List of Famous people who died in 1997

Oliver Burgess Meredith was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "one of the most accomplished actors of the century". A lifetime member of the Actors Studio by invitation, he won several Emmys, was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Gerda Christian, nicknamed "Dara", was one of Adolf Hitler's private secretaries before and during World War II.

Miguel Ángel Blanco Garrido was a local Spanish politician for the Popular Party-PP, who was kidnapped and subsequently murdered by the separatist group ETA.

Helmut Fischer was a popular, award-winning German actor.

Michael LeMoyne Kennedy was an American lawyer, businessman, and political activist in Massachusetts. He was the sixth of eleven children to Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Kennedy also served as the head of the non-profit organization Citizens Energy. He died in a skiing accident in 1997.

Richard Red Skelton was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio and television, and also appeared in burlesque, vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.

Werner Höfer was a German journalist. He started his career as a Nazi propagandist, working for the newspaper Das Reich. From 1933 to 1945 he was a member of the Nazi Party.

Anatoli Nikolaevich Boukreev was a Russian Kazakhstani mountaineer who made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks—those above 8,000 m (26,247 ft)—without supplemental oxygen. From 1989 through 1997, he made 18 successful ascents of peaks above 8000 m.

Georges Marchal was a French actor.

Pai Hsiao-yen was the only daughter of popular Taiwanese TV host and actress Pai Bing-bing and Japanese author Ikki Kajiwara.