List of Famous people who died at 55

Pol Cruchten was a Luxembourgish film director and producer. His film Hochzäitsnuecht was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

Dilson Domingos Funaro was a Brazilian businessman and politician, owner of the toy company Indústria de Brinquedos Trol. He was also president of the Brazilian Development Bank and later Finance Minister of Brazil during the term of President José Sarney, from August 1985 to April 1987. During his tenure as Finance Minister he was responsible for the creation of a plan for the stabilization of Brazil's monetary policy, the Plano Cruzado. He also was responsible for the unilateral suspension of payments on the Brazilian Republic's external debt to foreign financial institutions, which was implemented on February 20, 1987. With Brazil's financial crisis continuing with seemingly no solution on the horizon, Funaro was asked to resign from his post just a few months later.

Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, also known as Barazan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Barasan Ibrahem Alhassen and Barzan Hassan, was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service. Despite falling out of favour with Saddam at one time, he was believed to have been a close presidential adviser at the time of his capture. On 15 January 2007, he was hanged for crimes against humanity. The rope decapitated him because wrong measurements were used in relation to how far he was dropped from the platform.

Janice Elaine Voss was an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. Voss received her B.S. in engineering science from Purdue University, her M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT, and her PhD in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT. She flew in space five times, jointly holding the record for American women. Voss died in Arizona on February 6, 2012 from breast cancer.

Hashizo Okawa was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than one hundred Jidaigeki films from 1955 to 1967.

John William Cummings, known professionally as Johnny Ramone, was an American guitarist and songwriter who was the guitarist for the punk rock band the Ramones. He was a founding member of the band, and--along with vocalist Joey Ramone--remained a constant member throughout his entire career.

Rubén Mendoza Ayala was a Mexican politician who was affiliated with the Party of the Democratic Revolution. He served as Deputy of the LVII and LIX Legislatures of the Mexican Congress representing the State of Mexico.

Bill Siegel was an American documentary film producer and director. Documentaries directed by Siegel include Emmy Award-winning The Trials of Muhammad Ali and the Academy Award-nominated The Weather Underground in 2003.

Tigran Vartani Petrosian was a Soviet Armenian Grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost impenetrable defensive playing style, which emphasized safety above all else. Petrosian is credited with popularizing chess in Armenia.

Margarita Khemlin was a Jewish-Ukrainian novelist and short-story writer, best known for her novel Klotsvog.