Persons of letters and arts but also important personalities of the international political scene among those who are no longer with us
In 2023, the writer Milan Kundera, the Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi, the singer Tina Turner, Matthew Perry, the well-known Chandler from “Friends” and Henry Kissinger passed away…
JANUARY
– 07: Russell BANKS, 82, multi-award-winning American writer of the great names of contemporary prose, known for his portrayal of the working class in his works.
– 10: Jeff BECK , 78, legendary British guitarist, who rose to fame in the 1960s with the rock band The Yardbirds.
– 10: George PELL, 81, Australian cardinal and top Roman Catholic church official who was jailed for sexually abusing minors in Australia before the conviction was overturned.
– 12: Lisa Marie PRESLEY, 54, musician, singer and only child of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley.
– 16: Gina LOLLOBRIDGITA, 95, Italian actress. To the general public, “Lolo”, as she was fondly called in Italy, became known mainly with the work “Bread, Love and Imagination”, which was filmed in 1953, with director Luigi Comencini and co-starring Vittorio De Sica.
– 17: Lucille RADON, 118 years old, Sister Andre, the French nun who until then held the title of oldest person in the world. She was born on February 11, 1904. Shortly before she celebrated her 117th birthday, she managed to beat Covid-19.
-18: Marcel ZANINI, 99 years old, great French jazz musician.
– 18: David CROSBY, 81, one of the most influential rock musicians of the 1960s and 1970s, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with two different bands.
FEBRUARY
– 03: Paco RAMPAN, 88, great Spanish couturier famous for his metallic dresses — Coco Chanel called him “the metalworker.”
– 05: Pervez Musharraf, 79, the general who ruled Pakistan for nearly a decade after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1999, oversaw the country’s rapid economic growth and sought to introduce socially liberal values to the conservative Muslim country.
– 07: Daniel DEFER, 85 years old, French sociologist, founder of the non-governmental organization AIDES, which fights against AIDS.
-8: Bert BACARA, 94, American composer.
– 10: Carlos SAURA, 91, Spanish filmmaker, figure in European cinema and director of films such as “Cria cuervos” (Feed the crows) of 1975.
– 10: Hans MONTROW, 95, East Germany’s last communist prime minister who oversaw democratic reforms that paved the way for German reunification.
-14: Soichiro TOYOTA, 97, chairman emeritus of Toyota Motor who turned the Japanese carmaker into a leading global brand.
-14: Mario VITTI, 96 years old, Greek-Italian Hellenist. A leading scholar of the Greek language, a close friend of Odysseus Elytis, Mikis Theodorakis and many other writers and artists, he had published in Italy his much-translated work History of Modern Greek Literature and had taught modern Greek for many years at the University of Tusia, in central Italy .
– 15: Raquel WELLS, 82, American actress and Hollywood sex symbol.
-22: Ahmad KOREI, 85, the first speaker of the Palestinian Parliament and one of the key negotiators of the Oslo peace accords with Israel.
MARCH
– 03: Kenzaburo OE, 88, Japanese author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1994)
-9 : Chaim Topol, 87, Israeli actor, best known for his role as Tevye in the 1971 classic “Fiddler on the Roof.”
-12: Dick FOSBERY, 76, American athlete, Olympic champion in 1968 and the man who revolutionized the high jump with a technique (Fosbury Pulse) that became a school and which today bears his name
-17: Lance REDDICK, 60, American actor, known from the TV series “The Wire”.
– 28: Ryuichi SAKAMOTO, 71, Academy Award-winning Japanese composer known for his scores for the films “The Last Emperor,” “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” and others.
APRIL
– 13: Mary QUANT, 93, British fashion designer, creator of the miniskirt.
– 14: Murray MELVIN, 90, British actor, best known for the films “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Barry Lyndon”, as well as the TV series “Torchwood”.
– 19: MOONBIN, 25, member of South Korean K-pop band Astro.
– 25: Harry BELAFONTE, 96, American singing and film superstar, who fought for human rights in the US and abroad
-30: Vyacheslav (Slava) Zaitsev, 85, famous Russian fashion designer, also known by the nickname “Red Dior”.
MAY
-2: Valentin Yudaskin, 59, the first Russian fashion designer to be admitted to France’s Haute Couture Association in the 1990s.
-8: Rita LI, 75, legendary Brazilian musician, called Brazil’s “Queen of Rock”, iconic figure of the Tropicalia movement in the 1960s.
– 18: Helmut BERGER, 78, Austrian actor, known for his collaborations with director Luchino Visconti.
– 19: Martin AMIS, 73, British novelist who wrote, among others, “Money” and “The Arrow of Time.”
– 24: Tina TURNER, 83, American singer who had been granted Swiss citizenship, “Queen of Rock and Roll”, one of the world’s best-selling recording artists.
JUNE
– 05: Astrud Gilberto, 83, Brazilian musician, bossa nova singer, known for recording “The Girl From Ipanema”.
– 12: Silvio BERLUSCONI, 86, former Italian prime minister, a billionaire who built Italy’s biggest media company before transforming the political landscape.
– 13: Cormac McCARTHY, 89, Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, who became popular with the film versions of his works ‘All the Pretty Horses’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’ (No Homeland for the Dead).
– 15: Glenda JACKSON, 87, British actress and politician. Former Labor MP rose to international fame in the 1970s winning two Academy Awards for Women in Love (Ken Russell’s 1970 film) and Infidelity with Dignity (1973 Melvin Frank) and was twice nominated for the award.
JULY
– 01: Viktoria AMELINA, 37, Ukrainian writer fatally wounded in a Russian strike.
– 11: Milan KUNDERA, 94 years old, Czech-born novelist, author of the book “The unbearable lightness of existence”) who lived nearly five decades in Paris where he immigrated after his expectations were rejected by his communist-ruled homeland.
– 16: Jane BIRKIN, 76, British singer and actress, the favorite Englishwoman of the French.
– 21: Tony BENNETT, 96, American pop and jazz singer, known among other things for the big hit with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”, who managed to win younger generations of fans well into the 21st century .
– 26: Sinead O’CONNOR, 56, Irish singer, who had a big hit in the 1990s with the song ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, the music video for which has been viewed almost 400 million times on YouTube.
August
– 07: William FRIEDKIN, 87, American, Oscar-winning director, the creator of “The Exorcist” and “The Man from France.”
-10: Michela MURZIA, 51, Italian novelist, playwright and journalist, who has been outspoken on many issues, including euthanasia and the rights of the LGBTI+ community.
-22: Salvatore COUTUNIO, known as Toto Coutunio, 80, Italian singer, famous in his country and abroad for his song “Un Italiano vero” and his Eurovision victory in 1990 with “Insieme: 1992”.
– 23: Yevgeny PRIGOZIN, 62, founder and head of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner.
– 30: Mohamed AL-FAGEND, 94, Egyptian multi-millionaire, former owner of Harrods and owner of the Ritz, father of Dodi, friend of Princess Diana.
SEPTEMBER
-1: Jimmy BUFFETT, 76, American singer and songwriter, best known for his song “Margaritaville,” a hymn to life in the tropics.
-9: Mangosuthu BUTHELEZI, 95, veteran South African politician, Zulu prince and controversial figure during the liberation struggle against apartheid.
-11: Ian WILMOUTH, 79, British scientist whose team made history by being the first to clone a mammal, Dolly the sheep.
– 15: Fernando Botero, 91, Colombian painter and sculptor
-22: Giorgio NAPOLITANO, 98, former president of the Italian Republic
– 25: Matteo MESSINA DENARO, 61, wanted for three decades by all the police forces in Italy, the powerful godfather of the Sicilian Mafia who died in prison was a ruthless killer, the last representative of the old guard of Cosa Nostra.
– 28: Michael GAMBON, 82, British-Irish actor, who played the film character Dumbledore in “Harry Potter”.
OCTOBER
– 13: Louise Glick, 80 years old, American poet and Nobel laureate of Literature (2020).
– 16: Martti AHTISAARI, 86, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the tenth president of Finland from 1994 to 2000.
-27: Li Keqiang, 68, former premier of China.
– 28: Matthew PERRY, 54, American-Canadian actor and producer, who became famous after portraying Chandler Bing in the popular TV series “Friends”.
NOVEMBER
– 22: Emmanuel LEROY LANDIRY, 94, French historian, one of the most translated in Europe and the United States.
-29: Henry KISSINGER, 100, historical figure of American diplomacy, US Secretary of State during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford presidency and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1973).
-29: Eliot ERGUIT, 95 years old, famous French-American photojournalist and director, pillar of the Magnum agency.
-30: Shane MANGOWAN, 65, lead singer of the band “Pogues”, recognized as one of Ireland’s greatest lyricist-songwriters.
DECEMBER
-1: Sandra O’CONNOR, 93, American former judge, the first woman appointed to the US Supreme Court and considered one of its moderate voices.
-6: Norman LEAR, 101 years old, pioneer of American television and king of sitcoms, screenwriter, director and prolific producer.
-8: Ryan O’NEILL, 82, American actor, known for his roles in Love Story and Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon.
-15: Toni Negri, 90, Italian philosopher.
– 16: Sheikh Nawaf AL AHMED AL SHAMBAH, 86, Emir of Kuwait since 2020.
– 26: Wolfgang Schäuble, 81, veteran German politician, who served as a member of the German parliament, the Bundestag, for more than half a century.
– 27: Lee Sung-kyun, 48, South Korean actor, famous for his role in the film ‘Parasite’, which won the Oscars in 2020.
-27: Gaston GLOCK, 94, Austrian engineer and businessman, who developed one of the world’s best-selling pistols.
-27: Jacques DELORE, 98 years old, former president of the European Commission, the “father” of the euro and personality of the French left.
Source :Skai
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
