2001 deaths

Giovanni Luigi Bonelli (22 December 1908 – 12 January 2001) was an Italian comic book author and publisher, best remembered as the co-creator of Tex Willer in 1948, together with artist Aurelio Galleppini.

Sacha Vierny (10 August 1919 – 15 May 2001) was a French cinematographer. He was born in Bois-le-Roi, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France, and died in Paris, France, at the age of 81. He is most famous for his work with Alain Resnais – especially for the two films Hiroshima mon amour and L'année dernière à Marienbad – and with Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Prospero's Books).

Rosemary Shirley DeCamp (November 14, 1910 – February 20, 2001) was an American radio, film, and television actress.

Captain Rolim Adolfo Amaro (September 15, 1942 - July 8, 2001), known as "Comandante Rolim," was a Brazilian pilot and airline owner and founder of TAM Airlines.

Marie Marthe Augustine Lemaitre Brémont (née Mesange; 25 April 1886 – 6 June 2001) was a French supercentenarian and the oldest recognized person in the world from November 2000 until her death at age 115 years 42 days. Brémont is the fifth oldest French person to have ever lived, after longevity world record holder Jeanne Calment, Lucile Randon, Jeanne Bot, and Valentine Ligny.

Bonny Lee Bakley (June 7, 1956 – May 4, 2001) was the second wife of actor Robert Blake, who was her tenth husband. Bakley was fatally shot while sitting in Blake's parked car outside a Los Angeles restaurant in May 2001.
In 2002, Blake was charged with Bakley's murder, solicitation of murder, conspiracy and special circumstance of lying in wait. In March 2005, a jury found Blake not guilty of the crimes. Seven months later, Blake was found liable in a wrongful death lawsuit brought against him by Bakley's children. Officially, Bakley's murder remains unsolved.

Tiberio Mitri (12 July 1926 in Trieste – 12 February 2001 in Rome), also known as "La tigre di Trieste" (The Trieste Tiger) was an Italian boxer who fought from 1946 to 1957. During his career, Mitri was Italian and European middleweight champion.

James Knapp (29 September 1940 – 13 August 2001) was a British trades unionist. He was successively General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) from 1983, and then of the merged National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 1990 to his death in 2001. He served on the executive board of the International Transport Workers' Federation from 1983 to 2001, the General Council of the Trades Union Congress from 1983 to 2001, and was President of the Trades Union Congress in 1994.

Jackie "Butch" Jenkins (August 29, 1937 – August 14, 2001) was an American child actor who had a brief but notable film career during the 1940s.

Robert Abel (March 10, 1937 – September 23, 2001) was an American pioneer in visual effects, computer animation and interactive media, best known for the work of his company, Robert Abel and Associates.
Born in Cleveland, he received degrees in Design and Film from UCLA. He began his work in computer graphics in the 1950s, as an apprentice to John Whitney.In the 1960s and early 1970s, Abel wrote or directed several films, including The Making of the President, 1968, Elvis on Tour and Let the Good Times Roll.
In 1971, Abel and Con Pederson founded Robert Abel and Associates (RA&A), creating slit-scan effects and using motion-controlled cameras for television commercials and films. RA&A began using Evans & Sutherland computers to previsualize their effects; this led to the creation of the trailer for The Black Hole, and the development of their own software for digitally animating films (including Tron).Abel and Associates was contracted to provide Paramount Pictures the special effects for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but was not able to deliver them, and its services were terminated by Paramount.In 1984, Robert Abel and Associates produced a commercial named Brilliance for the Canned Food Information Council for airing during the Super Bowl XIX telecast. It featured a sexy robot with reflective environment mapping and human-like motion.Abel & Associates closed in 1987 following an ill-fated merger with now defunct Omnibus Computer Graphics, Inc., a company which had been based in Toronto.
In the 1990s, Abel founded Synapse Technologies, an early interactive media company, which produced pioneering educational projects for IBM, including "Columbus: Discovery, Encounter and Beyond" and "Evolution/Revolution: The World from 1890-1930".
He received numerous honors, including a Golden Globe Award (for Elvis on Tour), 2 Emmy Awards, and 33 Clios.
Abel died from complications following a myocardial infarction at the age of 64.Abel's film By the Sea, made with Pat O'Neill, was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.