List of Famous people who died in 1997

Masaru Takumi was a powerful Japanese organized crime figure assassinated in 1997. Until his death, he was the second-in-command (wakagashira) and financial overseer of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi. Known as "the man who never sleeps", he also headed his own sub-organization, the 1000-member Takumi-gumi.

Francisco de Assis França, better known as Chico Science, was a Brazilian singer and composer and one of the founders of the manguebeat cultural movement. He died in a car accident in 1997 in Recife, Pernambuco, at the age of 30.

Léon Gaultier was a French collaborator and a founding member of the Front National.

Shuhei Fujisawa was a Japanese author, whose real name was Tomeji Kosuge. (小菅留治). Over fifty of his books were published through the course of his lifetime, including both full-length novels and short story anthologies. The focus of his writing was historical fiction. Before he became an author, he had been a journalist.

Jaime Milans del Bosch y Ussía was a lieutenant general in the Spanish Army who was dismissed and imprisoned in 1981 for his role in the failed coup d'état of 23 February 1981.

Dorothy Hill, AC, CBE, FAA, FRS was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science.

Jaidyn Raymond Leskie was the Australian child of Bilynda Williams and Brett Leskie, kidnapped and murdered in 1997. Despite leads, and the arrest and trial of a prime suspect, Leskie's murder remains unsolved. Although the decision was made in 2002 not to hold an inquest into the toddler's death, the case remained in the news for several more years. An inquest was held in 2006, implicating the mother's boyfriend, Greg Domaszewicz, who at the time of the kidnapping was babysitting the boy at his house at Newborough.

Kai-Uwe von Hassel was a German politician from Schleswig-Holstein associated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1954 to 1963, as Federal Minister of Defence from 1963 to 1966, and as Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims from 1966 to 1969. From 1969 to 1972 he was the 4th President of the Bundestag.

Marjorie Reynolds was an American film/television actress and dancer, who appeared in more than 50 films, including the 1942 musical Holiday Inn.

Stéphane Grappelli, born Stefano Grappelli, was a French-Italian jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his eighties.