A Tribute to Beloved Celebrities

Throughout the past month, many cherished celebrities have passed away. It has both saddened and shocked the public. In this article, we remember and honor the lives of Tim Curry, Dolly Parton, and Gloria Steinem, three incredibly important and influential people in the media.

Tim Curry

“If you’re searching for where you belong, you always have a home within yourself." - A quote from Tim Curry’s memoir, Vagabond.

Due to a coronary artery disease, the beloved actor and singer Tim Curry passed away on August 25th of this year. Curry had many noteworthy roles in his nearly sixty-year award-winning career. His first major stage role was in 1968 as Woof in the musical production of Hair. Curry later played Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1973 stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and again in the 1975 film adaptation, serving as his first movie role. This then led to other roles in movies such as Clue, Annie, and Legend. Curry, alongside his movie career, continued to act in stage productions. Curry received his first Tony award nomination playing Mozart in the Broadway production of Amadeus. Just a year later, Curry starred as the pirate king in The Pirates of Penzance. For this role, Curry won his first award, The Royal Variety Club Award for Stage Actor of the Year. In addition, Curry was nominated for a Laurence Oliver Award for that same role. While Curry was nominated for many awards, the next award he won was a Daytime Emmy for the animated series, Peter Pan and The Pirates in 1991. Over Curry’s long career, he was nominated for three Tony Awards, two Laurence Oliver awards, and a Grammy among many others. Despite all these accomplishments, Curry’s memoir, Vagabond, does not contain much pertaining to his awards. Rather, Curry writes about his journey from early life to stardom, along with his later health struggles. Curry’s long and distinguished career will be remembered for years to come.

Dolly Parton

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” - A famous Dolly Parton quote that was repeated many times during her career.

At eighty years old, Dolly Parton sadly passed away after a brief battle with cancer. Parton grew up in poverty, living with her eleven siblings and her parents, in a humble cabin in Tennessee. By age ten, she started working in radio and on television. However, it wasn’t until 1967 when she released her debut album Hello, I’m Dolly, that she had her breakthrough. During that time, she started having a recurring appearance as a singer on The Porter Wagoner Show. Overall, Parton had been a part of twelve dramatically released feature films with multiple different cameos. Some of her most popular songs are "Jolene," "9 to 5," and "I Will Always Love You." Alongside her many beautiful contributions to the music and theatre industry, Parton was a kind soul. She donated one million dollars to Vanderbilt University, which furthered research for the COVID-19 vaccine. Alongside that, Parton created the Dolly Parton Foundation in 1988, which helped decrease the amount of Tennessee high school drop outs. By 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was created, and since then, nearly 305 million books have been donated across five different countries. Even though the Pure and Simple Tour in 2016 acted as her last formal headlining tour, Parton still has an album set to release October 6th of this year.  The album is a tribute to the bluegrass duo, Ralph and Carter Stanley, titled Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of The Stanley Brothers. The final Dolly Parton song the world will hear is "My Place in History," and is to be released from its time capsule at Dollyworld’s DreamMore resort on what would've been her 100th birthday. Born with many hardships, she made herself a name to remember. Dolly Parton’s legacy will live on forever, both through her work and numerous positive impacts on the world.

Gloria Steinem

“There's no greater gift than thinking you had some impact on the world, for the better.” Gloria Steinem, in a 2023 Collider interview. 

On September 2nd, 2026, the world lost acclaimed journalist and women’s activist, Gloria Steinem. Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, and has had multiple contributions to gender equality in the journalism field. In the beginning, Steinem wrote for Help! Magazine, and freelance pieces, subjected to writing fashion and lifestyle articles due to gender formalities in the career. It was like this until 1963, where Steinem went undercover for Playboy for eleven days to see what the job was truly like. During that time she faced harsh objectification, invasive medical exams, painful attire, with hard labor and low pay. After this, she released an expose, “A Bunny's Tale” in Show Magazine which was a true breakthrough for Steinem. She also co-founded the first mainstream feminist magazine, Ms., that covers serious social and political topics, unlike any female magazine before. Not only that, but she was one of the founders of the Women's Media Center, a non profit organization that ensures visibility of women in media. One very popular quote that aligns with her work in these organizations is “I think if women were visible in the media, truly visible, in an empowered role, it empowers us to be more visible in any area of our lives.” Without a doubt, Steinem left an amazing legacy, and she earned multiple awards throughout her career, such as the Medal of Freedom from President Obama, the James Weldon Medal for journalism, the Princess of Asturias Award for communications and humanities, the Freedom Award, and many others. The Women’s Leadership Institute at Rutgers University honored Steinem through establishing a high position named The Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media. Gloria Steinem fought her whole life for women to get their chance, and although she is not with us physically anymore, her work is carried within our hearts. Women around the world thank you, Gloria.