Famous People Who Died Today

English actress Diana Rigg had a wide-ranging career in films, television and theatre that spanned over six decades. Memorable roles of Diana include Emma Peel in television series The Avengers, which made her a sex-symbol; Mrs. Danvers in television drama Rebecca that won her an Emmy Award; and title role in the play Medea that won her a Tony Award.

Jane Wyman was an American actress, dancer, and singer. In an illustrious acting career spanning over 70 years, Wyman received three Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award for Best Actress. One of the leading ladies of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, Jane Wyman is also credited with popularizing two-piece bathing suit, a predecessor to the bikini.

Cliff Robertson was an American actor whose career spanned half a century. He is best known for his portrayal of Charly Gordon in the 1968 drama film Charly, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Also a well-known aviator, Robertson owned several aircraft, such as a Messerschmitt Bf 108 and multiple de Havilland Tiger Moths.

Anita Roddick was a British businesswoman and human rights activist. She was also a passionate crusader for environmental issues. She founded the British version of The Body Shop, now The Body Shop International Limited. Her company was among the first to prohibit the use of ingredients tested on animals in some products. She was also involved with Greenpeace.  

Michaela DePrince is a Sierra Leonean-American ballerina and writer. She is credited with co-authoring a book titled Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina. Michaela DePrince achieved popularity in 2011 when she was featured in a documentary titled First Position, which follows her and other ballerinas as they prepare for the upcoming Youth America Grand Prix.

MPLA leader Agostinho Neto was Angola’s first president. Born to school teacher parents, Neto grew up to become a poet and later studied medicine. However, while pursuing his academic career, he also participated in indigenous movements. Following his arrest and the subsequent unrest, he joined the Angolan liberation movement.

African-American religious leader George Baker, better known as Father Divine, founded Peace Mission, a movement that is now considered the basis of the civil rights movement. Father Divine claimed that divine intervention had caused the death of the judge who had sentenced him to prison for arranging meetings in Sayville.

George Paget Thomson was a British physicist best remembered for his discovery of the wave properties of the electron by electron diffraction. The son of physicist and Nobel laureate J. J. Thomson, he himself went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1937. He spent several years of his career at Imperial College London. 

Felix Bloch was a Swiss-American physicist who served as the first Director-General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) from 1954 to 1955. Before joining CERN, Bloch worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War after which he started focusing on investigations into nuclear magnetic induction, for which he received the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Harold Gillies was a New Zealand otolaryngologist who is considered the father of modern plastic surgery. He is also credited with pioneering sex reassignment surgery; he performed one of the earliest sex reassignment surgeries on Michael Dillon in 1946. Harold Gillies was also an amateur golfer and played in the annual Amateur Championship from 1906 to 1931.

Patty Berg was an American golfer who won 60 LPGA Tour events during her illustrious career. A founding member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), Berg also served as its first president. She won 15 majors, which remains an all-time record for a female golfer. In 1951, Berg was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Edwin P. Wilson was a former CIA officer who was convicted of illegally selling weapons to Libya in 1983. He also served as an officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence before his conviction. However, his convictions were overturned in 2003 and Edwin P. Wilson was freed in 2004.

New Woman novelist and poet Amy Levy made history when she became the second Jewish female student at Cambridge and the first Jewish female at Newnham College. Depressed since an early age, she eventually committed suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide. She is best remembered for her dramatic monologue Xantippe.

Belgian romantic novelist Hendrik Conscience was one of the pioneers of the Flemish novel. Best remembered for his historical fiction The Lion of Flanders, he had also penned tales on urban and rural life. He had also been a local politician, a museum curator, and a district commissioner.

English botanist and naturalist Thomas Nuttal is best known for his popular volume The Genera of North American Plants. He later taught natural history at Harvard and also studied birds, eventually releasing a book on American birds, too. He also undertook a voyage to Columbia River and Hawaii.

Best known for her title role in the film Teresa, Pier Angeli had stepped into showbiz at the tender age of 16. The Golden Globe-winning actor also appeared in films such as Flame and the Flesh and The Silver Chalice. She died of a barbiturate overdose at 39.

Carl Peters was a German explorer, colonial ruler, author, and politician. He is best remembered for founding the German East Africa Company. His life and career inspired the 1941 propaganda movie Carl Peters, in which Peters was played by popular German actor and singer Hans Albers.

Daniel Wayne Smith was the son of model/actor Anna Nicole Smith with her first husband. He made occasional appearances on his mother’s show The Anna Nicole Show. He died of an accidental drug overdose at age 20, at his mother’s maternity ward, shortly after the birth of his half-sister Dannielynn.

Scottish football player and manager Jock Stein guided the Celtic football club to win their first European Cup in 1967. He also guided the team to nine successive Scottish League championships. Beginning his career as a football player, he became a manager upon his retirement and had a brilliant stint in this position. He died of heart disease in 1985.

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer, advocate of women's rights, and philosopher. Wollstonecraft, who attracted a lot of attention for her unconventional personal relationships, is widely considered a founding feminist philosopher. Although her unorthodoxy initially attracted criticisms, her advocacy of women's equality became increasingly important during the 20th century. Modern-day feminists cite her works and her life as important influences.

Hungarian actor Sandor Eles lost both his parents during World War II and moved to Britain during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Initially a stage actor, he later mostly played spies, foreigners, and Nazi officers in films. He also appeared in the soap Crossroads and penned a children’s book.