Helen Thomas was 92.  She was the first woman to join the White House Correspondents' Association, and the first woman to serve as its president. Her career covering the White House dated back to the Kennedy administration.

Cory Monteith was 31.  He played the character Finn Hudson on the hit TV series Glee.

Jean Stapleton was 90.  She was best known for her portrayal of Edith Bunker, the long-suffering, yet devoted wife of Archie Bunker and mother of Gloria Stivic, on the 1970s situation comedy All in the Family.

Henry Morgentaler was 90.  He was the family doctor who led the abortion movement in Canada.  He was one of the key players in the 1988 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that declared the law prohibiting abortion unconstitutional.

Ray Manzarek was 74.  He was a founding member and keyboardist of 1960s rock group The Doors.

Joyce Brothers was 85.  She was the pop psychologist who pioneered the television advice show in the 1950s and enjoyed a long and prolific career as a syndicated columnist, author, and television and film personality.

Peter Worthington was 86.  He was a journalist with the Toronto Telegram before becoming a founding editor of the Toronto Sun.

Greg Quill was 66.  He was an entertainment columnist and long-serving staff member of the Toronto Star.

Jeff Hanneman was 49.  He was a founding member of the American thrash metal band Slayer. He wrote the lyrics and music for Slayer's "Angel of Death" which was sampled by Public Enemy in their 1988 song "She Watch Channel Zero?!"

Chris Kelly was 34.  He was half of the 1990s kid rap duo Kris Kross who had hits with "Jump" and "Warm It Up".

George Jones was 81.  He was a country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette.

Allan Arbus was 95.  He was the actor most known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman on the television series MASH.

Richie Havens was 72.  He was a veteran folk singer and a star of the Woodstock festival and film.

Chrissy Amphlett was 53.  She was the lead singer of the rock band Divinyls  whose hit "I Touch Myself" brought her international fame in the early 1990s.

Rita MacNeil was 68.  She was the popular singer known as Cape Breton’s first lady of song.

Pat Summerall was 82.  He was the deep-voiced NFL player-turned-broadcaster who spent four decades calling sports, most notably the NFL with John Madden.

Frank Bank was 71.  He was the actor best known for his role as Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on Leave it to Beaver.

Jonathan Winters was 87.  He was the comedian who appeared in nearly 50 films and TV shows including Mork and Mindy where he played Mearth, Mork and Mindy's son.

Annette Funicello was 70.  She was a Mouseketeer at 12, a successful singer and actor as a teen and super popular as Frankie Avalon's co-star in a series of "Beach Party" movies in the mid-1960s. Everything I know about Annette Funicello I learned from "Back to the Beach", an under-rated

Margaret Thatcher was 87.  She was the first woman to become U.K. prime minister and Britain's only prime minister of the 20th century to win three consecutive terms.

Johnny Esaw was 87.  He was a pioneer of sports broadcasting in Canada, best known for his involvement with CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, CFL games, figure skating, golf, tennis, auto racing and international hockey.

Roger Ebert was 70.  He was the Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 45 years and for more than three decades the co-host of one of the most powerful programs in television history. I was always a very big fan.  Here's something I wrote about

Peter Kormos was 60.  He was the Ontario NDP MPP first elected to the legislature in 1988 who joined the NDP cabinet when the party came to power under Bob Rae in 1990.

Ralph Klein was 70.  He was Mayor of Calgary for nine years and then Premier of Alberta for fourteen, presiding over four consecutive majority governments.