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Overton Joseph Paul (b. 1960-01-04 / d. 2003-06-30)
He was a senior vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He held a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Overton is known for conceiving of the idea now known as the Overton window, the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream at a given time. He died at age 43 from injuries suffered in a crash while piloting an ultralight aircraft, soon after taking off from the Tuscola Area Airport near Caro, Michigan. Overton had just married a few weeks before the accident.
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68
Born 1956-07-30. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Unknown
Alfredo Stranieri, known as the "Classified Ads Killer", was an Italian-born French criminal and serial killer, who met his victims through classified ads in which he presented himself as a potential buyer of properties or used cars. Alfredo Stranieri and Germain Gaiffe both appeared before the 6th Criminal Chamber in Versailles on 11 March 2011 for "disrespect". For months, Stranieri claimed to be the father of the daughter of the former Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati. This case dates back to September 2010. Stranieri, sentenced to life imprisonment for killing and burying four people in gardens, and Germain Gaiffe, sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for killing and dismembering a man, both posted an identical letter from the Poissy prison, addressed to the hall of the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Both claimed to be the father of Rachida Dati's daughter and enclosed a declaration of paternity. Warned by the prison services, the public prosecutor's office decided to seize the case and prosecute them for "insulting the person in charge of public authority". Dati soon became a civil party. At a hearing, Gaiffe wore a provocative sweater on which "I am the father of Zohra" was written. When questioned, the two men explained that they had shared a moment of intimacy in a room with the minister who came to visit their prison in December 2007, more than a year before she gave birth. On 17 July 2013, Stranieri married Gaiffe. The wedding, delivered by Frédérik Bernard, mayor of Poissy, took place in the presence of their respective witnesses, the terrorist Carlos the Jackal and the comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala at the prison of Poissy in Yvelines. Dieudonné had met the two criminals in the prison workshop while writing sketches. Libération commented that it is "unlikely that is a marriage of love", and saw it rather as a "new provocation of the comedian, organized with some comrades". Stranieri died at hospital in Poissy, after 3 weeks of hospitalisation.
74
Born 1950-12-05. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:Age
Jean-Luc Petitrenaud was a French food critic and television personality. In June 2017, he announced that he took a short break from hosting his television show Les escapades de Petitrenaud due to fatigue.
79
Born 1944-07-22. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:Age
Claude Villers, whose real name was Claude Marx, was born in Everly (Seine-et-Marne) and died in Mussidan (Dordogne), a French journalist and radio and television personality. He spent most of his radio career at France Inter, where he was successively sketch writer, host and producer. He is also a writer and traveler, with a passion for trains, ocean liners, travel and adventure.
65
Born 1957-12-25. Domain:Music. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was a British-born Irish singer-songwriter and musician best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of Celtic punk band the Pogues. He also produced solo material and collaborated with artists including Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Steve Earle, Sinéad O'Connor, Ronnie Drew, and Cruachan. Frequently noted for his exceptional songwriting ability as well as his heavy alcohol and drug use, MacGowan was described by The New York Times as "a titanically destructive personality and a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life". MacGowan was long known for having very bad teeth. He lost the last of his natural teeth sometime around 2008. In 2015, he had a new set of teeth—including one gold tooth—fitted in a nine-hour procedure. The new set of teeth was secured by eight titanium implants in his jaws. The procedure was the subject of the hour-long television programme Shane MacGowan: A Wreck Reborn. It was reported in July 2023 that MacGowan was hospitalised in an intensive care unit. Following treatment for an infection, he was discharged from St. Vincent's University Hospital in November 2023. On 30 November 2023, after receiving last rites, MacGowan died from pneumonia at his home in Dublin with his wife by his side; he was 65.
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.
86
Born 1936-09-29. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Silvio Berlusconi (/ˌbɛərlʊˈskoʊni/ BAIR-luu-SKOH-nee; Italian: [ˈsilvjo berluˈskoːni]) was an Italian media tycoon, politician, and billionaire who served as the prime minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 to his death in 2023, and previously from March to November 2013; and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 1999 to 2001. With a net worth of US$6.8 billion as of June 2023, Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death. The state funeral of Berlusconi was held on 14 June 2023.
75
Born 1946-11-14. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Cancer
Sacheen Cruz Littlefeather (born Marie Louise Cruz) was an American actress, model, and Native American civil rights activist. Littlefeather was born to a Native American (Apache and Yaqui) father and a White mother. During the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz, she became involved in the Native American activist community. Littlefeather represented Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973, where she—on Brando's behalf—declined the Best Actor award that he won for his performance in The Godfather. The favorite to win, Brando boycotted the ceremony as a protest against Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans and to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee. During her speech, the audience's response to Brando's boycotting was divided between booing and applause. After the Academy Award speech, Littlefeather worked in hospice care. She continued her activism for health-related and Native American issues, and produced films about Native Americans. In June 2022, the Academy sent Littlefeather a statement of apology that was read in full at An Evening with Sacheen Littlefeather on September 17. Over the years, Littlefeather described her personal experiences with serious health issues, including internal bleeding, collapsed lungs, and cancer. She reported having tuberculosis at age 4 and received treatment in an oxygen tent while hospitalized. She stated that she was suicidal and hospitalized in a mental institution for a year. In 1974, she stated that Marlon Brando sent her to a doctor when she was in a lot of pain and helped her recover, so she made the Oscar speech to repay him. At the age of 29 her lungs collapsed. After recovering, she received a degree from Antioch University in holistic health and nutrition with an emphasis in Native American medicine, a practice she credited with her recovery. In 1991, Littlefeather was reported to be recovering from radical cancer surgery. A 1999 article stated she had had colon cancer in the early 1990s. In 2018, Littlefeather developed stage 4 breast cancer, a recurrence of the breast cancer from which she was reported to be in remission in 2012. She said in a 2021 interview that the cancer had metastasized to her right lung and that she was terminal. Littlefeather died at her home in Novato, California, on October 2, 2022, at the age of 75, a month before her 76th birthday.
53
Born 1969-05-25. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress who came to recognition portraying twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love on the soap opera Another World (1987–1991), winning her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. She achieved greater prominence in the late 1990s with roles in the crime drama film Donnie Brasco (1997), the disaster film Volcano (1997), the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), the action comedy film Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), and the drama-thriller film Return to Paradise (1998).
On August 5, 2022, Heche was involved in a sequence of two car crashes in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, first when the Mini Cooper she was driving hit a garage at an apartment complex, and second when she crashed into a house, resulting in a fire that left her severely burned. A video recorded in the moments before the final crash shows Heche's vehicle navigating a neighborhood street at a very high speed, followed a few seconds later by the sound of a crash. The vehicle collision and resulting house fire required 59 firefighters to handle, who took 65 minutes to fully extinguish the fire and rescue Heche from the vehicle. The house was left structurally compromised and uninhabitable. The tenant of the house sustained minor injuries, but said that she and her pets were almost killed and that she had lost all of her personal property to the fire.
Law enforcement officials said that Heche was "deemed to be under the influence and acting erratically" at the time of the crashes. The Los Angeles Police Department said that a preliminary blood analysis confirmed the presence of narcotics in Heche's system, although more comprehensive toxicology tests that could take weeks are required to identify specific drugs.
Heche was removed from the crash scene on a stretcher, and was transported to a hospital. She was filmed sitting up on the stretcher and struggling with paramedics as she was being wheeled into the ambulance; however, she lost consciousness soon afterward. On August 8, a representative for Heche said she was in a coma in extremely critical condition, with medical ventilation required for a pulmonary injury. On August 11, the representative said that Heche was not expected to survive due to an anoxic brain injury, and that she was being kept on life support to determine if her organs were viable for donation, in accordance with her expressed wish to be an organ donor. Heche was declared brain dead a few hours later on August 11, but remained on life support to assess organ donor viability and locate recipients. Her family released a statement saying they "lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul".
73
Born 1949-02-20. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
Ivana Maria Trump (née Zelníčková) was a Czech-American businesswoman, media personality, socialite, fashion designer, author, and model. Ivana lived in Canada in the 1970s before relocating to the United States and marrying Donald Trump in 1977. She held key managerial positions in The Trump Organization as vice president of interior design, as CEO and president of Trump's Castle casino resort, and as manager of the Plaza Hotel. Ivana and Donald Trump were prominent figures in New York society throughout the 1980s. The couple's divorce, finalized in 1992, was the subject of extensive media coverage. Following the divorce, she developed her own lines of clothing, fashion jewelry, and beauty products which were sold on QVC London and the Home Shopping Network. She wrote an advice column for Globe called "Ask Ivana" from 1995 through 2010 and published several books including works of fiction, self-help, and the autobiography Raising Trump. Ivana died of blunt impact injuries to the torso after falling down stairs at her home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
66
Born 1955-12-08. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:Stroke
Chantal Gallia (born Chantal Halimi) was an Algerian-born French singer, humorist, and impersonator.
79
Born 1943-03-29. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou (Greek: Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου [eˈvaɲɟelos oðiˈseas papaθanaˈsi.u]), known professionally as Vangelis (/væŋˈɡɛlɪs/ vang-GHEL-iss; Greek: Βαγγέλης [vaɲˈɟelis]), was a Greek musician, composer, songwriter and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan. Vangelis died of heart failure, aged 79, at a hospital in Paris. He was suffering from several health issues in the last couple of years and allegedly died of Covid-19 complications, according to a number of reports.
50
Born 1972-02-17. Domain:Music. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
Oliver Taylor Hawkins was an American musician, widely known as the drummer for the rock band Foo Fighters, with whom he recorded eight studio albums between 1999 and 2021. Before joining the band in 1997, he was the touring drummer for Sass Jordan and for Alanis Morissette, as well as the drummer in the progressive experimental band Sylvia. On March 25, 2022, the Foo Fighters' official social media accounts announced that Hawkins, at age 50, had died with the cause of death being unconfirmed. In a statement by local health authorities, a call for emergency services was made because Hawkins was suffering from chest pain, while in his hotel room at the Casa Medina hotel in Bogotá, Colombia. Health personnel who attended the scene performed CPR. The band was on tour in South America at the time of the announcement and was scheduled to perform at the Estéreo Picnic Festival in Bogotá that night. The festival stage on which the Foo Fighters were to perform that night was turned into a candlelight vigil for Hawkins.
74
Born 1947-09-27. Domain:Music. Cause of death:COVID
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday), better known as Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor. He was noted for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy—Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose—has sold more than 65 million albums worldwide. More than four decades after its release, the first album still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually and stayed on the charts for over nine years, making it one of the best-selling albums in history. Aday appeared in over 50 films and television shows, sometimes as himself or as characters resembling his stage persona. His film roles include Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Bob Paulson in Fight Club (1999). His early stage work included dual roles in the original Broadway cast of The Rocky Horror Show, and he also appeared in the musical Hair, both on-and off-Broadway.
81
Born 1940-07-30. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Sir Clive Marles Sinclair was an English entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After spending several years as assistant editor of Instrument Practice, Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics in 1961, where he produced the first slim-line electronic pocket calculator in 1972 (the Sinclair Executive). Sinclair later moved into the production of home computers and produced the Sinclair ZX80, the UK's first mass-market home computer for less than £100, and later, with Sinclair Research, the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum. The latter is widely recognised by consumers and programmers for its importance in the early days of the British and wider European home computer industry, as well as helping to give birth to the British video game industry. Among other honours, Sinclair was knighted in 1983 for his contributions to the personal computer industry in the UK. Sinclair was also recognized for several commercial failures, including the Sinclair Radionics Black Watch wristwatch, the Sinclair Vehicles C5 battery electric vehicle, and the Sinclair Research TV80 flatscreen CRT handheld television set. The failure of the C5 along with a weakened computer market forced Sinclair to sell most of his companies by 1986. Through 2010, Sinclair concentrated on personal transport, including the A-bike, a folding bicycle for commuters, and the Sinclair X-1, a revised version of the C5 electric vehicle but which never made it to market. Sinclair died in London following an illness related to cancer that he had for over a decade. He was 81 years old.
38
Born 1982-09-18. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Heart
Igor Vovkovinskiy (Ukrainian: Ігор Вовковинський, romanized: Ihor Vovkovynskyj), also known as Igor Ladan, was a Ukrainian-American law student, actor and tallest person in the United States, at 7 feet 8+1⁄3 inches (234.5 cm), briefly taking the record from George Bell. Originally from Ukraine, Vovkovinskiy moved to Rochester, Minnesota in 1989 to be treated at the Mayo Clinic. At that time, he was already at least six feet tall. Vovkovinskiy acted in commercials and films, including the 2011 comedy Hall Pass, and became better known for wearing a T-shirt that read "World's Biggest Obama Supporter" to a Barack Obama rally. He was the first official tallest living person from two countries. He joined singer Zlata Ognevich in representing Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Vovkovinskiy's height was attributed to a tumor pressing on his pituitary gland, causing it to release an excessive amount of growth hormone. In 2019, he said on his YouTube channel that he was undergoing treatment for a heart condition. Vovkovinskiy was hospitalized for heart disease and died at the age of 38.
88
Born 1932-07-09. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Age
Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under George W. Bush. He was both the youngest and the second-oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963–1969), director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970), counsellor to the president (1969–1973), the United States Permanent Representative to NATO (1973–1974), and White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975). Between his terms as Secretary of Defense, he served as the CEO and chairman of several companies. In a memo read by Rumsfeld detailing how Guantanamo Bay detention camp interrogators induced stress in prisoners by forcing them to remain standing in one position for a maximum of four hours, Rumsfeld scrawled a handwritten note on the memo reading: "I stand for 8–10 hours a day. Why is standing [by prisoners] limited to 4 hours? D.R. Rumsfeld died from multiple myeloma at his home in Taos, New Mexico, at the age of 88.
75
Born 1945-09-18. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
John David McAfee (/ˈmækəfiː/ MAK-ə-fee) was a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate. In 1987 he wrote the first commercial anti-virus software, founding McAfee Associates to sell his creation. McAfee resigned in 1994 and sold his remaining stake in the company. McAfee was found dead due to an apparent suicide by hanging in a prison cell near Barcelona shortly after his extradition to the U.S. was authorized by Spain. On April 30, 2012, McAfee's property in Orange Walk Town, Belize, was raided by the Gang Suppression Unit of the Belize Police Department. At that time, McAfee was in bed with a girlfriend. A GSU press release stated that McAfee was arrested for unlicensed drug manufacturing and possession of an unlicensed weapon. He was released without charge. In 2012, Belize police spokesman, Raphael Martinez, confirmed that McAfee was neither convicted nor charged, only suspected. In January 2014, McAfee in Canada claimed that when the Belizean government raided his property, it seized his assets, and that his house later burned down under suspicious circumstances. On August 2, 2015, McAfee was arrested in Henderson County, Tennessee, on one count of driving under the influence and one count of possession of a firearm while intoxicated. In July 2019, McAfee and members of his entourage were arrested while his yacht was docked at Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, on suspicion of carrying high-caliber weapons and ammunition. They were held for four days before being released. On August 11, 2020, McAfee fabricated a hoax that he was arrested in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic, after refusing to replace a lace thong with a more effective face mask. McAfee later posted a picture of himself to Twitter with a bruised eye, claiming that it occurred during this arrest. However, the photo of the alleged arrest shows an officer with the German word for "police" on their uniform, so it could not have been an arrest in Norway. The Augsburg Police later confirmed McAfee unsuccessfully attempted to enter Germany on that day, but was not arrested. On November 12, 2012, Belize police began to search for McAfee as a "person of interest" in connection to the murder of American expatriate Gregory Viant Faull. Faull was found dead of a gunshot wound on November 11, 2012, at his home on the island of Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize. Faull was a neighbor of McAfee's. In a November 2012 interview with Wired, McAfee said that he had always been afraid police would kill him and refused their routine questions; he evaded the Belizean authorities. Belize's prime minister, Dean Barrow, called McAfee "extremely paranoid, even bonkers." McAfee fled Belize when he was sought for questioning concerning the murder. The magazine Vice accidentally gave away McAfee's location at a Guatemalan resort in early December 2012, when a photo taken by one of its journalists accompanying McAfee was posted with the EXIF geolocation metadata still attached. While in Guatemala, McAfee asked Chad Essley, an American cartoonist and animator, to set up a blog so that McAfee could write about his experience while on the run. McAfee then appeared publicly in Guatemala City, where he unsuccessfully sought political asylum. On December 5, 2012, McAfee was arrested for illegally entering Guatemala. Shortly afterward, he was placed under arrest, and a board to review McAfee's plea for asylum was formed. The committee denied his asylum, so he was taken from his holding facility to a detention center in order to await deportation to Belize. On December 6, 2012, Reuters and ABC News reported that McAfee had two minor heart attacks in a Guatemalan detention center and was hospitalized. McAfee's lawyer stated that his client had not suffered heart attacks, but had instead suffered from high blood pressure and anxiety attacks. McAfee later said he had faked the heart attacks while being held in Guatemala, to buy time for his attorney to file a series of appeals that ultimately prevented his deportation to Belize, thus hastening the government's decision to send him back to the United States. On December 12, 2012, McAfee was released from detention in Guatemala, and deported to the United States. On November 14, 2018, the Circuit Court in Orlando, Florida, refused to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit against McAfee for Faull's death. In January 2019, McAfee announced that he was on the run from U.S. authorities, and living internationally on a boat following the convening of a Grand Jury to indict him, his wife, and four of his 2020 Presidential campaign workers on tax-related charges. At the time the IRS had not independently confirmed the existence of these charges. On October 5, 2020, McAfee was arrested in Spain at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice for tax evasion. The June indictment, which was unsealed upon his arrest, alleged he earned millions of dollars from 2014 to 2018, but failed to file income tax returns. On October 6, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint that further alleged that McAfee and his bodyguard promoted certain initial coin offerings in a fraudulent cryptocurrencies pump-and-dump scheme. According to the SEC, McAfee presented himself as an impartial investor when he promoted the ICOs, despite the fact that he was allegedly paid $23 million in digital assets in exchange for the promotions. On March 5, 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York formally indicted McAfee and an executive adviser on these charges. McAfee was incarcerated in Spain, pending extradition to the United States. On June 23, 2021, the Spanish National Court authorized the extradition of McAfee to the United States, for criminal charges in Tennessee. McAfee died a few hours later. The New York extradition case was still pending in a lower Spanish court.
69
Born 1951-06-01. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Accident
Olivier Dassault was a French politician and billionaire, and a deputy in the French National Assembly. He was the son of Nicole (née Raffel) and Serge Dassault, and the grandson of Marcel Dassault. Dassault died when the helicopter he was on crashed in Touques in northwestern France. He was 69 years old. The pilot, the only other person on board, was also killed.
85
Born 1935-01-19. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:COVID
Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay was an Indian film actor. He was best known for his collaborations with Oscar-winning film director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films. In 1999 Soumitra Chattopadhyay became the first Indian film personality to be conferred with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest award for artists.
92
Born 1928-08-30. Domain:Other. Cause of death:Age
Alain Rey was a French linguist, lexicographer and radio personality. He was the editor-in-chief at French dictionary publisher Dictionnaires Le Robert.
78
Born 1942-01-09. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Lee Kun-hee was a South Korean businessman who served as chairman of the Samsung Group from 1987 to 2008 and from 2010 to 2020, and is credited with the transformation of Samsung to the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions, and memory chips. He was also a member of the International Olympic Committee. He was the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul. With an estimated net worth of US$21 billion at the time of his death, he was the richest person in South Korea, a position that he had held since 2007. He was convicted twice, once in 1996 and subsequently in 2008, for corruption and tax evasion charges, but was subsequently pardoned on both instances. In 2014, Lee was named the world's 35th most powerful person and the most powerful Korean by Forbes's list of the world's most powerful people along with his son Lee Jae-yong.
73
Born 1947-04-25. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
Catherine Evelyn Smith was a Canadian occasional backup singer, rock groupie, drug dealer, and legal secretary, who served 15 months in the California state prison system for injecting original Saturday Night Live cast member John Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine in 1982. Smith had been paid for a front-page headline story in the Hollywood tabloid the National Enquirer, where she stated she was the person who injected Belushi with a fatal drug overdose. Smith co-wrote the book Chasing the Dragon (1984) which told her life story; its title alludes to Smith's heroin addiction. Smith appeared prominently in the Bob Woodward book Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi (1984) and was played by Patti D'Arbanville in the 1989 film adaptation.
72
Born 1947-12-27. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Jacqueline Sauvage of Montargis, France, killed her husband Norbert Marot by shooting him in the back three times with a hunting rifle on 10 September 2012. This occurred the day after Sauvage's son committed suicide. Sauvage stated that Mr Marot had physically and sexually abused his wife, daughters and possibly his son. A criminal case was then filed against Mrs. Sauvage, that resulted in her being condemned to ten years in jail by a cour d'assises. She then filed an appeal motion, but the verdict remains unchanged, pronounced on 3 December 2015. On 31 January 2016, the French president François Hollande announced his giving a partial presidential pardon to Mrs Sauvage. This results in a reduction of her jail time of two years and nine months. On 28 December 2016, M. Hollande pronounced a full pardon, announced both on his personal Twitter account and by a release made by the Elysée. This decision led to Mrs Sauvage’s immediate release from the detention centre of Réau.
33
Born 1987-01-12. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Accident
Naya Marie Rivera was an American actress, model, and singer. She began her career as a child actress and model, appearing in national television commercials before landing the role of Hillary Winston on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Royal Family at the age of four (1991–1992). For the part she received a nomination for a Young Artist Award. After a series of recurring television roles and guest spots as a teenager, Rivera received her breakthrough role as an adult as Santana Lopez on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015). For the role she received nominations for numerous awards. She was signed to Columbia Records as a solo artist in 2011 and released a single in 2013, "Sorry", featuring rapper Big Sean. On July 8, 2020, Rivera was declared a missing person after her four-year-old son, Josey, was found alone in Rivera's rented boat at Lake Piru. On July 13, it was announced that a body had been found at Lake Piru. The sheriff's department captain, speaking with the Los Angeles Times, said the body had been discovered floating in the lake by divers when the search resumed in the morning; the body was confirmed to be Rivera's at a press conference held later that day.
34
Born 1986-01-21. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Suicide
Sushant Singh Rajput was an Indian film and television actor, dancer, television personality, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist. Rajput started his career with television serials. His debut show was Star Plus's romantic drama Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil (2008), followed by an award-winning performance in Zee TV's popular soap opera Pavitra Rishta (2009–11). Rajput made his film debut in the buddy drama Kai Po Che! (2013), for which he received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He then starred in the romantic comedy Shuddh Desi Romance (2013) and as the titular detective in the action thriller Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015). His highest-grossing releases came with a supporting role in the satire PK (2014), followed by the titular role in the sports biopic M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016). For his performance in the latter, he received his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. Rajput went on to star in the commercially successful films Kedarnath (2018) and Chhichhore (2019). NITI Aayog, the policy think-tank of the Indian government, signed him to promote the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP). Apart from acting and running innsaei ventures, Rajput was actively involved in various programmes like Sushant4Education, as a part of efforts to help young students. Rajput was found dead of an apparent suicide by hanging in his Bandra home in Mumbai. He had reportedly been suffering from depression for several months.
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.
91
Born 1929-02-13. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:COVID
Fierro had training as an actress in theater but not as a screen actress. In her personal life Fierro had five children. Fierro acted in a famous scene in the 1975 film Jaws, in which she (as Mrs. Kintner) slapped the police chief. The scene required several takes. Fierro recalled slapping the actor playing the police chief (Roy Scheider) 17 times, saying "I slapped him hard with a loose wrist, which was what I was taught in acting school." Fierro reportedly had also "objected to the profanity" of the scene's dialogue as originally drafted, and the director, Steven Spielberg, wanted dialogue that accorded with Fierro's "everywoman looks," so the scene's dialogue was rewritten the day before it was filmed.
74
Born 1945-04-24. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age
Lawrence Gordon Tesler was an American computer scientist who worked in the field of human–computer interaction. Tesler worked at Xerox PARC, Apple, Amazon, and Yahoo! While at PARC, Tesler's work included Smalltalk, the first dynamic object-oriented programming language, and Gypsy, the first word processor with a graphical user interface for the Xerox Alto. During this, along with colleague Tim Mott, Tesler developed the idea of copy and paste functionality and the idea of modeless software. While at Apple, Tesler worked on the Apple Lisa and the Apple Newton, and helped to develop Object Pascal and its use in application programming toolkits including MacApp. Tesler maintained his strong preference for modeless software well beyond his time at PARC. To promote his preference, as of 1995, Tesler equipped his automobile with a personalized California license plate reading "NOMODES". Along with others, he had also been using the phrase "Don't Mode Me In" for years, as a rallying cry to eliminate or reduce modes. His personal website was located at "nomodes.com" and on Twitter had used the handle "@nomodes".
82
Born 1937-11-25. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age
Charles Ingerham Peddle was an American electrical engineer best known as the main designer of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, the KIM-1 single-board computer, and its successor, the Commodore PET personal computer, both based on the 6502. Peddle, along with the 6502's co-designer Bill Mensch, are regarded as personal computer pioneers, in that both the 6502 technology and business model were instrumental in helping launch the personal computer revolution. After Peddle's death, Mensch wrote in memoriam.
63
Born 1956-01-16. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Heart attack
Andrew McArthur Smith, known professionally as Greedy Smith, was an Australian vocalist, keyboardist, harmonicist and songwriter with Australian pop/new wave band Mental As Anything. Smith wrote many of their hit songs including "Live it Up" which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian singles chart. Smith had a solo music career, had worked with other bands and was also an artist and television personality. He was given the nickname "Greedy" after eating 15 pieces of chicken on stage one night.