The ALL DEAD Club

Wayne Osmond, who co-founded the Osmonds, scored four Top 10 singles with the group and was a regular on the hit variety show Donny & Marie starring his younger brother and sister, died January 1 in Utah after a stroke. He was 73.

*Britt Allcroft, the producer who adapted Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends for television, has died. She was 81.

Brenton Wood, the soul singer who sang 1967’s catchy “Oogum Boogum Song” and followed it with the Top 10 hit “Gimme Little Sign,” died Friday at his home in Moreno Valley, CA. He was 83.

*Jeff Baena has died at 47. The screenwriter and film director is best known for Life After Beth (2014), Joshy (2016), The Little Hours (2017), Horse Girl (2020), Spin Me Round (2022), and for co-writing I Heart Huckabees (2004). He is also the husband of actress and producer Aubrey Plaza.

*Mike Milligan, the writer and producer of such award-winning television series including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude and Dear John, died he was 77.

The Vivienne, the inaugural winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, has died at the age of 32.

Mike Rinder, a former top-ranking Scientology executive-turned-whistleblower and co-host of A&E’s Emmy-winning docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, has died at the age of 69.

*Roger Pratt, an Oscar-nominated British cinematographer who worked on two Harry Potter films and with such top directors as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Kenneth Branagh, Mike Leigh, Lasse Hallström, Neil Jordan, Wolfgang Petersen and Richard Attenborough, has died. He was 77.

Peter Yarrow, a five-time Grammy winner who co-founded the hitmaking folk-pop trio Peter, Paul & Mary and co-wrote its memorable “Puff the Magic Dragon,” died Tuesday of bladder cancer at his New York City home. He was 86.

*Richard Cohen, a former senior producer on CNN and CBS News who was married for 38 years to Today anchor Meredith Vieira, died of following a two-month battle with pneumonia December 24 after living with multiple sclerosis for more than five decades. He was 76.

*Actor, writer, director Keller Fornes, who portrayed Griffin in Great American Family’s County Rescue series, has died. He was 32.

Anita Bryant, a Grammy nominated singer, TV personality and orange juice pitchwoman whose show business career was submerged in the public eye by her anti-gay crusades of the late 1970s, died December 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma. She was 84.

*Bill Byrge, the librarian-turned-actor who was a regular in the Ernest movies, died January 9 in Nashville. He was 92.

Sam Moore, one-half of the Grammy-winning R&B duo Sam & Dave behind ’60s hits "Soul Man," "Hold On I'm Coming” and "I Thank You," died this morning in Coral Gables, Fla. at the age of 89.

*Harvey Laidman, a veteran television director who helmed episodes of such shows like The Waltons, Matlock and Magnum P.I., died Jan. 3 at the age of 82.

Leslie Charleson, the actress best known for playing Dr. Monica Quartermaine on General Hospital, has died. She was 79.

Tony Slattery, the comedian and actor best known for his improvisations on hit comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, died today following a heart attack two days ago. He was 65.

Robert Machray, whose prolific, decades-long career as a character actor included appearances on Three’s Company, Roseanne, Suddenly Susan, The Drew Carey Show and, in a four-episode recurring role as Fire Marshal Dobbins on Cheers, died Sunday, January 12, at his home in North Hollywood. He was 79.

*Michael Gerety, a former MGM executive and publicist for Julie Andrews, James Garner and others who also served as president of Newslink Corp, died January 13 in Los Angeles. He was 82.

Top 1980s and 1990s comedy writer-producer David W. Duclon, who created Punky Brewster and co-developed Silver Spoons, died this morning, Jan. 15, after a long illness. He was 74.

Bob Uecker, the voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers who after a short playing career earned the moniker "Mr. Baseball" and honors from the Hall of Fame, has died. He was 90.

Uecker was best known as a colorful comedian and broadcaster who earned his nickname during one of his numerous appearances on Johnny Carson's late-night show.

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Uecker signed his first professional contract with the Milwaukee Braves in 1956 and reached the majors in 1962. He'd last six seasons in the big leagues as a backup catcher, finishing with a .200 average and 14 homers.

He won a World Series ring with St. Louis in 1964 and also played for Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Uecker's comedy was just a part of his abilities. His warm storytelling and delivery made him a natural to become one of the first color commentators on network TV broadcasts in the 1970s with ABC. In the '90s, he teamed up with Bob Costas and Joe Morgan for the World Series.

From there, Uecker reached most households as one of the Miller Lite All-Stars in popular commercials for the beer brand based out of Milwaukee and he later launched his TV acting career in 1985 on the ABC sitcom, "Mr. Belvedere."

Uecker played George Owens during the successful 122-episode run of the series that lasted six years, as the head of the family and sportswriter in a home that brings in a butler who struggles to adapt to an American household.

In a bit of casting that kept things pretty close to home, Uecker also played a prominent role in the movies "Major League" (1989) and "Major League II" (1994) as crass announcer Harry Doyle for a down-and-out Cleveland franchise that finds a way to become playoff contenders.

You can stick David Lynch on your list

Wow, I didn't have him in the Dead Pool ever, bummer.

David Lynch, Visionary Director of ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Blue Velvet,’ Dies at 78

Lynch revealed in 2024 that he had been diagnosed with emphysema after a lifetime of smoking, and would likely not be able to leave his house to direct any longer.

The “Twin Peaks” TV show and films such as “Blue Velvet,” “Lost Highway” and “Mulholland Drive” melded elements of horror, film noir, the whodunit and classical European surrealism. Lynch wove tales, not unlike those of his Spanish predecessor Luis Bunuel, which proceeded with their own impenetrable logic.

He was born Jan. 20, 1946, in Missoula, Montana. His father was a research scientist for the Department of Agriculture, and his peripatetic family lived in the plains states, the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast before settling in Alexandria, Virginia, where Lynch attended high school.

After years spent as a painter and a maker of short animated and live action films, Lynch burst onto the scene with his 1977 feature debut “Eraserhead,” a horrific, black-humored work that became a disturbing fixture on the midnight movie circuit. His outré and uncompromising style quickly won the attention of the Hollywood and international movie-making establishment.

He was hired by Mel Brooks’ production company to write and direct “The Elephant Man,” a deeply affecting drama about a horrifically deformed sideshow freak in Victorian England who became a national celebrity. The feature captured eight Academy Award nominations, including Lynch’s first for best director.

He found less success with his 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sprawling science fiction novel “Dune.” The production, made on a budget of $40 million during an arduous three-year shoot, was a colossal box office flop.

However, Lynch rebounded from the disaster with two films that defined his mature style: “Blue Velvet” (1986), a frightening hellride through the psychosexual underbelly of a small American town, and the sexed-up, violent road movie “Wild at Heart” (1990), which was honored with the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or.

In 1990, he revolutionized American episodic TV with “Twin Peaks,” a series he created with writer Mark Frost. With action springing from the investigation of a high school girl’s mysterious murder in a Washington lumber mill town, the weekly ABC show plumbed disquieting, theretofore taboo subject matter and made the inexplicable a fixture of modern narrative television.