Memorial Quiz | 2022 Celebrity Deaths Big Round-Up

Japan’s longest-ruling Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe, who stepped down due to medical issues in Aug. 2020, was shot on July 8, 2022 – just two days before the nation’s parliamentary elections. Police arrested the attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of Japan’s navy, and confiscated his homemade gun. Japan has strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases in 2021.

RIP Vangelis, the Greek film composer and synthesizer pioneer whose music for the 1981 movie “Chariots of Fire” won the Academy Award for best original score. He died on May 24, 2022,  in Paris, aged 79.

Where have you heard Chariots of Fire?

The famous piece is often used for comedic effect in slow-motion sequences and parodies of sports. It was played when Steve Jobs introduced the first Apple Macintosh in Jan. 1984, in the 2005 film Madagascar and during each medal ceremony of the  2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Estelle Harris, born in 1928 as Estelle Nussbaum, is best known for playing George’s mother on Seinfeld, Estelle Costanza. The character had the name Estelle before Harris was cast. She died on Apr. 2, 2022, at 93, only days before her 94th birthday.

Taylor Hawkins joined the Foo Fighters when he was drumming for Alanis Morissette on her Jagged Little Pill tour. Young Hawkins can be seen in the HBO 2021 Morissette documentary Jagged.

How did Taylor Hawkins die?

Taylor Hawkins passed away at a hotel in Bogota, Colombia, on Mar. 18, 2022, shortly before the Foo Fighters had been set to perform at the Estereo Picnic festival near the Colombian capital. He was 50. Colombia’s Attorney General said that an initial analysis had found 10 types of substances in Hawkins’s body, including THC, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opioids. Foo Fighters had been scheduled to play at the Grammy Awards on Apr. 2 but canceled all upcoming concert dates following Hawkins’s death.

Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, died of cancer on March 23, 2022, at 84. Albright served in that role from 1997 to 2001. She fled the Nazis as a child with her family from her native Czechoslovakia to London during World War II and was raised a Roman Catholic. Still, her parents likely converted to Catholicism from Judaism to avoid persecution as Nazism gained strength in Europe, according to research by Washington Post.

William Hurt won the best-actor Oscar for the 1985 film “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” “Children of a Lesser God” and “Broadcast News” earned him best-actor Oscar nominations in 1983 and 1984, meaning he was nominated for the award in three consecutive years. Hurt died at his home in Portland, Oregon, on March 13, 2022. He was 71.

1993’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” was singer and actor Meat Loaf’s major crossover hit. Otherwise known as Michael Lee Aday, Meat Loaf sold more than 100 million records worldwide and had prominent roles in “The Rocky Horror Show” and “Fight Club” films. He died on Jan. 20, 2022, aged 74. 

Sidney Poitier was the first African American and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. He died on Jan. 6, 2022, in Los Angeles. He was 94.

How long did it take for the second African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor?

It took seven years for James Earl Jones to become the second Black person to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 1970. It took some extra three decades for Denzel Washington to win the category in 2001 (for “Training Day”), becoming the second African-American actor to receive the award for Best Actor. The same year saw the first time two African-American performers won Oscars in the same year, the other being Halle Berry, for “Monster’s Ball.” Berry is the first African-American actress to win Best Actress.

Screenshot: Bob Saget on YouTube

Bob Saget, best known as single dad Danny Tanner from “Full House,” was the original host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” in the ’90s. His “Full House” partner Dave Coulier hosted America’s Funniest People around the same time. Saget died while on a stand-up tour on Jan. 9, 2022. He was 65.

Ray Liotta, Paul Sorvino, and Tony Sirico appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 hit movie “GoodFellas,” along with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Lorraine Bracco.  Liotta, Sorvino, and Sirico passed away in 2022.

Donald Trump’s first wife was buried In July 2022 near the first hole of Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Ivana Trump, who died at 73 after a fall at her home in Manhattan, is the first person known to have been buried at the golf course.

Why was Ivana Trump buried in a golf course?

Donald Trump is known for his tax-evading tactics. Conveniently, under the New Jersey state tax code, any land dedicated to cemetery purposes is exempt from all taxes, rates, assessments, real estate taxes, personal property taxes on their lands, business taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and inheritance taxes.

Glasnost (meaning “openness”) and perestroika (“reconstruction”) were policy reforms associated with the 1980s General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, that eventually led to the Soviet Union’s disintegration. Gorbachev, also credited with ending the Cold War, died on Aug. 30, 2022,  at a Moscow hospital at 91.

Return to Paradise and the Psycho remake were both released in 1998, and both starred Anne Heche and Vince Vaughn.

How did Anne Heche die?

Anne Heche died from inhalation injury and burns and was removed from life support on Aug. 11, 2022, after her car accidentally jumped a curb and smashed into a west Los Angeles home on Aug. 5, 2022. She was 53.

From 1984-1996, Angela Lansbury was the widowed mystery writer Jessica Fletcher on the TV series “Murder, She Wrote.” Lansbury died at her Los Angeles home on October 11, 2022. She was 96.

What are some of Angela Lansbury’s achievements?

From “Mame” in 1966 to “Blithe Spirit” in 2009, Lansbury won five Tony Awards and was honored with the 2022 Tony for Lifetime Achievement. As the English-born daughter of an Irish actress, Lansbury received a CBE in 1994 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2014 for her drama, charity, and philanthropy work. In addition, Lansbury won six Golden Globe Awards, eighteen Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award.

Jerry Lee Lewis, whose “Great Balls of Fire” helped define the sound of rock ‘n’ roll, died on Oct. 28, 2022, at his home in DeSoto County, Mississippi. He was 87.

Kirstie Alley first appeared in season 6 of Cheers, portraying businesswoman Rebecca Howe, who becomes the owner of the bar where the series takes place. She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the role in 1991. Alley starred in several prominent films and TV shows during the 1980s and 1990s, including Veronica’s Closet and the Look Who’s Talking film franchise. The actress died at 71 on Dec. 5, 2022, of cancer that was only recently discovered.

Anita Pointer, one of four siblings who won Grammys and critical acclaim as The Pointer Sisters, died at 74 on Dec. 31, 2022. Her publicist didn’t give a cause of death. Between 1973 and 1985, the group had 13 hit songs on the US top 20, won three Grammys, and recorded hit songs like “I’m So Excited.” The Pointer Sisters performed in different lineups, including younger family members, through 1993.

The 1980s singer Irene Cara, who sang the theme songs to “Flashdance” and “Fame,” passed away on Nov. 25, 2022. She was 63. Her “Flashdance” song “What a Feeling” earned her an Oscar and a Grammy in 1984. She sang the title track and played Coco Hernandez in the film version of Fame (1980).

Coolio’s last US top-40 hit, 1997’s “C U When U Get There,” is based on Pachelbel’s 17th century “Canon in D Major.” Known for hits such as “Gangsta’s Paradise” (based on Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise”), the West Coast rapper passed away on Sept. 28, 2022, in Los Angeles. He was 59.

Barbara Walters was known for asking intimate questions during her interviews, including asking President Jimmy Carter if he and his wife slept separately. The first female co-host of “Today” and first female anchor of a network evening news program, Walters died at her Manhattan home on Dec. 30, 2022. She was 93.

Known in Brazil as “O Rei” or “The King,” legendary professional footballer Edson Arantes do Nascimento, AKA Pelé, died on Dec. 29, 2022, at 82, following a battle with colon cancer.

Nine years after resigning for the first time in 600 years, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away on Dec. 31, 2022. Benedict resigned on Feb. 11, 2013, saying he was “lacking the strength of mind and body” because of his advanced age. His resignation was the first by a pope since Gregory XII in 1415 and the first on the pope’s initiative since Celestine V in 1294.

The queen’s coffin’s final destination is Windsor Castle, in the King George VI Memorial Chapel. Prince Philip’s coffin joined the queen’s in the memorial chapel. St. George’s Chapel has long been the final resting place for British royals, and 10 former monarchs, including the queen’s mother and father, are buried there.