Deaths in 2001

For later deaths, see Deaths in 2002 and Deaths in 2003.

For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994 ...

See also: other events of 2001 and Recent deaths.

January 2001

• 1 - Ray Walston, 86, American actor, lupus
• 11 - Dorothy M. Horstmann, 89, American virologist who made important discoveries about polio, Alzheimer's disease
• 12 - Affirmed, 25, American race horse, euthanasia after contracting laminitis
• 12 - William Hewlett, 87, American co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, heart failure
• 13 - Michael Cuccione, 16, Canadian actor and musician, respiratory failure
• 16 - Laurent-Désiré Kabila, 61, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1997–2001), assassination
• 27 - Mordecai Richler, 69, Canadian author: Jacob Two-Two
• 30 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, 90, French actor, heart attack
• 30 - Joseph Ransohoff, 85, American neurosurgeon
• 30 - John Vernon Taylor, 86, British Anglican bishop
• 31 - Gordon R. Dickson, 77, American science fiction writer, asthma

February 2001

• 4 - Iannis Xenakis, 78, Greek-French composer
• 4 - J. J. Johnson, 77, American jazz trombonist, suicide
• 7 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 94, American author, aviator
• 7 - Dale Evans, 88, actress, singer
• 7 - Sir Michael Grylls, 66, British politician.
• 8 - Leslie Edwards, 84, British ballet dancer.
• 12 - Kristina Söderbaum, 88, [[ 14 - Richard Laymon, 54, American horror author, heart attack
• 14 - Alan Ross, 78, British poet and editor
• 18 - Balthus, 92, French painter
• 18 - Eddie Mathews, 69,American baseball player, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, pneumonia
• 18 - Dale Earnhardt, 49, American NASCAR race car driver, crash during race
• 19 - Stanley Kramer, 87, American film director and producer, pneumonia
• 19 - Priscilla Davis, 67, former Fort Worth, Texas socialite, breast cancer
• 19 - Charles Trenet, 87, French singer
• 22 - Les Medley, 80, England international footballer, natural causes
• 24 - Claude Elwood Shannon, 84, American electrical engineer and mathematician
• 25 - Sir Donald Bradman, 92, Australian cricketer

March 2001

• 4 Harold Stassen, 93, American politician.
• 4 Glenn Hughes, 50, leather dude of the pop group The Village People, lung cancer
• 9 Leopold Page, 87, Polish-American Holocaust survivor
• 12 Robert Ludlum, 73, author of spy novels
• 12 Morton Downey, Jr., 67, American television personality, lung cancer
• 15 Ann Sothern, 92, actress, former wife of the actor Robert Sterling, stroke
• 18 John Phillips, 65, American singer, co-founder of The Mamas & the Papas, heart failure
• 21 Norma Macmillan, 80, American cartoon voice actress
• 21 Chung Ju-yung,86, Founder of the Hyundai Group, natural causes
• 22 William Hanna, 90, American animator, co-founder (with Joseph Barbera) of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, throat cancer.
• 22 Sabiha Gökçen, 88, the first Turkish female aviator and the first female combat pilot of the world
• 25 Willie Horne, 79, British rugby league player.
• 28 Moe Koffman, 72, Canadian flautist and saxophonist, cancer

April 2001

• 7 Sir Derek Lang, 87, British army general.
• 7 Beatrice Straight, 86, Academy Award-winning actress (Network, Poltergeist)
• 10 John M. Edmond, 67, British geochemist.
• 10 Nyree Dawn Porter, 65, New Zealand actress.
• 10 Willie Stargell, 61, American baseball player, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• 11 Graciela Naranjo, 84, Venezuelan singer and actress; a radio, cinema and television pioneer in her homeland
• 11 Sir Harry Secombe, 79, Welsh actor, comedian, member of The Goon Show, prostate cancer
• 12 Harvey Ball, 79, American inventor of the smiley
• 14 Bryan Ranft, 83, British historian
• 15 Joey Ramone (b. Jeffry Hyman), 49, American musician, lead singer for The Ramones, lymphoma
• 16 Alec Stock, 84, English footballer and football manager
• 24 Peter Nugent, 63, Australian politician
• 25 Michele Alboreto, 44, Italian racing driver

May 2001

• 1? Chandra Levy, 24, intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C.
• 5 Charles Black, 85, noted constitutional scholar
• 5 Cliff Hillegass, 83, American creator of CliffsNotes, stroke
• 11 Douglas Adams, 49, British author, works included The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the two Dirk Gently novels and serials in the series Doctor Who, heart attack
• 12 Perry Como, 88, American singer.
• 12 Simon Raven, 73, British writer.
• 12 Corissa Yasen, 27, professional basketball player, suicide
• 22 Whitman Mayo, 70, actor, heart attack
• 26 Anne Haney, 67, actress, heart failure.
• 28 Francisco Varela, 54, Chilean biologist and philosopher

June 2001

• 1 King Birendra, 55, King of Nepal
• 1 Queen Aiswarya, 51, Queen of Nepal
• 1 Hank Ketcham, 81, American cartoonist, creator of Dennis the Menace, prostate cancer
• 1 Marie Brémont, 115, Oldest Person in the World
• 3 Anthony Quinn, 86, Mexican-American actor
• 4 Joey Maxim, 79, world Light Heavyweight champion boxer
• 4 King Dipendra of Nepal, 29
• 10 Princess Leila of Iran, 31
• 11 Timothy McVeigh, 33, American convicted murderer
• 12 Thomas Wilson, 73, British composer
• 15 Henri Alekan, 92, French cinematographer, leukemia
• 18 Dame Rosamund Holland-Martin, 86, head of the NSPCC
• 20 Bob Keegan, 80, baseball player
• 21 Carroll O'Connor, 76 American actor
• 21 John Lee Hooker, 83, American Blues musician
• 21 Souad Hosni, 59, Egyptian actress
• 27 Tove Jansson, 86, Finnish author
• 27 Jack Lemmon, 76, American actor and film director, bladder and colorectal cancer
• 28 Joan Sims, 71, British actress
• 30 Chet Atkins, 77, American country musician

July 2001

• 3 Delia Derbyshire, 64, British musician, renal failure
• 5 Hannelore Kohl, 68, wife of ex-chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, suicide
• 11 Herman Brood, 54, Dutch rock musician, suicide
• 16 Terry Gordy, 40, pro wrestler; founding member of the Fabulous Freebirds, heart attack
• 18 Fabio Taglioni, 80, automotive engineer
• 20 Carlo Giuliani, 19, Italian anarchist, murder
• 21 Sivaji Ganesan, 74, famous Indian actor, respiratory problems
• 21 Hiroshi Tsuburaya, 37, famous Japanese actor, liver cancer
• 27 Leon Wilkeson, 49, American musician, bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd
• 27 Thomas Pitt Cholmondeley-Tapper, 90, first New Zealand auto racing driver
• 29 Wau Holland, 49, German hacker, founder of the CCC, heart attack
• 29 Edward Gierek, 88, Polish politician
• 29 Edward Roberts, 93, British prelate
• 31 A. G. Dickens, 91, British historian

August 2001

• 1 Joe Lynch, 76, Irish actor
• 1 Korey Stringer, 26, American football player, complications brought on by heat stroke
• 1 Poul Anderson, 74, American fantasy and Science Fiction author, cancer
• 3 Christopher Hewett, 79, British actor
• 4 Lorenzo Music, 64, American voice actor known for the voice of the cartoon cat Garfield, complications related to lung and bone cancer
• 6 Jorge Amado, 88, Brazilian writer
• 9 Humphry Bowen, 72, British botanist and chemist
• 13 John C. Elliott, 82, American politician and 39th Governor of American Samoa
• 15 Jim Russell, 92, Australian cartoonist
• 19 Donald Woods, 67, South African journalist, newspaper editor, and anti-apartheid activist, made famous by exposing the killing of his friend, Steve Biko of the Black Consciousness Movement, by South African security forces
• 20 Fred Hoyle, 86, British astronomer and science fiction writer
• 25 Aaliyah, 22, American R&B singer and actress (Plane crash)
• 29 Graham "Shirley" Strachan, 50, Australian singer and television rapper and was so hippie

September 2001

• 1 Bobby Evans, 74, Scottish football player
• 2 Christiaan Barnard. 78, South African heart surgeon, first to perform a human-to-human heart transplant
• 3 Frank Billinge. 107, World War II pilot
• 3 Thuy Trang, 27, Vietnamese American actress, played a role as Trini Kwan from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
• 3 Pauline Kael. 82, American movie critic
• 5 Justin Wilson, 87, Cajun chef and humorist
• 6 Megan Connolly, 27, Australian actress, heroin overdose
• 7 Spede Pasanen, 71, Finnish television star
• 9 Ahmed Shah Massoud, 48, Afghan Northern Alliance military commander
• 11 The September 11 attacks take place
  • See: Casualties of the September 11 attacks
  • And: Hijackers in the September 11 attacks
• 11 David Angell, 55, American television producer
• 11 Garnet Bailey, 53, Canadian ice hockey player and scout
• 11 Todd Beamer, 32, American airline passenger
• 11 Berry Berenson, 53, American actress and photographer
• 11 Mark Bingham, 31, American airline passenger
• 11 Tom Burnett, 38, American airline passenger
• 11 Jeremy Glick, 31, American airline passenger
• 11 Barbara Olson, 45, American television commentator
• 11 Alice Stewart Trillin, 63, American author and film producer (lung cancer)
• 13 Victor Wong, 74, American movie actor and artist
• 15 June Salter, 69, Australian actor
• 18 Ernie Coombs, 73, American born actor. Long time host of Canadian children's show Mr. Dressup on CBC
• 19 David Thomas, 89, Welsh cricketer
• 22 Isaac Stern, 81, Ukrainian violinist, congestive heart failure
• 28 Martin O'Hagan, 51, Irish investigative journalist, murdered.
• 29 Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, 78, former President of South Vietnam
• 30 Madhavrao Scindia,56, Prominent Indian politician and minister,a royal family member, Maharaja of Gwalior

October 2001

• 4 Blaise Alexander, 25, American race car driver, race crash
• 7 Christopher Adams, 46, pro wrestler and judoka, brother of Olympic Judo star Neil Adams
• 11 Nada Mamula, 74, Yugoslavian sevdalinka singer
• 12 Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone (Quintin Hogg), 94, British lawyer and politician
• 13 Ubi Dwyer, 68, Irish anarchist.
• 15 Anne Ridler, 89, British poet and editor
• 15 Zhang Xueliang, 100, Chinese warlord and military figure. Important individual in recent Chinese history
• 26 John Platts-Mills, 95, British politician and lawyer
• 31 Angus MacVicar, 93, British author.

November 2001

• 3 Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, 87, European royalty, sister of Prince Philip.
• 10 Ken Kesey, 66, American author, counter-cultural figure
• 12 Tony Miles, 46, English chess player
• 13 Peggy Mount, 86, English actress (Oliver!, The Princess and the Goblin)
• 18 Malcolm McFee, 52, Actor
• 22 Mary Kay Ash, 83, American businesswoman, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
• 23 Mary Whitehouse, 91, British campaigner against permissiveness.
• 24 Melanie Thornton, 34, singer, plane crash near Zürich
• 25 Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi, Pakistani author, Spiritual Leader and founder of International Spiritual Movement Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam
• 29 John Knowles, 75, author, A Separate Peace
• 29 George Harrison, 58, British musician and former member of The Beatles
• 30 Robert Tools, 59, first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart

December 2001

• 2 Valorie Jones, The Jones Girls
• 4 Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, 75, Sultan of Selangor and Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
• 5 Sir Peter Blake, 53, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist, shot by pirates on the Amazon River
• 5 Franco Rasetti, 100, Italian physicist
• 7 Sir Raymond Powell, 73, British politician
• 8 Don Tennant, 79, American advertising executive, inventor of Tony the Tiger and the Marlboro Man
• 9 Michael Carver, Baron Carver, 86, British Field Marshal
• 13 Yvan Craipeau, 90, French Trotskyist
• 13 Chuck Schuldiner, 33, death metal guitarist and vocalist
• 15 Rufus Thomas, 84, R&B/soul singer
• 20 Léopold Senghor, 95, first President of Senegal; also a world-renowned poet and writer
• 27 Ian Hamilton, 63, British critic, poet, magazine publisher
• 28 William X. Kienzle, 73, author of murder mysteries with Catholic priest detective
• 29 Takashi Asahina, 93, Japanese conductor
• 30 Eileen Heckart, 82, Oscar-winning American actor
• 30 Dame Sheila Sherlock, 83, British physician