List of Famous people who died in 1987

René Lévesque was a Québécois politician and journalist who served as premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985, the 23rd since Confederation. Starting his career as a reporter, and radio and television host, he later became known for his eminent role in Quebec's nationalization of hydro, and as an ardent defender of Quebec sovereignty. He was the founder of the Parti Québécois, and before that, a Liberal minister in the Lesage government from 1960 to 1966 and the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to attempt, through a referendum, to negotiate the political independence of Quebec.

Septima Poinsette Clark was an African American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Septima Clark's work was commonly under-appreciated by Southern male activists. She became known as the "Queen mother" or "Grandmother" of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. commonly referred to Clark as "The Mother of the Movement". Clark's argument for her position in the Civil Rights Movement was one that claimed "knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal legal equality couldn't."

Merlyn Hans Dethlefsen was a United States Air Force officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.

Jean-Marie Loret was a French railway worker and allegedly Adolf Hitler's illegitimate son. According to Loret, in 1948 his mother revealed to him shortly before her death that the "unknown German soldier" with whom she'd had an affair during World War I was Adolf Hitler.

Lita LaVaughn McClinton, the daughter of Emory McClinton, a former U. S. Department of Transportation official and his wife, JoAnn McClinton, a Georgia state representative, was murdered the day her divorce was to be settled, shot when receiving a box of pink roses at her doorstep. In 1997, Phillip Anthony Harwood was identified as the hit man and indicated that he had committed the murder for $25,000 at the behest of James Sullivan, the former husband of Lita McClinton, who had been in Palm Beach, Florida, during the shooting in Atlanta, Georgia. Sullivan escaped arrest by fleeing abroad. On July 2, 2002, he was arrested in Thailand, and in 2004, he was extradited to Atlanta. In March 2006, Sullivan was convicted of murder for arranging the 1987 shooting of his wife and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, in a Georgia prison. The case was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries in 2001, the year before James Sullivan was arrested.

James Thomas Kruger was a South African-born politician who was part of the conservative National Party government which championed apartheid. He rose to the position of Minister of Justice and the Police in the cabinet of Prime Minister John Vorster from 1974 to 1979. He was also President of the Senate from 1979 until 1980, when it was abolished.

Drew Bundini Brown was an assistant trainer and cornerman of the American 20th Century boxer Muhammad Ali.

Aleksandr Ivanovich Sery was a Soviet and Russian film director, known for directing the 1971 comedy film Gentlemen of Fortune.

William Joseph Casey was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Laurence Evelyn Hyde was an English-born Canadian film maker, painter, and graphic artist, known for his work with the National Film Board of Canada, stamp designs for the Canadian Postal Service, and the wordless novel Southern Cross (1951).