List of Famous people who died at 48

For the literary award presented by The Dial magazine in the 1920s, see The Dial.

Sir William Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona; he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later a prolific producer.

Peter Dudley was an English character actor best known for his role as Bert Tilsley in the ITV television series Coronation Street; a role he played continuously from 1979 until his death in 1983.

Norio Nagayama was a Japanese spree killer and novelist.

Diane Arbus was an American photographer. Arbus worked to normalize marginalized groups and highlight the importance of proper representation of all people. She worked with a wide range of subjects including; strippers, carnival performers, nudists, dwarves, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and middle-class families. She photographed her subjects in familiar settings: their homes, on the street, in the workplace, in the park. "She is noted for expanding notions of acceptable subject matter and violates canons of the appropriate distance between photographer and subject. By befriending, not objectifying her subjects, she was able to capture in her work a rare psychological intensity." In his 2003 New York Times Magazine article, "Arbus Reconsidered," Arthur Lubow states, "She was fascinated by people who were visibly creating their own identities—cross-dressers, nudists, sideshow performers, tattooed men, the nouveaux riches, the movie-star fans—and by those who were trapped in a uniform that no longer provided any security or comfort." Michael Kimmelman writes in his review of the exhibition Diane Arbus Revelations, that her work "transformed the art of photography ".

Luís Espinal Camps (1932–1980), also known by the nickname "Lucho" and by the Catalan name Lluís Espinal i Camps, was a Spanish Jesuit priest, poet, journalist, filmmaker, and film critic.

Chiang Hsiao-yung was a politician of the Republic of China.

Christian Alejandro Cuturrufo Contador was a Chilean musician and cultural manager, and one of the most prominent jazz trumpeters in his country. He died from COVID-19 on March 19, 2021 in Santiago.

Vladimir Arkadyevich Petukhov was mayor of Nefteyugansk in 1996-1998. According to the investigative committee of the Russian Federation, he was killed by order of the first vice-president of the oil company YUKOS, Leonid Nevzlin, due to conflict due over the failure of YUKOS to pay taxes to the local budget. The Moscow City Court found that the organizer of the crime was the security officer of YUKOS Alexey Pichugin.

Alwyn Howard Gentry was an American botanist and plant collector, who made major contributions to the understanding of the vegetation of tropical forests.