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Wiesel Elie (b. 1926-09-30 / d. 2016-07-02)
He was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Utah senator Orrin Hatch paid tribute to Wiesel in a speech on the Senate floor the following week, in which he said that, "With Elie's passing, we have lost a beacon of humanity and hope. We have lost a hero of human rights and a luminary of Holocaust literature.
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78
Born 1946-09-30. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Stroke
Jochen Richard Mass was a German racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1973 to 1982. Mass won the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix with McLaren. In endurance racing, Mass won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1989 with Sauber. Mass died in Cannes, France on 4 May 2025 due to complications from a stroke that he suffered in February of the same year.
80
Born 1945-02-25. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Cancer (lung)
Herbert Léonard (French pronunciation: [ɛʁbɛʁ leɔnaʁ]), born Hubert Lœnhard, was a French entertainer and historian, who was principally known as a singer. He was also a specialist of Russian airplanes from World War II. His first success "Quelque chose tient mon cœur" (Somethings Got A Hold of My Heart) opened the doors of the hit-parade to him in 1968. His 1982 album Ça donne envie d'aimer and the song "Amoureux fous" was done in a duo with Julie Pietri, perpetuating his image as a crooner. Léonard died from lung cancer in Fontainebleau, aged 80.
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".
96
Born 1927-11-15. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Charles Edward Sporck was an American engineer and company manager. He was best known for his role as chief executive officer and president of National Semiconductor from 1967 to 1991. The New York Times described Sporck as "a founding father of Silicon Valley".
80
Born 1944-01-17. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Cancer
Françoise Madeleine Hardy was a French singer-songwriter who was known for singing melancholic, sentimental ballads. Hardy rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure in French yé-yé music and became a cultural icon in France and internationally. In addition to her native French, she also sang in English, Italian, and German. Her musical career spanned more than 50 years, with over 30 studio albums released. She almost never performed on scene.
50
Born 1973-03-09. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer (lung)
Rona Hartner was a German-Romanian actress, painter and singer who was born in Bucharest. As an actress, she was best known for her role in Tony Gatlif's film Gadjo dilo. Hartner focused on her music career, specializing in Gypsy music. After a battle with lung and brain cancer, she died in Toulon at the age of 50. She had lived in France for over two decades at the time of her death.
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.
61
Born 1962-03-31. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Accident
Richard Stockton Rush III was an American businessman, best known as the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of deep-sea exploration company OceanGate. On June 18, 2023, he was killed along with four others aboard OceanGate's submersible Titan, which imploded during an attempt to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.
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.
89
Born 1933-07-20. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age
Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr.) was an American writer who authored twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western and postapocalyptic genres. He was known for his graphic depictions of violence and his unique writing style, recognizable by a sparse use of punctuation and attribution. McCarthy is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists. McCarthy died at his home in Santa Fe at the age of 89. Stephen King said McCarthy was "maybe the greatest American novelist of my time ... He was full of years and created a fine body of work, but I still mourn his passing."
96
Born 1927-03-01. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr) was an American singer, actor and activist, who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s. Belafonte is one of the few performers to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), although he won the Oscar in a non-competitive category. He earned his career breakthrough with the album Calypso (1956), which was the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte was best known for his recordings of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", "Jamaica Farewell", and "Mary's Boy Child". He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He also starred in films such as Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Buck and the Preacher (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). He made his final screen appearance in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman (2018).
76
Born 1947-03-06. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Richard Douglas Fosbury was an American high jumper, who is considered one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field. Besides winning a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, he revolutionized the high jump event with a "back-first" technique, now known as the Fosbury Flop, adopted by almost all high jumpers today. His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve and leap backwards over the bar, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight than traditional techniques. He continued to be involved in athletics after retirement and served on the executive board of the World Olympians Association. In 2014, Fosbury unsuccessfully challenged Steve Miller for a seat in the Idaho House of Representatives. Fosbury ran for Blaine County Commissioner against incumbent Larry Schoen in 2018, won the seat, and took office in January 2019. At the next Olympics in 1972 at Munich, 28 of the 40 competitors used Fosbury's technique, although gold medalist Jüri Tarmak used the straddle technique. By 1980, 13 of the 16 Olympic finalists used it. Of the 36 Olympic medalists in the event from 1972 through 2000, 34 used "the Flop". Today it is the most popular technique in modern high jumping. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Fosbury took the gold medal and set a new Olympic record at 2.24 m (7 ft 4+1⁄4 in), displaying the potential of the new technique. Despite the initial skeptical reactions from the high-jumping community, the "Fosbury Flop" quickly gained acceptance. In the Finals competition, only three jumpers cleared 2.20 m (7 ft 2+5⁄8 in), and Fosbury was in the lead by virtue of having cleared every height on his first attempt. At the next height, 2.22 m (7 ft 3+3⁄8 in), Fosbury again cleared the bar on his first jump. His teammate, Ed Caruthers, cleared on his second effort, while Valentin Gavrilov of the Soviet Union missed on all three attempts and earned the bronze medal (third place). The bar was raised to 2.24 m (7 ft 4+1⁄4 in), which would be new Olympic and United States records. Fosbury missed on his first two attempts, but cleared on his third, while Caruthers missed on all three of his attempts. Having won the gold medal and broken the American record, Fosbury asked the bar to be raised to 2.29 m (7 ft 6+1⁄8 in), hoping to break Valeriy Brumel's five-year-old world record of 2.28 m (7 ft 5+3⁄4 in). However, none of his attempts at 2.29 m came close to clearing. On March 13, 2023, his former agent, Ray Schulte, announced Fosbury's death the previous day after a short bout with a recurrence of lymphoma.
94
Born 1928-05-12. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Burt Freeman Bacharach (/ˈbækəræk/ BAK-ə-rak) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. He composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s onwards, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. Bacharach's music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. He arranged, conducted, and produced much of his recorded output.
53
Born 1968-11-29. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:AIDS
Charlotte Valandrey was a French actress and author. After early success she was widely tipped for stardom, but her career took a more modest course until the release of her autobiography in 2005. After being revealed, at the age of sixteen, by the film Red Kiss, she lives alone in a studio that her parents bought for her. Carefree and uninformed about the dangers involved, she had affairs with “a drug-addicted musician, and other boys at risk”. In 1986, a few days before her eighteenth birthday, she learned that she was HIV-positive. In 1999, she met Arthur Lecaisne with whom she married on 17 July 1999 at Pléneuf-Val-André. At the beginning of 2000, they had a daughter, Tara who is HIV-negative. While separating from Arthur in 2002 and following a triple therapy which damaged her heart and caused her two heart attacks, her heart broke down, necrotic, and left her with only 10% heart capacity. On 4 November 2003, she received a transplant. In her book L'Amour dans le sang (published in 2005), she recounts her other love stories, with her cardiologist or Yann, an architect whom she intimately believes to be the husband of her late donor. In March 2007, after selling over 280,000 copies of her book, Charlotte gave approval for its adaptation in the TV movie, L'Amour dans le sang. Produced by Dominique Besnehard for Mon Voisin Productions, it was first broadcast on 23 November 2008 on France 3. On 8 June 2022, she announced that she was waiting for a second heart transplant because of new health problems. She received it on 14 June at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital but the transplant did not take. Charlotte Valandrey died on 13 July 2022, at the age of 53. Charlotte was a patron of the Greffe de vie ("Foundation of Life Registry") and was committed to the cause of organ donation and transplantation.
72
Born 1949-05-21. Domain:Music. Cause of death:cancer (pancreas)
Arnold Charles Ernest Hintjens, better known by his stage name Arno, was a Belgian singer born in Ostend. He was the frontman of TC Matic, one of the best-known Belgian bands of the 1980s. After the band split in 1986 he enjoyed a solo career. At the beginning of 2020, Arno postponed his upcoming tour after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died from pancreatic cancer 2 years later.
93
Born 1928-04-12. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Hardy Krüger was a German actor and author, who appeared in more than 60 films from 1944 onwards. After becoming a film star in Germany in the 1950s, Krüger increasingly turned to roles in international films such as Hatari!, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Wild Geese, Sundays and Cybele, A Bridge Too Far, The Battle of Neretva, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, The Red Tent, The One That Got Away, and Barry Lyndon.
88
Born 1933-04-09. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃pɔl ʃaʁl bɛlmɔ̃do]) was a French actor, initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s and a major French film star for several decades from 1960s. His best known credits include Breathless (1960), That Man from Rio (1964), and Pierrot le Fou (1965). He was most notable for portraying police officers in action thriller films and became known for his unwillingness to appear in English-language films, despite being heavily courted by Hollywood. During his career, he was referred to as the French James Dean, Marlon Brando and Humphrey Bogart. Belmondo died at his home in Paris, after a period of ill health, at the age of 88. He had been in failing health since he suffered a stroke nearly a decade before.
80
Born 1941-06-02. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Charles Robert Watts was an English musician who was the drummer for the rock band The Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021. One of the band's core members, Watts performed on all of their studio albums, and he, Jagger and Richards are the only members to have been featured on all of the band's albums. Watts cited jazz as a major influence on his drumming style.
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.
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.
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.
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.
87
Born 1933-11-19. Domain:Other. Cause of death:COVID
Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger)was an American television host, radio host, and paid spokesman, whose work was recognized with awards including two Peabodys, an Emmy award, and 10 Cable ACE Awards. On January 2, 2021, it was revealed that King had been hospitalized 10 days earlier in a Los Angeles hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. He died at the age of 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
95
Born 1925-02-17. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. was an American actor, television director, and writer. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show he developed, Mark Twain Tonight! while studying at Denison University, performing as Mark Twain. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1966 for his portrayal of Twain. He would continue to perform his signature role for over 60 years, only retiring the show in 2017 due to his failing health. Throughout his career, he also won five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on television and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in film. Holbrook made his film debut in Sidney Lumet's The Group (1966). He later gained international fame for his performance as Deep Throat in the 1976 film All the President's Men. He played Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 miniseries Lincoln and 1985 miniseries North and South. He also appeared in such films as Julia (1977), The Fog (1980), Creepshow (1982), Wall Street (1987), The Firm (1993), Hercules (1997), and Men of Honor (2000). Holbrook's role as Ron Franz in Sean Penn's Into the Wild (2007) earned him both Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. In 2009, Holbrook received critical acclaim for his performance as recently retired farmer Abner Meecham in the independent film That Evening Sun. He also portrayed Francis Preston Blair in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012). In 2003, Holbrook was honored with the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush.
81
Born 1939-12-26. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Harvey Phillip Spector was an American record producer, musician, songwriter and convicted murderer. Spector developed the Wall of Sound, a music production formula he described as a Wagnerian approach to rock and roll. He is regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history and as the first auteur of the music industry for the unprecedented control he had over every phase of the recording process. After spending three decades in semi-retirement, in 2009 he was convicted for the 2003 murder of the actress Lana Clarkson and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.
90
Born 1930-04-10. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Claude Bolling was a French jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and occasional actor.
41
Born 1979-12-16. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Pneumonia
Jonathan Huber was an American professional wrestler known under the ring name of Brodie Lee. He worked in WWE, as Luke Harper or Harper from 2012 to 2019, and in All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performed under the ring name Mr. Brodie Lee in 2020.
97
Born 1923-02-13. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Charles Elwood Yeager was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. Yeager named his plane after his wife Glennis as a good-luck charm; "You're my good-luck charm, hon. Any airplane I name after you always brings me home." Yeager and Glennis moved to Grass Valley, California, after his retirement from the Air Force in 1975. The couple prospered because of Yeager's best-selling autobiography, speaking engagements and commercial ventures. Glennis Yeager died of ovarian cancer in 1990. They had four children (Susan, Don, Mickey and Sharon). In 2000, Yeager met actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo on a hiking trail in Nevada County. The pair started dating shortly thereafter, and married in August 2003. Subsequent to the commencement of their relationship, a bitter dispute arose between Yeager, his children and D'Angelo. The children contended that D'Angelo, 35 years Yeager's junior, had married him for his fortune. Yeager and D'Angelo both denied the charge. Litigation ensued, in which his children accused D'Angelo of "undue influence" on Yeager, and Yeager accused his children of diverting millions of dollars from his assets. In August 2008, the California Court of Appeal ruled for Yeager, finding that his daughter Susan had breached her duty as trustee.
85
Born 1935-07-01. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
David Charles Prowse MBE was an English bodybuilder, weightlifter and character actor in British film and television. Worldwide, he was best known for physically portraying Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy (with the character's voice being performed by James Earl Jones); in 2015, he starred in a documentary concerning that role, entitled I Am Your Father. Prior to his role as Vader, Prowse had established himself as a prominent figure in British culture as the first Green Cross Code man, a character used in British road safety advertising aimed at children. He had a role as Frank Alexander's bodyguard, Julian, in the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, in which he was noticed by the future Star Wars director George Lucas. Prowse suffered from arthritis for much of his life. This led to replacements of both hips and his ankle being fused, as well as several revisionary surgeries on his hip replacements. Prowse's arthritic symptoms first appeared at age 13, but seemingly disappeared when he took up competitive weightlifting. However, they reappeared in 1990. In 2001, Prowse's left arm became paralysed, followed by his right. He was diagnosed with septic arthritis caused by an infection which nearly killed him. The amount of surgery he had was stated to have reduced his height from the 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm) of his younger days. Prowse worked with various arthritis organisations in Britain and was vice-president of the Physically Handicapped and Able-bodied Association. In March 2009, Prowse revealed that he was suffering from prostate cancer. From early 2009 he underwent radiation therapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital in South London. He discovered that he had the cancer following his participation in a charity event in aid of a prostate cancer charity, where a representative of the charity asked whether, as a man over 50, he had had a PSA test. The conversation stayed in his mind, and on a future visit to a general practitioner, he requested the blood test that eventually led to diagnosis. In 2009 he was said to be in remission. In November 2014, the Daily Mirror reported that Prowse had dementia. However, Prowse himself denied this, admitting instead he had problems with his memory, which he put down to age.
74
Born 1946-07-27. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Charles-Henri Flammarion was a French editor. Éditions Audie-Fluide glacial : président-directeur général (1990-2003)