RIP, 2025

As I embark upon preparations for our annual New Year's Eve party tonight, there is just one more task to perform...

Yep, it's time for me to open "The Book of the Dead" again - and once more, it's quite the list!

Lady Sally Oppenheim-Barnes (British politician, MP, Minister in Mrs Thatcher's government, made a Baroness)
Rosita Missoni (Italian knitwear designer, co-founder of Missoni)
Wayne Osmond (US singer-songwriter, The Osmonds, Crazy Horses, Let Me In)
Britt Allcroft (British writer, creator of Children's TV show Thomas & Friends (based on the books by Rev. W. Awdry))
David Lodge (British Booker Prize-nominated author, Changing Places, Small World, Nice Work)
Costas Simitis (Greek statesman, former prime minister)
The Vivienne (British drag performer, RuPaul's Drag Race UK)
Jean-Marie Le Pen (French politician, founder of the National Front)
Peter Yarrow (US singer-songwriter, Peter, Paul and Mary, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Puff, the Magic Dragon)
Laurie Holloway (British pianist, musical director and composer, Engelbert Humperdinck, Parkinson show, wrote TV show themes for Game for a Laugh, Blind Date and more)
Phyllis Dalton (British Oscar-winning costume designer, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Oliver!, Henry V, The Princess Bride)
Sam Moore (US soul and R&B singer, Sam & Dave, Soul Man, Hold On, I'm Comin')
Oliviero Toscani (Italian photographer, Benetton adverts)
Tony Slattery (British actor and comedian, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Peter’s Friends, Just a Minute)
Teddy Osei (Ghanaian Afro-rock and jazz saxophonist, founder-member of Osibisa, Sunshine Day)
Lynne Taylor-Corbett (US choreographer, Footloose)
Diane Langton (British character actress, Hollyoaks, Heartbeat, EastEnders)
Christopher Benjamin (British character actor, Doctor Who, Dick Turpin, It Takes a Worried Man)
Linda Nolan (Irish singer, actress and television personality, The Nolans)
David Lynch (US television and film director, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive)
Dame Joan Plowright (British actress, Enchanted April, The Entertainer, Tea With Mussolini, Nothing Like a Dame, widow of Sir Laurence Olivier)
Denis Law (British (Scottish) footballer, Manchester United, Huddersfield Town, national team)
Leila Hayes (Australian actress, Prisoner Cell Block H, "Beryl" in Sons and Daughters)
John Sykes (British guitarist, Whitesnake, songwriter Is This Love)
Charlotte Raven (British journalist, Modern Review, The Guardian, New Statesman)
Marianne Faithfull (British singer-songwriter, As Tears Go By, The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, and icon)
Diana Melly (British author, widow of George Melly)
Brian Murphy (British actor, Man About the House, George and Mildred, Last of the Summer Wine)
David Edward Byrd (US music and theatre poster graphic artist, created the original poster for Sondheim's Follies)
Nigel McCrery (British screenwriter and producer, creator: Silent Witness, New Tricks)
The Aga Khan (Swiss-born British-Portuguese religious leader, imam of Nizari Ismaili)
Mike Ratledge (British musician, founder member, Soft Machine)
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas (British (Welsh) politician, Welsh nationalist campaigner, former leader of Plaid Cymru, first presiding officer of the Welsh assembly)
Tom Robbins (US novelist, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues)
Asil Nadir (Cypriot businessman, convicted fraudster, Polly Peck scandal)
Geneviève Page (French actress, Belle de Jour, El Cid, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes)
Francesco Rivella (Italian chemist and chocolatier, Ferrero, inventor of Nutella)
Julian Holloway (British actor, Carry On films, father of Sophie Dahl) 
Paquita la del Barrio (Mexican singer, songwriter and actress)
Rick Buckler (British rock drummer, founder-member of The Jam)
Jerry Butler (US soul singer, Only the Strong Survive)
Gwen McCrae (US soul singer, Rockin’ Chair, All This Love That I’m Givin’, first artist to release Always on My Mind)
D. G. Hessayon (British-Cypriot author and botanist, best-selling "Expert Guides" series of paperback gardening manuals)
Roberta Flack (US singer, Killing Me Softly With His Song, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Feel Like Makin' Love, and legend)
Henry Kelly (Irish-born British TV presenter, Going for Gold, Game for a Laugh)
Michelle Trachtenberg (US actress, Gossip Girl)
Gene Hackman (US actor, Oscar winner, The French Connection, Mississippi Burning, Unforgiven)
Boris Spassky (Russian world champion chess grandmaster, famously beaten by Bobby Fischer in the World Chess Championship 1972 during the Cold War)
Jane Reed (British journalist, editor, Woman’s Own, Today, director, Times Newspaper Holdings)
David Johansen (US musician, founder member of the New York Dolls, actor, Scrooged)
Tuppy Owens (British disability rights and and sexual health activist, founded the Outsiders Club)
Angie Stone (US R&B singer, Wish I Didn't Miss You)

Jack Vettriano (British (Scottish) painter, The Singing Butler (the UK's biggest-selling image))
Bill Dare (British comedy show creator, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Dead Ringers, producer, Spitting Image)
Kathryn Apanowicz (British actress, "Nurse Rose Butchins" in Angels, regional ITV television presenter, widow of Richard Whiteley)
Carl Dean (US businessman, married to Dolly Parton for 60 years)
Roy Ayers (US jazz-funk musician and composer, Everybody Loves the Sunshine)
Brian James (British punk rock guitarist, founder-member of The Damned, songwriter, New Rose)
Janet Pharaoah (British dancer, choreographer and artistic director, the Moulin Rouge)
Stanley R. Jaffe (US film producer, Fatal Attraction, The Accused, Kramer vs. Kramer)
Stedman Pearson (British singer, founder-member of Five Star)
Bob Rivers (US radio personality and parody musician, Twisted Christmas)
Maisie Trollette (British oldest drag queen, gay scene legend)
Felice Picano (US ground-breaking gay author, Like People in History, The Lure, editor and publisher, SeaHorse Press)
John "Paddy" Hemingway (Irish/British RAF pilot, last surviving pilot of the Battle of Britain, centenarian)
AnNa R. (German singer, Rosenstolz, Gleis 8)
Torquil Norman (British businessman and philantropist, led the restoration of the Camden Roundhouse concert venue)
Eddie Jordan (Irish racing driver, manager and businessman, Formula 1, broadcaster and pundit)
George Foreman (US world champion heavyweight boxer, businessman, "the George Foreman Grill")
Andy Peebles (British radio DJ and presenter, BBC Radio 1, Top of the Pops)
Richard Chamberlain (US actor, Dr. Kildare, The Three Musketeers, The Thorn Birds)
Betty Webb (British WWII code breaker at Bletchley Park, centenarian)
Trevor Lock (British policeman, awarded the George Medal for bravery during the Iranian Embassy siege)
Val Kilmer (US actor, Top Gun, The Doors, Batman Forever)
Johnny Tillotson (US singer-songwriter, Poetry in Motion)
Amadou Bagayoko (Malian musician, Amadou & Mariam)
Clem Burke (US award-winning drummer, Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat to the Beat)
David Sassoon (British couturier, designer for Princess Diana, Princess Margaret, other royals and Hollywood stars)
Nino Tempo (US singer, Nino Tempo & April Stevens, Deep Purple)
Mike Berry (British singer, The Sunshine of Your Smile, actor, Are You Being Served?; his brother was the legendary Bette Bourne)
Roy Thomas Baker (British record producer, Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody, The Cars: My Best Friend's Girl, T'Pau: China In Your Hand)
Jean Marsh (British actress, Upstairs, Downstairs, The House of Eliott)
Paddy Higson (British (Scottish) film and TV producer, Gregory's Girl, Monarch of the Glen)
Wink Martindale (US radio and TV host, singer, Deck of Cards)
Colin Berry (British radio DJ, presenter and newsreader, BBC Radio 2)
Clodagh Rodgers (British (Northern Irish) singer, Come Back and Shake Me, Jack in the Box and TV regular)
Damien Thomas (British character actor, horror film star, Twins of Evil, Shogun, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger)
Pope Francis (Argentinian Roman Catholic prelate, pontiff)
Virginia Giuffre (US-Australian massage therapist, claimed to have been trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew's accuser)
Philip Lowrie (British actor, "Dennis Tanner" in the first broadcast of Coronation Street, returned in 2011 after a 43-year absence)
Mike Peters (British (Welsh) rock musician, songwriter and vocalist, founder member of The Alarm, Sixty Eight Guns)
Ruth Buzzi (US comedian, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In)
James Foley (US film director, Glengarry Glen Ross, Who's That Girl; music video director, Papa Don't Preach, Live To Tell)
Joe Don Baker (US actor, GoldenEye, Edge of Darkness, Cape Fear)
Sir Tom Farmer (British businessman, founder and CEO of Kwik Fit)
John Edwards (US vocalist, lead singer of the Detroit Spinners, Working My Way Back to You, Cupid)
Robert Benton (US film writer-director, What's Up, Doc?, Kramer vs. Kramer, Bonnie and Clyde, Superman)
Charles Strouse (US composer and lyricist, Annie, Applause, Bye Bye Birdie)
Taina Elg (Finnish-US actress, Les Girls)
Yuri Grigorovich (Russian ballet choreographer, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995)
Colton Ford (US gay pornographic actor)
George Wendt (US actor and comedian, "Norm Peterson" in Cheers)
Michael B. Tretow (Swedish record producer and audio engineer, ABBA, Chess)
Barry Fantoni (British author and cartoonist, "E.J. Thribb" in Private Eye)
Leslie Dilley (British (Welsh) Oscar-winning art director and production designer, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien)

Billy Williams (British cinematographer, Women in Love, On Golden Pond, Gandhi)
Lillian Boutté (US jazz singer)
Alan Yentob (British television executive, controller of BBC1 and BBC2, TV presenter, Imagine, Arena)
Gigi Canu (Italian guitarist, founder member of Planet Funk, Chase the Sun)
Barry McIlheney (British (Northern Irish) journalist, magazine director and editor, Smash Hits, Empire, Premiere, launched Heat and Zoo)
Peter David (US comic book writer, The Incredible Hulk, Supergirl, Spider-Man 2099, X-Factor)
Loretta Swit (US stage and television actress, "Hotlips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H)
Roland Curram (British actor, "Freddie" in Eldorado)
Edmund White (US author and gay memoirist, A Boy's Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty)
Arthur Hamilton (US songwriter, Cry Me a River for Julie London)
Wayne Lewis (US singer-songwriter, Atlantic Starr, Always, Secret Lovers)
Frederick Forsyth (British journalist, spy and author, The Day Of The Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War)
Sly Stone (US musician, singer-songwriter, Sly and the Family Stone, Everyday People, Family Affair, Dance To The Music)
Brian Wilson (US vocalist, musician, songwriter and producer, founder member of The Beach Boys, Surfin' USA, I Get Around, God Only Knows, Good Vibrations)
Violeta Chamorro (Nicaraguan stateswoman, 55th President of Nicaragua, first elected female head of state in the Americas)
Leonard Lauder (US businessman, heir and former CEO and chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder, billionaire and philanthropist)
Kim Woodburn (British television personality, How Clean Is Your House?)
John Reid (British (Scottish) producer, singer and founder member of Nightcrawlers: Push the Feeling On, songwriter, Westlife, Tina Turner, Monica Naranjo)
Alfred Brendel KBE (Austrian much-lauded classical pianist, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic)
Lou Christie (US singer-songwriter, I'm Gonna Make You Mine, Lightnin' Strikes)
James Prime (British (Scottish) musician, keyboardist and founder-member of Deacon Blue)
Cavin Yarbrough (US musician, arranger and songwriter, Yarbrough and Peoples, Don't Stop the Music)
Mick Ralphs (British guitarist, founder-member of Mott the Hoople, All The Young Dudes, and Bad Company, Feel Like Makin' Love)
Bobby Sherman (US singer and 70s teen heartthrob in America)
Lalo Schifrin (Argentine-US composer, theme from Mission: Impossible, arranger, The Three Tenors)
Walter Scott (US singer, founder-member of The Whispers, And The Beat Goes On, It's A Love Thing)
Stuart Burrows (British (Welsh) operatic tenor, Welsh National Opera, La Scala Milan, Metropolitan Opera, nicknamed "The King of Mozart")
Sandy Gall (British (Scottish) journalist, Reuters, ITN, newsreader on News at Ten from 1970 to 1991)
Jim Shooter (US comic book writer, Secret Wars, Superman, editor, Marvel Comics)
Kenneth Colley (British actor, The Empire Strikes Back, Monty Python's Life of Brian)
Jimmy Swaggart (US televangelist, bigot and arch-homophobe, caught paying prostitutes)
Julian McMahon (Australian actor, Nip/Tuck, Fantastic Four, Home and Away)
Gerald Harper (British actor, Hadleigh, Adam Adamant Lives!, A Night to Remember)
Michael Madsen (US actor, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill films, Donnie Brasco)
Lord Norman Tebbitt (British politician, senior cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher)
Donald Rose (British supercentenarian and World War II veteran, oldest man in the United Kingdom)
Iris Williams (British (Welsh) singer, He Was Beautiful)
Judy Loe (British actress, Singles, The Chief, Casualty, widow of Richard Beckinsale and mother of Kate)
Connie Francis (US singer, Who's Sorry Now?, Lipstick On Your Collar, Stupid Cupid, and gay icon)
Felix Baumgartner (Austrian record-breaking parachutist)
Alan Bergman (US songwriter (with his late wife Marilyn), In the Heat of the Night, Windmills of Your Mind, The Way We Were, Yentl soundtrack)
Sir Roger Norrington (British conductor, Kent Opera, Camerata Salzburg, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra)
Eamon Downes (British DJ, Liquid: Sweet Harmony)
Chuck Mangione (US jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player, pioneer of easy-listening “smooth jazz”)
Ozzy Osbourne (British heavy metal rock musician and singer, Black Sabbath, songwriter, Paranoid, TV personality, The Osbournes)
George Kooymans (Dutch guitarist and vocalist, founder member of Golden Earring, songwriter, Radar Love)
Michael Ochs (US pioneering rock and pop photographic archivist)
Hulk Hogan (US professional wrestler, TV celebrity and actor, Rocky III)
Dame Cleo Laine (British vocalist, the UK’s most successful and celebrated jazz singer, national treasure)
Tom Lehrer (US satirical singer-songwriter, The Vatican Rag, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, TV regular, That Was The Week That Was, The Frost Report)
Amelia Freeedman (British classical music impresario, founder and artistic director of the Nash Ensemble chamber music group)
Allan Ahlberg (British children’s author, Burglar Bill, The Jolly Postman)
Sylvia Young (British drama teacher, founder and principal of the Sylvia Young Theatre School)

Loni Anderson (US character actress, The Jayne Mansfield Story, former wife of Burt Reynolds)
Dame Stella Rimington (British archivist and intelligence officer, first female director general of MI5)
James Whale (British radio personality, "shock jock" and television presenter, The James Whale Radio Show)
Jane Morgan (US singer, The Day the Rains Came, Fascination, nightclub, stage and television performer, centenarian)
Ion Iliescu (Romanian statesman, first democratically-elected president after the fall of the Ceaușescu regime)
Jim Lovell (US astronaut, Gemini and Apollo missions, piloted the ill-fated Apollo 13 to a safe return)
Ray Brooks (British character actor, Big Deal, EastEnders, the voice of Mr Benn)
Graham Fenton (British singer, lead vocalist, Matchbox, Rockabilly Rebel, Midnite Dynamos, When You Ask About Love)
Biddy Baxter (British children's television producer, ran the most successful British kids' TV show Blue Peter for 23 years)
John Cruickshank (British flight lieutenant, last surviving WW2 Victoria Cross recipient, centenarian)
Terence Stamp (British actor and "Swinging Sixties" icon, Billy Budd, Poor Cow, Superman II, Priscilla Queen of the Desert)
Joe Caroff (US graphic designer, James Bond‘s 007 gun logo, posters for West Side Story, Cabaret, A Hard Day’s Night, centenarian)
Gordon Bowker (US businessman, co-founder of Starbucks)
Manuel de la Calva (Spanish singer, founder-member of "Spain's answer to the Beatles" Dúo Dinámico, Eurovision Song Contest winning songwriter, Massiel's La, la, la)
Graham Greene (Canadian First Nations actor, Dances With Wolves, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Green Mile)
Joe Bugner (Hungarian-born British champion boxer)
Giorgio Armani (Italian fashion designer, founder of the House of Armani, style icon)
Baddie Winkle (US nonogenarian influencer, fashion model and internet personality)
Katherine, Duchess of Kent (British Royal, cousin-in-law to the late HM The Queen)
Mark Volman (US singer-songwriter and guitarist, founder member of The Turtles, Flo & Eddie, backing vocalist, T Rex, Bruce Springsteen)
Richard Davies (British singer-songwriter and keyboardist, founder member of Supertramp)
Christoph von Dohnányi (German conductor, Oper Frankfurt, Hamburg State Opera, Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonia Orchestra)
Stuart Craig (British Oscar winning production designer, Harry Potter films, Dangerous Liaisons, Gandhi, The English Patient)
Francesco Trapani (Italian businessman, former CEO of Bulgari jewellery empire, great-grandson of its founder)
Nicky Ryan (Irish music producer, Enya)
Charlie Kirk (US conservative activist, murdered)
Bobby Hart (US songwriter, Monkees, Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkees, Last Train to Clarksville)
Chris Hill (British DJ, pioneer of "Soul nights" in the 1970s/80s, Caister Soul Weekenders and Brit Funk)
Stephen Luscombe (British musician, founder member of Blancmange, Don't Tell Me, Living on the Ceiling, Blind Vision)
Ricky Hatton (British professional boxer, World champion several times)
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw (British award-winning architect, The Eden Project, Waterloo International terminal, former president of the Royal Academy)
Robert Redford (US actor, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Sting, Oscar-winning film director, Ordinary People, heartthrob and icon)
Sonny Curtis (US musician, The Crickets, songwriter, I Fought the Law, Walk Right Back, More Than I Can Say)
Claudia Cardinale (Italian actress, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Leopard, 8½)
John Stapleton (British journalist and broadcaster, Nationwide, Newsnight, Watchdog, GMTV)
"Dickie" Bird (British international cricket umpire, best-selling memoirist, eccentric "national treasure")
Sara Jane Moore (US accountant, attempted assassin of President Gerald Ford)
Lord Menzies Campbell (British (Scottish) politician, MP, former leader of the Liberal Democrat Party)
Shirley Abicair (Australian-British zither player, singer, actress and television personality)
Sir Terry Farrell (British award-winning architect, the MI6 Building, Charing Cross station (Embankment Place), TV-am HQ)
Patrick Murray (British actor, "Mickey Pearce" in Only Fools and Horses)
Soo Catwoman (British punk pioneer, model and fashion icon)
Dame Jane Goodall (British zoologist, primatologist, anthropologist and conservationist, world's foremost expert on chimpanzees)
Dame Patricia Routledge (British Tony award-winning stage, musical and TV actress, Keeping Up Appearances, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, national treasure and gay icon)
John Lodge (British singer-songwriter, bassist, The Moody Blues)
Adrian Sutton (British theatre composer, War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Angels in America)
Diane Keaton (US Oscar-winning actress, Annie Hall, The Godfather, First Wives' Club)
Admiral of the Fleet Sir David Benjamin Bathurst (British naval officer, former First Sea Lord and former NATO Commander-in-Chief for the Channel and Eastern Atlantic)
Tony Caunter (British character actor, "Roy Evans" (married "Pat Butcher") in EastEnders)
Jack White (born Horst Nußbaum, German music producer, Gloria, Self Control for Laura Branigan, Looking for Freedom for David Hasselhoff; songwriter, Who's Leaving Who for Hazell Dean)
D'Angelo (US neo-soul singer-songwriter)
Samantha Eggar (British actress, The Brood, The Butterfly Collector, Doctor Dolittle)
Ace Frehley (US guitarist, songwriter, founder member of Kiss)

Martin Townsend (British journalist, former editor of the Sunday Express)
Lady Annabel Goldsmith (British socialite, after whom Annabel's nightclub was named, friend of Princess Diana and other royals)
Melanie Ward (British fashion stylist and editor, The Face, Karl Lagerfeld, Helmut Lang, Harper’s Bazaar)
Dave Ball (British musician, founder-member of Soft Cell, The Grid)
June Lockhart (US actress, Lost In Space, Lassie, centenarian)
Sirikit, Queen Mother of Thailand
Tony Adams (British character actor, "Adam Chance" in Crossroads, "Dr Neville Bywaters" in General Hospital)
Björn Andrésen (Swedish actor, the "most beautiful boy, Tadzio" in Death in Venice)
Prunella Scales (British actress, Fawlty Towers, Mapp and Lucia, After Henry, A Question of Attribution)
Diane Ladd (US actress, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Chinatown, Wild at Heart)
Dick Cheney (US statesman, former Vice President)
Gopichand Hinduja (Indian-British billionaire businessman, chairman of Hinduja Group, head of Britain's richest family)
Gilson Lavis (British drummer, founder-member of Squeeze, Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra)
Pauline Collins (British award-winning actress, Shirley Valentine, Upstairs Downstairs, Quartet)
Manfred Goldberg (German-born British educator and Holocaust survivor)
James D Watson (US scientist, joint Nobel prize-winner with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for the discovery of the nature of DNA)
Lee Tamahori (New Zealand director, Mulholland Falls, Die Another Day, Once Were Warriors)
Quentin Willson (British motoring journalist, television presenter, Top Gear)
Richard Darbyshire (British singer, songwriter, founder member of Living in a Box)
L.T. Lam (Lam Leung-tim, Hong Kong businessman and manufacturer, inventor of the yellow rubber duck, centenarian)
Lady Helen Newlove (British rights campaigner after the murder of her husband, appointed UK victims’ commissioner)
Marina Lewycka (Ukrainian-British author, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian)
Charlotte Bingham (British novelist and television scriptwriter, No, Honestly, Jilly Cooper’s Riders)
Alice and Ellen Kessler (German singers, dancers and TV personalities, "The Kessler Twins")
Gary "Mani" Mounfield (British bass guitarist, founder-member of The Stone Roses, Primal Scream)
Jellybean Johnson (US musician and producer, Alexander O'Neil Criticize)
Jean Guidoni (French out-gay pioneering singer-songwriter, collaborated with Astor Piazzolla and Michel Legrand)
Paul Costelloe (Irish fashion designer, personal designer to Diana, Princess of Wales)
Udo Kier (German out-gay character actor, Story of O, My Own Private Idaho, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Madonna's Erotica and Deeper and Deeper videos)
Dharmendra (Indian actor, Bollywood star)
Jimmy Cliff (Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter, Wild World, Wonderful World, Beautiful People, Many Rivers to Cross)
Jack Shepherd (British character actor, Wycliffe, Wonderland)
Pam Hogg (British (Scottish) fashion designer, Blitz club regular, designed outfits for Debbie Harry, Siouxsie Sioux, Björk and Kylie Minogue)
Sir Tom Stoppard (Czech-born British playwright, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, screenwriter, Shakespeare in Love, Empire of the Sun)
Chubby Tavares (US funk and disco singer, founder-member of Tavares)
Sir Andreas Whittam Smith (British financial journalist and editor, co-founder of The Independent newspaper, president of the British Board of Film Classification, and of the Church Commissioners)
Brian Hayes (Australian-British Radio presenter and DJ, LBC, BBC Radio 2)
Sir Alec Reed (British business executive, founder of Reed recruitment agency, philanthropist)
Steve Cropper (US blues guitarist, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, songwriter, In the Midnight Hour, record producer, (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay)
Frank Gehry (Canadian-American deconstructivist architect, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Gehry House)
Martin Parr (British photographer and photojournalist, The Last Resort)
Iain Douglas-Hamilton (British zoologist and conservationist, world-leading authority on the behaviour of African elephants, founder of Save the Elephants charity campaign)
Raul Malo (Us singer and musician, founder-member of The Mavericks, songwriter, Dance the Night Away)
Sophie Kinsella (British novelist, Shopaholic, Can You Keep a Secret?, The Undomestic Goddess)
Joanna Trollope (British novelist, The Choir, A Village Affair, The Rector's Wife, "queen of the Aga saga")
Stanley Baxter (British (Scottish) actor, comedian, impressionist, female impersonator and "national treasure", The Stanley Baxter Picture Show, Mr Majeika)
Rob Reiner (US actor, film director, This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, Stand By Me, Misery, murdered)
Carl Carlton (US singer, She's a Bad Mama Jama)
Dame Shân Legge-Bourke, DCVO (British heiress, Glanusk Park estate, mother of the nanny to Princes William and Harry, Tiggy Legge-Bourke)
Gil Gerard (US actor, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century)
Antony Price (British fashion designer, stylist for Roxy Music's first eight albums and Lou Reed's Transformer, designed for Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Amanda Lear, Jerry Hall and Robert Palmer)
Sir Humphrey Burton CBE (British radio and TV broadcaster, Aquarius, Omnibus, Classic FM, former BBC head of music and arts, founder of BBC Young Musician of the Year, biographer)
Chris Rea (British singer-songwriter, Fool (If You Think It's Over), Driving Home for Christmas, The Road to Hell)
Annette Dionne (Canadian media personality, last-surviving of the "Dionne babies" (quintuplets))
Don Bryant (US rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, I Can't Stand the Rain)
Brigitte Bardot (French actress, And God Created Woman, sex symbol, animal rights activist and legend)
Michael Lippman (US music artists manager, David Bowie, Melissa Manchester, George Michael)
Khaleda Zia (Bangladeshi politician, former Prime Minister on two occasions, second female premier of a Muslim state)

RIP, (almost) all!