List of Famous people who died in 2006
Govindappa Venkataswamy
Govindappa Venkataswamy popularly known as 'Dr V.' was an Indian ophthalmologist who dedicated his life to eliminate needless blindness. He was the founder and former chairman of Aravind Eye Hospitals. He is best known for developing a high quality, high volume, low-cost service delivery model that has restored sight to millions of people. Since inception, Aravind Eye Care System has seen over 55 million patients, and performed over 6.8 million surgeries. Over 50% of the organisation's patients pay either nothing or highly subsidised rates. Its scale and self-sustainability prompted a 1993 Harvard Business Case Study on the Aravind model.
Jack Wild
Jack Wild was an English actor and singer, best known for his debut role as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! (1968), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor as well as Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.
Eugene Lazowski
Eugene Lazowski born Eugeniusz Sławomir Łazowski was a Polish medical doctor who saved thousands of people during World War II by creating a fake epidemic which played on German phobias about hygiene. He also used his position as a doctor treating people travelling through a nearby train station to conceal his supply of medicine to Jews in the local Ghetto, which backed on to his home. By doing this, he risked the German death penalty, which was applied to Poles who helped Jews in the Holocaust.
Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah
Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah of the al-Sabah dynasty was the Emir of Kuwait and Commander of the military of Kuwait who served in the posts from 31 December 1977 until his death on 15 January 2006 due to cerebral hemorrhage. The third monarch to rule Kuwait since its independence from Britain, Jaber had previously served as minister of finance and economy from 1962 to 1965 when he was appointed prime minister prior to becoming Kuwait's ruler.
Syd Barrett
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett named the group and was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his English-accented singing, literary influences, and whimsical take on psychedelia. As a guitarist, he was influential for his free-form playing and for employing dissonance, distortion, echo, feedback, and other studio effects.
Richard Kuklinski
Richard Leonard Kuklinski was an American serial criminal and murderer. Kuklinski was engaged in criminal activities for most of his adult life. He ran a burglary ring and distributed pirated pornography. Kuklinski killed several people he lured with offers of a business deal so that he could rob them of their cash. Law enforcement officials described him as someone who killed for profit. Kuklinski lived with his wife and children in the New Jersey suburb of Dumont. They knew him as a loving father and husband who provided for his family, but one who also had a violent temper and was physically abusive to his wife. His family stated that they were unaware of his crimes. He was given the moniker Iceman by authorities after they discovered that he had frozen the body of one of his victims in an attempt to disguise the time of death.
Earl Woods
Earl Dennison Woods was the father of American professional golfer Tiger Woods. Woods started his son in golf at a very early age and coached him exclusively over his first years in the sport. He later published two books about the process.
Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock, otherwise known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was one of Australia's best-known and most successful motor racing drivers. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, although he raced vehicles of other manufacturers including BMW, Ford, Volvo, Porsche and Peugeot. He won the Bathurst 1000 endurance race nine times, the Sandown 500 touring car race nine times, the Australian Touring Car Championship three times, the Bathurst 24 Hour once and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2001. Brock's business activities included the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) that produced Brock's racing machines as well as a number of modified high-performance road versions of his racing cars.
Paul Hunter
Paul Alan Hunter was an English professional snooker player. He was a three-time Masters champion, winning the event in 2001, 2002, and 2004, recovering from a deficit in the final to win 10–9 on all three occasions. He also won three ranking events: the Welsh Open in 1998 and 2002, and the British Open in 2002. During the 2004–05 snooker season, he attained a career-high ranking of number four in the world.
Ferenc Puskás
Ferenc Puskás was a Hungarian footballer and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. A prolific forward, he scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary, played four international matches for Spain and scored 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues. He became an Olympic champion in 1952 and led his nation to the final of the 1954 World Cup. He won three European Cups, 10 national championships and 8 top individual scoring honors. In 1995, he was recognized as the top scorer of the 20th century by the IFFHS.