Famous People Who Died Today

British writer, Roald Dahl, is considered as one of the greatest children’s authors. He is one of the best-selling authors of all-time and had a career spanning decades. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, The Twits and Matilda are some of his classic works. He also wrote short stories and novels meant for adults.

Merle Oberon was a British actress best known for playing Kitty Vane in the movie, The Dark Angel, for which she received her only Academy Award nomination. After her death, Michael Korda wrote a roman à clef titled Queenie, a novel about Oberon's real-life events. For her achievements, Merle Oberon was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Indian physicist, biologist, and plant physiologist Jagadish Chandra Bose revolutionized science with his research on how plants and animals react to external stimuli. He founded the Bose Institute, made pioneering contribution to the field of radio and microwave optics, and also penned one of the first works of Bengali science fiction.

Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his film Le Monde du silence, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1957. He was also the recipient of two Golden Lion awards, one of the only four directors to have achieved this feat. He was active in both French cinema and Hollywood.

Popularly known as The King of Country Music, Roy Acuff was also a talented fiddler. Initially a budding baseball player, he ditched his sports career due to repeated injuries and focused on music instead. He was part of the radio broadcast Grand Ole Opry and later won a Grammy Lifetime Award.

Manuela Sáenz was an Ecuadorian revolutionary who supported women's rights. She received the Order of the Sun, honoring her services in the revolution. Today, she is widely regarded as a feminist symbol of the 19th century. In 2007, the Ecuadorian government honored her with the rank of General.

Though German actor Klaus Kinski had gained fame with his stellar performances in the films of Werner Herzog, he had also been in the news for his eccentricity and volatile nature. He was once admitted to psychiatric facility for attempting to kill his sponsor, and his own daughter accused him of abuse.

A prominent supporter of President Charles de Gaulle, author Andre Malraux had served as the French minister of cultural affairs for a decade. He initiated anti-colonial and socialist movements in South-east Asia and also went on expeditions to discover mythical wonders such as the capital of the Queen of Sheba.

Sessue Hayakawa was a Japanese actor who became a popular Hollywood star during the silent film era. He was the first Asian actor to achieve stardom in Europe and the United States of America. Renowned for portraying sexually dominant villains, Sessue Hayakawa became a heartthrob among American women; he was also one of Hollywood's first male sex symbols.

Ingrid Pitt was a Polish-British actress best remembered for her performance in popular horror films of the 1970s: The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula among others. She also had a prolific writing career; apart from publishing novels, Ingrid Pitt also wrote columns for magazines like Shivers.

Apart from owning NFL's Houston Texans, Bob McNair also gained fame as a self-made billionaire, who made it to the Forbes 400 in 2018. After a streak of failures in business, he finally managed to succeed with Cogen Technologies. He also headed the real-estate firm The McNair Group.

Legendary Chilean painter Roberto Matta is remembered as a significant figure of the abstract expressionist and surrealist art of the 20th century. The Praemium Imperiale-winning artist had initially studied architecture in Santiago and had then worked for Le Corbusier in Paris. His inscape works were influenced by Freud’s psychoanalysis.

Popularly known as The Big Irishman, coach Pat Quinn initially played as a defenseman for teams such as the Toronto Maple Leafs. Later, as a coach, he led Team Canada to multiple gold medals. He also led both the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks to Stanley Cup finals.

Best known for creating the Gantt Chart, a management tool used for scheduling tasks, mechanical engineer Henry Gantt had been a disciple and colleague of Frederick W. Taylor. He also prepared ground for the Human Relations School of management and spoke about the social responsibility of business.

José Alfredo Jiménez was a Mexican singer-songwriter whose work is widely regarded as the foundation of modern Mexican music. Over the course of his illustrious career, Jiménez composed over 1,000 songs. Such is the popularity of his songs that many popular artists from around the world have recorded his songs for their own albums.  

Stela Popescu was a Romanian TV personality and actress. She is widely regarded as the greatest comedienne and one of the best actresses of all time in Romania. Stela Popescu is also remembered for her skills as a voice actress. In 2006, 2011, and 2017, Popescu voiced Flo in the Romanian version of the Cars trilogy.

Charles Booth was not just a shipowner but also a prominent social reformer, best known for his 17-volume Life and Labour of the People in London, which threw a light on the social conditions of the poor in London. He also developed statistical methods to ascertain the social issues of the working class.

English geographer Richard Hakluyt is remembered for his marked political influence and his continuous support of the British colonization of North America. A priest, he was associated with the Westminster Abbey. He also penned reports such as Discourse of Western Planting, which was appreciated by Queen Elizabeth I.

Part of the legendary Struve family of astronomers, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve is best remembered for his research on double stars, or binary stars. The winner of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Struve had fled Germany and moved to Denmark and to Russia, to avoid military service.

Alvin Langdon Coburn was an American photographer who played a major role in the progression of American pictorialism. Coburn is often credited with producing some of the earliest completely abstract photographs. 

Rafael Eitan was an Israeli general who served as the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 1978 to 1983. He then went on to become a politician, serving in various ministerial positions between 1990 and 1999. Rafael Eitan also served as the Deputy Prime Minister from 1996 to 1999.