List of Famous people who died in 2012

Fiorenzo Magni was an Italian professional road racing cyclist.

Giorgio Consolini was an Italian singer. In 1954 he won the Sanremo Music Festival in partnership with Gino Latilla, with the song "Tutte le mamme".

Theresia Anna Lilian Maria Shields was an American actress, film producer, socialite, and model.

Patrick Ricard was a French entrepreneur and Chairman and CEO of the liquor and wine group Pernod Ricard.

Raymond Jean was a prolific French writer. He published more than 40 books in many genres, and won the Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle in 1983 for his book Un fantasme de Bella B. His novella La lectrice was turned into a hit film by director Michel Deville, starring Miou-Miou. It has been translated in English by Adriana Hunter for publication by Peirene Press, under the title Reader for Hire.

Carl Richard Woese was an American microbiologist and biophysicist. Woese is famous for defining the Archaea in 1977 by phylogenetic taxonomy of 16S ribosomal RNA, a technique he pioneered that revolutionized microbiology. He also originated the RNA world hypothesis in 1967, although not by that name. Woese held the Stanley O. Ikenberry Chair and was professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

James Burton Serrin was an American mathematician, and a professor at University of Minnesota.