List of Famous people who died in 2001

George Harrison was an English musician, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something".

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was an American singer, actress and model. She has been credited for helping to redefine contemporary R&B, pop and hip hop, earning her the nicknames the "Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop".

Kamal Ranadive, née Kamal Jayasing Ranadive was an Indian biomedical researcher who is known for her research in cancer about the links between cancers and viruses. She was a founder member of the Indian Women Scientists' Association (IWSA).

Carlos Hank González (1927–2001), nicknamed El Profesor, was a Mexican politician and influential businessman. Originally a teacher, he was an entrepreneur who built political contacts along with a business empire, leading to various government and political positions at the state and national level. He was prevented from seeking the presidency due to laws requiring both parents to be Mexicans by birth; his father was German. He has been involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption, and criminal threats.

Harshad Shantilal Mehta was an Indian stockbroker. Mehta’s involvement in the 1992 Indian securities scam made him infamous as a market manipulator. Although, as reported by the Economic Times, some financial experts believe that Harshad Mehta did not commit any fraud, he had "simply exploited loop holes in the system".

Jennifer Maria Syme was an American actress and personal assistant. She was in a relationship with Keanu Reeves from 1998 until their break-up in 2000, following the stillbirth of their daughter.

Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. He was known for his versatility and the variety of roles he depicted on screen, which gave him also the Tamil nickname Nadigar Thilagam. In a career that spanned close to five decades, he had acted in 288 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

Todd Morgan Beamer was an American man aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked and crashed as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. He was one of the passengers who attempted to regain control of the aircraft from the hijackers. During the struggle, the Boeing 757 lost control and crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board, but saving the hijackers' intended target and additional victims.

Thomas Brasch was a German author, poet and film director.

Melanie Janene Thornton was an American pop and dance music singer. She was the lead singer of the Eurodance group La Bouche from 1994 to 2000, alongside American rapper Lane McCray. Their two most successful singles, "Sweet Dreams" and "Be My Lover", were released in 1994 and 1995 respectively. After leaving the band, Thornton began a solo career and found success primarily in European countries before her death in 2001. Her solo hits include "Love How You Love Me", "Heartbeat", "Makin' Oooh Oooh " and "Wonderful Dream ".

Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was an Egyptian hijacker and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks in which four United States commercial aircraft were commandeered with the intention of destroying specific civilian and military targets. He served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 which he crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks. At 33 years of age, he was the oldest of the 19 hijackers who took part in the attacks.

Phoolan Devi, popularly known as "Bandit Queen", was an Indian female rights activist, bandit and politician from the Samajwadi Party who later served as Member of Parliament.

Welles Remy Crowther was an American equities trader and volunteer firefighter known for saving as many as 18 lives during the September 11 attacks in New York City, during which he lost his own life.

Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s, he led the government's military wing against rival militias and, after the Taliban takeover, was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001.

Marike de Klerk was the First Lady of South Africa, as the wife of State President Frederik Willem de Klerk, from 1989–1994. She was also a politician of the former governing National Party in her own right. De Klerk was murdered in her Cape Town home in 2001.

Ziad Samir Jarrah was a member of al-Qaeda and one of the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. Jarrah was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, crashing the plane into a field in a rural area near Shanksville, Pennsylvania—after a passenger uprising—as part of the coordinated attacks.

Timothy James McVeigh was a terrorist who carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one third of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The bombing was the deadliest act of terrorism in the United States prior to the September 11 attacks. It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

Claude Elwood Shannon was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as "the father of information theory". Shannon is noted for having founded information theory with a landmark paper, "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", which he published in 1948.

Cyril Richard Rescorla was a soldier, police officer, and private security specialist of British origin. He served as a British army paratrooper during the Cyprus Emergency and a United States commissioned officer in the Vietnam War. He rose to the rank of colonel in the United States Army.

Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr. was an American professional stock car driver and team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series, most notably driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. The third child of racing driver Ralph Earnhardt and Martha Earnhardt, he began his career in 1975 in the World 600. Earnhardt won a total of 76 Winston Cup races over the course of his 4 decade career, including four Winston 500s and the 1998 Daytona 500. He also earned seven Winston Cup championships, a record held with Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson. His aggressive driving style earned him the nicknames "The Intimidator", "The Man in Black", and "Ironhead", while his success at the restrictor plate tracks of Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway also earned him the nickname, "Mr. Restrictor Plate". He is regarded as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history.