Celebrities and famous people who died in 2005 |
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January |
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Johnny Carson (TV host) -- Dead. Emphysema. Died January 23, 2005. Born October 23, 1925. Longtime host of The Tonight Show (1962-1992) | ||
February |
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Sandra Dee -- died of complications from kidney disease at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. She was 62. At the height of her fame was arguably the biggest female teen idol of her time. She left behind a legacy of film roles that includes “Gidget” and “Tammy and the Doctor.” Dee's fame spanned the late 1950s and early '60s. She was Gidget, and she was Tammy, and for a time she was young America’s ideal,” film historian Leonard Maltin once said of her. |
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March |
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John DeLorean (entrepreneur) -- Dead. Stroke. Died March 19, 2005. Born January 6, 1925. Created the Pontiac GTO, then the futuristic DeLorean car (with the doors that raise rather than open outward. | ||
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Johnnie Cochran (lawyer) -- Dead. Brain cancer. Died March 29, 2005. Born October 2, 1937. LA lawyer for OJ in the infamous Simpson/Goldman murder case. | ||
April |
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Pope John Paul II (Leader of the Roman Catholic Church) -- Dead. Parkinson's disease/heart failure/kidney failure. Died April 2, 2005. Born May 18, 1920. Born Karol Wojtyla, he was the first Polish pope, he served from 1978-2005, widely-traveled, multi-lingual. | ||
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Prince Rainier Grimaldi (prince) -- Dead. Died April 6, 2005. Born May 31, 1923. Ruler of Monaco since 1949, his marriage to Grace Kelly made him a household name. | ||
May |
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Eddie Albert (actor) -- Dead. Pneumonia. Died May 26, 2005. Born April 22, 1906. | ||
June |
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Jack Kilby - Nobel laureate - whose 1958 invention of the integrated circuit ushered in the modern electronics age and made possible the microprocessor, died after a battle with cancer at age 81. |
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July |
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Luther Vandross (smooth singer) -- Dead. [rumors] Died July 1, 2005. Born April 20, 1951. "Here and Now", lapsed into a coma following a stroke on April 16, 2003, recovered somewhat but died just over two years later. | ||
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General William Westmoreland (Soldier) -- Dead. Died July 18, 2005. Born March 26, 1914. Controversial commander of US troops in South Vietnam during the Vietnamese War. | ||
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James ‘Scotty’ Doohan -- dead at age 85. ‘Star Trek’ chief engineer forever known for beaming up Enterprise crew. | ||
August |
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Robin Cook (British politician) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died August 6, 2005. Born February 28, 1946. Foreign Secretary under Tony Blair, he resigned from the government in March 2003 in protest over Britain's involvement in Iraq | ||
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Peter Jennings (TV news anchor) -- Dead. Lung cancer. Died August 7, 2005. Born July 29, 1938. ABC World News Tonight anchor, narrated many documentaries. | ||
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Barbara Bel Geddes, the winsome actress who rose to stage and movie stardom but reached her greatest fame as Miss Ellie Ewing in the long-running TV series “Dallas.”. She was 82. | ||
September |
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Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist -- USA -- died at the age of 80 of cancer, ending a 33-year Supreme Court career during which he oversaw the court’s conservative shift, presided over an impeachment trial and helped decide a presidential election. |
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Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down Nazi war criminals following World War II, then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people. He was 96. | ||
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Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s TV spoof of James Bond movies, “Get Smart.” He was 82. Adams died of a lung infection. |
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October |
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Rosa Parks (long-time civil rights activist) -- Dead. Died October 24, 2005. Born February 4, 1913. Woman who defied the segregation laws in Montgomery Alabama by refusing to sit in the back of the bus, the first woman to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda. | ||
November |
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Actor Pat Morita, whose portrayal of the wise and dry-witted Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid" earned him an Oscar nomination. He was 73. | ||
December |
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Richard Pryor (comedian) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died December 10, 2005. Born December 1, 1940. Great stand-up comic and writer, starred in Uptown Saturday Night and many TV specials, struggled with addictions and multiple sclerosis. | ||
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John Spencer (actor) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died December 16, 2005. Born December 20, 1946. Leo McGarry on The West Wing, Tommy Mullaney on LA Law, gardening enthusiast, wonderful actor. | ||
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Contact: Webmaster Copyright © 2009 by Demirdjian Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved. Revised: 05/21/09 15:47:24 -0400. |
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