Celebrity deaths of 2022: Riky Rick, Patrick Shai, Anne Heche, and more

Actress Dame Olivia Newton-John, singer Meat Loaf, actor Patrick Shai, rapper Riky Rick and media personality Kuli Roberts were among the stars who died in 2022.

Here we look back at those who have died and how they will be remembered.

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A tribute to famous faces we’ve lost in 2022:

Sir Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier, Hollywood’s first major Black movie star who led the fight for racial equality in film many decades before the #OscarsSoWhite and Black Lives Matter movements died on 6 January 2022 at the age of 94.

Meat Loaf

American singer and actor Meat Loaf – born Marvin Lee Aday – passed away at the age of 74 on 20 January 2022.

ALSO SEE: ‘Bat Out of Hell’ singer Meat Loaf dies aged 74

Patrick Shai

The South African actor, best known for his roles in shows such as Soul City, Generations, 7de Laan and Zero Tolerance passed away at the age of 65 on 22 January. He committed suicide.

Kuli Roberts

Media personality and actress Kuli Roberts died at the age of 49 on 10 February. She cut her teeth as a fashion and beauty tabloid journalist before becoming an editor for several publications, a television presenter and later an actress.

ALSO SEE: Kuli Roberts remembered as an honest, irreverent trailblazer

Riky Rick

South African rapper, songwriter, singer, composer, actor, entrepreneur and fashion designer, Rikhado Makhado, who went by the stage name Riky Rick died on 23 February at the age of 34.

The rapper who was very open about battling depression took his own life.

Shane Warne

Australian cricketer Shane Warne passed away at the age of 52 on 4 March 2022. The autopsy ruled that the cricketer died from natural causes after having reportedly complained of chest pains.

Taylor Hawkins

The American musician, who was best known as the drummer in the rock band Foo Fighters passed away at the age of 50 on 25 March.

Deborah Fraser

Legendary gospel musician Dr Deborah Fraser passed away at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital on Sunday, 15 May.

Dr Fraser, who had released albums such as Giloria, Isililo, Umsamaria, Udlalile Ngabantu, Thanksgiving, Awusenasabelo, Umqhele, and Uhambo – suffered a stroke. She had also been battling diabetes and suffered a setback in February. Dr Fraser was confined to a wheelchair at the time.

Jamie Bartlett

Former Rhythm City actor Jamie Bartlett passed away on 23 May at the age of 55. Bartlett died in his sleep and his cause of death was listed as “cardiac arrest.”

Olivia Newton-John

The British-born Australian singer and actress was best known for her role as Sandy in the hit musical Grease. She passed away on 8 August at the age of 73. While her cause of death was not revealed, the 73-year-old Newton-John had spent three decades trying to — as she put it — “win over” breast cancer. 

ALSO SEE: Olivia Newton-John to get state memorial in Australia

Anne Heche

The American actress died at the age of 53 on 8 August after suffering a brain injury in a fiery car crash in Los Angeles.

Heche came to recognition portraying twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love on the soap opera Another World, which won her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards.

Queen Elizabeth II

The 96-year-old monarch died at her Balmoral estate in Scotland on 8 September. Her death certificate later revealed that she “died of old age”.  The queen marked her Platinum Jubilee year in 2022, marking 70 years since she succeeded her father king George VI in 1952.

ALSO SEE: Royal news: Harry and Meghan’s Netflix doc breaks records

Coolio

Coolio, the US rapper best known for the chart-topping 1995 song Gangsta’s Paradise died at the age of 59 on 28 September. The rapper soared to global fame in 1995, when he released the song for the soundtrack of the film Dangerous Minds that starred Michelle Pfeiffer.

Dame Angela Lansbury

Actress Angela Lansbury, who became a household name through her role as a writer-detective in Murder, She Wrote, died on 11 October.

In a career spanning more than seven decades, she appeared in about 60 films and starred in some of Broadway’s biggest musicals. 

She snapped up six Golden Globes, five Tony Awards for her work in American theatre and, in 2013, an honorary lifetime Oscar.

Robbie Coltrane

Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, died at the age of 72 on 14 October.

He also played a former KGB agent-turned-Russian mafia boss in two James Bond films — “Goldeneye” (1995) and “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) — with Pierce Brosnan.

*Compiled by Xanet Scheepers