Both loved as a hero and hated as a dictator, Castro is one of the giant figures of modern history.
He defied 10 US presidents during his 48 years in power, but in the decade since he stepped aside Cuba has become a different world. His sworn foe, the United States, is no longer officially Cuba's enemy.
Castro was a strapping 32-year-old in green fatigues when he led a rebel force that drove out dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
His image as a revolutionary warrior storming down from the mountains, rifle in hand, stirred his admirers' imagination. His communist policies and iron-fisted treatment of rivals drew the hostility of the United States and other Western powers.
Although his voice used to boom out over Havana in speeches that lasted hours, the former president spent his final years out of sight at home.
And in recent years he was rarely heard from, his face still smiled out from countless billboards across the Caribbean island.
Fidel Castro retired from public life in 2006 due to ill health. He formally transferred the presidency to his brother Raul in 2008.
At his final public appearance in April, Castro, who dressed in a blue tracksuit and spoke in a trembling voice, seemed to say goodbye.
"Soon I'll be like all the rest," he said. "Everyone's turn comes."
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