List of Famous people who died in 1972

Sherwin Campbell Badger was an American figure skater who competed in singles and pairs. He earned the men's titles at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships from 1920 through 1924. He also captured the pairs gold medal with partner Beatrix Loughran three times, and the pair won the silver medal at the 1932 Winter Olympics. Prior to pairing with Loughran, he competed first with Clara Frothingham and later with Edith Rotch.

Sidney Arnold Franklin was an American film director and producer. Franklin, like William C. deMille, specialized in adapting literary works or Broadway stage plays.

Georg von Békésy was a Hungarian biophysicist.

Leonid Aleksandrovich Portenko was a Soviet ornithologist of Ukrainian origin who carried out extensive zoogeographic studies on the birds of the northern and north-eastern Palaearctic realm. He was born in Smila, Ukraine, though most of his career was spent working in, and conducting expeditions from, the ornithological department of the Zoological Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Leningrad.

Antoon (Tom) Manders was a Dutch artist, comedian and cabaret performer. In later role, he became better known as Dorus.

Bronislava Nijinska was a Polish ballet dancer, and an innovative choreographer. She came of age in a family of traveling, professional dancers.

Zeng Shan was a Chinese Communist military commander and security minister. His wife, Deng Liujin, was one of the few women who participated in the Long March, and later ran a school for the children of high cadres. He was the father of Zeng Qinghong, Vice President of the People’s Republic of China from 2003 to 2008.