Goodbye to Loni Anderson at the age of 79.
The actress was best remembered for her role as "Jennifer Marlowe" on "WKRP in Cincinnati," but was also a television and movie staple for many years.
Anderson didn't want to play Jennifer as the typical dumb blonde, and the character was written as the smartest employee of the radio station.
Her marriage to Burt Reynolds was a tabloid sensation, and the two starred in "Stroker Ace", a film that was a commercial flop but has always been a cult classic that consistently makes me laugh.
Reynolds owned a small stake in the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits, and one of the promotions used by the Bandits was a poster giveaway of Anderson in Bandits gear.
Goodbye to Bill Moyers at the age of 91.
Moyers came to public prominence in various positions within the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, including chief of staff (unofficially), press secretary, and through his significant involvement in the creation of Public Broadcasting (PBS) and the Peace Corps.
Moyers would remain a regular staple on PBS throughout the years, hosting various programs, winning multiple awards, and being inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
Moyers was the final surviving person in the famous airplane photo at the Dallas airport, with Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office inside Air Force One.
Goodbye to Jim Lovell at the age of 97.
The Gemini and Apollo veteran may have (arguably) the most remembered astronaut outside of Neil Armstrong, and was the first person to fly into space four times.
Lovell flew into space on Gemini 7 (1965), Gemini 12 (1966), Apollo 8 (1968), and Apollo 13 (1970)
Of the twenty-four astronauts to have orbited the moon, Lovell was the first ( John Young and Gene Cernan were the others) to make a return trip, but due to mechanical issues on Apollo 13, he was the only returnee not to land on the moon.
Only five Apollo astronauts who traveled to the moon remain living. Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke, Dave Scott, and Jack Schmidt walked on the moon while Fred Haise orbited with Lovell on Apollo 13.
Goodbye to Polly Holliday at the age of 88.
A veteran actor, Holliday received her breakout role in the 1970s CBS comedy "Alice," with her character "Flo" becoming more popular than the lead, Linda Lavin.
Flo was spun off into its own series after four seasons on "Alice" but was canceled after two seasons.
Holliday's Flo introduced the phrase "Kiss My Grits" into the American vernacular, which carries on to a degree even today.
Goodbye to Bobby Hart at the age of 86.
Bobby Hart may have been more influential as a songwriter than as a performer, but if you grew up loving 1960s situation comedies (and I did), you knew Hart and his partner Tommy Boyce from their appearances on shows like I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched.
To my generation (after their first run but before the explosion of cable), appearing on those shows might have been more important in keeping their name alive than having actual hits.
Boyce and Hart's biggest hit was "I wonder what she's doing tonight," which reached as high as eighth on the charts in 1967, but as songwriters, they wrote several of the Monkees' hits, including "Last Train to Clarksville" and Hart co-wrote "Hurt So Bad", a huge hit for Little Anthony and the Imperials.
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