Beyonce, Sabrina Carpenter and Jane Fonda lead Hollywood tributes to ‘legend’ Dolly Parton following her death at 80: ‘One of the greatest this country ever produced’
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New voices have joined the tributes to Dolly Parton, with Khloé Kardashian, Paris Hilton and Zoe Saldana adding their names to the outpouring of grief from Hollywood, alongside politicians and media figures paying respects to the country music icon following her death at 80. Jane Fonda's tribute was joined by fellow 9 to 5 co-star Lily Tomlin, as the pair remembered Parton, whose death was confirmed on Tuesday by her nephew, Bryan Seaver.
Fuller versions of earlier tributes have also emerged: Beyoncé, writing on her website, called Parton "the barometer" and "the north star", thanking her for her "profound impact on the world" and describing her as "truly one of one", also referencing their collaboration on Cowboy Carter. Sabrina Carpenter, who bonded with Parton over their shared five-foot height, shared photos from their Please Please Please video collaboration, signing off with a nod to Parton's lyric "I will always love you", while further well-wishers, including Paul McCartney, Shania Twain, Oprah, Sarah Jessica Parker and Reba McEntire, also shared their condolences.
- Khloé Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Zoe Saldana join tributes to Dolly Parton, 80
- Lily Tomlin joins Jane Fonda in honouring former 9 to 5 co-star
- Fuller Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter tribute messages now revealed
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Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter and Jane Fonda were among the most prominent voices to pay tribute after country music icon Dolly Parton died at the age of 80. Parton was one of the best-known and most widely admired figures in American entertainment, celebrated for a career spanning decades as a singer, songwriter and actress, as well as for her philanthropy. Her death was confirmed by her nephew, Bryan Seaver.
The tributes came from across the entertainment world, reflecting the breadth of Parton's influence over more than one generation of performers. They included singers such as Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter, actresses including Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, who had worked alongside Parton, and a wide range of other celebrities, politicians and media figures.
The scale and speed of the response underlines how significant a figure Parton was, not just within country music but in wider American culture. Her songs, business ventures and public image made her a household name recognised well beyond her original genre, which is why her death has prompted such a broad wave of public mourning.
Full account
Dolly Parton, the singer-songwriter and entertainer who came to embody American country music, has died at the age of 80. Her family confirmed the news on Tuesday in a video message posted to her social media accounts by her nephew, Bryan Seaver. A statement issued by her representatives said Parton had died at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, surrounded by loved ones, after what was described as a brief battle with cancer. The exact form of the illness has not been disclosed. Some outlets reported that she had been admitted to hospital in the preceding days with kidney complications and other ailments, and that a health update she had shared just days earlier had briefly reassured fans that she might recover. Her death comes less than eighteen months after that of her husband of nearly sixty years, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025.
News of her passing prompted an immediate and expansive wave of tributes from across the entertainment world and beyond. Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter and Parton's former 9 to 5 co-star Jane Fonda were among the first to post publicly, and they were quickly followed by messages from Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Shania Twain, Oprah Winfrey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pedro Pascal, Reba McEntire, Hugh Jackman and numerous other well-known names, alongside politicians and figures from beyond showbusiness. The scale and warmth of the response reflected Parton's unusually broad appeal, spanning generations, genres and political divides.
Several of the tributes drew on personal history with Parton. Beyoncé, who had worked with her on the Cowboy Carter album, described her as a 'north star' whose generosity, humour and entrepreneurial spirit had left a lasting impression, saying she was honoured to have collaborated with her. Sabrina Carpenter, who had featured Parton on a remix of her song Please Please Please, recalled meeting her as an encounter with 'an angel walking the earth', noting the pair shared both a similar stature and an easy rapport. Jane Fonda paid tribute to her 9 to 5 co-star alongside Lily Tomlin, remembering the trio's decades-long friendship forged on the set of the 1980 comedy. Elsewhere, the musician Jack White marked the news by performing Parton's Jolene live at London's Eventim Apollo that same evening, having previously recorded the song with The White Stripes, and separately posted an archive photograph of Parton with the caption 'Instant Sainthood'.
Beyond the immediate outpouring of grief, commentators used the moment to reflect on the breadth of Parton's legacy. Her turn in 9 to 5 helped popularise a strand of female-led comedy that later films would build on, while the theme song she wrote for it became a chart-topping standard in its own right. Her charitable work, particularly the Imagination Library book-gifting programme and funding that contributed to Covid-19 vaccine research, was repeatedly cited as evidence of a generosity that extended well beyond her music. Some appreciations also highlighted her status as a longstanding icon within the LGBTQ+ community, crediting her with offering a rare model of warmth and inclusivity from within a country music tradition not always associated with either quality.
Where outlets differ
Source 1 (a UK tabloid-style report) concentrates on cataloguing the volume and range of celebrity tributes, quoting Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter's social media posts at length.
Source 2 (a music trade outlet) focuses narrowly on the musicians' response, particularly Jack White's live cover of Jolene, and includes chart statistics for various versions of the song.
Source 3 gives the fullest account of the circumstances of her death, including the family's official statement, her recent hospitalisation for kidney issues, and the context of her husband Carl Dean's death in 2025 — details largely absent from the other sources.
Source 4 is a personal, opinion-driven appreciation (styled like a film critic's tribute) rather than straight news, dwelling on the making of 9 to 5, its cultural legacy, and Parton's significance to gay audiences specifically, rather than reporting fresh facts about her death.
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