Deaths in December 2004

• 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.

18

• Noel Beaton, 78, Australian MP and journalist.
• Freddy Chaves, 86, Belgian football player.
• Vijay Hazare, 89, Indian cricketer, Captain of India, complications following intestinal cancer.
• Mariella Lotti, 85, Italian film actress.
• Albert Nordengen, 81, Norwegian Conservative politician, Mayor of Oslo, heart failure.
• Peter Palitzsch, 86, German theatre director and theatre manager.
• Anthony Sampson, 78, British journalist and author, official biographer of Nelson Mandela, heart attack.
• Kikuko, Princess Takamatsu, 92, Japanese member of the imperial family, sepsis.
• Glenn Vaughan, 60, American baseball player.

19

• Mamdouh Adwan, 63, Syrian writer, poet, playwright and critic, cancer.
• Gretchen Bender, 53, American video artist, cancer.
• Richard Best, 88, British film editor.
• Herbert C. Brown, 92, British Nobel Prize-winning chemist, heart attack.
• Vojin Jelić, 83, Croatian Serb writer and poet.
• Andrée Tainsy, 93, Belgian actress.
• Renata Tebaldi, 82, Italian opera singer, cancer.
• Gheorghe Tătaru, 56, Romanian football player.
• Thomas Yamamoto, 87, American artist.

20

• Liliane Maigné, 76, French actress.
• Alexander Marshack, 86, American independent scholar and paleolithic archaeologist.
• Jack Newfield, 66, American author, activist and journalist, kidney cancer.
• Son Seals, 62, American blues musician, complications of diabetes.

21

• Lennart Bernadotte, 95, Swedish prince.
• Richard Hamilton, 83, American actor.
• Arild Nyquist, 67, Norwegian novelist, poet, children's writer and musician.
• Autar Singh Paintal, 79, Indian physiologist and medical scientist.
• Mack Vickery, 66, American musician and songwriter, heart attack.
• Zvonimir Vučković, 88, Yugoslav Chetnik military commander.

22

• Yusuf Soalih Ajura, 114, Ghanaian Islamic scholar, political activist and sect leader.
• Doug Ault, 54, American Major League Baseball player, suicide by gunshot.
• Mario Curletto, 69, Italian fencer.
• Rudi Kolak, 86, Yugoslav and Bosnian communist politician.
• Paul Métivier, 104, Canadian World War I veteran.
• Antonio Rangel, 61, Mexican badminton player.

23

• Reuven Adiv, 74, Israeli actor, director and drama teacher, heart attack.
• Richard Barnet, 75, American political activist.
• Peter Beazley, 82, British businessman and Conservative Party politician.
• John W. Duarte, 85, British classical guitarist and writer, cancer.
• Ifor James, 73, British horn player.
• Roger Moorey, 67, British archaeologist and historian.
• P. V. Narasimha Rao, 83, Indian Prime Minister, heart attack.
• Richard Abel Smith, 71, British Army officer and landowner, stroke.
• Anne Truitt, 83, American sculptor.

24

• Richard Annand, 90, British soldier, first Victoria Cross recipient of World War II.
• Sir Anthony Meyer, 3rd Baronet, 84, British Conservative MP, cancer.
• Johnny Oates, 58, American MLB catcher and manager, brain tumor.
• Pete Palangio, 96, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Rosemary Rue, 76, British physician and civil servant, breast cancer, colorectal cancer.
• Elwira Seroczyńska, 73, Polish Olympic speed skater.
• Lauri Silvennoinen, 88, Finnish Olympic cross-country skier.
• Elmer Swenson, 91, American horticulturist and pioneering grape breeder.

25

• Ahmad Bashir, 81, Pakistani writer, journalist, and film director.
• Sandy Cameron, 66, Canadian politician.
• Nripen Chakraborty, 99, Indian politician.
• Amaechi Ottiji, 34, Nigerian football player, shot.
• Donald Pederson, 79, American electrical engineer, complications from Parkinson's disease.
• Antony Preston, 66, British naval historian and writer.
• Eddie Spicer, 82, English footballer.
• Gennadi Strekalov, 64, Russian cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union, cancer.
• Ian Syster, 28, South African long-distance runner, drowned.
• Lev Vainshtein, 88, Soviet world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in shooting.
• Howie Williams, 77, American basketball player.

26

• Charles Biederman, 98, American abstract artist.
• Jonathan Drummond-Webb, 45, South African paediatric heart surgeon, suicide by opioid overdose.
• Garard Green, 80, British actor.
• Marianne Heiberg, 59, Norwegian diplomat, Oslo Accords mediator, heart attack.
• Eddie Layton, 79, American organist.
• David McKay, 83, Australian journalist and racing driver, cancer.
• Don Nygord, 68, American Olympic sports shooter.
• Sir Angus Ogilvy, 76, British businessman, husband of HRH Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, throat cancer.
• Frank Pantridge, 88, British physician and cardiologist.
• Ishigaki Rin, 84, Japanese poet.
• Martin Robertson, 93, British classical scholar and poet.
• Mikhail Smirtyukov, 95, Soviet politician and statesman.
• Reggie White, 43, American football player and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, cardiac arrhythmia.
• Notable people killed in the 2004 Asian tsunami:
• *Jane Attenborough, 49, British arts administrator.
• *Troy Broadbridge, 24, Australian Football League player.
• *Kristina Fröjmark, 47, Swedish reality TV star.
• *Poom Jensen, 21, Thai prince.
• *Sujeewa Kamalasuriya, 39, Sri Lankan cricketer.
• *Sigurd Køhn, 45, Norwegian composer.
• *Stephen Lissenburgh, 40, British policy researcher.
• *Markus Sandlund, 29, Swedish cellist.
• *Aki Sirkesalo, 42, Finnish musician.
• *Mieszko Talarczyk, 30, Swedish musician.
• *Robert Whymant, 60, British journalist and author.

27

• Eneko Arieta, 71, Spanish footballer.
• Eros Beraldo, 75, Italian football player.
• Mabel Blythe, 74, Sri Lankan actress and singer.
• Ferenc Bessenyei, 85, Hungarian actor and singer.
• Hank Garland, 74, American studio guitarist, staphylococcus infection.
• Ernest Groth, 82, American baseball player.
• Heorhiy Kirpa, 58, Ukrainian industrialist and politician, shot.
• Luigi Mariotti, 92, Italian politician.

28

• Jacques Dupuis, 81, Belgian Jesuit priest and theologian.
• Jerry Orbach, 69, American actor, Tony winner, prostate cancer.
• Susan Sontag, 71, American author, literary theorist and activist, acute myeloid leukemia.
• Tzvi Tzur, 81, Israeli officer and politician.

29

• Julius Axelrod, 92, American Nobel Prize-winning biochemist.
• William Boyett, 77, American actor, complications from pneumonia and kidney failure.
• John Bridgeman, 88, British sculptor.
• Ken Burkhart, 89, American Major League Baseball pitcher and umpire, emphysema.
• Alf Evers, 99, American historian.
• Eugenio Garin, 95, Italian philosopher and renaissance historian.
• Ermanno Gorrieri, 84, Italian politician and economist.
• Liddy Holloway, 57, New Zealand actress and writer, liver cancer.
• Larry McNeill, 53, American National Basketball Association player.
• Gus Niarhos, 84, American baseball player.
• Esther Thelen, 63, American developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist.

30

• Saad Al-Dosari, 27, Saudi Arabian football player, traffic collision.
• Salvatore Asta, 89, Italian prelate of the Catholic Church.
• Biswajit Das, 68, Indian playwright, short story writer, and film director.
• Mark Fiennes, 71, English photographer and illustrator.
• Masao Kato, 57, Japanese go player, stroke.
• Ionel Schein, 77, Romanian-French architect.
• Artie Shaw, 94, American jazz musician, complications of diabetes.

31

• Aladi Aruna, 71, Indian politician, murdered.
• John Chataway, 57, Canadian politician, complications from stroke.
• Charlie Cozart, 85, American baseball player.
• Gérard Debreu, 83, French-American Nobel Prize-winning economist.
• Jack Karwales, 84, American football player.
• Cliff Letcher, 52, Australian tennis player.
• Balkrishan Singh, 71, Indian Olympic field hockey player.
• Kuini Speed, 55, Fijian chief and politician, cancer.
• George Wackenhut, 85, American businessman, founder of Wackenhut Corporation, heart failure.