Deaths in October 2003

The following is a list of notable deaths in October 2003.

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

 * John Brim, 81, American Chicago blues musician, heart cancer.
 * Huntington Hardisty, 74, U.S. Navy admiral.
 * Beate Hasenau, 67, German film and television actress.
 * Joy N. Houck, Jr., 61, American actor, screenwriter and film director.
 * Chubby Jackson, 84, American jazz double-bassist and band leader.
 * Zbigniew Lengren, 84, Polish cartoonist, caricaturist, and illustrator.
 * Julie Parrish, 62, American actress, ovarian cancer.
 * Frank Taylor, 95, British politician, MP for Manchester Moss Side.

2

 * Milan Bjegojević, 75, Serbian basketball player and coach.
 * John Thomas Dunlop, 89, American administrator and Secretary of Labor under Gerald Ford.
 * Otto Günsche, 86, German SS escort of Adolf Hitler, who was tasked to cremate his body on 30 April 1945, heart failure.
 * Ahmed Khadr, 55, Egyptian-Canadian Islamist, shot and killed by Pakistani security forces.
 * Hasan Mahsum, Turkestani Islamic extremist group leader, shot by the Pakistani Army.
 * Denis Moore, 93, English cricketer.
 * Gunther Philipp, 85, Austrian film actor, physician and swimmer.

3

 * Joop Bakker, 82, Dutch politician and businessman.
 * John Baldock, 87, British politician (Member of Parliament for Harborough).
 * Tish Daija, 78, Albanian composer.
 * Profira Sadoveanu, 97, Romanian prose writer and poet.
 * Gustav Sjöberg, 90, Swedish football goalkeeper.
 * Florence Stanley, 79, American voice actress, stroke.
 * William Steig, 95, American cartoonist and children's author; creator of Shrek.
 * Winifred Watkins, 79, British biochemist.

4

 * Bill Cayton, 85, American boxing manager, former manager of Edwin Rosario and Mike Tyson.
 * John Horace Ragnar Colvin, 81, British intelligence officer.
 * Hanadi Jaradat, 28, Palestinian jihadist and suicide bomber, suicide.
 * Sid McMath, 91, American attorney and politician, 34th governor of Arkansas.
 * Freddie Phillips, 84, British musician and composer.
 * Elisabeta Rizea, 91, Romanian anti-communist partisan, viral pneumonia.
 * Fred Tuttle, 84, American farmer, actor and politician, heart attack.

5

 * Wil van Beveren, 91, Dutch sprinter (1936 Summer Olympics: men's 100m, men's 200m, men's 4x100m relay).
 * Wally George, 71, American conservative radio and television commentator, pneumonia.
 * Neil Postman, 72, American media critic, lung cancer.
 * Denis Quilley, 75, British actor, liver cancer.
 * Dan Snyder, 25, Canadian professional ice hockey player (Atlanta Thrashers), traffic collision.
 * Elena Slough, 114, American supercentenarian and oldest recognized person in the United States.
 * Annalena Tonelli, 60, Italian Catholic lay missionary and social activist, homicide.
 * Timothy Treadwell, 46, American environmentalist and documentary filmmaker, bear attack.
 * František Velecký, 69, Slovak actor and artist.
 * Dwain Weston, 30, Australian skydiver and base jumper, accidental death.

6

 * Joe Baker, 63, English footballer, heart attack.
 * Antony Buck, 74, British politician (Member of Parliament for Colchester, Colchester North).
 * Armando Crispino, 78, Italian film director and screenwriter.
 * William Herrmann, 91, American gymnast and Olympic medalist.
 * Charles Millot, 81, Yugoslav-French actor.
 * Azam Tariq, 35, Pakistani politician, homicide.

7

 * Izzy Asper, 71, Canadian tax lawyer and media magnate (CanWest Global Communications Corp).
 * Arthur Berger, 91, American composer, music critic, teacher and an academic music writer.
 * Ryan Halligan, 13, American suicide victim.
 * Eleanor Lambert, 100, American fashion pioneer.
 * Viktor Leonov, 86, Soviet Navy officer and twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
 * Norodom Narindrapong, 49, Cambodian prince, heart attack.
 * Henry Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke, 64, British landowner, politician, film director, and producer.

8

 * Thalia Mara, 92, American ballet dancer and educator.
 * Cyril May, 82, British socialist politician.
 * Petter Thomassen, 62, Norwegian politician.
 * Junior Wren, 73, American professional football player (Missouri, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers).

9

 * Carl Fontana, 75, American jazz trombonist, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Ruth Hall, 92, American film actress.
 * Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, 77, American academic, suicide.
 * Don Lanphere, 75, American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist.

10

 * Igor Borisov, 79, Russian rower and Olympic silver medalist.
 * Viola Burnham, 72, Guyanese politician, First Lady to Forbes Burnham and Vice President, cancer.
 * Eila Hiltunen, 80, Finnish sculptor.
 * Victoria Horne, 91, American actress, appearing in 49 films.
 * Eugene Istomin, 77, American pianist, liver cancer.
 * Johnny Klippstein, 75, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Redlegs, Minnesota Twins).
 * Eve Newman, 88, American music and film editor (Academy Award nominations: Wild in the Streets, Two-Minute Warning).
 * Julia Trevelyan Oman, 73, British set designer.
 * Pastora Peña, 83, Spanish film actress.
 * Frank Alois Pitelka, 87, American ornithologist.
 * Max Rayne, 85, British property developer and philanthropist.

11

 * Vivien Alcock, 79, English children's book writer.
 * Sadateru Arikawa, 73, Japanese aikido teacher and shihan.
 * Ivan A. Getting, 91, American physicist and electrical engineer.
 * Tommy Hanlon Jr., 80, American-Australian actor, comedian, television host and circus ringmaster, cancer.
 * John K. Mahon, 91, American historian.
 * Lila Ram, 72, Indian wrestler.

12

 * Jim Cairns, 89, Australian politician (Deputy Prime Minister, Treasurer of Australia).
 * Ram Gopal, 90, Indian dancer and choreographer.
 * Ruth Halbsguth, 86, German swimmer and Olympic silver medalist.
 * Ion Ioanid, 77, Romanian dissident and writer.
 * Arthur Kaye, 70, English football player.
 * Joan Kroc, 75, American philanthropist; widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, brain cancer.
 * Pete Morisi, 75, American comic book writer and artist.
 * Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, 32, Indonesian Islamic terrorist and bomb-maker, shot by police.
 * Bill Shoemaker, 72, American Hall of Fame jockey, rode the winners in eleven Triple Crown races.

13

 * Butch Brickell, 46, American race car driver (24 Hours of Daytona) and stuntman (The Specialist, 2 Fast 2 Furious).
 * Bertram Brockhouse, 85, Canadian physicist, 1994 Nobel Prize winner in physics for the development of neutron spectroscopy.
 * Eduard Prugovečki, 66, Romanian-Canadian physicist and mathematician.
 * Anne Ziegler, 93, English singer, known for her duets with her husband Webster Booth.

14

 * Mohamed Basri, 75-76, Moroccan activist and opposition leader, heart attack.
 * Edward T. Breathitt, 78, American politician, 51st governor of Kentucky, ventricular fibrillation.
 * Zoltan Crișan, 48, Romanian football player, tuberculosis.
 * Wil Culmer, 45, Bahamian baseball player (Cleveland Indians).
 * Moktar Ould Daddah, 78, President of Mauritania.
 * Patrick Dalzel-Job, 90, British naval intelligence officer and commando.
 * Ben Metcalfe, 83, Greenpeace activist and co-founder, heart attack.
 * Javier Portales, 66, Argentine actor, heart attack.
 * Miloš Sádlo, 91, Czech cellist and music teacher.
 * Knud Leif Thomsen, 79, Danish film director and screenwriter.

15

 * Pierre Chanal, 56, Egyptian-French soldier and suspected serial killer, suicide.
 * Norman Elder, 64, Canadian writer, artist, and Olympic equestrian., suicide.
 * Antonín Liška, 79, Czech Catholic theologist.
 * Benny Lévy, 58, Egyptian-French philosopher, political activist and author.

16

 * Avni Arbaş, Turkish artist, cancer.
 * Lorraine Dunn, 61, Panamanian Olympic sprinter and hurdler.
 * Don Evans, 65, American playwright, theater director, and actor, heart attack.
 * James M. Hanley, 83, American businessman and politician.
 * Mark Hanna, 86, American screenwriter and actor.
 * Stu Hart, 88, Canadian professional wrestler, stroke.
 * László Papp, 77, Hungarian boxer.
 * Ignatius Jerome Strecker, 85, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
 * Carl Urbano, 93, American animator and director.

17

 * Charlie Justice, 79, American gridiron football player (Washington Redskins).
 * Frank O'Flynn, 84, New Zealand politician.
 * Janice Rule, 72, American actress, cerebral hemorrhage.
 * António Dias Teixeira, 73, Portuguese football player and manager.

18

 * William C. Cramer, 81, American attorney and politician, heart attack.
 * Rodolfo Freude, 83, Argentine politician and close advisor of president Juan Perón.
 * David Lodge, 82, English actor, cancer.
 * Ralph Moffitt, 71, English golfer.
 * Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, 64, Spanish novelist (Detective Carvalho saga), journalist and poet.
 * Preston Smith, 91, American politician (40th Governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973).

19

 * Jaime Allende, 79, Spanish field hockey player (field hockey at the 1948 Summer Olympics).
 * Sir Peter Berger, 78, British admiral (Amethyst Incident).
 * Road Warrior Hawk, 45, American professional wrestler known as "Road Warrior Hawk", heart attack.
 * Harun bin Idris, 77, Malaysian politician and 8th Menteri Besar of Selangor.
 * Alija Izetbegović, 78, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, cardiovascular disease.
 * Margaret Elizabeth Murie, 101, American naturalist, writer, adventurer, and conservationist.
 * Nello Pagani, 92, Italian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver.
 * Guy Rolfe, 91, British actor.
 * Georgi Vladimov, 72, Soviet and Ukrainian dissident writer.

20

 * František Balvín, 88, Czechoslovak cross-country skier (Olympic skiing: 1948 50km, 1948 relay, 1952 50km).
 * Ernie Calverley, 79, American basketball player (Rhode Island, Providence Steamrollers) and coach.
 * Jack Elam, 84, American actor, heart attack.
 * Donald G. Jackson, 60, American filmmaker, leukemia.
 * Miodrag Petrović Čkalja, 79, Serbian actor.

21

 * Fred Berry, 52, American actor, stroke.
 * Luis A. Ferré, 99, Puerto Rican industrialist and politician, respiratory failure.
 * Louise Day Hicks, 87, American politician (Boston City Council, U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 9th congress. dist.).
 * Tomáš Pospíchal, 67, Czech football player.
 * Alfred Rose, 71, Indian Konkani singer, composer, and actor.
 * Elliott Smith, 34, American musician, suicide.
 * Arturo Warman, 66, Mexican anthropologist, author, and politician.

22

 * Dee Andros, 79, American football player, coach (University of Idaho, Oregon State University) and athletic director.
 * Ron Collier, 73, Canadian jazz trombonist, composer, and arranger.
 * Willem Meijer, 80, Dutch botanist and plant collector.
 * Philippe Ragueneau, 85, French journalist and writer.
 * Hans Ras, 77, Dutch linguist and professor of Javanese language and literature.
 * Tony Renna, 26, American motor racer and IndyCar driver, racing accident.
 * Miguel Ángel Burelli Rivas, 81, Venezuelan diplomat (Ambassador to the U.S., Foreign Minister of Venezuela), lung cancer.

23

 * Tony Capstick, 59, British actor, comedian, musician and broadcaster, aneurysm.
 * Al Corwin, 76, American baseball player (New York Giants).
 * Vlasta Depetrisová, 82, Czech table tennis player.
 * Kevin Magee, 44, American basketball player, traffic collision.
 * Soong Mei-ling, 105, Chinese political figure and wife of president Chiang Kai-shek.
 * Judah Segal, 91, British linguist.
 * Hiroshi Yoshimura, 63, Japanese musician and composer, skin cancer.

24

 * Rosie Nix Adams, 45, American singer and songwriter, daughter of June Carter Cash, carbon monoxide poisoning.
 * Bob Bailey, 72, Canadian ice hockey player (Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks).
 * Veikko Hakulinen, 78, Finnish cross-country skier, triple Olympic- and world champion, traffic collision.
 * Joanna Lee, 72, American writer, producer, director and actress, bone cancer.
 * Half a Mill, 30, American rapper, homicide.
 * Carmen Pujals, 87, Argentine botanist.

25

 * Hemu Adhikari, 84, Indian cricketer.
 * Pandurang Shastri Athavale, 83, Indian philosopher and social activist.
 * Noreen Branson, 93, British political activist and historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
 * John Hart Ely, 64, American legal scholar, cancer.
 * Behram Kurşunoğlu, 81, Turkish physicist, heart attack.
 * Richard Leibler, 89, American mathematician and cryptanalyst.
 * Robert Strassburg, 88, American conductor, composer, and musicologist.
 * Mario Vitale, 75, Italian film actor.

26

 * Johnny Boyd, 77, American racecar driver, twelve Indianapolis 500-mile races from 1955 to 1966.
 * Steve Death, 54, English football goalkeeper, cancer.
 * Leonid Filatov, 56, Soviet and Russian actor, director and poet, pneumonia.
 * François Guérin, 75, French film and television actor.
 * Roy Harte, 79, American jazz drummer and record producer.
 * Hans-Joachim Jabs, 85, German Luftwaffe officer during World War II.
 * Elem Klimov, 70, Soviet and Russian film director, brain hypoxia.
 * Roberto García Morillo, 92, Argentine composer, musicologist, music professor and music critic.
 * Heinz Piontek, 77, German writer.
 * Jürgen Simon, 65, German cyclist.
 * Viguen, 73, Iranian pop music singer ("Sultan of pop") and actor, cancer.

27

 * John William Atkinson, 79, American psychologist.
 * Hank Beenders, 87, Dutch-American basketball player (Providence Steamrollers, Philadelphia Warriors, Boston Celtics).
 * Manoj Khanderia, 60, Indian poet and writer.
 * Tarun Kumar, 72, Indian actor.
 * K. R. Malkani, 81, Indian journalist, historian and politician.
 * Rod Roddy, 66, American radio and television announcer, cancer.
 * Walter Washington, 88, American civil servant and politician, first Mayor of the District of Columbia, kidney failure.
 * Fred Whittingham, 64, American football player (Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints), complications from back surgery.

28

 * Jean Carbonnier, 95, French jurist.
 * Marie Maynard Daly, 82, American biochemist.
 * Edward Hartwig, 94, Polish photographer.
 * Nora Ney, 81, Brazilian singer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
 * Joan Perucho, 82, Spanish novelist, poet, art critic, and judge.
 * Alexander Raichev, 81, Bulgarian composer.
 * Oliver Sain, 71, American musician and record producer, cancer.

29

 * Gino Armano, 76, Italian football player.
 * Hal Clement, 81, American author, diabetes.
 * Franco Corelli, 82, Italian tenor, heart attack.
 * Gerrie Deijkers, 56, Dutch football player, heart attack.
 * Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, 93, American science fiction fan, publisher, writer, and minister.
 * A. Carl Helmholz, 88, American nuclear physicist.
 * Jaime Castillo Velasco, 89, Chilean politician, pneumonia.

30

 * Lynn S. Beedle, 85, American structural engineer.
 * Carl Berner, 90, Danish rower (men's coxed pairs, men's eights at the 1936 Summer Olympics).
 * Franco Bonisolli, 65, Italian operatic tenor.
 * Ron Davies, 57, American songwriter and musician, heart attack.
 * Abel Ehrlich, 88, Israeli composer.
 * Aidyn Guseinov, 47, Azerbaijani chess player.
 * Subhadra Joshi, 84, Indian freedom activist and politician.
 * Börje Leander, 85, Swedish football player.
 * Steve O'Rourke, 63, English music manager and racing driver, stroke.
 * Richard Taylor, 83, American philosopher.

31

 * Robert Guenette, 68, American screenwriter and film/television producer and director, brain tumor.
 * Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, 95, Indian carnatic musician.
 * José Juncosa, 81, Spanish football player and manager.
 * Antonio Medina, 84, Spanish chess master.
 * Richard Neustadt, 84, American academic and advisor to several presidents.
 * Karel Paulus, 70, Czech volleyball player.
 * Yechiel Shemi, Israeli sculptor.
 * Lindsay Weir, 95, New Zealand cricketer.