We said goodbye to some of the brightest lights in film and TV this year. Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, Val Kilmer, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner shaped our childhoods, our families, and the stories we still talk about today. In this special 2025 year-end tribute, we look back at the moments that made us fall in love with them, the roles that defined generations, and the memories that will always stay with us. If these icons touched your life in any way, share your favorite moment below. Let’s celebrate their legacy together. Subscribe to Xplained Daily for more stories that bring us closer, remind us of the past, and honor the legends who shaped our world. Which of these stars meant the most to you growing up? Tell us in the comments.
00:00do you remember the first time you saw robert redford ride across the screen on a bicycle with the wind in his hair or diane keaton nervously laughing in that laundromat with woody allen
00:10for so many of us who grew up in the seventies eighties and nineties those moments weren't just movies they were part of the soundtrack of our lives
00:19this year 2025 we had to say goodbye to some of the brightest lights who shaped those memories and tonight on splaine daily we're not rushing through a list we're sitting together like old friends to remember four legends who left us and to celebrate the gifts they gave us that will never fade
00:37welcome to splaine daily i'm here to honor the artist who meant so much to generations of movie lovers and tv watchers especially those of us now in our forties fifties sixties and beyond these were the voices in our living rooms the faces on our bedroom posters the stories we quoted with friends let's light a candle for four of them tonight robert redford left us at eighty seven think about that number for a second eighty seven years of pure class he wasn't just handsome
01:07he was the kind of handsome that made you believe goodness could win from the quiet outlaw in butch cassidy and the sundance kid to the grieving husband and out of africa to the lonely baseball player who knocked the cover off the ball one last time in the natural redford never shouted
01:24he just let those blue eyes and that half smile do the talking many of us saw ourselves in him the guy who wanted to do the right thing even when the world made it hard
01:33and off-screen he built the sundance film festival from nothing giving thousands of young story-tellers the same chance he once had think back to that final scene in the way we were with barbara streisand brushing the hair out of his face on that new york street while memories plays that moment just became a little more precious didn't it
01:53diane keaton left us at eighty but she'll always be the quirkiest most lovable free spirit hollywood ever gave us la dita la dita annie hall wasn't just a movie for a lot of women watching in nineteen seventy seven it was permission to be smart clumsy funny and still utterly desirable
02:12those menswear vests the ties the hats diane made being eccentric look like the most attractive thing in the world and the men in our lives fell a little in love with her too remember her crying in the lobster kitchen in annie hall or dancing alone in her apartment to seems like old times
02:30later she gave us the ultimate holiday warmth in the family stone and father of the bride the mom so many of us secretly wished we had diane once said i think the most ordinary things are the most beautiful
02:43tonight millions of us are nodding through tears because she made the ordinary unforgettable val kilmer was only sixty six taken too soon after a brave and quiet battle with throat cancer if you were a teenager in the late eighties and early nineties
02:59val was your cool older brother in top gun that cocky grin is iceman in real genius the brainiac who turned lasers into popcorn in the doors morphing into jim morrison so completely that even morrison's bandmates were spooked and then batman forever love it or not the suit still looked good on him in recent years he couldn't speak the way he once did but he found new ways to connect through art through his children through that beautiful documentary
03:28val he reminded us that a voice isn't only sound it's the mark you leave on people's hearts and val's voice is still echoing
03:36malcolm jamal warner was just 55 this one hit living rooms across america like a punch to the gut
03:43theo huxtable for so many families thursday nights meant gathering around the tv to watch the cosby show
03:50theo was the son every parent understood and every kid secretly was charming a little lazy
03:57trying to figure out adulthood while wearing the loudest sweaters ever made
04:01malcolm grew up on screen right in front of us and later brought quiet strength to malcolm and eddie and the resident
04:08he reminded an entire generation that black families could be loving funny professional and completely relatable
04:1555 is too young way too young but the laughter he gave us will outlive all of us these four incredible
04:23souls weren't just famous they were part of our family dinners our first dates our rainy saturdays
04:29with the vcr this year reminded us how quickly time moves and how deeply these artists shaped our lives
04:36tonight we're not saying goodbye we're saying thank you thank you for the tears the laughter and the moments
04:42that made us believe in love courage and second chances thank you for growing up with us and for
04:48never really leaving if these memories touched your heart the way they touched mine please hit follow
04:53on splaine daily we tell the stories that matter the ones that make us feel a little less alone and tell
04:59me in the comments which of these legends meant the most to you growing up was it redford's quiet
05:05strength diane's quirky heart val's cool swagger or theo's thursday night smile drop their name
05:11below let's keep their light shining together this is splaine daily see you tomorrow and until then
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