List of Famous people who died in 1989

Yan Abramovich Frenkel was a popular Soviet composer and performer.

Dámaso Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader, pianist, composer and arranger who popularized the mambo in the 1950s. His big band adaptation of the danzón-mambo proved to be a worldwide success with hits such as "Mambo No. 5", earning him the nickname "King of the Mambo". In 1955, Prado and his orchestra topped the charts in the US and UK with a mambo cover of Louiguy's "Cherry Pink ". He frequently made brief appearances in films, primarily of the rumberas genre, and his music was featured in films such as La Dolce Vita.

Chiang Hsiao-wen was the eldest son of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. His mother is Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. He had one younger sister, Hsiao-chang, and two younger brothers, Hsiao-wu and Hsiao-yung. He had two half-brothers, Winston Chang and John Chiang, with whom he shared the same father.

Jean-Marie Tjibaou was a French politician in New Caledonia and leader of the Kanak independence movement. The son of a tribal chief, Tjibaou was ordained a Catholic priest but abandoned his religious vocation for a life in political activism.

Hans Hartung was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style. He was also a decorated World War II veteran of the French Foreign Legion.

José López Rega was an Argentine politician who served as Minister of Social Welfare from 1973–75, first under Juan Perón and continuing under Isabel Martínez de Perón, Juan Perón's third wife and presidential successor. Lopez Rega exercised Rasputin-like authority over Isabel Perón during her presidency, and used his influence and unique access to become the de facto ruler of Argentina. His far-right politics and interest in the occult earned him the nickname El Brujo. Rega had one daughter, Norma Beatriz, who went on to become the spouse of President Raúl Lastiri.

Takeshi Kaikō was a prominent post-World War II Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, literary critic, and television documentary writer. He was distinguished by his knowledge, intellect, sense of humor and conversational skills, and although his style has been criticized as wordy and obtuse, he was one of the more popular Japanese writers in the late Shōwa period.

Chris Gueffroy was the last person to be shot and the second-last to die in an escape attempt while trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin across the Berlin Wall.

Noël-Noël was a French actor and screenwriter. He appeared in 45 films between 1931 and 1966.

Juan Carlos Altavista was an Argentine actor and comedian.