Famous People Who Died Today

Salvador Dali was a Spanish artist best remembered for his precise draftsmanship and technical skills. His artwork is famous for depicting bizarre and striking images. In spite of producing brilliant artworks, Dali's ostentatious and eccentric public behavior often overshadowed his professional achievements, much to the irritation of his fans and critics. His works have influenced other artists like Jeff Koons.

Six-time Emmy Award-winner Johnny Carson was known for hosting NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After serving in World War II, Carson started hosting radio shows and then graduated to TV. He also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and is said to have inspired David Letterman.

Regarded as one of the most popular American TV and radio hosts, Larry King was famous for hosting the successful and popular TV program, Larry King Live. The recipient of several awards, King was an iconic figure on American television. Also known for his charitable works, he founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation to help poor people undergo cardiac procedures.

Actor, TV director, and writer, Hal Holbrook, has been active in the entertainment industry for seven decades. In his extensive career, he has appeared in hundreds of films, TV shows, and stage productions. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including five Primetime Emmy Awards. He was honored with the National Humanities Medal in 2003.

Singer and actor, Paul Robeson, was as much known for his music and films as he was for his political activism. As a black man who had to endure great difficulties to establish himself, he was actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement and other social justice campaigns. As a performer, he was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

One of the first ballerinas to travel extensively around the world, Anna Pavlova had first gained an interest in the dance form after watching an adaptation of The Sleeping Beauty. She initially gained fame dancing with Mikhail Mordkin and later made waves with her iconic role in The Dying Swan.

British statesman, William Pitt the Younger, became the youngest prime minister of Great Britain in 1783 when he was just 24. During his stint as the prime minister, he was also Chancellor of the Exchequer. Several major political events,  including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, happened during his tenure.  He is ranked highly among all British Prime Ministers.

A pioneer of South African jazz, instrumentalist Hugh Masekela excelled in the trumpet and introduced South African music to countries such as the U.S. He was also a vocal anti-apartheid activist, played for the Jazz Epistles, and was known for his iconic albums such as Hope and Johannesburg.

Best known for his wood-engraving, Gustave Doré was a child prodigy who began his artwork at the tender age of 5. A master lithographer and caricaturist, he began his career with Journal pour Rire. He also worked on commissions from authors such as Cervantes, Milton, and Dante.

E. Howard Hunt was an American author and intelligence officer. He is best remembered for his service in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1949 to 1970, during which he served as an officer. E. Howard Hunt was part of the White House Special Investigations Unit during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Helmut Newton was a German-American photographer whose works earned him accolades all over the world. His photographs were featured on popular fashion magazines like Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. He also worked closely with Playboy, shooting several pictorials of models like Kristine DeBell and Nastassja Kinski.

Hungarian-British filmmaker Sir Alexander Korda initially worked as a journalist and launched film magazines such as Pesti Mozi. He later moved to Hollywood and then to England, where he launched his production company. Known for producing classics such as The Thief of Baghdad, he was the first filmmaker to be knighted.

Jonas Mekas was a Lithuanian-American poet, artist, and filmmaker. Referred to as the godfather of American avant-garde cinema, Mekas is credited with mentoring many important American artists and filmmakers, such as Peter Bogdanovich, Ken Jacobs, and Martin Scorsese among others. Jonas Mekas' work has been displayed in museums. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including Lithuanian National Prize.

Known for his popular book The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen was an academic and consultant. His 6’8” frame helped him be an important part of the Oxford basketball team. A Harvard MBA, he later taught at his alma. He topped the Thinkers 50 list twice.

Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico is regarded as a pioneer of what is now known as cultural anthropology, or ethnology. He brought together history and the social sciences in his work Scienza nuova. A poor bookseller’s son, he studied by candlelight but grew up to be a major Counter-Enlightenment figure.

Considered one of the most important literary theorists of the century, Herman Northrop Fry gained international fame with his first book, Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake and later with Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Prolific writer and respected educator, he went on to write many more, concurrently championing Canadian literature and identity, receiving several honors for his contributions.

Kirkpatrick Macmillan was a 19th-century Scottish blacksmith generally credited with inventing the pedal-driven bicycle. He allegedly completed constructing a pedal-driven bicycle of wood in 1839. The bicycle included iron-rimmed wooden wheels and a steerable wheel. However, there is no concrete evidence to prove that he was indeed the inventor of the first pedal-driven bicycle.  

Hyatt Hotels co-founder Jay Pritzker was the patriarch of a $15 billion empire with about 200 companies under him. A qualified lawyer, he was initially associated with his family law and holding firm. He also launched the Pritzker Architecture Prize and was the owner of Braniff Airlines.

Renowned sociologist and intellectual Pierre Bourdieu is best remembered for his theory of habitus. Initially sent to Algeria as part of the French Army, he later taught and conducted ethnographic research there. His best-known work remains La Distinction, and he also inspired a hit French documentary.

French designer Thierry Mugler was initially known for his skills in ballet and drawing. He began his fashion career working for a boutique in Paris and later launched his brand. He is known for his peculiar clothes, inspired by birds and insects, and made of metal and crystals.

It is believed Joseph Beuys was rescued by Tartars when his air force plane broke down in Crimea during World War II. He later gained fame as an avant-garde sculptor and artist and part of the group Fluxus. His works used unconventional media, with some even including staged actions.

French painter Pierre Bonnard was part of Les Nabis and later led the Intimists. Known for his love for bright colors, he painted a range of subjects, from domestic scenes to nudes, and could even paint from memory. Though a womanizer, Bonnard was married to his muse Marthe de Méligny.

Globally reputed Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author Ryszard Kapuściński was the only correspondent of the Communist-era Polish Press Agency in Africa at the time of decolonization. Notable works of Kapuściński, who was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, includes Another Day of Life, The Emperor, Imperium and The Shadow of the Sun.. 

Modernist painter Helene Schjerfbeck is best-remembered for her realist-works and self-portraits, besides landscapes and still-lifes. She started with French-influenced realism and plein-air paintings and was later drawn towards portraits and still-life paintings. One of the most popular works of Schjerfbeck, whose birthday is celebrated in Finland as national day for the painted arts, is Dancing Shoes, done in Realist style.      

Belgian Roman Catholic cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier was a prominent Thomist scholar who was largely responsible for the revival of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas in the 19th century. He served as the Archbishop of Mechelen and is remembered for his valiant resistance to the 1914–1918 German occupation.