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Meyssonier Fernand (b. 1931-06-14 / d. 2008-08-08)
He was an executioner in the last years of French Algeria. He acted as an executioner from 1947 to 1961 and executed more than 200. He inherited the job of executioner from his father Maurice Meyssonnier in 1947 when he ended compulsory education. His ancestors had been executioners from ages ago. When Algeria became independent from France in 1961, the guillotine was replaced by execution by firing squad.
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71
Born 1953-08-11. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Heart
Terry Gene Bollea, better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, was an American professional wrestler and media personality. He wrestled in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), and the American Wrestling Association (AWA). Known for his showmanship, large physique, and his trademark blond horseshoe moustache and bandanas, Hogan was widely regarded as one of the greatest and globally most recognized wrestling stars of all time. He won multiple world championships across companies, most notably being a six-time WWE World Champion. Outside of wrestling, Hogan starred in films such as Rocky III, No Holds Barred, and Suburban Commando, and in TV shows including Hogan Knows Best and Thunder in Paradise. He also fronted the Wrestling Boot Band, whose sole record, Hulk Rules, reached No. 12 on the Billboard Top Kid Audio chart in 1995. Several controversies damaged Hogan's public image. In 1994, he admitted that he had been using anabolic steroids since 1976. In 2012, the media company Gawker published portions of a sex tape in which Hogan used strong racial slurs. Hogan sued Gawker, which was found liable and subsequently declared bankruptcy, but Hogan's reputation has been described as "being blemished forever". In January 2025, Hogan made his final appearance at a professional wrestling event during the Raw debut on Netflix, where alongside Jimmy Hart he cut a promo advertising his Real American Beer. Hogan was heavily booed by the crowd, which received widespread coverage in the media. Hogan died from cardiac arrest at his home in Clearwater, Florida, at the age of 71.
56
Born 1969-04-20. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
Felix Baumgartner (German: [ˈfeːlɪks ˈbaʊ̯mˌɡaʁtnɐ]) was an Austrian skydiver, extreme sportster and BASE jumper. He was widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. By doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. Baumgartner was also renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he performed during his career. He spent time in the Austrian military, where he practised parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones. He died in a paragliding accident in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Italy, aged 56.
82
Born 1942-06-20. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Brian Douglas Wilson was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, vocal layering, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson is also known for his once-high vocal range and lifelong struggles with mental illness. He is considered one of the greatest musicians of all time. In 2024, it was revealed that Wilson was suffering from dementia following the death of Ledbetter. Following this, he was placed in a conservatorship, with his long-time publicist Jean Sievers, and his manager, LeeAnn Hard, as his conservators. His death at the age of 82 was announced on June 11, 2025. His family declined to state a cause of death.
88
Born 1936-10-09. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Nicole Croisille was a French singer and actress. She appeared in 24 films between 1961 and 2005, and recorded several albums since 1961. She lived with Ménière's disease.
43
Born 1981-08-29. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer
Émilie Dequenne (French: [emili dəkɛn]) was a Belgian actress. She first gained recognition for her role in the Dardenne brothers' film Rosetta (1999), which earned her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. The film also won the Palme d'Or at the festival. She died at the Gustave-Roussy Hospital in Villejuif, France after being diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma. She was 43.
88
Born 1937-01-30. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Boris Vasilievich Spassky was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigran Petrosian in 1966; defeated Petrosian in 1969 to become world champion; then lost to Bobby Fischer in a famous match in 1972. Spassky emigrated to France in 1976 and became a French citizen in 1978. He continued to compete in tournaments, but was no longer a major contender for the world title. Spassky lost an unofficial rematch against Fischer in 1992. In 2012, he left France and returned to Russia. On October 1, 2006, Spassky suffered a minor stroke during a chess lecture in San Francisco. In his first major post-stroke play, he drew a six-game rapid match with Hungarian Grandmaster Lajos Portisch in April 2007. On March 27, 2010, at 73 years old, he became the oldest surviving former World Chess Champion following the death of Vasily Smyslov. On September 23, 2010, ChessBase reported that Spassky had suffered a more serious stroke that had left him paralysed on his left side. After that he returned to France for a long rehabilitation programme. On August 16, 2012, Spassky left France to return to Russia under disputed circumstances and took up residence in an apartment in Moscow. On September 25, 2016, he made a public speech at the opening of the Tal Memorial tournament. He said he had "the very brightest memories" of Mikhail Tal and told an anecdote from the 15th Chess Olympiad about Soviet analysis of an adjourned game between Fischer and Botvinnik. He was described by Chess24 as being 'sprightly'. Spassky died in Moscow at the age of 88.
78
Born 1946-12-29. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was an English singer and actress who achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her UK top 10 single "As Tears Go By". She became one of the leading female artists of the British Invasion in the United States. On 4 April 2020, it was announced that Faithfull was hospitalised in London for pneumonia following a positive COVID-19 test. Her management company reported that she was "stable and responding to treatment." On 21 April, following a three-week stay, she was discharged from the hospitalisation. In a brief statement, she publicly thanked the hospital staff for, "without a doubt," saving her life. She initially thought she would be unable to sing again after the effects of the coronavirus on her lungs, and she continued to suffer memory loss because of it. She worked on her breathing and undertook singing practice as a part of her recovery. Faithfull died in London at the age of 78
87
Born 1937-03-31. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Age
Claude Allègre was a French politician and scientist. His work in the field of isotope geochemistry was recognised with the award of many senior medals, including the Crafoord Prize for geosciences in 1986 and the William Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union in 1995. His political service included a three-year term as Minister of Education in France, from 1997 to 2000.
83
Born 1941-03-28. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Bernadette Després was a French illustrator and comic book artist. She studied at the Ecole de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs there. Després began working as an illustrator at Bayard Presse, where she worked on the magazines Pomme d'Api and Okapi. In 1977, she introduced Tom-Tom and Nana, probably the most popular French comics series for young people, in the magazine J'aime lire; the series has also been adapted for television.
95
Born 1929-03-26. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Charles Gaston Dumont was a French singer and composer. Dumont is best remembered for writing or co-writing more than 30 of the most well-known songs recorded by singer Édith Piaf, including "Non, je ne regrette rien".
91
Born 1933-03-14. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received many accolades including 28 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for seven Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards.
86
Born 1937-12-28. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Ratan Naval Tata was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He served as the chairman of Tata Group and Tata Sons from 1991 to 2012 and he held the position of interim chairman from October 2016 to February 2017. In 2000, he received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour in India, followed by the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian honour, in 2008.
72
Born 1952-04-16. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Operation
Michel Blanc was a French actor, writer and director. He is noted for his roles of losers and hypochondriacs. He is frequently associated with Le Splendid, which he co-founded, along with Thierry Lhermitte, Josiane Balasko, Christian Clavier, Marie-Anne Chazel and Gérard Jugnot. He also appeared in more serious roles, such as the title role in the Patrice Leconte film Monsieur Hire.
94
Born 1930-06-19. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands was an American actress, whose career in film, stage, and television spanned nearly seven decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she collaborated with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977). She appeared in Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), and her son Nick Cassavetes's film, The Notebook (2004). In 2021, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, "The most important and original movie actor of the past half century-plus is Gena Rowlands." In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances. On June 24, 2024, Nick Cassavetes announced that his mother had been living with Alzheimer's disease for the previous five years. Rowlands died from complications of Alzheimer's disease at her home in Indian Wells, California, at the age of 94.
47
Born 1976-06-04. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder
Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny was a Russian opposition leader, anti-corruption activist and political prisoner.He founded the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) in 2011. He was recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights. In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalised after being severely poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. He was medically evacuated to Berlin and discharged a month later. He accused President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his poisoning, and an investigation implicated agents from the Federal Security Service. In January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately detained on accusations of violating parole conditions while hospitalised in Germany. Following his arrest, mass protests were held across Russia. The next month, Navalny's suspended sentence was replaced with a prison sentence of over 2+1⁄2 years detention, and his organisations were later designated as extremist and liquidated. In March 2022, Navalny was sentenced to an additional nine years in prison after being found guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court in a new trial described as a shame by Amnesty International. Following the rejection of his appeal, Navalny was transferred to a high-security prison in June. In August 2023, he received another sentence of 19 years on extremism charges. In December 2023, Navalny went missing from prison for almost three weeks. He re-emerged in an Arctic Circle corrective colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In 2024, the Russian prison service reported that Navalny had died, which subsequently sparked protests in both Russia and various other countries. Accusations against Putin's government in connection with his death have been made by many Western governments and international organisations.
87
Born 1936-06-13. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Michel Jazy was a French middle-distance runner and long-distance runner. He won the 1500 metres silver medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics, as well as two golds (in 1962 and 1966) and one silver (in 1966) at the European Championships. He set nine world records in the mile (once), 2000 metres (twice) and 3000 metres (twice), the two miles (twice) and the 4×1500 metres relay (twice).
74
Born 1949-04-19. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Age
Patrick Buisson was a French right-wing essayist, journalist and political advisor. He was a journalist for Minute, Valeurs Actuelles and Le Crapouillot as well as La Chaîne Info. He wrote several books about Vichy France, the Algerian War and the Indochina War. The founder and co-owner of Publifact, a polling agency, he was a key advisor to former President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2006 to 2012, during which time he surreptitiously recorded private conversations he had with the president. He was the co-presenter of Historiquement show, a television program on Histoire, a subsidiary of the TF1 Group, which he chaired.
76
Born 1947-06-20. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Cancer (stomach)
Gérard Collomb was a French politician who served as Mayor of Lyon from 2001 to 2017 and again from 2018 until 2020. A member of La République En Marche! (LREM) since he left the Socialist Party (PS) in 2017, he was Minister of the Interior in the first and second government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe from 2017 to 2018. Disagreements with President Emmanuel Macron led Collomb to resign and return as Mayor of Lyon. He was a councillor for both the City of Lyon and Lyon Metropolis from 2020 until his death in 2023. Gérard Collomb died at the age of 76, after a battle with stomach cancer.[
82
Born 1940-10-19. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Sir Michael John Gambon CBE (/ˈɡæmbɒn/) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career, he received three Olivier Awards and four BAFTA TV Awards. In 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama. He gained wide recognition through his role of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series from 2004 to 2011, replacing Richard Harris following his death in 2002. Gambon was a qualified private pilot. His love of cars led to his appearance on the BBC series Top Gear. He raced the Suzuki Liana so aggressively that it went around the last corner of his lap on two wheels. The final corner of the Top Gear test track has been named "Gambon Corner" or simply "Gambon" in his honour.
90
Born 1933-09-19. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
David Keith McCallum was a Scottish actor and musician. He gained wide recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. His other notable television roles include Simon Carter in Colditz (1972–1974) and Steel in Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982). Beginning in 2003, McCallum gained renewed international popularity for his role as NCIS medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the American television series NCIS, which he played for 20 seasons until his death. On film, McCallum notably appeared in The Great Escape (1963). McCallum died at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City on of natural causes 6 days after his 90th birthday.
91
Born 1932-04-19. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Pneumonia
Fernando Botero Angulo was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor from Medellín. His signature style, also known as "Boterismo", depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece. He was considered the most recognized and quoted artist from Latin America in his lifetime, and his art can be found in highly visible places around the world, such as Park Avenue in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris, at different times. Self-styled "the most Colombian of Colombian artists", Botero came to national prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958. He began creating sculptures after moving to Paris in 1973, achieving international recognition with exhibitions around the world by the 1990s. His art is collected by many major international museums, corporations, and private collectors. In 2012, he received the International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award
101
Born 1922-05-09. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
Marcel Boiteux was a French economist, mathematician, and senior civil service member. He was the "architect of the French nuclear program" that created 61 nuclear reactors and kept the French electricity sector less carbon-intensive than other European countries (save Iceland).
36
Born 1987-05-23. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Heart attack
Windham Lawrence Rotunda was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenures in WWE from 2010 to 2021, and then again from 2022 until his death in 2023, where he performed under the ring name Bray Wyatt. Rotunda died of a heart attack on August 24, 2023, at the age of 36. His death was announced by WWE chief content officer Triple H on X. Prior to his death, Rotunda had been dealing with an undisclosed illness since February, which was reportedly life-threatening. According to reports just days before his death, he had been making positive progress towards recovery. Shortly after his death, it was revealed that the illness was COVID-19, which had exacerbated a pre-existing heart condition. Following Triple H's announcement, several of Rotunda's peers paid tribute to him on social media. Promotions such as All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Impact Wrestling, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) issued statements on his death and legacy. WWE plans to donate all of the net proceeds from Rotunda's merchandise sales to his family. The August 25, 2023, episode of SmackDown honored Rotunda and Terry Funk, who had died the day prior, by airing tributes and behind-the-scenes footage.
70
Born 1953-06-16. Domain:science (economics). Cause of death:cancer (blood)
Daniel Cohen was a prominent French economist, a co-founder and professor at the Paris School of Economics, as well as a senior advisor to the bank Lazard. Cohen was born in Tunis, Tunisia and died in Paris from a blood disease, at the age of 70.
83
Born 1939-11-26. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Mark Margolis (/mɑːrˈɡoʊlɪs/) was an American actor. An actor since he was a teenager, late in his career, he became most known for portraying Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. His performance in Breaking Bad was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2012. He regularly performed in the films of director Darren Aronofsky, appearing in all but two of his films, and starring in Aronofsky's first film, Pi (1998). He was also known for playing Alberto "The Shadow" in Scarface and Antonio Nappa in Oz. Coincidentally, Krysten Ritter – Jesse's apartment manager and girlfriend, who is a recovering addict - wears also the last name “Margolis”.
96
Born 1926-08-03. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Anthony Dominick Benedetto, known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Bennett was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree and founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. He sold more than 50 million records worldwide and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
72
Born 1950-09-23. Domain:Journalism. Cause of death:Age
Alexandre Adler was a French historian, journalist and expert of contemporary geopolitics, the former USSR, and the Middle East. He is a Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur (2002). A Maoist in his youth and then a member of the Communist Party (PCF), he shifted to the right at the end of the 1970s and has since become close to US neoconservatives, as did his wife Blandine Kriegel (daughter of the communist Resistant Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont). Adler was the counsellor of Roger Cukiermann, chairman of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF, Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France). Adler was one of the rare French intellectuals to defend George W. Bush's candidacy against Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election. He has qualified the altermondialist movement as an "enemy of freedom," and supported both the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. His positions have sometimes led to polemics, such as his qualification of France Inter radio journalist Daniel Mermet as a "Brejnevian journalist," head of Politis newspaper Bernard Langlois as a "repugnant journalist" (journaliste répugnant) and Rony Brauman, former president of Médecins Sans Frontières France as a "Jewish traitor" because of his criticisms of Israel and the US' policies.
82
Born 1941-01-18. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Cancer
Denise Bombardier CM CQ (French pronunciation: [dəniz bɔ̃baʁdje]) was a Canadian journalist, essayist, novelist and media personality who worked for the French-language television network Radio-Canada for over 30 years. Bombardier was a defender of the international Francophonie and has often been invited by Bernard Pivot to discuss the psyche of the French and the situation of the French language in France. In 1990, during a television confrontation on a French book programme "Apostrophes", Bombardier said of the writer Gabriel Matzneff: "Some older men like to attract little children with sweets. Mr Matzneff does it with his reputation." Bombardier added, "How did they do afterward, these young girls?" At the time, she was insulted in the press by Josyane Savigneau. But, in January 2020, writer and editor Vanessa Springora "publishes a book, Le Consentement, a memoir of having been sexually abused by Matzneff between the ages of 14 and 16, when he was more than three times her age. It sparks an international furore, and Matzneff, driven from Paris, takes refuge on the Italian Riviera. The Paris prosecutor’s office opens an investigation after an "analysis" of the book. In 2019, Bombardier wrote the column "The Decline of the Whites." She started by noting the demographic fact that in many US cities, whites are already in the minority, and she stated that by 2050, in such countries as Canada, New Zealand and the US, whites could become a minority group.
100
Born 1922-10-27. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Léon Gautier was a French soldier during the Second World War. He was France's last surviving veteran of D-Day.
58
Born 1964-06-24. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Accident
George Hamish Livingston Harding was a British businessman, pilot, explorer, adventurer and space tourist based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was the founder of Action Group and was chairman of Action Aviation, an international aircraft brokerage company with headquarters in Dubai, UAE. As an adventurer, he was a member of The Explorers Club who visited the South Pole several times, descended into the Mariana Trench, broke a Guinness World Record for circumnavigation of the Earth, and travelled into space. Between 9 and 11 July 2019, Harding was mission director and crew pilot for the flight mission One More Orbit, which set a world speed record for the fastest circumnavigation of Earth by aircraft over both geographic poles. Harding died with four others inside a submersible that imploded in the North Atlantic Ocean while en route to view the wreck of the Titanic on 18 June 2023.