Notable deaths in 2016

[PARIS] From legendary British singer David Bowie to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and American boxer Muhammad Ali, here are some of the notable figures who died in 2016.

David Bowie, 69, legendary British singer and musician who died of cancer two days after his 25th album was released.

Alan Rickman, 69, British actor who often played villains, such as professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 93, Egyptian diplomat and UN secretary general from 1992 to 1996.

Harper Lee, 89, US author of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Umberto Eco, 84, Italian writer and philosopher who wrote The Name of the Rose.

Nancy Reagan, 94, US first lady from 1981 to 1989 and a quiet influence on president Ronald Reagan.

George Martin, 90, British music producer nicknamed "The fifth Beatle".

Johan Cruyff, 68, Dutch football star who led the powerful Ajax Amsterdam team in the 1970s.

Jim Harrison, 78, US writer of novels and poems who explored the natural world in such works as Legends of the Fall.

Prince, 57, groundbreaking US musician whose many hits include Purple Rain, Girls & Boys and Kiss.

Papa Wemba, 66, singer and king of Congolese rumba.

Muhammad Ali, 74, US boxing legend, triple world heavyweight champion.

Jo Cox, 41, British Labour Party MP, murdered in the street a week before Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.

Elie Wiesel, 87, US writer, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor.

Michael Cimino, 77, US director who made the 1978 film The Deer Hunter based on the Vietnam War.

Abbas Kiarostami, 76, Iranian film director who won the 1997 Palme d'Or in Cannes for Taste of Cherry.

Islam Karimov, 78, president of Uzbekistan from independence in 1991.

Shimon Peres, 93, a founding father of Israel and a former president who won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize after signing the Oslo Accords with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.

Andrzej Wajda, 90, Polish film director who won the 1981 Palme d'Or in Cannes for "Man of Iron".

Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, king of Thailand and until his death the world's longest reigning monarch.

Dario Fo, 90, Italian writer and actor who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1997.

Leonard Cohen, 82, Canadian poet and musician who became an icon of the 1960s counterculture generation with songs like Suzanne and Hallelujah.

Fidel Castro, 90, the Cuban leader who reportedly survived multiple assassination attempts, and who ruled through the administrations of 11 US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.

John Glenn, 95, the first US astronaut to orbit the earth.

Zsa Zsa Gabor, 99, Hungarian-born Hollywood siren better known for her prodigious love life than her movie credits.

George Michael, 53, British singer, known as one half of boy band Wham! and then as a solo artist.

Carrie Fisher, 60, best known as Princess Leia in Star Wars, also a best-selling author and screenwriter.

Debbie Reynolds, 84, star of Singin' in the Rain and Carrie Fisher's mother.

AFP