It has been a tradition here for me to post notable deaths each year. No more explanation than that is needed. Here are the ones we lost in 2016:
January
10th
David Bowie, 69, English singer-songwriter, musician ("Space Oddity", "Heroes", "Starman"), and actor (Labyrinth, Zoolander), liver cancer.
11th
David Margulies, 78, American actor (Ghostbusters, The Sopranos, Conversations with My Father).
14th
Alan Rickman, 69, English actor (Harry Potter, Die Hard, Love Actually), pancreatic cancer.
15th
Dan Haggerty, 74, American actor (The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams), spinal cancer.
18th
Glenn Frey, 67, American songwriter, musician (Eagles) and actor (Jerry Maguire), complications following intestinal surgery.
25th
Mike Minor, 75, American actor (Petticoat Junction, All My Children, The Beverly Hillbillies), cancer.
26th
Abe Vigoda, 94, American actor (The Godfather, Barney Miller, Late Night with Conan O'Brien).
February
19th
Harper Lee, 89, American author (To Kill a Mockingbird).
24th
Lennie Baker, 69, American musician and singer (Sha Na Na).
25th
Tony Burton, 78, American actor (Rocky, Assault on Precinct 13, The Shining), pneumonia.
28th
George Kennedy, 91, American actor (Cool Hand Luke, The Naked Gun, Airport), Oscar winner (1968), heart disease.
March
5th
James Douglas, 86, American actor (As the World Turns, Peyton Place, G.I. Blues).
6th
Nancy Reagan, 94, American First Lady (1981–1989) and actress (Hellcats of the Navy, Donovan's Brain, The Next Voice You Hear...), heart failure.
8th
Richard Davalos, 85, American actor (Cool Hand Luke, East of Eden, Kelly's Heroes).
11th
Shawn Elliott, 79, American singer and actor (The Dead Pool, Broken City, Law & Order).
Keith Emerson, 71, English progressive rock keyboardist (The Nice; Emerson, Lake & Palmer), suicide by gunshot.
16th
Frank Sinatra, Jr., 72, American singer (That Face!) and actor (Hollywood Homicide), heart attack.
17th
Larry Drake, 67, American actor (L.A. Law, Johnny Bravo, Darkman), Emmy winner (1988, 1989), blood cancer.
Steve Young, 73, American outlaw country music singer–songwriter ("Seven Bridges Road").
18th
Joe Santos, 84, American actor (The Rockford Files, The Sopranos, The Last Boy Scout), heart attack.
22nd
Richard Bradford, 81, American actor (Man in a Suitcase, The Untouchables, Cagney & Lacey).
23rd
Ken Howard, 71, American actor (1776, The White Shadow, J. Edgar), President of SAG/SAG-AFTRA (2009–2016), Emmy winner (1981, 2009).
Tom Whedon, 83, American television writer (The Golden Girls, The Electric Company, Alice).
24th
Garry Shandling, 66, American comedian, actor and writer (The Larry Sanders Show, Iron Man 2, Over the Hedge), blood clot.
28th
James Noble, 94, American actor (Benson, 10, Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again), complications from a stroke.
29th
Patty Duke, 69, American actress (The Miracle Worker, The Patty Duke Show, Valley of the Dolls), President of SAG (1985–1988), Oscar winner (1962), sepsis.
31st
Douglas Wilmer, 96, English actor (Sherlock Holmes, Octopussy, Jason and the Argonauts).
April
6th
Merle Haggard, 79, American singer-songwriter ("Okie from Muskogee", "The Fightin' Side of Me", "Carolyn"), Grammy winner (1984, 1998, 1999), complications from pneumonia.
7th
Jimmie Van Zant, 59, American singer, songwriter and guitarist, liver cancer.
12th
Paul Carey, 88, American radio broadcaster (Detroit Tigers).
16th
Rod Daniel, 73, American film director (Teen Wolf, K-9, WKRP in Cincinnati), Parkinson's disease.
17th
Doris Roberts, 90, American actress (Everybody Loves Raymond, Remington Steele, Christmas Vacation), stroke.
Chyna, 46, American professional wrestler (WWF) and actress (1 Night in China, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Cougar Club).
21st
Prince, 57, American musician, songwriter ("Purple Rain", "Little Red Corvette") and actor, Oscar (1984) and Grammy (1984, 1986, 2004, 2007) winner, accidental overdose of fentanyl.
May
3rd
Abel Fernandez, 85, American actor (The Untouchables, Pork Chop Hill).
Marianne Gaba, 76, American model and actress (Missile to the Moon, The Choppers, The Beverly Hillbillies).
8th
William Schallert, 93, American actor (The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, In the Heat of the Night), President of SAG (1979–1981).
19th
John Berry, 52, American musician (Beastie Boys), frontal lobe dementia.
Morley Safer, 84, Canadian-born American journalist (60 Minutes), pneumonia.
Alan Young, 96, English-born Canadian-American actor (Mister Ed, The Time Machine, DuckTales).
24th
Buck Kartalian, 93, American actor (Planet of the Apes, Cool Hand Luke, The Rock).
June
3rd
Muhammad Ali, 74, American boxer, Olympic gold medalist (1960), three-time WBC world heavyweight champion (1964, 1974, 1978), septic shock.
6th
Theresa Saldana, 61, American actress (Raging Bull, The Commish, I Wanna Hold Your Hand), renal failure.
14th
Ann Morgan Guilbert, 87, American actress (The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Nanny, Grumpier Old Men), cancer.
17th
Ron Lester, 45, American actor (Varsity Blues, Popular, Good Burger), liver and kidney failure.
July
19th
Garry Marshall, 81, American director, producer, writer, and actor (Happy Days, Pretty Woman, Murphy Brown), pneumonia.
30th
Gloria DeHaven, 91, American actress (Summer Stock, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Out to Sea), complications from a stroke.
August
2nd
Terence Bayler, 86, New Zealand actor (Monty Python's Life of Brian, Time Bandits, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone).
David Huddleston, 85, American actor (The Big Lebowski, Blazing Saddles, Santa Claus: The Movie), heart and kidney disease.
16th
John McLaughlin, 89, American political commentator and television personality (The McLaughlin Group).
19th
Jack Riley, 80, American actor (The Bob Newhart Show, Rugrats, Spaceballs), pneumonia.
23rd
Steven Hill, 94, American actor (Mission: Impossible, Law & Order, The Firm).
25th
Marvin Kaplan, 89, American actor (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Alice, The Great Race).
26th
Paul Comi, 84, American actor (Cape Fear, The Towering Inferno, Rawhide).
29th
Gene Wilder, 83, American actor (The Producers, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein), screenwriter and author, complications of Alzheimer's disease.
September
9th
James Stacy, 79, American actor (Lancer, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Something Wicked This Way Comes).
11th
Alexis Arquette, 47, American actress (The Wedding Singer, Pulp Fiction, Lords of Dogtown), cardiac arrest.
24th
Bill Nunn, 63, American actor (Do the Right Thing, Spider-Man, Sister Act), leukemia.
25th
Arnold Palmer, 87, American Hall of Fame professional golfer.
October
24th
Bobby Vee, 73, American pop singer ("Rubber Ball", "Take Good Care of My Baby", "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes") and actor, Alzheimer's disease.
November
7th
Leonard Cohen, 82, Canadian singer-songwriter ("Hallelujah", "Suzanne", "First We Take Manhattan"), poet and novelist (Beautiful Losers), complications from a fall.
Janet Reno, 78, American lawyer and politician, first female U.S. Attorney General (1993–2001), Parkinson's disease.
11th
Robert Vaughn, 83, American actor (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Magnificent Seven, Hustle), acute leukemia.
13th
Leon Russell, 74, American Hall of Fame musician (The Wrecking Crew) and songwriter ("Tight Rope").
14th
Holly Dunn, 59, American country music singer-songwriter ("Daddy's Hands", "Are You Ever Gonna Love Me", "You Really Had Me Going"), ovarian cancer.
24th
Florence Henderson, 82, American actress (The Brady Bunch) and singer, heart failure.
25th
Ron Glass, 71, American actor (Barney Miller, Firefly, Lakeview Terrace), respiratory failure.
30th
Alice Drummond, 88, American actress (Ghostbusters, Awakenings, Doubt), complications from a fall.
December
4th
Peter Vaughan, 93, British actor (Game of Thrones, Brazil, The Remains of the Day).
7th
Greg Lake, 69, English singer and musician (King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer), cancer.
11th
Alan Thicke, 69, Canadian actor (Growing Pains, Not Quite Human), talk show host (The Alan Thicke Show), and songwriter, ruptured aorta.
14th
Bernard Fox, 89, Welsh actor (Bewitched, Titanic, The Mummy), heart failure.
17th
Henry Heimlich, 96, American physician, inventor of the Heimlich maneuver, complications from a heart attack.
25th
George Michael, 53, British singer (Wham!) and songwriter ("Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Careless Whisper", "Last Christmas"), suspected heart failure.
26th
George S. Irving, 94, American actor (Underdog, Me and My Girl, The Year Without a Santa Claus), heart failure.
27th
Carrie Fisher, 60, American actress (Star Wars, When Harry Met Sally...), novelist and screenwriter (Postcards from the Edge), complications from a heart attack.
Debbie Reynolds, 84, American actress, dancer (Singin' in the Rain, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Irene) and singer ("Tammy"), stroke.
31st
William Christopher, 84, American actor (M*A*S*H; Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.), small-cell carcinoma.
This list is by far not all the notable deaths from 2016. It is however filled with people I knew, or rather knew of, and admired. May they all RIP.
