Stars who died in 2023: part 3

 NEEL NANDA

Neel Nanda on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'. Randy Holmes via Getty

Stand-up comedian Neel Nanda died Dec. 24 at age 32, his manager confirmed to EW. A cause of death was not revealed. Born in Atlanta, Nanda first developed his interest in stand-up while in high school and moved to Los Angeles in 2013 to pursue comedy full-time. He made appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Hulu's Coming to the Stage, Comedy Central's Adam Devine's House Party, and Vice's Flophouse, among other shows. He was also the host of the weekly show Unnecessary Evil at L.A.'s Westside Comedy Theater.

Bobbie Jean Carter

Bobbie Jean Carter

Bobbie Jean Carter. Kristy Leibowitz/Getty 

Bobbie Jean Carter, sister of Nick and Aaron Carter, died Dec. 23 in Florida at age 41. A cause of death was not revealed. Carter worked as a wardrobe stylist and makeup artist for Aaron Carter's tours in the early 2000s, and was featured on the family's E! reality series, House of Carters, which ran for one season in 2006. She also seemed to struggle with addiction and substance abuse, though she lived her life mostly away from the spotlight. She is survived by her daughter, Bella.

Mike Nussbaum

Mike Nussbaum 

Mike Nussbaum. Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty 

Mike Nussbaum, a veteran Chicago stage actor who also had roles in several films, died Dec. 23 at age 99. Nussbaum began his theater career in the 1950s and met playwright David Mamet while at Chicago's Second City. He went on to star in the original Broadway production of Glengarry Glenn Ross in 1984. Though Nussbaum worked mostly in theater well into his 90s, he also made appearances in movies such as Field of Dreams, Things Change, Fatal Attraction, and Men in Black.

Richard Romanus

Richard Romanus

Richard Romanus. American Broadcasting Companies via Getty 

Richard Romanus, best known for starring as loan shark Michael Longo in the 1973 crime film Mean Streets, died on Dec. 23 at 80. Romanus began pursuing acting after graduating from Xavier University in 1964. He took drama classes with Lee Strasberg at the legendary Actors Studio before making his big-screen debut in the 1968 horror film The Ghastly Ones. Romanus later found success starring alongside Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets. In 1981, he became a series regular on the ABC crime series Strike Force as Det. Lt. Charlie Gunzer until its cancellation the following year. He went on to have a prolific television career, with credits including Mission: Impossible, Kojak, Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, The A-Team, Chicago Hope, NYPD Blue, and, most notably, The Sopranos. Romanus is survived by his wife, Anthea Sylbert; his son; and his brother Robert Romanus.

Laura Lynch

Dixie Chicks

Laura Lynch, center, performs with the Chicks in 1993. Courtesy Everett Collection

Laura Lynch, a founding member of the beloved country band the Chicks, died in a car accident in West Texas on Dec. 22. Lynch co-founded the Chicks in 1989 with Robin Lynn Macy, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer. She played the upright bass and provided lead vocals on the first three Chicks records — 1990’s Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, 1992’s Little Ol’ Cowgirl, and 1993’s Shouldn’t a Told You That — before leaving the group and being replaced by Natalieplaywright aandd Maines. The Chicks would go on to reach critical acclaim with the release of their 1998 album, Wide Open Spaces, which won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album the following year.

Jim Ladd

Jim Ladd

Jim Ladd. Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty

Jim Ladd, the Los Angeles radio icon who went on to champion rock music on SiriusXM's Deep Tracks for over a decade, died on Dec. 17 at age 75 from a heart attack. Ladd was a fixture of L.A. rock radio in the 1970s, after beginning his career in 1969 at KNAC before moving to KLOS and KMET, and later joining SiriusXM in 2011. Ladd, considered one of the few notable remaining freeform rock DJs in U.S. commercial radio, inspiring Tom Petty's 2002 song, "The Last DJ," from the album of the same name, about a disc jockey who stands up to radio station heads to play what he wants. Over his career, Ladd interviewed rock greats spanning The Doors, Pink Floyd, Stevie Nicks, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Joni Mitchell, and John Lennon. He also played a semi-autobiographical role as the radio disc jockey in Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything.

James McCaffrey 

James McCaffrey 

James McCaffrey. Gary Gershoff/WireImage

James McCaffrey, the actor known for voicing the titular Max Payne across the hit video game trilogy, died on Dec. 17 at age 65 after a battle with cancer. His TV credits include New York Undercover, Viper, The Big Easy, Sex and the City, The Job, Rescue Me, Blue Bloods, Revenge, Suits, White Collar, She’s Gotta Have it, and Jessica Jones. On the big screen, he appeared in American Splendor, Hide and Seek, Camp Hope, Confidence Game, and The Big Take. Best known for his voice work in 2001 third-person shooter Max Payne, 2003 sequel Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, and 2012's final installment Max Payne 3, McCaffrey cameoed in the 2008 film adaptation, starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. The actor recently performed as FBI agent Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2, a character who acts as a pseudo-love letter to the Max Payne series.

Colin Burgess

Colin Burgess Obituary

Colin Burgess, original drummer for AC/DC. Peter Carrette Archive/Getty

Colin Burgess, the original drummer of AC/DC, died on Dec. 16 at age 77, the band announced on social media. Before joining the legendary hard-rock band, Burgess was a member of the successful Australian band the Masters Apprentices from 1968 until 1972. He was later recruited to join AC/DC — alongside bassist Larry Van Kreidt, vocalist Dave Evans, and brothers Malcolm and Angus Young — when the band was formed in 1973, playing on their January 1974 recording session at EMI Studios before being fired that February. In the years following, Burgess played in several other groups, including His Majesty, the Burgess Brothers Band, the Dead Singer Band, and Guitar Heroes. He and his Masters Apprentices bandmates were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1998.

Kenny DeForest

Comedian Kenny DeForest performs on November 22, 2017. LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS

Kenny DeForest. Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Kenny DeForest, a stand-up comedian best known for appearances on late-night talk shows, died Dec. 13 at age 37 after being struck by a car while riding an e-bike. The accident, which occurred on Dec. 8, was announced on a GoFundMe page originally created by his friend and fellow comic Ryan Beck to help with his recovery. DeForest performed on Late Night With Seth Meyers and The Late Late Show With James Corden. The comic also made appearances on HBO's Crashing, Comedy Central's Tales From the Trip, and Straight Up, Stand Up. DeForest was named one of Comedy Central's "Comics to Watch" and "Best of the New Faces" by The Village Voice at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. His first stand-up album, B.A.D. Dreams, debuted at No. 1 on iTunes in 2017, and he released a second comedy album, Don't You Know Who I Am?, in August.

Andre Braugher

Andre Braugher

André Braugher. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Andre Braugher, the Emmy award-winning actor best known for playing Captain Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street, died Dec. 11 following a brief illness. He was 61. His publicist later revealed that Braugher had been battling lung cancer. After studying theater at Stanford and Juilliard, Braugher made his screen debut in 1989’s Civil War drama Glory before going onto play Detective Winston Blake in a revival of Kojack. From 1993 to 1998, he starred as Det. Frank Pembleton on NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street, a role that won him an Emmy in 1998. Braugher enjoyed a late-career renaissance with the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which weaponized his straight-faced seriousness for incredible comedic effect. His other film and television credits include Primal Fear, Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Mist, Bojack Horseman, and She Said. He is survived by his wife, Ami Brabson, and their three sons.

Camden Toy

Camden Toy

Camden Toy. Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

Camden Toy, an actor known for playing monstrous supernatural creatures on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, died Dec. 11 at 68, after battling pancreatic cancer for two years. The son of a makeup artist, Toy portrayed several prosthetic-heavy baddies on Buffy, including a pale-faced Gentleman in the silent episode "Hush," the demon Gnarl in "Same Time, Same Place," and a Turok-Han vampire in multiple season 7 episodes. He also played a different vampire character, the Prince of Lies, on the Buffy spinoff Angel. After his time in the Buffyverse, Toy had recurring roles on The Bay and Goodnight Burbank, and also appeared in episodes of The Mentalist, Shameless, and Into the Dark. Toy is survived by his longtime partner, Bethany Henderson, as well as his mother and sister.

Michael Blakemore

Michael Blakemore

Michael Blakemore. robbie jack/Corbis via Getty

Michael Blakemore, a stage director renowned for both his work on the West End and Broadway, died Dec. 10 following a short illness. He was 95. After training as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Blakemore moved into a career as a director. He first rose to national prominence in Britain when his 1967 production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg transferred to the West End. He was an early member of the National Theatre, signing on as an associate director in 1971. Some of his biggest successes were 1982's Noises Off in London (1983 on Broadway) and 1998's Copenhagen at the National, before it also transferred to Broadway in 2000. Blakemore remains the only director to win two Tony Awards in the same year, one for directing a play, Copenhagen, and one for directing a musical, the revival of Kiss Me Kate. His final West End production was the 2014 revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury. Blakemore also authored a novel, Next Season, and wrote two volumes of memoirs. He is survived by his second wife, Tanya McCallin, from whom he was separated, as well as his three children, Conrad, Beatie, and Clemmie and three grandchildren.

Stan Rogow

Stan Rogow

Stan Rogow. L. Cohen/WireImage

Stan Rogow, the Emmy-nominated producer behind the Disney Channel hit Lizzie McGuire, died at 75 on Dec. 7 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Per The Hollywood Reporter, no cause of death has been disclosed. Born in 1948, Rogow broke into Hollywood by his early 30s and served as a producer on the pilot of the acclaimed NBC series, Fame. The project earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series in 1982. His later producing credits include Darcy’s Wild Life, Playing for Time, Shannon’s Deal, Flight 29 Down and many more, though Rogow is best known for guiding both seasons of the Hilary Duff-centered teen comedy series, Lizzie McGuire. He also executive produced the 2003 feature film that it spawned, The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Duff, who was 13 when the series debuted, paid tribute to Rogow on social media, crediting him with playing a pivotal role in her career. "Stan — thank you for thinking I had 'that special thing.' Thank you for all of the Lizzie adventures. Thank you for helping create a reality I could never have dreamed of,” she wrote. Rogow’s work on the series earned him consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children's Program in 2003 and 2004.

Anna Cardwell

Anna Cardwell

Anna Cardwell. Anna Cardwell/Instagram

Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell, the eldest daughter of reality TV star "Mama June" Shannon and half-sister of Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, died on Dec. 9 after a 10-month battle with cancer. She was 29. Shannon announced Cardwell’s death on Sunday, sharing that she died peacefully while surrounded by family after “one hell of a fight" with the disease. Cardwell famously appeared alongside her mother and sister in both TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras and their family spin-off, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. She later became a mother to two daughters, Kaitlyn and Kylee. News broke in March of this year that Cardwell had been diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma in her liver, kidney, and lung. Four months later, her mother confirmed the diagnosis to be terminal. Honey Boo Boo paid tribute to her sister in a touching social media post: “I really don’t know what to say as my heart is completely broken,” she wrote on Instagram. “Watching my 29 year old sister this last year battle this horrible disease hasn’t been easy. Anna was a fighter & still is… We will all make sure your legacy lives on forever. And i promise to always make sure to celebrate our birthday like you never left! The sky looks a little bit different today. We will always love you Anna.”

Ryan O'Neal

Ryan O'Neal

Ryan O'Neal. Jason Kempin/Getty

Ryan O'Neal, the Oscar-nominated actor whose tumultuous personal life always threatened to overshadow his work in films like the early-’70s hits Love Story and Paper Moon, died Dec. 8. He was 82. The late actor had been diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2001 and with prostate cancer in 2012, the latter of which came three years after the death of his longtime love Farrah Fawcett from anal cancer at 62. O’Neal landed his first major acting role on NBC’s Western Empire, but his breakthrough came as Rodney Harrington on ABC’s Peyton Place. His other notable film credits include What's Up, Doc?, Barry Lyndon, A Bridge Too Far, The Main Event, and The Driver.

Ellen Holly

Ellen Holly

Ellen Holly. Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Ellen Holly, the pioneering One Life to Live actress who became the first Black performer in a starring role on U.S. daytime television, died Dec. 6 at 92. A New York native, Holly performed in Broadway productions and took small parts on television shows but found it difficult to find work early in her career. In 1968, The New York Times published a letter to the editor from Holly titled "How Black Do You Need To Be?" which criticized the media, the entertainment industry, and audiences for maintaining a narrow view of what Black performers should look like. That perspective, Holly said, made it "virtually impossible" for light-skinned Black actors like her to find work. The letter caught the attention of One Life to Live creator Agnes Nixon, who cast Holly as Carla Gray, a light-skinned Black actress whose character was inspired by Holly's life experiences. Holly appeared on the series from 1968 to 1980, then again from 1983 to 1985. Her other screen credits included Spike Lee's School Daze, the soap opera Guiding Light, and the 2002 TV movie 10,000 Black Men Named George.

Andrea Fay Friedman

Actress, Andrea Fay Friedman attend the International Film Festival and Forum

Andrea Fay Friedman. Chris Hatcher/Getty Images

Andrea Fay Friedman, who broke ground with her portrayal of Amanda Swanson in the ‘90s TV drama Life Goes On, died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease on Dec. 3 at age 53. Friedman is best known for making significant contributions to onscreen representation for people with Down syndrome. Her breakout role in Life Goes On came in 1992, when she played the girlfriend and eventual wife of its main character, Charles “Corky” Thatcher, who also had Down syndrome. Her additional TV credits include episodes of Family Guy, Baywatch, Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope, 7th Heaven, and ER. Friedman — who was also the subject of the 2009 documentary A Possible Dream: The Andrea Friedman Story — spent her career challenging stigmas with humor and using her platform to educate the world about people with Down syndrome.