Notable Deaths on February 1

Maximilian Schell was a Swiss actor, theatre director, Maximilian Schell was born on December 8, 1930, in Vienna, AustrIa, to a culturally rich family. His mother, MarGGarethe Noé von NordbERg, was an actress and acting teacher, and his father, Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a poet and playwright. Raised amid literature and theater, Schell debuted on stage at the age of three. Following the Nazi annexation of Austria, his family fled to Zurich, Switzerland. Schell studied philosophy, art history, and journalism at the University of Zurich, LMU Munich, and the University of Basel, and served briefly in the Swiss Army before dedicating himself fully to acting.filmmaker, and musician of Austrian origin. He was one of the most internationally acclaimed German-speaking actors of his generation, earning accolades for his work on both screen and stage. Born and initially raised in Vienna, where his parents were involved in the arts, he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zürich. After the Second World War, Schell took up acting and directing full-time.

Elda Furry, known professionally as Hedda Hopper, was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, more than 35 million people read her columns. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, Hopper named suspected Communists and was a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist. Hopper continued to write her gossip column until her death in 1966. Her work appeared in many magazines and later on radio. She had an extended public feud with Louella Parsons, an arch-rival and fellow gossip columnist.

Paul Mellon was an American philanthropist and a breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He was co-heir to one of America's greatest business fortunes, derived from the Mellon Bank created by his grandfather Thomas Mellon, his father Andrew W. Mellon, and his uncle Richard B. Mellon. In 1957, when Fortune prepared its first list of the wealthiest Americans, it estimated that Paul Mellon, his sister Ailsa Mellon Bruce, and his cousins Sarah Mellon and Richard King Mellon, were all among the richest eight people in the United States, with fortunes between $400 million and $500 million each.

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship and never officially became an American citizen. One of the most frequently performed opera composers of the 20th century, he wrote his most successful works in the 1940s and 1950s. Highly influenced by Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky, Menotti further developed the verismo tradition of opera in the post-World War II era. Rejecting atonality and the aesthetic of the Second Viennese School, Menotti's music is characterized by expressive lyricism which carefully sets language to natural rhythms in ways that highlight textual meaning and underscore dramatic intent.

Horst Köhler was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties and also candidate of the liberal FDP, Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Convention on 23 May 2004 and was subsequently inaugurated on 1 July 2004. He was reelected to a second term on 23 May 2009. Just a year later, on 31 May 2010, he resigned from his office in a controversy over a comment on the role of the German Armed Forces in light of a visit to the troops in Afghanistan. During his tenure as president, whose office is mostly concerned with ceremonial matters, Köhler was a highly popular politician, with approval rates above those of both Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and later Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Pope Stephen III was the bishop of Rome and leader of the Papal States from 7 August 768 to his death on 24 January 772. Stephen was a Benedictine monk who worked in the Lateran Palace during the reign of Pope Zachary. In the midst of a tumultuous contest by rival factions to name a successor to Pope Paul I, Stephen was elected with the support of the Roman officials. He summoned the Lateran Council of 769, which sought to limit the influence of the nobles in papal elections. The council also opposed iconoclasm.

Ahmad Abd al-Ghafur Attar was a Saudi Arabian writer, journalist and poet, best known for his works about 20th-century Islamic challenges. Born in Mecca, capital city of Hejazi Hashemite Kingdom. He received a basic education and graduated from the Saudi Scientific Institute in 1937, took a scholarship for higher studies in Cairo University, then returned to his country and worked in some government offices before devoting himself to literature and research. Attar wrote many works about Arabic linguistic and Islamic studies, and gained fame as a Muslim apologist, anti-communist and anti-Zionist, he who believed in flexibility of Islamic jurisprudence for the modern era. Praised by Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad, he was also noted for his defense of Modern Standard Arabic against colloquial or spoken Arabic. In the 1960s, he established the famous Okaz newspaper and then the Kalimat al-Haqq magazine, which lasted only about eight months. He died at the age of 74 in Jeddah.

Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury was a British Whig statesman who was part of the Immortal Seven group that invited William of Orange to depose King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution. Born to Roman Catholic parents, he remained in that faith until 1679 when—during the time of the Popish Plot and following the advice of the divine John Tillotson—he converted to the Church of England. He was appointed to several minor roles before the revolution, but came to prominence as a member of William's government, under whom he served as Secretary of State in the 1690s.

N. D. Cocea was a Romanian journalist, novelist, critic and left-wing political activist, known as a major but controversial figure in the field of political satire. The founder of many newspapers and magazines, including Viața Socială, Rampa, Facla and Chemarea, collaborating with writer friends such as Tudor Arghezi, Gala Galaction and Ion Vinea, he fostered and directed the development of early modernist literature in Romania. Cocea later made his name as a republican and anticlerical agitator, was arrested as an instigator during the 1907 peasant revolt, and played a leading role in regrouping the scattered socialist clubs. His allegiances however switched between parties: during World War I, he supported the Entente Powers and, as a personal witness of the October Revolution, the government of Soviet Russia, before returning home as a communist.

Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the Head of Government from August 1983 to January 1986. A member of the military, he was head of state during the apex of repression and death squad activity in the Central American nation. When he was minister of defense, he rallied a coup against President Ríos Montt, which he justified by declaring that religious fanatics were abusing the government. He allowed for a return to democracy, with elections for a constituent assembly being held in 1984, followed by general elections in 1985.

Field Marshal Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet was a British Army officer and politician. As a junior officer he fought at the Battle of Schellenberg and at the Battle of Blenheim during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was then asked to raise a regiment to combat the threat from the Jacobite rising of 1715. He also served with the Pragmatic Army under the Earl of Stair at the Battle of Dettingen during the War of the Austrian Succession. As a Member of Parliament he represented three different constituencies but never attained political office.

Desmond Herbert Carrington was a British broadcaster and actor whose career spanned 75 years. He was best known for his weekly show on BBC Radio 2 which aired for 35 years, from 4 October 1981 until his final broadcast on 28 October 2016. He appeared in such films as Calamity the Cow (1967) and also acted on TV, where he became known for his role as Dr. Anderson in Emergency Ward 10. He was born in Bromley, Kent, England and lived in Perth, Scotland from 1995 until his death.

Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-born American astronaut, aerospace engineer, and pilot who was the first woman of Indian heritage to fly into space. Chawla participated in two spaceflights, STS-87 and STS-107, in 1997 and 2003, respectively. On both of these flights, she conducted scientific experiments researching the effects of microgravity on various physical processes. When the crew members in STS-107 descended back to Earth, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated due to damage it sustained at liftoff. This killed all seven astronauts on board, including Chawla.

Ramiro I was king of Asturias from 842 until his death in 850. Son of King Bermudo I, he became king following a succession struggle after his predecessor, Alfonso II, died without children. During his turbulent reign, he fended off attacks from both Vikings and the forces of al-Andalus. Architecturally, his recreational palace Santa María del Naranco and other buildings used the ramirense style that prefigured Romanesque architecture. He was a contemporary of Abd ar-Rahman II, Umayyad Emir of Córdoba.

Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the United States. Primarily a conga drummer, Santamaría was a leading figure in the pachanga and boogaloo dance crazes of the 1960s. His biggest hit was his rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. From the 1970s, he recorded mainly salsa and Latin jazz, before retiring in the late 1990s.

Ilan Ramon was an Israeli fighter pilot and later the first Israeli astronaut. He served as a Space Shuttle payload specialist on STS-107, the fatal mission of Columbia, in which he and the six other crew members were killed when the spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry. At 48, Ramon was the oldest member of the crew. He is the first foreign recipient of the United States Congressional Space Medal of Honor, which was awarded posthumously.

Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian, was a Dutch painter and art theoretician, who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He was one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art, as he changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was taken down to simple geometric elements.

Alva Myrdal was a Swedish sociologist, diplomat and politician. She was a prominent leader of the disarmament movement. She, along with Alfonso García Robles, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. She married Gunnar Myrdal in 1924; he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974, making them the fourth ever married couple to have won Nobel Prizes, and the first to win independent of each other.

Sir James Penn Boucaut (;) was a South Australian politician and Australian judge. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly on four occasions: from 1861 to 1862 for City of Adelaide, from 1865 to 1870 for West Adelaide (1865–1868) and The Burra (1868–1870), from 1871 to 1878 for West Torrens (1871–1875) and Encounter Bay (1875–1878), and a final stint in Encounter Bay in 1878.