2008 was a banner year for celebrity deaths, beginning with the most shocking—Heath Ledger—and ending with the sound of a single, melancholy meow echoing across a cloudy night sky.

In between, we lost a shark hunter, an ape-fighting guerrilla, a pinup icon, a dirty word demystifier, a Hedy Lamarr (that's HEDLEY), a Ghost World convenience store clerk, a dysdinotopia visionary, a Tootsie director, a King of Comedy, a set of legs that just kept on going, a Shady Pines escapee, a fork-tongued fashion cop, the Voice of God himself, a Dolemite-waiter, and Paul Newman. Paul Fucking Newman, people. He's gone.

We've compiled an In Memoriam montage for you, sensitively set to Kenny Loggins's electrifying Top Gun soundtrack smash, "Highway to the Danger Zone." Here's hoping they're all performing acrobatic maneuvers through the gates of Heaven, with G-d as their wingman.

Bettie Page
Don LaFontaine
Cyd Charisse
Anthony Minghella
Rudy Ray Moore
Van Johnson
Isaac Hayes
Sam Bottoms
Mr Blackwell
Brad Renfro
Bernie Mac
Harvey Korman
Michael Crichton
Estelle Getty
Sydney Pollack
Roy Scheider
Charlton Heston
George Carlin
Heath Ledger
Paul Newman

(And a very special, "oops we left her out of the montage" mention to Eartha Kitt.)

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