List of Famous people who died in 2002

Scott Chapman Plank was an American actor, best known for playing Nick Reardon on Melrose Place, and as Wiley Farrell on Air America.

Lee H. Katzin was an American film director.

Michel Bernholc (1941–2002) was a French composer, arranger and producer. Using the pseudonym Mike Steiphenson, he wrote and produced the 1971 hit "Burundi Black", which made #31 on the UK Singles Chart and #74 in Australia.

William G. Bennett was an American gaming executive and real estate developer. Noted for pioneering Las Vegas as a destination for middle-class tourists and their families, he is best remembered for his establishment of gaming giant Circus Circus Enterprises in 1974. He served as chairman of Circus Circus between 1974 and 1994. Under his leadership Circus Circus developed numerous additional properties throughout Nevada, including the Excalibur and Luxor casinos in Las Vegas. Following his departure from Circus Circus, Bennett purchased the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1995 and operated it until his death in 2002.

Leonard Gershe was an American playwright, screenwriter, and lyricist.

Ayat al-Akhras was the third and youngest Palestinian female suicide bomber who, at age 18, killed herself and two Israeli civilians on March 29, 2002 by detonating explosives belted to her body. The killings gained widespread international attention due to Ayat's age and gender and the fact that one of the victims was also a teenage girl. The killings led U.S. President George W. Bush to observe: “When an 18-year-old Palestinian girl is induced to blow herself up and in the process kills a 17-year-old Israeli girl, the future itself is dying; the future of the Palestinian people and the future of the Israeli people.”