Deaths in December 2004

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2004.

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

 * Fathi Arafat, 71, Palestinian physician, founder of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, stomach cancer.
 * Mammad Araz, 71, Azerbaijani poet.
 * Bill Brown, 73, Scottish football goalkeeper.
 * Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, 93, Dutch royal, spouse of Queen Juliana and father of Queen Beatrix, lung and colon cancer.
 * Norman Newell, 85, English record producer.
 * Damon Simonelli, 45, American planetary scientist, heart failure.
 * David Vienneau, 53, Canadian journalist, pancreatic cancer.

2

 * Larry Buchanan, 81, American B-movie director, producer and writer, complications of collapsed lung.
 * Kevin Coyne, 60, English musician, filmmaker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems.
 * Cachita Galán, 61, Argentine singer, cancer.
 * Alicia Markova, 94, English ballerina, stroke.
 * Nadine Shamir, 32, American techno singer/songwriter, complications during childbirth.
 * Louis W. Truman, 96, Senior American Army officer.
 * Mona Van Duyn, 83, American poet, US Poet Laureate (1992), bone cancer.

3

 * Shiing-Shen Chern, 93, Chinese mathematician, heart failure following heart attack.
 * Robert Dhéry, 83, French comedian, actor, director and screenwriter.
 * Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster, 90, Irish nobleman.
 * June Maston, 76, Australian Olympic sprinter and athletics coach.
 * Maria Perschy, 66, Austrian actress, cancer.
 * Helmut Rix, 78, German linguist, car accident.
 * Josef Schwammberger, 92, German SS (Schutzstaffel) officer and labor camp commander during World War II.
 * Fred Silva, 77, American gridiron football player, heart attack.
 * Marek Stachowski, 68, Polish composer.
 * Yaroslav Starobogatov, 72, Russian zoologist and academic.

4

 * Mahmut Atalay, 70, Turkish freestyle wrestler and coach, heart attack.
 * Willem Duyn, 67, Dutch singer, actor, and entertainer, heart attack.
 * Carl Esmond, 102, Austrian film and stage actor.
 * Tom Fitzgerald, 53, American soccer coach (University of Tampa), motorcycle accident.
 * Elena Souliotis, 61, Greek operatic soprano, heart failure.
 * Svend Wad, 76, Danish boxer and Olympic medalist.
 * Ron Williamson, 51, American minor league baseball player and murder convict, liver cirrhosis.

5

 * Giuseppe Campora, 81, Italian operatic tenor.
 * Seymour Ginsburg, 76, American computer scientist, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Neil Hallett, 80, Belgian-English actor.
 * Cristiano Júnior, 24, Brazilian footballer, cardiac arrest after on-field collision.
 * Manzanita, 48, Spanish singer and guitarist, heart attack.
 * Jose Pellissery, 53–54, Indian film and theatre actor.
 * Øystein Rottem, 58, Norwegian philologist, literary historian and literary critic, cancer.
 * Hicham Zerouali, 27, Moroccan footballer, car accident.

6

 * Frank Reginald Carey, 92, British fighter ace during World War II.
 * Raymond Goethals, 83, Belgian soccer coach, colorectal cancer.
 * Árpád Makay, 93, Hungarian cinematographer.
 * Adrian Morris, 75, English painter.
 * John Norton, 86, United States Army general.
 * Enrique Salinas, 52, Mexican businessman, asphyxiation.
 * Christine Wodetzky, 66, German actress.

7

 * Pacita Abad, 58, Filipino painter, lung cancer.
 * Frederick Fennell, 90, American conductor, founder of Eastman Wind Ensemble.
 * María Rosa Gallo, 82, Argentine actress, pneumonia.
 * Julije Knifer, 80, Croatian abstract painter.
 * Floyd Nattrass, 86, Canadian Olympic sports shooter (men's trap shooting at the 1964 Summer Olympics).
 * Zuzana Navarová, 45, Czech singer and songwriter, cancer.
 * Jay Van Andel, 80, American co-founder and former chairman of Amway, Parkinson's disease.
 * Oscar M. Ruebhausen, 92, American lawyer and adviser to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller.
 * Jerry Scoggins, 93, American musician ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett").

8

 * Dimebag Darrell, 38, American heavy metal guitarist (Pantera, Damageplan), shot.
 * Cleve Gray, 86, American abstract painter.
 * Johnny Lockett, 89, British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
 * Jackson Mac Low, 82, American poet, composer and performance artist, complications from stroke.
 * Noel Mills, 60, New Zealand rower and Olympic silver medalist.
 * C. S. Rao, 80, Indian actor, writer and director.
 * Leslie Scarman, Baron Scarman, 93, British jurist, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (1977–1986).

9

 * Andrea Absolonová, 27, Czech diver and adult model known as Lea De Mae, brain cancer.
 * Henny Backus, 93, American actress, stroke.
 * David Brudnoy, 64, American radio talk show host (Boston), Merkel cell carcinoma.
 * Paul Edwards, 81, Austrian-American philosopher.
 * Peter Emery, 78, British Conservative politician (Honiton, 1967–1997; East Devon, 1997–2001).
 * Jimmy Gauld, 75, Scottish football player.
 * Philippe Gigantès, 81, Canadian former senator, cancer.
 * Jean Tournier, 78, French cinematographer.
 * Sergey Voychenko, 49, Belarusian artist and designer, complications following heart bypass surgery.

10

 * Khoren Abrahamyan, 74, Armenian actor and director.
 * Bruno Arcari, 89, Italian football player player and coach.
 * Norman Borrett, 87, English sportsman.
 * Emilio Cruz, 66, Cuban-American artist, pancreatic cancer.
 * Bob King, 81, American college basketball coach.
 * Radner Muratov, 76, Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, stroke.
 * Homi Wadia, 93, Indian film director and producer.
 * Gary Webb, 49, American investigative reporter ("Dark Alliance"), apparent suicide.

11

 * Christopher Blake, 55, English actor and screenwriter, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
 * José Luis Cuciuffo, 42, Argentinian footballer and 1986 Football World Cup champion, hunting accident.
 * Arthur Lydiard, 87, New Zealand marathon runner and athletics coach, heart attack.
 * Harry Roesli, 53, Indonesian singer-songwriter, heart attack.
 * Margaret Shaw, 101, American photographer and folklorist.
 * M. S. Subbulakshmi, 88, Indian carnatic musician and singer, heart problems.

12

 * Joseph Beyrle, 81, United States Army and Soviet Red Army soldier, heart attack.
 * Pramod Chakravorty, 75, Indian film producer and director.
 * Herbert Dreilich, 62, German rock musician, cancer.
 * Frits Helmuth, 73, Danish film actor.
 * Rollin Hotchkiss, 93, American biochemist and molecular genetics pioneer.
 * George Hunter, 77, South African boxer and Olympic champion.
 * Frank Isola, 79, American jazz drummer.
 * Harry McNally, 68, English football player, coach and manager, heart attack.
 * Phaswane Mpe, 34, South African novelist, AIDS-related complications.
 * Fabian O'Dea, 86, Canadian lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador.
 * Maurizio Perissinot, 53, Italian rally driver.
 * Syed Mir Qasim, 83, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir (1971–1975).
 * William B. Rosson, 86, United States Army general, heart attack.
 * Bernarda Bryson Shahn, 101, American painter, lithographer, widow of Ben Shahn.
 * Pavlo Vasylyk, 78, Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarch.

13

 * Donald S. Jones, 76, United States Navy admiral.
 * Andre Rodgers, 70, Bahamian baseball player, first Bahamian to play in Major League Baseball.
 * Tom Turesson, 62, Swedish footballer.
 * David Wheeler, 77, English computer scientist.

14

 * Candice Daly, 38, American film and TV actress (The Young and the Restless), polydrug intoxication.
 * John Downey, 77, American contemporary classical composer, conductor, and pianist.
 * Danny Doyle, 87, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox).
 * Rod Kanehl, 70, American baseball player, heart attack.
 * Alexey Korneyev, 65, Russian footballer.
 * Anselmo López, 94, Spanish basketball coach and administrator.
 * Fernando Poe Jr., 65, Filipino actor and former presidential candidate, stroke.
 * Alex Sarkisian, 82, American gridiron football player.
 * Agostino Straulino, 90, Italian Olympic sailor (mixed two person keelboat: 1952 gold medal winner, 1956 silver medal winner).
 * Carsten Peter Thiede, 52, German archaeologist and New Testament scholar, heart attack.
 * Megumi Yokota, 40, Japanese citizen who was abducted by a North Korean agent in 1977.

15

 * Alma Duncan, 87, Canadian painter, graphic artist, and filmmaker from Paris, Ontario.
 * Chiang Fang-liang, 88, Belarus-Taiwanese widow of Chiang Ching-kuo and First Lady of the Republic of China (1978–1988), pulmonary and cardiac failure.
 * Vassal Gadoengin, 61, Nauruan politician and then-incumbent Speaker of Parliament, heart attack.
 * Jiban Ghosh, 69, Indian cricket umpire.
 * Sidonie Goossens, 105, British harpist.
 * Pauline LaFon Gore, 92, American lawyer.
 * Jim Holliday, 55–56, American pornographic film producer and historian, complications from diabetes.
 * Lucien Musset, 82, French historian, specializing in the history of the Vikings.
 * Rodney O'Gliasain Kennedy-Minott, 76, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Sweden, complications of pancreatitis.

16

 * Ted Abernathy, 71, American baseball player.
 * Laxmikant Berde, 50, Indian actor, kidney failure.
 * Martha Carson, 83, American gospel-country music singer.
 * Richard B. Fisher, 68, American investment banker, cancer.
 * Deyda Hydara, 58, Gambian journalist and editor, homicide.
 * Stefano Madia, 49, Italian actor.
 * Agnes Martin, 92, American abstract painter, pneumonia.
 * Bobby Mattick, 89, American former baseball player and manager, stroke.
 * Seymour Melman, 86, American economist and academic.
 * Mahmoud Messadi, 93, Tunisian author and intellectual.
 * Yehudit Naot, 60, Israeli scientist and politician, throat cancer.
 * Lawrence O'Brien, 53, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada, cancer.
 * Freddie Perren, 61, American two-time Grammy Award-winning record producer, stroke.
 * Prathapachandran, 63, Indian actor.
 * Hans-Rudolf Rösing, 99, German U-boat commander during World War II.
 * William Silverman, 87, American physician and neonatology pioneer, kidney failure.

17

 * Erich Auer, 81, Austrian theater, film and television actor.
 * Dick Heckstall-Smith, 70, British saxophone player (Colosseum, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers), cancer.
 * James Ling, 81, American businessman.
 * Agnes Mary Mansour, 73, American Catholic nun and politician, breast cancer.
 * Gyula Marsovszky, 68, Swiss Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
 * Ib Mossin, 71, Danish actor, singer and director.
 * Dietrich Schwanitz, 64, German writer and literary scholar, pulmonary embolism.
 * Tom Wesselmann, 73, American pop artist, surgical complications.
 * Sir James Wilson, 83, British army general.

18

 * Noel Beaton, 78, Australian MP (Bendigo, 1960–1969) and journalist.
 * Freddy Chaves, 86, Belgian football player.
 * Vijay Hazare, 89, Indian cricketer, Captain of India (1951–1953), complications following intestinal cancer.
 * Mariella Lotti, 85, Italian film actress.
 * Albert Nordengen, 81, Norwegian Conservative politician, Mayor of Oslo (1976–1990), heart failure.
 * Peter Palitzsch, 86, German theatre director and theatre manager.
 * Anthony Sampson, 78, British journalist and author, official biographer of Nelson Mandela, heart attack.
 * Kikuko, Princess Takamatsu, 92, Japanese member of the imperial family, sepsis.
 * Glenn Vaughan, 60, American baseball player (Houston Colt .45s).

19

 * Mamdouh Adwan, 63, Syrian writer, poet, playwright and critic, cancer.
 * Gretchen Bender, 53, American video artist, cancer.
 * Richard Best, 88, British film editor.
 * Herbert C. Brown, 92, British Nobel Prize-winning chemist (Chemistry, 1979), heart attack.
 * Vojin Jelić, 83, Croatian Serb writer and poet.
 * Andrée Tainsy, 93, Belgian actress.
 * Renata Tebaldi, 82, Italian opera singer, cancer.
 * Gheorghe Tătaru, 56, Romanian football player.
 * Thomas Yamamoto, 87, American artist.

20

 * Liliane Maigné, 76, French actress.
 * Alexander Marshack, 86, American independent scholar and paleolithic archaeologist.
 * Jack Newfield, 66, American author, activist and journalist (Village Voice, New York Daily News, New York Post), kidney cancer.
 * Son Seals, 62, American blues musician, complications of diabetes.

21

 * Lennart Bernadotte, 95, Swedish prince.
 * Richard Hamilton, 83, American actor (Men in Black, Pale Rider, Bret Maverick).
 * Arild Nyquist, 67, Norwegian novelist, poet, children's writer and musician.
 * Autar Singh Paintal, 79, Indian physiologist and medical scientist.
 * Mack Vickery, 66, American musician and songwriter, heart attack.
 * Zvonimir Vučković, 88, Yugoslav Chetnik military commander.

22

 * Yusuf Soalih Ajura, 114, Ghanaian Islamic scholar, political activist and sect leader.
 * Doug Ault, 54, American Major League Baseball player (Toronto Blue Jays), suicide by gunshot.
 * Mario Curletto, 69, Italian fencer.
 * Rudi Kolak, 86, Yugoslav and Bosnian communist politician.
 * Antonio Rangel, 61, Mexican badminton player.

23

 * Reuven Adiv, 74, Israeli actor, director and drama teacher, heart attack.
 * Richard Barnet, 75, American political activist.
 * Peter Beazley, 82, British businessman and Conservative Party politician.
 * John W. Duarte, 85, British classical guitarist and writer, cancer.
 * Ifor James, 73, British horn player.
 * Roger Moorey, 67, British archaeologist and historian.
 * P. V. Narasimha Rao, 83, Indian Prime Minister (1991–1996), heart attack.
 * Richard Abel Smith, 71, British Army officer and landowner, stroke.
 * Anne Truitt, 83, American sculptor.

24

 * Richard Annand, 90, British soldier, first Victoria Cross recipient of World War II.
 * Sir Anthony Meyer, 3rd Baronet, 84, British Conservative MP (West Flintshire, 1970–1983; Clwyd North-West, 1983–1992), cancer.
 * Johnny Oates, 58, American MLB catcher (Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees) and manager (Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers), brain tumor.
 * Pete Palangio, 96, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Rosemary Rue, 76, British physician and civil servant, breast cancer, colorectal cancer.
 * Elwira Seroczyńska, 73, Polish Olympic speed skater (silver medal winner in women's 1500 metres at the 1960 Winter Olympics).
 * Lauri Silvennoinen, 88, Finnish Olympic cross-country skier (1948 silver medal winner in men's 4 x 10 kilometre cross-country skiing relay).
 * Elmer Swenson, 91, American horticulturist and pioneering grape breeder.

25

 * Ahmad Bashir, 81, Pakistani writer, journalist, and film director.
 * Sandy Cameron, 66, Canadian politician.
 * Nripen Chakraborty, 99, Indian politician.
 * Amaechi Ottiji, 34, Nigerian football player, shot.
 * Donald Pederson, 79, American electrical engineer, complications from Parkinson's disease.
 * Antony Preston, 66, British naval historian and writer.
 * Eddie Spicer, 82, English footballer (Liverpool F.C.).
 * Gennadi Strekalov, 64, Russian cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union, cancer.
 * Ian Syster, 28, South African long-distance runner, drowned.
 * Lev Vainshtein, 88, Soviet world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in shooting.
 * Howie Williams, 77, American basketball player.

26

 * Charles Biederman, 98, American abstract artist.
 * Jonathan Drummond-Webb, 45, South African paediatric heart surgeon, suicide by overdose.
 * Garard Green, 80, British actor.
 * Marianne Heiberg, 59, Norwegian diplomat, Oslo Accords mediator, heart attack.
 * Eddie Layton, 77, American organist (New York Yankees).
 * David McKay, 83, Australian journalist and racing driver, cancer.
 * Don Nygord, 68, American Olympic sports shooter (50 metre 1984, 10 metre 1988, 50 metre 1988).
 * Sir Angus Ogilvy, 76, British businessman, husband of HRH Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, throat cancer.
 * Frank Pantridge, 88, British physician and cardiologist.
 * Ishigaki Rin, 84, Japanese poet.
 * Martin Robertson, 93, British classical scholar and poet.
 * Mikhail Smirtyukov, 95, Soviet politician and statesman.
 * Reggie White, 43, American football player (Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, cardiac arrhythmia.
 * Notable people killed in the 2004 Asian tsunami:
 * Jane Attenborough, 49, British arts administrator, daughter of actor Richard Attenborough
 * Troy Broadbridge, 24, Australian Football League player (Melbourne).
 * Kristina Fröjmark, 47, Swedish reality TV star.
 * Poom Jensen, 21, Thai prince.
 * Sujeewa Kamalasuriya, 39, Sri Lankan cricketer.
 * Sigurd Køhn, 45, Norwegian composer.
 * Stephen Lissenburgh, 40, British policy researcher.
 * Markus Sandlund, 29, Swedish cellist.
 * Aki Sirkesalo, 42, Finnish musician.
 * Mieszko Talarczyk, 30, Swedish musician.
 * Robert Whymant, 60, British journalist (The Times) and author.

27

 * Eneko Arieta, 71, Spanish footballer.
 * Eros Beraldo, 75, Italian football player.
 * Mabel Blythe, 74, Sri Lankan actress and singer.
 * Ferenc Bessenyei, 85, Hungarian actor and singer.
 * Hank Garland, 74, American studio guitarist (Elvis Presley, Charlie Parker), staphylococcus infection.
 * Ernest Groth, 82, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox).
 * Heorhiy Kirpa, 58, Ukrainian industrialist and politician, shot.
 * Luigi Mariotti, 92, Italian politician.

28

 * Jacques Dupuis, 81, Belgian Jesuit priest and theologian.
 * Jerry Orbach, 69, American actor (Law & Order, Beauty and the Beast, Dirty Dancing), Tony winner (1969), prostate cancer.
 * Susan Sontag, 71, American author, literary theorist and activist, acute myeloid leukemia.
 * Tzvi Tzur, 81, Israeli officer and politician.

29

 * Julius Axelrod, 92, American Nobel Prize-winning biochemist (Medicine, 1970).
 * William Boyett, 77, American actor (Adam-12), complications from pneumonia and kidney failure.
 * John Bridgeman, 88, British sculptor.
 * Ken Burkhart, 89, American Major League Baseball pitcher and umpire, emphysema.
 * Alf Evers, 99, American historian.
 * Eugenio Garin, 95, Italian philosopher and renaissance historian.
 * Ermanno Gorrieri, 84, Italian politician and economist.
 * Liddy Holloway, 57, New Zealand actress (Shortland Street) and writer, liver cancer.
 * Larry McNeill, 53, American National Basketball Association player.
 * Gus Niarhos, 84, American baseball player (New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies).
 * Esther Thelen, 63, American developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist.

30

 * Saad Al-Dosari, 27, Saudi Arabian football player, traffic collision.
 * Salvatore Asta, 89, Italian prelate of the Catholic Church.
 * Biswajit Das, 68, Indian playwright, short story writer, and film director.
 * Mark Fiennes, 71, English photographer and illustrator.
 * Masao Kato, 57, Japanese go player, stroke.
 * Ionel Schein, 77, Romanian-French architect.
 * Artie Shaw, 94, American jazz musician, complications of diabetes.

31

 * Aladi Aruna, 71, Indian politician, murdered.
 * John Chataway, 57, Canadian politician, complications from stroke.
 * Charlie Cozart, 85, American baseball player (Boston Braves).
 * Gérard Debreu, 83, French-American Nobel Prize-winning economist (Economics, 1983).
 * Jack Karwales, 84, American football player.
 * Cliff Letcher, 52, Australian tennis player.
 * Balkrishan Singh, 71, Indian Olympic field hockey player (gold medal winner in men's field hockey at the 1956 Summer Olympics).
 * Kuini Speed, 55, Fijian chief and politician, cancer.
 * George Wackenhut, 85, American businessman, founder of Wackenhut Corporation, heart failure.