In this year that is ending, several local and international personalities who worked in different areas left this world.
Internationally, Maradona, Sean Connery, Kobe Bryant, Kenzo, Kirk Douglas, Hosni Mubarak, John Le Carré, among others, died in 2020.
At the local level, the deaths of the sculptor Yela Loffredo, the historian José Antonio Gómez Iturralde, the ex-archer and politician Carlos Luis Morales, and others, mourned the country.
Here a partial list:
January
10: Sultan Qabous, 80 years old, modernizer of Oman, a country he led for 50 years. He deposed his father in a peaceful coup that had British support in 1970, the year in which Qabús began a major transformation to modernize Oman using its oil wealth. In addition to enjoying wide popularity during his tenure, he was also considered an absolute monarch, who used his power to silence dissenting voices.
26: Kobe Bryant, 41, a former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player and five-time NBA champion, was killed in a helicopter crash. Named the Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals to lead the Lakers to titles in 2009 and 2010; Likewise, he won Olympic gold medals with the United States at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games. His 13-year-old daughter Gianna also died in the plane crash.
31: Mary Higgins Clark, 92 years old, “the queen of suspense”, author of several best sellers Americans. Since his first hit, “Where Are the Children?”, In 1975, Clark wrote about fifty novels, of which he sold more than 100 million copies, mostly in the United States. He became interested in writing at the age of seven.
February
5: Kirk Douglas, 103, entered the legend with Paths of Glory and Spartacus. It was a living example of the golden age of Hollywood cinema, the only one left with the actress from gone With the Wind, Olivia de Havilland, also born in 1916. He was nominated for three Oscars and it was not until 1996 that the interpreter received the honorary statuette.
25: Hosni Mubarak, 91, former president of Egypt (1981-2011) after being forced to resign by the Arab Spring. Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak’s time in power consider him to have plunged the nation into autocracy and exacerbated capitalism. His overthrow led to Egypt’s first free elections that brought Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to power.
March
23. Lucía Bosé, 89 years old, Italian actress and mother of Miguel Bosé. She was Miss Italia in 1947. With less than 20 years she performed in Chronicle of a love, by Antonioni, one of the great masters of Italian neorealism. The year 1955 also marked a milestone, with their roles in Death of a cyclist, directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, and in This is the dawnby Luis Buñuel.
24: Albert Uderzo, 92 years old, French cartoonist, creator of Asterix together with the writer Renee Goscinny. Initially he illustrated characters created with the writer, but after Goscinny’s death in 1977, Uderzo also took on the task of writer of the comic books.
29: Krzysztof Penderecki, 86, Polish composer and conductor, figure of the sound avant-garde of the sixties. He was the winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts Spain in 2001 and four Grammys (1988, 1999, in two categories, and 2017). His music was used in hit movies like The glow and The Exorcist, which fueled its popularity.
April
4: Luis Eduardo Aute, 76 years old, icon of the Spanish author song. He was known for songs like Somehow, Four ten, Without your heartbeat O Al alba. Among his 560 works recorded and performed by himself or by others, he also composed One of two, Treachery, Roses in the sea (written for singer Massiel) or Wetting everything.
16: Luis Sepúlveda, 70, a Chilean writer in exile, dies in Spain from COVID-19. Installed in Europe since the 1980s, Sepúlveda achieved success as the author of some twenty novels, chronicles and stories, among which “An old man who read love novels” stands out.
29: Irrfan Khan, 53 years old, Bollywood and Hollywood star. He began his career in the 1980s. He was highly praised for his almost dialogue-free role in The Warrior (2001). In 2008, his face became known worldwide thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, a film that won eight Oscars.
Mayo
9: Little Richard, 87, legendary American singer from Tutti Frutti and pioneer of rock n’roll of the 50s. One of his peculiarities when singing was his voice of “shredded throat” that together with his songs made him one of the canon artists of the genre.
12: Michel Piccoli, 94, actor, emblem of French cinema. He was loyal to arthouse cinema in France and continental Europe. He began his career in the 1940s and went on to appear in more than 170 films, working into his 80s.
16: Yela Loffredo Rodríguez, 99 years old, sculptor from Guayaquil. He received the “Eugenio Espejo” National Prize for Culture in 1999 for his great contribution to the visual arts of Guayaquil; in 1979 she was appointed director of the Espol Cultural Department; Among his exhibitions are one of the most remembered, Symphony of Forms, held in 1984.
31: Christo Vladimiroff Javacheff, known as Christo, 84, Bulgarian-American, creator with his wife Jeanne-Claude of environmental art installations.
June
2. Héctor Suárez, 81 years old, Mexican actor. He starred in theater pieces such as The lady of her house, The crazy Suarez and The Madam President. In his productions he stood out for a humor similar to the one he used in his program What’s happening to us?.
9: Pau Donés, 53 years old, singer of the Spanish group Jarabe de Palo. He grew up in Barcelona, where he got on the guitar when he was just 15 years old. An admirer of Latin music, he mixed some of those rhythms with Catalan rumba and flamenco.
22. Carlos Luis Morales, 55, former Ecuadorian soccer player, journalist and politician. He stood out for his participation in Barcelona Sporting Club, a team with which he reached the final of the Copa Libertadores de América in 1990. After leaving football, he was a news presenter and entered politics; he served as a Guayaquil councilor and prefect of Guayas.
22. Joel Schumacher, 80 years old, filmmaker. He achieved recognition as a director with his third feature film, St. Elmo’s Fire, released in 1985, starring Emilio Estévez, Rob Low and Demi Moore. In 1995 he took over from Tim Burton as director of the Batman saga. That year he released ‘Batman Forever‘, which raised more than $ 330 million; followed with Batman & Robin, tape was a commercial disappointment.
July
6: Ennio Morricone, 91 years old, Italian composer of more than 500 film soundtracks, in particular those of director Sergio Leone. He won two Oscars and dozens of other awards including Golden Globes, Grammys, and BAFTAs.
8. Naya Rivera, 33 years old, actress. She is remembered for her portrayal of singer and cheerleader Santana López in six seasons of the Fox musical Glee.
12. Kelly Preston, 57 actress. Rose to fame for her role in comedy Twins in 1988, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. He worked on dozens of movies and series throughout his career.
19: Juan Marsé, 87 years old, Spanish writer, one of the great names in literature in that language in recent decades. It is part of the so-called ’50s generation’; his books transfer to postwar Barcelona, describing with a careful, realistic and ironic pen the postwar period and the social tensions between the traditional bourgeoisie, the new elites and the working class.
21: José Antonio Gómez Iturralde, 93, a writer and historian from Guayaquil. He wrote more than 30 works, always with the purpose of recovering the identity and historical projection of the Main Port. He ventured into historical research while he was already mature. Still ill, he redoubled efforts to conclude his last tribute to the Pearl of the Pacific: a book on independence that he finished writing alongside his duties as cultural curator for the Union Club.
26: Olivia de Havilland, 104, Melanie Hamilton in gone With the Wind (1939), Dean of Hollywood. The big-eyed brunette was one of the last stars of the school age; won the Oscar for To Each His Own and The Heiress.
August
28. Manuel “El Loco” Valdés, 89 years old, actor and comedian. He was the descendant of a family of actors, including Germán Valdés “Tin-Tan” and Ramón Valdés “don Ramón”. He is considered in Mexico as the first comedian to emerge clearly from television.
28. Chadwick Boseman, 43, actor. He is remembered for playing T’Challa, the king and protector of the fictional Wakanda in Black Panther. He was also known for his starring roles as Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013), James Brown and Get on Up (2014) and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017).
September
7. Xavier Ortíz, 48 years old. He studied to be a dental surgeon, but served as a model, singer, and stage and film actor. Fame came to him when in 1989 he joined the Garibaldi group.
10: Diana Rigg, 82, British actress. She became world famous for her portrayal of Emma Peel, John Steed’s partner on the legendary British television series The Avengers, but younger generations will remember her as the matriarch of the Tyrell family in Game of Thrones.
18: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, dean of the Supreme Court of the United States, icon of the progressive left. For more than 27 years he served on the Court; in 1971, she was instrumental in launching the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, a Supreme Court statement said.
30: Joaquín Salvador Lavado ” Quino ”, 88 years old, cartoonist and creator of Mafalda. He masterfully combined irony, acidity and tenderness in his vast work as a humorist.
October
4: Kenzo Takada aka Kenzo, 81, the most famous Japanese designer, known for his colorful and floral prints. At a very young age, she became passionate about design and sewing that her sisters learned; his first collection dates from 1970 and six years later he founded his own brand with only his first name.
6: Eddie Van Halen, 65, singer. Together with his brother Alex he founded the band Van Halen in the 1970s, which reached world fame in the 80s and became a rock icon.
31: Sean Connery, 90, British actor. Rose to fame first playing James Bond in Dr. No in 1962. Although he will be best remembered for his role as Agent 007, Connery enjoyed a varied career that earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a tough Irish cop in The Untouchables 1987.
November
24: Mamadou Tandja, 82 years old, former President of Niger (1999-2010), a figure recognized for his fight against poverty and austerity, nicknamed “Baba Tandja” (the Father of the Nation).
26: Diego Armando Maradona, 60 years old, Argentine international soccer player. The peak of his career was reached by winning the World Cup in Mexico-86 with Argentina. His most famous match is the one that in that World Cup, Maradona scored a goal with his hand, the famous ‘hand of God’ and the second of the albiceleste is considered the best in the history of the maximum appointments.
December
2: Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 94, former French president (1974-1981), father of several iconic social reforms, including the legalization of abortion.
6: Tabaré Vázquez, 80 years old, former president of Uruguay (2005-2010 and 2015-2020) and the first left-wing president in the South American country.
7: Chuck Yeager, 97, test pilot, the first to break the sound barrier in 1947.
12: John Le Carré, born David Cornwell, 89 years old, British author of espionage stories who sold more than 60 million books in the world. (I)
–
