List of Famous people who died in 2008

Sandeep Unnikrishnan was an officer in the Indian Army serving in the elite Special Action Group of the National Security Guards. He was martyred in action during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was consequently awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award, on 26 January 2009 by the president Pratibha Patil.

Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov was a Kyrgyz author who wrote in both Kyrgyz and Russian. He is one of the best known figures in Kyrgyzstan's literature.

David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, short stories and essays, as well as a university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time magazine cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012.

Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, known as Pippa Bacca, was an Italian feminist artist who, together with a fellow artist, was hitchhiking internationally to promote world peace under the motto, "marriage between different peoples and nations", symbolically wearing a wedding dress during her trek.

Albert Hofmann was a Swiss chemist known best for being the first known person to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann was also the first person to isolate, synthesize, and name the principal psychedelic mushroom compounds psilocybin and psilocin. He authored more than 100 scientific articles and numerous books, including LSD: Mein Sorgenkind. In 2007, he shared first place with Tim Berners-Lee in a list of the 100 greatest living geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Robert Hoppe was an American football halfback who played on the 1957 National Championship team at Auburn University.

Norman Jeffrey Healey was a Canadian jazz and blues-rock vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter who attained musical and personal popularity, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. He reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Angel Eyes" and reached the Top 10 in Canada with the songs "I Think I Love You Too Much" and "How Long Can a Man Be Strong".

Yma Sumac was a Peruvian coloratura soprano. She was one of the most famous exponents of exotica music during the 1950s.

John Michael Crichton was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works are usually within the science fiction, techno-thriller, and medical fiction genres, and heavily feature technology. His novels often explore technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. Many of his novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and scientific background.

Aleksandr Gavrilovich Abdúlov was a Soviet / Russian actor.