List of Famous people who died in 2009

Michel Breitman was a French writer and translator. He won the 1986 edition of the Prix des Deux Magots with his novel Le Témoin de poussière.

Alexander Moiseyevich Piatigorsky was a Soviet dissident, Russian philosopher, scholar of Indian philosophy and culture, historian, philologist, semiotician, writer. Well-versed in the study of language, he knew Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali, Tibetan, German, Russian, French, Italian and English. In an obituary appearing in the English-language newspaper The Guardian, he was cited as "a man who was widely considered to be one of the more significant thinkers of the age and Russia's greatest philosopher." On Russian television stations he was mourned as "the greatest Russian philosopher."

Ephraim Katzir was an Israeli biophysicist and Israeli Labor Party politician. He was the fourth President of Israel from 1973 until 1978.

Sir John Clifford Mortimer was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter, and author.

Ida Helmi Tuulikki Pietilä was an American-born Finnish graphic artist and professor, born in Seattle, Washington, United States. Pietilä was one of the most influential people in Finnish graphic arts, and her work has been shown in numerous art exhibitions. She worked as a teacher in the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, for many years, and later trained graphic artists and wrote instructional books about graphic arts.