List of Famous people who died in 1959

Stanislas de Castellane was a French politician, representing Cantal in parliament several times between 1902 and 1940.

Sir Jacob Epstein was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged ideas on what was appropriate subject matter for public artworks. He also made paintings and drawings, and often exhibited his work.

Yves Hyacinthe Deniaud was a French comic actor.

Wayne Morris was an American film and television actor, as well as a decorated World War II fighter ace. He appeared in many films, including Paths of Glory (1957), The Bushwackers (1952), and the title role of Kid Galahad (1937).

Yvonne Yma (1887–1959) was a French stage and film actress.

Elise Depew Strang L'Esperance (1878–1958) was an American pathologist and physician, a pioneer in establishing a preventive model of cancer treatment. She was a pathologist noted for establishing cancer prevention clinics in New York. She founded two clinics: the Strang Tumor Clinic in 1932 and the Strang Cancer Prevention Clinic in 1937, which operated out of the New York Infirmary. In 1940, L'Esperance opened a second branch of the Strang Cancer Prevention Clinic at the Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases. During her medical career, L'Esperance published her research prolifically, credited for approximately 30 articles in medical journals.

Bernard Berenson was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book Drawings of the Florentine Painters was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large hand in some of the writings.

Ante Pavelić was a Croatian politician and dictator who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and governed the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state built out of parts of occupied Yugoslavia by the authorities of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, from 1941 to 1945. Pavelić and the Ustaše persecuted many racial minorities and political opponents in the NDH during the war, including Serbs, Jews, Romani, and anti-fascists, becoming one of the key figures of the Genocide of Serbs and the Holocaust in NDH.

José Paciano Laurel y García was a Filipino politician and judge. He was the president of the Second Philippine Republic, a Japanese puppet state when occupied during World War II, from 1943 to 1945. Since the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal (1961–1965), Laurel has been officially recognized by later administrations as a former president of the Philippines.