Deaths in December 1990

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1990.

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

 * Sergio Corbucci, 63, Italian film director and screenwriter, heart attack.
 * Simone Melchior Cousteau, 71, French aquanaut, cancer.
 * Pierre Dux, 82, French actor.
 * Robert Gordon, 77, American director and actor.
 * Erich Hüttenhain, 85, German academic mathematician and cryptographer.
 * Anton Kochinyan, 77, Soviet Armenian politician.
 * Carla Lehmann, 73, Canadian actress.
 * Vito Miceli, 74, Italian politician and general.
 * David A. Morse, 83, American labor bureaucrat.
 * Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 90, Indian diplomat and politician.
 * Octavio Beras Rojas, 84, Dominican Roman Catholic cardinal.

2

 * Richard Benner, 46-47, American film director and screenwriter, AIDS.
 * John Britton, 71, American baseball player.
 * Marc Cerboni, 35, French Olympic fencer (1984).
 * Aaron Copland, 90, American composer and conductor, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Robert Cummings, 80, American actor, kidney failure and complications from pneumonia.
 * Paul Hoffmann, 88, German actor.
 * Edward Oldfield, 70, Australian politician.
 * Paddy Smith, 96, American baseball player.
 * Clint Thomas, 94, American baseball player.
 * Georg Wildhagen, 70, German filmmaker.

3

 * Tim Dlugos, 40, American poet, AIDS.
 * Gerry Doyle, 79, Irish footballer.
 * Rolf Hansen, 85, German film director.
 * Heino Mandri, 68, Estonian film and stage actor.
 * Ray Wagner, 88, American gridiron football player.

4

 * Edward Binns, 74, American actor (12 Angry Men, North by Northwest, Judgment at Nuremberg), heart attack.
 * Jack J. Catton, 70, American Air Force general.
 * Charles B. MacDonald, 68, American army historian, cancer.
 * Nelson Peterson, 77, American football player.
 * Naoto Tajima, 78, Japanese athlete and Olympic champion.
 * Kimio Yada, 77, Japanese Olympic track and field athlete (1936).

5

 * Peter Blum, 65, South African poet.
 * Robert Chesley, 47, American playwright, AIDS.
 * Kai Curry-Lindahl, 73, Swedish zoologist.
 * Lucy Dawidowicz, 75, American historian.
 * Narayan Gopal, 51, Nepali singer, diabetes.
 * Josef Jedlička, 63, Czechoslovak writer.
 * Ott-Heinrich Keller, 84, German mathematician.
 * Alfonso A. Ossorio, 74, Filipino-American artist.
 * Jack Pleis, 73, American jazz musician.
 * Howard Allen Schneiderman, 63, American entomologist.
 * Steve Shaw, 25, American actor, traffic collision.

6

 * Ed Bell, 69, American football player.
 * Natan Brand, 46, Israeli classical pianist, lymphoma.
 * Bob Hamilton, 74, American golfer.
 * Bill Hardman, 57, American trumpeter, intracerebral hemorrhage.
 * George Healis, 84, American Olympic rower (1928).
 * Otto Hitzfeld, 92, German general.
 * F. Jay Nimtz, 75, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1957–1959).
 * Remi Prudhomme, 48, American football player.
 * Polingaysi Qöyawayma, 98, American Hopi educator.
 * Tunku Abdul Rahman, 87, Malaysian politician, prime minister (1957–1970)..
 * Pavlos Sidiropoulos, 42, Greek rock singer, songwriter and guitarist, heroin overdose.

7

 * Joan Bennett, 80, American actress, heart failure..
 * Horst Bienek, 60, German novelist, AIDS.
 * Norman Bower, 83, British politician.
 * Dee Clark, 52, American soul singer, heart attack.
 * Jean Duceppe, 67, Stage and television actor from Montreal, Quebec.
 * Reinaldo Arenas Fuentes, 47, Cuban novelist, playwright and poet, suicide.
 * Pierre Henri Landry, 92, Russian-French tennis player.
 * Luis Frangella, 46, Argentine-American artist, AIDS.
 * Jean Paul Lemieux, 86, Canadian painter.
 * Ralph McKinzie, 96, American sports coach.
 * Peter Mieg, 84, Swiss composer.
 * Oscar Millard, 82, English screenwriter.
 * Rinaldo Ossola, 77, Italian politician.
 * David Richmond, 49, American civil rights activist, lung cancer.
 * Vilmos Énekes, 75, Hungarian boxer.

8

 * John Alexander, 67, American opera singer, heart attack.
 * Deane C. Davis, 90, American politician, governor of Vermont (1969–1973).
 * Ed Edmondson, 71, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1953–1973).
 * Tadeusz Kantor, 75, Polish painter and theatre director.
 * Boris Kochno, 86, Russian dancer, librettist and poet, accidental fall.
 * Lana Marconi, 73, Romanian-French actress.
 * Forrest S. Petersen, 68, American pilot, brain cancer.
 * Martin Ritt, 76, American film director (Hud, Norma Rae, Sounder), heart disease.
 * William Atcheson Stewart, 75, Canadian politician.

9

 * Ben Duijker, 87, Dutch Olympic cyclist (1928).
 * Henry Hicks, 75, Canadian politician, traffic collision.
 * Mike Mazurki, 82, American actor and professional wrestler.
 * Nirala, 53, Pakistani comedian and actor.

10

 * Yves Devernay, 53, French organist and composer, heart attack.
 * Armand Hammer, 92, American industrialist and philanthropist, bone marrow cancer.
 * Dorothea Kent, 74, American actress, breast cancer.
 * Marino Morettini, 59, Italian Olympic cyclist (1952).
 * Doyle Nave, 75, American football player.
 * Bert Weeks, 73, Canadian politician.

11

 * Arthur Kornhauser, 94, American industrial psychologist, stroke.
 * Peter Millman, 84, Canadian astronomer.
 * Robert Noble, 80, Canadian physician.
 * David Turner, 63, British playwright.

12

 * Giorgio Ghezzi, 60, Italian footballer, heart attack.
 * Jack Harley, 79, British botanist.
 * Concha Piquer, 83, Spanish actress and singer, heart attack.
 * Ian Trethowan, 68, British journalist and broadcaster, ALS.

13

 * Buddy Justus, 37, American convicted spree killer, execution by electric chair.
 * Edwin Lester, 95, American theatre director.
 * Marta Linden, 87, American actress.
 * Alice Marble, 77, American tennis player and Grand Slam winner, pernicious anemia.
 * Alfred Dennis Sieminski, 79, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1951–1959), heart attack.
 * Jaroslav Volf, 57, Czechoslovak ice hockey player.
 * Archie Ware, 72, American baseball player.

14

 * Friedrich Dürrenmatt, 69, Swiss crime novelist, dramatist and satirist, heart failure.
 * Nan Wood Graham, 91, American artist, model for American Gothic.
 * Red Heron, 72, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Gunild Keetman, 86, German musicologist.
 * Zhang Qun, 101, Taiwanese politician, premier (1947–1948).
 * Francisco Gabilondo Soler, 83, Mexican composer.
 * Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, 64, German businessman and noble, complications from heart surgery.
 * Pietro Tordi, 84, Italian actor.

15

 * Julio Gutiérrez, 72, Cuban musician.
 * Mikayil Jabrayilov, 38, Soviet Azerbaijani soldier, killed in battle.
 * Jean Paige, 95, American silent film actress.
 * Ed Parker, 59, American martial artist, heart attack.
 * Frederic Seebohm, Baron Seebohm, 81, British banker, traffic collision.
 * Tamao Shiwaku, 84, Japanese Olympic runner (1936).
 * Chen Zhifang, 83-84, Chinese diplomat.

16

 * Marc Augier, 82, French far-right writer.
 * Douglas Campbell, 94, American aviator and flying ace during World War I.
 * Art Koeninger, 84, American football player.
 * Jackie Mittoo, 42, Jamaican-Canadian musician, cancer.

17

 * William Cobb, 72-73, American roller coaster designer.
 * John Grover, 75, English cricket player.
 * Frank Hutchison, 93, New Zealand cricket player.
 * Eurialo De Michelis, 86, Italian writer.
 * Ludwig Lachmann, 84, German economist.
 * Guy Lafarge, 86, French composer of operettas and popular songs.

18

 * Bernard Addison, 85, American guitarist.
 * Arthur Roy Clapham, 86, British botanist.
 * Charlie Gibson, 91, American baseball player.
 * Geoffrey Giles, 67, Australian politician.
 * Tadahiko Hayashi, 72, Japanese photographer, liver cancer.
 * Orazio Orlando, 57, Italian actor, heart attack.
 * Anne Revere, 87, American actress, pneumonia.
 * Connie Russell, 67, American singer and actress (Red Hot Riding Hood).
 * Greta Stevenson, 79, New Zealand mycologist.
 * Paul Tortelier, 76, French cellist.
 * Hazel Walker, 76, American amateur basketball player.

19

 * Rubem Braga, 77, Brazilian writer.
 * Edmond Delfour, 83, French footballer.
 * Norbert Dufourcq, 86, French musicologist.
 * Basil Henson, 72, English actor.
 * Michael Oakeshott, 89, English philosopher.
 * Count Oluf of Rosenborg, 67, Danish noble.
 * Billy Tidwell, 60, American football player.

20

 * Edward J. Bonin, 85, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1953–1955).
 * Marc Chirik, 83, Russian-French communist revolutionary.
 * Valeriu Călinoiu, 62, Romanian footballer.
 * Andrea Dunbar, 29, English playwright, intracerebral hemorrhage.
 * John Hewetson, 77, British newspaper editor.
 * Lauro Mumar, 66, Filipino basketball player.
 * Mahmudun Nabi, 54, Bangladeshi singer.
 * Karl Rolvaag, 77, American politician and diplomat, governor of Minnesota (1963–1967).
 * Gershom Schocken, 78, Israeli politician and journalist, liver cancer.
 * Elmo Tanner, 86, American singer and whistler.

21

 * Sigurd Anderson, 86, Norwegian-American politician, governor of South Dakota (1951–1955).
 * Medard Boss, 87, Swiss psychiatrist.
 * Yi Geon, 81, Korean prince and Imperial Japanese Army officer during World War II.
 * Kelly Johnson, 80, American aeronautical engineer.
 * Magda Julin, 96, Swedish figure skater, Olympic champion (1920).
 * Ivan Knunyants, 84, Soviet chemist.
 * Surendra Mohanty, 68, Indian author and politician.
 * József von Platthy, 90, Hungarian Olympic equestrian (1936).
 * Fred Washington, 23, American football player, traffic collision.

22

 * Cecil Effinger, 76, American composer.
 * Robin Friday, 38, English footballer, heart attack.
 * Ward Hawkins, 77, American author.
 * Ken Irvine, 50, Australian rugby player, leukemia.

23

 * Pierre Chenal, 86, French filmmaker.
 * Serge Danot, 59, French animator.
 * József Darányi, 85, Hungarian Olympic shot putter (1928, 1932, 1936).
 * Pierre Gripari, 65, French writer, complications from surgery.
 * Richard Irving, 73, American actor, director and producer.
 * Frank King, 64, Barbadian cricketer.
 * Foy D. Kohler, 82, American diplomat.
 * Herbert Salzman, 74, American businessman and Economics consultant.
 * Wendell Scott, 69, American stock car racing driver, spinal cancer.
 * Wilmar H. Shiras, 82, American science fiction author.

24

 * Thorbjørn Egner, 78, Norwegian children's writer, playwright and songwriter, heart attack.
 * Judith Ledeboer, 89, Dutch-English architect.
 * Friedrich Luft, 79, German theatre critic.
 * Rodolfo Orlandini, 85, Argentine footballer.
 * Irvin Stewart, 91, American communications administrator.
 * Gwyn Williams, 86, Welsh writer.

25

 * John Stuart Anderson, 82, British-Australian chemist, cancer.
 * Vladimir Belousov, 83, Soviet geologist.
 * Aleksandr Luchinskiy, 90, Soviet general.
 * Warwick Snedden, 70, New Zealand cricketer.
 * Nicolaas Tates, 75, Dutch Olympic canoeist (1936).
 * Dodo Watts, 79, British stage and film actress.

26

 * Jack Beattie, 83, British-Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Gene Callahan, 67, American set and production designer and art director, heart attack.
 * George Elliott Hagan, 74, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1961–1973).
 * Portland Hoffa, 85, American comedian, radio host, actress, and dancer.
 * Eddie Kimball, 87, American football player.

27

 * Abulfat Aliyev, 63, Soviet and Azerbaijani opera singer.
 * Hendrika Gerritsen, 69, Dutch resistance member during World War II.
 * Concha Michel, 91, Mexican singer-songwriter, political activist, and playwright,.
 * Helene Stanley, 61, American actress.
 * Harold Town, 66, Canadian painter.
 * Chang Ucchin, 73, South Korean artist.

28

 * Edward Brayshaw, 57, Australian actor, throat cancer.
 * Ed van der Elsken, 65, Dutch photographer, prostate cancer.
 * Dario Graffi, 85, Italian mathematical physicist.
 * Seiji Hisamatsu, 78, Japanese film director.
 * Gilbert W. Lindsay, 90, American politician.
 * Kiel Martin, 46, American actor, lung cancer.
 * Arne Petersen, 77, Danish Olympic cyclist (1936).
 * Warren Skaaren, 44, American screenwriter and film producer, bone cancer.

29

 * Giulio Bedeschi, 75, Italian writer and Army officer during World War II.
 * Goree Carter, 59, American singer, guitarist, drummer, and songwriter.
 * Mona Dol, 89, French actress.
 * Aleardo Donati, 86, Italian wrestler.
 * Sir David Piper, 72, British author and museum curator.
 * Aulikki Rautawaara, 84, Finnish soprano.
 * Frederick Wolters, 86, American field hockey player.

30

 * Fergal Caraher, 20, Northern-Irish Provisional IRA volunteer, shot.
 * Jill Cruwys, 47, English cricket player.
 * Oliver Daniel, 79, American musicologist.
 * Géza Füster, 80, Hungarian-Canadian chess player.
 * Albert Mertz, 70, Danish painter.
 * Raghuvir Sahay, 61, Indian writer.

31

 * Elsie Allen, 91, American Pomo basket weaver.
 * George Allen, 72, American football coach, ventricular fibrillation.
 * Ed Gantner, 31, American professional wrestler, suicide by gunshot.
 * Donald Kingaby, 70, English-American flying ace during World War II.
 * Vasily Lazarev, 62, Soviet cosmonaut.
 * Giovanni Michelucci, 99, Italian architect, urban planner and designer.
 * Moni Singh, 89, Bangladeshi politician.
 * Ernst von Siemens, 87, German business magnate.