Famous People Who Died Today

Comedian Paul Reubens, or Pee-wee, began his career with the troupe The Groundlings. His popular stage show The Pee-wee Herman Show inspired the CBS show Pee-wee’s Playhouse; the movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure; and a Netflix film. His 1991 arrest due to indecent exposure changed his image to a great extent.

Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish filmmaker and screenwriter. Widely regarded as one of the most influential and accomplished filmmakers of all time, Ingmar Bergman continues to serve as an inspiration for filmmakers like Woody Allen. His work has also influenced other prominent directors like Martin Scorsese, Thomas Vinterberg, and Richard Ayoade.

William Penn was a writer and one of the earliest members of the Quakers. He is credited with founding the Province of Pennsylvania. He also oversaw the planning and development of the city of Philadelphia. Penn has several universities and schools named in his honor, including the William Penn University in Iowa. 

Claudette Colbert was an American actress best remembered for her performance in the 1934 romantic-comedy film It Happened One Night, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. A versatile actress, Colbert achieved immense popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, during which she was one of the highest-paid stars. Colbert also received a Golden Globe Award during her career.

The son of a janitor and a domestic help, Herman Cain used his talent in math to join Purdue University. He had worked with the Navy and been an analyst for Coca-Cola. He later headed Pillsbury as its VP. He had announced his presidential candidacy in 2012 but later withdrew.

Michelangelo Antonioni was an Italian screenwriter, film director, editor, short story author, and painter. Renowned for making films with striking visual composition and elusive plots, Antonioni's work has influenced art cinema of the subsequent generation. Over the course of his career, Antonioni won many prestigious awards, including an honorary Academy Award, Palme d'Or, the Golden Bear, and the Golden Lion.

Joe Shuster was a comic book artist best remembered for co-creating one of the most popular comic book characters, Superman. Throughout his life, Shuster was involved in several legal battles over the ownership of the character. He was inducted into Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1992 and 1993 respectively.

Revolutionary leader and president of Southern Sudan John Garang was the man behind the term "Sudanism," which promoted cohesiveness among the people of Sudan. Orphaned at 10, he completed his education on scholarships but later rejected an offer from UCB to go to Tanzania. He died in a helicopter crash.

Murray Bookchin, also known by his pseudonyms M.S. Shiloh and Lewis Herber, was an anarchist, a political philosopher, and an academic, best known for his fight against capitalism. The son of Russian immigrants, he followed communism since age 9. He had also penned books such as The Ecology of Freedom.

Tanizaki Jun'ichirō was a Japanese author whose works made him a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964. Widely regarded as one of the most important personalities in modern Japanese literature, Tanizaki's work ranges from the depictions of erotic obsessions to the dynamics of family life in 20th-century Japan. Many of his works have been adapted into films.

Umberto Nobile was an Italian aeronautical engineer, Arctic explorer, and aviator. A developer of semi-rigid airships, Nobile is best remembered for designing the airship Norge, which was the first airship to fly across the polar ice cap between America and Europe. Umberto Nobile is also credited with designing and piloting the airship Italia, which belonged to the Italian Air Force.

Nineteenth-century critic and essayist Walter Pater redefined aestheticism with his idea of "art for art’s sake." Though initially interested in a church career, he later studied classics and began writing reviews on Renaissance art. Marius the Epicurean remains his most notable work. Some of his works reveal his homosexuality.

Swiss-born sports executive Joan Gamper is best remembered as the founder of the legendary football club FC Barcelona. A sports enthusiast since his childhood, he excelled in many sports, such as football, golf, and tennis. He died of suicide at age 52, apparently driven by depression related to financial issues.

Spanish priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla is remembered as the father of Mexican independence. During the 1808 French invasion of Spain, the Mexicans demanded independence from Spanish rule. Hidalgo’s subsequent call for revolt against the Spanish is remembered as the Cry of Dolores. He was executed by a firing squad.

Known as the father of the refrigerator, American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist Jacob Perkins made several useful mechanical inventions. He created improved nail machines and some of the best steel plates for engraving, invented a bathometer, became the first person in Britain to use a uniflow steam engine, and most notably built the world’s first working vapor-compression refrigeration system.

Ipce Ahmedovski was a Serbian and Macedonian singer. An exponent of folk music, Ahmedovski achieved popularity in the early 1990s. His career came to an abrupt end in 1994, when he died in a car crash at the age of 28.

Bharathan was an Indian artist, filmmaker, and art director. He earned a diploma from the College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, and began his career as an art director in films. He eventually started working as an assistant director and made his directorial debut in 1975 with the film Prayanam. Many of his films dealt with bold themes. 

A professor of New Testament at the University of Marburg, Rudolf Bultmann was a German theologian, known for his work on demythologization, a process that separates cosmological and historic claims from philosophical, ethical and theological teachings. An influential theologian of the post-war era, he undertook pioneering research in historical Jesus, attempting to reconcile faith and reason in a modern context.

Considered one of the best conductors of the 20th century, Hungarian-born George Szell is best remembered for his stint as the director of the Cleveland Orchestra in the US. Starting as a pianist, he had started touring at age 11. He began conducting at age 16, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Harun Farocki was a German author and filmmaker who made more than 90 films, many of which were short experimental documentaries. His work was included in the Carnegie International during the 2004–05 season. Harun Farocki also worked as a professor; he taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1993 to 1999.