This year, the world of cinema also mourned Michel Blanc, pillar of the Splendid troupe, victim of anaphylactic shock, as well as Anouk Aimée, famous for her role in “A Man and a Woman” by Claude Lelouch, in which she played alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant. And cancer deprived the seventh art of internationally renowned actresses Shannen Doherty and Maggie Smith, an illness against which the two women had been fighting for very long months, and which also took Niels Arestrup and the journalist Bernard Pivot, who was made known to the public with “Apostrophes”.
The small screen was also marked by the deaths of Sylvain Augier, star presenter of “La carte aux Trésors”, Patrice Laffont, whose name is inseparable from “Desnumeraires et des lettres”, and of Didier Roustan, figure of the daily sports newspaper ” The Team.” Without forgetting the emblematic cook Maïté, who left just before Christmas. In Belgium, André Urbain, emblematic journalist and presenter of RTBF, died on December 19.
Françoise Hardy is gone
Icon of the sixties, singer with unrivaled tone, personality adored by the French, Françoise Hardy bowed out on June 11, 2024, after a very long fight against MALT lymphoma. Nine days later, hundreds of fans rushed to Père Lachaise, alongside his loved ones, to say goodbye. There were just as many fans to pay tribute to One Direction singer Liam Payne, when his life suddenly ended on October 16, 2024, after a fall caused by drugs and alcohol. He was joined a few weeks later by renowned producer Quincy Jones, whose name will remain associated with that of Michael Jackson. And the world of culture was mourned by the departure of Alexis Gruss, a major figure in the circus.
Internationally, the year 2024 will also remain that of the death of Alexei Navalny, the main political opponent of Vladimir Putin, who died in a penal colony, a former gulag, without ever having seen his wife or children again; as well as OJ Simpson, former American football superstar, whose 1995 double murder trial captivated America before his acquittal; and Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, the son of the last king of Italy. The political world will remember this year as that of the deaths of Robert Badinter, Frédéric Mitterrand, Roland Dumas, but also Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States who died at the age of 100.
