Pioneering stand-up comedian and comic actress Phyllis Diller died on August 20 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 95 and had been in declining health after a fall.

Diller’s varied credits included a 1969 stint in the title role of Hello, Dolly! on Broadway, following Pearl Bailey and preceding the show’s final leading lady, Ethel Merman ...

Joan Roberts, who created the role of Laurey in the 1943 Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, died on August 13 of congestive heart failure in Stamford, Connecticut, according to her son, John Donlon. She was 95.

Born on July 15, 1917, in New York City, Roberts made her professional debut at five in an episode of the Our ...

Marvin Hamlisch, the prolific Tony-winning composer of A Chorus Line and a three-time Oscar winner for his work on The Sting and The Way We Were, died on August 6 at age 68 after what a spokesperson termed “a brief illness.” Hamlisch had been active in the months leading up to his death prepping the Nashville debut of a new ...

Mark O’Donnell, who won a 2003 Tony Award for co-authoring the book of the hit musical Hairspray with Thomas Meehan, died on August 6 after collapsing outside his apartment building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. He was 58.

In addition to Hairspray, O’Donnell collaborated with Meehan on the book for the 2008 musical adaptation of Cry-Baby, which earned ...

Gore Vidal, the acclaimed novelist, essayist and author of the Tony-nominated play The Best Man, died on July 31 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia. He was 86.

Vidal’s prolific writing career spanned more than 60 years and included the novels The City and the Pillar, Julian, Myra Breckinridge, Burr, Kalki, 1876, Lincoln, Empire, Hollywood ...

Sherman Hemsley, best known as George Jefferson on the '70s sitcom The Jeffersons, died at his El Paso, TX home on July 24, according to TMZ. Before appearing on the hit series, Hemsley starred as Gitlow in the original 1970 Broadway production of Purlie. He reprised the role when the musical returned to Broaday in 1972. A cause of death ...

Celeste Holm, the Academy Award-winning actress who created the role of Ado Annie in the Broadway musical Oklahoma!, died at her Manhattan home on July 15. She was 95 and had recently suffered a heart attack.

Holm’s Broadway career spanned more than five decades, from her debut in the short-lived 1938 comedy Gloriana to Paul Rudnick’s 1991 comedy ...

Tony-winning costume designer Martin Pakledinaz died on July 8 at the age of 58. During his 30-year plus career Pakledinaz worked on over 30 Broadway plays and musicals, as well as many off-Broadway productions.

Pakledinaz was born on September 1, 1953 and grew up in Sterling Heights, Michigan. A graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, Pakledinaz studied directing and ...

Two-time Tony nominee Andy Griffith, beloved for his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor on TV's The Andy Griffith Show, passed away at his home in Dare County, North Carolina on July 3, according to WITN News. He was 86 years old.

Griffith was born and raised in North Carolina, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ...

Richard Adler, the Tony-winning composer of The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, passed away on June 21 at his home in Southampton, New York. He was 90 years old.

Adler was born in New York City in 1921. Adler graudated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1943, and served in the U.S. Naval reserve during ...