Recent Deaths In Hollywood

Ellie Sheller

The entertainment industry has lost three big names in the span of a few days. First was Betty White, then Sidney Poitier, and now Bob Saget. These were huge, unexpected losses in the industry. Betty White died at 99 on December 31, 2021, just days before her 100th birthday. This Golden Girls’ iconic career in acting and comedy spanned over eight decades, and she made a huge impact for women in the industry being one of the first women working in front of and behind the camera. Betty passed due to natural causes at her home in Los Angeles.

Another iconic actor we have lost is Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier was an actor, who was in movies such as To Sir, with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night. Poitier made history in 1964 as the first Black man to ever win an Oscar, for his role in Lilies of the Field. Poitier was even given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former president, Barack Obama. Sidney Poitier was a huge inspiration to young Black actors everywhere, Morgan Freeman even said Poitier was his “inspiration.” In 2002 when Denzel Washington won best actor at the Oscar Awards, he paid tribute to Sidney saying, “I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney.” Poitier passed away at his home in Los Angeles on the evening of January 6th, 2022, at the age of 94. 

The most recent death was the iconic TV dad Danny Tanner, Bob Saget. Bob died January 9th, 2022 in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando. He was only 65, and the cause of death is still unknown. The night before his death Saget had performed a stand-up comedy set at the hotel, and was currently on a stand-up tour. He even posted on Twitter after the set, saying how he was addicted to doing stand-up again and was happy to be back. Many of his Full House co-stars, and other celebrities such as Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg have paid tribute to him via social media.