Death is perhaps the most natural thing to ever exist besides life itself, but that doesn't make it any less painful. While it's never a good time to hear the news of a celebrity's death, amidst all the chaos of 2020 it's almost as if there were more of them than in preceding years. From sports legends like Kobe Bryant to cultural icons such as Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, an awful lot of celebrity deaths have occurred in the previous year.
The world has lost a great many actors in 2020 as well. Some of them hail from the Golden Age of Hollywood while others were only getting started with their careers. No matter how experienced they were or from what kind of backgrounds, their deaths were all equally tragic. The following list attempts to pay respect to a few of them in remembrance of their best works.
Irrfan Khan - Life of Pi (2012)
Primarily an Indian actor, Irrfan Khan was no stranger to the western and international audiences either due to the many Hollywood films he has appeared in. He had supporting roles in 2008's Slumdog Millionaire, followed by appearances in The Amazing Spider-Man, Jurassic World, and the highly critically acclaimed drama Life of Pi.
An actor with an impressive box-office record of over $3.6 billion worldwide, he was one of the most respected actors in India and won several Best Actors awards throughout his career.
Clark Middleton - Snowpiercer (2013)
Although Clark Middleton never got the chance to play any lead roles in his career, his extremely prolific nature as an actor has resulted in a lot of famous movies and TV shows being attached to his name. Law & Order, Fringe, and The Blacklist are just some of the shows he has starred in.
On the Hollywood side of things, he had worked with many prestigious directors such as Bong Joon-ho's in Snowpiercer and Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill: Volume 2.
Olivia de Havilland - Gone With The Win (1939)
The mid-1900s era is generally referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood, and actress Olivia de Havilland was the last living star from that generation until her death in July of 2020 at the gracious age of 104.
The movie she is best known for is 1939's Gone with the Wind, which is not just considered an all-time classic but when adjusted for inflation, is the highest-grossing film in history with a record of $7.4 billion. Apart from that, she has can also be found in the adventure films Captain Blood and 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Ian Holm - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Like many of his generation, Ian Holm first came into popularity through his performance in many stage plays, such as The Homecoming and the live-adaptation of Shakespeare's play King Lear. He would later go on to play the antagonist in 1979's-fi Alien, followed by a supporting part in the historical-drama Chariots of Fire for which he won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
But the role he is arguably best known for is that of Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchise.
Hugh Keays-Byrne - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The film Mad Max: Fury Road is not just a fantastic post-apocalyptic movie, but is regarded as one of the best action-thrillers in modern-day cinema. Hugh Keays-Byrne's villain Immortan Joe is one of the many things that makes it so great.
But Fury Road wasn't the Australian actor's first time doing a Mad Max movie, as he actually debuted in the franchise as yet another villain named Toecutter in the first Mad Max in 1979.
Jeremy Bulloch - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
In some ways, 2020 was a great year for Star Wars fans in the form of the second season of The Mandalorian, which was met with huge praise from both critics and fans alike. But it was also a terrible year from a different perspective, as it brought the death of two iconic Star Wars actor's Jeremy Bulloch and David Prowse.
The former first appeared in the second film The Empire Strikes Back in the role of the legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett, and also in some of the earlier Doctor Who episodes.
Diana Rigg - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Although younger audiences will know her for her role as the fan-favorite Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, British actress Diana Rigg had been in the show business decades before GoT even came to exist. She first came to mass popularity due to the 1961 spy-thriller TV show The Avengers (completely unrelated to the MCU film) and for playing James Bond's wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Besides film and TV, in her heyday, she was a widely successful theatre actress as well and won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
David Prowse - Star Wars: A New Hope (1977 )
Similar to Jeremy Bulloch, all of David Prowse's screentime in the Star Wars movies is spent under a helmet. But when said helmet belongs to one of the greatest villains in cinematic history, it is necessary to give the actor his due credit for bringing the character to life.
Although Darth Vader's iconic voice was done by James Earl Jones, without David Prowse's physical portrayal it wouldn't be the same. His relationship with Lucasfilm was never great, but his legacy is not one Disney or whoever ends up owning the franchise in the future will be able to leave behind.
Chadwick Boseman - Black Panther (2018)
Nobody likes hearing the news of their favorite actor's death, even if the cause was something as natural as old age or an illness of some kind. But what really made the news of Chadwick Boseman's death so devastating was how it came out of nowhere.
Virtually no one, except some family members, knew about his four-year-long battle with colon cancer. And to think he starred in such fantastic films over the past few years like Black Panther and Infinity War while going through something like this really puts the movies under a different light.
Sean Connery - Dr. No (1962)
Daniel Craig might be the face of the James Bond character right now, but nothing will change the fact that Sean Connery was the very first actor to play him on the big screens. 1962's Dr. No was the first film in a series that would eventually grow up to be one of the biggest franchises in the world and Sean Connery's performance clearly played a part in its success.
Besides the seven Bond films, he has worked with famous directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and his other films include The Hunt for Red October and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.