List of Famous people who died in 2007
Nancy Benoit
Nancy Elizabeth Benoit was an American professional wrestling valet, occasional professional wrestler and model. She was best known for her appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling in the mid-1990s under the ring name Woman.
Sayoko Yamaguchi
Sayoko Yamaguchi was a Japanese model and actress.
Nguyễn Chánh Thi
Nguyễn Chánh Thi was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known for being involved in frequent coups in the 1960s and wielding substantial influence as a key member of various juntas that ruled South Vietnam from 1964 until 1966, when he was overpowered by Republic of Vietnam Air Force chief and Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ in a power struggle and exiled to the United States. Known for his flamboyant style and hostility to U.S. advice, Thi's ouster was supported by the American leadership, who backed Kỳ's pro-U.S. regime.
Ulus Baker
Ulus Sedat Baker was a Turkish Cypriot sociologist. Baker was born to a cosmopolitan family; his mother was the famous Cypriot poet Pembe Marmara, and his father was the prominent psychiatrist of the island, Sedat Baker. Baker studied in Russia, Turkey, France, and Cyprus. He completed his studies at the Department of Sociology in METU in Ankara and began his academic life in the same institution shortly thereafter. He was a very productive intellectual and a prolific scholar; he had already become an influential public intellectual in Turkish cultural life beyond the academia by mid-nineties. Although he had always taught within academic institutions, his relation with academia had certain tensions and breaks; he only completed his Ph.D. in 2002 with a thesis titled "From Opinions to Images: Towards a Sociology of Affects", he was uninterested in having a stable academic position, and after 2000 till his death, he had various teaching gigs in different universities in Ankara and Istanbul besides his main affiliation at Middle East Technical University. Shortly before his death, he also started teaching in Istanbul, where he died.
Ilya Kormiltsev
Ilya Valeryevich Kormiltsev was a Russian poet, translator, and publisher.
Lynne Randell
Lynne Randell was an English Australian pop singer. For three years in the mid-1960s, she was Australia's most popular female performer and had hits with "Heart" and "Goin' Out of My Head" in 1966, and "Ciao Baby" in 1967. In 1967, Randell toured the United States with The Monkees and performed on-stage with support act Jimi Hendrix. She wrote for teen magazine, Go-Set, and television programme guide, TV Week. While on the US tour, Randell became addicted to methamphetamine, an addiction which she battled for most of her life.
Mao Anqing
Mao Anqing was the last surviving son of Mao Zedong, chairman of the People's Republic of China. He was the second son of Mao and his wife, Yang Kaihui. He suffered from a mental illness, possibly schizophrenia. He worked as a translator and never became active in politics.
Dennis Johnson
Dennis Wayne Johnson, nicknamed "DJ", was an American professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics and coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. He was an alumnus of Dominguez High School, Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine University.
Alan Ball, Jr.
Alan James Ball was an English professional footballer and manager. He was the youngest member of England's 1966 World Cup winning team and played as a midfielder for various clubs, scoring more than 180 league goals in a career spanning 22 years. His playing career also included a then national record £220,000 transfer from Everton to Arsenal at the end of 1971. After retiring as a player, he had a 15-year career as a manager which included spells in the top flight of English football with Portsmouth, Southampton, and Manchester City.
M. N. Vijayan
Moolayil Narayana Menon Vijayan, popularly known as Vijayan Mash was an Indian academic, orator, columnist and writer of Malayalam literature. Known for his leftist ideals and oratorical skills, Vijayan was the president of the Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham and served as the editor of Deshabhimani. He published a number of books of which Chithayile Velicham received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Literary Criticism in 1982.