manager of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, died July 4, age 77.
Frederick J. “Reverend Ike” Eikerenkoetter II, charismatic preacher, died July 28, age 74.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, died Aug. 11, age 88.
Norman Borlaug, Nobel Prize–winning agronomist, died Sept. 12, age 95.
“Captain” Lou Albano, professional wrestler, died Oct. 14, age 76.
Bruce Wasserstein, investment banker, died Oct. 14, age 61.
Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist, died Oct. 30, age 100.
Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize–winning economist, died Dec. 13, age 94.
Oral Roberts, television evangelist, died Dec. 15, age 91.