Here are some of the notable deaths of 2020.
January
10: Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, who transformed the former Arabian Peninsula backwater into a modern state and the Gulf’s discreet mediator, dies aged 79.
26: US basketball legend Kobe Bryant, 41, dies in a horrific helicopter crash northwest of Los Angeles that also claimed the lives of his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people.
February
5: One of the last stars of Hollywood’s golden age, Kirk Douglas, dies at his home in Beverly Hills aged 103.
25: Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, who was swept from power by the Arab Spring in 2010, dies in a military hospital aged 91.
March
8: “Exorcist” star Max Von Sydow, who also featured in films by his Swedish compatriot Ingmar Bergman dies in France aged 90.
April
29: Bollywood star Irrfan Khan, known for his roles in blockbusters “Life of Pi” and “Slumdog Millionaire”, dies from cancer in a Mumbai hospital aged 53.
Read more: 2020: World rocked by Covid-19, clashes, protests and elections
May
9: Little Richard, known for outrageous showmanship and lightning-fast rhythms dies aged 87 after battling cancer. Hits include “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally”.
31: Artist Christo (Christo Vladimiroff Javacheff) who wrapped landmarks such as Berlin’s Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in Paris dies aged 84.
June
8: Burundi’s former president Pierre Nkurunziza, who ruled the country from 2005 to 2020, dies from a heart attack aged 55.
July
6: Italian maestro Ennio Morricone, Oscar-winning composer of film scores for Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, dies in Rome aged 91.
8: The sudden death from a heart attack of Ivory Coast’s Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, 61, plunged the country into political turmoil.
26: Oscar-winning actress Olivia de Havilland, star of “Gone With the Wind”, dies at her home in Paris aged 104.
August
24: Former Congolese president Pascal Lissouba, who won his country’s first multi-party presidential elections, dies in France aged 88.
28: Actor Chadwich Boseman, who played Black Panther in the Marvel movies, dies of cancer aged 43.
September
2: Chief torturer behind Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge, Kaing Guek Eav, 77, better known by his alias Duch, dies in prison.
10: British actress Diana Rigg, of “Avengers” and “Game of Thrones” fame, dies aged 82.
18: US Supreme Court judge and feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dies aged 87.
23: French actress and singer Juliette Greco, the face and voice of radical chic postwar Paris, dies aged 93.
October
4: Japan’s most famous fashion designer Kenzo Takada, founder of the Kenzo brand, dies in Paris aged 81 from Covid-19.
31: Legendary Scottish actor Sean Connery, the original James Bond, dies in his sleep in the Bahamas, aged 90.
November
11: Bahrain’s Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the world’s longest-serving prime minister, dies aged 84.
12: Jerry Rawlings, who ruled Ghana for two decades first as a military leader and then as elected president, dies aged 73.
25: Diego Maradona, football’s troubled genius and arguably the greatest player ever dies aged 60.
December
2: Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who legalised abortion and brought the country high-speed trains, dies aged 94 from Covid-19.
11: Film director Kim Ki-duk, the enfant terrible of Korean cinema, dies in Latvia from Covid-19 aged 59.
12: Charley Pride, US country music’s first black superstar, dies from Covid-19 aged 86.
12: John le Carre, the master spy novelist, whose real name was David Cornwell, dies aged 89.
