Notable Deaths on March 24

Robert Martin Culp was an American actor and screenwriter widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965–1968), the espionage television series in which he and co-star Bill Cosby played secret agents. Before this, he starred in the CBS/Four Star Western series Trackdown as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman in 71 episodes from 1957 to 1959. The 1980s brought him back to television as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero. Later, he had a recurring role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond, and was a voice actor for various video games, including Half-Life 2. Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years.

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador; he served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop of Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago de María, and finally as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. As archbishop, Romero spoke out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and left-wing insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civil War. In 1980, Romero was fatally shot by an assassin while celebrating Mass. Though no one was ever convicted for the crime, investigations by the UN-created Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, a death squad leader and later founder of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) political party, had ordered the killing.

Alice Ida Antoinette Guy-Blaché was a French pioneer film director. She was the first filmmaker to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. Her first film was La Fée aux Choux, and her last was Tarnished Reputations (1920). She experimented with Gaumont's Chronophone sync-sound system, and with color-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects. She was artistic director and a co-founder of Solax Studios in Flushing, New York. In 1912, Solax invested $100,000 for a new studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the center of American filmmaking prior to the establishment of Hollywood. That year, she made the film A Fool and His Money, probably the first to have an all-African-American cast.

John Richard Hersey was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reportage. In 1999, Hiroshima, Hersey's account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was adjudged the finest work of American journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel associated with New York University's journalism department.

Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene IV made him a cardinal in 1446 after successful trips to Italy and Germany, and when Eugene died the next year, Parentucelli was elected in his place. He took his name Nicholas in memory of his obligations to Niccolò Albergati. He remains the most recent pope to take the pontifical name "Nicholas".

Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, while his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa". The song has been referred to as the most sampled African song in addition Dibango, himself, as the most sampled African musician in history. He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.

Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini was a Swiss-French military officer who served as a general in French and later in Russian service, and one of the most celebrated writers on the Napoleonic art of war. Jomini was largely self-taught in military strategy, and his ideas are a staple at military academies, the United States Military Academy at West Point being a prominent example; his theories were thought to have affected many officers who later served in the American Civil War. He may have coined the term logistics in his Summary of the Art of War (1838).

Gertrud Emma Scholtz-Klink, born Treusch, later known under the alias Maria Stuckebrock, was a German official and member of the Nazi Party best known as the leader of the National Socialist Women's League, a position she was appointed to by Adolf Hitler in 1934. She headed numerous other Party and government organizations for women and was the highest ranking female official in Nazi Germany. In this top position for women, she was partly responsible for the persecution, exclusion, and disenfranchisement of Jewish women. She was permitted to travel abroad for propaganda purposes, and was known in Britain as "The Perfect Nazi Woman".

Wulfred was an Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Nothing is known of his life prior to 803, when he attended a church council, but he was probably a nobleman from Middlesex. He was elected archbishop in 805 and spent his time in office reforming the clergy of his cathedral. He also quarrelled with two consecutive Mercian kings – Coenwulf and Ceolwulf – over whether laymen or clergy should control monasteries. At one point, Wulfred travelled to Rome to consult with the papacy and was deposed from office for a number of years over the issue. After Coenwulf's death, relations were somewhat better with the new king Ceolwulf, but improved much more after Ceolwulf's subsequent deposition. The dispute about control of the monasteries was not fully settled until 838, after Wulfred's death. Wulfred was the first archbishop to place his portrait on the coinage he struck.

Pieter Hendricksz. de Hooch, was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. He was a contemporary, in the Delft Guild of St. Luke, of Jan Vermeer with whom his work shares themes and style. De Hooch was first recorded in Delft on 5 August 1652, when he and another painter, Hendrick van der Burgh witnessed the signing of a will. He was last documented in 1679, but his date of death is unknown.

Maria Friderike Radner was a German contralto who performed internationally in opera and in concerts. She studied at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. She was described as an "extremely talented interpreter of Wagner's music" by Stern magazine and Abendzeitung. Possessing the "rare pitch of a true alto", she frequently appeared as Erda in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Leipzig Opera, Schwertleite in Die Walküre at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze with Zubin Mehta, and in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) conducted by Antonio Pappano in Rome and Milan. Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2012 in Götterdämmerung was part of that company's documentary Wagner's Dream.

Inge Johan Lønning was a Norwegian Lutheran theologian and politician for the Conservative Party of Norway. As an academic, he was Professor of Theology and Rector of the University of Oslo during the term 1985–1992. As a politician, he served as President of the European Movement in Norway, as a Member of Parliament, as Vice President of the Parliament, as Vice President of the Conservative Party, and as President of the Nordic Council.

Phan Châu Trinh, courtesy name Tử Cán (梓幹), pen name Tây Hồ (西湖) or Hi Mã (希馬), was an early 20th-century Vietnamese nationalist and reformer. He sought to end France's colonial occupation of Vietnam. His method of ending French colonial rule over Vietnam had opposed both violence and turning to other countries for support, and instead believed in attaining Vietnamese liberation by educating the population and by appealing to French democratic principles.

Edmund John Millington Synge, popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, and collector of folklores. As a key figure of the Irish Literary Revival and credited with reviving Irish literature during the early 20th century, he is widely regarded by scholars to be among the most prolific playwrights of the Edwardian era. Several of his plays continue to be performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

Gábor Ocskay Jr. was a Hungarian ice hockey player. As the center of the first line, he played a huge part in his national team's promotion to the 2009 World Championship. He died of a heart attack weeks before the start of the 2009 Championships. Ocskay was posthumously awarded the Torriani Award by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in 2016, and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame.

Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, initiating publication of the multivolume Science and Civilisation in China. He called attention to what has come to be known as the Needham Question, of why and how China had ceded its leadership in science and technology to Western countries.

Shalom "Sam" Jaffe was an American actor and teacher, known for his portrayals of intelligent but eccentric characters. He achieved prominence in Hollywood for his portrayal of the titular character in the adventure film Gunga Din (1939). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance in the classic film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950).

Hans Hermann Wilhelm Groër, OSB was an Austrian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Vienna from 1986 to 1995 and became a cardinal in 1988. Pope John Paul II replaced him as archbishop after he became the subject of multiple allegations of child sexual abuse. At John Paul's request, Groër relinquished all ecclesiastical duties and privileges as an archbishop and cardinal on 14 April 1998.

Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th century who contributed widely to applied mathematics and was renowned for his research in mathematical physics and numerical analysis, including the theory of special functions, along with his contributions to astronomy, celestial mechanics, the history of physics, and digital signal processing.