Famous People Who Died Today

Liam Payne is a popular English singer-songwriter who is part of the world-renowned boy band One Direction. Also a well-known philanthropist, Liam Payne has supported Comic Relief and Unicef. In 2020, he helped raise over $10 million for charitable organizations fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to his charity work, he serves as an inspiration to many youngsters across the world.

Deborah Kerr was a Scottish actress who holds the record for having the most Academy Award nominations under the Best Actress category without a win. However, she received an Academy Honorary Award in 1994 for her contribution to the entertainment industry. Deborah Kerr was made a CBE in 1998 and also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

George Marshall was an American statesman and soldier who played a key role in the Allied victory during the Second World War. Marshall served as the third US Secretary of Defense from 1950 to 1951. As Secretary of State, George Marshall advocated economic recovery programs to aid post-war European countries, for which he was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, military leader/politician Moshe Dayan, grew up to be an revered for his exploits against Israel’s Arab neighbors. His invasion of the Sinai peninsula is etched in his memoir, Diary of the Sinai Campaign. Following his death, his eye patch was sold on eBay for US$75,000.

Shirley Booth is best remembered for her Academy Award-winning role in Come Back, Little Sheba and was one of only 24 people to earn the Triple Crown of Acting, namely the Academy, the Primetime Emmy, and the Tony awards. She also appeared in a TV production of The Glass Menagerie.

Jean Shepherd was a writer, storyteller, humorist, and radio and TV personality. In a long and productive career that spanned nearly five decades, he gave live performances, wrote scripts and stories, hosted radio shows, and even worked in a few films. He was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. He was known to be a private person.

Starting his career with Broadway, Cornel Wilde later gained fame for his Academy Award-nominated role of Frédéric Chopin in A Song to Remember. Though he had made it to the US Olympic fencing team in 1936 and had also joined Columbia University to become a physician, he decided to focus on acting instead.

Dan Wheldon was a British racing driver best remembered for winning the IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship title in 2005 for Andretti Green Racing (AGR). He is also remembered for winning the Indianapolis 500 twice. Dan Wheldon was killed at the age of 33 while competing in the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship when his car collided with a fence post.

Arthur Seyss-Inquart was an Austrian politician who was part of the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. A Nazi propagandist, Seyss-Inquart was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes at the Nuremberg trials and sentenced to death. He was executed on 16 October 1946 in Nuremberg Prison.

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac was a French adventurer and explorer. He is credited with founding Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, which later became the famous city of Detroit. The famous car brand Cadillac was named in Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac's honor.

Gerard Majella was an Italian lay brother who is honored by the Roman Catholic Church as a saint. His intercession is sought for unborn children, children, mothers, women in childbirth, expectant mothers, and motherhood. Many churches in New Zealand, England, and Sri Lanka are dedicated to him.

German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder enriched the German Renaissance with his paintings and wood engravings. A court painter of the Electors of Saxony, he specialized in painting both nudes and ladies in fine clothing, and mostly depicted biblical and mythological themes. He also inspired the Danube school of Austria.

John Hunter was a Scottish surgeon remembered for his efforts to study the human anatomy through investigation and experimentation. An early advocate of scientific method in medicine, Hunter was considered one of the most prominent surgeons of his generation. He is also remembered for paying for the body of Charles Byrne and displaying the skeletal remains in his Hunterian Museum.

Valentín Paniagua was a Peruvian politician and lawyer. He is best remembered for his service as the President of Peru from 22 November 2000 to 28 July 2001. An influential politician, Valentín Paniagua also served as the Minister of Education from April 1984 to October 1984. From 1965 to 1966, he was the Minister of Justice and Worship in Peru.

English Protestant martyr and bishop Nicholas Ridley had an illustrious career as a scholar at Cambridge. Named a master of Pembroke Hall, he converted Cambridge into a Reformist seminary for Protestantism. He ended up being accused of heresy and was burned at the stake at Oxford, thus becoming one of the Oxford Martyrs.

German politician Joachim von Ribbentrop was Nazi Germany’s minister of foreign affairs from 1938 to 1945. He let Hitler use his summer house, Schloss Fuschl, for secret Nazi meetings. Ribbentrop was eventually convicted of war crimes and became the first Nuremberg defendant to be hanged to death.

Harish-Chandra was an Indian American physicist and mathematician whose contributions to representation theory made him one of the most prominent mathematicians of the 20th century. Over the course of his illustrious career, Harish-Chandra was honored with several prestigious awards, such as the Frank Nelson Cole Prize and Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal. In 1977, he received India's third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan.

Christian Krohg was a Norwegian painter, author, illustrator, and journalist. From 1909 to 1925, he served at the Norwegian Academy of Arts as its first professor, apart from serving as the academy's director. Inspired by realism, Christian Krohg produced several portraits of people including that of his wife Oda Krohg. He received several international and national awards during his career.

Arthur Grumiaux was a Belgian violinist best remembered for his flawless intonation and consistently beautiful tone. A master virtuoso who often showcased his technical prowess, Arthur Grumiaux is also counted among the great violin virtuosi of the 20th century.