List of Famous people who died in 2019

Albert Tévoédjrè was a Beninese writer and politician. He was Information Minister of Dahomey from 1960 to 1963.

Yelena 'Lena' Grigoryeva was a human rights and LGBTQ rights activist. She also opposed the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. She was murdered in St. Petersburg, Russia on 21 July 2019, when she was stabbed and strangled to death by unknown assailants, her body being found near her home. Grigoryeva's identifying information had appeared in July on a website created by a group calling themselves ‘Saw’ after the American horror film franchise. The group encouraged readers to hunt and murder a list of LGBTQ+ people. Saw's website was blocked in Russia but a new list of LGBTQ+ activists, journalists and citizens is circulating on social media apps and messaging apps in the country, still encouraging others to murder LGBTQ+ people in Russia.

Lawrence Elliott Willis was an American jazz pianist and composer. He performed in a wide range of styles, including jazz fusion, Afro-Cuban jazz, bebop, and avant-garde.

Ira Gitler was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of liner notes for jazz recordings beginning in the early 1950s and wrote several books about jazz and ice hockey, two of his passions.

Maya Iosifovna Turovskaya was a Soviet and Russian theatrical and film critic, film historian, screenwriter, and culturologist.

Günther Lohre was a German athlete. He competed in the men's pole vault at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Luděk Bukač was a Czech ice hockey player and manager. As a player, he played for ČLTK Praha, HC Sparta Praha and HC Dukla Jihlava, while as a manager, he coached HC Sparta Praha, HC Košice and HC České Budějovice. As a manager, he coached the Czechoslovak, Austrian, German and Czech national teams. With the Czech Republic, he won the 1996 IIHF World Championship.

David Nthubu Koloane was a South African artist. In his drawings, paintings and collages he explored questions about political injustice and human rights. Koloane is considered to have been "an influential artist and writer of the apartheid years" in South Africa.

Christian Wägli was a Swiss sprinter and middle distance runner. He finished fifth in the 800 metres and sixth in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Josip Zovko was a Croatian actor and director. A native of the Berinovac, Lokvičići municipality in the Imotska Krajina he was best known for playing Joze in the television series Naši i vaši. He was also acclaimed for his roles in the films Sorry for Kung Fu and Wish I Were a Shark.