I’ve never heard anything even remotely plausibly negative about JK Rowling.
Along the same lines:
Weird Al
both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
In the UK at least, David Attenborough.
Before Fred Rogers’ death it was almost certainly him.
“God bless us, every one!”
——Tiny Tim, who is beloved, and has a comeback every December.
(no, not ***that ***Tiny Tim.
Holly, your signature makes me want to end every post with
Achoo!!!
Tim
Who, having been dead for 16 years at this point, if he still had a career would be most unsettling.
Never heard anyone say a bad thing about him (as a person, anyway), though.
I don’t like him because he cheated on his first wife. Yeah, yeah, he and Rita Wilson are held up as a long-running Hollywood marriage – which began with him cheating.
Yes.
Not sure why beloved-ness isn’t compatible with still having a career.
Thread premise made more sense when it was about the most widely disliked.
Bingo, it’s Ringo.
It takes a really exceptional jerk (like Coolio) to take exception to being parodied, especially given that he splits his royalties with the original songwriter. Chamillionaire may well have made more money from Weird Al’s White and Nerdy than he did from Ridin’. Even though the original was a huge hit, the record company always “recoups” all of the costs of creating and promoting the record before the artist gets paid. The Weird Al money, on the other hand, went to Chamillionaire as a songwriter, which pays at a much higher rate.
He really does appear to be pretty much universally admired by his peers. The only somewhat negative thing I heard was Flea being disappointed that their parody wasn’t as funny as a lot of others.
I’m always amazed at the fact that Al’s career has exceeded the vast majority of the artists he’s parodied. While I’m sure the fact that he’s constantly producing new fans counts for quite a bit, he’s also frequently a better lyricist than originals (Perform This Way is much better written than Born This Way).
Ron Howard
Sally Field
Okay. 
God bless you always!!!
Holly
I think they call her in Carmel where she has lived since at least the early '70’s.
How about Bruce Springsteen?
Pete Best?
Locally I think Andrew Dentonwould qualify - probably unknown outside this country though. His kid went to the same school as mine, and he and his famous wife just turned up to parent-teacher nights like everyone else, no mess no fuss. Seemed perfectly down to earth.
I know someone who calls him “a stupid person’s idea of an intelligent person”, but he has mental health issues. So, yes.
He (and his All Starr Band - hah!) just filled a major venue here in the last week, got good reviews too.
Not according to Stedman. Oprah related the following in an interview some years ago:
My guess is that with most people Oprah’s demeanor is more or less impersonal and businesslike. She doesn’t strike me as someone who particularly cares what other people think of her, and most ‘nice’ people I think are that way because they want others to like or think kindly of them.
Schwarzenegger was on The Tonight Show a month or so ago and got a standing ovation from around 90% of Leno’s audience when he walked on stage, and during the talk segment he received tremendous applause for his opinion about today’s politicos. Link
Arnold’s movie, The Last Stand, tanked, and at first I thought this was because of his unfaithfulness and a reduced national appetite for gunplay in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings, but Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis have both released action flicks since Arnold’s movie came out and they are doing even worse, so I’m guessing it’s Schwarzenegger’s continued popularity that is responsible for the fact that of the three movies his has actually performed the best.
RE: Doris Day
Even better! Thanks for the correction.
RE: Who doesn’t like Ringo?
First good chuckle of the day.
If the celebrity didn’t have to be alive I’d nominate Elvis. Graceland and continued sales show beloved and career are still off the charts.
If you consider news reporters to be celebrities, I’d say Robin Roberts.
More local to Los Angeles, but sportscaster Vin Scully is greatly (if not universally) respected, and still working after many, many years.