In Memoriam: New Jersey Celebrities We Misplaced in 2025

These actors and musicians all known as the Backyard State house in some unspecified time in the future of their lives. Although they’ve handed, their work and spirits endure.

Peter Greene

1965-December 12, 2025

Born and raised in Montclair. Greene attended Montclair Excessive College however dropped out earlier than graduating, in keeping with his IMDB biography, and ran away from house as a young person, he revealed in a 1996 journal interview. He struggled with homelessness and drug habit earlier than pursuing performing and have become greatest recognized for his villainous roles within the movies Pulp Fiction and The Masks. Greene was slated to start manufacturing on an indie thriller this January, the New York Submit reported. He was 60.

Eddie Palmieri

1936-August 6, 2025

The Grammy-winning musician was a New York Metropolis native however was residing in Hackensack when he died at house on the age of 88. Palmieri’s decades-long profession was “marked by his groundbreaking fusion of Afro-Caribbean rhythms and jazz harmonies,” wrote Manahil Ahmad in an obituary for NorthJersey.com. “His orchestra La Perfecta, fashioned within the early Sixties, set a brand new normal for Latin music….showcasing his explosive piano type—a mix of precision, energy and improvisational grit.”

Palmieri carried out on the Montclair Jazz Competition in 2019. Earlier this month, on what would have been his 89th birthday, the competition posted a tribute on their Instagram account. “We’re so grateful to Eddie for his music and his friendship!” it concluded. “Lengthy might his legacy proceed!”

Malcolm-Jamal Warner

1970-July 20, 2025

The Jersey Metropolis-born actor, beloved for his position as Theo Huxtable on NBC sitcom The Cosby Present, died in an unintended drowning off the coast of Costa Rica, ABC Information reported. He was 54. Warner performed Theo from 1984 to 1992, and was nominated for an Emmy for excellent supporting actor in a comedy sequence in 1986. Extra just lately, he starred as a surgeon on Fox medical drama The Resident till the present resulted in 2023.

“Deeply saddened by the tragic lack of Jersey Metropolis native Malcolm-Jamal Warner,” Governor Phil Murphy posted on social media. “[…] Malcom-Jamal introduced pleasure and hope to hundreds of thousands of Individuals. We’re praying for the Warner household throughout this extremely tough time.”

Connie Francis

1937-July 16, 2025

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The Newark-born pop singer, greatest recognized for ’50s and ’60s hits like “Who’s Sorry Now?” and “The place the Boys Are,” handed away on the age of 87 this summer season. Dubbed “the lady with the million-dollar cry” by Dick Clark, she was the primary solo feminine artist to prime the Billboard Scorching 100 chart. Francis spent her early years in Brooklyn earlier than her household moved again to New Jersey, the place they lived in Newark’s Ironbound part and later Belleville. Francis attended Newark Arts Excessive College for a number of years earlier than transferring to Belleville Excessive College, the place she graduated in 1955. She was inducted into the New Jersey Corridor of Fame’s Class of 2016 at a 2017 ceremony held at Asbury Park’s Conference Corridor.

Simply two months earlier than her loss of life, Francis had responded to information that her deep reduce “Fairly Little Child” had gone viral on TikTok, six a long time after its unique launch. “My because of TikTok and its members for the great, and oh so surprising, reception given to my 1961 recording,” she wrote in a Fb submit. Her publicist and record-label president, Rob Roberts, had knowledgeable her of her “viral hit”—a time period she didn’t perceive. “Clearly out of contact with current day music statistics terminology, my preliminary response was to ask: ‘What’s that?’” she continued. “Thanks everybody!”

Lenny Welch

1938-April 8, 2025

Although born in New York Metropolis, the pop singer was raised in Asbury Park, the place he was formed by the colourful Black music scene on the town’s West Facet. He attended Asbury Park Excessive College and joined a neighborhood vocal group known as the Mar-Keys, which, in keeping with the Asbury Park Press, opened for Little Richard at metropolis’s Savoy Theatre within the Fifties. He later grew to become greatest recognized for his cowl of “Since I Fell for You,” which hit quantity 4 on the Billboard chart in 1963.

Throughout a 2011 panel concerning the historical past of race and music, Bruce Springsteen referred to Welch as “Mr. Asbury Park,” in keeping with NJ.com. Later that 12 months, Welch returned to his hometown to carry out on the Soul of Asbury Park live performance held on the Paramount Theatre. In 2012, he was inducted into Asbury Park Excessive College’s Distinguished Alumni Corridor of Fame. Just a few years earlier than his loss of life, in 2021, Welch informed the Asbury Park Press that he thought concerning the metropolis “daily” and hoped to return “earlier than I depart this earth.” He stated he wished to “stroll round, go up Springwood Avenue as a result of that’s the place I grew up….simply stroll up the road, go searching, go to kin’ gravesites […].” Welch died in Florida on the age of 86.