List of Famous people who died at 72

Edward Paul Lazear was an American economist, the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the Davies Family Professor of Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Helena Štáchová was a Czech puppeteer, voice actress and playwright. Štáchová served as the head and director of the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theater (S+H), which opened in 1930 as the former Czechoslovakia's first professional puppet theater, from 1996 until her death in 2017. She also provided the voice of popular puppets, Manicka and Mrs. Katerina, who are the female equivalents of the Spejbl and Hurvínek puppet characters. In addition, Štáchová worked as a voice actress as well. Notably, Štáchová provided the Czech language-voice of Lisa Simpson on the Czech version of the American animated sitcom, The Simpsons.

Andraé Edward Crouch was an American gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, record producer and pastor. Referred to as "the father of modern gospel music" by contemporary Christian and gospel music professionals, Crouch was known for his compositions "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power", "My Tribute " and "Soon and Very Soon". He collaborated on some of his recordings with artists, such as Stevie Wonder, El DeBarge, Philip Bailey, Chaka Khan, Sheila E. and vocal group Take 6, and many recording artists covered his material, including, Bob Dylan, Barbara Mandrell, Paul Simon, Elvis Presley and Little Richard. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was known as the "go to" producer for superstars who sought a gospel choir sound in their recordings, appearing on a number of recordings, including Michael Jackson's "Man In the Mirror", Madonna's "Like a Prayer", and "The Power", a duet between Elton John and Little Richard. Crouch was noted for his talent of incorporating contemporary secular music styles into the gospel music he grew up with. His efforts in this area helped pave the way for early American contemporary Christian music during the 1960s and 1970s.

Robert Alda was an American theatrical and film actor, a singer, and a dancer. He was the father of actors Alan and Antony Alda. Alda was featured in a number of Broadway productions, then moved to Italy during the early 1960s. He appeared in many European films over the next two decades, occasionally returning to the U.S. for film appearances such as The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969).

Henry Knowles Beecher was a pioneering American anesthesiologist, medical ethicist, and investigator of the placebo effect at Harvard Medical School.

Yoo Byung-eun was a South Korean businessman and inventor, who as a photographer was known under the art name Ahae. He was known as "the millionaire with no face" due to his reclusiveness.

Abraham "Abe" Gibron was a professional American football player and coach. Gibron played 11 seasons as a guard in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) in the 1940s and 1950s, mostly with the Cleveland Browns. He was then hired as an assistant coach for the NFL's Washington Redskins and Chicago Bears before becoming head coach of the Bears between 1972 and 1974.

Turki bin Nasser Al Saud was a Saudi prince and military officer, who served as the head of the presidency of meteorology and environment in Saudi Arabia and a member of House of Saud.

Donald Allan Dunstan, AC, QC, usually known as Don Dunstan, was a South Australian politician. He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953 at age 26, became leader of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979.

K. Ramachandra Babu was an Indian cinematographer of over 125 films, out of which most are Malayalam films. He also worked for films in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Arabic and English languages. He served as the cinematographer for several documentaries and advertisement films as well. He was the founder of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC).