Many things about the Academy Awards have changed over the years, but for the past six decades there has been at least one constant: The red carpet.

The world also said goodbye to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who died in July. Other former political figures who died this year include Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, New York Mayor David Dinkins, Arizona Gov. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___David Stern, 77. The guitarist who supplied the scratching, seething sound that fueled the highly influential British punk band Gang of Four. He fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music.

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 1981 file photo, Actress Rhonda Fleming poses for a photo in Hollywood, Calif. Actress Rhonda Fleming, the fiery redhead who appeared with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Ronald Reagan and other film stars of the 1940s and 1950s, has died, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. She was 97. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

FILE - In this March 1, 1955 file photo, Actress Rhonda Fleming reads in her penthouse apartment in Rome. Actress Rhonda Fleming, the fiery redhead who appeared with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Ronald Reagan and other film stars of the 1940s and 1950s, has died, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. Fleming’s assistant Carla Sapon told The New York Times that Fleming died Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. Legend or not, at 19 Louis was awarded a six-month contract at the studio of David O. Selznick and a new name: Rhonda Fleming. A couple of years after Mann died, Fleming married for a sixth time, to Derol W. Carlson, who died in 2017.

He died Kirk Douglas, a Hollywood king. As Douglas rises, a growing chorus of slaves jump up and shout, “I’m Spartacus!” Douglas stands silently, a tear rolling down his face. Michael Douglas not only thrived in Hollywood, but beat his dad to the Oscars with a project his father had first desired. The four-night show in the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City was sold out. “You know, I never wanted to be a movie actor,” Douglas told the AP in 2009.