Famous People Who Died At 89

Best known for his everyman screen persona, James Stewart was ranked third in the greatest American male actors list published by the American Film Institute (AFI) in 1999. During his 55-year acting career, he displayed strong morality both on and off the screen, as a result of which he epitomized the ideal American man of the 20th century.

Widely regarded as one of the most popular actors to play the iconic secret agent James Bond in films, Roger Moore was more than just an actor. He was also well-known for his humanitarian work, so much so that he was knighted in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II for services to charity.

Harper Lee was an American novelist who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Despite publishing only two books, Lee was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature, such was her impact in the world of literature. A friend of Truman Capote, Lee has been portrayed by popular actresses in Capote's biographical films.

Arthur Miller was an American essayist and playwright. Miller is credited with creating popular plays, such as Death of a Salesman, which is widely regarded as one of the best American plays of the 20th century. Thanks to his illustrious career, which spanned more than 70 years, Arthur Miller is regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists.

Known for her sultry looks and distinctive voice, Lauren Bacall was an important actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood. As part of a publicity stunt, Bacall was asked to sit on the piano that was being played by Vice President Harry Truman at the National Press Club. The picture of Bacall sitting on the piano remains an iconic photograph.

An automobile designer known for his involvement with the AC Shelby Cobra and Ford Mustang, Carroll Shelby was also a well-known racing driver, and a successful entrepreneur, who established Shelby American after a heart ailment put an end to his racing career.  Meanwhile, he also ran a a high-performance driving school and published a memoir entitled The Carroll Shelby Story.

Jane Russell was an American actress and singer. Renowned for her beauty, Russell was considered one of the leading sex symbols of Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. In 2009, Glamour magazine named her in its list of 40 Most Iconic Movie Goddesses. Her contribution to the entertainment industry was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

John Aniston is a Greek-born American actor best known for playing Victor Kiriakis on the popular daytime soap opera, Days of Our Lives. Over the years, Aniston has been contributing immensely to the American TV industry, but perhaps his biggest contribution is mentoring his daughter, Jennifer Aniston, and allowing her to follow in his footsteps.

German theoretical physicist Max Planck is remembered for originating the quantum theory of physics, which earned him the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics. He laid down concepts such as the Planck constant and the Planck postulate. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was later renamed Max Planck Society in his honor.

Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish filmmaker and screenwriter. Widely regarded as one of the most influential and accomplished filmmakers of all time, Ingmar Bergman continues to serve as an inspiration for filmmakers like Woody Allen. His work has also influenced other prominent directors like Martin Scorsese, Thomas Vinterberg, and Richard Ayoade.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, philosopher, historian, and political prisoner. An outspoken critic of Communism and the Soviet Union, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn helped raise awareness of the Gulag, a government agency that oversaw forced labor camps set up in accordance with Vladimir Lenin's order. His non-fiction text The Gulag Archipelago was a highly influential work and sold millions of copies.

Entrepreneur Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term Arizona senator. He represented the Republican Party in the 1964 presidential election, which he lost by a landslide margin to Lyndon B Johnson. He impacted the conservative and libertarian movements. He was a skilled photographer and loved collecting kachina dolls.

Diogenes Of Sinope was a pioneer of Cynic philosophy. It is believed he had expressed his wish to be thrown out of the city after his death, so that animals could eat his corpse. He believed humans needed to learn how to live without fuss and with honesty like dogs.

Lawrence Welk was an American accordionist and bandleader. From 1951 to 1982, Welk hosted the popular musical variety show, The Lawrence Welk Show. Also known for his entrepreneurship skills, Welk had investments in music publishing and real estate. He also owned a club and restaurant. In 1994, he was made an inductee of the International Polka Music Hall of Fame.

Dale Robertson was an American actor who achieved popularity in the 1950s, playing important roles in Western films, such as Return of the Texan and The Outcasts of Poker Flat. In 1985, he was honored with a Golden Boot Award for his contribution to Western films and TV series. 

Better known as Mad Jack or Fighting Jack, British Army officer Jack Churchill was an iconic example of a person fighting wars on his own terms. He popularized carrying swords and bagpipes to battles and killed his enemies with his longbow. He inspired a comic strip and several books, too.

Russell Johnson was an American actor best remembered for his portrayal of Professor Roy Hinkley in the popular sitcom, Gilligan's Island. Prior to his acting career, Russell Johnson enlisted in the US Army Air Forces and played an important role during World War II. He was honored with the Purple Heart, Air Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

Born into a poor family in British India, Har Gobind Khorana studied on scholarships and later bagged a seat at the University of Liverpool and thus moved to England. The renowned biochemist ended up winning the Nobel Prize for his research on how nucleotides in nucleic acids control protein synthesis.

Richard McDonald was an entrepreneur who co-founded the fast-food company McDonald's with his brother, Maurice. Their father ran a food stall. As young men, Richard and Maurice took over their father’s business and redesigned the restaurant. The restaurant was highly successful, and the brothers began franchising their system. The first McDonald's restaurant has now been converted into a museum. 

Chuck Jones was an American animator, painter, and voice actor. Jones is best remembered for his work on Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes. He is credited with founding Chuck Jones Enterprises where he produced and directed the film adaptation of The Phantom Tollbooth. During the course of his career, Chuck Jones received three Academy Awards and the Edward MacDowell Medal.

As a child, Alexander von Humboldt was sickly and a bad student. After failing to shine in economics and engineering, he grew up to revolutionize the domain of geography. He is remembered for his research on magnetic storms and his treatise on nature, Kosmos. He also spoke about climate change.

Lise Meitner was an Austrian-Swedish physicist best remembered for her contributions that led to the discoveries of nuclear fission and the element protactinium. Nicknamed the German Marie Curie by Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner became the second woman in the world to receive a doctorate in physics in 1905. In 1997, chemical element 109 meitnerium was named in her honor.

French virologist Luc Montagnier is known for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which led him to jointly receive the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Montagnier also made headlines promoting controversial and unverified claims related to vaccinations, homeopathy and COVID-19 pandemic, which he argued as man-made and possibly a result of an attempt to create an HIV/AIDS vaccine.