Deaths in 2025

Below is a list of notable deaths in 2025, arranged in chronological order. (The age of the individual is in parentheses.)

January

• David Lodge (89): English novelist, literary critic, playwright, and editor known chiefly for his satiric novels about academic life, especially the Campus trilogy

• Costas Simitis (88): Greek legal scholar and politician who served as the prime minister of Greece from 1996 to 2004

• Jean-Marie Le Pen (96): French nationalist who founded and served as leader (1972–2011) of the National Front (later National Rally) political party, which represented the main right-wing opposition to the country’s mainstream conservative parties from the 1970s through the early 21st century
• Peter Yarrow (86): American singer who was a member of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, which was at the forefront of the folk music revival of the 1960s; their hit songs include “If I Had a Hammer” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane”

• David Lynch (78): American filmmaker and screenwriter who is known for his uniquely disturbing and mind-bending visual work; his films, including Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001), juxtapose the cheerfully mundane with the shockingly macabre and often defy explanation
• Joan Plowright (95): English dramatic actress whose notable credits include the play A Taste of Honey (1960), for which she received a Tony Award, and Enchanted April (1991), a movie that earned her an Academy Award nomination; she was married to Laurence Olivier from 1961 to his death in 1989
• Bob Uecker (90): American baseball player, Hall of Fame broadcaster, and actor who was known for his self-effacing wit; nicknamed “Mr. Baseball,” he was the radio announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers for more than 50 years, and he starred in such comedies as Major League (1989)

• Jules Feiffer (95): American cartoonist and writer who became famous for his Feiffer, a satirical comic strip notable for its emphasis on very literate captions

• Cecile Richards (67): American activist and administrator who was president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (2006–18)

• Mauricio Funes (65): Salvadoran television journalist who served as president of El Salvador (2009–14)

• Michael Longley (85): Northern Irish poet who was called “a custodian of griefs and wonders” and was best known for the poem “Ceasefire,” about the Troubles

• Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (85): Native American artist whose drawings, paintings, sculptures, and prints build on Modernist vocabularies to explore Native American history, identity, and sociopolitical relationship with the United States

• Dick Button (95): American figure skater who dominated the sport in the late 1940s and early 1950s and who later became a noted TV analyst
• Marianne Faithfull (78): British singer and actress who was a muse to Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones in the 1960s and who later overcame drug addiction to find success with her candid and emotional songs

February

• Horst Köhler (81): German economist and politician who served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (2000–04) and as president of Germany (2004–10)

• Sam Nujoma (95): leader of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) liberation movement and, later, a political party, who served as the first president of independent Namibia (1990–2005)

• Tom Robbins (92): American novelist noted for his eccentric characters, playful optimism, and self-conscious wordplay; his notable novels include Still Life with Woodpecker (1980) and Jitterbug Perfume (1984)

• Gene Hackman (95): American actor known for his emotionally honest and natural performances; he won Oscars for his performances in The French Connection (1971) and Unforgiven (1992)

• Chris Jasper (73): American musician who was a member of the R&B and rock band the Isley Brothers; its hit songs included “Shout,” “It’s Your Thing,” “That Lady (Part 1),” and “Fight the Power (Part I)”

• Roberta Flack (88): American R&B singer known for the number-one hits “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1972) and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (1973)
• Alvin Poussaint (90): American psychiatrist specializing in child psychiatry and in issues of racial identity and health among African Americans; he also served as a consultant to the popular TV sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–92)

• Jennifer Johnston (95): Irish novelist whose works deal with political and cultural tensions in Ireland, with an emphasis on the problems of the Anglo-Irish
• Martin E. Marty (97): American historian of religion best known as the author of numerous works that examined trends in religion in their broader historical and cultural contexts; his masterwork was the three-volume Modern American Religion (1986–96)

• Boris Spassky (88): Russian chess master who was world champion from 1969 to 1972

• David Johansen (75): American singer and songwriter who was a member of the New York Dolls, a glam rock band that revitalized the New York City underground music scene in the 1970s and foreshadowed punk rock by half a decade

March

• Athol Fugard (92): South African dramatist, actor, and director who became internationally known for his penetrating and pessimistic analyses of South African society during the apartheid period

• Sofia Gubaidulina (93): Russian composer whose works fuse Russian and Central Asian regional styles with the Western classical tradition

• Dag Solstad (83): one of the most significant Norwegian writers to emerge during the 1960s; he was known as “a literary provocateur”

• George Foreman (76): American boxer who twice was the world heavyweight champion (1973–74, 1994–95); he also was known for an eponymous home grill that was hugely popular

• Mia Love (49): U.S. politician from Utah who served in the House of Representatives (2015–19); she was the first Republican Black woman elected to Congress

April

• Val Kilmer (65): American actor who starred in such movies as Top Gun (1986), Tombstone (1993), Heat (1995), and The Doors (1991), in which he portrayed Doors frontman Jim Morrison

• Theodore McCarrick (94): former Roman Catholic archbishop and cardinal who, after being accused of sexually abusing teenage boys and young men between the 1970s and the early 21st century, was the first American prelate in history to resign (2018) from the Sacred College of Cardinals

• Mario Vargas Llosa (87): Peruvian writer whose novels and essays display a commitment to social change; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010

• Pope Francis (88): leader of the Roman Catholic Church (2013–25) who was the first pope from South America and the first from the Jesuit order; he brought many reforms to the church and a reputation for humility

May

• Robert Benton (92): American filmmaker who directed and wrote a number of acclaimed movies; he won Academy Awards for best director and best adapted screenplay for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and he earned an Oscar for best original screenplay for Places in the Heart (1984)

• José Mujica (89): Uruguayan politician who served as president of Uruguay (2010–15) after being long imprisoned for his guerrilla activities with the Tupamaro revolutionary organization

• Peter Lax (99): Hungarian-born American mathematician who was awarded the 2005 Abel Prize “for his groundbreaking contributions to the theory and applications of partial differential equations and to the computation of their solutions”

• Paul Durcan (80): Irish poet whose work displays a desire to surprise the reader by resorting to surrealist eccentricity 

• Yuri Grigorovich (98): Russian dancer and choreographer who served as the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995

• Sebastião Salgado (81): Brazilian photojournalist whose dramatic black-and-white works powerfully express the beauty and destruction of the planet, the diversity of humanity, and the suffering of the impoverished

• Ngugi wa Thiong’o (87): Kenyan writer who was considered East Africa’s leading ; his popular Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major novel in English by an East African
• George E. Smith (95): American physicist who was awarded, with physicist Willard Boyle, the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2009 for their invention of the charge-coupled device
• Loretta Swit (87): American actress who was best known for playing Maj. Margaret (“Hot Lips”) Houlihan on the popular TV series M*A*S*H* (1972−83), about the Korean War

June

• Edmund White (85): American writer whose critically acclaimed work focuses on male homosexual society in America; his studies of evolving attitudes toward homosexuality and of the impact of HIV/AIDS on homosexual communities in the U.S. were significant contributions to contemporary sociological and social history

• Marc Garneau (76): Canadian naval officer, astronaut, and politician who was the first Canadian citizen to go into space (1984)

• Frederick Forsyth (86): British author of best-selling thriller novels noted for their journalistic style and fast-paced plots based on international political affairs and personalities

• Brian Wilson (82): American singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as a cofounder and the lead singer, bassist, and keyboardist for the Beach Boys, a band whose songs defined the sun-drenched surfing music of southern California

• Maurice Gee (93): New Zealand novelist best known for his realistic evocations of New Zealand life and his fantastical tales for young adults; his notable work is the Plumb trilogy

• Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (95): Nicaraguan newspaper publisher and politician who served as president of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997; she was Central America’s first woman president

• Alfred Brendel (94): Austrian pianist and writer whose recordings and international concert appearances secured his reputation; he was best known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s music

• D. Wayne Lukas (89): American Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse trainer whose horses won 15 Triple Crown races and 20 Breeders’ Cup events

July

• Jimmy Swaggart (90): American televangelist and gospel music performer who was defrocked by the Assemblies of God in 1988 after a sex scandal involving prostitutes

• Muhammadu Buhari (82): Nigerian military leader and politician who served as Nigeria’s military head of state in 1984–85 and later as a democratically elected president in 2015–23

• Connie Francis (87): American singer and actress whose recordings in the 1950s and ’60s encompassed country, rock and roll, and traditional vocal pop; in 1960 she became the first woman to top the Billboard singles chart

• Felix Baumgartner (56): Austrian daredevil and skydiver known for his extreme jumps; notably, in 2012 he jumped from a balloon at an altitude of 128,100 feet (39,405 meters), becoming the first person to break the sound barrier with his own power

• Malcolm-Jamal Warner (54): American actor, director, and musician who was perhaps best known for his work on The Cosby Show (1984–92), one of the most popular sitcoms in television history

• Ozzy Osbourne (76): British musician who gained a loyal following as the vocalist for the 1970s heavy metal group Black Sabbath before embarking on a successful solo career in the 1980s; cultivating a rebellious, satanic persona as “the Prince of Darkness,” Osbourne became the quintessential metal front man

• Hulk Hogan (71): American professional wrestler whose huge popularity in the 1980s sparked “Hulkamania” and contributed to the rise of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE])
• Cleo Laine (97): British singer and actress who mastered a variety of styles but was best known as the “Queen of Jazz”

• Ryne Sandberg (65): American baseball player who was the second baseman for the Chicago Cubs from 1982 to 1997; known for his fielding and hitting, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005

• Cécile Dionne (91): Canadian woman who was one of the Dionne quintuplets, the first quintuplets known to have survived infancy

August

• Shibu Soren (81): Indian politician and government official who was a cofounder and then longtime president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha; he also served three terms as the chief minister of Jharkhand (2005; 2008–09; and 2009–10)

• Ion Iliescu (95): Romanian politician who twice served as president of Romania (1990–96; 2000–04)

• Eddie Palmieri (88): American pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader who blended jazz piano with various Latin American popular music styles and was an important trailblazer in the development of salsa music

• Jim Lovell (97): U.S. astronaut of the Gemini and Apollo space programs, and was the commander of the nearly disastrous Apollo 13 flight to the Moon in 1970

• Ṣunʿ Allāh Ibrāhīm (88): Egyptian novelist and social critic best known for his satires, which are characterized by a mixture of realism and dark humor

• Rainer Weiss (92): German-born American physicist who was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and for the first direct detection of gravity waves

September

• Giorgio Armani (91): Italian fashion designer whose signature style of relaxed yet luxurious ready-to-wear and elegant, intricately beaded evening wear helped introduce ease and streamlined modernity to late 20th-century and early 21st-century dressing

• Mark Volman (78): American singer and musician who was a member of the 1960s pop band the Turtles, which specialized in vocally rich, craftily arranged pop music; the group’s best-known song is “Happy Together”

• David Baltimore (87): American virologist who won a share of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1975; he was involved in the discovery of reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that synthesizes DNA from RNA

• Charlie Kirk (31): American conservative activist and media personality who founded the right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA and who was a key ally of Pres. Donald Trump; Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University

• Robert Redford (89): American film actor and director known for such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and Ordinary People (1980); he was also known for his lifelong commitment to environmental and liberal political causes and for founding the Sundance Institute and promoting the Sundance Film Festival 

• John Searle (93): American philosopher best known for his work in the philosophy of language—especially speech act theory—and the philosophy of mind; he also made significant contributions to epistemology, ontology, the philosophy of social institutions, and the study of practical reason

• Assata Shakur (78): American activist and a member of the Black Liberation Army who received a life sentence for the murder of a state trooper in New Jersey; Shakur, who maintained her innocence, escaped from prison in 1979, and Cuba granted her asylum in 1984

October

• Jane Goodall (91): British ethologist known for her exceptionally detailed and long-term research on the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania

• Ivan Klíma (94): Czech author whose fiction and plays were long banned by his country’s communist rulers

• John Gurdon (92): British developmental biologist who won a share of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work that ultimately formed the foundation for major advances in cloning and stem cell research and that led to the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells

• Diane Keaton (79): American film actress and director who achieved fame in quirky comic roles prior to gaining respect as a dramatic actress; she won an Academy Award for her starring role in Annie Hall (1977)

• Raila Odinga (80): Kenyan businessman and politician who served as prime minister of Kenya (2008–13) following the contentious presidential election of December 2007

• Ace Frehley (74): American musician who was the original guitarist for Kiss, which was one of the most influential and best-selling rock groups from the 1970s through the early 2000s, known in particular for its theatrical live performances and extravagant outfits and makeup

• Murayama Tomiichi (101): Japanese politician who, in 1994–96, was the first Socialist prime minister of Japan since 1948

• Chen Ning Yang (103): Chinese-born American theoretical physicist who shared the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics for his research showing that parity—the symmetry between physical phenomena occurring in right-handed and left-handed coordinate systems—is violated when certain elementary particles decay