List of Famous people who died in 2015
Udo Lattek
Udo Lattek was a German professional football player and coach.
Brian Stewart
Brian Thomas Webster Stewart was a British soldier, colonial official, diplomat and the second-most senior officer in the British Secret Intelligence Service. He fought in the Second World War, played an influential role in the Malayan Emergency, then served as British Consul-General in Shanghai on the eve of the cultural revolution, as British Representative to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and as the Director of Technical Services and Assistant Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1974 to 1979.
Mal Whitfield
Malvin Greston Whitfield was an American athlete, goodwill ambassador, and airman. Nicknamed "Marvelous Mal", he was the Olympic champion in the 800 meters at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, and a member of the 1948 gold medal team in the 4 × 400 meters relay. Overall, Whitfield was a five-time Olympic medalist. After his competitive career, he worked for forty-seven years as a coach, goodwill ambassador, and athletic mentor in Africa on behalf of the United States Information Service.
Gennadiy Seleznyov
Gennadiy Nikolayevich Seleznyov was a Russian politician, the Chairman of the State Duma from 1996 to 2003.
François Delapierre
François Delapierre was a French politician. He served as the national secretary of the Left Party from December 2010 until his death. He was also a regional councillor of Île-de-France from February 2009 until his death. He was previously a member of the Socialist Party from 1986 to 2008. He was born in Paris.
Mathieu Kérékou
Mathieu Kérékou was a Beninese politician who served as President of Benin from 1972 to 1991 and again from 1996 to 2006. After seizing power in a military coup, he ruled the country for 19 years, for most of that time under an officially Marxist–Leninist ideology, before he was stripped of his powers by the National Conference of 1990. He was defeated in the 1991 presidential election but was returned to the presidency in the 1996 election and controversially re-elected in 2001.
Ernie Banks
Ernest Banks, nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.
Riley Martin
Riley Lee Martin was an American self-described alien contactee, author, and radio host. Martin was the author of the book The Coming of Tan, which describes his life and his alleged alien visitation. He hosted The Riley Martin Show on the Sirius XM Radio channel Howard 101. He appeared on The Howard Stern Show and was considered part of the Wack Pack.
Kenneth D. Taylor
Kenneth Douglas Taylor, was a Canadian diplomat, educator and businessman, best known for his role in the 1979 covert operation called the "Canadian Caper" when he was the Canadian ambassador to Iran. With the cooperation of the American Central Intelligence Agency, Taylor helped six Americans escape from Iran during the Iran hostage crisis by procuring Canadian passports for the Americans to deceive the Iranian Revolutionary guard by posing as a Canadian film crew scouting locations. Before the escape, the six Americans spent several weeks hiding in the homes of Taylor and another Canadian diplomat, John Sheardown.
Amedy Coulibaly
Amedy Coulibaly was a Malian-French man who was the prime suspect in the Montrouge shooting, in which municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe was shot and killed, and was the hostage-taker and gunman in the Hypercacher Kosher Supermarket siege, in which he killed four hostages before being killed by police.