The stars we lost in May, June: Little Richard, Lynn Shelton, Jerry Stiller

(5 Dec 2020) THE STARS WE LOST IN MAY, JUNE: LITTLE RICHARD, CARL REINER, FRED WILLARD, JERRY STILLER, DAME VERA LYNN
Reiner Fred Willard, the comedic actor whose improv style kept him relevant for more than 50 years in films like "This Is Spinal Tap," "Best In Show" and "Anchorman," died15 May 2020 aged 86.
Willard was a four-time Emmy nominee for his roles in "What's Hot, What's Not," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Modern Family" and "The Bold and the Beautiful."
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Little Richard, the self-proclaimed "architect of rock 'n' roll" whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, died May 9 2020.  He was 87.
Born Richard Penniman, Little Richard was one of rock 'n' roll's founding fathers who helped shatter the color line on the music charts, joining Chuck Berry and Fats Domino in bringing what was once called "race music" into the mainstream.  Richard's hyperkinetic piano playing, coupled with his howling vocals and hairdo, made him an implausible sensation - a gay, black man celebrated across America during the buttoned-down Eisenhower era.
He sold more than 30 million records worldwide, and his influence on other musicians was equally staggering, from the Beatles and Otis Redding to Creedence Clearwater Revival and David Bowie.  In his personal life, he wavered between raunch and religion, alternately embracing the Good Book and outrageous behavior.
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Ken Osmond, who played the two-faced teenage scoundrel Eddie Haskell on TV's "Leave It to Beaver," died in Los Angeles on May 18 2020, aged 76.
Ken Osmond's Eddie Haskell stood out among many memorable characters on the classic family sitcom "Leave it to Beaver," which ran from 1957 to 1963 on CBS and ABC, but had a decades-long life of reruns and revivals.
Eddie was the best friend of Tony Dow's Wally Cleaver, big brother to Jerry Mathers' Beaver Cleaver.  He constantly kissed up to adults and kicked down at his peers, usually in the same scene, and was the closest thing the wholesome show had to a villain.  Viewers of all ages loved to hate him.
Osmond was born in Glendale, California, to a carpenter father and a mother who wanted to get him into acting.  He got his first role at age 4, working in commercials and as a film extra, and got his first speaking role at 9, appearing mostly in small guest parts on TV series.
The role of Eddie in season one of "Leave It to Beaver" was also supposed to be a one-off guest appearance, but the show's producers and its audience found him so memorable he became a regular, appearing in nearly 100 of the show's 234 episodes.
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French actor Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star whose served as muse to filmmaker Luis Bunuel and was a leading man for Jean-Luc Godard, died on 12 May.  He was 94.
Though less famous in the English-speaking world, in Europe and in his native France, Paris-born Piccoli was a stalwart figure in art house cinema.
Beginning his career in the 1940s, he went on to make over 170 movies during his age-defying eight-decade career, working into his 80s.
His most memorable appearance came arguably during the French New Wave â€" starring opposite Brigitte Bardot in Godard's 1963 masterpiece "Contempt," with his dark hat and signature bushy eyebrows.
Piccoli married his third wife, screenwriter Ludivine Clerc in 1978, and she survives him.
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