List of Famous people who died in 1997

Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. His artwork was considered to be "disruptive". He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.

Randy Craig Wolfe, known as Randy California, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the original members of the rock group Spirit, formed in 1967.

William Lloyd Scott was an American Republican politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He served in both the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, and was Virginia's first post-Reconstruction Republican Senator.

Anita Conti was a French explorer and photographer, and the first French female oceanographer.

Georges René Louis Marchais was the head of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981.

Lyudmila Vasilyevna Marchenko was a Soviet film actress. She appeared in twelve films between 1959 and 1976. She starred in the film A Home for Tanya, which competed for the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival.

Jack Kent Cooke was a Canadian-American businessman in broadcasting and professional sports. Starting in sales, Cooke was very successful, eventually becoming a partner in a network of radio stations and newspapers in Canada. After failing at starting a major league baseball team in Toronto and being turned down to own a television station in Toronto, Cooke moved to the United States and built a business empire in broadcasting and professional sports franchises. Cooke was the owner of the Washington Redskins (NFL), the Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), the Los Angeles Kings (NHL), the Los Angeles Wolves and Toronto Maple Leafs (IL). He also developed The Forum in Inglewood, California, and FedExField near Landover, Maryland.

The death of Joe Cinque occurred in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory on 26 October 1997. Cinque's coffee was laced with rohypnol, a sedative, at a dinner party, after which he was injected with a lethal dose of heroin by his girlfriend Anu Singh, who was a law student at the Australian National University at the time. Singh was convicted in 1999 of manslaughter. She was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but was released early in 2001. Since her release, she has undertaken criminology research. The crime was portrayed in Helen Garner's non-fiction book Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004), which was later adapted into a film of the same name.

Lillian Marie Disney was an American ink artist at the Disney Studios, and was best known for being married to Walt Disney, from 1925 until his death in 1966.

Billy "King Rat" Wright was a prominent English-born Ulster loyalist leader during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1975. After spending several years in prison and becoming a born again Christian, Wright resumed his UVF activities and became commander of its Mid-Ulster Brigade in the early 1990s, taking over from Robin "the Jackal" Jackson. According to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Wright was involved in the sectarian killings of up to 20 Catholics, although he was never convicted for any. It has been alleged that Wright, like his predecessor, was an agent of the RUC Special Branch.