Deaths in December 1999

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1999.

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 1999

1

• Gene Baker, 74, American baseball player.
• Ctirad Benáček, 75, Czech basketball player.
• Stephen Brooks, 57, American actor (The F.B.I., Days of Our Lives, The Interns), heart attack.
• Fritz Fischer, 91, German historian.
• Pop Gates, 82, American basketball player.
• Santidev Ghosh, 89, Indian author, singer, actor and dancer.
• Luigi Granelli, 70, Italian politician.
• Marilyn Harris, 75, American child actress (Frankenstein), cancer.
• Jaakko Jalas, 79, Finnish botanist.
• Tomás Pablo, 78, Chilean politician and architect.
• Victor Perlo, 87, American Marxist economist.
• Massimo Pupillo, 70, Italian film director.
• Alexander Tatarenko, 74, Soviet Russian painter and art teacher.

2

• Joey Adams, 88, American comedian, vaudevillian, radio host, and author.
• Charlie Byrd, 74, American jazz guitarist, lung cancer.
• Matt Cohen, 56, Canadian writer, lung cancer.
• Giorgio Cristallini, 78, Italian screenwriter and film director.
• Daniel J. Elazar, 65, American professor of political science.
• Vladimir Kravtsov, 50, Soviet and Russian handball player and Olympic champion.
• Ethelmary Oakland, 90, American child actress.
• Mike Ockrent, 53, British stage director.

3

• John Archer, 84, American actor (White Heat, Blue Hawaii, Lassie), lung cancer.
• Enrique Cadícamo, 99, Argentine tango lyricist, poet and novelist, heart failure.
• Anne Francine, 82, American actress (Harper Valley PTA, Crocodile Dundee, All My Children) and cabaret singer, stroke.
• Conrad Hunte, 67, Barbadian cricketer, heart attack.
• Scatman John, 57, American jazz musician ("Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)", "Scatman's World") and poet, lung cancer.
• Madeline Kahn, 57, American actress (Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Clue), Tony winner (1993), ovarian cancer.
• Boris Kuznetsov, 71, Russian and Soviet football player.
• Tami Mauriello, 76, American boxer and actor (On the Waterfront).
• Edmond Safra, 67, Lebanese Brazilian banker, smoke inhalation injury.
• Walter Schleger, 70, Austrian football player.
• Jarl Wahlström, 81, Finnish salvationist, 12th General of the Salvation Army.

4

• Heinrich C. Berann, 84, Austrian painter and cartographer.
• Rose Bird, 63, American first female justice, breast cancer.
• Charlotte H. Bruner, 82, American scholar.
• Sylvester Clarke, 44, West Indian cricketer, heart attack.
• Slobodan Dimitrijević, 58, Serbian television and film actor.
• Bert Hoffmeister, 92, Canadian Army officer, businessman, and conservationist.
• Nilde Iotti, 79, Italian politician of the Communist Party, heart attack.
• Barry Mahon, 78, American film director, cinematographer and producer.
• Daishōhō Masami, 32, Japanese sumo wrestler, pancreatic cancer.
• Sue Partridge, 69, British tennis player.
• John Douglas Pringle, 87, Australian journalist.
• Nélida Roca, 70, Argentinian showbusiness diva and sex symbol, heart attack.
• Edward Vesala, 54, Finnish avant-garde jazz drummer, congestive heart failure.
• Alick Walker, 74, British palaeontologist.

5

• Claude Ballot-Léna, 63, French racing driver, cancer.
• Edvin Biuković, 30, Croatian comics artist, brain tumor.
• Joseph Andorfer Ewan, 90, American botanist, naturalist, and historian of botany and natural history.
• Lajos Faluvégi, 75, Hungarian politician.
• Nathan Jacobson, 89, Polish-American mathematician.
• Bobby Marchan, 69, American R&B singer-songwriter, liver cancer.
• Edoardo Martino, 89, Italian politician.
• Bohumil Musil, 77, Czech football player and manager.
• Masaru Sato, 71, Japanese film composer (The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo).
• Kendall Taylor, 94, British pianist.

6

• Paul Bacon, 92, French politician.
• Alexander Baron, 82, British author and screenwriter.
• Gwyn Jones, 92, Welsh novelist and story writer.
• Martha Sharp, 94, American unitarian.
• Robert A. Swanson, American venture capitalist, brain cancer.
• Stan Wallace, 68, American gridiron football player (Chicago Bears).

7

• Kenny Baker, 78, British jazz musician.
• Darling Légitimus, 92, French actress.
• Alfons Moog, 84, German football player.
• William Wiley, 68, South African cricket player.

8

• Ernst Günther, 66, Swedish actor and director, diabetes.
• Rupert Hart-Davis, 92, English publisher.
• Wally Hebert, 92, American baseball player.
• František Ipser, 72, Czech football manager and player.
• Péter Kuczka, 76, Hungarian writer, poet and science fiction editor.
• Everett Carll Ladd, 62, American political scientist, heart failure.
• Ange Le Strat, 81, French racing cyclist.
• Pupella Maggio, 89, Italian film actress, cerebral hemorrhage.
• Richard P. Powell, 91, American novelist.
• Antônio Dias dos Santos, 51, Brazilian football player.
• Néstor Togneri, 57, Argentine football player.

9

• Oudom Khattigna, 69, Laotian communist politician, Vice President (1998-1999).
• Whitey Kurowski, 81, American baseball player.
• Yakov Rylsky, 71, Soviet sabre fencer and Olympic champion, liver cirrhosis.
• Shinkichi Takemura, 67, Japanese Olympic speed skater.
• Cecil H. Williamson, 90, British screenwriter, editor and film director.

10

• Charles Assalé, 88, Cameroonian politician.
• Antonio Blanco, 87, Spanish and American painter, heart and kidney disease.
• Rick Danko, 56, Canadian musician (The Band), heart failure.
• Pietro De Vico, 88, Italian film actor, stroke.
• Ed Dorn, 70, American poet, pancreatic cancer.
• Lex Goudsmit, 86, Dutch actor, stroke.
• Shirley Hemphill, 52, American comedian and actress (What's Happening!!), renal failure.
• Jean-Claude Michel, 74, French actor and voice actor.
• Mike Randall, 80, British journalist and editor.
• Niccolò Tucci, 91, Short story writer and novelist.
• Franjo Tuđman, 77, Croatian politician, President of Croatia (since 1990), cancer.

11

• Charles Earland, 58, American jazz organist, heart failure.
• Enrica Follieri, 73, Italian philologist and paleographer.
• Ed Jones, 87, American politician.
• Jack Oldfield, 100, British landowner and politician.
• Harry Wüstenhagen, 71, German film actor.
• Hans K. Ziegler, 88, German-American satellite engineer.

12

• James Balfour, 71, Canadian politician.
• Huelet Benner, 82, American multi-discipline pistol shooter and Olympic champion.
• Paul Cadmus, 94, American artist.
• Gordon Chater, 77, English Australian comedian and actor.
• Gaston Diehl, 87, French professor of art history and an art critic.
• Joseph Heller, 76, American novelist (Catch-22), heart attack.
• Ladislav Józsa, 51, Slovak football player.
• Matty Kemp, 92, American film actor.
• Luz Oliveros-Belardo, 93, Filipina pharmaceutical chemist.
• Ignacio Quirós, 68, Argentine actor, cancer.
• Leo Smit, 78, American composer and pianist, heart failure.
• John W. R. Taylor, 77, British aviation expert.
• Claes Thelander, 83, Swedish actor.

13

• Peter Adams, 61, New Zealand-Australian actor, cancer.
• Jill Craigie, 88, English documentary film director, screenwriter and feminist, heart failure.
• Stane Dolanc, 74, Yugoslav communist politician, cerebral stroke.
• Maury Gertsman, 92, American cinematographer.
• Tarmo Uusivirta, 42, Finnish professional boxer, suicide.
• Robert Wagenhoffer, 39, American figure skater, complications of AIDS.
• Ian Watt, 82, English literary critic and academic.
• Lady Mary Whitley, 75, British noblewoman.

14

• Sven Berlin, 88, English painter, writer and sculptor.
• Sándor Holczreiter, 53, Hungarian weightlifter and Olympic medalist.
• Douglas Leigh, 92, American advertising executive.
• Walt Levinsky, 70, American big band player, composer, arranger and bandleader, brain cancer.
• J. W. Lockett, 62, American football player.

15

• Georges Aeby, 86, Swiss football player.
• Rune Andréasson, 74, Swedish comic creator, cancer.
• Francis L. K. Hsu, 90, Chinese-American anthropologist.
• Eddie Kazak, 79, American baseball player.
• León Martinetti, 73, Argentine basketball player.

16

• Henry Helstoski, 74, American politician.
• Dorit Kreysler, 90, Austrian film actress.
• Ruth Welting, 50, American operatic soprano.
• Jorge Tuero, Venezuelan television actor and comedian, killed during the Vargas tragedy.

17

• Rex Allen, 78, American actor and singer-songwriter, traffic accident.
• Leo P. Carlin, 91, American politician.
• Ken W. Clawson, 63, American journalist and spokesman for U.S. President Richard Nixon, heart attack.
• Paolo Dezza, 98, Italian Jesuit cardinal of the Catholic church.
• François Dyrek, 66, French actor, heart attack.
• Rufus Lewis, 80, American baseball pitcher.
• Jürgen Moser, 71, German-American mathematician.
• Grover Washington, Jr., 56, American jazz saxophonist, heart attack.
• C. Vann Woodward, 91, American historian and Pulitzer prize winner.

18

• Þór Beck, 59, Icelandic footballer.
• Robert Bresson, 98, French film director.
• Robert Dougall, 86, English broadcaster and ornithologist.
• Joe Higgs, 59, Jamaican reggae musician, cancer.
• Dennis W. Sciama, 73, British physicist.
• John Southgate, 73, British Anglican priest.
• Benito Stefanelli, 71, Italian film actor, stuntman and weapons master.
• Bertha Swirles, 96, British physicist.
• Logan Wright, 66, American pediatric psychologist, heart attack.

19

• Bal Dani, 66, Indian cricket player.
• Brendan Hansen, 77, Australian politician.
• Desmond Llewelyn, 85, British actor (From Russia with Love, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Follyfoot), traffic collision.
• Marion Worth, 69, American country music singer, complications of emphysema.

20

• Dick Bertell, 64, American baseball player, influenza.
• Riccardo Freda, 90, Italian film director.
• Mario Carreño Morales, 86, Cuban painter.
• Carin Nilsson, 95, Swedish freestyle swimmer and Olympic medalist.
• Irving Rapper, 101, American film director.
• Hank Snow, 85, Canadian country musician, heart failure.
• James Wainwright, 61, American actor.

21

• John Arnatt, 82, British actor.
• Bill Edwards, 81, American actor, rodeo rider, and artist.
• Michael P. Malone, 59, American historian, cardiomyopathy, heart attack.
• Bernard Smith, 92, American literary editor, film producer and literary critic.
• Frank Stanley, 77, American cinematographer (Magnum Force, 10, Grease 2).
• Jalil Ziapour, 79, Iranian painter and academic.

22

• Per Aabel, 97, Norwegian actor, artist, dancer and choreographer.
• Hans Frankenthal, 73, German Holocaust survivor.
• Tamara Lees, 75, English film actress.
• Ola Oni, 66, Nigerian political economist, socialist and human right activist.
• Louis Pohl, 84, American painter, illustrator, printmaker and cartoonist.
• Benny Quick, 55, German pop and schlager singer, suicide.

23

• Martin Charteris, Baron Charteris of Amisfield, 86, British Army officer and courtier of Queen Elizabeth II.
• John Paton Davies, Jr., 91, American diplomat and Medal of Freedom recipient.
• Wallace Diestelmeyer, 73, Canadian figure skater and Olympic medalist.
• Timur Gaidar, 73, Soviet and Russian rear admiral, writer and journalist.
• Silvio Gava, 98, Italian politician.
• Lois Hamilton, 56, American actress (Summer Rental, The Ropers, The Cannonball Run), suicide by drug overdose.
• Miroslav Ivanov, 70, Popular Czech nonfiction writer.
• Vladimir Kondrashin, 70, Soviet and Russian basketball player and coach.
• Marcel Landowski, 84, French composer, biographer and arts administrator.
• Billy McGlen, 78, English football player.
• Eirene White, Baroness White, 90, British politician and journalist.

24

• Kadathanat Madhavi Amma, 90, Indian Malayalam poet, novelist and short story writer.
• Tomasz Beksiński, 41, Polish radio presenter, suicide.
• Peter Boroffka, 67, German politician and member of the Bundestag.
• Bill Bowerman, 88, American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc.
• Reggie Carter, 42, American basketball player.
• Billy Davenport, 68, American drummer.
• Maurice Couve de Murville, 92, French politician, 152nd Prime Minister of France.
• João Figueiredo, 81, 30th President of Brazil, cardiovascular disease.
• Tito Guízar, 91, American singer and actor, pneumonia.
• Jiang Hua, 92, President of the Supreme Court of China.
• Joseph McGahn, 82, American politician.
• William C. Schneider, 76, American aerospace engineer and NASA mission director.
• Grete Stern, 95, German-Argentine photographer.

25

• Arne Ileby, 86, Norwegian football player.
• Peter Jeffrey, 70, English actor, prostate cancer.
• Zully Moreno, 79, Argentine film actress, Alzheimer's disease.
• Michael Bamidele Otiko, 65, Nigerian politician and educator.
• Alfonso Lastras Ramírez, 75, Mexican lawyer and politician.

26

• Benny Bartlett, 75, American child actor and musician.
• Vitold Belevitch, 78, Belgian mathematician and electrical engineer.
• Ola Skjåk Bræk, 87, Norwegian banker and politician.
• Prunella Clough, 80, British artist, cancer.
• Fred Draper, 74, American actor (Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Columbo).
• David Duncan, 86, American screenwriter and novelist.
• Leah Leneman, 55, American historian and cookery writer.
• Curtis Mayfield, 57, American singer-songwriter ("Superfly", "Move On Up", "Freddie's Dead") and record producer, complications from diabetes.
• Shankar Dayal Sharma, 81, 9th president of India, heart attack.

27

• Leslie Brown, 87, British Anglican prelate.
• Pierre Clémenti, 57, French actor, liver cancer.
• Leonard Goldenson, 94, American TV and radio executive.
• Michael McDowell, 49, American novelist and screenwriter (Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Thinner), AIDS-related illness.
• Dick Peabody, 74, American actor, prostate cancer.
• Horst Matthai Quelle, 87, German philosopher.

28

• Josephine Barnes, 87, English obstetrician and gynaecologist.
• Joachim Böhmer, 59, East German rower and Olympic medalist.
• Franco Castellano, 74, Italian screenwriter and film director.
• Donald Cotton, 71, British writer for radio and television.
• Louis Féraud, 78, French fashion designer and artist, Alzheimer's disease.
• Kenneth Hudson, 83, British journalist and broadcaster.
• Larry Dale Lee, 41, American financial and economic journalist, stabbed.
• Clayton Moore, 85, American actor (The Lone Ranger), heart attack.
• Mike Thresher, 68, English football player.

29

• Robert Hoffstetter, 91, French taxonomist and herpetologist.
• Edward Hollamby, 78, English architect and town planner, heart disease.
• Ferenc Rabár, 70, Hungarian politician.
• Leon Radzinowicz, 93, Polish-British criminologist.
• José Cláudio dos Reis, 60, Brazilian sports administrator.
• Gerard Veringa, 75, Dutch politician.
• Jerzy Waldorff, 89, Polish baron, TV personality and writer.

30

• Tom Aherne, 80, Irish footballer and hurler.
• Clint Albright, 73, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Arthur Bassett, 85, Welsh rugby player.
• Kjølv Egeland, 81, Norwegian politician.
• Anna Fehér, 78, Hungarian gymnast and Olympic silver medallist.
• Sarah Knauss, 119, American supercentenarian and oldest person in the world.
• Fritz Leonhardt, 90, German structural engineer.
• Nicholas Marangello, 98, American mobster (Bonanno crime family).
• Louis Michel, 76, French mathematical physicist.

31

• Conrado Balweg, 57, Filipino Roman Catholic priest and communist revolutionary, shot.
• Dean Elliott, 82, American television and film composer, Alzheimer's disease.
• Ferdinand Finne, 89, Norwegian author, painter, theater decorator and costume designer.
• William Hughes, Baron Hughes, 88, British politician.
• Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi, 85, Indian Islamic scholar and author.
• Solomiia Pavlychko, 41, Ukrainian literary critic, philosopher, and feminist, carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Elliot Richardson, 79, American politician and diplomat, cerebral haemorrhage.
• Hamako Watanabe, 89, Japanese singer, cerebral infarction.