Their Final Photo...

Many great men and women passed away, some recently and some in the more distant past. These are the people who left a mark on the world or on our hearts, and were taken away. These photos are the last images ever captured of these great people - the final memory they left us with.

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Starting as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, he is credited with leading San Francisco's comedy renaissance. On August 11, 2014, after a long history of depression, Williams committed suicide at his home in Paradise Cay, California. This photo was taken the night before his suicide. (source)

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement. Dean's premature death in a car crash cemented his legendary status. He became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. This photo was taken on the day he died. (source)

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The world's highest-paid performer, he headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 before his accidental death from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27. This photo was taken on Sept. 17, 1970, by Monika Danneman in the garden behind her apartment. (source)

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc² (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"). Einstein passed away from an abdominal aortic aneurysm which caused severe internal bleeding. The photo was taken a month before his sudden death. (source)

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), commonly known by his initials RFK, was an American politician from Massachusetts. He served as a Senator for New York from 1965 until his assassination in 1968. This photo was taken moments before he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan. (source)

Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897 – disappeared July 2, 1937) was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. This photo was taken while she was packing for that doomed flight. (source)

George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Harrison died in 2001, aged 58, from lung cancer. This photo was taken a few months before his death. (source)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), commonly known as Jack Kennedy or by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon and charged with the crime that night. This is the last photo of JFK before he was shot moments later. (source)

Keith John Moon (23 August 1946 – 7 September 1978) was an English drummer who played with the English rock band The Who. He was noted for his unique style and his eccentric, often self-destructive behavior. He was found dead in his London home, having suffered from an overdose of Heminevrin. This photo was taken on Sept. 6, 1978, at a pre-party and premiere of The Buddy Holly Story. (source)

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. This photo was taken a month before his assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. (source)

Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, model, and film studio executive. She was the star of the sitcom I Love Lucy. On April 26, 1989, Ball died of an abdominal aortic dissection at the age of seventy-seven. This final photo was taken at the Academy Awards on March 29, 1989. (source)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. This photo was taken one day before his assassination. (source)

George Herman "Babe" Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American baseball player. Ruth was a Major League Baseball outfielder and pitcher for 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture, and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1946, he became ill with cancer, and died two years later. This photo taken at his last appearance at Yankee Stadium in 1948. (source)

Paramahansa Yogananda or Paramhansa Yogananda (January 1893 – 7 March 1952), born Mukunda Lal Ghosh, was an Indian yogi and guru who introduced millions of westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi. He died of heart failure on March 7, 1952 in Los Angeles, the same day this photo was taken. (source)

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe (September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. This is the last photo of McAuliffe on the way to the shuttle where she will find her death hours later. (source)

Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, comedian, and film producer. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed the "King of Cool" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assurance. Martin was diagnosed with lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in September 1993, and in early 1995 retired from public life. He died of acute respiratory failure resulting from emphysema in his Beverly Hills home on Christmas morning 1995, at age 78. This photo was taken just weeks before his death. (source)

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, record producer, and film director. Zappa was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often difficult to categorize. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. In 1990, Frank Zappa was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. He died on Saturday, December 4, 1993, in his home with his wife and children by his side. This photo was taken close to the time of his passing. (source)

Margaret Hilda Thatcher (13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist called her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism. Thatcher died on 8 April 2013 at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at a suite in the Ritz Hotel in London since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home. This photo was taken in October 2012. (source)

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music and dance, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. This photo was taken two days before his death, during rehersal for his This Is It tour. (source)

Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan, serving two non-consecutive terms in 1988–90 and then 1993–96. A scion of the politically powerful Bhutto family, she was the eldest daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister himself who founded the centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Bhutto was assassinated in a bombing on 27 December 2007, after leaving PPP's last rally in Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled 2008 general election in which she was the leading candidate. This is the last photo taken of Bhutto, minutes before the explosion that took her life. (source)

Dolores Janney "Jenni" Rivera (July 2, 1969 – December 9, 2012) was an American singer, songwriter, actress, television producer, and entrepreneur known for her work within the regional Mexican music genre. In life and death, several media outlets including CNN, Billboard, Fox News, and The New York Times have labeled her as the most important female figure and top selling female artist in the regional Mexican music genre. Rivera died in a plane crash on December 9th, 2012 - this photo was taken just before the plane took off. (source)