Notable Deaths on January 2

Alan Hale Jr. was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead role as Captain Jonas Grumby, better known as The Skipper, on the 1960s CBS comedy series Gilligan's Island (1964–1967), a role he reprised in three Gilligan's Island television films and two spin-off cartoon series.

Anne Lloyd Francis was an American actress known for her pioneering roles in the science fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956) and the television action-drama series Honey West (1965–1966). Forbidden Planet marked a first in in-color, big-budget, science fiction-themed motion pictures. Nine years later, Francis challenged female stereotypes in Honey West, in which she played a perky blonde private investigator who was as quick with body slams as with witty one-liners. She earned a Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nomination for her performance.

James Longstreet was a Confederate general during the American Civil War and was the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse". He served under Lee as a corps commander for most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the eastern theater, and briefly with Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee in the western theater.

Richard Ewing Powell was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.

Frederick William IV was King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death in 1861. Also referred to as the "romanticist on the throne", he was deeply religious and believed that he ruled by divine right. He feared revolutions, and his ideal state was one governed by the Christian estates of the realm rather than a constitutional monarchy.

John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star Is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.

Eugene Arthur Okerlund was an American professional wrestling interviewer, announcer and television host. He was best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Okerlund was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by Hulk Hogan. He was signed to a lifetime contract with WWE and later worked for promotional programs. He has been described by some journalists as the greatest interviewer in the history of professional wrestling.

Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad "Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first recorded in 1956, with Mitch Miller and his orchestra, and played a prominent part in the 1971 motion picture Play Misty for Me.

George MacDonald Fraser was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven novels and one short-story collection in the Flashman series of novels, as well as non-fiction, short stories, novels and screenplays—including those for the James Bond film Octopussy, The Three Musketeers and an adaptation of his own novel Royal Flash.

Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt Jr. was a United States Navy officer and the youngest person to serve as Chief of Naval Operations. As an admiral and later the 19th Chief of Naval Operations, Zumwalt played a major role in United States military history, especially during the Vietnam War. A decorated war veteran, Zumwalt reformed United States Navy personnel policies in an effort to improve enlisted life and ease racial tensions. After he retired from a 32-year navy career, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate.

Salima Sultan Begum was the fourth wife of the Mughal emperor Akbar, a granddaughter of Babur, and a senior Mughal consort who was influential in the Mughal court during the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir.

Jacopo Carucci or Carrucci, usually known as Jacopo (da) Pontormo or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound stylistic shift from the calm perspectival regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine Renaissance. He is famous for his use of twining poses, coupled with ambiguous perspective; his figures often seem to float in an uncertain environment, unhampered by the forces of gravity.

Frances Luella Cress Welsing was an American psychiatrist and well-known proponent of the pseudoscientific melanin theory. Her 1970 essay, The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism , offered her interpretation of what she described as the origins of white supremacy culture. She was the author of The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors (1991).

Dixy Lee Ray was an American academic, zoologist, scientist, and politician who served as the 17th governor of Washington from 1977 to 1981. She was the state's first female governor and was in office during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Nancy Kelly was an American actress in film, theater, and television. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time, and appeared in several films in the late 1920s. She became a leading lady upon returning to the screen in the late 1930s, while still in her teens, and made two dozen movies between 1938 and 1946, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone, later that same year. After turning to the stage in the late 1940s, she had her greatest success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for the 1956 film adaptation, her last film role. Kelly worked regularly in television until 1963, then took over the role of Martha in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for several months. She returned to television for a handful of appearances in the mid-1970s.

Cecilia Arreglado Muñoz-Palma was a Filipino jurist and the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines. She was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ferdinand Marcos on October 29, 1973, and served until she reached the then-mandatory retirement age of 65.

Sir George Biddell Airy was an English mathematician and astronomer, as well as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1826 to 1828 and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the Earth, a method of solution of two-dimensional problems in solid mechanics and, in his role as Astronomer Royal, establishing Greenwich as the location of the prime meridian.

Jean Raoul Célina André Vuarnet was an alpine ski racer from France. An Olympic gold medalist, he is known for inventing the "Tuck" skiing position, and was the first Olympian to win a gold medal using metal skis. Raised in Morzine, he had a childhood interest in skiing, which he pursued. He won a bronze medal in the downhill at the World Championships in 1958 at Bad Gastein, before winning gold in the same event in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. Vuarnet was also the author of several books on skiing. He gave his name to the Vuarnet brand in 1961. In 1995, his wife Edith Bonlieu, a fellow Olympian, and their son Patrick both died in a mass murder-suicide of members of the Order of the Solar Temple.

John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, 7th Seigneur of Sark, commonly known by his earlier title Lord Carteret, was a British statesman and Lord President of the Council from 1751 to 1763 and worked closely with the Prime Minister of the country, Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, to manage the various factions of the Government. He was Seigneur of Sark from 1715 to 1720, when he sold the fief. He held the office of Bailiff of Jersey from 1715 to 1763.

William de St-Calais was a medieval Norman monk, abbot of the abbey of Saint-Vincent in Le Mans in Maine, who was nominated by King William I of England as Bishop of Durham in 1080. During his term as bishop, St-Calais replaced the canons of his cathedral chapter with monks, and began the construction of Durham Cathedral. In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, he served as a commissioner for the Domesday Book of 1086. He was also a councillor and advisor to both King William I and his son, King William II, known as William Rufus. Following William Rufus' accession to the throne in 1087, St-Calais is considered by scholars to have been the new king's chief advisor.

Raimund Pretzel, better known by his pseudonym Sebastian Haffner, was a German journalist and historian. As an émigré in Britain during World War II, Haffner argued that accommodation was not only impossible with Adolf Hitler but also impossible with the German Reich with which Hitler had gambled. Peace could be secured only by rolling back history and restoring Germany to a network of smaller states. As a journalist in West Germany, Haffner's independence and penchant for provocation precipitated breaks with editors both liberal and conservative. His intervention in the Spiegel affair of 1962, and his contributions to the anti-fascist rhetoric of the student New Left, sharply raised his profile.

Ágnes Keleti was a Hungarian and Israeli artistic gymnast and coach, who won multiple Olympic medals. She was the oldest living Olympic champion and medallist, reaching her 100th birthday on 9 January 2021. While representing Hungary at the Summer Olympics, she won 10 Olympic medals including five gold medals, three silver medals, and two bronze medals, and is considered to be one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes of all time. Keleti earned more Olympic medals than any other individual with Israeli citizenship, and more Olympic medals than any other Jew, except Mark Spitz. She was the most successful athlete at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Joseph Darling was an Australian cricketer who played 34 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1894 and 1905. As captain, he led Australia in a total of 21 Tests, winning seven and losing four. In Test cricket, he scored 1,657 runs at an average of 28.56 per innings, including three centuries. Darling toured England four times with the Australian team—in 1896, 1899, 1902 and 1905; the last three tours as captain. He was captain of the Australian cricket team in England in 1902, widely recognised as one of the best teams in Australian cricket history.

Mia Bustam was an Indonesian painter, activist, and memoirist. The daughter of a minor nobleman, Mia was educated to be a kindergarten teacher but left school after her father lost his job. In 1943, she met and married the painter S. Sudjojono, with whom she had eight children. After the couple divorced in 1959, Mia took up painting, joining the Young Artists of Indonesia as well as the communist-aligned Institute for People's Culture. Her works were well received, with her style likened to that of her former husband.

Lodomer was a prelate in the Kingdom of Hungary in the second half of the 13th century. He was Archbishop of Esztergom between 1279 and 1298, and Bishop of Várad from 1268 till 1279. He was an opponent of Ladislaus IV of Hungary whom he excommunicated for failing to force the Cumans to adopt the Christian way of life. After Ladislaus' death, Lodomer and his suffragans were dedicated supporters of Andrew III of Hungary, who aimed to restore strong royal power against the rebellious lords and oligarchs.

Gerda Hedwig Lerner was an Austrian-born American historian and woman's history author. In addition to her numerous scholarly publications, she wrote poetry, fiction, theatre pieces, screenplays, and an autobiography. She served as president of the Organization of American Historians from 1980 to 1981. In 1980, she was appointed Robinson Edwards Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she taught until retiring in 1991.

Peter William Postlethwaite was an English character actor. After various stage and minor television appearances, Postlethwaite's first major success arose through the film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), directed by Terence Davies. He had a breakthrough in Hollywood when he portrayed David in Alien 3 (1992), and his international reputation was further solidified when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Giuseppe Conlon, father of Gerry Conlon, in In the Name of the Father (1993).

Harekrushna Mahatab was a leader of the Indian National Congress, a notable figure in the Indian independence movement and the Chief Minister of Odisha from 1946 to 1950 and from 1956 to 1961. He was popularly known by the sobriquet "Utkal Keshari".

Léon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort was a French meteorologist and a pioneer in the field of aerology. Together with Richard Assmann (1845-1918), he is credited as co-discoverer of the stratosphere, as both men announced their discovery during the same time period in 1902. Teisserenc de Bort pioneered the use of unmanned instrumented balloons and was the first to identify the region in the atmosphere around 8-17 kilometers of height where the lapse rate reaches zero, known today as the tropopause.

William Polk Carey was an American philanthropist and businessman. He was the founder of W. P. Carey & Co., a corporate real estate financing firm headquartered in New York City. As a result of his donations, he is the namesake of several graduate schools, including the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, the Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business, and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Thomas Spencer Monson was an American religious leader, author, and the 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As president, he was considered by adherents of the religion to be a prophet, seer, and revelator. Monson's early career was as a manager at the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the LDS Church. He spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.

William Smyth was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield from 1493 to 1496 and then Bishop of Lincoln until his death. He held political offices, the most important being Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches. He became very wealthy and was a benefactor of a number of institutions. He was a co-founder of Brasenose College, Oxford and endowed a grammar school in the village of his birth in Lancashire.

Francesco Canova da Milano was an Italian lutenist and composer. He was born in Monza, near Milan, and worked for the papal court for almost all of his career. Francesco was heralded throughout Europe as the foremost lute composer of his time. More of his music is preserved than of any other lutenist of the period, and his work continued to influence composers for more than a century after his death.

Francesc Antich Oliver was a Venezuelan-born Spanish politician, who was the President of the Balearic Islands between 1999 and 2003, and 2007 and 2011. He also was the Secretary General of the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands, a branch of the SSWP. Antich was born in Caracas on 28 November 1958, to Spanish emigrants from Venezuela. He died from cancer on 2 January 2025, at the age of 66.

Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza is best known for her mystical religious poetry as well as her fight to spread Catholicism throughout England, by preaching against Anglicanism. She was imprisoned on two occasions, once in 1608 and again in 1613 for her Catholic proselytizing activities in England. Although her cause of death makes her ineligible to be considered a martyr, she took a vow for martyrdom in 1598.

Gisela Raquel Mota Ocampo was the assassinated first female mayor of Temixco, in the Mexican state of Morelos. Affiliated with the PRD, she won the mayoral elections in June 2015. She took office on 1 January 2016 but was killed the following day. Mota Ocampo had also served as plurinominal deputy in the LXII Legislature of the Mexican Congress, representing Morelos.

Maclyn McCarty was an American geneticist, a research scientist described in 2005 as "the last surviving member of a Manhattan scientific team that overturned medical dogma in the 1940s and became the first to demonstrate that genes were made of DNA." He had worked at Rockefeller University "for more than 60 years." 1994 marked 50 years since this work's release.

John Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize. His essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to the BBC series of the same name, is hugely culturally influential and continues to be widely read today. He lived in France for over fifty years.

Bali Ram Bhagat was an Indian politician and member of the Indian National Congress (INC). He has served as Member of Parliament (MP) in Lok Sabha representing Patna-cum-Shahabad from 1952 to 1957 and Shahabad (Arrah) from 1957 to 1977. Bhagat has also served as the 6th Speaker of the Lok Sabha and 13th Foreign Minister of India.

José Manuel de la Peña y Peña was a Mexican lawyer and judge who served two non-consecutive, but closely following, terms as the president of Mexico during the Mexican American War. In contrast to many other nineteenth-century Mexican presidents, he never served in the military, instead coming from a distinguished legal background.

Elizabeth Ann Fox-Genovese was an American historian best known for her works on women and society in the Antebellum South. A Marxist early on in her career, she later converted to Roman Catholicism and became a primary voice of the conservative women's movement. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2003.

Safdar Hashmi was an Indian communist playwright and director, best known for his work with street theatre in India. He was also an actor, lyricist, and theorist, and he is still considered an important voice in Indian political theatre. He was an activist of the Students' Federation of India (SFI).

Edith Bessie New was an English suffragette who was one of the first two suffragettes to use vandalism as a tactic. She and Mary Leigh were surprised to find their destruction was celebrated, and they were pulled triumphantly by lines of suffragettes on their release from prison in 1908.

Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi was an American sociologist whose principled resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II included a 1943 Supreme Court challenge decided under the caption Hirabayashi v. United States. His conviction was overturned in 1986. Hirabayashi posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Rolf Liebermann, was a Swiss composer and music administrator. He served as the artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1959 to 1973 and again from 1985 to 1988. He was also the artistic director of the Paris Opera from 1973 to 1980.

Heinrich Reuß von Plauen was the 32nd Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, serving from 1467 to 1470. He was the nephew of the previous Grand Master, Ludwig von Erlichshausen, and a distant relative to the 27th Grand Master, Heinrich von Plauen.

Meta Heusser-Schweizer was a Swiss poet. Born in Hirzel as the niece of Georg Gessner, she wrote several collections of poems associated with the Württemberg Pietism movement. She was the mother of Johanna Spyri, best known for her children's novel Heidi.

Lee Sherman Dreyfus was an American educator and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 40th governor of Wisconsin from January 4, 1979, to January 3, 1983. Dreyfus was a 33rd degree Mason in the Scottish Rite.

William Pierce Rogers was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Attorney General in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower and as U.S. Secretary of State in the administration of Richard Nixon.

Bernard M. Glasser was an American film producer and director. The first film he produced was Gold Raiders. After many years he retired from the business to go into real estate. He lived in Los Angeles with his wife Joan.

Svante Nilsson was a Swedish nobleman and regent of Sweden from 1504 to 1512. He was the father of Sten Sture the Younger (1493–1520), who later served as regent of Sweden during the era of the Kalmar Union.

Paul Auguste Marie Adam was a French novelist who became an early proponent of Symbolism in France, and one of the founders of the Symbolist review Le Symboliste. He was a prominent writer in Montmartre's anarchist movement.

Tihomir Novakov, also known as Tica Novakov was a Serbian-born American physicist. As a scientist, Novakov is known for his black carbon, air quality, and climate change research. James Hansen dubbed him "the godfather of black carbon".

Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, commonly referred to as Sheikh Nimr, was a Saudi Shia sheikh from Al-Awamiyah in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. His arrest and execution were widely condemned by various governments and human rights organizations.

Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter was an American country music singer and actor. He was the patriarch of the Ritter acting family. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Bertrand de Blanchefort, was the sixth Grand Master of the Knights Templar, from 1156 until his death in 1169. He is known as a great reformer of the order.

Marie Léon Flameng was a French cyclist and a World War I pilot. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, winning three medals including one gold.

Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan was a trade union leader and the former general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), one of the oldest political parties in India.

Mohammed Siad Barre was a Somali military officer, politician, and revolutionary who served as the third president of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 January 1991.

Osa Massen was a Danish actress who became a successful movie actress in Hollywood. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1941.

Theodora Komnene, Latinized Theodora Comnena, was a daughter of the Byzantine prince Andronikos Komnenos and his wife, Eirene (?Aineiadissa). Based on the writings of Niketas Choniates, it is likely Theodora was Andronikos' second daughter. The year of Theodora's birth is unknown.

Louis-Bernard Guyton, Baron de Morveau was a French chemist, politician, and aeronaut. He is credited with producing the first systematic method of chemical nomenclature.

Karl Goldmark was a Hungarian-born Viennese composer.

Sabine Baring-Gould of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar.

Roman Stanisław Dmowski was a Polish politician, statesman, and co-founder and chief ideologue of the National Democracy political movement active during the interwar period.

Mischa Levitzki was a Russian-born U.S.-based concert pianist and composer.

James Thomas Dooley was an Australian political figure who served twice, briefly, as Premier of New South Wales during the early 1920s.

Sir William Robert Campion, was a British soldier, politician, and the 21st Governor of Western Australia from 1924 to 1931.

Guccio Giovanbattista Giacinto Dario Maria Gucci was an Italian businessman and fashion designer and founder of the fashion house Gucci.

Joseph-Mignault-Paul Sauvé was a Canadian lawyer, World War II veteran, and politician. He was the 17th premier of Quebec in 1959 and 1960.

Sirajul Huq Sikder, better known as Siraj Sikder, was a Bangladeshi revolutionary, freedom fighter, engineer, and Marxist–Leninist-Maoist insurgent.

Una Merkel was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress.

Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza was a Greek politician, leader of the New Democracy party (1981–1984), member of parliament, and author.

Pierre-Paul Schweitzer was a French businessman who served as the fourth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1963 to 1973.

Arthur Richard Newton was the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Theodor "Teddy" Kollek was an Israeli politician who served as the mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993.

Inger Christensen was a Danish poet, novelist, essayist and editor. She is considered the foremost Danish poetic experimentalist of her generation.

David Robertson Ross was a Scottish author and historian. He published eight books, most of them mixing elements of Scottish history and travel literature.

Sandra Silvana Gallardo was an American film and television actress, acting coach, and writer.

Teresa Sławomira Torańska was a Polish journalist and writer. She was perhaps best known for her award winning monograph, Oni.

Elizabeth Jane Howard, was an English novelist. She wrote 15 novels, including the best-selling series The Cazalet Chronicle.

Guida Maria was a Portuguese actress. Her career spanned 60 years and included appearances on stage, in film and on television.

Daryl Frank Dragon was an American musician known as Captain from the pop musical duo Captain & Tennille with his wife, Toni Tennille.