List of Famous people who died in 2012

Ben Van Os was a Dutch production designer and art director. He received two Academy Award for Best Art Direction nominations for his works in Orlando (1993) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). The latter of which also earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Production Design nomination.

Gilbert Durand was a French academic known for his work on the imaginary, symbolic anthropology and mythology.

Malcolm Wilde Browne was an American journalist and photographer, best known for his award-winning photograph of the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963.

Vitaly Ivanovich Vorotnikov was a Soviet politician and diplomat who was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR between 1988 and 1990.

William Paul Thurston was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology. In 1982, he was awarded the Fields Medal for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds. From 2003 until his death he was a professor of mathematics and computer science at Cornell University.

Nikolay Nikolayevich Krasovsky was a prominent Russian mathematician who worked in the mathematical theory of control, the theory of dynamical systems, and the theory of differential games. He was the author of Krasovskii-LaSalle principle and the chief of the Ural scientific school in mathematical theory of control and the theory of differential games.

Lars Valter Hörmander was a Swedish mathematician who has been called "the foremost contributor to the modern theory of linear partial differential equations". He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1962, the Wolf Prize in 1988, and the Leroy P. Steele Prize in 2006. His Analysis of Linear Partial Differential Operators I–IV is considered a standard work on the subject of linear partial differential operators.

France Clidat was a French pianist renowned for her interpretations of the works of Franz Liszt, a great many of which she recorded, and Erik Satie, whose complete piano works she recorded.

Margot Werner was an Austrian ballet dancer, chanson singer, and actress. During her career, she was both the principal dancer at the Bavarian State Ballet, and a soloist at the Bavarian State Opera and Munich Philharmonic. She released several albums, and is best known for her 1977 hit, "So ein Mann". Werner performed in a number of television shows and films, and in the 1970s had her own television show, The Margot Werner Show.