List of Famous people who died in 2008

Giuseppe Di Stefano was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the mid 1940s until the early 1990s. Called Pippo by both fans and friends, he was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voice", as the true successor of Beniamino Gigli. Luciano Pavarotti said he modeled himself after Di Stefano. In an interview Pavarotti said "Di Stefano is my idol. There is a solar voice...It was the most incredible, open voice you could hear. The musicality of di Stefano is as natural and beautiful as the voice is phenomenal". Di Stefano was also the tenor who most inspired José Carreras. He died on 3 March 2008 as a result of injuries from an attack by unknown assailants.

Fanny Elisa Mikey Orlanszky was an Argentine-born Colombian actress, theatre producer and entrepreneur. She lived and worked in Colombia from 1959 until her death and was the creator and organizer of the Bogotá Iberoamerican Theatre Festival, known as the biggest theatre festival in the world.

Rosella Hightower was an American ballerina who achieved fame in both the United States and Europe.

Tano Cimarosa, real name Gaetano Cisco, was an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director from Sicily. He participated in more than fifty movies.

Evelio Arias Ramos was a Mexican actor, comedian and singer.

Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer was one of the six original programmers of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer.

Peter Leibing was a German photographer known for his 1961 photographs of escaping East German border guard, Conrad Schumann jumping a barbed wire fence during construction of the Berlin Wall.

Oliver Martin Johnston Jr., nicknamed "Ollie", was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death from natural causes. He was recognized by The Walt Disney Company with its Disney Legend Award in 1989. His work was recognized with the National Medal of Arts in 2005.

Waltrude Ketterer Schleyer was the widow of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a high-ranking German business executive who was murdered by the Red Army Faction in 1977.

Luis Edgar Devia Silva, better known by his nom de guerre Raúl Reyes, was a leader, Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (FARC–EP). He was killed in a targeted killing military operation by the Colombian army 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) within Ecuador, sparking the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis.