List of Famous people who died in 1956

Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough, was an Anglo-Irish businessman and politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the fourteenth since Canadian Confederation.

Hugh Richard Heathcote Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood PC, styled Lord Hugh Cecil until 1941, was a British Conservative Party politician.

Zenobia Camprubí Aymar was a Spanish-born writer and poet; she was also a noted translator of the works of Rabindranath Tagore.

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the Royal Air Force."

Frigyes Riesz was a Hungarian mathematician who made fundamental contributions to functional analysis, as did his younger brother Marcel Riesz.

John Emerson was an American stage actor, playwright, producer, and director of silent films. Emerson was married to Anita Loos from June 15, 1919 until his death, and prior to that the couple had worked together as a writing team for motion pictures. They would continue to be credited jointly, even as Loos pursued independent projects.

Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko or Oleksander Petrovych Dovzhenko, was a Ukrainian Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, and Vsevolod Pudovkin, as well as being a pioneer of Soviet montage theory.

Emmett Reid Dunn was an American herpetologist noted for his work in Panama and for studies of salamanders in the Eastern United States.