Hail and farewell to those we lost in 2020

it's our tradition at the end of each year to bid a fond hail and farewell to those who have touched us in all sorts of ways on screen in music and books and in our everyday lives [Music] pain and sorrow the calling cards of 2020 lean on me by bill withers provided us reassurance that tomorrow may be better [Music] [Applause] although bill withers left us at 81 his notes solace helped during a year that wasn't even a month old before grief was already setting in [Music] the death of 41 year old kobe bryant the l.a lakers phenom along with his 13 year old daughter and seven others stunned everywhere basketball fans are not kobrez was my dear friend he was like a little brother his passing became a moment of rare unity this year with people from all walks of life joining together to both celebrate and to mourn my mama always said life was like a box of chocolates covid was you never know what you're going to get certainly the box we all wished we never got let me say this being an idiot is no box of chocolates because i reckon i don't live a pretty interesting life but winston groom who created forrest gump reminded us through that character that challenges exist to be overcome mama always said dying was a part of life you don't have to be rich you don't have to be smart you have to be famous to be dignified dignity for black americans remained an unfinished struggle this year the deaths of george floyd ahmad aubry and brianna taylor just to name a few rekindled a movement for equality and justice not seen since the 1960s i got in trouble good trouble necessary trouble congressman john lewis was still fighting right to the end all of the suffering all of the pain the beating the tear gas it was worth it if i had it to do it all over again i would march the same way a special report from cbs news testament of a murdered man medgar evers had dedicated nine years of his life to the war against racism now he is dead in battle after his brother medgar was assassinated by white supremacists charles evers tried to make change from within running for congress then becoming a mayor it's not for revenge but to carry on to fight for freedom for all mankind regardless to race creed of color we lost those who marched alongside dr martin luther king too reverends ct vivian and joseph lowry we asked you to help us work for that day when black would not be asked to get it back gave the benediction when brown can stick around at president obama's inauguration when yela will be mellow when the red man can get ahead man and when white will embrace what is right say amen rayford johnson who was the first black american to captain the united states olympic team in 1960 left us this year his triumphant win in the decathlon is still talked about to this day rock and roll certainly wasn't immune to racism [Music] when i came on the scene black and white was segregated and dances and shows little richard couldn't always stay or eat where the white performers did but his fans were of all colors [Music] and the best new artist is his energy was boundless and so was his humor me i have never received nothing you only never gave me no brother and i've been singing for years what are you afraid of the black americans we celebrate like jackie robinson james brown thurgood marshall shirley would have been proud of chadwick boseman who portrayed them all that's the reason why you act you want to be able to like actually identify with the characters that you play and explore humanity gender equality lost some of its superheroes too [Music] helen reddy offered the soundtrack for the fight that she herself waged [Music] but there were few champions for women as influential as justice ruth bader ginsburg i do not see myself at all as a legend i see myself as a person who tries very hard to be a good judge in her 27 years on the supreme court she expanded rights for women as well as men small in stature a giant for us all i will do this job as long as i feel that i can do it full stain [Music] the only thing tougher than justice ginsburg was the cancer that took at 87. for all minorities for all people it's just a never-ending battle to fight against the powers that be to prove our worth and our place the fight for equality took all forms aids activists and playwright larry kramer was often brash but affected most of the country doesn't know about this cancer well i think it's because it's a gay cancer he fought tirelessly pressing the government and the public to care more about the gay community much the way playwright mart crowley did homosexuality was just not talked about it took him 50 years to see his portrayal of gay life the boys in the band finally make it to broadway it's just generally about the human spirit suddenly they aren't just gay people anymore they're just people few wrote that storyline better than playwright terence mcnally whose tales of love of all kinds won in five tony awards [Applause] including one tonight is overwhelming for a lifetime achievement thank you one more dance [Music] broadway has been dark for months now one more song but we paused to give thanks to all the creators we lost that's why i'm here where i belong one more song one more dance [Music] performers couldn't play in front of live audiences this year and that made us miss their talents all the more when i get to heaven i'm going to shake god's hand i'm going to thank him for more blessings than one man can stand especially legends like folk singer john prine i think the afterlife grand then i'm gonna get a cop with his nasal raspy voice he was often compared to bob dylan who himself was a fan well i considered myself a writer so i thought why can't i be in any character i want to be [Music] in whatever genre country or pop the bourbon smooth voice of kenny rogers brought us ballads about gamblers and lost souls searching for love i'm not a great singer but i'm a storyteller if a song moves me i can make it move other people country music was largely an all-white venue [Music] until charlie pride came along his records were huge sellers he just won a cma lifetime achievement award his music nourished our souls the way a good meal nourishes the body and few were better at that than cecilia chang this entire room is devoted to dumplings this is what heaven is like that's right that's right often called the mother of chinese food in america her cooking must have been pretty healthy because she lived to be one hundred i'm what you call a lucky duck that we don't baby spicy slim jim slim jims weren't necessarily healthy lon adams didn't intend for them to be but he sure knew how to package them in ways pretty hard to forget oh yeah artist christo took presentation to new heights i think the artist should do the things he like to do he saw all the world as a package to be wrapped [Music] but if you're gonna dress up a landmark nothing summed up a whole city better than milton glazer's i heart new york logo it actually changed the way we say love he died on his 91st birthday we lost a bit of magic too this year starting with showman roy horn half of the siegfried and roy duo whose entertaining mix of magic and exotic animals dazzled the las vegas strip for decades we have been called crazy outrageous now they call us colorful and eccentric miss frizzle was certainly colorful and eccentric she was the fictional teacher who drove the magic school bus to the delight of every child who read it her creator author joanna cole used her brand of magic to take kids to space even inside the human body in just a few moments we'll be landing in arnold's stomach thank you for flying digestion airways [Music] okay so this is the experimental test setup for the myth that if you drink a bunch of diet coke and eat a bunch of mentos your stomach will explode grant imahara one of the hosts of discovery's mythbusters proved that science can answer all sorts of mysteries like how to get to the moon nasa's katherine johnson figured that out calculating just the right trajectory that got astronauts there and back including alfred warden one of those who certainly had all the right stuff but it was chuck yeager through the sound barrier the first time ever who defined just what that meant had things flowing apart on us we would auger it in with the airplane we looked at it differently then than we do now and that was your job and you went ahead and flew it he made testing the limits his life i figured that the airplane wouldn't bite me without giving me some sort of warning and it worked out the world war ii fighter ace and air force general was 97. [Music] speaking of the sound barrier few cracked it like rocker eddie van halen he was a true guitar hero but he died from cancer at only 65. he lost rush drummer neil perk to cancer as well he was to sum the van halen of the drums his highly technical solos were really a thing to behold [Applause] [Music] i'd like you to meet our very charming little drummer viola smith years before pert however there was viola smith hailed as the fastest girl drummer in the world she played her drum kit wearing sequins but when it came to percussion diane finkel says he stood alone he was the world's greatest xylophonist he says because he was one of the few left until kovid took him at age 72. kovet also took ellis marsalis the great jazz pianist who gave us a whole family of musicians including wynton marsalis the musician behind our theme song every sunday morning if there was ever a year we needed a laugh this one was certainly one of the greats could even make the morbid fun first thing morning before i have coffee i read the obits seriously yes if i'm not in it i'll have breakfast karl reiner was a comedian in his own right but he made other people funny too as a writer producer and director i think about how i'd like to go i'd like to go to my sleep what a show this would be if i was talking to you spam spam there's funny and then there's the absurd terry jones co-founder of monty python's flying circus took his irreverent brand of humor to side-splitting extremes how are we today better better better get a bucket from a throw-up contrast that with the gentleness of walt disney's entertainment but when it came to snow white he couldn't have done it without marge champion everything she does with her hands or her dances or picking up her dress that's me she was the dancer they used to draw those graceful moves snow white looked so real because she was we lost the creators of scooby doo two both of them within months of each other joe ruby and ken spears envisioned a gang of teenagers and an ever hungry great dane teaming up to solve ghostly mysteries [Music] i could say there's good trash and there's bad trash bad trash bad trash or just shows that aren't well executed scooby-doo was commissioned by fred silverman top executive at cbs as well as abc and nbc he was one of the most powerful people in the industry also behind hits like all in the family in laverne and shirley which lost one of its stars too this year hello david lander best known as squiggy left us at 73. all those who gave us plenty to watch we bid a fun tv farewell [Music] but out of that a new holiday was born a festivus for the rest of us holidays are tough without the ones we love unless that is you celebrate festivus you gather your family around and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year at 92 jerry stiller the father of actor ben stiller is celebrating his invented holiday somewhere else this year let's go into the jeopardy round festivus for 37 years alex trebek gave us the answers to questions yet posed as the unflappable host of jeopardy it's the perfect television presentation of the great american dream he was a fixture in our living rooms his cancer however left us all asking why him and why so soon sounds impressive i've got stage four cancer okay not stage one for sissies that's just beginner's cancer i've got events why are you making me laugh about it what else are we gonna do i would like to ask a favor of regis can i ask a favorite but when it came to naming the most versatile tv personality the jeopardy answer would have to be who is regis philbin excuse me excuse me i'm with charles now he could do anything with anyone more no matter the audience as good as wearing me out do you understand the future my future in this business depends on one name yes he was everywhere on tv logging thousands of hours of air time everyone knew him simply is regis some people like a little anonymity in their lives but it's very hard to do when you're on every day bond james bond another single name double07 is here sir defined for generations just what it means to be both dangerous and swamp i'm flattered john connor set the standard for all the double 07's who would i suppose i'll be able to get a drink here i told the stewardess liquor for three who are the other two oh there are no other two but the life of a real british spy is something a little less glamorous [Music] author john le correa should know because well he was one with the bond type of novel the reader thinks i wish i was him with the stuff i'm writing they think oh christ i hope i'm not him so he turned his career experiences into a host of spy thrillers but his heroes weren't always flanked by bond type beauties margaret nolan who gave us the world famous goldfinger image passed away at 76. so did her fellow actress and goldfinger honor blackman you can turn off the job i'm immune but it was damn diana rigg who captivated the secret agent so much but double 007 finally tied the knot what made you want to be a bond girl oh come on who wouldn't rig would years later go on to captivate a new generation tell sassy in game of thrones i wanted to know it was me this is a very old and honorable profession and you should have a sense of privilege about being in it because we answer a very profound need in society some of those who answered that need enjoyed the longest lives all my dudes waited so long olivia the havilland who was immortalized and gone with the wind and went on to become a treasured screen actress left us at the age of 104. whatever comes i'll love you just as i do now until i die that's star quality kirk douglas the original chiseled chin had a commanding often muscular presence in just about everything he did he made it to 103. he for the first time in my life people cheering for me [Music] to all those who took us somewhere we couldn't go ourselves we bid a fond goodbye [Music] so [Music] i suppose in the end the whole of life becomes an act of letting go but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye journalism lost some of its brightest stars too jesus is like show business you might know pbs's jim lehrer from the pbs newshour but he was also known my job is to keep things fair and the subjects as clear and as varied as possible for his skill in moderating presidential debates we lost him this year as well as journalist and author gail sheehy she gave us a road map to adult life i had to know what was going to happen at the next stage in the next stage in the next stage our family here at cbs news is a bit smaller this year bert quint took us around the world as a foreign correspondent bert quinn cbs news rome bill small was cbs's tireless washington bureau chief through the civil rights movement watergate and vietnam and maria mercator a network news veteran she was one of the earliest victims of covid and she was a friend to us all courage dinner for all its faults 2020 did remind us of the gift of giving doris buffett the elder sister to billionaire warren buffett gave her money as well as his to good causes everywhere i just feel like i have a job to do and if i do it right other people are really they're going to be hundreds thousands of homes that will be improved children will have chances women will have chances we're living in tough times we need hope art dealer forrest fenn sent people scampering through the rocky mountains looking for a chest full of gold nuggets and jewels that he had hidden for anyone to find after ten years someone finally found his treasure just three months before fenn died we need to know that somewhere out there there's a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it if there's any treasure the rest of us can bank on after this dark year i can see clearly now the rain is gone it's that courage and kindness usually triumph in the end i can see all obstacles in my way johnny nash who left us at 80 this year sang of a bright sunshiny day while the sun isn't out just yet the hope is that it's just over the horizon to all those with the courage to walk or run or march toward a better tomorrow we are forever in your deck to all we say thank you and offer a fog hail and [Music] gonna farewell [Music] you

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 612,812

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, sunday moring, newsworthy men, women, death, obituary, pandemic, 2020

Id: wpYTYg8ftPo

Length: 24min 18sec (1458 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2020