2009 Deaths

January

14th: Ricardo Montalbán, 88, Mexican-born American actor (Fantasy Island, Star Trek)

27th: John Updike, 76, American author (Rabbit Is Rich, The Witches of Eastwick)

February

12th: Beverly Eckert, 57, American 9/11 widow and activist

March

6th: Susan Tsvangirai, 50, Zimbabwean wife of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai

18th: Natasha Richardson, 45, an English-American stage and screen actress.

April

11th: Albert Chernenko, 74, Russian philosopher, son of Konstantin Chernenko

22nd: Alex Lees, 97, British planner of the Great Escape during World War II

25th: Beatrice Arthur, 86, American Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress (Maude, The Golden Girls)

May

18th: Wayne Allwine, 62, American voice artist (Mickey Mouse)

June

23rd: Ed McMahon, 86, American celebrity, comedian, game show host, announcer

25th: Farrah Fawcett, 62, American actress (Charlie's Angels)

25th: Michael Jackson, 50, American pop singer–songwriter

July

6th: Robert McNamara, 93, American Secretary of Defense (1961–1968)

17th: Walter Cronkite, 92, American television news anchor

August

1st: Princess Felicitas of Prussia, 75, German princess, great-granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II

1st: Corazon Aquino, 76, Filipino politician, first female President (1986–1992)

11th: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, American activist, founder of the Special Olympics, sister of John F. Kennedy

25th: Ted Kennedy, 77, American politician, Senator from Massachusetts (1962–2009)

September

14th: Patrick Swayze, 57, American actor (Dirty Dancing, Ghost)

October

2nd: Marek Edelman, 86, Polish political and social activist, cardiologist, last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

November

8th: Vitaly Ginzburg, 93, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

29th: Prince Alexander of Belgium, 67, Belgian royal

December

16th: Yegor Gaidar, 53, Russian politician, acting Prime Minister (1992)

20th: Brittany Murphy, 32, American actress (Clueless, King of the Hill, 8 Mile)