For those of us who love the celebrity world, show business, music and film, 2016 was one of the most difficult years imaginable. It seemed like every week, some great and fabled legend was dying, and then just when we thought we were clear of it around the December holidays, tragedy struck faster and more furious than ever before. Some people have gone as far as saying that 2016 was the reckoning for celebrities. It did seem like an abnormal amount of well-known celebs were passing away. Death got greedy. But it’s done now. All we can do is hope that it was an anomaly and that 2017 and the years to follow will be much kinder to the famous. We’re not completely naïve. We do expect that someone great will die each year, but, please, keep it to a minimum if you can, oh Death. Give us some more time to honor our legends before you take them from us.
With only 15 spots to give on this list, and a very clear bias for the film and television stars we lost, there were some greats left off the final tally. Since we tried to focus most on celebrities from show business, we were forced to exclude the incredible Muhammad Ali, Merle Haggard, John Glenn and Sir George Martin among others. There were also some brilliant actors who were left off, including Alan Thicke from Growing Pains and Abe Vigota from The Godfather. With that said, let’s take a look at the stars who did make this horrible list. Here are the 15 most influential stars killed by 2016.
15. Doris Roberts
Doris Roberts may be best known for her work on Everybody Loves Raymond. She played Ray Romano‘s hilariously overbearing mother who everybody could easily relate to. She also played a great part in National Lampoons’ Christmas Vacation, but this lovely woman was actually working in the industry in a big way since the 50s. In addition to her great work in front of the camera, she was also a well-known activist and philanthropist. She dedicated much of her time and energy to helping others, and those who knew her, say that this was her true passion. On April 17, 2016, Roberts had a stroke in her sleep and died peacefully. She was 90 years old.
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