Famous People Who Died Today

Gaining fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band, the Beatles, English musician, George Harrison, helped broaden the scope of popular music in the Western world. He was also successful as a solo performer and released many best-selling albums. He was named in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time

Considered one of the greatest actors ever, Cary Grant’s good looks, popular appeal and a knack for romantic comedy made him an enduring Hollywood star from the 1930s to the 1960s. Penny Serenade, An Affair to Remember, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest and Charade are some of his classic films. He was bestowed an honorary Oscar in 1970.

TV and radio host Gene Rayburn gained fame as the host of Match Game for more than 20 years. He also played the lead in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie and received the ATAS Lifetime Achievement Award. A prominent liberal, he supported Planned Parenthood and was concerned about overpopulation.

John Drew Barrymore was an American actor who hailed from the famous Barrymore family of actors, which includes his daughter Drew Barrymore and his half-sister Diana Barrymore. For his contributions to the American television industry, John Drew Barrymore was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Born into a musical dynasty, composer Giacomo Puccini lost his father at age 5. Some of his best opera pieces include Madama Butterfly and La Bohème. The suicide of his maid, who was wrongly accused by his wife of being in an affair with him, affected his later career adversely.

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. 

Ralph Bellamy is best remembered for his Academy Award-nominated role in The Awful Truth and his Tony Award-winning role in Sunrise at Campobello. He also portrayed the titular character in the Ellery Queen detective films of the 1940s. He was part of the Hollywood A-listers’ group called the Irish Mafia.

Claudio Monteverdi was an Italian string player, composer, choirmaster, and priest. His pioneering work in the development of opera and his letters, which gives an insight into the life of Italian musicians from the era, makes him a significant historical figure. He is also considered an important transitional figure between the two important periods of music history, Renaissance and Baroque. 

Dorothy Day was an American social activist, journalist, and anarchist. She is best remembered for co-founding the Catholic Worker Movement along with French activist Peter Maurin. She also co-founded a newspaper called Catholic Worker and served as its editor between 1933 and 1980. In 2001, Dorothy Day was made an inductee of the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine was a German-English admiral, army officer, colonial governor, and scientist. Renowned for his energy and quick-thinking, Rupert made long-lasting and impressive contributions to the doctrine and development of the Royal Navy. He is also credited with shaping modern Canada's political geography. 

Horace Greeley was an American publisher and newspaper editor. He is credited with founding the New-York Tribune, for which he also served as an editor. He is also credited with popularizing the New-York Tribune, which became the highest-circulating newspaper in America. Long active in politics, Greeley helped found the Republican Party in 1854. 

One of the two pioneering female honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mary Somerville was a 19th-century polymath and science writer. Though she specialized in math and astronomy, she was also well-versed in botany and geology. The Connection of the Physical Sciences remains her most notable work.

Emilio Pucci was an Italian fashion designer turned politician. He is best remembered for his style of creating geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colors. He served as a pilot during World War II and became a fashion designer after the war. He also ventured into politics but didn’t enjoy much success in his political career. 

Yasuhiro Nakasone was a Japanese politician. He served as the president of the Liberal Democratic Party and prime minister of Japan from 1982 to 1987. For over five decades Nakasone served as a member of the House of Representatives. He is remembered for his work which helped reinvigorate Japanese nationalism, which plays a major role in the success of Japan.

Social Democratic Party of Germany member Philipp Scheidemann was the man who declared the formation of the Weimar Republic and also served as its chancellor. Born into a working-class family, he initially apprenticed as a printer. The rise of the Nazi power caused him to move to Denmark later.

Ibn Jubayr was an Arab geographer, traveler, and poet from al-Andalus. In the years preceding the Third Crusade, he made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca from 1183 to 1185, which he wrote about in great detail in his chronicles. He was a member of an Arab family of the Kinanah tribe and also traveled to  Damascus, Mosul, Acre, and Baghdad. 

Mark Strand was a poet, essayist, and translator. He studied at Antioch College and received further training at the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. He then went on to launch a brilliant career as an academic and writer. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and was honored with the Wallace Stevens Award in 2004.  

Joseph Furst was an Austrian-born actor best known for his role in the television series Division 4. He appeared in numerous English-language films and was a popular figure in Canada, Britain, and Australia. He began his career in the 1950s and appeared in several television dramas. Buoyed by his success on television, he made his film debut in the 1960s. 

British computer scientist Sir Maurice Vincent Wilkes is noted for constructing the early British computer Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) and for inventing microprogramming. He designed and helped build the EDSAC, one of the earliest stored program computers which became a full-scale operational computer. The concept of microprogramming developed by him also greatly simplified the development of CPU.

Italian painter, sculptor, and graphic designer Fortunato Depero was one of the main figures of the Second Futurism movement. He later launched Italy’s first museum on the Futurist movement, the Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero. He also established himself as a successful interior designer, costume designer, and advertiser in New York.