Famous People Who Died Today

Robert Urich was an American actor whose contribution to the TV industry earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; he was the only person on the walk with a name starting with the alphabet U until Usher was added. Apart from his contribution to the entertainment industry, Robert Urich also worked towards raising money for cancer research.

Helen McCrory is a British actress known for playing real-life characters in films. In the 2017 New Year Honours, McCrory was appointed OBE for services to drama. Apart from being an actress, she also works closely with the London-based children's charity Scene & Heard, contributing as one of its honorary patrons.

Cheyenne Brando was a French model and daughter of legendary American actor, Marlon Brando. Troubled by drug addiction and bouts of depression throughout her teenage and adult life, Cheyenne also struggled to cope with personal losses, such as the death of her partner Dag Drollet, who was fatally shot by her half-brother Christian. Brando committed suicide at age 25.

French diplomat and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville is best remembered for his written works The Old Regime and the Revolution and Democracy in America. He was part of French politics, primarily during the July Monarchy and the Second Republic. He had been the minister of foreign affairs briefly.

Marie Tussaud was a French artist and sculptor best remembered for her wax sculptures. She founded Madame Tussauds, a wax museum, in London in 1835. The museum is a major tourist attraction today. As a young girl, she learned wax modeling from doctor cum wax modeler Philippe Curtius. In the ensuing years, she became a prominent sculptor.

David Lean was an English film producer, director, editor, and screenwriter. He is best remembered for directing large-scale epics like The Bridge on the River Kwai, A Passage to India, and Lawrence of Arabia. David Lean is widely regarded as one of the most prominent figures in British cinema. He won many prestigious awards, including two Academy Awards.

Iqbal Masih was a Pakistani boy who brought to light the prevalence of bonded labor in Pakistan. Iqbal escaped his slavery, studied at the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, and helped liberate more than 3,000 Pakistani children from bonded labor. He was fatally shot at the age of 12. His life inspired the creation of many organizations like We Charity.

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose subtly-shaded prose works earned him the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature, making him the first Japanese writer to receive the prestigious award. Yasunari Kawabata played a major role in the translation of Japanese literature into several Western languages including English. His works are still read all over the world. 

Palestinian political leader and co-founder of the party Fatah, Khalil al-Wazir became a top leader of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. He fled his native Palestine during the war that formed Israel. A military strategist, too, he later participated in the First Intifada and was later killed by Israeli commandos.

Though a qualified doctor, Samuel Smiles later never practiced and switched to journalism instead, working for Leeds Times. His best-known work remains Self-Help, a motivational self-improvement guide for the youth, which denounced materialism and advocated thrift. His other significant work was the 5-volume Lives of the Engineers.

US meteorologist and mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz is remembered for proposing concepts such as the chaos theory/deterministic chaos and the butterfly effect. He also laid down the Lorenz 96 model. The Kyoto Prize winner was associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology throughout his research career.

Cy Endfield was an American magician, screenwriter, author, director, and inventor. He is perhaps best remembered for his 1964 epic war film, Zulu. Cy Endfield is credited with influencing other magicians like Michael Vincent.  

Four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker, special-effects artist, and cinematographer Byron Haskin is best remembered for his 1953 sci-fi movie The War of the Worlds. Initially a newspaper cartoonist, he rose to become the head of the Warner Brothers Special Effects team and directed their first live-action movie, Treasure Island.

Born to astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, the director of the Paris Conservatory, Jacques Cassini, too, followed in his father’s footsteps. He opposed Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity and released the preliminary tables of the satellites of Saturn. He also helped measure the longitude line between Dunkerque and Perpignan.

Johann Baptist Cramer was an English pianist, music publisher, and composer of German origin. The son of Wilhelm Cramer, Johann studied under Muzio Clementi and went on to become one of the greatest pianists of his time. Renowned for its technical perfection, Johann Cramer's playing style earned praises from popular pianists around the world, including Ludwig van Beethoven.

Born in Russia, Otto Wilhelm von Struve was too young to join a university when he had completed his studies at the gymnasium and thus initially joined as a listener. He often assisted his astronomer father Frederich von Struve and later discovered about 500 double stars and studied Saturn’s rings.

Irish Catholic nun Clare Crockett initially aspired to be an actor and even appeared in the TV drama Sunday. She later ditched her reckless lifestyle and became Sister Clare Maria after a spiritual experience in Spain. She died in the 2016 Ecuador earthquake. The film All or Nothing speaks about her journey.

Emilio Azcárraga Milmo was a Mexican businessman who carried on his father Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta's legacy by solidifying his family business in the field of entertainment. An influential personality, Milmo owned the twelve-station Spanish-language network Univision in the USA. Emilio Azcárraga Milmo also owned popular Mexican TV stations and served as the chairman of the US-based Spanish-language TV network Galavisión.