American actor and musician 

 Dustin Diamond 

 has died aged 44. 

(January 7, 1977 – February 1, 2021)

American actor, director, iconic stand-up comedian and musician, Dustin Diamond (Dustin Neil Diamond), who was best known for playing Samuel "Screech" Powers in the popular 1990s NBC American Teen sitcom 'Saved by the Bell' created by Sam Bobrick, about a group of high school friends and their headmaster at the fictional Bayside High School in L.A., has sadly died from stage 4 small-cell lung carcinoma at the age of only 44, his manager Roger Paul announced. Diamond was hospitalized in Florida a month ago. His death comes just a ten days after completing his first round of chemotherapy. Diamond was also known for his roles in the 1987 Yogi's Great Escape, 1988 Purple People Eater, 1993 Getting By and 2000 comedy film Longshot. Diamond began doing stand up comedy after four seasons of Saved by the Bell, from 1989 to 1993, and toured on and off after that. Diamond was also a contestant on a number of game and reality shows including Celebrity Big Brother in 2013, television game show The Weakest Link, and FOX television show Celebrity Boxing 2. Diamond was also a musician and formed in early 2001 an alternative metal band "Salty The Pocketknife". He played bass guitar and wrote music. Dustin Diamond served 90 days in jail after he stabbed a 25-year-old man during an bar fight at a bar in Wisconsin in December 2014.

Cause of death: stage 4 small-cell lung carcinoma

 American tv producer 

 and studio executive 

 Jamie Tarses 

 has died aged 56. 

(March 19, 1964 – February 1, 2021)

Jamie Tarses (Sara James Tarses), American television producer and television studio executive, who became at 32 (1996), the first woman to head a major network entertainment division, as the president of ABC Entertainment, and who also helped bring David Crane's “Friends” to NBC has sadly died of complications from a cardiac event last year in Los Angeles, California, her family announced. Pioneering female Television executive was only 56 years old. Jamie Tarses who definitely broke barriers as a woman in the "male" television industry, had helped develop such hits as David Crane's ''Friends'',  ''Mad About You, Frasier'', a sitcom tv series starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt, and  television sitcom ''Caroline in the City''. Tarses also has been an executive producer of many successful TV movie and series, including, TBS television sitcom ''My Boys'' (2006 – 2010), CBS sitcom tv series ''Mad Love '' (2011), TNT medical drama television series ''Hawthorne'' (2009–2011), Breckin Meyer's sitcom  ''Men at Work'' (2012–2014), comedy-drama television series 'Franklin & Bash'' (2011–2014), NBC TV sitcom ''Marry Me'' (2014–2015), TBS  sitcom series ''Your Family or Mine'' (2015), and Jeremy Bronson's sitcom ''The Mayor'' (2017). Tarses, the daughter of television writer, producer, screenwriter, actor and Emmy winner, Jay Tarses, is survived by her longtime partner, restaurateur Paddy Aubrey, and their two children.

Cause of death: complications from a stroke.

 American baseball player 

 Grant Jackson 

 has died aged 78. 

(September 28, 1942 – February 2, 2021)

Grant Jackson (Grant Dwight Jackson), nicknamed “Buck”, a crafty left-handed reliever and coach, who pitched for for 6 teams over eighteen major baseball seasons from early 1965 to late 1982, for the Philadelphia Phillies (1965–1970), Baltimore Orioles (1971–1976), New York Yankees (1976), Pittsburgh Pirates (1977–1981), Montreal Expos (1981), and Kansas City Royals (1982), has sadly died following complications from COVID-19 at Canonsburg Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, his wife Millie announced. He was 78 years old. He pitched in the World Series 3 times; in 1971 for the Baltimore Orioles against the Pirates, 1976 for the New York Yankees, and 1979 for the Pittsburgh Pirates winning team. Jackson was with the Pirates' as winning pitcher in Game 7 when they last won the World Series at Three Rivers Stadium in 1979.  He was also an All-Star with the Phillies in 1969. A native of Fosteria, Ohio, Grant “Buck”Jackson had pitched in almost three hundred games with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jackson debuting at age 22 with the Phillies in the early 1965 MLB season, and enjoyed an 18-year-long and brilliant career as a Major League left-handed reliever, appearing in nearly seven hundred games. Jackson, a longtime Upper St. Clair resident, following his playing career, was the Pirates ’pitching - bullpen head coach for three seasons (1983–1985), te in 1994 and 1995, in Cincinnati, Ohio, as member of Reds coaching staff where he also work with relief pitchers. Jackson also played for the Gold Coast Suns in the Southern Division of the Senior Professional Baseball Association (for players age 35 and over), in the inaugural 1989 season.

Cause of death: complications from COVID-19.

 American baseball player 

 and coach 

 Wayne Terwilliger 

 has died aged 95. 

(June 27, 1925 – February 3, 2021)

Former American professional baseball second baseman, coach, and minor league manager Wayne Terwillige (Willard Wayne Terwilliger), nicknamed "Twig", who played for five teams over twelve different major baseball seasons from early 1949 to late 1960, including Chicago Cubs (1949–1951), Brooklyn Dodgers (1951), Washington Senators (1953–1954), New York Giants (1955–1956), and Kansas City Athletics (1959–1960), has sadly died from complications of blader cancer and dementia in Weatherford, Texas, his family announced. He was 95 years old. Terwillige served two years in the U.S. military in the Pacific theater during WWII., and he was always very proud of that part of his life, because as he said, nothing in his over six decades in baseball was more important than 2 years in the U.S. military. Terwilliger retired as a professional baseball player at the end of the 1960 season. Throughout his over 40-year managerial career, he managed twelve minor-league teams and compiled a record of over 1,200 wins and 1,089 losses. Terwillige was probably best known as the Senators ’third-base coach on the staff of manager Ted Williams from 1969 to 1971 and as a member of Don Zimmer’s 1981 Rangers staff. His final act in baseball came as the manager and first-base coach of the Fort Worth Cats in the independent Central Baseball League, from 2003 to 2010 season. When he reached 80 in June 2005, Wayne Terwilliger became one of two men in professional baseball (the other was Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack), to serve as a team manager in his 80s.

Cause of death: blader cancer and dementia.

 CEO of ZeniMax Media 

 Robert A. Altman 

 has died aged 73. 

(February 23, 1947 – February 4, 2021)

Robert A. Altman, American business executive and lawyer, who was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of ZeniMax Media, a major video game holding company founded in early 1999, in Rockville, Maryland and parent company of several video game studios and companies, including; id Software LLC based in Richardson, Texas, Bethesda Softworks publisher company - with its Bethesda Game Studios, which operates 3 satellite studios, one in Montreal, Canada and two in US,  French video game developer Arkane Studios, Japanese Tango Gameworks, and Swedish MachineGames has sadly died at the age of 73, his wife actress Lynda Carter and Bethesda Softworks announced. Altman's cause of death was not given. ZeniMax Media and all of its world's subsidiaries, responsible for worldwide multimillion-dollar Software franchises such as Doom, Wolfenstein, The Elder Scrolls Online, Dishonored, Quake, The Evil Within, Rage and Fallout was purchased by Microsoft Xbox last year for $7.5 billion. ZeniMax's board include prolific film and television producer Jerry Bruckheimer and baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr., President & CEO, of Ripken Baseball, Inc. ZeniMax Media is currently working with American video game licensor Lucasfilm Games, LLC to develop a brand new legendary Indiana Jones adventure. Expressions of condolence and respect were expressed by many Altman's business friends including Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson, Arkane Austin director Harvey Smith, Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Cause of death: unknown.

 Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford 

 has died aged 75. 

(December 21, 1945 – February 4, 2021)

Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford, medical investigator, molecular biologist, and NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the first female Payload Specialist who flew as not professional astronaut aboard the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet - Space Shuttle Columbia in mid-1991, has died in San Francisco, California, at the age of 75, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) announced. Fulford's cause of death was not given. Following her historic spaceflight in 1996, She returned to the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, where she became director of the laboratory that now ponosno bears Fulford's name. Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford, was a contributor to more than one hundred and thirty papers and abstracts on T-cell activation through their antigen-specific T cell, bone, and Immune regulation of tumor growth. Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford was a member of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), located in Bethesda, Maryland, American Association for the Advancement of Science, located in Washington, DC, Association of Space Explorers - organization composed of people who have completed at least one Earth orbit in space, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, which promote excellence in bone and mineral research, American Society of Hematology located in Washington, DC, and the American Society for Gravitational Science and Biology, a group of scientists and engineers to encourage an exchange of ideas o biological research in space. She was also a major in the US Army Reserve Medical Corps, who named the Federal Employee of the Year for the Western Region in 1985, which are considered among the highest honors available to career federal employees. She was a Professor at the University of California Medical Center at San Francisco (consistently ranked among the top ten hospitals in the U.S.), where she continued her research until her death.

Cause of death: unknown

 Pro Wrestling Legend 

 Butch Reed 

 has died aged 66. 

(July 11, 1954 - February 5, 2021)

Pro Wrestling Legend and former professional football player (Kansas City Chiefs), Bruce Franklin Reed, best known by the ring name Butch Reed, has died at age 66 due to heart complications after suffering two Heart attacks this Year, his official social media accounts announced. Reed attended the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg and subsequently played professional football for the NFL's  Kansas City Chiefs. After leaving Chiefs, he began his brilliant ring career in the central states area in early 1978. Reed was best known for his time as one-half of Doom (“Hacksaw” or “The Natural”), in alongside WWE Hall of Famer and former football player Ron Simmons, from 1989 to 1991. Reed signed with Jim Crockett Promotions Inc., a wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina in early 1989 after two-years in World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. under the name ‘The Natural’ Butch Reed. During his over three decades long wrestling career he won a multitude of championships and titles, including the WCW World Tag Team Championship, NWA Central States Tag Team Championship, Omni Thanksgiving Tag Team Tournament (1983), NWA International Heavyweight Championship, Mid-South Television Championship, MSW Heavyweight Championship, WLW Heavyweight Championship, NWA North American Tag Team Championship, GWF North American Heavyweight Championship, MWCW Heavyweight Championship, Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (3 times), Mid-South Tag Team Championship, and the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship.The Wrestling Observer Newsletter was named Reed; Strongest Wrestler in 1984, and Most Unimproved in 1987. On September 2007, he made a cameo backstage role at the 14 WWE Friday Night SmackDown, taping during a segment involving his former manager and close friend Theodore Long and SmackDown. Butch Reed retired from active professional wrestling competition in late 2011, after his last match on November 4, 2011.

Cause of death: cardiac arrest

 Canadian actor 

 Christopher Plummer 

 has died aged 91. 

(December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021)

Canadian film, television, and theater actor, Christopher Plummer (born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer), Tony and Emmy awards winner, Academy Award winner for memorable supporting performance in Mike Mills's 2012 romantic comedy-drama 'Beginners', and nominated for 2017 crime thriller film 'All the Money in the World' and 2009 German biographical drama film 'The Last Station', has died peacefully at his home in Weston, Connecticut, after suffering a fall, his wife actress Elaine Taylor and longtime friend and manager Lou Pitt announced. The elegantly voiced and legendary 'Sound of Music' Star, whose brilliant career spanned over 70 years was 91 years old. In 2012, at the age of 83 he became the oldest actor to win an Oscar for his supporting performance in the high-profile film 'Beginners. He was born on December 13, 1929, in Toronto, and was raised in Senneville, Quebec, by Montreal. He had Scottish, English, and Anglo-Irish ancestry and was a great-grandson of John Abbott, who was Canada's third Prime Minister in the late 19th century. A trained and dazzlingly versatile Shakespearean actor, Christopher Plummer began his Broadway theater career in the 1950s, appearing in a number of theatrical productions including 1953 'The Starcross Story', and 1955 ''The Dark Is Light Enough'', alongside legends Katharine Cornell and Tyrone Power, and also many screen productions including 1958 Sidney Lumet's film ''Stage Struck'', alongside Henry Fonda and Susan Strasberg, and the lead role in Nicholas Ray's film ''Wind Across the Everglades'' (1958), before "The Sound of Music," which turned him into a Hollywood mega star. Plummer's later film work includes such iconic performances as the Sherlock Holmes in Bob Clark's 1979 mystery thriller film 'Murder by Decree' (1979), the chilling villain in 1978 Canadian heist film 'The Silent Partner' (1978), his iconoclastic Mike Wallace in Michael Mann's 'The Insider' (1999) alongside Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, and the empathetic psychiatrist in a 2001 American biographical drama film ''A Beautiful Mind'' (2001), alongside Ed Harris, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. Plummer has been awarded with many Canadian Honors including Companion of the Order of Canada (C.C.), 1968, Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal for Canada (1977), 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal (1993), Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for Canada (2002), and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for Canada (2012). Plummer by many film lovers and film critics definitely remains one of the most respected, and honored actors performing in the English language throughout whole film history.

Cause of death: complications from a fall.  

 Hall of Fame football player 

 Charlie Krueger 

 has died aged 84. 

(January 28, 1937 – February 5, 2021)

Former professional defensive tackle Charlie Krueger (Charles Andrew Krueger), Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. and College Football Hall of Famer who played for the San Francisco 49ers more than a half-century ago, from 1959-1973, and made two NFL All-Pro teams (1960 and 1964), and Second-Team All-Pro honors in NFL's seasons 1960 and 1965, has sadly died following heart and kidney failure in Clayton, California at the age of 84, his longtime friend and former Oakland Tribune sports columnist and author Dave Newhouse announced. Krueger played college football at Texas A&M University in the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). He was a two-time All-American (The College Football All-America team), at Texas A&M Aggies football and was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia (1982.). Originally drafted by the 49ers ninth overall in the 1958 National Football League (NFL) Draft, Kruger spent his entire sterling fifteen-year professional football career with the San Francisco 49ers (1958-73). His 49ers jersey number 70 retired in 1974, and he are the only 49ers among the only twelve with their jersey number retired, who are not also Pro Football Hall Famer. He appeared in almost two hundred regular season games (almost all starts) and made 5 postseason starts with 49ers. Krueger was one of the last defensive tackle in the league to wear a legendary two-bar "quarterback" face mask. After his retirement in early 1988, he was awarded more than two million dollars in damages stemming from a lawsuit against the former club, due to significant knee injuries during his football career.

Cause of death: heart and kidney failure.

 Former Secretary of State 

 George Shultz 

 has died aged 100. 

(December 13, 1920 – February 6, 2021)

George Shultz (George Pratt Shultz), American economist, businessman and politician, Secretary of state to 40th president of the United States Republican Ronald Reagan (1982–1989), who worked with eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev to help end the cold war, and who also served as Secretary of Labor and Secretary of the Treasury in the Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon Republicans administration, has died peacefully at age 100 at his home in Stanford, California, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University where George Shultz worked for over three decades announced. Shultz studied economics at the prestigious Princeton University and after graduating in mid-1942, as a true patriot, joined the United States Marines. His three-year service in the Pacific included the taking of the Palau islands in 1944, also known as Operation Forager, when more than two thousand Americans and more than ten thousand Japanese were killed in relentless fighting. From early 1948 to late 1957, Shultz taught in the MIT Department of Economics and the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts., One of the "big five" schools in the field, with a leave of absence in mid-1955 to serve on 34th President of the United States Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers as a Senior Staff Economist and Adviser. From 1962 to 1968, Shultz served as a professor of industrial relations at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business - the world's leading business school faculty. Over eight years - from 1974 to 1982, he was an executive of the Bechtel Group, one of the most respected engineering, construction and services company worldwide. In 2003, Shultz served as co-chair of advisory group to the campaign of California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger (38th Governor of California from 2003 to 2011). In the 2010s, he was a prominent figure in the biotech's most shocking scandal of the biotech firm Theranos, continuing to support it as a longtime board member in the face of mounting evidence of fraud and high media pressure.Shultz was also an informal but influential and permanent adviser on foreign policy to the 43rd president of the United States George W Bush. Definitely; The United States and the world has lost a revered statesman and diplomat and a brilliant public servant.

Cause of death: natural causes.

 New Zealand cricketer 

 Bruce Taylor 

 has died aged 77. 

(12 July 1943 – 6 February 2021)

Bruce Taylor (Bruce Richard Taylor), the former New Zealand cricket genius, and selector for the New Zealand men's national cricket team (Nicknamed the Blackcaps), when they played in the February 1992 the Benson & Hedges ICC Cricket World Cup, who was the only all-rounder in whole history to score a century and take a five-wicket haul (also worldwide known as a "five–for" or "fifer") on debut in a Test match vs India  in 1969, has died aged 77 in Lower Hutt Hospital, New Zealand, The New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) announced. Taylor's exact cause of death has not been released, but he had a leg amputated four years ago to fight gangrene and constantly had suffered from ill health. After retiring from professional cricket, in addition to the national team, he also served as a selector for the New Zealand first-class cricket teams Wellington Firebirds and Otago cricket team (the Volts). He resigned his job as a bursar at state integrated boarding John McGlashan College in Dunedin in February 1993, following many and frequent allegations of financial irregularities. Unfortunately, Taylor was a gambling addict and constantly had financial problems because of it. He had stolen more than three hundred thousand dollars from the John McGlashan College. In 1993, he was found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison.

Cause of death: unknown.

 Former Indiana 

 First Lady  

 Susan Bayh 

 has died aged 61. 

(November 28, 1959 – February 6, 2021)

Susan Bayh (Susan Breshears Bayh), American attorney and former Miss Southern California in 1978, a California native who served as the 46th First Lady of Indiana as the wife of Evan Bayh, a Democratic Indiana politician, lawyer and lobbyist Evan Bayh, who served as the 46th Governor of Indiana (1989 –1997), and United States Senator (1999–2011), has sadly died after long battle with brain cancer (glioblastoma), at the age of only 61, in McLean, Virginia, U.S., her death was announced in a statement issued by Bayh's family on her social media page. Bayh, a talented lawyer had a benign tumor removed from her brain five years ago, then underwent surgery and treatments in early 2018 to remove a another glioblastoma tumor in her brain - at the time receiving constant emotional support support from the family of United States Senator for Arizona John McCain, who succumbed to the same kind of benign cancer in late 2018. In 1994, Susan was appointed by the 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton to the International Joint Commission (bi-national organization established by the governments of the US and Canada), and served until 2000, overseeing various issues arising between the two states. Susan Bayh was an extraordinary attorney and public servant who drew some criticism for her membership on several corporate boards of directors while her husband Evan Bayh held elected offices (1989 –2001).

Cause of death: glioblastoma

 Six-time Stanley 

 Cup Champion 

 Ralph Backstrom 

 has died aged 83. 

(September 18, 1937 – February 7, 2021)

Canadian ice hockey legend Ralph Backstrom, (Ralph Gerald Backstrom), former professional ice hockey centre and coach - the 1959 Calder Trophy winner as the NHL's top rookie, and a 6-time Stanley Cup winner (1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969), with the Montreal Canadiens, who was also appearing in six NHL exhibition All-Star hockey Games (1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1967), has died at home in Windsor, Colorado, U.S. following a lengthy severe illness at the age of 83, his family announced. Backstrom's exact cause of death has not been released. The native of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, was active from early 1954 to late 1977. Backstrom played over a thousand NHL games for the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Black Hawks and another over three hundred games for the Chicago Cougars, Denver Spurs , Ottawa Civics and New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association (professional major league that operated in N. America from 1972 to 1979), between 1973 –1977. Backstrom also played junior hockey with the Montreal Junior Canadiens in the mid-1950s, and two years with the Ottawa Junior Canadiens in the late 1950s. Iconic Canadian hockey centre have turned 39 when retired after 1976-1977 WTA season. Through his 23-year-long professional hockey career, he had 7 twenty-goal seasons in the National Hockey League and 2 thirty-goal seasons in the World Hockey Association. His last trip to Montreal was for the Canadiens' December 2009 Centennial game at Bell Centre (formerly known as the Molson Centre or Le Centre Molson), an event that saluted the 100th anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens. After his playing career, in the early 1980s, Backstrom became an assistant coach in the National Hockey League with professional ice hockey team Los Angeles Kings, and also at the University of Denver as DU’s head coach eight seasons, and where he won the 1986 Spencer Penrose Award as the most outstanding coach of the year in NCAA Division. He was founder of the professional minor league ice hockey team Colorado Eagles based in Loveland, Colorado. He was also head coach of the International Hockey League’s Phoenix Roadrunners (Phoenix, Arizona), commissioner of Roller Hockey International (the first major professional league for inline hockey), and a scout for NHL West Division team the St. Louis Blues.

Cause of death: unknown (following a lengthy illness).

 Former English left 

 winger, manager and 

 scout Tony Collins 

 has died aged 94. 

(19 March 1926 - 8 February 2021)

Tony Collins (Anthony Norman Collins), a decorated World War II veteran, former English soccer left winger, the first black player and manager who had been a left winger from 1947 to 1961 for English professional soccer teams including Watford FC, Crystal Palace FC , and Rochdale AFC and manager in English league soccer who took Rochdale A.F.C. to 1962 English League Cup final, their only major final appearance in the whole club history.; and who was after a managerial career also had been Manchester United’s chief scout, has died peacefully at the age of 94, his longtime friend and League Managers Association (LMA) chairman Mr. Howard Wilkinson announced. Since 2016, Collins has been in a care home in Moston, Manchester. A hugely respected figure in the most beloved English game, his fans were often described as a ‘True Pioneer’ and ‘football inspiration’. Tony Collins was born in Kensington, an district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, to a minor unmarried white mother and black father, who was not named on the Tony Collins birth certificate. He was adopted by his maternal grandparents. He was grew up in the Portobello Road area in the Notting Hill district where he played for local soccer club Acton United, until he was called up in 1942  for military service during the WW2. During his 3 years of military service tijekom WW2, on je bio stacioniran in Padua, Italy, where he was spotted in Army soccer matches and recommended to the First Division team Sheffield Wednesday. During his fifteen-year playing career, Collins played professionally at some of the biggest clubs in England including Sheffield Wednesday (1947–1949, York City (1949–1950), Watford (1950–1953), Norwich City (1953–1955), Torquay United (1955–1957), Watford (1957), Crystal Palace (1957–1959), and Rochdale (1959 – 1961). In total, he made over three hundred Soccer League appearances, scoring forty-seven goals. After his playing retirement, Collins was Rochdale AFC's manager from 1961 to the end of 1967. Rochdale AFC reached the 1962 League Cup Final, but Collins' team lose 4–0 on aggregate to Norwich City. After leaving Rochdale, he worked as chief scout for Bristol City Football Club and then under legendary player-manager Don Revie at Leeds United Football Club. In late 2017, he was presented with the English Football League Managers Association’s Service to most prestigious Football award for his longtime service at the 25th annual LMA ceremony. 

Cause of death: natural causes.

 French screenwriter, 

 novelist, actor, and 

 Academy Award Winner 

 Jean-Claude Carrière  

 has died aged 89. 

(17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021)

The prolific French screenwriter, novelist, actor, and Academy Award honoree for his work on a 1963 Pierre Étaix's live-action short film  ''Heureux anniversaire'', also known as Happy Anniversary, Jean-Claude Carrière, has died peacefully of natural causes aged 89 at his home in Paris, France, his daughter Kiara announced. Carrière was also well-known for his Oscar-nominated works on Philip Kaufman's 1988 American drama film ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being '', and Luis Buñuel's 1972 France surrealist film ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie ''. He also received an honorary Academy Award at the Governors Awards in 2014, along with Japanese producer and screenwriter Hayao Miyazaki and Irish actress and singer Maureen O'Hara. Carrière was also was Oscar-nominated for his screenplays for Luis Buñuel's 1977 comedy-drama film ''That Obscure Object of Desire''. With more than one hundred and sixty screen credits to his name, not to mention more than a hundred of plays, various books, television movies and other various top adaptations, Carrière was an iconic fixture of modern cinema both in Europe and the whole world. He also served as the main ghostwriter on Buñuel’s provocative memoir ‘My Last Sigh’, which was published in mid-1982, a year before the Mexican-Spanish filmmaker’s death. His another major collaborator was Czech-American film director and screenwriter Miloš Forman, for whom he penned 3 great screenplays, the 1971 American comedy film ''Taking Off'', which won the Grand Prix at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, starring Lynn Carlin and Buck Henry, 1989 French-American romantic drama film ''Valmont'', starring Colin Firth, Meg Tilly and Annette Bening, and Forman’s final major feature, 2006 biographical drama film ''Goya’s Ghosts'', starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgård. Other anthological works from his vast filmography opus included, Godard’s 1980 drama 'Every Man for Himself', 1982 film ''Passion'' also directed by Jean-Luc Godard, 1969 Italian-French psychological thriller film ''Jacques Deray’s The Swimming Pool'' - La Piscine, starring Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet and Romy Schneider, and the Andrzej Wajda's film about the last weeks of Georges Danton, one of the great leaders of the French Revolution - ''Wajda’s Reign of Terror epic Danton'' (1983), starring Anne Alvaro, Gérard Depardieu, and Roland Blanche. Carrière was former student of the ''École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud'', the prestigious school based in Lyon; specializing in the arts, humanities and social sciences. He was president of one of best international film school '' La Fémis'' in Paris, France.

Cause of death: natural causes 

 American Hall of Fame singer 

 (The Supremes) 

 Mary Wilson 

 has died aged 76. 

(March 6, 1944 – February 8, 2021)

Mary Wilson, American Hall of Fame singer, businesswoman, author, Cultural Ambassador and motivational speaker, who wasdefinitely best known as a singer and co-founding member of the female singing group The Supremes, the most successful Motown Records record label act of the golden 1960s, and one of the all-time best-selling female singing group in the United States and worldwide - known for a string of  chart hits including,  "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Back in My Arms Again.", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Back in My Arms Again'', "Someday We'll Be Together" and "Stop! In the Name of Love", has died suddenly at her home in Henderson, Nevada, surrounded by her family and closest friends, her longtime publicist, Jay Schwartz announced. She was 76 ears old. Wilson's cause of death has not been announced in Schwartz's statement. Mary Wilson began her career in Detroit, Michigan in early 1959 as a singer in what was then called "The Primettes." They went on to become legendary "The Supremes," when Wilson along with Diana Ross, Eddie Kendricks, Betty McGlown, and Florence Ballard formed group as the sister act to the Primes. Wilson was the force that held the singing group together through the many episodes of tragedy and the frequent and very fierce internal strife that marked the history of The Supremes. The Supremes were twice nominated for a Grammy Award—for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording - Baby Love", 1965,  losing to Nancy Wilson's "How Glad I Am", and Best Contemporary Rock & Roll Group Vocal Performance - "Stop! In the Name of Love", 1966, losing to the Statler Brothers' hit "Flowers on the Wall.". It may sound unbelievable; '' The Supremes '' never won a Grammy award in competition. ''The Supremes'' released a record-setting twelve number-one hit singles on the United States Billboard Hot 100 record chart, 10 of which Mary Wilson sang backing vocals on. In 1988, Mary Wilson was inducted along with Supremes's Diana Ross, and Florence Ballard into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. She received an associate degree from New York University and honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Paine College a black Methodist liberal arts college in Augusta, Georgia. She was also inducted into National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (class 2013).

Cause of death: unknown

 Former President 

 of the Italian Senate 

 Franco Marini 

 has died aged 87. 

(9 April 1933 – 9 February 2021)

Franco Marini, Italian politician, former minister and leader of the Italian Popular Party (Italian: Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI), and Secretary General of Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions (CISL) - one of bigest Italy's Catholic-inspired trade union, who had also been during his 7 decades of political career; Minister of Labor  (1991–1992), President of the Italian Senate (2006–2008), longtime member of the European Parliament (1992–2013) and centre-left candidate for the Italian presidency, has sadly died of complications related to Covid at the age of 87 in his hause in Rome, Italy. Marini's death was confirmed by his family and his longtime friend and exponent of the Italian Popular Party, Pierluigi Castagnetti through the statements posted on social media. The 87-year-old Marini had been hospitalized in the Covid ward of the Roman San Camillo de Lellis hospital since January 2021, and was then discharged at the end of the same month, according to the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, (ANSA). Franco Marini joined the Christian Democracy party in the early 1950s and was elected leader of the Italian Confederation of CISL trade from 6 February 1985. Marini left Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions on 12 April 1991 in order to become the Minister of Labor in the Giulio Andreotti's new government. After the center-left Union victory in the mid-2006 Italian general election, Franco Marini was elected as President of the Italian Senate (Italian: Presidente del Senato della Repubblica), when he defeated former 41st Prime Minister of Italy Giulio Andreotti, the candidate of the House of Freedoms and his former Italian Popular Party fellow and longtime collaborator during the Christian Democracy times. Franco Marini served as President of the Italian Senate until January 30, 2008. Franco Marini served as President of the Italian Senate until 30 January, 2008. He was dismissed following the vote of no confidence received by the Prodi II Cabinet (the 53rd cabinet of the Italian Republic). The current leader of the Italian Confederation of Workers ’Trade Unions, Annamaria Furlan, said that Marini’s passing CISL and all of democratic Italy. Former Prime Minister and European Commission Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement to the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, (ANSA) that his friend Franco Marini had brought progressive democratic Catholics into the 21st century.

Cause of death: complications from COVID-19.

 Yahoo Sports senior 

 NFL writer  

 Terez Paylor 

 has died aged 37. 

(1984 – 9 February 2021)

Prominent American pro football sportswriter Terez Paylor, who covered the National Football League (NFL) for Yahoo Sports since 2018, and was a former NFL' Kansas City Chiefs longtime beat writer for the Kansas City Star, and Pro Football Hall of Fame voter, has died unexpectedly at age of only 37 years. His death was confirmed by his longtime girlfriend and fiancée Ebony Reed. Paylor's cause of death has not been announced yet.Terez Paylor was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He worked over twelve years for the Kansas City Star (2006 – 2018), where he arrived shortly after graduating at Howard University. Paylor covered events in Major League Soccer (2006 – 2013), and spending the last 5 seasons (2013 – 2018), covering the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star newspaper edition. Paylor left to join Yahoo Sports, where he covered the National Football League (NFL), as a senior pro football sportswriter. Paylor's unexpected death Tuesday was met with an outpouring of admiration and praise on facebook, twitter and other social media from friends, associates, colleagues, fans, athletes and the NFL team in The Kansas City Chiefs that Paylor spent many years covering.
He was one of only fifty voting members for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and also a proud member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the National Association of Black Journalists  (NABJ).

Cause of death: unknown.

 Former Real Madrid 

 great defender Pachín 

 has died aged 82. 

(28 December, 1938 - 10 February, 2021)

Former Real Madrid great soccer defender and longtime manager, Enrique Perez Diaz, better known as Pachin, the eight-cap Spain international who made over two hundred appearances for Royal Club de Madrid, between early 1959 and late 1968 and was part of one of the Real's most successful and memorable periods, has died in Madrid, Spain at the age of 82, his wife Mercedes and the Spanish giants Real Madrid announced. Pachín's exact cause of death has not been announced yet. He had been battling illness that affected his vital organs for a decade and entered a  HM Sanchinarro Hospital in the Spanish capital Madrid in January this year, according to the Spanish national daily sport newspaper Marca. Real Madrid also paid tribute to the former defender and two-time European Cup winner on their official website. He was born in Torrelavega, Spain on 28 December, 1938, during the Spanish Civil War. Pachín began his longtime soccer professional career at F.C. Real Sociedad Gimnástica de Torrelavega in the mid-1950s. He made his ''Liga de Primera División'' debut on 11 September, 1960, against Club Atlético de Madrid. Pachín won eight caps for the Spain national soccer team (commonly known by fans as "La Furia Roja"), from mid-1960 to late 1962. His first came on May 1960 in a friendly win over England Gordi Albion's (3–0), and he was selected for the squad that competed at the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup in Chile (1962), appearing against Mexico and Brazil. During his 9 seasons (1959 -1968), at Real, Pachín won two European Cups (1959–60,1965–66), one Intercontinental Cup (1960), seven Spanish Leagues - La Liga (1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68), and one Spanish Cup ''Copa del Generalísimo'' (1961–62). Pachin also represented Real Sociedad Gimnástica (1956–1957), Burgos CF (1957–1958) , Club Atlético Osasuna (1958–1959, Real Betis Balompié (1968–1969) and Toluca (1970–1971), during his playing days, before a lengthy and very successful coaching career that saw him manage twelve different teams; Madrid's youth side (1973–1974), Pegaso (1974–1975, 1989), Getafe Deportivo (1975–1976), Osasuna (1976–1977), Ceuta (1977–1978), Valladolid (1978–1979), Levante (1979–1981, 1984–1985, 1987–1988), Córdoba (1981), Almería (1982), Hércules (1982–1983), Albacete (1985–1986), and Granada (1988–1989).

Cause of death: unknown (complications from long - term illness).

 Former Red Sox 

 outfielder Billy Conigliaro 

 has died aged 73. 

(August 15, 1947 – February 10, 2021)

Billy Conigliaro (born William Michael Conigliaro), Former American professional baseball right-handed-hitting outfielder, the first-ever draft pick by the Boston Red Sox, who played Major League Baseball (MLB) for three professional baseball teams in the late1960s and early '70s.; the Boston Red Sox , Milwaukee Brewers and Oakland Athletics and who was the younger brother of Tony Conigliaro, (his teammate in the Boston Red Sox nicknamed "Tony C" and "Conig"), who was also, a right-handed-hitting outfielder just like Billy, has sadly died at the age of 73, his wife Keisha announced. Conigliaro's cause of death has not yet been announced. In early 1970, he often played all three outfield positions for the Boston Red Sox, the majority of them in left field. Billy’s older brother Tony “Conig” Conigliaro played right field almost exclusively throughout the season. Together in total they hit 54 home runs (36/18), quite enough for a Major League Baseball (MLB) record for homers by brothers on the same baseball team. He was born and raised in Revere, Massachusetts, and played high school baseball at Swampscott's School. In the 1965 MLB draft, the Boston Red Sox selected him in the first round, with the fifth overall pick, but he made his Major League Baseball debut nearly four years after, in early 1969. Prije his MLB debut he played in the minor leagues. Billy was part of a10-player blockbuster that sent him from the Red Sox to the Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin. Dissatisfied with that Red Sox's decision as well as his status in Milwaukee, he announced his retirement from professional baseball in the 1972 MLB season.
Conigliaro attempted a comeback with the Oakland Athletics in 1977, but declined an assignment to the minor leagues and definitely ended his playing career. In February 1974, he had knee surgery, and was unfortunately waived by Oakland in March 1974. A year later, in mid-1973, Conigliaro applied for reinstatement , and the Milwaukee Brewers sold him to the Oakland Athletics. Conigliaro appeared with the new team in 1973 -1974 American League Championship Series and the World Series.

Cause of death: unknown.

 Founder and Publisher for 

 Hustler Magazine, and 

 First Amendment activist 

 Larry Flynt 

 has died aged 78. 

(November 1, 1942 – February 10, 2021)

Larry Flynt (Larry Claxton Flynt Jr.), American publisher, free speech activist, First Amendment battler and the head and founder (1976), of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP), one of the bigest world adult entertainment businesses, charismatic and controversial self-proclaimed "smut peddler who cares", has died peacefully in his sleep of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, his wife Elizabeth Berrios and longtime manager Minda Gowen announced. He was 78 years old. Flynt was born November 1, 1942, in Lakeville, Magoffin County, Kentucky, and grew up in a very poor family. He attended Salyersville High School, but as a fifteen-year-old teenager ran away from home and joined the US Army using a counterfeit birth certificate. After being honorably discharged, he worked several jobs including, as an employee at the Inland General Motors Manufacturing Company, bootlegger (the illegal business of smuggling alcoholic beverages) and from July 1960 until July 1964, as a radar operator on USS Enterprise. Larry Flynt has been a central figure in the world porn industry for nearly five decades, launching Hustler monthly pornographic magazine in early 1974 and later expanding to television channels known as Hustler TV which includes, Hustler TV (US), pay-per-view television service, Hustler TV Canada, Canadian pay-TV service, Hustler TV (Europe), European pay-TV service, Blue Hustler, European softcore erotic pay-TV service and Hustler HD. He was also well known for his many famous legal battles involving adult entertainment and the First U. S. Amendment, in which starring Woody Harrelson as Larry Flynt, Cody Block as young Larry, Courtney Love as Althea Leasure, the fourth wife of Larry Flynt, Edward Norton as Larry Flynt's attorney Alan Isaacman, Richard Paul as Jerry Falwell, the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, and Larry Flynt himself guest-starred as a judge. From his beginnings in early 1965, as an Ohio strip club owner to his reign as founder of Hustler magazine and Larry Flynt Publications, he constantly challenged the establishment and became a target for the religious right and feminist groups in the United States and Europe. Larry Flynt Publications (LFP), mainly produces adult magazines and books, such as Hustler, pornographic videos, such as Hustler Video and Hustler Hollywood, and 3 adult tv channels named Hustler TV.  He married five times; for Mary Flynt (married 1961; divorced 1965)​, Peggy Flynt (married 1966; divorced 1969)​ Kathy Flynt, (married 1970; divorced 1975)​, Althea Leasure (married 1976; died 1987) She was found dead in the bathtub of their family home. Local Authorities ruled Leasure's death an accidental drowning​, and Elizabeth Berrios (married 1998). He also very ambitiously tried his hand at high politics, running for president in early 1984 and for Governor of California in 2003. Flynt was also a fierce opponent of former President Donald Trump's policy and even offered a multi-million dollar reward in 2017 to anyone with evidence that could lead to Trump's impeachment.

Cause of death: heart failure.  

 Leslie E. Robertson, 

 Who Engineered 

 the World Trade Center 

 has died aged 92. 

(February 12, 1928 – February 11, 2021)

Mr. Leslie Earl Robertson, the lead structural engineer of the original World Trade Center (Twin Towers), in New York City, which was destroyed in the barbaric terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has died from blood cancer at his family home in San Mateo, California, just one day before his ninety-third birthday, his daughter Karla Mei Robertson announced. Robertson had received a diagnosis of blood cancer in January 2021. Leslie E. Robertson, was also the structural engineer on numerous other major projects in the United States and worldwide, where he designed the structural systems of several famous skyscrapers including the Shanghai World Financial Center (2007), a supertall skyscraper (1,614.2 ft) and the 12th tallest building in the world with a vast trapezoidal opening at its peak, located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, and the Bank of China Tower (BOC Tower), one of the most recognizable building landmarks in Hong Kong, famous for its distinct shape and design, consisting of  interlocking pyramids covered by glass curtain walls. His projects included bridges, theaters - including the Old Vaudeville Theater, and museums - including the National Building Museum. Mr.Robertson  also helped install artistic sculptures by Process Art Movement's artist Richard Serra, some weighing as much as twenty tons. But the project that came to define his brilliant engineering career was definitely the original World Trade Center. For contributions in the design of tall buildings, developing efficient structural systems, Innovation in Construction Technology and wind engineering research he has received many significant awards and honorary degrees, including; Construction's Man of the Year (1989), The Fazlur Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal (2004), Gengo Matsui Prize of Japan, ASCE OPAL Award (2003), Mayors Award for Excellence in Science and Technology for the design of New York's World Trade Center (1993), IStructE Gold Medal (2004), John Fritz Medal (2012), International Civil Engineering Award for most outstanding professionals in the area of Development Cooperation from the José Entrecanales Ibarra Foundation (2015), and Henry C. Turner Prize (2002).Mr.Robertson was also Distinguished Member of the National Academy of Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Honor Member of Chi Epsilon national civil engineering society.

Cause of death: blood cancer.

 Spanish film director 

 and screenwriter 

 Antonio Giménez-Rico 

 has died aged 82. 

(20 November 1938 – 12 February 2021)

Spanish film director, screenwriter, former journalist, founder and former president of the Assembly of Directors-Filmmakers of Spain - ADIRCE (1977 -1983), and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain (1988 – 1992), and president of the Governing Board of the School of Cinematography and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid (ECAM), has died from COVID-19 complications at the age of 82 Madrid, Spain, his family and the Spain Film Academy announced. Between Giménez films, directed and written, stand out; 'Family portrait' (Retrato de Familia), 1976 Spanish film based on the novel ''My Beloved Son Sisi'', starring Antonio Ferrandis, Amparo Soler and Leal Miguel Bosé, ''The Disputed Vote of Mr. Cayo'', 1986 Spanish film based on the 1978 homonymous novel written by Spanish novelist Miguel Delibes, starring Francisco Rabal, Juan Luis Galiardo and Lydia Bosch,''Jarrapellejos'', 1988 Spanish drama film based on a novel by Spanish writer Felipe Trigo, which was entered into the 38th Berlin International Film Festival, 1983 Spanish Documentary film ''Dressed in blue'', (Vestida de azul), 1993 Romantic Drama film ''The black mask'' (Tres palabras), starring Maribel Verdú, Fernando Guillén and Fernando Guillén Cuervo, and 1988 Comedy - Drama film ''Little Spanish Soldier'' (Soldadito español), starring Maribel Verdú, Juan Luis Galiardo and María Garralón. For Spanish Television (TVE), Antonio Giménez-Rico directed the series ‘Plinio’, TV Drama Series (1971–1975), starring Antonio Casal and Alfonso del Real,  Musical series' The night of time' (1976–1977), TV Series ''Traits'', TV Comedy Series ''Event page'', and ''Bird in a storm''. In late 1989, Giménez-Rico received the Goya award (Spain's main national annual film awards) for the best screenplay adapted by drama film''Jarrapellejos''(1988). Giménez's latest tapes were drama film''Hotel Danubio'' (2003), shortlisted by the Spain Academy of Motion Picture to represent Spain at the Oscars. 

Cause of death: COVID-19.

 Former Warner Bros. 

 Records Chairman/CEO 

 Russ Thyret 

 has died aged 76. 

(1944 – February 12, 2021)

American music industry executive Russ Thyret, the famously bearded former Chairman and executive of Warner Bros. Records (1995 -  2001), has died after a long illness at the age of 76, his wife, Rebecca Alvarez, a former secretary at Warner Bros announced. Thyret's exact cause of death has not yet been announced. Russ Thyret was best known for his involvement with many great artists including; R.E.M (when rock band from Athens, Georgia signed with Warner Bros. in 1998 for an amount between $10million and $12 million),; musician and artist Prince, who inspired millions through his music, ; the New wave - synth-pop rock band ''Devo'', ; singer, and songwriter John Fogerty, a former member of the band Creedence Clearwater Revival , for which Fogerty was the lead singer and lead guitarist, and others. Thyret was also a noted early champion of Madonna, the "Queen of Pop". In early 1971, Russ Thyret joined Warner Bros. Records, the only record company he ever worked for. He was one of the top executives during the Company’s golden age of the 1970s and 1980s. Tyhret left the company after the completion of the $ 85 billion merger on June 12, 2018, between Time Warner and AT&T Inc. (American multinational conglomerate holding company, headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Dallas, Texas), a deal that led to a dozen management changes at the newly formed company.
Cause of death: unknown.

 Broadway and television 

 actor Christopher Pennock 

 has died aged 76. 

(June 7, 1944 – February 12, 2021)

Broadway and television veteran actor Christopher Pennock, who was best known for his run on the ABC television gothic soap opera '' Dark Shadows '' in the late 1960s and early 1970s, playing multiple roles in timelines (Jeb Hawkes, Gabriel Collins, Cyrus Longworth) and as Mitch Williams on daytime soap opera ''General Hospital'', has died at age 76 following one week of hospitalized care, his family announced. No cause of death was given. He appeared in over fifty guest-starring roles on films and television, from FOX prime time television soap opera ''Melrose Place'' to 1972 James Ivory's ''Savages'' and  biographical drama film ''Frances'',  directed by Graeme Clifford. Christopher Pennock was also a longtime player on soap operas, including;  ''Somerset'', (1972), ''The Young & The Restless'', (1973– ) and "The Guiding Light." Pennock also performed on the Broadway stage in the three-act play written by Tennessee Williams - "The Rose Tattoo," Howard Brenton's "Abelard & Heloise"and John Osborne's "A Patriot For Me." His other theatrical credits include Philip Barry's comic play "The Philadelphia Story," Wendy Wasserstein's  last play "Third," Tennessee Williams;'s three-act play "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"and Peter Shaffer's play "Royal Hunt Of The Sun." Christopher Pennock was a lifelong member of The Actors Studio, a professional organization for actors, directors and playwrights located in New York City. The Studio is best known for its work refining, training and teaching method acting.

Cause of death: unknown  

 Scots showbiz legend, 

 singer - entertainer 

 Sydney Devine 

 has died aged 81. 

(1940 –13 February 2021) 

Scottish singer, entertainer, former radio host and a member of the Scottish Music Hall Sydney Devine, who sold during a career spanning over 70 years around 15 million albums and recorded and released over fifty, but definitely worlwide best known for his version of the anthological song Tiny Bubbles, has sadly died at University Hospital in Ayr, Scotland, where he was battling chest problems for the few weeks, Glasgow’s Pavilion Theater general manager Iain Gordon announced. He was 81 years old. Last month Devine was rushed to the Hospital after falling ill at home. The Scottish star will also forever be associated with unforgettable songs such as Legend in My Time and Scotland Forever. He was first spotted at the age of thirteen, in early1953 whistling and singing at local Scottish television shows. Together with the White Heather Group he was performing for a full eight years on a BBC Children's Hour program in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During the 1970s Devine hosted two very popular weekly radio shows on Radio Clyde; Absolutely Devine and Even More Devine.
At the height of his career in 1977, Devine appeared on the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Royal Variety Performance in Glasgow with the world’s greatest musical legend -  the "King of Pop"  Michael Jackson. During his brilliant career, Devine also supported and worked with country legends Charlie Pride and Dolly Parton and famous American singer-songwriter Roy Orbison. Devine was also a longtime supporter of the Marie Curie Foundation cancer charity and Marie Curie Hospital for Cancer - Allied Diseases, and made himself available for numerous concerts and other events connected to them. Other albums that he made his own include; Absolutely Devine (Emerald - 1975), Devine Time (Philips - 1976), Almost Persuaded (Philips - 1977), From Scotland With Love (Scotdisc), When I Stop Dreaming (Scotdisc - 2006), It Is No Secret (Emerald 2015), and his last released album I'm Back (Scotdisc 2019). Devine had released a new song in tribute to the NHS (the publicly funded health care system of Scotland) while he fighting a serious illness in Ayr hospital. He received an MBE ( the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2003.

Cause of death: unknown (chest problems).

 Carlos Menem, 

 former President of Argentina, 

 has died aged 90. 

(2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021)

Carlos Menem (Carlos Saúl Menem), Argentine liberal politician and  lawyer, who was the 44th President of Argentina in two terms between early July 1989, and late December 1999, and Governor of La Rioja (1973–1976, 1983–1989), former President of the Justicialist Party, a major political party in Argentina (1990 to 2001), and Senator in the The Senate of the Argentine Nation from early December 2005 until his death, has died after a month of poor health of complications from urinary tract infection at the Los Arcos Sanatorium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the current Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announced. During his two president's terms, with his political approach and doctrines called Menemism, he brought some economic stability in a country hit by a long-running economic crisis and a large and fast-growing external debt ($60 billion and domestic debt $7 billion), and delivered short-lived economic stability and forged close ties with the Great Britain and United States during the presidential terms of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the 1990s, but was often criticized by his political opponents for his flamboyant lifestyle. Menem liked solid pastel color suits and white designer shoes, kept a dozen of the best perfumes on a vanity table, drove expensive and unique racing cars and dated beautiful Argentine and world models and films stars. In early 1991, Menem's war navy joined the US-led Anti-Iraqi coalition that defeated Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. At the US administration behest, he promised not to sell Argentine weapons, ammunition, or advanced military technology to African and Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Libya or Syria). Menem also became the first Argentine president to pay a diplomatic visit to Israel in early 1991, and halted Argentina’s nuclear and weapons of mass destruction program. He has also successfully resolved longstanding territorial disputes with neighboring countries, including Chile. Throughout his presidential term, Menem was constantly dogged by accusations of corruption from his political opponents, but he controlled the Ministry of Interior and Argentine courts and was not charged during his presidential term. But after Menem leaving the President's office in late December 1999, he was accused of embezzling over fifty million US dollars in state prison construction deals; of extorting over ten million US dollars in an criminal arms-smuggling scheme that sent weapons and ammunition to Croatia and Ecuador, and of evading taxes and hiding millions of dollars in secret Swiss and offshore bank accounts. After a final court decision, Menem was held under house arrest for five months in 2001.

Cause of death: complications from urinary tract infection.

 Former NFL wide 

 receiver Vincent Jackson 

 Found Dead in Hotel Room 

 at 38. 

(2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021)

Former American football player Vincent Jackson (born Vincent Terrell Jackson), a wide receiver who played for twelve seasons (2005-2016), in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was found dead in a room at Homewood Suites in Brandon, Hillsborough County, Florida, The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office confirmed in an official statement. He was only 38 years old. The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office will announce Jackson’s cause of death in the coming days. An official police investigation is underway. Hotel staff said Jackson checked into the Homewood Suites on January. 11 (Jackson's family report his missing the day before) and had been staying in that room since that date. He played college football at the University of Northern Colorado, and was drafted by the professional American football team San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 2005 NFL Draft. Jackson was definitely one of the top wide NFL 'receivers throughout his twelve-year career, finishing with 540 catches for 9,080 yards and fifty-seven touchdowns. In the 2012 season, Jackson led the NFL with a fantastic 19.2 yards per catch. He was selected to the Pro Bowl three times. He also holding records for most receiving yards in a game - 216 (vs New Orleans Saints), and longest reception in a game - 95 yards (also vs New Orleans Saints). Jackson signed a 5-year professional deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in early 2012 and made the all-star game of the National Football League (NFL) in his first season with his new club. Jackson exceeded 1,000 receiving yards six times in his brilliant career. He announced his retirement on May 2018.

Cause of death: unknown

 Canadian singer, 

 songwriter and actor 

 Raymond Lévesque 

 has died aged 92. 

(October 7, 1928 – February 15, 2021) 

Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, novelist, playwright and occasional actor Raymond Lévesque, One of the pioneers and leaders of the chansonnier tradition in Canadian' province Qubec, whose 1956 classic international hit "Quand les hommes vivront d'amour" ("When Men Live by Love"), is definitely one of the most famous songs in French-language popular music worldwide, has sadly died of COVID-19 at Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, the federal heritage minister Steven Guilbeault, announced. He composed over five hundred of songs that became part of the fabric of everyday Quebec's cultural life. But, the song that marked his brilliant career is definitely "When Men Live by Love", which Lévesque wrote partly in reaction to the Algerian war (the Algerian War of Independence), that France was waging at the time (1954 to 1962), and which led to Algeria winning its independence from the French administration. "Quand les hommes vivront d'amour" has been covered by a variety of the most famous Canadian and French singers including Eddie Constantine, Michel Louvain, Celine Dion, Luce Dufault, Renaud and Enrico Macias. As an actor Lévesque is best known for Cédric Klapisch' Comedy -Drama film ''Le péril jeune'' (1994), and Pierre Harel's film ''Bulldozer'' (1974).
Throughout his life he had been constantly committed to the idea of ​​independence for Quebec. Due to his sovereignist views, Lévesque refused to receive the prestigious Canadian award; '' Governor General's Award '', when it was offered to him in late 2005, because it represented the British monarchy and Queen Elizabeth ('' The Queen Mother '') in Canada. Lévesque was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier by the Government of Quebec in 1997. 
Cause of death: COVID-19. 

 Cardiologist, 

 Nobel Peace Prize recipient 

 Dr. Bernard Lown, 

 has died aged 99. 

(June 7, 1921 – February 16, 2021) 

Lithuanian-born American inventor and eminent cardiologist Dr. Bernard Lown, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and the Harvard cardiologist who invented the first effective heart direct current defibrillator, which sends an electric pulse or shock to the heart and also the automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD), for correcting rapid disordered heart rhythms, has sadly died  from congestive heart failure and pneumonia at his home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, his family announced. He was 99 years old. He was born in Utena, Lithuania, in the family of Lithuanian Jews who moved to Lewiston, Maine, U.S. in the mid-1930s, where a bridge now bears Lown's name. Dr. Bernard Lown graduated from the University of Maine in 1942, and received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland three years later. Dr. Bernard Lown was a professor at Harvard University, the largest and most prestigious among all the universities in the world, and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, one of America's Top Hospitals. Dr. Bernard Lown was also one of a group of co-founders of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) that won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its international campaign against nuclear weapons and the prevention of war. At its peak, in the mid-1980s the IPPNW had more than two hundred thousand members and chapters in more than sixty countries worldwide. He also introduced a new use for the drug lidocaine (also known as lignocaine) as a treatment to control heartbeat disturbances. He has received numerous awards in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Gandhi Peace Award, the Dr. Paul Dudley White Award from the American Heart Association, and the Distinguished Emeritus Professor from Harvard School of Public Health. Lown is also the author or co-author of about fifty books and textbooks including: Neural Mechanisms and Cardiovascular Disease (1986), International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, (1993), Atrial Arrhythmias, Digitalis and Potassium (1958), Tributes to a Teacher: Clinical Pearls (2008), Current Advances in Digitalis Therapy (1954), and Sudden Death (1982). Lown is also the author or co-author of over 400 publications in the most eminent scientifically-refereed journals.

Cause of death: pneumonia and heart failure

 Rush Limbaugh, 

 provocative American 

 radio host, has died aged 70. 

(January 12, 1951 - February 17, 2021)

Rush Limbaugh (born Rush Hudson Limbaugh III), american author, conservative talk radio - television host, and famed political commentator, who was definitely one of the most influential media icon who transformed the notion of modern talk radio and high politics in his 50 years behind the microphone, has sadly died off Stage IV lung cancer in Palm Beach, Florida, US his family announced. the king of talk-radio was 70 years old. Limbaugh's big break would come in the mid-1980s, when he landed a new job as an on-air host at Sacramento's KFBK, a commercial radio station in Sacramento, California, taking over the slot vacated by legendary Sean Morton Downey (better known as Morton Downey Jr.). ), He became a California radio hit, but he was certainly best known as the legendary and longtime, host of his iconic radio show '' The Rush Limbaugh Show '', one of the most-listened-radio shows in the North America, with an ''army'' of faithful listeners, that transfigured Rush Limbaugh into a partisan force in moderne American politics. He also wrote seven books including ''The New York Times Best Seller lis'' one of best-selling books in the US. In late  2019, Talkers Magazine (trade-industry publication), estimated that his show attracted a cumulative weekly audience of incredible1 5.6 million faithful listeners o talk radio.In 2018, American business magazine Forbes listed Limbaugh's earnings at over $ 80 million. He announced just over a year ago that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, but he continued to host his mega popular show while undergoing medical treatment, receiving the constant support of his faithful listeners. He expressed controversial viewpoints on race, homosexuality, environmental issues, feminism, marriage, love affairs, sexual consent and many others. (before his radio show, very rare and '' taboo '' topics). He also constantly denied climate change and supported United States military interventions in Iraq, Syria and Kuwait in the 1990s. He strongly opposed former US President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election, and spread false claims and accusations hat Obama has no constitutional right for presidential election because he was allegedly not born in the US. He also hosted a national television show (1992 - 1996). On February 4, 2020, former President Donald Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest civilian awards of the United States, but the honoree outraged many of his critics and opponents critics with his frequent sexist, homophobic and racist remarks. He had been an outspoken critic of state policy on drug abuse. As of the most prominent radio hosts in the US, he has received dozens of prestigious awards and recognitions including; William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence and NAB Marconi Radio Award for Network / Syndicated Personality of the Year.

Cause of death: Stage IV lung cancer

 Former Canadian ice hockey 

 player and coach, BGSU 

 Athletics Hall of Famer, 

 Jack Vivian, has died aged 79. 

(May 14, 1941 – February 18, 2021) 

Jack R. Vivian, The native of Strathroy, Ontario,Canadian ice hockey player, college football player, general manager, professional scout, ice hockey head coach, and university administrator, who helped hockey become a varsity sport at the Bowling Green State University (BGSU), in late 1969, as the first head coach and key figure in the creationthe Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), has sadly died at the age of 79, his family announced. The cause of death has not been announced. Jack Vivian was born and grew up in Strathroy, Ontario. He played football at Adrian College in Adrian, but after one year, Vivian transferred to the University of Vermont to play on the Vermont's ice hockey team. Vivian was the youngest general manager in professional hockey with the professional ice hockey team from Cleveland, Ohio - Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association from early 1973 to late 1976 (later he became the team's head coach). In the four seasons from 1973 to 1976, Vivian posted a BGSU record of 68-53-8. He was originally hired in early 1966, as a BGSU football graduate assistant coach and later as coach of the BGSU hockey team, and to lead the completion of new team's ice arena (now known as the Slater Family Ice Arena (5,000-seat hockey arena in Bowling Green, Ohio). He joined forces with Lake Superior State University, Michigan, Ohio, Ohio State, and St. Louis University Missouri, to create in early 1971, a college athletic conference called; the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). After a coaching career, Vivian had a long and successful Career in College Athletic Administration, as the ice hockey facility director at Miami University until late 1985. Until his retirement, he held position as CEO of JRV Management and Consulting, a Company specializing in ice arena construction.

Cause of death: unknown

 Yehoshua Sagi, 

 the former head of the Israeli 

 Military Intelligence Directorate 

 has died aged 87. 

(27 September 1933 - 18 February 2021)

Yehoshua Sagi, the former head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate (1979 - 1983), former Israeli ambassador to the Philippines (2004-2007), former mayor of Bat Yam, and the former member of the Knesset, the unicameral national legislature of Israel (1988–1992), who is best known for his opposition to the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt in the late 1970s, and his key contribution to a significant increase in women serving in the Israeli Intelligence Community, has died from natural causes at the age of 87, his family announced. Yehoshua Sagi served in the Israel Defense Forces for over three decades, from early 1950s. He was an intelligence officer during the 1967 Arab–Israeli Six Day War (Third Arab–Israeli War), and the October 1973 Arab–Israeli War (the Yom Kippur War), but the pinnacle of his longtime military career was definitely the position of the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence (1979–1983). As the second-in-command at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Sagi often and very directly vocalized his protests of the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, signed by then-Egyptian president Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, the sixth Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and witnessed by United States President Jimmy Carter in Washington, DC, on 26 March 1979. Although he was not a supporter of the preemptive airstrike attacks, he organized a surprise Israel airstrike against Iraq's nuclear infrastructures on June 7, 1981, known as ''Operation Opera'' which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor located 11 miles southeast of Baghdad. The Israeli operation came after Iran's partially-successful airstrike on 30 September 1980, carried out by the Operation Scorch Sword had caused minor damage to the same Iraqi nuclear reactor. From 1988 until 1992, he also served on the Israeli Finance Committee, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee.

Cause of death: natural causes.

 Prince Markie Dee, 

 American rapper and songwriter 

 (The Fat Boys) has died aged 52. 

(February 19, 1968 — February 18, 2021)

Prince Markie Dee (born Mark Anthony Morales), American rapper - songwriter, music producer, radio personality at SiriusXM’s Rock the Bells station, and the vice-president of Uncle Louie Music Group, who was one of the first Latinx rappers to achieve mainstream success for his role in the Brooklyn's famed hip-hop trio the Fat Boys, has has sadly died of congestive heart failure at the age of only 52, his longtime close friend Louis Gregory and  SiriusXM’s Rock the Bells station announced. As one of the first Latinx rappers, he came to prominence as member of the Fat Boys (briefly known originally as the Disco 3), American hip hop trio from Brooklyn, New York City,   widely known for using beatbox in their songs and one of the first american rap group’s to go pop (during the 1980s.) Brooklyn's pioneering rap group, comprised of also the late Darren "Buff Love" Robinson (The Human Beat Box), Damon "Kool Rock-Ski" Wimbley, and Mark Anthony Morales - Prince Markie Dee, came up as under studies of Kurtis Blow, who was the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a Mercury and Polydor record labels, and blew up with the likes of hip hop groups and rappers, including Whodini, Queens' Run DMC, and LL Cool J. The Fat Boys will forever be remembered for hits like; "Wipeout"(1987), "Can You Feel It" (1985), "Sex Machine" (1986), "Falling in Love" (1986), "Hard Core Reggae" (1985), "Jailhouse Rap" (1984), "Don't Be Stupid" (1985), "The Twist" (1988), "The Fat Boys Are Back"(1985), "Fat Boys"/"Human Beat Box" (1984), "In the House" (1986) and "Louie, Louie" (1988). In addition to their hip-hop career, the Fat Boys appeared in films and television series like Comedy Disorderlies (1987), T and T (1988), Police Academy: The Series (1989), and  Music Comedy,  Krush Groove (1985). After the Fat Boys broke up, Prince Markie Dee went on to have a successful i dugom solo career. His solo album, ''Free'' was a success and gave birth to a music charts number 1 hit with “Typical Reasons (Swing My Way).”  Mark Anthony Morales was also a successful song writer / producer who wrote and produced tracks for such great music stars as Ariana Grande, Mary J. Blige, Frank Ocean, Coolio, Jennifer Lopez, Macy Gray, Mariah Carey, Craig Mack, Destiny’s Child and others. Morales also served as the afternoon drive radio host/DJ at The Miami Beat WMIB (2008 - 2010), and at WEDR 99.1 FM. (since 2010).

Cause of death: congestive heart failure.

 Senator Gerald Cardinale, 

 one of New Jersey's 

 longest-serving legislators, 

 has died following brief illness 

 at the age of 86. 

(February 27, 1934 – February 20, 2021) 

American Republican Party politician Gerald Cardinale, a staunch advocate for conservative causes, who served almost forty years (from January 12, 1982 until his death), as a one of the longest-serving Republican in the New Jersey Senate, has sadly died after a brief illness at Hackensack Meridian Health Pascack Valley Medical Center in New Jersey, his daughter Marisa and the New Jersey Senate Republican Office announced. Cardinale 'exact cause of death was not released, but his family confirmed that his illness was not COVID-19-related. He died one week short of his 87th birthday. Gerald Cardinale also served; one term in the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 39th Legislative District from January 8, 1980. until January 12, 1982,; Assistant Minority Leader of the New Jersey Senate, In office from January 13, 1987. until January 10, 1989, Majority Whip of the New Jersey Senate, In office from January 14, 1992. until January 11, 1994, and Deputy Majority Leader of the New Jersey Senate In office from January 11, 1994 until January 8, 2002. Born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1934, he received a B.S. degree (Chemistry), from St. John's University, (Catholic university in New York City), in late 1955 and then a degree from the New York University College of Dentistry - the 3rd oldest dentistry school in the United States, in late 1959. Cardinale, a longtime Bergen County, New Jersey dentist, also served on the Demarest public  board in the late 1960s and eventually became the Borough’s mayor in early 1975, and served until 1979, then spent one term in the City Assembly before moving to the New Jersey Senate, in January 1982. At the time of his death, Gerald Cardinale, was the second-most senior senator in the state, behind  Democratic Party politician Richard Codey (the 53rd Governor of New Jersey from 2004 to 2006), who also came to office in January 1982, but had served in the New Jersey General Assembly since January 1974. He ran for the Republican nomination for governor in mid-1989 and the United States House in mid-2002, but lost both times in the primary. He was also a delegate to the Republican National Conventions; in August 1984, at Convention in the Dallas Convention Center in downtown Dallas, Texas., in August 1988, at Convention in Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in August 1992, at Convention in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Cardinale was in the final year of his 12th term, and despite his poorer health lately, he had been planning to run for reelection. Mr. Gerald Cardinale is survived by his wife of 62 years, Carole, his five children and four grandchildren.

Cause of death: unknown (brief illness).

 Former Australian 

 professional rugby fullback 

 Kevin Dann, has died at the 

 age of 62. 

(5 April 1958  – 21 February 2021) 

Former Australian professional rugby league player who played in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kevin Dann, who played his entire club professional football career as a fullback with the Penrith Panthers, in the capital city of the state of New South Wales, has sadly died from long and severe illness at the age of only 62, his family and  the club announced. The cause of death of the popular rugby fullback have not been released yet. Kevin Dann played 121 games for the Penrith Panthers in a brilliant rugby career that started in NSWRL's 1977 season and finished in the 1984 season. Dann scored more than three hundred points for the '' Chocolate Soldiers ''. Dann and was the first club player to gain state selection when represented New South Wales in a non-Origin match (first "state of origin"match) against Queensland in July 1980. Panther number 138, Kevin Dann, made his first grade debut as an eighteen-year-old teenager in early 1977 and retired at the early age of only twenty-five years at the end of the 1983 NSWRL's (New South Wales Rugby League) season. In 1978 and 1979, he played in all league games for the Penrith Panthers. Dann finished the 1979 season as the Panthers' top points scorer with 61 points (21 goals). He was also one of the Panthers' fullbacks nominated in Penrith’s Team of the 20 Century, but ultimately lost out to Rhys Joseph Wesser, the 2003 NRL 'Premiership Champion. He was the 3rd highest points scorer in the Penrith Panthers history behind Robert John "Bob" Landers and Mark "Strauss" Levy.

Cause of death: unknown

 Italian ambassador to 

 DR Congo Luca Attanasio 

 dies after UN convoy attacked. 

 He was only 43 years old.

(May 23, 1977 – February 22, 2021) 

Italian diplomat Luca Attanasio, ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (since 2017), and former Italy’s deputy head secretariat of the undersecretary of state with responsibility for Africa, a Italian Carabinieri police officer, and their driver killed after a UN convoy from the World Food Programme was attacked and attempted kidnap near the town of Kanyamahoro in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), about ten miles north of the regional capital, Goma, spokesperson of the Albertine Rift Valley Virunga National Park and the Italian foreign ministry announced. Italy’s  ambassador has sadly died of his wounds. He was only 43 years old. The circumstances of this barbarian and brutal attack are not yet known and no group ili pojedinac has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. For now, the only thing known is that a prominent Italian diplomat was killed in an ambush on the road which is a frequent site of attacks by bandits, kidnappers and local armed militia. Ambassador Attanasio were part of a convoy of MONUSCO (French: Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo), the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo. In midle 2001, Luca Attanasio graduated with honors at Milan's Luigi Bocconi Commercial University. He represented Republic of Italy in Kinshasa since September 5, 2017., until his assassination. Attanasio joined the Italian diplomatic service in early 2003 and served previously in Bern, Switzerland (2006–2010),  Casablanca, Morocco (2010–2013) and  as first counselor at the Italian embassy in Abuja, Nigeria (2013 - 2015). In early 2019, the Democratic Republic of the Congo experienced its first peaceful democratic transfer of power since achieving independence from Belgium in June 1960, following the election of President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo.

Cause of death: shot

 Former double 125cc 

 world champion and Gresini 

 MotoGP team boss Fausto Gresini 

 has died at the age of 60. 

(23 January 1961 – 23 February 2021)

Former Italian Grand Prix motorcycle racer, the two-time 125cc class World Champion in the Grand Prix seasons 1985 and 1986 and founder and longtime head team manager for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini MotoGP team (Aprilia's factory-supported team), has sadly died in specialist COVID care ward hospital in Bologna, Italy, after a two-month battle with Coraonavirus, the Gresini team announced. A two-time World Champion was only 60 years old. Gresini was taken ill with the virus in mid-December last year and was hospitalized on 27 December 2021. During his twelve-year racing career (1983 - 1994), he won the world championship title in 1985 and 1987 on Italian Garelli machinery, which dominated the 125 class in Grand Prix motorcycle racing during the 1980s. Gresini began racing in early 1978, as a seventeen-year-old teenager on a Italian motorcycle Minarelli 50, and in early 1983 he joined the Grand Prix circuit with the Morbidelli Grand Prix motorcycle racing team. He took his debut win at the 1984 Swedish motorcycle Grand Prix. During his racing career Gresini accrued 21 Grand Prix wins overall, becoming one of the most successful and most respected motorcycle racer of his era in the 125ccMotoGP class. He also tallied up an impressive 47 podium finishes (the number of top three results he has achieved over the career). Gresini is tied with Spanish professional Grand Prix motorcycle racer Ángel Nieto for the record of eleven consecutive victories in the 125 class Grand Prix races, accomplished across 1986 and 1987 GP seasons. Upon his retirement from professional racing in 1994, Gresini was a key figure in the paddock as a founder and team manager of the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini MotoGP.  The team which bears his name has won two world championships with Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Daijiro Kato winning the 2001 250cc GP world championship, and Spanish professional motorcycle racer Antonio "Toni" Elías Justícia winning the 2010 Moto2 world championship. Unfortunately, two racers of his team were killed in the races; Japanese Daijiro Kato died in hospital after crashing during the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix race and Italian rider Marco Simoncelli who died after an accident at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2011.

Cause of death: complications from COVID-19.

 Former Irish rugby 

 international union player 

 Gary Halpin, has died 

 at the age of 55. 

(14 February 1966 – 24 February 2021)

Former Irish rugby international union player, 1995 World Cup nacional hero and Leinster star, the Kilkenny native who played prop in two Rugby World Cups for nacional team and won eleven international caps between 1990-95, and was definitely best known for a double middle- finger salute to the All Blacks' star Sean Fitzpatrick after touching down in a 1995 World Cup match, has died suddenly at the age of only 55, his family announced. Halpin's cause of death has not yet been announced. During his ten-year senior professional Rugby career, he played as a prop for London Irish RFC (1991-1998), Harlequin F.C. (1998-1999), Leinster Rugby (1998-2001), and the Irish national rugby union team (1990 -1995). Halpin made his Irish debut against England in January 1990 (Five Nations Championship), with his career ending at the 1995 World Cup  quarter-final after the loss to France nacional team (36-12). Gary Halpin also represented Ireland in the 1987 World Athletics Championship at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy in the hammer event. He famously scored a try against New Zealand in the pool stages of the third Rugby World Cup in South Africa (Ellis Park, Johannesburg 1995). After retiring from profesionalnog rugby, Halpin was a teacher at St George's Roman Catholic co-educational Josephite day school in Surrey, and The Oratory School 6 miles north-west of Reading. Most recently he worked as the head of boarding at Cistercian College, a private boarding school in Ireland.

Cause of death: unknown

 Australian legendary jockey 

 Jim Johnson, who won three 

 Melbourne Cups in the 1960s, 

 has died at the age of 92. 

(1929 – 25 February 2021) 

Australian Hall of Fame Jockey Jim Johnson, one of the greatest riders in the history of racing, who won three Melbourne Cups (Australia's most famous annual Thoroughbred horse race), two Cox Plates and a Caulfield Cup in the 1960s, has died from natural causes at the age of 92, the Victorian Jockeys ’Association and the Victoria Racing Club announced. He started his long jockey career in South Australia in late 1945 where he won several Adelaide jockeys ’titles before making his way to Melbourne, the capital of the southeastern Australian state of Victoria in the early 1960s. Johnson’s brilliant career has produced 2158 winners, 31 Group 1s, 3 x Melbourne Cups, 2 x Cox Plates and 1 x Caulfield Cup. He also spent 3 years riding in Southeast Asia (Singapore), winning the Cups title there in 1972 and 1973, before ending his three decade long career in Melbourne, Australia in 1976. As one of the greatest horseracing legends of Australia, Jim Johnson entered the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in early 2009. Johnson, a three-time Melbourne Cup-winning jockey, having been successful on Australian Thoroughbred racehorse Gatum Gatum in 1963 race and also in 1968 and 1969 on Australian champion Thoroughbred racehorse Rain Lover (1964-1989). He was also associated with champion Tobin Bronze (1962–1994), aboard who he won a Caulfield Cup (Melbourne Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race), and two Group One Cox Plates. He continued to give his time to the sport after he retired in 1976, working with the Victoria Racing Club (the responsible authority for the conduct of thoroughbred racing in Victoria) to promote Horse racing, particularly the Melbourne Cup, Australia's most famous annual Thoroughbred horse race.

Cause of death: natural causes

 Former U.S. women's 

 gymnastics coach 

 John Geddert (63), 

 dies by suicide after being 

 charged with sex crime charges 

 in Michigan. 

(December 21, 1957 – February 25, 2021)

Former American gymnastics coach John Geddert (born John Gerald Geddert), who coached the gold US Olympic women's gymnastics team at the 2012 London Summer Olympics and was a long-time associate of American convicted serial rapist and sex offender, Lawrence Gerard Nassar, was found dead after being charged with more than twenty sex crimes in connection with the abuse of young gymnasts and human trafficking, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced. Geddert's official cause of death was suicide by gunshot. Michigan 'police troopers found his body in a rest area off an interstate near Grand Ledge, Michigan. He was 63 years old. From early 1984, when he was head coach at Great Lakes Gymnastics in the Lansing, Michigan area, he began working offenses with onvicted serial rapist and sex offender Larry Nassar who was physician in the club back room. John Geddert also coached gymnastics champion Jordyn Marie Wieber who won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team, at the 2012 London Summer Olympics and the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Geddert retired from coaching on January 2018, 24 hours after USA Gymnastics officially announced that he was suspended pending an police investigation into his alleged physical and psychological abuse of his athletes.

Cause of death: Suicide by gunshot

 American activist for 

 women's rights and LGBT 

 rights Ivy Bottini, has died 

 at the age of 94. 

(August 15, 1926 – February 25, 2021)

American visual artist, civil rights activist, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) and feminist icon Ivy Bottini, has died from natural causes at the age of 94 in Sebring, Florida, her daughter Lisa Santasiero-Perron announced. Bottini lived in West Hollywood and the greater Los Angeles area for over four decades, but last year, when her health declining, she moved to Florida to live with her daughter's family. For almost five decades, Ms. Bottini was a pioneering lesbian and a true fierce feminist-lesbian icon. Bottini helped found the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) which advance laws, promote women in politics and  fight for reproductive justice, in the mid-1960s. In late 1968, after becoming president of the N.Y. chapter, she came out as a lesbian. In early 1970, Ivy Bottini led a group of women to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor within New York City, where they hung a banner that read, “Women of the World Unite,” inspired by the old workers' motto 'Workers of the World, Unite!' She studied acting at New York's prestigious Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute and often performed a very popular one-woman show, "The Many Faces of Women", across the United States. After she moved to L.A., in midle 1971, Bottini founded AIDS Network LA, the first AIDS organization in California, and the Los Angeles Lesbian/Gay Police Advisory Board In 1977, which has become a leader in many critical social movements - including LGBT rights and HIV and AIDS advocacy. Bottini also created and hosted the first commercial Lesbian/Gay radio show on a KHJ network in Los Angeles, California. In 2007, Ivy Bottini received the Morris Kight Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cause of death: natural causes

 Former general manager 

 of the Montreal Canadiens, 

 politician and businessman 

 Irving Grundman has died 

 at the age of 92. 

(July 23, 1928 – February 26, 2021)

Former Canadian ice hockey executive Irving Grundman, who won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens as general manager in 1979 and longtime city councilor the Montreal City Council, has died after a short illness in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at the age of 92, his family announced. The exact cause of death has not been announced yet. He served as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens (French: Les Canadiens de Montréal) from 1978 to 1983. He was replaced by former professional ice hockey defenceman Serge Savard. Irving Grundman was responsible for drafting future NHL (National Hockey League) big stars such as Canadian Joseph Harry Guy Carbonneau and defenseman Christos Kostas "Chris" Chelios, though was also responsible for passing on Montreal Juniors big star, and future NHL Hall of Famer Denis Joseph Savard in the 1980 draft, in favor of Douglas Peter Wickenheiser who was drafted first overall by the Montreal Canadiens. Because of that and other similar omissions Irving Grundman has been for many hockey fans arguably the worst general manager in Montreal Canadiens history. Grundman held the position in the Montreal City Council, for more than thirty-five years (1968 - 2004), taking a leading role in the development of the St. Laurent Technoparc (renamed Technoparc Montreal in 2008), as a longtime executive chairman. His brilliant political career unfortunately ended after he, along with St-Laurent city councilor René Dussault, pleaded guilty to municipal corruption in late 2004 in relation to the illegal resonance of land and for demanding a $75,000 cash bribe. Grundman and Dussault were sentenced to 23 months, but his prison sentence was replaced by community service, because at age 76, he was too old and infirm to do so in prison. Grundman was also founder of the Laurentian Lanes Company which owns supermodern and popular bowling alleys in Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston.

Cause of death: unknown (short illness).

 Legendary Hong Kong 

 actor Ng Man-tat, 

 has died of liver cancer 

 at the age of 70. 

(2 January 1951 – 27 February 2021)

Legendary Hong Kong veteran television and film actor Ng Man-tat (born Richard Ng Man-tat), who worked with Hong Kong actor and director Stephen Chow, has died of liver cancer at the Union Hospital in Hongkong, Ng's friend actor Tin Kai-man announced. Ng's was 70 years old. He was admitted to the Union Hospital a month ago, after being diagnosed with liver cancer. In the Union Hospital he recently had surgery, and was also undergoing chemotherapy. Ng Man-tat began his long film and television career as a 22-year-old young man in 1973, but made most of over a hundred his films during the 1990s. Ng’s collaboration with famous Hong Kong actor and director Stephen on screen has become an iconic for many of their fans around the world, and his films works have accompanied the growth of a whole generation, especially the post-80s.Gordon Chan's 1991 Hong Kong comedy film "Fight Back to School", Jeffrey Lau's two-part 1995 Hong Kong fantasy-comedy "A Chinese Odyssey", Stephen Chow's 2001 Hong Kong sports comedy film "Shaolin Soccer", Wong Jing's 1994 Hong Kong comedy film "Hail the Judge" and so many other unforgettable comedian films are renowned Hong Kong films overseas and have made a great contribution to the acting reputation of Mr.Ng Man-tat. During his nearly five decades of brilliant acting career Ng Man-tat, was awarded for his film achievements with dozens of awards, including Best Supporting Actor at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards (1991) for his role in a Benny Chan's 1990 Hong Kong action romance film ''A Moment of Romance'', alongside Andy Lau and Jacklyn Wu.He has also been nominated for a number of other awards, including prestižnu Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards (organized and funded by the Motion Picture Development Foundation R.O.C).

Cause of death: liver cancer.

 Coronation Street actor 

 Johnny Briggs has died 

 after a long illness 

 at the age of 85. 

(5 September 1935 – 28 February 2021)

English actor Johnny Briggs, (born John Ernest Briggs), who played factory boss Mike Baldwin in the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, in which Briggs' appeared for more than three decades from early 1976 to 2006, has sadly died after a long illness at the age of 85, his family announced.The exact cause of death has not yet been announced. He was born in Battersea, south-west London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth, but he was evacuated out of London during the World War II. due to frequent Nazi bombings. Briggs was awarded a scholarship to train at The Italia Conti Academy of Theater Arts when he was a twelve-year-old boy.There, he learned alongside the Evening Standard Film winner Nanette Newman and English actor, singer and songwriter Anthony Newley. One of his first acting roles was in Ken Annakin's anthology film with four segments Quartet (1948), alongside Cecil Parker, Honor Blackman, George Cole, Linden Travers and Joan Collins. In the 1950s, Briggs featured in the ITV network police series "No Hiding Place", as well as several British comedies "Carry On". Mr. Johnny Briggs also had roles in a number of other popular British shows, including the British television soap opera ''Crossroads'' (1964 – 1988), alongside Michala Crees, Ivor Jay, Raymond Bowers, David Garfield and others,  ITC mystery spy thriller television series ''The Saint''  (1962 – 1969), alongside Roger Moore, action-comedy series ''The Persuaders!'' alongside Tony Curtis and Roger Moore and Mike Gibbon's sitcom ''Thick as Thieves'' alongside Bob Hoskins and John Thaw. After appearing in over 2300 Coronation Street episodes, his final scenes in the show were recorded on March 13, 2006, when his character Mike Baldwin suddenly collapsed and died in the arms of Kenneth "Ken" Barlow (played by William Roache), in the street after suffering a heart attack. His last theatre appearance was at the Manchester Opera House in Quay Street, Manchester, in early 2007. Then he starred in a pantomime in which he played  the father of Cinderella ( or "The Little Glass Slipper"), alongside former co-star English actress Tina O'Brien. In late 2009, he appeared in long running  BBC One daytime soap ''Doctors'', set in the fictional West Midlands town of Letherbridge. Briggs also appeared in a ITV and BBC One Coronation Street sketch, to raise money for the charity Text Santa and support England -based charities during the Christmas period. He was made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire), in the New Year's Honours in 2007.

Cause of death: unknown (long illness).