List of Famous people who died in 1959

Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl was a Norwegian pianist, composer and music teacher.

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime. All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Erik Kule Palmstierna was a Swedish Social Democratic politician and diplomat. He served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from March 1920 to October 1920. Between October 1917 to March 1920 he served as Minister for Naval Affairs.

Blind Willie McTell was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues. Unlike his contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voices of Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. McTell performed in various musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music and hokum.

Lina Lossen was a German stage and film actress.

Dorothea Maude or Dorothea Clara Nasmyth was a British physician and surgeon. She had a private practice in Oxford but left this three times to serve at hospitals in Belgium, France, Serbia and Corfu during the First World War. She was first woman general practitioner in Oxford.

Renato Birolli was an Italian painter.

Maurice Leturgie was a French racing cyclist. In 1907, he won the inaugural edition of the Scheldeprijs one-day race. He also rode in three editions of the Tour de France.