List of Famous people who died in 2003

Heydar Alirza oğlu Aliyev was an Azeri politician who served as the third President of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to October 2003. As the national president, he held constitutional powers, but his influence on Azerbaijani politics had begun years earlier. As a young man he had joined the Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) and quickly rose to the rank of Major-General.

Maurice Guy, better known as Guy Lux was a French game show host and producer perhaps best known for his 1961 creation of the game show Intervilles. He also repopularized the word "Schmilblick".

Earl John Hindman was an American actor, best known for his role as the kindly unseen neighbor Wilson W. Wilson, Jr. on the television sitcom Home Improvement (1991–99).

James Strom Thurmond Sr. was an American military officer, attorney, judge and politician who served as a United States Senator from South Carolina from 1954 to 2003 and as the 103rd Governor of South Carolina from 1947 to 1951. Thurmond served in the United States Senate for 48 years, at first as a Southern Democrat and then, from 1964 onwards, as a Republican. He ran for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate on a states' rights platform supporting racial segregation. He received 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes.

Marina Alekseyevna Ladynina was a popular Soviet film and theatre actress, best remembered for her leading roles in Tractor Drivers (1939), The Swine Girl and the Shepherd (1941), Six O'Clock after the War is Over (1944), Ballad of Siberia (1947) and Cossacks of the Kuban (1949), all directed by her husband Ivan Pyryev. In 1950 Ladynina was honoured with the People's Artist of the USSR title. She was a five-times Stalin Prize laureate.

Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin was a Russian investigative journalist, writer, and liberal lawmaker in the Russian parliament. Shchekochikhin made his name writing about and campaigning against the influence of organized crime and corruption. His last non-fiction book, Slaves of the KGB, was about people who worked as KGB informers.

Eduardo Conde was a Brazilian singer and actor.

Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller, was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, she chose to remain primarily a stage actress.

Marshall Ledbetter, Jr. was an American photographer, psychedelics enthusiast, iconoclast and unconventional protester.

Murasoli Maran was an Indian politician and an important leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party which was headed by his maternal uncle and mentor, M. Karunanidhi. A Member of Parliament for 36 years, he was made a Union Minister in three separate central governments, in charge of Urban Development in the V.P. Singh government, Industry in the Gowda and Gujral governments, and finally Commerce and Industry under Vajpayee. Apart from being a politician, Maran was a journalist and scriptwriter for films too.