Famous People Born in 1931
List of famous people born in 1931, with photos when available. This list of celebrities born in 1931 is loosely ordered by popularity, so the most well-known people are at the top. All sorts of men and women are featured on this list, including actors, singers, musicians and athletes born in 1931. Various bits of information are available for these prominent people whose birth year is 1931, such as what schools they went to and where they were born. If you're looking for a particular famous person born in 1931 you can type their name into the "search" bar and it will take you right to them.
List ranges from Robert Duvall to William Shatner and more.
If you're trying to answer the question, "Which celebrities were born in 1931?" then this list should be a perfect resource for you.- Best known for her iconic role as Jeannie in the classic television series I Dream of Jeannie, Barbara Eden is an American actress who has made an indelible mark on Hollywood. Born on August 23, 1931, in Tucson, Arizona, Eden's passion for the arts was evident from a young age. After winning a beauty pageant in high school, she moved to San Francisco to study singing and acting at the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Eden began her career in Hollywood with minor roles in popular shows during the 1950s, including I Love Lucy and The Johnny Carson Show. In 1960, she debuted on the big screen in the movie Flaming Star, sharing the screen with the legendary Elvis Presley. However, it was in 1965 that Eden catapulted to stardom by landing the leading role in I Dream of Jeannie. The show ran for five seasons, and Eden's portrayal of the charming and mischievous 2,000-year-old genie won hearts worldwide, becoming her most enduring legacy. Despite the end of I Dream of Jeannie, Eden's career did not slow down. She went on to appear in numerous television shows and movies, including Harper Valley PTA, where she played the lead role, and Dallas, where she reprised her role as Jeannie in a guest appearance. Off-screen, Eden is a published author, her autobiography Jeannie Out of the Bottle detailing her journey through Hollywood. With a career spanning over six decades, Barbara Eden remains an indispensable icon in the world of entertainment.
- Birthplace: Tucson, Arizona, USA
- Don King, born on August 20, 1931, in Cleveland, Ohio, is an internationally recognized figure in the world of professional boxing. Known for his unique hair and flamboyant personality, King navigated his way to becoming one of the most influential and controversial sports promoters of the 20th century. Before entering the boxing landscape, King had a turbulent past that included running an illegal bookmaking operation and serving nearly four years in prison for manslaughter. Nevertheless, he managed to reinvent himself and changed the face of professional boxing. King's breakthrough came in 1974 when he promoted "The Rumble in the Jungle", a historic boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Kinshasa, Zaire. This event marked the beginning of King's dominance in the boxing promotion business. He worked with some of the most notable fighters of the time, including Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Larry Holmes. King organized several landmark boxing events that attracted global attention, contributing significantly to the commercialization and popularity of the sport. Despite his success, King's career was not without controversy. He faced numerous legal battles, often accused by fighters of shortchanging them. However, none of these allegations ever resulted in significant legal consequences for King. His relentless determination, business acumen, and knack for spectacle made him a compelling, if polarizing, figure in the sporting world. Despite the controversies, Don King's imprint on the world of professional boxing is undeniable. His story offers a remarkable narrative of redemption, ambition, and the relentless pursuit of success.
- Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Anne Bancroft, a name synonymous with the world of theater, film, and television, was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in the Bronx, New York City, in 1931. Her parents, Michael and Mildred Italiano, were children of Italian immigrants, and they instilled in young Bancroft a deep appreciation for her cultural heritage. Bancroft's journey into the performing arts began at an early age when she started attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York after graduating from Christopher Columbus High School. Bancroft's acting career spanned over half a century, during which she received numerous accolades and established herself as one of Hollywood's most versatile actresses. She won an Academy Award, two BAFTAs, two Golden Globes, and two Tony Awards, a testament to her talent and dedication. Despite her success in Hollywood, Bancroft never lost her love for the theater and often returned to Broadway, where she gave several memorable performances. Her role as Mrs. Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate is arguably her most iconic, earning her an Academy Award nomination and forever cementing her place in cinematic history. Beyond her professional achievements, Bancroft led a rich personal life. In 1964, she married comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks, a union that lasted until her untimely death in 2005. The couple had one son, Max Brooks, who became a successful author and screenwriter. Although Bancroft passed away from uterine cancer, her legacy lives on through her timeless performances, her contributions to the arts, and her unwavering commitment to her craft. The life and career of Anne Bancroft serve as a shining example of the power of passion, perseverance, and talent.
- Birthplace: Bronx, New York, USA
- Angie Dickinson, born Angeline Brown on September 30, 1931, in Kulm, North Dakota, is a revered figure in the realm of American film and television. Her journey from a small-town girl to an iconic Hollywood star is one that resonates with ambition, persistence, and unyielding spirit. She rose to prominence for her roles in classic films such as Rio Bravo (1959), Dressed to Kill (1980), and the pioneering series Police Woman (1974-1978), where she played the resilient Sergeant Suzanne 'Pepper' Anderson, becoming one of the first women to portray a police officer on television. Dickinson's career began in the 1950s, after she won a local beauty pageant which led her to Hollywood. Despite initial struggles, she found success when director Howard Hawks cast her alongside John Wayne in Rio Bravo. Her performance was critically acclaimed, paving the way for more significant roles in both film and television. Throughout her illustrious career spanning over six decades, Dickinson has worked with some of the most prominent figures in Hollywood including Frank Sinatra, Lee Marvin, and Burt Bacharach, to whom she was married from 1965 to 1981. Off-screen, Dickinson was known for her bold personality and her commitment to advocating for women's rights. She was instrumental in breaking down barriers and challenging stereotypes about women in law enforcement through her role in Police Woman. She has received numerous accolities for her contributions to the entertainment industry, including a Golden Globe Award and three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Even beyond the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, Angie Dickinson stands tall as a trailblazer and a testament to the power of perseverance and self-belief.
- Birthplace: Kulm, North Dakota, USA
Every Angie Dickinson Movie, RankedSee all
- 1Point Blank26 Votes
- 2Rio Bravo41 Votes
- 3Big Bad Mama38 Votes
- Dan Irvin Rather Jr. (; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist. Rather began his career in Texas and was on the scene of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963. His reporting elevated his position in CBS News, where he was White House correspondent beginning in 1964. He served as foreign correspondent in London and Vietnam over the next two years before returning to the White House correspondent position, covering the presidency of Richard Nixon, including his trip to China, Watergate scandal and resignation. When Walter Cronkite retired in 1981, Rather was promoted to news anchor for the CBS Evening News, a role he occupied for 24 years. Along with Peter Jennings at ABC News and Tom Brokaw at NBC News, he was one of the "Big Three" nightly news anchors in the U.S. from the 1980s through the early 2000s. He also frequently contributed to CBS's weekly news magazine 60 Minutes. Within a year of Brokaw's retirement and Jennings's death, he left the anchor desk in 2005 following a controversy in which he presented unauthenticated documents in a news report on President George W. Bush's Vietnam War-era service in the National Guard. He continued to work with CBS until 2006. On the cable channel AXS TV (then called HDNet), Rather hosted Dan Rather Reports, a 60 Minutes-style investigative news program, from 2006 to 2013. He also hosts several other projects for AXS TV, including Dan Rather Presents, which does in-depth reporting on broad topics such as mental health care or adoption, and The Big Interview with Dan Rather, where he conducts long-form interviews with musicians and other entertainers. In January 2018, he began hosting an online newscast called The News with Dan Rather on The Young Turks' YouTube channel.
- Birthplace: Wharton, Texas, USA
- Blonde and buxom to a physics-defying degree, Swedish born actress Anita Ekberg became the very definition of cinematic sex goddess with her iconic performance in Italian director Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" (1960). Coming to America after winning the Miss Sweden beauty competition in 1950, Ekberg soon secured herself a contract with Universal Pictures and began a string of appearances in such features as "Blood Alley" (1955), "Hollywood or Bust" (1956) and the historical epic "War and Peace" (1956). Often eclipsing her work on screen, however, were the alleged romantic liaisons with many of Hollywood's most powerful leading men, including Tyrone Power, Gary Cooper and Frank Sinatra. Sub-par genre pictures with titles like "Sheba and the Gladiator" (1959) were fast becoming Ekberg's stock-in-trade before Fellini cast the stunning actress in "La Dolce Vita," instantly making her co-star Marcello Mastroianni an international superstar, but oddly, doing little to advance her career. After a few more mainstream efforts like "4 for Texas" (1963), Ekberg settled for decades of forgettable European-produced B-movies until she appeared as herself in the Fellini reminiscence "Intervista" (1987). Although her performance in "La Dolce Vita" far outshone any of Ekberg's performances before or after, the image of her cavorting with Mastroianni in Rome's historic Trevi Fountain would be more than enough to ensure her a place in the pantheon of film's greatest sex symbols for all time. Anita Ekberg died in her adopted home of Italy on January 11, 2015.
- Birthplace: Malmö, Skåne län, Sweden
- Carmen Dell'Orefice (, Italian: [delloˈreːfitʃe]; born June 3, 1931) is an American model and actress. She is known within the fashion industry for being the world's oldest working model as of the Spring/Summer 2012 season. She was on the cover of Vogue at the age of 15 and has been modelling ever since. Her daily motto is to enjoy herself, at no-one else's expense.
- Birthplace: New York
- Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam ( (listen); 15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was an aerospace scientist who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts. He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress. Widely referred to as the "People's President", he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public service after a single term. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015, aged 83. Thousands including national-level dignitaries attended the funeral ceremony held in his hometown of Rameshwaram, where he was buried with full state honours.
- Birthplace: Rameswaram, India
- A talented former dancer and magician's assistant, voluptuous, blonde bombshell Carroll Baker came under the private tutelage of Lee Strasberg once in NYC, eventually becoming a member of the famed Actors Studio. She had appeared in a bit role in "Easy to Love" (1953), but it was her performance on Broadway in Robert Anderson's "All Summer Long" (1955) that led director Elia Kazan and playwright-screenwriter Tennessee Williams to chose her (over Marilyn Monroe) for their classic "Baby Doll" (1956). Although George Steven's "Giant," which opened two months earlier that same year, introduced Baker as a terrific screen presence, it did not prepare anyone for her sizzling portrayal as the underage and overly ripe wife of Karl Malden, whose erotic thumb-sucking and torrid "love scene" (without a single kiss) played with Eli Wallach on a swing outside the house somehow slipped past the Hays' censors, earning her a much-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Condemned by the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency because of its "carnal suggestiveness," "Baby Doll" established Baker solidly as an A-list actor.
- Birthplace: Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA
- While many TV viewers will recall Charles Nelson Reilly and his zany humor from numerous appearances as a panelist on game-shows. most particularly "The Match Game." more than a few may not be aware of his distinguished stage career as both actor and director. The Bronx-born, Connecticut-raised performer got his start in summer theater in 1950. Honing his craft in numerous productions and under the tutelage of Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen, Reilly was more than prepared when he made his NYC in a 1956 revival of the musical "Best Foot Forward." In 1960, he was featured in the Jerry Herman revue "Parade" and later went on to understudy both Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde in the hit musical "Bye Bye Birdie." The following year, Reilly had his breakthrough musical role, earning a Tony Award as Bud Frump, the insidious nephew of a corporate head (Rudy Vallee) in the Pulitzer-winning "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Now an established Broadway player, he was cast as the ambitious office clerk Cornelius Hackl in the Jerry Herman musical "Hello, Dolly!" (1964), for which he picked up a Tony nomination. While Reilly has been vocal about the problems of the production (particularly with director Gower Champion and star Carol Channing), he did have the benefit of playing opposite Eileen Brennan with whom he performed a cabaret act. After the quick closing of the ill-fated musical "Skyscraper" (which introduced him to star Julie Harris), Reilly more or less abandoned the stage for the small screen.
- Birthplace: Bronx, New York, USA
- George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best known song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last twenty years of his life, Jones was frequently referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved." Waylon Jennings expressed a similar opinion in his song "It's Alright": "If we all could sound like we wanted to, we'd all sound like George Jones." The shape of his nose and facial features earned Jones the nickname "The Possum".Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven and was given a guitar at the age of nine. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones". After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure. During his career, Jones had more than 150 hits, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists. Robert Christgau has called him "honky-tonk's greatest honky".
- Birthplace: Texas, USA, Saratoga
- Diana Dors was an English actress who appeared in "A Kid For Two Farthings," "Blonde Sinner," and "Deep End."
- Birthplace: Swindon, Wiltshire, England, UK
- Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (Russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Е́льцин, IPA: [bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn] (listen); 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the first President of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990, he later stood as a political independent, during which time he was ideologically aligned with liberalism and Russian nationalism. Born in Butka, Sverdlovsk Oblast to a peasant family, Yeltsin grew up in Kazan. After studying at the Ural State Technical University, he worked in construction. Joining the Communist Party, which governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state according to Marxist-Leninist doctrine, he rose through its ranks and in 1976 became First Secretary of the party's Sverdlovsk Oblast committee. Initially a supporter of the perestroika reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin later criticised them as being too moderate, calling for a transition to a multi-party representative democracy. In 1987 he was the first person to resign from the party's governing Politburo, establishing his popularity as an anti-establishment figure. In 1990, he was elected chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet and in 1991 was elected President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Allying with various non-Russian nationalist leaders, he was instrumental in the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December that year, at which the RSFSR became the Russian Federation, an independent state. Yeltsin remained in office as president and was reelected in the 1996 election, although critics claimed pervasive electoral corruption. Yeltsin transformed Russia's state socialist economy into a capitalist market economy by implementing economic shock therapy, market exchange rate of the ruble, nationwide privatization, and lifting of price controls. Economic collapse and inflation ensued. Amid the economic shift, a small number of oligarchs obtained a majority of the national property and wealth, while international monopolies came to dominate the market. During the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, Yeltsin ordered the unconstitutional dissolution of the Supreme Soviet parliament, which responded by attempting to remove him from office. In October 1993, troops loyal to Yeltsin stopped an armed uprising outside of the parliament building; he then introduced a new constitution. Secessionist sentiment in the Russian Caucasus led to the First Chechen War, War of Dagestan, and Second Chechen War between 1994 and 1999. Internationally, Yeltsin promoted renewed collaboration with Europe and signed arms control agreements with the United States. Amid growing internal pressure, in 1999 he resigned and was succeeded by his chosen successor, former Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Out of office, he kept a low profile, although was later given a state funeral. Yeltsin was a controversial figure. Domestically he was highly popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, although his reputation was damaged by the economic and political crises of his presidency and he left office widely unpopular with the Russian population. He received praise for his role in dismantling the Soviet Union, transforming Russia into a representative democracy, and introducing new political, economic, and cultural freedoms to the country. Conversely, he was accused of economic mismanagement, overseeing a massive growth in inequality and corruption, and of undermining Russia's standing as a major world power.
- Birthplace: Russia
- David Joseph Madden (December 17, 1931 – January 16, 2014) was a Canadian-born American actor. His most famous role came on the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family, in which he played the group's manager, Reuben Kincaid, opposite Shirley Jones's character. Madden later had a recurring role as diner customer Earl Hicks on the mid-1970s to mid-1980s sitcom, Alice.
- Birthplace: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Albert DeSalvo
Dec. at 42 (1931-1973)Albert Henry DeSalvo (September 3, 1931 – November 25, 1973) was a criminal in Boston, Massachusetts who confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", the murderer of 13 women in the Boston area from 1962 to 1964. DeSalvo was imprisoned, however, for a series of rapes. His murder confession has been disputed, and debate continues as to which crimes he actually committed. In July 2013, DNA was matched between seminal fluid found at the rape and murder of Mary Sullivan and DNA obtained from DeSalvo's nephew, linking DeSalvo to the murder of Sullivan and excluding 99.9% of the remaining population. Authorities exhumed DeSalvo's remains later that month and confirmed the DNA match.- Birthplace: Chelsea, Boston, Massachusetts
- With a startlingly long career that encompassed jazz, pop, film, and television, Della Reese was a multi-media phenomenon. And as an African-American artist working before and during the civil rights era, her achievements were doubly significant. Delloreese Patricia Early was born on July 6, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan to a black father and Cherokee mother. She started out in gospel music, singing with Mahalia Jackson when she was just 13 years old, and subsequently with The Meditation Singers in the late '40s. By the early '50s, Reese had made the shift towards a jazz/pop style, and in 1954 she released her first solo single, "Yes Indeed." She plugged away for the next few years, releasing several singles on the Jubilee label, and in 1957 she had her big breakthrough with the song "And That Reminds Me," which became a huge success and earned her national attention for her big, lustrous vocal style. Two years later she made a move to RCA, and scored her biggest success ever with "Don't You Know?" that same year, hitting No. 2 Pop and No. 1 R&B and earning Reese a Grammy nomination. Her 1960 LP Della hit big too, and gave her another Grammy nomination. By the late '60s, though she continued to record, Reese began to develop her career as an actor. She started out with one-off appearances on TV shows like "The Mod Squad" (ABC 1968-73) and then TV movies. In the mid '70s she had a recurring role in hit series "Chico and the Man" (NBC 1974-78). In 1989 she appeared in the Eddie Murphy/Richard Pryor film "Harlem Nights" (1989) and two years later co-starred with Redd Foxx in the short-lived TV series "The Royal Family" (CBS 1991-92). But her biggest acting role came with a starring part in the series "Touched By An Angel" (CBS 1994-2003), which ran for nine seasons and earned Reese multiple awards. Reese continued acting into the 2010s and passed away on November 19, 2017 in Los Angeles at the age of 86.
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild (born 29 August 1931) is a British financier and a member of the Rothschild family.
- Bill Graham was an American actor and producer who appeared in "Apocalypse Now," "Bugsy," and "Fillmore."
- Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
- Fay Weldon CBE FRSL (born 22 September 1931) is an English author, essayist and playwright.
- Birthplace: Alvechurch, England
- Clive Eric Cussler (born July 15, 1931) is an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. Cussler is the founder and chairman of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has discovered more than 60 shipwreck sites and numerous other notable underwater wrecks. He is the sole author or lead author of more than 80 books. His novels have inspired various other works of fiction in the form of films, TV, other novels and even video games.
- Birthplace: Aurora, Illinois, USA
- Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. Banks is regarded by some as one of the greatest players of all time. He began playing professional baseball in 1950 with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. He served in the U.S. military for two years, played for the Monarchs again, and began his major league career in September 1953. The following year, Banks was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up. Beginning in 1955, Banks was a National League (NL) All-Star for 11 seasons, playing in 13 of the 15 All-Star Games held during those years. Banks was the Cubs' main attraction in the late 1950s, the National League Most Valuable Player in 1958 and 1959, and the Cubs' first Gold Glove winner in 1960. In 1962, Banks became a regular first baseman for the Cubs. Between 1967 and 1971, he was a player-coach. In 1969, through a Chicago Sun-Times fan poll, Cubs fans voted him the greatest Cub ever. In 1970, Banks hit his 500th career home run at Wrigley Field. He retired from playing in 1971, was a coach for the Cubs in 1972, and in 1982 was the team's first player to have his uniform number retired. Banks was active in the Chicago community during and after his tenure with the Cubs. He founded a charitable organization, became the first black Ford Motor Company dealer in the United States, and made an unsuccessful bid for a local political office. In 2013, Banks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to sports. Banks lived in the Los Angeles and Chicago areas.
- Birthplace: Texas, USA, Dallas
- TV hunk Christopher George was best known for his starring role in the war drama "The Rat Patrol" in the late 1960s. He came by the role honestly--George had served an extended hitch in the United States Marine Corps in the late '40s and early '50s. Becoming an actor after his service, George worked in live theater in New York; along with the usual off-Broadway and Broadway roles, George also spent some time in a Greek repertory company, having spoken the language fluently since childhood as the son of Greek immigrants. George toiled in the usual small film and television roles until securing the lead role as Sergeant Sam Troy in "The Rat Patrol" in '66. Set in a commando unit serving in the North African campaign of World War II, the series was a solid success. But when it went off the air in '68, George was unable to capitalize on its success. Aside from a short-lived science-fiction series called "The Immortal," supporting roles in several films starring his boyhood idol John Wayne, and some European-made thrillers co-starring his wife, Lynda Day George, George spent the rest of his career guesting on TV series and playing small character parts on film. He died in '83 of a heart problem thought to be caused by a Jeep accident suffered on the set of "The Rat Patrol" in '67.
- Birthplace: Royal Oak, Michigan, USA
- Alvin Ailey (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an African-American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, one of the most successful dance companies in the world. He created AAADT and its affiliated Ailey School as havens for nurturing black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. His work fused theatre, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of black life in America. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world. On July 15, 2008, the United States Congress passed a resolution designating AAADT a “vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World.” That same year, in recognition of AAADT's 50th year anniversary, then Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared December 4th "Alvin Ailey Day" in New York City while then Governor David Paterson honoured the organization on behalf of New York State.
- Birthplace: Texas, Rogers, USA
- Harold "Hal" Fishman (August 25, 1931 – August 7, 2007) was a local news anchor in the Los Angeles area, serving on-air with Los Angeles-area television stations continuously from 1960 until his death in 2007. Fishman was the longest-running news anchor in the history of American television before Dave Ward surpassed him in 2015. He was also a record-holding aviator. "The Simpsons" cartoon television anchorman Kent Brockman was partially inspired by Hal Fishman.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Though best known for playing distinctly sunny characters in a trio of long-running and popular television series, Gavin MacLeod was typecast as a heavy for much of his early acting career. Director Blake Edwards first recognized his potential for comedy in 1959's "Operation Petticoat," and he later gained notice as Navy seaman "Happy" Haines on "McHale's Navy" (ABC, 1962-66) and news writer Murray Slaughter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (CBS, 1970-77). But it was as Merrill Stubing, captain of "The Love Boat" (ABC, 1977-1986) that ensured MacLeod's place in pop culture history, though it would eventually overshadow the large body of work that preceded it. After converting to evangelical Christianity in the mid-1980s, MacLeod began to host programming on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, while maintaining a reserved presence in secular entertainment.
- Birthplace: Mount Kisco, New York, USA
Harold C Simmons
Dec. at 82 (1931-2013)Harold Clark Simmons was an American businessman and billionaire whose banking expertise helped him develop the acquisition concept known as the leveraged buyout to acquire various corporations. He was the owner of Contran Corporation and of Valhi, Inc.,. As of 2006 he controlled 5 public companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange: NL Industries; Titanium Metals Corporation, the world's largest producer of titanium; Valhi, Inc., a multinational company with operations in the chemicals, component products, Waste Control Specialists, titanium metals industries; CompX International, manufacturer of ergonomic products, and Kronos Worldwide, leading producer and marketer of titanium dioxide.- Birthplace: Golden, Texas, Texas
- Though Dana Wynter held a number of leading parts in television, her breakthrough film role was as Becky Driscoll, patient and former love interest of main character Dr. Miles Bennell in 1956's original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The sci-fi classic served as a metaphor for anti-communist paranoia of the McCarthy era; Wynter's character, Becky, and Dr. Bennell fight to warn humankind about the Pod People, emotionless physical duplicates who take possession of the bodies of humans. Thanks to the exposure Wynter gained from the critically acclaimed film, she shared a Golden Globe win the following year for Most Promising Female Newcomer with fellow actresses Anita Ekberg (of "La Dolce Vita") and Victoria Shaw. After this win, Wynter appeared in fairly prominent movie roles, including Holly, fiancée of Rock Hudson's character in the Kenyan war drama "Something of Value"; and Jennifer Curtis, the love interest in the IRA drama "Shake Hands with the Devil," co-starring James Cagney. In the '60s and '70s, Wynter took roles primarily in television, including a cameo on the iconic Western "Gunsmoke" and a twice-occurring role on the mystery series "The Rockford Files," starring James Garner. Though she largely retired from acting after the early '80s, she appeared in one '90s TV movie before retreating from the spotlight. Wynter died in 2011.
- Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
- Desmond Mpilo Tutu OMSG CH GCStJ (7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology. Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born of mixed Xhosa and Motswana heritage to a poor family in Klerksdorp, South Africa. Entering adulthood, he trained as a teacher and married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane in 1955, with whom he had four children. In 1960, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and in 1962 moved to the United Kingdom to study theology at King's College London. In 1966 he returned to Africa, teaching at the Federal Theological Seminary, South Africa, and then the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1972, he became the Theological Education Fund'
- Birthplace: South Africa, Klerksdorp
- Anthony George Newley was born into a working-class family, his father being a shipping clerk. His parents separated and he grew up mostly in the care of his mother. Newley applied to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, but found that the tuition was too expensive. Despite this, directors at the school saw him audition and were impressed enough to offer him a job as an office boy, which included free tuition. It was here that television producer Geoffrey de Barkus noticed him and cast him in the title role for his children's show, "The Adventures of Dusty Bales." He then was offered the part of the Artful Dodger in "Oliver Twist." As an older actor, he portrayed Matthew Mugg in the film adaptation of "Doctor Dolittle," and appeared in supporting roles in "Sweet November" and "Jazz Boat." His primary success, however, came as a vocalist and songwriter, with several hits on the U.K. pop chart including the Grammy Award-winning "What Kind of Fool am I?." He wrote the musicals "Stop the World - I Want to Get Off,"
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
Dorothy Stang
Dec. at 73 (1931-2005)Sister Dorothy Mae Stang, S.N.D., (7 June 1931 – 12 February 2005) was an American-born, Brazilian member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She was murdered in Anapu, a city in the state of Pará, in the Amazon Basin of Brazil. Stang had been outspoken in her efforts on behalf of the poor and the environment, and had previously received death threats from loggers and land owners. Her cause for canonization as a martyr and model of sanctity is underway within the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.- Birthplace: Dayton, Ohio
- Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931 – June 16, 2023) was an American economist, activist, and former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of the U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 191, ending with a total maximum sentence of 115 years. Due to governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering, and the defense by Leonard Boudin and Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. dismissed all charges against Ellsberg on May 11, 1973. He is also known for having formulated an important example in decision theory, the Ellsberg paradox, his extensive studies on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy, and for having voiced support for WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Colin J. Campbell, PhD Oxford (born 1931) is a retired British petroleum geologist who predicted that oil production would peak by 2007. He claims the consequences of this are uncertain but drastic, due to the world's dependency on fossil fuels for the vast majority of its energy. His theories have received wide attention but are disputed and have not significantly changed governmental energy policies at this time. To deal with declining global oil production, he has proposed the Rimini protocol. Influential papers by Campbell include The Coming Oil Crisis, written with Jean Laherrère in 1998 and credited with convincing the International Energy Agency of the coming peak; and The End of Cheap Oil, published the same year in Scientific American. He was referred to as a "doomsayer" in The Wall Street Journal in 2004.. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, founded by Campbell in 2000, has been gaining recognition in the recent years. The association has organised yearly international conferences since 2002. The most recent conference of the USA chapter (ASPO-USA) was at the University of Texas in Austin, TX on 30 November and 1 December 2012.
- Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
- A former jazz musician and a Tony winner, Hal Linden was perhaps best known as Captain Barney Miller, the world-weary head of New York's 12th Precinct on "Barney Miller" (ABC, 1975-1982). A talented musician-singer, Linden spent nearly a decade performing with such noted big band leaders as Sammy Kaye before channeling his energies toward acting. He found success on Broadway, beginning with a 1958 turn in "Bells Are Ringing" and punctuated by a Tony win for his performance in "The Rothschilds" in 1971. Having dabbled in the medium of television since the mid-1960s, the actor achieved mainstream fame when he was cast as "Barney Miller" three years later. Linden's nuanced performance, which echoed the show's balance of broad comedy and sincere human drama, earned him both critical acclaim and viewer loyalty. After the hugely popular series ended its seven-year run, Linden kept busy with continued hosting duties on the educational wildlife show "Animals, Animals, Animals" (ABC, 1975-1981), further successful runs on Broadway, and the occasional big screen appearance in such feature films as "Out to Sea" (1993), starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Employing a combination of sophisticated charm and everyman appeal, Linden enjoyed a prolific and diverse career on stage, TV and film, well into his octogenarian years.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Darla Jean Hood (November 8, 1931 – June 13, 1979) was an American child actress, best known as the leading lady in the Our Gang series from 1935 to 1941. She was born in Leedey, Oklahoma, the only child of music teacher Elizabeth Davner, and James Claude Hood, who worked in a bank.
- Birthplace: USA, Oklahoma, Leedey
- Actor David Janssen is best remembered for his role as Dr. Richard Kimble in "The Fugitive," the classic suspense television show that ran for four seasons in the mid 1960s. Accused and convicted of murdering his wife, Janssen becomes an outlaw when the train taking him to prison crashes, and he begins his own manhunt for the one-armed murderer who got away. Before hitting it big with the show, he played numerous bit parts in forgettable B movies over the years, but his movie career never really took off. Television was where Janssen made his name and fortune. In 1957, he played one of TV's first tough-guy detectives in "Richard Diamond, Private Detective." Post-"Fugitive," he starred in the crime show "O'Hara, United States Treasury," co-created by "Dragnet"'s Jack Webb, and in the short-lived "Harry O," the latter show fondly remembered by viewers and critics as one of the best crime shows of its day. Although his big-screen career never panned out, many action fans will remember him best as the doubting journalist in need of some political indoctrination from John Wayne in the gung-ho Vietnam War film "The Green Berets." Janssen died in 1980 of a heart attack at the age of 48.
- Birthplace: Naponee, Nebraska, USA
- Hans Alfredson worked on a variety of projects during his entertainment career. Alfredson kickstarted his acting career in various films such as the drama "Shame" (1968) with Liv Ullmann, "Appelkriget" (1972) and the Max von Sydow historical film "The Emigrants" (1972). He also appeared in "Nybyggarna" (1973) with Max von Sydow, the Gosta Ekman Jr. fantastical comedy "Aegget ar Lost" (1975) and the comedy "Slapp fangarne loss--det ar var!" (1975) with Lena Nyman. He continued to work steadily in film throughout the seventies and the eighties, appearing in "Sista budet" (1981), the comedy "SOPOR (Sveriges Onodigforklarade Protest ORganisation)" (1981) with Brasse Brannstrom and "Den Enfaldige mordaren" (1982). During the latter part of his career, he continued to act in the Anders Eriksson comedy "Macken" (1990), the Samuel Fröler dramatic biopic "The Best Intentions" (1992) and "Jerusalem" (1997). He also appeared in "Private Confessions" (1999) with Pernilla August. Most recently, Alfredson acted in the Michael Nyqvist foreign sequel "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" (2010). Alfredson had two children.
- Birthplace: Malmö, Scania, Sweden
- At once a consummate, hard-living dealmaker and a well-loved Hollywood personality, Bernie Brillstein was a truly old-school talent manager and producer with a heart as great as his ambition. In his heyday, Brillstein had a myriad of clients that ranged from soft-spoken muppeteer Jim Henson to hedonistic John Belushi. Despite being from opposite ends of the spectrum, both fit his personality perfectly, which was warm and genial as well as passionate and outspoken. Prior to being a top manager, Brillstein worked his way up the chain of command at the William Morris Agency, starting in the mailroom and quickly advancing to become a talent agent. Once he left, Brillstein formed his own management company, allowing him to serve as a producer on numerous film and television projects, including "The Blues Brothers" (1980), "Ghostbusters" (1984), "The Larry Sanders Show" (HBO, 1992-98) and "Just Shoot Me" (NBC, 1996-2003). Brillstein had a reputation of caring deeply for his clients and left behind a legacy of being a giant in the business.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
Aleksei Gubarev
Age: 93Aleksei Aleksandrovich Gubarev (Russian: Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Гу́барев; 29 March 1931 – 21 February 2015) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on two space flights: Soyuz 17 and Soyuz 28.- Birthplace: Samara, Russia
- Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Гречко; 25 May 1931 – 8 April 2017) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on several space flights including Soyuz 17, Soyuz 26, and Soyuz T-14.Grechko graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Mechanics with a doctorate in mathematics. He was a member of Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He went on to work at Sergei Korolev's design bureau and from there was selected for cosmonaut training for the Soviet Moon programme. When that program was cancelled, he went on to work on the Salyut space stations. Grechko made the first spacewalk in an Orlan space suit on 20 December 1977 during the Salyut 6 EO-1 mission. He was twice awarded the medal of Hero of the Soviet Union. He resigned from the space programme in 1992 to lecture on atmospheric physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Grechko has written his memoirs as "Космонавт No. 34: От лучины до пришельцев," (Cosmonaut No. 34 From Splinter to Aliens) Olma Media Grupp, Moscow, 2013. A minor planet 3148 Grechko discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him.Grechko had a brief cameo role in Richard Viktorov's 1981 film Per Aspera Ad Astra, and as a result attained pop culture status in his home city of Leningrad. He also appeared in the 1979 film Under the Constellation Gemini. Grechko, along with Alexei Leonov, Vitaly Sevastyanov, and Rusty Schweickart established the Association of Space Explorers in 1984. Membership is open to all people who have flown in outer space. Grechko died aged 85 as a result of several chronic illnesses. He was survived by wife Lyudmila and daughter Olga.
- Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Albert DeSalvo (The Boston Strangler)
Dec. at 42 (1931-1973)The Boston Strangler is the name given to the murderer or murderers of 13 women in the Boston, Massachusetts, area during the early 1960s. The crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo based on his confession, details revealed in court during a separate case, and DNA evidence linking him to the last victim. Since then, parties investigating the crimes have suggested that the murders (sometimes referred to as "the silk stocking murders") were committed by more than one person.- Birthplace: Chelsea, Boston, Massachusetts
- Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th Governor of Virginia, from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction, and the first elected African-American governor.Born in Richmond, Virginia, Wilder graduated from Virginia Union University and served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He established a legal practice in Richmond after graduating from the Howard University School of Law. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilder won election to the Virginia Senate in 1969. He remained in that chamber until 1986, when he took office as the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, becoming the first African American to hold statewide office in Virginia. In the 1989 Virginia gubernatorial election, Wilder narrowly defeated Republican Marshall Coleman. Wilder left the gubernatorial office in 1994, as the Virginia constitution prohibited governors from seeking re-election. He briefly sought the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew from the race before the first primaries. He also briefly ran as an independent in the 1994 Virginia Senate election before dropping out of the race. Wilder returned to elective office in 2005, when he became the first directly-elected Mayor of Richmond. After leaving office in 2009, he worked as an adjunct professor and founded the United States National Slavery Museum.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia, USA
- Charles Arthur "Charlie" Bassett II, Major, USAF (December 30, 1931 – February 28, 1966) was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot. He went to Ohio State University for two years and later graduated from Texas Tech University. He joined the air force as a pilot and graduated from both the Aerospace Research Pilot School and the Air Force's Experimental Test Pilot School. Bassett was married and had two children. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 and assigned to Gemini 9, but died in an airplane crash during training for his first spaceflight. He is memorialized on the Space Mirror Memorial, The Astronaut Monument, and the Fallen Astronaut memorial plaque, placed on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission.
- Birthplace: Dayton, Ohio
Elfriede Blauensteiner
Dec. at 72 (1931-2003)Elfriede Blauensteiner (22 January 1931 – 18 November 2003), dubbed the "Black Widow", was an Austrian serial killer who murdered at least three victims by poison. In each case, she inherited the victim's possessions.- Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
- Fernand Legros (French: [ləɡʁo]; 26 January 1931 – 7 April 1983) was an art dealer who for over a decade, from the middle 1950s until the late 1960s, sold the forged artworks of Elmyr de Hory, an artist and "the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time" (taken from the title of Clifford Irving's biography of de Hory, "Fake!", published in 1969).
- Arthur Fry (born 19 August 1931) is a retired American inventor and scientist. He is credited as the co-creator of the Post-it Note, an item of office stationery manufactured by 3M. As of 2006, Post-it products are sold in more than 100 countries. Fry was born in Minnesota and subsequently lived in Iowa and Kansas City. He received his early education in a one-room rural schoolhouse. In 1953, while still enrolled in undergraduate school, Fry took a job at 3M (then called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) as a new product development researcher. He worked in new product development throughout his career at 3M until his retirement in the early 1990s. The item for which he is best known was born in 1974. That year, Fry attended a seminar was given by another 3M scientist, Spencer Silver, on a unique adhesive Silver had developed in 1968. Silver's innovation had an unusual molecular structure, yielding an adhesive strong enough to cling to objects but weak enough to allow for a temporary bond. At the time, Silver was still searching for a marketable use for his invention. As the legend goes, Fry was at school when he came up with the perfect application. Fry sang in his church choir on nights, and he used slips of paper to mark the pages of his workbook. When the book was opened, however, the makeshift bookmarks often moved around or fell out altogether. On a Sunday in 1973, it occurred to him that Silver's adhesive could be put to use to create a better bookmark. If it could be coated on paper, Silver's adhesive would hold a bookmark in place without damaging the page on which it was placed. The next day, Fry requested a sample of the adhesive. He began experimenting, coating only one edge of the paper so that the portion extending from a book would not be sticky. Fry used some of his experiments to write notes to his boss. This use led him to broaden his original idea into the concept that became the Post-it Note. In subsequent years inventor Alan Amron claimed to have introduced the concept to 3M and sued the company.
- Birthplace: Owatonna, Minnesota
- Described as exquisitely beautiful and radiant, Claire Bloom was already a star of the British stage when Charlie Chaplin introduced her delicate features to the world in "Limelight" (1952). Her sensitive performance as the ballet student Chaplin saves from a suicide attempt earned her the British Film Academy Award as Most Promising Newcomer, and the elegant, classically trained actress has remained in demand ever since, splitting her time between theater, film and TV. She distinguished herself onstage opposite some of the finest Shakespearean actors of the day, playing Ophelia to two Hamlets (Paul Scofield and first love Richard Burton) and Cordelia to John Gielgud, as well as Lady Anne to Laurence Olivier's "Richard III" in the 1955 film. She also made a smooth transition from ingenue to strong leading lady with portrayals of Nora ("A Doll's House"), "Hedda Gabler," Mary Queen of Scots ("Vivat! Vivat! Regina") and Blanche DuBois ("A Streetcar Named Desire") during the 1970s.
- Birthplace: Finchley, London, England, UK
- Adrian Pierce Rogers (September 12, 1931 – November 15, 2005) served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1979–1980 and 1986–1988). He was also a Southern Baptist pastor whose church services aired on television, and a conservative author. Rogers was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. He entered Christian ministry at the age of nineteen. He graduated from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Rogers was ordained by Northwood Baptist Church (later known as The Village Baptist Church, now operating as Family Church Village) in West Palm Beach. His first job as a senior pastor was at Fellsmere Baptist Church, a small congregation in Fellsmere, Florida. He performed his first baptism in the C-54 Canal near Fellsmere. He was senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Merritt Island, Florida from 1964 to 1972. In 1972, he became the senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he remained until March 2005. During this period, the church's membership grew from 9,000 to 29,000, and the church moved into a new, megachurch facility. Rogers was named pastor emeritus after his retirement in March 2005. Rogers was instrumental in the Southern Baptist denomination's conservative resurgence that began in the late 1970s, as he was elected president of the denomination during a theological controversy within the denomination. He was the chairman of the committee which produced the revised 2000 edition of the Baptist Faith and Message. He published eighteen books and his works are featured on the internationally available radio and television program, Love Worth Finding, which is broadcast in English and Spanish. Rogers was also the founder of the Adrian Rogers Pastor Training Institute for ministers, which is currently headed by his widow, two sons, and a granddaughter. In November 2005, Rogers contracted pneumonia of both lungs as a complication of colon cancer treatments, and died following a period of mechanical ventilation at the age of seventy-four.
- Birthplace: West Palm Beach, Florida
- Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racing's highest levels starting in 1958. Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, and Trans-Am Series. Gurney is the first of three drivers to have won races in Sports Cars (1958), Formula One (1962), NASCAR (1963), and Indy cars (1967). (The other two were Mario Andretti and Juan Pablo Montoya). In 1967, after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans together with A. J. Foyt, Gurney spontaneously sprayed champagne while celebrating on the podium, which thereafter became a custom at many motorsports events. As owner of All American Racers, he was the first to put a simple right-angle extension on the upper trailing edge of the rear wing. This device, called a Gurney flap, increases downforce and, if well designed, imposes only a relatively small increase in aerodynamic drag. At the 1968 German Grand Prix, he became the first driver ever to use a full face helmet in Grand Prix racing.
- Birthplace: Port Jefferson, New York
- Gilbert Paul Jordan (born Gilbert Paul Elsie on December 12, 1931 – July 7, 2006), known as the "Boozing Barber", was a Canadian serial killer who is believed to have committed the so-called "alcohol murders" in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Bruce C. Murray
Dec. at 81 (1931-2013)Bruce Churchill Murray (November 30, 1931 – August 29, 2013) was an American planetary scientist. He was a director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and co-founder of The Planetary Society.- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Forrest Mars, Jr.
Age: 93Forrest Edward Mars Jr. (August 16, 1931 – July 26, 2016) was an American heir. He was the eldest son of Audrey Ruth (Meyer) and Forrest Mars Sr., and the grandson of Frank C. Mars, the founder of Mars, Incorporated, the confectionery company. In March 2015, Forbes estimated his wealth to be $26.8 billion up from US $11 billion in March 2010. In October 2012, the Bloomberg Billionaires List ranked Mars as the 31st richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of 20.1 billion.- Birthplace: Oak Park Township, Illinois
Gerrit Jan Heijn
Dec. at 56 (1931-1987)Gerrit Jan Heijn (14 February 1931, Zaandam – 9 September 1987) was a Dutch businessman, who was a top manager of Ahold until his death in 1987. His grandfather was Albert Heijn, who founded the family business, and his older brother was also named Albert Heijn, who was the founder of Ahold. His son, Ronald Jan Heijn, played for the Dutch national field hockey team. On 9 September 1987, he was kidnapped near his villa in Bloemendaal, Netherlands by Ferdi Elsas. Although Elsas murdered him only a few hours after the kidnapping, he pretended that Heijn was still alive for a long time and asked for ransom. He sent the Heijn family Gerrit Jan's glasses and severed little finger. Elsas was caught when he started spending banknotes of the ransom he received, of which the numbers had been recorded. He served a prison sentence and was freed in 2001. Elsas gave directions to Heijn's body, which was buried in the woods near Renkum. Gerrit Jan Heijn was cremated on 9 April 1988 in Driehuis. Elsas was killed on 3 August 2009 in an accident when he was struck by an excavator while riding his bicycle near the town of Vorden, Gelderland.- David Ray Wilkerson (May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011) was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the non-denominational Times Square Church in New York City. Wilkerson's widely distributed sermons, such as "A Call to Anguish", are known for being direct and frank against apostasy and serious about making the commitment to obey Jesus' teachings. He emphasized such Christian beliefs as God's holiness and righteousness, God's love toward humans and especially Christian views of Jesus. Wilkerson tried to avoid categorizing Christians into distinct groups according to the denomination to which they belong. Wilkerson was killed in a head-on car crash in Texas on April 27, 2011. He was 79.
- Birthplace: Hammond, Indiana
Edward Spofford
Age: 94Guilherme de Melo
Age: 94Guilherme de Melo (born 1931 in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique; died in Lisbon, 29 June 2013) was a Portuguese journalist, novelist, and activist. Melo lived through the protracted war of independence in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique in the 1960s and 1970s. Openly gay himself, Melo's novel The Shadow of the Days (A Sombra dos Dias) is an account of growing up gay in the privileged environment of a white family in colonial Mozambique before the outbreak of war and of being openly gay against the background of an increasingly bitter anti-colonial war. After the Carnation Revolution and the independence of Mozambique in 1975, Melo went to Portugal.Other titles: Ainda Havia Sol (The Sun was still Shining), O Homem que Odiava a Chuva (The Man who Hated Rain), As Vidas de Elisa Antunes (The Lives of Elisa Antunes), O que Houver de Morrer (He who will have to Die) and Como um Rio sem Pontes (Like a Bridgeless River).- Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 – July 4, 2009) was an American businessman, music publisher, writers' representative and record label executive, most noted for his tough persona and aggressive negotiation tactics, many of which established higher industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein revolutionized the income potential of recording artists, who previously had been routinely victimized by onerous record company contracts. He first scored massive monetary and contractual windfalls for Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen, one-hit rockabillies of the late 1950s, then parlayed his early successes into a position managing Sam Cooke, and eventually managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones simultaneously, along with many other artists, becoming one of the most powerful individuals in the music industry during his era.Rather than offering financial advice and maximizing his clients' income, as a business manager normally would, Klein set up what he called "buy/sell agreements" where a company that Klein owned became an intermediary between his client and the record label, owning the rights to the music, manufacturing the records, selling them to the record label, and paying royalties and cash advances to the client. Although Klein greatly increased his clients' incomes, he also enriched himself, sometimes without his clients' knowledge. (The Rolling Stones's $1.25M advance from the Decca Records label in 1965, for one glaring example, was deposited into a company that Klein had established, and the fine print of the contract did not require Klein to release it for 20 years.) Klein's involvement with both the Beatles and Rolling Stones would lead to years of litigation and, specifically for the Rolling Stones, accusations from the group that Klein had withheld royalty payments, stolen the publishing rights to their songs, and neglected to pay their taxes for five years; this last had necessitated their French "exile" in 1971.After years of pursuit by the IRS, Klein was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement on his 1972 tax return, for which he spent two months of 1980 in jail.
- Birthplace: Newark, New Jersey
- Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012) served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as President Nixon's "hatchet man," Colson gained notoriety at the height of the Watergate scandal, for being named as one of the Watergate Seven, and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for attempting to defame Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg. In 1974, he served seven months in the federal Maxwell Prison in Alabama as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.Colson became an Evangelical Christian in 1973. His mid-life religious conversion sparked a radical life change that led to the founding of his non-profit ministry Prison Fellowship and, three years later, Prison Fellowship International, to a focus on Christian worldview teaching and training around the world. Colson was also a public speaker and the author of more than 30 books. He was the founder and chairman of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, which is "a research, study, and networking center for growing in a Christian worldview", and includes Colson's daily radio commentary, BreakPoint, heard on more than 1,400 outlets across the United States (and continues to be broadcast with an alternating panel from the Colson Center).Colson was a principal signer of the 1994 Evangelicals and Catholics Together ecumenical document signed by leading Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholic leaders in the United States. Colson received 15 honorary doctorates, and in 1993 was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the world's largest annual award (over US$1 million) in the field of religion, given to a person who "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension". He donated this prize to further the work of Prison Fellowship, as he did all his speaking fees and royalties. In 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush.
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- After nearly a half century as a working actor with credits on Broadway and TV as well as in features, Dominic Chianese finally achieved prominence as the embittered and ambitious would-be don Corrado 'Junior' Soprano, the uncle to mob boss Tony, on HBO's popular series "The Sopranos" (1999-2006).
- Birthplace: Bronx, New York, USA
- Chalmers Ashby Johnson (August 6, 1931 – November 20, 2010) was an American author and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consultant for the CIA from 1967 to 1973, and chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1972. He was also president and co-founder with Steven Clemons of the Japan Policy Research Institute (now based at the University of San Francisco), an organization promoting public education about Japan and Asia.Johnson wrote numerous books including three examinations of the consequences of what he called the "American Empire": Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire, and Nemesis; The Last Days of the American Republic. A former cold warrior, he feared that, "A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can't be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship."
- Birthplace: Arizona, Phoenix, USA
- Gail Kobe (March 19, 1932 – August 1, 2013) was an American actress and television producer.
- Birthplace: Michigan, USA, Hamtramck, Detroit
- Brian Sewell (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was an English art critic and media personality. He wrote for the Evening Standard and was noted for his acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. The Guardian described him as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic", while the Standard called him the "nation’s best art critic".
- Birthplace: Kensington, London, England
- Richard Henryk Twardzik (April 30, 1931 in Danvers, Massachusetts – October 21, 1955 in Paris) was a jazz pianist, known for bebop, who worked in Boston for the bulk of his career. He trained in classical piano as a child, and made his professional debut at 14. He was taught by prominent Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of baritone saxophone player Serge Chaloff, in whose group Twardzik recorded, in addition to one led by Charlie Mariano. Twardzik also worked with Charlie Parker on several occasions toward the end of Parker's life when he was performing locally. Twardzik became addicted to heroin as a teenager. He died from a heroin overdose while on a European tour with Chet Baker.
- Birthplace: Danvers, Massachusetts
- Fernando Siro (October 5, 1931 – September 4, 2006) was an Argentine film actor, film director and screenwriter.
- Birthplace: Villa Ballester, Argentina
- Charles Bronfman, (born June 27, 1931) is a Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist and is a member of the Canadian Jewish Bronfman family. With an estimated net worth of $2 billion (as of 2013), Bronfman was ranked by Forbes as the 14th wealthiest Canadian and 736th in the world.
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Satyendra Kapoor, born in 1931, is celebrated for his significant contributions to Indian cinema. Hailing from Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh, he carved an indelible mark on Bollywood with his exceptional acting prowess. His cinematic journey spanned over four decades, beginning in the early 1950s and continuing till the late 1990s. Within this period, Kapoor embraced a wide array of roles, both as a protagonist and in supporting roles, showcasing his versatility as an artist. Kapoor's performances are remembered for their deep emotional resonance and nuanced portrayal of the human condition. He was particularly adept at portraying characters that were relatable and could easily strike a chord with the audience. Some of his most iconic roles include Ramlal in the film Sholay (1975) and Hariram Naai in Deewar (1975). These films not only achieved commercial success but also elevated Kapoor's status as a formidable actor in Indian cinema. Despite his fame, Kapoor maintained a low profile, letting his work speak for itself. He was known for his humility and dedication to his craft. His contribution to Indian cinema was recognized when he was conferred with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award posthumously in 2007. Satyendra Kapoor's legacy continues to inspire generations of actors, making him a true stalwart of Indian cinema.
- Birthplace: Panipat, India
- Eric Edgar Cooke (25 February 1931 – 26 October 1964), nicknamed the "Night Caller", was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia, by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths.
- Birthplace: Perth, Australia
- Lecil Travis Martin (September 1, 1931 – April 12, 1999), whose stage name was Boxcar Willie, was an American country music singer-songwriter and Air Force personnel sergeant, who sang in the "old-time hobo" music style, complete with dirty face, overalls, and a floppy hat. "Boxcar Willie" was originally a character in a ballad he wrote, but he later adopted it as his own stage name.
- Birthplace: Texas, USA, Ovilla
- Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt (Dutch: [ˈdris fɑn ˈɑxt] (listen); born 2 February 1931) is a retired Dutch politician and diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 19 December 1977 until 4 November 1982.
- Birthplace: Geldrop, Netherlands
- Donal Donnelly (6 July 1931 – 4 January 2010) was an Irish theatre and film actor. Perhaps best known for his work in the plays of Brian Friel, he had a long and varied career in film, on television and in the theatre. His travels – he lived in Ireland, the UK and the US at various times – led to him describing himself as " ... an itinerant Irish actor ...".
- Birthplace: Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK
- Alfonso Williamson (March 21, 1931 – June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in Bogotá, Colombia before moving back to the United States at the age of 12. In his youth, Williamson developed an interest in comic strips, particularly Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. He took art classes at Burne Hogarth's Cartoonists and Illustrators School, there befriending future cartoonists Wally Wood and Roy Krenkel, who introduced him to the work of illustrators who had influenced adventure strips. Before long, he was working professionally in the comics industry. His most notable works include his science-fiction/heroic fantasy art for EC Comics in the 1950s, on titles including Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. In the 1960s, he gained recognition for continuing Raymond's illustrative tradition with his work on the Flash Gordon comic-book series, and was a seminal contributor to the Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazines Creepy and Eerie. Williamson spent most of the 1970s working on his own credited strip, another Raymond creation, Secret Agent X-9. The following decade, he became known for his work adapting Star Wars films to comic books and newspaper strips. From the mid-1980s to 2003, he was primarily active as an inker, mainly on Marvel Comics superhero titles starring such characters as Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Spider-Girl. Williamson is known for his collaborations with a group of artists including Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, Angelo Torres, and George Woodbridge, which was affectionately known as the "Fleagle Gang". Williamson has been cited as a stylistic influence on a number of younger artists, and encouraged many, helping such newcomers as Bernie Wrightson and Michael Kaluta enter the profession. He has won several industry awards, and six career-retrospective books about him have been published since 1998. Living in Pennsylvania with his wife Corina, Williamson retired in his seventies. Williamson was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Andy Sidaris was a revolutionary sports programming director who eventually went on to direct a series of B-movies starring several "Playboy" and "Penthouse" models. Born in Chicago but raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Sidaris always had a passion for sports and began working as a sports television director for ABC in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Sidaris won an Emmy for his directorial work during the 1968 Summer Olympics, but was more recognized for his work on "Monday Night Football." During sports broadcasts Sidaris would randomly cut to attractive women in the stands and cheerleaders on the sidelines during breaks in the action in what would forever be known as the "honey shot." Sidaris left sports programming in the late 1970s in order to write, direct, and produce his own films, which bordered on softcore pornography and always featured bikini-clad women toting heavy weaponry. Sidaris's films during the 1980s and 1990s became known as the "Bullets, Bombs, and Babes" series and would later be known as the "L.E.T.H.A.L." series. Sidaris would often call upon busty actresses and models like Julie Strain, Roberta Vasquez, and Dona Speir for action films like "Hard Ticket to Hawaii," "Savage Beach," and "Fit to Kill." Sidaris stoped directing films in 1998 but would occasionally appear as an actor in guest roles mainly in the erotic parody film series, "The Bare Wench Project" during the 2000s until his death due to throat cancer at the age of 76.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Constance Morella (; née Albanese; born February 12, 1931) is a Republican who represented Maryland's 8th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2003. She served as Permanent Representative from the U.S. to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2003 to 2007. She is on American University's faculty as an Ambassador in Residence for the Women & Politics Institute. She was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) by President Barack Obama in 2010.
- Birthplace: Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
Edward O. Phillips
Age: 93Edward O. Phillips (born November 26, 1931) is a Canadian novelist, who has written both mystery novels and mainstream literary fiction. He is best known for his mystery novel series featuring gay detective Geoffrey Chadwick.- Birthplace: Québec, Canada
Charles E. Young
Age: 93Charles Emmett Young (born December 30, 1931), nicknamed Chuck Young, is an American retired university administrator and professor. A native of California, Young led the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for 29 years as chancellor and the University of Florida for more than four years as president. He now lives in Sonoma, California.- Birthplace: Highland, California
- Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), John A. Sentry, William Scarff, and Paul Janvier.
- Birthplace: Kaliningrad, Russia
Henry H. Bauer
Age: 94Henry Hermann Bauer (born November 16, 1931) is an emeritus professor of chemistry and science studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He is the author of several books and articles on fringe science, arguing in favor of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster and against Immanuel Velikovsky, and is an AIDS denialist. Following his retirement in 1999, he was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, a fringe science publication. Bauer also served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Tech, generating controversy by criticising affirmative action.- Birthplace: Austria
- Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known internationally for his works of historical fiction. He has been described as one of the most important American novelists of the 20th century. He wrote twelve novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama. They included the award-winning novels Ragtime (1975), Billy Bathgate (1989), and The March (2005). These, like many of his other works, placed fictional characters in recognizable historical contexts, with known historical figures, and often used different narrative styles. His stories were recognized for their originality and versatility, and Doctorow was praised for his audacity and imagination.A number of Doctorow's novels were also adapted for the screen, including Welcome to Hard Times (1967) starring Henry Fonda, Daniel (1983) starring Timothy Hutton, Billy Bathgate (1991) starring Dustin Hoffman, and Wakefield (2016) starring Bryan Cranston. His most notable adaptations were for the film Ragtime (1981) and the Broadway musical of the same name (1998), which won four Tony Awards. Doctorow was the recipient of numerous writing awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Ragtime, National Book Critics Circle Award for Billy Bathgate, National Book Critics Circle Award for The March, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction. Former President Barack Obama called him "one of America's greatest novelists".
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Eugene Allen "Gene" Lipscomb (August 9, 1931 – May 10, 1963) was an American football defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) and a professional wrestler. He was known by the nickname "Big Daddy".
- Birthplace: Uniontown, Alabama
- Barbara Whiting Smith (May 19, 1931 – June 9, 2004) was an actress in movies and on radio and television, primarily in the 1940s and 1950s. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, USA, California
- Brian Horace Clemens OBE (30 July 1931 – 10 January 2015) was an English screenwriter and television producer, possibly best known for his work on The Avengers and The Professionals. Clemens was related to Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), a fact reflected in the naming of his two sons, Samuel Joshua Twain Clemens and George Langhorne Clemens.
- Birthplace: Croydon, London, United Kingdom
- Dominic Joseph Fontana (March 15, 1931 – June 13, 2018) was an American musician best known as the drummer for Elvis Presley for 14 years. In October 1954 he was hired to play drums for Presley, which marked the beginning of a fifteen-year relationship. He played on over 460 RCA cuts with Elvis.
- Birthplace: USA, Shreveport, Louisiana
- Alessandro Mendini is an Italian designer and architect. He played an important part in the development of Italian design. He also worked, aside from his artistic career, for Casabella, Modo and Domus magazines. His design has been characterized by his strong interest in mixing different cultures and different forms of expression; he creates graphics, furniture, interiors, paintings and architectures and wrote several articles and books; he is also renowned as an enthusiastic member of jury in architectural competition for young designers. He also teaches at the University of Milan. Mendini graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 1959 with a degree in architecture and worked as a designer with Marcello Nizzoli. He was the editor-in-chief of a magazine from 1980 to 1985 and changed the landscape of modern design through his quintessential works of postmodernism, such as the Proust Armchair and the Groninger Museum. Just as works of the Renaissance period expressed human values and sensibilities, Mendini has contributed to bringing into the heart of design those “values” and “sensibilities” that have been eclipsed by commercialism and functionalism.
- Birthplace: Milan, Italy
- Frederick Phillips "Fred" Brooks Jr. (born April 19, 1931) is an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month. Brooks has received many awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1985 and the Turing Award in 1999.
- Birthplace: Durham, North Carolina
- Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his philosophy "new existentialism" or "phenomenological existentialism", and maintained his life work was "that of a philosopher, and (his) purpose to create a new and optimistic existentialism".
- Birthplace: Leicester, England
- Don Heaton (April 29, 1931 – October 13, 2018), also known as Don Leo Jonathan, was an American-Canadian professional wrestler.
- Birthplace: USA, Hurricane, Utah
- Herbert Alan Gerwig (April 26, 1931 – November 10, 2011) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name of Killer Karl Kox, who competed in the National Wrestling Alliance as well as international promotions such as All Japan Pro Wrestling, the International Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling during the 1960s and 1970s. Rumors were that in 1957, Kox earned the name, Killer, when he performed his famous finishing move, the brainbuster, on his opponent by holding him upside down for a period of time and allowing the blood to rush to the brain.
- Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
Fred
Dec. at 82 (1931-2013)Frédéric Othon Théodore Aristidès (5 March 1931 – 2 April 2013), known by his pseudonym Fred, was a French cartoonist in the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. He is best known for his series Philémon.- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Robert "Bob" Shaw (31 December 1931 – 11 February 1996) was a science fiction writer and fan from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story "Light of Other Days" was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987.
- Birthplace: Belfast, United Kingdom
- Charles Margrave Taylor (born 1931) is a Canadian philosopher from Montreal, Quebec, and professor emeritus at McGill University best known for his contributions to political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, the history of philosophy, and intellectual history. His work has earned him the Kyoto Prize, the Templeton Prize, the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy, and the John W. Kluge Prize. In 2007, Taylor served with Gérard Bouchard on the Bouchard–Taylor Commission on reasonable accommodation with regard to cultural differences in the province of Quebec. He has also made contributions to moral philosophy, epistemology, hermeneutics, aesthetics, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of action.
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Edwin Lee Mathews (October 13, 1931 – February 18, 2001) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) third baseman. He played 17 seasons for the Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves (1952–66); Houston Astros (1967) and Detroit Tigers (1967–68). Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978, he is the only player to have represented the Braves in the three American cities they have called home. He played 1,944 games for the Braves during their 13-season tenure in Milwaukee—the prime of Mathews' career. Mathews is regarded as one of the best third basemen ever to play the game. He was an All-Star for nine seasons. He won the National League (NL) home run title in 1953 and 1959 and was the NL Most Valuable Player runner-up both of those seasons. He hit 512 home runs during his major league career. Mathews coached for the Atlanta Braves in 1971, and he was the team's manager from 1972 to 1974. Later, he was a scout and coach for the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Oakland Athletics.
- Birthplace: Texarkana, Texas
- Elliot Budd Hopkins (June 15, 1931 – August 21, 2011) was an American painter, sculptor, and prominent figure in alien abduction phenomena and related UFO research.
- Birthplace: Wheeling, West Virginia
- Gene Rodman Wolfe (May 7, 1931 – April 14, 2019) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short-story writer and novelist and won many science fiction and fantasy literary awards.Wolfe is best known for his Book of the New Sun series (four volumes, 1980–1983), the first part of his "Solar Cycle". In 1998, Locus magazine ranked it the third-best fantasy novel published before 1990 based on a poll of subscribers that considered it and several other series as single entries.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Helène Aylon (born Helene Greenfield, February 4, 1931, Brooklyn, New York) is an American multimedia and ecofeminist artist. Her work can be divided into three phases: process art (1970s), anti-nuclear art (1980s), and The G-d Project (1990s and early 2000s), a feminist commentary on the Hebrew Bible and other established traditions. In 2012 Aylon published Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Gordon Oakes
Dec. at 74 (1931-2005)Gordon James Oakes (22 June 1931 – 15 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician.- Andrew Hill, Andy Hill or Drew Hill may refer to:
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Arthur Everett Scholl (December 24, 1931 – September 16, 1985) was an American aerobatic pilot, aerial cameraman, flight instructor and educator based in Riverside, Southern California. He died during the filming of Top Gun when his Pitts S-2 camera plane failed to recover from a spin and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. Scholl, 53, had entered the spin intentionally in order to capture it on film using on-board cameras. Observers watched the plane continue to spin as it descended past the planned recovery altitude. Scholl's last words over the radio were "I have a problem — I have a real problem", after which the plane impacted the ocean about five miles off the coast, near Carlsbad, California. The exact cause of the crash was never determined. Neither the aircraft nor Scholl's body were ever recovered.
- Edmund Kealoha Parker (March 19, 1931 – December 15, 1990) was an American martial artist, Senior Grandmaster, and founder of American Kenpo Karate.
- Birthplace: USA, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Alfredo Sánchez Brell (23 February 1931 – 10 July 2010), known as Aldo Sambrell, was a Spanish actor, director, and producer who appeared in over 150 films between 1961 and 1996.
- Birthplace: Madrid, Spain
- Ermanno Olmi (24 July 1931 – 5 May 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter.
- Birthplace: Bergamo, Italy
Bill Stits
Dec. at 80 (1931-2011)William David Stits (July 26, 1931 – December 5, 2011) was an American football safety in the National Football League for the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins, and New York Giants. He played college football at the University of California, Los Angeles and was drafted in the fourth round of the 1954 NFL Draft.- Birthplace: Lomita, California
- George Maxwell Richards, (1 December 1931 – 8 January 2018), was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian politician who served as the fourth President of Trinidad and Tobago, in office from 2003 to 2013. He was the first President of Trinidad and Tobago and head of state in the Anglophone Caribbean to have Amerindian ancestry.A chemical engineer by training, Richards was Principal of the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad from 1984 to 1996. He previously worked for Shell Trinidad Ltd before joining the University of the West Indies in 1965. He was sworn into office as President on 17 March 2003 for a five-year term.
- Birthplace: San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
- Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan (also known as E. C. G. Sudarshan; 16 September 1931 – 14 May 2018) was an Indian theoretical physicist and a professor at the University of Texas. Sudarshan has been credited with numerous contributions to the field of theoretical Physics including optical coherence, Sudarshan–Glauber representation, V-A theory, tachyons, quantum Zeno effect, open quantum system and Lindblad equation, spin–statistics theorem, non-invariance groups, positive maps of density matrices, quantum computation among others. His contributions include also relations between east and west, philosophy and religion.
- Birthplace: Pallam, India
Ebrahim Yazdi
Age: 93Ebrahim Yazdi (Persian: ابراهیم یزدی; 26 September 1931 – 27 August 2017) was an Iranian politician, pharmacist, and diplomat who served as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan, until his resignation in November 1979, in protest at the Iran hostage crisis. From 1995 until 2017, he headed the Freedom Movement of Iran. Yazdi was also a trained cancer researcher.- Birthplace: Qazvin, Iran
Donn Moomaw
Age: 93Donn Moomaw (born October 15, 1931) is a retired American football player and Presbyterian minister. Moomaw played college football for the UCLA Bruins as the center and linebacker for the team. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973.- Birthplace: Santa Ana, California
Donald B. Elliott
Age: 93Donald B. Elliott (born October 18, 1931) is a registered pharmacist and American politician of the Republican Party in the State of Maryland, USA, currently serving his 6th term as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. He serves as the representative of Maryland legislative district 4B, which encompasses Carroll and Frederick Counties in Western Maryland. Delegate Elliott is known for his dedication to health care issues, particularly the crisis in Maryland regarding uncompensated care, and has worked in recent years to address the issue of removing citizens from the uninsured rolls through various measures.- Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
David Sargent
Age: 94David J. Sargent (born 1931) was the President of Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts from 1989 to 2010.Sargent is a native of Newport, New Hampshire and graduated from the Suffolk University Law School magna cum laude in 1954, ranked number one and president of his class. He was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts and New Hampshire that same year.He returned as an adjunct professor in 1956 and soon became a full professor. From 1972 to 1989, Sargent directed the Law School as dean. Sargent assumed the university presidency in 1989. The Sargent building (1999) which houses Suffolk University Law School is named after him. In its November 17, 2008 compensation survey, The Chronicle of Higher Education listed Sargent as the highest paid college or university president in the United States. They mistakenly claimed that Sargent's compensation in 2006-2007 totaled $2.8 million, however, this was a one time check made to his retirement account. Sargent's compensation is roughly on par with most other college presidents, about $400,000 per year.As evidenced on page 43 of Suffolk University’s 2009 IRS Form 990, ex- university president David J. Sargent made $832,782 in total compensation for 2008. On page 45 of that same IRS form the breakdown of the compensation is as follows: $463,479 in base compensation; $89,816 in bonus and incentive compensation; $47,173 in other compensation; $211,136 in deferred compensation; and $21,178 in non-taxable benefits. On Wednesday, October 20, 2010, an e-mail was sent to the student body of Suffolk University announcing the retirement of Sargent. He was awarded the position of president emeritus due to his "extraordinary years of service to Suffolk University." Sargent spent 21 years as the president of the university. According to The Boston Globe, the board of trustees for the university forced Sargent out with a unanimous vote.- David Carroll Eddings (July 7, 1931 – June 2, 2009) was an American fantasy writer. With his wife Leigh, he authored several best-selling epic fantasy novel series, including The Belgariad (1982–84), The Malloreon (1987–91), The Elenium (1989–91), The Tamuli (1992–94), and The Dreamers (2003–06).
- Birthplace: Spokane, Washington
- Henry John Aguirre (January 31, 1931 – September 5, 1994), commonly known as Hank Aguirre, was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who played with the Cleveland Indians (1955–57), Detroit Tigers (1958–67), Los Angeles Dodgers (1968), and Chicago Cubs (1969–70). He went on to become a successful businessman in Detroit, Michigan. His last name was typically pronounced "ah-GEAR-ee."
- Birthplace: Azusa, California
- Bede Evelyn Dominick Elwes (24 August 1931 – 5 September 1975) was an English portrait painter whose much publicised elopement with an heiress in 1957 created an international scandal.
- Birthplace: Billing Hall
Harry Rosen
Age: 94Harry Rosen, CM (born 1931) is the founder and executive chairman of the Canadian luxury men's wear store Harry Rosen Inc., which in 2015 was Canada's largest upscale menswear retailer.- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Sir Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal, , FRS (born 4 June 1931) is a distinguished Australian research biologist. He is famous for his contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance.
- Birthplace: Bad Ischl, Austria
- Claire Berenice Rayner, OBE (; née Chetwynd; 22 January 1931 – 11 October 2010) was an English nurse, journalist, broadcaster and novelist, best known for her role for many years as an agony aunt.
- Birthplace: London, England
- Chris Wiggins was an actor who was no stranger to being featured in numerous film roles throughout his Hollywood career. Wiggins's earliest roles were in film, including "King of the Grizzlies" (1970), the Ben Gazzara sci-fi picture "The Neptune Factor" (1973) and "Why Shoot the Teacher" (1976). He also appeared in "Welcome to Blood City" (1977), the Jean-Pierre Aumont drama "Two Solitudes" (1978) and the Peter Fonda action flick "High-ballin'" (1978). In the eighties, Wiggins devoted his time to various credits, such as "Shocktrauma" "Bay Boy" with Liv Ullmann (1984) and "Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation" (1986) starring Maxine Miller. He also worked on "Babar: the Movie" (1989). Wiggins had a number of different projects under his belt in the nineties, including "Money Talks" with Chris Tucker (1997), "Pippi Longstocking" (1997) starring Judy Tate and "Voices From a Locked Room" with Tushka Bergen (1997). His credits also expanded to "Still Breathing" (1998) and "Babar: King of the Elephants" (1999). Most recently, Wiggins worked on "Point Break" (2015). Chris Wiggins died on February 19, 2017 at the age of 86.
- Birthplace: Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK
- Basil Lewis D'Oliveira CBE OIS (4 October 1931 – 19 November 2011) was an England international cricketer of South African Cape Coloured background, whose potential selection by England for the scheduled 1968–69 tour of apartheid-era South Africa caused the D'Oliveira affair. Nicknamed "Dolly", D'Oliveira played county cricket for Worcestershire from 1964 to 1980, and appeared for England in 44 Test matches and four One Day Internationals between 1966 and 1972.
- Birthplace: Cape Town, South Africa
- The June 1962 Alcatraz escape was a prison break from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security facility located on an island in San Francisco Bay, undertaken by inmates Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin. The three men were able to escape from their cells and leave the island in a makeshift raft. It remains unknown what happened to them after entering San Francisco Bay.Morris and the Anglins attempted to escape on the night of June 11, 1962. They availed themselves of the unguarded three-foot (0.9 m) wide utility corridor of B-Block which ran behind their cells and reached above to all floors of the prison complex with pipes for them to climb. To gain access to the corridor, the prisoners meticulously chiselled out a vent at the back of their cells using makeshift tools such as a spoon soldered with the silver from a dime and a drill improvised from the motor of a purloined vacuum cleaner. Alcatraz's music hour, a recently-implemented loosening of the stringent rules, came as a boon to the three conspirators: dozens of men simultaneously playing the accordion and other instruments made a cacophony that resounded through the cement-walled cellblock and served to disguise their drilling. Their progress was concealed by false walls which, in the dark recesses of the cells, fooled the guards. After they were finally able to pass through the vents, at an appointed time each night, they climbed to the top of the cellblock to prepare their egress from the prison. Their absence would have been noticed by the guards who made hourly rounds, had it not been for the lifelike dummy heads that the inmates left on their cots; repurposing soap, concrete powder, and even hair pilfered from the barbershop, they had fashioned remarkable decoy dummy heads resembling themselves. These succeeded in fooling the guards. Since they intended to get to the roof via a fan vent, they first removed the blades and its motor, leaving only a grille; afterwards, with a carborundum abrasive cord smuggled from the prison workshop, they extracted the rivets of the grille, clearing the shaft for their passage. The escapees spent many weeks in constructing an improvised inflatable raft and life vests from more than fifty prison raincoats, all stolen. This task was carried out on the topmost level of the cellblock, since it was always vacant and was concealed from the sight of guards by sheets having been draped on all sides lest the occasional sweeper should send dust falling to the frequently polished floors below. Late on Monday, June 11, the three inmates tucked their dummy heads into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via the unused utility corridor, and departed from Alcatraz Island aboard the raft to an uncertain fate.The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation was aided by another prisoner, Allen West, who had been part of the escape group but was left behind. West had resorted to using cement to stop his false wall from slipping, only to find that it set. As Morris and the Anglins accelerated the schedule, West desperately chipped away at his wall; but by the time he got out, his companions were long gone. No conclusive evidence has ever surfaced to either prove the success or failure of the attempt. In 1979, the FBI officially concluded, based on circumstantial evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion, that the men drowned in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay while trying to reach land.But notwithstanding the conclusion of the FBI report, the case file of the U.S. Marshals Service remains open and active. Morris and the Anglin brothers are still included in its wanted list. In the early 2010s, circumstantial evidence came to light which would appear to suggest that the men had survived: contrary to official insistence, investigators did find a raft on Angel Island; and, though the FBI asserted that no cars were reported stolen, a 1955 blue Chevrolet was stolen after the escape by three men, who may have been Morris and the Anglins. The importance of the leaked evidence suggests that officials engaged in a cover-up. Relatives of the Anglin brothers presented further circumstantial evidence in the mid-2010s in support of a longstanding rumor that the Anglin brothers had fled to Brazil following the escape; a facial recognition analyst concluded that the one piece of physical evidence, a 1975 photograph of two men alleged to be John and Clarence Anglin, did support that conclusion. No evidence has been produced to disclose the whereabouts of Frank Morris.
- Birthplace: Donalsonville, Georgia
- Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989) was an American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, was managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston (1961–1962), co-founder of Fiction (with Mark Mirsky and the assistance of Max and Marianne Frisch), and a professor at various universities. He also was one of the original founders of the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Grover Sanders Krantz (November 5, 1931 – February 14, 2002) was an American anthropologist and cryptozoologist; he was one of few scientists not only to research Bigfoot, but also to express his belief in the being's existence. Throughout his professional career, Krantz authored more than 60 academic articles and 10 books on human evolution, and conducted field research in Europe, China, and Java.Outside of Krantz's formal studies in evolutionary anthropology and primatology, his cryptozoological research on Bigfoot drew heavy criticism and accusations of "fringe science" from his colleagues, costing him research grants and promotions, and delaying his tenure at the university. Further, his articles on the subject were rejected by peer-reviewed scholarly journals. However, Krantz was tenacious in his work and was often drawn to controversial subjects, such as the Kennewick Man remains, arguing for their preservation and study. He has been described as having been the "only scientist" and "lone professional" to seriously consider Bigfoot in his time, in a field largely dominated by amateur naturalists.
- Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah
- Alfred Brendel KBE (born 5 January 1931) is an Austrian pianist, poet and author, known particularly for his performances of Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg, and especially Beethoven.
- Birthplace: Loučná nad Desnou, Czech Republic
Anthony John Patrick Kenny
Age: 93Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny (born 16 March 1931) is an English philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the philosophy of religion. With Peter Geach, he has made a significant contribution to Analytical Thomism, a movement whose aim is to present the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas in the style of analytic philosophy. He is one of the executors of Wittgenstein's literary estate. He is a former President of the British Academy and the Royal Institute of Philosophy.- Birthplace: Liverpool, United Kingdom
Edward Hurwitz
Age: 94Edward Hurwitz (born 1931) is an American diplomat. From 1983 to 1986 he was the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Afghanistan, and he served as the first U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, from 1992 to 1994.
