1959 deaths

Jean Grémillon (French: [gʁemijɔ̃]; 3 October 1901 – 25 November 1959) was a French film director.

Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), better known by his stage name The Big Bopper, was an American musician and disc jockey. His best-known compositions include "Chantilly Lace," "Running Bear", and "White Lightning", the latter of which became George Jones's first number-one hit in 1959. Richardson was killed in an airplane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa, in 1959, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, and the pilot, Roger Peterson.

Renato Birolli (10 December 1905 – 3 May 1959) was an Italian painter.

James Allan Mollison MBE (19 April 1905 – 30 October 1959) was a Scottish pioneer aviator who, flying solo or with his wife, Amy Johnson, set many records during the rapid development of aviation in the 1930s.

Jacques Jean Lhermitte (English: ) (20 January 1877 – 24 January 1959) was a French neurologist and neuropsychiatrist.

Georges Lefebvre (French: [ʒɔʁʒ ləfɛvʁ]; 6 August 1874 – 28 August 1959) was a French historian, best known for his work on the French Revolution and peasant life. He is considered one of the pioneers of "history from below". He coined the phrase the "death certificate of the old order" to describe the Great Fear of 1789. Among his most significant works was the 1924 book Les Paysans du Nord pendant la Révolution française ("The Peasants of the North During the French Revolution"), which was the result of 20 years of research into the role of the peasantry during the revolutionary period.

François Gény (1861–1959) was a French jurist and professor of law at the University of Nancy, who introduced the notion of "free scientific research" to the interpretation of positive law.
His advocacy of judicial discretion in the interpretation of statutory law had an important influence across Europe. Gény also emphasized that judges should take into account social and economic factors when deciding cases.