Deaths in December 1998

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1998.

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

 * Aisha Abd al-Rahman, 85, Egyptian author and professor of literature, heart attack.
 * Janet Lewis, 99, American novelist, poet, and librettist.
 * Bertil Nordahl, 81, Swedish football player and manager.
 * Vincenzo Pappalettera, 79, Italian writer and historian.
 * Donald Smith, 76, Australian operatic tenor.
 * Freddie Young, 96, British cinematographer (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter), Oscar winner (1963, 1966, 1971).

2

 * Theodora Mead Abel, 99, American clinical psychologist.
 * Ben Guintini, 79, American baseball player.
 * Bob Haggart, 84, American dixieland jazz musician.
 * Cleopa Ilie, 86, Romanian abbot.
 * Mikio Oda, 93, Japanese athlete and the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist.
 * Brian Stonehouse, 80, British painter and SEO agent during World War II.

3

 * Pierre Hétu, 62, Canadian conductor, pianist and politician, cancer.
 * Albert Leman, 83, Soviet composer of classical music.
 * Mohammad Mokhtari, 56, Iranian writer, poet and activist, murdered.
 * George Murcell, 73, British actor.
 * Robert Rothschild, 86, Belgian diplomat.
 * Ed Widseth, 88, American football player.

4

 * Percy Ames, 66, English footballer.
 * Egil Johansen, 64, Norwegian-Swedish jazz musician.
 * Suzanne Jovin, 21, German-born American student, murdered.
 * Milton Marks, 78, American politician.
 * Yury Vengerovsky, 60, Ukrainian volleyball player and Olympic champion.

5

 * Hazel Bishop, 92, American chemist.
 * Jack Connor, 78, English footballer.
 * Jean Fenwick, 91, Trinidad-American actress.
 * Albert Arnold Gore, 90, American politician and father of Al Gore.
 * John Lions, 61, Australian computer scientist.
 * Cheung Tze-keung, 43, Chinese criminal, execution by firing squad.

6

 * César Baldaccini, 77, French sculptor.
 * Georges Borgeaud, 84, Swiss writer and publisher.
 * Robert Marasco, 62, American horror novelist and playwright, lung cancer.
 * Pierre Mousel, 83, Luxembourgian football player.
 * Peg Leg Bates, 91, American entertainer.
 * Radomir Šaper, 72, Yugoslav/Serbian basketball player and executive.
 * Hoshiar Singh, 61, Indian Army officer.
 * Michael Zaslow, 56, American actor, cancer.

7

 * John Addison, 78, British composer.
 * Carlos Oviedo Cavada, 71, Chilean cardinal of the Catholic Church.
 * Daniel Lee Corwin, 40, American serial killer, execution by lethal injection.
 * Voitto Hellstén, 66, Finnish sprinter and Olympic medalist.
 * Tim Kelly, 61, American playwright.
 * Martin Rodbell, 73, American scientist and Nobel prize recipient, multiple organ failure.

8

 * Michael Craze, 56, British actor (Doctor Who), heart attack.
 * Hamilton H. Howze, 89, American general and commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.
 * George Roden, 60, American leader of the Branch Davidian sect, heart attack.
 * Odo Josef Struger, 67, Austrian automation pioneer, cancer.

9

 * Christine Fulwylie-Bankston, 82, American poet, publisher, and civil rights activist.
 * Bill Looby, 67, American soccer player.
 * Archie Moore, 81, American boxing champion, heart failure.
 * Mohammad-Ja'far Pouyandeh, 44, Iranian writer and activist, murdered.

10

 * Wim Hora Adema, 84, Dutch children's author and feminist.
 * Bob Brown, 59, American gridiron football player.
 * Bob Dille, 81, American basketball player.
 * Buddy Feyne, 86, American lyricist.
 * Wang Ganchang, 91, Chinese nuclear physicist.
 * Ray Goossens, 74, Belgian artist, animator, writer and film director (Hergé's Adventures of Tintin).
 * Trygve Haugeland, 84, Norwegian politician.
 * Kamel Messaoudi, 37, Algerian Chaabi musician, traffic collision.
 * Charles D. Mize, 77, United States Marine Corps officer, leukemia.
 * Berta Singerman, 97, Belarusian-Argentine singer and actress, cardiovascular disease.
 * Vida Tomšič, 85, Slovenian communist and World War II partisan fighter.

11

 * Jack Coleman, 74, American basketball player.
 * Irma Hünerfauth, 90, German painter and sculptor.
 * Gunnar Johansson, 79, Swedish sprint canoeist and Olympian.
 * André Lichnerowicz, 83, French differential geometer and mathematical physicist.
 * Jimmy Mackay, 54, Scottish-Australian football player.
 * Kavi Pradeep, 83, Indian poet and songwriter.
 * Chen Puru, 80, Chinese politician.
 * Anton Stankowski, 92, German graphic designer, photographer and painter.
 * Lynn Strait, 30, American singer and vocalist of band Snot, car accident.
 * Max Streibl, 66, German politician.

12

 * Max Boydston, 66, American gridiron football player.
 * Lawton Chiles, 68, American politician, heart attack.
 * Marco Denevi, 76, Argentine novelist, lawyer and journalist.
 * Jimmy "Orion" Ellis, 53, American singer, murdered during robbery.
 * Denny Galehouse, 87, American baseball player.
 * Willis J. Gertsch, 92, American arachnologist.
 * Vadim Gulyaev, 57, Russian water polo player and Olympic champion.
 * William A. Marra, 70, American politician.
 * Don Patterson, 88, American producer, animator, and director.
 * Mo Udall, 76, American politician, Parkinson's disease.

13

 * Helen Adolf, 102, Austrian–American linguist and literature scholar.
 * Willem den Toom, 87, Dutch politician.
 * Dean Fausett, 85, American painter.
 * Lew Grade, 91, British impresario.
 * Harvey Jones, 77, American gridiron football player.
 * Richard Thomas, 66, British admiral and Black Rod.
 * Ariadna Welter, 68, Mexican movie actress.
 * Liang Xiang, 79, Chinese politician.
 * Norbert Zongo, 49, Burkinabé investigative journalist, murdered.

14

 * Vittorio Cottafavi, 84, Italian film director and screenwriter.
 * Norman Fell, 74, American actor (Three's Company, The Graduate, Bullitt), bone marrow cancer.
 * A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., 70, African-American civil rights advocate, author and judge, stroke.
 * Yuriy Hromak, 50, Ukrainian backstroke swimmer and Olympic medalist.
 * James A. Jensen, 80, American paleontologist.
 * Brian Lewis, 55, English footballer.
 * Annette Strauss, 74, American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, cancer.
 * Will Tremper, 70, German journalist and filmmaker, heart attack.

15

 * Daniel Langrand, 77, French football player and coach.
 * Jan Meyerowitz, 85, American composer, conductor, pianist and writer.
 * Rowena Moore, 88, American civil rights activist.
 * Robert Paul, 88, French sprinter and Olympian.
 * Dean Peters, 40, American professional wrestler and referee, car accident.
 * Ján Podhradský, 82, Slovak football player.
 * Johnny Riddle, 93, American baseball player and coach.
 * Paul Rivière, 86, French Resistance fighter during World War II and politician.

16

 * Clay Blair, 73, American journalist and author, heart attack.
 * Jocelyn Crane, 89, American carcinologist.
 * Jean de Montrémy, 85, French industrialist, racing driver, and race car designer.
 * William Gaddis, 75, American novelist, prostate cancer.
 * Johnny Gorsica, 83, American baseball player.
 * Lee Tai-young, 84, Korean lawyer and judge.
 * Maneklal Sankalchand Thacker, 94, Indian engineer and academic.
 * Philip True, 50, American foreign correspondent, murdered.

17

 * Kevin Brennan, 78, Australian-born British-based film and television actor.
 * John Burns Brooksby, 83, Scottish veterinarian.
 * Allan D'Arcangelo, 68, American artist and printmaker.
 * Joseph Esherick, 86, American architect, heart failure.
 * Antonina Khudyakova, 81, Soviet Air Force officer during World War II.
 * Dorothy Nyembe, 66, South African activist and politician.
 * Harry Osman, 87, English football player.

18

 * Agustín Barboza, 85, Paraguayan singer and composer.
 * C. S. Chellappa, 86, Indian writer, journalist and political activist.
 * Lev Dyomin, 72, Soviet cosmonaut, cancer.
 * Mohammad Taghi Falsafi, 90, Iranian ayatollah and preacher.
 * Harry Haddock, 73, Scottish footballer.
 * Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, 38–39, Filipino militant, founder of Abu Sayyaf, shot.
 * Vinod Mishra, 51, Indian communist politician, heart attack.
 * Edwin E. Moise, 79, American mathematician.
 * Gilberto Muñoz, 75, Chilean football player.
 * Tadeusz Rybczynski, 75, Polish-English economist.
 * Max Wehrli, 89, Swiss literary scholar and germanist.

19

 * Garry Blaine, 65, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Cully Dahlstrom, 86, American ice hockey player.
 * Mel Fisher, 76, American treasure hunter.
 * Gordon Gunter, 89, American marine biologist and fisheries scientist.
 * Antonio Ordóñez, 66, Spanish bullfighter, liver cancer.
 * Bernhard Tessmann, 86, German rocket scientist during and after World War II.
 * Ron Turner, 76, British illustrator and comic book artist, stroke and heart attack.
 * Qian Zhongshu, 88, Chinese literary scholar and writer, cancer.

20

 * André Dewavrin, 87, French officer and resistance member during World War II.
 * E. W. Etchells, 87, American sailor and sailboat designer.
 * Angelo Grizzetti, 82, French-Italian football player and coach.
 * Irene Hervey, 89, American actress, heart failure.
 * Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, 84, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
 * Kazimierz Kropidłowski, 67, Polish long jumper and Olympian.
 * Bangalore Venkata Raman, 86, Indian astrologer.
 * Miklós Sárkány, 90, Hungarian water polo player and Olympic champion.

21

 * Roger Avon, 84, British actor.
 * Gilbert Charles-Picard, 85, French historian and archaeologist.
 * Avril Coleridge-Taylor, 95, English pianist, conductor, and composer.
 * Adelaide Hawley Cumming, 93, American vaudeville performer, radio host, and television personality.
 * Karl Denver, 67, Scottish singer, brain tumor.
 * Anne Ferguson, 57, Scottish physician and clinical researcher, pancreatic cancer.
 * Sándor Ivády, 95, Hungarian water polo player and Olympic champion.
 * Ernst Günther Schenck, 94, German doctor and member of the SS.
 * Béla Szőkefalvi-Nagy, 85, Hungarian mathematician.
 * Jerzy Topolski, 70, Polish historian.
 * Richard Turnbull, 89, British colonial governor.

22

 * Pedro Araya, 73, Chilean basketball player.
 * Leif Erickson, 92, American attorney and politician.
 * Virginia Graham, 86, American talk show host, heart attack.
 * Robert Haynes, 67, Canadian geneticist and biophysicist.
 * Jean Malaquais, 90, French novelist.
 * Subhashis Nag, 43, Indian mathematician.
 * Donald Soper, 95, British methodist minister and pacifist.

23

 * Mark Chatfield, 45, American breaststroke swimmer, lymphoma.
 * Jack Hilton, 77, English rugby player.
 * Peggy Kelman, 89, Australian aviation pioneer.
 * Ratnappa Kumbhar, 89, Indian independence activist.
 * David Manners, 98, Canadian-American actor (Dracula, The Mummy, A Bill of Divorcement).
 * Joe Orlando, 71, Italian American illustrator, writer and cartoonist.
 * Anatoly Rybakov, 87, Soviet and Russian writer.
 * Michelle Thomas, 30, American actress (Family Matters, The Young and the Restless, The Cosby Show) and comedian, cancer.
 * Pierre Vallières, 60, Québécois journalist and writer, heart failure.

24

 * Syl Apps, 83, Canadian ice hockey player, heart attack.
 * Viola Farber, 67, American choreographer and dancer.
 * Matt Gillies, 77, Scottish football player and manager.
 * Peter Janssens, 64, German musician and composer.
 * Daan Kagchelland, 84, Dutch sailor and Olympic champion.
 * William R. Perl, 92, American lawyer and psychologist.
 * Raemer Schreiber, 88, American physicist.
 * Estelle Witherspoon, 82, American artist, civil rights activist and quilter.

25

 * Katharina Brauren, 88, German actress.
 * Alfredo Covelli, 84, Italian politician.
 * Damita Jo DeBlanc, 68, American actress, comedian, and singer, respiratory disease.
 * Bryan MacLean, 52, American singer, guitarist and songwriter, heart attack.
 * Mike McAlary, 41, American journalist and columnist, colorectal cancer.
 * John McGrath, 60, English football player and manager.
 * Hans Oeschger, 71, Swiss climatologist.
 * Richard Paul, 58, American actor, cancer.
 * John Pulman, 75, English snooker player, domestic accident.

26

 * Cathal Goulding, 75, Northern Irish Republican and IRA member, cancer.
 * Dick Grove, 71, American musician, composer, and arranger.
 * Hurd Hatfield, 81, American actor, heart attack.
 * Helmut Mahlke, 85, German Oberstleutnant in the Luftwaffe during World War II.
 * Michael Sherard, 88, British fashion designer.
 * Ram Swarup, 78, Indian author.

27

 * Kevork Ajemian, 66, Lebanese-Armenian writer, journalist, novelist and activist.
 * Dany Bustros, 39, Lebanese belly dancer, socialite and stage actress, suicide.
 * Anita Hoffman, 56, American writer and activist, breast cancer.
 * Anne Holm, 76, Danish journalist and children's writer.
 * Robert S. Johnson, 78, American fighter pilot during World War II.
 * Joe Parker, 75, American gridiron football player.
 * Roy Powell, English rugby league player, heart attack.
 * Ralegh Radford, 98, English archaeologist and historian.
 * Ricardo Tormo, 46, Spanish motorcycle road racer, leukemia.

28

 * André Bizette-Lindet, 92, French sculptor.
 * Herbert Fechner, 85, East German politician.
 * William Frankfather, 54, American actor (Death Becomes Her, Harry and the Hendersons, Mouse Hunt), complications from liver disease.
 * Edgar Hovhannisyan, 68, Armenian composer.
 * Ron Huntington, 77, Canadian politician.
 * Werner Müller, 78, German composer and conductor of classical music.
 * Shorty Rollins, 69, American racing driver.
 * Robert Rosen, 64, American theoretical biologist.
 * Harold Schindler, 69, American journalist and historian.
 * Ouang Te Tchao, 93, Chinese physicist.
 * Mary Ann Unger, 53, American abstract sculptor, breast cancer.
 * Bjørn Watt-Boolsen, 75, Danish film actor.

29

 * Geoff Crawford, 82, Australian politician.
 * George Curran, 80, English rugby league football player.
 * Hubert Deschamps, 75, French actor, heart attack.
 * Phyllis Kennedy, 84, American film actress.
 * Jack D. Moore, 92, American set decorator.
 * Don Taylor, 78, American actor and film director, heart failure.

30

 * Joan Brossa, 79, Catalan poet, playwright and visual artist.
 * Jean-Claude Forest, 68, French writer and illustrator of comics, asthma.
 * Jack Graham, 82, American baseball player.
 * Walker Hancock, 97, American sculptor and teacher.
 * Rune Johansson, 78, Swedish ice hockey player.
 * Keisuke Kinoshita, 86, Japanese film director, stroke.
 * Johnny Moore, 64, American R&B singer with The Drifters, pneumonia.
 * Sam Muchnick, 93, American professional wrestling promoter.
 * Ansar Razak, 24, Indonesian football player, traffic collision.
 * Karl Heinz Rechinger, 92, Austrian botanist and phytogeographer.
 * Otto Wachs, 89, German sailor and Olympic medalist.
 * George Webb, 86, British actor.

31

 * George Lynn Cross, 93, American botanist and author.
 * H. Dunlop Dawbarn, 83, American businessman, philanthropist and politician.
 * Ted Glossop, 64, Australian rugby player and coach, cancer.
 * Les Hammond, 90, Canadian politician.
 * Gene Harlow, 79, American football player and coach.
 * Alan Morris, 44, English football player, murdered.
 * Erling Norvik, 70, Norwegian politician.
 * Arnold Stickley, 72, English golfer.
 * Jerry Williams, 75, American football player and coach, leukemia.