Watch CBS News
Sunday Morning

​Hail and farewell to those we lost in 2014

/ CBS News

Charles Osgood brings a smile to your face, and maybe a tear to your eye, as we mark the passing this year of so many talented people who helped define our times:


Robin Williams 1951-2014
Robin Williams 1951-2014 28 photos
Robin Williams touched down, as if from a distant galaxy, speaking a language ("Nanu nanu!") we had never heard before, but which we instantly understood.

He held up his own funhouse mirror to the rest of us, exploring not only comic possibilities, but deeper truths.

"You don't know about real loss. Because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself," he said in the 1997 film, "Good Will Hunting."

Philip Seymour Hoffman 1967-2014
Philip Seymour Hoffman 1967-2014 34 photos
Phillip Seymour Hoffman plumbed the tangled, mysterious depths of the human soul . . . in performances so perfectly nuanced, that they seemed not performances at all, but visitations . . . and broke our hearts this year when his own fragile soul gave way.


Mike Nichols won every entertainment award there is -- and one, in 1959, that doesn't exist, for Total Mediocrity, presented by his comic partner, Elaine May.


Goodbye to Geoffrey Holder, the elegant pitchman for 7-UP. He was also singer, dancer, actor, painter, choreographer, director, and costume designer. He gave us Broadway's "The Wiz."


Farewell to Ruth Robinson Duccini, the last of the female Munchkins, who started Dorothy down that yellow brick road in 1939.


And to Richard Kiel, whose enormous size usually got him cast as the bad guy (Jaws from the James Bond series), or an alien, monster, or the Soviet spy prowling on "Gilligan's Island."


And farewell to Russell Johnson -- he played the brainy Professor on that crazy island of castaways:

Ginger: "You can hold me a little closer, I won't break."
Professor: "Well, I don't want to crush your dress."
Ginger: "Try."


A round of snaps for Ken Weatherwax, who played Pugsley on "The Addams Family."


And to Ann B. Davis, Alice on "The Brady Bunch."


And to Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., who always got his man.


Ralph Waite died this year. As patriarch of the Walton clan, he guided his large brood through the Depression days. Good night to you, Ralph Waite.


Shirley Temple Black: 1928-2014
Shirley Temple Black: 1928-2014 19 photos

And to you, Shirley Temple: You buoyed American spirits during those dark Depression years with your brilliant smile and precocious talent -- then walked away from it all and became a successful diplomat.


Shirley Temple Black taught us all a thing or two about life.


Mickey Rooney TORE through life with exuberance, talent and charm. He could do it all, and he DID it all, for most of his 93 years.

Good night and good luck, Mickey Rooney!


Oscar de la Renta 1932-2014
Oscar de la Renta 1932-2014 40 photos
Bob Thomas loved the glitter of the Oscars, and he reported on them for 66 years. Good night to him.

And to Oscar de la Renta, who dressed Hollywood's glittering stars . . .


And to Phil Stern, who captured the many moods of Hollywood's glitterati . . . in photographs that live on.


"You don't have to say anything or do anything . . . or maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."

Lauren Bacall 1924-2014
Lauren Bacall 1924-2014 42 photos
Lauren Bacall, we fell in love with you right from the start. Bacall died this year at 89, her charm and her beauty intact.


James Garner, you were one smooth operator. He never took acting too seriously, but he was good at it. Farewell to you, James Garner ...


... and to you, James Rebhorn, and Meshach Taylor.


And you, Maximilian Schell.


Eli Wallach 1915-2014
Eli Wallach 1915-2014 27 photos

Eli Wallach was an actor's actor -- a chameleon who transformed himself countless times over his 60 years on the stage and screen.


Good night, sweet prince.


And good night to you, Elaine Stritch, unabashed queen of Broadway.


Polly Bergen -- what a beautiful, long run YOU enjoyed.


Ruby Dee 1922-2014
Ruby Dee 1922-2014 28 photos

Ruby Dee, your extraordinary talents onstage were inspirational. Offstage, with your husband Ossie Davis, they were even more so.


Thank you, for showing us all what it means to stand up for what is right.


Franklin McCain took his stand when he SAT, when he was refused service at a Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter, and the civil rights "sit-in" was born.

"There are many people who will plant the seed, but they will never reap the harvest," McCain said. "And I considered myself and my colleagues those people."


Boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter did not set out to become a folk hero. He served 19 years in prison for crimes he didn't commit . . . convictions that were overturned, finally, in 1985. Rubin Carter died this year, a free man.


James Brady took a bullet meant for President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and crusaded for gun control for the rest of his life.

"Damn it, don't let the vocal minority dictate your position," he said. "Morally, it's the right thing to do."


Stephanie Kwolek was a Du Pont chemist who invented a fiber strong enough to stop a bullet. The Kevlar vest that she made possible has saved thousands of lives.

She made our world a little safer.


Ralph Baer made our world a lot more fun. He invented the popular game, Simon, and the very first video game console, which he demonstrated in 1969.

You really started something, Ralph Baer.


S. Donald Stookey devised a kind of glass that could withstand heat and cold -- strong enough to be used to make nosecones for missiles . . . and also the Corningware casserole dish.

How many millions of dinners have we enjoyed because of the ingenuity of S. Donald Stookey?

The people we lost this year left many gifts to remember them by.


Designer Massimo Vignelli left us maps, and signs, and logos -- elegant, spare, and instantly recognizable the world over.


Jerrie Mock left us a gift of derring-do. She was a housewife from Columbus, Ohio, who became the first woman ever to fly solo around the world in 1964. "It was about time a woman did it," she said.

A cheer for you, Jerrie Mock.

The models of Eileen Ford
The models of Eileen Ford 13 photos

And for you, Eileen Ford: Your Ford Modeling Agency set the standard for beauty.


Alice Coachman, you set the bar high, and sailed over it in 1948, to become the first black woman ever to win Olympic gold.

When she returned to her segregated hometown in Georgia, the mayor would not shake her hand. "It wasn't any problem for me," she said, " because I had won the thing."


George Shuba reached out HIS hand to welcome teammate Jackie Robinson home on his first day with the Brooklyn Dodgers farm team.

You had class, George Shuba.


Don Zimmer suited up for 66 seasons, as player, manager, coach and advisor for 14 teams. He LOVED baseball with a passion that never dimmed.


Au revoir to Jean Beliveau, who led his Montreal Canadians to 10 Stanley Cup championships. A great hockey player, and a true gentleman.


Thomas Menino was a great mayor, for five consecutive terms in Boston.

When the Boston Marathon bombing devastated the citizens of his beloved city, Tom Menino rose from his sickbed to speak:

"No adversity, no challenge, nothing can tear down the resilience in the heart of the city and its people."

He had a big heart.


Tom Magliozzi had a big laugh, which he shared with us, every week, on the radio, as one half of Click and Clack, the "Car Talk" guys.

Tom Magliozzi left us, laughing, this year.


Sid Ceasar, "Your Show of Shows" set the stage for most of the funny business that was to follow. Hats off to you!


And hats off to David Brenner:

"My mother on the phone, she says, 'David, we're going to give him a decent burial.' And I thought, what's an indecent burial? What, do you leave his arm out of the ground?"


And to Joan Rivers -- she was one funny lady.

"My parents had a sign up on the lawn: 'Last girl before the turnpike.'"


Good bye to Don Pardo, who introduced us to the world's funniest people every Saturday night for nearly 40 years.


One of those funny people was Jan Hooks...


Good bye to Harold Ramis, the crazy genius behind "Ghostbusters."


And Bob Hoskins, a fine actor best known for playing second banana to a cartoon.


Alfred E. Neuman became Mad Magazine's cover boy during editor Al Feldstein's 30-year reign . . . farewell to him.


And to Phyllis Dorothy James White, known to her many devoted readers as P.D. James, the Queen of Crime. "The greatest mystery of all," she said, "is the human heart."


Writer Nadine Gordimer's books explored the mysteries of the human heart in South Africa during the apartheid years . . . and she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.


Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and lots of others. The worlds he created were full of mystery and magic. His novels sold millions of copies, in dozens of languages.


Norman Bridwell enchanted generations of children with his tales of Clifford, the Big Red Dog -- stories that will continue to enchant generations to come.


Maya Angelou was a gifted storyteller and a poet.

Her voice rang out loud and clear at President Bill Clinton's first inauguration:

"History, despite its wrenching pain,
cannot be unlived,
but if faced with courage,
need not be lived again."


Good bye to Horace Silver, who coaxed a new kind of jazz out of his piano.


And thank you, Ben Bradlee, crusading editor of the Washington Post. You gave your reporters the backing they needed to break the story of Watergate.

He was a great journalist.


Howard Baker Jr. was a great Senator. He presided over the Watergate hearings with integrity and fair-mindedness. ("What did the president know, and when did he know it?")


We lost good friends, and good journalists this year: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Anja Niedringhaus, Bruce Morton, Garrick Utley, Fouad Ajami, Emerson Stone, and Richard C. Hottelet, the last of the famed "Murrow Boys," who served his profession with distinction for more than 40 years.


Ariel Sharon 1928-2014
Ariel Sharon 1928-2014 31 photos

Ariel Sharon was a fierce fighter for his country, and a champion of Israeli settlements.


"All those communities that we are building, they are not an obstacle to peace; they are obstacles to war," he once said.

In later years, as prime minister, Ariel Sharon had second thoughts, calling for settlers to withdraw from Gaza, and for Israel to pursue a more diplomatic course. He died this year, at 85. Shalom.


Maria Von Trapp died this year, at 99 -- the last of the singing siblings who fled Nazi-occupied Austria during World War II. Their story inspired "The Sound of Music."

Auf Weidersehen, Maria Von Trapp.


And Hah-go-eh-nay to Chester Nez, one of the original Navajo Code Talkers. The unbreakable military code he and his people devised helped to win World War II.

A salute to you, Chester Nez.


And to you, Louis Zamperini.

Zamperini survived a plane crash in the Pacific, and torture at the hands of the Japanese. And then, after the war, he forgave his captors.

"If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate; you're hurting yourself," Zamperini said. "It's a real healing, forgiveness."


As a POW in North Vietnam, Jeremiah Denton had the courage to blink the word "torture" in Morse code during a television interview . . . a salute to him.


And to Tomas Young, a soldier paralyzed in Iraq, who shared his own agonizing tale in a film, "Body of War." He died this year, at 34.


Pete Seeger: 1919 - 2014
Pete Seeger: 1919 - 2014 24 photos

Pete Seeger sang out for peace, for justice, and for cleaner water for most of his long life. Sail on, Pete Seeger!


Martin Litton rode the wild rapids of the Colorado River well into his 90s, and battled fiercely against dams that would tame them.

Thanks to him, the mighty Colorado moves through the Grand Canyon, wild and free.


Peter Matthiessen loved the world's wild places, and traveled to most of them -- and wrote about them with precision and beauty.


"What would you do if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?

And a note of thanks to Joe Cocker, whose voice was raw and beautiful. He helped us get by, with a little help from our friends. Good bye, dear friend.


And goodbye to Phil Everly, who rode the waves of sweet harmony with his brother, Don.


And to Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who rode the ocean's waves, joyfully, for most of his long life.

"Waves roll across 10,000 miles of ocean, and at their very end, you ride them, and so help me God, a part of the galaxy beyond our galaxy is in them," he said.


Gerry Goffin, your star burned bright, and sweet. Your words, full of love and longing, stay with us, in the beautiful songs you wrote.


The people who left us this year gave us so much love, and so much laughter, so many gifts to remember them by that we can scarcely count them all -- but we do think of them all, and thank them all, for gracing us with their presence, and making our world a little brighter, for their being here.


sm-obit-in-memoriam-620.jpg
CBS News

"Sunday Morning" also remembers:

Top row, left to right: Cream bass player Jack Bruce; Paul Revere, of Paul Revere and the Raiders; Joan Mondale, wife of former vice president Walter Mondale; pioneering black singing cowboy Herb Jeffries; Eduard Shevardnadze, foreign minister of the U.S.S.R.; Jim Hellwig, a.k.a. Ultimate Warrior; designer L'Wren Scott; blues guitarist Johnny Winter; "Honeymooners" actress Sheila MacCrae.

Second row, left to right: "Godfather" cinematographer Gordon Willis; Jim Lange, host of "The Dating Game"; Reagan White House press spokesman Larry Speakes; NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wen Jian Lie; Tommy Ramone of The Ramones; "Gone With the Wind" actress Alicia Rhett; crooner Jerry Vale; baseball Hall of Famer and Mets booth announcer Ralph Kiner; and singer and songwriter Bobby Womack.

Third row, left to right: Chinese martial arts film impresario Sir Run Run Shaw; Sam Suratt, CBS News archivist; former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry (top); devoted "Sunday Morning" viewer Margaret Mary Welke (bottom); saxophonist Bobby Keys; DJ Frankie Knuckles; actor-director Sir Richard Attenborough; Alice Herz-Sommer, 110-year-old Holocaust survivor; Manhattan Transfer founder Tim Hauser; biographer and "Bartlett's Quotations" editor Justin Kaplan; actress Arlene Martel (Spock's bride-to-be on "Star Trek"); writer-director Paul Mazursky ("An Unmarried Woman").

Fourth row, left to right: Singer and songwriter Jimmy Ruffin; radio DJ Casey Kasem (top); basketball player Tom Gola (bottom); songwriter and author Mary Rodgers; Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll (top); conductor Lorin Maazel (bottom); Fumiko Hayashida, Japanese woman interned during World War II; former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley (top), Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, last surviving crew member of Enola Gay (bottom); country singer George Hamilton IV; Nancy Teel, artist; Devo guitarist Bob Casale; jazz bassist Charlie Haden; and Hall of Fame Batting Champ Tony Gwynn.


"Sunday Morning" would like to thank:

  • The family of Ralph Baer, for going the extra mile to bring Ralph Baer's inventions to our studio.
  • The family of Martin Litton, for their photographs.
  • Footage of Martin Litton shooting the Colorado Rapids came from Mark Fraser and James Fox's excellent documentary, "The Good Fight: The Martin Litton Story."
  • The Hagley Museum and Library, in Wilmington, Del., curators of the Stephanie Kwolek Collection, for their generosity and care; and to curator Debra Hughes, for going the extra mile to bring Kevlar to New York City.
  • The Strong Museum (also known as the National Museum of Play) in Rochester, N.Y., for their help in honoring Ralph Baer.
  • Jeff Dymowski and Creative Photographers, Inc. (Cpi Syndication) provided Phil Stern's memorable images.
  • The Thronateeska Heritage Center, in Albany, Ga., for Alice Coachman newspaper clips.
  • Footage of Boston Mayo Thomas Menino provided by David Burt and City Of Boston Cable.
  • Photos of Al Feldstein provided by DC Comics.
  • Thanks to Stourwater Pictures
  • And we would be remiss if we didn't thank Bill deCicco and Retro Video of Glendale, Calif., for their help and generosity every year in honoring the great musicians who died.

First published on December 28, 2014 / 10:14 AM EST

© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.