Passing on: the year’s notable deaths
A short list of leading personalities who have died in 2008: - Edmund Hillary, the modest New Zealand beekeeper who along with his Nepalese guide Sherpa Tensing became the first person to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. Died at age 88 in his native land. (Jan 11).
- US chess genius Bobby Fischer, who made world headlines in 1972 by defeating Soviet world champion Boris Spassky in a celebrated Cold War chess showdown in Reykjavik. Aged 64 in his adopted country of Iceland. (Jan 17).
- Indonesia’s former president Suharto, whose ironfisted rule became a byword for corruption and bloody repression but also brought economic growth.
Aged 86 in a Jakarta hospital (Jan 27).
- Arthur C. Clarke, the prolific British science fiction writer who penned the story behind Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” At age 90 in his adopted country of Sri Lanka. (March 19).
- Charlton Heston: US actor who starred in Hollywood epics such as “Ben Hur” and “The Ten Commandments” and also gained notoriety as a leading defender of the right of Americans to carry weapons. At his home in Beverly Hills, California, aged 84. (April 5).
- French fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent, one of the great designers of the 20th century. Died in Paris at the age of 71 after a long illness. (June 1).
- Veteran Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, Arab cinema’s most celebrated director, aged 82 in Cairo. (July 27).
- The Russian writer and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who shone a light on the inhuman world of the Soviet gulags and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. At his Moscow home aged 89. (Aug 3).
- Veteran US actor Paul Newman, star of films such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “The Sting” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. Died of cancer at his home in Westport, Connecticut, aged 83. (Sept 26).
- Outspoken Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider, who caused controversy with comments praising Nazi policies. Killed in a high-speed car crash, aged 58. (Oct 11).
- Singer Miriam Makeba, the musical symbol of black South Africans’ struggle against apartheid, at the age of 76 after collapsing at a concert in Italy. (Nov 10).
- Alexy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and a key figure in its rebirth since the end of the Soviet Union. At age 79 in his residence near Moscow. (Dec 5).
- Mark Felt, the former top FBI official who in 1972 secretly fed two Washington Post reporters with the information that sparked the Watergate scandal, bringing down president Richard Nixon. At age 95 in California (Dec 18).
- Harold Pinter, a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright and one of theatre’s biggest names for nearly half a century, aged 78, of cancer. (Dec 24).
- Eartha Kitt, the versatile American singer and actress, of colon cancer aged 81. (Dec 25).
- US chess genius Bobby Fischer, who made world headlines in 1972 by defeating Soviet world champion Boris Spassky in a celebrated Cold War chess showdown in Reykjavik. Aged 64 in his adopted country of Iceland. (Jan 17).
- Indonesia’s former president Suharto, whose ironfisted rule became a byword for corruption and bloody repression but also brought economic growth.
Aged 86 in a Jakarta hospital (Jan 27).
- Arthur C. Clarke, the prolific British science fiction writer who penned the story behind Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” At age 90 in his adopted country of Sri Lanka. (March 19).
- Charlton Heston: US actor who starred in Hollywood epics such as “Ben Hur” and “The Ten Commandments” and also gained notoriety as a leading defender of the right of Americans to carry weapons. At his home in Beverly Hills, California, aged 84. (April 5).
- French fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent, one of the great designers of the 20th century. Died in Paris at the age of 71 after a long illness. (June 1).
- Veteran Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, Arab cinema’s most celebrated director, aged 82 in Cairo. (July 27).
- The Russian writer and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who shone a light on the inhuman world of the Soviet gulags and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. At his Moscow home aged 89. (Aug 3).
- Veteran US actor Paul Newman, star of films such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “The Sting” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. Died of cancer at his home in Westport, Connecticut, aged 83. (Sept 26).
- Outspoken Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider, who caused controversy with comments praising Nazi policies. Killed in a high-speed car crash, aged 58. (Oct 11).
- Singer Miriam Makeba, the musical symbol of black South Africans’ struggle against apartheid, at the age of 76 after collapsing at a concert in Italy. (Nov 10).
- Alexy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and a key figure in its rebirth since the end of the Soviet Union. At age 79 in his residence near Moscow. (Dec 5).
- Mark Felt, the former top FBI official who in 1972 secretly fed two Washington Post reporters with the information that sparked the Watergate scandal, bringing down president Richard Nixon. At age 95 in California (Dec 18).
- Harold Pinter, a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright and one of theatre’s biggest names for nearly half a century, aged 78, of cancer. (Dec 24).
- Eartha Kitt, the versatile American singer and actress, of colon cancer aged 81. (Dec 25).
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