1959 deaths

Josef "Joe" Stöckel (27 September 1894, Munich – 14 June 1959) was a German actor, screenwriter and film director.

Virgilio Riento (29 November 1889 – 7 September 1959) was an Italian actor and comedian. He appeared in 108 films between 1936 and 1959.

Eugène Vaillé (10 August 1875, Bédarieux, Hérault - 1959, Riols) was a French postal historian and the first curator of the postal museum of France, now La Poste's Museum, from 1946 to 1955.

Lodewijk Ferdinand Dieben (19 April 1890, in The Hague – 24 June 1959, in Zandvoort), better known under his pseudonym Lou Bandy, was a Dutch singer and conferencier who was one of the most popular artists in the Netherlands, between both world wars. Among his most famous songs are: Zoek de zon op' (Look for the sun), Schep vreugde in het leven (Put joy in life) and Louise zit niet op je nagels te bijten (Louise, don't bite your nails).

José Enrique Pedreira (February 2, 1904 – January 6, 1959) was a Puerto Rican composer noted for danzas.

Pedro Humberto Allende Sarón (July 29, 1885 – August 17, 1959) was one of the most important Chilean composers of the twentieth century. He obtained the prestigious Premio Nacional de Arte in 1945.

Jean Baylet (6 April 1904, Valence, Tarn-et-Garonne – 29 May 1959) was a French politician. He represented the Radical Party in the Constituent Assembly elected in 1945, in the Constituent Assembly elected in 1946 and in the National Assembly from 1946 to 1958.

Jean-Pierre Duprey (1 January 1930, in Rouen – 2 October 1959, in Paris) was a French poet and sculptor, one of the modern examples of a poète maudit (accursed poet).
Duprey said "I, I shouldn't have got stuck in this galaxy!" André Breton, fascinated by the darkness and imagery in Duprey's poetry, invited the author to Paris in 1948. Duprey's books are not a celebration of death, neither do they find comfort in thinking about it. All questions asked in the poems of his last book The End and the Means (1970) are left unanswered, but their author found a way somewhere "beyond" (Jouffroy, 1970, quoted in ).
He had a sense for scandals, too. One day he went to the grave of the Unknown Soldier by the Arc de Triomphe and urinated on the eternal flame for which he was arrested and beaten in the jail; later also taken to a mental hospital. Between 1951 and 1958 he did not write and concentrated on working on sculptures. He wrote his final book in 1959 and upon completion, he asked his wife to send the manuscript to Breton. When she returned from the post office, she found him dead; he had hanged himself in his studio.
Three days before his death, he said calmly to a friend: "I am allergic to this planet".

Antonio Alberto García Guerrero (February 6, 1886 – November 7, 1959) was a Chilean composer, pianist, and teacher. While he is most famously remembered as the mentor of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, García influenced several generations of musicians through his many years of teaching at the Toronto Conservatory of Music.

Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer. Bloch was a preeminent artist in his day, and left a lasting legacy. He is recognized as one of the greatest Swiss composers in history. As well as producing musical scores, Bloch had an academic career that culminated in his recognition as Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley in 1952.