Anderson broke the clown’s silence in the show’s final episode in 1960. With trembling lips and a visible tear in his eye, he spoke the show’s final words: “Goodbye, kids.”

Joseph Barbera, 95, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that created such beloved characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, and the Flintstones, died Dec. 18 of natural causes.

Syd Barrett, 60, the troubled Pink Floyd co-founder who spent his last years in reclusive anonymity, died July 7 of a diabetes-related illness.

John Belluso, 36, Warwick-born playwright who championed the rights of people with disabilities , died Feb. 10. Belluso also helped direct the Other Voices Project, a development program at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum for writers with disabilities.

Peter Benchley, 65, the author whose novel Jaws made millions think twice about stepping into the water even as the author himself became an advocate for shark conservation, died Feb. 11 of pulmonary fibrosiss.

Frances Bergen, 84, a model and actress who married ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and was the mother of actress Candice Bergen, died Oct. 2 after a long illness.

Joseph Bova, 81, an actor whose career included a Tony Award nomination for the Broadway play The Chinese and Dr. Fish, died March 12 of emphysema.

Peter Boyle, 71, who starred in films like Joe, Young Frankenstein and Monster’s Ball, then capped his career as the curmudgeonly father on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, died Dec. 12 of multiple myeloma and heart disease.

Ed Bradley, 65, the dapper CBS correspondent who was a mainstay of the Sunday night program 60 Minutes for a quarter century, died Nov. 9 of complications related to leukemia.

James Brown, 73, the singer, songwriter, bandleader and dancer who indelibly transformed 20th-century music, died Dec. 25 of heart failure after a brief hospital stay to treat pneumonia. Brown sold millions of records in a career that lasted half a century.

Ruth Brown, 78, the rhythm and blues singer whose career extended to acting and crusading for musicians’ rights, died Nov. 17 of complications following a heart attack and a stroke.

Red Buttons, 87, the carrot-topped burlesque comedian who became a top star in early television, then went dramatic to win the 1957 Oscar as supporting actor in Sayonara, died July 13 of vascular disease.

Sarah Caldwell, 82, hailed as the first lady of opera for her adventurous productions as longtime director of the Opera Company of Boston, died of heart failure March 23. In more than 30 years as founder-director of the Boston company, she staged and conducted some 100 operas, ranging from baroque to avant-garde.

Janette Carter, 82, the last surviving child of country music’s founding Carter Family, who in recent years preserved her parents’ oldtime style with weekly performances, died Jan. 22.

Betty Comden, 89, whose more than 60-year collaboration with Adolph Green produced classic New York stage musicals such as On the Town, died of heart failure Nov. 23.

Pat Corley, 76, the actor who served sage advice along with drinks as Phil the barkeep on Murphy Brown, died Sept. 18 of congestive heart failure.

Franklin Cover, 77, an actor who became a familiar face as George and Louise Jefferson’s neighbor in the long-running sitcom The Jeffersons, died Feb. 5 of pneumonia.

William “Billy” Cowsill, 58, the lead singer of the 1960s family band The Cowsills, died Feb. 17. He had emphysema, osteoporosis, Cushing syndrome and other ailments. The Cowsills — the inspiration for the TV series The Partridge Family — recorded hits between 1967 and 1970 including “The Rain, The Park and Other Things” and “Hair.”

Desmond Dekker, 64, who brought the sound of Jamaican ska music to the world with hits such as “Israelites,” died of a heart attack on May 25.

Tamara Dobson, 59, model-turned-actress who portrayed a strong female role as Cleopatra Jones in two “blaxploitation” films, died Oct. 2 of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis.

Robert Donner, 75, a comedian and character actor known for his roles in TV’s Mork and Mindy and The Waltons and movies including Cool Hand Luke, died June 8 of a heart attack.

Mike Douglas, whose affable personality and singing talent earned him 21 years as a television talk show host, died on Aug. 11, his 81st birthday. Douglas’ afternoon show aired from 1961 to 1982 and featured musicians, comedians, sports figures and political personalities, including seven former, sitting or future presidents.

Katherine Dunham, 96, a legendary dancer, choreographer and social force, died May 21. As a choreographer, she created more than 90 works; her intellectual, artistic and humanitarian contributions earned her many awards.

Ahmet Ertegun, 83, who helped change the music the world listened to — thanks to his stewardship of Atlantic Records, a driving force in the emergence of rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll — died Dec. 14. He had been in a coma since suffering a fall Oct. 29 at a Rolling Stones concert celebrating Bill Clinton’s 60th birthday.

Mike Evans, 57, the actor best known as Lionel Jefferson in the sitcoms All in the Family and The Jeffersons, died of throat cancer Dec. 14.

Freddy Fender, 69, the “Bebop Kid” of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” died Oct. 14 of lung cancer.

Maynard Ferguson, 78, the high-note king of the trumpet who toured the world with his bands for 50 years, died Aug. 23 of liver and kidney failure.

Glenn Ford, 90, who played strong, thoughtful protagonists in films such as The Blackboard Jungle, Gilda and The Big Heat, died Aug. 30.

Anthony Franciosa, 77, a Hollywood star in the 1950s and ’60s, died Jan. 19 of a stroke. He received a Tony nomination for his performance in A Hatful of Rain, then an Oscar nomination for his part in the 1957 movie of the play.

Reuven Frank, 85, a former NBC News president and a pioneer of TV journalism, died Feb. 5 of complications from pneumonia. Frank, who joined NBC in 1950, twice held the news division’s top job during his 38 years with the network, but it was as a producer that he left his greatest mark.

Betty Friedan, 85, the feminist who launched a social revolution with her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, died Feb. 4 of congestive heart failure. She founded the National Organization for Women in 1966, making it the first new feminist organization in a half century.

Freddie Garrity, 69, the lead singer of the 1960s pop band Freddie and the Dreamers, died of emphysema May 19.

Paul Gleason, 67, an actor best known for his roles in The Breakfast Club and Trading Places, died May 27 of mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer linked to asbestos.

Bruce Gary, 55, the rock drummer who worked with George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Stephen Stills but is best known as The Knack’s original drummer on “My Sharona,” died Aug. 22 of lymphoma.

“Uncle Josh” Graves, 79, whose bluesy dobro adorned hundreds of bluegrass and country records, died Sept. 30 after a lengthy illness.

Mickey Hargitay, 80, the Hungarian-born bodybuilder who parlayed his 1955 Mr. Universe title into a career as a movie actor and had a high-profile marriage to Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, died Sept. 14 of multiple myeloma.

Melissa Hayden, 83, a lyrical, exquisite dancer who performed with the New York City Ballet for more than 20 years, died Aug. 9 of pancreatic cancer. Famed ballet master George Balanchine, who started the company, helped Hayden develop her style — vulnerable yet strong — with roles in Agon, The Figure in the Carpet and La Source.

Jessie Mae Hemphill, 71, whose award-winning blues career lasted decades and was heavily influenced by her upbringing in rural Mississippi, died July 22. She lived in Memphis for 20 years and played the clubs on the city’s famous Beale Street before finding an international audience.

Randall C. “Randy” Hien, 57, the owner of The Living Room in Providence since 1975 and also Hien’s Family Restaurant in Lincoln and a baseball coach for over three decades, died Sept. 25 after being struck by a car.

Arthur Hill, 85, the veteran character actor whose dozens of television and movie appearances included the title role in the series Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, died Oct. 22 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Endesha Ida Mae Holland, 61, a playwright whose autobiographical play From the Mississippi Delta told how the civil rights movement inspired a girl born in poverty to turn her life around, died Jan. 25. She had battled a degenerative neurological disease for 15 years.

Barnard Hughes, 90, who won a Tony for his portrayal of the curmudgeonly title character in Hugh Leonard’s Da, died July 11 after a brief illness.

Steve Irwin, 44, the hyper-enthusiastic, thrill-seeking Australian wildlife conservationist who gained a worldwide following with his television show The Crocodile Hunter, died Sept. 4 after a stingray attack while filming along the Great Barrier Reef.

Bruno Kirby, 57, a veteran character actor who co-starred in When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers and many other films, died Aug. 14 from complications related to leukemia.

Don Knotts, 81, the comic actor best known for his roles as high-strung small-town deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show and the leisure-suit-clad landlord Ralph Furley on Three’s Company, died Feb. 24 of lung cancer. The actor’s 50-year career comprised seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that won him TV immortality and five Emmys.

Stanley Kunitz, 100, a former U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner whose expressive verse, social commitment and generosity to young writers spanned three-quarters of a century, died May 14.

Arthur Lee, 61, the singer-songwriter creative force behind Love, the psychedelic rock group best known for its landmark 1967 album Forever Changes, died Aug. 3 after a battle with leukemia.

Al Lewis, 82, the cigar-chomping patriarch of The Munsters whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died Feb. 3 after years of failing health.

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, 52, a mezzo-soprano, died of cancer July 3 at the height of her musical and expressive powers. Her last professional activity had been touring with the Boston Symphony in March, singing music by her husband, Peter Lieberson.

Robert Lockwood Jr., 91, a Delta blues guitarist who became the torchbearer of Robert Johnson’s guitar legacy and a revered musician in his own right, died Nov. 21 of a brain aneurysm and a stroke.

Mako, 72, whose acting career spanned more than four decades, died July 21 of esophageal cancer. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the Chinese character Po-han in The Sand Pebbles.

Darren McGavin, 83, the actor whose roles included the grouchy dad who famously ogled a leg-shaped lamp in A Christmas Story, died Feb. 25 of natural causes. Though his role in the 1983 holiday comedy classic was memorable, McGavin starred in five TV series, including Mike Hammer, Riverboat and cult favorite Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Jay McShann, a jazz pianist known for his hard-driving, bluesy style but probably best known for giving Charlie Parker his first big break, died Dec. 7. He was 90, according to most sources, but 97 according to some others.

Anna Moffo, 73, the soprano with the lyric-oratura voice, died March 9 of a stroke and a decade-long struggle with cancer. She sang more than 200 performances at the Metropolitan Opera between 1959 and 1976 and made an impressive series of recordings in her prime.

Gloria Monty, 84, a producer who turned the ABC daytime drama General Hospital into a pop sensation in the late 1970s, died March 30 of cancer.

Jan Murray, 89, one of the fabled generation of comics who rose from the Catskills to prime-time TV, tickling fans of the 1950s game show Treasure Hunt, died July 2. He appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows.

Philippe Noiret, 76, a much-loved French character actor who gained international renown through the movies Il Postino and Cinema Paradiso, died Nov. 23 of cancer.

Carrie Nye, 69, a stage, film and television actress and a fixture at the Williamstown Theater Festival, died July 14 of lung cancer.

Sven Nykvist, 83, who worked alongside director Ingmar Bergman, died Sept. 20 after a long illness. He won Academy Awards for cinematography for Bergman’s Cries and Whispers and Fanny and Alexander.

Anita O’Day, 87, whose breathy voice and witty improvisation made her one of the most dazzling jazz singers of the last century and whose sex appeal and drug addiction earned her the nickname “The Jezebel of Jazz,” died Nov. 23 of pneumonia.

Clay Osborne, 78, a noted Rhode Island jazz vocalist, died April 11. He had lost both of his legs due to circulation problems.

Buck Owens, 76, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like “Act Naturally” and brought the genre to TV on the long-running Hee Haw, died March 25 of an apparent heart attack. His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records.

Nam June Paik, 73, an avant-garde composer, performer and artist considered the inventor of video art, died Jan. 29.

Jack Palance, 87, an actor who spent most of a long Hollywood career playing memorable heavies in movies like Shane and Sudden Fear, only to win an Academy Award in his 70s for a self-parodying comic performance in City Slickers, died Nov. 10.

Gordon Parks, 93, an award-winning photographer for Life Magazine and director of the movie Shaft and other films, died March 7 after a long battle with prostate cancer. He became the first black person to produce and direct a movie for a major studio in 1968 with an adaptation of his first novel, The Learning Tree.

Denis Payton, 63, the sax player in the Dave Clark Five, died Dec. 17 of cancer. He appeared on all of the group’s records and also played guitars, harmonica and sang backing vocals.

Christopher Penn, 40, an actor who appeared in films including Footloose and Rumble Fish, was found dead Jan. 24. He was a brother of actor Sean Penn.

Wilson Pickett, 64, the soul singer with the raspy voice and passionate delivery behind the hits “Mustang Sally” and “In the Midnight Hour,” died Jan. 19 of a heart attack.

Gene Pitney, 65, the singer who had hits with “Twenty four Hours From Tulsa” and “Town Without Pity,” and wrote many other hits, including “Hell Mary Lou,” was found dead April 5 in a hotel in Cardiff, Wales, where he had been performing.

June Pointer, 52, the youngest of the Pointer Sisters — known for the ’70s and ’80s hits “I’m So Excited,” “Fire” and “Slow Hand” — died of cancer April 11.

Billy Preston, 59, the exuberant keyboardist who landed dream gigs with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and enjoyed his own series of hit singles, died June 6 after spending months in a coma.

Proof (real name Deshaun Holton), 32, a member of rap group D12, was found shot to death April 11.

Lou Rawls, 72, the velvet-voiced singer who started as a church choir boy and went on to record such classic tunes as “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,” died Jan. 6 of cancer.

Dana Reeve, 44, who fought for better treatments and possible cures for paralysis through the Christopher Reeve Foundation, named for her late actor-husband, died of lung cancer March 6. She had appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway and regional stages and on the TV shows Law & Order, Oz and All My Children.

Lloyd Richards, 81, one of the most influential figures in modern American theater and a pioneering director who brought the plays of Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson to Broadway and championed several generations of young playwrights, died June 29 of heart failure.

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 90, the famed 20th-century soprano who won global acclaim for her renditions of Mozart and Strauss, died Aug. 3. She ranked alongside Maria Callas as a giant of the opera and concert stage.

Moira Shearer, 80, the ballerina and actress whose debut film, The Red Shoes, created an international sensation in 1948, died Jan. 31.

Adrienne Shelly, 40, an actress, film writer and director who first gained recognition for her roles in Hal Hartley’s dark comedies The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, was found murdered at her office on Nov. 1.

Jack Smith, 92, a singer and recording artist who hosted the popular You Asked for It television show, died of leukemia July 3.

Aaron Spelling, 83, one of the most prolific TV producers in history, died June 23 after suffering a stroke a few days before. He captivated generations of television viewers with shows such as Charlie’s Angels and Beverly Hills 90210 and left an indelible stamp on American pop culture, but never won the critical acclaim he sought.

Mickey Spillane, 88, the macho mystery writer who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-’em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died July 17. After starting out in comic books, Spillane wrote his first Mike Hammer novel, I, the Jury, in 1946. Twelve more followed, with sales topping 100 million. Notable titles included The Killing Man, The Girl Hunters and One Lonely Night.

Richard Stahl, 74, an actor whose more than 40-year career stretched from New York theater to film and television comedies such as Laverne & Shirley, died June 18 of Parkinson’s disease.

Frank Stanton, 98, a broadcasting pioneer and CBS president for 26 years who helped turn its TV operation into the “Tiffany Network” and built CBS News into a respected information source, died Dec. 24.

Maureen Stapleton, 80, an actress who won an Academy Award for her supporting role in the 1981 movie Reds, died March 13 of respiratory ailments associated with chronic pulmonary disease.

Robert Sterling, 88, the star of 1940s movies who appeared with his wife Anne Jeffreys in the television series Topper, died May 30 of natural causes following a decade-long battle with shingles.

Don Stewart, 70, the actor best known for playing Michael Bauer on the Guiding Light soap opera, died Jan. 9 of lung cancer.

Ralph Story, 86, a television and radio broadcaster for three decades and host of the hugely popular quiz show The $64,000 Challenge in the 1950s, died Sept. 26 of emphysema.

William Styron, 81, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the best-selling novels Sophie’s Choice and The Confessions of Nat Turner and the memoir Darkness Visible, died Nov. 1 of pneumonia.

Frankie Thomas, 85, who became famous in the 1950s for his starring role in the TV children’s show Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, died May 11 of respiratory failure.

Billy Walker, 77, the Grand Ole Opry legend whose hits included “Charlie’s Shoes” and “Cross the Brazos at Waco,” died in a car wreck on May 21, along with his wife and two of his band members.

Cindy Walker, 87, whose songs were recorded by stars from Bing Crosby to Elvis Presley, died March 23. Among her most famous songs are “You Don’t Know Me,” “Dream Baby” and Gene Autry’s hit “Silver Spurs.”

Jack Warden, 85, the gravelly voiced character actor and Oscar nominee who appeared in almost 100 feature films, died July 19. He had been in failing health for several months.

Wendy Wasserstein, 55, a playwright who celebrated women confronting feminism, careers, love and motherhood in such works as The Heidi Chronicles and The Sisters Rosensweig, died of lymphoma Jan. 30. Chronicles won the best-play Tony as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1989.

Dennis Weaver, 81, the diffident deputy Chester Goode in the TV classic western Gunsmoke and the canny New Mexico deputy solving New York City crime in McCloud, died Feb. 24 of complications from cancer. His 50-year career included stage plays and movies, as well as the TV hit Gentle Ben.

Sandy West, 47, whose ferocious drumming fueled the influential all-female ’70s rock band the Runaways, which she founded with Joan Jett, died Oct. 21 of lung cancer.

Doug White, 61, a news anchor for nearly three decades at WJAR-TV, died Aug. 15 after a battle with cancer. White joined the NBC affiliate in 1978 and served as an anchor of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. In 2001, he began anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast as well. Before taking the WJAR-TV position, White worked for six years as an anchor for WPRI-TV in Providence.

Jack Wild, 53, who earned an Oscar nomination as a teenager for his role as the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film Oliver! died March 1 of cancer. Wild also was known to a generation of children as the hero of H.R. Pufnstuf, a psychedelic TV series about a boy stranded on a fantastical island with a talking flute, a friendly dragon and eerie, chatty trees.

Shelley Winters, 85, a major movie presence for more than five decades, died of heart failure Jan. 14. Her first Oscar, for best supporting actress, was for her performance in The Diary of Anne Frank; she won again for best supporting actress as the mother of a blind girl in A Patch of Blue.

Jane Wyatt, 96, the serene actress who for six years on Father Knows Best was one of TV’s favorite moms, died of natural causes on Oct. 20. Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and ’40s, notably as Ronald Colman’s lover in 1937’s Lost Horizon, and achieved a different kind of fame as Spock’s mother on Star Trek.