WRobert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Altman is known as five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, comparable to such directors as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Sidney Lumet and David Lynch. Altman was considered a "maverick" in making films with a highly naturalistic but stylized and satirical aesthetic, unlike most Hollywood films. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema.
WRodney Cline Carew is an Afro-Panamanian former Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman, second baseman and coach who played from 1967 to 1985 for the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels. The greatest contact hitter in Twins history, he won the 1977 AL Most Valuable Player Award, setting a Twins record with a .388 batting average. Carew appeared in 18 straight All-Star Games and led the AL in hits three times, with his 239 hits in 1977 being twelfth most at the time. He won seven AL batting titles, the second most AL batting titles in history behind Ty Cobb, and on July 12, 2016 the AL batting title was renamed to the Rod Carew American League batting title.
WRobert Patrick Casey Sr. was an American lawyer and politician from Pennsylvania who served as the Democratic 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 22nd district from 1963 to 1968 and as Auditor General of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1977.
WRichard Bruce Cheney is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He has been cited as the most powerful vice president in American history. He is also one of the most unpopular politicians in the history of the US, holding an approval rating of just 13% at the time of leaving office.
WDavid C. Copley was an American publishing heir, on the board of the Copley Press for over thirty years, becoming president and owner, as well as publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a noted philanthropist.
WRichard "Rich" Marvin DeVos Sr. was an American billionaire businessman, co-founder of Amway with Jay Van Andel, and owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team. In 2012, Forbes magazine listed him as the 60th wealthiest person in the United States, and the 205th richest in the world, with an estimated net worth of $5.1 billion.
WStephanie Fae Beauclair, better known as Baby Fae, was an American infant born in 1984 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. She became the first infant subject of a xenotransplant procedure and first successful infant heart transplant, receiving the heart of a baboon. Though she died within a month of the procedure, she lived weeks longer than any previous recipient of a non-human heart.
WHartwig Gauder was a German race walker who won a gold medal in the Men's 50 kilometres walk at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
WJonathan Hardy was a New Zealand-Australian film and television actor, writer and director, he worked also in Australia.
WJuraj Jakubisko is a Slovak film director. He has directed 15 feature films, between 1967 and 2008. He often takes the dual role of cinematographer, and is often also credited as a screenplay writer as he usually co-writes or writes the scripts of his movies. In 2000 he was named Best Slovak Director of the 20th century by film critics and journalists. His work is often described as magical realism.
WWilliam James Te Wehi Taitoko better known by his stage name Billy T. James, was a New Zealand entertainer, comedian, musician and actor. He became a key figure in the development of New Zealand comedy and a household name during his lifetime.
WStormie Dawn Jones was the world's first recipient of a successful simultaneous heart and liver organ transplant. On February 14, 1984, under the direction of Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, Drs. Byers W. Shaw Jr. and Henry T. Bahnson replaced the six-year-old's heart and liver at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Stormie had a condition which raised her blood cholesterol to 10 times normal levels. The condition, a severe form of familial hypercholesterolemia, and the resultant high levels of low density lipoprotein that damaged her organs, gave her two heart attacks when she was six years old. The case showed that the liver controls blood cholesterol and that high cholesterol is controllable, and was part of the research on cholesterol and the liver that won Joseph L. Goldstein and Michael S. Brown the Nobel prize in medicine in 1985. Stormie died on November 11, 1990. Her death was related to rejection of the heart transplant she had received in 1984.
WEdward Hugh McGinnis, better known by the stage name Eddie Large, was a British comedian. He was best known as one half of the double act Little and Large, with Syd Little.
WDonna Mansell is a double heart transplant recipient who has inspired a campaign for Organ Donation education as well as counselling others in a similar situation from her hospital bed. Donna also promoted organ donation through media and charity events and was also the figurehead for the British Heart Foundation's Christmas fundraising drive. Donna's Campaign has been continued by her husband Aaran Mansell after her unfortunate death in July 2010.
WDerrick Morris was, at the time of his death, Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient, living 25 years after the transplant performed by Sir Magdi Yacoub in 1980. He died from an illness that was not heart or transplant related.
WCarroll Hall Shelby was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified during the late 1960s and early 2000s. He established Shelby American in 1962 to manufacture and market performance vehicles. His autobiography, The Carroll Shelby Story, was published in 1967. As a race car driver, his highlight was as a co-driver of the winning 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans entry.
WSalvador Vilar Braamcamp Sobral ComM is a Portuguese singer, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 for Portugal with the song "Amar pelos dois," written and composed by his sister, Luísa Sobral. In doing so, he gave Portugal its first ever win in the contest since its debut in 1964, ending the longest winless run by a country in Eurovision history. Sobral and his entry hold the Eurovision record for the highest-scoring winner, having earned a total of 758 points under the current voting system, after winning both the jury vote and televote.
WGene Summers is an American rock/rockabilly singer. His recordings include "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", "Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That", "Twixteen", "Alabama Shake", "Fancy Dan" and his biggest-selling single "Big Blue Diamonds". Summers was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1997 and The Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2005. He still performs worldwide and celebrated his 50th anniversary as a recording artist in 2008 with the release of Reminisce Cafe.
WKenton Charles "Teke" Tekulve, is an American former professional baseball right-handed relief pitcher, who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also played for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds. Pitching with an unusual submarine delivery, Tekulve was known as a workhorse relief pitcher who holds several records for number of games pitched and innings pitched.
WFrank Joseph Torre was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman. Torre, who batted and threw left-handed, played for the Milwaukee Braves (1956–60) and Philadelphia Phillies (1962–63). He was the older brother of Baseball Hall of Fame member Joe Torre, himself a former Major League Baseball player and longtime manager.
WCharlotte Valandrey is a French actress and author. After early success she was widely tipped for stardom, but her career took a more modest course until the release of her autobiography in 2005.
WCharles Nesbitt Wilson was a United States naval officer and former 12-term Democratic United States Representative from Texas's 2nd congressional district.
WJessica Madison Wright Morris, known professionally as J. Madison Wright, was an American actress. Born in Cincinnati, she spent her early years being raised in Lexington, Kentucky. She was best known for her role as Sam Wallace in Shiloh. She co-starred in Shiloh with her younger sister Tori Wright.
WJustin Wright was an American artist who worked at Pixar Animation Studios for slightly over a year until his death.