Robert Hegyes

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Robert Hegyes, the actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show “Welcome Back Kotter” (with John Travolta, pictured), died of cardiac arrest on Jan. 26. He was 60.

Etta James

Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Singer Etta James died from complications from leukemia on Jan. 20. She was 73.

Bill Janklow

U.S. House of Represenatives/Getty Images

Bill Janklow, a flamboyant politician who left a lasting mark on South Dakota politics by serving four terms as governor but resigned as the state’s congressman after causing a fatal traffic accident, has died. He was 72.

Bob Anderson

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Bob Anderson, an Olympic fencer for the United Kingdom, died Jan. 2 at age 89. He was a renowned film fight choreographer who worked on, among other films, the original “Star Wars” trilogy.

Mike Colalillo

Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Mike Colalillo, the last Medal of Honor recipient in Minnesota, died at age 86. Colalillo received the nation’s highest military honor for bravery in combat for killing or wounding 25 Germans and helping a seriously wounded comrade to safety during a fierce firefight near Untergriesheim, Germany, on April 7, 1945, toward the end of World War II.

Joe Paterno

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Whitney Houston

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Gary Carter

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, whose single for the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series touched off one of the most improbable rallies in baseball, died Feb. 16. He was 57.

Ben Gazzara

Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images

Actor Ben Gazzara died in Manhattan from pancreatic cancer on Feb. 3, 2012. He was 81.

Don Cornelius

Photo by Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images

Soul Train creator Don Cornelius was found dead in his Sherman Oaks home on Feb. 1, 2012. He was 75.

Sarah Burke

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke died Jan. 19, nine days after crashing at the bottom of the superpipe during a training run in Utah. She was 29.

Sherman Hemsley

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role as George Jefferson in the 70′s sitcom “The Jeffersons” died July 24. He was 74.

Sally Ride

-/AFP/Getty Images

NASA astronaut Sally K. Ride, the Space Shuttle Challenger crew member, poses in January 1983 in Johnson Space Center, Houston. Ride, the first American woman in space, died from pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012. She was 61.

Andy Griffith

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Actor Andy Griffith died on July 3, 2012. He was 86.

Nora Ephron

Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

Nora Ephron, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker and director behind such hits as “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” died June 26. She was 71.

LeRoy Neiman

Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images for USOC

Artist LeRoy Nieman (credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for USOC)
Artist LeRoy Nieman signs autographs at the 100 Days to Vancouver Celebration on November 4, 2009 at the Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Donna Summer

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Disco queen Donna Summer, whose pulsing anthems such as “Last Dance,” “Love to Love You Baby” and “Bad Girls” became the soundtrack for a glittery age of sex, drugs, dance and flashy clothes, died May 17. She was 63.

Mary Kennedy

Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images

The body of Mary Kennedy, 52, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was discovered in her Mount Kisco home on May 16, and suicide is believed to be the cause of death.

Maurice Sendak

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Maurice Sendak, the children’s book author and illustrator of “Where the Wild Things Are” and “In the Night Kitchen,” died on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. He was 83.

Thomas Kinkade

Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Image

Artist Thomas Kinkade, (pictured, right) whose brushwork paintings of idyllic landscapes, cottages and churches have been big sellers for dealers across the United States, died April 6 at age 54.

Mike Wallace

Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Legendary CBS Newsman Mike Wallace, who won his 21st and final Emmy Award at 89, died April 7 in the New Canaan, Conn., care facility where he had lived the last few years of his life. He was 93.

Andrew Breitbart

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Conservative media publisher Andrew Breitbart, who was behind investigations that led to the resignations of former Rep. Anthony Weiner and former U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, died in Los Angeles on March 1, 2012. He was 43.

Davy Jones

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Davy Jones, lead singer of The Monkees, died on February 29, 2012. He was 66.