List of Famous people who died at 54
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, also rendered Usama bin Ladin, was a founder of the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various countries.
Sridevi
Sridevi was an Indian actress and producer, who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada language films. Regarded as the "First Female Superstar" of Bollywood, she was the recipient of various accolades, including a National Film Award, a Nandi Award, the Tamil Nadu State Film Award, the Kerala State Film Award, three Filmfare Awards and three Filmfare Awards South. In a career that spanned five decades, she was known for her portrayals of women in challenging situations, and appeared in a range of genres, from slapstick comedy to epic dramas. Sridevi ranked as the highest paid woman in the Indian entertainment industry during the 1980s and 1990s and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actresses in the history of Indian cinema.
Michael Clarke Duncan
Michael Clarke Duncan was an American actor best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile (1999), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and other honors. He also appeared in motion pictures such as Armageddon (1998), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), The Scorpion King (2002), Daredevil (2003), Sin City (2005), and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), and had voice roles in films such as Brother Bear (2003), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008), and Green Lantern (2011), and as Leo Knox in the TV series Bones (2011) and its spin-off series The Finder (2012).
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, singer and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989). Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball.
Debra Hill
Debra Hill was an American film producer and screenwriter, best known for producing various works of John Carpenter.
Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and as Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person to hold any of these positions. He was also the chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) from May 2001 until he stepped down in 2011. A lawyer by profession, he was a member of the Bundestag from 1996 to 2013.
Aleksei Balabanov
Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer, who shot mostly arthouse pictures but gained mainstream popularity with the crime drama Brother (1997) and its more action-oriented sequel, Brother 2 (2000), both of which starred Sergei Bodrov, Jr. as Danila Bagrov. Brother was successful both at the box office and in video copies, achieving wide popularity in Russia. Later, however, Balabanov became better known for his films Cargo 200 (2007) and Morphine (2008). A hugely controversial figure, Balabanov was often accused of both Russian nationalism (Brother 2, War) and Russophobia (Cargo 200, The Stoker), as well as general misanthropy. Due to his personal and political controversy, grotesque style, dark humour, shocking naturalism, genre deconstruction, and balancing between art cinema and mainstream he was often compared to Lars von Trier, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Coen brothers, and Takeshi Kitano.
Dalida
Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, professionally known as Dalida, was a Italian born French naturalized singer and actress, born in Egypt to Italian parents. She won the Miss Egypt beauty contest in 1954 and began a 31-year singing career in 1956, selling 170 million albums and singles worldwide. She died by suicide in 1987.
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers CBE was an English film actor, comedian and singer. He performed in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, featured on a number of hit comic songs and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film roles, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series of films.
John Ritter
Jonathan Southworth Ritter was an American actor and comedian. He was the son of the singing cowboy star Tex Ritter and the father of actors Jason and Tyler Ritter. Ritter is known for playing Jack Tripper on the ABC sitcom Three's Company (1977–1984), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award in 1984. He briefly reprised the role on the spin-off Three's a Crowd, which aired for one season, producing 22 episodes before its cancellation in 1985. Ritter appeared in over 100 films and television series combined and performed on Broadway, with roles including adult Ben Hanscom in It (1990), Problem Child (1990), Problem Child 2 (1991), and Bad Santa in 2003. In 2002, Don Knotts called Ritter the "greatest physical comedian on the planet". His final roles include voicing the title character on the PBS children's program Clifford the Big Red Dog (2000–2003), for which he received four Daytime Emmy Award nominations, as Paul Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules (2002–2003) and an uncredited role for providing the normal voice as Three in Seven Little Monsters (2000–2003).
Velupillai Prabhakaran
Velupillai Prabhakaran was a Sri Lankan Tamil guerrilla and the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The LTTE waged war in Sri Lanka for more than 25 years, to create an independent state for the Sri Lankan Tamil people.
Maja Maranow
Maja Maranow was a German actress. She appeared in more than 60 films and television shows between 1983 and 2016.
Helga Hahnemann
Helga "Big Helga" Hahnemann was an East German multi-faceted stage performer and entertainer. She came to wider prominence through her television and radio appearances after 1962. By the time reunification arrived in 1990 she had become a leading star of the small screen in East Germany. She fell terminally ill and then died shortly afterwards, possibly because of the extent of her addiction to cigarettes: she was 54. Her death left unanswered the question of how successfully her performances might have captivated pan-German television audiences post unification.
Tukaram Omble
Tukaram Omble AC was a Mumbai police officer and army soldier, who served as assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Mumbai Police. He was martyred in action while fighting terrorists during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, at Girgaum Chowpatty Mumbai, and was instrumental in apprehending Ajmal Kasab alive. The lone surviving terrorist Kasab was later convicted and hanged. The Indian government posthumously honoured Omble, on 26 January 2009, with the Ashoka Chakra – the country's highest peace-time gallantry award for extraordinary bravery and valour in the line of duty.
Edith González
Edith González Fuentes was a Mexican actress and dancer. She is best remembered and known for her works on multiple telenovelas produced by Televisa, TV Azteca and Telemundo. inc González made her acting debut on the telenovela produced by Televisa Cosa juzgada in 1970. She would later start a prominent career on multiple telenovelas produced by the same company, with her most famous works including Los ricos también lloran (1979), Bianca Vidal (1982), Corazón salvaje (1993), Salomé (2001), Mundo de fieras (2006), Palabra de mujer (2007) and Camaleones (2009–2010). In 2011, she moved to TV Azteca, the second best-known multimedia company in Mexico, where she starred in the telenovelas Cielo rojo (2011), Vivir a destiempo (2013) and Las Bravo (2014).
Lex Barker
Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.
Seve Ballesteros
Severiano Ballesteros Sota was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A member of a gifted golfing family, he won 90 international tournaments in his career, including five major championships between 1979 and 1988: the Open Championship three times and the Masters Tournament twice. He gained attention in the golfing world in 1976, when at the age of 19, he finished second at The Open. He played a leading role in the re-emergence of European golf, helping the European Ryder Cup team to five wins both as a player and captain. He is generally regarded as the greatest Continental European golfer of all time.
Rizabawa
Rizabawa was an Indian actor who is best known for his role as John Honai in the 1990 Malayalam film In Harihar Nagar. He was popular in villainous roles in the 1990s.
Vinnie Paul
Vincent Paul Abbott, also known as Vinnie Paul, was an American musician, songwriter and producer, best known for being the drummer and co-founder of the heavy metal band Pantera. He was a member of Hellyeah for 12 years from 2006 until his death in 2018. He also co-founded the heavy metal band Damageplan in 2003 with his younger brother, Dimebag Darrell.
Ulrich Mühe
Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film Das Leben der Anderen, for which he received the gold award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, at the Deutscher Filmpreis ; and the Best Actor Award at the 2006 European Film Awards.