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Queen of comedy and fashion police sergeant Joan Rivers -- known for her signature opening line "Can we talk?" -- died Sept. 4 at age 81 after complications from surgery on her vocal cords. To some people, she was a joke, but her untimely and tragic death raised serious questions about the safety of surgical centers.(Photo: 2009 photo by Lionel Cironneau, AP)
Comedian Joan Rivers, so loud, brassy and fearless, almost quit show business when her act bombed at the Bitter End, a tiny Greenwich Village club in the 1960s.
But she tried again after another embattled comic, Lenny Bruce, sent her a four-word note: "You're right. They're wrong."
"I kept that note in my bra for years," Rivers told interviewers decades later.
Robin Williams said his father, a serious man, would laugh uncontrollably when the zany Jonathan Winters showed up on the Tonight Show.
Manic comic genius Robin Williams, known for his lightning-fast impressions and malleable voice and dubbed the "funniest man alive" in 1997 by "Entertainment Weekly," was one of those rare comic actors who could be taken seriously as a dramatic artist. His shocking Aug. 11 death at age 63 was ruled a suicide, leaving fans distraught and sparking discussions on social media about depression.(Photo: 1999 photo by Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)
"Seeing my father laugh like that made me think, 'Who is this guy, and what's he on?''' Williams wrote in The New York Times. "He was a rebel without a pause."
Or put another way, they were inspirations.
Rivers, who died in September at the age of 81, spent the rest of her career channeling the "sick" humor of Lenny Bruce, puncturing the taboos of sex, death and plastic surgery. "Oh, grow up,'' she'd say.
And does anyone doubt that Winters was the Gollum to the manic ring that was Robin Williams? Williams' suicide at the age of 63 in August leaves a generation of stand-ups hoping to rekindle his absurdist fire.
We are all the products of those who inspire us — parents, relatives, authors, entertainers, men and women, saints and sinners, great and small.
Many times it is faith that propels us. Or a social movement, an injustice, a politician's speech. Other times it can be as simple as the laughter of an aunt, who sees the world just a little bit differently and changes your outlook on life forever.
Inspirations are why the things we say and what we do matter, to our children, to our friends, to our colleagues. It's a way to live a while longer, to know that a little bit of what inspired us will spark something in others, for good or bad, even after we are gone.
That's what makes these annual "Passages" remembrances so rewarding. Everyone's life is a composite of what came before, and a change agent for those still to come.
High school dropout Maya Angelou became a poet and symbol of inspiration.(Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for AWRT)
For poet and author Maya Angelou, 84, inspirations included giants such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and author James Baldwin. But it was a black woman called "Mrs. Roberts'' who had the biggest influence. She was a teacher who convinced the 12-year-old Angelou, struck dumb for years by sexual abuse and a murder in the family, to speak again, and later to write.
And write she did. "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud," Angelou advised.
Or later: "You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot — it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive."
Some lives transform tragedy into movements: Former White House press secretary James Brady, 73, somehow survived a gunshot to the head during an assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981. He spent the next 33 years fighting for gun control, including successful passage of the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks for gun purchasers.
For journalists, the legacies of former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, 93, and Gannett and USA TODAY's John Seigenthaler, 86, helped forge a wave of reporters and editors who sought the truth from those in power, no matter where it led them.
In entertainment, 2014 saw the death of true icons: Shirley Temple Black, 85, was the biggest and most precocious child star Hollywood ever produced. Mickey Rooney, 93, made more than 200 films, playing one of America's first "teenagers'' in 15 Andy Hardy movies in the 1940s.
In this June 26, 1963, file photo, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney put their heads together over a script for their first onstage reunion in 18 years, for the taping of a variety show for CBS.(Photo: AP)
The duo ruled during the pre-war years: Temple was Hollywood's biggest box office attraction from 1935 to '38. Rooney followed from 1939 to '41, when he was, in his much-parodied words, "the biggest star in the world!''
Even after those achievements, the memories of both mid-century superstars are naturally fading in today's digital world.
That's why it's important to note the loss of influentials such as Lauren Bacall, 89, who brought a smoldering elegance to Bogey, cigarettes and movies, or Polly Bergen, 84, who showed she could be a pioneering businesswoman as well as a game show panelist, or Ruby Dee, 91, who quietly but steadily broke color barriers on stage, film and TV.
The entertainment losses this year include familiar stars and even more familiar faces: James Garner, 86, Eli Wallach, 98, and Richard Attenborough, 90; two James Bond villains, Geoffrey Holder, 84, and Richard "Jaws" Kiel, 74; and the unexpected loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, a brilliant Oscar-winning actor whose heroin-induced death shocked the world, died Feb. 2 at age 46.(Photo: Victoria Will, Invision, via AP)
We can easily add to influences on Joan Rivers and Robin Williams the 1950s live TV sketches of Sid Caesar, 91, and the brilliance of Mike Nichols, 83, who before his directing career teamed with Elaine May for hipster comedy on Broadway and LP (now known as vinyl).
Folk music has many heroes, but few stood more defiantly than Pete Seeger, 94, who made Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land' an enduring piece of Americana. Convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to talk about his past membership in the Communist Party, Seeger never blinked and fought for environmental and civil rights "from California to the New York Island'' throughout his life.
The music world lost other big names: the gravel-voiced Joe Cocker, 70, who electrified Woodstock in 1969, bluesman Johnny Winter, 70, harmonic brother Phil Everly, 74, punk drummer Tommy Ramone, 65, soul artists Jimmy Ruffin, 78, and Bobby Womack, 70, Cream bassist Jack Bruce, 71, and the man who charted their ups and downs on the Top 40, Casey Kasem, 82.
And yes, "just around midnight'' there was Bobby Keys, 70, who played saxophone for the Rolling Stones for more than 40 years. "He must have turned on millions of people, even though a lot of them don't know who he was,'' the Stones' Keith Richards told Rolling Stone (the magazine). "He's one of those hidden geniuses, 10 feet from stardom and all of that.''
Every town has a sports hero, but few were as revered as San Diego's Tony Gwynn, 54, who spent his entire 20-year career with the Padres (averaging .338 with eight batting titles). New York and Pittsburgh fans will never forget Ralph Kiner, 91, who as a Pirate hit more than 50 homers twice but as an announcer hosted "Kiner's Korner'' after each Mets game.
Tony Gwynn, the greatest player in San Diego Padres history and a Hall of Famer who studied the art of hitting with Ted Williams, died June 16 at age 54.(Photo: 2004 photo by Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)
Boxer Rubin "Hurricane'' Carter, 76, spent 19 years in prison for a murder he said he didn't commit. "He could've been the champion of the world,'' Bob Dylan sang on his behalf.
Beyond Angelou, authors ranging from mystic realist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 87, and political scribe Joe McGinness, 71, to British mystery writer P.D. James, 94, leave works that will always engage readers on e-books or devices not yet dreamed.
And talk about inspirations. In the world of humor, was anything more influential than Mad magazine, which skewered the hypocrisy of Madison Avenue under the stewardship of Al Feldstein, 88? It's no surprise that the popular AMC TV show is called Mad Men.
A world of notables left their mark as well: former Washington mayor Marion Barry, 78, who despite being busted for crack cocaine helped find jobs and training for the city's youth; the Soviet Union's foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze, 86, who helped ease the way for changes that led to the end of the Cold War; and Israel's eternal hawk, Ariel Sharon, 85, who forced Jews out of settlements in failed attempts to find a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
D.C. council member and former mayor Marion Barry speaks in Washington, D.C. in 2010.(Photo: Tim Sloan, AFP/Getty Images)
This also was a year where deaths on the street sparked an ongoing national debate and mass demonstrations over race relations and public safety.
Whether it was the deaths during encounters with police of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Mo., or Eric Garner, 43, in New York City, or the assassinations of New York City police officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, by a Baltimore man, the fatal tensions between citizens and law enforcement were impossible to ignore.
Finally, the world was horrified in 2014 by the gruesome deaths of two journalists and three aid workers who were beheaded by Islamic State radicals. Their crime: trying to bring relief to refugees or report on the unending conflict in Syria.
To journalists James Foley, 40, and Steven Sotloff, 31, and aid workers David Haines, 44, Alan Henning, 47, and Peter Kassig, 26, this story is respectfully dedicated.
May their sacrifices, along with the 55 American servicemembers in Afghanistan who died in 2014, serve as reminders that freedom and truth do not come easily, and sometimes carry a heavy price.
David Colton is an executive editor at USA TODAY.
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