Famous People Who Died At 100

George Burns was an American actor, comedian, singer, and writer. Characterized by his cigar-smoke punctuation and arched eyebrow, which remained relevant for more than 75 years, Burns was one of the few entertainers to have achieved an equal amount of success in film, television, vaudeville, and radio. He has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Henry Kissinger's heart-warming story of a Jewish who fled Nazi Germany in 1938 to become an influential politician in the USA is truly inspirational. As a National Security Advisor and US Secretary of State, Kissinger played a key role in the US foreign policy from 1969 to 1977. 

French social anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss is remembered for his contribution to structural anthropology. His book Tristes Tropiques was based on his research deep in the Brazilian Amazon. While he left France for the U.S. during World War II, he later returned to Paris and received his doctorate.

The veteran British actress who belongs to the Golden Age of Hollywood is known for her stellar roles in films like Miranda, Third Time Lucky and State Secret. Glynis Johns is also a singer, distinguished by her husky voice. She acted on the stage and the television. The daughter of actor, Mervyn Johns, has a son from her first marriage.

After losing her husband and children in a yellow fever epidemic and her dress shop in the great Chicago fire, schoolteacher and dressmaker Mary Harris Jones became an activist, earning the nickname Mother Jones. A prominent unionist for coal miners and other workers, she also co-founded the Social Democratic Party.

John B. Goodenough is an American solid-state physicist and materials scientist. He is credited with developing the lithium-ion battery. In 2019, he became the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize when he was honored with the prestigious award for his work on lithium-ion batteries. He is also a recipient of the Copley Medal and the National Medal of Science.

Jolie Gabor, also known as Mama Jolie, was a renowned socialite and the mother of the actor sisters Zsa Zsa, Magda, and Eva Gabor. Born into a family of famous Hungarian jewelers, she herself owned multiple jewelry shops in Hungary and later established her business in the US.

British Egyptologist and anthropologist Margaret Murray was also a scholar of witchcraft. Her best-known work is her 1921 book The Witch Cult in Western Europe, which inspired later witchcraft scholars such as Gerald B. Gardner. The University College London professor had worked in places such as Egypt, Malta, and Petra.

Israelite prophet Isaiah is mentioned in the Book of Isaiah of the Bible. Some believe the 8th-century prophet had written all the 66 chapters of the Book of Isaiah, while others believe two separate portions were written by two people. He also finds mention in Judaism and Islam.

SS captain Erich Priebke made headlines when he was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 335 boys and men in groups of 5, at the Ardeatine Caves in Italy. He eventually died of old age in house arrest at age 100, and was the oldest surviving Nazi war criminal back then.

Miep Gies was one of the Dutch nationals who hid many Dutch Jews, including Anne Frank and her family, from the Nazis during the Second World War. In 1994, she was honored with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her bravery. In 1995, she received the Righteous Among the Nations medal.

Best known for his iconic movies such as The Naked Island and Children of Hiroshima, Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo initially wanted to be a screenwriter. Part of the Japanese navy during World War II, he later often used themes of war and social realism in his films.

Freya Stark was an Anglo-Italian travel writer and explorer. One of the first non-Arabs to explore the southern Arabian Desert, Stark penned down over 24 books on her travels in Afghanistan and the Middle East. She also wrote many essays and autobiographical works. In 1968, Freya Stark embarked on her last expedition to Afghanistan at the age of 75.

Margaret Burbidge was a British-American observational astronomer and astrophysicist. She was the first author of the influential B2FH paper and one of the founders of stellar nucleosynthesis. She held several leadership and administrative posts and was well known for her work opposing discrimination against women in astronomy. In 1988, she was awarded the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. 

Argentine-Canadian philosopher, physicist, and educator Mario Bunge is best remembered for his work on social sciences, metaphysics, and the philosophy of the mind. Part of the school of scientific realism, he had published more than 400 papers and was named to Science magazine’s Science Hall of Fame.

Alexandra David-Néel was a Belgian–French explorer, anarchist, spiritualist, Buddhist, writer, and opera singer. She is best remembered for traveling to important spiritual centers, including Lhasa, Tibet in 1924, when foreigners were forbidden from entering Lhasa. Alexandra David-Néel wrote more than 30 books and her teachings influenced people like Allen Ginsberg, Benjamin Crème, Jack Kerouac, Ram Dass, and Alan Watts.   

Francisco Morales Bermúdez was a Peruvian general and politician. He served as the President of Peru from 29 August 1975 to 28 July 1980. A prominent political leader, Morales Bermúdez also served as the Prime Minister of Peru in 1975. From 1969 to 1974, Francisco Morales Bermúdez served as the Minister of Economy and Finance.

Frits Philips, the only son of Anton Philips - a co-founder of Royal Philips Electronics N.V., served as the fourth Chairman of the BOD of Philips. Frits is also remembered for saving 382 Jews during the Nazi Occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War for which he was later recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

Jacqueline Piatigorsky was a French-American sculptor, chess player, philanthropist, author, and arts patron. As a chess player, Piatigorsky represented the USA in the first Women's Chess Olympiad, in 1957, where she won a bronze medal. An important patron of the arts, Jacqueline Piatigorsky helped raise money for the New England Conservatory of Music to create an award for deserving artists. 

Tom Denning, Baron Denning was a British lawyer and judge. In 1938, Denning was appointed a King's Counsel before becoming a judge in the High Court of Justice in 1944. In 1962, he was appointed Master of the Rolls, a position which he held for two decades. Denning was called the greatest British judge of modern times by Margaret Thatcher.

Leon Štukelj was a Slovene gymnast best remembered for winning two gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games and one gold and two bronze medals at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. He then went on to win a silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Štukelj was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.

Known widely as The People’s Judge, V. R. Krishna Iyer had been a Supreme Court judge for almost 8 years. A champion for human rights, he pioneered the practice of offering legal aid to underprivileged people. The Padma Vibhushan winner was also a sports lover.