Deaths in December 1988

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1988.

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

 * Martin Hinds, 47, British scholar of the Middle East, historiographer of early Islamic history.
 * Włodzimierz Mazur, 34, Polish international footballer (Zagłębie Sosnowiec, Poland).
 * J. Vernon McGee, 84, American Presbyterian minister and radio minister, heart failure.

2

 * Karl-Heinz Bürger, 84, Nazi German member of the SS.
 * Tata Giacobetti, 66, Italian singer and jazz musician (Quartetto Cetra).
 * Lloyd Rees, 93, Australian landscape painter.

3

 * Panos Gavalas, 62, Greek singer.
 * John Maher, 48, American former child alcoholic and heroin addict, founded Delancey Street Foundation, pneumonia.
 * Johnny Paychek, 74, American boxer.
 * Erwin Sick, 79, German inventor and entrepreneur, heart attack.
 * Thawan Thamrongnawasawat, 87, Thai politician and Prime Minister of Thailand.

4

 * Osman Achmatowicz, 89, Polish chemist (Achmatowicz reaction).
 * Gerd Arntz, 87, German artist (woodcuts).
 * Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry, 85, Pakistani nuclear physicist.
 * Fernand Mourlot, 93, French director of Mourlot Studios.
 * Kola Onadipe, 66, Nigerian author of children's books (Sugar Girl), stroke.
 * Göran von Otter, 81, Swedish diplomat.
 * Jangal Santhal, 62–63, Indian political activist.
 * Sir David Trench, 73, British Army officer, Governor of Hong Kong and the Solomon Islands.
 * Alberto Uria, 64, Uruguayan racing driver.

5

 * Winfield S. Harpe, 51, American pilot, general in the U.S. Air Force, air crash.
 * August Lenz, 78, German international footballer (Borussia Dortmund, Germany) and Olympian.
 * Erik Lundin, 84, Swedish chess master.
 * Teodor Parnicki, 79–80, Polish writer of historical novels.
 * William Everett Potter, 83, American engineer and military officer, Governor of the Panama Canal Zone, heart failure.

6

 * Bill Harris, 63, American guitarist, Bill Harris.
 * Timothy Patrick Murphy, 29, American actor (Dallas), AIDS.
 * Roy Orbison, 52, American singer and songwriter (Pretty Woman, Only the Lonely, Crying), heart attack.
 * Charles Saxon, 68, American cartoonist (The New Yorker), heart failure.
 * Veerendra, 40, Indian film actor and director.

7

 * Christopher Connelly, 47, American actor (Peyton Place), lung cancer.
 * Josephine Groves Holloway, 90, American scouting leader.
 * Dorothy Jordan, 82, American actress, heart failure.
 * Mitsu Yashima, 80, Japanese-born American artist and children's book author.

8

 * Ivan Bonar, 64, American actor (General Hospital).
 * John Joe McGirl, 67, Irish republican, Sinn Féin politician and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army.
 * Gene Quill, 60, American jazz alto saxophonist.
 * Hellmuth Reymann, 96, Nazi German army officer, defender of Berlin.
 * Anne Seymour, 79, American film and television actress, heart failure.
 * Ludovico Silva, 50–51, Venezuelan poet and philosopher.
 * Ulanhu, 80, Chinese founding Chairman of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Vice President of People's Republic of China.

9

 * Rafael Calvo, 76, Spanish actor (Miracle of Marcelino).
 * Kainikkara Kumara Pillai, 88, Indian actor, short story writer and playwright.

10

 * Dennis Arundell, 90, British actor, director and composer of incidental music.
 * Richard S. Castellano, 55, American actor (Lovers and Other Strangers, The Godfather), heart attack.
 * Scott Johnson, 27, American student killed in Australia in a gay-hate attack. (body found on this date)
 * Johnny Lawrence, 77, English cricketer (Somerset, Lincolnshire).
 * Elizabeth Rawson, 54, British classical scholar (biography of Cicero).
 * Dorothy de Rothschild, 93, English philanthropist and activist for Jewish affairs.
 * John Baker White, 86, English politician and amateur spy, Member of Parliament.
 * Lawrence Wien, 83, American lawyer and real estate investor, prostate cancer.

11

 * Kari Kairamo, 55, Finnish chairman and CEO of Nokia, suicide.
 * Nagendra Singh, 74, Indian lawyer, President of the International Court of Justice, Nagendra Singh.

12

 * K. K. Chen, 90, Chinese-American scientist, pharmacological researcher at Eli Lilly and Company (ephedrine).
 * Dick Clair, 57, American television producer, actor and writer (It's a Living, The Facts of Life, Mama's Family), AIDS.
 * Bruce Alan Davis, 40, American serial killer, suicide.
 * June Tarpé Mills, 76, American comic book creator (Miss Fury).
 * Henri Peyre, 87, French-born American linguist, heart failure.
 * Anthony Provenzano, 71, American mobster of the Genovese crime family, heart attack.
 * Joe Reichler, 73, American sports writer (Associated Press), cancer.
 * Rudolf Schündler, 82, German actor and director (The Exorcist), heart attack.
 * Loudon Wainwright Jr., 63, American writer and columnist (The View from Here), colon cancer.

13

 * Hans Fischer, 27, Brazilian cyclist and Olympian, cardiac arrest.
 * Brynmor John, 54, British politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, heart attack.
 * María Teresa León, 85, Spanish writer.
 * Muhammad Mangundiprojo, 83, Indonesian soldier, revolutionary and civil servant.
 * Bill Nichols, 70, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, heart attack.
 * Fyodor Reshetnikov, 82, Soviet painter.
 * Brian Sinclair, 73, British veterinary surgeon and novelist, heart attack.
 * Betty Snowball, 80, English women's test cricketer, international squash and lacrosse player for Scotland.
 * Roy Urquhart, 87, British Army Major General.

14

 * Charlie T. Black, 87, American college basketballer.
 * Narciso Busquets, 58, Mexican actor of theatre, film, television and radio.
 * Evald Schorm, 56, Czechoslovakian film and stage director, screenwriter and actor.
 * Jean Schramme, 59, Belgian planter, mercenary in Belgian Congo.
 * Stuart Symington, 57, American businessman and politician, U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, heart failure.
 * Win Oo, 53, Burmese actor, singer, director, writer and publisher, colorectal cancer.

15

 * Leonid Andrussow, 92, German chemical engineer (hydrogen cyanide).
 * Andrew James Wray Geddes, 82, Indian-born British Royal Air Force officer, led planning for Operation Manna.
 * Muriel Martin-Harvey, 97, English stage actress.

16

 * Anna Jean Ayres, 68, American occupational therapist and educational psychologist, complications of breast cancer.
 * Frank Bonham, 74, American author of Westerns and young adult novels.
 * Tom Eastick, 88, Australian Army artillery officer during World War II.
 * Joe Hatten, 72, American Major League baseballer (Brooklyn Dodgers).
 * Hunter "Stork" Hendry, 93, Australian test cricketer.
 * Ryōhei Koiso, 85, Japanese artist.
 * Gisella Perl, 81, Hungarian gynecologist, helped women at Auschwitz concentration camp.
 * Babe Pratt, 72, Canadian NHL ice hockey player (New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs), heart attack.
 * Sylvester, 41, American singer-songwriter, AIDS.

17

 * Jerry Hopper, 81, American film and television director, heart disease.
 * Jimmie Mattern, 83, American aviator.
 * Gisella Perl, 81, Hungarian-American gynecologist, providing assistance to prisoners at Auschwitz.

18

 * R. Arumugam, 35, Malaysian international footballer (Selangor, Malaysia), car accident.
 * Niyazi Berkes, 80, Turkish Cypriot sociologist.
 * Milt Gantenbein, 78, American NFL footballer (Green Bay Packers).
 * Ka. Naa. Subramanyam, 76, Indian writer and literary critic.

19

 * Robert Bernstein, 69, American comic book writer, playwright and concert impresario, heart failure.
 * Umashankar Joshi, 77, Indian poet and writer, lung cancer.
 * Joseph Towles, 52, African American anthropologist and author, AIDS.

20

 * B. Jayamma, 73, Indian actress and singer.
 * György Marik, 64, Hungarian international footballer (Vasas, Hungary).
 * Alphonse Ouimet, 80, Canadian television pioneer, president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, heart failure.
 * Max Robinson, 49, American broadcast journalist, co-anchor on ABC World News Tonight, AIDS.
 * Elizabeth Scott, 71, American mathematician specialising in statistics.

21

 * Bernt Carlsson, 60, Swedish diplomat, Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Lockerbie aeroplane disaster.
 * Eithne Dunne, 69, Irish actress.
 * James Fuller, 50, American automobile executive (Volkswagen), Lockerbie aeroplane disaster.
 * Matthew Gannon, 34, American CIA officer, Lockerbie aeroplane disaster.
 * Paul Jeffreys, 36, English rock musician (Cockney Rebel), Lockerbie aeroplane disaster.
 * Willie Kamm, 88, American Major League baseballer (Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians), Parkinson's disease.
 * Philip Magnus, British biographer.
 * Federico Moura, 37, Argentinian singer, songwriter and record producer, lead vocalist of Virus, AIDS.
 * Aileen Palmer, 73, British-born Australian poet.
 * Curt Richter, 94, American biologist and geneticist (circadian rhythm).
 * Dave Ruhl, 68, Canadian professional wrestler.
 * Merryle Rukeyser, 91, American financial columnist, heart failure.
 * Bob Steele, 81, American actor, heart failure.
 * Nikolaas Tinbergen, 81, Dutch biologist and ornithologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, stroke.
 * Venus Xtravaganza, 23, American transgender performer, strangled.

22

 * Franziska Boas, 86, American dancer.
 * Chico Mendes, 44, Brazilian trade union member and environmental activist, murdered.
 * Tom William Scott, 86, American brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force.
 * Tucker Smith, 52, American actor, dancer and singer (West Side Story), cancer.
 * Rexhai Surroi, 59, Yugoslav Albanian journalist, diplomat and writer, Yugoslav Ambassador to five countries, car accident.
 * Wang Bingnan, 79–80, Chinese diplomat, Chinese Ambassador to Poland.

23

 * Gerhard Adler, 84, German analytical psychologist.
 * Elvin C. Drake, 85, American track and field coach, heart attack.
 * Carlo Scorza, 91, Italian Secretary of the National Fascist Party.

24

 * Blanche Barrow, 77, American member of the Barrow Gang, lung cancer.
 * Whitney Bourne, 74, American actress (Head over Heels).
 * Mary Cavendish, 93, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth II.
 * Jainendra Kumar, 83, Indian writer.
 * Theyre Lee-Elliott, 85, English artist.
 * Alfred M. Pride, 91, American admiral of the U.S. Navy, heart attack.
 * Noel Willman, 70, Irish-born American actor and theatre director (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Odessa File), heart attack.

25

 * Bunny Bell, 77, English footballer (Tranmere Rovers, Everton).
 * Jan Białostocki, 67, Polish art historian.
 * Terence Dudley, 69, British television director and producer for the BBC (Doctor Who, All Creatures Great and Small), cancer.
 * Evgeny Golubev, 78, Soviet composer.
 * W. F. Grimes, 83, Welsh archaeologist.
 * Denis Matthews, 69, English pianist and musicologist, suicide.
 * John Ulric Nef, 89, American economic historian, co-founder of Committee on Social Thought.
 * Shōhei Ōoka, 79, Japanese novelist and translator of French literature.
 * Edward Pelham-Clinton, 68, English lepidopterist and military officer, Duke of Newcastle.
 * Cynthia Stone, 62, American actress.
 * Napoleon Andrew Tuiteleleapaga, 84, Samoan lawyer, author and musician, myocardial infarction.

26

 * Herluf Bidstrup, 76, Danish cartoonist (Land og Folk).
 * Anthony Gaeta, 61, American politician, Borough President of Staten Island, heart attack.
 * Evie Hayes, 76, American-born Australian actor and singer (Come Up Smiling, Annie Get Your Gun), heart attack.
 * Julanne Johnston, 88, American silent-screen actress (The Thief of Bagdad).
 * John Loder, 90, English-American film actor.
 * Glenn McCarthy, 81, American oil tycoon.
 * Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, 41, Indian politician, member of the Indian National Congress, assassinated.
 * Gunnar Rosendal, 91, Swedish Lutheran priest.
 * Charles Smith, 68, American actor (The Shop Around the Corner, The Major and the Minor).
 * Pablo Sorozábal, 91, Spanish composer.
 * Tao Zhiyue, 95–96, Chinese military officer and politician, lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army of China.

27

 * Hal Ashby, 59, American film director (Coming Home, Shampoo), pancreatic cancer.
 * Joseph Beam, 33, American gay rights activist, AIDS.
 * Walter Crook, 76, English international footballer and manager (Blackburn Rovers, England).
 * Jack Favor, 77, American rodeo performer, acquitted after serving time for murder, cancer.
 * Fox Harris, 52, American actor (Repo Man), lung cancer.
 * Freda James, 77, British tennis player and Wimbledon Doubles champion.
 * Vaso Katraki, 74, Greek painter and engraver.
 * Khin Kyi, 76, Burmese politician and diplomat, Burmese Ambassador to India, stroke.
 * Donald Laycock, 51–52, Australian linguist and anthropologist (languages of Papua New Guinea).
 * C. J. McLin, 67, American politician, member of the Ohio House of Representatives.
 * Jess Oppenheimer, 75, American radio and television writer and director (I Love Lucy), heart failure.
 * Tecwyn Roberts, 63, Welsh-born American spaceflight engineer, helped design NASA's Mission Control Center.

28

 * Alberto Armando, 78, Argentine businessman and football manager (Boca Juniors).
 * Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, 92, German diplomat and psychotherapist.
 * Björn Kurtén, 64, Finnish vertebrate paleontologist.
 * Charlotte Peters, 75, American television show host.

29

 * Émile Aillaud, 86, French architect (La Grande Borne).
 * Mike Beuttler, 48, British Formula One driver, complications from AIDS.
 * Carl J. Johnson, 59, American physician, whistleblower on effects of nuclear testing, complications following coronary bypass.
 * Rita Rait-Kovaleva, 91, Soviet literary translator and writer, translator of The Catcher in the Rye into Russian.

30

 * Faber Birren, 88, American writer, consultant on colour theory, stroke.
 * Jan Baalsrud, 71, Norwegian Resistance commando.
 * Yuli Daniel, 63, Soviet writer and dissident (Sinyavsky–Daniel trial), stroke.
 * Takeo Fujisawa, 78, Japanese businessman, co-founder of Honda Motor Co., heart attack.
 * Dennis H. Klatt, 50, American researcher in speech and hearing science, cancer.
 * Ernesto Lazzatti, 73, Argentinian international footballer (Boca Juniors, Argentina).
 * Isamu Noguchi, 84, American artist and landscape architect, heart failure.
 * Nikolai Sologubov, 64, Russian ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.

31

 * Yara Amaral, 52, Brazilian actress (Mulher Objeto), heart attack from drowning.
 * Christopher Andrewes, 92, British virologist who discovered the human influenza A virus.
 * Ahmet Arvasi, 56, Turkish writer and philosopher.
 * Oliver L. Austin, 85, American ornithologist.
 * Nicolas Calas, 81, Greek-American poet and art critic, heart failure.
 * Loel Guinness, 82, British politician, Member of Parliament, heart disease.

Unknown date

 * Charles Ganimian, 61–62, American musician and singer.