‘Harry Potter’ actor David Ryall dies at 79

Margaret Thomas / The Washington Post

The Southern California coordinator for Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign spent seven months in federal prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. He became a Presbyterian minister after his release. He was 79.

ABC

Elizabeth Pena, who plays a recurring role on 'Modern Family' as the mother of Sophia Vergara, right, died Oct. 14 at 55.

Fox News

Fox News correspondent Dominic Di-Natale was found dead of an apparent suicide Wednesday, Dec. 10, in Jefferton County, Co. A friend alerted police after becoming concerned for Di-Natale's frame of mind regarding undisclosed health issues.

Jason Merritt / Getty Images

Singer Michael Johns, a former 'American Idol' finalist, died on August 1, 2014. He was 35 years old.

Jim Watson, AFP/Getty Images

Chick-fil-A founder and Chairman S.Truett Cathy, seen here in 2012, died at his home Sept. 8, 2014, at the age of 93.

Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times

The biochemist in 1976 synthesized a psychedelic drug that was later called Ecstasy. He was 88.

Eduardo Munoz / Reuters

Director Mike Nichols, known for a prolific career on stage, screen and television, died at age 83. His film credits include "The Graduate" and "The Birdcage." He is pictured with his wife, news anchor Diane Sawyer.

Rick Diamond /Getty Images

John Pinette, a stand-up comedian who guest-starred as the victim of a carjacking in the final episode of the TV show "Seinfeld," died at age 50 of natural causes on April 6.

Getty Images

This "Welcome Back, Kotter" star, pictured here with her co-star Gabe Kaplan, succumbed to breast cancer at age 66 on Oct. 25. She was also known for playing the mom opposite Rick Moranis in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."

MCT

Actress Ann. B Davis, who played Alice Nelson on the "Brady Bunch", died at age 88.

Getty Images

Miss America 1959 and actress Mary Ann Mobley lost her battle with breast cancer at the age of 75 Dec. 9. Mobley is survived by a daughter and husband actor and TV host Gary Collins.

Getty Images

Former "X Factor" finalist and member of music group GRL Simone Battle was found dead in her home Friday, Sept. 5, at 25 years old. A cause of death has not been officially announced.

Jake Schoellkopf / For The Times

During World War II, Nez was part of a top-secret group that became known as the Navajo code talkers. Using the Navajo language, they developed an unbreakable military communications code. He was 93.

Mick Gold / Redferns / Getty Images

Amiri Baraka, an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism, died on January 9 at age 79.

File photo

Actors Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor starred in the 1971 movie "Billy Jack."

Con Keyes / MCT

The cinematographer whose moody aesthetic earned him the nickname "Prince of Darkness" worked on nearly three dozen films, including"The Godfather" trilogy, "Annie Hall" and "All the President's Men." He was 82.

CBS

Arthur Rankin Jr., the animator behind the classic holiday special classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and dozens of other productions, died Thursday at his home in Harrington Sound, Bermuda. He was 89.

ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images

Actor Dave Madden, pictured here while on "The Partridge Family" in 1973, died on January 16 at 82.

Bill Hogan, Chicago Tribune

Actor, screenwriter, director Harold Ramis poses with an early clay model of a character in the movie "Ghostbusters," October 29, 1983. Ramis died on Feb. 24, 2014 from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels, his wife Erica Mann Ramis said. He was 69.

ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images

Jim Lange, the first host of the popular game show "The Dating Game," died on Feb. 25 at 81.

Andreas Rentz / Getty Images

English rock and blues singer and musician Joe Cocker, seen here February 2013 in Berlin, died Dec. 22.

Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

Veteran actor Eli Wallach, who turns 95 on Dec. 7, 2010, will be presented with an honorary Oscar. Wallach lives in New York.

Christina House / For The Times

The Oscar-nominated writer-director excelled at mining the urban middle class for laughs as well as tears in such movies as "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" and "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." He was 84.

Hector Retamal / AFP/Getty Images

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier speaks at a news conference in 2011, the year he returned from exile. He died Oct. 4 in Port-au-Prince at the age of 63.

Chris Felver / Getty Images

The author of more than a dozen books of poetry and several works of prose, Strand was a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate widely praised for his concentrated, elegiac verse. He was 80.

CBS

A 1974 studio portrait of actress Jane Kean. She died at the age of 90 following a fall.

Brad Barket / Getty Images

Eileen Ford, who co-founded Ford Models with her husband, reportedly died July 9, 2014 after having recently suffered a fall. She was 92.

Getty Images

Diem Brown, 32, died after a battle with colon cancer. Brown appeared on several versions of MTV's reality show, "The Challenge."

Getty Images

"American Idol" contestant Joanne Borgella died Saturday, Oct. 18, after battling cancer. She made it to the Top 24 on Season 7 of the series.

David Woo / Dallas Morning News

Nelson Bunker Hunt, the Texas oilman once considered the world's richest man, died on Oct. 22 of congestive heart failure.

Isaac Brekken / WireImage

Sugarhill Gang recording artists David 'Davey D' Gunthorpe (L-R) Michael 'Wonder Mike' Wright, Joey 'Master Gee' Robinson and Henry 'Big Bank Hank' Jackson in 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jackson died Nov. 11, 2014 at the age of 57 after battling cancer.

Brian Peterson, MCT

Joan Mondale, the wife of former vice president Walter Mondale who built a reputation as an advocate and a champion of the arts, died on Feb. 3, her family said in a statement. She was 83.

Ed Cronenweth / MGM / Los Angeles Times

Luise Rainer, the luminous 1930s actress who won two consecutive Oscars but whose Hollywood film career was shattered when she went toe-to-toe with Louis B. Mayer, and lost, died Dec. 30, 2014. She was 104.

Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Louis Zamperini, a World War II prisoner of war and Olympic runner, has died at 97. He was the subject of the book and upcoming film 'Unbroken.'

Associated Press

Best known by his nickname "Chespirito," Gomez worked as a screenwriter, playwright, composer, actor and director. He created unforgettable comedic characters that were staples of Latin American television. He was 85.

Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

Actress Skye McCole Bartusiak, best known for her role as the daughter of Mel Gibson's character's in the 2000 hit movie "The Patriot," died July 19 at the age of 21.

Los Angeles Times

Frank Sinatra and Martha Hyer at the premiere of "Some Came Running" in Hollywood. Hyer was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in the film. Her death was May 31, 2014. She was 89.

Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post

Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, who oversaw the newspaper's coverage of the Watergate scandal that toppled President Richard Nixon, died Oct. 21 at 93.

Central Press / Getty Images

Ex-boxing champion Jimmy Ellis, seen here in 1966, died on May 7, 2014, at the age of 74. He was a onetime sparring partner for Muhammad Ali.

D Dipasupil, Getty Images

John Henson, son of "Muppets" creator Jim Henson, died of a sudden heart attack in New York February 14, 2014. He was 48.

Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

illionaire businessman and philanthropist Edgar Bronfman, the chairman of the Seagram Company and long-serving president of the World Jewish Congress, died at his New York home at age 84.

The Washington Post/Getty Images

Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of a controversial fundamentalist church that advanced its anti-gay agenda by picketing military funerals and political events, died at the age of 84 on March 20.

Stephen Shugerman, Getty Images

Emmy award nominated American actor Edward Herrmann has died in hospital on December 31 after struggling to fight brain cancer. He was best known for his role as Richard Gilmore in the Gilmore Girls.

Derren Nugent / McClatchy-Tribune

Often called the "godfather" of house music, Frankie Knuckles was instrumental in launching the electronic dance music movement in the late 1970s. He was 59. Full obituary Notable deaths of 2013

Getty Images

Jean Beliveau, a star for hockey's Montreal Canadiens, won 10 Stanley Cups as a player. He died on Dec. 2 at 83.

Carl Court / AFP/Getty Images

Oscar-winning actor and comic Robin Williams died August 11, 2014 of an apparent suicide. He was 63.

Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Charles Keating Jr, a banker who played a leading role in the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s that embroiled five U.S. senators, died at 90 in Phoenix.

United Artists / Getty Images

Richard Kiel portrayed Jaws, a murderous giant with a mouthful of deadly steel teeth, in a scene from the James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977). Kiel died on Sept. 10 at age 74.

Chicago Tribune File Photo

Hall of Fame NBA coach Jack Ramsay, who coached 20 seasons in the league and won 864 games, died April 28 after a long battle with cancer. He led Portland to the NBA title in 1977.

Chris Ball / Getty Images

FILE - DECEMBER 15: Actor Peter O'Toole Dies At The age of 81 Irish actor Peter O'Toole plays the title role in a production of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' at the Old Vic, 1st September 1980. (Photo by Chris Ball/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 148263353

Michael Kovac / Getty Images for Banana Republic

Fashion designer L'Wren Scott was found dead in her New York apartment on March 17 from an apparent suicide, according to a law enforcement official. She was 47.

Los Angeles Times

The Olympic gold medalist and USC sprinter at one time was deemed the fastest human on Earth. He set world records for the 100-yard dash in 1948 and the 220 in 1949. He was 89.

CBS via Getty Images

Ralph Waite, who played the good-hearted but soft-spoken patriarch on the 1970s U.S. television drama "The Waltons," died on Feb. 13 in Southern California at age 85.

Vince Bucci / Getty Images

Actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. of "The F.B.I." and "77 Sunset Strip" died on May 2, 2014 at his ranch in Solvang, California. He was 95 years old.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Legendary "Saturday Night Live" announcer Don Pardo died Aug. 18 at age 96.

Bryan Haraway, Getty Images

Comedian and a favorite guest of Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," David Brenner died of cancer on March 15 in New York City. He was 78.

Los Angeles Times

The former Republican senator from Tennessee played many leading roles in his long government career, including White House chief of staff for President Reagan and later U.S. ambassador to Japan. But he was most famous for the penetrating question he asked of witnesses during the 1973 Watergate hearings: "What did the president know, and when did he know it?" He was 88.

George Rose / Getty Images

Former Carolina Panthers president and Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman Mike McCormack died on Nov. 15. He was 83 years old.

AFP / Getty Images

The groundbreaking Soviet foreign minister later became the president of an independent Georgia. In the final years of the Soviet Union, he helped topple the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War. He was 86.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Paul Walker, star of the "Fast and Furious" series of films, was killed in a car crash at age 40.

Toni L Sandys/Tampa Bay Times/MCT

Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer shakes hands with fans in a January 2003 file image. Glazer, who also owned the English Premier League's Manchester United, died on Wednesday, May 28, 2014, at 85.

Los Angeles Times

The legendary Colorado River guide and wilderness advocate was involved in some of the 20th century's biggest conservation battles. He played a pivotal role in keeping dams out of the Grand Canyon. He was 97.

Orlando Sentinel File

Earl Morrall, who helped quarterback the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins died on April 25, 2014 in Naples, Fla. He was 79. Morrall took over for starting injured quarterback Bob Griese and started 11 games during their 17-0 perfect season run, but Griese started in the team's Super Bowl VII 14-7 win over the Redskins. Morrall played in the NFL for 21 seasons (1956-76).

Tim Sloan, AFP/Getty Images

Marion Barry died Nov. 23 at age 78 in Washington, D.C. The cause of death was not initially disclosed.

Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images

James Brady, the former presidential press secretary who was seriously wounded in the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981, died Aug. 4. He was 73.

Jim McIsaac, Getty Images

Hall of Fame outfielder Ralph Kiner died Feb. 6 at the age of 91 from natural causes. He's seen here at Clark Sports Center during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony on July 24, 2011 in Cooperstown, New York.

Donald Miralle / Getty Images

Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn died June 16, 2014 after battling cancer. He was 54.

Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Diane Disney Miller attends an event at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.

Getty Images

A "Saturday Night Live" mainstay in the late 1980s and early '90s, Jan Hooks played everyone from Tammy Bakker to Hillary Clinton to half of the singing Sweeney Sisters. She died Oct. 9 after fighting a serious illness.

George Best, Getty Images

"The Basketball Diaries" director Scott Kalvert was found dead on March 7 at the age of 49. Kalvert was a well-respected music video director, who worked with artists such as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch ("Good Vibrations") and DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith ("Parents Just Don't Understand").

Getty Images

"The Sopranos" and "Desperate Housewives" guest star Polly Bergen, who will always be "Cry-Baby's" Mrs. Vernon-Williams to us, died Sept. 20 at the age of 84.

Getty Images

Motown singer and songwriter Jimmy Ruffin, whose hits included "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" and "Hold On (To My Love)," died in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 78.

Getty Images

Actor Ken Weatherwax who played the original Pugsley on "The Addams Family" has died of a heart attack at the age of 59, TMZ reports. Weatherwax most recently worked behind the scenes as a grip and set builder.

MYCHELE DANIAU / AFP/Getty Images

James Garner, known for his roles in the television series "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files," died July 19 of natural causes in Los Angeles.

Ari Mintz / For the Times

Elaine Stritch, shown in March 2003, became a signal interpreter of songs by Noel Coward and Stephen Sondheim. She died at age 89.

Michael Putland / Getty Images

Saxophone player Bobby Keys, during the soundcheck for the first night of the Rolling Stones' 1973 European World Tour, Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria, 1st September 1973.

Ray Lustig, The Washington Post

James Jeffords, the former U.S. senator from Vermont who gave Democrats control of the closely divided chamber in 2001 when he left the Republican Party to become an independent, died Aug. 18 in Washington. He was 80.

Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

Musician Tim Hauser (left) of The Manhattan Transfer died October 16, 2014. He was 72. (L-R) Tim Hauser of The Manhattan Transfer, Solomon Burke, and Alan Paul of The Manhattan Transfer attend the GRAMMY's Salute to Jazz at the GRAMMY Museum on January 26, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.

Craig Barritt, Getty Images for Lifetime

Actress Ruby Dee died June 11, 2014 at her home in Rochelle, New York. She was 91.

Larry Davis / Los Angeles Times

The respected British actor and Academy Award-winning director of "Gandhi," the multiple-Oscar-winning best picture of 1982, was known as a "socially engaged" filmmaker who often focused on major historical figures. He was 90.

Riccardo Musacchio/EPA

Italian conductor Claudio Abbado, a former director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, died on January 20 after a long illness. He was 80.

RICK MEYER / AFP/Getty Images

Louis Brown Jr. (left), father of Nicole Brown Simpson, died Saturday (July 5) at 90 years old. The Nicole Brown Simpson murder trial was heavily featured on TV throughout 1995, before retired football player O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the crime. He was later found liable in a civil trial.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Country singer Ray Price, whose 1956 hit "Crazy Arms" helped revolutionize the sound of country music in the 1950s, died on Dec. 16 at his home in Mount Pleasant, Texas, following a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 87.

Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Iconic child star Shirley Temple, pictured here in 1934 at age 6, passed away on Feb. 11. She was 85.

Getty Images

Puppeteer Bob Baker, best known for his work on films like "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" as well as TV shows and commercials, passed away at age 90. TheWrap reports he died of natural causes.

ABC

Character actor Hastings died Monday (June 30) at age 89 from complications from cancer. The World War II veteran, best known as Lt. Carpenter in 1960s sitcom "McHale's Navy," was also seen in many sitcoms and soaps from the Golden Age of television.

Getty Images

Brothers Ray Magliozzi, left, and Tom Magliozzi, hosts of National Public Radio's "Car Talk" show.

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

Lewis Katz, 72, the co-owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper and former owner of the New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils, was among seven people killed when a private jet caught fire and crashed on June 1.

NBC NewsWire / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Garrick Utley, an NBC News as a foreign correspondent, weekend anchor, morning-show host and moderator of "Meet the Press" died of prostate cancer Feb. 20, 2014 at his home in New York.

CBS Photo Archive / CBS

Phil Everly, left, who with his brother Don made up the one of the most revered vocal duos of the rock-music era, died on January 3 at age 74.

Elsa, Getty Images

Longtime baseball manager and coach Don Zimmer, who spent time with the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs and Rays, among others, died on June 4 at age 83.

Michael Buckner / Getty Images for SXSW

Director Malik Bendjelloul attends the "Searching for Sugar Man" Greenroom Photo Op during the 2012 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival.

Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

Actress Sheila MacRae of "The Honeymooners" died on March 6 in Englewood, New Jersey. She was 93 years old.

Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

The Indian guru was one of the West's most influential teachers of yoga. He helped lay the foundation for its explosive growth and attained rock-star status with tens of thousands of followers. He was 95.

Chicago Tribune

Ray Gibson, an award-winning reporter twice nominated for the Pulitzer, died just short of his 65th birthday on February 1.

Keystone / Getty Images

Nobel Scientist Frederick Sanger has died aged 95. Sanger was an English biochemist and double Nobel prize winner.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

"August: Osage County" actress Misty Upham, was best known for her role in the 2008 film Frozen River, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. Upham was 32.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Keyboardist Ian McLagan, second left, who was the keyboardist in rock bands Small Faces and 'The Faces died on Dec. 3 at 69.

Neilson Barnard / Getty Images

Poet and author Maya Angelou died at age 86 on May 28, 2014.

David Livingston / Getty Images

Charlie Haden, the pioneering jazz bassist who played with the likes of Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett before enjoying a decades-long solo career, died Friday at age 76 of a prolonged illness, according to his label, ECM.

Alex Wong, Getty Images

Former Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar served 36 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and rose to a key position for transportation and infrastructure. He died in his sleep on May 3 at age 79.

FPG / Getty Images

Lauren Bacall in 1944. The screen icon died at age 89.

Ian Gavan / Getty Images for Guinness

Soul singer Bobby Womack died on June 27, 2014. He was suffering from colon cancer and diabetes at the time of his death. He was 70 years old.

Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Mickey Rooney, who became the United States' biggest movie star as a teenager in the 1930s and later a versatile character actor in a career that spanned 10 decades, died on April 6 at age 93.

Ronaldo Schemidt, AFP/Getty Images

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez died on April 17 at his home in Mexico City. The author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was 87.

Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times

Ian Fraser, right, whose 11 Emmy Awards and 21 additional nominations made him the most-honored musician in television history, died of complications from cancer on Oct. 31 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.

Brad Barket, Getty

Fashion designer Oscar De La Renta died of cancer at the age of 82.

Douglas Mason / Getty Images

Jazz guitarist Jim Hall performs at the Newport Jazz Festival 2013.

Pete Souza, Chicago Tribune

Robert Strauss, who once headed the Democratic National Committee, served as U.S. trade representative and ambassador to Moscow, and advised presidents from both parties, died in Washington on March 19 at age 95.

Richard Hartog, Los Angeles Times

Former Angels All-Star player and MLB manager Jim Fregosi waves to the crowd in Anaheim during a ceremony to retire his jersey in 1988. Fregosi played from 1961-1978 fro the Angels, Mets and Rangers, and managed the Angels as well as the White Sox, Phillies and Blue Jays. He died Friday, Feb. 14, 2014 after suffering a stroke during earlier in the week on a cruise in the Caribbean.

Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images

Comedian Rik Mayall is dead at age 56.

Carlos Chavez, Los Angeles Times

Tony winning actress Marian Seldes, whose career spanned 40 years on stage, TV and film, died Oct. 6 at the age of 86.

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Devo members inside the Mutato Studios in Hollywood. (L to R)Josh Freese, Bob Mothersbaugh, Mark Mothersbaugh, Gerald Casale, Bob Casale.

Ron Galella / WireImage

Veteran soap opera actor, Charles Keating, has died at the age of 72. He had been fighting cancer. Here, Keating attends the 23rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on May 22, 1996 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Carl Court / AFP/Getty Images

Veteran former Labour MP Tony Benn, the stalwart totem of the British left who spearheaded the movement against the Iraq war, died on March 14 at the age of 88.

Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty Images

Larry Speakes, who served as spokesman for President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987, died on January 10 at age 74.

Dayton Daily News

Harry Richard Black, the Ohio artist who created Mr. Clean, the bald character in a white T-shirt featured in advertisements for Procter & Gamble cleaning products for more than 50 years, died at 92.

Anacleto Rapping / MCT

Former South African President and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95.

Steve Snowden / Getty Images

Psychic medium and author Sylvia Browne speaks to the audience during an appearance in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2010.