In memoriam 2024: a personal list remembering some of the artists who died in 2024.
Links lead to Wikipedia articles.
January
Tamara Milashkina, 89, Russian operatic soprano (Bolshoi Theatre).
Anthony Russell-Roberts, 79, British businessman and opera manager, cancer.
Gerd Uecker, 77, German music pedagogue, music and opera artistic director (Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper).
David Soul, 80, American-British actor (Starsky & Hutch, Magnum Force) and singer (“Don’t Give Up on Us“).
Ewa Podleś, 71, Polish coloratura contralto opera singer.
Georgina Hale, 80, British actress (Mahler, The Devils, Castaway).
Glynis Johns, 100, British actress (Mary Poppins, A Little Night Music, The Sundowners), Tony winner (1973).
Eleanor Fazan, 94, Kenyan-born British actress and choreographer (Willow, Hot Fuzz, The Ruling Class).
Norman Jewison, 97, Canadian film director (In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck).
Sandra Milo, 90, Italian actress (8½, Juliet of the Spirits, Vanina Vanini), lung cancer.
Chita Rivera, 91, American dancer and actress (West Side Story, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Chicago), Tony winner (1984, 1993).
February
Robin Windsor, 44, British dancer (Strictly Come Dancing).
Steve Paxton, 85, American experimental dancer and choreographer.
Ian Lavender, 77, English actor (Dad’s Army, EastEnders, Parsley Sidings).
Don Murray, 94, American actor (Bus Stop, A Hatful of Rain, The Plainsman).
Michael Jayston, 88, English actor (Only Fools and Horses, Doctor Who, Nicholas and Alexandra).
Ira von Fürstenberg, 83, Italian socialite and actress (Five Dolls for an August Moon, The Vatican Affair, The Battle of El Alamein).
Seiji Ozawa, 88, Japanese conductor, heart failure.
Paolo Taviani, 92, Italian film director (Allonsanfàn, Padre Padrone, Kaos) and screenwriter, pulmonary edema.
March
Linda Balgord, 64, American actress and singer (The Pirate Queen, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera).
Eric Carmen, 74, American musician (Raspberries), singer (“Hungry Eyes“), and songwriter (“All by Myself“).
Louis Gossett Jr., 87, American actor (An Officer and a Gentleman, Roots, Iron Eagle), Oscar winner (1982), complications from COPD.
Maurizio Pollini, 82, Italian pianist.
Byron Janis, 95, American classical pianist.
Péter Eötvös, 80, Hungarian composer (Love and Other Demons, Three Sisters) and conductor (Ensemble intercontemporain).
Edward Bond, 89, British dramatist (Saved, Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Sea) and theatre director.
April
Michael Tanner, 88, British philosopher and opera critic.
Michael Boder, 65, German conductor (Vienna State Opera, Liceu, Royal Danish Theatre).
Sir Andrew Davis, 80, English conductor (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), leukaemia.
Paola Gassman, 78, Italian actress (Let’s Have a Riot).
Margaret Lee, 80, English actress (I due pericoli pubblici, Letti sbagliati, The Killers Are Our Guests).
May
Dominique Dupuy, 93, French dancer and choreographer.
Hugues Gall, 84, French opera administrator, director of the Paris Opera (1995–2004).
Bernard Hill, 79, English actor (The Lord of the Rings, Titanic, Wolf Hall).
Franca Nuti, 95, Italian actress (Marco Visconti).
Dabney Coleman, 92, American actor (9 to 5, Tootsie, The Guardian), Emmy winner (1987), cardiac arrest.
Richard M. Sherman, 95, American film songwriter (Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), Oscar winner (1965).
Roger Corman, 98, American film director (The Little Shop of Horrors, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre) and producer (Death Race 2000).
June
Éric Vu-An, 60, French dancer, choreographer, and actor (The Sheltering Sky, Les Liaisons dangereuses), brain tumour.
Éric Tappy, 93, Swiss operatic tenor (Grand Théâtre de Genève) and academic teacher (Conservatoire de Musique de Genève).
Jodie Devos, 35, Belgian opera singer (Opéra-Comique), breast cancer.
Lando Bartolini, 87, Italian operatic tenor.
Martti Wallén, 75, Finnish operatic bass singer (Royal Swedish Opera).
Rosalina Neri, 96, Italian actress (Three Men and a Leg, All the Moron’s Men, The Predators) and singer.
Philippe Leroy, 93, French actor (The Hole, The Life of Leonardo da Vinci, Sandokan).
Anouk Aimée, 92, French actress (La dolce vita, A Man and a Woman, A Leap in the Dark).
Donald Sutherland, 88, Canadian actor (M*A*S*H, Ordinary People, The Hunger Games), Emmy winner (1995), COPD.
July
Robert Banas, 90, American dancer and actor (West Side Story), pneumonia.
Marina Kondratyeva, 90, Russian ballerina (Bolshoi Ballet).
Elena Mauti Nunziata, 77, Italian opera singer.
Benjamin Luxon, 87, British baritone, colon cancer.
Wolfgang Rihm, 72, German composer (Jakob Lenz, Die Hamletmaschine, Dionysos), cancer.
April Cantelo, 96, English soprano.
Bob Newhart, 94, American comedian and actor (The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, Elf), Emmy (2013) and Grammy (1961) winner.
Shelley Duvall, 75, American actress (The Shining, Nashville, 3 Women), complications from diabetes.
August
Siegfried Lorenz, 78, German operatic baritone.
Christine Weidinger, 78, American operatic soprano.
Gena Rowlands, 94, American actress (A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria, The Notebook), four-time Emmy winner, complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Alain Delon, 88, French-Swiss actor (Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard, Le Samouraï) and film producer, B-cell lymphoma.
Steve Davislim, 57, Malaysian-born Australian operatic tenor.
Antônio Meneses, 66, Brazilian cellist (Beaux Arts Trio) and academic teacher (Bern Academy of Arts), brain cancer.
September
Noroviin Baatar, 88, Mongolian ballet dancer and film actor.
Michaela DePrince, 29, Sierra Leonean-American ballerina.
Beppe Menegatti, 95, Italian theatre director.
Caterina Valente, 93, French-Italian singer (“Bongo cha cha cha“).
Kris Kristofferson, 88, American Hall of Fame singer-songwriter (“Me and Bobby McGee“, “Help Me Make It Through the Night“) and actor (A Star Is Born), Grammy winner (1972, 1974, 1975).
James Earl Jones, 93, American actor (Star Wars, Fences, The Lion King), Tony winner (1969, 1987).
Barbara Leigh-Hunt, 88, English actress (Frenzy, Henry VIII and His Six Wives, Bequest to the Nation).
Dame Maggie Smith, 89, British actress (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Harry Potter, Downton Abbey), Oscar winner (1969, 1978).
Glauco Mauri, 93, Italian actor (China Is Near, Deep Red, Ecce Bombo) and theatre director.
Gavin Creel, 48, American actor (Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Book of Mormon, Hello, Dolly!), Tony winner (2017), malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor.
October
Mitzi Gaynor, 93, American actress (There’s No Business Like Show Business, The Birds and the Bees, South Pacific), singer and dancer.
Liam Payne, 31, English singer (One Direction), fall.
Mimi Hines, 91, Canadian actress (Funny Girl) and singer.
Jack Jones, 86, American singer (“Wives and Lovers“, “Love Boat“) and actor (Over the Garden Wall), leukemia.
Teri Garr, 79, American actress (Tootsie, Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind), complications from multiple sclerosis.
Leif Segerstam, 80, Finnish conductor (Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Swedish Opera), composer of symphonies, and musician, pneumonia.
November
Judith Jamison, 81, American dancer and choreographer.
Eileen Kramer, 110, Australian dancer and choreographer.
Vladimir Shklyarov, 39, Russian ballet dancer, fall.
Marianne Preger-Simon, 95, American dancer and choreographer.
Quincy Jones, 91, American Hall of Fame record producer (Thriller, “We Are the World“), composer (“Soul Bossa Nova“), and arranger, 28-time Grammy winner, pancreatic cancer.
Timothy West, 90, English actor (Hedda, EastEnders) and television presenter (Great Canal Journeys).
December
Arlene Croce, 90, American dance critic (The New Yorker), co-founder of Ballet Review.
Olivia Hussey, 73, British actress (Romeo and Juliet, Black Christmas, Jesus of Nazareth), breast cancer.
Related
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
