Celebs we lost in 2009

Michael Jackson: King of pop Michael Jackson was pronounced dead on June 25, 2009 after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion in Los Angeles. He was 50. His death triggered an outpouring of grief from around the world. Michael was at that time preparing for This Is It concert.

Michael Jackson's memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Hall of Liberty. Jackson's casket was present during the memorial but no information was released about the final disposition of the body.

Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Jermaine Jackson, and Shaheen Jafargholi performed at the event. Jackson's 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, cried as she told the crowd, "Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ... I just wanted to say I love him ... so much."

Brittany Murphy: The actress who got her start in the sleeper hit Clueless and rose to stardom in 8 Mile before her movie roles declined in recent years, died in Los Angeles on December 20, 2009 of what appeared to be natural causes. She was 32.

Born November 10, 1977, in Atlanta, Murphy grew up in New Jersey and later moved with her mother to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

Her career started in the early 1990s with small roles in television series, commercials and movies. She is best known for parts in Girl, Interrupted, Clueless and 8 Mile.

Her on-screen work had lessened of late, but Murphy's voice gave life to numerous animated characters, including Luanne Platter on more than 200 episodes of Fox's King of the Hill and Gloria the penguin in the 2006 feature Happy Feet.

She is due to appear in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming film, The Expendables, set for release next year. Murphy credited her mother, Sharon, with being a key to her success. (Photo/Text: AP)

Patrick Swayze: Patrick Swayze, the handsome actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with Dirty Dancing and then with Ghost, died on September 14, 2009 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57. Swayze, who was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991 was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in January 2008.

Swayze was seriously injured in 1998 while filming Letters from a Killer near Ione, California when he fell from a horse and hit a tree. Both of his legs were broken and he suffered four detached tendons in his shoulder. Filming was suspended for two months, but the film aired in 1999. Swayze recovered from his injuries, but he had trouble resuming his career until 2000.

His last role was the lead in The Beast, which premiered on January 15, 2009. Due to a prolonged decline in health, Swayze was unable to promote the series.

Stephen Gately: Stephen Gately, one of the lead singers of the pop group Boyzone, died on October 10 2009. The Irish pop singer, songwriter and actor, had a record-breaking sixteen consecutive singles enter the top five of the UK Singles Chart.

Gately even released a successful solo album in 2000, after the group's initial breakup, which charted in the UK top ten and yielded three UK hit singles, including the top three hit New Beginning.

Gately went on to appear variously in successful stage productions and on television programmes as well as contributing further tracks to various projects. In 2008, he rejoined his colleagues as Boyzone reformed for a series of concerts and recordings.

Gately wed Andrew Cowles, first in a commitment ceremony in Las Vegas in 2003 and more formally in a civil partnership ceremony in London in 2006. He made his sexuality known in 1999 and came out in a blaze of publicity. He was the first ever boyband member to do so.

Upon Boyzone's reformation, Gately featured as part of the first gay couple in a boyband's music video in what was to be his last music video with the band, for the song Better.

The singer was discovered dead at an apartment he owned with Cowles in Majorca, Spain. (Text: Wikipedia)

Feroz Khan: Feroz Khan better known as the "Clint Eastwood of the East" was famous for his flamboyant style. Famous for his style quotient, Feroz Khan in a way revolutionaised the conventional Bollywood hero.

He appeared in over 50 films in the 1970s and 1980s, and became one of India's best-loved heroes with his role in the 1980 hit film Qurbani, which he also directed. Khan followed this multi-disciplinary achievement by directing more successful films like Dayavan (1988) and Janbaaz (1986). He was honoured with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

Though he was not considered a superstar, Feroz Khan was always ahead of his time in terms of his unmatchable style, which reflected in his movies and music.

The actor was suffering from cancer and died on April 27, 2009.(Text: Wikipedia)

Bina Rai: Bina Rai is known for her roles in classics like Anarkali (1953) and Taj Mahal (1963).

Bina Rai was in her first year of college when she came across an advertisement for a talent contest, she applied and received a call from the sponsors. Although she had been an active in college dramatics, a film career was never within her field of vision.

Nevertheless she went Bombay, to participate in the contest where she won along with the 25,000 rupees in prize money a leading role in Kishore Sahu's Kali Ghata (1951).

In the 1950s she married actor Prem Nath, who being the brother-in-law of the actor-director Raj Kapoor. The first movie in which the duo were paired opposite each other was Aurat (1953). The film was not a hit, but Bina Rai and Prem Nath fell in love with each other. They married and soon set up their own production unit, known as P.N. Films. Their first film from P.N. Films was Shagufa (1954) and they had pinned high hopes on it, but audiences rejected it.

Bina Rai stopped acting in films many years ago, claiming that women of a certain age don't get good roles. She died of cardiac arrest on December 6, 2009. (Text: Wikipedia)

Simple Kapadia: Dimple Kapadia's younger sister Simple Kapadia was a Bollywood actress and costume designer.

She began her career when she was 18 years old. She made her acting debut in 1977 in the film Anurodh, paired opposite her real-life brother-in-law, actor Rajesh Khanna. The film's director Shakti Samanta said that although the film had an interesting story, he felt that audiences didn't want to see the leading man pursue his real life sister-in-law.

Simple appeared in about 20 movies and stopped acting in 1986 and worked as a costume designer for films since then. In 1994, she won a National award for her costume design in Rudaali.

Simple Kapadia suffered from cancer and died on November 10 2009. (Text: Wikipedia)

Jade Goody: Jade Goody came into the public spotlight while appearing on the third series of the reality TV programme Big Brother in 2002, an appearance which led to her own television programmes and the launch of her own products after her eviction.

During the show she was accused of racist bullying against Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. Following her eviction from the show, she admitted her actions had been wrong and she subsequently made many public apologies.

In August 2008, she appeared on the Indian version of Big Brother, Bigg Boss, but withdrew early from the show and returned to the UK after being told she had cervical cancer.

In February 2009, after the cancer metastasised, she was told that it was terminal. She married Jack Tweed on 22 February 2009 and died, one month later on March 22, 2009. (Text: Wikipedia)

Leela Naidu: Leela Naidu was the Femina Miss India in 1954, while still in her teens. Well known fashion magazine Vogue even named her as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world, along with Gayatri Devi.

She also starred in a number of Hindi films, but she is known for Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke (1963), based on the famous real-life Nanavati case, as well as The Householder, Merchant Ivory Productions' first film. After watching her performance in the film, Satyajit Ray, planned an English film, The Journey with Marlon Brando with Shashi Kapoor and Leela Naidu, but sadly the film never went on the floors. She even lost out Vijay Anand's Guide (1965) to Waheeda Rehman, as she wasn't a trained dancer.

Her last film in Hindi mainstream cinema was Baghi (1964) a costume extravaganza co-starring Pradeep Kumar, Vijaya Choudhury and Mumtaz.

Remembered for her classical beauty and subtle acting style, Leela Naidu died of lung failure on July 28, 2009.

Gangubai Hangal: Gangubai Hangal, who is known for her deep and powerful voice was a singer of the Kirana gharana. Hangal's family belong to a low social status and singing was not considered an appropiate career for women. Hangal struggled against this prejudice and made a career in singing.

She performed all over India and for All India Radio stations until 1945. Hangal had initially performed light classical genres, including bhajan and thumri, but concentrated on khyal.

She also served as a honorary music professor of the Karnatak University.

Hangal gave her last concert in March 2006 to mark her 75th career year. She had overcome bone marrow cancer in 2003, and died of cardiac arrest at the age of 96, on 21 July 2009, in Hubli, where she resided. She had her eyes donated to increase awareness for organ donation. (Text: Wikipedia)

Farrah Fawcett: A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Farrah Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the TV series Charlie's Angels in 1976.

Fawcett was also a pop culture figure whose hairstyle was emulated by millions of young women and whose poster sales broke records, making her an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fawcett appeared in TV commercials for consumer products. Beginning in 1978, after achieving TV stardom, she developed her own brand of hair care products, for which she appeared in a series of commercials and print ads.

Fawcett, who had steadfastly resisted appearing nude in films or magazines throughout the 1970s and 1980s, caused a major stir by posing nude in the December 1995 issue of Playboy magazine, which became the best-selling issue of the 1990s, with over four million copies sold worldwide.

At the age of 50, she returned to the pages of Playboy with a pictorial for the July 1997 issue, which also became a top seller. That same year, Fawcett was chosen by Robert Duvall to play his wife in an independent feature film he was producing, The Apostle. Fawcett received an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Actress for the film.

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. She died on June 25, 2009. (Text: Wikipedia)

Natasha Richardson: Natasha Richardson was an English-American stage and screen actress. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.

Early in her career she portrayed Mary Shelley and Patty Hearst in feature films, and she received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret.

Some of her notable films included Patty Hearst (1988), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).

On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury when she fell while taking a skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, about 130 km from Montreal. The injury was followed by a lucid interval, when Richardson seemed to be fine and was able to talk and act normally. Paramedics and an ambulance which initially responded to the accident were told they were not needed and left. Refusing medical attention, she returned to her hotel room and about three hours later was taken to a local hospital in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts after complaining of a headache. She was transferred from there by ambulance to Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur, Montreal, in critical condition and was admitted about seven hours after the fall. The following day she was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died on March 18, 2009. An autopsy conducted by the New York City Medical Examiners Office revealed the cause of death was an "epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head", and her death was ruled an accident. (Text: Wikipedia)

Shakti Samanta: Shakti Samanta was most known for films like Howrah Bridge, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali, An Evening in Paris, Kati Patang and Amar Prem. He received Filmfare Awards for Best Film for Aradhana, Anuraag and Amanush, which was also made in Bengali, a language in which made six films, including a Indo-Bangladesh joint production in 1984.

Some of his films have been shown at international festivals in Berlin, Tashkent, Moscow, Cairo and Beirut.
B Samanta was President of the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association for five years, Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for seven years and was Chairman of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata for two years.

He died on April 9, 2009. (Text: Wikipedia)

John Travolta's son: Year 2009 wasn't too good for Hollywood actor John Travolta and his family. Travolta lost his 16-year-old son Jett on January 2, 2009.

Jett, who had a history of seizures arising from the rare condition Kawasaki Disease, had been found unconscious on January 2 by caretaker Jeff Katharain. He is thought to have died after hitting his head on a bathtub following a seizure, when he was on a family holiday in the Bahamas.