Lost to Us in 2006

Shelley Winters 18 August 1920 - 14 January 2006
Wilson Pickett 18 March 1941 - 20 January 2006
Tony Franciosa 25 October 1928 - 19 January 2006
Moira Shearer 17 January 1925 - 31 January 2006 - Scottish star of one one the great movies about dancing, The Red Shoes (1948)
Peter Benchley 8 May 1940 - 13 February 2006 - Author of the famous novel Jaws , which was made into a famous movie.
Don Knotts 21 July 1924 - 24 February 2006 - A comic not to everyone's taste, but well-loved by many. Thanks for the laughs.
Dennis Weaver 4 June 1924 - 24 February 2006 I knew him mainly from his almost solo role in Spielberg's movie Duel .
Darren McGavin 7 May 1922 - 25 February 2006 - A remarkable and always entertaining character actor - perhaps best known for his role as Kolchak in TV's "The Night Stalker" (1974).
Maureen Stapleton 21 June 1925 - 14 March 2006 - Not my favorite actor; better known, I think, as a stage actor, but she won an Oscar for her performance in Airport (1970).
Richard Fleischer 8 December 1916 - 25 March 2006 - Director of such movies as 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Doctor Dolittle (1967), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970).
Stanislaw Lem 12 September 1921 - 27 March 2006 - Polish author of several classic works of science fiction, including the novel Solaris which was twice filmed.
Gene Pitney 17 February 1941 - 5 April 2006 - A unique voice is silenced - but will live on in his recordings, e.g., "Town Without Pity", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "If I Didn't Have a Dime", "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa", and many more.
Gyorgy Ligeti 28 May 1923 - 11 June 2006 - A 'serious' composer who became world-famous when some of his music was chosen by Stanley Kubrick for the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey .
Aaron Spelling 22 April 1923 - 23 June 2006 - One of the greatest of TV producers.
June Allyson 1917 - 2006 - She was before most Listologists' time - hell, she was even before my time, but she was big way back - e.g. with James Stewart in The Glenn Miller Story . Usually played 'sweetness and light' type characters.
Red Buttons 5 February 1919 - July 2006 - Likeable comedian who was also capable of dramtic roles. Oscar for Best Supporting Actor Sayonara (1957). Also memorable, for me, for his role as a paratrooper in The Longest Day (1962), in which his 'chute gets hooked on a church steeple and he is wounded by rifle-fire and deafened by the incessant tolling of the church bells. "Send not to know for whom the bell tolls...". Sayonara, Red.
Mickey Spillane
Jack Warden
Glenn Ford 1 May 1916 - 30 August 2006 - It's hard to know what to say about Glenn Ford. He had tremendous charisma - when he was on screen he was the one you watched - but he wasn't a first class actor. I would call his style 'charismatic but workmanlike' - you got the impression he never took acting very seriously and he couldn't believe he was actually getting paid so much to do it. But, undeniably, if you saw he was in a movie then you wanted to see the movie - you knew there would be something in it that was worth your while. I guess he had 'star quality' then. But, is it just me, or...how many of you thought he had passed away a long time ago? I sure did. I was shocked not that he had died but that he had not already died. It's as if he had no public existence outside of the movies.
Steve Irwin 1962 - 2006 - A lot of Australians considered him a bit of an embarrassment, but he was a notable Aussie 'larrakin' - an eccentric, a law unto himself, and a 'one of a kind' entertainer. He died doing what he loved doing, and he knew the risks. Still, it was a very freakish way to die - cases of death by stringray are very rare.
Jack Palance 1919 - 2006 One of the best movie baddies ever. Tall, gaunt, rough-voiced, and he gave great menace. Most memorable roles: the black-hatted gunfighter in Shane (1953) and the old-timer genuine article cowboy in City Slickers (1991). Another one bites the dust.
Robert Altman 1923 - 2006