Actors Who Died In 2023

A character actor's job is to bring life to a supporting role, and they achieve this through charisma, eccentricity, or a set of features that embody their role in an interesting way. Those with broad shoulders and lantern jaws may find work as cops and Army types, but what about a man like Earl Boen, with his high hairline and doughy physique? These are not criticisms but valuable traits, for Boen used them — and an elbow-padded wardrobe — to embody Dr. Silberman, the condescending psychologist in "The Terminator" series.

Arnold Schwarzenegger may be the villain of the first film, but the T-800 can't help that he's been programmed to kill Sarah Connor. Silberman, however, can help his demeanor, which is equal parts arrogant, dismissive, and cynical. "I can make a career out of this guy!" Silberman proclaims after his interview with Kyle Reese, the time-traveling protector whom the psychologist treats with derision.

Boen reprised the Silberman role twice more, in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines." He played many other supporting roles across film and TV and lent his voice to numerous animated projects and video games too.

Diagnosed with lung cancer in November 2022, Earl Boen died on January 6 in Hawaii. He was 81 (via Hollywood Reporter).

In the 1990s, Tom Sizemore collaborated with big filmmakers on such hot films as Tony Scott's "True Romance," Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers," Michael Mann's "Heat," and Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan." This exposure landed the actor his first leading role in "The Relic," a horror-thriller from 1997, and further roles in "Bringing Out the Dead," "Black Hawk Down," and other notable releases.

Sizemore's career destabilized through the 2000s, the result of a publicized string of legal cases, namely a 2003 conviction for domestic violence and criminal threats against his former partner, Heidi Fleiss, the so-called "Hollywood Madam" (via Guardian/Observer). Drugs afflicted Sizemore too, leading to numerous arrests and convictions, including a 16-month jail sentence for methamphetamine possession.

On February 18, Sizemore collapsed in his Los Angeles home and was taken to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center. Sadly, doctors recommended an "end-of-life decision," and on March 3, Sizemore died with his brother Paul and twin sons Jagger and Jayden by his side. He was 61.

Tall, clean-cut, and authoritative, Lance Reddick was best known for his performances as Cedric Daniels in "The Wire," Phillip Broyles in "Fringe," and Chief Irvin Irving in "Bosch." He also lent charisma to the character of Charon, the wry Kenyan concierge in the "John Wick" franchise.

During a press tour for "John Wick: Chapter 4," Reddick chose not to attend the New York premiere. He died later that week, on March 17, at age 60. A Guardian report attributed his death to "natural causes," although TMZ obtained a death certificate citing ischemic heart disease and atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. However, family representative James E. Hornstein disputed these claims as "not corroborated and is inconsistent with the facts known to the family" (via Los Angeles Times).

Despite Reddick's often stern and aloof characters, Keanu Reeves remembered him as a "very beautiful person, a special artist ... his grace and dignity, his shining light of character was just something really special." Numerous others shared Reeves' assessment, including "The Wire" showrunner David Simon, who described Reddick as, "A consummate professional, a devoted collaborator, a lovely soul and a friend ... This is just gutting and way, way, way too soon."

In 1969, Jim Brown starred opposite Raquel Welch in "100 Rifles," a film notable for depicting the first interracial love scene in a major Hollywood production. The film served as a touchstone of Brown's new career as Hollywood's first African American action hero and he followed it with "Tick, Tick, Tick" and several other blaxploitation films, such as "Black Gunn" and "Slaughter."

Before that, Brown gained fame as one of the greatest football players in the NFL for his eight-year run with the Cleveland Browns, setting numerous records, winning the 1964 NFL championship, and becoming a four-time NFL MVP (via USA Today). He retired from the sport at just 30 years old and, in 1967, as his Hollywood prospects shifted gear, organized and agitated for the civil rights movement, namely Muhammad Ali's opposition to the Vietnam War (via BBC).

Brown went on to appear in some 30 films and lead numerous social causes, such as the Amer-I-Can program in the 1980s, which tackled gang violence and child poverty. However, Brown was also arrested six times for domestic violence and, in 1999, received a six-month jail term for misdemeanor vandalism. "Brown was not a good dude," wrote biographer Mike Freeman, "but he was a great man. Both of those things can be true."

Jim Brown died at his Los Angeles home on May 18 at the age of 87.

Glenda Jackson had quite the résumé. The actress won two Academy Awards and two Emmy Awards in such films and TV shows as "Women in Love" and "Elizabeth R" before leaving the stage for the UK Parliament during the 1992 election. A Labour MP, Jackson represented the constituents of Hampstead and Kilburn for 15 years and proved herself a vocal critic of those on both sides of the political aisle. She cited Thatcher's legacy of "greed" and called Tony Blair's invasion of Iraq the "worst foreign policy decision in my lifetime" (via Guardian/Ham&High).

Jackson left office in 2015 and returned to acting on stage and screen, including a production of "Three Tall Women," for which she won a Tony Award that joined her Oscars and Emmys. In doing so, she achieved the rare Triple Crown of Acting. Jackson spent her last years with her son and family in Blackheath, where she died on June 15, aged 87.

A veteran of stage and screen for seven decades, Alan Arkin appeared in numerous films, among them "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," "Edward Scissorhands," "Argo," and "Little Miss Sunshine," for which he won an Oscar for best supporting actor. He also won a Tony for his performance in "Enter Laughing" in 1963, just three years after dropping out of college and joining the Second City comedy group in Chicago, a move that reportedly "saved his life" (via BBC).

Arkin grew up in Brooklyn until age 11, when his family moved to Los Angeles in 1945, shortly before the Red Scare tore through the city's institutions, including the Los Angeles Board of Education, which fired Arkin's father, David, a schoolteacher, when he refused to state his political thoughts and affiliations (via San Diego Reader). "It was a tough time," Arkin remembered, "He got stigmatized mightily for it."

Comedy may have been the actor's forte, but Arkin displayed an uncommon seriousness on set. "Alan does not meet you halfway as an actor," said Marshall Brickman, who directed Arkin in "Simon" (1980). "The way he photographs has a kind of austerity that's a little hard for an audience to take. You either like Alan or you don't" (via Guardian).

Alan Arkin died on June 29 at the age of 89.

In 1977, Paul Reubens created his alter-ego, Pee-wee Herman, a bow-tied man-child prone to impish remarks such as, "I know you are, but what am I?" The character emerged from the L.A. comedy scene and graduated to the "The Pee-wee Herman Show" in theaters across Los Angeles before Warner Brothers gave Reubens a film deal, which became "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" in 1985 (via NPR).

"Big Adventure" grossed over $40 million on a $7 million budget and impressed most critics, although Vincent Canby's scathing review in the New York Times led with the sinister headline, "You've been warned" (via The Numbers). Reubens' character got another bump the following year with CBS's "Pee-wee's Playhouse," which became a cult success and ran for four seasons.

Reubens' image took a hit in 1991 upon his arrest for indecent exposure at an adult theater. "It was kind of like a mortifying kind of situation," Reubens told NBC News, "where I felt like you know people are laughing at me." The case slowed the actor's career but did not destroy it. After years of cameos, Reubens staged a Pee-wee comeback through the 2010s that culminated in "Pee-wee's Big Holiday" on Netflix in 2016.

Paul Reubens was 70 when he succumbed to cancer on July 30. 

On December 13, 1955, Barry Humphries was touring with an arts council through Melbourne, Australia. Improv was part of the show, so the 21-year-old performer took to the stage as a character he'd been working on, Mrs. Norman Everage (the precursor to Dame Edna). The audience was lukewarm, but Humphries was emboldened. From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, Humphries took Edna from small town revues to sold out theaters.

Humphries tried to crack London during this period but success eluded him. After rehab and sobriety in 1970, Humphries continued his successful run in Australia and added a new character, the lecherous cultural attaché Sir Les Patterson. Humphries' big British break finally came in a 1976 West End show that attracted some 500,000 patrons over four months. 

From there, Humphries, Edna, and Sir Les became a fixture first of British theater and then British television. By the 2000s, his acts had made it stateside with shows such as "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour," which fared much better than a 1977 show on West 55th Street, which critics described as "abysmal ... pointless ... like the litter on 42nd Street, something worth missing" (via The Guardian). 

Humphries died on April 22, aged 89, prompting an outpouring of grief and respect across film, theater, TV and politics. "A world in which I don't have the friendship of Barry Humphries is really painful," Joan Bakewell told The BBC. "[There's] a great absence in my life now."

Ron Cephas Jones had some 30 years' experience across TV and film. The actor was best known for his performance as William Hill in the NBC drama "This Is Us," which earned Jones a Screen Actors Guild award and two Emmys for outstanding guest actor. Jones was also active on stage and earned a Tony nomination in 2022 for his work in the ex-con drama "Clyde's." 

"My whole life has been the stage," Jones told The New York Times. "The idea of not performing again seemed worse to me than death."

Jones died on August 19, aged 66. The actor's manager Dan Spilo announced that Jones had been suffering from a "long-standing pulmonary issue" (via People). Sterling K. Brown, who played Randall Pearson, the son of Jones' character, on "This Is Us," wrote on Instagram, "One of the most wonderful people the world has ever seen is no longer with us ... the world is a little less bright."

Known for his fiery Italian-American shtick, comedian Pat Cooper was called the "Comedian of Outrage" over his 60-year career on stage and on camera. He was best known as a fixture of the standup and late night talk show circuits, as well as notable appearances on shows like "Seinfeld" and in movies like "Analyze This" and "Analyze That." 

Cooper was acquainted with some of the biggest stars of his time — and he fell out with more than a few of them, too. For instance, Frank Sinatra cut ties with him over a joke about an upside-down St. Anthony statue, and in the early 1970s, Cooper swore never to return to "The Tonight Show" after Johnny Carson accidentally urinated on him in a nightclub bathroom. Cooper was also too proud to accept Martin Scorsese's cameo offer in "Casino."

Sadly, the comedian's combative personality extended to his family. "He hated us with every fiber of his being," his son Michael wrote in his book "Dear Pat Cooper," published in 2009. "What did any of us do to make my father keep away from the whole family and go find himself a new one?"

In summarizing his place in the culture, Cooper told the New York Observer, "I'm a semi name ... I am not a Rodney Dangerfield. I am not a Bob Hope. I am a consistent performer. I'm packing rooms. But I'm happier than Rodney will ever be." Pat Cooper died on June 6 in Las Vegas. He was 93.

You may not know Frederic Forrest's name, but you'll know his face if you've seen anything in Francis Ford Coppola's oeuvre beyond "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II." Forrest's first collaboration with the great New Hollywood director was "The Conversation," in which he played Mark, a nondescript but ultimately vital character. Five years later, after a role in "The Missouri Breaks" with Marlon Brando and a slew of TV work, Forrest gave perhaps the most famous turn of his career as "Chef" in "Apocalypse Now." 

Tattooed and mustachioed, Forrest gave a loud, brash performance, especially in contrast to Michael Sheen's cynical Captain Willard. "We were creating a surreal, dreamlike war," Forrest told The New York Times. "Sometimes we would think we were losing our minds."

Forrest's other credits include "The Rose," "One From The Heart," "Valley Girl," and the original series of "21 Jump Street." Frederic Forrest died on June 23. He was 86.

Michael Gambon had a long career in film and especially on stage, performing in works by William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Arthur Miller. The actor won three Olivier Awards before leaving the stage in 2015 because of poor memory. "It's a horrible thing to admit but I can't do it. It breaks my heart," Gambon told the Sunday Times Magazine.

Years prior, in 2010 and 2011, Gambon made his final appearances as Professor Albus Dumbledore in both parts of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Gambon inherited the character from the late Richard Harris, who originated the role in "The Sorcerer's Stone" and "Chamber of Secrets" before his death in October 2002. Dumbledore may have been Gambon's defining role for millions of Harry Potter fans, but the actor's screen career was teeming with fascinating characters, especially the tyrannical mob boss Albert Spica in "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover." 

Gambon was also known for his dry, playful humor. He told Jeremy Clarkson of "Top Gear" that he hated interviews and explained how he would invent outlandish stories to test journalists' credulity, such as a past ballet career that ended after he fell off a stage and crashed through a kettle drum. Gambon seemed to enjoy his time on "Top Gear," though, and Clarkson even gave Gambon's name to a race track corner after the actor clipped it in spectacular fashion. 

Gambon died on September 28, aged 82. He is survived by his wife Anne and three sons.

Burt Young knew how to play tough, street-smart characters because he'd lived it. Before his acting career took off in the 1970s, Young had been a soldier, a boxer, a truck driver. He also found work at a printing business and a cleaning company. In the late 1960s, Young took his New York City grit to Lee Strasberg, who said, "You have huge tension about you. I feel you're an emotional library" (per The Guardian).

In 1976, "Rocky" brought Young's turn as boxing trainer Paulie Pennino, which earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor and typified the popular image of a boxing trainer — an old, stocky New Yorker who's coarse but caring. Pennino drew on his own boxing career, which saw him train under Cus D'Amato — the legendary trainer of Floyd Patterson and later Mike Tyson — and win 17 fights against only one loss. 

Young knew the streets and he knew the ring, so mere film sets did not intimidate him. That was even true when working with Sam Peckinpah, the notoriously hard headed filmmaker who directed Young in "The Killer Elite" and "Convoy." As he recalled later (via The Guardian), "Everybody was scared of [Peckinpah]. And so they would go through me, because I had no fear of nobody."

Young died on October 8, aged 83. He is survived by his daughter, Anne.

In 2001, Annie Wersching arrived in Los Angeles with a BFA in musical theater from Millikin University. After a slew of early roles and an 80-episode run as Amelia Joffe on "General Hospital," Wersching became a series regular on TV shows such as "Bosch," "24," and "Runaways." She also had a memorable role in "The Last of Us" — the hit 2013 post-apocalyptic video game — and a raft of supporting turns on everything from "Frasier" and "Angel" to "Charmed," "Boston Legal," "Cold Case," and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Following a cancer diagnosis in 2020, Wersching died on January 29, aged 45. Her husband Stephen said (via The Hollywood Reporter), "There is a cavernous hole in the soul of this family today. But she left us the tools to fill it ... She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you." Stephen survives his wife with their three sons Freddie, Ozzie, and Archie.

"You've seen him countless times," wrote film critic Philip French wrote for The Guardian about the actor Michael Lerner, "but what's his name again?" It was a problem that Lerner shared with many character actors — always appreciated but often forgotten. The Brooklynite lent his roguish charm to "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "The Road to Wellville," and "Elf." Perhaps his best known roles were gangster Arnold Rothstein in "Eight Men Out" and golden era movie mogul Jack Lipnick in "Barton Fink," which earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

To his credit, Lerner was unafraid to play deeply unflattering characters, even when it went against his managers' advice. This was especially true of his role as John Pressman in the violent Spanish horror film "Anguish," which Lerner recognized as a "repulsive character" but a "great role" (per The Hollywood Reporter).

Lerner died on April 8, aged 81. His nephew Sam wrote in an Instagram post, "It's hard to put into words how brilliant my uncle Michael was, and how influential he was to me ... He was the coolest, most confident, talented guy."

Carol Locatell died on April 18, aged 82. The actress worked in film and TV for over 50 years, appearing in everything from "M*A*S*H," Mad Men," and "Grey's Anatomy" to "Coffy," "The Daytrippers," and three films with Burt Reynolds, including his 1981 directorial effort "Sharky's Machine." She was active also on stage, appearing in Broadway productions of "Broadway Bound," "The Shadow Box," and "The Rose Tattoo." (The Hollywood Reporter)

Locatell's most enduring role, however, was Ethel Hubbard in "Friday the 13th Part V:A New Beginning." As legions of fans will tell you, Hubbard is a foul mouthed, firebrand farm woman who reprimands anyone she pleases, especially her dim-witted son, Junior. Locatel had fun amplifying the role with both improvved four-letter words and a few handfuls of dirt, "The first time I got made up, I took one look at me and I thought, 'OK, I know what I have to do,'Locatell told Horror 365, "So I go outside and I find a pile of dirt and I put dirt on me, dirty [up my] hands, and I thought, 'This is perfect."

Rossetta Jacobs became Piper Laurie in 1949, when the 17-year-old actress landed a contract at Universal Studios. Over the next decade, the starlet earned $2,000 a week as the romantic interest in over a dozen comedies, adventures, westerns and musicals. However, the roles just didn't cut it, and when studio executives failed to provide anything better, Piper told her agent (via People), "They can throw me in jail, sue me, I don't care what it is. I'm never working again until I can do something that I have some respect for."

Disillusioned, Piper left Los Angeles for New York City, where she studied acting and pursued more meaningful work, which came in 1961 with "The Hustler" opposite Paul Newman. Laurie played Sarah, an alcoholic involved with Newman's "Fast Eddie" Felson, a small-time pool hustler. The noirish drama was a big hit and earned Piper an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, yet "The Hustler" was not the break she had hoped for. "I gradually gave up acting," she told People, "because after The Hustler, the offers that I was getting were very similar to the part I'd just played."

Piper spent the next 15 years with her husband Joseph Morgenstern in upstate New York, where she committed herself to baking, civil rights, and her daughter Anne. In 1976, Piper made a big comeback with her demented, matriarchal turn in "Carrie," which she described as a "hoot". She received a second Oscar nomation for the role. Piper died on October 14, aged 91.

Tom Wilkinson was a consummate professional who saw acting as a quiet, introspective craft. "I've always felt that actors should have a degree of anonymity about them," Wilkinson told The Guardian, "I can see it in other actors who love being famous. Me, I don't care for it at all." Wilkinson had been an understated film and TV actor for some 20 years when he appeared in "The Full Monty" as Gerald, an old fashioned gent and unlikely striptease dancer.

The British comedy became a huge hit, grossing an enormous $261 million against a $3.5 million budget and winning an Oscar for best music (via The Numbers). The success inundated Wilkinson with a raft of opportunities including "Wilde," "Rush Hour," "Shakespeare in Love," and "The Patriot." In 2002, he was nominated for best actor for his performance opposite Sissy Spacek in "In the Bedroom." Six years later, in 2008, Wilkinson was nominated for best performance in a supporting role in Tony Gilroy's legal thriller "Michael Clayton."

In 2023, Wilkinson reprised his role as Gerald in the "The Full Monty" miniseries and he died on December 30, aged 75. He is survived by his wife Diana Hardcastle and their daughters, Alice and Molly.

Andre Braugher possessed a natural authority that charged a three decade career playing detectives, doctors, and military officers across numerous genres. Braugher's first big break came when he landed a 100-episode run in "Homicide: Life on the Street" as Detective Frank Pembleton, for which he won an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in 1998. He won again eight years later for his performance in "Thief," which saw him play against type as Nick Atwater, a brilliant heist leader. Braugher's most enduring role, however, was as Captain Raymond Holt in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."

Braugher never got the Emmy as Holt, but he won legions of fans with his dry, unflappable manner, especially when criticizing his offbeat underlings Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) and Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio). Braugher's work on screen and stage earned high praise from his contemporaries, such as "The Wire" showrunner David Simon, who said, "I've worked with a lot of wonderful actors. I'll never work with one better.

Braugher died of lung cancer on December 11, aged 61. He is survived by his wife, Ami Brabson; their sons Michael, Isaiah and John-Wesley; his brother, Charles; and his mother, Sally. (The Guardian)

In 1964, six-year-old Lisa Loring became the first actress to play Wednesday Addams in "The Addams Family," the original television adaptation of Charles Addams' popular New Yorker cartoons. Loring appeared in all 64 episodes of the show, which ran on ABC from September 1964 to April 1966.

52 years later, in a Comic Con interview, Loring described the casting process as a "cattle call" in which she was pitted against 75 girls, some as old as 13. Loring couldn't read as she had not yet attended first grade but she made up for this with an "adorable" outfit and, crucially, by repeating the producer's lines verbatim. 

In the years immediately after "The Addams Family," Loring appeared in "The Phyllis Diller Show" and an episode of the shortlived "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." series. In 1977, Loring reprised Wednesday Addams in the TV movie "Halloween with the New Addams Family."Loring died on January 28, aged 64. Her friend Laurie Jacobson wrote on Facebook, "It is with great sadness that I report the death of our friend, Lisa Loring... 4 Days ago she suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure."