Mike Barnes | Hollywood Reporter Bill Cobbs, the convincing character actor who had pivotal turns in such films as The Hudsucker Proxy, Sunshine State and Night at the Museum, has died. He was 90. Cobbs died Tuesday night of natural causes at his home in Riverside,...
By Erik Pedersen, Greg Evans | Deadline O.J. Simpson, the college and NFL football legend, Hollywood actor, broadcaster and pitchman, died Wednesday of cancer, his family has announced. He was 76. “On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his...
by Carmel Dagan | Variety Louis Gossett Jr., who won a supporting actor Oscar for playing the hard-as-nails drill instructor in 1982’s “An Officer and a Gentleman” a few years after winning an Emmy for his role as the cunning Fiddler in “Roots,” died early Friday...
By Jem Aswad | Variety Les McCann, the legendary jazz pianist who has been sampled countless times and is perhaps best known for the protest song “Compared to What,” died Friday at a Los Angeles area hospital, his manager confirmed. No cause of death was announced,...
By Pat Saperstein | Variety Maurice Hines, an actor, dancer and choreographer who starred with his brother Gregory Hines in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club,” died Friday. He was 80. Friends including Debbie Allen and John Manzari reported the news of his...
By Jake Kanter | Deadline Mbongeni Ngema, the South African creator of Whoopi Goldberg film Sarafina!, has died in a car accident. He was aged 68. Ngema’s family announced his death in a statement, revealing that he was killed in a head-on collision December 27 while...
By Armando Tinoco | Deadline Bobby Rivers, an entertainment reporter and television personality on the Food Network and VH1, has died. He was 70. ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, WISN 12, shared the news about Rivers. The on-air host joined the station in 1979...
By Agency News Desk | GlamSham Actor Andre Braugher, who is known for his roles in ‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ and ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ has passed away at the age of 61 after a recent illness. Andre played Frank Pemberton in ‘Homicide’, earning his first Emmy win...
By Bruce Haring | Deadline David McKnight, whose film resume included starring as the lead in the blaxploitation horror movie J.D.’s Revenge, as well as Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle and The Five Heartbeats, died Sunday at age 87. McKnight passed from cancer in...
By Jesse Whittock | Deadline Celebrated British poet Benjamin Zephaniah died today, eight weeks after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was 65. His death was confirmed in a post on his Instagram account. The poet, who was also an actor in BBC drama Peaky...
By Bruce Haring | Deadline Ellen Holly, the first Black person to star in a soap opera with her lead role on One Life to Live, died Wednesday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 92 and died in her sleep. Her first roles on television included appearances...
By Bruce Haring | Deadline Charles Officer, known as one of the leaders in Black Canadian independent film, has died. He was 49 and succumbed at his home in Toronto Friday from complications from a heart attack. Officer had been battling what’s been described as a...