From former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to rock queen Tina Turner and Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, here are some of 2023’s most notable deaths.
This year’s list includes former heads of state, prime ministers, diplomats, and dictators.
– January –
– 07: RUSSELL BANKS, 82, prolific and acclaimed US novelist whose work charted the interior lives of marginalised people
– 10: JEFF BECK, 78, British guitar virtuoso and innovator who rose to rock and roll fame with 1960s group the Yardbirds
– 10: CARDINAL GEORGE PELL, 81, Australian archbishop, giant of the Catholic Church, who was jailed for child sexual abuse but later cleared
– 12: LISA MARIE PRESLEY, 54, singer-songwriter and only child of Elvis Presley, dies of a bowel condition caused by weight loss surgery
– 16: GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA, 95, Italian film diva, one of the last icons of Golden Age Hollywood
– 17: LUCILE RANDON, 118, French nun, who was the world’s oldest known person
– 18: DAVID CROSBY, 81, American folk-rock pioneer
– February –
– 03: PACO RABANNE, 88, Spanish fashion designer famed for his eccentric designs and fragrances
– 05: PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, 79, Pakistan’s former military ruler
– 08: BURT BACHARACH, 94, legendary pop composer of hits including “Walk on By” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”
– 10: CARLOS SAURA, 91, acclaimed Spanish director who critiqued Franco’s dictatorship
– 15: RAQUEL WELCH, 82, US actress and global sex symbol who famously donned a fur bikini in a 1960s caveman epic
– March –
– 03: KENZABURO OE, 88, Nobel-winning Japanese novelist
– 09: CHAIM TOPOL, 87, Israeli actor best known for his role as milkman Tevye in 1971 classic “Fiddler on the Roof”
– 12: DICK FOSBURY, 76, athlete who revolutionised the high jump with a leap backwards over the bar, known as the “Fosbury flop”, that replaced the scissor kick approach
– 21: CLAUDE LORIUS, 91, French glaciologist and climate science pioneer who helped prove humanity’s role in global warming
– 28: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO, 71, Japanese composer who pioneered electronic music
– April –
– 13: MARY QUANT, 93, rule-breaking British fashion designer and pioneer of the miniskirt
– 16: AHMAD JAMAL, 92, US pianist, composer and band leader who released some 80 albums and helped transform jazz, pop and hip-hop
– 19: MOONBIN, 25, K-Pop megastar and member of boy band Astro, found dead at his home in an apparent suicide
– 22: BARRY HUMPHRIES, aka DAME EDNA EVERAGE, 89, Australian comedian who invented the iconic lilac-haired parody of a suburban housewife
– 25: CAROLYN BRYANT, 88, US woman whose claim of unwanted attention from Black teenager Emmett Till led to his lynching in 1955
– 25: HARRY BELAFONTE, 96, superstar American music performer and activist
– 27: JERRY SPRINGER, 79, popular US talk show host, whose rowdy programme symbolised low-brow TV
– May –
– 19: MARTIN AMIS, 73, leading voice in modern British fiction
– 24: TINA TURNER, 83, US rock icon famed for her electrifying stage presence
– June –
– 05: ASTRUD GILBERTO, 83, Brazilian “Girl from Ipanema” singer
– 05: ROBERT HANSSEN, 79, US double agent who fed Russia some of America’s deepest secrets
– 06: FRANCOISE GILOT, 101, French artist and longtime lover of Pablo Picasso, with whom she had two children
– 10: TED KACZYNSKI, 81, “Unabomber” who terrorised America with a two-decade bombing campaign aimed at halting the advance of modern technology and society
– 12: SILVIO BERLUSCONI, 86, larger-than-life, scandal-tainted former Italian premier and billionaire media mogul
– 13: CORMAC McCARTHY, 89, titan of American fiction with novels including “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men”
– 15: GLENDA JACKSON, 87, British Oscar-winning actress and politician
– July –
– 01: VICTORIA AMELINA, 37, rising star of Ukrainian literature, dies from injuries sustained in a Russian missile attack
– 11: MILAN KUNDERA, 94, Czech-French novelist who criticised Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. Best known for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”
– 16: JANE BIRKIN, 76, British-born singer and actress famous for her creative and romantic relationship with French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg
– 21: TONY BENNETT, 96, last of the classic American crooners
– 26: SINEAD O’CONNOR, 56, iconoclastic Irish pop singer, best known for her 1990 global hit “Nothing Compares 2 U”
– 30: PAUL REUBENS, 70, US comic famed for his beloved man-child “Pee-wee Herman” character
– August –
– 07: WILLIAM FRIEDKIN, 87, US director of “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection”
– 09: SIXTO RODRIGUEZ, 81, cult American singer-songwriter who was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Searching for Sugar Man”
– 15: BINDESHWAR PATHAK, 80, Indian social reformer and revolutioniser of national sanitation, known as “toilet man”
– 23: YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, 62, head of Russian paramilitary group Wagner, killed in a plane crash after leading a mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership
– 30: MOHAMED AL-FAYED, 92, Egyptian ex-owner of Harrods department store and the Ritz in Paris, whose son Dodi died alongside Princess Diana in a car crash in 1997
– September –
– 02: SALIF KEITA, 76, Mali, Marseille and Saint-Etienne footballer
– 09: MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, 95, Zulu prince and veteran South African politician
– 10: IAN WILMUT, 79, pioneering British embryologist who led team that in 1996 created Dolly, the cloned sheep
– 15: FERNANDO BOTERO, 91, Colombian sculptor famous for his voluptuous forms
– 27: MICHAEL GAMBON, 82, British actor, played Albus Dumbledore in many “Harry Potter” films
– 25: MATTEO MESSINA DENARO, 61, one of the most ruthless Sicilian mafia bosses dies in prison
– 29: DIANNE FEINSTEIN, 90, trailblazing politician dubbed the “Lioness of the US Senate”
– October –
– 13: HUBERT REEVES, 91, Canadian-French astrophysicist, renowned for popularising space science
– 13: LOUISE GLUCK, 80, American poet, winner of Nobel and Pulitzer prizes
– 15: GISELLE KHOURY, 67, grande dame of Arab journalism
– 21: BOBBY CHARLTON, 86, English football hero, World Cup winner, Manchester United legend
– 27: LI KEQIANG, 68, Chinese premier during the first two five-year terms of President Xi Jinping
– 28: MATTHEW PERRY, 54, US star who played Chandler Bing in hit sitcom “Friends” dies after a long battle with addiction
– November –
– 19: ROSALYNN CARTER, 96, former US first lady who championed human rights, democracy and public health
– 29: HENRY KISSINGER, 100, US diplomat whose unapologetic promotion of raw American power helped shape the post-World War II world
– 30: SHANE MACGOWAN, 65, Irish singer-songwriter and booze-fuelled bard who fronted Celtic folk-punk band The Pogues
– December –
– 11: BULELWA MKUTUKANA aka ZAHARA, 36, South African afro-pop sensation, who suffered from liver damage due to alcoholism, dies in hospital
– 01: SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR, 93, the first woman to serve as a justice on the US Supreme Court, appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981
– 08: RYAN O’NEAL, 82, US actor and heartthrob of “Love Story” and “Barry Lyndon” fame
(With AFP inputs)
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