September 2025 came with more noise than nuance. Between Robert Redford’s death dominating headlines and Charlie Kirk setting off political fireworks, a quieter list of goodbyes went mostly ignored. 26 entertainers (who are made up of actors, musicians, and creators) slipped away with barely a headline. These weren’t background players either. We’re talking Oscar nominees, chart-toppers, and faces you’ve seen more than your own reflection during lockdown streaming sprees. Their work shaped the culture you consume daily, yet their deaths were buried beneath the noise. Maybe now’s the right moment to stop scrolling and give them the recognition they earned.
Graham Greene (September 1, 2025)
Graham Greene never needed to shout to make you listen. At 73, the Canadian actor left behind a career that proved subtlety can hit harder than spectacle. His Oscar-nominated turn as Kicking Bird in Dances With Wolves (1990) was only the start. He carried the same grounded presence into The Green Mile, brought a sharp edge to The Twilight Saga, and reminded everyone of his range in HBO’s The Last of Us. Off screen, he co-ran Toronto’s Native Theatre School, giving Indigenous performers a platform long before Hollywood paid attention. Even his television work (Reservation Dogs and Echo) showed he never slowed down.
Rolling Ray (September 3, 2025)
Rolling Ray, born Juan Raymond Harper, packed more impact into 28 years than most manage in a lifetime online. He went from MTV’s Catfish: Trolls in 2018 to stealing scenes on Divorce Court, where his viral clapbacks cemented him as internet royalty. If you’ve ever typed “purr” or told someone “you’re not that girl,” you owe Ray a nod. Despite paralysis, burns from a 2021 fire, and recurring pneumonia, Ray turned his resilience and humor into a brand that made millions laugh.
Giorgio Armani (September 4, 2025)
Giorgio Armani spent 91 years proving you don’t need loud designs to make a global statement. The man known as “Il Signor Armani” skipped Milan Fashion Week in June, sparking rumors, but no one expected his death so quickly after. He worked right up until his final days, still hands-on after five. Armani suits walked every red carpet and dressed Hollywood legends. The brand isn’t going anywhere either. His family and employees will carry it forward, exactly the way Armani wanted.
Mark Volman (September 5, 2025)
Mark Volman, the founding member of The Turtles left behind “Happy Together,” the 1967 anthem he co-wrote that still plays at weddings and baseball games today. But Volman, with Howard Kaylan, also became one half of Flo & Eddie, touring with Frank Zappa and singing background vocals to Bruce Springsteen, T. Rex, and many others.
Rick Davies (September 6, 2025)
Rick Davies, who co-founded Supertramp in 1969 and sang on songs like “Goodbye Stranger” and “Bloody Well Right”, once filled stadiums and left behind a catalogue that still sneaks into films like I, Tonya and TV classics like The Simpsons. Even after parting ways with Roger Hodgson, Davies kept the band alive, picking up Grammys and a global fanbase along the way.
Stuart Craig (September 7, 2025)
British production designer Stuart Craig won Oscars for Gandhi (1982), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and The English Patient (1996). But it was Hogwarts that most of us will remember. Craig designed all eight Harry Potter films, the Fantastic Beasts spinoffs, and even the theme park attractions. You might not have known his name, but you definitely lived in his worlds.
Polly Holliday (September 9, 2025)
Polly Holliday made TV history with the line: “Kiss my grits.” As Flo on CBS’s Alice, she turned a gum-snapping waitress into a sitcom legend and snagged awards while doing it. At 88, Holliday’s passing closes the book on the show’s original cast, but her career stretched far beyond Mel’s Diner. She starred in the short-lived spinoff Flo, stole scenes in Private Benjamin and The Golden Girls, and even nagged Tim Allen on Home Improvement.
Paula Shaw (September 10, 2025)
Trained at the Actors Studio, Paula Shaw popped up everywhere, including Starsky and Hutch and Little House on the Prairie to Hallmark’s Cedar Cove. Horror fans will always remember her chilling turn as Jason Voorhees’ mother in Freddy vs. Jason (2003). Across five decades, Shaw proved that showing up, genre after genre, can be just as impactful as landing one big role.
Bobby Hart (September 10, 2025)
Even if you didn’t know his name, chances are you heard Bobby Hart’s music, which is still resurfacing in movies and TV series today. He wrote The Monkees’ TV theme and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.” He also scored a Top 10 hit with “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” in 1967.
Yu Menglong (September 11, 2025)
Chinese actor Yu Menglong, also known as Alan Yu, died at 37 after reportedly falling from a building in Beijing. Authorities say he was intoxicated, but the story doesn’t end there. Police are silencing online chatter, while fans and netizens hunt for answers. Yu Menglong appeared in films, TV series, music videos and web series. He appeared in Intrude The Widow Village at Midnight, All Out of Love, The Moon Brightens For You, I Like You Too, An Unchanging Promise by Yoyo Lee and For Love to Let Go.
Pat Crowley (September 14, 2025)
Pat Crowley was just 20 when she won a Golden Globe in 1953 as “New Star of the Year”. From leading NBC’s Please Don’t Eat the Daisies to adding drama to Dynasty, Port Charles, and Falcon Crest, Crowley was a huge star. She popped up everywhere: Friends, Columbo, Frasier, and Murder, She Wrote. Her 100-plus screen credits ensure she’ll keep showing up on your TV for a long time.
Brad Everett Young (September 14, 2025)
From Boy Meets World and Grey’s Anatomy to Jurassic Park III and The Artist, Brad Everett Young, the actor-turned-celebrity photographer, died at 46 in a car crash on California’s 134 Freeway on September 14. His publicist, Paul Christensen, confirmed Young was returning from a movie screening when a wrong-way driver struck him. Born July 24, 1979, in Danville, Virginia, Young initially aimed for medical school but quickly swapped textbooks for casting calls. “I absolutely fell in love with everything in this business,” he once said.
John Christopher Jones (September 15, 2025)
John Christopher Jones never let Parkinson’s keep him off the stage. The Massachusetts-born actor, who died Sept. 15 in New York at 77, packed 16 Broadway credits into his career, from playing Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast to tackling Beckett in Endgame. Diagnosed in 2003, Jones kept performing for nearly two decades, a journey captured in the 2024 documentary Me to Play. Onscreen, he popped up in Moonstruck, Awakenings, The Hurricane and The Sopranos. Away from acting, he became a Chekhov translator—his Cherry Orchard revival even won a 2012 Lortel Award. Survivors include his wife, Mary Beth, and three children.
Robert Redford (September 16, 2025)
Robert Redford, who redefined cool on screen and reshaped indie film off it, has died at 89. His publicist confirmed he passed peacefully in Utah, “surrounded by those he loved.” From Butch Cassidy to Ordinary People to Sundance itself, Redford’s artistry leaves Hollywood forever in his shadow. And sure, everyone heard and talked about Robert Redford’s death, but he makes this list because most of the public didn’t realise that he was the face behind one of the world’s most popular memes.
Ron Friedman (September 16, 2025)
Ron Friedman, the man who gave us some of TV’s most legendary laughs and tears, has died at 93. Across more than 700 hours of television, Friedman penned scripts for everything from The Andy Griffith Show and Gilligan’s Island to Starsky & Hutch and Bewitched. He even reimagined G.I. Joe and, against his will, wrote the death of Optimus Prime in 1986’s Transformers: The Movie—a move that broke kids everywhere. His wife, Valerie, said he died Sept. 16 from complications of a lower gastrointestinal infection.
Brett James (September 18, 2025)
Grammy winner Brett James died in a plane crash. His pen gave Carrie Underwood “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” Dierks Bentley “I Hold On,” and more than 500 other cuts recorded by Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson, and just about everyone else in country-pop. Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, James was a legend.
Diane Martel (September 18, 2025)
Diane Martel, who directed iconic videos for Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, and Miley Cyrus, died September 18 in Manhattan at 63 from breast cancer. Her work ranged from Mariah’s snowy “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (1994) to Robin Thicke’s controversial “Blurred Lines” (2013). Beyoncé called her videos “visual symphonies.”
Sonny Curtis (September 19, 2025)
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Sonny Curtis first picked up a guitar at 7 and by his teens was playing alongside Buddy Holly. After Holly’s death, Curtis joined The Crickets and went on to write “I Fought the Law” for The Bobby Fuller Four. He also wrote the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme.
Ben Scripps (September 20, 2025)
Ben Scripps may not have been a celebrity, but to Jeopardy! fans he was proof that the dream is real. The Michigan native, who died at 52, claimed two wins in May 2020 during Alex Trebek’s final year, walking away with $38,158 and a lifetime’s bragging rights. For Scripps, it was the fulfillment of a goal he’d chased since childhood. Offscreen, he built a career in local news, starting as a high school sports reporter before producing broadcasts in Cadillac, Michigan.
Harry Jaglom (September 22, 2025)
Harry Jaglom never fit Hollywood’s mold, and that was the point. Trained at the Actors Studio, he cut his teeth editing Easy Rider before stepping behind the camera himself. Across five decades, he wrote, directed, and acted in films that often zeroed in on women’s lives, relationships, and everyday messiness. His so-called “Women’s Trilogy”—Eating, Babyfever, and Going Shopping—earned him a reputation as an indie voice unafraid to challenge norms in the ’90s and early 2000s. Along the way, he worked with legends like Orson Welles and Jack Nicholson, even appearing in Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie. He was 87.
Enver Petrovci (September 22, 2025)
Enver Petrovci, born 28 February 1954, shaped Kosovo’s stage and screen until his passing on 22 September 2025. He co-founded Dodona Theatre and Prishtina’s Acting School, voiced Mufasa in the Albanian Lion King, and tackled Shakespeare heavyweights: Hamlet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar.
Zuza Beine (September 22, 2025)
Zuza Beine, the 14-year-old Wisconsin teen who spent 11 years fighting acute myeloid leukemia, died on September 22, 2025. Known for her upbeat videos and Glow House collabs, she once wrote, “More than anything, she wanted to be a normal, healthy kid.” She passed listening to Noah Kahan.
Claudia Cardinale (September 23, 2025)
Claudia Cardinale shot to fame after a 1957 beauty contest win landed her at the Venice Film Festival. By 1960, she was in Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, then The Leopard three years later. Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) carried her fame worldwide, placing her alongside Hollywood’s biggest names.
Voddie Baucham (September 25, 2025)
Voddie Baucham Jr., the 56-year-old Reformed Baptist pastor and bestselling author of Fault Lines, died on September 25, 2025. Known for “clear, unapologetic biblical teaching,” he pastored in Texas, built African Christian University’s theology program in Zambia, and recently launched Founders Seminary in Florida. He leaves behind his wife Bridget and nine children.
André Landzaat (September 2025)
André Landzaat made his mark on both sides of the Atlantic. The Dutch-American actor lit up General Hospital in 1981 as Tony Cassadine, then later played Rudolf Stikker in Medisch Centrum West. You probably caught him guest-starring on The Six Million Dollar Man or even Laverne & Shirley.
Elaine Merk Binder
Elaine Merk Binder, one of the last surviving Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz, has died at 94. At just eight years old, she stepped onto the MGM lot in 1938 after auditioning for the musical. “For me it was scary. It was my first big call for girls from a major studio,” she once said. Cast as one of eight children added to the Munchkin ensemble, she sang and danced through Come Out, Come Out and Off to See the Wizard. Beyond Hollywood, Binder studied music, education, computer science, and theology before working as a consultant for USC and First Interstate Bank.
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