Deaths in December 2004
The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2004.
Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:
- Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship, reason for notability, cause of death, and reference.
December 2004
1
- Fathi Arafat, 71, Palestinian physician, founder of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, stomach cancer.
- Mammad Araz, 71, Azerbaijani poet.
- Bill Brown, 73, Scottish football goalkeeper.
- Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, 93, Dutch royal, spouse of Queen Juliana and father of Queen Beatrix, lung and colon cancer.
- Norman Newell, 85, English record producer and lyricist.
- Damon Simonelli, 45, American planetary scientist, heart failure.
- David Vienneau, 53, Canadian journalist, pancreatic cancer.
2
- Larry Buchanan, 81, American B-movie director, producer and writer, complications of collapsed lung.
- Kevin Coyne, 60, English musician, filmmaker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems.
- Cachita Galán, 61, Argentine singer, cancer.
- Alicia Markova, 94, English ballerina, stroke.
- Nadine Shamir, 32, American techno singer/songwriter, complications during childbirth.
- Louis W. Truman, 96, Senior American Army officer.
- Mona Van Duyn, 83, American poet, US Poet Laureate, bone cancer.
3
- Shiing-Shen Chern, 93, Chinese mathematician, heart failure following heart attack.
- Robert Dhéry, 83, French comedian, actor, director and screenwriter.
- Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster, 90, Irish nobleman.
- June Maston, 76, Australian Olympic sprinter and athletics coach.
- Maria Perschy, 66, Austrian actress, cancer.
- Helmut Rix, 78, German linguist, car accident.
- Josef Schwammberger, 92, German SS officer and labor camp commander during World War II.
- Fred Silva, 77, American gridiron football player, heart attack.
- Marek Stachowski, 68, Polish composer.
- Yaroslav Starobogatov, 72, Russian zoologist and academic.
4
- Mahmut Atalay, 70, Turkish freestyle wrestler and coach, heart attack.
- Willem Duyn, 67, Dutch singer, actor, and entertainer, heart attack.
- Carl Esmond, 102, Austrian film and stage actor.
- Tom Fitzgerald, 53, American soccer coach, motorcycle accident.
- Elena Souliotis, 61, Greek operatic soprano, heart failure.
- Svend Wad, 76, Danish boxer and Olympic medalist.
- Ron Williamson, 51, American minor league baseball player and murder convict, liver cirrhosis.
5
- Giuseppe Campora, 81, Italian operatic tenor.
- Seymour Ginsburg, 76, American computer scientist, Alzheimer's disease.
- Neil Hallett, 80, Belgian-English actor.
- Cristiano Júnior, 25, Brazilian footballer, cardiac arrest after on-field collision.
- Manzanita, 48, Spanish singer and guitarist, heart attack.
- Jose Pellissery, 53–54, Indian film and theatre actor.
- Øystein Rottem, 58, Norwegian philologist, literary historian and literary critic, cancer.
- Hicham Zerouali, 27, Moroccan footballer, car accident.
6
- Frank Reginald Carey, 92, British fighter ace during World War II.
- Raymond Goethals, 83, Belgian soccer coach, colorectal cancer.
- Árpád Makay, 93, Hungarian cinematographer.
- Adrian Morris, 75, English painter.
- John Norton, 86, United States Army general.
- Enrique Salinas, 52, Mexican businessman, asphyxiation.
- Christine Wodetzky, 66, German actress.
7
- Pacita Abad, 58, Filipino painter, lung cancer.
- Frederick Fennell, 90, American conductor, founder of Eastman Wind Ensemble.
- María Rosa Gallo, 82, Argentine actress, pneumonia.
- Julije Knifer, 80, Croatian abstract painter.
- Floyd Nattrass, 86, Canadian Olympic sports shooter.
- Zuzana Navarová, 45, Czech singer and songwriter, cancer.
- Jay Van Andel, 80, American co-founder and former chairman of Amway, Parkinson's disease.
- Oscar M. Ruebhausen, 92, American lawyer and adviser to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller.
- Jerry Scoggins, 93, American musician.
8
- Dimebag Darrell, 38, American heavy metal guitarist, shot.
- Cleve Gray, 86, American abstract painter.
- Johnny Lockett, 89, British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
- Jackson Mac Low, 82, American poet, composer and performance artist, complications from stroke.
- Noel Mills, 60, New Zealand rower and Olympic silver medalist.
- C. S. Rao, 80, Indian actor, writer and director.
- Leslie Scarman, Baron Scarman, 93, British jurist, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.
9
- Andrea Absolonová, 27, Czech diver and adult model known as Lea De Mae, brain cancer.
- Henny Backus, 93, American actress, stroke.
- David Brudnoy, 64, American radio talk show host, Merkel cell carcinoma.
- Paul Edwards, 81, Austrian-American philosopher.
- Peter Emery, 78, British Conservative politician.
- Jimmy Gauld, 75, Scottish football player.
- Philippe Gigantès, 81, Canadian former senator, cancer.
- Jean Tournier, 78, French cinematographer.
- Sergey Voychenko, 49, Belarusian artist and designer, complications following heart bypass surgery.
10
- Khoren Abrahamyan, 74, Armenian actor and director.
- Bruno Arcari, 89, Italian football player player and coach.
- Norman Borrett, 87, English sportsman.
- Emilio Cruz, 66, Cuban-American artist, pancreatic cancer.
- Bob King, 81, American college basketball coach.
- Radner Muratov, 76, Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, stroke.
- Homi Wadia, 93, Indian film director and producer.
- Gary Webb, 49, American investigative reporter, suicide by gunshot.
11
- Christopher Blake, 55, English actor and screenwriter, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
- José Luis Cuciuffo, 43, Argentinian footballer and 1986 Football World Cup champion, hunting accident.
- Arthur Lydiard, 87, New Zealand marathon runner and athletics coach, heart attack.
- Harry Roesli, 53, Indonesian singer-songwriter, heart attack.
- Margaret Shaw, 101, American photographer and folklorist.
- M. S. Subbulakshmi, 88, Indian carnatic musician and singer, heart problems.
12
- Joseph Beyrle, 81, United States Army and Soviet Red Army soldier, heart attack.
- Pramod Chakravorty, 75, Indian film producer and director.
- Herbert Dreilich, 62, German rock musician, cancer.
- Frits Helmuth, 73, Danish film actor.
- Rollin Hotchkiss, 93, American biochemist and molecular genetics pioneer.
- George Hunter, 77, South African boxer and Olympic champion.
- Frank Isola, 79, American jazz drummer.
- Harry McNally, 68, English football player, coach and manager, heart attack.
- Phaswane Mpe, 34, South African novelist, AIDS-related complications.
- Fabian O'Dea, 86, Canadian lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador.
- Maurizio Perissinot, 53, Italian rally driver.
- Syed Mir Qasim, 83, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
- William B. Rosson, 86, United States Army general, heart attack.
- Bernarda Bryson Shahn, 101, American painter, lithographer, widow of Ben Shahn.
- Pavlo Vasylyk, 78, Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarch.
13
- Donald S. Jones, 76, United States Navy admiral.
- Andre Rodgers, 70, Bahamian baseball player, first Bahamian to play in Major League Baseball.
- Tom Turesson, 62, Swedish footballer.
- David Wheeler, 77, English computer scientist.
14
- Candice Daly, 38, American film and TV actress, polydrug intoxication.
- John Downey, 77, American contemporary classical composer, conductor, and pianist.
- Danny Doyle, 87, American baseball player.
- Rod Kanehl, 70, American baseball player, heart attack.
- Alexey Korneyev, 65, Russian footballer.
- Anselmo López, 94, Spanish basketball coach and administrator.
- Fernando Poe Jr., 65, Filipino actor and former presidential candidate, stroke.
- Alex Sarkisian, 82, American gridiron football player.
- Agostino Straulino, 90, Italian Olympic sailor.
- Carsten Peter Thiede, 52, German archaeologist and New Testament scholar, heart attack.
15
- Alma Duncan, 87, Canadian painter, graphic artist, and filmmaker.
- Chiang Fang-liang, 88, Belarus-Taiwanese widow of Chiang Ching-kuo and First Lady of the Republic of China, pulmonary and cardiac failure.
- Vassal Gadoengin, 61, Nauruan politician and then-incumbent Speaker of Parliament, heart attack.
- Jiban Ghosh, 69, Indian cricket umpire.
- Sidonie Goossens, 105, British harpist.
- Pauline LaFon Gore, 92, American lawyer.
- Jim Holliday, 55–56, American pornographic film producer and historian, complications from diabetes.
- Lucien Musset, 82, French historian, specializing in the history of the Vikings.
- Rodney O'Gliasain Kennedy-Minott, 76, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Sweden, complications of pancreatitis.
16
- Ted Abernathy, 71, American baseball player.
- Laxmikant Berde, 50, Indian actor, kidney failure.
- Martha Carson, 83, American gospel-country music singer.
- Richard B. Fisher, 68, American investment banker, cancer.
- Deyda Hydara, 58, Gambian journalist and editor, homicide.
- Stefano Madia, 49, Italian actor.
- Agnes Martin, 92, American abstract painter, pneumonia.
- Bobby Mattick, 89, American former baseball player and manager, stroke.
- Seymour Melman, 86, American economist and academic.
- Mahmoud Messadi, 93, Tunisian author and intellectual.
- Yehudit Naot, 60, Israeli scientist and politician, throat cancer.
- Lawrence O'Brien, 53, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada, cancer.
- Freddie Perren, 61, American two-time Grammy Award-winning record producer, stroke.
- Prathapachandran, 63, Indian actor.
- Hans-Rudolf Rösing, 99, German U-boat commander during World War II.
- William Silverman, 87, American physician and neonatology pioneer, kidney failure.
17
- Erich Auer, 81, Austrian theater, film and television actor.
- Dick Heckstall-Smith, 70, British saxophone player, cancer.
- James Ling, 81, American businessman.
- Agnes Mary Mansour, 73, American Catholic nun and politician, breast cancer.
- Gyula Marsovszky, 68, Swiss Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
- Ib Mossin, 71, Danish actor, singer and director.
- Dietrich Schwanitz, 64, German writer and literary scholar, pulmonary embolism.
- Tom Wesselmann, 73, American pop artist, surgical complications.
- Sir James Wilson, 83, British army general.