Departures: Australian actor dead at 78

Sam Neill

A veteran of television and movies who racked up more than 150 acting credits during a career that spanned more than five decades, Neill died July 13. He was 78. Born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, Neill began performing in Australian films in the 1970s. He broke into Hollywood in 1981 starring in Omen III: The Final Conflict, and in 1990 he took a prominent supporting role in The Hunt for Red October. He later starred as paleontologist Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park. He would reprise the role for sequels in 2001 and 2022. Neill earned both Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe award nominations in 1999 for Merlin in which he portrayed the NBC miniseries title character.

Bonnie Tyler

A Welsh singer who turned a vocal cord injury into a signature raspy voice able to sell millions of records, Tyler died July 8. She was 75. Discovered as a young singer in a small Welsh club, Tyler signed with RCA Records in 1975. While building a career in the United Kingdom, she had surgery in 1977 to scrape nodules from her vocal cords. During her recovery, she developed a distinctive vocal rasp. Her subsequent single “It’s a Heartache” became a hit worldwide. Her 1983 single “Total Eclipse of the Heart” became a No. 1 hit in the United States, earned her a Grammy nomination, sold more than 6 million copies, and became a cultural phenomenon in karaoke clubs.

Victor Willis

A singer who arguably became the frontman for an entire genre of popular music, Willis died June 30. He was 74. Willis performed in Broadway productions until he was picked by a pair of French music producers to spearhead a new disco project. The resulting Village People was a camp homage to male stereotypes and became one of the genre’s defining groups. Willis donned the policeman’s uniform for the group, sang lead vocals, and co-wrote many of the project’s most famous songs including “Y.M.C.A.” and “In the Navy.” The songs experienced a resurgence after Donald Trump began making the band’s music a part of his rallies, and Willis performed “Y.M.C.A.” for the president at a January 2025 inauguration rally.

Alan Greenspan

An economist who shaped the modern American economy from his perch at the Federal Reserve Bank, Greenspan died June 22. He was 100. While running an economics consulting business earlier in life, Greenspan occasionally flirted with politics and government. He worked as an adviser on Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign and later served as a policy adviser to Gerald Ford. Ronald Reagan later appointed Greenspan to chair the Federal Reserve Board. Greenspan’s tenure, from 1987 until 2006, was marked by typically low interest rates and cryptic utterances termed “Fedspeak” meant to pacify turbulent markets. Some critics blame Greenspan’s easy money policies for the housing bubble that burst in 2007.

Clive Davis

A record industry titan who shaped popular music from behind a desk rather than an instrument, Davis died June 22. He was 94. Davis entered the music business as a young lawyer for Columbia Records in the early 1960s and became the label’s president in 1967. He founded Arista Records in 1974. Along the way, Davis helped turn young musicians like Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, and Whitney Houston into stars. After originally signing Carlos Santana at Columbia Records in 1969, Davis helped engineer the artist’s 1999 comeback album, Supernatural, which became the Latin rocker’s greatest popular success, earning Davis a Grammy as producer. Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.