Only a month into the year and we've already lost several major show business personalities.

Heath Ledger

The death of Heath Ledger is probably the most shocking because he was so young and at the top of his game. The cause of death is still unknown, but if he had a drug problem as has been alleged, it was kept well hidden from the public. Only twenty when he burst onto the national scene in the hit teen comedy, 10 Things I Hate About You, he won acclaim for his performances in The Patriot and Monster';s Ball leading up to his Oscar-nominated role as the emotionally stifled gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain just two years ago. His last completed film was The Dark Knight. Sheduled for release next summer, he plays The Joker to Christian Bale';s Batman. He was 28.

Brad Renfro

Brad Renfro was another young actor of great promise, but unlike Heath Ledger, his career was pretty much at a standstill at the time of his death. Just ten when he was discovered and cast in the title role of a child who witnesses a murder in the film version of John Grisham';s The Client, he quickly became the child and later teen actor of choice in the 1990s. Memorable roles in The Cure, Telling Lies in America and Apt Pupil soon followed, but so did drug problems and trouble with the law. Though he continued to make films, he hadn';t had a role in film of any distinction since 2001';s Ghost World. He was 25.

Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer was an American-born chess Grandmaster and was an Icelandic citizen at the time of his death. Generally considered the greatest chess player of all time, he won the U.S. Chess Championship all eight times he competed from 1957 to 1966, a record that still stands. Deeply troubled and paranoid for most of his adult life, he lived in seclusion after beating Russian Boris Spassky in the World Chess Championship of 1972, the only American to ever win the game. He re-emerged for a re-match in 1992 and disappeared again. His whereabouts became one of the subjects of the 1993 film, Searching for Bobby Fischer. He was 64.

Margaret Truman

Margaret Truman was determined to prove herself more than just another President';s daughter. She had a successful singing career in the late 1940s and early 1950s while her father Harry was President and for some time thereafter. Her true talent, however, was in writing. From 1956 to 2007 she wrote eight non-fiction books including First Ladies (1995) and twenty-three critically acclaimed murder mysteries, all set in Washington institutions and locales, beginning with 1980';s Murder in the White House, filmed as Murder at 1600. Subsequent works included Murder in the Supreme Court, Murder in the Smithsonian and Murder at the Watergate. She was 83.

John Stewart

John Stewart was a member of several bands including The Cumberland Three along with Gil Robbins, actor Tim Robbins'; father, before becoming a replacement member of The Kingston Trio in 1961. The Kingston Trio had been the pre-eminent folk group of the late 1950s and would continue on top for several years into the 1960s. After the group disbanded in 1967, Stewart concentrated on songwriting, his most famous song being "Daydream Believer", a hit for The Monkees, and later Anne Murray. He continued to perform with The Kingston Trio in revivals over the years and to record on his own as late as 2006';s The Day the River Sang. He was 68.

Suzanne Pleshette

Suzanne Pleshette had a long career in films beginning with 1958';s Geisha Boy. She was a star throughout the 1960s in such films as Rome Adventure, The Birds and If It';s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, but attained her greatest success as Bob Newhart';s wife in the long-running comedy series, The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s. In character parts in later years, she was nominated for an Emmy for Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean. The first of her three marriages was to screen heartthrob Troy Donahue, the last to Newhart co-star Tom Poston, who died last year. She was given a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk on Fame two weeks after her death. She was 70.

Lois Nettleton

Lois Nettleton was the first caller on Jean Shepherd';s late night radio program in. She became a frequent guest known only as "the caller". Together they created the radio call-in show in the late 1950s. They later married and divorced. Nettleton, who was Barbara Bel Geddes'; understudy in the original 1955 Broadway production of Tennessee Williams'; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,made her film debut as star of Williams'; Period of Adjustment in 1962. Often on TV in later years, she was nominated six times for an Emmy, including once for a guest starring role on The Golden Girls and once for her recurring role in In the Heat of the Night. She was 80.

Johnny Grant

Johnny Grant was a Los Angeles radio and TV personality whose ebullient style earned him the title of honorary Mayor of Hollywood, where he officiated the unveiling of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame outside of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel where he lived. His own star is between those of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Glenn Miller, the bandleader who was his commanding officer in World War II. Once an actor himself, he had bit parts in such films as White Christmas, The Girl Can';t Help It and Beau James. He was also often on TV, appearing as himself on such shows as Entertainment Tonight. He was 84.

-Peter Patrick (February 24, 2008)