Aged 72
Famous people who died at 72
237 of the 11,867 best-known people in our data died aged 72, including Confucius, Louis Pasteur and John Locke. Here are the 100 best known.
- Confucius5th-century BCE Chinese philosopher and politician · c. 551–479 BC
- Louis PasteurFrench chemist and microbiologist · 1822–1895
- John LockeEnglish philosopher and physician · 1632–1704
- Dmitri MendeleevRussian chemist · 1834–1907
- AshokaMauryan emperor from 268 to 232 BCE · c. 304–232 BC
- Arthur SchopenhauerGerman philosopher · 1788–1860
- Isaac AsimovAmerican writer and biochemist · 1920–1992
- EpicurusAncient Greek philosopher · c. 342–270 BC
- Walt WhitmanAmerican poet, essayist and journalist · 1819–1892
- William Howard Taft27th President of the United States from 1909 to 1913 · 1857–1930
- Ferdinand MarcosPresident of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986 · 1917–1989
- Thomas PaineAmerican Founding Father, philosopher, and political activist · 1737–1809
- AverroesArab Andalusian Muslim writer and philosopher · 1126–1198
- Herman MelvilleAmerican writer and poet · 1819–1891
- Pol PotFormer General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea · 1925–1998
- BrahmaguptaIndian mathematician and astronomer · c. AD 598–670
- Erich Maria RemarqueGerman-born novelist · 1898–1970
- Lope de VegaSpanish playwright and poet · 1562–1635
- Yasunari KawabataJapanese novelist · 1899–1972
- John WayneAmerican actor · 1907–1979
- El GrecoGreek artist, painter, sculptor and architect · 1541–1614
- Georg CantorGerman mathematician, inventor of set theory · 1845–1918
- Anaxagoras5th-century BC Greek philosopher · c. 500–428 BC
- Alexander VIPope of the Catholic Church 1492–1503 from the Borgia family · 1431–1503
- Joan CrawfordAmerican actress · 1905–1977
- Empress Dowager CixiChinese empress · 1835–1908
- Konstantin ChernenkoGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union · 1912–1985
- Henry JamesAmerican and British writer · 1843–1916
- Marcello MastroianniItalian actor · 1924–1996
- Roger BaconEnglish polymath, philosopher and friar · c. 1220–1292
- Anton BrucknerAustrian composer · 1824–1896
- Heike Kamerlingh OnnesDutch physicist, Nobel prize winner · 1853–1926
- Charles LindberghAmerican aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist · 1902–1974
- José de San MartínArgentine general and independence leader · 1778–1850
- Fulgencio BatistaPresident of Cuba, 1940–1944; dictator, 1952-1959 · 1901–1973
- Emanuel LaskerGreman chess player, World Chess champion · 1868–1941
- Jean GabinFrench actor and singer · 1904–1976
- Theodoric the GreatKing of the Germanic Ostrogoths and ruler of Italy · AD 454–526
- Al-KindiMuslim Arab philosopher, mathematician and physician · c. AD 801–873
- Edward Victor AppletonEnglish physicist · 1892–1965
- John BoscoItalian Roman Catholic priest, educator, writer · 1815–1888
- José Ortega y GassetSpanish liberal philosopher and essayist · 1883–1955
- Edsger W. DijkstraDutch computer scientist · 1930–2002
- Gertrude SteinAmerican author · 1874–1946
- Getúlio VargasPresident of Brazil · 1882–1954
- Leonard BernsteinAmerican conductor and composer · 1918–1990
- Amir KhusrauIndian poet, writer, singer and scholar · c. 1253–1325
- Trygve Lie1st Secretary-General of the United Nations · 1896–1968
- Aleister CrowleyEnglish occultist · 1875–1947
- Apollonius of PergaAncient Greek geometer and astronomer noted for his writings on conic sections · c. 262–190 BC
- Irenaeus2nd-century Greek bishop and Doctor of the Church · c. AD 130–202
- Leo IIPope · c. AD 611–683
- Louis AlthusserFrench Marxist philosopher · 1918–1990
- Władysław II JagiełłoKing of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania · c. 1362–1434
- Innocent IXPope of the Catholic Church in 1591 · 1519–1591
- Vitalian7th-century pope · AD 600–672
- Charles III of SpainKing of Spain from 1759 to 1788 · 1716–1788
- Victor ChernomyrdinRussian diplomat and politician · 1938–2010
- Erich LudendorffGerman general and politician · 1865–1937
- William SaroyanArmenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer · 1908–1981
- Gaius MariusRoman general, statesman and military reformer · c. 158–86 BC
- Sacha GuitryFrench playwright and filmmaker · 1885–1957
- John Couch AdamsEnglish mathematician and astronomer · 1819–1892
- Lars OnsagerAmerican physical chemist and theoretical physicist · 1903–1976
- Eugene of SavoyPrince of the house of Savoy, then commander in chief of the armies of the Holy Roman Empire · 1663–1736
- Mileva MarićSerbian mathematician and wife of Albert Einstein · 1875–1948
- Christiaan EijkmanDutch physician · 1858–1930
- Thomas Moore ↗Irish poet, singer and songwriter · 1779–1852
- Zakir Husain ↗3rd President of India · 1897–1969
- Carlos Castañeda ↗Peruvian-American author · 1925–1998
- Frederik IX of Denmark ↗King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972 · 1899–1972
- Henry Way Kendall ↗American particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics · 1926–1999
- Robbie Coltrane ↗Scottish actor · 1950–2022
- Ronald Fisher ↗British statistician, evolutionary biologist and geneticist · 1890–1962
- Dimitris Christofias ↗6th President of the Republic of Cyprus · 1946–2019
- Peter Medawar ↗English-brazilian biologist · 1915–1987
- Vladimir Arnold ↗Russian mathematician who studied integrable systems and differential equations · 1937–2010
- Carl Zeiss ↗German optical physicist · 1816–1888
- J.B.S. Haldane ↗Geneticist and evolutionary biologist · 1892–1964
- Algernon Charles Swinburne ↗English poet, playwright and novelist · 1837–1909
- Amadou Toumani Touré ↗Malian soldier and politician · 1948–2020
- Gaspard Monge ↗French mathematician, inventor of descriptive geometry and father of differential geometry · 1746–1818
- Giacomo Meyerbeer ↗German-French composer · 1791–1864
- Thorstein Veblen ↗American economist and sociologist · 1857–1929
- Aleksey Brusilov ↗Russian and Soviet military commander · 1853–1926
- Hans Spemann ↗German embryologist · 1869–1941
- Al-Battani ↗Islamic astronomer and mathematician · c. AD 858–930
- David Carradine ↗American actor · 1936–2009
- George Clinton ↗Vice president of the United States of America from 1805 to 1812 · 1739–1812
- Ulfilas ↗Goth Arian bishop, missionary, theologian, and Bible translator · c. AD 311–383
- Elisabeth of Wied ↗German writer; queen consort of Romania as the wife of King Carol I · 1843–1916
- John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough ↗English soldier and statesman · 1650–1722
- Roger Vadim ↗French filmmaker · 1928–2000
- Otto Sander ↗German film, theater, and voice actor · 1941–2013
- Amrish Puri ↗Indian actor · 1932–2005
- Andronikos II Palaiologos ↗Byzantine Emperor from 1282 to 1328 · 1259–1332
- Arthur Henderson ↗British politician · 1863–1935
- Johan Huizinga ↗Dutch cultural historian · 1872–1945
- Vladimir II Monomakh ↗Grand Prince of Kiev · c. 1053–1125
- Carlos Alberto Torres ↗Brazilian association football player and manager · 1944–2016
"c." means only the years are known, so the age could be a year out. Dates are from Wikidata (CC0), last updated 22 October 2026.
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