List of Famous people who died at 72

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino politician and kleptocrat who served as the 10th President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. Espousing an ideology of "constitutional authoritarianism" under the New Society Movement, he ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981, and kept most of his martial law powers until he was deposed in 1986. One of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century, Marcos' rule was infamous for its corruption, extravagance, and brutality.

Marion Robert Morrison, known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke, was an American actor and filmmaker who became a popular icon through his starring roles in Western films. His career spanned from the silent era of the 1920s, through the Golden Age of Hollywood and eventually American New Wave, appearing in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box office draws for three decades, and appeared with many important Hollywood stars of his era.

Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He was known for his works of science fiction and popular science. Asimov was a prolific writer, and wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.

Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. He was known for his versatility and the variety of roles he depicted on screen, which gave him also the Tamil nickname Nadigar Thilagam. In a career that spanned close to five decades, he had acted in 288 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

K. Sivasankar was an Indian dance choreographer who worked in more than 10 languages but majorly with South Indian films, including Tamil films & Telugu films.

Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, popularly known as NTR, was an Indian actor, producer, director, film editor and politician who served as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for seven years over three terms. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema and one of the two legends of Telugu cinema, along with Akkineni Nageswara Rao. NTR received three National Film Awards for co-producing Thodu Dongalu (1954) and Seetharama Kalyanam (1960) under National Art Theater, Madras, and for directing Varakatnam (1970). NTR has received the erstwhile Rashtrapati Awards for his performance(s) in the Raju Peda (1954) and the Lava Kusa (1963). He garnered the Nandi Award for Best Actor for Kodalu Diddina Kapuram in 1970, and the Inaugural Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu in 1972 for Badi Panthulu.

Dennis Andrew Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 in London, England. Convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder, Nilsen was sentenced to life imprisonment on 4 November 1983, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of twenty-five years. This recommendation was later changed to a whole life tariff. In his later years, Nilsen was imprisoned at Full Sutton maximum security prison.

Michael David Rock was a British photographer. He photographed rock music acts such as Queen, David Bowie, T. Rex, Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, The Sex Pistols, Ozzy Osbourne, The Ramones, Joan Jett, Talking Heads, Roxy Music, Thin Lizzy, Geordie, Mötley Crüe, and Blondie. Often referred to as "The Man Who Shot the Seventies", most of the memorable shots of Bowie as Ziggy Stardust were shot by Rock in his capacity as Bowie's official photographer.

Donald Winfred Ohlmeyer Jr. was an American television producer and president of the NBC network's west coast division. Ohlmeyer also directed the Olympics and other sporting events and worked for ABC and ESPN.

Margaret Ann Lipton was an American actress, model, and singer. She made appearances in many of the most popular television shows of the 1960s before she landed her defining role as flower child Julie Barnes in the crime drama The Mod Squad (1968–1973), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 1970.

Francis Wayne Sinatra, professionally known as Frank Sinatra Jr., was an American singer, songwriter, and conductor.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. At the age of 25 in 1927, he went from obscurity as a U.S. Air Mail pilot to instantaneous world fame by winning the Orteig Prize for making a nonstop flight from New York City to Paris. Lindbergh covered the ​33 ¹⁄₂-hour, 3,600-statute-mile (5,800 km) flight alone in a purpose-built, single-engine Ryan monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. While the first non-stop transatlantic flight had been made 8 years earlier, this was the first solo transatlantic flight, the first transatlantic flight between two major city hubs, and the longest transatlantic flight by almost 2,000 miles. Thus it is widely considered a turning point in world history for the development and advancement of aviation.

María Dolores Flores Ruiz was a Spanish singer, actress, dancer and businesswoman. Popularly known as (La Faraona) since the 1950s, Lola is known for her overwhelming personality onstage. As a bailaora, she enraged several generations of continents, although she distanced herself from flamenco canons. Lola performed more than 35 films, pigeonholed, in many of them, in Andalusian folklore, although she also interpreted rumbas and rancheras.

Michael Edward Tylo was an American actor.

Slobodan Praljak was a Bosnian Croat general who served in the Croatian Army and the Croatian Defence Council, an army of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, between 1992 and 1995. Praljak was found guilty of committing violations of the laws of war, crimes against humanity and breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the Croat–Bosniak War by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2017.

Camilo Blanes Cortés, known professionally as Camilo Sesto "El Rey del Amor", was a Spanish singer, songwriter and music producer.

Sir Edward "Teddy" Crisp Bullard FRS was a British geophysicist who is considered, along with Maurice Ewing, to have founded the discipline of marine geophysics. He developed the theory of the geodynamo, pioneered the use of seismology to study the sea floor, measured geothermal heat flow through the ocean crust, and found new evidence for the theory of continental drift.

John Eleuthère du Pont was a convicted murderer and former philanthropist. An heir to the Du Pont family fortune, he was a published ornithologist, philatelist, conchologist, and sports enthusiast. He died in prison while serving a sentence of 30 years for the murder of Dave Schultz.

Kathy Kirby was an English singer, reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's "Secret Love" and for representing the United Kingdom in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest where she finished in second place. Her physical appearance often drew comparisons with Marilyn Monroe. Her popularity peaked in the 1960s, when she was one of the best-known and most-recognised personalities in British show business.

Leonard Bernstein was an American composer, conductor, pianist, music educator, author, and lifelong humanitarian. He was one of the most significant American cultural personalities of the 20th century. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history".