Celebrity deaths in 2023: The musicians, actors and comedians we lost this year
From television and movie stars to musicians, directors and authors, the world has had to say a final farewell to a number of high-profile figures this year.
The early months of 2023 were marked by the loss of legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck and the only daughter of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley. Then came the tragic deaths of Euphoria’s Angus Cloud, Friends star Matthew Perry and the former Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan in the later months.
Here are some of those we mourned over the past 12 months.
JANUARY
Gangsta Boo
The pioneering rapper and former member of Memphis hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia died on New Year’s Day aged 43. Her cause of death was not disclosed.
Fred White
The former drummer of Earth, Wind & Fire died aged 67, his family announced on 2 January. Lenny Kravitz remembered the musician as a “true king”.
Earl Boen
The veteran character actor, best known for his role as criminal psychologist Dr Peter Silberman in The Terminator franchise, died on 5 January in Hawaii. He was 81.
Jeff Beck
The legendary rock guitarist, who played with the Yardbirds and fronted The Jeff Beck Group, died on 10 January at the age of 78 after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis”.
The English musician, whose fingers and thumbs were famously insured for £7m, was an eight-time Grammy winner.
Beck had recently completed a tour supporting 18, his album with actor and musician Johnny Depp.
Lisa Marie Presley
The only daughter of Elvis Presley died aged 54 on 12 January, just days after attending the Golden Globe Awards in support of Baz Luhrmann’s biopic about her father, Elvis.
Presley was rushed to hospital after suffering a reported cardiac arrest, though, her representatives refused to comment on her cause of death.
Gina Lollobrigida
The Italian film star, who was a high-profile figure in cinema throughout the 1950s and 1960s, died on 16 January in Rome aged 95.
She was often described as “the most beautiful woman in the world” and, before her death, was considered to be one of the last remaining stars from the Golden Age of cinema.
David Crosby
The founding member of the hugely popular Sixties groups, the Byrds and Crosby, as well as Crosby, Stills & Nash “after a long illness” on 19 January.
