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Bernie Mac: actor, producer and Original King of Comedy died today, August 9th due to complications from pneumonia in his native city of Chicago. Mac had struggled with health issues on and off since the mid 2000’s due in part to sarcoidosis. He was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 1983, but maintained a busy and fruitful career in stand-up, television and movies until his death at the age of 50. Mac garnered two Emmy nominations as one of TV’s most sympathetic dads in The Bernie Mac Show. He told David Letterman in early 2007 that he planned on retiring after completing the comedy; The Whole Truth, Nothing but the Truth, So Help Me Mac. “I’m going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit, I missed a lot of things, you know”. He leaves behind his wife of 31 years, Rhonda, his daughter Jasmine and his granddaughter. We’ll miss you Bernie Mac.

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Comic George Carlin of “Seven Dirty Words” fame passed away on Sunday, June 22 of apparent heart failure after complaining of chest pains at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. He was 71 years old.

Carlin recently ranked second on Comedy Central’s ten best stand-ups of all time, just behind Richard Pryor, another great comic who understood the semantic power of filthy words. But Carlin’s work was notable - and unique - not just for a barrage of naughtiness. His mixture of taboo subjects with trenchant political commentary made him one of the few American comedians to leave audiences crying with laughter and pondering the contradictions of modern society at the same time. A true legend, Carlin’s death will leave an indelible mark on the comedy world. We can only hope that the revived attention given to his career will inspire younger comedians to be as bold.

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One of the great American directors of the 1940s and 50s, Jules Dassin, died on Monday at the age of 96 in a hospital near his home in Athens, Greece. The industry remembers him best for his 1960 film Never on Sunday starring his wife Melina Mercouri, which earned several Oscar nominations. Dassin’s best films, however, were his hard-boiled post-war crime dramas - Night and the City, Thieves’ Highway, The Naked City, and Rififi. The last film was made in France during the period Dassin was on Hollywood’s infamous blacklist. His Night and the City starred Richard Widmark, who also passed away recently.

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Perhaps I’m just more attuned to industry news these days, but it really feels like the entertainment community has lost a lot of great people recently. The latest death is legendary Hollywood screen actor Richard Widmark, who catapulted to fame in 1947 with his terrifying performance in the killer-thriller Kiss of Death. If you’ve seen that film, you’ll probably never forget Widmark tying up an old woman in a wheelchair and pushing her down a flight of stairs. You can read the lengthy New York Times obituary here.

Widmark was a terrific actor. His range was unparalleled. I’ll remember him best as a pathetic wrestling promoter in Jules Dassin’s wrenching Night and the City, and as a morally conflicted small-time thief in Samuel Fuller’s Pickup on South Street.

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Today, another tragic death in the filmmaking world. Acclaimed Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella died in London Tuesday morning after an unexpected brain hemorrhage resulted due to complications from a routine surgery, to the shock of all his friends and family. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and son Max, who is a rising star in Hollywood.

Minghella was only 54 years old, and widely considered one of the greatest British directors of the last 20 years. His film adaptation of The English Patient is perhaps his greatest accomplishment. The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche), and six others. He was also an accomplished stage director, well-known for his highly regarded version of the opera Madame Butterfly, which played in 2005 at the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.

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Heath Ledger’s ex-girlfriend and mother to his two-year old daughter, Matilda, Michelle Williams attended a wake for the deceased actor at the Indiana Tea Room on Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Australia. The Brokeback Mountain star was found dead in his New York apartment on January 22, 2008 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. One of Ledger’s favorite spots, mourners jumped into the ocean fully clothed or in their underwear in celebration of the actor’s life, “It’s exactly what Heath would have wanted,” one mourner told People. A touching tribute indeed.

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Roy Scheider, legendary actor famous for his roles during the 1970s Hollywood Renaissance, died on Sunday, February 10 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Scheider still took on several small roles a year late in life, despite suffering from multiple myeloma for much of this time. He had lived with his wife Brenda Siemer at their home in Sag Harbor, New York for many years. His life was ultimately claimed by complications from a staph infection.

Scheider was best known for his starring role in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 megablockbuster Jaws, in which he played one of his trademark everyman roles as a small-town sheriff facing the specter of a killer shark picking off hapless beachgoers. He was nominated for two Oscars - one for William Friedkin’s The French Connection and the second for his greatest performance, as Bob Fosse doppelganger Joe Gideon in Fosse’s autobiographical, Felliniesque musical drama All That Jazz.

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Heath Ledger’s parents Kim and Sally with his sister Kate (R) stood outside their home in Perth, Australia to give a brief statement to the media. The Ledger family described their family member’s passing as “accidental.”  Ledger’s cause of death has yet to be determined by initial autopsy reports. Stay tuned to blogs.gettyimages.com/entertainment for all the latest updates on Ledger’s untimely death.

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The death of Heath Ledger is a major blow to Hollywood, already in a state of crisis. Ledger was one of the brightest young stars in cinema, achieving by the age of 28 what many actors hope to accomplish during their entire career. His performances, ranging from appearances in historical blockbusters like Mel Gibson’s The Patriot to the hard-edged Australian addiction drama Candy, always exhibited extraordinary committment, a concept lost on many of his hard-partying, vapid Hollywood contemporaries. Ledger’s turn as a tortured bisexual cowboy in Ang Lee’s powerful 2005 film Brokeback Mountain will forever rank as one of the greatest performances this decade has seen. In this quiet study of sexual anguish in a repressive social environment, Ledger’s subtlety and precision recalled the early work of Marlon Brando.

Today the celebrity blogosphere eagerly awaits the results of a planned autopsy, which will put to final rest the cause of his death, though it is already fairly clear that Ledger died of a pill overdose. These details, however, are unimportant as we reflect upon an already-accomplished, promising career cut short by personal tragedy. Our hearts are with Ledger’s family, his 2-year-old daughter, and his former girlfriend Michelle Williams, the mother of his child.

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Heath Ledger was found dead in a New York City apartment this afternoon. The Australian actor was most famous for his role in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain and three year relationship with actress Michelle Williams, who he met while filming. Ledger was set to start a publicity tour for The Dark Knight later this year. He is survived by his daughter, Matilda. Click here to see Heath’s life in pictures.