List of Famous people who died in 1997

François Paul Lachenal, was a Swiss publisher and diplomat, who since 1940 played a significant role in publishing the writings of the French authors during the occupation of France by Germany. He was member of the Swiss delegation in Vichy till 1944 and later till 1945 at the Swiss embassy in Berlin. Publisher of the magazine Traits he was son of Genevan politician Paul Lachenal, nephew of The president of the Swiss Confederation Adrien Lachenal and married to Johanna Bertha Caroline Otken. He is buried at the Cimetière des Rois in Geneva.

Alice de Toledo Sommerlath was the mother of Queen Silvia, wife of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Judith Josephine Grossman, who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be widely influential in those roles.

Natalia Dumitresco was a French-Romanian abstract painter associated with the Réalités Nouvelles salon of Paris after the Second World War, a movement influenced by the art of Wassily Kandinsky and Alberto Magnelli. Other abstract expressionist painters associated with the Réalités Nouvelles include Serge Poliakoff and Alexandre Istrati. Dumitresco later married Alexandre Istrati

Bo Gunnar Widerberg was a Swedish film director, writer, editor and actor.

Gloria Anna Holden was an English-born American film actress, best known for her role as Dracula's Daughter. She often portrayed cold society women.