Curated playlist

2025 deaths

David LynchDavid Lynch began as a painter who just wanted his canvases to move. That wish led him to film.
Jim LovellJim Lovell flew to the Moon twice and never set foot on it. His second trip, Apollo 13, nearly ended in disaster.
Pope FrancisPope Francis stepped onto the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica in March 2013 and greeted the crowd with one plain Italian word, "Buonasera", which means good evening. Moments later he described himself as a pope who had come almost from…
Ozzy OsbourneOn the 5th of July 2025, Ozzy Osbourne sat on a black throne at Villa Park in Birmingham, because Parkinson's disease had left him unable to stand. More than 40,000 people filled the ground. At its peak, the livestream drew 5.8 million…
Gene HackmanGene Hackman, born Eugene Allen Hackman, once received the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had ever given a student. His classmates already treated him and his friend Dustin Hoffman as outsiders. They voted the two of them the least…
William R. LucasMarshall director William R. Lucas retired in 1986 after a commission criticized his role in Challenger.
Brian WilsonOn a flight to Houston in 1964, Brian Wilson broke down sobbing. He then quit touring with the Beach Boys.
D'AngeloD'Angelo, born Michael Eugene Archer, released only three studio albums in his lifetime. Rolling Stone still placed him 75th on its 2023 list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. The same magazine ranked his second album, Voodoo, 28th…
Aga Khan IVAga Khan IV, born Shah Karim al-Husseini, never appeared in gossip columns. Yet in 2013 Vanity Fair estimated his fortune at over US$13.3 billion. Forbes placed him among the world's fifteen richest royals, even though he held no political…
Yang Chen-NingYang Chen-Ning, the theoretical physicist also known as C.N. Yang and Franklin Yang, died in Beijing on the 18th of October 2025. He was 103 years old. The day after his death was announced, people gathered at Tsinghua University and…
Robert RedfordRobert Redford died in his sleep at his home in Sundance, Utah, on the 16th of September 2025. He was 89 years old. After a private funeral, he was buried on his own property there. The man who ended his days in a place that carried his…
Hulk HoganHulk Hogan held the World Wrestling Federation championship for 1,474 days during his first reign. That is the third-longest run in the history of the title. The man under the bandana and the blond moustache was born Terry Gene Bollea.…
Dick CheneyDick Cheney, born Richard Bruce Cheney, held the full powers of the American presidency on the morning of the 29th of June 2002. From 7:09 a.m. to 9:24 a.m., he served as acting president under the 25th Amendment while George W. Bush…
Marianne FaithfullMarianne Faithfull spent decades uneasy about the song that first made her famous. Speaking to Jay Cocks of Time magazine, the English singer and actress admitted: "I always childishly thought that was where my problems started, with that…
Charlie KirkCharlie Kirk, then a senior at Wheeling High School in Illinois, once organized a boycott of the cafeteria's cookies to protest a price increase. Charles James Kirk grew into an American political activist, entrepreneur, and media…
Paul TagliabueTwo days after September 11, 2001, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue canceled that weekend's games.
Sofia GubaidulinaSoviet officials called Sofia Gubaidulina's music "irresponsible." Her work later reached the BBC Proms.
Ace FrehleyAce Frehley showed up to an audition above the Live Bait Bar in New York City wearing one red sneaker and one orange sneaker. Waiting for him were Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss, who needed a lead guitarist. Frehley was born in…
James WatsonJames Watson put his name to a scientific paper that fills just two pages of the journal Nature, pages 737 and 738 of volume 171. Watson, an American molecular biologist, wrote it with Francis Crick in 1953. Its subject was DNA, and its…
Val KilmerVal Kilmer spent decades being praised in a way that sounded almost like an apology. In 1992, the film critic Roger Ebert remarked, "if there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it". By then…
Tom StoppardTom Stoppard arrived in England knowing not a word of Czech. He fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia as a child.
Jim IrsayJim Irsay was 24 years old when he became general manager of the Indianapolis Colts, the youngest person ever to hold that title in the NFL. He stayed with the franchise for the rest of his life, rising from front-office apprentice to its…
Diane KeatonDiane Keaton was born Diane Hall, but she gave up that surname before her career took off, because another actress was already registered under it. She chose her mother's maiden name instead. The new name would be credited in films across…
Rob ReinerRob Reiner, the American filmmaker, actor and political activist, once joked about how firmly a sitcom nickname had attached itself to him. "I could win the Nobel Prize and they'd write 'Meathead wins the Nobel Prize.'" The remark came…
Katharine, Duchess of KentKatharine, Duchess of Kent, was known to the children she taught in Kingston upon Hull simply as "Mrs Kent". Her royal identity went largely unrecognised in the school community. Born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley, she was a member of the…
Richard AppignanesiRichard Appignanesi turned a Mexican cartoonist's book on Karl Marx into Marx for Beginners in 1976.
Nuno LoureiroNuno Loureiro, a Portuguese plasma physicist, was shot in the foyer of his apartment building in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the evening of the 15th of December 2025. He was taken to a Boston hospital and died early the next morning. At…
Russell M. NelsonRussell M. Nelson performed nearly 7,000 operations as a surgeon before he was called to be an apostle. He later served as the seventeenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 2018 until his death. He lived to…
Giorgio ArmaniGiorgio Armani died on the 4th of September 2025, aged 91, and around 15,000 people attended his public wake at the Armani/Teatro in Milan. They came for a man who spent decades making jackets look softer and more relaxed than tailoring…
Frederick W. SmithFred Smith once walked into a Las Vegas casino carrying the last $5,000 his young company owned. A crucial business loan had just been refused. A fuel bill of $24,000 was due, and the planes could not fly without paying it. At a blackjack…
Assata ShakurCuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that a woman died in Havana on the 25th of September 2025. She was 78 years old. For 45 of her years, she had been a fugitive from the United States. American authorities knew her as Joanne…
Jim ShooterJim Shooter was 14 when DC Comics bought his scripts. His first paycheck went toward a rebuilt family car engine.
Charley RosenCharley Rosen went from Bronx schoolyards to coaching beside Phil Jackson. He also wrote more than two dozen books.
Jane GoodallJane Goodall had no university degree when she began studying chimpanzees. Cambridge still let her earn a doctorate.
Brigitte BardotBrigitte Bardot, known to the world by her initials B.B., was once praised by French president Charles de Gaulle as “the French export as important as Renault cars.” That is a striking thing to say about an actress. It is stranger still…
Anne BurrellAnne Burrell once wagered her signature hair on a cooking contest. The bet was with fellow chef Robert Irvine, and the stakes were visual. If Burrell lost, she risked losing her hair. If Irvine lost, he risked going platinum. Burrell was…