Celebrity deaths in 2026: Remembering the famous people we lost this year

Hayden Panettiere has died at 36.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Actors James Van Der Beek, Hayden Panettiere, Robert Duvall, Chuck Norris, and Sam Neill died in 2026.

So did painter David Hockney, "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams, and Grateful Dead's Bob Weir.

Civil rights leader Rev.

Jesse Jackson, singer Bonnie Tyler, and media mogul Ted Turner also died this year.

Below, we look back at the celebrities we lost in 2026, listed in alphabetical order.

Scott Adams, 68 Scott Adams.

Michael Macor/Getty Images Scott Adams worked at a telephone company in the 1980s.

The experience inspired his beloved comic strip, "Dilbert." By the end of the decade, the character and his satirical office humor began appearing in comic strips.

At its peak, "Dilbert" was syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers.

A cartoon series debuted in 1999, running for two seasons.

Adams gained notoriety when he began writing blog posts praising Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential run.

In 2023, "Dilbert" was pulled from newspapers across the US following racist comments made by Adams.

Adams died on January 13 from metastatic prostate cancer .