David Hookes, 48: Former Australian batsman and commentator, on Jan. 19
Blankers Koen, 85: Dutch athlete known as the flying housewife and who was named athlete of the 20th century by the IAAF. She won four gold medals at the 1948 Olympics in London, on Jan 25
Mary Margaret Kaye, 95: British author, best known for writing The Far Pavilions, on Jan. 29
Suraiya, 75: Indian film actress, on Jan. 31
John Hench, 95: American cartoonist, official portrait painter of Mickey Mouse, on Feb. 6
Zelim Khan Yandarbiyev, 52: Former Chechen president, on Feb. 13 Vijay Anand, 72: Veteran Indian film director, on Feb. 23
Ustad Vilayat Khan, 76: Indian sitar maestro, on March 13
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, 67: Founder and spiritual leader of the Hamas resistance movement, on March 22
Peter Ustinov, 82: Oscar-winning British actor and playwright, on March 29
Alistair Cooke, 95: Legendary broadcaster and best known for his BBC radio show Letter from America, on March 30
Norris McWhirter, 78: British co-founder of the Guinness World Records, on April 20
Jim Cantalupo, 60: McDonald's chairman and chief executive, on April 19
Gaetano Badalamenti, 80: A former head of the infamous Sicilian mafia in the US, on May 1
Akhmad Kadyrov, 53: Chechen president, on May 9
Alan King, 76: American comic actor, on May 9
Syd Hoff, 91: Former cartoonist for the New Yorker, on May 12
Sita White, 43: British-born heiress and former girl friend of former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan, on May 14
Ronald Reagan, 93: Former US president, on June 5
Ray Charles, 73: Legendary American musician, on June 10 Thanom Kittikachorn, 92: Former prime minister of Thailand, on June 17
Yash Johar, 75: Renowned producer of Indian films, on June 27
Marlon Brando, 80: Hollywood screen legend who immortalized himself in his lead role of Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, on July 1
Thomas Klestil, 71: Austrian president, on July 6
Dorothy Hart, 82: American Oscar-winning actress, on July 13
Charles W Sweeney, 84: Pilot of the US bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, on July 16
Mehmood Ali, 72: Famous Indian actor and comedian, on July 23
Jagan Nath Azad, 87: Urdu poet, scholar and an authority on Allama Iqbal, on July 24
Joan Morgan, 99: British silent films star, on July 28
Francis Crick, 88: Nobel Prize-winning British scientist who was co-discover of the double helix shape of DNA, on July 29
Nafisa Joseph, 25: Former miss India, actress and music VJ, on July 30
Fay Wray, 96: Canadian-born actress who starred in the classic King Kong film, on Aug. 9
Bernard Levin, 75: British columnist and broadcaster, on Aug. 9
Czeslaw Milosz, 93: Polish Nobel Prize-winning poet, on Aug. 14
Nuha Al Radi, 63: Eminent Iraqi artist, on Aug. 31
Raja Ramanna, 79: Pioneering Indian nuclear scientist, on Sept. 24
Mulk Raj Anand, 98: Celebrated Indian novelist, on Sept. 28
Rodney Dangerfield, 82: Veteran American comic, on Oct. 5
Jacques Derrida, 74: Renowned philosopher and perhaps one of this century's most influential intellectuals, on Oct. 9
Christopher Reeve, 52: American actor who starred in the Superman series and was later paralyzed from the neck down after an accident, on Oct. 10
Keith Miller, 84: Australian cricketer, on Oct. 11
Nirupa Roy, 73: Best known for her motherly roles in Indian films, on
Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan, 86: President of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, on Nov. 2
Yasser Arafat, 75: Palestine president and guerilla icon turned Nobel peace prize winner, on Nov. 11
Arthur Hailey, 84: Best-selling British author and novelist, on Nov. 25
Vijay Hazare, 89: Former Indian cricket captain, Dec 18
P V Narasimha Rao, 83: Former Indian Prime minister and veteran politician, Dec 23
David Hookes, 48: Former Australian batsman and commentator, on Jan. 19
