TV Stars Who Died In 2024 And No One Noticed

From sitcoms to dramas to talk shows to news programs, there are a lot of different styles of TV, and what they all have in common is the need for plenty of on-camera talent. While the small screen makes superstars out of a lucky handful of performers, actors, hosts, and anchors, there are so many more who make a nice, modest career for themselves just doing their job, making good, memorable, or important television. The disparity between those strata is made especially clear when a TV star dies. Social media and celebrity news outlets can speak of nothing else for a few days.

Meanwhile, there are all those mid-level stars, like character actors with familiar faces but not necessarily well-known names, or people who retired from acting long ago and may have been forgotten by the public at large. When those actors die, their deaths don't necessarily generate many, if any, headlines in the entertainment news sector. Across the cultural landscape, many stars died in 2024 and nobody seemed to notice. Here are some of the most recognizable, well-liked, and iconic performers with careers most associated with television, who died in 2024, and whose deaths were largely overlooked.

First a singer and an actor who appeared briefly on many TV shows in the 1950s and early 1960s, Peter Marshall found his show business niche as a game show host with the 1966 debut of "The Hollywood Squares" on NBC's daytime lineup. Over 15 years, he became the archetypal cool and witty game show host, palling around with celebrities on the comedic quiz series and fielding some of the most bizarre answers ever given by game show contestants.

Marshall won the Daytime Emmy for best game show host twice and parlayed his goodwill and familiarity with the public into a revival of his acting career in the '70s and '80s. He showed up for episodes here and there of "Lou Grant," "Fantasy Island," "WKRP in Cincinnati," and "The Love Boat." He'd continue to act on television throughout the '90s, often playing a variation of himself, and hosting and guesting on lots more game shows, including "Fantasy," "Yahtzee," "Family Feud," and a "Hollywood Squares" revival.

On August 15, 2024, Marshall's family issued a statement to CBS News, confirming that the 98-year-old game show host, actor, and singer had died that morning. Marshall's kidneys fatally failed, and he died at his Los Angeles home.

While the name and face of Rachael Lillis might not be instantly recognizable, her work certainly is to multiple generations of kids who grew up watching TV and enjoying Japanese animation and video games. In the original, English-language dub of the first "Pokemon" series from the 1990s, Lillis voiced protagonist trainer Misty, as well as villainous Team Rocket member Jessie, and numerous pocket monsters, including the hypnotically musical Jigglypuff. In addition to more than 400 "Pokemon" episodes and various "Pokemon" spinoffs, Lillis provided voice work for dozens of other English versions of Japanese animated projects and worked on games like "Lego Jurassic World," "Super Smash Bros." and " Pac-Man" titles, and notably played Faragonda in the U.S. version of "Winx Club."

In May 2024, Lillis received a breast cancer diagnosis. Just three months later, she died from complications of the disease, the death announced by Lillis's friend and longtime "Pokemon" co-star Veronica Taylor (Ash). "Rachael was an extraordinary talent, a bright light that shone through her voice whether speaking or singing," Taylor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Lillis was 55 years old.

Known mostly for his TV work in the '80s, '90s, and beyond, John Aprea first made an impact in the 1974 Oscar-winner "The Godfather Part II" as young gangster Sal Tessio, cast after narrowly losing the lead role of Michael Corleone to Al Pacino in the original "The Godfather." From 1987 to 1995, Aprea recurred as Nick Katsopolis on "Full House," an exterminator and the gruff, tough-love-dispensing father of Jesse, played by John Stamos. Aprea returned to the role for a cameo on "Fuller House" in 2017, and in between those family TV stints he popped up for short arcs on "The Sopranos," "CSI," "Days of Our Lives," and "NYPD Blue." He moved into soaps in his late career, with regular roles on the 2007 telenovela "American Heiress" and in the 2023 internet drama "The Bay."

On August 19, 2024, Aprea's agent told the New York Times that the actor had died two weeks earlier. A cause of death was not provided, though Aprea died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 83.

After graduating with a theater degree from UCLA in the 1970s, Patti Yasutake wanted to work in TV but struggled to find work because not many parts were offered to Asian-American actors. While working with the influential Asian-American theatrical collective East West Players for three decades, Yasutake finally landed some screen work, including a Japanese transplant struggling to fit in among Americans in the 1986 movie "Gung Ho," a role she continued for the short-lived TV version. Along with spots on "The Closer," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Cold Case," Yasutake is best known for her place in the "Star Trek" universe. Across 16 episodes and two feature film spinoffs, the actor portrayed starship nurse Alyssa Ogawa. What would be Yasutake's final live-action performance was her most acclaimed. In the 2023 Emmy-winning Netflix limited series "Beef," the actor loomed over and lurked as the inscrutable mother-in-law of Ali Wong's stressed-out, on-the-edge character.

On August 5, 2024, Yasutake joined the list of "Star Trek" actors you forgot passed away. Yasutake died at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 70 years old, and the cause of death was complications of T-cell lymphoma, a type of cancer.

Lou Dobbs was a foundational figure in 24-hour cable news, an on-air personality and anchor from the birth of the format until more than 40 years later. When CNN went on the air in June 1980, Dobbs was one of its first anchors, heading up the daily financial news program "Moneyline," later retitled "Lou Dobbs Tonight" to reflect the pull of its star. After nearly three decades with CNN, Dobbs departed the network to join the nascent Fox Business Network in 2009. In the 2010s and 2020s, Dobbs' vocal support of Republican presidential candidate and victor Donald Trump changed the tenor of his program from a finance and news one into a political one. In one of the biggest scandals to hit Fox News, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic sued the organization and its associated networks for defamation over false claims about election rigging. For helping spread the idea of irregularities, Fox Business dismissed Dobbs and ended his show in February 2021.

On July 18, 2024, Dobbs' account on X, formerly known as Twitter, announced that the TV news personality had died. "Lou was a fighter till the very end," the statement read. Dobbs was 78 years old. "An incredible business mind with a gift for broadcasting, Lou helped pioneer cable news into a successful and influential industry," a representative of Fox News told Newsweek. "We are immensely grateful for his many contributions."

Before she was a TV food show star, Naomi Pomeroy was one of the hottest chefs in Portland. She opened her restaurant Beast in 2007, and she'd soon be named the Pacific Northwest's best chef by the James Beard Awards. Pomeroy made the leap to television in 2010, competing on "Iron Chef America" and "Knife Fight," and featured on "Unique Eats," "The Taste," and "Food(ography)." She became a reliable star in Bravo's "Top Chef" franchise, competing on "Top Chef Masters" and returning as a guest judge on "Top Chef."

On July 13, 2024, Pomeroy embarked on a river tubing jaunt on the Willamette River, south of Portland. During the activity, Pomeroy became sucked below the surface and her movement was impeded by a paddle board leash wrapped on her person. The two others to which she was connected made it back to shore; Pomeroy sank and was never seen alive again. The chef and reality show participant's body was spotted by a canoeing party and retrieved five days later. Pomeroy was 49.

A frequent collaborator with prolific TV show creator and producer Steven Bochco, James B. Sikking is well-known to two generations of television viewers primarily due to two very different series. Sikking appeared in every episode of NBC's stark, award-winning police drama "Hill Street Blues." On the show, which generated some of the darkest TV moments of the '80s, the actor played Lt. Howard Hunter, the unflappable head of an unnamed big city's Emergency Action Team unit, a role that earned Sikking an Emmy Award nomination in 1984. Two years after "Hill Street Blues" ended in 1987, SIkking was back on TV in another Bochco creation, the sitcom "Doogie Howser, M.D." Concerning the day-to-day life of a genius teenage doctor, Sikking portrayed the young M.D.'s father, Dr. David Howser. Sikking would team up with Bochco once more for the 1997-98 police drama "Brooklyn South" and then move into voice acting, portraying characters on "Invasion America," "Rocket Power," and "Batman Beyond."

Some time after being diagnosed with dementia, a degenerative mental and physical condition, Sikking died from complications of the disease. Dying at his home in Los Angeles, SIkking was 90 years old. "A true professional. He treated everyone with respect, taught me countless lessons, yet always had a spark of mischief in his eyes," the actor's "Doogie Howser, M.D." costar, Neil Patrick Harris, wrote on Instagram. "It was an absolute honor to be his son."

After amassing a theatrical resume with troupes focusing on the Black American experience, including the African American Performing Arts Center of Cleveland and New York's Negro Ensemble Company, Bill Cobbs moved into film and television in the 1970s. Quickly and consistently over the next 50 years or so, Cobbs became one of the most employed and recognizable character actors in Hollywood. Among his nearly 200 credits are the films "Trading Places," "Air Bud," "The Bodyguard," and two "Night at the Museum" entries, and dozens of TV shows, where he was often around for a few lines or a few episodes. In addition to brief spots on the likes of "The Equalizer," "Sesame Street," "L.A. Law," and "Designing Women," Cobbs was a main member of the cast or recurred on "The Slap Maxwell Story," "I'll Fly Away," "The Gregory Hines Show," "Go On," and "The Drew Carey Show." In the 2020s, he appeared in the series finale of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and won a Daytime Emmy Award for the children's series "Dino Dana."

Nine days after marking his 90th birthday, Cobbs died with family present at his home outside of Los Angeles. "Bill has found peace and eternal rest," brother Thomas Cobbs announced on Facebook on June 26, 2024. The actor died from natural causes.

Soap operas, both daily daytime and weekly primetime versions, were hugely popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and that's where actor Doug Sheehan first found lasting and repeated success. On "General Hospital," he portrayed attorney Joe Kelly for more than 200 episodes, netting a Daytime Emmy Award nomination along the way. He moved over to the cast of "Knots Landing" in 1983, playing journalist Ben Gibson, a role he'd keep on the popular CBS drama for five years. In the '90s, Sheehan would move out of soaps and into teen sitcom dad roles. Sheehan played the fathers of the main characters on both "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and the television adaptation of "Clueless."

Having retired from acting in the early 2000s, Sheehan moved to Big Horn, Wyoming. He died at his home there on the morning of June 29, 2024. Sheehan's cause of death wasn't released to the public; the former actor was 75. "My heart – and 'Valene's' heart – is broken to hear the news of Doug Sheehan's sudden passing," Joan Van Ark, who played Sheehan's character's wife on "Knots Landing," told Michael Fairman TV. "Good night, sweet prince."

The sweeping oil industry family saga "Dallas" was the most popular show on TV in the early 1980s, and in 1983, Pat Colbert broke the show's color barrier to become the first Black actor with a major role on the primetime soap. For eight seasons, up until the show's cancellation in 1991, Colbert appeared in 66 episodes of "Dallas" as Dora Mae, an associate of the Ewing family and the charming head of their ritzy hangout, the Oil Baron's Club. Along with some pre-"Dallas" appearances on major TV series of the era including "Flamingo Road" and "Benson," Colbert also showed up on "The Fall Guy," "Knots Landing," "Sisters," and "True Colors," and also starred as the romantic lead in TV star Bill Cosby's 1987 action comedy "Leonard Part 6."

In the 2010s and 2020s, Colbert endured a series of strokes, which her relatives believe led to her death on June 23, 2024. Colbert died at home in Compton, California. "She was just good. She was good at everything she started out to do," sister Tami Colbert told the Los Angeles Times. "She made it a point to get there and do well at it." The TV star was 77.

Terry Carter made a lot of different kinds of television, and he was often a groundbreaker in whichever genre he found himself excelling. From 1955 to 1959, Carter portrayed Pvt. Sugie Sugarman on the military satirical comedy "The Phil Silvers Show," the only Black actor in the cast and one of only a few people of color with regular network TV roles at the time. In the 1960s, Carter co-starred on the World War II-set action series "Combat!" and virtually concurrently anchored Boston station WBZ-TV's news broadcasts, making him the first Black anchor in all of New England. Carter continued to appear in movies and stage theatrical productions and in the 1970s, had a recurring role on the detective drama "McCloud" as Sgt. Joe Broadhurst," then a leading role as Colonel Tigh on the original "Battlestar Galactica." More single-episode TV performances came for Carter, but in the last few decades he turned his attention to documentary filmmaking. Carter's "A Duke Named Ellington" portrait of the jazz great aired on PBS's "American Masters" and earned an Emmy Award nomination.

Carter died at home, in New York City, on April 23, 2024. "He was a gifted actor, a total professional, and a most generous and supportive compatriot," Anne Lockhart, who played Lt. Sheba on "Battlestar Galactica" opposite Carter, wrote on the actor and filmmaker's website. Carter was 95.

When he retired from his position at CBS News in 2016, Charles Osgood had spent 45 years with the organization, most of those spent regularly on the air in some capacity. At one point or another, he anchored "CBS Morning News," "The CBS Evening News," and "CBS Sunday Night News." In addition to writing and recording the daily "The Osgood File" for CBS's radio affiliates for more than four decades, Osgood became the host of the introspective magazine show "CBS Sunday Morning" in 1994. He'd anchor the program for 22 years, earning the show the most viewers in its history and leading it to three Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Morning Program. The right vehicle for a nontraditional newsman, "CBS Sunday Morning" allowed Osgood to show off his interviewing skills, talking to artists and newsmakers, and he could also play the piano, tell original short stories, and recite his poems.

Osgood, diagnosed with dementia, died from the disease at his New Jersey home on January 23, 2024. The anchor and radio host was 91.

For a period of about five years in the 1970s, David Soul was one of the biggest deals in American pop culture, starring on a hit television police drama while also writing and recording hit songs. In 1975, with dozens of individual episodes of numerous TV shows, and a leading role on the short-lived "Here Comes the Brides" on his resume, Soul landed one of the titular roles on the ABC series "Starsky and Hutch." He portrayed by-the-book detective Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson, opposite Paul Michael Glaser as the roguish Det. Dave Starsky; they both got to zoom around in one of the coolest cars in television history. The actor's renown from "Starsky and Hutch" led to a major role in the 1979 TV miniseries version of "Salem's Lot" as well as some No. 1 singles. His ballad "Don't Give Up on Us" topped the charts in the U.S. and the U.K., while "Silver Lady" went to No. 1 in the latter.

Diagnosed with both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer some years ago, Soul died at a hospital in London on January 4, 2024 following "a valiant battle for life," his wife, Helen Snell, told the BBC. Soul was 80 years old. "David was a brother, a friend, a caring man," Glaser told People. "We shall never see his like again."