Every year it seems like more and more of our beloved celebrities are tragically passing away. Some had lived long lives filled with great memories to look back on, while others still had so much yet to come. With everything that went on in 2022, there’s bound to have been a celebrity you didn’t know passed away. Almost everyone remembers Queen Elizabeth II’s death, but here are 11 public figures you might not know passed away in 2022.
Bob Saget
Bob Saget passed away in 2022 at the age of 65 after hitting the back of his head in his hotel room in Florida. No foul play or other causes were determined; it was just an extremely unfortunate accident.
Depending on your age, you may have grown up watching him as Danny Tanner on Full House. You may have also seen him on the sequel that aired from 2016-2020, Fuller House. Besides that, he was an excellent stand-up comic, the original house of America’s Funniest Home Videos, and a guest star on many other shows.
Kirsnick Khari Ball (Takeoff)
One-third of the trio Migos, Kirsnick Khari Ball, better known as Takeoff, was shot and killed by stray bullets outside of a bowling alley in Houston, Texas after a party at 28 years old. It’s believed he wasn’t the intended target and was instead tragically caught in the crossfire.
Takeoff rose to fame thanks to his part in the hip-hop trio Migos with his fellow family members Quavo and Offset. In 2013, they released a single titled “Versace” and, from that moment on, became an international sensation. Over the years, Takeoff collaborated with numerous industry artists and set hip-hop trends that will last long after his death.
Robbie Coltrane
That name might not sound familiar, but the name Rubeus Hagrid probably does. Robbie Coltrane played the groundskeeper of Hogwarts in all eight films and could not have done a better job of representing the loyal and loveable character from J. K. Rowling’s books.
Coltrane passed away in 2022 at 72 from different complications stemming from his obesity and type 2 diabetes. In the documentary Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, he stated, “the legacy of the movies is that my children’s generation will show them to their children. So you could be watching it in fifty years’ time– I’ll not be here sadly, but Hagrid will.”
Ray Liotta
While Ray Liotta has acted in numerous films and TV shows in his lifetime, he’s best known for his role as Henry Hill in Goodfellas. Martin Scorsese’s film is easily considered to be a masterpiece of mob cinema and is often ranked alongside films like The Godfather and Casino.
Ray Liotta passed away in his sleep at the age of 67 in 2022 while filming Dangerous Waters. It’s unclear if the movie will still be released, but Liotta does have another film coming out after his death. Cocaine Bear tells the true story of a black bear that ate a duffel bag filled with cocaine in 1985 and features Ray Liotta
Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (Coolio)
Gangsta’s Paradise must be one of the most well-known songs from the mid-1990s, even if gangsta rap wasn’t your thing. Coolio would even go on to win a Grammy for this single, and it would go on to rank highly on almost every “Top Songs of the 1990s” list.
Coolio was able to avoid the fate that so many other young rappers face and lived till the age of 59 when he suffered a heart attack at a friend’s house in L.A. Gangsta’s Paradise and other songs from his discography saw a huge resurgence after his passing as fans paid an homage to this legend.
Adalia Rose Williams
You might remember seeing YouTube videos of Adalia Rose Williams in the late 2000s and early 2010s where she shared her everyday life and brought awareness to the genetic disease called Progeria. Progeria causes individuals to age faster than normal. Ultimately, people born with this disease don’t live past their mid-teens or early twenties and eventually pass from cardiovascular complications.
Adalia Rose was inspirational for a lot of people. She suffered from an incredibly rare disease that could be debilitating at times and offered a bleak future, yet she was vlogging and had a happy outlook on life. Millions of people watched her videos and gave her overwhelming support. She passed away in 2022 at just 15 years old.
James Caan
Another famous actor from gangster movies, James Caan played Sonny Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather II. If you’re not a fan of those movies, you might remember him as Buddy’s dad Walter in the Christmas movie Elf. He would star in tens of movies and TV shows throughout his career which spanned from 1961 to 2021, just a year before his death. Caan passed away at the age of 82 from a heart attack.
Theodore Brown (Teddy Ray)
Teddy Ray was a stand-up comedian and actor from L.A. that was best known for his work on Comedy Central and All Def Comedy. His most popular YouTube videos on the All Def Comedy channel showed cultures clashing in “White People Go to a Black BBQ ‘For the First Time’” or “Celebrating Thanksgiving Dinner With A White Family ‘For the First Time.’” He also was well known for his stand-up segments, where he covered topics like drugs, death, obesity, and more.
Teddy Ray was best known for being real despite his fame and continuing to be genuine throughout his career. He was found dead this past year at the age of 32 in a swimming pool, having drowned.
Gilbert Gottfried
This man has one of the most iconic voices out there, probably only second to Morgan Freeman and his deep, reassuring voice. Lots of us probably remember him from the animated TV show Cyberchase, where he played Digit, a cyborg bird. Others might remember him for his edgy, adult comedy.
How edgy, you ask? Well, just three weeks after 9/11, he decided to make a joke about an airplane crashing into the Empire State building at a roast of Hugh Hefner. Needless to say, it didn’t go over well with the crowd. His follow-up with the Artistocrats Joke managed to win the crowd back, and his version has gone down in history. Gottfried died at 67 from heart complications made worse by an illness not disclosed to the public until after his death.
Shinzo Abe
Not necessarily a celebrity, the former prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, was killed in perhaps the most infamous assassination attempt of 2022. Shinzo Abe was the prime minister from 2006-2007 and again from 2012-2020. He was shot with a homemade weapon while giving a speech on July 8th by a Japanese citizen who was upset with Abe over his supposed connection to a church that caused his mother to go bankrupt.
The speech was videotaped, and in it, you can hear a shot being fired, confusion as Abe turns to see what the noise was, and another shot that would hit Abe in the neck and heart. Abe was rushed to a hospital and given 100 units of blood, the same amount of blood in five people, but was ultimately pronounced dead at age 67.
Kazuki Takahashi
Fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! or people that played in their youth might be shocked to learn that the creator of their childhood pastime drowned while trying to rescue people that had been caught in a rip tide near Okinawa. Takahashi was 60 years old when he passed away.
Takahashi published Yu-Gi-Oh! between 1996-2004 as a manga and would eventually oversee the franchise after the manga ended. Yu-Gi-Oh! would go on to be the best-selling trading card game beating out even Pokemon and Magic the Gathering.
