Overview
- The Mirror and Daily Star published holiday retrospectives on December 24–25, 2025, cataloguing prominent entertainers who died on Christmas Day.
- George Michael was found unresponsive at his Goring-on-Thames home on December 25, 2016, and a coroner later ruled natural causes—dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver.
- Michael’s sister Melanie Panayiotou also died on December 25 in 2019 at age 59, with the family citing a sudden diabetic coma.
- James Brown fell ill on December 23, 2006 and died early on Christmas Day from heart failure linked to pneumonia, while lingering claims of foul play remain unverified.
- Other December 25 losses include Dean Martin, who died in 1995 of acute respiratory failure after a 1993 lung cancer diagnosis; Eartha Kitt, who died in 2008 of colon cancer with her daughter present; and Charlie Chaplin, who died in 1977 after a stroke, with his coffin later stolen and recovered.