- See also: Deaths in 2001, 2002, and Deaths in 2003
- 2 Zac Foley,31, Bass Guitarist for EMF
- 3 Freddy Heineken, 78, beer magnate.
- 7 Naughtia Childs, 22, porn star (suicide)
- 7 Jon Lee, 33, British drummer.
- 8 Dave Thomas, 69, US entrepreneur, founder of Wendy's hamburger restaurants.
- 11 Cyrus Vance, 87, former United States Secretary of State, international peacemaker.
- 12 Stanley Unwin, 90, comedian
- 13 Ted Demme, film and television director
- 16 Bobo Olson, American boxer
- 16 Ron Taylor, American actor
- 17 Camilo José Cela, 85, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 18 Alex Hannum, 78, pro basketball coach
- 19 Jeff Astle, 59, English footballer
- 21 Peggy Lee, 81, US Singer, Actress
- 22 Eric de Maré, 91, architectural photographer and writer
- 23 Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist
- 23 Robert Nozick, philosopher
- 28 Dick Lane, 73, American football player
- 28 Astrid Lindgren, 94, Swedish children's book author
- Julian Faber, 84, English business executive
- 6 Max Perutz, founder of molecular biology
- 7 Elisa Bridges, 28, Playboy model
- 7 Jack Fairman, 88, British Formula One driver
- 8 Joachim Hoffmann, German historian
- 9 Princess Margaret, 71, British royal family (sister of Queen Elizabeth II)
- 11 Barry Foster, 62, (heart attack), British actor.
- 12 Theresa Bernstein, 111, artist
- 12 George Eiferman, 76, bodybuilder, won Mr.Universe in 1962
- 15 Mike Darr baseball player
- 15 Howard K. Smith, TV journalist
- 15 Kevin Smith, played Ares on Xena series
- 18 Todd Summer, marine seargent whose death sparked lengthy and complex murder trial
- 19 Virginia Hamilton, Indian writer
- 21 John Thaw, 60, (cancer), British actor, most famous for the detective series,Morse and The Sweeney.
- 21 A. L. Barker, British author
- 22 Brendan O'Dowda, 76, Irish Tenor
- 22 Sir Raymond Firth, 100, British anthropologist
- 22 Chuck Jones, US animator
- 24 Leo Ornstein, 109, radical composer/pianist
- 27 Spike Milligan, 83, UK comedian, writer and actor
- 28 Mary Stuart, 75, soap opera actress best known for her 35-year starring role on Search for Tomorrow
- 11 Rudolf Hell,100, German inventor and manufacturer
- 13 Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher
- 17 Rosetta Lenoire, 90, actress, died by complications from diabetes.
- 18 Maude Farris-Luse,115, Oldest Recognized Person in the World
- 20 Ivan Novikoff,102, Russian premier ballet master
- 21 Amanda Dowler,13, British Murder Victim
- 25 Kenneth Wolstenholme, 81, British football commentator
- 27 Milton Berle, 93, Mr. Television, US comedian
- 27 Dudley Moore, 66, (brain disease), UK actor and writer
- 27 Billy Wilder, 95, US film director
- 29 Rico Yan, 27, Philippine TV/Movie Actor
- 30 Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, 101, the Queen Mother, member of the British Royal Family.
- 31 Barry Took, 73, UK comedian and writer, also wrote in the US
- 5 Layne Staley, 34, former Alice in Chains frontman, died after injecting a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a "speedball"
- 7 John Agar, 82, actor in monster movies who was once married to Shirley Temple
- 8 Maria Felix, Mexican film star
- 9 Leopold Vietoris (aged 110), Austrian mathematician
- 15 Byron White, US athlete and Supreme Court justice
- 16 Franz Krienbühl, Swiss speed skater
- 16 Robert Urich, 55, Actor cancer
- 18 Thor Heyerdahl, 87, Norwegian anthropologist
- 19 Marthe Errolle, 86, Opera Soprano, performed at Carnegie Hall and The Metropolitan Opera
- 19 (Body discovered), Layne Staley, Singer with band Alice in Chains
- 23 Linda Boreman better known as Linda Lovelace, 53, porn star turned political activist who was killed in a car crash
- 25 Lisa Lopes, Singer with band TLC
- 25 Indra Devi (aged 102), "Yoga teacher to the stars"
- 26 Lou Thesz, professional wrestler
- 27 Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll
- 27 Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Industrialist and art collector
- 28 Alexander Lebed, Russian general and politician
- 28 Lou Thesz, professional wrestler
- 2 William Thomas Tutte, 84, Bletchley Park cryptographer and British, later Canadian, mathematician.
- 3 Barbara Castle, 91, British politician.
- 3 Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, 73, president of Somaliland and formerly prime minister of Somalia and British Somaliland.
- 3 Mohan Singh Oberoi, 103, Indian hotelier and retailer.
- 5 Hugo Banzer Suárez, 75, president of Bolivia, as dictator 1971-1978 and democratic president 1997-2001.
- 6 Pim Fortuyn, 54, Dutch politician, intellectual and sociologist murdered by Volkert van der Graaf with political motives.
- 7 Seattle Slew, 28, last triple crown winner on 25th anniversary of winning Kentucky Derby.
- 11 Joseph Bonanno, 97, Sicilian, former boss of a Mafia crime family.
- 13 Ruth Cracknell, 76, redoubtable Australian actress most famous for the long-running role of Maggie Beare in the series "Mother and Son".
- 15 Nellie Shabalala, 49, South African singer and wife of leader/founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joseph Shabalala.
- 16 Edwin Alonzo Boyd, 88, noted Canadian bank-robber and prison escaper of the 1950s.
- 16 Alec Campbell, 103, Australia's last surviving ANZAC died in a nursing home.
- 17 Joe Black, 78, Baseball first Black pitcher to win a World Series game.
- 18 Davey Boy Smith, 39, 'British Bulldog' professional wrestler.
- 19 John Gorton, 90, 19th Prime Minister of Australia.
- 20 Stephen Jay Gould, 60, paleontologist and popular science author.
- 21 Niki de Saint Phalle, 71, French artist.
- 22 (remains discovered; actual death probably took place sometime in 2001), Chandra Levy, 24, U.S. Congressional intern
- 23 Sam Snead, 89, golfer.
- 26 Mamo Wolde, 69, Ethiopian marathon runner.
- 1 Hansie Cronje, 32, (air crash), South African cricketer
- 4 Fernando Belaúnde Terry, democratic president of Peru, 1963-1968 and 1980-1985.
- 4 Caroline Knapp, 42, author of Drinking: A Love Story.
- 5 Dee Dee Ramone, founding member of The Ramones
- 6 Hans Janmaat, controversial far-right politician in the Netherlands.
- 10 John Gotti, imprisoned mobster.
- 11 Robbin Crosby, guitarist of rock band Ratt.
- 11 Robert Roswell Palmer, Historian, writer
- 12 Bill Blass, fashion designer.
- 14 Jose Bonilla boxing former world champion, of asthma
- 14 June Jordan, 65, American writer and teacher, of breast cancer
- 15 Said Belqola, Moroccan referee of the 1998 FIFA World Cup final
- 17 Fritz Walter, football player, captain of 1954 World Cup winners.
- 17 Willie Davenport, Olympic Games champion
- 18 Jack Buck, Major League Baseball announcer
- 18 Nancy Addison, 54, a soap actress died of cancer
- 22 Esther Pauline Friedman, author of the Ann Landers column
- 22 Darryl Kile, Major League Baseball player, age 33
- 23 Pedro 'El Rockero' Alcazar, Panama boxer died after losing his world Flyweight championship to Fernando Montiel in Las Vegas the night before
- 23 Arnold Weinstock, 77, British businessman
- 24 Miles Francis Stapleton Fitzalan-Howard, 86, 17th Duke of Norfolk
- 24 Pierre Werner, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, "father of the Euro"
- 26 Jay Berwanger, college football player, first winner of the Heisman Trophy
- 27 John Entwistle, 57, (heart attack), bassist for The Who
- 28 Arthur "Spud" Melin, responsible for marketing hula-hoop and frisbee.
- 29 Rosemary Clooney, 74, singer
- 4 Winnifred Van Tongerloo, oldest living survivor of the Titanic
- 4 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., African-American General
- 5 Ted Williams, Baseball Hall of Fame member
- 5 Katy Jurado, 68, Mexican actress who was once married to Ernest Borgnine
- 6 - Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian Businessman (b. 1932)
- 6 John Frankenheimer, 74, film director
- 8 Gethin Rhys Williams, Actor, "Rownd a Rownd"
- 8 Anthony Swithin, fantasy writer, paleontologist
- 8 Ward Kimball, Disney animator
- 9 Rod Steiger, 77, (kidney failure), actor
- 9 Laurence Janifer, Science Fiction writer
- 10 John Wallach, journalist
- 13 Yousuf Karsh, 93, celebrity portrait photographer as "Karsh of Ottawa"
- 14 Joaquín Balaguer, 95, former President of the Dominican Republic
- 15 Samantha Runnion, 5, child who was kidnapped, sexually abuse and murdered by Alejandro Avila.
- 16 John Cocke, key figure in the development of RISC architecture
- 16 Jack Olsen, "True crime" writer
- 19 Alexander Ginzburg, leading Soviet dissident (alternatively Aleksandr Ginzburg)
- 19 Alan Lomax, documenter of blues and folk songs
- 22 Prince Ahmed bin Salman, member of the Saudi Arabian royal family, owner of Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner War Emblem
- 23 Leo McKern, 82, Australian actor best known for playing Rumpole of the Bailey and one of the Number Twos in The Prisoner
- 23 William Pierce, rocket scientist, neo-Nazi, author of "The Turner Diaries"
- 23 Chaim Potok, 73, US author
- 24 Mike Clark, 61, former NFL kicker
- 25 Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher
- 3 Carmen Silvera, 80, (lung cancer), UK television and theatre actress. Played Fiona Gray in Dad's Army, Captain Manwaring's secret love, and Edith in 'Allo 'Allo!
- 3 (approx date) Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman child- murder victims
- 5 Josh Ryan Evans, Actor, played Timmy on Passions
- 5 Chick Hearn, television and radio announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team since 1960
- 5 Franco Lucentini, 82, Italian writer, author of The Sunday Woman
- 6 Edsger Dijkstra, computer scientist
- 10 Doris Wishman, cult movie director
- 12 Enos Slaughter, baseball Hall of Famer
- 12 Marjorie Williamson, university administrator
- 14 Larry Rivers, American painter
- 14 Dave Williams, singer of Drowning Pool
- 15 Jesse Brown, former United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs
- 19 Abu Nidal, terrorist
- 19 Sunday Silence, thoroughbred race horse, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes
- 24 Wayne Simmons, American Football player
- 24 Hoyt Wilhelm, Baseball Hall of Fame member
- 25 Dorothy Hewett, Australian poet, playwright and novelist
- 27 Richard Ricci, Utah, Handyman, suspected of the kidnapping of 14 year old Elizabeth Smart
- 31 Lionel Hampton, 94, jazz musician
- ?? Bison Dele, Basketball star (Detroit Pistons), presumed murdered.
- 4 Frankie Albert, National Football League star
- 7 John P. Frank Lawyer whose representation of Ernesto Miranda in 1966 helped create the Miranda Rights reading requirement.
- 8 Alfonso Ramirez Famous Mexican Bullfighter
- 11 Johnny Unitas, National Football League Hall of fame quarterback.
- 12 Kim Hunter, 79, (heart attack), stage and film actress best known for her role as Stella in the original Broadway and film versions of A Streetcar Named Desire
- 18 Bob Hayes, National Football League Dallas Cowboys star, and Olympic games Hall of Fame member.
- 19 Sergei Bodrov Jr., Russian movie star
- 21 Angelo Buono, Jr., the "Hillside Strangler"
- 21 Robert L. Forward, physicist and science fiction author
- 22 Joseph Nathan Kane (aged 103), pre-eminent American historical author and factualist
- 22 Jan de Hartog, novelist and playwright
- 1 Walter Annenberg, publisher and philanthropist
- 2 Heinz von Foerster, physicist and philosopher, one of the founders of constructivism
- 3 Bruce Paltrow, television and film producer, father of actress Gwyneth Paltrow with Blythe Danner.
- 4 Alphonse Chapanis, a founder of ergonomics
- 6 Claus von Amsberg, diplomat and husband of the Dutch Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
- 7 Pierangelo Bertoli, 59, italian singer and songwriter
- 10 Christine Stevens, founder of the Animal Welfare Institute
- 12 Audrey Mestre, 28, French world record-setting free diver.
- 12 Nozomi Momoi, 24, Japanese AV idol
- 13 Stephen Ambrose, 66, historian and author of "Band of Brothers"
- 17 Derek Bell, Member of The Chieftans, harpist
- 18 Roman Tam, Hong Kong canto-pop singer
- 19 Michelle Parma, 27, actress
- 19 Manuel Alvarez Bravo, 100, pre-eminent Mexican photographer
- 20 Barbara Berjer, soap opera actress for over thirty years
- 22 Richard Helms, former CIA director
- 24 Winton M. Blount last United States Postmaster General to have served in a Presidential Cabinet
- 24 Harry Hay, US gay rights activist and Mattachine Society founder
- 24 Adolph Green, 87, American lyricist and playwright
- 25 Richard Harris, 72, (Hodgkin's disease), Actor
- 25 Paul Wellstone, United States Senator
- 28 Margaret Booth, 104, Academy Award-winning film editor
- 29 Chang-Lin Tien, educator, 7th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
- 30 Jam Master Jay, 37, DJ of Run DMC, murdered
- 31 Yuri Ahronovitch, Russian conductor
- 31 Baroness Hylton-Foster, 94, British peer
- 2 Charles Sheffield, science fiction author and physicist
- 2 Brian Behan, Irish writer, younger brother of Brendan Behan
- 2 Tonio Selwart, 106, Bavarian actor and Broadway performer
- 3 Jonathan Harris, TV's "Dr. Smith" on Lost in Space
- 3 Lonnie Donegan, 71, skiffle musician
- 4 Antonio Margheriti, 72, Italian filmmaker, heart attack
- 6 Sid Sackson, board game designer
- 7 Rudolf Augstein, founder and chief editorialist of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel
- 9 Merlin Santana, 26, actor
- 15 Myra Hindley, 60, the Moors murderess
- 15 Eddie Bracken, 82, actor
- 17 Pedro Cabrera, Cuban actor and director who was a star in Puerto Rico's television for many years.
- 17 Abba Eban, 88, Israeli foreign affair minister
- 17 Milivi Adams, 5, young cancer victim who became the symbol of the fight of many Vieques citizens to have the military out of there.
- 18 James Coburn, 74, actor
- 19 Prince Alexandre de Merode, International Olympic Committee member
- 21 Hadda Brooks, 86, U.S. jazz singer, pianist and composer
- 23 Roberto Matta, Chilean Artist
- 24 John Rawls, political theorist
- 25 Rosa Carrillo, Univision news anchor
- 26 Verne Winchell, founder of Winchell's Donuts and nicknamed "The Donut King"
- 29 Florence Stephenson Mahoney, 103, health advocate
- 30 Tim Woods, 68, professional wrestler who wrestled as Mr. Wrestling
- 30 Marie Creighton Reynolds, 44, singer/songwriter. Wrote songs for notable performers such as Jim Nabors & Sandi Patty. Brain tumor.
- 3 Glenn Quinn, actor
- 5 Roone Arledge, creator of Monday Night Football and Nightline dies at age 71
- 5 Ne Win, Burmese dictator
- 6 Charles Rosen, Pioneer in artificial intelligence
- 7 Paddy Tunney, Irish traditional artist
- 6 Father Philip Berrigan, priest, political activist
- 9 Stan Rice, painter, educator, poet, husband of author Anne Rice
- 10 Ian MacNaughton, director of most episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- 12 Dee Brown, author (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee)
- 13 Zal Yanofsky member of The Lovin' Spoonful music group.
- 17 Hank Luisetti, basketball star and innovator
- 18 Wayne Owens, former U.S. Congressman (D-UT)
- 18 Ramon John Hnatyshyn, former Governor-General of Canada
- 19 Tony Barr, actor and TV executive
- 19 Asif Ramzi, Pakistani militant wanted for the murder of reporter Daniel Pearl, blew himself up while making explosives.
- 19 Arthur Rowley, English Footballer, holder of the record for most career league goals scored.
- 20 Joanne Campbell, black British actress who starred in the comedy series, Me and My Girl (TV series) in the 1980s
- 22 Kenneth Tobey, prolific character actor (appeared in about 100 films including: Twelve O'Clock High, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Thing from Another World and Airplane!)
- 22 Desmond Hoyte, President of Guyana from 1985 to 1992
- 23 Joe Strummer, former singer for The Clash.
- 23 Randy Charlton, Longtime Apple Computer enthusiast and President of REDDAUG.
- 24 Tomas Henriquez, Venezuelan actor
- 25 William T. Orr, television executive (brought Maverick, F-Troop and 77 Sunset Strip to TV)
- 26 Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer
- 26 Armand Zildjian, cymbals manufacturer
- 27 George Roy Hill, film director (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting)
- 30 Mary Wesley novelist, author of The Camomile Lawn
For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2001, Deaths in 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994 ...
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