Farewell the Queen and Mikhail Gorbachev: 2022's notable deaths

From Queen Elizabeth II to the Soviet Union's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev, here are some of 2022's most notable deaths.

January

- 6: SIDNEY POITIER, 94, American movie star, the first black man to win an Oscar in 1964

- 13: JEAN-JACQUES BEINEIX, 75, French director of iconic 1980s film "Betty Blue"

- 15: NINO CERRUTI, 91, Italian fashion designer

- 20: MARVIN LEE ADAY aka MEAT LOAF, 74, US rocker of "Bat out of Hell" fame

- 22: THICH NHAT HANH, 95, Vietnamese Buddhist monk who introduced the West to mindfulness

- 23: THIERRY MUGLER, 73, French fashion designer

February

- 2: MONICA VITTI, 90, Italian leading lady and muse of director Michelangelo Antonioni

- 6: LATA MANGESHKAR, 92: legendary Bollywood singer

- 10: LUC MONTAGNIER, 89, French scientist who won Nobel medicine prize winner for his co-discovery of the HIV virus

- 17: IVAN REITMAN, 75, director of "Ghostbusters"

March

- 4: SHANE WARNE, 52, Australian cricketer who was one of the game's best-ever players

- 13: WILLIAM HURT, 71, American actor who won an Oscar for "Kiss of the Spider Woman"

- 23: MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, 84, first female US secretary of state (1997-2001)

- 25: TAYLOR HAWKINS, 50, drummer of the alternative US rock group Foo Fighters

April

- 6: VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY, 75, Russian ultra-nationalist politician who predicted Ukraine war

- 13: MICHEL BOUQUET, 96, Celebrated French stage and screen actor

May

- 11: SHIREEN ABU AKLEH, 51, American-Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist killed during an Israeli army raid in the West Bank

- 19: VANGELIS (Evangelos Papathanassiou), 79, Greek composer of award-winning scores for "Chariots of Fire" and "Blade Runner"

- 26: RAY LIOTTA, 67, star of Martin Scorsese's gangster classic "Goodfellas"

- 26: ANDY FLETCHER, 60, founding member of British electronic band Depeche Mode

- 30: BORIS PAHOR, 108, Slovenian author who chronicled the horrors of Nazi concentration camps and Italian fascism

June

- 14: AVRAHAM YEHOSHUA, 85, revered Israeli novelist who championed Palestinian rights

- 17: JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT, 91, French star of New Wave films including "A Man and a Woman"

- 22: YVES COPPENS, 87, French paleontologist who co-discovered the famous fossil "Lucy" in Ethiopia

- 27: LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO, 87, Italy's second-richest man and eyewear magnate

July

- 3: PETER BROOK, 97, influential British theatre director famed for his radical stagings of Shakespeare

- 6: JAMES CAAN, 82, Hollywood star of "The Godfather" and "Misery"

- 8: SHINZO ABE, 67, Japan former premier, shot dead by a gunman at a campaign rally.

- 8: JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS, 79, Angola's long-time ruler

- 25: DAVID TRIMBLE, 77, politician, Nobel laureate, for helping to broker 1998 peace deal in Northern Ireland

- 27: JAMES LOVELOCK, 103, famed UK scientist behind Gaia theory, who predicted climate change

- 30: NICHELLE NICHOLS, 89, groundbreaking black actress who starred in cult sci-fi series "Star Trek"

- 31: BILL RUSSELL, 88, American NBA basketball player and civil rights activist

August

- 5: ISSEY MIYAKE, 84, Japanese fashion designer who pioneered high-tech, comfortable fashion

- 8: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, 73, star of hit musical "Grease" alongside John Travolta

- 12: JEAN-JACQUES SEMPE, 89, French cartoonist, illustrator of "Le petit Nicolas"

- 12: ANNE HECHE, 53, US actress of "Donnie Brasco"

- 30: MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, 91, last Soviet leader, whose reforms and outreach to the West set in motion the collapse of the USSR

September

- 8: QUEEN ELIZABETH II, 96, Britain's longest-serving monarch who reigned for 70 years

- 10: WILLIAM KLEIN, 96, American fashion and street life photographer

- 13: JEAN-LUC GODARD, 91, by assisted suicide. Director who pioneered the French New Wave.

- 14: IRENE PAPAS, 93, Greek star of "Zorba the Greek"

- 22: HILARY MANTEL, 70, British novelist, twice winner of the Booker Prize for her historical fiction best-sellers

- 23: FARREL "PHAROAH" SANDERS: 81, US jazz saxophonist

- 26: YUSUF AL-QARADAWI, 96, prominent Sunni scholar and spiritual leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement

- 28: COOLIO (Artis Leon Ivey Jr.), 59, US "Gangsta Paradise" rapper

October

- 4: LORETTA LYNN: 90, American country music titan

- 11: ANGELA LANSBURY, 96, cinema and television star

- 14: ROBBIE COLTRANE, 72, Scottish actor who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter films

- 22: DIETRICH MATESCHITZ, 78, Austrian billionaire who founded energy drinks company Red Bull

- 25: PIERRE SOULAGES, 102, French abstract artist who painted almost exclusively in black

- 28: JERRY LEE LEWIS, 87, US 1950s rock and roll star

November

- 9: GAL COSTA, 77, Brazilian singer, a key figure in the 1960s Tropicalia scene

- 20: HEBE DE BONAFINI, 93, one of the founders of Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo anti-dictatorship protest group

- 30: JIANG ZEMIN, 96, Chinese leader who took power after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and oversaw a decade of breakneck growth

- 30: CHRISTINE MCVIE, 79, singer-songwriter and keyboard player with 1970s band Fleetwood Mac

© 2022 AFP