Celebrity Deaths That Sadly Flew Under The Radar In 2025

Actors, musicians, models, and other luminaries who came to fame in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s shaped pop culture in ways that continue to resonate. The music of The Beatles, for example, remains as vital and popular as it was back in the 1960s, and it's no exaggeration that music from those decades continues to be enmeshed in the soundtrack to our lives. The same holds true for movies; films as diverse as "The Godfather" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" hit theaters more than five decades ago, yet remain cultural touchstones that continue to be discovered (and much quoted) by new generations of fans.

Sadly, time catches up with everyone, and 2025 has offered many sad examples of that. Fans said goodbye to some beloved actors — Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and Oscar-winning "Annie Hall" star Diane Keaton, to single out a few — while the world of music lost some true legends; in July, Ozzy Osbourne, former Black Sabbath lead singer, died at age 76, while other music icons who passed away this year have included Sly Stone, Roberta Flack, and The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson.

Yet there were other celebrities to shuffle off this mortal coil this year whose deaths didn't receive nearly the same degree of attention. To honor their memories, keep reading for a look at some celebrity deaths that sadly flew under the radar in 2025. 

The Turtles topped the pop charts back in 1967 with "Happy Together," which spent an impressive three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. The band was fronted by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, and the duo led the group through a few more hits before the band broke up in 1970. An acrimonious split with their record label left them legally prohibited from using either The Turtles moniker or their actual names, so they rebranded as Flo & Eddie and joined Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, where their onstage antics infused comedy into Zappa's psychedelic rock. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Volman and Kaylan became sought-after background singers, lending their voices to recordings from an eclectic array of artists, including Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, The Ramones, Duran Duran, and others. 

The always unpredictable Volman returned to school in 1994, attending Loyola Marymount University in LA. He ultimately graduated with a bachelor's degree — and a new path to follow, taking a job as an instructor at Nashville's Belmont University. "In the process of going to school, I started having discussions about the possibility of my teaching a business course in music," Volman told Nashville Scene. 

Volman eventually returned to the stage with The Turtles, continuing with a new iteration of the group after Kaylan retired from touring in 2018. Volman hit the road in 2025 for The Turtles' Happy Together tour until health issues forced him to pull out of the tour. He passed away not long afterward, in September 2025, at age 78. 

During the late 1960s and early '70s, Bobby Sherman was a fixture on Tiger Beat, 16, and other teenybopper magazines of the era. First coming to prominence via the television comedy "Here Come the Brides," Sherman found even greater fame as a singer. At his peak, during a brief period between 1969 and 1970, Sherman racked up four top-10 singles.

The shelf life of a teen idol is typically brief, and such was the case with Sherman. When the hits stopped coming, he segued away from music in the mid-1970s and returned to acting, guest-starring in a variety of TV series. He also starred in two movies, 1975's "He Is My Brother" and 1983's "Get Crazy." In 1998, he jumped back into music when he joined The Monkees' Davy Jones and Herman's Hermits singer Peter Noone for an oldies tour, but retired from music a few years later. By then, acting and singing had become sidelines; in the mid-1980s, he trained to become an EMT, and went on to become a reserve police officer with the LAPD, and a reserve deputy sheriff with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Embarking on a new career in law enforcement, he was certainly among the '70s heartthrobs who are barely recognizable today.

Sherman was 81 when he died in June 2025. Just three months earlier, his wife, Brigette Poublon Sherman, revealed that he'd been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Making its debut in 1976, the sitcom "What's Happening!!" hit it big, following the exploits of a trio of Black inner-city teenage boys. Danielle Spencer starred as Dee, the younger sister of one of the boys. The sassy and wisecracking character became a fan favorite thanks to her popular catchphrase: "Ooh, I'm gonna tell Mama!" When "What's Happening!!" ended in 1979, Spencer stayed out of the spotlight until the show was revived in 1985 as "What's Happening Now!" and brought Dee back for 16 episodes. 

After that, the child actor, who had been working professionally since the age of 8, shifted her focus to education. She earned a degree in marine biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and went on to study at Alabama's Tuskegee University, graduating in 1993 with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. She rarely appeared on-screen after that, though she guest-starred on "Days of Our Lives" in 2001 and — in a role that dovetailed with her new profession — portrayed a veterinarian in the 1997 big-screen comedy "As Good as It Gets." In later years, she experienced multiple health woes, including neurological issues that lingered from a 1977 car accident and a double mastectomy following a breast cancer diagnosis in 2014.

In 2016, Spencer was inducted into the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. "I still can't believe it," she told Black America Web. "That's something people can look at for years to come, long after I'm gone." Sadly, that day came far sooner than anyone expected. In August 2025, she died at age 60 from cardiac arrest and gastric cancer.

Jerry Adler had a lengthy career in showbiz as a director and stage manager before landing his first acting role on a 1991 episode of "Brooklyn Bridge." That led to further TV guest spots, including on series such as "Quantum Leap," "Northern Exposure," and "Law & Order," in addition to becoming a series regular on the short-lived series "Hudson Street." 

In 1999, the 70-year-old Adler was settling into his new career as a sought-after character actor when he landed the recurring role as mob-adjacent loan shark Herman "Hesh" Rabkin in "The Sopranos." For those wondering what happened to the cast of "The Sopranos," in Adler's case, that high-profile role sent his career skyward, with bigger opportunities awaiting him after the series ended. Those included a recurring role on the FX firefighter drama "Rescue Me," multiple appearances as Judge Harold Lyman on "The Good Wife" (and its spin-off, "The Good Fight"), the series "Transparent," and the reprised role of Mr. Wicker in the 2019 revival of "Mad About You" — which he'd originally played two decades earlier. In 2015, Adler appeared on Broadway in Larry David's play "Fish in the Dark." 

His memoir, "Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales From Broadway, Television, and the Movies," was published in 2024. Shortly afterward, he passed away in August 2025 at age 96.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, singer Connie Francis had an extraordinary run of success, racking up five top-10 hits, three of which went to No. 1. Among her biggest hits are such indelible classics as "My Happiness," "Who's Sorry Now?" and "Where the Boys Are," the latter of which was written for the 1960 film of the same name.

Born Concetta Franconero, the New Jersey native was married and divorced four times, and experienced a string of tragedies during the 1970s and '80s. These included a 1974 sexual assault, which resulted in a seven-year hiatus from the music business amid a deep depression, and the 1981 murder of her brother after he'd testified in a Mafia trial. She wound up making a comeback in the 1990s, returning to the recording studio to make several albums and performing regularly in Las Vegas. She also wrote two separate memoirs, 1984's "Who's Sorry Now?" and 2017's "Among My Souvenirs." 

Francis retired in 2018, but enjoyed one last comeback. Less than two months before she died in July 2025 at age 87, Francis' song, "Pretty Little Baby," began trending on TikTok, appearing in 600,000 videos. As Francis told The New York Times, she was both shocked and thrilled that an obscure song she'd recorded decades earlier had attained 10 billion views on social media. "On top of the world and overwhelmed that a whole new generation of people know me and my music now," she said when asked how she was feeling about it.

When it came to musical reinvention, you had to give it up for David Johansen. As lead singer of The New York Dolls in the early 1970s, Johansen fused glam-rock with NYC grit to pave the way as punk pioneers. Despite their critical acclaim, the Dolls were never particularly successful and split up in 1976. Johansen then became something of a musical chameleon, exploring an array of genres with various bands. He even delved into acting, appearing in various TV series and films, including a memorable turn as a ghostly cab driver who picks up Bill Murray's character in "Scrooged."

In 1987, Johansen reinvented himself once again, this time as pompadoured lounge lizard Buster Poindexter, boasting a big band sound and the hit single "Hot Hot Hot." He maintained the Buster Poindexter persona for the next decade, recording several more albums under that moniker. In 2004, Johansen and the Dolls reunited, launching a successful reunion tour that kept the band together, on and off, for a few more years. 

In the early 2000s, Johansen began hosting his own radio show on SiriusXM, "David Johansen's Mansion of Fun," and in 2022 became the subject of "Personality Crisis: One Night Only," a performance film/documentary directed by Martin Scorsese. Johansen was still producing weekly "Mansion of Fun" episodes when he died in March 2025, at age 75. After his death, his family revealed that he'd been struggling with stage 4 cancer for a decade but had kept his health issues secret.

In 1977, Chuck Mangione managed the rare feat of releasing an instrumental jazz tune that became a top-five single: "Feels So Good," an easy-listening earworm that became ubiquitous in dentists' offices, supermarkets, and top-40 radio. While Mangione — who played both trumpet and flugelhorn — never hits those heights again, he produced 17 albums that landed on the Billboard 200 and won two Grammys (out of 14 nominations) — hardly a one-hit wonder.

Mangione's high-point moment in pop culture may have occurred in the late 1970s, but he experienced something of a career resurrection via the animated TV comedy "King of the Hill," in which a cartoon version of himself became a recurring character as a spokesperson for Mega Lo Mart, prone to popping into scenes at random moments to play "Feels So Good." Mangione clearly had a sense of humor when it came to spoofing himself, as was evident in one memorable scene in which he received his diploma for attending an anger-management seminar — only to smash the instructor with his horn because his name is misspelled.

Mangione retired from touring in 2014. In July 2025, he died in his sleep at his home in Rochester, New York. He was 84.

The story of The Osmonds extends all the way back to 1962, when a barbershop quartet consisting of young brothers Wayne, Alan, Merrill, and Jay Osmond made their first appearance on "The Andy Williams Show." The kids were popular with viewers and became regulars on the show.

The albums they made, however, were not nearly as popular. After their first few efforts flopped, The Osmonds finally experienced success after adding a younger brother to the mix and embracing a more pop-driven direction with the 1971 hit single "One Bad Apple." With Donny as lead singer and teen idol, more hits came; the group's popularity with the preteen demographic is evident in the fact that The Osmonds had their own Saturday morning cartoon, which debuted in 1972 and lasted just one season. When Donny and his sister Marie soared to TV fame with the success of their variety show, which aired from 1975 to 1979, the rest of the Osmonds disbanded the group in 1980. While they no longer made records, the brothers did reunite to perform on the oldies circuit, playing county fairs and the like. Wayne retired in the late 1990s due to an array of health issues, including being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1997, which impacted his hearing significantly. Then, in 2012, he suffered a stroke that rendered him unable to play the guitar. 

Osmond died in January 2025, at age 73. According to his family, the cause of death was a stroke.

While fans may marvel at how "General Hospital" has changed over the years, one element in the show has remained more or less constant for 45 years: Tristan Rogers, who played the rakish Robert Scorpio on an on-and-off basis from 1980 until his death at age 79 in August 2025. "He loved being Scorpio, and he created that role from nothing," Rogers' manager, Meryl Soodak, told ABC7 Eyewitness News. "He was supposed to work a day, and he ended up making it into something huge."

That's not an exaggeration. Rogers was hired for a one-day gig on "General Hospital," but producers were intrigued enough by the actor to write a character for him — placing him in scenes and instructing him to appear like he was up to something suspicious until they could figure it out. That character was Scorpio, a fan favorite until Rogers' exit in 1992, when Scorpio was killed off. Although that may not have made the cut as one of the wildest storylines in "General Hospital" history, in true soap fashion, no body was found. He returned briefly in 1995, as a ghost, and then returned in the flesh in 2006. He made multiple return visits after that, with Scorpio's final "General Hospital" appearance occurring mere weeks before he succumbed to lung cancer. 

In the midst of his "General Hospital" comings and goings, Rogers also appeared in many other TV shows. Soaps, however, were his bread and butter; along the way, he appeared in nearly 100 episodes of "The Young and the Restless," 100-plus episodes of "The Bay," and 27 episodes of "The Bold and the Beautiful." 

Making its TV debut in 1978, "WKRP in Cincinnati" captured the behind-the-scenes hijinks of the titular radio station. The show's standout cast member was Loni Anderson, who played glamorous station receptionist Jennifer Marlowe. Her popularity was so great during her years on the show that she was tapped to star in various projects, including a made-for-TV biopic about doomed movie star Jayne Mansfield, and then another TV feature, 1981's "Sizzle."

When the sitcom ended in 1982, Anderson set her sights on furthering her movie career. The first stop was "Stroker Ace," in which she co-starred with Burt Reynolds. While the movie bombed at the box office, her romance with Reynolds did not, and the two wed in 1988. The marriage didn't last long, and Reynolds filed for divorce five years later — although it took a full 22 years for the exes' ugly and very public divorce to play out.

Through it all, Anderson continued working, primarily in television guest spots. In 1993, she joined the cast of the TV dramedy "Nurses," which was canceled after her first season on the show. After that, her roles became more sporadic, although she made a comeback in 2023 with a Lifetime TV movie, starring in "Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas." That would be her final role; in August 2025, she died at age 79, after what was described as a lengthy illness that was subsequently revealed to be a rare form of cancer, metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma.