Deaths in December 2005

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deaths in 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- →

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2005.

31

• Sanora Babb, 98, American novelist, widow of the cinematographer James Wong Howe [1]
• Harry Clarke, 89, former NFL player with the Chicago Bears, Alzheimer's disease. [2]
• Enrico Di Giuseppe, 73, American operatic tenor, cancer. [3]
• Maurice Dodd, 83, cartoonist (The Perishers), brain haemorrhage. [4]
• St John Ellis, 41, Doncaster Lakers rugby league coach and former Great Britain international.
• Harry Farrell, 81, American political journalist and author
• Sir John Peel, 101, Surgeon-Gynaecologist to Queen Elizabeth II
• Maclovia Ruiz, 95, ballet and specialty dancer in many Hollywood films of the 1930's [5]
• Xolilizwe Sigcau, 79, King of the Xhosas. [6]
• Neil Strawser, 78, CBS Radio correspondent and anchor [7]
• Phillip Whitehead, 68, Labour Party MEP for the East Midlands and former television producer.

30

• Eddie Barlow, 65, South African cricketer. [8]
• Candy Barr, 70, exotic dancer [9][10][11]
• Tory Dent, 47, American poet, essayist and art critic [12]
• Rona Jaffe, 74, American novelist (The Best of Everything, Mazes and Monsters), cancer. [13]
• Jean Ollivier, 81, French comics writer [14]
• Pasquale Carpino, 69, Italian Canadian singing chef'

29

• Armand Phillip Bartos, 95, American architect [15]
• Abuna Yesehaq Mandefro, 72, Ethiopian-Orthodox Archbishop [16]
• Elizabeth Parcells, 54, American operatic coloratura soprano
• M C Puri, 61, Professor Emeritus Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India.
• James G. Pulliam, 80, architect, Parkinson's disease. [17]
• Alan Rolfe, 97, British actor and film historian

28

• Patrick Cranshaw, 86, American actor, famous for character "Blue" in Old School.
• Richard De Angelis, 73, comedian and actor (The Wire), congestive heart failure. [18]
• Virginia Dighero-Zolezzi, 114, oldest living person ever recognized in the history of Italy.
• Jacinto Figueira Jr., 78, "The Man In White Shoes", Brazilian TV host. [19]
• George Dabelich O'Brien, 78, design director of Tiffany & Company, home furnishings editor of the New York Times. [20]
• Stevo Žigon, 79, Serbian actor and theatre director

27

• Xavier Connor, 88, Australian jurist, foundation judge of the Federal Court of Australia, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission 1985 - 1987.
• Ted Ditchburn, 84, goalkeeper for Tottenham Hotspur & England. [21]
• John Druze, 91, last surviving member of the 1930s Fordham University football team's "Seven Blocks of Granite". [22]
• Lewis Hanson, 81, former Air Force One pilot. [23]
• Mary Pellatt, 94, niece of Sir Henry Pellatt
• Dee Pollock, 68, American actor
• Giancarlo Primo, 81, Italian basketball coach, the first to defeat National Teams USA and USSR in 1970s.
• Erich Topp, 91, German U-boat commander in WWII.
• Tokuji Wakasa, 91, Japanese businessman, former president of All Nippon Airways.

26

• Julian "Bud" Blake, 87, American cartoonist (Tiger). [24]
• Muriel Costa-Greenspon, 68, mezzo-soprano at the New York City Opera for 30 years [25]
• John Diebold, 79, pioneering American computer engineer. [26].
• Ernesto Leal, 60, presidential chief of staff and former foreign minister of Nicaragua, pneumonia.
• Linda Leighton, 88, American film and TV actress
• Onoe Matsusuke, 59, Japanese film and kabuki actor.
• Kerry Packer, 68, publishing, media and gaming tycoon, Australia's richest individual amassing a fortune of over $6 billion. [27]
• Vyacheslav Platonov, 66, Russian volleyball trainer.
• Vincent Schiavelli, 57, American character actor, lung cancer. [28]

25

• Felice Andreasi, 77, Italian actor, writer and painter, Parkinson's disease.
• Derek Bailey, 75, free improvising avant-garde guitarist, motor neuron disease. [29]
• Robert Barbers, 61, former Philippines senator, heart attack. [30]
• Bhanumathi, 80, Indian actress.
• Donald Dawson, 97, executive assistant to Harry S. Truman. [31]
• Charles Engell France, 59, assistant to Mikhail Baryshnikov at the American Ballet Theater. [32]
• Henry Kock, 53, Canadian horticulturist and eco-activist, brain cancer. [33]
• Birgit Nilsson, 87, Swedish soprano. [34][35]
• Joseph Pararajasingham, 71, Sri Lankan politician and supporter of the Tamil Tiger rebels, shot and killed at a midnight Christmas mass. [36]
• Rajshekhar, 69, Indian actor.
• Roy Stuart, 70, American actor. [37]

24

• Douglas Bigelow, 49, chief of web security at AOL, pancreatic cancer [38]
• Constance Keene, 84, American classical pianist known for playing the romantic repertoire.
• Harold Lawton, 106, British academic and veteran of the First World War. [39]
• Michael Vale, 83, American actor who appeared in over 1,300 commercials as the sleepy doughnut maker for Dunkin' Donuts from 1982 - 1997.
• Wang Daohan, 90, negotiator for People's Republic of China in cross-straits talks, who contributed to the formation of the 1992 Consensus with Koo Chen-fu from the Republic of China on Taiwan. [40][41]

23

• Lajos Baróti, 91, Hungarian football coach.
• Jimmy Boyle (coach), 63, former St. Joseph's University basketball coach.
• Selma Jeanne Cohen, 85, dance historian, editor of The International Encyclopedia of Dance. [42]
• G. Blakemore Evans, 93, Shakespeare scholar, author of The Riverside Shakespeare, stroke. [43]
• Truman Gibson, 93, anti-segregation lawyer and boxing promoter [44]
• Camille Gravel, 90, Louisiana lawyer and civil rights activist, advisor to three governors. [45]
• Norman D. Vaughan, 100, American explorer and sportsman, part of Richard Byrd's 1928 South Pole expedition. [46][47]
• Yao Wenyuan, 74, Chinese Communist political leader, member of the Gang of Four. [48]

22

• James Dungy, 18, son of NFL coach Tony Dungy, apparent suicide.
• David Engelhard, 64, former general secretary of the Christian Reformed Church, brain cancer. [49]
• Cooper Evans, 81, former Republican US Representative from Iowa from 1981 - 1987.
• Luis Hernandez, 56, witness of the investigation into Puerto Rico's senate's infamous "Video 59", heart attack.
• Ulf Janson, 56, President International Casting Federation, cancer.
• Aurora Miranda, 90, Brazilian entertainer, sister of Carmen Miranda. Appeared in The Three Caballeros in 1945, where she danced with Donald Duck.

21

• Takis Binis, 82, one of the last classic Greek singers of Rebetiko, renal failure.
• Camille Budarz, 70, American concert pianist
• Clinton Carpenter, 84, American composer (finished Mahler's 10th Symphony).
• O.B. Copeland, 89, first editor of Southern Living magazine. [50]
• Horace Crouch ,87, Lt. Col. USAF ret.; a participant in the Doolittle Raid
• Charles F. Cummings, 68, Official Historian of Newark, New Jersey. [51]
• Myron Healey, 82, American actor [52]
• Elrod Hendricks, 64, Baltimore Orioles coach, former MLB catcher, heart attack. [53]
• Lucille Cipriano Szabo, 76, American opera singer.
• Hallam Tennyson, 85, British radio producer and great-grandson of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, suspected victim of murder. [54]
• Albert L. Weimorts, 67, civilian engineer for the US Air Force, designer of the GBU-28 and MOAB bombs. [55]
• Paul M. Williams, 80, mountain climber and founder of Seattle Mountain Rescue, congestive heart failure. [56]

20

• Raoul Bott, 82, Harvard mathematician, cancer.[57]
• Argentina Brunetti, 98, actress (It's a Wonderful Life, The Caddy), writer, journalist.
• Bradford Cannon, 98, Boston plastic surgeon, pneumonia. [58]
• William W. Howells, 97, American anthropologist. [59]
• Billy Hughes (actor), 57, American former child actor during the 60's.
• Lyndon Olson Sr., 80, American lawyer. [60]

19

• Sergio Danguillecourt, 42, great-great-grandson of Bacardi founder, and Bacardi Ltd. board member, killed in seaplane crash near Miami Beach, Florida. [61]
• Hyman Engelberg, 92, physician to Marilyn Monroe, natural causes. [62]
• Vincent Gigante, 77, Genovese family crime boss, heart disease.
• Phyllis Gretzky, 64, mother of NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, lung cancer.
• Julio Iglesias, Sr., 90, Spanish gynaecologist, among the oldest men to have fathered a child; Julio Iglesias's father and Enrique Iglesias's grandfather, heart attack.
• Marjorie Kellogg, 83, American author and playwright (Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon). [63]
• John D. Laupheimer, 75, golfer and second commissioner of the LPGA tour, cancer. [64]
• Alan Shields, 61, American artist. [65]
• Ted Tulchin, 79, Broadway producer (Sweeney Todd). [66]
• Miller Upton, 88, president of Beloit College for 21 years. [67]
• Reynaldo Wycoco, 59, head of the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippines' lead intelligence agency, complications after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke last November 23, 2005.

18

• Keith Duckworth, 72, co-founder of Cosworth engines.
• Doug Dye, 84, New Zealand microbiologist.
• Howie Ferguson, 75, former NFL player.
• Rafael Fornés Collado, 88, Cuban cartoonist. [68]
• Barry Halper, 66, baseball memorabilia collector and limited partner for the New York Yankees. [69]
• Belita Jepson-Turner, 82, Olympic skater and film actress.
• Siphiwe Khumalo, 50, South African actor and director and ex-husband of Sibongile Khumalo, heart attack.
• John McIntyre, 89, Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly (1982), former acting principal and professor of divinity of the University of Edinburgh. [70][71]
• Philip Oakes, 77, British writer, poet and television producer, heart attack. [72]
• P.M. Sayeed, 64, India's Minister of Power, heart attack. [73]
• Alan M. Voorhees, 83, transportation engineer and city planner [74]

17

• Jack Anderson, 83, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, complications of Parkinson's disease. [75]
• Marc Favreau, 76, French Canadian television and film actor, best known for his creation of the clown Sol.
• Jacques Fouroux, 58, French rugby union captain and coach, heart attack. [76]
• T. Edward Hambleton, 94, theatrical producer. [77]
• Sankaran Nair, 80, Indian film director.
• Haljand Udam, 69, Estonian translator and encyclopedist.

16

• Anthony Barber, 85, British politician and former Conservative Party Chancellor of the Exchequer, complications of Parkinson's disease.
• Kenneth Bulmer, 84, English writer (pseudonyms included Alan Burt Akers and Dray Prescot).
• Joseph L. Owades, 86, American biochemist, inventor of light beer. [78] [79]
• John Spencer, 58, American actor (The West Wing), heart attack.
• Sverre Stenersen, 79, Norwegian Gold medal winner in the 1956 Winter Olympics.
• Enzo Stuarti, 86, Italian tenor, was in many Broadway musicals, heart failure. [80]
• Joey Villa, 68, American stand-up comedian.

15

• T.K. Balachandran, 78, Indian Bollywood producer.
• Sidney B. Factor, 89, Max Factor heir, natural causes. [81]
• James Ingo Freed, 75, American architect.
• Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 84, Italian writer and director of movies and theatre.
• Heinrich Gross, 90, Austrian alleged Nazi doctor and war criminal. [82] [83]
• Walter Haut, 83, retired U.S. Army lieutenant, central figure in the Roswell UFO incident in 1947. [84]
• Swami Jagdishwaranand, 71, Hindu spiritual leader in New York City. [85]
• D.A. "Swanny" Kirby, 88, rodeo pioneer. [86]
• Stan Leonard, 90, Canadian golfer, heart failure. [87]
• Julian Marías, 91, Spanish philosopher and father of author Javier Marías.
• Jim Ostendarp, 82, football coach at Amherst College for 33 years [88]
• William Proxmire, 90, former Democratic Senator from Wisconsin (1957 - 1989), giver of the Golden Fleece Awards for wasteful government spending, complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• Darrell Russell, 29, former NFL player for the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, car accident.

14

• Gordon Duncan, 41, Scottish musician, best known for his virtuoso Highland bagpiping in Celtic music, committed suicide in his home in Pitlochry.
• Eliot Freidson, 82, sociologist, author of Profession of Medicine: A Study of the Sociology of Applied Knowledge. [89]
• Sudhir Joshi, 57, Indian actor, heart attack.
• John B. Nixon, 77, American convicted murderer, executed in Mississippi.
• Stevenson J. Palfi, 53, American documentary filmmaker (Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together). [90]
• William "Duke" Procter, 106, Canadian WWI veteran. [91]
• Herman Roiphe, 81, psychoanalyst, co-author of Infantile Origins of Sexual Identity and Your Child's Mind. [92]
• M. Gladys Swetland, 113, believed to be the oldest resident of Pennsylvania. [93]
• Rodney William Whitaker, 74, British author, wrote under pseudonyms such as "Trevanian".
• Gery Scott, 82, British / Australian jazz and cabaret singer and teacher

13

• Nathalie Babel Brown, 76, French-American scholar and editor, daughter of Isaac Babel. [94]
• Stanley Tookie Williams, 51, American convicted murderer and co-founder of the Crips turned anti-gang activist, executed by lethal injection for killing 4 people in California.

12

• Eric D'Arcy, 81, Australian Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Hobart.
• George Bernau, 60, novelist, stroke.
• Annie Dodds, 62, documentary filmmaker, leukemia. [95]
• Grace Ingoldby, 56, British author and poet.
• Abraham Melamed, 85, Israeli politician (National Religious Party).
• Robert Newmyer, 49, American film producer, heart attack and complications of asthma.
• Ramanand Sagar, 87, Bollywood film producer. [96]
• Annette Stroyberg, 69, Danish actress and former wife of Roger Vadim. [97]
• Gyula Trebitsch, 91, Hungarian film and TV producer.
• Gebran Tueni, 48, Lebanese journalist and legislator, injuries sustained in a car bombing attack. [98]
• Julius Wile, 91, US wine importer and educator [99]

11

• Ulises Barrera, 80, Argentine boxing sportscaster, heart failure.
• Walter Cudzik, 73, NFL and AFL center for the Boston Patriots.
• Richard Sandbrook, 59, founding member of Friends of the Earth. [100]
• Professor Hayim Tadmor, 82, Israeli Assyriologist. [101]
• Del Philpott, 82, American soldier and scientist

10

• Mary Jackson, 95, American actress.
• Sydney Leff, 104, sheet-music illustrator for Irving Berlin. [102]
• Donald Martino, 74, American composer.
• Eugene McCarthy, 89, former Democratic United States Senator from Minnesota (1959-1971), and United States Representative (1949-1959) and presidential primary candidate.
• David Patterson, 83, founder of the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University. [103]
• Richard Pryor, 65, American comedian and actor, heart attack and complications of multiple sclerosis.
• Gardner Read, 92, American classical composer.
• Bob Richardson, 73, fashion photographer.

9

• Mike Botts, 61, American drummer, toured and recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Dan Fogelberg, Tina Turner and others, cancer.
• Pauline Farrell, 93, operatic soprano, and former ambassador
• Homer Mensch, 91, internationally known bass player, Juilliard teacher.
• Eunice Norton, 97, American classical pianist and music promoter
• György Sándor, 93, internationally famous pianist, Juilliard teacher, heart failure.
• Robert Sheckley, 77, American science fiction author, brain aneurysm.
• Boris Tazlitzky, 94, French artist, Nazi concentration camp survivor.
• Brian Whittle, 59, British journalist and news agency head. [104]

8

• R. W. Bradford, 58, publisher of Liberty magazine, cancer.
• Dame Rose Heilbron, 91, British judge.
• William J. Oswald, 86, algae scientist. [105]
• Leo Scheffczyk, 85, German Cardinal Deacon of San Francesco Saverio alla Garbatella, Germany. [106]
• Roger Shattuck, 82, American literary (Proust) scholar and author, prostate cancer. [107]
• J.N. Williamson, 73, American horror writer, author and publisher.
• Georgiy Zhzhonov, 90, Russian actor.

7

• Lucy d'Abreu, 113, oldest person in the UK at the time of her death. [108]
• Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, airplane passenger fatally shot by U.S. Air Marshals after allegedly claiming he had placed a bomb aboard.
• James Bastien, 71, author of instructional books for the piano [109]
• Adrian Biddle, 53, British cinematographer, heart attack.
• Albert Henry Bosch, 97, Republican United States Representative from New York (1953 - 1960).
• Carroll A. Campbell, Jr., 65, former South Carolina governor (1987-1995), and member of U.S. House of Representatives (1979-1987), heart attack and complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• Bud Carson, 75, former NFL head coach, emphysema.
• Loomis Dean, 88, photographer, notably for LIFE magazine.
• Beach Dickerson, 81, actor in B films of Roger Corman.
• Devan Nair, 82, former president of Singapore. [110]
• Manouchehr Nozari, 69, Iranian television actor.
• Bob O'Brien, 87, comedy writer (Here's Lucy).

6

• Charly Gaul, 72, Luxembourgian cyclist, winner of the 1958 Tour de France.
• Richard Grimsdale, 76, built the world's first transistorised computer and was at the forefront of work on Read Only Memory. [111]
• Hanns Dieter Hüsch, 80, German political satirist.
• Stephen L. Mosko, 58, American composer.
• Jerzy Pajaczkowski-Dydynski, 111, oldest man in the UK at the time of his death. [112]
• Danny Williams, 63, South African popular singer (best known for his version of the song "Moon River").

5

• John Alvheim, 75, Norwegian politician.
• Wesley Baker, 47, American convicted murderer, executed in Maryland.
• Liu Binyan, 80, Chinese author and dissident, cancer. [113]
• Milo Dor, 82, Serbian-Austrian author. (Milo Dor)
• Edward L. Masry, 73, attorney and mentor to Erin Brockovich, complications of diabetes.
• Charles McElmurry, 84, American animation designer.
• Kevin "Big Kev" McQuay, 56, Australian businessman and media personality, heart attack. [114]
• Frits Philips, 100, Dutch businessman, grandson of the founder of Philips, complications from a fall.

4

• Fred Benavente, 79, Dutch comedian and television maker.
• Hisako Hara, 96, Japanese actress.
• Gregg Hoffman, 42, film producer, natural causes (autopsy result pending). [115]
• Gloria Lasso, 83, Spanish singer.
• Doug Murphy, 53, former CBS (KPIX) news anchorman, house fire.

3

• Maggie Bailey, 101, nicknamed "Queen of the Mountain Bootleggers." [116]
• Peter Cook, 62, Australian politician, melanoma.
• Lance Dossor, 90, Australian pianist.
• Peter E. Haas, Sr., 86, great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss, who with his brother built the Levi company into a major brand. [117]
• Maurice Harris, 84, trumpet player, Hollywood, studio, TV and sessions player, (Tonight Show).
• Kikka Sirén, 41, Finnish pop/schlager singer.
• Kåre Kristiansen, 85, Norwegian politician; minister of Oil and Energy (1983 - 1986).
• Lupe Madera, 52, Mexican former world champion boxer.
• Sophie Thoko Mcgina, 67, South African actress and musician.
• Abu Hamsa Rabia, Egyptian-born operational commander for Al-Qaeda. [118]
• Atsuko Tanaka, 73, Japanese avant-garde artist, pneumonia.
• Allan Waters, 84, Canadian broadcasting icon.

2

• John Barber, 93, British newspaper drama critic. [119]
• Kenneth Boyd, 57, American convicted murderer, executed in North Carolina, the 1,000th U.S. execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. [120]
• Lillian Browse, 99, British art dealer and historian.
• Shawn Paul Humphries, 34, American convicted murderer, executed in South Carolina.
• John Iannaccone, 94, sky sailor, Hindenburg disaster witness.
• Malik Joyeux, 25, professional surfer, killed at Hawaii's Banzai Pipeline. [121]
• Maury Kraines, 84, co-owner of 1992 Indy 500 winner, heart failure.
• William P. Lawrence, 75, retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral, first to fly at twice the speed of sound. [122]
• Peter Menegazzo, early 60s, Australian cattle baron, killed (along with his wife Angela) in a plane crash. [123][124]
• Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, Australian executed at Changi Prison in Singapore for trafficking 396 grams of heroin in 2002, hanging. [125]
• Mohammed Amza Zubeidi, 67, former Iraqi prime minister under Saddam Hussein.

1

• Gust L. Avrakotos, 67, CIA agent who armed the mujaheddin of Afghanistan. [126]
• Mary Hayley Bell, 94, British actress and writer, and wife of Sir John Mills.
• Jack Colvin, 73, American actor, The Incredible Hulk, coronary thrombosis.
• Werner Enders, 81, German tenor.
• Michael Evans, 61, White House photographer, noted for capturing the trademark image of Ronald Reagan wearing a cowboy hat, cancer. [127]
• Adam W. Kaiser, 19, American United States Marine Corps, Killed in Action, December 1, 2005, Operation Iraqi Freedom.
• William Henry Ottley, 76, sports innovator, credited with promoting skydiving as a sport, pneumonia. [128]
• William B. Tanner, 75, American multimillionaire businessman.
• Ray Hanna, 77, British vintage warbird pilot and founder of The Old Flying Machine Company. [129]