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Everybody Loves Raymond Stars Who Sadly Passed Away

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The Barone family made America laugh for nine seasons, but the real story off-screen turned out far sadder than anything the writers ever put on the page.

“Everybody Loves Raymond” ran on CBS from 1996 to 2005, racking up 210 episodes built around Ray Romano’s put-upon Ray Barone, his exasperated wife Debra (Patricia Heaton), and his overbearing parents Frank and Marie next door. Creator Phil Rosenthal famously predicted “we’re all gonna be millionaires” after hearing the crowd’s reaction to a joke in the show’s third episode — and he wasn’t wrong. Since the finale aired, though, the cast has suffered a string of losses that hit fans, and each other, hard.

• Sawyer Sweeten, who played Geoffrey Barone across 142 episodes alongside his real-life twin brother Sullivan, died by suicide on April 23, 2015, at age 19 — weeks before his 20th birthday.
• Peter Boyle, who played family patriarch Frank Barone, died December 12, 2006, at 71, at New York Presbyterian Hospital after battling multiple myeloma and heart disease.
• Doris Roberts, the four-time Emmy winner behind meddling matriarch Marie Barone, died in her sleep on April 17, 2016, at age 90, in Los Angeles.

The Loss That Shocked the Cast

Sawyer Sweeten was cast as Geoffrey Barone opposite his twin brother Sullivan, who played Michael, with their older sister Madylin playing Ally Barone — three real-life siblings sharing the screen as one TV family. Sawyer appeared in 142 episodes over the show’s run, growing from a toddler into a teenager in front of the cameras. On April 23, 2015, while visiting family in Texas, he died by suicide at 19, just weeks shy of turning 20.

The news devastated the people who had watched him grow up on set. Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, and Brad Garrett all issued tributes, each grappling with the loss of a child actor they’d known since he was barely old enough to read his own lines. It remains the single most shocking death connected to the show’s cast, and fans still reference it when discussing sitcom child stars whose lives took tragic turns — a pattern also explored in stars from Saved by the Bell you might not know died.

Sawyer Sweeten died by suicide on April 23, 2015 — just weeks before what would have been his 20th birthday.

Frank and Marie Barone’s Final Curtain

Peter Boyle turned Frank Barone’s blunt, grumpy one-liners into some of the show’s most quoted moments, building on a career that already included “Young Frankenstein” and “Taxi Driver.” He died on December 12, 2006, at age 71, at New York Presbyterian Hospital, following a long fight with multiple myeloma and heart disease.

A decade later, Doris Roberts followed him. Her performance as Marie Barone — sharp-tongued, controlling, and impossible not to love — earned her four Emmy Awards during the show’s run. Roberts passed away in her sleep on April 17, 2016, at age 90, in Los Angeles, closing the book on the two actors who defined Ray’s parents for nine seasons.

Planned Reboot Facing Permanent Cancellation

Fans have asked for years whether “Everybody Loves Raymond” could come back in some form, the way other classic sitcoms have been revived or rebooted. Ray Romano and Phil Rosenthal have both made clear it isn’t happening. With Boyle and Roberts gone — the two actors who anchored the Barone parents — and Sweeten’s death removing one of the show’s core kids, the family at the center of the show simply can’t be reassembled. Romano and Rosenthal have said a revival could never properly exist without the people who made the Barone household what it was, a sentiment echoed in other looks back at classic sitcom casts, including stars from All in the Family you didn’t know passed away and how That ’70s Show’s cast has really transformed.

Fred Willard, who joined the cast later as Robert’s deadpan father-in-law Hank MacDougall, died on May 15, 2020, at 86 — one more name added to a list that already includes two of the show’s four adult leads and one of its most beloved child actors. Between Sweeten’s death in 2015 and Roberts’ in 2016, the Barone family that ran for 210 episodes lost the people who made it a family in the first place, and no amount of network interest is bringing that lineup back together.