Actors Who Died In 2025 And No One Noticed

Probably because it's their job to portray interesting characters in memorable and award-winning films and television shows, actors, in a way, are immortal. For as long as their blockbuster movies and long-running TV programs continue to attract appreciative viewers, their faces and voices will live on, potentially forever, as content on a screen. But while people are on the whole living longer, everyone really and truly does die eventually, and that includes the actors who populated the last five or so decades' worth of entertainment.

There are just so many big-name stars, with more and more added to the collective cultural consciousness every year. So many, in fact, that when a celebrity who has dropped out of the public eye following a long period of tremendous fame and acclaim, their very notable deaths might fall through the proverbial cracks of the news media and become overlooked. Of all the actors who have died so far in 2025, here are some of the most consequential — and ones you might not have even heard about.

Truly an icon of classic television, Richard Chamberlain made television history over and over again. The daring 1961 to 1966 medical drama "Dr. Kildare" explored serious social issues not previously discussed on American TV, and Chamberlain starred as the titular young and striving medical intern. After a foray into film, where he brought his natural gravitas to literary and royal roles, Chamberlain returned to TV and became the dominant actor in a newfound style of programming called the miniseries. Chamberlain headlined some of the most-watched limited-run epics of all time, including "Centennial" in 1978, "Shogun" in 1980, and "The Thorn Birds" in 1983. After stints in other miniseries like "Dream West," "The Bourne Identity," "Island Son" in the 1980s, Chamberlain popped up for big cameos on shows like "Will and Grace," Chuck," "Desperate Housewives," and the "Twin Peaks" revival.

Chamberlain sustained a stroke, and on March 29, 2025, he died in Hawaii from complications of that medical event. The actor was 90 years old.

Seemingly up for any role and always successfully rising to the challenge, Wings Hauser was a quintessential character actor, amassing well over 100 credits on a resume built with a recognizable face and style. Hauser disappeared into his roles, which often included tough and intimidating characters, such as a drug dealer in the Richard Pryor film "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling," a menacing Lieutenant in "A Soldier's Story," and a violent pimp in "Vice Squad." (Hauser also crooned that film's theme song.) "Tough Guys Don't Dance" led to a Best Supporting Male nomination for Hauser at the 1988 Independent Spirit Awards, by which point he was moving into regular television work. He appeared as a bounty hunter on "Beverly Hills, 90210," a neighbor on "Roseanne," and a military officer on "China Beach."

The actor's professional partner and wife, Cali Lili Hauser, told Variety on March 20, 2025, that Wings Hauser had died five days earlier in Los Angeles, with natural causes ending his life at the age of 78.

"M*A*S*H" is among the most-watched and most-awarded sitcoms of ever, and Loretta Swit was a crucial figure in its success, evolution, and extremely long 11-year run. Based on a movie that was based on a book, "M*A*S*H" the show featured Swit in the role of Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan, a constantly harassed nurse in a Korean War U.S. Army medical unit. Swit is credited with consciously expanding and enriching the character to reflect modern feminist ideals, and Hot Lips became more commonly known as Margaret. The role won Swit two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, in 1980 and 1982. Swit was also the original Christine Cagney on the police drama "Cagney and Lacey," taking the role in the pilot movie, but when the series was picked up, her commitment to "M*A*S*H" necessitated a replacement.

In the early morning hours of May 30, 2025, Swit died at home in New York City. While the local coroner's office will prepare a report, it's believed that Swit died of natural causes. She was 87 years old.

He'd settle into a career portraying world-weary detectives, scary villains, and other complicated men as a supporting actor, Joe Don Baker was, for a little while in the 1970s, one of the biggest movie stars in the United States. In 1973, he thrilled audiences in the action movie "Walking Tall" as Buford Pusser, a wrestler who cleans up crime in his Tennessee hometown with a baseball bat and a violent streak. The low-budget indie film earned $40 million and exemplified the vigilante movie mini-craze of the era. After similar roles and movies, Baker joined the James Bond franchise, portraying an evil adversary of 007 in "The Living Daylights" and then the agent's ally, CIA agent Jack Wade, in "GoldenEye" and "Tomorrow Never Dies." He's also highly recognizable for playing a crooked cop in the '80s classic "Fletch," a private investigator in "Cape Fear," and a shotgun-toting alien fighter in "Mars Attacks!"

Per an obituary published on May 13, 2025, Baker died six days earlier. No cause of death was provided by Baker's family; the actor was 89 years old.

Nicky Katt's long and varied acting career began in 1980, when as a child and teenager he booked single episodes of small-screen fare of the time like "Fantasy Island," "CHiPs," and "The Facts of Life," as well as featured roles in movies like "Gremlins" and "The 'Burbs." He'd establish himself as an adult performer in memorable fashion in 1993's "Dazed and Confused." In Richard Linklater's '70s-set high school comedy, Katt portrayed the short-fused Clint, looking for and finding a fight with an unsteady nerd. That intensity would characterize Katt's future performances, which included roles in "School of Rock," "Boiler Room," "Sin City," and "The Brave One," and 49 episodes of the Fox school drama "Boston Public" as nontraditional teacher Harry Senate. Katt hadn't appeared on-screen since 2018.

On April 8, 2025, the body of the 54-year-old actor was discovered in his apartment in Burbank, California. Police determined that Katt died by suicide.

The wild history of the Summer of Love informed and defined a lot of pop culture of the 1960s, dominated by the youth-oriented hippie counterculture. That vibe hit primetime in the form of the fast-paced, psychedelic variety show, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In." Among the cast of zany performers delivering rapid one-liners, arch catchphrases, and sketch comedy was Ruth Buzzi. From 1968 to 1973, Buzzi played a lot of characters, none more popular than Gladys, a buttoned-up and repressed type offended by a great many things, most often a randy old man (played by castmate Arte Johnson) with whom she'd beat with her handbag. Buzzi's comedy was broad and physical, and she often utilized silly voices and slapstick to garner laughs. After "Laugh-In," she was a regular in Disney live-action movies, taking roles in "Freaky Friday" and "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again."

Buzzi was diagnosed with Alzheimer's several years ago, and after living in a hospice care facility in Texas, she died in her sleep on May 1, 2025. Buzzi was 88.

When network TV started to get off-beat and more interesting in the early 1990s, Valerie Mahaffey benefited from the broad artistic shift. Previously best known for a Daytime Emmy-nominated stint on the soap "The Doctors," Mahaffey graced the rural Alaska-set dramedy "Northern Exposure" as Eve, an anxious germaphobe caught up in a contentious relationship with a bitter doctor. The part won Mahaffey an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. 

Concurrently and just after that breakthrough role, Mahaffey starred on the short-lived political satire sitcoms "The Powers That Be" and "Women of the House." More recently, she showed up in recurring roles on "Desperate Housewives," "Glee," "Devious Maids," "Dead to Me," and "Young Sheldon," where she played the title character's beleaguered teacher. Her last major movie role, in 2020's "French Exit," resulted in an Independent Spirit Award nomination. A few weeks before she would have turned 72 years old, Mahaffey died of cancer on May 30, 2025.

Hitting newspapers in 1951, "Dennis the Menace" concerned an unabashedly mischievous child named Dennis Mitchell who daily filled his neighbors and parents with ire. That had a lot of sitcom potential, and when CBS made the "Dennis the Menace" TV show in 1959, 8-year-old child star Jay North won the eponymous role. After four years as Dennis, North bopped around episodic television, starring on the short-lived adventure show "Maya" before moving into voice acting in the 1970s. North portrayed Prince Turhan on "The Banana Splits Adventure Hour" and teenage Bamm-Bamm Rubble on various spinoffs of "The Flintstones." He then semi-retired from acting, performing only cameos as himself from the late 1980s onward, focusing instead on military service and working as a corrections officer.

North tragically joined the list of once-famous child stars who passed away. He had been privately diagnosed with cancer, and on April 6, 2025, he died at home at the age of 73.

After coming up in Chicago's Second City comedy theatrical program, George Wendt worked consistently in film and television from the late 1970s until the mid-2020s. And while he was a frequent guest on "Saturday Night Live" and starred in a string of broadcast sitcoms like "The Naked Truth" and "The George Wendt Show," he'll always be most remembered for one role. "Norm!" the other denizens of Cheers, the bar, would shout upon his grand arrival on hundreds of episodes spanning from 1982 to 1993 of "Cheers." On the sitcom, Wendt played the affable beer-loving, wife-avoiding, barfly accountant Norm Peterson. The regular role on the mega-hit garnered the actor six consecutive nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Sometime in the early morning hours of May 20, 2025, Wendt died in his sleep and was discovered by his wife, Bernadette Birket. While the death was sudden and unexpected, Wendt had experienced several health issues for an extended period of time, including congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, hypertension, and end-stage renal disease. Those problems contributed to a fatal cardiac arrest. Wendt was 76.

Trained in the crackling Groundlings comedy theater in the early 1980s, Lynne Marie Stewart went on to play fan favorite roles in two enduring classic comedy TV series. Stewart starred opposite Paul Reubens as his titular frenetic man-child as the elegant and mystifying Miss Yvonne, "the most beautiful woman in Puppetland" on the Saturday morning hit "Pee-wee's Playhouse," reprising the role she originated in the theatrical "The Pee-wee Herman Show." While Stewart appeared in more than 150 films and TV series, including "American Graffiti," "Bridesmaids," and "Clear and Present Danger," she's probably best known for Miss Yvonne and Bonnie Kelly, a.k.a. Charlie Kelly's put-upon mother on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

Just weeks after completing filming on the comedy movie "The Dink," Stewart died at the home of her sister on February 21, 2025. One of many "Pee-wee's Playhouse" actors who sadly passed away, Stewart had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and she was 78 years old.

Before Adult Swim became a Cartoon Network offshoot and repository for weird and experimental animated and short-form series, the template was largely established in the 1990s by "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" and "Cartoon Planet." The former was a talk show in which the mostly forgotten Hanna Barbera sci-fi superhero from 1960s shorts interviewed real celebrities, often trolling both celebrities and viewers. The latter was a daytime sketch comedy and musical program. George Lowe brought new life to Space Ghost on both programs, giving the character unearned confidence and a sense for the sublimely ridiculous. Lowe took his distinctive and expressive voice to other cartoons on and off Adult Swim, such as "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," "Robot Chicken," "The Brak Show," "Squidbillies," and "American Dad!"

After undergoing surgery for a minor heart ailment in November 2024, Lowe suffered from complications. Unable to recover in the months that followed, on March 2, 2025, Lowe succumbed to those after-effects and died at the age of 67.

The small group of initial members of the U.K.'s illustrious National Theatre, formed in the early 1960s by Sir Laurence Olivier, would number among the greatest and most praised British actors of the 20th century. Alongside Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, and Michael Gambon stood Dame Joan Plowright. Working to bring realism and relatability to the modern theater, Plowright made inroads into film at the same time. In 1960, she received a BAFTA nomination for her work in the movie "The Entertainer" and won a Tony Award for her Broadway play "A Taste of Honey." At the 1993 Golden Globe Awards, Plowright took home two prizes: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a movie for "Enchanted April," and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role on television for "Stalin." In the former, a literary adaptation, Plowright portrayed the proper and prickly Mrs. Fisher, a role which also landed the actor an Academy Award nomination.

After losing her vision about a decade ago, Plowright was declared legally blind and retired to her home in Sussex, England. On January 16, 2025, the esteemed actor died at Denville Hall, a facility for older theatrical workers, at the age of 95.

Character actor Biff Wiff played a lot of creeps, kooks, and eccentrics in a career that stretched back more than 40 years. Often showing up for just an episode or two, he could be spotted in everything from "Moonlighting" to "Night Court" to "Reba" to "iCarly." In what would be the last years of his life, Wiff was discovered by influential comedy creators who made good use of his unique skills. He played himself on an episode of Lil Dicky's "Dave," appeared on two installments of the staged documentary "Jury Duty," and was the breakout star of the cult sketch comedy classic "I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson." Adding new wrinkles to the untold truth of Santa Claus, Wiff gave a bravura performance as the mythical Christmas character who shifts into starring in ultra-violent action movies but who vehemently refuses to discuss his past.

In early 2023, Wiff was diagnosed with cancer, and his friends launched a crowdfunding drive to pay for his treatments. Just under two years later, Wiff died from complications of the disease. He was 76 years old.

For the first years of his professional life, Bob Uecker was primarily associated with baseball. While he made it to the Major League Level, he objectively wasn't very good — he was a lifetime .200 hitter with 74 runs batted in over six years in the 1960s. Uecker's colorful and self-deprecating musings about his lack of prowess in the game he adored led to a career in sports media. He served as the Milwaukee Brewers' radio play-by-play announcer for 54 well-received seasons, and in the 1980s, he moved into acting. His persona drove a series of Miller Lite ads, and then he took on the role of befuddled dad George Owens for the five-season sitcom "Mr. Belvedere." Uecker then imitated himself at his day job, portraying baseball announcer Harry Doyle in all three "Major League" movies.

Less than two years after receiving a cancer diagnosis not disclosed to the public, Uecker died on January 16, 2025, 10 days shy of his 91st birthday, at his home outside of Milwaukee in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

In his two most famous roles, on two of television's most popular comedies, Jonathan Joss provided a particular layer of humor and commentary. Joss's characters, Native American like the actor, gave deadpan, disappointed, and quietly seething reactions to the oblivious, ridiculous, and insensitive words and actions of white people. Across more than 30 episodes of the animated "King of the Hill," Joss voiced hard rocker and healer John Redcorn, and on five episodes of "Parks and Recreation," he played Pawnee, Indiana, Native American leader Chief Ken Hotate. Joss also racked up dozens of other credits, mostly supporting roles in TV series like "Tulsa King," "Ray Donovan," and "Comanche Moon."

The actor's death was senseless, because Joss died after a dispute with a neighbor in San Antonio. On June 1, 2025, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez shot and killed Joss. Alvarez was charged with first-degree murder, although he claimed self-defense in the violent act that was investigated as a hate crime, with the killing potentially linked to Joss's self-identification as a member of the LGBT community. Jonathan Joss was 59 years old.