Deaths in January 2001

The following is a list of notable deaths in January 2001.

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

 * Madeleine Barbulée, 90, French actress.
 * Sir Michael Hanley, 82, British intelligence officer, Director-General of MI5.
 * Fabijan Šovagović, 68, Croatian actor and writer.
 * John Steadman, 73, American sportswriter.
 * Heriberto Urán, 46, Colombian racing cyclist.
 * Ray Walston, 86, American actor (My Favorite Martian, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Picket Fences), Emmy winner (1995, 1996).

2

 * Sir Ewart Bell, 76, Northern Irish rugby player and civil servant.
 * George Carman, 71, English barrister, prostate cancer.
 * William P. Rogers, 87, American politician, diplomat and lawyer, congestive heart failure.
 * Alison de Vere, 73, British animator, director.
 * Jimmy Zámbó, 42, Hungarian pop singer, accidental gunshot.

3

 * George H. Brown, 87, British film producer.
 * Kwang-chih Chang, 69–70, Taiwanese-American archaeologist and sinologist, Parkinson's disease.
 * Jack Fleming, 77, American sports announcer (Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bulls, West Virginia Mountaineers).
 * Kung Fu, 49, Mexican Luchador, arterial hyper tension, arterial hypertension.
 * Marty Glickman, 83, American radio announcer.
 * John F. Hayes, 85, American politician (Brooklyn Borough President).
 * Sushila Nayyar, 86, Indian politician and physician.

4

 * Alexandra Adler, 99, Austrian neurologist, daughter of psychoanalyst Alfred Adler.
 * Les Brown, 88, American swing bandleader ("Sentimental Journey"), lung cancer.
 * Pierre Leyris, 93, French translator.
 * Tadeusz Olechowski, 74, Polish communist politician and diplomat.
 * John Rhoden, 82, American sculptor.
 * Perry Schwartz, 85, American gridiron football player.
 * Bob Snyder, 87, American football player and coach.
 * André Thirion, 93, French writer and political activist.
 * Villaño I, 50, Mexican professional wrestler, heart attack following a cerebral haemorrhage.

5

 * G. E. M. Anscombe, 81, British analytic philosopher.
 * Milan Hlavsa, 49, Czech songwriter and bass guitarist (Plastic People of the Universe), lung cancer.
 * Raj Kumar Mehra, 82, Indian racing cyclist and Olympian.
 * Nancy Parsons, 58, American actress (Porky's), congestive heart failure.
 * James Phiri, 32, Zambian footballer, cancer.
 * Geoffrey Virgo, 82, Australian politician.

6

 * Victor Braun, 65, Canadian baritone, Shy–Drager syndrome, multiple system atrophy.
 * Nadezhda Grigoryevna Grekova, 90, Soviet/Belarusian politician.
 * Peter Lovell-Davis, Baron Lovell-Davis, 76, British publisher and politician.
 * Scott Marlowe, 68, American actor (Executive Suite, Murder, She Wrote), heart attack.
 * Tom Poholsky, 71, American baseball player.
 * Bob Pratt, 88, Australian rules footballer.
 * Tot Pressnell, 94, American baseball player.
 * Pretaap Radhakishun, 66, Surinamese politician.

7

 * James Carr, 58, American rhythm and blues singer, lung cancer.
 * Jenő Csaknády, 76, Hungarian football manager.
 * Ken Durrett, 52, American basketball player (Cincinnati Royals / Kansas City-Omaha Kings, Philadelphia 76ers).
 * Quin Epperly, 87, American racing car constructor.
 * Charles Helou, 87, Lebanese politician, President (1964-1970), heart attack.
 * František Hájek, 85, Czechoslovakian Olympic basketball player (men's basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics).
 * Johan van der Keuken, 62, Dutch documentary filmmaker, author, and photographer.
 * Joseph L. Melnick, 86, American epidemiologist and virologist.
 * Lowell Perry, 69, American gridiron football player and coach, businessman, and broadcaster.

8

 * Philip A. Barker, 80, British archaeologist.
 * Don Brodie, 96, American actor and director.
 * Edwin Etherington, 76, American writer, lawyer, civil rights advocate, and president of the American Stock Exchange.
 * Chris Evert, 30, American thoroughbred racehorse, euthanized.
 * Alfred Neumann, 91, East German politician.
 * Néstor Scotta, 52, Argentine football striker, car accident.
 * Catherine Storr, 87, English children's writer, suicide.
 * Paul Winterton, 92, English journalist and crime novelist.

9

 * Paul Vanden Boeynants, 81, Belgian politician, Prime Minister (1978–1979), pneumonia.
 * Peter Düttmann, 77, German World War II Luftwaffe flying ace.
 * Judith Trim, 57, English studio potter, breast cancer.
 * Carol Voges, 75, Dutch illustrator and comics artist.

10

 * Necati Cumalı, 79, Turkish writer and poet, liver cancer.
 * John Ditlev-Simonsen, 102, Norwegian sailor and Olympic silver medalist.
 * Matthias Duan, 92, Chinese Roman Catholic bishop.
 * Bryan Gregory, 49, American rock musician, heart failure.
 * G. Lakshmanan, 76, Indian politician.
 * Jacques Marin, 81, French actor, heart attack.
 * John G. Schmitz, 70, American politician, prostate cancer.
 * Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymin, 75, Saudi Salafi scholar.
 * Esteban Vicente, 97, American painter.

11

 * Wanda Jean Allen, 41, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
 * Ken Brown, 55, American professional football player (Cleveland Browns: 1970–1975).
 * Emilio Foriscot, 96, Spanish cinematographer.
 * Gerald Glatzmayer, 32, Austrian football player, traffic collision.
 * Oliver Gurney, 89, British Assyriologist.
 * James Hill, 84, American film producer and screenwriter.
 * Dorothy M. Horstmann, 89, American epidemiologist, virologist and pediatrician, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Álvaro Jordan, 39, Colombian tennis player, severe shock.
 * Louis Krages, 51, German racing driver and businessman, suicide.
 * Denys Lasdun, 86, British architect.
 * Ignacy Machowski, 80, Polish actor.
 * Claude V. Palisca, 79, American musicologist.
 * Victor Pickard, 97, Canadian track and field athlete and Olympian.
 * Princess Vera Constantinovna of Russia, 94, Russian noblewoman and monarchist.
 * Lorna Sage, 57, British literary critic and writer, pulmonary emphysema.
 * Michael Williams, 65, British actor, lung cancer.

12

 * Affirmed, 25, American racehorse, euthanasia after contracting laminitis.
 * Gianluigi Bonelli, 92, Italian comic book author and publisher.
 * Luiz Bonfá, 78, Brazilian guitarist and composer, prostate cancer.
 * József Csermák, 68, Hungarian hammer thrower and Olympic champion.
 * Adhemar da Silva, 73, Brazilian triple jumper and Olympic champion.
 * William Redington Hewlett, 87, American co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, heart failure.
 * Mariano Juaristi, 96, Spanish Basque pelota player.
 * Vladimir Semichastny, 76, Soviet politician, stroke.
 * Elizabeth Sewell, 81, British-American critic, poet, and novelist.
 * Ibnu Sutowo, 86, Indonesian army officer, politician and businessman.
 * Charles Malcolm Watkins, 89, American historian, archaeologist, and curator.

13

 * Michael Cuccione, 16, Canadian actor and musician, respiratory failure.
 * Bill Fraser, 76, New Zealand politician.
 * Stan Freeman, 80, American musician, pulmonary emphysema.
 * Amando de Ossorio Rodríguez, 82, Spanish film director.

14

 * Luigi Broglio, 89, Italian aerospace engineer.
 * Jim Coleman, 89, Canadian sports journalist and writer.
 * Dennis Fitzgerald, 64, American freestyle wrestler and football player and coach.
 * Burkhard Heim, 75, German theoretical physicist.
 * George McCabe, 78, English football referee.
 * Kostas Rigopoulos, 70, Greek actor, stroke.
 * Vic Wilson, 69, British racing driver, traffic collision.
 * Joe Zapustas, 93, Latvian-American baseball player.

15

 * Alex Blignaut, 68, South African racing driver and racing team owner, domestic accident.
 * Bob Braun, 71, American local television personality and actor (Die Hard 2, Defending Your Life).
 * Bert Corona, 82, American labor and civil rights leader.
 * David Lapsley, 76, Scottish footballer.
 * Ted Mann, 84, American businessman (Mann Theatres) and film producer (Brubaker, Krull).
 * Leo Marks, 80, British World War II cryptographer, cancer.
 * Margit Nagy-Sándor, 79, Hungarian gymnast and Olympic silver medalist.
 * Kaija Siren, 80, Finnish architect.
 * Riaz ud-Din, 58, Pakistani field hockey player and Olympic champion.

16

 * Laurent-Désiré Kabila, 61, Congolese politician and President, shot.
 * Richard MacNeish, 82, American archaeologist.
 * Melvin McQuaid, 89, Canadian politician.
 * Virginia O'Brien, 81, American actress (Lady Be Good, Ship Ahoy, Ziegfeld Follies).
 * Wanda Piłsudska, 82, Polish psychiatrist.
 * Jitendra Prasada, 62, Indian politician and Vice-President of the Indian National Congress, cerebral haemorrhage.
 * Ibrahim Shams, 84, Egyptian weightlifter and Olympic champion.
 * Jules Vuillemin, 80, French philosopher.
 * Auberon Waugh, 61, British journalist and author, heart failure.
 * Leonard Woodcock, 89, American trade unionist and diplomat (U.S. ambassador to the People's Republic of China).

17

 * Gregory Corso, 70, American poet (Beat Generation), prostate cancer.
 * Homero Cárpena, 90, Argentine film actor.
 * John B. Hayes, 76, American coast guard admiral, traffic collision.
 * Tom Kilburn, 79, British computer scientist.
 * Sergej Kraigher, 86, Yugoslav politician, President of Slovenia.
 * Robert Robertson, 70, British actor (Taggart, Breaking the Waves, Doctor Who), heart failure.
 * Rito Romero, 73, Mexican professional wrestler, heart attack.
 * Wakabayama Sadao, 78, Japanese sumo wrestler, cerebral thrombosis.
 * Norris Turney, 79, American jazz flautist and saxophonist, kidney failure.
 * Sigurd Vestad, 93, Norwegian cross-country skier and Olympian.

18

 * Mordechai Gifter, 85, American orthodox rabbi.
 * Peter Haigh, 75, English BBC Television announcer.
 * Abdul Rahim Ishak, 75, Singaporean politician and journalist.
 * Morris Lapidus, 98, Russian-American architect, heart failure.
 * Evald Mahl, 85, Estonian basketball player and Olympian.
 * Reg Prentice, Baron Prentice, 77, British politician and government minister.
 * Imre Sinkovits, 72, Hungarian actor.
 * Boris Stenin, 66, Soviet speed skater and speed skating coach.
 * Al Waxman, 65, Canadian actor (King of Kensington, Cagney & Lacey, Atlantic City).

19

 * Johnny Babich, 87, American baseball player.
 * Alberto Gallardo, 60, Peruvian football player and manager.
 * Maxine Mesinger, 75, American newspaper columnist (Houston Chronicle), complications of multiple sclerosis.
 * Paul Olum, 82, American mathematician.
 * Harry Oster, 77, American folklorist and musicologist.
 * Mubarak Shah, 70, Pakistani long-distance runner and Olympian.
 * Gustave Thibon, 97, French philosopher and author.

20

 * Rønnaug Alten, 90, Norwegian actress and stage instructor.
 * Nico Assumpção, 46, Brazilian bass player, cancer.
 * Eddie Donovan, 78, American professional basketball coach and executive (New York Knicks).
 * Beverley Peck Johnson, 96, American voice teacher, soprano, and pianist.
 * Crispin Nash-Williams, 68, British mathematician.

21

 * Sasidharan Arattuvazhi, 45, Indian playwright and screenwriter, cirrhosis.
 * Sandy Baron, 64, American stand-up comic, actor (Seinfeld) and songwriter, emphysema.
 * Pier Giorgio Cazzola, 63, Italian sprinter and Olympian.
 * Byron De La Beckwith, 80, American white supremacist and klansman, cardiovascular disease.
 * Joseph O'Conor, 84, Irish actor and playwright.
 * Ricardo Castro Ríos, 80, Spanish-Argentine film actor.
 * Nedžad Verlašević, 45, Yugoslav and Bosnian football manager and player, heart attack.

22

 * Tommie Agee, 58, American baseball player, heart attack.
 * Tuomas Anhava, 73, Finnish writer.
 * Roy Brown, 68, American television personality, puppeteer and clown (The Bozo Show).
 * Anne Burns, 85, British aeronautical engineer and glider pilot.
 * Sir Alistair Grant, 63, British businessman.

23

 * Umar Mustafa al-Muntasir, 62, Libyan politician, Prime Minister.
 * Albert David Baumhart, Jr., 92, American politician.
 * Vladimir Belyayev, 67, Soviet football player.
 * Clayton Fritchey, 96, American journalist.
 * Heinz Hopf, 66, Swedish actor, laryngeal cancer.
 * Lou Levy, 72, American jazz pianist, heart attack.
 * Jack McDuff, 74, American jazz organist, heart failure.
 * Nedko Nedev, 80, Bulgarian football player.
 * Fred Ray, 80, American comic book artist (Superman, Tomahawk).
 * Mikael Sundström, 43, Finnish rally driver.
 * Moy Yat, 62, Hong Kong martial artist, painter, and author.

24

 * Steve Dowden, 71, American gridiron football player (Baylor University, Green Bay Packers).
 * Frans Pauwels, 82, Dutch racing cyclist.
 * Leif Thybo, 78, Danish organist and composer.
 * Osman Türkay, 73, Turkish Cypriot poet.
 * Dick Whittinghill, 87, American film and television actor, and radio DJ.

25

 * Alice Ambrose, 94, American philosopher, logician, and author.
 * John T. Biggers, 76, American muralist.
 * Aleksandr Chudakov, 79, Soviet and Russian physicist.
 * Ashraf Fahmy, 64, Egyptian film director.
 * Vijayaraje Scindia, 81, Indian politician.
 * Margaret Scriven, 88, British tennis player.
 * Guy Tréjan, 79, French actor.
 * Dare Wright, 86, Canadian–American children's author, model, and photographer, respiratory failure.

26

 * Murray Edelman, 81, American political scientist.
 * Al McGuire, 74, American college basketball coach (Marquette University) and television commentator, leukemia.
 * Valentino Orsini, 74, Italian film director.
 * Fanula Papazoglu, 83, Yugoslav and Serbian classical scholar and epigrapher.

27

 * Queen Marie-José of Belgium, 94, Italian royal and last queen of Italy, lung cancer.
 * Pedro Carrasco, 57, Spanish boxer, heart attack.
 * Tommy Luther, 92, American horse racing jockey.
 * André Prévost, 66, Canadian music composer and instructor (Order of Canada).
 * Robert Alexander Rankin, 85, Scottish mathematician.
 * Cal Strong, 93, American water polo player.

28

 * Curt Blefary, 57, American baseball player, pancreatitis.
 * Al Fiorentino, 83, American professional football player (Washington Redskins, Boston Yanks).
 * Ellen Hammer, 79, American historian.
 * Stephen Malcolm, 30, Jamaican international football player, car accident.
 * Sally Mansfield, 77, American actress (Rocky Jones, Space Ranger), lung cancer.
 * Ranko Marinković, 87, Croatian novelist and dramatist.
 * Thikkodiyan, 84, Indian playwright, novelist and lyricist.

29

 * Frances Bible, 82, American operatic mezzo-soprano (New York City Opera).
 * Julia Bodmer, 66, British geneticist.
 * Edmund Fuller, 86, American educator, novelist, historian, and literary critic.
 * Pablo Hernán, 23, Argentine football player, traffic accident.
 * Thomas C. Lea III, 93, American muralist, illustrator, novelist, and historian.
 * Pierre Roche, 81, French-Canadian pianist, singer and composer.
 * Ninian Smart, 73, Scottish religious scholar.
 * Max Weiler, 90, Austrian painter.

30

 * Jean-Pierre Aumont, 90, French actor, heart attack.
 * Jean Coulston, 66, New Zealand cricket player.
 * Edmund Fetting, 73, Polish film and theatrical actor and singer.
 * David Heneker, 94, British composer and lyricist (Irma La Douce, Half a Sixpence, Charlie Girl).
 * Job Dean Jessop, 74, American thoroughbred racing jockey.
 * Johnnie Johnson, 85, British World War II fighter ace.
 * O. Winston Link, 86, American photographer.
 * Rodolfo Morales, 75, Mexican painter, pancreatic cancer.
 * Michel Marcel Navratil, 92, French philosophy professor.
 * John Prebble, 85, British journalist and historian.
 * Joseph Ransohoff, 85, American neurosurgeon.
 * Hartmut Reck, 68, German television and film actor.
 * John Taylor, 86, British Anglican bishop.

31

 * Renaat Braem, 90, Belgian architect and urban planner.
 * Gordon R. Dickson, 77, American science fiction writer, asthma.
 * Albin Nyamoya, 76, Burundian politician, Prime Minister.
 * Heinz Starke, 89, German politician.