Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

12

🕯️ 0

Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Eric Hitchens

Great Britain

1949 – 2011 (62 years old)

Formidable Anglo-American author, essayist, and polemicist celebrated for his razor-sharp wit, literary criticism, and outspoken secularist manifesto God Is Not Great.

Houston, United States

12 Full Record →

Arts & Music

10

🕯️ 0

Harry Morgan

Harry Bratsberg

United States

1915 – 2011 (96 years old)

Beloved American character actor whose six-decade career was crowned by his Emmy-winning role as the wise, paternal Colonel Sherman T. Potter on television's M*A*S*H.

Los Angeles, United States

10 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

14

🕯️ 0

Sócrates

Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira

Brazil

1954 – 2011 (57 years old)

Iconic Brazilian football captain, midfield maestro, and licensed medical doctor who captained Brazil's legendary 1982 World Cup team and founded Corinthians Democracy to challenge military rule.

Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

14 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

30

🕯️ 0

Socrates

Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira

Brazil

1954 – 2011 (57 years old)

Visionary Brazilian midfield maestro and qualified medical doctor who captained Brazil's enchanting 1982 World Cup team and led the revolutionary 'Corinthians Democracy' movement against Brazil's military dictatorship.

Ribeirao Preto (Sao Paulo), Brazil

30 Full Record →

Humanities

3

🕯️ 0

Simon Lévy

شمعون ليفي

Morocco

1934 – 2011 (77 years old)

Fez-born linguist, lifelong anti-colonial patriot, university professor, and founder-director of the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Casablanca, the only Jewish museum in the Arab world.

Casablanca, Morocco

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

12

🕯️ 0

Christa Wolf

Christa Ihlenfeld

Germany

1929 – 2011 (82 years old)

The preeminent author of East Germany whose complex psychological novels Cassandra, They Divided the Sky, and Patterns of Childhood critically examined socialist ideals, memory, and totalitarian power.

Berlin, Germany

12 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

12

🕯️ 0

Gary Speed

Gary Andrew Speed

Great Britain

1969 – 2011 (42 years old)

Revered Welsh international footballer and national team manager who won the English league title with Leeds United, made 535 Premier League appearances, and laid the foundation for Wales' modern football renaissance.

Chester, United Kingdom

12 Full Record →

Arts & Music

11

🕯️ 0

Ken Russell

Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell

Great Britain

1927 – 2011 (84 years old)

Flamboyant and controversial British film director renowned for flamboyant, visually extravagant biographies of composers and bold films like Women in Love, The Devils, and The Who's Tommy.

Lymington, United Kingdom

11 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

12

🕯️ 0

Vasily Alekseyev

Василий Иванович Алексеев

Russia

1942 – 2011 (69 years old)

Legendary Soviet super-heavyweight weightlifter who won back-to-back Olympic gold medals (1972, 1976), set 80 world records, and remained undefeated in major international competition for eight years.

Shakhty, Russia

12 Full Record →

Arts & Music

11

🕯️ 0

Paul Motian

Stephen Paul Motian

United States

1931 – 2011 (80 years old)

Revolutionary American jazz drummer and composer of Armenian descent who redefined jazz percussion as an equal melodic voice with the Bill Evans Trio and Keith Jarrett.

New York City, United States

11 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

13

🕯️ 0

Lynn Margulis

Lynn Petra Alexander

United States

1938 – 2011 (73 years old)

Iconoclastic American evolutionary biologist whose serial endosymbiotic theory revolutionized the understanding of cellular evolution, showing that mitochondria and chloroplasts originated as symbiotic bacteria.

Amherst, United States

13 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

5

🕯️ 0

Djamel Keddou

جمال كدو

Algeria

1952 – 2011 (59 years old)

Iconic defender and captain of USM Alger, starting central defender of the Algerian national team that won the Gold Medal against France at the 1975 Mediterranean Games.

Algiers, Algeria

5 Full Record →

Arts & Music

12

🕯️ 0

Lev Borisov

Лев Иванович Борисов

Russia

1933 – 2011 (77 years old)

Eminent Russian stage and film actor, younger brother of Oleg Borisov, who starred in over ninety films and achieved cult television status as crime boss 'Antibiotic' in Bandit Petersburg.

Moscow, Russia

12 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

15

🕯️ 0

Har Gobind Khorana

हर गोबिन्द खोराना

India

1922 – 2011 (89 years old)

Indian-American biochemist who shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for deciphering the genetic code and later synthesized the world's first artificial gene.

Concord, United States

15 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

36

🕯️ 2,780

Joe Frazier

Joseph William Frazier

United States

12 January 1944 – 7 November 2011 (67 years old)

Joseph William 'Smokin' Joe' Frazier was a relentless, ferocious heavyweight boxing champion who became the first man to defeat Muhammad Ali in the 1971 'Fight of the Century'. Armed with an unstoppable bobbing-and-weaving forward attack and the most lethal left hook in boxing history, the 1964 Olympic gold medalist reigned as undisputed heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

36 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

4

🕯️ 0

Slimane Dehilès (Colonel Sadek)

سليمان دهيليس (العقيد صادق)

Algeria

1920 – 2011 (90 years old)

Legendary ALN Colonel who served as right-hand commander to Krim Belkacem and Ouamrane, commander of Wilaya 4, and husband of resistance heroine Izza Bouzekri.

Algiers, Algeria

4 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

13

🕯️ 0

Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.

Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.

United States

1915 – 2011 (96 years old)

American physicist who received the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the separated oscillatory fields method, which enabled modern cesium atomic clocks and GPS navigation.

Wayland, United States

13 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

14

🕯️ 0

Flórián Albert

Albert Flórián

Hungary

1941 – 2011 (70 years old)

Graceful Hungarian striker nicknamed 'The Emperor', the only Hungarian footballer in history to win the Ballon d'Or (1967), who spent his entire career with Ferencváros.

Budapest, Hungary

14 Full Record →