Famous People Who Died Today

German model, dancer, and singer, Rob Pilatus, was a member of the pop music duo, Milli Vanilli, with Fabrice Morvan. As an interracial child growing up in Munich, he had a difficult childhood. He began working as a model as a teenager and soon ventured into music. He struggled with substance abuse and died at the age of 32.

English author Henry Graham Greene, better known as Graham Greene, is remembered for his pathbreaking Catholic novels and thrillers. He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include The Third Man and The Human Factor, and his Academy Award-nominated script of the film The Fallen Idol.

The last Crow war chief, Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow was part of the Whistling Water clan of Native Americans. The legendary indigenous hero was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A published historian, too, he is remembered for his research on the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Historian Carter Woodson was is remembered for pioneering Black studies in schools and colleges. He began the Negro History Week, which is now celebrated as the Black History Month. Poverty had pushed him to work in the coal mines initially, and he couldn’t join high school before 20.

Kurt Weill was a German composer best remembered for his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht. An influential composer, Weill's music has been recorded by several performers like Frank Sinatra and David Bowie. Singers like Marianne Faithfull and Anne Sofie von Otter have recorded several albums of his music. His music continues to be performed in classical as well as popular contexts.

Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche was an Afrikaner nationalist who played an important role in the establishment of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, which he led from 1973 to 2010. An influential personality, Terre'Blanche's philosophy and beliefs have continued to influence white supremacists around the world. His life and career inspired a couple of documentaries, including His Big White Self.

Don Francks was a Canadian actor, singer, and musician. He is best remembered for his portrayal of David Brook in the 1980 TV series, The Phoenix Team, which earned him the ACTRA Award for Best Dramatic Performance in 1981. Don Francks was also a voice actor; apart from voicing TV characters, Francks also voiced the popular video game character, Sabretooth.

Gerda Weissmann Klein is a Polish American writer. She survived the Holocaust in which her entire family perished. Later on, she wrote an autobiographical account of the Holocaust, All but My Life, which was adapted into a short film. She and her husband became advocates of Holocaust education. She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

One of Sweden’s most popular and beloved pop singer, Lill-Babs’s successful career spanned over six decades and included her hit songs Är du kär i mej ännu Klas-Göran? and Leva Livet. The artist, who was inducted into Swedish Music Hall of Fame in 2017, was also a television presenter and an actress.

Catherine Helen Spence was a 19th-century Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, and politician. One of the leading suffragists of her era, she was also a minister of religion and social worker. She supported electoral proportional representation. Australian writer and feminist Miles Franklin called her the "Greatest Australian Woman". 

Kōji Wada was a Japanese pop singer best remembered for performing several theme songs for the popular anime television series, Digimon. He had contributed songs to six Digimon anime series, including his most famous single Butter-Fly. Kōji Wada went on to perform internationally before succumbing to cancer in 2016 at the age of 42.

Juliusz Słowacki was a Polish Romantic poet. Counted among the Three Bards of Polish literature, Słowacki is often referred to as the father of modern Polish drama. However, Juliusz Słowacki was not popular during his lifetime and none of his dramas were performed on stage. His works were popularized after his death by the writers of the Young Poland period.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. He is most famous for his religious works. He also produced numerous paintings of contemporary women and children, especially of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars. He had many followers and pupils and was one of the founders of the Academia de Bellas Artes (Academy of Art). 

One of the most celebrated cinematographers from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Charles Lang spent most of his illustrious career working at Paramount Pictures. He introduced a distinctive style of lighting in A Farewell to Arms, which was later adopted by most Paramount films. The film also won him an Oscar.

Nizamuddin Auliya was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar and Sufi saint of the Chishti Order. He stressed love as a means of realizing God and believed that love of God implies love of humanity. He is considered one of the most famous Sufis from the Indian Subcontinent. His teachings were marked by an evolved sense of religious pluralism and kindness. 

Ernst Chladni was a German musician and physicist. He is often referred to as the father of acoustics for his research on vibrating plates; he came up with a method to observe and study the various modes of vibration. Ernst Chladni is also considered the father of meteoritics for his significant contribution to the study of meteorites.

Sergio Rossi was an Italian shoe designer who founded the eponymous women’s footwear company. The son of a shoemaker, he learned the trade from his father and went on to open his own shop. His shoes and sandals became much popular and were endorsed by top fashion designers. His son, Gianvito Rossi, also has his own shoe collection.  

Born in Zagreb, then in Austria-Hungary, artist and illustrator Franz von Bayros was part of the Decadent movement. His art featured erotic themes and showcased women having sex with animals and mythological figures. His work Tales from the Dressing Table, which depicted lesbianism, got him exiled from Germany.

Arthur Guyton was an American physiologist best remembered for writing Textbook of Medical Physiology, which is still being used in medical schools as the standard textbook on the subject. Arthur Guyton's well known work is the best-selling medical physiology textbook in the world. It has also been translated into many languages.