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.