Donna Summer was 63. She was the Queen of Disco, known for such hits as "Last Dance," "Love to Love You Baby," "I Feel Love," "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff."

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Vidal Sassoon was 84. He was a widely recognized British hairdresser, credited with creating a simple geometric, "Bauhaus-inspired" hair style, also called the bob.

I only know his name because of ads like this and couldn't be escaped in the 80s.

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Maurice Sendak was 83. He was the children's book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen."

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George Lindsey was 83. He spent nearly 30 years as the grinning Goober Pyle, Gomer's cousin, on "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Hee Haw."

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Adam "MCA" Yauch was 47. He co-founded the Beastie Boys in 1979 with Mike D, Mix Master Mike, and Ad-Rock.

I'm a big Beastie Boys fan. Paul's Boutique and Check Your Head rank among my favourite albums of all time.

Adam Yauch was a practising Buddhist, and because of that, everything I learned about Tibet I learned from the Beastie Boys. But aside from that awareness, the Beastie Boys were one of my five bands. I've been playing the shit out of them since Licensed to Ill.

I'm gong to spin Check Your Head again... MCA will be missed.

So what's your name, Yauch? My name is MCA
I've been coming to where I am from the get go
Find that I can groove with the beat when I let go
So put your worries on hold
Get up and groove with the rhythm in your soul
And now I'd like to pass the mic
To my brother Ad-Rock c'mon and shine like a light

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Junior Seau was 43. He was a 12-time Pro Bowler and 6-time First-Team All-Pro NFL linebacker, enjoying his best seasons with the San Diego Chargers.

Early reports indicate Junior Seau died from a self-inflicted gunshot. That's a damn shame, he was one of my favourites.

Update:

Junior Seau is the 8th member of the 1994 Chargers team that made the Super Bowl to have passed away. Here are the 8 along with the causes of their deaths:

• Junior Seau - suicide
• Lew Bush - heart attack
• Rodney Culver - plane crash
• Dave Griggs - car accident
• Doug Miller - stuck by lightning
• Shawn Lee - heart attack
• Chris Mims - enlarged heart
• Curtis Whitley - drug overdose

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Levon Helm was 71. He was a singer and drummer for the Band, singing such classics as "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Up on Cripple Creek," "Rag Mama Rag," and "The Weight".

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Dick Clark was 82. He was the music industry maverick, longtime TV host and powerhouse producer who changed the way we listened to pop music with American Bandstand, and whose trademark Rockin' Eve became a fixture of New Year's celebrations.

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Randy Starkman was 51. He covered premier amateur athletics for the Toronto Star, exposing sprinter Ben Johnson’s second positive steroid test in 1993, and covering 12 Olympic Games.

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Mike Wallace was 93. He was the grand inquisitor of CBS’s 60 Minutes who once declared there was “no such thing as an indiscreet question.”

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