List of Famous people who died in 1938

Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French illusionist, actor and film director who led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted colour. He was also one of the first filmmakers to use storyboards. His films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904), both involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their approach is closer to fantasy.

Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-born cook believed to have infected 53 people with typhoid fever, three of whom died, and the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the disease. Because she persisted in working as a cook, by which she exposed others to the disease, she was twice forcibly quarantined by authorities, and died after a total of nearly three decades in isolation.

Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. He is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style.

Hans Christian Joachim Gram was a Danish bacteriologist noted for his development of the Gram stain, still a standard technique to classify bacteria and make them more visible under a microscope.

Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressive reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrial nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and theories became known as Kemalism. Due to his military and political accomplishments, Atatürk is regarded as one of the most important political leaders of the 20th century.

Thomas Clayton Wolfe was an American novelist of the early 20th century.

Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was a French tennis player. She was one of tennis's biggest stars in the 1920s, building her popularity on her status as the youngest major champion in tennis history as well as her elegant style of play and exuberant personality. Often playing in front of sell-out crowds and appearing on the front pages of newspapers for her biggest matches, she is recognized as the first female athlete to become a global sport celebrity. Lenglen was ranked No. 1 in the world from the start of the rankings in 1921 through 1926, winning 8 Grand Slam singles titles and 21 in total. She also won 10 World Championship titles across all disciplines. Dissatisfied by her lack of income, she forfeited her amateur status and became the first leading amateur to turn professional. Lenglen was ranked as the greatest women's tennis player from the amateur era in the 100 Greatest of All Time series.

Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexía was a Mexican-American botanist notable for her extensive collection of novel specimens of flora and plants originating from sites in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. She discovered a new genus of Asteraceae, known after her as Mexianthus, and accumulated over 150,000 specimens for botanical study over the course of a career spanning 16 years braving ecologic challenges such as poisonous berries, dangerous terrain, bogs and earthquakes for the sake of her research.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal was a poet, philosopher, lawyer, theorist and politician from Punjab, British India, whose poetry in Urdu and Persian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era, and whose vision of an independent state of the Muslims of North West British India was to inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal.

Linda Laura Hazzard, nicknamed the "Starvation Doctor" was an American quack, fraud, swindler and serial killer noted for her promotion of fasting as a treatment. She was imprisoned by the state of Washington for a number of deaths at a sanitarium she operated there in the early 20th century. Her treatments were responsible for at least 15 deaths. Born 1867 in Carver County, Minnesota, she died during a fast in 1938.