When a celebrity dies, it’s not just their friends and family who grieve. Even though we never knew them personally, these public figures were still part of the fabric of our lives. Some were there for us during our lowest moments, while others made us cheer, laugh, think, cry and sing out loud. A noteworthy passing also reminds us of our own fragile mortality: An untimely death leaves us shocked and heartbroken; the ones who passed after a long and fruitful life remind us that time stops for absolutely nobody.
The famous people who died in 2025 hit us especially hard. Several dearly departed artists, such as Brian Wilson, Diane Ladd, Julian McMahon, David Lynch, Roberta Flack, D’Angelo and Giorgio Armani, led to newfound appreciation for their boundary-pushing talent and accomplishments. (I binged several seasons of Cheers after its Emmy-winning breakout star, George Wendt, died in May.) And sometimes the news of a beloved high-profile legend this year hit us so hard that we stopped in our tracks and deeply mourned the loss.
Read on for 11 celebrities whose lights dimmed in 2025 but whose impact on pop culture and so much more leaves a lasting legacy.
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Rob Reiner
March 6, 1947–Dec. 14, 2025
There’s a good chance that Reiner was behind one of your all-time favorite movies or TV shows. He started out as an actor, notably playing Mike “Meathead” Stivic on All in the Family, but he soon transitioned into directing and producing. (Though he still scratched his acting itch occasionally, in projects like 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street and the Zooey Deschanel–helmed show New Girl.) He was the directorial genius of more than 20 films, including This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, Misery and A Few Good Men. His production company, Castle Rock Entertainment, was also responsible for bringing Seinfeld (and more) to the world.
As you’ve likely heard by now, Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were fatally stabbed in their home on Dec. 14. Their 32-year-old son, Nick, has been arrested and charged with murder. The shock has been palpable, from both celebrity friends and the rest of us. We will miss his humor, his insights and his passion—all of which extended far beyond the screen.
Reiner was 78.
Diane Keaton
Jan. 5, 1946–Oct. 11, 2025
It’s not just that Keaton was an outstanding Oscar-winning actress who could effortlessly do it all on the screen—go toe-to-toe with Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in the epic The Godfather trilogy, be an independent role model (1987’s Baby Boom, 1996’s First Wives Club) and use that dazzling smile to charm everyone from Woody Allen (1977’s Annie Hall) to Jack Nicholson (2003’s The First Wives Club) in her screwball comedies. Keaton was also a complete original, totally unapologetic in her unique personal style and artistic expressions. (On top of everything else, she authored two design books.)
And yet she came off nonplussed about her fame, which made her all the more endearing. To wit, here’s what she responded in a 2021 Interview Q&A with Ariana Grande when the singer called her an icon: “Can you explain to me how I’m iconic? What is that? I don’t really see it that way.” Her fans always will.
Keaton was 79.
Jane Goodall
April 3, 1934–Oct. 1, 2025
A legendary zoologist, anthropologist and conservationist, Goodall transformed how we perceived the animal world thanks to her groundbreaking work with chimpanzees. Living in the jungles of Tanzania, she concluded that the animals have distinct personalities and are capable of using tools believed to be unique to humans. Through her decades of books (including the vegan cookbook #EatMeatLess in 2021), documentaries and public appearances—she even appeared as herself in The Simpsons and The Wild Thornberrys—Goodall ultimately revolutionized primatology.
When asked by CBS This Morning in 2021 about why she continued with her grind of a schedule well into her 80s, she replied, “Because there’s a message to get out, and I’m getting older, and there’s less time left ahead of me, and the world’s falling to pieces.”
Goodall was 91.
Robert Redford
Aug. 18, 1936–Sept. 16, 2025
With those golden-boy looks, Redford could have been a flashy actor. Instead, he was just a great one. Proof? Try Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Way We Were (1973), All the President’s Men (1976), The Natural (1984) and The Horse Whisperer (1998). When he decided to move behind the camera, he won a Best Director Oscar for the searing 1980 drama Ordinary People.
But perhaps Redford’s true legacy is that of an original influencer. He was one of the first major Hollywood figures to talk about the importance of the environment. And his small workshop and lab for writers and directors amid the Utah mountains in the 1980s spawned the groundbreaking Sundance Film Festival. “Speak out for what you believe and what you feel,” he told Esquire in 2011. “Or don’t. You have to live with yourself.”
Redford was 89.
Charlie Kirk
Oct. 14, 1993–Sept. 10, 2025
No matter your politics, there’s no disputing certain facts about the popular podcaster and founder of conservative student organization Turning Point USA. To start, Kirk was a highly influential and captivating public figure who regularly drew thousands of fans to his college-campus speaking engagements. (During a podcast interview with Gavin Newsom, the Democratic California governor told Kirk that even his teen son was a fan.) Second, the circumstances surrounding his death in September were horrific: Kirk was assassinated during a Q&A in Utah and collapsed in front of his wife, Erika, and their two small children.
Kirk’s death set off a chain reaction of cultural events, including Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air because of comments he made during his late-night talk-show monologue. A groundswell of support for both Kimmel and First Amendment rights led to ABC reinstating him, and Kimmel apologized during his first show after the incident.
Kirk was 31.
Val Kilmer
Dec. 31, 1959–April 1, 2025
If you haven’t done so already, go watch the 2021 documentary Val. In it, the actor shows his vulnerability as he traces his eccentric career and discusses how his battle with throat cancer (which resulted in a tracheotomy) made it difficult for him to speak and do his craft. And yet Kilmer’s final on-screen appearance—reprising his role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise in the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick—was the perfect poignant send-off.
Kilmer’s other standout roles included singer Jim Morrison in the 1991 biopic The Doors, gunslinger Doc Holliday in 1993’s Tombstone, Chris the smooth gangster in 1995’s Heat (with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino) and the voice of Moses in the 1998 animated film The Prince of Egypt. And not for nothing, Kilmer gave the Caped Crusader an enigmatic, soulful spin in 1995’s Batman Forever.
Kilmer died from pneumonia in April. He was 65.
Hulk Hogan
Aug. 11, 1953–July 24, 2025
With his flowing blond hair and charisma to spare, Hogan helped bring wrestling into the mainstream and became a larger-than-life personality in the process. Born Terry Bollea before adopting his stage name, he began his career in 1977 and then gained wider recognition upon signing with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) in the 1980s. Ushering in the phenomenon known as Hulkamania, Hogan headlined Wrestlemania eight times and won the championship six times before his 2012 retirement. (Here’s one of his famous quotes from a 1991 match: “I fear no man, no beast or evil brother.”)
Popular and theatrical, he even got into the ring with Sylvester Stallone in 1982’s Rocky III and starred in movies like 1989’s No Holds Barred and 1991’s Suburban Commando. Hogan also reached a new audience in 2005 with his own family reality show, Hogan Knows Best. That’s when we all got to know him and his family—wife Linda, whom he divorced in 2009, and kids Brooke and Nick—in a whole new way from the comfort of our couches.
Hogan, who battled health issues and died of a heart attack, was 77.
Ozzy Osbourne
Dec. 3, 1948–July 22, 2025
What can we say about Ozzy? He loomed so large, it’s hard to imagine the world without him in it. From a music standpoint, he was a twice-inducted Rock & Roll Hall of Famer who fronted the heavy metal band Black Sabbath and later became a wild solo act with hits like “Crazy Train,” “Bark at the Moon” and “Mama, I’m Coming Home.” Yes, he did memorably bite the head off a bat during a concert in 1982—but he thought the fan threw him a rubber toy onstage. (He had to get rabies shots as a result.)
But it turned out that the Brit wasn’t just a hard-partying rocker. When the pioneering reality show The Osbournes debuted on MTV in 2002, Osbourne revealed himself to be a sweet-natured, devoted husband to Sharon and a surprisingly strict dad to his kids Kelly and Jack. (Daughter Aimee, the eldest of the three, didn’t appear on the show.)
Osbourne, who battled Parkinson’s Disease, made his last public appearance at a Black Sabbath reunion concert in July, just a few weeks before he died. He was 76.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Aug. 18, 1970–July 20, 2025
It’s impossible to overstate the cultural importance of The Cosby Show, a top-rated 1984–1992 sitcom that depicted an affluent Black family in Brooklyn. Fans grew up with Warner’s Theo Huxtable—the only son among five kids—and cheered as the character evolved from smart-aleck teen to proud college graduate.
Beyond Cosby, Warner starred in Malcolm & Eddie from 1996–2000, as well as the series Jeremiah, Listen Up, The Resident and the hit 2015 limited series American Crime Story. As he told the Television Academy in 2013, “I’d say my proudest achievement is being able to have a post-Cosby life and post-Cosby career and still have my head on as straight as possible.”
Warner, who accidentally drowned while on vacation with his daughter, was also a poet and Grammy-winning musician. He was 54.
Michelle Trachtenberg
Oct. 11, 1985–Feb. 26, 2025
If you’re of a certain age, this one really hurt. A Nickelodeon child star, Trachtenberg was just 11 when she starred as the plucky detective in the 1996 movie adaptation of Harriet the Spy. She’d go on to become a reliable TV touchstone for millennials everywhere.
In 2000, Trachtenberg joined the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Dawn, the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s titular heroine. And on Gossip Girl, she switched gears to play the scheming Georgina Sparks. “It’s definitely a lot more fun than playing the good girl,” she told Seventeen magazine in 2009. “I never understood why some actors don’t want to play villains or evil characters.” Her other credits included Six Feet Under, Weeds, Criminal Minds and the 2005 film Ice Princess.
Tragically, she died of diabetes complications at age 39.
Gene Hackman
Jan. 30, 1930–Feb. 18, 2025
Hackman was a two-time Oscar winner (and five-time nominee) who starred in legendary films ranging from 1971’s The French Connection to 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums before retiring in 2004. And yet there’s a reason his obituary in the New York Times called him “Hollywood’s consummate everyman.” While the ex-Marine may not have possessed classic leading-man good looks, he was a reliably outstanding actor who could play both the weary hero (1986’s Hoosiers) and the shifty antagonist (1992’s Unforgiven; Lex Luthor in three Superman films) without ever phoning it in. Thanks to his magnetic screen presence and commitment, his characters always felt like the real deal.
Beyond the fact that Hackman was a near-constant presence on our screens for decades, the tragic and strange manner of his death really shook us. Hackman, his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog were all found dead at their family home in February. While carbon monoxide poisoning was initially suspected, it turns out that Arakawa passed away, followed by Hackman (who had advanced Alzheimer’s), likely a week later. The news was unsettling, to say the least, but it shouldn’t cloud Hackman’s remarkable impact.
Hackman was 95.
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Sources:
- Los Angeles Times: “Val Kilmer, Star of Top Gun and The Doors, dies at 65”
- New York Times: “Hulk Hogan Couldn’t Be Contained by Clothes”
- Los Angeles Times: “Diane Keaton, Film Legend, Fashion Trendsetter and Champion of L.A.’s Past, Dead at 79”
- ABC News: “Charlie Kirk’s Influence, Reach Helped Propel Donald Trump Into Office”
- CBS News: “Robert Redford: An Appreciation”
- Rolling Stone: “Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath Singer and Heavy Metal Pioneer, Dead at 76”
- New York Times: “Gene Hackman, Hollywood’s Consummate Everyman, Dies at 95”
- The Guardian: “Malcolm-Jamal Warner Obituary”
- Washington Post: “Jane Goodall, Primatologist and Friend to Chimpanzees, dies at 91”
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