Latest in Obituaries

The TV communications ranks have lost a beloved longtime member: Robert Pietranton, most recently SVP Publicity & Communications for the Warner Bros. Television Group, died suddenly Nov. 19 at his Los Angeles home. He was 56. Friends and colleagues are still in shock and disbelief as…

Gary “Mani” Mounfield, bassist for influential British band The Stone Roses who later joined Primal Scream, has died. He was 63. His brother Greg Mounfield announced the news on social media but did not provide a cause or date of death. “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce…

Canadian actor Spencer Lofranco, known best for his starring roles in the films Gotti and Jamesy Boys, died Tuesday, his brother Santino Lofranco revealed on Instagram. He was 33. Lofranco’s death is currently under investigation in British Columbia, Canada, where he passed, according to TMZ…

Alice and Ellen Kessler, the German performers known as the Kessler Twins, died together Monday in an assisted suicide in Germany. They were 89. Born on August 20, 1936, in Nazi Germany, the identical twins rose to international stardom in the 1950s and 1960s as dynamic dancers, singers and…

The cause of death has been revealed for Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actress Diane Ladd. According to a death certificate obtained by People, Ladd died as a result of acute on chronic hypoxic respiratory failure, a condition where the lungs cannot provide enough oxygen to the blood. The…

Mexican filmmaker Pancho Rodríguez has died at the age of 50.  Rodríguez's death was confirmed over the weekend by the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the Guadalajara Directorate of Culture, both of which released statements honoring the late filmmaker.  Rodríguez was a veteran…

Elizabeth Franz, the Tony-winning and Emmy-nominated Death of a Salesman actress whose performance was lauded by the seminal playwright Arthur Miller himself, has died at the age of 84. She died November 4 at her home in Woodbury, CT, as a result of cancer and a severe reaction to her treatment…

UPDATED with official cause of death: Todd Snider, the singer-songwriter known for music like “Alright Guy” and “Late Last Night,” died November 14 of pneumonia. He was 59. His record company Aimless, Inc. announced Snider death, after previously sharing that he had “trouble breathing” due to a…

Dan McGrath, an Emmy-winning comedy writer best known for his credits on animated classics ranging from the inimitable (The Simpsons) to the cult favorite (Mission Hill), died November 14. He was 61. Born on July 20, 1964, in Brooklyn, McGrath graduated from Regis High School and Harvard…

A cause of death has been determined for Jimmy Kimmel Live! musical director Cleto Escobedo III after he died Tuesday at age 59. The late-night talk show’s longtime bandleader died of cardiogenic shock, according to his death certificate, limiting the heart’s ability to pump enough blood to…

John Beam, the Laney College athletic director featured on Netflix's Last Chance U, has died after being shot on campus, Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell announced Friday. The announcement of Beam’s death Friday comes one day following the shooting. A suspect has been arrested. "This…

Mary Cybulski, a veteran script supervisor who worked on Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and The Ice Storm and many other films and also served as a set photographer for several top directors, died November 8 of glioblastoma multiforme. She was 70. Along with Lee’s films, Cybulski was a script supervisor…