Les Paul was 94.  He helped revolutionize popular music with his innovations on the guitar and in the recording studio.  He is credited with developing one of the first solid-body electric guitars, which went on sale in 1952 and contributed to the birth of rock.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was 88. She was the sister of President Kennedy and a champion of the disabled who founded the Special Olympics.

Mike Seeger was 75. He was a leading figure in the 20th century resurgence of American traditional music and a noted field collector of rural southern music. You might know his brother Pete.  Here's Mike Seeger performing "Walking Boss" in the Smithsonian Folkways Studio.

John Hughes was 59. He was the director of iconic coming-of-age movies "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." If you're around my age, you really did come of age watching his flicks.  Seriously, he was the guy in the 1980s.  Here are my favourite John Hughes

Corazon Aquino was 76. She was the former Philippines president who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years.

Mark Leduc was 47. He was the Canadian boxer who earned a silver medal in the 139-lb light welterweight class at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and was one of the few athletes in his sport to come out as a homosexual.

Frank McCourt was 78. He's the Pulitzer Prize-winning author best known as the author of Angela's Ashes.

Walter Cronkite was 92. He covered the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, the moon landing, the Vietnam war and Watergate. He was an icon in broadcast journalism "and that's the way it is".

Arturo "Thunder" Gatti was 37. He was a former junior welterweight boxing champion from Montreal.

Steve "Air" McNair was 36. He quarterbacked the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens to success in the National Football League, winning the NFL MVP award in 2003 and starting Super Bowl XXXIV. I really liked Air McNair's game.  He, of course, was the Titans QB during the Music City Miracle

Karl Malden was 97. He starred in the 1970s TV series "The Streets of San Francisco", won an Oscar playing his Broadway-originated role as Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire," and made famous the American Express catchphrase "Don't leave home without it."

Billy Mays was 50. He was the burly, bearded television pitchman known for his boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean. When I read that Billy Mays had passed away, I asked myself a simple question.  Who's Billy Mays?  I hit up YouTube and didn't recognize his

I loved the Thriller album.  We had that on vinyl and cassette, and I eventually had to get a second cassette because it got played so often.  Thriller was one of my first favourite albums.  To this day I'll put on "Billie Jean" or "Human Nature", the two tracks from

Farrah Fawcett was 62. Her luxurious tresses and blinding smile helped redefine sex appeal in the 1970s as one of TV’s "Charlie’s Angels." Let's face it, in 50 years we'll have forgotten she was one of Charlie's Angels and she'll only be remembered for her iconic “red swimsuit”

Romeo LeBlanc was 81. He was a longtime Liberal MP, cabinet minister and then senator before being named Canada's 25th Governor General.

Billy Red Lyons was 77. He was the Canadian wrestling personality who promoted WWF live events throughout Canada from the mid-1980s through early 1990s, with the phrase “don’tcha dare miss it” becoming a signature ending to his promos. I can't tell you how many times I heard him say

Ed McMahon was 86. He was the longtime pitchman and Johnny Carson sidekick whose "Heeeeeeerre's Johnny!" became a part of the vernacular. Without Ed McMahon's "HIYOOOOOOO!", there would be no Hank Kingsley's "Hey now!".  For inspiring one of my favourite television characters, I am eternally grateful.

Allan King was 79. He was the acclaimed Canadian documentarian who took viewers on a harrowing journey into a home for troubled children in "Warrendale" and trained his unflinching lens on a crumbling marriage in "A Married Couple." I record The View From Here, a fantastic documentary series that airs

David Carradine was 72. He was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, which spawned sequels in the '80s and '90s, but I knew him best as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films.

Koko Taylor was 80. She was the Grammy-winning blues singer known as the "Queen of the Blues" who belted out her signature hit, "Wang Dang Doodle," at hundreds of concerts.

Chuck Daly was 78. He coached the original Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons.

Dom DiMaggio was 92. He was the bespectacled Boston Red Sox center fielder whose career was overshadowed by his older brother Joe's Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees.  He was a seven-time All Star who still holds the record for the longest consecutive game hitting streak in

Dom DeLuise was 75. He starred in such comedies as "The Cannonball Run" and "Blazing Saddles" and was the voice of Pizza the Hutt in "Spaceballs". Here's Dom DeLuise and Burt Reynolds as the voices of Itchy and Charlie in "All Dogs Go To Heaven", a movie that makes my