Jimmy Carter
(Former U.S. President)
White House / Wikimedia Commons
1 October 1924 – 29 December 2024 (Aged 100)
Jimmy Carter was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States.
Born in Plains, Georgia, the son of a peanut farmer, he graduated from the US Naval Academy and served as a naval officer.
He returned to Georgia to run the family peanut business and entered state politics, becoming governor in 1971. He won the presidency in 1976, defeating Gerald Ford.
As president he brokered the Camp David Accords, a historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.
His single term was overshadowed by economic troubles and the Iran hostage crisis, and he was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980.
After leaving office he became one of the most active former presidents in history, founding the Carter Center to promote peace, democracy and health.
Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were long associated with the charity Habitat for Humanity. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of humanitarian work.
The longest-lived president in US history and the first to reach 100, Carter died at his home in Plains on 29 December 2024.
Quincy Jones
(Music Producer & Composer)
Wikimedia Commons / Sam Santos
14 March 1933 – 3 November 2024 (Aged 91)
Quincy Jones was an American record producer, composer, arranger and bandleader whose career spanned more than seven decades.
Born in Chicago, he began as a jazz trumpeter and arranger, working with artists including Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and Count Basie.
He became one of the first Black executives to hold a senior position at a major record label. He composed scores for numerous films and television shows.
Jones produced Michael Jackson’s albums Off the Wall, Bad and Thriller, the last of which became the best-selling album of all time.
In 1985 he produced the charity single “We Are the World”, which raised funds for African famine relief. He also produced the acclaimed film The Color Purple.
Over his career he won 28 Grammy Awards from a record number of nominations. He was a mentor and influence to countless musicians across many genres.
Jones died at his home in Los Angeles on 3 November 2024 at the age of 91.
James Earl Jones
(Actor)
Wikimedia Commons / John Mathew Smith
17 January 1931 – 9 September 2024 (Aged 93)
James Earl Jones was an American actor celebrated for his commanding presence and one of the most recognisable voices in cinema.
Born in Mississippi and raised in Michigan, he overcame a severe childhood stutter to become a master of the spoken word.
He first won acclaim on Broadway, earning a Tony Award for The Great White Hope, a role he reprised on film to an Oscar nomination.
Jones provided the voice of the villain Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, one of the most famous roles in movie history. He also voiced the noble lion Mufasa in Disney’s The Lion King.
His many films included Dr. Strangelove, Field of Dreams and Coming to America. His deep baritone also famously announced “This is CNN”.
He won two Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Grammy and an honorary Academy Award, achieving EGOT status. A Broadway theatre was renamed in his honour in 2022.
Jones died at his home in New York on 9 September 2024 at the age of 93.
Maggie Smith
(Actress)
28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024 (Aged 89)
Dame Maggie Smith was a British actress widely regarded as one of the finest of her generation.
Born in Ilford, on the edge of London, she began acting on stage as a teenager in the early 1950s.
She won her first Academy Award, for Best Actress, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969. She won a second Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress, for California Suite in 1978.
Her long and varied film career also included A Room with a View, Gosford Park and Tea with Mussolini. She introduced herself to new generations as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films.
Smith achieved worldwide popularity as the sharp-tongued Dowager Countess of Grantham in the television series Downton Abbey, winning three Emmys.
Renowned for her wit and impeccable comic timing, she also had a distinguished stage career, winning a Tony Award. She was made a Dame in 1990.
Smith died in a London hospital on 27 September 2024 at the age of 89.
Alexei Navalny
(Russian Opposition Leader)
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4 June 1976 – 16 February 2024 (Aged 47)
Alexei Navalny was a Russian lawyer, anti-corruption activist and opposition politician who became the most prominent domestic critic of President Vladimir Putin.
Born near Moscow, he trained as a lawyer before rising to prominence exposing corruption among Russia’s political and business elite.
He founded the Anti-Corruption Foundation and built a large following through online investigations and videos. He led some of the largest anti-government protests in modern Russian history.
Navalny mounted campaigns for public office, including a run for mayor of Moscow, but was barred from the 2018 presidential election.
In 2020 he survived being poisoned with a nerve agent and recovered in Germany. He returned to Russia in 2021 and was immediately imprisoned on charges widely regarded as politically motivated.
He continued to speak out against the Kremlin from prison, where he was serving sentences totalling around 19 years.
Navalny died on 16 February 2024 at a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle; his death drew widespread international condemnation.
Willie Mays
(Baseball Player)
Wikimedia Commons / William C. Greene
6 May 1931 – 18 June 2024 (Aged 93)
Willie Mays was an American baseball player regarded as one of the greatest all-round players in the history of the sport.
Born in Westfield, Alabama, and nicknamed “the Say Hey Kid”, he began his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues while still in high school.
He spent most of his career as a center fielder for the New York and later San Francisco Giants, from 1951 to 1972. He was named National League Rookie of the Year in 1951 and later won two Most Valuable Player awards.
In the 1954 World Series he made a famous over-the-shoulder catch, remembered simply as “The Catch”. He finished his career with 660 home runs, then the third-most in major-league history.
Mays was a 24-time All-Star and won 12 Gold Glove awards for his fielding.
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 and later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Admired for his talent, exuberance and grace, he remained a beloved figure long after his retirement.
Mays died in Palo Alto, California, on 18 June 2024 at the age of 93.
Franz Beckenbauer
(Footballer)
Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
11 September 1945 – 7 January 2024 (Aged 78)
Franz Beckenbauer was a German footballer and manager regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players of all time.
Born in Munich, he was nicknamed “Der Kaiser” (“the Emperor”) for his elegance and authority on the pitch. He is widely credited with pioneering the modern attacking sweeper, or libero, role.
As captain of Bayern Munich he led the club to three consecutive European Cup titles in the mid-1970s.
Beckenbauer captained West Germany to victory at the 1974 World Cup on home soil, having also won the European Championship in 1972. He was named European Footballer of the Year twice, the only defender to win the award more than once.
As manager, he led West Germany to another World Cup triumph in 1990. He became one of only three men to win the World Cup as both a player and a coach.
After his coaching career he moved into football administration and helped bring the 2006 World Cup to Germany.
Beckenbauer died in Salzburg, Austria, on 7 January 2024 at the age of 78.
Alain Delon
(Actor)
Wikimedia Commons / Reporters Associati
8 November 1935 – 18 August 2024 (Aged 88)
Alain Delon was a French actor who became one of the biggest stars of European cinema and an icon of the 1960s and 1970s.
Born in Sceaux, near Paris, he had a turbulent childhood and served in the French navy before falling into acting almost by chance.
His breakthrough came as the charming, sociopathic Tom Ripley in René Clément’s Purple Noon (1960). Renowned for his striking good looks, he worked with some of the greatest directors of his era.
Delon starred in Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard. His collaborations with director Jean-Pierre Melville, especially the crime classic Le Samouraï, are among his most celebrated work. He also appeared in films by Michelangelo Antonioni and Joseph Losey.
One of France’s most decorated actors, he received a César Award and an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He was regarded as one of the last surviving icons of France’s golden age of cinema.
Delon died at his home in Douchy, France, on 18 August 2024 at the age of 88.
Kris Kristofferson
(Singer & Actor)
Wikimedia Commons / Stefan Brending
22 June 1936 – 28 September 2024 (Aged 88)
Kris Kristofferson was an American singer-songwriter and actor and a pioneering figure in country music.
Born in Texas to a military family, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and served as a US Army helicopter pilot before pursuing music.
He moved to Nashville in the 1960s, taking a job as a studio janitor while writing songs.
Kristofferson became one of the most acclaimed songwriters of his era, penning “Me and Bobby McGee”, “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”. His songs became major hits for other artists, including Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash.
In the 1980s he joined Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in the country supergroup The Highwaymen. He also built a successful acting career, winning a Golden Globe for the 1976 film A Star Is Born.
His many other films included Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and the Blade trilogy. He won three Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Kristofferson died at his home in Hawaii on 28 September 2024 at the age of 88.
Liam Payne
(Singer)
Wikimedia Commons / Essential Homme
29 August 1993 – 16 October 2024 (Aged 31)
Liam Payne was an English singer and songwriter best known as a member of the pop group One Direction.
Born in Wolverhampton, he first auditioned for the television talent show The X Factor as a teenager.
In 2010 he was placed in One Direction, formed on the show alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson.
The band became one of the best-selling boy bands of all time, selling more than 70 million records worldwide. Their hits included “What Makes You Beautiful”, “Story of My Life” and “Night Changes”.
His vocals, including distinctive high notes, were a key part of the group’s sound. After One Direction went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, the members pursued solo careers.
Payne released his own music from 2017, including the hit single “Strip That Down” and the album LP1.
Payne died on 16 October 2024 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina; he was 31.
Alice Munro
(Author)
10 July 1931 – 13 May 2024 (Aged 92)
Alice Munro was a Canadian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest short-story writers of all time.
Born in Wingham, Ontario, she set much of her work in the small towns of rural southwestern Ontario. She published her first collection, Dance of the Happy Shades, in 1968.
Over the following decades she produced a series of acclaimed collections that brought new depth and complexity to the short-story form.
Her subtle, closely observed stories often explored the inner lives of ordinary women across the span of their lives.
Munro was frequently compared to the Russian master Anton Chekhov. She won Canada’s Governor General’s Award three times and the Man Booker International Prize in 2009.
In 2013 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, described as a “master of the contemporary short story”. She was the first Canadian woman, and the first writer honoured chiefly for short fiction, to win the prize.
Munro died at her home in Port Hope, Ontario, on 13 May 2024 at the age of 92.
Donald Sutherland
(Actor)
Wikimedia Commons / Festival TV Monte-Carlo
17 July 1935 – 20 June 2024 (Aged 88)
Donald Sutherland was a renowned Canadian actor, whose career spanned six decades.
He rose to fame in the late 1960s, with prominent roles in the war films The Dirty Dozen, M*A*S*H, and Kelly’s Heroes.
Among his best-loved films are further established himself with leading roles in Klute, Don’t Look Now, Citizen X, Space Cowboys, JFK, Cold Mountain, and The Hunger Games.
Throughout his life, Sutherland was a prominent voice in politics, being particularly vocal as an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War.
Considered one of the best actors never nominated for an Academy Award, Sutherland received an Academy Honorary Award in 2017.
Sutherland died from COPD while under hospice care in a Miami hospital, on 20 June 2024, aged 88.
Honourable mentions…