List of Famous people who died at 39

Anna Nicole Smith was an American model, actress, and television personality. Smith first gained popularity in Playboy magazine when she won the title of 1993 Playmate of the Year. She modeled for fashion companies, including Guess, H&M, Heatherette and Lane Bryant.

Jessica Combs was an American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator. She set a women's land speed class record in 2013 and broke her own record in 2016. She was known as "the fastest woman on four wheels".

David Charles Hahn, sometimes called the "Radioactive Boy Scout" or the "Nuclear Boy Scout", was an American man who built a homemade neutron source at the age of seventeen.

Mikhail "The Pot" Gorsheniov was a lead singer and composer of Russian horror punk/hard rock band Korol i Shut.

Enrique Urquijo was a Spanish singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

Claude Antoine Marie François, also known by the nickname Cloclo, was a French pop singer, composer, songwriter, music producer, drummer and dancer. François co-wrote the lyrics of "Comme d'habitude", the original version of "My Way" and composed the music of "Parce que je t'aime mon enfant", the original version of "My Boy". Among his most famous songs are "Le Téléphone Pleure", "Le lundi au soleil", "Magnolias for Ever", "Alexandrie Alexandra" and "Cette année là".

Nelsan Ellis was an American actor and playwright. He achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal of Lafayette Reynolds in the HBO television series True Blood (2008–2014), for which he won a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy, among other accolades. He also starred as Shinwell Johnson in Elementary from 2016 to 2017, and played a variety of guest roles in other television series, including Veronica Mars and Without a Trace.

Lynne Maria Frederick was a British actress, film producer, and fashion model. In a career spanning ten years, she made over thirty appearances in film and television productions. Known for her classic English rose beauty, she often played the girl next door and was famous for her performances in a range of genres, from contemporary science fiction to slasher horror, romantic dramas, classic westerns, and occasional comedies. Although her greater successes were in period films and costume dramas.

Robert Louis "Bobby" DeBarge, Jr. was an American singer and musician. DeBarge was the lead singer of the Motown R&B/soul vocal group Switch and was noted for his falsetto vocals. Later on, he served as both mentor and a co-producer of his siblings' band, DeBarge, eventually joining them to fill in for departing members El and Bunny. Personal problems, including substance abuse which eventually led to drug trafficking charges in 1988, plagued DeBarge in later years, taking focus away from his musical career. He contracted HIV in the 1980s, and died of AIDS complications in 1995, at age 39.

Ashley M. Massaro was an American professional wrestler, reality television contestant, television host, model, and radio personality. She was best known for her time with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and for her appearance on Survivor: China.

Colin Steele McRae, was a Scottish rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first Scottish person and the youngest to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title. With 25 victories in the WRC, McRae held the record for the most wins in the series.

Andrew James Pennington was a British politician, and a posthumous recipient of the George Medal in 2001.

Werner Teske was an East German Hauptmann (Captain) of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) who was executed for "planned treason" in June 1981.

Cássia Rejane Eller was a Brazilian singer and musician. She came to prominence in the early 1990s and performed a mix of rock and MPB. Eller released five studio albums in her lifetime: Cássia Eller (1990), O Marginal (1992), Cássia Eller (1994), Veneno AntiMonotonia (1997) and Com Você... Meu Mundo Ficaria Completo (1999). Her sixth studio album, Dez de Dezembro (2002) was released posthumously. Eller's most successful album was Acústico MTV – Cássia Eller (2001), selling over 1 million copies. She was ranked as the 18th greatest vocalist and 40th greatest Brazilian musician by Rolling Stone Brasil. On December 29, 2001, Eller died of a heart attack caused by a malformation of her heart at the age of 39.

Dennis Carl Wilson was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best remembered as their drummer and as the middle brother of bandmates Brian and Carl Wilson. Dennis was the only true surfer in the Beach Boys, and his personal life exemplified the "California Myth" that the band's early songs often celebrated. He was also known for his brief association with Charles Manson, a cult leader and songwriter later convicted of several murders, and for co-starring in the 1971 film Two-Lane Blacktop.

Élie Kakou was a French actor and stand-up comedian.

Dieter Schidor was a German actor, perhaps best known for his work in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle.

Alfred Willi Rudolf Dutschke was a German Marxist sociologist and a political activist in the German student movement and the APO protest movement of the 1960s.

Esat Oktay Yıldıran was a Turkish military officer who was appointed governor of the Diyarbakır Prison after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. Yıldıran became famous for his torture of PKK members in Diyarbakır Prison.

Ibrahim Shaheen, a Palestinian man and his Egyptian wife Inshirah Moussa worked for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad from 1967 until their arrest in 1974. Shaheen was executed in Egypt in 1977, while his wife and children fled to Israel and converted to Judaism. The case was widely published in the Israeli media in the 1980s.