List of Famous people who died at 42

Datuk Wira Dr. Mohamed Farid bin Md Rafik was a Malaysian politician who served as Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of national unity and social wellbeing in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and former Minister Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy from July 2018 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tanjung Piai from May 2018 to his death in September 2019. He was a member of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), a former component party of the PH opposition coalition.

Takahiro Satō was a Japanese manga artist from Yamagata prefecture.

Albert Henry DeSalvo was an American criminal and serial killer in Boston, Massachusetts who confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", the murderer of 13 women in the Boston area from 1962 to 1964. It was widely believed that DeSalvo was imprisoned for a series of rapes. However, his murder confession has been disputed, and debate continues as to which crimes he actually committed.

Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a pianist and lead singer of The Band. The five members existed from December 1961 as The Hawks, becoming The Band in 1967, effectively breaking up in 1976, then re-formed in 1983. Manuel was with them until his 1986 suicide, a few hours after The Band performed a show.

Tazin Ahmed was a Bangladeshi journalist, actress, playwright, director, and theater person. She won the 2003 Bachasas Award for the Best Actress in the drama category.

Erickson Le Zulu, stage name of Éric Bosiki was an Ivorian disc jockey and singer.

Hélio Oiticica was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, painter, performance artist, and theorist, best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete Movement, for his innovative use of color, and for what he later termed "environmental art", which included Parangolés and Penetrables, like the famous Tropicália. Oiticica was also a filmmaker and writer.

Yeshayahu Shachar was an Israeli historian.

Chi Ling Dai Cheng was an American musician and poet, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist for the American alternative metal band Deftones. His career ended in 2008, when he was involved in a serious automobile crash in Monterey, California. After the crash, he remained in a semi-comatose state before dying of cardiac arrest in April 2013. After Cheng's hospitalization, Deftones friend Sergio Vega became the band's full-time bassist, having previously filled in for Cheng since.

Lounès Matoub was a famous Algerian Kabylian singer, poet, thinker who sparked an intellectual revolution, and mandole player who was a prominent advocate of the Berber cause, human rights and secularism in Algeria throughout his life.