Françoise Hardy Dies: French Singer & ‘Grand Prix’ Actor Was 80

Kinky Friedman — the Texas-raised musician, writer, satirist, dog lover, gubernatorial candidate and overall provocateur — died after a battle with Parkinson’s on Thursday at his Echo Hill Ranch in TX, according to a post on his X account. He was 79.

Bill Cobbs, a prolific film and TV actor with memorable performances in Night At The Museum, Brother From Another Planet, Oz The Great And Powerful, The Sopranos and dozens of others, died Tuesday, June 25, at his home in Riverside, California. He was 90.

Jonathan Morano, a Peabody Award-winning writer of CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, died peacefully June 20 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles following a 15-month battle with Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor. He was 56.

Russell Morash, who created long-running WGBH series This Old House and was a frequent Julia Child collaborator, has died.

Pirates of the Caribbean actor Tamayo Perry has died after a shark attack while surfing in Hawaii.

Sarah Becker, best known for appearing in MTV‘s The Real World Season 5, has died. She was 52.

While making Jeff Nichols‘ new biker epic, one actor never quite made it past his training wheels.

Taylor Wily, the sumo wrestler-turned-Hawaii Five-0 actor, died Thursday, June 20, according to local Hawaii TV outlet KITV. He was 56.

Nancy MacKenzie, a voice actress best known for dubbing Marge Simpson on The Simpsons to Spanish for Latin American audiences, has died. She was 81.

EXCLUSIVE: Israeli romcom drama series The Baker and the Beauty is being remade for France’s TF1, with French singer-songwriter Amir Haddad playing the lead in his debut TV role.

Kevin Brophy, whose credits include the TV series Lucan and films Hell Night and The Long Riders, died on May 11 at the age of 70, according to an online obituary. He had stage 4 cancer for ten years before succumbing at the family home in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Hiram Kasten, a comedian/actor who was part of the New York comedy club scene in the 1970s and 1980s, died today at his home in Batavia, New York at age 71.

Jeremy Tepper, who helped grow so-called “outlaw” country music into an industry force, died Friday night of a heart attack in Jackson Heights, New York. He was 60.

Tony Mordente, who made his mark on Broadway as a dancer and choreographer, played the hot-headed Jet named Action in the 1961 film West Side Story and later segued into a long and busy career as a director of such TV series as Family Ties, Walker Texas Ranger and 7th Heaven, died June 12 in Henderson, Nevada, following a brief illness. He was 88.

Blur have paid tribute to their former collaborator Françoise Hardy, who has died at the age of 80.The French singer-songwriter, actor and model’s death was confirmed by her son Thomas Dutronc on Tuesday (June 11).A cause of death has yet to be disclosed. However, Hardy shared in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2018 following a lymphoma diagnosis in 2004, and said she felt “close to the end” of her life.Hardy worked with Blur in 1995 on a reworked version of the band’s single ‘To The End’ – the original of which appeared on their third studio album, 1994’s ‘Parklife’.The team-up ultimately became a duet, ‘To the End (La Comedie)’, and it was subsequently serviced as a single in France.

A post shared by Thomas Dutronc (@thomas.dutronc)While a cause of death has yet to be confirmed, Hardy revealed in June 2021 that she had been diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2018, following a lymphoma diagnosis in 2004, and said she felt “close to the end” of her life.As a musician, François Hardy broke out with the 1962 hit ‘Tous les garçons et les filles’, which topped the singles charts in her homeland of Paris and several other countries. The following year, she clinched her second hit ‘C’est à l’amour auquel je pense’.Besides French, Hardy also performed in English, German and Italian.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Françoise Hardy, a French singer, actor and model whose classical beauty and often melancholy music combined to transfix fans internationally in the 1960s and beyond, has died at age 80. Her son, Thomas Dutronc, also a musician, reported the death on his Instagram account, posting a baby photo of himself with his mother and writing: “Maman est partie.” Or, mom is gone.

Doris Biscoe, a pioneer for African American women TV journalists, died Friday at age 77. No cause or location was given by WXYZ, which first reported her death.

Robert Downey Jr.‘s casting as Iron Man was one of Marvel‘s first strokes of genius and laid the groundwork for the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that we have come to know and love.

Erich Anderson, a prolific television actor perhaps best known for his portrayal on Felicity as the title character’s father, died of cancer May 31 in Los Angeles. He was 67.