\n From Britain's Prince Philip to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, here are some of the most notable deaths of 2021.\n<\/p>\n
\n - January -\n<\/p>\n
\n Phil Spector, who revolutionised 1960s pop music with his \"Wall of Sound\" but who was jailed for murder in 2009, dies on January 16 aged 81.\n<\/p>\n
\n A week later, Larry King, the braces-sporting US talk host who interviewed everyone who was anyone, dies at 87.\n<\/p>\n
\n - February -\n<\/p>\n
\n Veteran Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, star of \"The Sound of Music\", dies on February 5 aged 91.\n<\/p>\n
\n George Shultz, Ronald Reagan's secretary of state who helped end the Cold War but contributed to conflict by advocating pre-emptive strikes, passes the next day at 100.\n<\/p>\n
\n Argentina's former president Carlos Menem dies at 90 on February 14.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of the last great poets of the Beat Generation, passes eight days later aged 101.\n<\/p>\n
\n Papua New Guinea's \"father of the nation\" Sir Michael Somare, its first prime minister, dies aged 84 on February 26.\n<\/p>\n
\n - March -\n<\/p>\n
\n Reggae legend Bunny Wailer passes away on March 2 aged 73.\n<\/p>\n
\n South African Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini, 72, dies on March 12.\n<\/p>\n
\n Madagascar's former leader Didier Ratsiraka, instigator of a socialist revolution on the Indian Ocean island, dies aged 84 on March 28.\n<\/p>\n
\n - April -\n<\/p>\n
\n Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, the 99-year-old husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, dies on April 9.\n<\/p>\n
\n American rapper DMX, 50, dies the same day.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bernie Madoff, mastermind of the largest financial scam in history, dies in jail in North Carolina on April 14 aged 82.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two days later British actress Helen McCrory -- who starred in \"Peaky Blinders\", \"Harry Potter\" and \"The Queen\" -- dies of cancer aged 52.\n<\/p>\n
\n Chad's President Idriss Deby, 68, dies from battle wounds the day after his election for a sixth term on April 20.\n<\/p>\n
\n Legendary German soprano Christa Ludwig, 93, passes away on April 24.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fashion designer Alber Elbaz of Lanvin fame dies in Paris aged 59 from Covid-19 the same day.\n<\/p>\n
\n - May -\n<\/p>\n
\n Nigeria's Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, of unknown age, is killed during infighting between rival factions of the extremist group on May 19.\n<\/p>\n
\n - June -\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Africa's Gandhi\" Kenneth Kaunda, 97, Zambia's founding president, dies on June 17.\n<\/p>\n
\n Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the architect of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan after the World Trade Center attack of 2001, dies aged 88.\n<\/p>\n
\n - July -\n<\/p>\n
\n Richard Donner, director of the first \"Superman\" movie and as well as \"The Goonies\", dies on July 5 aged 91.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two days later much-loved Bollywood veteran Dilip Kumar passes away at 98.\n<\/p>\n
\n - August -\n<\/p>\n
\n The leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, 48, is killed by French forces on August 17.\n<\/p>\n
\n Former Chadian president Hissene Habre dies a week later from Covid-19 at 79. He was serving a life sentence in Senegal for crimes against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n Charlie Watts, the drummer of the Rolling Stones, dies aged 80 on August 24.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, dies on August 29. The Belgian was 79.\n<\/p>\n
\n The same day Lee \"Scratch\" Perry, the wildly influential Jamaican singer and Bob Marley's producer, dies aged 85.\n<\/p>\n
\n - September -\n<\/p>\n
\n Renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, 96, who scored the 1964 film \"Zorba the Greek\" and resisted military dictatorship in Greece, dies on September 2.\n<\/p>\n
\n Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, star of \"Breathless\" and one of postwar French cinema's biggest names, dies aged 88 on September 6.\n<\/p>\n
\n Michael K. Williams, who played Omar in the cult US television series \"The Wire\", dies the same day of an accidental overdose aged 54 in New York.\n<\/p>\n
\n The founder of Peru's Maoist Shining Path rebel group, Abimael Guzman, 86, dies in prison on September 11.\n<\/p>\n
\n Algeria's longest-serving president Abdelaziz Bouteflika dies on September 17 aged 84.\n<\/p>\n
\n - October -\n<\/p>\n
\n Kenya's world record-holding runner Agnes Tirop, 25, is stabbed to death at her home on October 13. Her husband is later charged with her murder.\n<\/p>\n
\n Colin Powell, a war hero and the first Black US secretary of state whose reputation was sullied by the invasion of Iraq, dies from complications from Covid-19 aged 84 on October 18.\n<\/p>\n
\n - November -\n<\/p>\n
\n FW de Klerk, the last president of apartheid South Africa, dies aged 85 on November 11. He freed Nelson Mandela from prison and later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with him.\n<\/p>\n
\n Zambia-born bestselling novelist Wilbur Smith, 88, who chronicled dramatic adventures on the African continent, passes away two days later.\n<\/p>\n
\n Formula One pioneer Frank Williams, 79, dies on November 28.\n<\/p>\n
\n - December -\n<\/p>\n
\n Lamine Diack, who presided over global athletics from 1999 to 2015 but was later convicted for corruption, dies on December 3 aged 88.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bob Dole, a World War II hero who became a five-term US senator and the Republican Party's 1996 presidential nominee, passes two days later aged 98.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gothic novelist Anne Rice, 80, best known for writing \"Interview with the Vampire,\" follows on December 11.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lucia Hiriart, the widow of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, dies five days later at the age of 98.\n<\/p>\n
\n British architect Richard Rogers, known for designing some of the world's most famous buildings including Paris' Pompidou Centre, dies at 88 on December 18.\n<\/p>\n
\n American rapper Drakeo the Ruler, or Darrell Caldwell, 28, dies after being stabbed on December 19.\n<\/p>\n
\n Joan Didion, the beloved US essayist and pioneer of \"new journalism\", dies at 87 on December 23.\n<\/p>\n
\n South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a tireless campaigner against injustice, dies on December 26 at age 90.\n<\/p>\n
\n rap\/jmy\/fg\/ach\/jm\n<\/p>\n
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From Britain's Prince Philip to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, here are some of the most notable deaths of 2021. - January - Phil Spector, who revolutionised 1960s pop music with his \"Wall of Sound\" but who was jailed for murder in 2009, dies on January 16 aged 81. A week later, Larry King, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-85846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n