Notable Deaths in 2024

A look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan. The Associated Press contributed to this gallery. Born in China of Japanese parents, internationally-acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa (September 1, 1935-February 6, 2024) lived a life blending the cultures of East and West. He led the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002 (longer than any other conductor in the orchestra's history), and from 2002 to 2010 was music director of the Vienna State Opera. A singer, actor, and businessman, country artist Toby Keith (July 8, 1961-February 5, 2024) thought of himself first and foremost a songwriter. "God's gift to me was to be a writer," he told "Sunday Morning" in 2006, "and that's what I do best of all, and I'm as gifted at that as anybody." Gifted enough to sell 40 million records and run his own record label. After three years of playing professional football, Carl Weathers (January 14, 1948-February 2, 2024) transitioned to Hollywood action star, bringing a towering physicality and deft humor to roles in such films as "Rocky," "Predator," and "Happy Gilmore." "I always used to think that we should have two lifetimes: one to try it out, and the second one to know what's coming," Broadway star Chita Rivera (January 23, 1933-January 30, 2024) told "Sunday Morning" in 2023. But no one would mistake Rivera's life for a rehearsal. The theatrical legend won three Tony Awards, received a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was the first Latina Kennedy Center Honoree. Rivera became a star playing Anita in the original Broadway production of West Side Story." She followed that with performances in the original productions of "Chicago," "Bye Bye Birdie," and "Kiss of the Spider Woman." Award-winning journalist Charles Osgood (January 8, 1933-January 23, 2024) was anchor of "CBS Sunday Morning" for 22 years, and for more than four decades was writer and host of the long-running radio program "The Osgood File." Musical satirist Peter Schickele (July 17, 1935-January 16, 2024) made a name for himself as a performer and a composer of music for the concert hall and films. But his name was overshadowed by that of his creation: P.D.Q. Bach, described as the least talented of Johann Sebastian Bach's 20-ish children, whose compositions would, in the words of Schickele, "catapult him into obscurity." No one knew the composer even existed until Schickele said he discovered one of P.D.Q. Bach's manuscripts being used as a coffee strainer at a castle in Bavaria. Veteran stage and television actor Joyce Randolph (October 21, 1924-January 13, 2024) was best remembered as Trixie, the wife of the dim Ed Norton, on the classic sitcom "The Honeymooners." She was the last surviving cast member of the beloved sitcom that also starred Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows and Art Carney. British actress Glynis Johns (October 5, 1923-January 4, 2024) was best-known on screen for her portrayal of a suffragette and mother in the Disney classic "Mary Poppins," and on stage for her Tony-winning turn in Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."

While he was a student in Japan, Ozawa suffered a rugby accident in which he broke two fingers. It ended his piano playing, but his music teacher suggested he take up conducting instead. Keith grew up in Oklahoma, played a bit of semi-pro football, and worked in the oil fields until jobs dried up. All the while, he struggled to make it in country music. When his debut album was released in 1993, the song "Should've Been a Cowboy," went to #1 on the country charts. Growing up in New Orleans, Weathers had performed in plays in grade school. But he pursued football, playing college ball at San Diego State University (while majoring in theater), and playing linebacker for the Oakland Raiders in 1970. Afterwards, he played two years in the Canadian Football League, while taking acting lessons in the offseason at San Francisco State University. Born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero Montestuco Florentina Carnemacaral del Fuente, in Washington, D.C., her Puerto Rican father died when she was seven years old; her mother was left to raise five kids. As a small child, Dolores jumped from one piece of living room furniture to another. "I missed one time, and I went through the coffee table," said Rivera. "And my mother said, 'That's it, you're out of here. You're going to a ballet school.'" In his near-half-century at CBS News, Osgood worked on virtually every broadcast on the network, including the "CBS Morning News," the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather," and the "CBS Sunday Night News," and interviewed such luminaries as chef Julia Child, graffiti artist-turned-gallery star Keith Haring, painter Andrew Wyeth, sculptor Louise Nevelson, and singer-songwriter Sting. The satirist actually created P.D.Q. while on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in New York, creating works for the concert hall that lampooned classical music tropes, while adding unusual instruments (shower hose, police siren) in the mix. Schickele's musical heroes included Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Spike Jones. "I grew up with the Three Stooges, as well as Bach and Mozart, and it's all there," he told "Sunday Morning" in 1984. Originating as a skit on Gleason's 1950s variety show, "Cavalcade of Stars," "The Honeymooners" became a series of its own in 1955. Its one season on CBS, comprised of 39 episodes, would entertain generations in syndicated reruns. Johns was the fourth generation of actors in her family (she was born in Pretoria, South Africa, because her parents were touring at the time), and was first carried on stage at age three weeks. She was performing on London's West End by age 14. Her early film credits included "49th Parallel," "The Magic Box," "The Sword and the Rose," "Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue," "The Beachcomber," "The Court Jester," "Around the World in 80 Days," "Loser Take All," "Another Time, Another Place," "Shake Hands with the Devil," "The Spider's Web," "The Chapman Repot," and "The Sundowners," for which she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.