List of Famous people who died in 1996

Paul Erdős was a renowned Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. He was known both for his social practice of mathematics and for his eccentric lifestyle. He devoted his waking hours to mathematics, even into his later years—indeed, his death came only hours after he solved a geometry problem at a conference in Warsaw.

Hervé Bazin was a French writer, whose best-known novels covered semi-autobiographical topics of teenage rebellion and dysfunctional families.

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was an Italian film actor, regarded as his country's biggest film star of all time. His films include: La Dolce Vita; 8½; La Notte; Divorce Italian Style; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Marriage Italian Style; The 10th Victim; A Special Day; City of Women; Henry IV; Dark Eyes and Everybody's Fine. His honours included BAFTAs, Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, two Golden Globes and three Oscar nominations.

Tamara Danz was the lead singer and lyricist of the East German rock group Silly. She succumbed to breast cancer at the age of 43.

Stuart Ernest Piggott,, FRSE FSA Scot was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex.

Kiyoshi Atsumi, born Yasuo Tadokoro, was a Japanese actor. He was born in Tokyo, and started his career in 1951 as a comedian at a strip-show theater in Asakusa. After two years of fighting pulmonary tuberculosis, he made his debut on TV in 1956 and on film in 1957. His vivid performance of a lovable, innocent man in the film “Dear Mr. Emperor” in 1963 established his reputation as an actor.

Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.

Magdalena Schneider was a German actress and singer. She was the mother of the actress Romy Schneider.

Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev was a Soviet Air Force general and Chechen secularist leader, the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a breakaway region in the North Caucasus, from 1991 to his death in 1996.

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was an English actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer popularized during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homefront; listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top-ten box office draws from 1942 to 1946. She is the fourth most nominated woman for the Best Actress Oscar.