List of Famous people who died in 1989

Ali Şen was a Turkish actor, father of the actor Şener Şen. He played many roles both as protagonist and antagonist.

Frederick Robert Hoyer Millar, 1st Baron Inchyra, was a British diplomat who served as Ambassador to West Germany from 1955 to 1956.

Inji Aflatoun was an Egyptian painter and activist in the women's movement. She was a "leading spokeswoman for the Marxist-progressive-nationalist-feminist movement in the late 1940s and 1950s", as well as a "pioneer of modern Egyptian art" and "one of the important Egyptian visual artists".

Sir Roger Aubrey Baskerville Mynors was an English classicist and medievalist who held the senior chairs of Latin at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. A textual critic, he was an expert in the study of manuscripts and their role in the reconstruction of classical texts.

Edward F. Cantasano also known as Mario Contasino, was an unemployed mechanic from Yonkers who, on December 13, 1931, accidentally hit the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, while driving a car. Churchill was attempting to cross a busy New York City street at the time, and forgot to look in the direction of the oncoming traffic. This incident, while only briefly acknowledged by leading historical works about Churchill, has nonetheless provided the inspiration for several counterfactual analyses of Churchill’s role during World War II.

Māris Rūdolfs Liepa was a Soviet Latvian ballet dancer. He graduated from Riga Choreography School where he was taught by Valentin Blinov. He performed in Moscow for the first time in 1950. At the height of career, Liepa was considered one of the finest male dancers in the world and one of the most versatile, at home in a wide range of roles.

Vadim Semyonovich Spiridonov was a Soviet film actor, film director. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1984). Winner of the State Prize of the USSR (1979), Winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1980).

Colonel Valdemar Franklin Quintero was the commander of the Colombian National Police in Antioquia Province. Franklin had led several major raids which resulted in the seizure of multiple tons of cocaine. He was murdered by the Medellín cartel in Medellín because of these drug seizures and his refusal to talk with the cartel. He successfully thwarted an attempt to kill Luis Carlos Galán, a Colombian journalist and presidential candidate, when an RPG was launched at Galán. The cartel formally took responsibility for the slaying of the police commander by calling a series of local radio stations. The caller, who identified himself as a person from "The Extraditables", said "We, the Extraditables, claim responsibility for the murder of Col. Valdemar Franklin in response to the repression committed and the government's refusal to have a dialogue with us". Pablo Escobar, a major Colombian drug lord, had allegedly ordered the murder of Franklin on the day of the death of Luis Carlos Galán.

Patrick Finucane was an Irish lawyer who specialised in criminal defence work. Finucane came to prominence due to his successful challenge of the British government in several important human rights cases during the 1980s. He was killed by loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Defence Association, acting in collusion with British security services. In 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Pat Finucane's family and admitted the collusion, although no member of the British security services has yet been prosecuted.

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was an Indian yoga teacher, ayurvedic healer and scholar. Often referred to as "the father of modern yoga," Krishnamacharya is widely regarded as one of the most influential yoga teachers of the 20th century. Like earlier pioneers influenced by physical culture such as Yogendra and Kuvalayananda, he contributed to the revival of hatha yoga.