Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Navarre Scott Momaday

Tsoai-talee

United States

1934 – 2024 (89 years old)

Kiowa novelist, poet, and scholar whose 1968 masterpiece House Made of Dawn won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, igniting the Native American Renaissance and transforming American literary history.

Santa Fe, United States

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Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk

Melanie Safka

United States

1947 – 2024 (76 years old)

American folk singer-songwriter whose legendary rainy performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival inspired her anthem "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)", and who scored a global number-one hit with "Brand New Key".

Nashville, United States

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Sciences & Discovery

Arno Allan Penzias

Germany

1933 – 2024 (90 years old)

German-born American physicist and radio astronomer who co-discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation with Robert Wilson in 1964, providing critical empirical confirmation for the Big Bang model of cosmology, for which he was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.

San Francisco, United States

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Sports & Athletics

44

Gigi Riva

Luigi Riva

Italy

1944 – 2024 (79 years old)

Italy's all-time top goalscorer with thirty-five goals in forty-two caps, 'Rombo di Tuono' (Roar of Thunder), who famously led underdog Cagliari to their historic first and only Serie A Scudetto in 1970.

Cagliari, Italy

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Art

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

Norman Jewison

Canada

21 July 1926 – 20 January 2024 (97 years old)

Legendary Canadian film director whose masterpieces In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, and Moonstruck addressed racial justice and human comedy.

Toronto, Canada

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John Edward Broadbent

Ed Broadbent

Canada

1936 – 2024 (87 years old)

Beloved Canadian social-democratic statesman and political scientist who led the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1975 to 1989, leading the party to its historic 1987 peak in parliamentary seats and championing the elimination of child poverty.

Ottawa, Canada

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Literature & Poetry

Terry Ballantine Bisson

Terry Bisson

United States

1942 – 2024 (81 years old)

American science fiction and fantasy author acclaimed for brilliant short stories, including the Hugo and Nebula-winning "Bears Discover Fire" and the satirical classic "They're Made out of Meat".

Berkeley, United States

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Adan Canto

Mexico

1981 – 2024 (42 years old)

Mexican actor, musician, and director who made a powerful impact in Hollywood, starring as Sunspot in X-Men: Days of Future Past, White House Chief of Staff Aaron Shore in Designated Survivor, and Arman Morales in The Cleaning Lady.

Glendale, United States

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Sports & Athletics

54

🕯️ 3,350

Franz Beckenbauer

Franz Anton Beckenbauer

Germany

11 September 1945 – 7 January 2024 (78 years old)

Franz Beckenbauer, universally revered as 'Der Kaiser', was a peerless German footballer, tactician, and sporting statesman who revolutionized the sport by creating the modern attacking sweeper (libero) role. He is one of only three men to win the FIFA World Cup as both captain (1974) and manager (1990), and he led Bayern Munich to three consecutive European Cups (1974–1976).

Salzburg, Austria

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Sports & Athletics

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🕯️ 2,650

Mario Zagallo

Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo

Brazil

9 August 1931 – 5 January 2024 (92 years old)

Mário Zagallo was a monumental Brazilian football figure and the first person ever to win the FIFA World Cup as both a player and a manager. Winning four World Cups in total (player in 1958 and 1962, manager in 1970, and assistant coordinator in 1994), he orchestrated Brazil's dazzling 1970 team and pioneered the tactically disciplined, box-to-box winger role.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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David Richard Solberg

David Soul

United States

1943 – 2024 (80 years old)

American-British actor and singer world-famous as blonde detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the iconic 1970s crime series Starsky & Hutch, who also scored international chart-topping pop hits including "Don't Give Up on Us".

London, United Kingdom

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Sciences & Discovery

26

Niklaus Emil Wirth

Niklaus Wirth

Switzerland

1934 – 2024 (89 years old)

Swiss computer science pioneer and 1984 ACM Turing Award laureate who designed landmark programming languages including Pascal, Modula-2, and Oberon, and formulated Wirth's law: "Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster."

Zurich, Switzerland

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Thomas Geoffrey Wilkinson

Tom Wilkinson

Great Britain

1948 – 2023 (75 years old)

Distinguished British character actor nominated for two Academy Awards for In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton, and winner of an Emmy, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for portraying Benjamin Franklin in John Adams.

London, United Kingdom

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Mbongeni Ngema

South Africa

1955 – 2023 (68 years old)

Renowned South African playwright, composer, and anti-apartheid cultural pioneer who created the triumphant Broadway musical Sarafina! and co-wrote Woza Albert!, winning Tony and Grammy nominations for showcasing African liberation struggle.

Durban, South Africa

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

Lee Sun-kyun

이선균

South Korea

1975 – 2023 (48 years old)

Acclaimed South Korean actor celebrated for his deep resonant voice, compelling television dramas like Coffee Prince and My Mister, and his leading role as the wealthy patriarch Park Dong-ik in Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning Parasite.

Seoul, South Korea

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Jacques Lucien Jean Delors

Jacques Delors

France

1925 – 2023 (98 years old)

Founding architect of modern European integration who served as President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. Created the European Single Market, the Schengen Agreement, the Erasmus student program, and the Euro currency.

Paris, France

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