The following is a list of notable deaths in 2012.
January
January 1 - Carlos Soria, 62, Argentine politician, shot. January 1 - Bob Anderson, 89, English fencer, and movie sword fight choreographer. January 1 - Kiro Gligorov, 94, former President of the Republic of Macedonia. January 2 - William P. Carey, 81, American investment manager and philanthropist. January 3 - Josef Skvorecky, 87, Czech writer and publisher, cancer. January 5 - Frederica Sagor Maas, 111, American screenwriter, playwright and writer. January 6 - Bob Holness, 83, South African-born British quiz show host. January 8 - Alexis Weissenberg, 82, Bulgarian pianist. January 9 - Malam Bacai Sanha, 64, President of Guinea-Bissau. January 9 - Mae Laborde, 102, American actress, natural causes. January 12 - Bill Janklow, 72, American politician and former Governor of South Dakota, cancer. January 12 - Reginald Hill, 75, British crime fiction writer. January 13 - Rauf Denktaş, 87, 1st President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, multiple organ failure. January 14 - Txillardegi, 82, Basque linguist, writer and politician. January 15 - Manuel Fraga Iribarne, 89, Spanish politician and former Prime Minister of Galicia, heart failure. January 15 - Ed Derwinski, 85, American politician. January 16 - Gustav Leonhardt, 83, Dutch musician, conductor and teacher. January 17 - Johnny Otis, 90, American songwriter. January 19 - Sarah Burke, 29, Canadian freestyle skier, complications from skiing accident. January 20 - Jiri Raska, 70, Czech ski jumper, heart disease. January 20 - Etta James, 73, American singer, leukemia. January 22 - Joe Paterno, 85, American college football coach, lung cancer. January 24 - Theodoros Angelopoulos, 76, Greek movie director and screenwriter, hit by a motorcycle. January 24 - James Farentino, 73, American actor. January 25 - Veronica Carstens, 88, former First Lady of Germany. January 26 - M. O. H. Farook, 74, Indian politician, diplomat and Governor of Kerala. January 26 - Colin Tarrant, 59, British actor January 29 - Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, 93, 9th President of Italy. January 29 - Camilla Williams, 92, American opera singer, complications from cancer. January 31 - Anthony Bevilacqua, 88, former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia. January 31 - Mike Kelley, 57, American artist and musician, suicide, (body found on this date). January 31 - Dorothea Tanning, 101, American painter.
February
February 1 - Wislawa Szymborska, 88, Polish poet, awarded 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. February 1 - Angelo Dundee, 90, American boxing trainer. February 1 - Don Cornelius, 75, American gameshow host (Soul Train), suicide by gunshot. February 3 - Ben Gazzara, 81, American actor, pancreatic cancer. February 3 - Samuel Youd, 89, British science fiction writer. February 4 - Mike deGruy, 60, American documentary movie maker, helicopter crash. February 4 - Andrew Wight, 52, Australian screenwriter and producer, helicopter crash. February 4 - Florence Green, 110, British supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I service veteran, natural causes. February 6 - Antoni Tapies, 88, Spanish painter and sculptor. February 6 - Janice E. Voss, 55, American engineer and astronaut, breast cancer. February 11 - Whitney Houston, 48, American singer and actress, drowning. February 12 - David Kelly, 82, Irish actor. February 16 - Baddeley Devesi, 70, first Governor-General of the Solomon Islands. February 16 - Anil Ramdas, 54, Surinamese-Dutch journalist and columnist, suicide. February 16 - Anthony Shadid, 43, American journalist, asthma attack. February 17 - Ulric Neisser, 83, American psychologist. February 18 - Roald Aas, 83, Norwegian speed skater and cyclist. February 18 - George Brizan, 69, former Prime Minister of Grenada, diabetes. February 19 - Ruth Barcan Marcus, 90, American philosopher and logician. February 19 - Renato Dulbecco, 97, Italian virologist and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner. February 20 - Vitaly Vorotnikov, 86, Soviet-Russian politician. February 22 - Marie Colvin, 56, American war correspondent, killed in Syria. February 22 - Remi Ochlik, 28, French photographer, killed in Syria. February 24 - Infanta Maria Adelaide of Portugal, 100, Portuguese royal. February 24 - Jan Berenstain, 88, American writer and illustrator, stroke. February 25 - Maurice Andre, 78, French classical trumpeter. February 25 - Red Holloway, 84, American jazz saxophonist, stroke and kidney failure. February 25 - Erland Josephson, 88, Swedish actor and writer. February 25 - Louisiana Red, 79, American blues musician. February 29 - Davy Jones, 66, British actor and musician (The Monkees), heart attack.