List of Famous people who died in 2019

Frederick Pickering was an English professional footballer. He played as a forward.

Zakaria Ben Mustapha was a Tunisian politician. He served as the Minister of Culture from 1987 to 1988 and the Mayor of Tunis from 1980 until 1986.

Edwin L. Birdsong was an American keyboard/organ player, known in the 1970s and 1980s for his experimental funk/disco music. Birdsong did not achieve much chart success, but developed a strong fan base, and has also been sampled by other artists many times, most famously by Daft Punk who sampled "Cola Bottle Baby" in "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", and Gang Starr who sampled his single "Rapper Dapper Snapper" for their song "Skills".

Sidney Rittenberg was an American journalist, scholar, and Chinese linguist who lived in China from 1944 to 1980. He worked closely with Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, and other leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Chinese Communist Revolution, and was with these central Communist leaders at Yan'an. Later, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement, twice. He was the first American citizen to join the CCP.

Benjamin Coleman was an American professional basketball player. In college, he played for the University of Minnesota and the University of Maryland. Professionally, he played five seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as in Italy and Spain.

Marcel-Pierre Cléach was a French politician, as a member of the Senate of France. He represented the Sarthe department, and was a member of the Union for a Popular Movement.

Egil Danielsen was a Norwegian javelin thrower. He competed at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics and won the gold medal in 1956. Danielsen, who used an old-type wooden javelin, did poorly in the 1956 final, which was led by his Polish friend Janusz Sidło. Trying to help Danielsen, Sidło lent him his modern steel javelin, and Michel Macquet gave him a cup of strong coffee. Danielsen set a new world record at 85.71 m and won the gold medal. He could never reproduce that throw. For his Olympic victory and world record Danielsen was selected Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year in 1956.

Dalton Baldwin was an American accompanist. He made more than 100 recordings and won numerous prizes, working with outstanding singers such as Gérard Souzay, Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, and Jessye Norman. He visited southern Africa on numerous occasions, accompanying Gérard Souzay three times and Elly Ameling twice.

Abdallah Lamrani was a Moroccan footballer who played as a defender. At club level, he played for FAR Rabat. He also played for the Morocco at international level, representing his country at the 1970 FIFA World Cup. Lamrani was a sergeant of the Moroccan Army.

David Michael Riley was an American musician who was the bassist in the punk rock band Big Black from 1985 until the band's dissolution in 1987. Riley moved to Chicago in 1982 from Detroit, where he had worked as a recording engineer. He played on Big Black's two studio albums, Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987), as well as their Headache EP (1987), several singles, and two live albums. After Big Black, Riley recorded tracks with several other artists before being incapacitated by a stroke in 1993, losing the ability to walk. He became a blogger, and published a book in 2006 titled Blurry and Disconnected: Tales of Sink-or-Swim Nihilism. He died in late 2019 from squamous cell carcinoma.