The loss of a talented film actress is tragic in many ways. Of course, there is the immediate mourning of a friend or family member. But there is also the heartbreak of what they could have done, what great performances they might have given, and even what impact they might even have had on cinema itself. There are those who passed away naturally, and some whose acting careers died before their time. Here are 12 actresses that film has sorely missed.

Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Dandridge was a beautiful and talented singer/dancer/ actress who was the first Black woman to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (1954’s Carmen Jones), and for those old enough to remember, she performed the definitive version of “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTwy8ruyY40). She was married to Harold Nicholas for a time (he was half of the greatest male dance duo with his brother Fayard). Rumor had it that she was the first choice for 1963’s Cleopatra, a role she lost to Elizabeth Taylor. She might have continued to break many of the racial barriers of Hollywood and the public if she had lived, but she struggled with manic-depression, and died (officially) at age 42 of an accidental overdose of an antidepressant.

Ellen DeGeneres

But wait, she’s still alive. Only technically. DeGeneres was known in the 1980’s as one of the country’s most original and funny stand-up comedians—back then my wife and I considered her a real find, and she quickly became our favorite. She had a dry style based on the absurdities of everyday life. Her film debut was in the 1996 romantic black comedy Mr. Wrong, which, though she was surrounded by world-class actors, failed miserably. In hindsight, it isn’t surprising that her so-called “chemistry” with Bill Pullman didn’t take off. Of course, she is fondly remembered for her expert voicing of Dory in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. Her television show gave her the reputation of being funny, kind, and generous, until it didn’t. She moved to England in late 2024 ostensibly because of the election of President Trump, though there are rumors of other and darker reasons. In any event, her acting career is likely at an end.

Jane Fonda

Yes, Jane’s alive, as is our next actress. In the early 1970s, following her performances in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Klute, she was considered the greatest young American actress. But her dedication to acting began to waver as early as Klute, when she started to become self-conscious about her role as an activist. This became ever clearer as she continued her career, with Julia, Coming Home, The China Syndrome and On Golden Pond containing strong performances with a whiff of “I’m doing something important here”. She was hailed for a kind of “comeback” with The Morning After, but it was clear by then that we not going to get the promise of her 1969-1971. Her mind and heart were somewhere else and have remained so even as she has continued acting. Yes, she’s a legend, but the work she should be best remembered for is more than 50 years ago.

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi is still alive of course, but has been transformed. She began as a stand-up comedian, then moved into drama (1985’s The Color Purple, Oscar nomination for Best Actress) and then peaked with her Oscar-winning performance in 1990’s Ghost. She’s done some good work since then (Sister Act movies and as an MC for various awards shows.) But in perhaps the saddest loss for cinema and for anyone watching “The View”, she has turned into an intelligent but unthinking, rather dominating, and harsh person with a serious case of TDS.. (Self-importance combined with the dominating makes for a particularly unpleasant brew). While the studio audience lends their virtue-signaling applause to her every word, she has become increasingly entrenched in her echo chamber and has fallen further and further away from the kind of self-understanding that makes for a good actor. A loss indeed for what we might have had, and sadness for what we currently experience.

Jean Harlow

Jean Harlow was the first “blonde bombshell”, and Marilyn Monroe based her look and much of her personality on Harlow. She dominated the early 1930’s with first sexy and then comedic performances that delighted while suggesting even better things to come. She made popular films with Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and her lover William Powell, who might have married her if she’d lived long enough. My favorite of her performances is in the very-close-to-her-real-life film Bombshell, where she shows top comedic skill with a  facility for hand rapid dialogue. She died at age 26 of uremic poisoning connected to acute nephritis. Her films still hold up, but always carry the tinge of what might have been.

Elizabeth Hartman

The greatly talented, vulnerable actress was practically an overnight success in films, after the briefest of careers on Broadway, as the blind and uneducated white girl who falls in love with Sidney Poitier in 1965’s A Patch of Blue. This first film role won her the Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer as well as Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress. She made a few other films, but none with that cachet or personal success. She had a few smaller parts in such A-list films as You’re a Big Boy Now, The Beguiled, and Walking Tall, but never achieved her earlier success. Unfortunately, she was never to overcome her struggles with depression, and she jumped from the fifth floor of her building to her death at the age of 43. She had a deep talent and could easily have gone on to great roles and awards, and her loss is a great one for film.

Barbara LaMarr

Barbara LaMarr (yes, Heddy Lamarr was named after her, sans the capital letter) was a silent film actress whose short career spanned from 1920 to 1926. She was known as “The Girl Who is Too Beautiful,” and starred in such popular films as The Three Musketeers and The Prisoner of Zenda, all the while also becoming a successful screenwriter. But she was apparently more interested in late-night partying than in advancing her career, and took more than her fair share of drink and drugs. Ultimately, she died of tuberculosis at only 29.

Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard was one of the best comedic actresses to ever step in front of a camera. She was married to William Powell and Clark Gable, but it was her talent that led to a dazzling if short career. Nominated for Best Actress for 1936’s My Man Godfrey, she showed what she could in Twentieth Century with John Barrymore, Nothing Sacred, Made for Each Other and her final film, To Be or Not to Be. She was pretty and vivacious, but it was her wit and intelligence that set her apart. She was destined for a long and successful career that was cut short when her plane crashed in 1942 as she returned from a World War II War Bond drive. There was no one quite like her, and she had decades of great work in front of her.

Marilyn Monroe

It seems as if adding Monroe’s name to this list is foolish, as we have so many shining performances to look back on: Asphalt Jungle, All About Eve, Don’t Bother to Knock, Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop, The Prince and the Showgirl, Some Like it Hot, and The Misfits. Her life as the great mid-century sex symbol, her many affairs and husbands, and her dumb-blonde persona are unfortunately what remains in the public memory. But she was working hard on becoming a serious actress, and according to her acting coaches, had great talent and great promise. She also had some various drug addictions and struggled with depression. It is said that she committed suicide at the age of 36. But her relationships with powerful political men who would have been greatly compromised by her revelations casts a shadow of doubt over that analysis. Even with a singular comedic talent and a drive to improve herself personally and as an actress, she will unfortunately be most remembered as the great “blonde bombshell/sex symbol”.

Rosie O’Donnell

O’Donnell is now best known as a TV host and gay activist. But there was a time when she was an excellent comedic actress in such films as A League of Their Own and Sleepless in Seattle, where she occasionally steals the films from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. She has worked consistently since then, especially in television, but has left her focus on a legitimate comedic actress for her work with LGBTQ activism and as a serious victim of TDS. She has made her mark in political “discourse” and crusading, but we have lost someone with great potential in film comedy.

Gail Russell

Russell was another young woman led into film acting via pushy parents and her own beauty. Russell did her best work in the 1940’s, often with friend and mentor John Wayne. She is probably best remembered today for two films from 1944: The Uninvited with Ray Milland and Our Hearts were Young and Gay with Wayne. Her talent was evidently real, but she had a crippling self-consciousness and anxiety that made filmmaking difficult for her to the point of breakdown. She self-medicated with alcohol until she passed away at the age of 36 from liver damage.

Sharon Tate

Tate is best known today for her horrific murder at the hands of Charles Manson’s “family.” As many did, she first became known for her looks and was often referred to as “the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.” She made several second-rate films in the 1960’s, culminating in the firm version of the hugely popular book, Valley of the Dolls. She was praised for her looks, panned for some of her acting, and eventually noticed as an ingenue with talent and potential. Her death is one of the most shocking events of its time, and despite the re-imagined storyline of Once Upon the Time in Hollywood, she did indeed tragically die.

Thelma Todd

“Hot Toddy” was another victim of her own beauty and a mother who pushed her out of teaching and into beautify contests and then films.  (Becoming Miss Massachusetts 1925 gave her a good start.) She began her careers in the late silent period and moved easily into sound films. She worked with the Marx Brothers, Gary Cooper, William Powell, Richard Dix, Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Laurel and Hardy, Buddy Rogers, Cary Grant, and ZaSu Pitts, and was featured in the first Maltese Falcon film (1931).

Todd was also a shrewd businesswoman with a nightclub/restaurant. Unfortunately, her business and her life were compromised by the presence of shady underworld men, and after 115 films and a promising start, she died mysteriously at the young age of 29. Her carbon monoxide demise is still one of Hollywoods’s greatest mysteries.