Deaths in 2001

For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994 ...

See also: other events of 2001 and Recent deaths.

Contents 1 January 2001 2 February 2001 3 March 2001 4 April 2001 5 May 2001 6 June 2001 7 July 2001 8 August 2001 9 September 2001 10 October 2001 11 November 2001 12 December 2001

January 2001

• 1 – Ray Walston, 86, American actor, lupus
• 11 – Dorothy M. Horstmann, 89, American virologist who made important discoveries about polio, Alzheimer's disease
• 12 – Affirmed, 25, American race horse, euthanasia after contracting laminitis
• 12 – William Hewlett, 87, American co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, heart failure
• 13 – Michael Cuccione, 16, Canadian actor and musician, respiratory failure
• 16 – Laurent-Désiré Kabila, 61, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1997–2001), assassination
• 17 - Tom Kilburn, 79, British computer scientist.
• 19 - Maxine Mesinger, 75, American newspaper columnist, complications of multiple sclerosis.
• 27 – Mordecai Richler, 69, Canadian author: Jacob Two-Two
• 27 - Sir Colin Woods, 80, British police officer.
• 30 – Jean-Pierre Aumont, 90, French actor, heart attack
• 30 - Johnnie Johnson, 85, British World War II fighter pilot.
• 30 – Joseph Ransohoff, 85, American neurosurgeon
• 30 – John Vernon Taylor, 86, British Anglican bishop
• 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, 77, American science fiction writer, asthma

February 2001

• 4 - Sir David Beattie, 76, New Zealand jurist and Governor-General
• 4 - Pankaj Roy, 72, Indian cricketer.
• 4 – Iannis Xenakis, 78, Greek-French composer
• 4 – J. J. Johnson, 77, American jazz trombonist, suicide
• 7 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 94, American author, aviator
• 7 – Dale Evans, 88, actress, singer
• 7 – Sir Michael Grylls, 66, British politician.
• 8 – Leslie Edwards, 84, British ballet dancer.
• 12 – Kristina Söderbaum, 88, German film actress, producer and photographer
• 14 – Richard Laymon, 54, American horror author, heart attack
• 14 – Alan Ross, 78, British poet and editor
• 18 – Balthus, 92, French painter
• 18 – Eddie Mathews, 69, American baseball player, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, pneumonia
• 18 – Dale Earnhardt, 49, American NASCAR race car driver, crash during race
• 19 – Stanley Kramer, 87, American film director and producer, pneumonia
• 19 – Priscilla Davis, 67, former Fort Worth, Texas socialite, breast cancer
• 19 – Charles Trenet, 87, French singer
• 21 – John MacKay, Baron MacKay of Ardbrecknish, 62, British politician
• 22 – Les Medley, 80, England international footballer, natural causes
• 24 – Claude Elwood Shannon, 84, American electrical engineer and mathematician
• 25 – Sir Donald Bradman, 92, Australian cricketer

March 2001

• 4 – Harold Stassen, 93, American politician.
• 4 – Glenn Hughes, 50, leather dude of the pop group The Village People, lung cancer
• 9 – Leopold Page, 87, Polish-American Holocaust survivor
• 12 – Robert Ludlum, 73, author of spy novels
• 12 – Morton Downey, Jr., 67, American television personality, lung cancer
• 13 - Henry Lee Lucas, 64, American convicted criminal, natural causes
• 15 – Ann Sothern, 92, actress, former wife of the actor Robert Sterling, stroke
• 16 – Dame Marjorie Bean, 91, Bermudian politician
• 18 – John Phillips, 65, American singer, co-founder of The Mamas & the Papas, heart failure
• 21 – Norma Macmillan, 80, American cartoon voice actress
• 21 – Chung Ju-yung, 86, Founder of the Hyundai Group, natural causes
• 22 – Stepas Butautas, 75, Lithuanian basketball player
• 22 – William Hanna, 90, American animator, co-founder (with Joseph Barbera) of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, throat cancer.
• 22 – Sabiha Gökçen, 88, the first Turkish female aviator and the first female combat pilot of the world
• 25 – Willie Horne, 79, British rugby league player.
• 25 – Brian Trubshaw, 77, British test pilot.
• 28 – Moe Koffman, 72, Canadian flautist and saxophonist, cancer

April 2001

• 3 – Michael Berry, Baron Hartwell, 89, British newspaper proprietor.
• 7 – Sir Derek Lang, 87, British army general.
• 7 – Beatrice Straight, 86, Academy Award-winning actress (Network, Poltergeist)
• 10 – John M. Edmond, 67, British geochemist.
• 10 – Nyree Dawn Porter, 65, New Zealand actress.
• 10 – Willie Stargell, 61, American baseball player, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• 11 – Graciela Naranjo, 84, Venezuelan singer and actress; a radio, cinema and television pioneer in her homeland
• 11 – Sir Harry Secombe, 79, Welsh actor, comedian, member of The Goon Show, prostate cancer
• 12 – Harvey Ball, 79, American inventor of the smiley
• 14 – Bryan Ranft, 83, British historian
• 15 – Joey Ramone (b. Jeffry Hyman), 49, American musician, lead singer for The Ramones, lymphoma
• 16 – Alec Stock, 84, English footballer and football manager
• 20 - Bert Sutcliffe, 77, New Zealand cricketer
• 22 - John F. Allen, 92, Canadian physicist.
• 24 – Peter Nugent, 63, Australian politician
• 25 – Michele Alboreto, 44, Italian racing driver

May 2001

• 1? – Chandra Levy, 24, intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C.
• 5 – Charles Black, 85, noted constitutional scholar
• 5 – Cliff Hillegass, 83, American creator of CliffsNotes, stroke
• 11 – Douglas Adams, 49, British author, works included The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the two Dirk Gently novels and serials in the series Doctor Who, heart attack
• 11 – Michael J. Bird, 72, British writer
• 12 – Perry Como, 88, American singer
• 12 – Simon Raven, 73, British writer
• 12 – Corissa Yasen, 27, professional basketball player, suicide
• 22 – Whitman Mayo, 70, actor, heart attack
• 25 – Arturo Maly, 61, Argentine actor
• 26 – Anne Haney, 67, actress, heart failure
• 27 - Jack Scowen, 65, Canadian politician
• 28 – Francisco Varela, 54, Chilean biologist and philosopher

June 2001

• 1 – King Birendra, 55, King of Nepal
• 1 – Queen Aiswarya, 51, Queen of Nepal
• 1 – Hank Ketcham, 81, American cartoonist, creator of Dennis the Menace, prostate cancer
• 1 – Marie Brémont, 115, Oldest Person in the World and last known person documented as born in 1886.
• 2 - Imogene Coca, 92, American actress
• 3 – Anthony Quinn, 86, Mexican-American actor
• 4 – Joey Maxim, 79, world Light Heavyweight champion boxer
• 4 – King Dipendra of Nepal, 29
• 10 – Princess Leila of Iran, 31
• 11 – Timothy McVeigh, 33, American convicted terrorist
• 12 – Thomas Wilson, 73, British composer
• 15 – Henri Alekan, 92, French cinematographer, leukemia
• 18 – Dame Rosamund Holland-Martin, 86, head of the NSPCC
• 20 – Bob Keegan, 80, baseball player
• 21 – Carroll O'Connor, 76 American actor
• 21 – John Lee Hooker, 83, American Blues musician
• 21 – Souad Hosni, 59, Egyptian actress
• 26 - Robert Smith, 88, American actor
• 27 – Tove Jansson, 86, Finnish author
• 27 – Jack Lemmon, 76, American actor and film director, bladder and colorectal cancer
• 28 – Joan Sims, 71, British actress
• 30 – Chet Atkins, 77, American country musician

July 2001

• 3 – Delia Derbyshire, 64, British musician, renal failure
• 5 – Hannelore Kohl, 68, wife of ex-chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, suicide
• 12 – John Wright, 72, British boxer
• 11 – Herman Brood, 54, Dutch rock musician, suicide
• 16 – Terry Gordy, 40, pro wrestler; founding member of the Fabulous Freebirds, heart attack
• 18 – Fabio Taglioni, 80, automotive engineer
• 20 – Carlo Giuliani, 19, Italian anarchist, murder
• 21 – Sivaji Ganesan, 74, famous Indian actor, respiratory problems
• 21 – John Hughes, 93, British Anglican prelate
• 21 – Hiroshi Tsuburaya, 37, famous Japanese actor, liver cancer
• 27 – Leon Wilkeson, 49, American musician, bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd
• 27 – Thomas Pitt Cholmondeley-Tapper, 90, first New Zealand auto racing driver
• 29 – Wau Holland, 49, German hacker, founder of the CCC, heart attack
• 29 – Edward Gierek, 88, Polish politician
• 29 – Edward Roberts, 93, British prelate
• 31 – A. G. Dickens, 91, British historian

August 2001

• 1 – Joe Lynch, 76, Irish actor
• 1 – Korey Stringer, 26, American football player, complications brought on by heat stroke
• 1 – Poul Anderson, 74, American fantasy and Science Fiction author, cancer
• 3 – Christopher Hewett, 79, British actor
• 4 – Lorenzo Music, 64, American voice actor known for the voice of the cartoon cat Garfield, complications related to lung and bone cancer
• 6 – Jorge Amado, 88, Brazilian writer
• 6 – Dame Dorothy Tutin, 71, British actress
• 9 – Humphry Bowen, 72, British botanist and chemist
• 10 – Bob Johnson, 60, British businessman
• 13 – John C. Elliott, 82, American politician and 39th Governor of American Samoa
• 15 – Jim Russell, 92, Australian cartoonist
• 19 – Donald Woods, 67, South African journalist, newspaper editor, and anti-apartheid activist, made famous by exposing the killing of his friend, Steve Biko, by South African security forces
• 20 – Sir Fred Hoyle, 86, British astronomer and science fiction writer
• 22 – Bobby Johnstone, 71, Scottish footballer (Hibernian, Manchester City, Oldham Athletic, Scotland)
• 25 – Aaliyah, 22, American R&B singer and actress (Plane crash)
• 29 – Graeme "Shirley" Strachan, 50, Australian singer and television presenter

September 2001

• 1 – Bobby Evans, 74, Scottish football player
• 2 – Christiaan Barnard. 78, South African heart surgeon, first to perform a human-to-human heart transplant
• 3 – Frank Billinge. 107, World War I pilot
• 3 – Thuy Trang, 27, Vietnamese American actress, played a role as Trini Kwan from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
• 3 – Pauline Kael. 82, American movie critic
• 5 – Justin Wilson, 87, Cajun chef and humorist
• 6 – Megan Connolly, 27, Australian actress, heroin overdose
• 7 – Spede Pasanen, 71, Finnish television star
• 9 – Ahmed Shah Massoud, 48, Afghan Northern Alliance military commander
• 11 – The September 11 attacks take place
  • See: Casualties of the September 11 attacks
  • And: Hijackers in the September 11 attacks
• 11 – David Angell, 55, American television producer
• 11 – Garnet Bailey, 53, Canadian ice hockey player and scout
• 11 – Todd Beamer, 32, American airline passenger
• 11 – Berry Berenson, 53, American actress and photographer
• 11 – Mark Bingham, 31, American airline passenger
• 11 – Tom Burnett, 38, American airline passenger
• 11 – Jeremy Glick, 31, American airline passenger
• 11 – Barbara Olson, 45, American television commentator
• 11 - John P. O'Neill, 49, American Counterterrorism expert
• 11 – Alice Stewart Trillin, 63, American author and film producer (heart failure)
• 12 – Victor Wong, 74, American movie actor and artist
• 15 – June Salter, 69, Australian actor
• 18 – Ernie Coombs, 73, American born actor. Long time host of Canadian children's show Mr. Dressup on CBC
• 19 – David Thomas, 89, Welsh cricketer
• 22 – Isaac Stern, 81, Ukrainian violinist, congestive heart failure
• 28 – Martin O'Hagan, 51, Irish investigative journalist, murdered.
• 29 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, 78, former President of South Vietnam
• 30 – Madhavrao Scindia,56, Prominent Indian politician and minister,a royal family member, Maharaja of Gwalior

October 2001

• 4 – Blaise Alexander, 25, American race car driver, race crash
• 4 – John Collins, 88, American jazz guitarist.
• 7 – Christopher Adams, 46, pro wrestler and judoka, brother of Olympic Judo star Neil Adams
• 9 – Herbert Ross, 74, American film director
• 11 – Nada Mamula, 74, Yugoslavian sevdalinka singer
• 12 – Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone (Quintin Hogg), 94, British lawyer and politician
• 13 – Ubi Dwyer, 68, Irish anarchist.
• 14 - David Lewis, 60, American philosopher
• 15 – Anne Ridler, 89, British poet and editor
• 15 – Zhang Xueliang, 100, Chinese warlord and military figure. Important individual in recent Chinese history
• 17 - Jack Smith, 77, American NASCAR driver.
• 23 - Ken Aston, 86, British football referee
• 26 – John Platts-Mills, 95, British politician and lawyer
• 31 – Angus MacVicar, 93, British author.

November 2001

• 3 – Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, 87, European royalty, sister of Prince Philip.
• 9 - Denis Atkinson, 75, Barbadian cricketer, captain of West Indies.
• 10 – Ken Kesey, 66, American author, counter-cultural figure
• 11 - John R. Foley, 84, American politician
• 12 – Tony Miles, 46, English chess player
• 13 – Peggy Mount, 86, English actress (Oliver!, The Princess and the Goblin)
• 18 – Malcolm McFee, 52, Actor
• 21 - Salahuddin of Selangor, 75, Malaysian head of state.
• 22 – Mary Kay Ash, 83, American businesswoman, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
• 23 – Mary Whitehouse, 91, British campaigner against permissiveness.
• 24 – Melanie Thornton, 34, singer, plane crash near Zürich
• 25 – Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi, Pakistani author, Spiritual Leader and founder of International Spiritual Movement Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam
• 28 - Michael Yates, 82, British television designer
• 29 – John Knowles, 75, author, A Separate Peace
• 29 – George Harrison, 58, British musician and former member of The Beatles
• 30 – Robert Tools, 59, first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart

December 2001

• 2 – John W. Collins, 89, American chess teacher
• 2 – Valorie Jones, The Jones Girls
• 4 – Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, 75, Sultan of Selangor and Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
• 5 – Sir Peter Blake, 53, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist, shot by pirates on the Amazon River
• 5 – Franco Rasetti, 100, Italian physicist
• 7 – Sir Raymond Powell, 73, British politician
• 8 – Don Tennant, 79, American advertising executive, inventor of Tony the Tiger and the Marlboro Man
• 8 - George Young, 71, American football executive.
• 9 – Michael Carver, Baron Carver, 86, British Field Marshal
• 13 – Yvan Craipeau, 90, French Trotskyist
• 13 – Chuck Schuldiner, 34, death metal guitarist and vocalist
• 15 – Rufus Thomas, 84, R&B/soul singer
• 16 - Stuart Adamson, 43, singer, songwriter, guitarist of Big Country and The Raphaels
• 20 – Léopold Senghor, 95, first President of Senegal; also a world-renowned poet and writer
• 27 – Ian Hamilton, 63, British critic, poet, magazine publisher
• 27 - Paul Hogarth, 84, British artist
• 28 – William X. Kienzle, 73, author of murder mysteries with Catholic priest detective
• 29 – Takashi Asahina, 93, Japanese conductor
• 30 – Eileen Heckart, 82, Oscar-winning American actor
• 30 – Dame Sheila Sherlock, 83, British physician