Deaths in December 1989

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1989.

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

 * Alvin Ailey, 58, American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist, AIDS.
 * Danilo Atienza, 38, Filipino pilot in the Philippine Air Force, plane crash.
 * Michał Antoniewicz, 92, Polish equestrian and dual Olympic medalist.
 * André Charles Biéler, 93, Swiss-born Canadian painter.
 * Billy Lyall, 36, Scottish singer, keyboard player and flautist with The Alan Parsons Project and the Bay City Rollers, AIDS.
 * Nikolai Patolichev, 81, Soviet politician, Soviet Minister of Trade.
 * Bill Stout, 62, American journalist, cardiac arrest.
 * Mitchell Ucovich, 74, American NFL football player.
 * William Vandivert, 77, American photographer.

2

 * Karl-Erik Alberts, 78, Swedish cinematographer.
 * Harland Bartholomew, 100, American civil engineer and urban planner with St Louis, Missouri, with his plans intended to promote racial segregation.
 * Keith Ewert, 71, Australian accountant and politician, member of the Australian House of Representatives.
 * Oldřich Hanč, 74, Czechoslovakian speed skater and Olympian.
 * Ruth Mary Reynolds, 73, American political and civil rights activist.
 * Richard Shannon, 69, American film and television actor.
 * William Taylour, 85, British archaeologist.

3

 * Sourou-Migan Apithy, 76, Beninese politician, president of Dahomey (Benin).
 * Mario Astorri, 69, Italian footballer and coach.
 * Connie B. Gay, 75, American country musician, cancer.
 * Fernando Martín, 27, Spanish professional basketballer, five-time Spanish swimming champion, traffic collision.
 * Jean-Paul Moulinot, 77, French actor.
 * Alexander Obukhov, 71, Soviet physicist and applied mathematician.
 * Paul Wei Ping-ao, 60, Chinese and Hong Kong actor.
 * Carlo Rim, 86, French film screenwriter, producer and director.
 * Nihal Silva, 35, Sri Lankan comedian and actor, shot.

4

 * Gerald Carson, 90, American advertising executive, social historian and writer.
 * Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones, 80, Welsh barrister and politician.
 * Émile Janssens, 87, Belgian colonial official and military officer.
 * Steve Lembo, 63, American Major Leagues baseball player.
 * Angelo Ruggiero, 49, American mobster, member of Gambino crime family, cancer.
 * May Swenson, 76, American poet and playwright.

5

 * Juan Manuel Acuña, 68, Chilean international footballer.
 * Edoardo Amaldi, 81, Italian physicist.
 * Nathan Huggins, 62, American historian, author and educator.
 * Sofiya Kalistratova, 82, Soviet lawyer and human rights activist.
 * Li Keran, 82, Chinese painter and art educator, heart attack.
 * George Machin, 66, British politician.
 * Tadeusz Miksa, 63, Polish footballer.
 * John Pritchard, 71, English conductor, music director of the San Francisco Opera, lung cancer.
 * George Selden, 60, American author.

6

 * Frances Bavier, 86, American stage and television actress, heart failure.
 * C. L. Dellums, 89, American labor activist.
 * Sammy Fain, 87, American composer, musician and vocalist (Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Incredible Mr. Limpet), heart attack.
 * David Hardman, 88, British politician.
 * Rolf Johannesson, 89, Nazi German and West German naval admiral.
 * Marc Lépine, 25, Canadian mass murderer (École Polytechnique massacre), suicide by gunshot.
 * Mélinée Manouchian, 75–76, French-Armenian résistante and the widow of Missak Manouchian.
 * Art Parks, 78, American Major Leagues baseball player.
 * John Payne, 77, American film actor, congestive heart failure.
 * Ćamil Sijarić, 75, Yugoslav novelist and short story writer, traffic collision.

7

 * William "Haystacks" Calhoun, 55, American professional wrestler.
 * Phil Dokes, 34, American NFL football player, heart failure.
 * Hans Hartung, 85, German-French abstract painter and soldier.
 * Lucien Le Guével, 74, French racing cyclist.
 * Carlos DeLuna, 27, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection.
 * Stuart Novins, 75, American television journalist, respiratory failure.
 * Sirima, 25, Sri Lankan-English singer, stabbed.
 * Vadim Spiridonov, 45, Soviet film actor and director, heart failure.
 * Luis Calderón Vega, 77–78, Mexican politician and writer.
 * Melchior Wezel, 86, Swiss gymnast and Olympic gold medalist.

8

 * Albert Barrett, 86, English footballer.
 * Szymon Datner, 87, Polish historian and Holocaust survivor.
 * Max Grundig, 81, German businessman, founder of Grundig AG.
 * Mykola Livytskyi, 82, Soviet Ukrainian politician, prime minister and president of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile.
 * Stanley Steingut, 69, American politician, speaker of the New York House Assembly, lung cancer.

9

 * Brett Austin, 30, New Zealand swimmer and Olympian.
 * Edward J. Bloustein, 64, American, president of Rutgers University.
 * Gunnar Bøe, 72, Norwegian politician and economist.
 * William P. Ennis, 85, American lieutenant-general in the United States Army.
 * Basil Hayward, 61, English footballer and manager, heart attack.
 * Takeshi Kaikō, 58, Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, literary critic, and television documentary writer, esophageal cancer.
 * Doug Scovil, 62, American football player and coach, heart attack.
 * S. Somasundaram, 70, Indian vocalist.
 * R. G. Springsteen, 85, American B movie and television director.

10

 * Frank Baker, 71, English footballer.
 * Sam Barkas, 79, English footballer and manager.
 * Paul Collaer, 98, Belgian musicologist, pianist, and conductor.
 * George Edmonds, 96, English professional footballer.
 * Nico Gardener, 83, British bridge player.
 * Frederick Hedges, 86, Canadian rower and Olympic medalist.
 * Robin Hughes, 69, British film and television actor, liver disease.
 * Steve Sebo, 75, American football and baseball player and coach.
 * Harold Thomas, 75, Welsh rugby union and rugby league footballer.
 * Huang Zhen, 80, Chinese politician, Chinese ambassador to Hungary, Indonesia and France.

11

 * Allez France, 19, American Thoroughbred racehorse.
 * Carlos Almaraz, 48, Mexican-born American artist, AIDS.
 * Lindsay Crosby, 51, American actor and singer, son of Bing Crosby, suicide by gunshot.
 * Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 94, American photographer, pneumonia.
 * Howard Lang, English actor.

12

 * Carlos Barral, 60–61, Spanish poet, politician and publisher, abdominal aortic aneurysm.
 * Sid Colin, 74, English scriptwriter.
 * Helen Creighton, 90, Canadian folklorist and author.
 * Bill Kennedy, 77, Scottish professional footballer.
 * Suihō Tagawa, 90, Japanese manga artist.

13

 * Paul Crowe, 65, American NFL football player.
 * Peter Bernard David de la Mare, 69, New Zealand physical organic chemist.
 * Michele Fanelli, 82, Italian long-distance runner and Olympian.
 * Sammy Lerner, 86, Romanian-born American songwriter for musical theatre and film, cancer.
 * Felix McGrogan, 75, Scottish footballer.
 * Stan Randall, 81, Canadian businessman and politician.

14

 * Lucien Aguettand, 88, French art director.
 * Reuben Bennett, 75, Scottish professional footballer and manager.
 * Robert D. Blue, 91, American politician, governor of Iowa (1945–1949), stroke.
 * Narciso Busquets, 58, Mexican theatre, film, television and radio actor, and voice-over.
 * Ants Eskola, 81, Soviet and Estonian actor.
 * Gerry Healy, 76, British political activist.
 * Seiichi Katsumata, 81, Japanese politician, Soviet spy.
 * Jock Mahoney, 70, American actor and stuntman, stroke.
 * Frederick Nolting, 78, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to South Vietnam.
 * Georges Poitou, 63, French mathematician.
 * Andrei Sakharov, 68, Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, human rights activist and Nobel laureate in Physics, dilated cardiomyopathy.
 * Howard Walton, 73, British tennis player.

15

 * Anders "Akka" Andersson, 52, Swedish ice hockey player and dual Olympian.
 * Ben Barzman, 79, Canadian journalist, screenwriter and novelist.
 * Emile de Antonio, 70, American director and producer of documentaries, heart attack.
 * José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, 42, Colombian drug lord and leader of the Medellín Cartel, shot.
 * Charles Holland, 81, British road-racing cyclist and Olympic medalist.
 * Philly Lutaaya, 38, Ugandan musician, AIDS.
 * Arnold Moss, 79, American actor, lung cancer.
 * Diptendu Pramanick, 79, Indian film personality.
 * Vanja Sutlić, 64, Yugoslav philosopher.
 * Edward Underdown, 81, English theatre, cinema and television actor.
 * Ali Şen, 80, Turkish actor.

16

 * Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, 76, Argentine racing driver, pancreatic cancer.
 * Charlie Long, 51, American AFL football player.
 * Silvana Mangano, 59, Italian film actress, lung cancer.
 * Gianni Poggi, 68, Italian tenor.
 * Aileen Pringle, 94, American stage and silent-screen actress.
 * John Ramsbotham, 83, British Anglican clergyman.
 * René Tavernier, 74, French poet and philosopher.
 * Lee Van Cleef, 64, American film and television actor, heart attack.
 * Robert Smith Vance, 58, American judge, assassinated by letter bomb.
 * Marjorie Westbury, 84, English radio actress and singer.
 * Priscilla White, 89, American diabetes researcher, heart attack.

17

 * Gilbert Allart, 87, French hurdler and Olympian.
 * Walt Bachrach, 85, American businessman, lawyer and Republican politician, mayor of Cincinnati, stroke.
 * Edward Boyd, 72–73, Scottish writer.
 * Zeb Eaton, 69, American Major Leagues baseball player.
 * Gustav Engel, 96, German historian.
 * Josephine Hill, 90, American silent-screen actress.
 * Asen Panchev, 83, Bulgarian international footballer.
 * Luciano Salce, 67, Italian film director, comedian, television host, producer, actor and lyricist, heart attack, melanoma.
 * Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa, 94, Romanian sociologist, journalist, and diplomat.
 * Albert Coady Wedemeyer, 93, American Army general.

18

 * Brad Beckman, 24, American NFL football player, traffic collision.
 * Olwen Brogan, 89, British archaeologist.
 * Bobby Capó, 67, Puerto Rican musician, heart attack.
 * Sir George Harvie-Watt, 86, British barrister and politician.
 * Sydney Irving, 71, British politician.
 * Enar Josefsson, 73, Swedish cross-country skier and Olympic medalist.
 * Jack Kilpatrick, 72, British ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.
 * Louise Little, early 90s, Grenadian-born American activist, mother of Malcolm X.
 * Jerzy Rutkowski, 75, Polish political activist and resistance fighter.
 * Stanley Senanayake, 72, Sri Lankan police officer, Inspector General of the Sri Lanka Police.
 * Jean Strauss, 77, Luxembourgian sprint canoeist and Olympian.

19

 * Herbert Blaize, 71, Grenadian politician, prime minister of Grenada, prostate cancer.
 * Audrey Christie, 77, American actress, singer and dancer, emphysema.
 * Abdul Jalil Choudhury, 63–64, Bengali Deobandi Islamic scholar, teacher and politician.
 * Barthold Fles, 87, Dutch-born American literary agent and author, diabetes.
 * Stella Gibbons, 87, English author, journalist and poet.
 * John Heddle, 46, British politician, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
 * Floyd Jones, 72, American blues musician, heart failure.
 * Preben Mahrt, 69, Danish film actor.
 * Kirill Mazurov, 75, Soviet politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia.
 * Georges Rouquier, 80, French film director, screenwriter and actor.
 * Óndra Łysohorsky, 84, Czechoslovakian poet.

20

 * Irma Beilke, 85, German operatic soprano, concert singer and academic voice teacher.
 * Kurt Böhme, 81, German bass.
 * Elisheva Cohen, 78, German-born Israeli designer and museum curator.
 * Gentry Crowell, 57, American politician, Tennessee secretary of state, suicide by gunshot.
 * Donald L. McFaul, 32, United States Navy SEAL, killed in the United States invasion of Panama.

21

 * Sir Hugh Elliott, 3rd Baronet, 76, British ornithologist, conservationist and hereditary peer.
 * Ján Cikker, 78, Czechoslovakian composer.
 * Rotimi Fani-Kayode, 34, Nigerian-born English photographer, AIDS.
 * Elsie Griffin, 94, English opera singer.
 * Harry Hibbs, 47, Canadian musician, cancer.
 * Ralph "Blackie" Schwamb, 63, American Major League baseballer and convicted murderer.
 * Soedjatmoko, 67, Indonesian politician and diplomat, cardiac arrest.
 * Ethel Swanbeck, 96, American politician, member of Ohio House of Representatives.
 * José Zacarías Tallet, 96, Cuban writer.
 * Dwane Wallace, 78, American aircraft designer, president of Cessna.

22

 * Samuel Beckett, 83, Irish-French novelist, playwright, and short story writer, emphysema.
 * Howard Bowen, 81, American economist and college president.
 * Theodore M. Burton, 82, American Mormon Genealogical Department director.
 * Archie Campbell, 86, American Major Leagues baseballer.
 * Giorgio Cavallon, 85, Italian-born American abstract artist.
 * Harry Kraf, 82, American lawyer and politician.
 * Vasile Milea, 62, Romanian general and politician, suicide.
 * Gustavo Pizarro, 73, Chilean international footballer.
 * Massimo Serato, 73, Italian film actor, heart attack.

23

 * Jeff Alexander, 79, American conductor, arranger, and composer of film, radio and television scores, cancer.
 * Peter Bennett, 72, British stage and television actor.
 * Milko Gaydarski, 43, Bulgarian international footballer and Olympic medalist.
 * Shahzad Khalil, 44–45, Pakistani television director and producer, heart attack.
 * Richard Rado, 83, German-born British mathematician.
 * Lennart Strandberg, 74, Swedish sprinter and Olympian.

24

 * Charles Moore, 11th Earl of Drogheda, 79, British hereditary peer.
 * Victor Fontana, 41, Romanian biathlete and Olympian, shot.
 * Ernest Nathan Morial, 60, American politician, civil rights advocate, heart attack.
 * Florică Murariu, 34, Romanian international rugby union player, shot.
 * Roger Pigaut, 70, French actor and film director, cardiovascular disease.
 * Ollie Savatsky, 78, American NFL football player.

25

 * Benny Binion, 85, American career criminal who established illegal gambling operations, heart failure.
 * Elena Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian communist politician, deputy Prime Minister of Romania and wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, executed by firing squad.
 * Nicolae Ceaușescu, 71, Romanian communist politician and dictatorial president of Romania (1974–1989), executed by firing squad.
 * Gus Dahlström, 83, Swedish film actor.
 * Betty Garde, 84, American stage, radio, film and television actress.
 * Türkan Hanımsultan, 70, Ottoman princess and chemical engineer, daughter of Enver Pasha.
 * George Hotchkiss, 83, American NBL basketball coach.
 * Frederick F. Houser, 85, American politician and judge.
 * Masaad Kassis, 71, Israeli Arab politician.
 * Joseph Livingston, 84, American business journalist and columnist.
 * Jean-Étienne Marie, 72, French composer of contemporary music.
 * Billy Martin, 61, American Major Leagues baseball player and manager, traffic collision.
 * Riccardo Morandi, 87, Italian civil engineer, noted for his bridge designs.
 * Robert Pirosh, 79, American film and television screenwriter and director.
 * Bo Randall, 80, American knifemaker
 * Wally Ris, 65, American swimmer, dual Olympic gold medalist and world record holder.
 * Domenico Scala, 86, Italian cinematographer.
 * A. J. Seymour, 75, Guyanese poet, essayist, memoirist.

26

 * Lennox Berkeley, 86, English composer.
 * Doug Harvey, 65, Canadian NHL ice hockey player, cirrhosis.
 * Kōyō Ishikawa, 85, Japanese photographer.
 * Paul Jennings, 71, English author.
 * Roy Joiner, 83, American Major Leagues baseball player.
 * Jörgen Lehmann, 91, Danish-Swedish physician and chemist.
 * James J. Manderino, 57, American politician, speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, heart attack.
 * Maryon Pearson, 88, wife of Lester B. Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada.
 * K. Shankar Pillai, 87, Indian cartoonist.
 * Sybil Sassoon, 95, British noblewoman and socialite, Chief Staff Officer in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the Second World War.
 * Mohan Singh, 80, Indian general and politician, cancer.
 * Peggy Thorpe-Bates, 75, English stage, screen and television actress.
 * Seán Walsh, 64, Irish politician.

27

 * Rodney Arismendi, 76, Uruguayan politician and political writer.
 * Kurt Baum, 89, Austro-Hungarian-born American singer.
 * Maurice Dunkley, 75, English footballer.
 * Finlay Hart, 87–88, Scottish communist politician.
 * Gene Johnson, 87, American football and basketball coach.
 * Dada Amir Haider Khan, 89, Pakistani communist activist.
 * Gerard Maarse, 60, Dutch speed skater and dual Olympian.
 * Arthur Rhames, 32, American guitarist, tenor saxophonist, and pianist, AIDS.
 * John Monteath Robertson, 89, Scottish chemist and crystallographer.
 * Ron Ulmer, 76, New Zealand track cyclist and national champion.
 * George William Weidler, 63, American saxophonist and songwriter, husband of Doris Day.

28

 * Solomon Birnbaum, 98, Austro-Hungarian, British and Canadian expert in Yiddish linguistics and Hebrew paleography.
 * Marin Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian economist and diplomat, brother of Nicolae Ceaușescu, suicide by hanging.
 * Brian Coburn, 53, English actor who portrayed himself as Scottish.
 * Karl Humenberger, 83, Austrian footballer and manager.
 * Pavel Kurochkin, 89, Soviet army general.
 * Ricardo López Méndez, 86, Mexican poet and lyricist.
 * Hermann Oberth, 95, Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and rocket pioneer.
 * William Scott, 76, Northern Irish abstract painter.

29

 * Adrien Albert, 82, Australian medicinal chemist.
 * Süreyya Ağaoğlu, 86, Azerbaijani-born Turkish writer and lawyer, cerebral hemorrhage.
 * Scott Burton, 50, American sculptor, AIDS.
 * Saman Piyasiri Fernando, 31, Sri Lankan politician, murdered.
 * Hiroshi Inoue, 57, Japanese botanist, cancer.
 * Marion Keisker, 72, American record producer, first person to record Elvis Presley.
 * Saša Večtomov (born Alexandr Večtomov), 59, Czechoslovak cellist, suicide.
 * Ive Šubic, 67, Yugoslav painter, graphic artists and illustrator.

30

 * Sten Abel, 90, Norwegian sailor and Olympic medalist.
 * Charles H. Blosser, 94, American after whom Blosser Municipal Airport is named.
 * Øyvind Anker, 85, Norwegian librarian.
 * Augusto Del Noce, 79, Italian philosopher and political thinker.
 * Etienne Leroux, 67, South African writer.
 * Esther McCoy, 85, American architectural historian and author.
 * Yasuji Miyazaki, 73, Japanese swimmer and Olympian.
 * Fumiteru Nakano, 74, Japanese tennis player.
 * Madoline Thomas, 99, Welsh stage, film and television actress, complications from a broken hip.

31

 * Christia Adair, 96, American suffragist and civil rights activist.
 * Lilly Daché, 97, French-born American hatmaker.
 * Georges de Bourguignon, 79, Belgian fencer and Olympic medalist.
 * Clarence Hammar, 90, Swedish sailor and Olympic medalist.
 * Ignatius Kilage, 48, Papua New Guinean politician, Governor-General of Papua New Guinea.
 * Mihály Lantos, 61, Hungarian international footballer and manager.
 * Wendell Mosley, 57, American football player and coach.
 * Bendt Rothe, 68, Danish actor.
 * Gerhard Schröder, 79, West German politician.