Marthali Brand and Aaron Nicodemus
Graham Armitage (63), radio, television and theatre personality best known for his roles in television productions such as The Diggers, Westgate and Shaka Zulu.
Luis Argana (66), vice-president of Paraguay, killed by gunmen believed to have been sent by President Raul Cubas. Immediately after the killing, MPs voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Cubas.
Paul Asherson (46), controversial former Democratic Party Johannesburg city councillor, horse-racing personality and businessman, who was credited with engineering the downfall of the National Party in Johannesburg in 1990, helping the DP to take control of the city.
Percy Baneshik (84), doyen of South African arts and entertainment critics and recipient of many honours, including the 1998 life achievement award from the Arts and Culture Trust of the President.
Ian Bannen (71), actor best known for his role in Waking Ned Devine. Bannen also starred in Braveheart and Gorky Park.
Harry Blackmun (90), former United States Supreme Court judge, who wrote the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade judgment legalising abortion.
Dirk Bogarde (78), British actor and writer who starred in classics such as A Tale of Two Cities, The Night Porter and A Bridge Too Far.
Paul Bowles (88), novelist, composer, poet, and author of The Sheltering Sky.
John “Budgie” Byrne (60), former English international soccer player and manager of Cape Town’s Hellenic football club.
Sylvester Clarke (45), West Indian cricketer.
Eamon Collins (44), former Irish Republican Army operative whose 1997 expos Killing Rage discredited the romanticised image of the organisation. He was stabbed, beaten up and run over by unidentified assailants.
Jill Dando (37), BBC TV journalist, who co-anchored the popular Crimewatch and Holiday programmes, shot by an unknown gunman, thought to be a contract killer.
Zach de Beer (70), founder member of the Progressive Party and former leader of the Democratic Party and its predecessor, the Progressive Federal Party. De Beer quit Parliament after the 1994 elections, and was appointed South African ambassador to the Netherlands.
Fats Dibeco (62), actor and presenter of Woza Weekend. “Bra Fats” became famous for his roles in, among others, Paul Slabolepszy’s Saturday Night at the Palace and Athol Fugard’s Nongogo.
Mcwayizeni ka Dinizulu (67), Zulu prince who served as regent before King Goodwill Zwelithini was crowned in 1971. Mcwayizeni supported the African National Congress, not the Inkatha Freedom Party, and played an important role in ending the war between the two parties in KwaZulu-Natal.
Gora Ebrahim (63), a founder of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee and former Pan Africanist Congress MP.
Gertrude Elion (81), Nobel Prize winner who helped develop the first drugs to combat leukaemia and herpes, and oversaw the development of AZT, now used to treat Aids.
Rudolph Erasmus (86), who headed the Erasmus commission of inquiry into the Info Scandal which found the Department of Information had covertly spent millions of rands to change South Africa’s image abroad and establish The Citizen.
John D Erlichman (73), adviser to US president Richard Nixon, who was imprisoned for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
Hajj Saad al-Gharir (128), Jordanian patriarch who raced horses and camels, and left behind 103 grandchildren.
Raisa Gorbachev (67), wife of former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev, who eschewed the traditional reticence of Soviet leaders’ wives and became a formidable partner. Russians followed her every move like soap-opera addicts.
Sir De Villiers Graaff (85), leader of the South African opposition when the opposition was the United Party.
King Hassan II (70), Moroccan monarch of 38 years who won praise in the West as a regional peacemaker, helping pave the way for the 1979 treaty between Israel and Egypt, but was criticised for his autocratic ways, human rights abuses and his country’s economic inequality.
Joseph Heller (76), writer who coined the phrase Catch-22 with his novel of the same name.
Alastair Hetherington (79), former editor of the British newspaper The Guardian, who helped the paper attract young and female readers with cutting- edge cultural coverage and left-leaning columns.
Baruch Hirson (78), South African revolutionary and historian who helped to establish the Socialist League of Africa just before the Sharpeville massacre. Hirson was convicted of sabotage and imprisoned for nine years, and went into exile after his release.
Conrad Hunte (67), West Indies opening batsman and cricket administrator. Hunte served on the United Cricket Board of South Africa for seven years, where he developed cricket in the townships.
King Hussein (63), ruler of Jordan for 48 years who healed relations between Israel and Jordan and pushed for broader Middle East peace.
Wezi Kaunda (47), rising Zambian opposition leader and son of former president Kenneth Kaunda, assassinated by four gunmen in Lusaka.
Deforest Kelly (79), Star Trek’s Dr Leonard McCoy, affectionately known as “Bones” to the crew of the USS Enterprise.
John F Kennedy Jnr (38), son of former US president John F Kennedy and publisher of George, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (33), Kennedy Jnr’s wife and a fashion publicist, and Lauren Bessette (34), Bessette Kennedy’s sister.
Sheik Isa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa (65), Emir of Bahrain for 37 years.
G Korsten (71), South African opera singer who mixed traditional opera with light music. When his career as tenor waned, Korsten starred in the soap opera Egoli.
Stanley Kubrick (70), movie director who produced several classics, including 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining. The last of his 13 feature films, Eyes Wide Shut, was released to mixed reviews this year.
Desmond Llewellyn (85), British actor who played Q in the Bond films.
Lord Lucan, British earl who vanished 25 years ago after allegedly killing his children’s nanny. Lucan, who was never found, was officially declared dead.
Ibrahim Bare Mainassara (49), lllllllpresident of Niger, reportedly shot by his bodyguards amid allegations that Mainassara had fixed an election.
Malcolm Marshall (41), brilliant West Indian fast bowler. At the end of his career, Marshall coached and played for Natal.
Yehudi Menuhin (82), celebrated violinist, teacher and conductor.
Clarence Mlokoti (68), director and co- founder of Kaizer Chiefs football club. He was shot in the backseat of his daughter’s car in a hijacking attempt.
Primo Nebiolo (76), controversial head of the International Amateur Athletics Federation.
Simon “Mahlathini” Nkabinde (62), lead singer of Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens.
Joshua Nkomo (82), African nationalist, who brought Zimbabwe’s bickering tribes together in the fight for independence. Nkomo was eclipsed in Zimbabwe’s first election by his ally, Robert Mugabe, who has served as the country’s only president since independence.
Bonnie Ntshalintshali (33), ceramic artist and joint winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 1990.
David Ogilvy (88), advertising supremo.
Jennifer Paterson (71), half of the Two Fat Ladies. A chain-smoker who disdained nouvelle cuisine, Paterson and partner Clarissa Dickson Wright championed cholesterol-laden dishes.
Harold Mthutuzeli “HP” Pongolo (65), pioneer of black sports journalism who wrote for Drum magazine, the Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Times.
Mario Puzo (78), author who created the fictional Corleone mobster family of The Godfather.
Alf Ramsey (79), manager of the English soccer team when they won the World Cup in 1966.
Oliver Reed (61), hellraising British film star.
Gavin Relly (72), chair of Anglo American from 1983 to 1990, chancellor of Rhodes University and member of the international board of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Marius Schoon (61), Afrikaans anti- apartheid activist who was jailed for 12 years for trying to bomb the Johannesburg Post Office Tower. In 1984 a bomb for him killed instead his wife and daughter.
George C Scott (71), actor best known for his title role in Patton, for which he won – but refused to accept – a 1970 Oscar as best actor.
Neville Sing (40), executive producer at Prime Media Pictures and an architect of South Africa’s film legislation.
Nick “Bazooka” Sishweni, former Orlando Pirates captain.
Gene Siskel (53), movie critic who, with Roger Ebert, formed the famous duo of reviewers whose “two thumbs-up” was a coveted symbol of approval in Hollywood.
Dusty Springfield (59), singer best known for hits such as Son of a Preacher Man, Wishin’ and Hopin’ and You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me. Last year Springfield was made an Officer of the British Empire.
Payne Stewart (42) pro-golfer and winner of the 1999 US Open, who died when his Lear jet crashed.
Screaming Lord Sutch (58), leader of Britain’s Official Monster Raving Loony Party, whose fringe political platform included promises of heated toilet seats for pensioners.
Dimitri Tsafendas (81), assassin of former South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd. Tsafendas died in a mental home.
Franjo Tudjman (77), Croatian president who led his country to independence through Yugoslavia’s wars of secession.
Pieter “PK” van der Byl (76), South African who served as defence, information and foreign minister in erstwhile Rhodesia.
Robert van Tonder (76), founding leader of the Boerestaat Party who demanded a “homeland” for Afrikaners.
JC “Kosie” Viviers (61), former journalist for the Rand Daily Mail, and editor of the Eastern Province Herald and the Cape Times.
Grover Washington Jnr (56), jazz saxophonist and bandleader, who blended pop soul and jazz.