These are some of the newsmakers who were lost in 2021, but will not soon be forgotten.<\/b>
\nAs the world spins into a new year, it does so without the help of many of the leaders, entertainers, athletes and thinkers who got humanity this far. These are some of the newsmakers who were lost in 2021, but will not soon be forgotten. A fighter until the end, former Nevada senator Harry Reid died at 82 on Dec.28. The former middleweight boxer was a soft-spoken moderate who opposed abortion rights, championed Obamacare, was hard to read on gun control and played hardball with the casino business in his gambling-oriented state. His prowess as a lawmaker came into focus during the Obama administration, when he set his sights on Wall Street after the 2008 economic collapse. After Democrats lost the Senate in 2014, Reid\u2019s influence waned, and he decided not to seek reelection in 2016. John Madden was football. He won a Super Bowl coaching the Oakland Raiders, and then \u2014 BOOM! \u2014 he became the voice of the NFL for generations, working as a top analyst for CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC. He also changed the way the game is played \u2014 literally \u2014 when a video game bearing his name hit shelves in 1988. Several name changes later, \u201cMadden NFL\u201d is the gold standard in sports games \u2014 thanks to realism its namesake demanded. The 85-year-old pigskin personality, famously known for traveling the country by bus and train, and never airplane, died unexpectedly Tuesday. Nobel Peace Prize-winning Desmond Tutu finished his work on Earth the day after Christmas at the age of 90. The former archbishop of South Africa \u2014 the first Black man to hold that post \u2014 was a leader in the fight against apartheid. The son of an educator, Archbishop Tutu himself spent three years teaching high school before taking up theology. He was ordained as a priest in 1960, later achieved a masters degree in theological studies in England, then returned to South Africa to teach that subject. News of Tutu\u2019s death prompted President Biden and former President Barack Obama to release statements of mourning. Obama remembered Tutu as \u201ca mentor, a friend, and a moral compass for me and so many others.\u201d The final chapter of author and journalist Joan Didion\u2019s storied life ended on Dec.23 in her Manhattan apartment due to complications from Parkinson\u2019s disease. \u201cThe Year of Magical Thinking\u201d scribe, who penned both the book and the play of that title, was 87. Her screenplays included \u201cA Star is Born\u201d and \u201cThe Panic in Needle Park.\u201d She first made a name for herself while writing for, then editing, Vogue magazine. Didion was immediately skeptical about the Central Park Five case that shook New York City in 1989 and wrote about the ensuing criminal trials extensively for the New York Review in 1991. \u201cEl \u00cddolo de M\u00e9xico\u201d was released as a 1974 album by Vicente Fernandez, though that also became the multi-Grammy winning singer\u2019s nickname. Before his death on Dec.12, the 81-year-old performer sold more than 50 million albums, making him one of the biggest recording stars to have been born south of the U.S. border. He stopped doing live shows in 2016, when he said in his final concert that if he ever met Donald Trump, he would spit in the then-candidate\u2019s face for his negative rhetoric regarding Mexican immigrants. Few Americans gave more for their country than Bob Dole. The former Senate majority leader, who was also a war hero, member of the House of Representatives and presidential candidate, succumbed to cancer on Dec.5. His death came more than 76 years after a German artillery shell seriously injured, but failed to finish the stubborn Kansan during combat in Italy. Known for being direct, sometimes to a fault, Dole also maintained a dry sense of humor through his 98 years. One of Dole\u2019s more memorable zingers came after his 1980 bid for the Republican party nomination fell woefully short. Dole wisecracked that he slept like a baby after getting blown out in the New Hampshire primary. \u201cEvery two hours I woke up and cried,\u201d he joked. Dole finally got his party\u2019s nomination in 1996, but was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton in the general election. He found work as a pitchman in his post-politics life, promoting donuts, debit cards, soft-drinks and Viagra. Dole told the Associated Press that there was one surefire deal-breaker when he was approached with an ad campaign. \u201cIf they\u2019re not any fun, I don\u2019t want to do them,\u201d he said. Despite being ahead of his time, fashion designer Virgil Abloh died far too soon following a two-year battle with a rare form of cancer. The artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear was 41. The Chicago-based fashionista channeled pop artists like Andy Warhol in crafting clothing that imitated art. \u201cEverything I do is for the 17-year-old version of myself,\u201d he reportedly said in describing his enthusiastic approach to style. Broadway titan Stephen Sondheim, who died Nov.26 at 91, leaves behind classics including \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d \u201cSweeney Todd,\u201d \u201cGypsy\u201d and \u201cA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.\u201d The many honors bestowed upon the songwriter from the Upper West Side of New York include a 2008 lifetime achievement Tony Award, the 1985 Pulitzer Prize and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. On the Sunday after his death, Broadway stars including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, Ra\u00fal Esparza, Laura Benanti and Josh Groban gathered in Times Square to sing Sondheim\u2019s tune \u201cSunday,\u201d from the show \u201cSunday in the Park with George.\u201d That songs lyrics include the line, \u201cAs we pass through arrangements of shadows, towards the verticals of trees, forever.\u201d Encore, please. Former secretary of state and four-star general Colin Powell wasn\u2019t just a proud American \u2014 he was also a proud New Yorker. Before losing his battle with COVID in October, the 84-year-old former soldier fought bravely in Vietnam, and later led the controversial Iraq war for the George W. Bush administration. \u201cI don\u2019t spend a lot of time looking in rear view mirrors, because you can\u2019t change anything,\u201d he later said of that chapter in his life. Powell, like others in the administration, had been wrongly convinced that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction. Just a decade earlier, while serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he had been lauded for his bluntness in the first Gulf War. \u201cWe\u2019re going to cut it off, and then we\u2019re going to kill it,\u201d he famously explained of his 1991 plan to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, which they\u2019d invaded. Powell\u2019s journey to Washington, D.C., began with his birth in Harlem and upbringing in the south Bronx. Upon learning of Powell\u2019s death, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said, \u201cOur borough has lost a giant today.\u201d Filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles\u2019 trailblazing life ended a year short of 90 in September in his Manhattan home. A pioneer of the \u201cblaxploitation\u201d genre, the Chicago native struck a nerve with Black and white audiences with 1971\u2032s \u201cSweet Sweetback\u2019s Baadasssss Song,\u201d which he wrote, directed, and acted in as well. He also wrote the 1995 screenplay for \u201cPanther,\u201d starring his son Melvin Van Peebles, and edited the French version of Mad magazine in 1965. From 1994 to 1997, funnyman Norm Macdonald handled \u201cWeekend Update\u201d duties solo for \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d where his biting and dry wit inspired current host Colin Jost to aspire to that job. In September, Macdonald died from cancer at 61. Upon hearing news of the comic\u2019s death, Senator Bob Dole, who outlived Macdonald by just a few months, tweeted he\u2019d miss the joker whose responsibilities on \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d included impersonating Dole. Michael K. Williams was born and died in Brooklyn, but the 54 years between those events produced unforgettable onscreen work including his stellar depiction of the drug-dealer robbing, rifle-toting Omar Little on HBO\u2019s \u201cThe Wire.\u201d Obama named that character his favorite during a 2012 interview. Williams, hugely distinguishable by a facial scar he received during a Queens bar fight on his 25th birthday, also starred in HBO\u2019s \u201cBoardwalk Empire.\u201d Television viewers of a certain age knew him as Lou Grant, but actor Ed Asner was bigger than the character he played on \u201cThe Mary Tyler Moore Show\u201d and the spinoff \u201cLou Grant\u201d throughout the 1970s and into the early \u201880s. The 91-year-old who died on Aug 29 won five of his seven Emmy Awards for playing that role, but he was also known for his left-leaning political activism and stewardship as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. In addition, he won new fans in 2009 for voicing Carl in the 2009 Pixar smash \u201cUp.\u201d The man who kept time for the Rolling Stones for nearly 60 years went out with a bang in August. Charlie Watts,80, died in August, leaving the rock and roll world in mourning. Elton John remembered him as \u201cthe ultimate drummer\u201d while Joan Jett called him \u201cthe most elegant and dignified drummer in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d Paul McCartney recalled Watts as \u201csteady as a rock\u201d in a video condolence. Don Everly \u2014half of the Everly Brothers duo \u2014 died at 84 in Nashville in August. He and his younger brother Phil were responsible for early rock and roll hits including \u201cCathy\u2019s Clown,\u201d \u201cWake Up Little Susie\u201d and \u201cAll I Have to Do Is Dream.\u201d Both brothers joined the United States Marine Corps reserves in 1961 at the height of their popularity. In 1962, after finishing boot camp, the duo appeared in uniform on \u201cThe Ed Sullivan Show.\u201d The pair famously fanned out in 1973 when Phil smashed his guitar, then stormed off stage during a concert. They reunited a decade later and continued to perform for a dozen more years. In 1986, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame among an inaugural class that included Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Buddy Holly and James Brown. Phil Everly died in 2014. Both an era and a life essentially ended on July 24 when Catskills comic Jackie Mason died at 93 in Manhattan. Mason, one of the last of the Borscht Belt comedians, came from a long line of rabbis and became one himself at the age of 25. But Mason soon found that he was happier making audiences laugh, so that\u2019s what he did for a very long time. In 1999, he talked to the Daily News about his Tony Award-winning one-man show \u201cThe World According to Me\u201d on Broadway. \u201cIt\u2019s pure entertainment,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing else.\u201d Harlem native Marcel Theo Hall was sometimes referred to as \u201cThe Clown Prince of Hip-Hop,\u201d but he was best known as Biz Markie. In 1989, the rapper became a household name with the hit single \u201cJust a Friend.\u201d In 2002, he added acting to his resume when he appeared alongside fellow rapping-actor Will Smith in \u201cMen in Black II.\u201d Rumors of the 57-year-old performer\u2019s death started on social media, more than two weeks before he actually did die on July 16. \u201cThe Mod Squad\u201d star Clarence Williams III broke new ground by becoming one of the earliest Black actors to star in a prime-time program. He was introduced to acting at a Harlem YMCA and credits Bill Cosby \u2014 the first Black actor to have a lead role on a prime-time show \u2014 for kick-starting his career. Williams\u2019 1968 debut on \u201cThe Mod Squad,\u201d followed his service as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division in the 1950s. Williams, whose father was a musician, played singer Prince\u2019s dad in the 1984 film \u201cPurple Rain.\u201d Perhaps mankind\u2019s most storied designated driver, astronaut Michael Collins navigated the Apollo 11 command module Columbia while his colleagues Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to land on the moon. \u201cAs pilot of the Apollo 11 command module \u2013 some called him \u2018the loneliest man in history,\u201d After Collins died April 28, NASA wrote in its tribute. \u201cWhile his colleagues walked on the Moon for the first time, he helped our nation achieve a defining milestone.\u201d Fraudster Bernie Madoff died in prison in April, two weeks shy of his 84th birthday. The Queens native famously scammed roughly $18 billion from investors \u2014 and charities \u2014 through a Ponzi scheme that lasted well over a decade. According to his lawyer, Madoff \u201clived with guilt and remorse for his crimes.\u201d One of his sons committed suicide and the other died from cancer while Madoff was serving a 150-year sentence. Among Madoff\u2019s better-known victims were actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and John Malkovich. The total dollar amount of their losses is unclear. Madoff also ripped off Larry King, who died a few months before the disgraced investor. Then-Mets owners Fred Wilpon, Jeff Wilpon and Saul Katz also took an Amazin\u2019 bath, which may have damaged the team\u2019s fortunes as much as the owners\u2019. Singer Richard Marx and actor Rosanna Arquette tweeted their sympathies to Madoff\u2019s victims upon hearing of his death. \u201cA very sad episode in the history of this city, and a lot of people, unfortunately, were hurt,\u201d Mayor de Blasio said then. \u201cThe day someone passes is not a time to dance on a grave.\u201d Madoff is survived by his wife, Ruth. She was left with $2.5 million. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, died on April 20. He was two months short of his 100th birthday. Philip, who for 65 years showed unwavering support for the queen, set a new direction for the British monarchy, advocating for the environment, science and technology. He later developed a reputation for his sometimes crude, inappropriate \u2014 and bigoted \u2014 jokes. Philip was an enthusiastic sportsman who served in the Royal Navy. He holds the distinction of being history\u2019s longest-serving royal consort. Queen Elizabeth,95, said in October that the prince\u2019s death brought \u201cgreat sadness\u201d to the Royal Family. The unmistakable music of rapper DMX, aka Earl Simmons, represented the way the rugged, troubled and sometimes spiritual performer lived before suffering a cardiac arrest a week before his death in April, according to his family. He was 50. Though he had a string of hits, DMX is best remembered for the 1999 party classic \u201c Party Up (Up in Here).\u201d His first five albums debuted at No.1 on the Billboard charts. That was a first. Tributes from artists including Bootsy Collins, Missy Elliott, Public Enemy, Chance the Rapper, Viola Davis and Ice-T poured in on social media. Basketball great LeBron James also weighed-in. \u201cRest In Paradise LEGEND!!\u201d he tweeted. Rolling Stone reported Tuesday that unreleased songs from a gospel album DMX recorded in Arizona more than a decade ago remain stored on hard drives. The rapper reportedly planned to tour Southern megachurches to perform new music and had hoped to open a house of worship to help people struggling with addiction. Comedy or drama, actor George Segal did his part. He even got nominated for a 1966 Academy Award for his performance alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in \u201cWho\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Wolff?\u201d Segal died at 87, still married to his third wife and working on the ABC sitcom \u201cThe Goldbergs.\u201d He was also an accomplished banjo player, who appeared on \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d when it was hosted by Johnny Carson. Right-wing provocateur Rush Limbaugh lost his long battle with lung cancer in February, living several months longer than he\u2019d anticipated after announcing his condition at the start of January 2020. The 70-year-old broadcaster commanded an enormous radio audience and is remembered as a trailblazer of the modern day ultra-conservative era, where facts and conspiracy theories are often interchangeable. Former President Donald Trump, who awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, compared the gifted orator\u2019s radio shows to a \u201creligious experience for a lot of people.\u201d Not everyone was a fan. \u201cHe entertained listeners by mercilessly mocking and maligning anyone who didn\u2019t resemble his typical listener \u2014 straight, white, conservative, and male,\u201d Media Matters for America President and CEO Angelo Carusone said in a statement. \u201cAnd that cruelty eventually became a central tenet of modern conservatism.\u201d In his final broadcast of 2020, Limbaugh said his protracted demise gave him time to savor all that he meant to those who enjoyed his program. \u201cHow many people who pass away never hear the eulogies, never hear the thank-yous?\u201d he wondered. The very full life of pornographer, publisher, businessman and First Amendment advocate Larry Flynt ended on Feb.10 in Los Angeles when the 78-year-old\u2019s heart gave out. Flynt, who married five times, is best known for founding the Hustler magazine franchise. One of his many legal battles found its way to the Supreme Court, where it caused the nation to debate the meaning of obscenity. Flynt had used a wheelchair since 1978, when he was shot by a white supremacist who said he was angry about a photo of an interracial couple in one of his magazines. There weren\u2019t many voices like Mary Wilson\u2019s, and the few that may come the closest belonged to her Supremes bandmates, including Diana Ross. The Motown superstar died in her sleep on Feb.8, but left the world with timeless tunes including \u201cStop! In the Name of Love\u201d and \u201cYou Can\u2019t Hurry Love.\u201d Wilson was 76. Though born in Mississippi and forged in Detroit, she earned a degree from NYU well after her days as a pop star had ended. Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer also had a pair of Tony Awards and a couple Emmy Awards listed in his obituary after he died on Feb.5 at the age of 91. Most famously known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in \u201cThe Sound of Music,\u201d Plummer became the oldest person to win an Oscar for \u201cBeginners\u201d in 2010 when he was 82 and held that distinction until supplanted by Anthony Hopkins in April. Plummer remains the oldest actor to be nominated for an Academy Award. He was 88 when his work in \u201cAll the Money in the World\u201d gained him that distinction in 2018. Cicely Tyson was born in the Bronx and raised in Harlem, which is also where her funeral service \u2014 attended by luminaries including Bill and Hillary Clinton \u2014 took place in February. In her 96 years, Tyson, who died Jan.28, did it all. She began her career as a model, but her acting work earned her an Academy Award, a Tony Award and three Emmy Awards. She refused to star in blaxploitation movies and took on roles featuring strong Black women instead. Obama added a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tyson\u2019s collection in 2016. She was married to jazz giant Miles Davis throughout the 1980s and is survived by her godson, rocker Lenny Kravitz. No one has been nominated for or won more Emmy Awards than Cloris Leachman who, at 94 years old, died in January. A former Miss America pageant contender, Leachman also had a very funny side that led to her working with the likes of Mel Brooks and Adam Sandler. \u201cShe could make you laugh or cry at the drop of a hat,\u201d Brooks, who directed her in \u201cYoung Frankenstein,\u201d tweeted upon hearing she had died. Like so many in 2021, Leachman\u2019s death was attributed in part to the COVID pandemic. Broadcasting giant Larry King hosted over 50,000 interviews during his illustrious career. The bespectacled CNN host interviewed former President George W. Bush, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. However, one of his most memorable shows aired in 1992 and featured billionaire Ross Perot announcing on air that he was entering the presidential race. The 87-year-old from Brooklyn, who said \u201cI do\u201d eight times, was hospitalized on Jan.2 with COVID, before dying of sepsis three weeks later. Americans have been playing baseball for a long time, but no one played the game like \u201cHammerin\u2019 Hank\u201d Aaron. His 23 years in the major leagues saw him shatter Babe Ruth\u2019s all-time home run record in 1974. That feat was made increasingly stressful by hate mail and death threats from racists who didn\u2019t want to see Ruth\u2019s record fall to a Black man. Barry Bonds \u2014 who played during baseball\u2019s \u201csteroids era\u201d \u2014 broke Aaron\u2019s home record in 2007. Born in Jim Crow era Mobile, Ala., Aaron found comfort in Milwaukee playing for the Braves. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, he had reservations when the team relocated to Atlanta in 1966. \u201cI have lived in the South, and I don\u2019t want to live there again,\u201d he reportedly said. Aaron died on Jan.22 at the age of 86, in Atlanta, which he made his permanent home after retiring from baseball in 1976. He grew into a pillar of the community and remained an active part of the Braves organization throughout his life. In his final days, Aaron went to bat for COVID vaccines. \u201cI feel quite proud of myself for doing something like this,\u201d he said of advocating for science. Music producer Phil Spector leaves behind a complicated legacy that includes an amazing body of work and a murder conviction. The Bronx native introduced his orchestral \u201cWall of Sound\u201d style to rock and roll music, which resulted in grandiose recordings by The Crystals, The Ronettes, Ike & Tina Turner and The Beatles. But in 2009, he was imprisoned for the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector died behind bars at the age of 81. His ex-wife, singer Ronnie Spector, said she\u2019d remember him as \u201ca brilliant producer, but a lousy husband.\u201d He died on Jan.16.<\/p>\n