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February 4: Finnish four-time Olympic ski jumping champion MATTI NYKANEN, 55, became the first ski jumper to win three Olympic gold medals at one Olympics, the 1988 Calgary Games. He also claimed seven world championship titles, four overall World Cups and 46 World Cup wins.
February 6: Popular British romantic novelist ROSAMUNDE PILCHER, 94, was best known for tales set in her native Cornwall. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for services to literature.
February 7: Five-time Oscar nominee ALBERT FINNEY, 82, was a British actor who rose to fame thanks to his angry young man roles in the 1960s. The former Shakespearean actor died after a short illness.
February 16: Swiss actor BRUNO GANZ, 77, died of cancer. He was considered one of the leading theatre and film artists in the German-speaking world, winning international fame for playing Adolf Hitler in Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Downfall" in 2004.
February 19: KARL LAGERFELD, was a global fashion icon and artistic director of the Chanel fashion house. His date of birth remained disputed to the end, but he claimed to have been born in 1935, making him 83 at the time of his death.
February 21: PETER TORK, 77, was most famous for his time with 1960s teeny-bop band The Monkees. Created for television as a sort of manufactured and Americanized version of The Beatles, the Monkees' music resonated well beyond the show.
March 4: LUKE PERRY, 52, played heartthrob Dylan McKay in the 1990s hit television show "Beverly Hills, 90210," which ran for 10 seasons.
April 17: Former Peruvian president ALAN GARCIA, 69, shot himself in the head during an arrest attempt connected to corruption charges. His first term, from 1985 to 1990, was marked by economic crisis and conflict with Shining Path guerrillas, but he oversaw strong economic growth during his second term, from 2006 to 2011.
May 13: DORIS DAY, 97, landed her first hit, "Sentimental Journey," at the age of 15 with Les Brown's band, later recording her signature song "Que Sera Sera." The legendary Hollywood singer and actress starred in major films such as "Pillow Talk" and "Calamity Jane." She became an animal welfare activist in her later years.
May 14: Internet sensation GRUMPY CAT, real name Tardar Sauce, died aged 7. The feline's sad face and big blue eyes launched countless memes and shot it to internet stardom. He preceded LIL BUB, another internet cat sensation, who died on December 1.
May 16: Renowned American Chinese architect IM PEI, 102, became famous for his glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. Simple geometric shapes and the playful use of light were characteristic of his works.
May 20: Austrian Formula One legend NIKI LAUDA, 70, was a triple world champion who gained fame for staging a successful comeback only six weeks after a near-fatal crash in 1976. He became non-executive chairman of the Mercedes F1 team in 2012.
May 22: JUDITH KERR, 95, fled the Nazis as a child, settling in England and earning fame with her illustrated children's book "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" and the semi-autobiographical "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit."
May 25: Despite a successful appeal and an acquittal in a second trial, suspicion always lingered about the role CLAUS VON BUELOW, 92, played in the attempted murder of his wife, Sonny, who died in 2008 after 28 years in a coma. The events prompted the film "Reversal of Fortune," where he was portrayed by Jeremy Irons.
June 15: FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI, 96, Italian opera, theatre and film director was known for staging opulent opera productions and classic film and stage adaptations of Shakespearean plays. He became an acclaimed opera director in the 1950s and 1960s, but was also known for films like "Rome and Juliet" and "Brother Sun, Sister Moon."
June 17: GLORIA VANDERBILT, 95, was the only child of railway heir Reginald Vanderbilt and his second wife, Gloria Morgan. She built a fashion empire, achieving great success with her denim designs, but lost a big part of her fortune after fighting with her business partners.
June 17: MOHAMMED MORSI, 67, became Egypt's first democratically elected leader in 2012, but was deposed by the military the following year. He died after falling unconscious while on trial in a Cairo court.
July 2: Legendary manager LEE IACOCCA, 94, created the Ford Mustang and was director of Chrysler, and was credited with saving the US company from going bankrupt.
July 6: JOAO GILBERTO, 88, was a Brazilian singer and guitarist considered to be one of the pioneers of the bossa nova genre. His version of "The Girl from Ipanema," took the world by storm.
July 9: ROSS PEROT, 89, was a Texas billionaire who ran for US president twice as an independent candidate. A pioneer of the computer services industry, he became a billionaire in 1984 when General Motors bought his firm, EDS, for nearly 2.6 billion dollars.
July 9: US actor RIP TORN died at age 88. Perhaps best known for playing Agent Zed in the "Men in Black" film series, he began his acting career in the 1950s, later frequently starring in comedies.
July 16: South African music legend JOHNNY CLEGG, 66, was a prolific singer, songwriter, dancer and musical activist. Clegg’s infectious music - a vibrant blend of Western pop and African Zulu rhythms - received international recognition.
July 17: ANDREA CAMILLERI, 93, was the author of the best-selling “Inspector Montalbano” crime novels. He was already 69 when he achieved fame, but still lived to see his work adapted into an acclaimed TV series by Italian public broadcaster RAI.
July 18: YUKIYA AMANO, 72, spent years negotiating with Iran on intrusive nuclear inspections, and oversaw the implementation of the nuclear agreement that Tehran finally agreed to in 2015.
July 19: RUTGER HAUER, 75, was one of the most famous Dutch actors in Hollywood, best known for starring in 1982's "Blade Runner" (1982). He won a Golden Globe in 1988 for his part in the film "Escape from Sobibor."
July 22: China's conservative premier from 1988 until 1998, LI PENG, died aged 90. Known in the West as the "Butcher of Beijing," he was one of the main leaders in the bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
July 25: BEJI CAID ESSEBSI, 92, became Tunisia’s first democratically elected president in 2014. He had been politically active since 1942, when he began agitating for Tunisian independence from France.
July 26: Cuban Cardinal JAIME ORTEGA, 82, played a key role in the thawing of relations between his country and the United States.
July 31: HAROLD PRINCE, 91, was an award-winning Broadway producer of hugely successful shows such as "Cabaret," "West Side Story," "Evita" and "Phantom of the Opera." He received a record-winning 21 Tony awards.
August 5: Born Chloe Wofford, Nobel Prize-winning author and seminal voice in African-American literature TONI MORRISON, was 88 when she died. "Beloved," published in 1987, became perhaps her best-known work, telling the story, based on real events, of a former US slave during and after the Civil War.
August 16: PETER FONDA, 79, made his initial splash with the 1969 film "Easy Rider," becomeing an idol of the hippie movement in the process. The son of Hollywood star Henry Fonda and brother to Jane, Peter made his own name eventually as a director.
August 23: DAVID KOCH, 79, was a businessman and political activist who, together with his brother, financed a network of conservative donors. They used their wealth to build a network of donors and voters to support conservative political causes and candidates.
August 25: FERDINAND PIECH, 82, was the former Volkswagen chairperson and legendary one-time patriarch of the billionaire clan behind the carmaker's success. Piech began his career in 1963 at Porsche, where he worked as an engineer to push the company forward in motor racing.
September 3: German photographer PETER LINDBERGH, 74, helped perpetuate the supermodel phenomenon of the 1990s with his photography. Favourite subjects included Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford.
September 6: Long-time Zimbabwe strongman ROBERT MUGABE, 95, almost stayed in office until the end, but was ousted in 2017 after 37 years in power. He became known as an activist for Zimbabwean independence, but ended up as a polarizing figure in his country.
September 15: RIC OCASEK, 75, was the lead singer of the New Wave band The Cars, which dominated the 1970s and 80s with songs like "Just What I Needed," "Drive" and "Magic." He continued a solo career after the band broke up in 1988.
September 19: Tunisia's ousted dictator, ZINE ABIDINE BEN ALI, died in exile in Saudi Arabia, aged 83. His ouster in 2011 heralded the start of the Arab Spring.
September 26: Former French president JACQUES CHIRAC, 86, was perhaps best known internationally for his opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. A major figure in French politics, he was president from 1995 to 2007.
October 1: KAREL GOTT, 80, was a Czech tenor who sold out shows for nearly 60 years, selling more than 50 million recordings in the process.
October 6: GINGER BAKER, 80, was best known for his music and antics in the late 1960s with the band Cream, which he co-founded with celebrated rock guitarist Eric Clapton. Born Peter Edward Baker, he acquired the nickname "Ginger" because of his hair colour.
October 17: Cuban dance legend ALICIA ALONSO, 98, "placed Cuba on the altar of the best of world dance," President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted at the time of her death.
October 27: Islamic State leader ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI, 48, killed himself with a suicide bomb as US troops attempted to capture him in Syria. Virtually unknown before the US 2003 invasion of Iraq, he formed Islamic State and capture the world's attention with his 2014 announcement of a new caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
October 27: VLADIMIR BUKOVSKY, 76, was one of the Soviet Union's best-known dissidents. He was forced into psychiatric care for his opposition to the communist government and allowed to move to Britain in 1976.
November 11: JAMES LE MESURIER, 48, was a former British officer who helped establish the White Helmets grup in Syria in 2013. The group is credited with helping save 115,000 lives during the country's civil war.
December 1: Latvian conductor MARISS JANSONS, 76, was considered one of the greats of his time. Appointed music director of the Oslo Philharmonic in 1979, Jansons quickly became one of the world's most respected and in-demand conductors, going on to work in London, Pittsburgh, Amsterdam and Vienna.
December 8: CAROLL SPINNEY, 85, was the puppeteer behind beloved "Sesame Street" characters like Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Performing as Big Bird, he traveled to China with Bob Hope and danced with the Rockettes.
December 9: MARIE FREDRIKSSON, 61, was the voice of Roxette, the Swedish band that took the world by storm in 1989 with their hit "The Look." Any fan of the Julia Roberts movie "Pretty Woman" will recognize her singing "It Must Have Been Love."
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