Notable deaths in 2016

Paris, France | AFP | 

From legendary British singer David Bowie to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and American boxer Muhammad Ali, here are some of the notable figures who died in 2016.

– January –

– 10: DAVID BOWIE, 69, legendary British singer and musician who died of cancer two days after his 25th album was released.

– 14: ALAN RICKMAN, 69, British actor who often played villains, such as professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

– February –

– 16: BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI, 93, Egyptian diplomat and UN secretary general from 1992 to 1996.

– 19: HARPER LEE, 89, US author of “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

– 19: UMBERTO ECO, 84, Italian writer and philosopher who wrote “The Name of the Rose”.

– March –

– 6: NANCY REAGAN, 94, US first lady from 1981 to 1989 and a quiet influence on president Ronald Reagan.

– 8: GEORGE MARTIN, 90, British music producer nicknamed “The fifth Beatle”.

– 24: JOHAN CRUYFF, 68, Dutch football star who led the powerful Ajax Amsterdam team in the 1970s.

– 26: JIM HARRISON, 78, US writer of novels and poems who explored the natural world in such works as “Legends of the Fall”.

– April –

– 21: PRINCE, 57, groundbreaking US musician whose many hits include “Purple Rain”, “Girls & Boys” and “Kiss”.

– 24: PAPA WEMBA, 66, singer and king of Congolese rumba..

– June –

– 3: MUHAMMAD ALI, 74, US boxing legend, triple world heavyweight champion.

– 16: JO COX, 41, British Labour Party MP, murdered in the street a week before Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.

– July –

– 2: ELIE WIESEL, 87, US writer, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor.

– 2: MICHAEL CIMINO, 77, US director who made the 1978 film “The Deer Hunter” based on the Vietnam War.

– 4: ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, 76, Iranian film director who won the 1997 Palme d’Or in Cannes for “Taste of Cherry”.

– September –

– 2: ISLAM KARIMOV, 78, president of Uzbekistan from independence in 1991.

– 28: SHIMON PERES, 93, a founding father of Israel and a former president who won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize after signing the Oslo Accords with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.

– October –

– 9: ANDRZEJ WAJDA, 90, Polish film director who won the 1981 Palme d’Or in Cannes for “Man of Iron”.

– 13: BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ, 88, king of Thailand and until his death the world’s longest reigning monarch.

– 13: DARIO FO, 90, Italian writer and actor who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1997.

– November –

– 7: LEONARD COHEN, 82, Canadian poet and musician who became an icon of the 1960s counterculture generation with songs like “Suzanne” and “Hallelujah.”

– 25: FIDEL CASTRO, 90, the Cuban leader who reportedly survived multiple assassination attempts, and who ruled through the administrations of 11 US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.

– December –

– 8: JOHN GLENN, 95, the first US astronaut to orbit the earth.

– 18: ZSA ZSA GABOR, 99, Hungarian-born Hollywood siren better known for her prodigious love life than her movie credits.

– 25: GEORGE MICHAEL, 53, British singer, known as one half of boy band Wham! and then as a solo artist.

– 27: CARRIE FISHER, 60, best known as Princess Leia in “Star Wars”, also a best-selling author and screenwriter.

– 28: DEBBIE REYNOLDS, 84, star of “Singin’ in the Rain” and Carrie Fisher’s mother.