List of Famous people who died in 2004

Pierre Emil George Salinger was an American journalist, author and politician. He had served as the ninth White House Press Secretary for United States Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Salinger served as a United States Senator in 1964 and as campaign manager for the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign.

Seiei Toyama is Japanese recipient of 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding the board of trustees recognizes his twenty-year crusade to green the deserts of China in a spirit of solidarity and peace.

Hasse Ekman was a Swedish director, actor, writer and producer for film, stage and television.

Didier Bienaime was a French actor

Sunao Matsumoto, known professionally as Sunao Yoshida, was a Japanese novelist. He was born in Fukuoka Prefecture and graduated from La Salle junior/senior high school in Kagoshima. He attended Waseda University and earned a Master's degree from Kyoto University. Yoshida died of a lung blockage in 2004.

Elvin Ray Jones was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed an interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan. He served in the United States Army from 1946 to 1949 and subsequently played in a Detroit house band led by Billy Mitchell. He moved to New York City in 1955 and worked as a sideman for Charles Mingus, Teddy Charles, Bud Powell and Miles Davis.

Nicolai Ghiaurov was a Bulgarian opera singer and one of the most famous basses of the postwar period. He was admired for his powerful, sumptuous voice, and was particularly associated with roles of Mussorgsky and Verdi. Ghiaurov married the Bulgarian pianist Zlatina Mishakova in 1956 and Italian soprano Mirella Freni in 1978, and the two singers frequently performed together. They lived in Modena until Ghiaurov's death in 2004 of a heart attack.

Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, CF, GCMG, KBE was a Fijian politician, who served as Chief Minister from 1967 to 1970, when Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and, apart from one brief interruption in 1987, the first Prime Minister from 1970 to 1992. He subsequently served as President from 1993 to 2000. He is considered the founding father of the modern nation of Fiji.

Friedrich Wilhelm Christians was a German banker, who was co-head of Deutsche Bank and President of the Association of German Banks.

Anthony Ainley was an English actor. He was the fourth actor to portray the Master in Doctor Who.