List of Famous people who died in 1997

Sydney Joseph Freedberg was an American art historian and curator, mainly of Italian Renaissance painting.

Carlo Fassi was an Italian figure skater and international coach whose students included several World and Olympic champions. As a single skater, he was the 1953 World bronze medalist, a two-time European champion, and a ten-time Italian national champion (1945–54).

Alfred Wallace Roome was an English film editor and occasional director.

Floyd Cramer was an American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the Nashville sound. He was known for his "slip note" piano style, in which an out-of-key note slides into the correct note.

Audra Marie Lindley was an American actress, most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off The Ropers.

Kurt Stöpel was a German professional road bicycle racer. In the 1932 Tour de France, Stöpel won the second stage and was leading the general classification for one day, and finished in second place in the final general classification. He was the first German to wear the yellow jersey, and the first German to finish on the podium in Paris. He won the German National Road Race in 1934.

Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, better known as Doc Cheatham, was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader.

William Henry Reynolds was an American film editor whose career spanned six decades. His credits include such notable films as The Sound of Music, The Godfather, The Sting, and The Turning Point. He also was associated with two of the biggest American box office bombs in history, Ishtar and Heaven's Gate, which he executive produced.

Robert Benjamin Leighton was a prominent American experimental physicist who spent his professional career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). His work over the years spanned solid state physics, cosmic ray physics, the beginnings of modern particle physics, solar physics, the planets, infrared astronomy, and millimeter- and submillimeter-wave astronomy. In the latter four fields, his pioneering work opened up entirely new areas of research that subsequently developed into vigorous scientific communities.