Grammy-winning country music star Joe Diffie, 61, musician Alan Merrill, the co-writer and original singer of the much-covered hit I Love Rock 'n' Roll, and Star Wars actor and dialect coach Andrew Jack also also died after contracting COVID-19.įamous for timeless classics including Lean On Me, Lovely Day, Just The Two Of Us and Ain't No Sunshine, Bill Withers was a three-time Grammy winner who produced nine albums and songs that provide the soundtracks of countless engagements, weddings and parties to this day. Madonna led the tributes following the death of her Desperately Seeking Susan co-star Mark Blum, 69, who played Rosanna Arquette's on-screen husband Gary Glass, describing him as "a remarkable human" and saying his death served as "another reminder that this virus is no joke". He was a lung cancer survivor who lived with chronic inflammatory lung disease, and was among several stars who died with coronavirus towards the start of the pandemic.
The 81-year-old, whose career spanned six decades, wrote shows including Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Ragtime, and Frankie And Johnny In The Clair De Lune. The award-winning Terrence McNally was widely considered one of America's great playwrights.Īn openly gay writer, he put same-sex relationships under the microscope with witty plays and musicals delving into how people connect - or fail to.