List of Famous people who died in 2002

The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans—aged between 10 and 17, at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The bodies of two of the victims were discovered in 1965, in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered there in 1987, more than twenty years after Brady and Hindley's trial. Bennett's body is also thought to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered.

Pierre Jacquinot was a French physicist.

Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.

Oleksandr Pavlovych Liashko was a Ukrainian and Soviet politician. He was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Ukrainian SSR for more than 15 years, making him the longest-serving person in that capacity. He joined the Communist Party in 1942 and served in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1989. In 1985 Liashko received the honorary award, the Hero of Socialist Labour.

Sir Raymond William Firth was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies is separated from the idealized rules of behaviour within the particular society. He was a long serving Professor of Anthropology at London School of Economics, and is considered to have singlehandedly created a form of British economic anthropology.

Matthew Thomas Robinson Jr. was an American actor, writer and television producer. Robinson was the first actor to portray the character of Gordon Robinson on the PBS children's TV program Sesame Street. When Sesame Street began in 1969, not only did Robinson play Gordon, but he also provided the voice of the puppet Roosevelt Franklin and also was one of the show's producers. He left the show in 1972. In later years, when producers needed a last name for the Gordon character, then played by Hal Miller and then Roscoe Orman, they used Matt's last name.

Eleonore Bjartveit was a Norwegian politician for the Christian Democratic Party. Born in Alta, she worked as a medical doctor for several years, before entering politics. Bjartveit was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1989, serving until 1993. She had previously been a deputy representative from 1981–1989, as well as Minister of Culture and Science in 1989, and Minister of Culture and Church Affairs in 1990.