Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

2

Muhanna al-Dura

مهنا الدرة

Jordan

1938 – 24 January 2021 (83 years old)

Father of modern Jordanian visual art, first Jordanian to graduate from Rome's Accademia di Belle Arti, pioneer of non-figurative abstraction.

Amman, Jordan

2 Full Record →

23

Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr.

Hal Holbrook

United States

1925 – 2021 (95 years old)

Venerated American actor celebrated for his solo stage performance Mark Twain Tonight!, which he performed for sixty-three years, and acclaimed screen roles including Deep Throat in All the President's Men and Into the Wild.

San Gabriel, California, United States

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19

Lawrence Harvey Zeiger

Larry King

United States

1933 – 2021 (87 years old)

Legendary American television and radio host who conducted over 50,000 interviews across a six-decade career, known for his trademark suspenders, relaxed conversational style, and 25 years hosting Larry King Live on CNN.

Los Angeles, United States

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41

🕯️ 390

Henry Louis Aaron

United States

1934 – 2021 (86 years old)

American professional baseball right fielder who broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record, revered for his consistency, dignity, and courage in the face of racism.

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

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20

Harvey Philip Spector

Phil Spector

United States

1939 – 2021 (81 years old)

Revolutionary and deeply troubled American record producer and songwriter who created the "Wall of Sound" recording technique, producing monumental hits for The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers, and The Beatles' Let It Be.

French Camp, California, United States

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20

Michael David Apted

Michael Apted

Great Britain

1941 – 2021 (79 years old)

Prolific British filmmaker and documentarian celebrated for directing the monumental Up documentary series spanning 56 years, alongside feature films including Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, and The World Is Not Enough.

Los Angeles, California, United States

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Sciences & Discovery

21

Martinus Justinus Godefridus Veltman

Martinus Veltman

Netherlands

1931 – 2021 (89 years old)

Dutch theoretical physicist awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics alongside his PhD student Gerard 't Hooft for mathematically proving the renormalizability of electroweak gauge theories, and creating the first computer algebra system, Schoonschip.

Bilthoven, Utrecht, Netherlands

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Humanitarian & Peace

44

Sir Brian Edward Urquhart

Brian Urquhart

Great Britain

1919 – 2021 (101 years old)

Diplomate britannique légendaire de l'ONU, deuxième fonctionnaire recruté lors de la fondation de l'organisation et cocréateur avec Ralph Bunche des Casques bleus.

Tyringham, Massachusetts, United States

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7

Ahmed Faras

أحمد فرس

Morocco

1946 – 2021 (74 years old)

Legendary striker who captained Morocco to their historic 1976 Africa Cup of Nations championship and became the first Moroccan player to win the African Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or) in 1975.

Mohammédia, Morocco

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Humanitarian & Peace

47

Pierantonio Costa

Italy

1939 – 2021 (81 years old)

Italian honorary consul in Kigali who spent his personal wealth to rescue nearly two thousand people, including hundreds of children, during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Milan, Italy

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Literature & Poetry

28

Gilbert Naccache

جيلبار نقاش

Tunisia

1939 – 2020 (81 years old)

Iconic Tunisian Jewish leftist intellectual, agronomist, and political dissident who endured fourteen years of imprisonment under Bourguiba, authoring the clandestine literary masterpiece Cristal on cigarette wrappers.

Tunis, Tunisia

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Literature & Poetry

17

Mouloud Achour

مولود عاشور

Algeria

1944 – 2020 (76 years old)

Refined Algerian novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic who explored human sensitivity, post-independence societal dilemmas, and the fragility of peace.

Tizi Ouzou, Algeria

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

40

🕯️ 2,390

Paolo Rossi

Italy

23 September 1956 – 9 December 2020 (64 years old)

Paolo Rossi was an Italian striker whose predatory finishing, opportunistic movement, and redemption story illuminated the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Scoring an immortal hat-trick to eliminate favorites Brazil, two in the semi-final, and the opening goal in the final against West Germany, he claimed the World Cup, Golden Ball, Golden Boot, and Ballon d'Or in the same magical year.

Siena, Tuscany, Italy

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18

Sadiq al-Mahdi

الصادق المهدي

Sudan

December 25, 1935 – November 26, 2020 (84 years old)

Prominent Sudanese statesman, democratic leader, and Islamic modernist intellectual who served twice as Prime Minister of Sudan and led the National Umma Party and Ansar movement for over half a century.

Omdurman, Sudan

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

143

🕯️ 4,100

Diego Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona

Argentina

30 October 1960 – 25 November 2020 (60 years old)

Diego Armando Maradona was an Argentine football genius endowed with incomparable dribbling artistry, vision, and rebellious charisma. Regarded alongside Pelé as one of the greatest players of all time, he single-handedly captained Argentina to World Cup glory in Mexico in 1986 and transformed underdog SSC Napoli into champions of Italy and Europe.

Dique Luján, Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina

143 Full Record →

10

Statesmanship & Statesmen

Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi

سيدي محمد ولد الشيخ عبد الله

Mauritania

1938 – 2020 (82 years old)

First democratically elected civilian President of Mauritania (2007–2008), an economist and statesman who initiated the historic repatriation of Afro-Mauritanian refugees and criminalized slavery.

Aleg, Mauritania

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