Notable Deaths on March 26

Noelia Castillo Ramos was a Spanish woman who died after receiving euthanasia. Her request for euthanasia became a landmark case in Spain on the application of the Organic Law Regulating Euthanasia in the country. At age 25, she was one of the youngest people to receive medical assistance in dying after demonstrating chronic and irreversible pain. Her case garnered significant public attention due to a two-year legal battle, in which the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) had to intervene to validate her right against appeals filed by her father and the Christian Lawyers Association, who questioned her legal capacity.

John Kennedy Toole was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, whose posthumously published novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. At 16 in 1954, he wrote his first novel, The Neon Bible, which he shelved in the same year, not finding a willing publisher; he later dismissed it as "adolescent". Toole was a successful and popular professor, first at University of Southwestern Louisiana, then Hunter College, and finally St. Mary's Dominican College in New Orleans. Having persuaded Simon & Schuster to accept A Confederacy of Dunces, he was unable to resolve editorial disputes. Due in part to the novel's failure, he suffered from paranoia and depression, dying by suicide at the age of 31.

Innocent Vareed Thekkethala, known mononymously as Innocent, was an Indian actor, film producer, writer and politician, who in a career spanning almost five decades has appeared in over 700 films predominantly in Malayalam cinema in addition to a few Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English films, mostly in comedic roles. Widely regarded as one of the greatest comedians in the history of Malayalam cinema, he is also known for his negative and highly nuanced character roles. He is also the recipient of several awards, including three Kerala State Film Awards, a Kerala Film Critics Award, a Filmfare Awards South and seven Asianet Film Awards. He also won the prestigious Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Humour in 2020, for his book Irinjalakudakku Chuttum. He is noted for his wit and impressive dialogue delivery in the typical Thrissur slang.

David Packard was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board of HP. He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1971 during the Nixon administration. Packard served as president of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) from 1976 to 1981 and chairman of its board of regents from 1973 to 1982. He was a member of the Trilateral Commission. Packard was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988 and is noted for many technological innovations and philanthropic endeavors.

Édouard Marie Herriot was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister and twice as President of the Chamber of Deputies. He led the first Cartel des Gauches. Under the Fourth Republic, he served as President of the National Assembly until 1954. A historian by occupation, Herriot was elected to the Académie Française's eighth seat in 1946. He served as Mayor of Lyon for more than 45 years, from 1905 until his death, except for a brief period from 1940 to 1945, when he saw his movements variously restricted for opposing the Vichy regime.

Charles Phillip Mead was an English professional cricketer who played in seventeen Test matches for England and had an extensive domestic career with Hampshire in English county cricket, spanning 31 years. Mead was born in Battersea. Overlooked by Surrey, he joined Hampshire in 1903 and made his debut for the county in first-class cricket in 1905. He established himself in the Hampshire team as a left-handed batsman the following season. After passing 2,000 runs in a season for the first time in 1911, Mead was chosen as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was subsequently selected to tour Australia in 1911–12, making his Test debut against Australia. After success in the 1912 season, he toured South Africa, scoring his first Test century during the tour. Mead's appearances at Test level were infrequent, spanning seventeen matches across five series between 1911 and 1928. He scored nearly 1,200 runs in Tests, making four centuries. The paucity of his appearances at Test level were attributed to hostility toward his status as a professional batsman by England captain Plum Warner, playing for an "unfashionable" county, and an abundance of strong batsmen in county cricket competing for limited spaces in the England team. Despite the end of his Test career in 1928, Mead continued to play first-class cricket until 1936, when he was released by Hampshire at the age of 49. He then played two seasons of minor counties cricket for Suffolk in 1938 and 1939, whilst employed as a cricket coach at Framlingham College.

David Stewart was the eldest son of Robert III of Scotland and his wife, Annabella Drummond. The heir apparent to the Scottish throne from 1390 until his death, David held the titles of Prince of Scotland, Duke of Rothesay, and Earl of Carrick. David was named by a general council to rule Scotland as regent, on behalf of his infirm and politically ineffective father, in 1399. He was responsible for the defense of Scotland during the English invasion in 1400. After coming into conflict with his uncle, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, David was arrested and removed from power in late 1401. He died in mysterious circumstances at Falkland Palace shortly afterwards. David's younger brother, James, eventually succeeded their father as King of Scots.

Brigadier-General Ratu Epeli Nailatikau,, often referred to as Na Turaga Mai Naisogolaca, was a Fijian chief who was President of Fiji from 2009 to 2015. He had a long career in the Military, diplomatic service, and government. From 2001 to 2006 he served as Speaker of the House of Representatives – the lower and more powerful chamber of the Fijian Parliament. He was also the chairman of the Parliamentary Appropriations Committee and of the House Committee. On 8 January 2007, he was appointed the interim Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade; he was moved to the post of interim Minister for Provincial Development and Multi-Ethnic Affairs in September 2008. In October 2008, he became Indigenous Affairs Minister "and effectively Great Council of Chiefs chairman". On 17 April 2009, he was appointed Vice-President by the military government.

Samuel Ward Sr. was an American farmer, politician, Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and delegate to the Continental Congress where he signed the Continental Association. He was the son of Rhode Island Governor Richard Ward, was well-educated, and grew up in a large family in Newport, Rhode Island. He and his wife received property in Westerly, Rhode Island from his father-in-law, and the couple settled there and took up farming. He entered politics as a young man and soon took sides in the hard money vs. paper money controversy, favoring hard money or specie. His primary rival over the money issue was Providence politician Stephen Hopkins, and the two men became bitter rivals; the two also alternated as governors of the colony for several terms.

Alessandra Giliani is known as the first woman to be recorded in historical documents as practicing anatomy and pathology. She's reputed to have worked as a prosector, preparing corpses for anatomical study, under the famed anatomist Mondino de Luzzi at the University of Bologna; although all evidence of her work has been either lost or destroyed. Due to the lack of records on Giliani, a number of modern historians, such as Paula Findlan, argue that Giliani was invented by notorious forger and pseudo-historian Alessandro Macchiavelli in the 18th Century; indeed, doubts had been expressed as early as 1857 in Michele Medici's History of the Bolognese School of Anatomy. If real, however, Giliani's purported contributions to the study of anatomy would be significant.

Constantin Fehrenbach, sometimes erroneously Konstantin Fehrenbach,, was a German politician who was one of the major leaders of the Catholic Centre Party. He served as president of the Reichstag in 1918 and then as president of the Weimar National Assembly from 1919 to 1920. In June 1920, Fehrenbach became Chancellor of Germany. During his time in office, the central issue he had to face was German compliance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He resigned in May 1921 when his cabinet was unable to reach a consensus on war reparations payments to the Allies. Fehrenbach remained in the Reichstag and headed the Centre Party's contingent there from 1923 until his death in 1926.

William Donald Payne was an American writer and producer. He wrote several episodes of The Simpsons after 2000, many of these with John Frink, whom he met while studying at the University of California, Los Angeles. The duo began their careers writing for the short-lived sitcom Hope and Gloria. Payne later moved into writing feature films, including My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), and co-wrote Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Thor (2011) and its sequel Thor: The Dark World (2013). Payne died from heart failure caused by bone cancer in March 2013.

Sugawara no Michizane , or Kankō , was a scholar, poet, and politician of the Heian period of Japan. He is regarded as an excellent poet, particularly in waka and kanshi poetry, and is today revered in Shinto as the god of learning, Tenman-Tenjin . In the famed poem anthology Hyakunin Isshu, he is known as Kanke (菅家), and in kabuki drama he is known as Kan Shōjō (菅丞相). Along with Taira no Masakado and Emperor Sutoku, he is often called one of the "Three Great Onryō of Japan".

Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, Strathearn and Caithness was a Scottish nobleman, the son of Robert II of Scotland. Stewart advocated for the ransom and return to Scotland of the future king in exile, James I, in 1424. In 1425 he served as a member of the jury of 21 which tried and executed his nephew Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany. Eventually, however, Atholl turned against the King and conspired in his assassination in 1437. He was tried for murder and was executed after three days of torture.

Jan Sterling was an American film, television and stage actress. At her most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954) as well as an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. Her best performance is often considered to be opposite Kirk Douglas, as the opportunistic wife in Billy Wilder's 1951 Ace in the Hole. Although her career declined during the 1960s, she continued to play occasional television and theatre roles.

Sigurd the Crusader, also known as Sigurd Magnusson and Sigurd I, was King of Norway from 1103 to 1130. His rule, together with his half-brothers King Øystein and King Olaf, has been regarded by historians as a golden age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway. He is known as the Crusader King, being the one of three co-regents that took part in the Norwegian Crusade (1107–1110), earning him the eponym "the Crusader". He is regarded to be the first King to take part in a crusade.

John Winthrop was an English Puritan lawyer and a leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of colonists from England in 1630 and served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years. His writings and vision of the colony as a Puritan "city upon a hill" dominated New England colonial development, influencing the governments and religions of neighboring colonies in addition to those of Massachusetts.

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at age 44, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime. All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once.

James Stewart Tolkan was an American character actor. He was best known for portraying the strict high-school vice principal Mr. Strickland in Back to the Future (1985) and Back to the Future Part II (1989), and the character's ancestor, Marshal James Strickland, in Back to the Future Part III (1990). His other notable film credits included Serpico (1973), Love and Death (1975), Prince of the City (1981), Top Gun (1986), Masters of the Universe (1987), Viper (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), and Problem Child 2 (1991).