Passing on: notable deaths of 2010

Noteworthy deaths during the year just ending:

January

- 4: Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived not only the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima but also that of Nagasaki and lived to testify.

At age 93 in Nagasaki.

- 17: "Love Story" author Erich Segal of a heart attack in London at the age of 72.

- 27: American writer J. D. Salinger, author of "The Catcher in the Rye", at 91 at his home in New Hampshire.

February

- 11: British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, committed suicide in London at age 40.

- 20: Alexander Haig, US secretary of state under president Ronald Reagan, at age 85 in a Baltimore hospital.

March

- 12: Miguel Delibes, Spanish novelist and winner of the Cervantes Prize, at age 89.

April

- 8: British punk rock icon Malcolm McLaren, founder of the group The Sex Pistols. At age 64 of cancer in Switzerland.

- 10: Lech Kaczynski, president of Poland. Died aged 60 along with his wife and 94 others in a plane crash in Russia.

- 21: Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spaniard who presided the International Olympic Committee for 21 years. Died aged 89 in Barcelona.

May

- 3: British actress Lynn Redgrave, at age 63 of cancer at her home in the US state of Connecticut.

- 5: Umaru Yar'Adua, president of Nigeria. Died at age 58 after a long illness.

- 29: US film star Dennis Hopper, best known for his role in the film "Easy Rider". At age 74 in Los Angeles.

June

- 18: Jose Saramago: Portuguese novelist who won the Nobel Literature Prize in 1998. Died at age 87 in his home town of Lanzarote, on the Canary Islands.

July

- 19: David Warren, Australian who invented the "black box" flight recorder for aircraft in 1956. Died at age 85.

August

- 31: Laurent Fignon, popular French cyclist and two-time winner of the Tour de France, of cancer at age 50.

September

- 12: Claude Chabrol, prolific French new-wave film director, at age 80.

- 24: Gennady Yanayev, Russian politician who in 1991 led an abortive coup against then president Mikhail Gorbachev. At 73 in a Moscow hospital.

- 28: American film and stage director Arthur Penn, best known for the movie "Bonnie and Clyde", at age 88 in New York.

- 29: US film star Tony Curtis, who played opposite Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like it Hot". Died aged 85 at his home in Nevada.

October

- 4: Popular British comedian Norman Wisdom, at age 95 on the Isle of Man, where he lived.

- 10: Joan Sutherland, Australian opera singer who was one of the great sopranos of the 20th century, aged 83 at her home in Switzerland.

- 14: Benoit Mandelbrot, a French-American mathematician who explored a new class of mathematical shapes known as "fractals," aged 85 in Massachusetts.

- 27: Nestor Kirchner, former president of Argentina and husband of the current president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Died aged 60 of a heart attack.

November

- 3: Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian prime minister under Boris Yeltsin from 1992 to 1998. Died aged 72 after a long illness.

- 8: Admiral Emilio Massera, a leader of the dictatorship that ousted Argentinian president Isabel Peron in 1976. Died aged 85 while awaiting a second trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

- 10: Italian film producer Dino de Laurentiis, at age 91 in Los Angeles.

- 27: US director Irvin Kershner, renowned for making the second Star Wars film, "The Empire Strikes Back", dies in Los Angeles, aged 87.

December

- 3: Samuel Cohen, inventor of the neutron nuclear bomb which is supposed to kill humans and leave buildings standing, at age 89 in Los Angeles.