Deaths

Sofía Martins de Sousa, pintora portuguesa (n.

Sofía Martins de Sousa, pintora portuguesa (n. 1870).

Max Pruss

He survived the Hindenburg. That's the part people forget. Max Pruss was commanding the LZ 129 when it burst into flames over Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937, killing 36 people — and he pulled passengers out of the wreckage himself, badly burned, face scarred for life. But he lived another 23 years, defending hydrogen airships until his death. He never believed sabotage theories were fully settled. What he left behind: the most-filmed disaster of his era, and unanswered questions about who — or what — actually lit that match.

Friedrich Ernst, deutscher Jurist und Bankier, Staatskommissar für Bankenkontrolle

Richard Wright

He wrote *Native Son* in five months flat, churning it out on a typewriter at the Harlem YMCA while working a day job. Published in 1940, it sold 200,000 copies in three weeks — the fastest-selling Book-of-the-Month Club title ever at that point. But Wright spent his final years in Paris, a voluntary exile from American racism, dying there at 52 from a heart attack. He left behind a manuscript, *A Father's Law*, sitting unpublished for nearly 50 years. His son never got to read it growing up.

Dirk Jan de Geer

He ran a country through the opening weeks of World War II, then made a choice almost no wartime leader ever made — he quit and went home. De Geer fled occupied Netherlands in 1940, returned voluntarily to Nazi-controlled territory, and faced treason charges for it. Queen Wilhelmina never forgave him. But before the collapse, he'd served twice as Prime Minister, shaped Dutch fiscal policy for decades, and built a legal career spanning fifty years. He died at 90, leaving behind a cautionary file on what happens when exhaustion defeats conviction.

Tsunenohana Kan'ichi

He held the sport's highest rank for over a decade — but what made Tsunenohana Kan'ichi truly remarkable was his technique over brute force. Standing shorter than most elite wrestlers, he won 10 Emperor's Cup championships through precision and timing alone. And he didn't stop competing until 1943, shaping modern sumo as a trainer afterward. The 31st Yokozuna died in 1960, leaving behind a coaching lineage that produced champions for a generation. Small man. Enormous grip on the sport.

1961

James Milligan, kanadischer Sänger

1962

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands refused to capitulate when Germany invaded in 1940. She fled to London, broadcast to occupied Holland by radio, and became a symbol of Dutch resistance. She was 60. She governed in exile for five years, returned to the Netherlands in 1945, and abdicated in 1948 in favor of her daughter Juliana. Born in 1880, she had reigned for 50 years and presided over both the height of the Dutch colonial empire and its beginning of the end.

1962

Ernst Winsauer, österreichischer Politiker

1962

K. C. Dey

He was blind from childhood, yet K. C. Dey memorized thousands of ragas and performed for royalty, film sets, and radio stations across India. Born Krishna Chandra Dey in 1893, he'd learned to navigate Calcutta's music world entirely by ear. His devotional compositions — particularly in Bengali and Hindi — carried a raw, aching quality that trained vocalists couldn't replicate. And when he died in 1962, he left behind a nephew named Manna Dey, who'd grown up watching him work, and became one of Bollywood's greatest voices.

1963

Lee Wallard, US-amerikanischer Automobilrennfahrer

1963

Karyn Kupcinet

She was 22 and found strangled in her West Hollywood apartment, but nobody reported her missing for four days. Karyn Kupcinet, daughter of famous Chicago columnist Irv Kupcinet, had small roles on *The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis* and *The Donna Reed Show* — just getting started. The murder was never solved. Two suspects were questioned, then cleared. Nothing stuck. Her father spent years searching for answers he never got. She left behind a case file that's still officially open.

1965

José Campos de Figueiredo, escritor português (n.

José Campos de Figueiredo, escritor português (n. 1899).

1966

Vittorio Giannini, US-amerikanischer Komponist

1966

José Isbert, actor español (n.

José Isbert, actor español (n. 1886).

1967

Leon M'ba

He survived a French colonial exile to Oubangui-Chari in the 1930s — but that wasn't the hardest part. M'ba clawed back to become Gabon's first president in 1961, then watched a military coup nearly strip everything away in 1964. France flew in troops within hours to restore him. Three years later, he was gone. But Gabon's deep Franco-African entanglement — military agreements, oil contracts, political lifelines — that arrangement didn't die with him. It's still there today.

1967

Willy Maertens, deutscher Schauspieler, Theaterregisseur und -intendant

1968

Enid Blyton

She wrote 762 books. Not drafts — published, finished, done. Enid Blyton typed so fast that her publishers struggled to keep up, sometimes releasing five titles in a single month. Libraries banned her for being "too easy." Teachers dismissed her. Kids didn't care — they just kept reading. The Famous Five alone sold over 100 million copies. And when she died in 1968 with dementia having stolen her final years, she left behind something librarians couldn't argue with: a generation that learned to love reading through her.

1969

Jose Maria Arguedas, écrivain et anthropologue péruvien (° 18 janvier 1911).

1970

Fritz von Unruh, deutscher Schriftsteller, Maler, Redner und Dichter des literarischen Expressionismus

1970

Jan Drda, tschechischer Prosaist und Dramatiker

1970

Alla Horska, ukrainische Malerin, Dissidentin und Vertreterin der Sechziger-Bewegung in der Ukraine

Wasfi Tel

Wasfi Tel was assassinated in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Cairo in November 1971. He was Jordan's Prime Minister and had ordered the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan in Black September 1970. Palestinian gunmen shot him four times. One of the assassins knelt and drank his blood from the lobby floor. Born in 1920 in Irbid, he had been one of Jordan's most capable administrators. His murder triggered the exact instability his policies had tried to prevent.

Grantley Herbert Adams, barbadischer Politiker

Josef Krainer senior, österreichischer Politiker

Wasfi al-Tal

He was shot in the hotel lobby while his killers lapped his blood off the marble floor. Wasfi al-Tal, Jordan's iron-fisted Prime Minister, had crushed the PLO in Black September 1970 — eliminating thousands of fighters from Jordanian soil in eleven brutal days. The Palestinian group that hunted him down in Cairo's Sheraton called themselves "Black September" in direct response. His death in November 1971 proved the movement's reach extended far beyond Jordan. And behind him? A modernized civil service and a state that survived the storm.

Havergal Brian

He finished his Gothic Symphony at 74 — nearly 40 years after writing it. Havergal Brian spent decades in near-total obscurity, composing without performances, without commissions, without much money. And yet he kept writing. Thirty-two symphonies after age 80. The Gothic itself requires over 200 performers and four brass bands. It wasn't performed until 1961, when Brian was 86. He died at 96 in 1972, leaving 32 symphonies that most orchestras still haven't touched.

Paul Bertololy, deutscher Arzt und Schriftsteller

Ángel Tacuarita Brandazza, militante social argentino asesinado por el Ejército (n.

Ángel Tacuarita Brandazza, militante social argentino asesinado por el Ejército (n. 1949).

Sibila de Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha, aristócrata alemana (n.

Sibila de Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha, aristócrata alemana (n. 1908).

1973

Charles Crodel, deutscher Maler

1973

Marthe Bibesco

She wrote in French, not Romanian — a deliberate choice that opened every aristocratic door in Europe. Marthe Bibesco charmed Proust, corresponded with Churchill, and published over 30 books while navigating two world wars and the Communist seizure of her family's estates. She lost everything in Romania. But she kept writing. Her 1908 debut, *Les Huit Paradis*, won the Grand Prix de littérature from the Académie française. What she left behind: a life documented so precisely it reads like the 20th century's finest gossip, dressed as literature.

1974

El Sayed Mohammed Nosseir, ägyptischer Gewichtheber

1974

Miguel Odriozola, genetista y sindicalista español (n.

Miguel Odriozola, genetista y sindicalista español (n. 1903).

1975

Érico Veríssimo, escritor brasileño (n.

Érico Veríssimo, escritor brasileño (n. 1905).

1975

Peder Furubotn

He ran Norway's Communist underground for five years while the Gestapo hunted him — and never got caught. Furubotn led partisan networks across occupied Norway from 1940 to 1945, coordinating sabotage and survival while constantly moving. But after liberation, his own party expelled him in 1949, accusing him of nationalism and defying Moscow's line. He'd fought the Nazis only to be purged by comrades. He died in 1975, leaving behind a resistance record no one could erase — and a cautionary story about who actually controls a revolution.

1976

Robert Fleming, kanadischer Komponist, Pianist, Organist, Chorleiter und Musikpädagoge

1976

Rosalind Russell

She turned down the role of Mildred in *Of Human Bondage* — Bette Davis took it and became a star. But Russell didn't need anyone's castoffs. She filmed *His Girl Friday* in 1940, delivering dialogue so fast the director had actors overlap their lines, basically inventing a new way to shoot comedy. Forty films. Four Oscar nominations. And *Auntie Mame*, the role she fought hardest for, remains the purest version of who she was — a woman who refused to be anyone's second choice.

1977

Trevor Bardette

He played villains so convincingly that audiences forgot he'd studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts alongside future legends. Trevor Bardette spent decades as Hollywood's go-to heavy — westerns, noirs, B-pictures — racking up over 150 screen credits without ever getting top billing. But that was the job, and he owned it. Uncredited, underseen, utterly reliable. He died in 1977, leaving behind a filmography that essentially built the texture of mid-century American cinema one menacing glare at a time.

1977

Hans Möbius, deutscher Archäologe

1977

Bob Meusel

He once out-slugged Babe Ruth. Bob Meusel spent seven seasons batting cleanup *behind* the most famous hitter alive, and still led the American League in home runs in 1925. Quiet to the point of seeming cold — writers called him "Long Bob" and left it at that — he'd rather throw you out at third than sign your scorecard. And his arm? Considered the best in baseball. He died in 1977, leaving three World Series rings and a reputation baseball somehow forgot to protect.

Walther Eckermann, deutscher Historiker und Hochschullehrer

Peyroteo, futebolista português (n.

Peyroteo, futebolista português (n. 1918).

Antonio Vespucio Liberti

He named a stadium after himself. Quietly, without fanfare — Antonio Vespucio Liberti simply attached his name to the ground he'd helped build as president of River Plate, and Buenos Aires' Monumental became inseparable from his identity. Capacity 84,000. The largest stadium in Argentina. He died in 1978, just as that same stadium hosted the World Cup Final on Argentine soil. He didn't live to see the final whistle. But the building bearing his name did.

Kurt Krjeńc, sorbischer Kommunist, Abgeordneter der Volkskammer, Domowina-Vorsitzender

1980

Keith Caldwell, as et militaire néo-zélandais (° 16 octobre 1895).

1980

Christia Sylf (Christiane Léonie Adélaïde Richard dite), écrivaine française (° 28 septembre 1924).

1981

Arthur Jensen, dänischer Schauspieler

1981

Lotte Lenya (Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer dite), actrice et chanteuse autrichienne (° 18 octobre 1898).

1982

Auguste Breitzke, deutsche sozialdemokratische Widerstandskämpferin

1982

Helen of Greece and Denmark

She turned down a king to protect her son. When Romania's Carol II stripped her of custody over Crown Prince Michael, Helen refused to disappear quietly — she fought through courts, exile, and two World Wars to stay in her boy's life. Michael eventually became king three times over. She outlived Carol by decades. And when communists finally expelled them both from Romania in 1947, mother and son left together. She didn't win every battle. But Michael did.

1982

Rolf Wanka, österreichischer Schauspieler

1983

Christopher George

He turned down steady TV paychecks to chase bigger film roles — a gamble that defined him. Christopher George made his name as Sergeant Sam Troy in *The Rat Patrol*, commanding desert warfare across 58 episodes of prime-time ABC. But Hollywood kept casting him in B-movies: *Pieces*, *Graduation Day*, *Enter the Ninja*. He died at 52 from a heart attack, mid-career. His wife, actress Lynda Day George, had starred alongside him repeatedly. What he left behind: a cult-film catalog that gets rediscovered every decade.

1983

Ojārs Vācietis, lettischer Dichter

1984

Adam Antes, deutscher Bildhauer und Grafiker

1985

Fernand Braudel, französischer Historiker

1985

John McNally, jugador estadounidense de fútbol americano (n.

John McNally, jugador estadounidense de fútbol americano (n. 1903).

1985

Karl Abt, deutscher Maler

1986

Elizabeth Thomas, US-amerikanische Ägyptologin

1986

Herb Vigran

He played crooks better than most real crooks could. Herb Vigran spent decades as Hollywood's go-to heavy — the sneering thug, the crooked cop, the hired muscle — racking up over 200 film and television appearances across five decades. But he also made millions laugh opposite Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, and later Doris Day. Nobody owned the middle distance between menace and comedy quite like him. And when he died in 1986, he left behind 200+ roles that still run somewhere, every single day.

1986

Emilio Scanavino, italienischer Maler

Kazuharu Sonoda

He wrestled under the ring name "Kazuharu Sonoda," but the mat was his classroom long before it was his stage. Born in 1956, he entered Japanese professional wrestling during one of its most brutal eras — a world where the line between sport and spectacle was deliberately blurred. He was only 31. That youth makes the silence after his death louder somehow. And what he left behind wasn't a championship belt — it was younger wrestlers who learned exactly how someone carries themselves when the crowd isn't watching.

Choh Hao Li

He synthesized human growth hormone from scratch in 1970 — a feat scientists had called impossible. Choh Hao Li spent decades at UC San Francisco isolating pituitary hormones one painstaking experiment at a time, identifying ACTH, MSH, and eventually cracking the 256-amino-acid structure of somatotropin. His lab ran on stubbornness. And that synthesis? It directly enabled treatments for children with growth disorders who couldn't access donor supplies. He didn't just describe these hormones. He built them. The pituitary gland gave up its secrets because one chemist refused to stop asking.

Wolfgang Liebeneiner, deutscher Schauspieler und Regisseur

Víctor Yturbe, mexikanischer Sänger

Paul Arma, französischer Komponist, Musikethnologe und Pianist

Pablo Pérez Zañartu, ingeniero y político chileno (n.

Pablo Pérez Zañartu, ingeniero y político chileno (n. 1915).

1989

Ernesto Civardi, prélat italien (° 21 octobre 1906).

1990

Francisco Godia, piloto español de Fórmula 1 (n.

Francisco Godia, piloto español de Fórmula 1 (n. 1921).

1990

Władysław Rubin, prélat polonais (° 20 septembre 1917).

1992

Sidney Nolan

He painted Ned Kelly's helmet before most Australians had decided what to make of the bushranger. Sidney Nolan, working in secret in 1946, used ripolin house paint on hardboard because proper supplies were scarce. The result was 27 stark, strange panels — a black square-headed figure against scorched Australian red. He destroyed some, hid others. But the Kelly series survived him, hanging permanently in the National Gallery of Australia. And that crude house paint? Still vivid.

1992

Frank Armi, US-amerikanischer Automobilrennfahrer

Jerry Edmonton

Jerry Edmonton drove the hard-hitting rhythm behind Steppenwolf’s heavy rock sound, most notably on the counterculture anthem Born to Be Wild. His sudden death in a 1993 traffic accident silenced the man who helped define the aggressive, distorted pulse of late-sixties biker rock.

Camillo Togni, italienischer Komponist, Pianist und Musikpädagoge

Eilif Armand, norwegischer Schauspieler, Lyriker und Literaturkritiker

Monroe Abbey, kanadischer Rechtsanwalt

Roberto García-Peña, periodista y abogado colombiano (n.

Roberto García-Peña, periodista y abogado colombiano (n. 1910).

Siegfried Horn, archéologue allemand (° 17 mars 1908).

Garry Moore

He dropped his birth name — Thomas Garrison Morfit — because it wouldn't fit a marquee. Smart call. Garry Moore spent the 1950s hosting one of CBS's most-watched daytime shows, then handed Carol Burnett her first real television break on *The Garry Moore Show* in 1959. She was unknown. He wasn't taking a risk — he just saw talent clearly. And without that introduction, television comedy looks completely different. He died in Hilton Head, South Carolina, at 78, leaving behind the woman who'd inherit his entire comedic universe.

Venancio Pérez, futbolista español (n.

Venancio Pérez, futbolista español (n. 1921).

Jeffrey Dahmer

He kept a shrine. Skulls, painted and arranged, in his apartment at 924 North 25th Street, Milwaukee. Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, and when police finally entered that apartment, they found 74 photographs of his crimes. He was beaten to death in prison by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver using a metal bar. But what he left behind wasn't just horror — it was a court case that redefined how Wisconsin handles prisoner mental health evaluations.

Buster Edwards

He ran a flower stall outside Waterloo Station for years — not hiding exactly, just hiding in plain sight. Buster Edwards was one of the Great Train Robbers of 1963, part of the gang that lifted £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train in Buckinghamshire. He fled to Mexico, came back, did his time. Phil Collins played him in a 1988 film. But the flowers were real. And that stall, that ordinary life after extraordinary crime, became its own strange London fixture.

Jerry Rubin

He once showed up to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee dressed as a Radical War soldier. That was Jerry Rubin — pure theater, pure chaos, entirely intentional. Co-founder of the Youth International Party, he helped shut down the New York Stock Exchange in 1967 by throwing dollar bills from the gallery. But he later became a millionaire businessman, selling networking seminars. Died at 56 after a jaywalking accident in Los Angeles. He left behind a contradiction nobody's fully resolved: the radical who embraced capitalism harder than anyone.

Vicente Enrique y Tarancón, cardenal español (n.

Vicente Enrique y Tarancón, cardenal español (n. 1907).

1995

Joe Kelly

He raced before Ireland had a real motorsport scene — and he built one anyway. Joe Kelly spent decades carving up circuits at a time when Irish drivers were afterthoughts on the international calendar. He competed in the 1950 British Grand Prix, one of just 21 drivers to enter Formula One's very first World Championship season. Not a points finish. But he was there. And being there, representing Ireland at that founding moment, helped prove the country could produce real racing talent. He left behind a generation who knew it was possible.

Thomas Evenson, athlète de fond britannique (° 9 janvier 1910).

Corneliu Baba, peintre roumain (° 18 novembre 1906).

Mounir Bachir, joueur de oud irakien (° 1930).

Georges Marchal

He spent years swinging swords across French cinema screens, but Georges Marchal built his reputation on something quieter — restraint. Born in Nancy in 1920, he starred in Luis Buñuel's *Cela s'appelle l'aurore* (1956), a collaboration that pushed him far beyond the swashbuckler roles audiences expected. He didn't chase Hollywood. And that choice defined him. He left behind 70+ films, a body of work that kept France's postwar cinema breathing when it needed faces audiences actually trusted.

Hemaiag Bedros XVII.

Hemaiag Bedros XVII. Guedikian, Patriarch von Kilikien

Rita Hester

She didn't make headlines while she was alive. Rita Hester was stabbed multiple times in her apartment in Allston, Massachusetts, and her murder stayed unsolved — a pattern so familiar it had a name. But her death sparked something real. Activist Gwen Smith created the Transgender Day of Remembrance in 1999, held every November 20th, directly because of Rita. Now observed in dozens of countries. Her case remains open. And her name opens every single memorial.

Maurice Seynaeve, coureur belge de cyclo-cross (° 31 janvier 1907).

Gustave Kouassi Ouffoué, homme politique ivoirien (° 1941).

Kerry Wendell Thornley

He wrote a novel about Lee Harvey Oswald *before* the Kennedy assassination — and spent the rest of his life suspected of conspiracy. Kerry Wendell Thornley co-founded Discordianism in a bowling alley with Greg Hill, building an entire religion around Eris, goddess of chaos. The joke became something stranger. Principia Discordia, their absurdist holy text, eventually shaped counterculture from the 1970s underground straight into internet culture. He died broke and paranoid in Atlanta. But that bowling alley theology still spreads, unpaid, uncontrolled — exactly as chaos demands.

Hans Mohl, deutscher Fernsehjournalist

1999

Ursula Kuhn, deutsche Schriftstellerin

2000s 168

Carol Bolt, kanadische Dramatikerin

Fabius von Gugel, deutscher Zeichner, Graphiker, Maler, Bühnenbildner, Porzellangestalter und Dichter

Liane Haid, österreichische Schauspielerin und Sängerin

Alfonso De Grazia, actor argentino de teatro, cine y televisión (n.

Alfonso De Grazia, actor argentino de teatro, cine y televisión (n. 1932).

Ernst Hermanns, deutscher Bildhauer

Liane Haid

She once turned down Hollywood. Liane Haid, Austria's biggest silent film star of the 1920s, had offers from American studios and said no — choosing instead to stay in Europe, where she made over 60 films across four decades. Born in Vienna in 1895, she survived the collapse of silent cinema, two world wars, and the entire rise and fall of the Nazi film industry without becoming its tool. She died at 104. And she outlived nearly everyone who'd ever reviewed her work.

William Reid

He flew a damaged Lancaster bomber for three hours with a shattered windscreen, two dead crew members, and wounds to his head, shoulders, and hands — then landed it safely. That was November 1943, over Düsseldorf. Bill Reid didn't turn back. He completed the mission half-conscious. The Victoria Cross came months later, but Reid spent decades quietly farming in Scotland after the war. He died in 2001, leaving behind something rare: a logbook entry for a flight that, by any calculation, should have ended very differently.

William Xavier Kienzle, écrivain américain (° 11 septembre 1928).

Hermann Barche, deutscher Politiker

William Kienzle

He quit the priesthood after 20 years, then turned the confessional into a crime scene. William Kienzle's Father Koesler mysteries — 18 novels deep by the time he died — let a Detroit Catholic priest solve murders the cops couldn't crack. Detroit's parishes, politics, and pew gossip saturated every page. His first book, *The Rosary Murders*, sold a million copies and became a film. But Kienzle never left the Church, not really. Those 18 novels are his actual congregation.

Kal Mann

He wrote "Butterfly" for Charlie Gracie in 1957, a song so simple it shouldn't have worked — but it hit number one. Kal Mann co-founded Cameo-Parkway Records in Philadelphia, the label that launched Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and made that city a pop powerhouse for a decade. He didn't chase prestige. He chased hooks. And he found them constantly — "Wild One," "Lazy River," dozens more. Mann left behind a catalog that kept the early rock era's heartbeat audible long after the studios went quiet.

2002

Melih Cevdet Anday

He published his first poem at 19, but Melih Cevdet Anday spent decades refusing to stay in one lane. Poet. Playwright. Novelist. Essayist. Columnist for *Cumhuriyet* for years. His 1956 poetry collection *Rahatı Kaçan Ağaç* shifted Turkish modernist verse in ways critics are still untangling. He didn't chase trends — he built them quietly, in plain language that somehow cut deep. And when he died at 87, he left behind a body of work that still gets taught in Turkish universities today. The restless ones usually do.

2002

Dave "Snaker" Ray

Dave Ray helped spark the 1960s folk-blues revival by stripping American roots music down to its raw, percussive essence. As one-third of the influential trio Koerner, Ray & Glover, he influenced a generation of musicians, including Bob Dylan, to embrace the grit of traditional acoustic blues. His death in 2002 silenced a vital voice of the Minneapolis music scene.

2002

Dave „Snaker“ Ray, US-amerikanischer Bluessänger und -Gitarrist

2003

Antonia Forest

She built an entire boarding school from scratch — Kingscote, with its feuds, rituals, and girls who felt dangerously real. Antonia Forest wrote twelve Marlows novels over fifty years, and didn't care that they stayed out of print for stretches at a time. Readers hunted them obsessively through secondhand shops. Her characters aged in real time, which nobody did then. And Nicola Marlow, stubborn and unglamorous, became a quiet obsession for generations of women who'd never seen themselves in fiction before. The books are still traded like contraband.

2003

Mihkel Mathiesen

He helped rebuild Estonia's engineering infrastructure during one of the most chaotic periods in Soviet occupation — not because the system rewarded him, but because the work itself demanded it. Born in 1918, Mathiesen navigated decades where Estonian identity was officially suppressed yet technically trained minds were quietly indispensable. Engineers don't vanish easily. And he didn't. He later entered politics as Estonia reclaimed independence, translating technical discipline into governance. He left behind trained generations and institutional frameworks still embedded in Estonian engineering education today.

2003

Ted Bates

He managed Southampton for 18 years — nearly two decades running the same club without getting sacked, which almost never happens. Ted Bates joined the Saints as a player in 1937, became their heartbeat, and eventually built the youth infrastructure that later produced genuine top-flight talent. He didn't chase glamour. But Southampton erected a statue of him outside St Mary's Stadium, bronze and permanent. He's still standing there, watching every home game.

István Bubik, ungarischer Schauspieler

Otto Esser, deutscher Arbeitgeberpräsident

Raúl Troncoso, político chileno (n.

Raúl Troncoso, político chileno (n. 1935).

Sergio Castelletti, italienischer Fußballspieler und -trainer

Jean Falala, homme politique français, ancien maire de Reims (° 2 mars 1929).

Marc Lawrence

He played so many mob heavies that real gangsters recognized him on the street. Marc Lawrence spent six decades making Hollywood's villains feel genuinely dangerous — small eyes, slow menace, that unmistakable raspy whisper. But HUAC blacklisted him in 1951, and he fled to Europe for years, directing films in Italy and living in Rome. He came back eventually. Always did. When he died at 95, he left behind over 200 screen credits — and the blueprint for every sneering movie thug who came after him.

Hermann Arnold, deutscher Medizinalbeamter

Tony Meehan, musicien britannique (° 2 mars 1943).

Jack Concannon

He once started for the Bears while Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers were in their prime — and still couldn't get the crowd off his back. Concannon spent 11 seasons bouncing between six NFL teams, never quite landing the starter's role he kept almost earning. But he threw it all with a scrambler's instinct nobody expected from a Boston College kid. He finished with 4,435 passing yards and a career that defined what it meant to be a dependable backup. The unsung ones kept the starters honest.

Enrico Catuzzi, italienischer Fußballspieler und -trainer

Lioubov Polichtchouk, actrice russe (° 21 mai 1949).

Max Merkel, futbolista y entrenador austríaco (n.

Max Merkel, futbolista y entrenador austríaco (n. 1918).

Lyubov Polishchuk

She once trained as a circus acrobat before theater claimed her. Lyubov Polishchuk built a career across Soviet stages and screens that stretched four decades, but audiences best remembered her sharp comic timing in *A Forgotten Tune for the Flute* and her magnetic presence in *Twelve Chairs*. She died at 57 from spinal disease — years of grueling physical performance had taken their toll. But she left behind over 60 film and television roles, and a son, Alexei Maklakov, who became an actor himself.

Robert Volpe

He chased stolen art for the NYPD while quietly making his own. Robert Volpe built the department's Art Crime Unit almost from scratch in the 1970s, recovering millions in looted paintings — then went home and painted. The cop who hunted forgers was himself putting brushstrokes on canvas. He died in 2006, leaving behind two bodies of work: a record of recovered masterpieces and original paintings that had nothing to prove to anyone. The hunter and the artist were always the same person.

Primo Volpi, cycliste sur route italien (° 26 avril 1916).

2007

Frédéric « Fred » Chichin, musicien français du duo et couple Les Rita Mitsouko (° 29 avril 1954).

2007

Elly Beinhorn, deutsche Fliegerin

2007

Gudrun Wagner

She ran Bayreuth. Not as a caretaker — as a ruler. Gudrun Wagner, born 1944, married Wolfgang Wagner and fought tooth and nail to keep the festival her husband controlled inside the family. When Wolfgang finally stepped down in 2008, her bid to inherit leadership failed. But before that, she'd shaped decades of productions at the world's most obsessive opera shrine. The politics were brutal, the feuds legendary. And when she died in 2007, she left behind a succession battle that tore the Wagner family apart one final time.

Leonel Roberto Carrillo, político mexicano (n.

Leonel Roberto Carrillo, político mexicano (n. 1974).

Sandeep Unnikrishnan

He asked his men to get out and let him handle it. That's the last thing Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan said before charging alone into Taj Mahal Palace Hotel during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He'd already rescued 14 hostages. Thirty-one years old. NSG Black Cat commando, trained for exactly this. And he walked toward the gunfire anyway. He didn't make it out. But those 14 people did. His father still lives in Bengaluru, in the house Sandeep grew up in.

Havaldar Gajender Singh

He was 36. Havaldar Gajender Singh served in the Indian Army as a sergeant — a Havaldar — one of the backbone ranks that keeps a military actually functioning, not the brass, not the generals, just the man who gets things done. His birth year of 1972 means he grew up in post-Emergency India, came of age during Kargil, and chose to stay in uniform anyway. And that choice meant something. He left behind a family, a regiment, and a service record that nobody outside his unit will ever fully read.

Lee Baxandall, US-amerikanischer Schriftsteller, Übersetzer und Aktivist der Nudismusbewegung

German Skurygin, atleta russo (n.

German Skurygin, atleta russo (n. 1963).

Takeo Kajiwara

He once said attacking was the only honest way to play Go. Kajiwara didn't creep around the board — he came straight at you. Born in 1923, he reached 9-dan, the game's highest rank, and trained generations of Japanese professionals through sheer aggressive philosophy. His students called his style "attack Go," and it shaped how mid-century Japan understood the game entirely. But he never won the Kisei title, the one he chased longest. What he left: a school of thought still taught in dojos today.

Tony Kendall, italienischer Schauspieler

Sergio Sartorelli, italienischer Autodesigner

Gilles Carle

He made French-Canadian cinema sexy before anyone thought that was possible. Gilles Carle spent the 1970s turning Québec's identity crisis into art — films like *La Vraie Nature de Bernadette* and *Les Corps célestes* packed theatres and sparked real arguments about what it meant to be Québécois. Then Parkinson's disease stole his final years. But he kept working as long as he could. He died in 2009, leaving behind 30-plus films that proved a small province could have a massive cinematic voice.

Werner Godemann, deutscher Schauspieler

Shōjirō Asahina, japanischer Entomologe

Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen spent the first 35 years of his career playing serious leading men in television and drama. Then Airplane! in 1980 cast him as the deadpan straight man in a spoof and revealed the comedian who had been hiding inside the dramatic actor the whole time. He played it exactly the same way he'd played everything else, which was the joke. Born in 1926 in Saskatchewan, he made over 100 films. Half the laughs came from the second half of his career.

Giorgos Fountas

He played villains so convincingly that audiences sometimes hissed at him in the street. Giorgos Fountas built his career in Greek cinema during its golden age, appearing in over 100 films between the 1950s and 1980s — a workhorse of the Finos Film studio when Greek comedies packed every neighborhood theater. But he could do drama too. His face, all sharp angles and quiet menace, made him unforgettable. He died in 2010 at 87. What he left behind: a filmography that still defines how Greeks remember their own cinema's best years.

Irene Ludwig, deutsche Kunst-Mäzenin

Samuel Cohen, US-amerikanischer Physiker

Aruwa Late Ameh, nigerianischer Fußballspieler

Patrice O’Neal, actor y comediante estadounidense (n.

Patrice O’Neal, actor y comediante estadounidense (n. 1969).

Lloyd J. Old

He didn't cure cancer. But Lloyd J. Old got closer to understanding why our own bodies sometimes could than almost anyone else alive. Working out of Memorial Sloan Kettering for decades, he identified tumor necrosis factor — a protein the immune system uses to kill cancer cells — and helped build the entire field of tumor immunology from scratch. And when he died in 2011, he left behind a Cancer Research Institute that had funded over $130 million in immunology research. The cure people are still chasing runs through his work.

Ante Marković, jugoslawischer Politiker

Zig Ziglar

He sold cookware door-to-door before he sold anything else. Zig Ziglar spent years as a mediocre pots-and-pans salesman until a manager told him he could be great — and he believed it. That belief became his entire career. He wrote 33 books, spoke to millions, and built a training empire in Dallas. But the line people still repeat isn't from any bestseller. "You can have everything in life you want, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want." Thirty-three books. One sentence that outlasted them all.

Spain Rodriguez

He drew outlaws before anyone thought underground comics could matter. Spain Rodriguez spent decades sketching biker gangs, revolutionaries, and street-level chaos into Zap Comix alongside R. Crumb — work the mainstream dismissed as filth and collectors now archive as American art history. His Trashman character, a vigilante fighting corporate fascism, ran through the late '60s counterculture like a fever dream. Born in Buffalo, died in San Francisco. But his pen stayed sharp until the end — he finished his Che Guevara biography just before his death.

Don Rhymer

He wrote *Big Momma's House*. Full stop. That 2000 comedy pulled $173 million worldwide on a $30 million budget — numbers that don't lie. Don Rhymer spent his career in broad, loud, unapologetically commercial comedy, and he didn't apologize for it. He also wrote *Surviving Christmas* and *The Guru*. Not every script was a hit. But the man understood what made audiences laugh at the multiplex on a Friday night. He left behind a filmography that kept Martin Lawrence's career alive at exactly the right moment.

Jakes Gerwel

He ran Mandela's office. Not ceremonially — practically, completely, as Director-General of the Presidency from 1994 to 1999, the man who made the post-apartheid government actually function. Jakes Gerwel had already transformed the University of the Western Cape from a apartheid-era "bush college" into a genuine intellectual home for the marginalized. He did both things quietly. Mandela trusted him completely. When Gerwel died at 66, he left behind a university still carrying that defiant identity — and every graduate it produced.

José Maria Fidélis dos Santos

He went by "Fidélis" — faithful — and the name fit. Born in Brazil in 1944, he built a career not as a superstar but as the kind of footballer clubs trusted: steady, present, useful. He transitioned into coaching, shaping younger Brazilian players through the grinding lower tiers where most of football actually lives. No Maracanã spotlights. Just training cones and honest work. And when he died in 2012, he left behind dozens of players who learned the game from someone who never confused reputation with reliability.

Knut Ahnlund

He spent decades on the Nobel Committee for Literature, helping decide which writers the world would celebrate — and which it wouldn't. Knut Ahnlund resigned in protest in 2005, publicly condemning the committee's decision to award Elfriede Jelinek, calling the choice a disaster for the prize itself. That kind of bluntness was rare. His scholarship on August Strindberg remains foundational for Swedish literary studies. But it's that resignation letter that historians keep pulling back out — a quiet academic refusing, loudly, to stay quiet.

Alex Crisovan, Schweizer Schachjournalist, -autor und -funktionär

Franco Ventriglia

He sang at the Met. That alone tells you something — the Metropolitan Opera didn't hand out spots. Franco Ventriglia spent decades training voices after his own performing years wound down, shaping singers who'd carry that discipline forward. Born in 1922, he bridged the old-school Italian-American operatic tradition with postwar American stages. And when he died in 2012 at 89, he left behind students who still teach what he taught them — a chain of vocal transmission that started somewhere in that mid-century house.

Mitja Ribičič

He ran Yugoslavia's secret police — OZNA, then UDBA — at a time when Tito's purges were at their most ruthless. But Ribičič somehow survived every political turn that consumed others around him, rising to Prime Minister between 1969 and 1971. Born in Trieste when it was still Austrian, he straddled the Italian-Slovenian fault line his entire life. He died at 94, outlasting the country he'd helped build. Yugoslavia itself was gone. He wasn't.

Danny Wells

He stood 4'11" and shared a screen with Jaleel White for six seasons on *Family Matters*, but Danny Wells had already logged decades of live performance before that. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he'd done stand-up, stage, the grind of character work most audiences never notice. He played Charlie Briscoe. Not the star. Not the breakout. But he showed up, delivered, and disappeared quietly in January 2013. He left behind a career built entirely on showing up when the spotlight pointed somewhere else.

Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

She wrote Yiddish lullabies at a time when Yiddish itself was nearly gone. Born in Vienna in 1920, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman survived the war, settled in the Bronx, and kept composing for decades — hundreds of original songs, not translations, not nostalgia pieces, but living music. She won a National Endowment for the Arts Folk Arts Fellowship. Her daughter Itzl continued performing her work. And Beyle didn't preserve a dying language. She refused to let it die at all.

Jean-Louis Roux

He trained in Paris, co-founded the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in 1951, and helped build Quebec's French-language stage into something the whole country had to reckon with. But he's also remembered for a scandal — a 1996 photo surfaced showing him wearing a swastika as a student prank, forcing him to resign as Lieutenant Governor after just weeks in office. And that resignation shadowed everything. What he left behind: TNM itself, still running, still producing, sixty-plus years later.

Jack Matthews

He taught at Ohio University for over three decades, and still showed up to write fiction that most publishers didn't quite know what to do with. Jack Matthews published more than 20 books — novels, story collections, rare book scholarship — while quietly becoming one of American letters' best-kept secrets. His passion for antiquarian books wasn't academic hobby; he wrote seriously about them. And he kept writing into his late 80s. What he left: shelves of strange, smart fiction still waiting to be found.

Mike Jenkins

He finished second at the 2012 World's Strongest Man — 26 points behind Brian Shaw, an agonizing gap for a 6'6", 380-pound athlete who'd spent years grinding toward that podium. Mike Jenkins was just 30 when he died, young enough that the strongman world genuinely didn't see it coming. Brain aneurysm. Gone that fast. But he'd already deadlifted over 900 pounds in competition and inspired a generation of bigger, younger American competitors who studied his technique. He left behind film of what that looked like when done right.

R. I. T. Alles

Almost nothing is publicly documented about R. I. T. Alles beyond the birth year and the institution he served. But Sri Lankan academia in the mid-twentieth century was built by people like him — scholars who quietly built curricula, trained teachers, and shaped universities during a newly independent nation's most formative decades. He was born in 1932, worked through the postcolonial transition, and died in 2013 at 81. What he left behind weren't headlines. Just students, now scattered, who learned from someone history barely recorded.

Max Georg Freiherr von Twickel, deutscher Weihbischof im Bistum Münster und Bischöflich Münsterischer Offizial

Said Akl

He wanted to throw out the Arabic alphabet entirely — replace it with Latin letters, rebuild Lebanese written language from scratch. Said Akl spent decades arguing that Lebanese wasn't just a dialect but a full, sovereign tongue deserving its own script. Controversial doesn't cover it. Some called him visionary; others never forgave him. Born in Zahle in 1912, he wrote plays, poems, and picked fights with the entire Arab literary world. He died at 101. Behind him: a proposed alphabet almost nobody adopted, and a debate Lebanon still hasn't finished.

Dale Armstrong

He tuned Don Garlits' car. That alone would cement most careers. But Dale Armstrong spent decades as the crew chief and driving force behind some of drag racing's biggest wins — most famously alongside Kenny Bernstein, where the two chased the 300 mph barrier nobody thought was breakable. They hit it in 1992. Armstrong's mechanical instincts weren't inherited from a racing dynasty; he built them in Canadian garages, far from the NHRA spotlight. He left behind four world championships and a speed record that redefined what "fast" meant.

Lucidio Sentimenti, italienischer Fußballspieler

Chespirito

Roberto Gómez Bolaños chose that nickname himself — "Chespirito," little Shakespeare, a title his film crew gave him for writing so fast it was almost suspicious. He created El Chavo del 8 on a shoestring, a grown man playing an orphan boy living inside a barrel, and it became the most-watched Spanish-language show in television history. Ninety-one countries aired it. He died at 85 in Cancún, survived by his wife Florinda Meza. The barrel is still there — a prop so simple it broke millions of hearts weekly.

Gerry Byrne

He played the entire 1965 FA Cup Final with a broken collarbone. Gerry Byrne, Liverpool's tough-as-nails left back, got hurt in the third minute against Leeds United — and didn't say a word to anyone. Ninety minutes plus extra time. Two goals scored while he suffered. Liverpool won 2-1. Manager Bill Shankly called it the bravest thing he'd ever witnessed at Wembley. Byrne died in 2015, leaving behind one unforgettable afternoon that still defines what footballers once endured without complaint.

Wayne Bickerton

He wrote "Sugar Baby Love" in under an hour. Wayne Bickerton, the Welsh hitmaker who turned The Rubettes into a 1974 chart sensation, built a career on instinct — spotting pop gold before anyone else heard it. Born in 1941, he co-wrote and produced songs that moved millions of units when that actually meant something physical. But he never became a household name himself. And that's the thing: behind every song you can't shake loose, there's usually someone nobody remembers. He left "Sugar Baby Love." It still gets stuck in your head.

Luc Bondy

He turned down Hollywood three times. Luc Bondy, born in Zurich in 1948 to a theatrical family, built his reputation through European stage work so precise and emotionally raw that Peter Stein called him one of the greatest directors alive. He ran the Wiener Festwochen for years, then took the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris. But it was his opera productions — Tosca at the Met, savaged by audiences in 2009 — that made headlines. And those boos? They've never quite stopped echoing. He left behind over 100 productions still studied in conservatories today.

Rosa Galcerán, ilustradora de cómic y poeta española (n.

Rosa Galcerán, ilustradora de cómic y poeta española (n. 1917).

Olene Walker

She never ran for governor. Utah's first female governor got there because her predecessor, Mike Leavitt, left mid-term for a federal appointment in 2003. Walker was already 73. She served just fourteen months — but used every one of them. She pushed affordable housing legislation that still funds Utah families today. And she did it all after raising eleven children. Eleven. The woman who technically "inherited" the office left it having accomplished more than many who'd campaigned years for the chance.

Marjorie Lord

She played Danny Thomas's wife for eight seasons on *Make Room for Daddy*, but Marjorie Lord almost didn't take the role — she'd already built a film career through the 1940s, starring opposite Broderick Crawford and Lou Costello. Born in San Francisco in 1918, she outlived most of her Hollywood generation, dying at 97. And her real family made it to TV too — her daughter Anne Archer became an Oscar-nominated actress. Lord left behind 97 years of proof that reinvention beats retirement every time.

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Victorino Chermont, journaliste sportif brésilien (° 24 avril 1973).

Ailton Cesar Junior Alves da Silva, footballeur brésilien (° 18 novembre 1994).

Lucas Gomes da Silva, footballeur brésilien (° 29 mai 1990).

Arthur Maia, footballeur brésilien (° 13 octobre 1992).

Sérgio Manoel Barbosa Santos, footballeur brésilien (° 8 septembre 1989).

Mark Taïmanov (Марк Евгеньевич Тайманов), joueur d'échecs soviétique puis russe (° 7 février 1926).

Mário Sérgio, futebolista, treinador de futebol e comentarista brasileiro (n.

Mário Sérgio, futebolista, treinador de futebol e comentarista brasileiro (n. 1950).

Wolfgang Raufelder, deutscher Politiker

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Las víctimas del accidente aéreo del Vuelo 2933 de LaMia:

Patrícia Gabancho i Ghielmetti, journaliste et écrivaine espagnole d'expression catalane (° 29 septembre 1952).

Shadia, chanteuse et actrice égyptienne (° 8 février 1931).

Michel Verret, philosophe et sociologue français (° 6 novembre 1927).

Zdeněk Šreiner, footballeur tchécoslovaque et tchèque (° 2 juin 1954).

Magín Díaz, fue un cantante y compositor colombiano de música popular.

Magín Díaz, fue un cantante y compositor colombiano de música popular. (n. 1922).

Augusto Marzagão, jornalista, executivo e escritor brasileiro (n.

Augusto Marzagão, jornalista, executivo e escritor brasileiro (n. 1929).

Robert Morris, sculpteur et peintre américain (�� 9 février 1931).

Siegfried Vollrath, footballeur et ensuite entraîneur est-allemand puis allemand (° 1er septembre 1928).

Andrea Milani Comparetti, mathématicien et astronome italien (° 19 juin 1948).

Klaus-Dieter Schotte, deutscher Physiker

Masahiko Katsuya, éditorialiste, photographe et polémiste japonais (° 6 décembre 1960).

Harry Leslie Smith

He survived the Great Depression in a Yorkshire slum, watched his sister die in a workhouse infirmary because their family couldn't afford care, and spent his final years at 95 tweeting furiously against austerity cuts to the NHS — the system he'd helped vote into existence in 1945. Harry Leslie Smith didn't retire quietly. He wrote *Harry's Last Stand* at 91, toured the world giving speeches, and warned anyone who'd listen that hard-won rights disappear faster than people think. He left behind a son, John, who keeps his Twitter account alive.

Mark Farrell, joueur de tennis britannique (° 6 mai 1953).

Roger Cans, journaliste et écrivain français (° 7 février 1945).

عبد الرزاق خلف، ممثل كويتي.

Lucien Jacob, homme politique français (° 3 juillet 1930).

Grethe G. Fossum, femme politique norvégienne (° 1er novembre 1945).

Ernest Cabo, évêque français (° 15 décembre 1932).

Padú del Caribe, musicien arubéen et néerlandais (° 26 avril 1920).

Cilinho, futebolista e técnico brasileiro de futebol (n.

Cilinho, futebolista e técnico brasileiro de futebol (n. 1939).

Graham Crouch, australischer Sportler

Julio Nazareno, abogado y juez argentino (n.

Julio Nazareno, abogado y juez argentino (n. 1936).

Pim Verbeek, entraîneur de football néerlandais (° 12 mars 1956).

Endel Taniloo, sculpteur soviétique puis estonien (° 5 janvier 1923).

Philippe Clair, cinéaste français (° 14 septembre 1930).

Roger Fite, rugbyman à XV (° 13 octobre 1938).

Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber dit parfois J.L.S.S.

Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber dit parfois J.L.S.S. journaliste, patron de presse, et essayiste français (° 31 octobre 1937).

حكم عمر أسعد البلعاوي، سياسي ودبلوماسي فلسطيني.

Juan de Dios Román, entrenador y directivo de balonmano español (n.

Juan de Dios Román, entrenador y directivo de balonmano español (n. 1942).

David Prowse

He stood 6'6" and bench-pressed his way to the British Heavyweight Weightlifting Championship before Hollywood ever called. David Prowse gave Darth Vader his body — every stride, every raised fist, every slow turn — but never his voice. That job went to James Earl Jones. Prowse reportedly didn't know until the premiere. And yet British schoolchildren knew him differently: as the Green Cross Code Man, who taught a generation to stop, look, and listen before crossing the road. He saved more lives in a jumpsuit than a cape.

Frank Williams

He built a Formula 1 team from nothing — literally nothing, operating out of a lock-up garage in Slough with borrowed money and secondhand parts. Frank Williams founded Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 1977, and despite a catastrophic car crash in 1986 that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, he ran the team from his wheelchair for 35 more years. Seven Constructors' Championships. Four drivers' titles. And the team still races today, carrying his name on every car that hits the grid.

Sebastián Boscán, actor colombiano (n.

Sebastián Boscán, actor colombiano (n. 1970).

Justo Gallego, labrador español (n.

Justo Gallego, labrador español (n. 1925).

Norodom Ranariddh, político camboyano (n.

Norodom Ranariddh, político camboyano (n. 1944).

Emmit King, US-amerikanischer Leichtathlet

Virgil Abloh

He designed his first runway show for Louis Vuitton men's wear with rainbow-colored models walking through a literal rainbow — and cried backstage. Virgil Abloh died at 41 from cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare heart cancer he'd quietly battled for two years while running two empires simultaneously. Off-White. Louis Vuitton. Nobody knew. The kid from Rockford, Illinois who started as an architecture student redrew what "luxury" meant for an entire generation. He left 47 completed Louis Vuitton collections and a generation of designers who didn't think fashion was for them — until he was.

Clarence Gilyard, actor y escritor estadounidense (n.

Clarence Gilyard, actor y escritor estadounidense (n. 1955).

Aragaki Takeshi, joueur de go japonais (° 4 juin 1956).

Tobias Langhoff, deutscher Schauspieler

Nello Sbaïz, footballeur italien (° 8 mai 1941).

Tōru Watanabe, acteur et chanteur japonais (° 12 mai 1961).

Torben Rechendorff, homme politique danois (° 1er avril 1937).

Rajko Petrov Nogo (Рајко Петров Ного), poète, essayiste, académicien ès sciences et arts et homme politique yougoslav…

Rajko Petrov Nogo (Рајко Петров Ного), poète, essayiste, académicien ès sciences et arts et homme politique yougoslave puis serbo-bosnien (° 13 mai 1945).

Oh Taeseok, auteur de comédies dramatiques sud-coréen (° 11 octobre 1941).

Bernard Crettaz, sociologue et ethnologue suisse (° 29 mai 1938).

Donald McEachin, homme politique américain (° 10 octobre 1961).

Cliff Emmich, acteur américain (° 13 décembre 1936).

Ramsay MacMullen, historien américain (° 3 mars 1928).

Gabriele Lechner, österreichische Opernsängerin

Dieter Oesterhelt, deutscher Biochemiker

Jan Steinhauser, niederländischer Ruderer

Roland Orépük, peintre et graphiste français (° 23 juillet 1950).

Agyemang Diawusie, deutscher Fußballspieler

James Douglas-Hamilton, homme politique écossais (° 31 juillet 1942).

Charlie Munger

He almost didn't make it to finance at all. Charlie Munger dropped out of the University of Michigan, got drafted into World War II, then taught himself law at Harvard without a bachelor's degree. He built a fortune in real estate before Warren Buffett convinced him that investing was better. Together they turned Berkshire Hathaway into a $700 billion empire. But Munger's real gift was the mental models framework — the idea that wisdom is just a latticework of disciplines borrowed from everywhere. He died at 99, leaving behind Poor Charlie's Almanack, still dog-eared on a million investors' shelves.

Queenz Cheng, actriz y cantante malaya (n.

Queenz Cheng, actriz y cantante malaya (n. 1986).

Cecil Sandford, piloto de motociclismo británico (n.

Cecil Sandford, piloto de motociclismo británico (n. 1928).

Kioumars Pourhashemi

He commanded forces during one of the most brutal chapters of modern Middle Eastern conflict — but Kioumars Pourhashemi stayed almost entirely invisible to the outside world. That was the point. A senior Iranian military general operating in the shadows of the Islamic Radical Guard Corps' regional network, he didn't seek headlines. And then 2024 took him. What he left behind: a generation of officers trained in his doctrine, and a regional influence structure still very much operational.

Ananda Krishnan

He started with oil trading in the 1970s and somehow ended up owning satellites. Ananda Krishnan built Maxis Communications from scratch, wiring Malaysia into the mobile age before most of the country knew what a SIM card was. He funded the Petronas Twin Towers — yes, those towers — when they were just a blueprint. Worth roughly $7 billion at his peak, he stayed intensely private, rarely photographed. But the telecommunications infrastructure he built still carries millions of Malaysian conversations every single day.

Prince Johnson

He once held Charles Taylor captive, filmed the torture himself, and handed the tape to the world. Prince Johnson didn't just survive Liberia's civil war — he shaped it. A warlord-turned-senator from Nimba County, he served three terms while accusations from his past never quite caught him. Born in 1952, dead in 2024. What he left behind: that VHS footage, still circulating, still haunting, still the clearest window anyone has into how Liberia's war actually looked from inside.

Silvia Pinal

She survived Luis Buñuel. That's not nothing. Buñuel cast her in three films — *Viridiana*, *El ángel exterminador*, *Simón del desierto* — work so strange and confrontational it got *Viridiana* banned in Spain for decades. But Pinal never flinched. She built Mexico's most beloved theater, Teatro Silvia Pinal, raised daughters Sylvia Pasquel and Alejandra Guzmán into their own stardom, and kept performing into her nineties. She didn't just survive surrealism. She outlasted it.

Margit Voss, deutsche Journalistin