Memorial Quiz | 2022 Celebrity Deaths Round-Up

Sopranos actor Tony Sirico, who played Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri on the classic HBO show, died on July 8, 2022, aged 79, in an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale. According to his manager, the actor had been living with dementia for the last couple of years.

In 1975 Adam Wade became the first Black host of a network television game show – CBS’s weekly afternoon game show, “Musical Chairs.” The show was canceled after less than five months. Wade, better known for his singing and acting careers, died on July 7, 2022, at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 87.

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.

A kouchie is a Jamaican pot of weed intended for social smoking, while a dutchie is a Jamaican cooking pot.

What happened to the Mighty Diamonds?

Two members of the Mighty Diamonds, the Jamaican trio responsible for “Pass the Kouchie” (or as dubbed in the ’80s by the group Musical Youth, “Pass the Dutchie”), have died within days of each other in early spring 2022. Tabby Diamond was shot and killed outside his home in Kingston on Mar. 29. He was 66. Bunny Diamond died from illness on Apr. 1 at a hospital in the same city. He was 70.

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.

Ivan Reitman, the filmmaker and producer behind “Animal House” and “Ghostbusters,” was also the director behind Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito’s “Twins” and “Junior.” In Sept. 2021, it was announced that a sequel, “Triplets,” was in the works, with Reitman directing his original cast, plus Tracy Morgan as their long-lost brother. Reitman died peacefully in his sleep on Feb. 12, 2022, in Montecito, California. He was 75.

WKRP in Cincinnati was an American sitcom revolving around the fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show premiered in 1978 on CBS and aired for four seasons and 90 episodes, ending in 1982. Howard Hesseman, who played the radio disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati, and the actor-turned-history teacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class, has died on Jan. 29, 2022, in Los Angeles due to complications from colon surgery. He was 81.

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.

Born Jan. 17, 1922, Betty White told People in a Jan. 13, 2021, interview for her 99th Birthday that her secret to a long life is to have a great “sense of humor.” White died on Dec. 31, 2021. She would have turned 100 on Jan. 17.