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Great lives and world-changers: Celebrities who died in 2017

The German poet Ludwig Jakobowski put it best: "Don't cry because they are past! Smile because they were!" The year 2017 was, if you follow that advice, a year of smiles.

Clockwise from top left: Tom Petty, Roy Halladay, Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Gregory
Clockwise from top left: Tom Petty, Roy Halladay, Mary Tyler Moore and Dick GregoryRead moreStaff / Associated Press

Poet Ludwig Jakobowski put it best: "Don't cry because they are past! /  Smile because they were!"

The year 2017 was, if you follow that advice, a year of smiles, as we pondered the great lives brought to a close, world-changers who sang, invented, acted, pitched, wrote, and did so many things that escorted us to better lives. So, as babies are being born (this very minute, perhaps) who will grow up to change the future world, we remember a few of those who remade our present one.

Newsmakers

Philadelphia-born, Temple-educated Edie Windsor, 88, whose Supreme Court case was a breakthrough in the fight for same-sex marriage. Zhou Youguang, 111, created the Pinyin system that brought Chinese into the Roman alphabet. Arthur Janov, founder of primal scream therapy, was 93. Hugh Hefner, 91, brought the men's magazine into the mainstreamJoan Tisch, arts patron, philanthropist, and sports club owner, was 90. Stan Neston, 89, created G.I. Joe. Charles Manson, 83, masterminded the horrific Tate-Labianca murders of 1969. Adnan Khashoggi, 81, was the ur-type of the flamboyant, billionaire international arms dealer. Omar Abdel Rahman, 78, was convicted of leading the 1993 bombing plot in New York. Christine Keeler, 75, was at the center of the 1963 Profumo scandal in the U.K.  Norma Leah McCorvey Nelson, 69, was "Jane Roe" in the epoch-defining 1973 Roe v. Wade case. Liz Smith, 94, would have reported on them all.

Sports

The Phils lost quite a few: Jim Bunning, 85, a Hall of Famer who pitched a perfect game, had a long career in Congress for Kentucky. Beloved Roy "Doc" Halladay, 40, helped get the Phils to the playoffs in 2010-11 (remember the playoffs?). Dallas Green, 82, managed the 1980 World Championship team. World Series-winning catcher Darren Daulton, 55, died after battle with brain cancer. Rollie Massimino, 82, coached Villanova's first NCAA title basketball teamDan Rooney, 84, was a longtime owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and later an ambassador to Ireland. Ed Garvey, 76, led two NFL strikes. Tennis star Jana Notovná, 49, won at Wimbledon.

Politics and society

John Anderson, third-party candidate in the 1980 presidential race, was 95. The National Organization for Women saluted its second leader, Aileen Hernandez, 90. Zbigniew Brzezinski, 89, was a counselor to presidents and a national security adviser. Helmut Kohl, 87, was one of Germany's great reunifiers. Longtime New Mexico senator Pete Domenici was 85, as was longtime civil rights champion Roger Wilkins. The United States had to go to war to oust Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, 83. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 82, was a canny moderate leader who helped shape post-revolutionary Iran. Maverick civil rights figure Roy Innis was 82. And Martin McGuinness, 66, once an IRA and Sinn Féin man, became a politician of peace between the Irelands.

Business

Billionaire financier David Rockefeller, 101, helmed the Chase Manhattan Corp. Waffle House thanked its two founders: Thomas Forkner, 98, and Joseph Rogers, 97. Masaya Nakamura, 91, ran the company that created Pac-Man and that drove the arcade game craze. Brenda Barnes, 63, the Pepsi exec who left her position to raise a family, prompted a national conversation on how much of "it all" women can have.

Film

Jerry Lewis was 91; now there's hilarity in heaven. Also 91 was Robert Hardy, who played Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films. Splendid Emmanuelle Riva, 89, was unforgettable in Hiroshima, Mon Amour, and, 53 years later, Amour. Roger Moore, 89, was perhaps the suavest of a suave bunch, the filmic James Bonds. Martin Landau, 89, won an Oscar and two Golden Globes. Chuck Low, also 89, was a frequent presence in Robert De Niro films, including Goodfellas. Fabulous John Hurt, 77, was great as Caligula in I, Claudius, great in The Elephant Man, and greatly violated in the first Alien film. John Heard, 72, was the dad of the family in Home Alone. Stephen Furst, 63, achieved immortality as Flounder in Animal House. Charlie Murphy, 57, brother of Eddie, was a talented comedian and screenwriter. And Jonathan Demme, 73, put Philadelphia on the big screen.

TV

Conservative champion Kate O'Beirne was 67, and commentator Alan Colmes, 66, was the brave liberal mascot on many a Fox show. Fresh-faced Bill Paxton (Big Love) was 61, as was Miguel Ferrer (NCIS: Los Angeles). Sweet Erin Moran of Happy Days was 56. Nelsan Ellis (True Blood) was 39. Reality-TV pioneer Danny Dias (Road Rules) was 34; Stevie Ryan, a pioneer YouTube celebrity with Stevie TV, was 33; and Michael Nance (Bachelorette) was 31.

Music

Tell Tchaikovsky the news: Chuck Berry, 90, helped take rhythm and blues into rock and roll, and inspired generations of rockers, the Beatles, the Stones, anyone who wants to play guitar like ringing a bell. Like him, Fats Domino, 89, led the first generation of rock stars; he injected his songs with New Orleans barrelhouse and blues. Singer, TV star (Touched by an Angel), and minister Della Reese was 86. Ultimate teen heartthrob David Cassidy, 67, fronted the Partridge family (and Tiger Beat magazine). And Glen Campbell, 81, was a vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire, Wrecking Crew member, Beach Boy, and Wichita lineman; you'll hear him singing in the wire.

The marvelous, flexible voice of Al Jarreau, 76, helped bring jazz colors to pop music. Cuba Gooding Sr., 72, sang "Everybody Plays the Fool" with the Main Ingredient. Guitarist J. Geils was 71. The Allman Brothers gave a thumbs-up to two founders, both 69: Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman. And speaking of jazz colorings, Walter Becker, 67, one-half of the duo who brought you the inimitable Steely Dan, has reeled in the years.

Beloved across generations, Tom Petty, 66, made American rock music for 40 years, never backing down. AC/DC cofounder Malcolm Young was 64. Philly's Joni Sledge, 60, now leads the celestial host in singing "We Are Family," and Chris Cornell, 52, joins in with one of the finest voices of his rock generation. Rapper Prodigy of Mobb Deep was 42, and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park was 41.

Literature

Among the poets, John Ashbery, 90, was considered by many the most influential U.S. poet of his time. Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott, 87, was an accomplished master of form and music. Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 84, a poet who wrote of passion and freedom, was something of an international rock star. Another Nobelist, Liu Xiaobo, 61, was a civil rights activist in China, imprisoned for his work. Now freedom is his.

Among the prose stylists, open wide the gates for John Berger, 90, who mastered everything from art criticism to journalism to screenplays; William Peter Blatty, 89, who gave us the head-turning novel The Exorcist; Brian Aldiss, 92, dean of speculative fiction; Robert M. Pirsig, 88, who did Zen and repaired motorcycles; Robert Silvers, 87, cofounder of the New York Review of Books; Colin Dexter, 86, who created Inspector Morse; Kate Millet, 82, whose Sexual Politics helped ignite the late-20th-century women's movement; and Robert James Waller, 77, who wrote The Bridges of Madison County. And Sam Shepard, 73, actor, musician, novelist, and playwright, all but created a genre of outsider American theater.

Among journalists, hail, Simeon Booker, 99, civil rights reporter and the first African American journalist hired at the Washington Post. Longtime New York reporter and TV guy Gabe Pressman was 93. Critic and essayist Nat Hentoff, 91, helped shape the tastes of his times. Jimmy Breslin, 88, was a reporter, a nonfiction writer of astonishing output and impact, and a nationally read columnist. S.I. Newhouse owned the New Yorker, Vogue, and other prominent publications. And TV anchor Michele Marsh was 63.

Science

Mildred Dresselhaus, 86, was an eminent physicist, and the face of a GE ad on TV asking, "What if female scientists were celebrities?" Well, yeah: What if? Marian C. Diamond, 90, professor of anatomy, studied Einstein's brain, and, against much male-dominated skepticism, promoted the truth: That the brain can keep developing and changing throughout life. And thank you, Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, 40. In becoming the first woman to win the prestigious Field Prize, you proved that (1) women can do math, thanks; and (3) in the end, it all adds up.