2016 has been a long, fierce year for superstar deaths. We’ve also lost eminent performers like David Bowie and Prince. Numerous on-screen characters have died this year, right from character actors to significant film stars. Here’s a glance at the performing artists and on-screen characters who died in 2016.
1. Alan Rickman – January 14
In the wake of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in England the ’70s, Alan Rickman broke out on the extra large screen in 1988, at the age of 41. He played the underhanded Hans Gruber in Die Hard ansd went onto play some of Hollywood’s most notorious screen scoundrels, like the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, and Professor Severus Snape in every one of the eight Harry Potter films. Rickman died 69 after a fight with pancreatic cancer.
2. Garry Shandling- March 24
A standout amongst the most noticeable stand-up comedians of the 1980s, and a pioneer of the observational comic drama style made famous by Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno, Shandling went ahead to co-produce and feature in two of the most ground breaking TV comedies ever constructed. We’re talking about It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (1986-1990) which was a show about a comedian named Garry Shandling featuring in a sitcom and The Larry Sanders Show (1992-1998) which was a mockumentary-style, single-camera drama about the backstage universe of a late-night TV show. Shandling earned 18 Emmy nominations for Sanders, winning one for writing the finale. Shandling also showed up in some films, including Town and Country, What Planet Are You From?, Iron Man 2, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He died at the age 66, in a Los Angeles hospital. He wasn’t known to suffer from any major illness.
