List of Famous people who died in 2016

Kelly McGarry was a professional New Zealand freeride mountain biker and X-Games Athlete. He was known for his best trick award in the 2013 Red Bull Rampage when he backflipped a 72-foot canyon gap. The video of the flip went viral on YouTube, getting over 196 million views. McGarry was one of the most prolific and recognised participants in the sport of freeride mountain biking. His participation in Crankworx events made him a recognisable figure in the sport, and in 2015, McGarry held the record for most consecutive appearances at the event.

Juras Požela was a Lithuanian politician who served as the Minister of Health of Lithuania from March 2016 until his death on 16 October 2016 from pancreatitis. He was also a Seimas member, Youth and Sports Affairs Committee Chairman and a presidium member of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania.

Helen Delich Bentley was an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland from 1985 to 1995. Before entering politics, she had been a leading maritime reporter and journalist.

Sylvia Beatrice Anderson was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981.

Mir Quasem Ali was a Bangladeshi businessman, philanthropist and politician. He was a former director of Islami Bank, and chairman of the Diganta Media Corporation, which owns Diganta TV. He founded the Ibn Sina Trust and was a key figure in the establishment of the NGO Rabita al-Alam al-Islami. He was considered to be the wealthiest member of the Bangladeshi political party Jamaat-e-Islami. He was sentenced to death on 2 November 2014 for crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 by International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh. The charges were denied by his relatives, stating they were politically motivated. Rights groups also raised concerns about these cases, with Amnesty International criticising the use of the death penalty and saying Mir Quasem Ali's trial had been unfair. He was hanged at Gazipur on 3 September 2016 after his final appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

Johan Botha was a South African operatic tenor.

Yevgeni Nikolayevich Lazarev, also credited as Eugene Lazarev, was a Russian–American actor and director. He was born in Minsk.

Helen Elizabeth Garrett, commonly known as Elizabeth Garrett or Beth Garrett,, was an American professor of law and academic administrator. Between 2010 and 2015, she served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Southern California. On July 1, 2015, she became the 13th president of Cornell University—the first woman to serve as president of the university. She died from colon cancer on March 6, 2016, the first Cornell president to die while in office.

Sydney Hillel Schanberg was an American journalist who was best known for his coverage of the war in Cambodia. He was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism. Schanberg was played by Sam Waterston in the 1984 film The Killing Fields based on the experiences of Schanberg and the Cambodian journalist Dith Pran in Cambodia.

Rafael Tovar y de Teresa was a Mexican diplomat, lawyer, scholar and historian. First Secretary of Culture of Mexico in the president's cabinet of Enrique Peña Nieto (2015), he was Mexican ambassador to Italy between 2001 and 2007; He was the second president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), a position he held on three separate occasions until this organization became the Secretariat of Culture. He was also president of the 'Organizing Committee for the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the start of the National Independence movement and the Centenary of the start of the Mexican Revolution' between September 2007 and October 2008.