Isaiah Zagar, Billy Steinberg, Robert Carradine, and Sir Monti Rock III Die

These guys were a mosaic artist based in Philadelphia who completed more than 200 murals; a songwriter that composed for Madonna, Bangles, Cyndi Lauper, etc; an actor in movies like Revenge of the Nerds series, The Tommyknockers, Escape from L.A, and TV like Kung Fu, Bonanza, etc; and a hairdresser, disco musician and performer.

Isaiah Zagar was born on 01-09-1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where his early immersion in the vitality and grit of city life helped shape the sensibility that would later define his immersive public art; he studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1961, and soon became deeply influenced by self-taught and

visionary artists, particularly after encountering the work of Clarence Schmidt in Woodstock, New York, which expanded his conception of art as an all-encompassing environment rather than a discrete object. In 1968 he and his wife, Julia Zagar, moved to Philadelphia and settled on South Street during a period of economic decline, and there he began covering buildings, walls, and vacant lots with intricate mosaics made from broken tiles, mirrors, bottles, found objects, and his own handmade ceramic pieces,

often embedding quotations and intensely personal reflections into the surfaces; over more than five decades he created upward of 200 public mosaic murals across Philadelphia and in other locations, becoming a central force in the cultural and economic revitalization of South Street and giving the neighborhood a globally recognized artistic identity.

His most celebrated achievement is Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, a vast indoor and outdoor mosaic environment he began constructing in the early 1990s on a vacant lot, which was later saved from demolition through a community preservation effort and established as a nonprofit museum, widely regarded as one of the largest mosaic art environments in the world. Throughout his career Zagar received numerous honors,

including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, recognizing both his artistic innovation and his transformative civic impact. His personal life was closely intertwined with his work, especially through his enduring partnership with Julia Zagar, founder of the Eye’s Gallery folk art store on South Street,

whose support and collaboration were integral to his creative output, and his openness about struggles with mental health found expression in mosaics that frequently explored themes of love, vulnerability, and resilience; Isaiah Zagar died on 02-19-2026, a Thursday,

in Philadelphia at the age of 86, and was survived by his wife Julia Zagar, their son Ezekiel Zagar, an accomplished filmmaker, and an extended family and wide community of artists and admirers shaped by his visionary legacy.

Billy Steinberg was born on 02-26-1950 in Los Angeles, California, into a creative family that included his father, Herbert Steinberg, a screenwriter and director, an upbringing that helped foster his early interest in storytelling and popular music; he attended University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied film and television,

and after graduation pursued a career in music, initially recording his own material before finding his greatest success as a songwriter. In the late 1970s he formed a pivotal partnership with Tom Kelly, and together they became one of the most successful songwriting teams of the 1980s, crafting a series of enduring international hits distinguished by emotionally candid lyrics and memorable melodies.

A catalog including, “Like a Virgin” for Madonna, “True Colors” and “I Drove All Night” for Cyndi Lauper, “Eternal Flame” for The Bangles, and “Alone” for Heart, while “I Drove All Night” was later recorded by Roy Orbison and Celine Dion; Steinberg frequently drew upon his own personal experiences when writing, and he later acknowledged that

“True Colors” was inspired by his relationship and his desire to express unconditional acceptance, a quality that gave many of his songs an intimacy beneath their commercial polish. Over the course of his career he received numerous songwriting honors from organizations such as BMI and ASCAP, and he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in recognition of his

lasting impact on popular music. Steinberg was open about being gay at a time when few mainstream pop songwriters were publicly so, and his personal life informed much of the emotional honesty that became his hallmark; he died on 02-16-2026, a Monday, at the age of 75, and was survived by his longtime partner as well as extended family members and a wide circle of friends and collaborators who benefited from his generosity and artistic insight.

Robert Carradine was born on 03-24-1954 in Hollywood, California, the youngest son of actor John Carradine and actress Sonia Sorel, and a member of the storied Carradine acting family that includes his brothers David Carradine and Keith Carradine; he grew up amid the turbulence and creativity of a theatrical household and attended high school in Southern California, later studying drama and music while pursuing acting opportunities rather than completing a traditional university degree.

Carradine began appearing in film and television in the early 1970s, earning attention for roles in projects such as The Cowboys and director Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, but he achieved lasting popular fame with his portrayal of the endearing underdog Lewis Skolnick in Revenge of the Nerds and its sequels, a role that became emblematic of 1980s youth comedy and cemented his association with intelligent,

offbeat characters. Throughout his career he worked steadily in film and television, appearing in productions such as Kung Fu, alongside his brother David, and later earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the television film The Long Riders’s related projects and other dramatic roles that showcased his range beyond comedy.

He also hosted the reality competition series King of the Nerds, reflecting the enduring cultural affection for his earlier work. In his personal life, Carradine married actress Susan Snyder in 1990, and the couple had children together before later divorcing; he was also the father of additional children from other relationships and remained closely connected to his extended Carradine family.

Robert Carradine died on 02-23-2026, a Monday, at the age of 71, and was survived by his children, his brothers Keith and other surviving siblings, and extended family members who continued the Carradine artistic legacy.

Sir Monti Rock III, born Joseph E. Montanez on 10-29-1942 in The Bronx, New York, grew up in a working-class Puerto Rican family and showed an early flair for performance, style, and self-promotion that would later define his flamboyant public persona; although details of formal higher education are limited, he immersed himself in New York’s vibrant cultural scene as a young man, reinventing himself repeatedly and eventually adopting the

aristocratic stage name by which he became known. He first came to national prominence in the late 1960s as a hair stylist and self-styled beauty expert to celebrities, capitalizing on media appearances that showcased his extravagant wardrobe, theatrical speech, and outsized personality, and he later transitioned into music as the frontman

and conceptual force behind the disco project Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes, scoring a mid-1970s hit with “Get Dancin’,” which became a fixture of the era’s burgeoning dance culture; beyond music, he appeared in films and television, including a memorable role as a disc jockey in Saturday Night Fever, further cementing his association with disco’s glitz and excess.

In subsequent decades he underwent a dramatic personal transformation, becoming an ordained minister and Christian evangelist, a shift he often described as a spiritual rebirth that contrasted sharply with his earlier image as a flamboyant nightlife figure, and he spent later years preaching, recording faith-based material, and reflecting publicly on the moral

and emotional lessons of his earlier fame. Throughout his life he cultivated friendships across entertainment and religious communities, and while he did not receive major mainstream industry awards, he maintained a devoted following that regarded him as a singular pop-cultural personality who embodied both the exuberance of 1970s disco

and the possibility of personal reinvention. Sir Monti Rock III died on 02-23-2026, a Monday, at the age of 83, and was survived by extended family members, friends, and admirers who remembered both his glittering stage presence and his later-life ministry.