Celebrities Who Passed Away in 2007

Liz Claiborne, Kurt Vonnegut, and Deborah Kerr are some of the celebrities who passed away during 2007. Anna Nicole Smith and Pavarotti are some of the more notable deaths. Anna Nicole Smith was thrust into the limelight at an early age and delved into drugs as an escape. Art felt a great loss as American Liz Claiborne, who left a mark on the world of fashion, and Italian sculptor, Gianfranco Ferre, also passed away.

The film industry lost its share of celebrities. The likes of Deborah Kerr, the Scottish born actress who epitomized elegance in her performance as Anna Leonowens in “The King and I.” Robert Goulet, a smooth tuxedo clad baritone, was also lost. Director Ingmar Bergman, who gave us the masterpiece “The Seventh Seal” was another one of those whose bodies left us with only their immortal works to remember them. Also among the losses for the year 2007 were foreign filmmakers Ousmane Smebene of Senegal who gained honors “Moolaade” and Michelangelo Antonioni, who explored alienation in “L’Avventura.”

Opera was not immune to the touch of death as singers Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills joined the ranks of voices to be heard no more, except in recordings. Drummer Max Roach, a genius in the jazz world passed away. Also, Igor Moiseyev, who delivered a Russian Dance troupe to worldwide audiences, also passed away in 2007.

The literary world said goodbye to two icons of their world, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut. “The Naked and the Dead” drew on Mailer’s war service and helped him make a name for himself. He followed up during the Vietnam era with “The Armies of the Night,” which won a Pulitzer. Kurt Vonnegut also drew on his military experience as a POW during the 1945 Allied bombing of Dresden, Germany to write “Slaughterhouse-Five” in 1969.