Famous People Who Died in December a to z

Henry Frick was an industrialist who headed the Carnegie Steel Company and the United States Steel Corporation. His mansion later became the Frick Museum.

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye is best known for his explorations of the northern U.S. and Canadian provinces.

One of the most important early Renaissance sculptors, Lorenzo Ghiberti is best known as the creator of the bronze doors of the Baptistery of Florence.

Vincent Gigante was an Italian-American mobster, known as "The Enigma in the Bathrobe," who led the Genovese crime family of New York City.

American cartoonist Rube Goldberg was best known for his work satirizing America's obsession with technology. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his editorial cartoon "Peace Today."

Rubén González was an acclaimed Afro-Cuban pianist and Buena Vista Social Club member who released his debut album as a lead player at the age of 78.

Television producer Mark Goodson created many of the best-loved game shows of the 20th century, including What's My Line, The Price is Right and Family Feud.

Jay Gould was a prominent American railroad builder and financier. He illegally issued new stock for Erie Railroads in the "Erie War" with Vanderbilt.

British poet Robert Graves is best known for writing his first volumes of poetry, primarily about war, while serving at the Western Front during World War I.

Lita Grey Chaplin was an actress known mostly for her tumultuous marriage to screen legend Charlie Chaplin.

Abolitionist and feminist Sarah Moore Grimké and her sister Angelina were the first women to testify before a state legislature on the issue of blacks' rights.

Wilhelm Grimm was a 19th century German author who, along with brother Jacob, published Grimms' Fairy Tales, a collection famous for stories like Cinderella and Rapunzel.

Charles Hamilton was an autograph dealer, handwriting expert and author of works like Great Forgers and Famous Fakes.

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

Walter Haut is best known for drafting a 1947 press release for the U.S. Army that claimed a "flying disc" had landed in Roswell, New Mexico.

Václav Havel is a playwright who in 1989 became the president of Czechoslovakia, contining on after the country became the Czech Republic until 2003.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Howard Hawks directed Only Angels Have Wings, Sergeant York, Scarface, Bringing Up Baby and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Based on his experience, novelist Joseph Heller wrote the satirical novel Catch-22, considered one of the most significant works of postwar protest literature.

Bernard Herrmann was an American composer best known as the author of scores for Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock films including Citizen Kane and Psycho.

Director George Roy Hill produced some of the most popular films of the 1960s and 1970s, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Christopher Hitchens was a controversial, thought-provoking British-American writer who covered a range of serious topics, including art and atheism.

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher in the 17th century, was best known for his book Leviathan (1651) and his political views on society.

Samuel P. Huntington was a political scientist who wrote the influential book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.

As dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, leading to the Persian Gulf War in 1992. His downfall was a direct effect of the Iraq War, initiated by the U.S. in 2003. Hussein was executed in 2006.

J.B.S. Haldane was a British geneticist who helped found the theories of population genetics.

Joe Jackson was a top major league baseball player during the early 20th century who was ousted from the sport for his alleged role in game fixing.

Rachel Jackson was the wife of President Andrew Jackson and is best known for the smears about her honor during her husband's election campaign.

Jennifer Jones was an American actress best known for her Academy Award-winning performance in the film The Song of Bernadette.

Architect Albert Kahn was known for his designs of American automobile factories. He was considered the world's foremost industrial architect at the time.

Madeleine Kahn was an actress of stage and screen known for her roles in Mel Brooks' comedies such as Blazing Saddles and High Anxiety.

Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky is credited as a leader in avant-garde art as one of the founders of pure abstraction in painting in the early 20th century.

Kim Jong Il's dominating personality and complete concentration of power has come to define the country North Korea.

Singer and actress Eartha Kitt is best known for her holiday song "Santa Baby," and for playing Catwoman in the 1960's TV show Batman.

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.

Charles Lamb was an English poet and essayist who wrote Tales from Shakespeare and "Essays of Elia."

Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, before shooting himself.

Lewis Howard Latimer was an inventor and draftsman best known for his contributions to the patenting of the light bulb and the telephone.

Anglo-American stage and film actor Charles Laughton starred in The Old Dark House and Mutiny on the Bounty. He also directed The Night of the Hunter.

Actor Peter Lawford ran with the Rat Pack, married a Kennedy, and was the last person to speak to Marilyn Monroe. He also made movies now and then.

Painter Ernest Lawson is known for his impressionistic urban landscapes using thick, intense color. His major work includes Spring Night, Harlem River.

Mary Leakey was a paleoanthropologist who, along with husband Louis, made several prominent scientific discoveries. Skull fossils found by the Leakeys advanced our understanding of human evolution.

John Lennon, pop star, composer, songwriter and recording artist, founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the music scene like no other before or since.

Marc Lepine went on a shooting spree in 1989 that became known as the Montreal Massacre, which killed 14 people.

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.

John Lindsay was a U.S. congressman and was the mayor of New York City during the 1960s. He is known for his "ghetto walks" and clashes with labor groups.

James Ling was the former head of the Ling-Temco-Vought corporation, or LTV.

Russian painter, typographer and designer El Lissitzky was a major contributor to the modern Constructivist movement.

Sonny Liston was introduced to boxing while serving time in a Missouri State penitentiary. He became a professional fighter in 1953.

Marie-Louise is best known for her marriage to the emperor Napoleon after his divorce from Josephine.

Alfred Thayer Mahan was an American naval officer and historian who was an exponent of sea power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Alice Marble was a women's tennis champion, winner of 12 U.S. Open and 5 Wimbledon titles. She also served as U.S spy in Switzerland during WWII.

American baseball player Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961 to break the single-season record held by the legendary Babe Ruth.

Actor, singer Dean Martin starred in several films with Jerry Lewis and belonged to the "Rat Pack," which included Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Mary II served as queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (1689–94), and was the wife of King William III.

Marcello Mastroianni often played the ideal European male in Federico Fellini's films.

Curtis Mayfield was a singer-songwiter known for his racially conscious soul and funk who had a number one album with his score for the film Superfly.

American politician Eugene J. McCarthy challenged Lyndon B. Johnson in the race for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination, which led to Johnson's withdrawal.

Golda Meir was best known as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel and the world’s third woman to hold the title.

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk who was a revered pacifist and author, with works like Seven Storey Mountain and Thoughts in Solitude.

Bandleader Glenn Miller inspired the World War II generation and boosted morale with many popular songs.

Catalan painter Joan Miró combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy to create his lithographs, murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces.

Claude Monet was a famous French painter whose work gave a name to the art movement Impressionism which was concerned with capturing light and natural forms.

Actor Clayton Moore appeared in approximately 70 feature films and played the Lone Ranger on a ABC network television version of the radio program.

A prolific artist, Austrian composer Wolfgang Mozart created a string of operas, concertos, symphonies and sonatas that profoundly shaped classical music.

Naturalist, writer, and advocate of U.S. forest conservation, John Muir founded the Sierra Club and helped establish Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.

Brittany Murphy was an actress who appeared in a string of critically acclaimed films, including Girl, Interrupted (1999) and 8 Mile (2002).

Thomas Nast is known as the “Father of the American Cartoon,” having created satirical art during the 19th century that critiqued slavery and crime.

U Ne Win was a Burmese military general who staged a coup and ruled his country from 1962 until 1988.

American singer and songwriter Ricky Nelson was an early teen idol who acted out his real-life childhood on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Opera singer Birgit Nilsson was the leading Wagnerian soprano of her time. She sang at most of the great houses and festivals of the world.

Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and other explosives. He used his enormous fortune from 355 patents to institute the Nobel Prizes.