Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

Shunsaku Tamiya was born on December 19, 1934 and passed away on July 18, 2025. After graduating from Waseda University, Shunsaku took over his father's sawmill business, Tamiya Co., eventually sc...aling it into one of the largest radio-controlled car and scale model kit manufacturers in the world. The kits were known not only for being extremely high quality, but also for being extremely accurate. Shunsaku wsa still serving as the chairman of the Japanese company when he passed. He was 90 years old.Show more

Julian LeFay was born on October 30, 1965 as Benni Jensen. He passed away on July 22, 2025, He is best known for his work on the Elder Scrolls games. Julia started his career working on PC, Amiga..., and NES projects as a programmer and composer. He worked on Where's Waldo? and Sword of Sodan. He joined Bethesda Softworks shortly after the company's inception in 1987. He was the Chief Engineer and led the creation of games like the Terminator 2029, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, and An elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire. He's also referred to as The Father of The Elder Scrolls, and the deity Julianos is based on him. He quit Bethesda in 1998 and briefly worked at Sega. In 2019, he co-founded the independent game studio Oncelost games with his former Bethesda coworkers Ted Peterson and Vijay Lakeshman. They were working on a new role-playing game called The Wayward Realms, which was unveiled in 2021. In 2021, he became the Chief Technology Officer or Licorice, where he was responsible for building the company's servers and technical infrastructure. In July 2025, OnceLost Games announced that LeFay had terminal cancer, and he passed away at the age of 59 that month.Show more

Rene Kirby was born on February 27, 1955 and passed away on July 11, 2025. He is best known for his role of Walt in the film Shallow Hal. Rene was born with spina bifida and had esophagus, kidney, ...and bladder issues. His character, Walt, in Shallow Hal, also had spina bifida, and he became known for this role. He also appeared as Phil Rupp in the movie Stuck on You, and his final screen role was in a 2005 episode of Carnivàle. His brother, Jon Kirby, confirmed the news of his death to a local Vermont publication, Seven Days. He revealed that Rene had been hospitalized two months earlier due to some infections.Show more

Joan Anderson was born on December 28, 1923 in Sydney Australia. She met her husband, U.S. pilot Wayne Anderson, at Bondi Beach in 1946, and they married four months later, moved to the United States,... and settled in Hollywood. Joan then took on work as a model, though that's not what she's remembered for. In 1956, Joan went back home to visit her parents and noticed a bit of a fitness craze revolving around "the hoop," which was a wooden exercise ring that was swiveled around a person's waist and hips. She had her mother mail one to her home in California and it became a hit with her friends and family. The Hula Hoop was born, with the name "hula" coming into play when a friend told her she looked like she was doing the hula, the traditional Hawaiian dance, when she swiveled the hoop around her hips. Her husband, Wayne, pitched the Hula Hoop to Wham-O, and a deal was arranged, signed only with "a gentleman's handshake," as Joan described. Wham-O never acknowledged Joan's role as the inventor. In 1961, the Andersons filed a lawsuit, but it ended in a settlement of just a few thousand dollars. Joan's story was finally told in 2016. Her daughter, Loralyn, was telling her mother's story to coworkers at a restaurant when a filmmaker seated at the table next to them overheard and gave Loralyn her phone number. The filmmaker, Amy Hill, and her husband, Chris Riess, ended up making a documentary, "Hula Girl" that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. Joan, at this time 94, flew to New York to promote the film and was even interviewed by Vogue. Joan passed away on July 14, 2025, at a nursing home just north of San Diego at the age of 101.Show more

Patrick "Thor" Gass was born on August 5, 1979 in Seattle. After high school, he enlisted in the United States Marines Reserve Unit. He served for 6 years and was honorably discharged in 2003. After r...eturning home, he earned a degree in Computer Science and Gaming Design from the Digi Pen Institute of Technology. While in school, he earned himself the nickname "Thor" after an accident left him unable to shave his beard for a few months. Patrick worked as a programmer making games for gambling slot machines. In 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, Patrick and his wife, Yvonne Driver, moved to Wisconsin, where Patrick started working at Raven Software on Call of Duty. In the last two years, Patrick worked for Insomniac Games and helped design the disability and user features for Spider Man 2. Patrick leaves behind his son, Noble.Show more

Tamiya, who died Friday of undisclosed causes, was known for contributing to the worldwide recognition of the toy maker, based in Shizuoka, central Japan, by developing radio-controlled cars and mini ...4-wheel-drive models.Show more

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Julian LeFay, best known as Bethesda Softworks' chief engineer for pioneer games like The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, passed away last night at the age of 59.

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Sad news today as it has emerged that Pokémon series voice actor James Carter Cathcart has passed away at the age of 71 after a long battle with throat cancer. James brought several Pokemon character...s to life including Professor Oak, Meowth, Gary Oak and James from Team Rocket.Show more

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The toy industry mourns the loss of Alan Hassenfeld, former Chairman and CEO of Hasbro, who passed away at the age of 76. A third-generation leader of the toy company, Hassenfeld’s legacy extends fa...r beyond boardrooms and business growth, touching lives through decades of philanthropy and social advocacy.Show more

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Jim Shooter, who began his career in the comics industry at the age of 14 and later became Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, died on June 30, 2025, of esophageal cancer.

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