List of Famous people who died at 12

Heather Michele O'Rourke was an American child actress. She made her debut after being discovered by director Steven Spielberg while visiting MGM studios. Spielberg promptly cast her in the horror film Poltergeist (1982) as Carol Anne Freeling, and O'Rourke earned recognition for her performance. She then reprised the role in the second and third installments. O'Rourke was also recognized for her work in television, and appeared in recurring roles on Happy Days from 1982 to 1983, on Webster in 1983, as well as appearing in the television-film Surviving in 1985.

Nkosi Johnson was a South African child with HIV and AIDS who greatly influenced public perceptions of the pandemic and its effects before his death at the age of 12. He was ranked fifth amongst SABC3's Great South Africans. At the time of his death, he was the longest-surviving child born HIV-positive in South Africa.

Polly Hannah Klaas was an American murder victim whose case garnered national media attention. On October 1, 1993, at the age of twelve, she was kidnapped at knife point during a slumber party at her mother's home in Petaluma, California. She was later strangled. Richard Allen Davis was convicted of her murder in 1996 and sentenced to death.

David Phillip Vetter was an American who was a prominent sufferer of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), a hereditary disease which dramatically weakens the immune system. Individuals born with SCID are abnormally susceptible to infections, and exposure to typically innocuous pathogens can be fatal. Vetter was referred to as "David, the bubble boy" by the media, as a reference to the complex containment system used as part of the management of his SCID. Vetter's surname was not revealed to the general public until 10 years after his death in order to preserve his family's privacy.

Hector Pieterson was a South African schoolboy who was shot and killed during the Soweto uprising, when the police opened fire on students protesting the enforcement of teaching in Afrikaans. A news photograph by Sam Nzima of the mortally wounded Pieterson being carried by another Soweto resident while his sister ran next to them was published around the world. The anniversary of his death is designated Youth Day, when South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.

Ceylan Önkol was a 12-year-old Kurdish girl who was killed by a howitzer by the Turkish military while she was pasturing sheep in Hambaz (Xambaz) hamlet of Şenlik village in Turkey's southeastern Lice district in Diyarbakır province on September 28, 2009. In the early days, the incident was thought to have occurred as a result of the explosion of a mortar shell allegedly thrown from the Tapantepe Police Station. However, according to the forensic medical report issued on 16 October, Ceylan struck an unexploded mortar shell in the countryside with a metal-powered device and caused it to explode, which resulted in her death.

On November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice, a 12-year old African-American boy, was killed in Cleveland, Ohio, by Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old white police officer. Rice was carrying a replica toy gun; Loehmann shot him almost immediately after arriving on the scene. Two officers, Loehmann and 46-year-old Frank Garmback, were responding to a police dispatch call regarding a male who had a gun. A caller reported that a male was pointing "a pistol" at random people at the Cudell Recreation Center, a park in the City of Cleveland's Public Works Department. At the beginning of the call and again in the middle, he says of the pistol "it's probably fake." Toward the end of the two-minute call, the caller states that "he is probably a juvenile"; however, this information was not relayed to officers Loehmann and Garmback on the initial dispatch. The officers reported that upon their arrival, they both continuously yelled "show me your hands" through the open patrol car window. Loehmann further stated that instead of showing his hands, it appeared as if Rice was trying to draw: "I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out." The officer shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso. According to Judge Ronald B. Adrine, "...On the video the zone car containing Patrol Officers Loehmann and Garmback is still in the process of stopping when Rice is shot." Rice died the following day.