List of Famous people who died in 2006

George Savalla Gomes, better known as Carequinha or Baldy the Clown, was a Brazilian clown and actor, born in a circus to a circus family. He had a thick head of hair, but wore a bald wig, starting from five years old – he was a clown in Circus Ocidental until the age of twelve. He was the first Brazilian clown to have his own TV show – Circo Bombril, later called Circus Carequinha ran for 16 years.

Abbé René de Naurois was a French Catholic priest, chaplain, and ornithologist.

Muhammad al-Maghout was a renowned Syrian writer and poet.

Alvin Swauger "Al" White was an American test pilot and mechanical engineer. He flew the maiden flights of both XB-70 Valkyrie aircraft, the first 2,000 mph flight, and all subsequent Mach 3 exploration flights.

Atıf Yılmaz Batıbeki was a renowned Kurdish film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was very much a legend in the film industry of Turkey with 119 movies directed. He also wrote 53 screenplays and produced 28 movies since 1951. He was active in almost every period of the Turkish film industry.

György Sándor Ligeti was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time".

Anthony Franciosa was an American actor.

Shirley Ann Richards was an Australian actress and author, who achieved notability in a series of 1930s Australian films for Ken G. Hall before moving to the United States, where she continued her career as a film actress, mainly as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starlet. Her best known performances were in It Isn't Done (1937), Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), An American Romance (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In the 1930s, she was the only Australian actor under a long-term contract to a film studio, Cinesound Productions. She subsequently became a lecturer and poet.

Konstantin Ivanovich Beskov was a Soviet/Russian footballer and coach.

Frank Paul Beyer was a German film director. In East Germany he was one of the most important film directors, working for the state film monopoly DEFA and directed films that dealt mostly with the Nazi era and contemporary East Germany. His film Trace of Stones was banned for 20 years in 1966 by the ruling SED. His 1975 film Jacob the Liar was the only East German film ever nominated for an Academy Award. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 until his death he mostly directed television films.