List of Famous people who died in 1986

John Bertil "Beppe" Wolgers was a Swedish author, poet, translator, lyricist, actor, entertainer and artist.

Anatoly (Anatoli) Timofeevich Zverev Russian: Анатолий Тимофеевич Зверев was a Russian artist, a member of the non-conformist movement and a founder of Russian Expressionism in the 1960s. He spent all of his life in Moscow.

Dean Cyril Reed was an American actor, singer and songwriter, director, and social activist who lived a great part of his adult life in South America and then in East Germany. Nicknamed the Red Elvis, Reed was the best-selling Western performer in the Socialist countries, with his songs traditionally were topping the local charts, and millions of his records were sold in the Socialist bloc and elsewhere mostly under the Melodiya label. He never renounced his U.S. citizenship and always claimed his life-long faithfulness to the United States albeit often denouncing the U.S. government, and was seen by the Western media as a Communist propaganda beacon.

Judith Arlene Resnik was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the launch of mission STS-51-L. Resnik was the second American woman in space and the fourth woman in space worldwide, logging 145 hours in orbit. She was the first Jewish woman of any nationality in space. The IEEE Judith Resnik Award for space engineering is named in her honor.

Tenzing Norgay, born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two individuals known to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In 2003, India's highest adventure sports award, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award was renamed after him.

Elisabeth Selbert (1896–1986) was a German politician and lawyer. She was one of the four women who worked on the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, collectively called the Mütter des Grundgesetzes. She had a central role in ensuring that explicit equality between men and women was included as a fundamental right in the Basic Law.

Gaston Defferre was a French Socialist politician. He served as mayor of Marseille for 33 years until his death in 1986. He was minister for overseas territories in Guy Mollet’s socialist government in 1956–1957. His main achievement was to establish the framework used to grant independence to France’s African territories. As the Socialist candidate for president in 1969, he received only 5 percent of the vote. He was much more successful in promoting François Mitterrand as leader of the Parti Socialiste in 1971. He held a series of ministerial portfolios after the Socialist victory in 1981, especially as minister of state for the interior and decentralization.

Pedro Sainz Carlos Rodríguez was a Spanish writer, philologist, publisher and politician, an adviser to Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and one of the main architects of the reign of Juan Carlos I of Spain and the Spanish transition to democracy. Within the wide coalition of right-wing opinion that was the early movement behind Francisco Franco he was the leading figure of the monarchist wing. In terms of character Sainz Rodríguez was noted for his quick wit, whilst physically he was known for his obesity.

Mary Welsh Hemingway was an American journalist and author, who was the fourth wife and widow of Ernest Hemingway.

Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director. He directed the classic movie musicals Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), An American in Paris (1951), The Band Wagon (1953), and Gigi (1958). An American in Paris and Gigi both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Minnelli winning Best Director for Gigi. In addition to having directed some of the best known musicals of his day, Minnelli made many comedies and melodramas. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951; the couple were the parents of Liza Minnelli.