Famous People Who Died in 2012 a to z

Astronaut, military pilot, and educator, Neil Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969, by becoming the first man to walk on the moon.

Roy Bates used his swashbuckling sense of adventure to found a micro-nation off the coast of England, the Principality of Sealand, and declare himself the reigning prince.

Maeve Binchy was the author of various literary works, including 16 novels. Her most popular books include Light a Penny Candle, Echoes, Circle of Friends and Tara Road.

Infamous drug trafficker Griselda Blanco is suspected of committing more than 200 murders while transporting cocaine from Colombia to the U.S. She was murdered in Colombia in 2012.

Actor Ernest Borgnine’s role in the film Marty transformed him from a stereotyped character actor to a leading man, earning him an Academy Award as Best Actor.

American fantasy and horror author Ray Bradbury is best known for his novels Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles.

Don Brinkley is known for his work on several TV programs, including Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Untouchables and The Fugitive. He is the legal father of supermodel Christie Brinkley.

Chuck Brown, known as the "Godfather of Go-Go," played with Jerry Butler and The Earls of Rhythm in the early 1960s, and later joined Latin-American band Los Latinos. His hit songs include "I Need Some Money" and "Bustin' Loose."

Dave Brubeck was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his unconventional meters, as well as songs like "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke."

Artist Elizabeth Catlett celebrates African-American workers in sculptures and prints. She's known for works like "Negro Woman," "Sharecropper" and "Survivor."

Dick Clark was a TV personality known for the shows American Bandstand, $25,000 Pyramid and TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, among others.

American television icon Don Cornelius created and hosted Soul Train, which spent more than 30 years on the air.

British comedian Richard Dawson is best known for his role as Corporal Newkirk in the World War II sitcom Hogan's Heroes and as the host of Family Feud.

Miguel de la Madrid was president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988. He was a political conservative and his administration was characterized by an economic crisis.

First noticed as a contestant on Groucho Marx's game show in 1955, Phyllis Diller went on to become a successful comedian, actress and author.

Renato Dulbecco was an Italian virologist best known winning the Nobel Prize for pioneering the growing of viruses in culture in the 1950s.

Michael Clarke Duncan was an African-American actor, best remembered for his role in The Green Mile.

Actor Charles Durning appeared in such films as The Sting, Tootsie and Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He also had roles on such shows as Rescue Me, Everybody Loves Raymond and Evening Shade.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was an opera singer known for his deep baritone and preeminence in the lieder.

Singing with two of his brothers as the Bee Gees, Robin Gibb scored numerous hits in the 1970s, including "Stayin' Alive" and "How Deep Is Your Love."

Andy Griffith is an actor and singer best known for his 1960s starring role in The Andy Griffith Show. He later returned to TV in the drama Matlock.

Helen Gurley Brown served as Cosmopolitan's editor-in-chief for more than 30 years.

Larry Hagman starred opposite Barbara Eden on the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie and played J.R. Ewing on the primetime drama Dallas.

Marvin Hamlisch composed more than 40 motion picture scores throughout his career, including 1973's "The Way We Were" and 1975's "A Chorus Line." He is also known for his musical adaptation for 1973's The Sting, and work on such films as Sophie's Choice and Ordinary People.

In 1982, Jean Harris shot and killed author and cardiologist Herman Tarnower, who wrote the international best-seller The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.

Musician and singer Levon Helm was a member of the influential rock group, The Band, and a Grammy Award-winning solo artist.

Actor Sherman Hemsley played the popular television character George Jefferson in All in the Family and The Jeffersons in the 1970s and 1980s.

Henry Hill was a member of the Lucchese crime family who became a federal informant, inspiring the Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas.

Academy Award-winning actress Celeste Holm is known for her roles in the 1943 Broadway musical Oklahoma! and the film Gentleman's Agreement.

Whitney Houston was an American singer and actress whose first four albums, released between 1985 and 1992, amassed global sales in excess of 86 million copies.

Etta James is a Grammy Award-winning singer known for hit songs like "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "At Last."

Davy Jones was a singer and actor who found fame as a member of the pop group the Monkees, on the television show of the same name.

Mary (Richardson) Kennedy, an architect focusing on philanthropy and the environment, was the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

When a mostly white jury acquitted the police officers who were caught on video beating Rodney King, it set off the L.A. riots of 1992.

Jack Klugman is an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in the Broadway play The Odd Couple and the TV series of the same name.

Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for her part in the discovery of a protein that stimulates nerve cell growth.

Jon Lord is best known for his membership in the hard-rock band Deep Purple in the late 1960s, performing songs like "Demon's Eye" and "Space Truckin'." He later joined the band Whitesnake, which gained wide fame in the 1980s.

Though he helped reform the Democratic Party, U.S. Senator George S. McGovern lost his 1972 presidential campaign to Richard Nixon.

Native American activist and actor Russell Means is known for leading an armed takeover of Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973, and for appearing in films like The Last of the Mohicans. In 2007, he helped draft a proposal to create a new nation for the Lakota tribe.

Sun Myung Moon was founder and leader of the Unification Church, a religious movement whose followers were labeled "Moonies."

Johnny Otis was a bandleader, drummer, vibraphonist, singer, producer and promoter who discovered artists like Etta James, Jackie Wilson and Big Mama Thornton.

As head football coach at Pennsylvania State University, Joe Paterno was one of the most successful coaches in the history of collegiate football.

Adrienne Rich is a U.S. poet, scholar and critic whose work exhibits her commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic influence.

In 1983, astronaut and astrophysicist Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Ride died on July 23, 2012 at the age of 61, following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jenni Rivera is best known for making hit albums singing in Spanish and producing several reality TV series featuring her family.

Vidal Sassoon revolutionized women’s hairstyles in the post-war years and created an international hair-products empire which proclaimed "If you don't look good, we don't look good."

English film director Tony Scott was best known for his first box-office success, Top Gun, as well as later films like True Romance and Enemy of the State. He was the brother of  Ridley Scott, also a famed producer and director.

Earl Scruggs is a bluegrass musician who pioneered the Scruggs Style, a method of banjo playing.

Maurice Sendak is a Caldecott award-winning children's book author and illustrator best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are.

Ravi Shankar was an Indian musician and composer best known for popularizing the sitar and Indian classical music in Western culture.

Arlen Specter was Philadelphia District Attorney and was elected to the senate five times. He helped initiate the reauthorization of the Patriot Act.

Teófilo Stevenson was a Cuban boxer best known for becoming the first fighter to win three Olympic gold medals in one weight class.

Donna Summer was a singer-songwriter who became the "Queen of Disco" in the 1970s with such hits as "Love to Love You Baby," "I Feel Love" and "Last Dance."

Gore Vidal was best known as a prolific American writer, but was also famous for frequent talk-show appearances and witty political criticisms.

LeRoy Walker was the first black coach of an American Olympic team and the first black president of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Mike Wallace is an interviewer and reporter who has been working in TV and radio since 1939. He joined the program 60 Minutes in 1968.

Doc Watson was a blind American guitarist/singer and folk music pioneer whose unprecedented flat-picking style and interpretations of traditional American songs influenced generations of musicians.

A country music legend, Kitty Wells had a string of hits in the 1950s and '60s, including "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels."

Andy Williams is an American singer whose hits include “Moon River.” His Emmy-winning TV show entertained families during the 1960s and 1970s.

Adam Yauch (aka MCA) was a co-founder and member of the Beastie Boys, the popular rap group.