The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2002.
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 (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.
December 2002
1
- Abu Abraham, 78, Indian cartoonist, journalist, and author.[1]
- Edward L. Beach, Jr., 84, American highly decorated United States Navy submarine officer and author (Run Silent, Run Deep).[2]
- Cassius Chapin Cutler, 87, American communications engineer.[3]
- John L. McLucas, 82, American politician and U.S. Secretary of the Air Force.[4]
- Dave McNally, 60, American baseball player (Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos), lung cancer.[5]
- José Chávez Morado, 93, Mexican artist.
- Boris Schapiro, 93, British international bridge player.[6]
2
- Elizabeth B. Andrews, 91, American politician (U.S. Representative for Alabama's 3rd congressional district).[7]
- Barney Berlinger, 94, American Olympic decathlon athlete (men's decathlon in the 1928 Summer Olympics).[8]
- Achille Castiglioni, 84, Italian industrial designer.[9]
- Aileen Fisher, 96, American children's writer (The Coffee-Pot Face, Runny Days, Sunny Days).[10]
- Ivan Illich, 76, Austrian Roman Catholic priest, theologian, and social critic, brain cancer.[11]
- Boris Ivanov, 82, Soviet and Russian film and theater actor.
- György Marx, 75, Hungarian physicist, astrophysicist, and science historian.
- Jim Mitchell, 56, Irish politician, cancer.
- Arno Peters, 86, German historian and filmmaker.[12]
- Vjenceslav Richter, 85, Croatian architect.[13]
- Edgar Scherick, 78, American television executive and producer.[14]
- Mehmet Emin Toprak, 28, Turkish film actor, traffic collision.[15]
- Ben Wade, 80, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates) and scout.[16]
- Mal Waldron, 77, American jazz pianist and composer (Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane).[17]
- Fay Gillis Wells, 94, American pioneer aviator.[18]
3
- Adrienne Adams, 96, American children's writer and illustrator.[19]
- Hariharananda Giri, 95, Indian yogi and guru.
- Pierre Guillaume, 77, French Navy officer, cancer.[20]
- Klaus Löwitsch, 66, German actor, pancreatic cancer.[21]
- Glenn Quinn, 32, Irish actor (Roseanne, Angel), heroin overdose.
- Jug Thesenga, 88, American baseball player (Washington Senators).[22]
4
- Charles Pierce Davey, 77, American welterweight boxer, complications from paralysis.[23]
- Noémia de Sousa, 76, Mozambique poet.[24]
- Robert Mallet, 87, French writer and academic, .[25]
- Hemmo Silvennoinen, 70, Finnish Olympic ski jumper.[26]
5
- Roone Arledge, 71, American television producer and executive (Monday Night Football, Nightline), prostate cancer.[27]
- Bob Berg, 51, American jazz saxophonist, traffic collision.[28]
- Prosper Boulanger, 84, Canadian politician and a member of Parliament (House of Commons representing Mercier, Quebec).[29]
- Geoff Coombes, 83, American soccer player.
- Arvell Shaw, 79, American jazz double-bassist.[30]
- Einar Skinnarland, 84, Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II.
- Ann Welch, 85, British glider pilot (gliding, hang gliding, paragliding, microlight flying).[31]
- Ne Win, 91, Burmese politician and dictator.[32]
6
- Jerzy Adamski, 65, Polish featherweight boxer (silver medal winner in featherweight boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics).[33]
- Clarence Beers, 83, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals).[34]
- Philip Berrigan, 79, American priest and political activist, kidney cancer.[35]
- Antonino Caponnetto, 82, Italian Antimafia magistrate.
- William Henry Gleysteen, 76, American diplomat and ambassador, leukemia.[36]
- Gerhard Löwenthal, 79, German journalist, human rights activist and author.
7
- R. Orin Cornett, 89, American physicist, university professor and inventor of Cued Speech.[37]
- John R. Dellenback, 84, American politician (U.S. Representative for Oregon's 4th congressional district), viral pneumonia.[38]
- Gunnar Helén, 84, Swedish liberal politician.[39]
- Barbara Howard, 76, Canadian painter, wood engraver, and bookbinder, pulmonary embolism.
- Cal Lepore, 83, American gridiron football referee.
- Paddy Tunney, 81, Irish traditional artist.[40]
8
- Bobby Joe Hill, 59, American basketball player, heart attack.[41]
- Melvin Lax, 80, American physics professor, cancer.[42]
- Anil Moonesinghe, 75, Sri Lankan revolutionary politician and trade unionist.
- Charles Rosen, 85, American computer scientist.[43]
- Dorothy Walker, 73, Irish art critic and historian.[44]
9
- Shigeru Chiba, 83, Japanese baseball player and manager.[45]
- Joly Garbi, 90, Greek actress.
- Mary Hansen, 36, Australian guitarist and singer, traffic accident.
- Ian Hornak, 58, American draughtsman, painter and printmaker, aortic aneurysm.[46]
- To Huu, 82, Vietnamese poet and politician.[47]
- Johnny Lazor, 90, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox).[48]
- Stan Rice, 60, painter, educator, poet, husband of author Anne Rice, cancer.[49]
- Theodore Shackley, 75, American CIA officer known as "the Blond Ghost", cancer.[50]
10
- Les Costello, 74, Canadian ice hockey player (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Catholic priest.[51]
- Kurt Heintel, 78, Austrian film and television actor.[52]
- Earl Henry, 85, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians).[53]
- Átila Iório, 81, Brazilian actor, pulmonary emphysema.
- Andres Küng, 57, Swedish journalist, writer, and politician.
- Ian MacNaughton, 76, Scottish director of most episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.[54]
- Julie Schmitt, 89, German gymnast and Olympic champion.[55]
- Homer Spragins, 82, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies).[56]
- Peter Tanner, 88, British film editor.[57]
11
- Domocao Alonto, 88, Filipino lawyer, author, and Islamic figure.
- Luis Ciges, 81, Spanish film actor, heart attack.[58]
- Dolly Dawn, 86, American big band vocalist and recording star of the 1930s and 1940s.[59]
- Muzaffer Demirhan, 70, Turkish alpine skier (Winter Olympics: 1948, 1956, 1960, 1964).[60]
- Arthur Metcalfe, 64, British racing cyclist, cancer.[61]
- Nanabhoy Palkhivala, 82, Indian jurist, economist and civil rights leader.[62]
- Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, 97, American photojournalist, cinematographer, and philanthropist.[63]
- Kay Rose, 80, American Oscar-winning sound editor, organ dysfunction.
- Lou Stein, 80, American jazz pianist.[64]
12
- Mykola Amosov, 89, Soviet/Ukrainian heart surgeon and inventor.
- Dee Brown, 94, American author and historian (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee), heart failure.[65]
- Nancy Caroline, 58, American EMS physician and writer (Emergency Care in the Streets), multiple myeloma.[66]
- Brad Dexter, 85, American actor and film producer (Run Silent Run Deep, The Magnificent Seven, None but the Brave), pulmonary emphysema.[67]
- Kazuo Kasahara, 75, Japanese screenwriter.[68]
- Jabir Novruz, 69, Azerbaijani artist and poet.
13
- Carlos Agostí, 80, Spanish-Mexican film actor.
- Ronald Barnes, 61, Brazilian tennis player, cancer.
- Maria Björnson, 53, French theatre designer, two-time Tony Award winner for The Phantom of the Opera (Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design).[69]
- Stella Brooks, 92, American jazz singer of the 1940s.[70]
- Ronald Butt, 82, British journalist, political columninst and writer.[71]
- Ksenia Kepping, 65, Russian linguist and tangutologist.
- Anthony Ler, 35, Singaporean graphic designer and convicted murderer, executed by hanging.[72]
- Shirley O'Hara, 78, American actress, diabetes.
- Zal Yanovsky, 57, Canadian folk rock musician, lead guitarist and singer for The Lovin' Spoonful, heart attack.[73]
14
- Hank Arft, 80, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns).[74]
- Jack Bradley, 86, English football player.
- Sidney Glazier, 86, American film producer.[75]
- Ruth Kobart, 78, American performer, pancreatic cancer.[76]
- Salman Raduyev, 35, Chechen separatist field commander, internal bleeding.
- Enrique Tarigo, 75, Uruguayan jurist and political figure, lung cancer.
- Frank Warren, 43, American gridiron football player, heart attack.
- Ray Wietecha, 74, American gridiron football player (Michigan State, New York Giants) and coach.[77]
15
- John Crosby, 76, American conductor, founded the Santa Fe Opera.[78]
- Charles E. Fraser, 73, American real estate developer, transformed Hilton Head Island into a world-class resort.[79]
- Vladimir Haensel, 88, American chemical engineer.[80]
- Jan Mikołajczak, 95, Polish rower and Olympic medalist.[81]
- Dick Stuart, 70, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies), cancer.[82]
16
- Bill Hunter, 82, Canadian ice hockey player, general manager and coach, cancer.[83]
- Licínio Rangel, 66, Brazilian Roman Catholic bishop.
- Nighat Sultana, 67, Pakistani actress.[84]
- Don Vesco, 63, American businessperson and motorcycle racer, prostate cancer.[85]
17
- Colin Clark, 70, British film director and writer (My Week with Marilyn).[86]
- Muhammad Hamidullah, 94, Indian Hadith scholar and academic author.[87]
- Aideu Handique, 87, Indian actress.
- James Hazeldine, 55, English actor and director, aortic dissection.[88]
- Frederick Knott, 86, English playwright and screenwriter (Dial M for Murder).[89]
- Hank Luisetti, 86, American basketball player and innovator.[90]
- Aleksei Pogorelov, 83, Soviet mathematician.
- Boris Tokarev, 75, Soviet sprinter and Olympic silver medalist.[91]
18
- Saul Amarel, 74, American computer scientist and artificial intelligence pioneer.[92]
- Earl Audet, 81, American professional football player (USC, Washington Redskins, Los Angeles Dons) and actor.[93]
- Mahmoud Fayad, 77, Egyptian weightlifter (gold medal in featherweight weightlifting at the 1948 Summer Olympics).[94]
- Henry Gibson, 60, American percussionist.
- Lucy Grealy, 39, Irish-American poet and memoirist, drug overdose.[95]
- Necip Hablemitoğlu, 48, Turkish historian and intellectual, homicide.
- Ray Hnatyshyn, 68, Canadian politician and Governor-General of Canada, pancreatitis.
- Bert Millichip, 88, British football player and administrator.
- Edward Norris, 91, American film actor.
- Wayne Owens, 65, American politician and a member of Congress, heart attack.[96]
- Jan Łomnicki, 73, Polish film director and screenwriter.[97]
19
- Claude Crocker, 78, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers).[98]
- Will Hoy, 49, British racing driver, illness.[99]
- Barbara Lott, 82, British actress.[100]
- Kote Makharadze, 76, Soviet and Georgian actor and sports commentator, stroke.
- Hrant Matevosyan, 67, Armenian writer and screenwriter.
- Babubhai J. Patel, 91, India politician and chief minister.
- Arthur Rowley, 76, English footballer, holder of the record for most career league goals.[101]
- Aleksandar Sarievski, 80, Macedonian singer-songwriter.
- Roger Webb, 68, British musical director and composer (The Godsend, The Boy in Blue, Death of a Centerfold).[102]
- George Weller, 95, American World War II journalist.[103]
20
- Joanne Campbell, 38, British actress, starred in the 1980s comedy series Me and My Girl, deep-vein thrombosis.[104]
- James Richard Ham, 91, American Roman Catholic prelate.[105]
- Gordon McCarter, 71, American gridiron football official.
- Keith Pavitt, 65, English academic.
- Grote Reber, 90, American pioneer of radio astronomy.[106]
- Fritz Røed, 74, Norwegian sculptor.
- Tore Tønne, 54, Norwegian politician, suicide.
21
- Jeu van Bun, 84, Dutch football player (football at the 1948 Summer Olympics).[107]
- Duke Callaghan, 88, American cinematographer (Conan the Barbarian, Jeremiah Johnson, Miami Vice).
- José Hierro, 80, Spanish poet, pulmonary emphysema.[108]
- Giò Pomodoro, 72, Italian sculptor, printmaker, and stage designer.[109]
- Victor Watts, 64, British toponymist, medievalist, and academic, heart attack.
22
- Mario Ruiz Armengol, 88, Mexican pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor.
- Ian Craib, 57, English sociologist and psychotherapist (The Importance of Disappointment).[110]
- William G. Bennett, 78, American gaming executive and real estate developer (Circus Circus Enterprises).[111]
- Susan Fleming, 94, American actress (Million Dollar Legs, The Ziegfeld Follies) and wife of actor Harpo Marx, heart attack.[112]
- Sanaa Gamil, 72, Egyptian actress, stomach cancer.
- Julius S. Held, 77, German art historian.[113]
- Desmond Hoyte, 73, President of Guyana from 1985 to 1992.[114]
- Wilhelm Kment, 88, Austrian football player and manager.
- Srboljub Krivokuća, 74, Yugoslav and Serbian football manager and player.
- Joe Strummer, 50, former singer for The Clash, heart attack.[115]
- Clay Tanner, 71, American actor.
- Kenneth Tobey, 85, American actor (Twelve O'Clock High, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Thing from Another World).[116]
- Gabrielle Wittkop, 82, French writer (The Necrophiliac), suicide.[117]
23
- Tatamkhulu Afrika, 82, South African poet and writer, struck by vehicle.[118]
- Anthony Besch, 78, British opera and theatre director (English National Opera, Scottish Opera, New Opera Company).[119]
- George Bullard, 74, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers).[120]
- John Henry Kyl, 83, American politician.[121]
- Ratheesh, 48, Indian film actor, heart attack.
24
- Kjell Aukrust, 82, Norwegian author, poet, artist and humorist.
- Miguel Busquets, 82, Chilean footballer.
- Luciano Chailly, 82, French-Italian composer and arts administrator.[122]
- Ward Cuff, 89, American football player (New York Giants, Chicago Cardinals, Green Bay Packers).[123]
- James Ferman, 72, American-British film censor and director of British Board of Film Classification.[124]
- Erroll Fraser, 52, British Virgin Island speed skater (men's 500 metres, men's 1000 metres at the 1984 Winter Olympics).[125]
- Tita Merello, 98, Argentinian actress and singer.
- V. K. Ramasamy, 76, Indian actor.
- Richie Regan, 72, American basketball player and coach, heart failure.[126]
- Jake Thackray, 64, English singer-songwriter, heart failure.
- Mihai Țurcaș, 60, Romanian sprint canoeist and Olympic medalist.[127]
25
- Gabriel Almond, 91, American political scientist.[128]
- Íñigo Cavero, 73, Spanish aristocrat, lawyer and politician.[129]
- Attilio Lambertini, 82, Italian racing cyclist.[130]
- Tine Logar, 86, Slovenian historical linguist, dialectologist, and academic.[131]
- William T. Orr, 85, American television executive producer (Maverick, F-Troop, 77 Sunset Strip).[132]
- Davina Whitehouse, 90, British-New Zealand actress (Night Nurse, Sleeping Dogs, Braindead), stroke.[133]
26
- Louis Laurie, 85, American boxer.[134]
- Åke Lindström, 74, Swedish actor and film director.[135]
- Al Lujack, 82, American basketball player.[136]
- Heinz Raack, 85, German field hockey player and Olympic silver medalist.[137]
- Frank Reiber, 93, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers).[138]
- Herb Ritts, 50, American celebrity and fashion photographer, pneumonia.[139]
- Armand Zildjian, 81, Armenian-American entrepreneur and manufacturer of cymbals.[140]
27
- Truid Blaisse-Terwindt, 85, Dutch field hockey- and tennis player.
- Bill Chipley, 82, American professional football player (Boston Yanks, New York Bulldogs).[141]
- Judy Clark, 78, American film and television actress and singer.
- Daniel Deffayet, 80, French classical saxophonist.[142]
- Youssef Fakhr Eddine, 67, Egyptian actor.
- Carla Henius, 83, German soprano, mezzo-soprano and librettist.
- George Roy Hill, 81, American film director (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slap Shot), Parkinson's disease.[143]
- Olli Lounasmaa, 72, Finnish experimental physicist and neuroscientist, drowned.[144]
- Yayori Matsui, 68, Japanese journalist and women's rights activist, cancer.[145]
- Pratima Barua Pandey, 68, Indian folk singer.
- Ruth Svedberg, 99, Swedish track and field athlete and Olympic medalist.[146]
- María Luisa Zea, 89, Mexican actress and singer.
28
- Maria Carbone, 94, Italian operatic soprano.
- José Cibrián, 86, Argentine actor.
- Fadia of Egypt, 59, Egyptian princess.
- Clyde Goodnight, 78, American gridiron football player.[147]
- Achyut Kanvinde, 86, Indian architect.
- Koreyoshi Kurahara, 75, Japanese screenwriter and director, pneumonia.[148]
- Albert Stubbins, 83, English footballer.[149]
- Per Voksø, 79, Norwegian newspaper editor and Christian leader.
- Meri Wilson, 53, American model and singer-songwriter ("Telephone Man"), car accident.[150]
29
- Al Babartsky, 87, American gridiron football player (Fordham University, Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Bears).[151]
- Lloyd Barbee, 77, American lawyer and politician.
- Billy Brown, 84, American triple jumper and long jumper (1941 world long jump leader, 1936 Summer Olympics men's triple jump).[152]
- Ralph Clanton, 88, American actor of film, stage, and television.[153]
- Don Clarke, 69, New Zealand rugby player.
- John G. Dreyfus, 84, British typographer and printing historian.[154]
- Paul Hawkins, 90, British politician.
- Lorenzo Miguel, 75, Argentine labor leader, kidney failure.
- Július Satinský, 61, Slovak actor and comedian.[155]
- Robert Wierinckx, 87, Belgian road bicycle racer.[156]
30
- Mary Brian, 96, American actress, silent and sound film star (Peter Pan, The Virginian, Charlie Chan in Paris, Man on the Flying Trapeze), cardiovascular disease.[157]
- Barbara Durham, 60, American judge, first female chief justice of the Washington Supreme Court.[158]
- Wang Fanxi, 95, Chinese Trotskyist revolutionary.[159]
- Eleanor J. Gibson, 92, American psychologist.[160]
- Stan Javie, 83, American gridiron football player.
- Antony Ponzini, 69, American actor.
- Carl Schwende, 82, Canadian fencer and Olympian.[161]
- Mary Wesley, 90, English novelist (Jumping the Queue, The Camomile Lawn, Part of the Furniture).[162]
31
- Kazimierz Dejmek, 78, Polish actor, theatre and film director, and politician.[163]
- D. J. Enright, 82, British poet, novelist and critic.[164]
- Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz, 81, American physicist, cancer.
- Kaare Meland, 87, Norwegian politician.[165]
- Hanni Ossott, 56, Venezuelan poet, translator and critic.
- Li Rong, 82, Chinese linguist.
- Desmond Tester, 83, English film and television actor and television presenter.[166]
- Flaviano Vicentini, 60, Italian road race cyclist.[167]
References
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