Famous People Who Died Today

Veteran actor Jerry Stiller had an extensive six-decade-long career in the entertainment industry. He began performing comedy with his wife, Anne Meara, in the 1960s and soon started acting in films and TV shows as well. His son, Ben Stiller, is also an actor, and the two had appeared in many films together.

Peggy Lipton achieved fame after playing Julie Barnes in the TV series The Mod Squad; her character Julie became a fashion icon. Peggy is also credited with raising her children Kidada and Rashida Jones—both celebrities—after marrying Quincy Jones. Interestingly, Peggy achieved all these after overcoming nervousness and stuttering as a child after being sexually abused by a relative.

English author, screenwriter, and essayist, Douglas Adams, is most remembered for his comedy science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As a screenwriter, he wrote two stories for the TV series Doctor Who. He advocated for environmentalism and spoke about environmental issues in his non-fiction radio series Last Chance to See.

Rob Hall was a New Zealand mountaineer and the head guide of a Mount Everest expedition in 1996, during which he died along with two clients and a fellow guide. The ill-fated expedition was dramatized in the film Everest where Rob Hall was played by actor Jason Clarke.

Financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. Was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder, John D. Rockefeller. An alumnus of Brown University, he was very principled and careful with money from an early age. He joined his father’s business and went on to become one of the largest real estate holders in Manhattan.

Finnish architect Alvar Aalto initially had his studies interrupted by the Finnish Civil War, which saw him fighting for the White Army. His first architectural design was for his parents’ house. He had experimented with furniture and glassware, too. His works showcase a move from classicism to functionalism.

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe was a Nigerian political leader and statesman. From 1963 to 1966, Azikiwe served as the first president of Nigeria. Often referred to as the Father of Nigerian Nationalism, Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe played an important role in Nigeria's struggle for independence. He is also credited with establishing the University of Nigeria (UNN).

Juan Gris was a Spanish painter whose paintings are counted among the Cubism movement's most distinctive works. Gris's works and style influenced the Purist style of Charles Edouard Jeanneret and Amédée Ozenfant. Some of his paintings, such as Still Life with Checked Tablecloth and The musician's Table, have sold for millions of dollars at the auction.

The son of renowned astronomer William Herschel, John Herschel was educated at Eton and Cambridge and grew up to be a polymath. Apart from contributing to the field of photography, he was known for cataloguing and naming stars and satellites. He briefly also served as the Master of the Royal Mint.

Karl Schwarzschild was a German astronomer and physicist. He is remembered for his contributions to the general theory of relativity; Schwarzschild came up with the first exact solution to the Albert Einstein field equations. He also contributed immensely to the theory of black holes.

Matteo Ricci was an Italian priest best remembered as one of the founding members of the Jesuit China missions. Renowned for his missionary work in China, Ricci became the first European to set foot on the Forbidden City of Beijing. He is credited with converting important Chinese officials to Catholicism. The Catholic Church considers him a Servant of God.

Spencer Perceval was an English barrister and statesman who served as the United Kingdom's Prime Minister from 1809 to 1812. The only solicitor-general to have served as UK's prime minister, Perceval was also the only British PM to have been murdered. His assassination inspired poems like Universal sympathy on the martyr'd statesman, which was published in 1812.

Known as the Radio Priest, Jozef Murgaš was a Slovak Roman Catholic priest who is remembered for his contribution to the development of wireless transmission. Regarded as one of the inventors of the radio, he was also an acclaimed botanist, an architect, and a painter.

Seventeenth-century French Baroque architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart is best remembered for designing Versailles as the city planner of King Louis XIV. His great-uncle, François Mansart, who was one of the pioneers of classical French architecture. His other works include Place Vendôme and the Château de la Chaize in Odenas.

Blaise Diagne was a Senegalese-French political leader who became the first black African elected to the French Chamber of Deputies. He was also the first to hold a position in the French government. He actively advocated for equal rights for all and was a pioneer of black African electoral politics. He was a freemason.

Motiur Rahman Nizami was a Bangladeshi politician, writer, and Islamic scholar. He served as the Minister of Agriculture from 2001 to 2003 before serving as the Minister of Industries from 2003 to 2006. Motiur Rahman Nizami was convicted and sentenced to death for masterminding the Demra massacre, which resulted in the death of more than 800 unarmed Hindu civilians.

Malik Ambar was a Siddi military leader who served as the prime minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, later serving as its de facto ruler. Brought into India as a slave, Ambar created a mercenary force and pioneered guerrilla warfare. He then went on to found the city of Khirki, which was later renamed as Aurangabad. 

Seventeenth-century German theologian Johann Arndt is remembered for his Lutheran ideals and is said to have influenced Philipp Jakob Spener, who pioneered Pietism. Of the many works penned by him, one of the most significant was Four Books on True Christianity, which later influenced many religious books.

Odd Hassel was a Norwegian physical chemist best remembered for his work that proved that the molecules were three dimensional in nature instead of two, which was the common belief at that time. His discovery earned him the 1969 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Odd Hassel was also honored with the Guldberg-Waage Medal by the Norwegian Chemical Society in 1964.