Queen Elizabeth II
(Monarch)
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21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022 (Aged 96)
Queen Elizabeth II was the Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, and the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
Born in London in 1926, she was the elder daughter of the Duke of York, who became King George VI when his brother Edward VIII abdicated in 1936.
In 1947 she married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later the Duke of Edinburgh, to whom she remained married for more than 73 years.
She acceded to the throne on the death of her father in February 1952 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey in June 1953.
Over a reign of 70 years she served as head of state through enormous social and political change, working with 15 British prime ministers.
She was head of the Commonwealth and, for much of her reign, queen of numerous independent nations around the world. In 2022 she became the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.
Widely admired for her sense of duty and continuity, she was succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III.
Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on 8 September 2022, her death certificate recording the cause as old age.
Pelé
(Footballer)
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23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022 (Aged 82)
Pelé was a Brazilian footballer widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento in Três Corações, he grew up in poverty before joining the club Santos at the age of 15.
He made his debut for the Brazil national team at 16 and played in his first World Cup a year later. At the 1958 World Cup, aged 17, he scored twice in the final as Brazil won the tournament for the first time.
He remains the only player to have won the World Cup three times, in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
He spent most of his career with Santos before joining the New York Cosmos in 1975, helping to popularise the sport in the United States.
He scored more than 1,000 career goals and was Brazil’s all-time leading scorer for over 60 years.
He was named FIFA Player of the Century, jointly with Diego Maradona, and Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee. Known simply as “the King”, he remained a global ambassador for football long after his retirement.
Pelé died in São Paulo on 29 December 2022 of multiple organ failure, following treatment for colon cancer.
Mikhail Gorbachev
(Soviet Leader & Statesman)
2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022 (Aged 91)
Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union.
Born into a peasant family in southern Russia, he rose steadily through the ranks of the Communist Party.
He became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985 and later the country’s first and only president.
He introduced sweeping reforms known as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an effort to modernise the Soviet system. His policies loosened state control, allowed greater freedom of speech and eased tensions with the West.
He signed landmark arms-control agreements with the United States and withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
He allowed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communist rule across Eastern Europe without military intervention. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War.
The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, and he was celebrated abroad while remaining a divisive figure at home. Gorbachev died in Moscow on 30 August 2022 after a long illness.
Sidney Poitier
(Actor)
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20 February 1927 – 6 January 2022 (Aged 94)
Sidney Poitier was a Bahamian-American actor, director and diplomat who became Hollywood’s first Black leading man.
Born in Miami and raised largely on Cat Island in the Bahamas, he moved to the United States as a teenager with only a few dollars to his name.
He got his start with the American Negro Theatre in New York before breaking into film. He chose his roles with care, rejecting demeaning stereotypes and helping to transform how Black people were portrayed on screen.
In 1964 he became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field.
His acclaimed films included The Defiant Ones, A Raisin in the Sun, To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
He was the first Black actor to become a top box-office draw and later directed several successful comedies.
A committed civil rights advocate, he was knighted in 1974 and served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. He received an Honorary Academy Award in 2002 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
Poitier died on 6 January 2022 at the age of 94.
Olivia Newton-John
(Singer & Actress)
Wikimedia Commons / Eva Rinaldi
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26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022 (Aged 73)
Olivia Newton-John was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist who became one of the biggest pop stars of the 1970s and 1980s.
Born in Cambridge, England, and a granddaughter of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, she moved to Melbourne, Australia, as a young child.
She began her singing career in the late 1960s and represented the United Kingdom at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. She scored a string of hits including “I Honestly Love You”, “Have You Never Been Mellow” and the chart-topping “Physical”.
Her career reached new heights when she starred as Sandy opposite John Travolta in the 1978 film musical Grease.
The Grease soundtrack, including the duet “You’re the One That I Want”, became one of the best-selling of all time. She won four Grammy Awards and sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, she became a prominent advocate and fundraiser for cancer research. She founded the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne and was made a Dame.
Newton-John died at her ranch in California on 8 August 2022, after a long journey with breast cancer.
Shinzo Abe
(Japanese Prime Minister)
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21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022 (Aged 67)
Shinzo Abe was a Japanese statesman who was the longest-serving prime minister in his country’s history.
Born in Tokyo into a prominent political family, he was the grandson and great-nephew of former prime ministers.
He studied in Japan and the United States before entering politics and being elected to parliament in 1993.
He first became prime minister in 2006 but resigned after a year amid controversy and ill health. He returned to power in 2012 and went on to serve until 2020, becoming Japan’s longest-serving leader.
He is best known for his economic programme, dubbed “Abenomics”, aimed at reviving Japan’s economy.
He pursued a more assertive foreign and defence policy and sought to strengthen Japan’s global role. He remained an influential figure within his party after leaving office.
On 8 July 2022, Abe was shot and fatally wounded while giving a campaign speech in the city of Nara.
Angela Lansbury
(Actress)
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16 October 1925 – 11 October 2022 (Aged 96)
Dame Angela Lansbury was a British-American actress and singer whose career spanned some eight decades.
Born in London, she was the granddaughter of the Labour Party leader George Lansbury and the daughter of an actress.
Her family fled to the United States during the Second World War, and she was signed by MGM in 1942.
She earned an Academy Award nomination for her very first film, Gaslight (1944), and two further nominations followed. She voiced Mrs. Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991), singing its Oscar-winning title song.
In 1970, she moved her family to County Cork in Ireland, to save her teenage children from severe drug addiction and the dangerous influence of the Charles Manson cult.
She achieved her greatest fame on television as mystery writer Jessica Fletcher in the long-running series Murder, She Wrote.
On Broadway she was a celebrated musical star, winning five Tony Awards for shows including Mame, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd. She received an Honorary Academy Award in 2013 and was made a Dame in 2014.
Lansbury died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles on 11 October 2022, five days before her 97th birthday.
Madeleine Albright
(U.S. Secretary of State)
U.S. Department of State / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
15 May 1937 – 23 March 2022 (Aged 84)
Madeleine Albright was an American diplomat who became the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
Born Marie Jana Korbelová in Prague, she came to the United States as a child refugee, her family having fled first the Nazis and then communist rule.
She became a US citizen and earned a doctorate before rising through the world of foreign policy. She served as US Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997.
President Bill Clinton then nominated her as Secretary of State, and she was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 1997.
She held the post until 2001, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the US government at the time. She championed the expansion of NATO and pressed for intervention to stop ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
She later taught at Georgetown University and remained an influential voice on democracy and human rights. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
Albright died in Washington on 23 March 2022 of cancer.
Pope Benedict XVI
(Pope Emeritus)
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16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022 (Aged 95)
Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Ratzinger, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013.
Born in Bavaria, Germany, he was a distinguished theologian and university professor before rising through the Church.
For nearly a quarter of a century he led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II, becoming known as a guardian of traditional Catholic teaching.
Following John Paul II’s death in 2005, he was elected the 265th pope and took the name Benedict XVI.
He was the first German pope in centuries and a prolific writer on theology and faith. His papacy emphasised doctrinal orthodoxy alongside dialogue with other faiths.
In February 2013 he announced his resignation, citing his advanced age and declining strength. He became the first pope to resign in almost 600 years, taking the title Pope Emeritus.
He lived quietly within the Vatican for the remainder of his life. Benedict XVI died in Vatican City on 31 December 2022 at the age of 95.
James Caan
(Actor)
Wikimedia Commons / Hans Peters
26 March 1940 – 6 July 2022 (Aged 82)
James Caan was an American actor whose career spanned more than six decades.
Born in the Bronx, New York, to a Jewish immigrant family, he studied acting under Sanford Meisner before moving to Hollywood. He gained early acclaim for his role in the 1971 television film Brian’s Song.
He became a star with his portrayal of the hot-tempered Sonny Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972). The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
His other notable films included The Gambler, Rollerball, Thief and Misery. He introduced himself to a new generation as the gruff father in the Christmas comedy Elf (2003).
Known for his tough-guy screen presence and versatility, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Caan died in Los Angeles on 6 July 2022 of a heart attack.
Jerry Lee Lewis
(Musician)
Wikimedia Commons / Maurice Seymour
29 September 1935 – 28 October 2022 (Aged 87)
Jerry Lee Lewis was an American singer, songwriter and pianist regarded as one of the pioneers of rock and roll.
Born in Ferriday, Louisiana, he began playing the piano as a boy and drew on gospel, blues and country influences.
He recorded at the legendary Sun Records in Memphis, where he was part of the informal “Million Dollar Quartet” with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.
His pounding piano style and wild stage performances earned him the nickname “The Killer”. His 1957 hits “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” made him an international star.
His career was interrupted by personal controversy in the late 1950s, after his third marriage to his cousin, who was only 13 years old at the time.
Lewis re-emerged in the 1960s as a successful country music star. He outlived nearly all of his rock-and-roll contemporaries and continued performing into his later years.
He was among the first group of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022.
Jerry Lee Lewis died at his home in Mississippi on 28 October 2022 at the age of 87.
Barbara Walters
(Broadcaster)
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25 September 1929 – 30 December 2022 (Aged 93)
Barbara Walters was an American broadcast journalist who spent more than five decades as one of television’s most prominent figures.
Born in Boston, the daughter of a nightclub owner, she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and began working in television in the 1950s. She joined NBC’s Today show, where she rose from writer to become its first female co-host.
In 1976 she moved to ABC to become the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news programme, and the first anchor to earn a $1 million salary. She became renowned for her in-depth interviews with world leaders, royalty and celebrities.
Her long-running “Barbara Walters Specials” and annual “10 Most Fascinating People” broadcasts were television staples. She co-anchored the newsmagazine 20/20 for more than two decades.
In 1997 she created and co-hosted the daytime talk show The View, appearing on it until her retirement in 2014. A trailblazer for women in journalism, she won multiple Emmy Awards and other honours.
Barbara Walters died at her home in New York on 30 December 2022 at the age of 93.
Honourable mentions…