List of Famous people who died in 2009

İsmet Vehit Güney was a Cypriot artist, cartoonist, teacher and painter. He is best known as the designer of the modern flag of the Republic of Cyprus, the country's coat of arms and the original Cyprus lira in 1960. Güney's design was unique, as the Republic of Cyprus is the first country in the world to display a map on its flag. In 2008, Kosovo became the second country to adopt a national flag displaying a map.

Nahum Sharfman was an Israeli tech entrepreneur who, along with Amir Ashkenazi, founded Shopping.com. Shopping.com was later acquired by eBay for $650 million. He was also the Chairman of social content sharing site eSnips Ltd.

Luís Lombardi Neto, known as Lombardi was a Brazilian television announcer and voice actor.

Mbah Surip was an Indonesian singer. He was known for his singles "Tak Gendong" and "Bangun Tidur".

Salih Nur Neftçi was a leading expert in the fields of financial markets and financial engineering. He served many advisory roles in national and international financial institutions, and was an active researcher in the fields of finance and financial engineering. Neftçi was an avid and highly regarded educator in mathematical finance who was well known for a lucid and accessible approach towards the field.

Abdülmelik Fırat was a prominent Turkish-Kurdish politician. He was the grandson of Sheikh Said, leader of the 1925 Sheikh Said rebellion.

Zeyad Errafae'ie was a Syrian television actor and voice actor.

Yang Xianyi was a Chinese literary translator, known for rendering many ancient and a few modern Chinese classics into English, including Dream of the Red Chamber.

Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian, Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the leaders of the Iranian Revolution and one the highest-ranking authorities in Shīʿite Islam. In 1979, he became a former designated successor to the revolution's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, with whom he had a falling-out in 1989 over government policies that Montazeri claimed infringed on people's freedom and denied them their rights. Montazeri spent his later years in Qom and remained politically influential in Iran, but was placed in house arrest in 1997 for questioning "the unaccountable rule exercised by the supreme leader." He was known as the most knowledgeable senior Islamic scholar in Iran and a grand marja of Shia Islam.