Passed Away in 2025 Trivia Quiz

James Chambers, known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, was born in St James in the Colony of Jamaica on 30th July 1944. He is one of Jamaica's most celebrated musicians; he was nominated for a Grammy Award seven times, winning twice (1986 and 2013). He was granted the (Jamaican) Order of Merit, the highest honour granted by its government for achievements in the arts and sciences. He was responsible with others for making reggae music globally popular.

In 2010, he was the second Jamaican to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Bob Marley in 1994 was the first). His most well-known songs are "Many Rivers to Cross" (1969), "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970), "The Harder They Come" (1972), and "Reggae Night" (1983). He died from pneumonia aged 81 on 24 November 2025 in Kingston, Jamaica.

Richard (Dick) Bruce Cheney was born on January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska. He first gained recognition for serving as White House Chief of Staff from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. A year later, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, as Wyoming's representative, serving from 1979 to 1989. He was appointed Secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush from 1989-1993. He was George W. Bush's vice president from 2001-2009.

During this time, his tenure as vice president was considered to be the most powerful witnessed in US history, especially during 911 when President Bush was in Florida and had difficulty getting back to the White House. Many consider him to be the Iraq War architect. He survived an assassination attack in Afghanistan in 2007. Cheney died on 3 November 2025, from complications arising from pneumonia and vascular disease. He was 84.

Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley was born in The Bronx, New York, on 27 April 1951. He was born into a musical family and learned the guitar when he was 13. He's best known as the lead guitarist for Kiss, of which he was a founding member in 1973. He was the spaceman - Space Ace, though his nickname, Ace, preceded his time with Kiss. Known for aggressive and melodic guitar riffs, he gained notoriety for having special effect guitars that emitted smoke during performances and one that emitted light based on song tempo. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of Kiss.

He had a successful solo career post-Kiss, and his 1978 self-titled debut album went platinum, partly because of the success of its single, a cover of Hello's "New York Groove". He died in northern New Jersey on 25 September 2025, due to a brain haemorrhage after a fall.

Dame Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was born in London on 3 April 1934. With a PhD in ethology from Cambridge University in 1965, she became a pioneer in primate behaviour and is best known for her field research, across six decades, on the social and family life of chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. She was also well known for being an advocate for the ethical treatment of animals and wildlife conservation.

She wrote 32 books on these subjects and was appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2002. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to zoology" in 1995, and was promoted to Dame Commander in 2003. She was married twice and had one son. She passed away in her sleep on 1 October 2025, in Los Angeles at a friend's house after a speaking tour of the US. She was 91.

Charles James Kirk was born in 1993 in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago. He was a political activist who became a media personality. He was executive director of a right-wing student organisation called Turning Point USA, and he espoused a range of conservative positions, which include opposition to abortion, gun control, and LGBTQ rights.

He was aligned with the Christian right. Whilst speaking at a Turning Point debate on 10 September 2025, at Utah Valley University, he was fatally shot. A memorial service held in a football stadium in Glendale, Arizona, was attended by a capacity crowd of 100,000 people.

Giorgio Armani was born on 11 July 1934 in Piacenza, northern Italy. He studied medicine before leaving to join the Italian army. After his military service, he began as a window dresser at La Rinascente, a high-end department store in Milan, before designing menswear under the tutelage of Nino Cerutti.

In 1973, he and Sergio Galeotti formed a business partnership and founded Giorgio Armani S.p.A., designing and selling men's and women's ready-to-wear clothes. They expanded globally quickly and branched out from clothing design to cosmetics and home furniture.

He was also a costume designer on over 100 movies, which further established his international reputation. He died on 4 September 2025, from liver failure in his home in Milan. He was 91.

Hulk Hogan (birth name Terry Gene Bollea) was a professional wrestler who became a media personality. He was born in Augusta, Georgia, on 11 August 1953. He had a large physical presence. He was tall, 6 ft 5½ in (197 cm), muscular, with blond hair and a trademark Fu Manchu moustache. He was fond of wearing colourful bandanas as well. Hogan began wrestling training in 1977 and achieved almost instant stardom when he joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). He won six WWF championships. He also won six WCW World Heavyweight Championships after joining in 1994.

He also appeared in several movies, including "Rocky III" (1982), "No Holds Barred" (1989), and "Suburban Commando" (1991). He also starred in two television programs. His income was boosted from advertising endorsements. His reputation was tarnished by his use of anabolic steroids and racist slurs. He died from a heart attack on 24 July 2025, after battling several health issues, including chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne was born on 3 December 1948 in Marston Green, Warwickshire, near Birmingham Airport in the UK. He was the lead singer and co-founder of the hard rock band Black Sabbath. Dubbed the Prince of Darkness, he is credited as a pioneer of the heavy metal genre. He recorded eight studio albums with Black Sabbath before being fired from the band in 1979 due to alcohol and drug problems.

He then had a successful solo career, with seven multi-platinum albums, meaning he sold over 100 million albums over his entire career. He rejoined Black Sabbath twice and was the lead singer in the band's last studio album, "13" (2013), before leaving on a farewell tour that concluded in 2017. In between, he and his wife, Sharon, became reality TV stars in the early 2000s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; first in 2006 as a member of Black Sabbath, and then as a solo artist in 2024. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On 5 July 2025, Osbourne performed his final show at the "Back to the Beginning concert in Birmingham". He said it was his final show, but he intended to keep recording. He died 17 days later from a heart attack. He had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease for some time before his death.

Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As pope, he was the head of the Catholic Church and the named sovereign of Vatican City from the time of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 until he died in Vatican City on 28 February 2025.

He was born and raised in Buenos Aires to an Italian family and joined the Jesuits in 1958 (he became the first Jesuit Pope). He was ordained as a priest in 1969, became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was ordained as a cardinal in 2001. He took the papal name of Francis to honour Saint Francis of Assisi. As pope, he was known for his humility and concern for the underprivileged, especially the poor, migrants, and refugees.

Roberta Cleopatra Flack was a singer and pianist with a soulful voice whose music traversed several genres, including R&B, jazz, folk, and pop. She had three Billboard Hot 100 singles in the early 1970s, including "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" (her signature song), and "Feel Like Makin' Love". She was the first artist to win the Grammy for Record of the Year in consecutive years. In all, she won five Grammy Awards.

She was born on 10 February 1937, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, into a large musical family. Her first public appearances were singing in church, where she often accompanied herself on piano. In 1952, aged 15, she won a full music scholarship to Howard University in Washington, DC. She became a student teacher before becoming a full-time musician. She continued to perform until 2022, when she was diagnosed with motor neuron disease. She died of cardiac arrest on 24 February 2025, in New York City.