2008 certainly had it's ups and downs, but, I can't recall a year when we lost so many legendary figures. Arthur C. Clarke, Sir Edmund Hillary, Michael Crichton, Paul Newman, Isaac Hayes, George Carlin, Bo Diddley, Yves Saint Laurent, Harvey Korman, Sydney Pollack, Robert Mondavi, Charlton Heston, Richard Widmark, William F. Buckley Jr., Roy Scheider, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Suzanne Pleshette, Bobby Fischer, Eartha Kitt, Bettie Page ... the list goes on, but these are the folks who many of us have known of since back in the day.
I didn't forget Tim Russert, Bernie Mac, Heath Ledger, Tony Snow, and several others, I just don't believe they had a chance to establish their legend in leaving us so soon.
Please add to the list, even if the person is relatively unknown or a true hero in your eyes. Let their names be known.

I didn't know about Roy Scheider. Clarke never made "sir" status?

Yes, he was knighted. Though I don't believe he was too fond of the attachment.

Indeed he was! Knighted, that is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/765385.stm

Harold Pinter.

Studs Terkel (author and progressive icon)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author and russian dissident)
George Carlin
Algis Budrys (science fiction legend)
Yves Saint Laurent (Fashion icon)
Harvey Korman
Dr. Albert Hofmann (chemist, creator of LSD)
Ollie Johnston (original Disney animator)
Wally Phillips (radio legend)
Gary Gygax (creator of Dungeons and Dragons)
Ernesto Illy (coffee king and chemist)
Jack Brod (last original tenant of the Empire State Building)

Levi Stubbs, lead singer for The Four Tops.