NEW YORK, Dec 16 — From legendary actors Kirk Douglas and Sean Connery to matriarch of the US Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsberg, here are some of the notable deaths of 2020.

January

10: Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, who transformed the former Arabian Peninsula backwater into a modern state and the Gulf’s discreet mediator, dies aged 79.

26: US basketball legend Kobe Bryant, 41, dies in a horrific helicopter crash northwest of Los Angeles that also claimed the lives of his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people.

February

5: One of the last stars of Hollywood’s golden age, Kirk Douglas, dies at his home in Beverly Hills aged 103. 

25: Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, who was swept from power by the Arab Spring in 2010, dies in a military hospital aged 91.

March

8: Exorcist star Max Von Sydow, who also featured in films by his Swedish compatriot Ingmar Bergman dies in France aged 90.

April

29: Bollywood star Irrfan Khan, known for his roles in blockbusters Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire, dies from cancer in a Mumbai hospital aged 53.

May

9: Little Richard, known for outrageous showmanship and lightning-fast rhythms dies aged 87 after battling cancer. Hits include Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally. 

31: Artist Christo (Christo Vladimiroff Javacheff) who wrapped landmarks such as Berlin’s Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in Paris dies aged 84.

June

8: Burundi’s former president Pierre Nkurunziza, who ruled the country from 2005 to 2020, dies from a heart attack aged 55. 

July

6: Italian maestro Ennio Morricone, Oscar-winning composer of film scores for Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, dies in Rome aged 91.

8: The sudden death from a heart attack of Ivory Coast’s Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, 61, plunges the country into political turmoil. 

26: Oscar-winning actress Olivia de Havilland, star of Gone With the Wind, dies at her home in Paris aged 104.

August

24: Former Congolese president Pascal Lissouba, who won his country’s first multi-party presidential elections, dies in France aged 88.

28: Actor Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther in the Marvel movies, dies of cancer aged 43.

September

2: Chief torturer behind Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge, Kaing Guek Eav, 77, better known by his alias Duch, dies in prison.

10: British actress Diana Rigg, of Avengers and Game of Thrones fame, dies aged 82.

18: US Supreme Court judge and feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dies aged 87.

23: French actress and singer Juliette Greco, the face and voice of radical chic postwar Paris, dies aged 93.

October

4: Japan’s most famous fashion designer Kenzo Takada, founder of the Kenzo brand, dies in Paris aged 81 from Covid-19.

31: Legendary Scottish actor Sean Connery, the original James Bond, dies in his sleep in the Bahamas, aged 90.

November

11: Bahrain’s Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the world’s longest-serving prime minister, dies aged 84.

12: Jerry Rawlings, who ruled Ghana for two decades first as a military leader and then as elected president, dies aged 73.

25: Diego Maradona, football’s troubled genius and arguably the greatest player ever, dies aged 60.

December

2: Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who legalised abortion and brought the country high-speed trains, dies aged 94 from Covid-19.

11: Film director Kim Ki-duk, the enfant terrible of Korean cinema, dies in Latvia from Covid-19 aged 59.

12: Charley Pride, US country music’s first black superstar, dies from Covid-19 aged 86.

12: John le Carre, the master spy novelist, whose real name was David Cornwell, dies aged 89. — AFP-Relaxnews