Notable deaths from 2023: From Italy’s ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi to rock queen Tina Turner and Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, here are some of 2023’s most notable deaths.
January
- 07: RUSSELL BANKS, 82, prolific and acclaimed US novelist whose work charted the interior lives of marginalised people
- 10: JEFF BECK, 78, British guitar virtuoso and innovator who rose to rock and roll fame with 1960s group the Yardbirds
- 10: CARDINAL GEORGE PELL, 81, Australian archbishop, giant of the Catholic Church, who was jailed for child sexual abuse but later cleared
- 12: LISA MARIE PRESLEY, 54, singer-songwriter and only child of Elvis Presley, dies of a bowel condition caused by weight loss surgery
- 16: GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA, 95, Italian film diva, one of the last icons of Golden Age Hollywood
- 17: LUCILE RANDON, 118, French nun, who was world’s oldest known person
- 18: DAVID CROSBY, 81, American folk-rock pioneer
February
- 03: PACO RABANNE, 88, Spanish fashion designer famed for his eccentric designs and fragrances
- 05: PERVEZ MUSHARAFF, 79, Pakistan’s former military ruler
- 08: BURT BACHARACH, 94, legendary pop composer of hits including “Walk on By” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”
- 10: CARLOS SAURA, 91, acclaimed Spanish director who critiqued Franco’s dictatorship
- 15: RAQUEL WELCH, 82, US actress and global sex symbol who famously donned a fur bikini in a 1960s caveman epic
- 15: PAUL BERG, 96, Nobel-winning biochemist, key figure in genetic engineering
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March
- 03: KENZABURO OE, 88, Nobel-winning Japanese novelist
- 09: CHAIM TOPOL, 87, Israeli actor best-known for his role as milkman Tevye in 1971 classic “Fiddler on the Roof”
- 12: DICK FOSBURY, 76, athlete who revolutionised the high jump with a leap backwards over the bar, known as the “Fosbury flop”, that replaced the scissor kick approach
- 21: CLAUDE LORIUS, 91, French glaciologist and climate science pioneer whose 1980s Antarctica discoveries helped prove humanity’s role in global warming
- 28: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO, 71, Japan’s most important post-war composer who pioneered electronic music
April
- 13: MARY QUANT, 93, rule-breaking British fashion designer and pioneer of the miniskirt
- 16: AHMAD JAMAL, 92, towering and influential US pianist, composer and band leader who released some 80 albums and helped transform jazz, pop and hip-hop
- 19: MOONBIN, 25, K-Pop megastar and member of boy band Astro, found dead at his home in apparent suicide
- 22: BARRY HUMPHRIES, aka DAME EDNA EVERAGE, 89, Australian comedian who invented the iconic lilac-haired parody of a suburban housewife
- 25: CAROLYN BRYANT, 88, US woman whose claim of unwanted attention from Black teenager Emmett Till led to his lynching in 1955
- 25: HARRY BELAFONTE, 96, superstar American music performer and activist
- 27: JERRY SPRINGER, 79, popular US talk show host, whose rowdy programme symbolised low-brow TV
May
- 19: MARTIN AMIS, 73: leading voice in modern British fiction
- 24: TINA TURNER, 83, US rock icon famed for her electrifying stage presence
June
- 05: ASTRUD GILBERTO, 83, “Girl from Ipanema” Brazilian singer
- 06: FRANCOISE GILOT, 101, French artist and a longtime lover of Pablo Picasso, they had two children together, but then she left him
- 06: ROBERT HANSSEN, 79, US double agent who fed Russia some of America’s deepest secrets, dies while serving a life sentence
- 10: TED KACZYNSKI, 81, “Unabomber” who terrorised America with a two-decade bombing campaign aimed at halting the advance of modern technology and society
- 12: SILVIO BERLUSCONI, 86, larger-than-life scandal-tainted former Italian premier and billionaire media mogul
- 13: CORMAC McCARTHY, 89, titan of American fiction with novels including “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men”
- 15: GLENDA JACKSON, 87, British Oscar-winning actress and politician
July
- 01: VICTORIA AMELINA, 37, rising star of Ukrainian literature, who died from injuries sustained in a Russian missile attack
- 11: MILAN KUNDERA, 94, Czech-French novelist best-known for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”
- 16: JANE BIRKIN, 76, British-born singer and actress famous for her creative and romantic relationship with French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg
- 21: TONY BENNETT, 96, last of the classic American crooners
- 26: SINEAD O’CONNOR, 56, iconoclastic Irish pop singer, best-known for her 1990 global hit “Nothing Compares 2 U”
- 30: PAUL REUBENS, 70, US comic famed for his beloved man-child “Pee-wee Herman” character
August
- 07: WILLIAM FRIEDKIN, 87, US director of “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection”
- 09: SIXTO RODRIGUEZ, 81, cult American singer-songwriter who was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Searching for Sugar Man”
- 15: BINDESHWAR PATHAK, 80, Indian social reformer and revolutioniser of national sanitation, known as “toilet man”
- 23: YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, 62, head of Russian para-military group Wagner, killed in a plane crash after leading a mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership
- 30: MOHAMED AL-FAYED, 92, Egyptian ex-owner of Harrods department store and the Ritz in Paris, whose son Dodi died alongside Princess Diana in a car crash in 1997
September
- 02: SALIF KEITA, 76, Mali, Marseille and Saint-Etienne footballer
- 09: MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, 95, Zulu prince and veteran South African politician
- 11: IAN WILMUT, 79, pioneering British embryologist who led team that in 1996 created Dolly, the cloned sheep
- 15: FERNANDO BOTERO, 91, Colombian sculptor famous for his voluptuous forms
- 27: MICHAEL GAMBON, 82, British actor, played Albus Dumbledore in many “Harry Potter” films
- 25: MATTEO MESSINA DENARO, 61, one of the most ruthless Sicilian mafia bosses dies in prison
- 29: DIANNE FEINSTEIN, 90, trailblazing politician dubbed the “Lioness of the US Senate”
October
– 13: HUBERT REEVES, 91, Canadian-French astrophysicist, renowned for popularising space science
- 13: LOUISE GLUCK, 80, American poet, winner of Nobel and Pulitzer prizes
- 21: BOBBY CHARLTON, 86, English football hero, World Cup winner, Manchester United legend
- 21: GISELLE KHOURY, 67, grande dame of Arab journalism
- 27: LI KEQIANG, 68, Chinese premier during the first two five-year terms of President Xi Jinping
- 28: MATTHEW PERRY, 54, US star who played Chandler Bing in hit sitcom “Friends” dies after a long battle with addiction
November
- 19: ROSALYNN CARTER, 96, former US first lady who championed human rights, democracy and public health
- 29: CHARLIE MUNGER: Warren Buffets right hand man dies at 99
- 30: Henry Kissinger: Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who played a pivotal and polarising role in US foreign policy during the Cold War, has died at the age of 100.
