>This Regulation does not apply to the personal data of deceased persons. Member States may provide for rules regarding the processing of personal data of deceased persons.

It's not part of the operative text of the regulation, but it provides for a clarification on what a "natural person" is, and the principal prohibition in the regulation is the processing of data about an identified or identifiable natural person.

I would also assume, but I'm not 100% sure, that there's some case law from the CJEU around whether or not the definition of "natural person" includes dead people, which is why it's not in the main body of the text.