List of Famous people who died in 1996

Raymond Neil Combs Jr. was an American stand-up comedian, actor and game show host.

Herbert Charles Abrams, also known by the nickname Mr. Electricity, was an American professional wrestling promoter from Queens, New York, who founded the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) in 1990.

Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash was the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In that capacity, he earned the nickname the Engineer. Ayyash is credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The bombings he orchestrated caused the deaths of approximately 90 Israelis, many of them civilians. He was assassinated by Shin Bet on 5 January 1996.

Abdal-Hamid Kishk was an Egyptian preacher, scholar of Islam, activist, and author. He was a graduate of the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo and was known for his humour, popular sermons, and for his outspoken stance against music, restrictions on polygamy, and injustice and oppression in the Muslim world.

Michel Jean-Pierre Debré was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France. He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962. In terms of political personality, he was intense and immovable, with a tendency to rhetorical extremism.

Joseph Kallinger was an American serial killer who murdered three people, and tortured four families. He committed these crimes with his 12-year-old son Michael.

James George Snyder Sr., better known as Jimmy the Greek, was an American sports commentator and Las Vegas bookmaker. A regular contributor to the CBS program The NFL Today, Snyder predicted the scores of NFL games, which sports bettors used to figure out the point spread. Due to comments he made about breeding practices during slavery leading to blacks becoming superior athletes, CBS fired him in January 1988.

Joanne Dru was an American film and television actress, known for such films as Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and All the King's Men.

Ernesto Beckmann Geisel was a Brazilian Army officer and politician, who was President of Brazil from 1974 to 1979, during the Brazilian military dictatorship.

Alvin Boone Straight was an American man who became notable for traveling 240 miles (390 km) on a riding lawn mower from Laurens, Iowa to Blue River, Wisconsin to visit his ailing brother. He inspired the 1999 film The Straight Story.