Famous People Who Died Today

Robert Frost was an American poet. An influential poet, Frost was honored with four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry, the only poet to receive four such awards. One of America's public literary figures, Robert Frost received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960. His works influenced other poets like Robert Francis, James Wright, Edward Thomas, Richard Wilbur, and Seamus Heaney.

Freddie Prinze, father of Freddie Prinze Jr., was best known as Chico Rodriguez from Chico and the Man. A trained ballet dancer, Freddie had dropped out of high school to become a stand-up comedian. He shot himself to death, though a jury later ruled it an accidental and medicine-induced death.

Fritz Haber was a German chemist who was honored with the prestigious Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing the Haber-Bosch process. The process is used widely to synthesize ammonia from hydrogen gas and nitrogen gas. For his pioneering work in weaponizing poisonous gases like chlorine during World War I, Haber is referred to as the father of chemical warfare.

H. L. Mencken was an American journalist, cultural critic, essayist, satirist, and scholar of American English. His reporting on the Scopes Trial earned him national recognition. The trial came to be known as the Scopes Monkey Trial as Mencken had nicknamed it Monkey Trial in accordance with his satirical reporting of the trial.

Australian author Colleen McCullough soared to fame with her bestselling novel The Thorn Birds, which was also made into a hit miniseries. Fans also lover her Masters of Rome and Carmine Delmonico series of novels. A former neuropsychologist, she has previously taught at the Yale School of Medicine.

Born to a doctor in Austria, Fritz Kreisler was a music prodigy. However, after being rejected by the Vienna Philharmonic, he had started studying medicine. He had also studied art and been part of the Austrian army, though he is chiefly remembered for his violin pieces such as Viennese Caprice.

Austrian alpine ski racer Ulrike Maier was not just a 2-time Olympian but also a 2-time World Champion. Back when she competed, she was the only mother in the World Cup circuit. She died after breaking her neck in a downhill race in Germany at age 26.

La Goulue was a French can-can dancer who became a favorite subject for painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at the peak of her popularity. Dubbed the Queen of Montmartre, Goulue is remembered for performing at the Moulin Rouge near Montmartre where she was a star. After parting ways with Moulin Rouge, she lost a considerable amount of money and died poor.

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig was a British Army officer best remembered for his service as the commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front during the First World War. He also commanded forces during the Battle of Arras, the Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres, the Hundred Days Offensive, and the German Spring Offensive.

Renowned for his absurdism and wit, Edward Lear was a British poet who popularized literary nonsense. A talented painter, too, he had worked for the London Zoo, illustrating birds, and had later released illustrated travel books. A pioneer of the modern limerick, he penned the iconic poem The Owl and the Pussycat.

Initially trained to be a schoolteacher, Janet Frame later soared to fame with her short stories, poems, and her 3-part memoir, including An Angel at My Table. Misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, she spent almost a decade in mental hospitals. She wrote most of her works while in psychiatric care.

One of the most iconic medieval painters from Russia, Andrei Rublev is best remembered for his work The Old Testament Trinity. Initially an assistant of Theophanes the Greek, he later became a monk. Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev throws light on the life and times of the artist.

Also known as Captain B. H., soldier and historian B. H. Liddell Hart is best remembered for his research on military theory and his book Strategy. He was against frontal attack as a war strategy. He had also been part of the Battle of the Somme and was later knighted.

Born into a staunch Mangalorean Catholic family, George Fernandes initially wanted to be a priest. Known as the Giant-killer for defeating S.K. Patil in his first Lok Sabha election, he later held important ministries such as Defense and Railways, and even formed his own party, the Samata Party.

Jacques Rivette was a French film critic and director. One of the most important members of the French New Wave, Rivette's work is renowned for its loose narratives, improvisation, and lengthy running times. Rivette, who started his career as a film critic, worked for the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma and his articles helped popularize the magazine in the 1960s.

Sudirman was the first commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. Initially a teacher at an elementary school, he started his army career with the volunteer army Defenders of the Homeland. He fought in World War II and the Indonesian National Revolution, and was named a National Hero of Indonesia.

Yevgeny Leonov was a Soviet and Russian actor best remembered for playing important roles in many of Soviet's most famous films like Mimino, Gentlemen of Fortune, and Striped Trip. Widely regarded as one of the best-loved actors of Russia, Yevgeny Leonov specialized in playing comic roles and also voiced many Soviet cartoon characters, such as Winnie-the-Pooh.

Lawren Harris was a Canadian painter best remembered as one of the most important members of the influential group of Canadian landscape painters, Group of Seven. Harris played an important and influential role in shaping early modernism in Canadian art. He is also credited with inspiring and mentoring several modernist painters like Emily Carr.

Natalia Dudinskaya was a Russian ballet dancer who dominated the Imperial Russian Ballet between the 1930s and the 1950s. Dudinskaya, who originated many roles during her illustrious career, won four Stalin Prizes. She also received the prestigious People's Artist of the USSR award in 1957. After her retirement, Natalia Dudinskaya served as a teacher and taught at the Vaganova Institute.

A member of the Italian House of Savoy, Prince Aimone, the Duke of Aosta, also served as a Royal Italian Navy officer. He was later made the king of Croatia by Italian king Emmanuel III but refused to accept his kingship as a mark of protest against the Italian occupation of the Dalmatia region.

Camilla Williams was an American operatic soprano who signed a regular contract with the New York City Opera, becoming the first African-American to receive a full contract with a major opera company in America. She also became the first African-American to perform a major role at the Vienna State Opera. Camilla Williams toured throughout the US as a concert artist.

Born to a clockmaker father, William Cranch Bond made his first clock at 15 and then took over his father’s William Bond Clock Shop. Watching a solar eclipse pushed him into astronomy, and he ended up discovering Hyperion, the eighth moon of Saturn. He was also the Harvard Observatory’s first director.

British physiologist Michael Foster scripted history as the first physiology professor at the University of Cambridge. As a teacher, he stressed on the importance of laboratory experiments and thus modernized the teaching methods for subjects such as biology and physiology. He had also tried his luck in politics.