List of Famous people who died at 48

Valdon Kape Dowiyogo was a political figure and cabinet minister from the Pacific nation of the Republic of Nauru.

Johanna Elisabeth (Joke) Smit was a well-known Dutch feminist and politician in the 1970s.

Kenji Watanabe was a Japanese breaststroke swimmer. He represented his native country in three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1984. His best Olympic result was the 7th place (2:14.70) in the Men's 200m Breaststroke event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He was the grandson of Hisakichi Toyoda, who won a gold medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle in the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam also known as the Father of Global Jihad was a Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian and founding member of al-Qaeda. Azzam preached both defensive and offensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders.

Anja Niedringhaus was a German photojournalist who worked for the Associated Press (AP). She was the only woman on a team of 11 AP photographers that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Iraq War. That same year she was awarded the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism prize.

Andrés Abt was an Uruguayan politician who served as a member in the Chamber of Representatives and as mayor of Montevideo's CH Municipality.

Ronny Louis Edmond Coutteure was a Belgian actor, director, author, TV presenter and restaurateur and worked in cinema, radio, television, opera and theatre. He was a celebrity in his home country of Belgium and in France but is most famous internationally for his supporting role of Remy Baudouin, comrade-in-arms of Indiana Jones in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

Chester Koo was a Taiwanese business executive.

Anatoly Vyacheslavovich Lebed, was a Hero of the Russian Federation, Guards Lieutenant Colonel in Special Airborne Forces, and an officer of the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Regiment.

Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano was a Guatemalan attorney. Before his death, Rosenberg recorded a video message saying if he were murdered, Álvaro Colom Caballeros, President of Guatemala, Gustavo Alejos, Sandra Torres de Colom, and Gregorio Valdés would have been directly responsible. His subsequent killing caused a national uproar. After an investigation by a United Nations commission, officials declared that Rosenberg had arranged his own death and had contacted cousins of his former wife, Francisco José Ramón Valdés Paiz and José Estuardo Valdés Paiz, to hire a hitman.