Pope Francis
(Pope)
Wikimedia Commons / Casa Rosada
17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025 (Aged 88)
Pope Francis was the head of the Roman Catholic Church, leading its more than a billion followers from 2013 until his death.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was the son of Italian immigrants.
As a young man he trained as a chemical technician and worked odd jobs, including as a nightclub bouncer, before entering the Jesuit order. He rose through the Church to become Archbishop of Buenos Aires and, in 2001, a cardinal.
Bergoglio was elected pope in March 2013, following the resignation of Benedict XVI. He was the first pope from Latin America, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, the first Jesuit and the first to take the name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi.
Known for his humility and pastoral style, he championed the poor, migrants and the environment. He sought to reform the Church, calling for a more compassionate and inclusive approach.
He remained active despite failing health, giving his final Easter blessing the day before he died.
Pope Francis died at his Vatican residence on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025, at the age of 88.
Jane Goodall
(Primatologist & Conservationist)
Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Department of State
3 April 1934 – 1 October 2025 (Aged 91)
Dame Jane Goodall was a British primatologist, ethologist and conservationist, the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees.
Born in London, she dreamed from childhood of living among animals in Africa. In 1960, with no formal scientific training, she began studying wild chimpanzees at Gombe Stream in Tanzania.
Her patient, long-term observations revolutionised science, revealing that chimpanzees use tools, have distinct personalities and display complex emotions.
Goodall controversially gave the chimpanzees names, such as David Greybeard and Fifi, rather than numbers. She later earned a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.
In 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute to support research and conservation. She spent her later decades as a tireless global advocate for wildlife, the environment and hope.
She was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace and made a Dame, and received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025.
Goodall died on 1 October 2025 of natural causes while on a speaking tour in California; she was 91.
George Foreman
(Boxer)
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10 January 1949 – 21 March 2025 (Aged 76)
George Foreman was an American boxer and entrepreneur who became a two-time world heavyweight champion.
Born in Texas and raised in a poor part of Houston, he turned his life around through boxing after a troubled youth.
He won the gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Olympic Games. In 1973 he claimed the world heavyweight title by defeating Joe Frazier.
In 1974 he lost the title to Muhammad Ali in the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, one of the most famous fights in history. He retired from boxing in 1977 and became an ordained minister.
Foreman staged a remarkable comeback and, in 1994 at the age of 45, regained the heavyweight title, becoming the oldest man ever to hold it.
In his later years he became a hugely successful businessman, lending his name to the best-selling George Foreman Grill. A beloved and jovial figure, he became an icon of self-reinvention.
Foreman died on 21 March 2025 at the age of 76.
Gene Hackman
(Actor)
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30 January 1930 – 26 February 2025 (Aged 95)
Gene Hackman was an American actor renowned for bringing depth and gravitas to a wide range of everyman roles.
Born in California and raised in Illinois, he served in the US Marine Corps before pursuing acting.
He broke through as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as the tough detective “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection (1971).
Hackman won a second Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor, as a brutal sheriff in Clint Eastwood’s Western Unforgiven (1992).
His many films included The Conversation, The Poseidon Adventure, Mississippi Burning and The Royal Tenenbaums. He also played the villain Lex Luthor in the Superman films.
Admired as one of the finest screen actors of his generation, he retired from acting in 2004. He spent his later years living quietly in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hackman was found dead at his home in Santa Fe on 26 February 2025, at the age of 95; he had died of heart disease.
David Lynch
(Filmmaker)
Wikimedia Commons / photo by Alan Light
20 January 1946 – 15 January 2025 (Aged 78)
David Lynch was an American filmmaker whose dark, dreamlike and surreal vision made him one of the most distinctive directors of his era.
Born in Missoula, Montana, he began as a painter before turning to film. His debut feature, the nightmarish Eraserhead (1977), became a cult classic.
Lynch earned Academy Award nominations for directing The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001). He won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Wild at Heart in 1990.
He co-created the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, which transformed the medium. His unsettling blend of horror, mystery and the surreal was so distinctive that the term “Lynchian” entered the language.
A true Renaissance figure, he also worked as a painter and musician and championed transcendental meditation. He received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 2019.
Lynch died in Los Angeles on 15 January 2025, days before his 79th birthday, having lived with emphysema.
Robert Redford
(Actor & Director)
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18 August 1936 – 16 September 2025 (Aged 89)
Robert Redford was an American actor, director and producer, and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars for decades.
Born in Santa Monica, California, his golden-boy looks and charisma made him a leading man of the American New Wave.
He became a star opposite Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).
His other celebrated films included The Way We Were, All the President’s Men, The Natural and Out of Africa. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for his first film behind the camera, Ordinary People (1980).
Redford founded the Sundance Institute and its Film Festival, becoming a leading champion of independent cinema.
He was also a lifelong environmental activist. Redford received an honorary Academy Award in 2002. He continued acting into his 80s, in films such as The Old Man & the Gun.
Redford died at his home at Sundance, Utah, on 16 September 2025 at the age of 89.
Diane Keaton
(Actress)
Wikimedia Commons / Firooz Zahedi
5 January 1946 – 11 October 2025 (Aged 79)
Diane Keaton was an American actress celebrated for her wit, charm and distinctive personal style.
Born in Los Angeles, she began her career on the New York stage.
Keaton played Kay Adams-Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the title role in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Annie Hall (1977).
Her look in the film also made her an enduring fashion icon. She earned three further Oscar nominations, for Reds, Marvin’s Room and Something’s Gotta Give.
Her many films included Manhattan, Baby Boom, Father of the Bride and The First Wives Club.
She helped define the modern romantic comedy and was beloved for her natural, self-deprecating style. She remained a working actress for six decades.
Keaton died in California on 11 October 2025 of pneumonia; she was 79.
Ozzy Osbourne
(Musician)
Wikimedia Commons / F darkbladeus
3 December 1948 – 22 July 2025 (Aged 76)
Ozzy Osbourne was an English singer and songwriter widely regarded as one of the pioneers of heavy metal.
Born in Birmingham, he co-founded the band Black Sabbath in 1968 and became its lead vocalist. With Black Sabbath he helped invent heavy metal on landmark albums including Paranoid.
Dubbed the “Prince of Darkness”, he cultivated a wild, theatrical stage persona. After leaving the band, he launched a hugely successful solo career, with hits such as “Crazy Train”. He also founded the touring festival Ozzfest.
In the 2000s he reached a new audience as the star of the reality television series The Osbournes.
Osbourne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist. He performed a farewell concert with Black Sabbath in his home city just weeks before his death.
Osbourne died on 22 July 2025 at the age of 76, having lived with Parkinson’s disease.
Brian Wilson
(Musician)
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20 June 1942 – 11 June 2025 (Aged 82)
Brian Wilson was an American musician, the visionary leader, chief songwriter and producer of the Beach Boys.
Born in Inglewood, California, he formed the band in 1961 with his brothers Dennis and Carl, his cousin Mike Love and a friend.
The Beach Boys became one of the most successful American groups, with sun-soaked hits such as “Surfin’ U.S.A.”, “I Get Around” and “California Girls”. Wilson was celebrated for his gift for melody, vocal harmony and innovative studio production.
His masterpiece, the 1966 album Pet Sounds, is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential albums ever made. Its songs included “God Only Knows” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”.
The single “Good Vibrations” pushed the boundaries of what pop music could be. His work profoundly influenced other artists, including the Beatles.
He struggled for years with mental illness but was revered as one of pop’s great creative geniuses.
Wilson died on 11 June 2025 at the age of 82.
Roberta Flack
(Singer)
Wikimedia Commons / Atlantic Records
10 February 1937 – 24 February 2025 (Aged 88)
Roberta Flack was an American singer and pianist who became one of the most successful recording artists of the 1970s.
Born in North Carolina and raised in a musical family, she was a classically trained pianist who won a scholarship to Howard University at 15. She taught music before being discovered performing in Washington nightclubs.
Her intimate, soulful ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” became a number-one hit and won the Grammy for Record of the Year.
The following year “Killing Me Softly with His Song” also topped the charts and won Record of the Year, making her the first artist to win the award in consecutive years.
Flack scored further hits, including “Feel Like Makin’ Love”. She recorded a series of acclaimed duets with her friend Donny Hathaway.
Known for her graceful, understated style, she remained an influential performer for decades. She was also a dedicated music educator.
Flack died on 24 February 2025 at the age of 88, having lived with the illness ALS.
Mario Vargas Llosa
(Author)
Wikimedia Commons / XIII Prix Diálogo
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28 March 1936 – 13 April 2025 (Aged 89)
Mario Vargas Llosa was a Peruvian-Spanish writer and one of the towering figures of Latin American literature.
Born in Arequipa, Peru, he drew on his own experiences, including a harsh military school, in his early fiction.
Vargad was a leading figure of the “Latin American Boom”, alongside writers such as Gabriel García Márquez.
His acclaimed novels included The Time of the Hero, Conversation in the Cathedral and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. His later works included the powerful political novel The Feast of the Goat.
His writing often explored themes of power, corruption and the individual’s struggle against authority. Vargas was also an influential essayist and journalist.
In 1990 he ran unsuccessfully for president of Peru. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010.
Vargas Llosa died in Lima on 13 April 2025 at the age of 89.
José Mujica
(Former President of Uruguay)
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20 May 1935 – 13 May 2025 (Aged 89)
José “Pepe” Mujica was a Uruguayan politician who served as president of his country and became a global symbol of humble leadership.
Born in Montevideo, he became a left-wing guerrilla with the Tupamaros movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was shot, captured and spent around 13 years in prison, much of it in harsh conditions, under Uruguay’s military dictatorship. After the return of democracy he entered mainstream politics, serving as a legislator and government minister.
Mojica was elected president of Uruguay, serving from 2010 to 2015. During his presidency his government legalised same-sex marriage and became the first in the world to fully legalise the cannabis trade.
He was widely known as “the world’s poorest president” for donating most of his salary and living simply on his small farm.
Admired around the world for his modesty and plain-spoken philosophy, he became a beloved figure of the international left. He remained an influential voice after leaving office.
Mujica died in Montevideo on 13 May 2025 at the age of 89, after being treated for cancer.
Val Kilmer
(Actor)
Wikimedia Commons / Georges Biard
31 December 1959 – 1 April 2025 (Aged 65)
Val Kilmer was an American actor known for his intensity, versatility and magnetic screen presence.
Born in Los Angeles, he was one of the youngest students ever admitted to the acting programme at the Juilliard School.
Kilmer first drew attention in the comedies Top Secret! and Real Genius in the mid-1980s. He rose to stardom as the cocky pilot Iceman opposite Tom Cruise in Top Gun (1986), and gave an acclaimed performance as rock star Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991).
He played the gunslinger Doc Holliday in the Western Tombstone (1993) and took the title role in Batman Forever (1995). His other notable films included Heat, Willow and The Saint.
In 2015 he was diagnosed with throat cancer, which left him unable to speak easily after treatment.
He shared his story in the memoir I’m Your Huckleberry and the documentary Val, and made a moving final appearance reprising Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
Kilmer died in Los Angeles on 1 April 2025 of pneumonia; he was 65.
Hulk Hogan
(Wrestler)
Wikimedia Commons / Petty Officer 1st Class Kristin Fitzsimmons
11 August 1953 – 24 July 2025 (Aged 71)
Hulk Hogan, born Terry Bollea, was an American professional wrestler and entertainer, one of the most famous in the sport’s history.
Born in Georgia and raised in Tampa, Florida, he became the face of professional wrestling as it exploded into the mainstream in the 1980s.
Instantly recognisable by his blond handlebar moustache, bandana and shirt-ripping showmanship, he inspired a phenomenon known as “Hulkamania”.
Hogan won his first world heavyweight championship in 1984 and headlined the very first WrestleMania in 1985.
His body slam of the enormous André the Giant at WrestleMania III in 1987 became one of wrestling’s most iconic moments. He helped turn the World Wrestling Federation into a global entertainment empire.
In the 1990s he reinvented himself as the villainous “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, leading the New World Order faction in World Championship Wrestling. A multiple-time world champion, he also crossed over into films and reality television.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
Hogan died at his home in Clearwater, Florida, on 24 July 2025 of a cardiac arrest, at the age of 71.
Honourable mentions…