Famous People Who Died Today

Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian, actor, singer, and producer. He is credited with creating one of the most successful sitcoms in the history of American TV, Danny Thomas Show. Also a well-known philanthropist, Danny Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a nonprofit medical corporation that focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, such as leukemia and other cancers.

Austrian symbolist painter, Gustav Klimt, was one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His primary subject was the female body, and he produced numerous paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects. He was known for his deliberate painting style. He successfully avoided personal scandal despite having an active sex life.

James Whitmore was an American actor whose career spanned more than 50 years. During his illustrious career, Whitmore won a Grammy, a Tony, and an Emmy Award, narrowly missing an EGOT honor. He also received a Golden Globe Award and two Academy Award nominations. In 1960, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

One of the most respected and best-known playback singers in India, Lata Mangeshkar is popularly known as the Nightingale of India. She had a long career of more than 60 years and was honoured with India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna..

Angelica Hamilton was the daughter of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America. She is said to have suffered a mental breakdown in 1801 when her brother Philip was killed in a duel. It is said that she could never recover from the shock and the incident was the main reason for her lifelong mental health issues.

Joseph Cotten was an American actor who achieved prominence on Broadway during the 1930s. He then became a leading Hollywood actor in the 1940s, playing important roles in films like Citizen Kane, Shadow of a Doubt, and Duel in the Sun. In 1960, Joseph Cotten was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Best remembered for his contribution to the chemistry of gases, Joseph Priestley was an English scientist, clergyman, political theorist and educator, who has been credited with discovering oxygen independently, publishing his findings before Carl Wilhelm could. A prolific writer, he has authored 150 works on various subjects including electricity. He also contributed immensely to the advancement of political and religious thoughts.

Capability Brown was an English landscape architect and gardener. Regarded as the most popular figure in English landscape garden style history, Brown is also considered England's greatest gardener by many. Capability Brown is credited with designing more than 170 parks. His work had such an impact that the contributions of his predecessors William Kent and Charles Bridgeman are often overlooked.

Joost van der Westhuizen was a South African rugby player. He took part in three Rugby World Cups, helping his national team win the 1995 World Cup. Widely regarded as the greatest scrumhalf in the history of the game, van der Westhuizen was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007.

The leader of the 19th-century Spanish-American Modernismo movement, Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío had been a prodigy who had started writing poems at age 14. Best remembered for his works such as Azul, he earned the tag of the Prince of Castilian Letters. He had also held various diplomatic posts.

Barbara Tuchman was an American author and historian whose best-selling book The Guns of August (1962) earned her the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. Tuchman won her second Pulitzer Prize for writing a biography of General Joseph Stilwell titled Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971).

Born in Fiji, Don Dunstan served as the premier of South Australia. A progressive politician, he had headed the Freedom from Hunger Campaign and the Movement for Democracy, apart from fighting for the rights of women and the aboriginal communities. He also opposed the death sentence of rapist-murderer Max Stuart.

Chilean president Sebastian Pinera not only boasts of a Harvard doctoral degree but is also a successful businessman, having introduced credit cards to the Chilean public through his company Bancard. His Fundación Futuro works for causes such as energy and water conservation. He is married to his neighbor Cecilia Morel.

Assia Djebar was an Algerian novelist, translator, and filmmaker. She was a staunch feminist, and her works mostly revolved around the issues faced by women. She was fiercely anti-patriarchal and anti-colonial. In 2005, she became the first writer from the Maghreb to be elected to the Académie française. She received the 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. 

Eddy Wally was a Belgian singer and showman who toured all over the world from Far East to the West. He is best remembered for his song Chérie which was declared a double-platinum in Belgium. Eddy Wally's life and career inspired novelist Deborah Bishop to write a biography titled Wow!   

Johannes Ockeghem was a composer, choirmaster, singer, and teacher. One of the most popular composers of the 15th century, Ockeghem was renowned for his expressive music and technical prowess. The most popular and influential composer of the Netherlandish School, Johannes Ockeghem served as an inspiration to a generation of composers, including Josquin des Prez. 

Robert Brasillach was a French journalist and author best remembered for his work as an editor for a nationalist newspaper named Je suis partout, which supported various fascist movements. Robert Brasillach was executed in 1945 following the liberation of France in 1944. He was executed for advocating denunciation, collaborationism, and incitement to murder.

Nobel Prize-winning Italian microbiologist Salvador Luria is best remembered for his work on bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria. He had also chaired Microbiology and later, the Center for Cancer Research at MIT. As a political activist, he was against nuclear weapon testing and was once banned from receiving funds.

German general Leo von Caprivi had been the Chancellor of the German Empire, succeeding Otto von Bismarck. His most significant achievements include the conclusion of the Zanzibar Treaty, though he was criticized for giving up too much control. Mostly keeping to himself, he remained single all his life.

André Brink was a South African essayist, novelist, and poet. Brink used both English and Afrikaans to write. He also worked at the University of Cape Town where he taught English. In the 1960s, Brink played a significant role in a literary movement called Die Sestigers, which sought to use Afrikaans to speak against the apartheid regime.

Born to a pastor father in Prussia, Theodor Billroth was pushed to study medicine by his mother. Initially undecided over his career, he devoted most of his first university year to music. Later, he gained fame as a pioneer of abdominal surgery and also examined how bacteria causes wound fever.

Christopher Clavius was a Jesuit German astronomer and mathematician. Clavius was one of the members of the Vatican commission that gave a green signal to Aloysius Lilius' calendar which came to be known as the Gregorian calendar. He was one of Europe's most respected astronomers; his books were used for over 50 years for astronomical education in and around Europe.

Carlo Goldoni was an Italian librettist and playwright from the Republic of Venice. He is credited with producing some of Italy's best-loved and most famous plays. His plays are often admired for their ingenious mix of honesty and wit. One of his most famous works, Servant of Two Masters, has been translated into many languages.

Remembered for his research on rapid chemical reactions, Nobel Prize-winning German physicist Manfred Eigen was born to a musician father and was initially interested in the piano. Eigen was part of the German army during World War II and later escaped the Soviets to join the University of Göttingen.