List of Famous people who died in 2012

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer and actress. She was certified as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced several African-American female artists.

Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.

David Thomas Jones was an English musician, singer, actor and businessman, best known as a member of the band the Monkees, and for starring in the TV series of the same name.

Michael Clarke Duncan was an American actor best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile (1999), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and other honors. He also appeared in motion pictures such as Armageddon (1998), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), The Scorpion King (2002), Daredevil (2003), Sin City (2005), and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), and had voice roles in films such as Brother Bear (2003), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008), and Green Lantern (2011), and as Leo Knox in the TV series Bones (2011) and its spin-off series The Finder (2012).

Carroll Hall Shelby was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified during the late 1960s and early 2000s. He established Shelby American in 1962 to manufacture and market performance vehicles. His autobiography, The Carroll Shelby Story, was published in 1967. As a race car driver, his highlight was as a co-driver of the winning 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans entry.

Rodney Glen King was an American author and activist who was a victim of police brutality by the Los Angeles Police Department. On March 3, 1991, King was beaten by LAPD officers after a high-speed chase during his arrest for drunk driving on I-210. An uninvolved individual, George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA. The footage showed an unarmed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public furor.

Griselda Blanco Restrepo, known as La Madrina, the Black Widow, the Cocaine Godmother and the Queen of Narco-Trafficking, was a Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel and a pioneer in the Miami-based cocaine drug trade and underworld during the 1980s through the early 2000s. It has been estimated that she was responsible for up to 2,000 murders while transporting cocaine from Colombia to New York, Miami and Southern California. She was shot and killed on September 3, 2012, at the age of 69. At her height, Blanco was one of the richest and most dangerous women in the world, and was the most powerful drug kingpin in the world. She became the first-ever billionaire female criminal, ruling her multi-million dollar drug trafficking empire with an iron fist, and becoming one of the deadliest women of all time.

Dolores Janney "Jenni" Rivera Saavedra was an American singer, songwriter, actress, television producer, spokesperson, philanthropist and entrepreneur known for her work within the Regional Mexican music genre, specifically in the styles of Banda, Mariachi and Norteño. In life and death, several media outlets including CNN, Billboard, Fox News, and The New York Times have labeled her as the most important female figure and top selling female artist in Regional Mexican music. Billboard magazine named her the "top Latin artist of 2013", and the "best selling Latin artist of 2013".

Henry Hill Jr. was an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City between 1955 and 1980. In 1980, Hill was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant. He testified against his former Mafia associates, resulting in 50 convictions, including those of caporegime (captain) Paul Vario and James Burke on multiple charges. He subsequently entered the Witness Protection Program, but was removed from the program in the early 1990s.

Israel Keyes was an American serial killer, rapist, arsonist, burglar, and bank robber. Keyes admitted to violent crimes as early as 1996, with the violent sexual assault of a teenage girl in Oregon. He committed a long series of rapes, murders, arsons, burglaries and bank robberies until his capture in 2012. He died by suicide while in custody, awaiting trial for the murder of Samantha Koenig.