Important people around the world who passed away in 2024

January

• 4: David SOUL, 80, US-born actor who became a British citizen in 2004, played Hutch in US crime drama Starsky and Hutch in the 1970s.
• 29: Sandra MILO, 90, Italian actress, who worked with leading directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, Luigi Giamba and Dino Rizzi.

February

• 1: Carl WEATHERS, 76, African-American actor best known for playing boxer Apollo Creed in the Rocky film series;
• 3: Victor-Emmanuel of Savoy, 86, son of the last king of Italy, Umberto.
• 4: Hage GINGOMB, 82, Prime Minister of Namibia (1990-2002 and 2012-2015) and then President (2015-2024), icon of independence and staunch opponent of the apartheid regime in South Africa.
• 5: Jean MALLORY, 101, French ethnologist and publisher, reluctant advocate of the “first peoples” especially of the North, denouncing the “fatigue” of a West that has lost touch with nature.
• 5: Toby Keith, the country singer who wrote “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” the most popular genre song of the 90s.
• 6: Seiji OZAWA, Japanese conductor, one of the most famous conductors of his generation, who conducted the most famous orchestras in the world.
• 6: John Broughton, 76, former Irish prime minister who helped lay the foundations of the 1998 ‘Good Friday Agreement’, as Northern Ireland’s peace deal has come to be known, and later served as ambassador to the EU in Washington.
• 7: Alfred GROSSE, 99, Franco-German historian and political scientist, major figure of reconciliation and cooperation between France and Germany.
• 9: Robert Bandender, 95, justice minister in the François Mitterrand governments that abolished the death penalty in France in 1981.
• 16: Alexei Navalny, 47, a leading critic of Vladimir Putin, who died in prison under unclear circumstances.
• 21: Pamela SALEM, 80, British actress, best known for her appearance in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again.
• 26: Jacob ROTHSCHILD, 87, British banker, member of one of Europe’s most famous banking dynasties,
• 29: Paolo TAVIANI, 92 years old, director, who together with his brother Vittorio was a point of reference in Italian cinema.

March

• 1: Iris APPEL, 102, American businesswoman, designer, fashion icon.
• 1: Akira TORIGIAMA, 68, Japanese manga creator, known for very popular comics such as “Dragon Ball” and “Dr. Slump”.
• 21: Frédéric MITTERAND, 76, nephew of former president Francois Mitterrand, former French culture minister and television personality.
• 23: Maurizio POLINI, 82 years old, Italian pianist, virtuoso of the works of Chopin and Beethoven.
• 25: Chris KROSS, 71, bassist best known as a member of the new wave band Ultravox.
• 26: Richard SERA, 85, American sculptor, major figure in modern art.
• 27: Joe LIEBERMAN, 82, former U.S. senator, Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 election.
• 29: Louis GOSSETT JR., 87, first black actor to win Oscar for supporting actor.

April

• 1: Lou CONTER, 102, the last survivor of the USS Arizona, the American warship that made history when it sank when the Imperial Japanese Army bombed Pearl Harbor.
• 8: Peter HIGGS, 94, British physicist, awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for the “Higgs Boson”, considered the fundamental building block of the fundamental structure of matter.
• 10: O. J. SIMPSON, 76, former American football superstar whose 1995 double-murder trial sparked American interest before he was ultimately acquitted.
• 12: Roberto CAVALLI, 80, famous Italian designer who started working in fashion at a young age and in 1970 created his own house.
• 30: Paul OSTER, 77, prolific American author of novels, poems and films who became famous on the international literary scene with the “New York Trilogy”.

May

• 9: Roger CORMAN, 98, American director, figure of American independent cinema.
• 13: Alice MUNRO, 92, Canadian author, 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 19: Ebrahim RAISI, 63, president of Iran, who died in a helicopter crash.

June

• 5: Akira ENTO, 90, Japanese biochemist, who discovered statins.
• 18: Anouk EME, 92, actor, one of the most famous figures of French cinema of the 20th century, actor in films such as “A Man and a Woman”, “Lola” and “Dolce Vita”.
• 20: Donald SUTHERLAND, 88, Canadian actor, winner of an honorary Oscar, star of the films “MASH”, “Klute” and “The Hunger Games”.

July

• 1: Ismail KANTARE, 88, the most prominent contemporary Albanian writer who resisted the regime of Ember Hoxha.
• 12: Dr. Ruth WESTHEIMER, American sexologist who became a pop culture figure as she encouraged Americans to have frequent, safe, and imaginative sex.
• 13: Shannen Doherty, 53, American actress, best known for her roles in the American television series Heartthrob in Beverly Hills, as Brenda Walsh, and The Witches, as Prue Halliwell.
• 19: Nguyen Phu TRONG, 80, leader of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, who held the country’s most powerful office for 13 years.
• 19: Sheila Jackson Lee, 74, US congresswoman, member of the Democratic Party, who represented Texas’ 18th congressional district in the House of Representatives for nearly three decades.
• 27: Edna O’BRIEN, 93, Irish writer, known for her revolutionary and feminist literary work.
• 30: Fouad SOUKR, 63, a top official in the Lebanese Hezbollah organization.
• 31: Ismail HANIGIA, 62, political leader of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas.

August

• 14: Gina ROWLANDS, 94, legendary American actress, three-time Emmy winner, two-time Oscar nominee for portraying strong characters or women with serious health problems in films such as Gloria (1980) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974 ), directed by her Greek-American husband John Cassavetes.
• 18: Alain DELON, 88 years old holy monster of French cinema.
• 18: Phil DONAGHOU, 88, the host who changed the face of US television with a talk show that ran for decades and often focused on sensitive social and political issues.
• 19: Mike LINDS, 59, British technology tycoon who died when his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
• 26: Sven-Goran ERIKSON, 76, Swede, one of Europe’s leading coaches in the 1980s and 1990s and the first foreign coach to take charge of the England national team.

September

• 5: Rebecca CHEPTEGEI, 33, Ugandan marathon runner, who was set on fire by her partner who doused her in petrol just weeks after competing in the Marathon at the Paris Olympics.
• 5: Sergio MENDES, 83, Brazilian music legend who made bossa nova known around the world.
• 9: James Earl JONES, 93, American actor, who became famous for lending his voice to the fictional character Darth Vader, but also for his rich theater and film career.
• 11: Alberto FUHIMORI, 86, former president of Peru who was pardoned in December despite being sentenced in 2009 to serve 25 years in prison for “crimes against humanity”.
• 15: Elias HOURI, 76, one of the greatest Lebanese novelists of his generation and an ardent defender of the Palestinian cause.
• 27: Maggie SMITH, 89, British actress, two-time Oscar winner, star of the “Harry Potter” films and the “Downton Abbey” series.
• 27: Hassan NASRALA, 64, leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah organization.
• 28: Kris Kristofferson, 88, American actor and country music legend.

October

• 9: Ratan TATA, 86, former chairman of the Tata Group, who brought his Indian conglomerate to international prominence, expanding it with a series of high-profile acquisitions.
• 12: Alex SALMOND, 69, Scottish politician, who served as First Minister for Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
• 16: Liam PAINE, 31, British musician, former member of the band “One Direction”, when he fell from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.
• 16: Yahya SINOWAR, 61, political leader of the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, mastermind of the organization’s October 2023 raids in southern Israel.
• 20: Fethullah GULEN, 83, Turkish preacher, the man Turkey’s government has accused of masterminding the July 15, 2016, coup attempt.
• 21: Paul DI ANNO, 66, lead singer of Iron Maiden on their first two albums.
• 28: Manuel “GUAJIRO” MIRAVAL, 91, famous Cuban musician, the trumpeter of the band Buena Vista Social Club.
• 29: Terri Garr, 79, American actress, known for the films “Frankenstein Jr.,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Tucci.”

November

• 3: Quincy JONES, 91, American music producer, songwriter, composer, and conductor.
• 18: Charles DIMONT, French composer of the legendary song “Non, je ne regrette rien” and fellow traveler of “La Môme” (Edith Piaf).
• 20: John PRESCOTT, 86, former deputy prime minister of the British government under Tony Blair.
• 24: Barbara Taylor BRADFORD, 91, British novelist and bestselling author who have been translated around the world.

December

• 4: Henri BORLAN, 97, the only survivor of the 6,000 Jewish children under the age of 16 deported from France to Auschwitz in 1942, author of the Holocaust testimony book “Thank You for Surviving.”
• 17: Marissa PAREDES, 78, Spanish actress whose career was marked by the six films she starred in directed by Pedro Almodovar.
• 25: Osamu SUZUKI, 94, an iconic figure of the eponymous Japanese car and two-wheeler industry which he ran for more than forty years.
• 27: Olivia Hussey, British actress, who won a Golden Globe for her role as the teenage Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet in 1968.
• 28: Olivier TOND, 95, French journalist and author, best known for his award-winning biography of Albert Camus.
• 29: Jimmy CARTER, 100 years old, former president of the USA, who was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Source: AFP, Reuters, APE-MPE file