List of Famous people who died at 72

Dražan Jerković was a Yugoslavian and Croatian professional football manager and player. His professional playing career spanned from 1954 to 1966, during which he played for Dinamo Zagreb and AA La Gantoise.

Anatoly Nikolayevich Berezovoy was a Soviet cosmonaut.

Etta Jones was an American jazz singer. Her best-known recordings were "Don't Go to Strangers" and "Save Your Love for Me". She worked with Buddy Johnson, Oliver Nelson, Earl Hines, Barney Bigard, Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson, Cedar Walton, and Houston Person.

Machito was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. He was raised in Havana with the singer Graciela, his foster sister.

Ângela Maria Cardoso Lago was a Brazilian children's author and illustrator of poems dedicated to children. She began drawing at the age of three and spent time in the United States, Venezuela and Scotland early in her career. Lago published her first book in 1980 and her last in 2016. She was named the winner of the Best Illustrated Book Award which is issued by the Fundación Nacional del Libros Infantil y Juvenil de Brasil in both 1984 and 1986 and the 1995 and 2007 Biennial of Illustration Bratislava for her books Festa no Céu: Um Conto do Nosso Folclor and Joao Felizardo o rei dos negocios respectively. Lago was also named a recipient of the Jabuti Prize for Literature in each of 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005.

George Pollock was a British film director, best known for bringing Agatha Christie's famous detective Miss Marple to the big screen for the first time, starring Margaret Rutherford.

Richard Evelyn Vernon was an English actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles. Prematurely balding and greying, Vernon settled into playing archetypal middle-aged lords and military types while still in his 30s. He is perhaps best known for originating the role of Slartibartfast in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Other notable roles included Edwin Oldenshaw in The Man in Room 17 (1965-67), Sir James Greenley, alias "C" in The Sandbaggers (1978-80) and Sir Desmond Glazebrook in Yes Minister (1980-81) and its sequel series Yes, Prime Minister (1987).