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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.
Lookup: name or firstname or alias or date (yyyy-mm-dd):
66
Born 1956-06-22. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Infection
François Hadji-Lazaro was a French actor, musician and producer. Hadji-Lazaro was born in Paris 15eme. He founded the French independent label Boucherie Productions (1985–2001) and played in many bands such as Les Garçons Bouchers (1986–1995) and Pigalle (1986–2018). Hadji-Lazaro appeared in more than 20 films since 1987, including a lead role in Cemetery Man. Hadji-Lazaro had a remarkable collaboration with Roland Topor that lead to the album "François détexte Topor". Hadji-Lazaro died from septicemy at the age of 66.
85
Born 1938-01-25. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Heart
Leiji Matsumoto (Japanese: 松本零士, Hepburn: Matsumoto Reiji, born Akira Matsumoto (松本晟)) was a Japanese manga artist, and creator of several anime and manga series. His wife Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Matsumoto was famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999. His style was characterized by mythological and often tragic storylines with strong moral themes, noble heroes, feminine heroines, and a love of strange worlds and melancholy atmosphere.
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.
87
Born 1933-09-15. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Henry Darrow (born Enrique Tomás Delgado Jiménez) was an American character actor of stage and film known for his role as Manolito "Mano" Montoya on the 1960s television series The High Chaparral. In film, Darrow played the corrupt and vengeful Trooper Hancock in The Hitcher. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was seen in numerous guest starring television roles. Darrow replaced Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Zorro's father Don Alejandro de la Vega in the 1990s television series Zorro.
82
Born 1938-02-23. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Age
Jiří Menzel was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura.
75
Born 1944-08-26. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:COVID
He was a French politician of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. A close adviser of Nicolas Sarkozy since the 1990s, he was Minister under the Prime Minister in charge of the Implementation of the Recovery Plan, a special ministerial post created for two years following the global financial crisis of 2008, a tenure which commenced in December 2008. He was of Armenian descent. In the night of 28 to 29 March 2020, he died of COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic.
56
Born 1961-07-20. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer
Ji Chunhua, sometimes romanized as Gai Chun Wa, was a Chinese actor and action choreographer. Just like Jet Li and Yu Chenghui, he was a Mainland China-trained wushu athlete who started his acting career in the 1982 Hong Kong martial arts blockbuster Shaolin Temple. Ji had alopecia totalis and often appeared as bald villains in movies (many starring Jet Li) and TV series.
88
Born 1929-01-01. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Pneumonia
He was a Japanese actor best known for playing Godzilla in twelve consecutive films, starting from the original Godzilla (1954) until Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972). He also played various other giant monsters in Kaiju films, including Mothra and The War of the Gargantuas and also appeared in a minor role in the Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai. In 2018, asteroid 110408 Nakajima was named in his memory. The film Godzilla: King of the Monsters was dedicated to his memory.
81
Born 1935-12-21. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
He was a Belgian comics artist in the Marcinelle school tradition. He was best known for his series featuring a cute, playful and adventurous little girl, Sophie. A creator of his own series Sophie, and Ginger, and noted for his work with Starter and Uhu-man, he is known for his collaborations and assistance to the work of André Franquin during a long career at the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou, working on Spirou et Fantasio and Gaston Lagaffe, on which he shared co-authorship for several years.
78
Born 1937-12-11. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Heart attack
He was an American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. He wrote screenplays, book reviews, literary criticism, and published essays on food, travel, and sport. Harrison indicated that, of all his writing, his poetry meant the most to him.
47
Born 1968-11-29. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Stroke
He was a Japanese professional wrestler, stage actor, musician and professional wrestling promoter, better known under the ring name Hayabusa. Ezaki died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His body was found when the owner of a nearby tavern, with whom he was scheduled to meet concerning a March 7 event, went to his home after Ezaki failed to arrive for their planned meeting.
51
Born 1963-03-10. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Infection
He was a Czech mathematician working in computational geometry and algebraic topology. He was a professor at Charles University in Prague and the author of several textbooks and research monographs.
100
Born 1913-09-12. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
He was a Japanese industrialist. He was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later, as chairman.
71
Born 1941-02-14. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
He was an English musician, whose career started in 1958. He was best known as a session guitarist. In the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the most in-demand studio musicians in the UK, and performed on more than one thousand charting singles over his career. He was also credited with pioneering the use of the fuzzbox and the talkbox.
75
Born 1937-01-21. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
He was a Canadian cartoonist, best known for his syndicated comic strip Herman which ran for 18 years in 600 newspapers in 25 countries. Unger died during sleep at his residence in Saanich, British Columbia after a period of ill health. He was predeceased by a brother who was a major influence for the Herman comic.
64
Born 1947-00-00. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Stroke
Jim had just returned to work from a well-deserved vacation. Jim was excited about the next two articles of his scheduled to be published in EDN, one on a sine wave oscillator currently slated for August 11, 2011. The last article Jim wrote for EDN will be his brilliant description of developing a 100A electronic load currently scheduled for the September 22, 2011 issue. Jim was really pleased with that last article. Several times he confided that it was one of the few technical projects that "everything just worked perfect." He said it was rare to have all the parts of a complex design go so well. When he told me this I couldn't help but think how his awesome talent had to play a part in the ease of the design. Take a look at 'Circuitry for Single Cell Operation' which makes extensive use of Robert Widlar's amazing LM10, or 'Micropower Circuits for Signal Conditioning' which is truly inspiring, as it shows what can be achieved by simple circuits powered by lemons with nails in.
24
Born 1986-11-10. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Murder
Samuel Kamau Wanjiru was a Kenyan long-distance runner who won the 2008 Beijing Olympics Marathon in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. He became the youngest gold medallist in the marathon since 1932. He set the current (as of 2020) 10,000m World Junior Record in 2005 and set the half marathon world record 3 times. In 2009, he won both the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon, running the fastest marathons ever recorded in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively. He retained his Chicago title in 2010 in a season fraught with injury. On 15 May 2011, Wanjiru died from a fall off a balcony at his home in Nyahururu. Wanjiru appeared to have suffered internal injuries after the fall and was confirmed dead by doctors at a nearby hospital after attempts to revive him failed. Police said Wanjiru's wife, Triza Njeri, had come home to find him in bed with another woman. She locked the couple in the bedroom and ran outside. Wanjiru then died after falling from the balcony. Police are unsure if Wanjiru intended suicide or jumped out of rage, and were investigating the circumstances related to Njeri and his female companion that led to his death. In May 2017, while testifying during an inquest into Wanjiru's death, his mother Hannah Wanjiru said at the Milimani law court that she believes her son was murdered. His mother claimed at an inquest into his death that her son was murdered by six men who had conspired with his widow Trizah Njeri.[36] During the inquest at the Milimani court that sought to establish whether Wanjiru was murdered or jumped to his death, a former chief government pathologist said he was convinced that Wanjiru was hit by a blunt object after he had jumped from the balcony of his home, landing on his legs, or possibly he was pushed then struck.
66
Born 1944-04-30. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer
She was an American actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles in An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over. Clayburgh lived with chronic lymphocytic leukemia for more than two decades before succumbing to the disease. She died at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut. The movie Love and Other Drugs, was dedicated to her memory.
47
Born 1963-04-13. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Unknown
"There are times I don't like the way my life went, but that doesn’t mean that I'm not in love with life," says the 43-year-old motivational speaker who created the Choose Living Foundation. "Is it fair what's happened to me? No, of course not. So what? I still have to get up in the morning. By engaging life, by moving what few muscles I have, my bed suddenly becomes an exercise mat."
Finishing his undergraduate work in 1985, he ventured to New York City, to train at the Circle in the Square Theatre School on Broadway. Three weeks later, leaving a late-night rehearsal session on his motorcycle, MacLaren was broadsided by a 40,000-pound city bus. Rushed to Bellevue Hospital, he was initially diagnosed as "dead on arrival."
After 18 hours of surgery doctors stabilized a comatose MacLaren and made a decision that would shape the next eight years of his life. They amputated his left leg below the knee. He awoke from his coma, rehabbed diligently, and attempted to resume his graduate studies at the Yale School of Drama. There, he started swimming, and picked up a book on triathlons that sparked his imagination. Soon, MacLaren was ready to resume life as an athlete, as a triathlete. "I felt like I was back in it, back in life," he says. "I didn't compete against other people. I was competing against me. A buddy once said, 'Mac, nobody cares how fast you go, they just love that you're doing it.'
"I told him I care. I never wanted to be taken for granted, as that guy with the fake leg. So I just kept pushing myself."
MacLaren became a media sensation in the fledgling sport of triathlons, paving the way for a new generation of disabled athletes. He competed and set scores of records in some of the toughest races on the planet, including the New York City Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, and routinely finished ahead of 80 percent of the able-bodied athletes.
Then, on June 6, 1993, his life took another cruel turn. He was in Mission Viejo, California, racing another triathlon. Two miles into the bike leg, on a closed course, a traffic marshal misjudged MacLaren's speed approaching an intersection. The marshal directed a van to cross the street, and the van and MacLaren collided. Hurled into a signpost, MacLaren broke his neck at the C5 vertebrae, paralyzing him.
Slowly, MacLaren pulled himself back again, grappling with seemingly insurmountable obstacles and even reclaiming some motor function of his limbs. Most importantly, he fostered an inner force that enabled him to act in ways he couldn't as an able-bodied athlete. "It took two years of self study, going deep, and then deeper again," he says. "And, sometime in 2000-2001, I chose life."
39
Born 1971-02-27. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Suicide
He is a South Korean actor and singer who is the brother of Choi Jin-shil that committed suicide on 2008. He made his acting debut in 1994. After his sister's death he became the legal guardian of his sister's children, Hwan-hee and Joon-hee.
68
Born 1941-11-30. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder
He was a Ba'athist Iraqi Defense Minister, Interior Minister, military commander and chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. He was also the governor of occupied Kuwait during the Gulf War.
A first cousin of former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein, he became notorious in the 1980s and 1990s for his role in the Iraqi government's campaigns against internal opposition forces, namely the ethnic Kurdish rebels of the north, and the Shia religious dissidents of the south. Repressive measures included deportations and mass killings; al-Majid was dubbed "Chemical Ali" by Iraqi Kurds for his use of chemical weapons in attacks against them.
Al-Majid was captured following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. He was convicted in June 2007 and was sentenced to death for crimes committed in the al-Anfal campaign of the 1980s. His appeal of the death sentence was rejected on 4 September 2007, and he was sentenced to death for the fourth time on 17 January 2010 and was hanged eight days later, on 25 January 2010.
29
Born 1980-05-01. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Unknown
Jay Reatard, was a force in the worlds of punk and garage rock, was found dead in his home in Memphis.
The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reported that a roommate had found him in bed, and the police have opened an investigation into his death. A spokeswoman for the Shelby County medical examiner in Tennessee said an autopsy had been performed but that a cause of death had not been determined.
54
Born 1954-00-00. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer (lung)
Being remembered as always playing the most hated Hong Kong on-screen bad guys, Lung Fong, died from lung cancerat a hospital in Xi'an of northern China. Lung Fong, birth name Li Chien-Min, started his career by playing small roles in kung fu movies in the 1970s and unsuccessfully portrayed a baddie in a gang movie in 1979. Then in 1981 he disappeared from the big screen.
In 1989, producer/director Wong Jing need someone to play a baddie in Casino Raiders and someone recommended Lung Fong, a restaurant manager at that time. Playing the role turned out to be his biggest career break through and baddies he played in Wong Jing's Crocodile Hunter (1989) and God of Gamblers (1989) made him more famous. He quitted his restaurant job and played dozens of bad guys in the following decade. In 1994, Lung Fong invited no less than half dozen well-known Hong Kong actors who are playing bad guys to star in a comedy called Hong Kong Adam's Family, in which they portrayed members of a baddie family, who in the end all turned good except Lung Fong's character. The movie failed miserably at the box-office.
23
Born 1985-04-05. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Suicide
Kim made his debut as a fashion model in 2007. Regarded as "one to watch", he later appeared as a guest on the MBC drama series Before and After Plastic Surgery, and on family sitcom The Unstoppable High Kick. On April 21, 2008, he came out as a gay man on the tvN reality show Coming Out, a series which profiles the lives of LGBT Koreans. Shortly after the episode aired, Kim's personal webpage was inundated with messages denouncing his sexuality. Several fashion shows and television programmes cancelled his appearances, while his management company declined to renew his contract.
Kim hanged himself at his home in Jamsil, southern Seoul. A suicide note found at the scene read: "I'm lonely and in a difficult situation. Please cremate my body." Kim's mother said that he "underwent many professional and personal difficulties following his coming-out", while police attributed his suicide to public prejudice against homosexuality. Days before taking his life, Kim wrote on his web site: "Life is like the wind. What's there to agonise over? Meetings are happy, partings are sad, everything is just a moment."
39
Born 1968-12-24. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Suicide
She was a South Korean actress and model. She was considered one of the best actresses in South Korea, nicknamed "The Nation's Actress".
On October 1, the night before her death, Choi had a drink with her manager, went home and locked herself in a bathroom, asking her mother to go to sleep. She then hung herself by the neck from the shower hose in the bath tub. Her body was found early in the morning on October 2 by her own mother, who called Choi Jin-young, the late Choi's younger brother, and called police at 7:34 a.m. local time. Just before her death, it was reported that Choi sent a text message to one of her colleagues and expressed her wish that her two children should be taken care of.
76
Born 1931-03-06. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Stewart raced a Cooper Bristol for the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse team at the 1953 British Grand Prix, but failed to finish after crashing at Copse.
His career, which began in local sprints and hillclimbing, saw his greatest successes coming in sportscar racing.
He won a host of events in Britain and abroad before retiring in 1955 at the age of just 24.
After his racing career ended, he worked in vehicle sales in the UK and America, and beat a 40-year battle with alcoholism in the late 1990s before setting up home close to where he grew up near Dumbarton in Scotland.
In his recent Autobiography, Jackie Stewart said: "I owe him almost everything because, when I was young and struggling at school, the world seemed a dark place, I found my real salvation in motor racing.
"But I only found it because, in my difficult time of need and confusion, it was my older brother who carried the torch and selflessly showed me the way.
"It was almost as if Jim was beckoning me to join him on a magic carpet ride, carrying me out of the wilderness at school into the exciting, glamorous world of motor racing."
32
Born 1971-02-06. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Heart attack
Jiménez received psychological treatment for depression, and retired from professional cycling in 2002, at which point he got married. He died of a heart attack in a clinic in Madrid at the age of 32
26
Born 1976-07-04. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
He was a Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and the 2001 World Champion in the 250cc class.
On April 6, 2003 during the first race of the 2003 MotoGP season at Suzuka, Kato crashed hard and sustained severe head, neck and chest injuries. He was estimated to have hit the wall near the Casio Triangle chicane of the circuit at around 125mph (200 km/h). Many questions were raised regarding the actions of the corner workers immediately following the crash. Kato was thrown back onto the track after hitting the wall and was lying next to the racing line. Normally, when a motorcycle and/or rider are incapacitated on the race track, a red flag is waved and the race stopped so the track can be safely cleared. This did not happen following Kato's accident. Instead, the corner workers dragged his body off the track and threw him on a stretcher, actions that are not in accordance with tending to someone with suspected neck and spinal cord injuries. The race was not stopped.
Kato spent two weeks in a coma following the accident before dying as a result of the injuries he sustained. The cause of death was listed as brain stem infraction. Many of the MotoGP riders wore black armbands or placed small #74's on their leathers and bikes at the following race in South Africa to pay tribute to the fallen racer. There has not been a Grand Prix motorcycle race held at Suzuka following Kato's crash, with safety issues at the facility being cited as the reason.
86
Born 1916-09-21. Domain:Journalism. Cause of death:Accident
She died at hospital after a fall.
She wrote: "Should Death come and seize me tonight, would I say 'thank you, Life'"
72
Born 1930-07-03. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:cancer (prostate)
When he was 15 years old, Fukasaku's class was drafted, and he worked as a munitions worker during World War II. In July 1945, the class was caught in artillery fire. Since the children could not escape artillery fire, they had to dive under each other in order to survive. The surviving members of the class had to dispose of the corpses. Fukasaku realized that the Japanese government lied about World War II at that point; Fukasaku had a burning hatred of adults in general for a long time.
In 1980, Fukasaku directed Virus, Japan's most expensive production at the time, which became a financial flop.
Near the end of his life, Fukasaku branched out into the world of video games by serving as the director of the Capcom/Sunsoft survival horror game Clock Tower 3. Although the game sold poorly and received fair to lukewarm reviews, the game has been praised for its cinematic cut-scenes, which some consider to be worth playing through the game in order to watch. In 2000, Battle Royale was released, which received positive critical praise as well as becoming a major financial success, grossing ¥3.11 billion domestically. Because he suffered from late stage prostate cancer during preparations for the film Battle Royale II: Requiem, the film's production was organized so that Fukasaku's son Kenta Fukasaku could take over the film's direction after he died. Fukasaku died after directing a single scene with Takeshi Kitano.