Famous People Who Died Today

Grammy-winning artist Joe Cocker is best remembered for his tracks You Are So Beautiful and Up Where We Belong. His chartbusting version of the Beatles song With a Little Help from My Friends was the theme song of the series The Wonder Years. He also received an OBE.

Michelle Thomas was an American comedian and actress known for playing important roles in popular TV series, such as The Cosby Show and Family Matters. Thomas had a promising start—even before commencing her acting career Thomas was crowned International Queen in a pageant—but her career and life were cut short by cancer and she died at the age of 30.

Samuel Beckett was a legendary Nobel Prize-winning Irish postmodernist and minimalist playwright and author, regarded as a prominent figure of the "Theatre of the Absurd.” He is best known for the play Waiting for Godot and for his tragi-comic themes and black comedy. He was also the Saoi of Aosdána.

Mary Ann Evans, known by her pseudonym George Eliot, was an English poet, novelist, translator, and journalist. One of the most prominent writers of the Victorian era, Eliot's works are known for their psychological insight, realism, and detailed description of the countryside. Her novel Middlemarch was voted one of the greatest literary works in a 2007 poll conducted by Time.

Known for his ground-breaking research on sexual psychopathology, German psychologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing worked on varied subjects such as sexual aberration and hypnosis. His Psychopathia Sexualis was one of the first written works that discussed LGBT sex and also spoke about taboo topics such as sadism, necrophilia, and masochism.

Spanish Romantic poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer was orphaned at age 11. Inspired by his painter brother Valeriano, he embarked on a literary career, writing for El Contemporáneo in Madrid. His Rimas (Rhymes) and Leyendas (Legends) gained popularity only after his death at 34 due to tuberculosis.

Ram Dass was an American spiritual teacher and psychologist. Born as Richard Alpert in Boston, he embraced Hinduism on a visit to India and changed his name. He traveled extensively, giving talks, and authored or co-authored many books on spirituality. He also founded the charitable organizations, Seva Foundation, and Hanuman Foundation. He was openly bisexual.

William Hyde Wollaston was a pioneer of powder metallurgy and the first to develop malleable platinum from its ore. He is also credited with the discoveries of palladium and rhodium. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he dictated his last Bakerian lecture, as he was too ill to deliver it.

Nobel Prize-winning British economist James Meade served as a war economist during World War II and was also part of the Labour government. He also taught at Cambridge and the London School of Economics. His research was focused on merging the Keynesian and neoclassical elements of economics.

Harro Schulze-Boysen was a German publicist and military officer who was active during the Second World War. He is credited with publishing a left-leaning political magazine called Der Gegner (The Opponent). Personalities like Karl Korsch, Ernst von Salomon, and Raoul Hausmann among others contributed to the content of the magazine.

Libertas Schulze-Boysen was a German aristocrat who fought against the Nazi regime. Libertas, who had contact with important people in different strata of society, started documenting the atrocities carried out by the Nazis during the early 1940s. She also played an important role in the formation of the Red Orchestra. Libertas Schulze-Boysen was executed by the Nazis, at the age of 29.

German-born American conductor and composer Walter Damrosch, best-known in his day as an avowed propagandist and conductor of the music of Richard Wagner, directed the New York Symphony Orchestra for over four decades. He conducted world premiere performances of George Gershwin's An American in Paris and Piano Concerto in F. He played key role in founding of the Carnegie Hall.

Augustinian philosopher and theologian Giles of Rome, known to be a disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas, was a major figure of St. Augustine’s Order of the Hermit Friars. Named Doctor Fundatissimus, which is Latin for the Best-Grounded Teacher, by Pope Benedict XIV, he is also remembered for his commentaries on Aristotle’s Organon.

Vyloppilli Sreedhara Meno was an Indian poet who composed in the Malayalam language. Kudiyozhikkal, Kannikkoythu, and Mambazham are among his best-known works. The recipient of several awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry, he was the founder president of the Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham. Besides poetry, he also wrote plays and biographies. 

Fields Medal-winning Belgian mathematician Jean Bourgain is remembered for his pioneering research on many areas of mathematical analysis, such as the geometry of Banach spaces, the ergodic theory, and spectral problems. He taught at institutes such as the University of California, Berkeley. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 64.

Mikhail Loris-Melikov was a Russian-Armenian statesman. He is best remembered for his service as the Minister of the Interior in Russia from 6 August 1880 to 4 May 1881. Mikhail Loris-Melikov was also an important military leader and is known for his role in the Caucasian War, the Crimean War, and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

Frances Xavier Cabrini was an Italian-American nun who founded a Catholic religious institute called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The institute played a major role in supporting Italian immigrants to the US. In 1946, Frances Xavier Cabrini became the first American citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

Rosa Borja de Ycaza was an Ecuadorian poet, essayist, writer, dramatist, novelist, sociologist, activist, and feminist. She is credited with founding a magazine called Nuevos Horizontes. An ardent advocate for women's rights, Rosa Borja de Ycaza is also credited with establishing the Women's Legion of Popular Culture with other popular feminists like Amarilis Fuentes.