List of Famous people who died in 2013

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his masterpiece, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Joseph Paul Franklin was an American white supremacist and serial killer who engaged in a murder spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Ronald Arthur Biggs was one of the men who planned and carried out the Great Train Robbery of 1963. He subsequently became notorious for his escape from prison in 1965, living as a fugitive for 36 years, and for his various publicity stunts while in exile. In 2001, he returned to the United Kingdom and spent several years in prison, where his health rapidly declined. Biggs was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2009 and died in a nursing home in December 2013.

Antoine Veil was a French civil servant of the haut fonctionnaire grade.

Esther Jane Williams was an American competitive swimmer and actress. Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold medal winner and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals," which featured elaborate performances with synchronised swimming and diving.

Sergei Alexandrovich Belov was a Russian professional basketball player, most noted for playing for CSKA Moscow and the senior Soviet Union national basketball team. He is considered to be one of the best European basketball players of all time, and was given the honour of lighting the Olympic Cauldron with the Olympic flame during the 1980 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, in Moscow.

Jang Song-thaek was a leading figure in the government of North Korea. He was married to Kim Kyong-hui, the only daughter of North Korean Premier Kim Il-sung, and only sister of North Korean general secretary Kim Jong-il. He was therefore the uncle of current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.

Rochus Misch was a German Oberscharführer (sergeant) in the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). He was badly wounded during the Polish campaign during the first month of World War II in Europe. After recovering, from 1940 to April 1945, he served in the Führerbegleitkommando as a bodyguard, courier, and telephone operator for German dictator Adolf Hitler. He was widely reported in the media as being the last surviving occupant of the Führerbunker when he died in September 2013.

Lee Thompson Young was an American actor. He is best remembered for his adolescent role as the title character on the Disney Channel television series The Famous Jett Jackson (1998–2001) and as Chris Comer in the movie Friday Night Lights (2004). His last starring role was as Boston police detective Barry Frost on the TNT police drama series Rizzoli & Isles (2010–14).

Bruce Richard Reynolds was an English criminal who masterminded the 1963 Great Train Robbery. At the time it was Britain's largest robbery, netting £2,631,684, equivalent to £55 million today. Reynolds spent five years on the run before being sentenced to 25 years in 1969. He was released in 1978. He wrote three books and performed with the band Alabama 3, for whom his son, Nick, plays.