Gone in 2025: A Yearlong Procession of Giants

One after another they fell, towering names that needed no introduction. Pope Francis. Robert Redford. Diane Keaton. Dick Cheney. Brian Wilson. Gene Hackman. Ozzy Osbourne. Jane Goodall. Roberta Flack. George Foreman. Tom Stoppard. Frank Gehry. Rob Reiner.

The obituary pages track the deaths of the famous and the mighty in any given year, of course, but in 2025 we witnessed a seemingly unending procession of them, many from the worlds of music, movies and television. Marquee names, all.

The deaths of screen idols summoned shared memories of unforgettable performances. We recalled Mr. Redford, a serious-minded matinee idol, embracing Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were” or leaping off a riverside cliff with Paul Newman in the irreverent western buddy movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” We recalled Ms. Keaton, wise, witty and fashion-forward in her idiosyncratic way, bantering with Woody Allen in “Annie Hall” or with Jack Nicholson in “Something’s Gotta Give.”

The circumstances of Mr. Hackman’s death were grim. At 95, afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease, he collapsed in February from a heart malady in his home in Santa Fe, N.M., most likely a week after his wife, the classical musician Betsy Arakawa, died there as well, from a rare virus. Another week would pass before their bodies were discovered.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/obituaries/2025-deaths-obituaries.html