Deaths in December 1988

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship, reason for notability, cause of death, and reference.

December 1988

1

• Martin Hinds, 47, British scholar of the Middle East, historiographer of early Islamic history.
• Włodzimierz Mazur, 34, Polish international footballer.
• J. Vernon McGee, 84, American Presbyterian minister and radio minister, heart failure.

2

• Karl-Heinz Bürger, 84, Nazi German member of the SS.
• Tata Giacobetti, 66, Italian singer and jazz musician.
• Paul Lindemark Jørgensen, 72, Danish Olympic sailor.
• Armand Niccolai, 77, American NFL player.
• Lloyd Rees, 93, Australian landscape painter.

3

• Panos Gavalas, 62, Greek singer.
• John Maher, 48, American former child alcoholic and heroin addict, founded Delancey Street Foundation, pneumonia.
• Johnny Paychek, 74, American boxer.
• Erwin Sick, 79, German inventor and entrepreneur, heart attack.
• Thawan Thamrongnawasawat, 87, Thai politician, Prime Minister of Thailand.

4

• Osman Achmatowicz, 89, Polish chemist.
• Gerd Arntz, 87, German artist.
• Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry, 85, Pakistani nuclear physicist.
• Fernand Mourlot, 93, French director of Mourlot Studios.
• Kola Onadipe, 66, Nigerian author of children's books, stroke.
• Göran von Otter, 81, Swedish diplomat.
• Jangal Santhal, 62–63, Indian political activist.
• Sir David Trench, 73, British Army officer, Governor of Hong Kong and the Solomon Islands.
• Alberto Uría, 64, Uruguayan racing driver.
• Natale Vecchi, 71, Italian Olympic wrestler.

5

• Winfield S. Harpe, 51, American pilot, general in the U.S. Air Force, air crash.
• August Lenz, 78, German international footballer and Olympian.
• Erik Lundin, 84, Swedish chess master.
• Teodor Parnicki, 79–80, Polish writer of historical novels.
• William Everett Potter, 83, American engineer and military officer, governor of the Panama Canal Zone, heart failure.
• Dave Ryan, 65, American NFL player.

6

• Bill Harris, 63, American guitarist, pancreatic cancer.
• Richard Lippi, 40, French Olympic rower.
• Timothy Patrick Murphy, 29, American actor, AIDS.
• Roy Orbison, 52, American singer and songwriter, heart attack.
• Charles Saxon, 68, American cartoonist, heart failure.
• George Shaw, 57, American Olympic triple jumper.
• Veerendra, 40, Indian film actor and director.

7

• Christopher Connelly, 47, American actor, lung cancer.
• Josephine Groves Holloway, 90, American scouting leader.
• Dorothy Jordan, 82, American actress, heart failure.
• William George Juergens, 84, American district judge.
• Mitsu Yashima, 80, Japanese-born American artist and children's book author.

8

• Ivan Bonar, 64, American actor.
• John Joe McGirl, 67, Irish republican, Sinn Féin politician and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army.
• James Hargrove Meredith, 74, American district judge.
• Gene Quill, 60, American jazz alto saxophonist.
• Hellmuth Reymann, 96, Nazi German army officer, defender of Berlin.
• Anne Seymour, 79, American film and television actress, heart failure.
• Ludovico Silva, 50–51, Venezuelan poet and philosopher.
• Ulanhu, 80, Chinese chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, vice president of People's Republic of China.

9

• Luke Archer, 89, American Negro Leagues baseball player.
• Wally Borrevik, 67, American basketball player.
• Rafael Luis Calvo, 76, Spanish actor.
• Kainikkara Kumara Pillai, 88, Indian actor, short story writer and playwright.
• Ludmila Polesná, 54, Czech Olympic slalom canoeist.

10

• Dennis Arundell, 90, British actor, director and composer of incidental music.
• Richard S. Castellano, 55, American actor, heart attack.
• Hans ten Houten, 72, Dutch Olympic rower.
• Scott Johnson, 27, American student killed in Australia in a gay-hate attack.
• Johnny Lawrence, 77, English cricketer.
• Elizabeth Rawson, 54, British classical scholar.
• Dorothy de Rothschild, 93, English philanthropist and activist for Jewish affairs.
• John Baker White, 86, English politician and amateur spy, Member of Parliament.
• Lawrence Wien, 83, American lawyer and real estate investor, prostate cancer.

11

• Kari Kairamo, 55, Finnish chairman and CEO of Nokia, suicide.
• Wilhelm Petersén, 82, Swedish Olympic ice hockey player.
• Nagendra Singh, 74, Indian lawyer, President of the International Court of Justice, heart attack.

12

• Bill Bertani, 69, American Olympic soccer player.
• K. K. Chen, 90, Chinese-born American scientist, pharmacological researcher at Eli Lilly and Company.
• Dick Clair, 57, American television producer, actor and writer, AIDS.
• Bruce Alan Davis, 40, American serial killer, suicide.
• June Tarpé Mills, 76, American comic book creator.
• Henri Peyre, 87, French-born American linguist, heart failure.
• Anthony Provenzano, 71, American mobster of the Genovese crime family, heart attack.
• Joe Reichler, 73, American sports writer, cancer.
• Rudolf Schündler, 82, German actor and director, heart attack.
• Stjepan Vrbančić, 88, Yugoslavian Olympic footballer.
• Loudon Wainwright Jr., 63, American writer and columnist, colon cancer.

13

• Hans Fischer, 27, Brazilian cyclist and Olympian, cardiac arrest.
• Brynmor John, 54, British politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, heart attack.
• María Teresa León, 85, Spanish writer.
• Muhammad Mangundiprojo, 83, Indonesian soldier, revolutionary and civil servant.
• Bill Nichols, 70, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, heart attack.
• Fyodor Reshetnikov, 82, Soviet painter.
• Brian Sinclair, 73, British veterinary surgeon and novelist, heart attack.
• Betty Snowball, 80, English women's test cricketer, international squash and lacrosse player for Scotland.
• Roy Urquhart, 87, British army general.

14

• Dolf Benz, 80, Dutch Olympic sprinter.
• Charlie T. Black, 87, American college basketballer.
• Narciso Busquets, 58, Mexican actor of theatre, film, television and radio.
• Evald Schorm, 56, Czech film and stage director, screenwriter and actor.
• Jean Schramme, 59, Belgian planter, mercenary in Belgian Congo.
• Stuart Symington, 87, American businessman and politician, U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, heart failure.
• Win Oo, 53, Burmese actor, singer and director, colorectal cancer.

15

• Leonid Andrussow, 92, German chemical engineer.
• Andrew James Wray Geddes, 82, Indian-born British Royal Air Force officer, led planning for Operation Manna.
• Aksel Madsen, 89, Danish Olympic long-distance runner.
• Muriel Martin-Harvey, 97, English stage actress.
• Ben Mayes, 43, American AFL player.

16

• Anna Jean Ayres, 68, American occupational therapist and educational psychologist, breast cancer.
• Frank Bonham, 74, American author of Westerns and young adult novels.
• Tom Eastick, 88, Australian Army artillery officer during World War II.
• Joe Hatten, 72, American Major League baseball player.
• Hunter "Stork" Hendry, 93, Australian test cricketer.
• Bob Kahle, 73, American MLB player.
• Ryōhei Koiso, 85, Japanese artist.
• Leonard Lindsay, 79, American Negro Leagues baseball player.
• Gisella Perl, 81, Hungarian gynecologist, helped women at Auschwitz concentration camp.
• Babe Pratt, 72, Canadian NHL ice hockey player, heart attack.
• Sylvester, 41, American singer-songwriter, AIDS.

17

• Lies Aengenendt, 81, Dutch Olympic sprinter.
• Jerry Hopper, 81, American film and television director, heart disease.
• Jimmie Mattern, 83, American aviator.
• Gisella Perl, 81, Hungarian-American gynecologist, providing assistance to prisoners at Auschwitz.
• Pavel Soukeník, 26, Czech Olympic sport shooter.

18

• R. Arumugam, 35, Malaysian international footballer, car accident.
• Niyazi Berkes, 80, Turkish Cypriot sociologist.
• Ottó Boros, 59, Hungarian Olympic water polo player.
• Wendell Butcher, 74, American NFL football player.
• Milt Gantenbein, 78, American NFL footballer.
• José González, 71, Mexican Olympic equestrian.
• Paul Sievert, 93, German Olympic racewalker.
• Ka. Naa. Subramanyam, 76, Indian writer and literary critic.

19

• Robert Bernstein, 69, American comic book writer, playwright and concert impresario, heart failure.
• Graham Higham, 60, Australian Olympic boxer.
• Umashankar Joshi, 77, Indian poet and writer, lung cancer.
• Fritz Schaumburg, 82, German Olympic middle-distance runner.
• Ed Stofko, 68, American NFL player.
• Joseph Towles, 52, African American anthropologist and author, AIDS.

20

• Josef Heinen, 59, German Olympic sprinter.
• B. Jayamma, 73, Indian actress and singer.
• György Marik, 64, Hungarian international footballer.
• Alphonse Ouimet, 80, Canadian television pioneer, president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, heart failure.
• Max Robinson, 49, American broadcast journalist, co-anchor on ABC World News Tonight, AIDS.
• Elizabeth Scott, 71, American mathematician specialising in statistics.

21

• Eithne Dunne, 69, Irish actress.
• Willie Kamm, 88, American Major League baseball player, Parkinson's disease.
• Philip Magnus, 82, British biographer.
• Federico Moura, 37, Argentinian singer, songwriter and record producer, lead vocalist of Virus, AIDS.
• Aileen Palmer, 73, British-born Australian poet.
• Curt Richter, 94, American biologist and geneticist.
• Dave Ruhl, 68, Canadian professional wrestler.
• Merryle Rukeyser, 91, American financial columnist, heart failure.
• Bob Steele, 81, American actor, heart failure.
• Nikolaas Tinbergen, 81, Dutch biologist and ornithologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, stroke.
• Venus Xtravaganza, 23, American transgender performer, strangled.
• Notable people killed in the Lockerbie aeroplane disaster:
• *Bernt Carlsson, 60, Swedish diplomat, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
• *Peter Dix, 35, Irish Olympic sailor.
• *James Fuller, 50, American automobile executive.
• *Matthew Gannon, 34, American CIA officer.
• *Paul Jeffreys, 36, English rock musician.

22

• Marger Apsit, 79, American NFL player.
• Franziska Boas, 86, American dancer.
• Chico Mendes, 44, Brazilian trade union member and environmental activist, murdered.
• Tom William Scott, 86, American general in the U.S. Air Force.
• Tucker Smith, 52, American actor, dancer and singer, cancer.
• Rexhai Surroi, 59, Yugoslav Albanian journalist, diplomat and writer, ambassador to five countries, car accident.
• Wang Bingnan, 79–80, Chinese diplomat, ambassador to Poland.

23

• Gerhard Adler, 84, German analytical psychologist.
• Elvin C. Drake, 85, American track and field coach, heart attack.
• Alexandre Gelbert, 78, Swiss Olympic sailor.
• Carlo Scorza, 91, Italian secretary of the National Fascist Party.
• Ossi Teileri, 77, Finnish Olympic middle-distance runner.
• Walt Uzdavinis, 77, American NFL player.

24

• Blanche Barrow, 77, American member of the Barrow Gang, lung cancer.
• Whitney Bourne, 74, American actress.
• Mary Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, 93, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth II.
• Joe Kresky, 82, American NFL player.
• Jainendra Kumar, 83, Indian writer.
• Theyre Lee-Elliott, 85, English artist.
• Evelyn Pinching, 73, British Olympic alpine skier.
• Alfred M. Pride, 91, American admiral of the U.S. Navy, heart attack.
• Noel Willman, 70, Irish-born American actor and theatre director, heart attack.
• Mumon Yamada, 88, Japanese Rinzai religious leader.

25

• Bunny Bell, 77, English footballer.
• Jan Białostocki, 67, Polish art historian.
• Terence Dudley, 69, British television director and producer for the BBC, cancer.
• Cornelis Eecen, 90, Dutch Olympic rower.
• Evgeny Golubev, 78, Soviet composer.
• W. F. Grimes, 83, Welsh archaeologist.
• Denis Matthews, 69, English pianist and musicologist, suicide.
• John Ulric Nef, 89, American economic historian, co-founder of Committee on Social Thought.
• Shōhei Ōoka, 79, Japanese novelist and translator of French literature.
• Edward Pelham-Clinton, 68, English lepidopterist and military officer, Duke of Newcastle.
• Cynthia Stone, 62, American actress.
• Napoleon Andrew Tuiteleleapaga, 84, Samoan lawyer, author and musician, heart attack.

26

• Herluf Bidstrup, 76, Danish cartoonist.
• Anthony Gaeta, 61, American politician, Borough President of Staten Island, heart attack.
• Evie Hayes, 76, American-born Australian actor and singer, heart attack.
• Julanne Johnston, 88, American silent-screen actress.
• John Loder, 90, English-American film actor.
• Glenn McCarthy, 81, American oil tycoon.
• Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, 41, Indian politician, member of the Indian National Congress, assassinated.
• Gunnar Rosendal, 91, Swedish Lutheran priest.
• Charles Smith, 68, American actor.
• Pablo Sorozábal, 91, Spanish composer.
• Tao Zhiyue, 95–96, Chinese politician and general in the National Revolutionary Army.

27

• Hal Ashby, 59, American film director, pancreatic cancer.
• Joseph Beam, 33, American gay rights activist, AIDS.
• Walter Crook, 76, English international footballer and manager.
• Jack Favor, 77, American rodeo performer, acquitted after serving time for murder, cancer.
• Fox Harris, 52, American actor, lung cancer.
• Henry de Menten de Horne, 92, Belgian Olympic equestrian.
• Freda James, 77, British tennis player and Wimbledon Doubles champion.
• Vaso Katraki, 74, Greek painter and engraver.
• Khin Kyi, 76, Burmese politician and diplomat, ambassador to India, stroke.
• Donald Laycock, 51–52, Australian linguist and anthropologist.
• C. J. McLin, 67, American politician, member of the Ohio House of Representatives.
• Jess Oppenheimer, 75, American radio and television writer and director, heart failure.
• Tecwyn Roberts, 63, Welsh-born American spaceflight engineer, helped design NASA's Mission Control Center.

28

• Alberto Armando, 78, Argentinian businessman and football manager.
• Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, 92, German diplomat and psychotherapist.
• Björn Kurtén, 64, Finnish vertebrate paleontologist.
• François Laverne, 81, French Olympic sailor.
• Charlotte Peters, 75, American television show host.
• Wilhelm Schneider, 79, Polish Olympic pole vaulter.

29

• Émile Aillaud, 86, French architect.
• Mike Beuttler, 48, British Formula One driver, AIDS.
• John Happenny, 87, American MLB player.
• Carl J. Johnson, 59, American physician, whistleblower on effects of nuclear testing, complications following coronary bypass.
• Earl Mossor, 63, American MLB player.
• Rita Rait-Kovaleva, 91, Soviet literary translator and writer, translator of The Catcher in the Rye into Russian.
• Yngve Viebke, 76, Swedish Olympic equestrian.

30

• Faber Birren, 88, American writer, consultant on colour theory, stroke.
• Jan Baalsrud, 71, Norwegian Resistance commando.
• Yuli Daniel, 63, Soviet writer and dissident, stroke.
• Takeo Fujisawa, 78, Japanese businessman, co-founder of Honda Motor Co., heart attack.
• Dennis H. Klatt, 50, American researcher in speech and hearing science, cancer.
• Ernesto Lazzatti, 73, Argentinian international footballer.
• Isamu Noguchi, 84, American artist and landscape architect, heart failure.
• Nikolai Sologubov, 64, Russian ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.

31

• Yara Amaral, 52, Brazilian actress, heart attack from drowning.
• Christopher Andrewes, 92, British virologist who discovered the human influenza A virus.
• Ahmet Arvasi, 56, Turkish writer and philosopher.
• Oliver L. Austin, 85, American ornithologist.
• Nicolas Calas, 81, Greek-American poet and art critic, heart failure.
• Wes Flowers, 75, American MLB player.
• Loel Guinness, 82, British politician, Member of Parliament, heart disease.

Unknown date

• Charles Ganimian, 61–62, American musician and singer.