Celebs We Said ‘Goodbye’ To In 2009

By Heather Huntington on December 31st, 2009

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Let’s pay tribute to a few of those we loved who left us in 2009.

1. Brittany Murphy

Cause: Heart attack.
Best known for: Roles in films like Clueless and Girl, Interrupted.

2. Patrick Swayze

Cause: Pancreatic cancer.
Best known for: Dancing his way into our hearts as Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing.

3. DJ AM (aka Adam Goldstein)

Cause: Drug overdose.
Best known for: Being a Nicole Ritchie-dating DJ who also survived a plane crash with Blink 182’s Travis Barker.

4. Ted Kennedy

Cause: Brain cancer.
Best known for: Surviving the Kennedy Curse and political fallout from the Chappaquiddick incident to become the Liberal Lion of the Senate.

5. John Hughes

Cause: Heart attack.
Best known for: Nearly every brat pack/teen movie that defined the ’80s–Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, etc. etc. etc.

6. Walter Cronkite

Cause: Undisclosed illness, possibly cerebrovascular disease.
Best known for: Reporting as America’s best known news anchor on everything, including Watergate, Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War and the moon landing.

7. Billy Mays

Cause: Heart disease.
Best known for: Wearing button downs, his dark beard, and enthusiastically hawking goods like OxiClean on cable.

8. Michael Jackson

Cause: Drug-induced heart attack.
Best known for: Being the glove-wearing, moondancing King of Pop, singing as a child in The Jackson 5 and then as the biggest solo act the world has ever seen during the Thriller years, as well as weathering personal storms over his finances and accusations of child molestation.

9. Farrah Fawcett

Cause: Anal cancer.
Best known for: Being the sexiest of Charlie’s Angels and smiling in a bathing suit on the sexy poster that adorned virtually every teenage boy’s wall in the nation.

10. Ed McMahon

Cause: Pneumonia.
Best known for: Yelling “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” on The Tonight Show and then giving away money as the face of Publisher’s Clearing House.

11. David Carradine

Cause: Auto-erotic asphyxiation.
Best known for: Being an ass-kicking white martial artist, most recently in Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2.

12. Bea Arthur

Cause: Cancer.
Best known for: A dry, snappy comeback delivered with a voice as low as she was tall and stately, namely on Maude and then The Golden Girls.

13. Natasha Richardson

Cause: Skiing-related head injury.
Best known for: Acting in movies like The Handmaid’s Tale and The Parent Trap remake, reviving the role of Sally Bowles in Caberet on Broadway, being a Redgrave and marrying Liam Neeson.

14. Eartha Kitt

Cause: Colon cancer.
Best known for: Her sexy purr that she used when singing Santa Baby and starring as Catwoman in the original Batman series on TV.