Grief sucks. But as Kahlil Gibran says, “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
- SIDNEY POITIER He was the first Black man (and Bahamian) to win the Oscar for Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field (1963), after being the first one nominated, for The Defiant Ones (1958). This accomplishment was paved by Black women: Hattie McDaniel, Best Supporting Actress winner for Gone With the Wind (1939) and Dorothy Dandridge, Best Actress nominee for Carmen Jones (1954). It was only in 2001 when another Black man, Denzel Washington, won Best Actor for Training Day.
As the lone Black leading man in the racially tense 1960s, Sidney was under intense pressure. “It’s been an enormous responsibility. And I accepted it, and I lived in a way that showed how I respected that responsibility. I had to. In order for others to come behind me, there were certain things I had to do,” the trailblazing movie hero, also an icon of the civil rights movement, told Oprah Winfrey in 2000.
Sidney was the last male among the American Film Institute’s “50 Greatest Screen Legends.” With his passing on January 6 at 94 of heart failure, the Italian goddess Sophia Loren is the last one standing.
Pray for: Eva Marie Saint (97), Harry Belafonte (94), Tippi Hedren (92), Joanne Woodward (91), Gene Hackman (91), Clint Eastwood (91), Gena Rowlands (91), Glenda Jackson (85), Robert Redford (85).
- BETTY WHITE I was one with the world who wished that “The First Lady of TV” would reach her 100th birthday this year. But the international treasure died after a stroke, on New Year’s Eve, at 99. During this pandemic, my panacea was re-watching The Golden Girls (along with The Graham Norton Show, especially if Jack Whitehall and Miriam Margolyes were guests; Family Feud; vintage Miss Universe; and trashy slasher films).
I love The Golden Girls, the “sitcom that aged well,” maybe because Betty played Rose (“she wasn’t dumb; she was terminally naive”). It was also my mother’s name and Betty shared a birthday with my father, January 17. After her death, #thebettywhitechallenge of donating to animal shelters went viral. In a posthumous video post, Betty said, “I want to thank you all for your love and support over the years. Thank you so much and stick around.”
Pray for: Bob Barker (98), Dick Van Dyke (96), Angela Lansbury (96), Gloria Romero (88), Caridad Sanchez (88).
- GASPARD ULLIEL As if the immense losses of the French-Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyer’s Club, Big Little Lies) and the French-Mexican/American ingenue Yvette Mimieux (Light in the Piazza) weren’t enough, French heartthrob Gaspard Ulliel died in a skiing accident on January 19. He was 37.
He won the César Award for Most Promising Actor for A Very Long Engagement (2004), and Best Actor for It’s Only the End of the World (2017). In 2015, he was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. He was nominated for a César for his role as Yves Saint Laurent in Saint Laurent (2014), but was the face for 12 years of the men’s fragrance Bleu de Chanel.
Gaspard, with the upcoming film More Than Ever and the TV series Moon Knight, is still part of a young generation shaping the future of French cinema. That’s why his peers are mourning his passing, among them the Oscar winners Jean Dujardin, who placed a black heart after writing “Gaspard” on his Instagram; Juliette Binoche, who wrote “Speech/Word is silver/Silence is golden/I think of him and his family’; and Marion Cotillard, “Gaspard/So much light and so much love emanated from you. How I loved knowing you… It’s such a pain to know you’re gone. I am thinking of everyone you loved and will always love you. Travel in peace.”
Let’s pray for: Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Adjani, Fanny Ardant, Anouk Aimée, Isabelle Huppert, Alain Delon, Timothée Chalamet, Lucas Bravo, Omar Sy, Olivier Martinez.
- ANDRÉ LEON TALLEY Just as the launch of Vogue Philippines was announced to much excitement, the news of his passing, of a heart attack and Covid-19 complications, brought sadness to every fashionista. ALT, 73, as his Instagram declares, “was the larger-than-life, longtime creative director at Vogue during its rise to dominance as the world’s fashion bible. Over the past five decades as an international icon, [he] was a close confidant of Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Paloma Picasso, Diane von Furstenberg, Bethann Hardison, Manolo Blahnik, and he had a penchant for discovering, nurturing and celebrating young designers.”
ALT’s frenemy Anna Wintour says it best of the embodiment of Black Excellence: “It’s the loss of André as my colleague and friend that I think of now; it’s immeasurable. He was magnificent and erudite and wickedly funny—mercurial, too. Like many decades-long relationships, there were complicated moments, but all I want to remember today, all I care about, is the brilliant and compassionate man who was a generous and loving friend to me and to my family for many, many years, and who we will all miss so much.”
Let’s pray for: Lyn Yaeger, Kate Betts, Grace Coddington, Suzy Menkes, Cathy Horyn, Robin Givhan, Colin McDowell.
- VIRGIL ABLOH The visionary designer died on November 28, 2021, at 41, of cardiac angiosarcoma. His last collection as the menswear creative director at Louis Vuitton was shown on January 20 during Paris Fashion Week. Titled “Louis Dreamhouse”, it featured angels and breakdancers, with Naomi Campbell and Venus Williams in attendance. “I don’t believe in gender, I believe in design,” Virgil stated in the show’s notes.
In a press release, Sotheby’s announced its collaboration with Louis Vuitton to auction off 200 pairs of LV x Nike “Air Force 1” sneakers that Virgil originally created for the Spring/Summer 2022 men’s collection. Made from “precious calf leather embellished with Louis Vuitton’s emblematic Monogram and Damier patterns with natural cowhide piping,” the limited-edition shoes come in an orange LV pilot made of Monogram Taurillon Leather. The bidding is from January 26 to February 8.
Pray for: Valentino Garavani (89), Giorgio Armani (87), Vivienne Westwood (80), and all Filipino designers because in 2021, we lost so many: Rocky Gathercole, Alfonso “Boy” Guinoo, Ben Farrales, Arielle Agasang, Biboy Sario, Bea Bianca Mackey.