Deaths in April 2002

The following is a list of notable deaths in April 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.

1

 * Albert F. Canwell, 95, American politician and anti-communist.
 * Tonino Cervi, 72, Italian film director, screenwriter and producer, heart attack.
 * Simo Häyhä, 96, Finnish sniper during World War II.
 * James Karales, 71, American photographer and photo-essayist.
 * K. V. Narayanaswamy, 78, Indian musician.
 * John S. Samuel, 88, American Air Force general.

2

 * Levi Celerio, 91, Filipino composer and lyricist, and National Artist of the Philippines.
 * Vladimir Cernik, 84, Czechoslovakian tennis player.
 * Ike Clarke, 87, English football player and manager.
 * Jack Kruschen, 80, Canadian actor (The Apartment, The War of the Worlds, Webster).
 * John R. Pierce, 92, American engineer and author who coined the term "transistor", pneumonia.
 * Betty Jane Rase, 74, American singer and songwriter, stroke.
 * Henry Slesar, 74, American author, playwright, and copywriter.
 * Shigeo Sugimoto, 75, Japanese football player.
 * Robert Lawson Vaught, 75, American mathematician, and one of the founders of model theory.

3

 * Heinz Drache, 79, German film actor, lung cancer.
 * Fad Gadget, 45, English singer-songwriter, heart attack.
 * Roy Huggins, 87, American novelist and television producer (Maverick, The Fugitive, The Rockford Files).
 * Norm Lee, 81, Australian politician.
 * Bobby Managoff, 84, Armenian-American professional wrestler, heart failure.
 * Roy Nichols, 81, American baseball player (New York Giants).
 * Ernst Stojaspal, 77, Austrian football player, heart failure.
 * Karl Swanson, 101, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox).

4

 * Leo Brooks, 54, American gridiron football player (University of Texas, Houston Oilers, St. Louis Cardinals), esophageal cancer.
 * Leo Laakso, 83, Finnish Olympic ski jumper.
 * Pierre Marchand, 62, French publisher, cancer.
 * Joe Massot, 69, American writer and film director.
 * Qazi Mujahidul Islam Qasmi, 66, Indian Mufti, Qadhi and Islamic scholar.
 * Jack Tanuan, 36, Filipino basketball player, kidney failure.
 * Charles Winquist, 57, American theologian.

5

 * Herbert A. Cahn, 87, German-Swiss archaeologist, numismatist and antiquities-dealer.
 * Paul Erickson, 86, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants).
 * Bargil Pixner, 81, Italian-American monk, biblical scholar and archaeologist.
 * Sheriff Robinson, 80, American baseball player.
 * Layne Staley, 34, American singer (Alice in Chains), drug overdose.
 * Ben Warley, 65, American professional basketball player (Philadelphia 76ers, Baltimore Bullets, Anaheim Amigos), liver cancer.
 * Kim Won-gyun, 85, North Korean composer and politician, heart failure.

6

 * Silvia Derbez, 70, Mexican film and television actress, lung cancer.
 * Petru Dumitriu, 77, Romanian novelist.
 * Oliver Eggimann, 83, Swiss football player.
 * Kevin Kelley, 59, American drummer (Rising Sons, The Byrds, Fever Tree).
 * Ralph J. Marino, 74, American lawyer and politician from New York.
 * Nobu McCarthy, 67, Canadian actress, aortic aneurysm.
 * Martin Sperr, 57, German dramatist and actor.
 * Tom Sunkel, 89, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers).
 * Judith Wood, 95, American film actress.

7

 * John Agar, 81, American actor, starred in Western and Sci-Fi movies, first husband of Shirley Temple, pulmonary emphysema.
 * Bobby Astyr, 64, American pornographic film actor.
 * Bhavanam Venkatarami Reddy, 70, Indian politician, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
 * Georges van Coningsloo, 61, Belgian racing cyclist.
 * Conny Vandenbos, 65, Dutch singer, lung cancer.

8

 * Nigel Bagnall, 75, British field marshal, professional head of the British Army (Chief of the General Staff).
 * Eloy Fominaya, 76, American composer, music educator, conductor, violinist and luthier (Augusta Symphony).
 * María de los Angeles Felix Güereña, 88, Mexican film star, considered "the most beautiful face in the history of Mexican cinema", heart attack.
 * Giacomo Mancini, 85, Italian politician.
 * Harvey Quaytman, 64, American painter, cancer.
 * Francisco Zamora Salinas, 63, El Salvador football player.
 * Josef Svoboda, 81, Czech artist and scenic designer.
 * Laurel Rose Willson, 60, American author and con artist.

9

 * Dorothy Love Coates, 74, American gospel singer, considered one of gospel's great performers.
 * Harold Coates, 84, Australian politician, member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (1965–1976).
 * Thomas Dinger, 49, German drummer, singer and songwriter.
 * Roy Dwight, 69, English footballer.
 * Pat Flaherty, 76, American professional racecar driver, won the Indianapolis 500 in 1956.
 * Weldon Irvine, 58, American composer, playwright, poet, and pianist, suicide.
 * Kazuo Nakamura, 75, Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor.
 * Leopold Vietoris, 110, Austrian mathematician.

10

 * Haim Cohn, 91, Israeli jurist and politician.
 * Ed Fleming, 68, American professional basketball player (Niagara University, Rochester Royals, Minneapolis Lakers).
 * Géza Hofi, 75, Hungarian humorist.
 * Atanda Fatai Williams, 83, Nigerian jurist and Chief Justice of Nigeria (1979–1983).

11

 * Elmer Angsman, 76, American gridiron football player (Notre Dame, Chicago Cardinals) and football color commentator, heart attack.
 * Branko Bauer, 81, Croatian film director.
 * William Brandon, 87, American author, wrote on Native Americans and the American West.
 * Bubba Brooks, 79, American jazz tenor saxophonist, a member of Bill Doggett's ensemble.
 * Héctor Rojas Herazo, 81, Colombian novelist, poet, journalist and painter.
 * Delphi Lawrence, 76, English actress.
 * Do Mau, 85, Vietnamese officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).
 * J. William Stanton, 78, American politician (U.S. Representative for Ohio's 11th congressional district).
 * Stanley Weston, 82, American publisher, sportswriter, artist and photographer, cancer.

12

 * Hans Neurath, 92, Austrian-American biochemist and academic.
 * Gabriel Raksi, 63, Romanian football player.
 * Yadollah Sahabi, 97, Iranian scholar, writer, reformist and politician.
 * Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, 87, Indian communist leader, Parkinson's disease.
 * George Shevelov, 93, Ukrainian scholar.
 * Safet Zhulali, 59, Albanian Minister of Defence.

13

 * Alex Baroni, 35, Italian singer, traffic accident.
 * Scipio Colombo, 91, Italian dramatic baritone, and was.
 * Ivan Desny, 79, RussianSwiss film actor-, appeared in more than 150 films, pneumonia.
 * Franz Krienbühl, 73, Swiss speed skater.
 * Oreste Piccioni, 86, Italian-American physicist.
 * Álvaro Salvadores, 73, Chilean-Spaniard basketball player.
 * Vlajko Stojiljković, 65, Serbian politician, suicide.
 * Desmond Titterington, 73, British racing driver from Northern Ireland.

14

 * Edmée Abetel, 79, Swiss Olympic alpine skier (1952 Winter Olympics women's slalom).
 * Buck Baker, 83, American stock car race driver and member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
 * Gustave Blouin, 89, Canadian politician and a member of Parliament (House of Commons).
 * Mark Ermler, 69, Russian conductor (Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra).
 * Joop Haex, 90, Dutch politician.
 * Michael Kerr, 81, British jurist.
 * Monal, 21, Indian film actress, suicide by hanging.
 * Fausto Radici, 48, Italian alpine skier, suicide.

15

 * Sándor Gáspár, 85, Hungarian communist politician and trade unionist.
 * Moe Keale, 62, American musician of Hawaiian music, and actor, heart attack.
 * Dave King, 72, English comedian, actor and singer.
 * Damon Knight, 79, American science fiction author, editor and critic.
 * Hans-Henrik Krause, 84, Danish actor and film director.
 * Ram Singh Thakur, 87, Indian freedom fighter, musician and composer.
 * Byron White, 84, American lawyer and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, pneumonia.

16

 * Billy Ayre, 49, English footballer, cancer.
 * Ramiro de León Carpio, 60, Guatemalan politician, diabetic coma.
 * Janusz Kasperczak, 74, Polish Olympic boxer.
 * Claudio Slon, 58, Brazilian jazz drummer, lung cancer.
 * Marcel Stern, 80, Swiss competitive sailor and Olympic medalist.
 * Robert Urich, 55, American actor (Vega$, Spenser: For Hire, Lonesome Dove, S.W.A.T.), cancer.
 * Hugh Franklin Waters, 69, American judge (U.S. District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas).
 * Herbert Wernicke, 56, German opera director and set and costume designer.

17

 * James Copeland, 83, Scottish actor (The 39 Steps, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes).
 * Betsy Curtis, 84, American science fiction and fantasy writer.
 * Srul Irving Glick, 67, Canadian composer, radio producer, and conductor.
 * Stevan Kragujević, 80, Serbian photojournalist and art photographer.

18

 * Mitsos Dimitriou, 54, Greek football player.
 * Jerry Heidenreich, 52, American competition swimmer and Olympic champion, suicide.
 * Thor Heyerdahl, 87, Norwegian anthropologist, brain cancer.
 * Wayne Hightower, 62, American basketball player, heart attack.
 * Cy Laurie, 75, British musician.
 * Wahoo McDaniel, 63, American gridiron football player and wrestler, complications from diabetes and kidney failure.

19

 * William E. Barber, 82, U.S. Marine Corps colonel and Medal of Honor recipient, bone marrow cancer.
 * Alberto Beltrán, 79, Mexican painter, engraver and political cartoonist.
 * Jean-Pierre Destrumelle, 61, French football player and manager.
 * Reginald Rose, 81, American film and television writer, complications of heart failure.
 * Ross Whicher, 84, Canadian politician and businessman (member of Parliament representing Bruce, Ontario).

20

 * Vlastimil Brodský, 81, Czech actor, suicide.
 * Alan Dale, 76, American singer ("Heart of My Heart", "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White").
 * Joe Geri, 77, American gridiron football player.
 * Sarvepalli Gopal, 78, Indian historian, renal failure.
 * Stig-Göran Johansson, 58, Swedish ice hockey player.
 * Pierre Rapsat, 53, Belgian singer-songwriter, cancer.

21

 * Sam Dente, 79, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians).
 * Thomas Joseph Grady, 87, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
 * Verné Lesche, 84, Finnish speed skater.
 * Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, 65, Afghan politician and mujahideen leader.
 * Red O'Quinn, 76, American professional football player (Wake Forest, Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles).
 * Ogden Phipps, 93, American stockbroker, thoroughbred horse racing owner/breeder and philanthropist.
 * Terry Walsh, 62, British stuntman.

22

 * Albrecht Becker, 95, German production designer and actor.
 * Janet Fox, 89, American actress (Stage Door, Dinner at Eight).
 * Soja Jovanović, 80, Serbian and Yugoslav film director.
 * Linda Lovelace, 53, American porn star turned political activist, car crash.
 * Fran Minkoff, 87, American lyricist.
 * Allen Morris, 92, American historian.
 * Christopher Price, 34, English journalist and presenter, meningoencephalitis.
 * Victor Weisskopf, 93, Austrian-American theoretical physicist, worked on the Manhattan Project.

23

 * Bob Baker, 75, American heavyweight boxer.
 * Bob Faught, 82, American professional basketball player (University of Notre Dame, Cleveland Rebels).
 * Sam Francis, 88, American football player (Nebraska, Chicago Bears, Brooklyn Dodgers) and coach, and Olympic shot putter.
 * Ted Kroll, 82, American professional golfer, won eight PGA Tour events, Parkinson's disease.
 * Tibor Simon, 36, Hungarian football player and manager, blunt trauma.

24

 * Gloria Escoffery, 78, Jamaican artist, poet, teacher, art critic and journalist.
 * Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, 67, American journalist, essayist and memoirist, COPD.
 * Eric McKitrick, 82, American historian.
 * Robert McQueeney, 83, American actor.
 * Lucien Wercollier, 93, Luxembourg sculptor.
 * Nadezhda Zhurkina, 81, Russian radio operator and gunner during World War II.

25

 * Michael Bryant, 74, British actor (Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly, The Stone Tape, The Ruling Class, Gandhi).
 * Mario Casilli, 71, American photographer.
 * Indra Devi, 102, Russian "yoga teacher to the stars".
 * Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, 30, American singer and member of girl group TLC, car crash.
 * Athanasios Papoulis, 81, Greek-American engineer and applied mathematician.

26

 * Vincenzo Caianiello, 69, Italian jurist.
 * Alton Coleman, 46, American convicted spree killer, execution by lethal injection.
 * John Davis, 86, American baseball player (New York Giants).
 * Del Sharbutt, 90, American radio announcer.
 * Tore Svensson, 74, Swedish football goalkeeper.
 * Steve Tshwete, 63, South African politician and activist, pneumonia and liver failure.

27

 * Guila Bustabo, 86, American concert violinist.
 * George Alec Effinger, 55, American science fiction writer (When Gravity Fails, "Schrödinger's Kitten").
 * Ruth Handler, 85, inventor of the Barbie doll, colorectal cancer.
 * Robert L. Joseph, 79, American theatre producer, playwright, and screenwriter.
 * Arthur Owen, 87, British racing driver (born 1915).
 * Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, 81, German Industrialist and art collector, cardiovascular disease.
 * Felix Villars, 81, Swiss-American emeritus professor of physics at MIT.
 * Jerry Witte, 86, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns).

28

 * Albert Béchard, 79, Canadian politician and a member of Parliament (House of Commons for Bonaventure, Quebec).
 * Robert M. Gagné, 85, American educational psychologist.
 * Alexander Lebed, 52, Russian general and politician, aviation accident.
 * Peter Parker, 77, British businessman.
 * Liu Qiong, 88, Chinese film director and actor, liver cancer.
 * Lou Thesz, 86, American professional wrestler, complications caused by triple bypass surgery.
 * John Wilkinson, 82, American sound mixer (Platoon, Saturday Night Fever, Days of Heaven), Oscar winner (1987).
 * Gordon Willey, 89, American anthropologist, known for creation of the field of "settlement pattern studies".

29

 * Bob Akin, 66, American businessman and professional race car driver (two-time Sebring winner).
 * Sune Andersson, 81, Swedish football player and manager (gold medal winner in football at the 1948 Summer Olympics).
 * Sverre Bratland, 84, Norwegian military leader and commander during the invasion of Normandy during World War II.
 * Michael Camille, 44, English art historian, specializing in art of the European Middle Ages, brain tumor.
 * Noel DaCosta, 72, Nigerian-Jamaican composer, jazz violinist, and choral conductor.
 * Santiago Álvarez Gómez, 89, Spanish communist politician.
 * Ihar Hermianchuk, 41, Belarusian journalist and political activist, cancer.
 * Pete Jacobsen, 51, English jazz pianist.
 * Stan Lynn, 73, English football player.
 * Lor Tok, 88, Thai, comedian and actor Thailand National Artist.

30

 * Kathryn Albertson, 93, American philanthropist.
 * Howard Alvin Crum, 79, American botanist, expert on North American bryoflora.
 * Ida Engel, 98, American actress, television commercial star in her 90s.
 * Leslie Melville, 100, Australian economist, academic and public servant.
 * Robert Mosley, 74 or 75, American bass-baritone.
 * Nitsa Tsaganea, 100, Greek actress of theatre and film.
 * Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, 74, German LGBT writer and museum director, heart attack.