Deaths in December 1987

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1987.

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

 * James Baldwin, 63, African-American novelist, essayist, playwright and poet, stomach cancer.
 * Donn F. Eisele, 57, American Air Force officer and NASA astronaut, heart attack.
 * Buddy Fogelson, 87, American lawyer, Army colonel, businessman, horse and cattle breeder and philanthropist.
 * Punch Imlach, 69, Canadian ice hockey coach and general manager, heart attack.

2

 * Edward Barnsley, 87, English designer and maker of furniture.
 * Juan Alberto Melgar Castro, 57, Honduran military officer, president of Honduras, heart attack.
 * Robert Filliou, 61, French artist.
 * Trygve Henrik Hoff, 49, Norwegian singer, composer, songwriter and writer.
 * Luis Federico Leloir, 81, French-Argentine physician and biochemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, heart attack.
 * Hubert Noël, 63, French film actor.
 * Myrta Silva, 60, Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and television producer.
 * Ernst Steinhoff, 79, Nazi German rocket scientist.
 * Princess Red Wing, 91, American tribal elder.
 * Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, 73, Soviet physicist.

3

 * Andrew Foster, 62, American pioneer of deaf education in African countries, air crash.
 * Robert Haskell, 84, American politician, Governor of Maine.
 * George Seawright, appr. 36, Scottish-Northern Irish unionist politician, loyalist paramilitary in the Ulster Volunteer Force.
 * Yevgeny Tolstikov, 74, Soviet polar explorer, Hero of the Soviet Union.
 * Dorin Liviu Zaharia, 43, Romanian musician, composer, poet, essayist and philosopher.

4

 * Pericle Fazzini, 74, Italian painter and sculptor.
 * Bryan Fowler, 89, British polo player and Olympian.
 * Meinrad von Lauchert, 82, Nazi German Wehrmacht general.
 * Arnold Lobel, 54, American author of children's books.
 * Rouben Mamoulian, 90, Georgian-American film director.
 * Constantin Noica, 78, Romanian philosopher, essayist and poet.
 * Giorgio Prodi, 59, Italian medical scientist and oncologist.

5

 * Pappy Daily, 85, American country music record producer, co-founded record label Starday Records.
 * Leonid Dimov, 61, Romanian postmodernist poet and translator, heart attack.
 * Bobby Garrett, 55, American NFL footballer.
 * Daud Kamal, 52, Pakistani poet.
 * Rudolf Mentzel, 87, German chemist and Nazi policy-maker.
 * Molly O'Day, 64, American country music vocalist, cancer.
 * Conny Plank, 47, German record producer and musician, laryngeal cancer.
 * Eugene Siler, 87, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

6

 * James Dobson, 67, American film and television actor, heart attack.
 * Peter Lorenz, 64, German politician.
 * David J. Schwartz, 60, American motivational writer and coach.
 * Izler Solomon, 77, American orchestra conductor.
 * Ba Swe, 72, Prime Minister of Burma.

7

 * Gareth Bennett, 58, British Anglican priest, suicide.
 * Michael Crossley, 75, British World War II Royal Air Force flying ace.
 * Michael Hornby, 88, British vice chairman of WHSmith.
 * Jane Mouton, 57, American management theorist.
 * Jaime Ongpin, 49, Filipino businessman, Minister of Finance, suicide.
 * Helen Porter, 88, British botanist from Imperial College London.
 * Denis Rogers, 70, New Zealand doctor and local politician, heart attack.

8

 * Fay Baker, 70, American stage, film and television actress and writer, breast cancer.
 * Marcos Calderón, 59, Peruvian football coach and player, air crash.
 * Luis Antonio Escobar, 18, Peruvian international footballer, air crash.
 * José González Ganoza, 33, Peruvian international footballer, air crash.
 * Sigrid Helliesen Lund, 95, Norwegian peace activist, notably in World War II.
 * Alfredo Tomassini, 23, Peruvian footballer, air crash.
 * Yolanda Vadiz, 28, Puerto Rican soprano, carbon monoxide poisoning.
 * Johnny Watson, 24, Peruvian footballer, air crash.
 * Ulfert Wilke, 80, German-American painter, museum director and art collector.

9

 * Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, 73, German prince, head of the House of Hanover.
 * Diana Forbes-Robertson, 72, British writer, stroke.
 * François Gall, 75, Hungarian-French modern impressionist painter, heart attack.

10

 * Giovanni Arpino, 60, Italian writer and journalist.
 * Jascha Heifetz, 86, Lithuanian-American violinist, complications from a fall.
 * Carlota Jaramillo, 83, Ecuadorian pasillo singer, complications from a fall.
 * Stylianos Kyriakides, 77, Greek Cypriot marathon runner.
 * Denis Sanders, 58, American film director, screenwriter and producer, heart attack.
 * Slam Stewart, 73, American jazz double bass player, congestive heart failure.

11

 * G. A. Kulkarni, 64, Indian writer of short stories.
 * Emil Mazuw, 87, German governor of the Province of Pomerania.
 * William Thornton Mustard, 73, Canadian physician and cardiac surgeon, heart attack.
 * Rosi Wolfstein, 99, German socialist politician.

12

 * Bodil Begtrup, 84, Danish women's rights activist and diplomat, chairman of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
 * Clifton Chenier, 62, American musician, kidney disease.
 * Enrique Jorrín, 60, Cuban charanga violinist, composer and music director.
 * Nolan Leary, 98, American actor and playwright.
 * Pinky Tomlin, 80, American singer, songwriter, bandleader and actor.

13

 * Julien Darui, 71, French international footballer.
 * Bil Dwyer, 80, American cartoonist and humourist.
 * Bernard Epton, 66, American politician, member of the Illinois House of Representatives, coronary.
 * Na. Parthasarathy, 54, Indian writer.
 * Elias Porter, 73, American psychologist.
 * Stanisław Radkiewicz, 84, Polish communist activist, minister of Public Security.
 * Claude T. Smith, 55, American band conductor, composer and music educator.
 * George Wunder, 75, American cartoonist and comic illustrator (Terry and the Pirates), heart attack.

14

 * Copi, 48, Argentine writer, cartoonist and playwright, AIDS-related illness.
 * Merlyn Hans Dethlefsen, 53, American officer of the U.S. Air Force.
 * Tim Dinsdale, 63, British cryptozoologist, attempted to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, heart attack.
 * Siegfried Haß, 89, Nazi German Wehrmacht general, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
 * Milt Josefsberg, 76, American screenwriter.
 * Georg Knöpfle, 83, German international footballer and coach.
 * Valentina Kulagina, 85, Russian painter and designer of books, posters and exhibitions.
 * Mogens Lassen, 86, Danish architect and designer.
 * Nikos Stavridis, 77, Greek film and theatre actor.
 * J. P. Strom, 69, American law enforcement officer, Chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
 * John Winterton, 89, British Army officer, Military Governor and Commander of the Free Territory of Trieste.

15

 * Seitnebi Abduramanov, 73, Soviet junior platoon commander in the Red Army, recipient of the Order of Glory.
 * Septima Poinsette Clark, 89, African American educator and civil rights activist.
 * George Fulford, 85, Canadian businessman and politician, member of the Canadian House of Commons.
 * Ángel Infante, 73, Mexican actor and singer.
 * Ivo Lapenna, 78, Italian law professor.
 * Ray Malavasi, 57, American NFL football coach, heart attack.
 * Pierre Massé, 89, French economist, engineer, applied mathematician and high official in the French government.
 * Tiny Moore, 67, American Western swing musician.
 * P. Ramamurthi, 79, Indian politician, member of the Communist Party of India.
 * Elisabeth Zaisser, 89, German politician and teacher, East German Secretary of State.
 * Alfred Zerbel, 83, Nazi German Wehrmacht general.

16

 * Leonard Beecher, 81, English-Anglican Archbishop of East Africa.
 * Hob Broun, 37, American author, asphyxiation.
 * Minnie Evans, 95, American artist.
 * Albert P. Morano, 79, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
 * John Russell, 66, British politician, member of the House of Lords.

17

 * Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, 87, Dutch cardinal, Archbishop of Utrecht.
 * Irving Allen, 82, Austro-Hungarian–born American theatrical and cinematic producer and director.
 * Georges Burou, 77, French gynecologist, drowned
 * Arkady Raikin, 76, Soviet stand-up comedian, stage and film actor, theatre director, screenwriter and satirist.
 * Lucy Walker, 80, Australian romance novelist.
 * Linda Wong, 36, American pornographic actress, drug overdose.
 * Marguerite Yourcenar, 84, Belgian-French-American novelist and essayist.

18

 * Dimitrije Bašičević, 66, Yugoslavian artist, curator and art critic.
 * Chaudhary Rahim Khan, 64, Indian politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Warne Marsh, 60, American tenor saxophonist, heart attack.

19

 * Murat Aitkhozhin, 48, Soviet molecular biologist.
 * Ralph Waldo Christie, 94, American admiral in the U.S. Navy.
 * Hermann Claasen, 87, German photographer.
 * Leo Jung, 95, American architect of Orthodox Judaism.
 * John F. O'Leary, 61, American government official and business executive, cancer.
 * C. Donald Peterson, 69, American jurist and politician, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, cancer.
 * Esther Shiner, 63, Canadian municipal politician.
 * André de la Varre, 83, American filmmaker of travel documentaries.

20

 * Ruben Ecleo Sr., 53, Filipino cult leader, founded the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association.
 * Jake Eisenhart, 65, American Major League baseballer.
 * Dan Sikes, 58, American professional golfer.

21

 * Fred R. Feitshans Jr., 78, American film editor.
 * Carl E. McGowan, 76, American lawyer and U.S. circuit judge.
 * Ralph Nelson, 71, American film and television director, producer, writer and actor.
 * Robert Paige, 76, American actor and TV newscaster and political correspondent, Universal Pictures leading man, aortic aneurysm.
 * Henry Strater, 91, American painter and illustrator.

22

 * A. N. Alcaff, 62, Indonesian actor and film director.
 * Henry Cotton, 80, English professional golfer.
 * Roderick Firth, 70, American philosopher.
 * Gustav Fröhlich, 85, German actor and film director, complications after surgery.
 * Mimí Langer, 77, Austrian-Latin American psychoanalyst and human rights activist, cancer.
 * Paule Marrot, 85, French textile designer.
 * John McMichael, 39, Northern Irish loyalist, car bomb.
 * Dudley Meredith, 52, American AFL footballer.
 * Dorothy M. Needham, 91, English biochemist.
 * Geoffrey Parsons, 77, English lyricist.
 * José do Patrocínio Oliveira, 83, Brazilian musician and voice actor.
 * Luca Prodan, 34, Italian-Scottish musician based in Argentina.
 * T. Ranganathan, 62, Indian American Carnatic musician.
 * Alice Terry, 88, American screen actress and director, Alzheimer's disease.

23

 * Paschoal Silva, 87, Brazilian football player.

24

 * Roy M. Davenport, 78, American rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
 * Nino Espinosa, 34, Dominican Major League baseballer, heart attack.
 * Eugen Kogon, 84, German historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor.
 * John Wesley Hanes II, 95, American investment banker, Under Secretary of the Treasury.
 * Betty Noyes, 75, American singer and actress.
 * Josef Myrow, 77, Russian Empire-composer.
 * M. G. Ramachandran, 70, Indian actor and politician, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, heart attack and strokee.
 * Manoug Parikian, 67, British concert violinist.
 * Sara Scuderi, 81, Italian opera singer.
 * Joop den Uyl, 68, Dutch politician and journalist, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, brain tumor.
 * Kulwant Singh Virk, 66, Indian-author, stroke.

25

 * Alexander Gregory Barmine, 88, Soviet Army defector to the U.S.A.
 * Ruth Bonner, 87, Soviet Communist activist.
 * John H. Humphrey, 72, British bacteriologist and immunologist.
 * Vadim Knizhnik, 25, Soviet physicist, heart attack.
 * Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, 54, American trumpeter and band leader.
 * Zita Moulton, 104, American model and actress of theatre and film.
 * Nat Tarnopol, 56, American record producer, congestive heart failure.
 * Victor Whitsey, 71, British Church of England Bishop of Hertford and Chester.

26

 * J. A. Baker, 61, English author, cancer.
 * S. M. Banerjee, 68, Indian politician, trade unionist and communist sympathiser.
 * Dorothy Bliss, 71, American carcinologist, cancer.
 * Neil Colville, 73, Canadian NHL ice hockey player.
 * Melford Stevenson, 85, English barrister and High Court judge.
 * Leslie Thompson, 86, Jamaican-English jazz trumpeter and trombonist.
 * Luis E. Valcárcel, 96, Peruvian historian, anthropologist, writer and activist, Peruvian Minister of Education.

27

 * Rewi Alley, 90, New Zealand-writer and political activist, member of the Chinese Communist Party.
 * John Astor, 64, British politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Manoj Basu, 86, Indian writer of Bengali novels and short stories.
 * Shanti Devi, 61, Indian woman who claimed to remember her previous life.
 * Priscilla Dean, 91, American theatre and silent-screen actress, complications from a fall.
 * Josef Grohé, 85, German Nazi Party official, Gauleiter of Gau Cologne-Aachen.
 * Bernard Hailstone, 77, English painter.
 * Theodore Pike, 83, Irish colonial administrator and rugby union international.
 * Stepan Popel, 78, Ukrainian chess champion.
 * Wilbur Schramm, 80, American scholar and authority on \"mass communications\".
 * Anthony West, 73, English author and literary critic, stroke.

28

 * Happy Akhand, 27, Bangladeshi rock singer and songwriter.
 * George I. Forsythe, 69, American general of the U.S. Army.
 * John Hunt, 82, British general practitioner, co-founded the Royal College of General Practitioners.
 * Edward Kleban, 48, American musical theatre composer and lyricist, complications from throat cancer.
 * Charles Malik, 81, Lebanese academic, diplomat, philosopher and politician, Lebanese representative to the U.N., kidney failure.
 * Joseph Sittler, 83, American Lutheran minister and theologian.

29

 * John F. Aiso, 78, American nisei military leader, lawyer and judge, head injury sustained in a mugging.
 * Sheldon Andelson, 56, American higher education administrator and a political fund-raiser, complications of AIDS.
 * Patrick Bissell, 30, American ballet dancer, overdose.
 * Brigitte Heinrich, 46, German journalist and politician, heart attack.
 * Jun Ishikawa, 88, Japanese author, translator and literary critic, lung cancer.
 * Wilbert E. Moore, 73, American sociologist.
 * Ulysses Kae Williams, 73, American DJ, record label owner and producer.
 * Yanina Zhejmo, 78, Soviet actress.

30

 * Leslie Arliss, 86, English screenwriter and director.
 * Datta Naik, 60, Indian film music director.
 * Manolo Urquiza, 67, Cuban-media personality.
 * Theodore Zichy, 79, British actor, photographer, film director and producer, suicide.

31

 * George Doherty, 67, American NFL footballer, college coach and athletics administrator, heart attack.
 * Merle Evans, 96, American cornet player and circus band conductor.
 * Randall Garrett, 60, American science fiction and fantasy author.
 * Gene Leggett, 52, American Methodist minister, defrocked for being homosexual, hepatitis.
 * Leo Steiner, 47–48, American restaurateur, co-owner of Carnegie Deli, brain tumour.
 * Jerry Turner, 58, American television news anchorman, esophageal cancer.

Unknown date

 * Malcolm Butler, 75, Northern Irish international footballer.
 * Manbir Singh Chaheru, 27–28, Indian founder and first leader of the militant Khalistan Commando Force.
 * Michael Clemente, 79, New York mobster in the Genovese crime family.
 * Dorothy K. Haynes, 68–69, Scottish horror and supernatural writer, breast cancer.
 * Kurt Frederick Ludwig, 83–84, Nazi German spy.
 * Birendra Nath Mazumdar, 82, Indian medical officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
 * Marcus Owen, 52, Welsh professional snooker player.
 * Ian Wilson, 86, English actor.