The year 2005 saw the deaths of a number of entertainment luminaries, many included in the ever dwindling group surviving from the Golden Age. They included Anne Bancroft, Virginia Mayo, Ossie Davis, Sandra Dee, Theresa Wright, Sir John Mills, Eddie Albert, Ernest Lehman, June Haver, Frances Langford, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Barbara Bel Geddes, Brock Peters, Robert Wise, Constance Cummings, Jean Parker, and Richard Pryor. We lost two Our Gang actors and two former husbands as well as a former co-star of Marilyn Monroe's. You'll find a complete listing of names below, a couple with links to new or existing tribute articles.

We also added some other tributes to our growing list, which includes all of the American Film Institute's top 25 actors and all but four of the top 25 actresses (we missed them this year but we'll try to add them in 2006). Those who were added this year are listed below the 2005 obituaries.

Scroll to the bottom of this article for a drop-down box featuring a complete listing of all Classic Movie Star Tribute Articles. If you know of any sites I've neglected to list in any of the articles, please send me an email and let me know.

Some of the classic movie and TV people who died this year:

January

Thelma White, 94. Actress; played a dope peddler in Reefer Madness. Jan. 11.

Amrish Puri, 72. Bollywood villain who also appeared Hollywood movies. Jan. 12.

Ruth Warrick, 88. Star of soap opera All My Children whose career began with Citizen Kane. Jan. 15.

Virginia Mayo, 84. Hollywood star of 1940s and 50s (White Heat, The Best Years of Our Lives). Jan. 17.

Johnny Carson, 79. The beloved "Tonight Show" host became a national institution. Jan. 23.

February

John Vernon, 72. Character actor who played Dean Wormer in National Lampoon's Animal House. Feb. 1.

Ossie Davis, 87. Actor and civil rights activist whose baritone voice was heard on both stage and screen. Feb. 4.

Arthur Miller, 89. He wrote Death of a Salesman and married Marilyn Monroe. Feb. 10.

Dan O'Herlihy, 85. Character actor nominated for an Oscar for The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Feb. 17.

John Raitt, 88. Baritone singer on Broadway (Carousel) and in Hollywood (The Pajama Game) and father of singer Bonnie Raitt. Feb. 20.

Sandra Dee, 62. Teen-queen actress (Gidget) who married Bobby Darin. Feb. 20. Kidney disease.

Simone Simon, 93. French screen star best known in the U.S. for Cat People (1942). Feb. 22.

March

Teresa Wright, 86. Oscar-winning actress who starred in Mrs. Miniver and The Best Years of Our Lives. March 6.

Don Durant, 72. Star of 1950s TV Western Johnny Ringo. March 15.

Barney Martin, 82. Detective turned actor who played Jerry Seinfeld's father on TV. March 21.

Greg Garrison, 81. Pioneering TV director who worked with Jack Benny, George Burns and Lucille Ball, among others. March 25.

April

Prince Rainier III, 81. His marriage to Grace Kelly brought Hollywood glamour to Monaco. April 6.

Yoshitaro Nomura, 85. Japanese director's 1974 suspense thriller Castle of Sand has been hailed as one of Japan's best films. April 8.

Ruth Hussey, 93. Was Oscar-nominated for her role as James Stewart's wise-cracking girlfriend in The Philadelphia Story. April 19.

Sir John Mills, 97. British actor who won an Oscar for Ryan's Daughter; also known as Hayley Mills' father. April 23.

Mason Adams, 86. Actor nominated for an Emmy for Lou Grant was also the voice on the Smucker's jelly commercials. April 26.

Maria Schell, 79. Leading actress of German-speaking films and sister of actor Maximilian Schell. April 26.

May

Joe Grant, 96. Disney artist and writer who created the character of the witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. May 6.

Frank Gorshin, 72. Impressionist who was nominated for an Emmy for his role as the Riddler on Batman (TV). May 17.

Howard Morris, 85. Comic on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows who played Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show. May 21.

Eddie Albert, 99. Classic actor best known today as the city slicker-turned-farmer on Green Acres. May 26.

June

Leon Askin, 97. Played Gen. Albert Burkhalter in Hogan's Heroes. June 3.

Anne Bancroft, 73. She won the 1962 best actress Oscar as Helen Keller's teacher in The Miracle Worker, but is known to modern audience as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. June 6.

Dana Elcar, 77. Round-faced actor whose blindness was written into his role on MacGyver. June 6.

Phil Ford, 85. Entertainer who teamed with wife Mimi Hines in singing and comedy act. June 15.

Chris Griffin, 89. Member of trumpet section in Benny Goodman's orchestra that included Harry James and Ziggy Elman. June 18.

Paul Winchell, 82. Popular ventriloquist and inventor who created the voice of Winnie the Pooh's friend Tigger. June 24.

Bruce Malmuth, 71. Film director (Hard to Kill). June 28.

Christopher Fry, 97. British playwright who wrote The Lady's Not for Burning. June 30.

July

Ernest Lehman, 89. Six-time Oscar nominee as screenwriter (North by Northwest) and producer (Hello, Dolly). July 2.

June Haver, 79. Star of 1940s musicals (Oh, You Beautiful Doll). July 4.

Evan Hunter, 78. His Ed McBain detective series helped create the police procedural genre. July 6.

Frances Langford, 92. Actress and singer popular with WWII soldiers after joining Bob Hope's USO tours. July 11.

Geraldine Fitzgerald, 91. Appeared in the classics Dark Victory and Wuthering Heights (1939) and was also a celebrated stage actress. July 17.

James Doohan, 85. Original Star Trek chief engineer. July 20.

Danny Simon, 86. Comedy writer on Your Show of Shows who worked with his brother Neil the famed playwright. July 26.

Robert Wright, 90. Broadway composer and lyricist (Kismet). July 27.

Pat McCormick, 78. Walrus-mustached comedy performer and writer. July 29.

August

Peter Jennings, 67. Longtime ABC News anchorman. Aug. 7.

Barbara Bel Geddes, 82. Oscar-nominated actress (I Remember Mama) best known to today's audiences as Miss Ellie in Dallas. Aug. 8.

James Dougherty, 84. He married Norma Jeane Baker before she took the name Marilyn Monroe. Aug. 15.

Brock Peters, 78. Among other roles, he played the man falsely accused of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird and later in his career appeared in Star Trek. Aug. 23.

September

Bob Denver, 70. Gilligan's Island and Dobie Gillis star on TV. Sept. 2.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 81. He played the blues, country, jazz and Cajun music for half a century. Sept. 10.

Robert Wise, 91. He won four Oscars as producer and director of West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Sept. 14.

Sid Luft, 89. Producer credited with reviving the career of wife Judy Garland in the 1950s. Sept. 15.

Guy Green, 91. Won a cinematography Oscar for the 1946 film Great Expectations. Sept. 15.

John Bromfield, 83. TV Western actor of the 1950s (U.S. Marshal). Sept. 18.

Tommy Bond, 79. Played Butch in the Our Gang films. Sept. 24.

Don Adams, 82. Best known for playing the bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in TV's Get Smart. Sept. 25.

October

Nipsey Russell, 80. Witty actor-comedian who was a staple of TV game shows and played the Tin Man in The Wiz. Oct. 2.

Louis Nye, 92. Comedian who created a national catchphrase "Hi, ho, Steverino!" on Steve Allen's 1950s TV show. Oct. 9.

Gordon Lee, 71. Chubby child actor who played Spanky McFarland's little brother Porky in the Our Gang comedies. Oct. 16.

Shirley Horn, 71. Jazz pianist and vocalist who sang standards and made them her own. Oct. 20.

Maurice Rosenfield, 91. Producer of Bang the Drum Slowly, the film that helped Robert De Niro's career along. Oct. 30.

November

John Fowles, 79. British author of novels made into films (The Collector, The French Lieutenant's Woman). Nov. 5.

David Westheimer, 88. Novelist whose Von Ryan's Express was turned into movie starring Frank Sinatra. Nov. 8.

Moustapha Akkad, 75. Film producer (Halloween, The Message). Nov. 11, in the bombing of a hotel in Jordan.

Keith Andes, 85. Handsome actor who was Marilyn Monroe's leading man in the 1952 film Clash by Night. Nov. 11.

Ralph Edwards, 92. Broadcasting pioneer who spotlighted stars and ordinary people as host of the popular 1950s show This Is Your Life. Nov. 16.

Constance Cummings, 95. Hollywood star of the early 1930s; later leading figure on the British stage. Nov. 23.

Pat Morita, 73. Nominated for an Oscar for his role as the martial arts teacher in The Karate Kid; also known for his role on TV's Happy Days. Nov. 24.

Jean Parker, 90. Best known for her portrayal of Beth in the 1933 version of Little Women, Parker also appeared in The Ghost Goes West (1935), Sequoia (1934), and Operator 13 (1934), among her more than 70 film appearances. She also appeared on Broadway, replacing Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1949). Nov. 30. Stroke.

December

Richard Pryor, 65. Actor-comedian whose profanely personal insights into race relations made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Dec. 10.

Argentina Brunetti, 98. Character actress who played the wife of Mr. Martini in the classic It's a Wonderful Life, the highlight of a career that last more than 50 years. December 20.

Other New Tributes Added in 2005

Clint Eastwood

Errol Flynn

Betty Grable

Joan Leslie

William Powell

Peter Sellers

Eli Wallach

Richard Widmark

Shelley Winters