We are paying our respects once more following the deaths of performers and other famous personalities in the new year, following the sad and devastating farewells to the many artists who passed away in 2023—among them Matthew Perry, Tina Turner, Andre Braugher, Suzanne Somers, and Lisa Marie Presley.
Continue reading to honor the lives and contributions of the following Hollywood luminaries: Beverly Hills, Shannen Doherty from 90210, Shelley Duvall from The Shining, Richard Simmons, a fitness icon for celebrities, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a pioneer in sex therapy, Toby Keith, a superstar in country music, Broadway legend Chita Rivera, and Rocky and Mandalorian actor Carl Weathers.
Kevin Sullivan
The legendary wrestler Kevin Sullivan, who worked behind the scenes for WCW and performed as the Taskmaster, passed away on August 9 at the age of 74. Although Sullivan was involved in a “devastating accident” in Florida on May 12, his cause of death was not immediately disclosed. Following emergency surgery, Sullivan was diagnosed with sepsis and encephalopathy.
After teaming up with Cactus Jack to win a Tag Team Title in his WCW career, Sullivan formed the Three Faces of Fear alongside Avalanche and the Butcher to engage in rivalries with Randy Savage, Sting, and Hulk Hogan. Following that, Sullivan rose to the position of Taskmaster and organized the Dungeon of Doom, who participated in WarGames and engaged in conflict with the Four Horsemen as well as Hogan’s Hulkamaniacs. He engaged in a protracted feud with Chris Benoit near the end of his wrestling career, losing a retirement match to him in 1997.
Sullivan worked as a booker for the remainder of his career, occasionally appearing for independent promotions. He started his podcast Taskmaster Talks in 2020.
Tigers lineup: On Sunday, Matt Vierling will be back at DH.
On Sunday, Matt Vierling will be back in the Detroit Tigers starting lineup against the San Francisco Giants.
Sunday in SF ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/n4eyvdKiTT
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 11, 2024
Impact of Fantasy:
Vierling is back in the lineup after missing the previous two games. Manager AJ Hinch will have him bat leadoff on Sunday against the Giants as the designated hitter.
Yasutake Patti
Acclaimed for her appearances as Fumi Nakai on Beef and Alyssa Ogawa in the Star Trek series, Patti Yasutake was a stage and film actress who passed away on August 5th due to cancer. She was seventy. Former member of East West Players, Yasutake made her big screen debut in Ron Howard’s 1986 comedy Gung Ho. She then played the same character in the short-lived ABC sitcom sequel, and she later made appearances on television series such as Mr. Belvedere, Picket Fences, Take Five, and Murphy Brown.
Her most iconic performance was in the 1990s television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, where she played Alyssa Ogawa, a nurse. She would return to the role in Star Trek: Generations in 1994 and Star Trek: First Contact in 1996. In addition, she has been in shows including Bones, Grey’s Anatomy, Cold Case, and The Young and the Restless, as well as the movies Drop Dead Gorgeous and The Wash. In the critically acclaimed series Beef, which starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, Yasutake played the controlling mother of Joseph Lee’s George, Fumi Nakai. This was her last performance.
Charles Cyphers
After a brief illness, character actor and frequent collaborator of John Carpenter Charles Cyphers passed away on August 4, best known for his role as Sheriff Leigh Brackett in the Halloween films. Cyphers, who was raised in Niagara Falls, New York, attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and CSU Los Angeles to study acting. His early film and television work included films such as Honkytonk Man, Coming Home, Gray Lady Down, Death Wish II, and A Force of One, as well as TV shows including The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman, and The Betty White Show. He costarred with Carpenter in the movies Halloween, Halloween II, Escape From New York, The Fog, Assault on Precinct 13, and Halloween Kills.
Banas Bobby
Bobby Banas, who gained popularity as the Jets’ Joyboy in the 1961 West Side Story movie, passed away on July 29. He was ninety years old. Banas performed dances in a number of iconic 1950s and 1960s movies, such as Mary Poppins, Bye Bye Birdie, Damn Yankees, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, in which he played a chimney sweep. Banas once famously performed the dance “The Nitty Gritty” on a Judy Garland Show episode. Years later, the video became viral on YouTube, introducing Banas to a wider audience. He was a choreographer in his later years, mostly for television programs including Teen Witch, Mork & Mindy, and The Virginian.
Pascal Francine
After a struggle with cancer, Francine Pascal, the author of the beloved, best-selling, and long-running Sweet Valley High young adult novel series, passed away in Manhattan on July 28 at the age of 92. The 1983-debuting series gave rise to several spin-offs, ran for 20 years, was translated into 27 languages, and is said to have sold 150 million copies globally. The original characters were followed as adults in the 2011 and 2012 sequels The Sweet Life and Sweet Valley Confidential. A TV show about Sweet Valley High aired in syndication from 1994 to 1997, with a brief stint on UPN.
Pascal’s non-SVH works included the Young Adult novel The Ruling Class, the adult novel If Wishes Were Horses, the psychological thriller Save Johanna!, and the Fearless book series.
Jason Nelon Clark, Amber Nelon Kistler, and Kelly Nelon Clark
On July 26, while en route to join the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska, Kelly Nelon Clark, her husband Jason Nelon Clark, and their daughter Amber Nelon Kistler, members of the Grammy-nominated gospel family group the Nelons, perished in a plane crash. Along with Melodi Hodges, the band’s helper, and Larry and Melissa Haynie, the pilot, were also slain, along with Amber’s spouse, Nathan Kistler. Autumn Nelon Streetman, the youngest daughter of the Nelons, was not on the plane when the disaster occurred; she learned of it after she and her husband arrived in Seattle.
Over the course of their nearly 50-year career, the Nelons—who were first created in 1977 by Kelly’s father, Rex Nelon—have published more than 40 albums and been honored with 10 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. In 2016, the group was admitted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Kim Johnson
After a protracted fight with cancer, Kim Johnson, a retired schoolteacher who participated in Survivor: Africa and finished second in the season, passed away on July 23 at the age of 79. Johnson, who was reared in Annapolis, Maryland, before relocating to Oyster Bay, New York, was 56 years old when she participated in the 2001 season of Survivor. Johnson astonished everyone by winning the final two immunity challenges, even though she had assumed she would be the first person removed. She had made it all the way to the final four.
Johnson is the oldest Survivor participant to win a final immunity challenge and the oldest female finalist in franchise history, even though she lost to Zohn in a 5-2 jury vote at the final Tribal Council.
