They go in threes. They always go in threes.
2023, though, was a bit different. We lost some musical and entertainment giants whose gifts, greatness and accomplishments were so substantial that they defy categorization.
First, a farewell to this magnificent seven: Burt Bacharach, Jeff Beck, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, David Crosby, Gordon Lightfoot and Tina Turner.
Many more, however, went in threes as usual …
ABA alumni: Henry Logan (also first Black athlete at Western Carolina), George McGinnis (ABA all-time team), Cincy Powell (two-time all-star)
Adventurers: David Kirke (first bungee jumper, 1979), Peter Tarnoff (diplomat planned Iran escape that inspired “Argo”), Don Walsh (deep sea explorer)
Artists I saw: David Lindley (2013, 2016), Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd, 2001, 2003), Gary Wright (1978) … also Jimmy Buffett (1978, 1992, 1993), David Crosby (2003), Tina Turner (1983, 1987)
Beatlemania: Caroline Buckman (studio violist who played on Beatles’ latest record, “Now and Then”), Sandy Farina (Strawberry Fields in “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” film), Chas Newby (briefly the Beatles’ bassist in December 1960)
Big men: John Brockington (NFL), Frank Howard (MLB), Willis Reed (NBA)
B movies: Ricou Browning (Gill Man in “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1954), Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane in “Superman and the Mole Men,” 1951), Bert I. Gordon (wrote and directed giant monster films from the ’50s to the ’70s)
Buffett and his sidekicks: Jimmy Buffett, Charlie Munger (investor Warren Buffett’s right-hand man), Greg “Fingers” Taylor (Coral Reefer Band harmonica player)
By the time we got to Woodstock: John Morris (production coordinator and stage voice), Robbie Robertson (The Band), Bobbi Urcoline (hippie girl in blanket on LP cover)
Cartoonists: Sam Gross, Al Jaffee, Edward Koren
Citius, altius, fortius: Tori Bowie (sprinter, 2016), Tom Courtney (middle distance, 1956), Jim Hines (sprinter, 1968)
Comic books: Rachel Pollack (created first trans superhero in “Doom Patrol”), Ted Richards (underground comix), John Romita Sr. (“Amazing Spider-Man”)
Culture warriors: Pat Robertson, James Watt, Donald Wildmon
Dazzling designers: Roger Kastel (“Jaws” and “The Empire Strikes Back” film posters), Bruce McCall (retrofuturistic pieces for “National Lampoon”), Jamie Reid (Sex Pistols logo, “God Save the Queen” single cover)
Detectives: Richard Belzer (“Homicide: Life on the Street,” “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”), Andre Braugher (“Homicide”), Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”)
Fiddlers on the roof: Sheldon Harnick (lyricist), Walter Mirisch (film’s uncredited executive producer), Chaim Topol (played lead on Broadway and in film)
Good trouble: Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Norman Lear (TV and film producer, activist), Victor Navasky (“The Nation,” “Naming Names”)
Hasta la bye bye: Carolyn Bryant Donham (Emmett Till’s accuser), Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Henry Kissinger (war criminal)
Hammered by Hank: Bob Bolin (four of Hank Aaron’s 755 home runs), Roger Craig (pitching in his 2nd career game in 1955, a solo shot), Dick Drago (Aaron’s last career home run in 1976)
Founding fathers: Myles Goodwin (April Wine), Denny Laine (Moody Blues, Wings), Tom Verlaine (Television)
Great American women: Rosalynn Carter, Sandra Day O’Connor (first woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice), Pat Schroeder (women’s and family rights pioneer)
Hall of Famers: Dick Butkus, Bobby Hull, Brooks Robinson
Houston, we’ve got it: Mary Cleave (shuttle astronaut, climate change tracker), Firouz Naderi (led NASA Mars rover missions), Virginia Norwood (“mother of Landsat” satellite land imaging)
Inspirational: Ady Barkan (ALS patient, health care activist), Rick Hoyt (a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, his dad pushed him in a race wheelchair in 32 Boston Marathons), Donald Triplett (first person diagnosed with autism)
Inventive: Dennis Austin (PowerPoint), William P. Murphy Jr. (vinyl blood bags), John Warnock (PDF documents)
It’s a drag: Walter Cole (Darcelle XV, world’s oldest drag queen), Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Paul O’Grady (Lily Savage, then a mainstream British performer)
It’s complicated: Robert Blake (“Baretta”), Jim Brown, Bob Knight
Jazz men: Richard Davis (bass), Redd Holt (drums), Wayne Shorter (sax)
Jazz pianists: Carla Bley, Ahmad Jamal, Les McCann
Kids, once: Lance Kerwin (“James at 15”), Lisa Loring (“The Addams Family”), Adam Rich (“Eight is Enough”)
Kid stuff: Marty Krofft (“The Banana Splits,” “H.R. Pufnstuf”), Lloyd Morrisett (“Sesame Street” co-founder), Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman)
Last one standing: Richard Barancik (last of the Monuments Men of World War II), Ben Ferencz (last prosecutor from the Nuremberg war crime trials), Traute Lafrenz (last survivor of White Rose Nazi resistance in Germany)
A league of their own: Wilma Briggs (outfielder, 2nd on All-American Girls Professional Baseball League career home run list), Jean Faut (pitcher, two-time player of the year, only pro player to throw two perfect games), Helen Nordquist (outfielder, led league in assists in 1951)
Let’s dance: Arthur Duncan (Lawrence Welk tap dancer), Len Goodman (“Dancing with the Stars” judge), Maurice Hines (“The Cotton Club”)
Let’s eat: Bob Born (“Father of Peeps”), Bill Granger (Australian chef created avocado toast), Bob Richards (first athlete on a Wheaties box)
May the road rise to meet you: Sean Keane (Chieftains fiddler), Shane McGowan (Pogues), Sinead O’Connor
M*A*S*H roll call: Judy Farrell (Nurse Able), Eileen Saki (ran Rosie’s Bar), Burt Young (enlisted man who wanted to marry a Korean woman and take her and their child home, 1973)
Music by design: Justin Bartlett (metal album cover illustrator), Ian Emes (animated sequences for Pink Floyd shows), Bruce Gowers (music video director, “Bohemian Rhapsody”)
NBA wasn’t enough: Bud Grant (also CFL, NFL player, CFL, NFL coach), Dick Groat (also MLB player), Cotton Nash (also ABA, MLB player)
Need for speed: Craig Breedlove (five-time world land speed record holder), Gil de Ferran (Indy cars), Cale Yarborough (NASCAR)
Never forget: Damas Gisimba (saved more than 400 Rwandans during 1994 Tutsi genocide), Ben Helfgott (Holocaust survivor, British Olympic weightlifter), Hughes Van Ellis (youngest known survivor of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre)
The next generation: Robbie Knievel, Lisa Marie Presley, Otis Redding III
Notorious: Robert Hanssen (FBI agent turned Russian spy), James Lewis (1982 Tylenol poisoning suspect), Kevin Mitnick (hacker)
Now, your host: Bob Barker (“Truth or Consequences,” “The Price is Right,”) Jerry Springer, Mark Zelich (longtime news/sports anchor at WSAU-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin, my hometown)
Oh, Canada: Chad Allan (Guess Who founder, singer), Robbie Bachman (Bachman-Turner Overdrive drummer), Tim Bachman (BTO guitarist)
One-hit wonders: Daniel Boone (“Beautiful Sunday,” 1972), Bobby Caldwell (“What You Won’t Do For Love,” 1978), Jerry Samuels (Napoleon XIV, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” 1966)
Original members: Colin Burgess (AC/DC drummer, eventually succeeded by Phil Rudd), Laura Lynch (Dixie Chicks lead singer/bassist, succeeded by Natalie Maines), Anthony “Top” Topham (Yardbirds guitarist, succeeded by Eric Clapton)
Oscar nominees: Melinda Dillon (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” 1977; “Absence of Malice,” 1981), Ryan O’Neal (“Love Story,” 1970), Tom Wilkinson (“In the Bedroom,” 2001; “Michael Clayton,” 2007)
Oscar winners: William Friedkin (director, “The French Connection,” 1972), Bo Goldman (screenplay, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 1975; “Melvin and Howard,” 1980), Glenda Jackson (“Women in Love,” 1970; “A Touch of Class,” 1973)
Popular pianists: Max Morath (ragtime), Peter Nero (jazz), George Winston (New Age)
#Resist: Leon Gautier (France’s last D-Day survivor), Adolfo Kaminsky (French Resistance forger who helped save 14,000 Jews), Simone Segouin (French Resistance fighter as a teenager)
Radio, East Coast: Dick Biondi (WLS, WCFL, Chicago), Jerry Blavat (Philadelphia), Lin Brehmer (WXRT, Chicago)
Radio, West Coast: Jim Ladd (Los Angeles), Lewis Largent (KROQ, Los Angeles), Dusty Street (San Francisco, Los Angeles)
R&B legends: Toussaint McCall, Huey “Piano” Smith, Billy “The Kid” Emerson
Record men: Clarence Avant (“The Black Godfather,” Sussex Records), Jerry Moss (A&M Records), Seymour Stein (Sire Records)
Session men: Dennis Budimir (Wrecking Crew guitarist), Bobby Eli (MFSB guitarist), Floyd Newman (Mar-Keys, Memphis Horns sax)
Sex symbols: Gina Lollobrigida, Stella Stevens, Raquel Welch
Sitcom royalty: Matthew Perry (“Friends”), Suzanne Somers (“Three’s Company”), Cindy Williams (“Laverne and Shirley”)
’60s fashionistas: Jane Birkin (singer, actress, style icon), Mary Quant (British miniskirt designer), Paco Rabanne (futuristic Spanish designer)
’60s TV legends: George Maharis (“Route 66”), David McCallum (“The Man from U.N.C.L.E”), Tom Smothers (“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”)
Songwriters: Bob Feldman, Barrett Strong, Cynthia Weil
Soul brothers: Fuzzy Haskins (Parliaments, Parliament, Funkadelic), Rudolph Isley (Isley Brothers), Chuck Jackson
Soul sisters: Vicki Anderson (James Brown Revue), Fanita James (Blossoms), Jean Knight
Space, the final frontier: Frank Borman (Gemini 7, Apollo 8), Walter Cunningham (Apollo 7), Ken Mattingly (helped save Apollo 13 crew, then flew on Apollo 16)
Sports innovators: Dick Fosbury (high jump’s Fosbury Flop), Homer Jones (New York Giants receiver did first spike celebration, 1965), Art McNally (NFL officials’ instant replay)
That one thing: Ed Ames (actor/singer’s tomahawk throw on “The Tonight Show,” 1965), Newton Minow (FCC chairman declared television “a vast wasteland,” 1961), Harry Whittington (accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney while hunting, 2006)
Their beats go on: DJ Casper (“Cha-Cha Slide”), David Jolicoeur (Trugoy the Dove of De La Soul), Magoo (Timbaland & Magoo)
Three innings of Vida Blue: Sal Bando (his Oakland A’s teammate, 1969-76), Russell Batiste Jr. (drummer in the electronic jazz-funk tri0 Vida Blue), Vida Blue
Trailblazers: Zandra Flemister (first Black woman to be a Secret Service agent), Hettie Simmons Love (one of the first Black women to earn an Ivy League MBA), Larry “Gator” Rivers (helped integrate Georgia high school basketball, then played for Harlem Globetrotters)
Vegas guys: Doyle Brunson (poker champion), Pat Cooper (comedian), Shecky Greene (comedian)
War’s absurdities: Alan Arkin (“Catch-22”), Frederic Forrest (“Apocalypse Now”), Yoshio Yoda (“Fuji” on “McHale’s Navy”)
War heroes: Bob Pardo (Vietnam War pilot whose Pardo’s Push moved wingman’s badly damaged fighter jet to friendly airspace, 1967), Brian Shul (Vietnam fighter pilot, SR-71 Blackbird spy pilot), Maureen Sweeney (Irish weather watcher whose forecast prompted one-day postponement of D-Day invasion, 1944)
Women’s sports pioneers: Marlene Hagge-Vossler (LPGA co-founder at 16), Lisa Lyon (bodybuilding), Betsy Rawls (early LPGA star)
World music: Astrud Gilberto (Brazil), Rita Lee (Os Mutantes, Brazil), Sixto Rodriguez (dropped in Detroit in the early ’70s, he became a star in South Africa and Australia)
Wrestlers: “Sheik” Adnan Al-Kaissey (aka Adnan Al-Kaissie), Superstar Billy Graham (aka Wayne Coleman), the Iron Sheik (aka Hossein Vaziri)
Wisconsin progressive legends: Ada Deer (Indigenous activist), Tony Earl (governor), Herb Kohl (U.S. senator)
Gone in Threes, the band
Front men: Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth), Terry Kirkman (The Association), Dwight Twilley (Dwight Twilley Band)
Guitar: Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake), Scott Kempner (Dictators), Sheldon Reynolds (Earth, Wind & Fire, Commodores)
Bass: Randy Meisner (Eagles), Andy Rourke (Smiths), Sweet Charles Sherrell (J.B.’s)
Drums: George “Funky” Brown (Kool & The Gang), Jim Gordon (Derek and the Dominos, session man, influential hip-hop drum break on Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache,” 1973), Teresa “Nervosa” Taylor (Butthole Surfers)
The last word
Some memorable farewells
Bruce Adams, journalist and a friend of friends, going in style.
Frank Bennett, White Sox fan who’d leave his daughters with a hot dog vendor or organist Nancy Faust while he went to the can.
Donald Kiey, Wisconsin dentist who once had a surreal Canadian camping trip.
Jim Zima, my friend, a longtime co-worker and a world-class rascal. (A couple of us arrived late for his wake, but the party wasn’t over. The family invited us over to Jim’s basement bar for some rather tall whiskey old-fashioneds.)
Best first line of an obit this year: “World Traveler Myrtle T. Ripley, 93, Green Bay, ran out of gas on Tuesday, July 4, 2023.”
The stunner
There always is one death that takes your breath away. My friend Tony Drews was one of the kids who lived across the street. We played a ton of baseball, basketball and football in our neighborhood while growing up. Good dude. Gone too soon.
Noteworthy
This is not intended to be an inclusive list of all who died in 2023. This is my highly subjective list. Yours will be different.
The credits
Each year, I use these sources for this list.
We start with Wikipedia’s month-by-month lists of prominent deaths. Then we check with our friend Gunther at Any Major Dude, who compiles lists of notable music deaths each month. Each of those is more thorough than this roundup. Highly recommended.
Then we go through a year of Mojo magazines, whose “Real Gone” and “They Also Served” features are wonderful. Other solid sources include my friend Len O’Kelly’s year-end post at his 45 Ruminations Per Megabyte blog, News from ME (the blog by comics and animation writer Mark Evanier) and the Washington Post.
Previous “Gone in threes” entries
2022 * 2021 * 2020 * 2019 * 2018 * 2017 * 2016
2015 * 2014 * 2013 * 2012 * 2011 * 2010
Plus similar year-end posts in 2008 and 2009.
(If you wonder why this always lags the new year by a few days, it’s because some deaths aren’t announced immediately. For example, Cindy Morgan — Lacey Underall in “Caddyshack” — found dead on Dec. 30 but the news delayed a week. This new year is but six days old and already we’re going forward without Soul … David Soul.)