Celebritydeaths.net

July 13, 2012: Richard Zanuck, 77, Academy Award winning Hollywood producer and former president of Twentieth Century Fox studios. He produced films including Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy, Cocoon, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland.
Link: HuffPo

May 4, 2012: Adam Yauch, 47, singer and songwriter with US punk/hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, of cancer. Sometimes working as Nathanial Hörnblowér, he was a Buddhist who supported the Tibetan independence movement.
Links: Wikipedia; LA Times

January 9, 2011: Peter Yates, 82, acclaimed British film director whose works includfed Bullit, Summer Holiday and The Dresser.
Link: Guardian

May 20, 2009: Oleg Yankovsky, 65, actor who was a giant of Soviet and Russian cinema, of cancer. He made 70 films over more than 40 years.
Links: Novosti

March 25, 2008: Zhou Bochun, 86, Chinese comedian and entertainer, born Yao Zhenmin. He began working on radio in 1939 and, with his brother Yao Mushuan formed the Bubble Bee Comic Troupe in 1950. His funny take on Chinglish was broadcast on US television.
Links: Shanghai Daily

September 11, 2007: Joe Zawinul, 75, Austrian-American fusion jazz pioneer. He played and recorded with Miles Davis and his own bands the Weather Report and the Zawinul Syndicate.
Links: CNN

April 23, 2007: Boris Yeltsin, 76, the man who "brought democracy to Russia" after the dismantling of the Soviet Union. He was the first democratically elected head of state in Russia, and the first Kremlin leader to step down voluntarily.
Links: CNN; BBC; ABC