When they say the COVID-19 is unforgiven, this is true for everyone in for those with fame and fortune. The CDC guidelines put in place to curb the coronavirus pandemic have sent a ripple effect of delays and cancellations across the entertainment industry and have put the world of professional sports virtually on hold. With over 2.3 million cases of the virus worldwide, celebrities and civilians alike are hunkering down at home and bracing for a growing number of diagnoses. On March 11, Tom Hanks announced that he and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, caught the virus while traveling in Australia for work, marking Hollywood’s first high-profile case of the outbreak. Other actors, such as Idris Elba and Daniel Dae Kim, soon followed with their respective diagnosis experiences. As the highly contagious virus spreads, those in the public eye afflicted with coronavirus, who often have access to testing through private physicians, are urging fans and followers to self-isolate. Tragically, the death toll continues to rise. Here are all the celebrities who have tested positive for the coronavirus so far.
— Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) March 12, 2020
On March 11, the internationally beloved actor shared on Twitter that he and his wife, actress and singer Rita Wilson, contracted coronavirus in Australia. Hanks was Down Under to prepare for shooting Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic when he and Wilson started to feel cold and flu symptoms. The couple subsequently tested positive for the virus and assured they are isolating themselves during their recovery period. According to a March 16 report from People, after a five-day stay at a Queensland hospital, the couple is now recuperating at a rented home in Australia. They made it back to Los Angeles on March 27, after their two-week quarantine.
Olga Kurylenko
On March 15, Olga Kurylenko, who starred opposed Daniel Craig in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, said she tested positive for coronavirus. The Ukrainian–born French actress shared the news on Instagram, where she urged followers to take the virus seriously.
Idris Elba
British actor and musician Idris Elba shared a video via Twitter on March 16 to announce that he had tested positive for coronavirus. While he said he remains asymptomatic, he decided to go for testing after discovering he was exposed to someone who had been diagnosed with the virus. Elba appears in the video with his wife, Sabrina Dhowre, who had yet to be tested. He urges viewers to take up global solidarity, social distancing, and soap to combat the spread of the virus.
This morning I tested positive for Covid 19. I feel ok, I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus. Stay home people and be pragmatic. I will keep you updated on how I’m doing No panic. pic.twitter.com/Lg7HVMZglZ
— Idris Elba (@idriselba) March 16, 2020
Kristofer Hivju
On March 16, Norwegian actor Kristofer Hivju said he tested positive for the virus, sharing a photo on Instagram to announce the news. Hivju, best known for his role on Game of Thrones, is self-isolating at home with minor symptoms.
Rachel Matthews
Actress Rachel Matthews, who voiced the character of Honeymaren in Frozen 2, said she tested positive for coronavirus on March 16. In a series of Instagram stories, Matthews shared that she had been in self-quarantine for several days. “I’m feeling better, but I will be posting some info that I hope will be helpful to some,” she wrote. “Please feel free to reach out and ask me any questions.”
Charlotte Lawrence
On March 17, singer Charlotte Lawrence took to Instagram to share she had tested positive for coronavirus. The 19-year-old artist, whose song “Joke’s on You” appeared on the Birds of Prey soundtrack, urged her followers to keep up with the latest information about the virus: “We have the power to slow this down. So please, please isolate yourself. Stay clean. Stay informed. Stay aware and make others aware. And for the love of God, self fucking quarantine or you’ll be on my shit list.”
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Manu Dibango
Cameroonian jazz legend Manu Dibango died on March 24 of COVID-19, according to an announcement on his Facebook page. “It is with deep sadness that we announce you the loss of Manu Dibango, our Papy Groove,” the post read. “His funeral service will be held in strict privacy, and a tribute to his memory will be organized when possible.” The 86-year-old was admitted to the hospital to receive treatment for the coronavirus on March 18. Dibango, who was a member of the legendary Congolese ensemble African Jazz, is best known for his 1972 hit “Soul Makossa.”
Mwana FA
Tanzanian rapper Mwana FA, born Khamis Mwinjuma, confirmed on March 19 that he had tested positive for coronavirus. Mwana FA, one of the most popular artists in his home country, shared a video on Instagram, assuring his followers he was recovering and calling on them to “take care of each other.”
Daniel Dae Kim
On March 19, actor Daniel Dae Kim announced he had tested positive for coronavirus, posting a video on Instagram to share the news. Prior to his diagnosis, Kim was in New York on the set of NBC’s series New Amsterdam. Production of the show has since been postponed. Kim addressed his followers from his home in Hawaii. “Today, even though I’m not 100 percent, I’m pretty close,” he said.
Colton Underwood
On March 20, former Bachelor star Colton Underwood posted a video to his Instagram telling followers that he had tested positive for coronavirus and that the virus has “been kicking my ass.” The 28-year-old reality star wanted to get the information out that followers should “stay at home, do your part.” Underwood had been practicing social distancing at his girlfriend Cassie Randolph’s parents’ house in California. On Good Morning America to promote his new memoir on March 31, Underwood said he was “feeling so much better.”
Andy Cohen
The host of Watch What Happens Live posted to his Instagram on March 20 to say that he, too, has tested positive for COVID-19. The Bravo show was on pause until March 30, when Cohen announced he would return to his SiruisXM radio show and Bravo show. “THANK YOU TO EVERYONE ON THE FRONT LINES OF COVID-19!” he wrote.
Debi Mazar
On March 21, Younger actress Debi Mazar announced on Instagram that she had tested positive for coronavirus. She wrote that she had started feeling ill on March 15 and that so far, her symptoms appear to come and go. Mazar recommended that fans stay at home to combat spread of the virus.
David Bryan
David Bryan, keyboardist and songwriter for Bon Jovi, wrote on Instagram that he tested positive for the coronavirus. “I’ve been sick for a week and feeling better each day. Please don’t be afraid! It’s the flu not the plague,” he wrote. (Uh, we may disagree with that.) “I’ve have been quarantined for a week and will for another week. And when I feel better I’ll get tested again to make sure I’m free of this nasty virus.”
Plácido Domingo
The famed opera singer wrote in a March 22 Facebook message that it was his “moral duty” to announce he has the coronavirus. “My family and I are all in self isolation for as long as it is deemed medically necessary,” he explained. “Currently we are all in good health but I experienced fever and cough symptoms therefore deciding to get tested and the result came back positive.” Domingo also “begged” people to “follow the basic guidelines” in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. On March 29, seven days after he announced his positive test, Domingo was hospitalized due to COVID-19, his spokesperson told CNN. “He is doing well and is responding to treatment,” his spokesperson said. In a statement on March 30, Domingo said he was “at home and I feel fine.”
Aaron Tveit
The actor, currently taking time off from Moulin Rouge! as Broadway is dark, announced on March 23 on Instagram that he tested positive for COVID-19. “I’ve been in quarantine since Broadway shows shut down on Thursday, March 12, and I’m feeling much better,” Tveit wrote. “I consider myself extremely lucky that my symptoms have been very mild — cold like with no fever — as so many are experiencing much more symptoms, as this is a very dangerous virus.” He shared the news alongside a photo of his dog Miles because, he wrote, dogs are “loving all this extra time at home with their Humans!”
Natalie Horner
The Cascada singer announced on Instagram on March 23 that she tested positive for COVID-19. She has “a temperature, a bit of a headache” and plans to quarantine for two more weeks after eight days of self-isolation. “My case will most likely be mild, so the most important thing is to protect everyone else who may be at risk,” Horner wrote. “So please continue to STAY HOME!”
Slim Thug
The “Like a Boss” rapper posted to Instagram on March 24 that he tested positive for the coronavirus. “As careful as I been self-quarantined and staying home — I might have went and got something to eat, stayed in my truck, mask, gloves, everything on — my test came back positive,” he said in a video, adding that he had a fever and cough before he was tested. “Y’all gotta take this stuff serious,” he told fans.
Jackson Browne
The 71-year-old singer-songwriter revealed he tested positive for the virus in an interview with Rolling Stone. “My symptoms are really pretty mild, so I don’t require any kind of medication and certainly not hospitalization or anything like that,” Browne said. The singer was able to seek out and obtain a test immediately after he developed “a small cough and a temperature.” Browne is spending his time in quarantine listening to music and catching up with friends and family, according to Rolling Stone.
Laura Bell Bundy
Broadway’s original Elle Woods in Legally Blonde the Musical and Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray tested positive for COVID-19, she said in an Instagram video on March 25. “Do not be alarmed: I am okay, I am taking everything in stride,” Bundy told followers. She began self-isolating on March 12 after having a headache, and has been taking herbs recommended by her acupuncturist.
Terrence McNally
The legendary playwright died on March 24 from complications related to the coronavirus. He was 81 and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had survived lung cancer. McNally won four Tonys, along with the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award, and wrote beloved plays such as Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (revived on Broadway in 2019) and popular musicals like Ragtime. “I was always in awe of the superabundance of Terrence’s imagination — it was a fountain of plays and ideas and plots and books for musicals,” Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner told Vulture’s theater critic Helen Shaw.
Floyd Cardoz
The iconic New York and Mumbai chef, who won season three of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, died March 25 after a positive COVID-19 test. He was 59. Cardoz had previously posted to Instagram about going to the hospital after experiencing a fever. He ran restaurants including Bombay Canteen in Mumbai and the since-closed Tabla in New York, and was one of the preeminent chefs in bringing Indian cuisine to American dining.
Mark Blum
The Desperately Seeking Susan star died March 26 from COVID-19 complications, SAG-AFTRA executive vice-president Rebecca Damon announced on Twitter. He was 69. Also active onstage, Blum won an Obie Award in 1989 for the play Gus and Al and acted on Broadway in plays by Neil Simon and Gore Vidal. He more recently appeared in TV series such as Succession, You, and Mozart in the Jungle.
It is with such deep sorrow that I’m writing to share the news that our friend and former board member Mark Blum has passed away as a result of complications from the coronavirus. Mark was a dedicated Screen Actors Guild and SAG-AFTRA board member serving from 2007-2013, pic.twitter.com/aA3yPfOwh7
— Rebecca Damon (@RebeccaDamonNYC) March 26, 2020
Scarface
The famed rapper said in a new interview with Willie D that he has been battling a long and difficult bout with COVID-19. “Don’t play no games with it,” Scarface impressed upon listeners, saying his symptoms included vomiting, fever, pneumonia, and even kidney failure. “I haven’t been nowhere. I’ve been in my house. I ain’t been on no planes, I ain’t been in no restaurants… People out there thinking this shit is a game? You don’t want to play with this.” He added that he hopes he is on the tail end of his illness now since he has been dealing with it “for so long,” saying of the experience, “It’s been to the point where I’d be laying down and I couldn’t get comfortable because it was like an elephant sitting on my chest, bro. I could not breathe, I couldn’t sit up.”
Doris Burke
The ESPN NBA announcer told Adrian Wojnarowski that she tested positive for COVID-19 on his Woj Pod on March 27. “I could not be out of bed for more than five minutes,” she said of her symptoms, which began to arise March 14. Burke has worked for ESPN since 1991 and also covers the NBA for ABC.
Full episode with Doris Burke: https://t.co/1b3QI0qnuj pic.twitter.com/w8PEHOi937
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 27, 2020
John Prine
The folk-music icon died due to the coronavirus on April 7, after previously being hospitalized, his family confirmed. He was 73. “I sat with John — who was deeply sedated — in the hours before he passed and will be forever grateful for that opportunity,” his wife Fiona, who had also tested positive for COVID-19 and quarantined separately, wrote on Instagram. “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the outpouring of love we have received from family, friends, and fans all over the world. John will be so missed but he will continue to comfort us with his words and music and the gifts of kindness, humor and love he left for all of us to share.” Prine released his first album in 1971 and became beloved for his emotionally honest, often humorous lyrics. He recovered from squamous cell cancer in 1998, which affected his singing afterward. He won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award this year and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.
Jan Howard
The Grand Ole Opry stalwart who made songs like “Evil on Your Mind” famous in the ’60s died on March 28 due to the coronavirus, the Opry announced in a statement. A member of the Opry since March 1971, she had celebrated her 91st birthday on March 13. She also wrote poems and the autobiography Sunshine and Shadow.
Joe Diffie
A hit-making country songwriter and performer who began recording his own music in the 1990s, Diffie died of COVID-19 complications on March 29, according to Rolling Stone. He had announced his positive test on March 27. He was 61 years old. Diffie hot No. 1 on Billboard’s country songs chart five times, for songs including “Pickup Man,” “Home” and “If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets).” He later became a host for Tulsa’s country station KXBL, and most recently released the vinyl compilation Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie in 2019.
Ken Shimura
The popular Japanese TV comedian died on March 29 due to the coronavirus at age 70, according to Japanese media. He had first been hospitalized with fever and pneumonia on March 20 and tested positive for COVID-19 on March 23. Shimura had been a member of comedy band the Drifters for over a decade and later became a popular solo performer.
Adam Schlesinger
The 52-year-old Emmy and Grammy Award–winning Fountains of Wayne member and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend music supervisor was hospitalized for more than a week and on a ventilator before dying of complications to COVID-19 on April 1.
Wallace Roney
The jazz trumpeter, who had performed with Chick Corea and learned from Miles Davis, died due to COVID-19 complications on April 1. His fiancé, Dawn Felice Jones, confirmed the news to NPR. Roney, who was 59, was hospitalized in New Jersey on March 25. He had earned a Grammy in 1994 for the album A Tribute to Miles, on which Roney played Davis’s trumpet parts alongside the four surviving members of the Miles Davis Quintet.
Brian Stokes Mitchell
A Tony Award winning Broadway performer and screen actor, Mitchell announced on Twitter on April 1 that he was positive for the coronavirus, but was not experiencing acute symptoms.
I’m Coronavirus positive, but doing well! More to come! – Stokes pic.twitter.com/hmPbz3R2gz
— Brian Stokes Mitchell (@bstokesmitchell) April 1, 2020
Cristina
New wave pop singer Cristina died on April 1st after being diagnosed with coronavirus, according to The Guardian. Cristina, born Cristina Monet-Zilkha, was best known for her 80’s era dance-pop songs like “Disco Clone” and “Things Fall Apart.” She was 61 years old.
Ellis Marsalis Jr.
Ellis Marsalis Jr., a celebrated New Orleans jazz pianist who raised and mentored four jazz musician sons, died on April 1st at the age of 85. Marsalis had been hospitalized earlier this week and tested for coronavirus, with son Branford confirming the cause of death was due to complications stemming from COVID-19, according to the New York Times. Marsalis rose to prominence as a jazz pianist in the 50’s and 60’s before becoming a music educator in the 70’s. He served as a music mentor to his four sons: Branford, a saxophonist; Delfeayo, a trombonist; Jason, a drummer; and Wynton, a trumpeter and composer who currently serves as the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
Ali Wentworth
The 55-year-old comedian told Instagram on April 1 that she tested positive for the virus and that she was experiencing a “high fever. Horrific body aches. Heavy chest.” She had to be quarantined from her family, including her husband Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Ray Benson
The leader of country band Asleep at the Wheel announced on March 31 he’d tested positive for COVID-19. “Been feeling tired for about 10 days!” he wrote on Facebook, explaining that he’d tried to get a test since March 21. “Hoping for the best don’t have the usual symptoms but feel tired head ache no fever no cough!! I’ll be ok sure do miss playin music and seein everyone! Stay well this shits serious!!”
YNW Melly
Rapper YNW Melly has tested positive for COVID-19 in Broward County Jail. His official Instagram account announced the news and states that he’ll be filing a motion for early release due to his diagnosis. Melly is in jail awaiting a double murder charge to which he plead not guilty in 2019.
Julie Bennett
The voice actor known for playing Cindy Bear in The Yogi Bear Show died March 31 due to COVID-19, her friend Mark Scroggs confirmed to Variety. Bennett was 88. She later worked on shows like Bugs Bunny, The Bullwinkle Show, and the animated Spider-Man, on which she voiced Aunt May from 1997–98. Later, she had a 20-plus-year career as a personal manager under the name Marianne Daniels.
Sara Bareilles
Weeks after her show Waitress closed early in London, the singer-songwriter said in an April 2 Instagram Story that she had the coronavirus and is “fully recovered.” She had a “couple of rough days,” she later clarified, “but I promise I’m fine.” Bareilles’s castmate Gavin Creel previously told Rosie O’Donnell that he thought he had the virus during her March 22 online benefit, and that another Waitress castmate (who wasn’t Bareilles) had tested positive. “I am just thinking about all the people who are walking through this really tricky time and sending a lot of love,” Bareilles said. “And just really grateful for every easy breath and every day that I get to be walking around.”
Christopher Cross
The pop-rock singer posted to Facebook on April 3 that he had tested positive for COVID-19. “This is possibly the worst illness I’ve ever had,” Cross wrote. “For those of you who still do not believe the COVID-19 virus is real, or think it is a ‘hoax’ or part of some conspiracy, my advice to you is to understand right now that this is a deadly illness spreading like wildfire throughout the world.” Known for his No. 1 hits “Sailing” and the theme to the 1981 movie Arthur, Cross was the first of two performers to win all four general-category Grammy Awards in a single night (before Billie Eilish this year).
Pink
The singer discussed her coronavirus diagnosis on Instagram Friday, March 3, saying she had visited her doctor after she and her three-year-old son started experiencing COVID-19 symptoms in March. After quarantining for two weeks, she subsequently tested negative. “It is an absolute travesty and failure of our government to not make testing more widely accessible,” she wrote. “This illness is serious and real. People need to know that the illness affects the young and old, healthy and unhealthy, rich and poor, and we must make testing free and more widely accessible to protect our children, our families, our friends and our communities.”
Marianne Faithfull
The singer and actress was hospitalized in London for coronavirus, her management confirmed on Saturday. Faithfull, who is 74, is “stable and responding to treatment,” according to Rolling Stone. Performance artist and friend of Faithfull Penny Arcade told Rolling Stone that Faithfull had checked herself into the hospital last Monday. She then tested positive for COVID-19 and developed pneumonia. Faithfull has a history of health issues, including hepatitis C and breast cancer, in addition to struggles with addiction and anorexia.
Lee Fierro
The Jaws actress, whose grieving mother character Mrs. Kintner memorably slapped Roy Schneider’s Chief Brody in the film, died at the age of 91 due to complications from coronavirus.
John Taylor
The Duran Duran bassist revealed on Instagram April 5 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 back in March after experiencing symptoms, but says, “I came out of it feeling okay.”
John Benjamin Hickey
On break from directing a Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, Hickey told fans during an April 2 Broadway.com performance that he had tested positive for the virus and experienced two weeks of symptoms. “I clearly came through it and am two and a half weeks now symptom-free and feel great,” he said. “Given everything we’re hearing and understand about it now, I consider myself profoundly lucky.”
Jay Benedict
The actor, who appeared in Aliens and The Dark Knight Rises among other movies and TV roles, died of coronavirus-related complications at 68, his manager told USA Today on April 6. Benedict also had a role on Emmerdale in the U.K. during the ’90s. Pierce Brosnan posted an Instagram tribute to Benedict, whom he had been friends with for “forty years and change.” “Life was so much fun with Jay, on stage and off, we laughed a lot at the world around us, at our selves, saw the funny side of life always,” he wrote.
Allen Garfield
The character actor with roles in Nashville, The Stunt Man, The Conversation and Beverly Hills Cop II died at 80, his sister confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter on April 7. Garfield’s Nashville co-star Ronee Blakely said in a Facebook tribute he had died of COVID-19. “I hang my head in tears; condolences to family and friends,” she wrote.
Jennifer Aydin
Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jennifer Aydin revealed that she has tested positive for COVID-19. In an Instagram video, Aydin revealed that she has contracted coronavirus and is quarantining in Paramus, NJ away from her husband, Bill Aydin, and their 5 children. She began feeling symptoms including extreme fatigue and a cough on March 30th. “I hope everyone is well and staying home, ’cause right now that’s what we have to do,” says Adin, in the video. “We have to stay home to prevent the spread of this awful disease. Remember guys, we’re in this together. Stay safe, be well.”
Ahmed Ismail Hussein
The icon of Somali music died at 91 due to the coronavirus, according to an April 8 statement from Kayd Somali Arts and Culture. Performing since the 1950s, he was known as the “King of Oud” for playing the guitarlike Middle Eastern instrument. “He was one of the founding fathers of modern Somali music,” writes Hanna Ali, Kayd’s artistic director.
On behalf of all of us here at Kayd family and our Board of Trustees, we send our deepest condolences to Hudeydi’s family, fans, Somalis accross the world and his fellow Somali artists and we will endeavour to keep his iconic legacy alive pic.twitter.com/O97a3ojOA7
— Kayd (@KaydSomaliArts) April 8, 2020
Todd Chrisley
The star of TLC’s Chrisley Knows Best revealed he had recently been hospitalized for COVID-19 on the April 8 episode of his podcast, Chrisley Confessions. He was hospitalized for over four days, he said, and experienced symptoms for three weeks. “It has been the sickest that I have ever been in the 52 years I’ve been on this earth,” Chrisley said. “I cannot ever tell you a time in my life where I have ever been as sick as what I had been with the coronavirus.”
Sturgill Simpson
Country singer Sturgill Simpson announced he contracted COVID-19 in a lengthy Instagram post in which he expressed disappointment and anger with the American healthcare system. According to his caption, a doctor refused to test Simpson for the virus despite his symptoms and recent travel to Western Europe. He later tested positive for COVID-19 after finding a drive-through testing facility with his wife. Simpson wrote that a nurse told him that “the information they are providing is basically pure speculation causing fear and that the only thing anybody knows is that we don’t really know much yet,” referring to the CDC and the White House. Simpson is currently recovering in quarantine.
Tim Brooke-Taylor
The comedian and actor, who’s perhaps best known for his roles in The Goodies and panel show I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, died at the age of 79 due to coronavirus complications. Tim Brooke-Taylor’s career in the English entertainment industry was prevalent for more than half a century.
Nick Cordero
As of April 13, the Waitress actor has been in the hospital for nearly two weeks, after an initial case of pneumonia. On April 6, his wife, Amanda Kloots, announced he tested positive for COVID-19 after two negative tests. He was put on an ECMO machine to help breathing, she said April 11, and then put on a ventilator and kidney dialysis, as well. That same day, he went into emergency surgery after the ECMO stopped blood flow to his right leg. He was in “very critical condition” after the surgery, Kloots wrote in an Instagram Story. “Tomorrow is Easter and I’m praying for a resurrection.” On April 18, Kloots shared on her Instagram story that Cordero will need to have his right leg amputated due to blood clotting. “They had him on blood thinners for the clotting and unfortunately the blood thinners were causing some other issues — blood pressure and some internal bleeding in his intestines. We took him off blood thinners but that again was going to cause some clotting in the right leg. So the right leg will be amputated today,” she said.
George Stephanopoulos
The ABC anchor announced his positive test on April 13’s episode of Good Morning America, saying he has been largely asymptomatic. His wife, Ali Wentworth, announced her positive test on April 1 and said she’d “never been sicker.” Stephanopoulos had already been self-quarantining due to his wife’s diagnosis.
Danny Burstein
The Moulin Rouge! actor and six-time Tony nominee detailed his experience with COVID-19 in a Hollywood Reporter guest column on April 13. Days after Broadway closed on March 12, he felt symptoms including a fever “around 101.6” and days of coughing blood. He got tested along with other Moulin Rouge! company members, but never received his results. (Co-star Aaron Tveit announced a positive COVID-19 test on March 23.) On March 22, he went to the hospital after nearly fainting, where he then tested positive for the coronavirus, along with having double pneumonia. He left the hospital on March 27 and is still recovering at home. “I was surrounded by death and I knew that the longer I stayed in the unit, the greater my chances were that eventually it would be me the nurses were talking about,” he wrote of the experience.
Ann Sullivan
The former Disney painter and animator, who worked such films as The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Lilo & Stitch, has died at the age of 91 due to COVID-19, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Babyface
Ahead of his April 18 Instagram beat battle with Teddy Riley, Kenneth Edmonds, a.k.a. Babyface, revealed that he and his family had tested positive for COVID-19. “I feel so blessed to be able to celebrate another birthday,” he wrote on April 10, his 62nd birthday. “It’s an incredible scary thing to go through, my friends,” he added of the virus. His family has now tested negative and is recovering.
Philippe Nahon
The French actor, who’s perhaps best known for his cinematic collaborations with director Gaspar Noé, died at the age of 81. This was due to “a long illness” that was further aggravated by a positive coronavirus diagnosis. Nahon’s wife confirmed his passing to Le Monde.
Gene Shay
Philadelphian folk DJ Gene Shay died due to coronavirus complications on Friday, April 17, according to the Associated Press. WXPN-FM station manager Roger LaMay, where Shay’s weekly “Folk Show” ran until 2015, confirmed that the DJ had been hospitalized in the weeks leading up to his death. “He was a giant in terms of his impact on artists and the music. And to do it for close to 60 years is extraordinary,” LaMay said.
Henry Grimes
The icon of free jazz died on April 15 at 84 due to COVID-19, WBGO reports. Known for playing bass, he began his career in the late 1950s working with Sonny Rollins, Don Cherry, and Cecil Taylor, before losing his instrument in a hard financial situation at the end of the 1960s. He returned to music in 2002 thanks to the work of Margaret Davis, an advocate of jazz, who gave him a new bass.
Matthew Seligman
The bassist and former Soft Boys member who performed with David Bowie died due to the coronavirus on April 17, Variety reports. Seligman had been in a coma for two weeks in a London hospital. Seligman notably performed with Bowie at the 1985 Live Aid show, and also performed with Morrissey, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, and the Thompson Twins. “I’m profoundly grateful to have played music with him — you could really see his face light up like a full moon when he listened back to a take he enjoyed,” Soft Boys singer Robyn Hitchcock wrote on Facebook.
Wreckless Eric
The English rock singer-songwriter has tested positive for COVID-19, he wrote on his blog on April 19. “I felt deeply disturbed when I got the news and quite emotional,” he wrote. “If I’m honest about this I’m vaguely / acutely worried in the back of my mind that I might suddenly go downhill and die, but I find getting older is a business of constantly facing up to one’s own mortality.”
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