{"id":249482,"date":"2026-07-01T12:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/village-peoples-victor-willis-dead-at-74\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:19:22","slug":"village-peoples-victor-willis-dead-at-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/village-peoples-victor-willis-dead-at-74\/","title":{"rendered":"Village People&#8217;s Victor Willis Dead at 74"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-2239121\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t<!-- Franchise logo or primary category --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<!-- post title --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/post title --><\/p>\n<p><!-- subheader --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<!-- post thumbnail --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"tpd-post-thumbnail-container caption_belowImage credit_onImage\"><figcaption><span class=\"credit-text\">Credit: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- \/post thumbnail --><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/tags\/victor-willis\/\" class=\"celebrity-tag-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"celebrity-tag-strong\">Victor Willis<\/strong><\/a> has sadly passed away at the age of 74.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was the lead singer and a founding member of the fan favorite music group The Village People, known for their prevailing hits like \u201cY.M.C.A.,\u201d \u201cIn The Navy\u201d and \u201cGo West.\u201d Today (July 1) would have been his 75th birthday.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large caption_belowImage credit_onImage mobile-image-full-width\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death.jpg\" class=\"pss-trigger\" role=\"button\" data-pss-trigger=\"0\" aria-controls=\"pss-modal\" aria-label=\"Open gallery of 2 images.\" title=\"Open gallery of 2 images.\"><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death-788x525.jpg\" alt=\"Victor Willis stock photo to announce his death\" class=\"wp-image-2239123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death-788x525.jpg 788w, https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death-428x285.jpg 428w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 430px) 100px, 100vw\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><span class=\"pss-trigger__badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">2<\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\/><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"h-victor-willis-cause-of-death-was-referenced-in-a-statement-about-his-passing\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Victor Willis\u2019 cause of death was referenced in a statement about his passing<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=1536234487869451\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, the Village People announced the death of the founder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are profoundly sad to announce the death of VICTOR WILLIS, lead singer of Village People,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They went on to explain, \u201cVictor passed on Tuesday June 30, 2026 of a short but aggressive illness. Privacy is requested.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large caption_belowImage credit_onImage mobile-image-full-width\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death1.jpg\" class=\"pss-trigger\" role=\"button\" data-pss-trigger=\"1\" aria-controls=\"pss-modal\" aria-label=\"Open gallery of 2 images.\" title=\"Open gallery of 2 images.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"598\" src=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death1-788x598.jpg\" alt=\"Victor Willis stock photo to announce his death\" class=\"wp-image-2239124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death1-788x598.jpg 788w, https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/willis-death1-428x325.jpg 428w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100px, 100vw\"\/><span class=\"pss-trigger__badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">2<\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\/><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"h-victor-willis-wife-karen-also-shared-a-statement\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Victor Willis\u2019 wife Karen also shared a statement<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She wrote a similar message on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=1552864546243878\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, stating, \u201cIt is with profound sadness that I must announce the death of my husband, VICTOR WILLIS. Victor passed away on Tuesday June 30, 2026 as a result of a short, but aggressive illness. The family request privacy at this time of great loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our condolences go out to <strong>Victor Willis<\/strong>\u2018 loved ones. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/tags\/rip\/\" class=\"celebrity-tag-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"celebrity-tag-strong\">RIP<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"categories single-categories\">Posted To:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/tags\/rip\/\" rel=\"tag noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/tags\/victor-willis\/\" rel=\"tag noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Willis<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/tags\/village-people\/\" rel=\"tag noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Village People<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/2026\/07\/01\/village-peoples-victor-willis-dead-at-74\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Getty Images Victor Willis has sadly passed away at the age of 74. He was the lead singer and a founding member of the fan favorite music group The Village People, known for their prevailing hits like \u201cY.M.C.A.,\u201d \u201cIn The Navy\u201d and \u201cGo West.\u201d Today (July 1) would have been his 75th birthday. 2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}