Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2020
The world also said goodbye to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who died in July. Other former political figures who died this year include Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, New York Mayor David Dinkins, Arizona Gov. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___David Stern, 77. The guitarist who supplied the scratching, seething sound that fueled the highly influential British punk band Gang of Four. He fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music.
Herbert Stempel, TV quiz show whistleblower, dies at 93
Stempel's former wife, Ethel Stempel, told The Associated Press on Sunday, May 31, 2020, that he died at a New York nursing home on April 7. Stempel's former wife, Ethel Stempel, told The Associated Press on Sunday that he died at a New York nursing home on April 7. Interest was revived by the 1994 movie Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford and starring John Turturro as Stempel and Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren, who died last year. Stempel and Van Doren were an obvious contrast: The fair-haired and handsome Van Doren, and the relatively plain Stempel, a stocky, dark-haired man with glasses and a flat, nasally accent. Van Doren, who had no further comment on the scandal until a 2009 essay in The New Yorker, was among those given suspended sentences for lying to the grand jury.