×
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):
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.
90
Born 1934-03-31. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Stroke
George Richard Chamberlain was an American actor and singer who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare (1961–1966). He subsequently earned the title "King of the Mini-Series" for his work in several TV miniseries such as Centennial (1978), Shōgun (1980), and The Thorn Birds (1983). Chamberlain also performed classical stage roles and worked in musical theatre. Chamberlain died of complications from a stroke in Waimānalo, Hawaii.
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.
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.
72
Born 1949-08-29. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:COVID
Igor Yourievitch Bogdanoff and Grichka Yourievitch Bogdanoff were French twin brother television presenters, producers, and scientific essayists who, from the 1970s on, presented various subjects in science fiction, popular science, and cosmology. They were involved in a number of controversies, most notably the Bogdanov affair, in which it was alleged the brothers wrote nonsensical advanced physics papers that were nonetheless published in reputable scientific journals.
87
Born 1932-12-05. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Cancer
Better known as Little Richard, he was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Nicknamed "The Innovator, The Originator, and The Architect of Rock and Roll", Penniman's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Penniman's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come. "Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Penniman's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. Penniman's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more hit singles in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Penniman abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, Arden had the Beatles open for Penniman on some tour dates, capitalizing on his popularity. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Penniman was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Penniman often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Penniman began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled. Penniman died at the age of 87 in Tennessee. The cause of death was revealed to be bone cancer.
103
Born 1916-09-30. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
Richard Kenneth Guy was a British mathematician. He was a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Calgary. He is known for his work in number theory, geometry, recreational mathematics, combinatorics, and graph theory. He published more than 300 scholarly articles.
78
Born 1940-10-11. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Age
Professor Richard Westgarth Lacey was a British microbiologist and writer, known for arguing that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy "mad cow disease" can be passed to humans. In 1990 Lacey was ridiculed for suggesting a link between Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. He was vindicated in 1996. Lacey warned of the dangers of BSE before the crisis was revealed by the government. Lacey believed there was a "systematic cover-up" from the government and scientists about the dangers of food that British people eat. He made headlines after a Sunday Times interview in which he called for the slaughter of all BSE-infected herds. Lacey gave up eating beef in 1988 but was not a vegetarian. He stated he was not conspiracy theorist until the crisis of BSE. Lacey was acclaimed as brave and fearless in his beliefs but was denounced by the media as a panic monger and self-publicist.
90
Born 1928-12-25. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Richard "Dick" Miller was an American character actor. He was known for his roles in Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, The Explorers, Piranha, The Howling, A Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors, Chopping Mall, Night of the Creeps, The Terminator, The 'Burbs, Pulp Fiction and Small Soldiers. Miller was born in The Bronx, New York. He died in Toluca Lake, California from pneumonia, aged 90.
75
Born 1943-08-21. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Gary Friedrich was an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, and, in the following era, for the series The Monster of Frankenstein and for co-creating the supernatural motorcyclist the Ghost Rider and the supernatural hero the Son of Satan. Friedrich – no relation to fellow comics writer Mike Friedrich – was the first successful new writer brought into the burgeoning 1960s Marvel after fellow Missourian Roy Thomas. Succeeding Thomas on Sgt. Fury, Friedrich and the art team of Dick Ayers and John Severin produced a World War II series for the Vietnam years, combining militaristic camaraderie and gung ho humor with a regretful sense of war as a terrible last resort. The humanistic military drama was noted for its semi-anthological "The" stories, such as "The Medic" and "The Deserter". Friedrich went on to write a smattering of superhero stories for Marvel, Atlas/Seaboard Comics and Topps Comics, and eventually left the comics industry. In 2011, he lost a federal lawsuit over a claim of ownership in the character Ghost Rider, but in July 2014, three months after an appellate court reversed that decision, the parties said they had reached a settlement. As of 2009, Friedrich lived in Jefferson County, Missouri with wife Jean and daughter, Leslie. He died on August 29, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. He had been suffering from Parkinson's disease and near-total hearing loss
93
Born 1925-07-25. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
Richard V. Kadison was an American mathematician known for his contributions to the study of operator algebras.
71
Born 1947-05-15. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Cancer
Richard Steven Ellis was an American mathematician. He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to parents Murray and Helen. Ellis graduated from Boston Latin School and attended Harvard University, where he studied German literature and mathematics. He pursued graduate study at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and began teaching at Northwestern University in 1972. Ellis left for the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1975. He was named fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1999. Ellis died of bile duct cancer in New York City, aged 71.
77
Born 1941-03-04. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Richard Benjamin Harrison Jr., also known by the nicknames The Old Man and The Appraiser, was an American businessman and reality television personality, best known as the co-owner of the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, as featured on the History Channel series Pawn Stars. Harrison was the co-owner of the pawn shop with his son Rick Harrison. They opened the store together in 1989. Harrison was usually referred to by his nickname, "The Old Man", which he earned at the age of 38. Harrison died on June 25, 2018, after a battle with Parkinson's disease. Harrison was survived by wife Joanne, three sons, 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Harrison placed his son Rick in charge of his estate. Christopher Keith Harrison, the youngest of Harrison's three sons, was intentionally omitted as a beneficiary in his father's will. Following his death, Pawn Stars ran a commemorative episode, ("A Treasure Remembered"), featuring clips from the show and interviews about him.
104
Born 1914-05-18. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age
Georg Heinrich Patrick Baron von Tiesenhausen was a United States-based German rocket scientist. After being brought to the United States in 1953 as part of Operation Paperclip, he was part of Wernher von Braun's team at the United States Army, and later, NASA. He is credited with the first complete design of the Lunar Roving Vehicle and made a variety of other contributions to the space program. He was a member of Baltic German noble family of Tiesenhausen. Tiesenhausen worked with Wernher von Braun developing V-2 rockets in Germany during World War II. He came to America in 1953 as part of Operation Paperclip, where he again worked with von Braun on guided missiles such as the Redstone, this time for the United States Army at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. He was later transferred to NASA, where he worked on various spaceflight programs, including the Apollo program, which landed men on the Moon.
30
Born 1987-06-26. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
Daniel Richard Kneen was a professional motorcycle racer from Douglas, Isle of Man. Kneen was a race winner at the Manx Grand Prix (three times) and the Ulster Grand Prix, and finished on the podium at the 2017 Isle of Man TT, in the Superstock race. Kneen died of multiple injuries after an accident during qualifying for the 2018 Isle of Man TT, the 147th competitor to be killed at the Mountain Course during a TT meeting.
84
Born 1934-04-05. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age
Richard Wayne Peck was an American novelist known for his prolific contributions to modern young adult literature. He was awarded the Newbery Medal in 2001 for his novel A Year Down Yonder (the sequel to A Long Way From Chicago). For his cumulative contribution to young-adult literature, he received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1990.
72
Born 1946-03-31. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Richard Peyzaret, better known by his pen name F'Murr or F'Murrr, was a French cartoonist and comic book writer. He was most famous for the long-running series Le Génie des alpages (The Genius of the Mountain Pastures).
94
Born 1923-01-14. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
He was an American rock climber, mountaineer and author, who made hundreds of first ascents, more than any other North American climber.
83
Born 1934-07-29. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Operation
He was a German architect and urban planner. He was the son of Albert Speer (1905–81), Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming the office of Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich during World War II. His grandfather, Albert Friedrich Speer, was also an architect. As with the other children of Nazi officials, such as Gudrun Himmler and Edda Göring, Speer had to approach the topic of his father's infamy. While Himmler would attempt to rehabilitate her father's image, and Goering tried her best to avoid speaking about it at all, Speer has said that he "tried his whole life to separate himself from his father". Speer is credited with being one of the few children of Nazi leaders to recognize the wrongs of their parent. Speer said that, as a child, his father "was not the kind of father who went over your homework", referring to inattentiveness and mild neglect, but also said that Hitler was "a nice uncle, from my childish perspective." He said he did not hate his father and considered him "a good architect, much more modern than people think today". He died at the age of 83 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, after complications with a surgery performed after falling in his home.
88
Born 1929-02-08. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
He was a French stage and screen actor. He began his career in the theater before his film debut in 1955.
78
Born 1938-08-26. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
She was an American film and television actress. York never married. She once said, "Like Cinderella, I always wanted to marry the handsome prince...but they don't make glass slippers in size ten!" She died in Van Nuys, California from cancer, aged 78.
68
Born 1948-10-12. Domain:Music. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
He was an English musician, best known as a singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist with rock band Status Quo. Parfitt began his career in the early 1960s, playing in pubs and holiday camps. He joined Status Quo in 1967 when they were looking for an additional singer. He wrote songs for the band and remained with them for 49 years. He occasionally guested with other bands, and recorded an unreleased solo album in 1985. In 2016, Parfitt temporarily retired from touring with the band due to ill health, and died in December of that year. His only solo album, Over and Out, was released posthumously in 2018. Following a heart attack, Parfitt had a quadruple heart bypass in 1997 at the age of 48, when he was told by doctors that he could die "at any time" unless he changed his lifestyle of drugs, smoking and heavy drinking. At the height of the band's fame, Parfitt and his long-time Status Quo partner Francis Rossi were notorious for drinking and drug use, with Parfitt claiming to have been spending up to £1,000 a week on cocaine, and up to £500 a week on vodka. In his later life, following several health issues, Parfitt led a more sober life, stating in a 2014 interview that he had not smoked cannabis for 27 years and had not used cocaine for 10 years. He had a throat cancer scare in December 2005.[29] He suffered a heart attack in December 2011 and underwent surgery on the following day.[30] On 1 August 2014, while on a European tour with Status Quo, Parfitt was hospitalised in Pula, Croatia, forcing the cancellation of six shows on the tour. He had suffered a heart attack while on his tour bus after performing a concert in Austria, and had a stent inserted. He later told the Daily Mail he was pleased to have suffered another heart attack as it had forced him to stop smoking and drinking after 50 years. On 14 June 2016, after playing with the band in Antalya, Turkey, he suffered another heart attack and was hospitalised again. His management described his condition as serious. Parfitt was clinically dead for several minutes, resulting in mild cognitive impairments. The band announced that their ongoing tour would continue with Freddie Edwards, son of bassist John "Rhino" Edwards, as a temporary replacement. On 22 June it was announced that Parfitt had been flown home to the UK and was described as "comfortable" in hospital in London, where he was undergoing more tests. He had a defibrillator fitted into his chest. In September 2016 it was announced that he would not be well enough to tour in the autumn, and he did not intend to tour with the band for the foreseeable future. Parfitt died in a Marbella hospital from sepsis, after being admitted on Thursday evening, 22 December, following an infection of a pre-existing shoulder injury.
48
Born 1967-10-27. Domain:Music. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
He was an American musician, singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013, making six records with them. He was also lead vocalist of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, recording two albums, and he recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. He also established himself as a solo artist, releasing three studio albums, two cover albums, and collaborations with several other musicians throughout his career. Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on December 3, 2015, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with the Wildabouts. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota, had been cancelled several days earlier. They were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Weiland's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead.
96
Born 1918-12-23. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Age
He was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982.
77
Born 1938-01-13. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Cancer
48
Born 1965-11-04. Domain:Music. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
Known professionally as Wayne Static, he was an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and music sequencer for metal band Static-X. He released his only solo studio album, Pighammer, on October 4, 2011. Static died in Landers, California, three days before his 49th birthday. He had consumed half of an oxycodone pill as well as alcohol that morning before going to bed with his wife Tera Wray. She woke up later that day to find that he had died in his sleep. His family issued a statement stating that rumors of his death being drug-related were false, noting that he and Wray had stopped using illicit drugs in 2009. An autopsy later confirmed that Static had died of multiple prescription drug toxicity, consisting of the painkillers oxycodone, hydromorphone, and the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam combined with alcohol, though the report also noted that years of past "chronic prescription drug and alcohol abuse" was a contributing factor. Former Static-X members Koichi Fukuda and Tony Campos paid tribute to Static. Static was cremated in California. A memorial rock show followed in Los Angeles, and a family service followed in Illinois.
84
Born 1929-09-13. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
He was an American actor known for his role of the steel-toothed Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979) as well as the video game Everything or Nothing (he also had cameos in many other James Bond videogames). He was also well known as Mr. Larson in the 1996 comedy Happy Gilmore, for playing the Kanamit aliens in the classic Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man and for his role of Dr. Miguelito Loveless' assistant Voltaire in first season episodes of The Wild, Wild West (1965-1966). He had been admitted to a hospital in Fresno, California, after breaking his leg the previous week.
90
Born 1923-08-29. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Age
was an English actor, film director, film producer, and entrepreneur. He was the President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). As a film director and producer, he won two Academy Awards for Gandhi in 1983. He also won four BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his roles in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle on 34th Street, and Jurassic Park. Attenborough died from illness on 24 August 2014, five days before his 91st birthday.
89
Born 1924-06-26. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Pneumonia
Richard William Bull was an American film, stage and television actor. He was best known for his performances as "Doc" on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Nels Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Bull died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Calabasas, California of pneumonia. He was 89 years old.
100
Born 1913-07-29. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Erich Priebke was a German mid-level SS commander in the SS police force (SiPo) of Nazi Germany. In 1996, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy, for commanding the unit which was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre in Rome on 24 March 1944 in which 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 men of the German SS Police Regiment Bozen. Priebke was one of the men held responsible for this mass execution. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, he fled to Argentina where he lived for almost 50 years. In 1991, Priebke's participation in the Rome massacre was denounced in Esteban Buch's book El pintor de la Suiza Argentina. In 1994, 50 years after the massacre, Priebke felt he could then talk about the incident and was interviewed by American ABC news reporter Sam Donaldson. This caused outrage among people who had not forgotten the incident, and led to his extradition to Italy and a trial which lasted more than four years. Priebke died in Rome at the age of 100, from natural causes. His last request, that his remains be returned to Argentina so he could be buried alongside his wife, was denied by the Argentinian government. The Vatican issued an "unprecedented ban" on holding his funeral in any Catholic church in Rome. His hometown in Germany also refused to take his body, over fears that his place of burial could become "a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis". The Society of Saint Pius X offered to hold the funeral ceremony for Erich Priebke in the city of Albano Laziale. Don Florian Abrahamowicz, an ex-SSPX priest, told Italy's Radio 24: "Priebke was a friend of mine, a Christian, a faithful soldier." During the funeral service, the police prevented clashes from breaking out between fascist sympathizers and anti-fascist protesters. The SSPX's funeral ceremony for Erich Priebke eventually took place, albeit without the presence of any of his relatives, because his family was unable to enter the city where it was held due to the rioting. Eventually, the coffin containing Priebke's body was seized by the Italian authorities, taken to a military base near Rome and then buried "in a secret location", as his lawyer Paolo Giachini, stated. Giachini said the agreement "satisfie[d] the family and ethical and spiritual requirements".