Famous People Who Died Today

Garry Shandling was initially a sitcom writer and then performed as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He later soared to fame with his own shows, It's Garry Shandling's Show and the Emmy-winning The Larry Sanders Show. He has also hosted the Grammy and Emmy Awards.

Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, was a British Army officer who played important roles in World War I, World War II, and the Irish War of Independence. He commanded the British Eighth Army during the Second World War and also oversaw the operations during the Battle of Normandy. Bernard Montgomery has a couple of statues dedicated to him.

Remembered as The King of Fashion, Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga had begun sewing at 10, helping his mother earn a living after his father’s death. A visit to Paris at 15 turned his luck around. A closeted gay, Balenciaga later revolutionized fashion with his signature flowy gowns and dresses.

Alexander Alekhine was a French and Russian chess player renowned for his imaginative and fierce attacking style. He also possessed great positional and endgame skill, which he used effectively to reign as the World Chess Champion from 1927 to 1935 and then from 1937 to 1946. Also a theoretician, Alexander Alekhine innovated several opening variations, including the Alekhine's Defence.

Often termed The Fifth Beatle, music executive Neil Aspinall went from being a schoolmate of Paul McCartney and George Harrison to eventually managing The Beatles. He later also headed Apple Corps., a company established by The Beatles. He had also fathered a child with the mother of his friend, musician Pete Best.

Amado V. Hernandez was a Filipino labor leader and writer. He is best remembered for his participation in the communist movement, for which he was arrested and imprisoned. Amado V. Hernandez criticized the social injustices in the Philippines through his writings and often included his experiences as a labor leader and as a guerrilla in his socio-political novels.

Born to Stuckey's Bank MD Walter Bagehot was initially part of his father’s shipping and banking business. He later became the editor-in-chief of The Economist and married the publication’s founder James Wilson’s daughter. He penned path-breaking works such as Lombard Street and The English Constitution and co-established National Review.

Spanish pianist and composer Enrique Granados gained fame with his nationalistic music. He is remembered for his iconic work Goyescas, which premiered as an opera in New York. Granados lost his life when the ship he was traveling to England in drowned after being torpedoed by a German submarine.

A major figure of the Irish Literary Revival, John Millington Synge is best remembered for his play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots in Dublin due to its satiric depiction of the Irish nature of boasting. His life ended abruptly at 37, due to blood cancer.

Born in Shanghai, An Wang studied electrical engineering before moving to Harvard to get his PhD. The Wang Laboratories co-founder is remembered for inventing the magnetic core memory, which was the main component of computers till the invention of the microchip. He also developed many word-processing systems.

Óscar Romero was the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. Disturbed by a growing war between left-wing and right-wing forces, he spoke against social injustice, poverty, assassinations, and torture. He was assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980. He is considered an unofficial patron saint of the Americas and El Salvador.

Cesar Milstein was an Argentine biochemist renowned for his work in antibody research. He is credited with developing the Hybridoma technology, a method to produce identical antibodies in large numbers, for which he was honored with the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984. He also received several other awards, including the Copley Medal in 1989.

Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish sculptor and medallist. He was internationally famous and spent most of his life in Italy. He received his training at the Royal Danish Academy of Art and initially worked with his father, a woodcarver. He went on to become a famous sculptor and worked in a heroic neo-classicist style. He received many awards. 

German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner was born amid poverty but managed to get training as an apothecary. After his university education, he taught at the University of Jena. His discovery of the fact that certain chemical elements were similar later led to the development of the periodic law of chemistry.

Lys Assia created history by becoming the first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. The Swiss-born singer was initially a dancer but had her first brush with music when she filled in for an absentee singer. She later released hits such as Moulin Rouge and O Mein Papa.

One of the pioneers of expressionism in Sweden, Sigrid Hjertén was the only female member of the artist group De Åtta. Initially a teacher of textile design, she later painted iconic works such as Atelierinteriör. She died of a failed lobotomy procedure to cure her schizophrenia.

Orphaned at the age of three, Ii Naomasa was initially groomed by his foster mother, Ii Naotora, a daimyō of the Sengoku period. He was later sent to Tokugawa Ieyasu, under whom he began his career, rising swiftly through ranks to become Hyōbu-dayū. Considered one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Tokugawa, he was also a favorite of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

James Cardinal Gibbons was a prelate of the Catholic Church. From 1868 to 1872, he served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina. From 1872 to 1877, he served as the Bishop of Richmond. From 1877 to 1921, he served as the ninth Archbishop of Baltimore. He is also remembered for his writing skills and many of his works remain influential.