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Cowan George (b. 1920-02-15 / d. 2012-04-20)
He was an American physical chemist, a businessman and philanthropist. Cowan received a B.S. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1941. He did graduate studies at Princeton, where he worked under future Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, whose investigation of uranium confirmed the feasibility of the Fermi pile. He continued his nuclear research with the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, Oak Ridge, Columbia University, and Los Alamos. Because he was transferred to various locations as a technological troubleshooter for the effort, he was among the very few people with knowledge of the separate components of the bomb, kept apart for security reasons. He joined the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1946. He earned a Ph.D. from the Mellon College of Science in 1950. Weeks after his arrival at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1949, he directed the detection of radioactive fallout from samples collected near the Russian border indicating the Soviets were in possession of a nuclear bomb. He later served on the Bethe Panel that convinced government decision makers the radiochemistry detected represented weapons uses rather than peaceful pursuits.
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38
Born 1982-09-18. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Heart
Igor Vovkovinskiy (Ukrainian: Ігор Вовковинський, romanized: Ihor Vovkovynskyj), also known as Igor Ladan, was a Ukrainian-American law student, actor and tallest person in the United States, at 7 feet 8+1⁄3 inches (234.5 cm), briefly taking the record from George Bell. Originally from Ukraine, Vovkovinskiy moved to Rochester, Minnesota in 1989 to be treated at the Mayo Clinic. At that time, he was already at least six feet tall. Vovkovinskiy acted in commercials and films, including the 2011 comedy Hall Pass, and became better known for wearing a T-shirt that read "World's Biggest Obama Supporter" to a Barack Obama rally. He was the first official tallest living person from two countries. He joined singer Zlata Ognevich in representing Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Vovkovinskiy's height was attributed to a tumor pressing on his pituitary gland, causing it to release an excessive amount of growth hormone. In 2019, he said on his YouTube channel that he was undergoing treatment for a heart condition. Vovkovinskiy was hospitalized for heart disease and died at the age of 38.
82
Born 1938-09-26. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Raoul Cauvin was a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field. Cauvin, who suffered from cancer, died 19 August 2021.
82
Born 1939-01-22. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:COVID
Shinichi Chiba (Japanese: 千葉 真一, Hepburn: Chiba Shin'ichi), known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience. In early August 2021, Chiba became ill with COVID-19. Initially he was treated at home, but was hospitalized a few days later on 8 August when he developed pneumonia; he died from complications on 19 August 2021, aged 82. Chiba had not been vaccinated, according to his agency.
70
Born 1951-06-15. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Thierry Liagre was a French actor. Liagre began acting in the 1980s after studying at the Cours Simon. He was known for appearing in films, on television, and onstage, particularly at the Théâtre La Bruyère. Thierry Liagre also stood out in "Les Visitors" in 1993, alongside Jean Reno and Christian Clavier, where he played the mad with rage cook of the Courtepaille restaurant.
75
Born 1945-11-03. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Gerhard Müller was a German professional footballer. A prolific striker renowned for his clinical finishing, especially in and around the six-yard box, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the sport. Nicknamed "Bomber der Nation" ("the nation's Bomber") or simply "Der Bomber", Müller was named European Footballer of the Year in 1970. After a successful season at Bayern Munich, he scored ten goals at the 1970 FIFA World Cup for West Germany where he received the Golden Boot as top goalscorer. In 1972, he won the UEFA European Championship and was the top goalscorer, scoring two goals in the final. Two years later, he scored four goals in the 1974 World Cup, including the winning goal in the final. After Müller ended his career in 1982, he fell into a slump and suffered from alcoholism. However, his former companions at Bayern Munich convinced him to go through alcohol rehabilitation. When he emerged, they gave him a job as a coach at Bayern Munich II. There is also a collection of apparel released by sporting giants Adidas under the Gerd Müller name. It is part of the Adidas originals series. In July 2008, the Rieser Sportpark, in Nördlingen, where Müller had begun his career, was renamed the Gerd-Müller-Stadion in his honour. On 6 October 2015, it was announced that Müller was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
69
Born 1951-10-08. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Cancer
Maki Kaji (鍜治 真起, Kaji Maki) was the president of Nikoli Co., Ltd., a Japanese puzzle manufacturer. He is widely known as "the father of Sudoku" for his role in popularizing the number game.
93
Born 1928-07-07. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Patricia Alma O'Connell (née Hitchcock) was an English actress and producer. She was the only child of English director Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville, and had small roles in several of his films, her most substantial appearance being in Strangers on a Train (1951).
24
Born 1997-05-24. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Suicide
Olivia Rose Podmore was a New Zealand professional racing cyclist. She represented her country at the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2018 Commonwealth Games. Podmore died in Cambridge on the evening of 9 August 2021, aged 24. Her death is a suspected suicide and has been referred to the coroner. Hours before her death, she posted on Instagram about the pressures of high-performance sport. Podmore's funeral was held in Christchurch on 13 August 2021. Her death came less than 24 hours after the 2020 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, and as the New Zealand Olympic team returning from Tokyo were required to undergo 14 days in managed isolation and quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a second memorial service is planned to be held in Cambridge on 27 August 2021.
95
Born 1926-04-12. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Jane Withers was an American actress and children's radio show host. She became one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s, with her films ranking in the top ten list for box-office gross in 1937 and 1938. She began her entertainment career at the age of three and, during the Golden Age of Radio, hosted her own children's radio program in her home city of Atlanta, Georgia. In 1932, she and her mother moved to Hollywood, where she appeared as an extra in many films until landing her breakthrough role as the spoiled, obnoxious Joy Smythe opposite Shirley Temple's angelic orphan Shirley Blake in the 1934 film Bright Eyes. She made 38 films before retiring at age 21 in 1947. She returned to film and television as a character actor in the 1950s. From 1963 to 1974, she gained new popularity with her portrayal of the character Josephine the Plumber in a series of television commercials for Comet cleanser. In the 1990s and early 2000s, she did voice work for Disney animated films. She was interviewed in numerous documentary retrospectives of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was also known for her philanthropy and her extensive doll collection.
60
Born 1961-02-10. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Unknown
Jay Harris Pickett was an American actor. In 1997, Pickett originated the role of Frank Scanlon, a dedicated paramedic and substitute teacher and the complicated older brother of Joe Scanlon, on the ABC Daytime drama Port Charles. Pickett died unexpectedly while preparing to film a scene for the film Treasure Valley on a set near Oreana, Idaho.
65
Born 1955-11-21. Domain:Music. Cause of death:COVID
Jacob Desvarieux was born in Pointe-à-Pitre. He was a French singer, musician, arranger and producer. He is one of the co-founders of the music group Kassav '. Diabetic, Jacob Desvarieux had undergone a kidney transplant, which forced him to take immunosuppressive therapy for life to fight against rejection of the transplanted organ. Having received three injections of the vaccine against Covid-19, he nevertheless developed the disease in July 2021. He was hospitalized at the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital where he was placed in an artificial coma so that he could be provided with the necessary care. He eventually died of Covid-19 at the age of 65.
77
Born 1944-04-23. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Jean-François Stévenin was a French actor and filmmaker. He appeared in 150 films and television shows since 1968. He starred in the film Cold Moon, which was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.
72
Born 1949-05-19. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Joseph Michael "Dusty" Hill was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top. He also sang lead and backing vocals, and played keyboards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 2004. Hill played with ZZ Top for over 50 years; after his death, he was replaced by the band's longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis, in line with Hill's wishes.
46
Born 1975-04-26. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Unknown
Nathan Jonas Jordison was an American musician who was the drummer and co-founder of metal band Slipknot as well as guitarist for horror punk band Murderdolls. In 2016, Jordison talked about suffering from acute transverse myelitis in a Metal Hammer interview. Its symptoms started in 2010 while touring with Murderdolls, but the disease was diagnosed long after. This progressed to the loss of use of his left leg. The neurological disease had temporarily cost him the use of his legs and caused him to be unable to play the drums before rehabilitation. He recovered with the aid of medical help and intensive work in the gym. Jordison died in his sleep at the age of 46.
102
Born 1918-10-16. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Charles-Henri Jean Dewisme, better known by his pen name Henri Vernes, was an author of action and science-fiction novels. He published over 200 titles in the action and science-fiction genre. He was most noted for the creation of the character Bob Morane, a hero whose adventures spanned fifty years and went from straight adventure and science-fiction to fantasy. Vernes also wrote the text of many comics albums and animated movies. Dewisme used a number of other pseudonyms, including Jacques Colombo, Robert Davids, Duchess Holiday, C. Reynes, Jacques Seyr, Lew Shannon, and Ray Stevens, as well as his real name.
88
Born 1933-05-03. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age
Steven Weinberg was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. Weinberg died at age 88, at a hospital in Austin, where he had been treated for several weeks.
64
Born 1957-03-13. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:orphan disease
Jean-Yves Lambert, known as Jean-Yves Lafesse, was a French comedian and actor born in Pontivy (Morbihan) and died in Vannes (Morbihan). He is known for his phone hoaxes, as well as for his gags filmed on hidden camera from passers-by in the street. Jean-Yves Lafesse died in Vannes of Charcot's disease diagnosed a year earlier.
90
Born 1931-06-09. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Françoise Arnoul (born Françoise Annette Marie Mathilde Gautsch) was a French actress, who achieved popularity during the 1950s.
80
Born 1941-06-17. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Roger Quemener was a French racewalker, who was a legend of the Ultramarathon race Paris-Colmar winning seven times. He was thus the record of the number of wins, until Polish racewalker Grzegorz Adam Urbanowski brought it to ten wins.
81
Born 1940-03-13. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Jacqueline Sassard was an actress best known for appearances in Italian films such as Guendalina directed by Alberto Lattuada, a young woman with family and financial troubles in Luigi Zampa's Il Magistrato and Valerio Zurlini's Violent Summer (1959), in which her character was left by Jean-Louis Trintignant.
76
Born 1944-09-06. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Cancer
Christian Boltanski was a French sculptor, photographer, painter, and film maker, most well known for his photography installations and contemporary French Conceptual style. He was the brother of Luc Boltanski and the partner of Annette Messager. The writer Christophe Boltanski is his nephew.
86
Born 1935-07-13. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Kurt Westergaard (born Kurt Vestergaard) was a Danish cartoonist famous for creating the controversial cartoon of a terrorist, although not the Islamic prophet Muhammad as it is often claimed, wearing a bomb in his turban. This cartoon was the most contentious of the 12 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which met with strong reactions from Muslims worldwide who condemned the act, including Western countries. After the drawing of the cartoon, Westergaard received numerous death threats and was a target of assassination attempts. As a result, he was under constant police protection
109
Born 1911-09-10. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Jeanne Renée Deneuve, known professionally as Renée-Jeanne Simonot, was a French actress and voice artist. She was married to actor Maurice Dorléac, the mother of actresses Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac and the grandmother of actor Christian Vadim and actress Chiara Mastroianni.
80
Born 1941-05-17. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Age
Jean-Michel Dubernard was a medical doctor specializing in transplant surgery who served as a Deputy in the French National Assembly. Dr. Dubernard was most famous for performing the first successful hand transplant on Clint Hallam on 23 September 1998, the first successful double hand transplant shortly thereafter (but not announced until 14 January 2004), and assisting Prof. Bernard Devauchelle in performing the first partial face transplant on Isabelle Dinoire on 27 November 2005. Dubernard was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2010.
76
Born 1944-09-05. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Cancer
Axel Kahn was a French scientist and geneticist. He was the brother of the journalist Jean-François Kahn. He was a member of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee from 1992 to 2004 and worked in gene therapy. He first entered the INSERM with a specialization in biochemistry. He was named in 2002 as a counsellor for biosciences and biotechnologies matters by the European Commission. Head of French laboratories specialized in biomedical sciences between years 1984 and 2007, he was elected President of the Paris Descartes University in December 2007, as the sole candidate. Kahn is known in France for his appearances in the media where he attempts to explain genetics and ethics to the public. As a civil servant, he was the head of the committee in charge of genetically modified crops for Europe.
31
Born 1990-05-07. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:cancer (brain)
Jolien Verschueren was a Belgian cyclo-cross cyclist, who rode for UCI Cyclo-cross team Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal. She represented her nation in the women's elite event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder. She won the Koppenbergcross in 2015 and repeated this at the 2016 DVV Verzekeringen Trofee Koppenbergcross 2016, besting world champion Thalita de Jong. On 12 April 2018, it was announced that earlier that week Verschueren was operated on to remove a malignant brain tumor. Verschueren tried a comeback in 2019 and 2020 but her health did not allow for good results. Verschueren died of brain cancer.
88
Born 1932-07-09. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Age
Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under George W. Bush. He was both the youngest and the second-oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963–1969), director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970), counsellor to the president (1969–1973), the United States Permanent Representative to NATO (1973–1974), and White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975). Between his terms as Secretary of Defense, he served as the CEO and chairman of several companies. In a memo read by Rumsfeld detailing how Guantanamo Bay detention camp interrogators induced stress in prisoners by forcing them to remain standing in one position for a maximum of four hours, Rumsfeld scrawled a handwritten note on the memo reading: "I stand for 8–10 hours a day. Why is standing [by prisoners] limited to 4 hours? D.R. Rumsfeld died from multiple myeloma at his home in Taos, New Mexico, at the age of 88.
75
Born 1945-09-18. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
John David McAfee (/ˈmækəfiː/ MAK-ə-fee) was a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate. In 1987 he wrote the first commercial anti-virus software, founding McAfee Associates to sell his creation. McAfee resigned in 1994 and sold his remaining stake in the company. McAfee was found dead due to an apparent suicide by hanging in a prison cell near Barcelona shortly after his extradition to the U.S. was authorized by Spain. On April 30, 2012, McAfee's property in Orange Walk Town, Belize, was raided by the Gang Suppression Unit of the Belize Police Department. At that time, McAfee was in bed with a girlfriend. A GSU press release stated that McAfee was arrested for unlicensed drug manufacturing and possession of an unlicensed weapon. He was released without charge. In 2012, Belize police spokesman, Raphael Martinez, confirmed that McAfee was neither convicted nor charged, only suspected. In January 2014, McAfee in Canada claimed that when the Belizean government raided his property, it seized his assets, and that his house later burned down under suspicious circumstances. On August 2, 2015, McAfee was arrested in Henderson County, Tennessee, on one count of driving under the influence and one count of possession of a firearm while intoxicated. In July 2019, McAfee and members of his entourage were arrested while his yacht was docked at Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, on suspicion of carrying high-caliber weapons and ammunition. They were held for four days before being released. On August 11, 2020, McAfee fabricated a hoax that he was arrested in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic, after refusing to replace a lace thong with a more effective face mask. McAfee later posted a picture of himself to Twitter with a bruised eye, claiming that it occurred during this arrest. However, the photo of the alleged arrest shows an officer with the German word for "police" on their uniform, so it could not have been an arrest in Norway. The Augsburg Police later confirmed McAfee unsuccessfully attempted to enter Germany on that day, but was not arrested. On November 12, 2012, Belize police began to search for McAfee as a "person of interest" in connection to the murder of American expatriate Gregory Viant Faull. Faull was found dead of a gunshot wound on November 11, 2012, at his home on the island of Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize. Faull was a neighbor of McAfee's. In a November 2012 interview with Wired, McAfee said that he had always been afraid police would kill him and refused their routine questions; he evaded the Belizean authorities. Belize's prime minister, Dean Barrow, called McAfee "extremely paranoid, even bonkers." McAfee fled Belize when he was sought for questioning concerning the murder. The magazine Vice accidentally gave away McAfee's location at a Guatemalan resort in early December 2012, when a photo taken by one of its journalists accompanying McAfee was posted with the EXIF geolocation metadata still attached. While in Guatemala, McAfee asked Chad Essley, an American cartoonist and animator, to set up a blog so that McAfee could write about his experience while on the run. McAfee then appeared publicly in Guatemala City, where he unsuccessfully sought political asylum. On December 5, 2012, McAfee was arrested for illegally entering Guatemala. Shortly afterward, he was placed under arrest, and a board to review McAfee's plea for asylum was formed. The committee denied his asylum, so he was taken from his holding facility to a detention center in order to await deportation to Belize. On December 6, 2012, Reuters and ABC News reported that McAfee had two minor heart attacks in a Guatemalan detention center and was hospitalized. McAfee's lawyer stated that his client had not suffered heart attacks, but had instead suffered from high blood pressure and anxiety attacks. McAfee later said he had faked the heart attacks while being held in Guatemala, to buy time for his attorney to file a series of appeals that ultimately prevented his deportation to Belize, thus hastening the government's decision to send him back to the United States. On December 12, 2012, McAfee was released from detention in Guatemala, and deported to the United States. On November 14, 2018, the Circuit Court in Orlando, Florida, refused to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit against McAfee for Faull's death. In January 2019, McAfee announced that he was on the run from U.S. authorities, and living internationally on a boat following the convening of a Grand Jury to indict him, his wife, and four of his 2020 Presidential campaign workers on tax-related charges. At the time the IRS had not independently confirmed the existence of these charges. On October 5, 2020, McAfee was arrested in Spain at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice for tax evasion. The June indictment, which was unsealed upon his arrest, alleged he earned millions of dollars from 2014 to 2018, but failed to file income tax returns. On October 6, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint that further alleged that McAfee and his bodyguard promoted certain initial coin offerings in a fraudulent cryptocurrencies pump-and-dump scheme. According to the SEC, McAfee presented himself as an impartial investor when he promoted the ICOs, despite the fact that he was allegedly paid $23 million in digital assets in exchange for the promotions. On March 5, 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York formally indicted McAfee and an executive adviser on these charges. McAfee was incarcerated in Spain, pending extradition to the United States. On June 23, 2021, the Spanish National Court authorized the extradition of McAfee to the United States, for criminal charges in Tennessee. McAfee died a few hours later. The New York extradition case was still pending in a lower Spanish court.
80
Born 1940-10-20. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Nikita Mandryka was a French cartoonist. He started drawing in the Vaillant magazine, before moving to Pilote in 1967, and then created L'Écho des savanes along with Claire Bretécher and Marcel Gotlib in 1972. He left this magazine in 1979, going back to Pilote as editorial director. His major and better known works are the Concombre masqué (The Masked Cucumber) stories. He won the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 1994.
76
Born 1944-08-11. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Age
Dennis Charles Berry was an American-French film director, actor and screenwriter. He was the son of director John Berry.