In Memoriam: Tributes to stars we lost over the past 30 years

They gave us Purple Rain and Ziggy Stardust, "Schlemiel! Schlimazel!" and "fuhgeddaboudit,"
an intergalactic princess named Leia and the questionably British Mrs. known as Doubtfire. Many we've had to say goodbye to much too soon — comforted, in our collective loss, by the immortal work they left behind. Here, EW looks back at just a few of the brightest lights of the past three decades through the recollections of the friends, family, and fellow artists who knew them best.

Prince, 1958-2016

"He was a special human being. He was very other. And a genius, of course. Musically, it was the closest I ever came to working with someone where it felt like I was working with myself. I mean, we probably made an entire record in four weeks' time. I'd write a poem, give it to him at night after we finished recording, and he'd come back the next evening with the music. Boom, done — just like that. Our whole relationship was just easy and natural and honest. I was always honest with him, and I think that was part of the glue that held us together, because he was a very lonely person. I'm lonely too! It's a lonely-ass life that we lead. But one thing he told me, he said when you go on stage, it really doesn't matter who goes on first or second or third. And it doesn't! So that's why, to my audience's chagrin, I often go on first. [Laughs] Because it's not a competition, it never is." —Chaka Khan

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, 1956-2016 | 1932-2016

"Some people look at my mother's death [the day after Carrie's] and say, 'That must have been really horrible.' But literally when I was in the hospital, I walked up the hallway and just had this epiphany about how beautiful it was. I'm not saying it wasn't devastating. I stopped dead in my tracks and was like, wow, what just happened? I was there with her 24/7, from the day Carrie passed all the way forward to the moment when my mother looked in my eyes and said she needed to be with Carrie. And then she closed them and left. There's no other way I could have accepted it but that way. The gift was amazing for all of us. We all would have selfishly loved to have her around. I was brought into this world so Carrie wouldn't be alone. My mother left this world so Carrie wouldn't be alone." -—Todd Fisher

Heath Ledger, 1979-2008

"The thing I thought that was so cool about Heath — I mean, everything was cool about him — was just how creative he was. He put his whole body and voice into each character. I never knew what he was going to do. He was so present. Six days after he wrapped Lords of Dogtown, he was shooting Brokeback Mountain. And that is a completely different voice, different body language. You would have thought he had been up on that horse for six months or his whole life, compared to our laid-back stoner surfer dude." —Catherine Hardwicke

Penny Marshall, 1943-2018

"Penny Marshall was an American original, extraordinarily talented in everything she did. The first time I saw her was on The Odd Couple playing Myrna Turner. She made me laugh out loud. I thought, "This girl is so much fun to watch, and what impeccable timing." If she had been a drummer, she would have been Ringo Starr — bigger than life, yet subtle and masterful. She was [also] secretly sentimental, only showing that side of herself on rare occasions. We were attending the Golden Globes one year and the orchestra began playing 'Send In the Clowns.' I looked at Penny and she was weeping. When she saw me look at
her, she quickly turned away. Penny never thought she was pretty, but I thought she was beautiful. The last words we said to each other were 'I love you, Pen,' 'I love you, Cin.' I deeply miss her." —Cindy Williams

Selena, 1971-1995

"She was really a member of the Corpus Christi community, and so I grew up with her. I remember going to dances, very young and her band playing and maybe a hundred people at the little dance hall. She was more than just a celebrity. That word didn't really exist when I was growing up. She was a fellow Latina. She was a fellow sister. We grew up in a similar circumstance of being Mexican-American and straddling that hyphen of seeing both at the same time. There are so many parallels in mine and Selena's life. And then we both received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the same year. I spoke at her star ceremony and said, 'This star isn't hers, it's all of ours.' And same thing with mine. It's all of our stars, for my community, for all Latinas everywhere, because we really proved that we are part of the fabric that makes up not only this country, but this global community. Fan seems like such an understatement. We owe so much to her in blazing the trail for the rest of us to follow." —Eva Longoria

Phil Hartman, 1948-1998

"I was always a huge fan of Phil's from Saturday Night Live. He was an Everyman who could do anything. What was brilliant about him was he was able to do large, broad comedy yet pull it into small, believable stuff, like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. When I was doing my early sitcom work, he helped me feel confident I could get work being subtle but still being big. Although Phil came from improv comedy, he had the sense of a theater actor, in being able to repeat a performance and have it be just as funny as the first time. He would change a little something and keep it fresh. He was a very prepared guy. All of us [on NewsRadio] would take our scripts and just throw them around. He had his in a notebook, parceled out into every scene with different tabs and different colors. So he was like Dad in that sense to us. Phil was never afraid to look like a fool or be made fun of, because he had an underlying dignity. The funniest thing I ever saw was a fantasy episode [Hartman's last] where we were on the Titanic, and Phil was very happy to put on a suit of french fries and sit there with Andy Dick dressed as a hot dog and watch people go by who were drowning. That is the mental picture that comes up when I think of Phil as the ultimate 'I'll do this for a laugh, yet it will be somehow stately.' I keep a picture of him dressed as a blue genie. He was doing some commercial [in an episode] as a genie, and I said, 'Phil, I have to have this picture in my home.' He very graciously took a couple, and I keep it in my bathroom, so I can see him every day." —Stephen Root

Whitney Houston, 1963-2012

"Her 'Star-Spangled Banner' at the Super Bowl [in 1991] — nobody has ever sung that song like that. The only other person who could is Aretha. It was like you were watching a thoroughbred. And she still had places to go in the song! She was not at the end of her range. For me, that was the epitome of Whitney Houston. She was America. She was our American girl." —Courtney B. Vance

James Gandolfini, 1961-2013

"Jimmy was not like Tony Soprano at all, but he just made that character so believable that it was hard to get that image out of your head on set. He could do more with a single look than most actors could with monologues. He could express that incredible warmth with just a slight nod of his head. Conversely, when he wanted to convey that Tony was not happy, he would get this look, the tone in his voice would change, his breathing would get labored, and there was the threat of real violence. He was able to tap into that, but it was at a cost and it took a toll on him. He sometimes had to go to such a dark place, and it would stay with him. Other actors can turn it on and turn it off. Jimmy felt things very deeply. Sometimes he didn't want to go there and would struggle. Then when he did, it's like, 'Oh my God, watch out.'" —Steve Buscemi

Valerie Harper and Mary Tyler Moore, 1939-2019 | 1936-2017

"There was always a little jealousy on my part because Mary would spend more time with Valerie. I [said] in my biography that I should have been favored with her smile more! But Valerie got more time and space than
I did. I was petty, but I didn't show it. Valerie was a good Joe because she had come directly from improv and the New York stage. Mary was dedicated to the work intensively. She would take dance lessons during lunch. She was a workaholic. She was always open and never petty. I truly admired her." —Ed Asner

Aretha Franklin, 1942-2018

"When we first met [in Los Angeles in 1960] she said, 'I live in Detroit,' and I said, 'Well, I live in Chicago. We're neighbors!' I thought she was beautiful. She had two sisters and a brother, and I had two sisters and a brother, so we turned out to be one family, you know? We would visit each other when we'd have some time off — cook, fry fish, just have fun. We just jelled. She was bold, you know? Really frisky. And she could hit some notes. For me gospel was always home, but she wanted to sing jazz and R&B. And it must have been what she was supposed to do, because she sang with so much feeling, even the secular songs. I'd say, 'Oh, Ree' — that's what I called her — 'Ree, are you goin' up there?' And she'd say, 'Yeah, I'm goin'.' [Laughs]" —Mavis Staples

Luke Perry, 1966-2019

"Whenever Riverdale would do San Diego Comic-Con, we'd go to the Warner Bros. booth and people would come get posters signed. Every single person who came through that line, Luke shook their hand, asked their name, and talked to them. Often it would be fans of his from Beverly Hills, 90210, and he was so gracious to them. He meant so much to these people who grew up watching him. There wasn't a single picture he didn't take or a single person he didn't make feel special. That, to me, was the essence of Luke. He was just a prince." —Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

David Bowie, 1947-2016

"David Bowie wrote [Pop's iconic 1977 single] 'Lust for Life' on a ukulele. In fact, I think outside of Hawaiian music, it's probably the most successful ukulele song of all time. We were sitting around his digs on the floor, because it was a no-chairs kind of place. We had a production contract and a schedule and he had to get it out of the way, so he said, 'Let's get a song here.' He picked up a little ukulele he had — I think it might have been his son's — and just came up with that progression, which I thought was great. He came up with the title, too. Later I realized that it was a reference to van Gogh and the [1956] Kirk Douglas film. I think in the two albums we made, he wanted to make the comment that I was an idiot à la Dosto­yev­sky and insane à la van Gogh. Basically, 'Here I am producing albums for this insane idiot.' [Laughs] Which is cool. —Iggy Pop

Robin Williams, 1951-2014

"Robin was incredibly kind and treated all of us young actors [in Dead Poets Society] really, really well. Even though he was the big star, he just really was part of the ensemble. I remember at a holiday party or something, we were at the Radisson in Wilmington [Del.] and he came to all of our rooms and gave us a copy of the script that he had leather-bound, and he wrote little personal notes for us. I have nothing but the fondest memories of working with him. He was a beautiful man." — Josh Charles