Famous People Who Died At 43

A versatile actor and an inspiration for a generation of black youths, Chadwick Boseman is best remembered for portraying notable real life black figures like Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall and James Brown in their biopics. His excellent performance in Black Panther, though, turned him into a household name.

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter renowned for his use of light in paintings. Although he did not achieve fame during his lifetime, Vermeer's works gained popularity in the 19th century. Today, Vermeer is often counted among the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Over the years, Vermeer's work has inspired artists like Wilhelm Hammershoi and Thomas Wilmer Dewing.

Robert Falcon Scott was an explorer and Royal Navy officer. He is remembered for leading two expeditions to the Antarctic regions, the second of which was the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition. Although Scott and his companions died during the second expedition, they helped discover the first Antarctic fossils, which proved that the place was once forested.

Henning von Tresckow was a German Army officer who played a key role in organizing German  resistance against Adolf Hitler. He drafted the Valkyrie plan for a coup against the German government and even attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1943. The next year, he once again plotted to kill Hitler and failed again, upon which he committed suicide. 

After losing his father at age 2, Henry Kendall was raised on a farm by his mother. The Australian bush poet is remembered for his depictions of nature in works such as Leaves from Australian Forests. Throughout his life, he continued to switch from one job to another.

Bangladeshi actor Manna is also known as the Dhallywood Yuvraj and the Mahanayak of Dhaliwood. His role in the film Bir Soinik won him a National Film Award. He also headed the Bangladesh Film Actors Association as its general secretary. His film Ammajan remains one of the Bangladeshi film industry’s most successful films.

Niels Ryberg Finsen was a Danish-Faroese scientist and physician. Finsen's method to treat diseases, such as lupus vulgaris, using concentrated light radiation, earned him the 1903 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology. Copenhagen University Hospital houses the famous Finsen Laboratory, which is named in his honor.

Dutch naturalist Jan Swammerdam was the first to detect red blood cells. Though a qualified doctor, he never practiced medicine, and took to research instead. Known for his research on anatomy, he also revolutionized the study of insects, proving that the egg, larva, pupa, and adult are all the same organism.

John Huss was a Czech philosopher and theologian. He is credited with inspiring a Proto-Protestant Christian movement called Hussitism, which started in the Kingdom of Bohemia before spreading across the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. He also inspired the Bohemian Reformation, which is regarded as one of the most important social, political, and religious movements of the early modern period.

Chilean statesman Diego Portales was one of the most important political figures of the 19th century and is remembered for creating the Constitution of 1833. As a minister of foreign affairs and war, he started a war with the Peru-Bolivia alliance to counter trade competition but was eventually assassinated by rebellious forces.

Eleventh-century German bishop Thietmar of Merseburg is best remembered for penning the history of the Ottonian dynasty, which remains a chief source of information about the age. He is credited with being the first to use the word "Teutonici" to differentiate between Germans and non-Germans in the Holy Roman Empire.