By Olivier Holmey
Dec 19 (Reuters) – A look back at some of the most notable figures who died this year, from Jane Goodall to Hulk Hogan.
RELIGION
Pope Francis, 88 years old
“How much harm the women and men of the Church do when they erect walls,” Francis said late in life. “Rigidity is a sin that often enters into clerics.”
The first Latin American pontiff shunned much of the papacy’s pomp, softened Catholic attitudes towards homosexuality, and put more women in senior roles than any predecessor.
More than 250,000 people attended his funeral in April, according to the Vatican.
The Aga Khan, 88
“Your name it is heard in high places; you know the Aga Khan,” Peter Sarstedt sang in 1969.
Karim Al Husseini, the fourth Aga Khan, died in February. The wealthy racehorse owner was the hereditary spiritual leader of 15 million Ismaili Muslims.
SCIENCE
Jane Goodall, 91
The global activist, who turned her childhood love of primates into a lifelong quest to protect the environment, died in October.
Jim Lovell, 97
Commander of Apollo 13, NASA’s failed 1970 mission to the Moon that was immortalised in a film starring Tom Hanks.
James Watson, 97
Biologist whose discovery of the structure of DNA ushered in the age of genetics.
CINEMA
Robert Redford, 89
Hollywood’s quintessential leading man starred in “The Sting”, “Out of Africa” and “All the President’s Men”. As the founder of the annual Sundance Film Festival, he was also an influential supporter of independent cinema. He died in September.
Diane Keaton, 79
Diane Keaton’s roles ranged from the tormented wife of a mob boss in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” to a kooky Midwesterner in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall”. She died in October.
Gene Hackman, 95
The star of movies