Deaths in 2002

The following is a list of notable deaths in 2002. Names are listed under the date of death and not the date it was announced. Names under each date are listed in alphabetical order by family name.

Deaths of notable animals (that is, those with their own Wikipedia articles) are also reported here.

A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

Name, age, country of citizenship and reason for notability, established cause of death, reference.

1 January 2002
2 February 2002
3 March 2002
4 April 2002
5 May 2002
6 June 2002
7 July 2002
8 August 2002
9 September 2002
10 October 2002
11 November 2002
12 December 2002
13 See also

January 2002

2 Armi Aavikko, 43, Finnish beauty queen and singer
2 Zac Foley, 31, bass guitarist for EMF
3 Freddy Heineken, 78, beer magnate
7 Jon Lee, 33, British drummer
8 M. S. Bartlett, 91, British statistician
8 Dave Thomas, 69, US entrepreneur, founder of Wendy's hamburger restaurants
11 Julian Faber, 84, English business executive
11 Cyrus Vance, 87, former United States Secretary of State, international peacemaker
12 Stanley Unwin, 90, comedian
13 Ted Demme, film and television director
15 Jeremy Hawk, 83, British actor
16 Bobo Olson, American boxer
16 Ron Taylor, American actor
17 Camilo José Cela, 85, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature
17 Peter Adamson, 71, British actor
17 Diana Boddington, 80, British stage manager
17 Brian Simon, 86, British educationalist and historian
18 Alex Hannum, 78, pro basketball coach
19 Jeff Astle, 59, English footballer
20 Luule Viilma, 51, Estonian doctor, esotericist and practitioner of alternative medicine, died in car crash.
21 Peggy Lee, 81, American singer & actress
22 Eric de Maré, 91, architectural photographer and writer
23 Paul Aars, 67, American stock car driver
23 Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist
23 Robert Nozick, philosopher
28 Dick Lane, 73, American football player
28 Astrid Lindgren, 98, Swedish children's book author, pneumonia
29 Stephen Wayne Anderson, 48, convicted murderer. executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison in California.

February 2002

6 Max Perutz, founder of molecular biology
7 Elisa Bridges, 28, Playboy model
7 Jack Fairman, 88, British Formula One driver
8 Joachim Hoffmann, German historian
8 Bob Wooler, 76, British disc jockey
9 Princess Margaret, 71, British royal family (sister of Queen Elizabeth II)
11 Barry Foster, 74, (heart attack), British actor
12 Theresa Bernstein, 111, artist
12 William Lee Dwyer, 72, United States federal judge
12 George Eiferman, 76, bodybuilder, won Mr.Universe in 1962
12 John Eriksen, 44, Danish footballer
13 Waylon Jennings, 64, country music performer, actor, disc jockey, former member of Buddy Holly's band
14 Mick Tucker, drummer for the glam rock band The Sweet
15 Mike Darr baseball player
15 Howard K. Smith, TV journalist
15 Kevin Smith, played Ares on Xena series
16 John W. Gardner, American politician
16 Sir Walter Winterbottom, 89, British football manager
19 Virginia Hamilton, African American, award-winning children's book author
21 John Thaw, 60, (cancer), British actor, most famous for the detective series Morse and The Sweeney
21 A. L. Barker, British author
22 Sir Roden Cutler, 85, Australian diplomat
22 Brendan O'Dowda, 76, Irish tenor
22 Sir Raymond Firth, 100, British anthropologist
22 Chuck Jones, US animator
24 Martin Esslin, 83, writer and drama producer
24 Leo Ornstein, 109, radical composer/pianist
27 Spike Milligan, 83, Irish actor, comedian and writer
28 Mary Stuart, 75, soap opera actress best known for her 35-year starring role on Search for Tomorrow

March 2002

1 Roger Plumpton Wilson,96, British Anglican prelate.
3 Al Pollard, NFL player and broadcaster, lymphoma [1]
11 Rudolf Hell, 100, German inventor and manufacturer
13 Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher
14 Tan Yu, 75, Filipino entrepreneur
17 Rosetta LeNoire, 90, African-American stage and television actress
18 Maude Farris-Luse, 115, supercentenarian & one-time "Oldest Recognized Person in the World"
20 Ivan Novikoff, 102, Russian premier ballet master
24 César Milstein, 74, Argentinian biochemist
25 Kenneth Wolstenholme, 81, British football commentator
27 Milton Berle, American comedian dubbed "Mr. Television"
27 Dudley Moore, 66, UK actor and writer
27 Billy Wilder, 95, Austrian-born American film director (Double Jeopardy)
29 Rico Yan, 27, Filipino movie & TV actor
30 Queen Elizabeth (née Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon), 101, Britain's "Queen Mum"; mother of Queen Elizabeth II
31 Barry Took, 73, UK comedian and writer

April 2002

5 Layne Staley, 34, former Alice in Chains frontman, died after injecting a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a "speedball"
6 Margaret Wingfield, 90, British political activist
7 John Agar, 82, American actor (as well as the first husband of actress/politician Shirley Temple Black)
8 María Félix, Mexican film star
10 Géza Hofi , 75 Hungarian humorist
14 Sir Michael Kerr, 81, British justice
15 Byron White, United States Supreme Court justice
16 Franz Krienbühl, Swiss speed skater
16 Robert Urich, 55, American TV actor
18 Thor Heyerdahl, 87, Norwegian anthropologist
18 Cy Laurie, 75, British musician.
19 (Body discovered), Layne Staley, singer (Alice in Chains)
23 Linda Boreman, formerly known as Linda Lovelace, 53, former porn star turned political activist; killed in a car crash
25 Lisa Lopes, American singer; killed in car crash in Honduras
25 Indra Devi (aged 102; "Yoga teacher to the stars")
27 Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll
27 Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, German Industrialist and art collector
28 Alexander Lebed, Russian general and politician
28 Sir Peter Parker, 77, British businessman.
28 Lou Thesz, professional wrestler
29 Liam O'Sullivan, Scottish footballer, drugs overdose [2]

May 2002

1 John Nathan-Turner, 54, British television producer
2 William Thomas Tutte, 84, Bletchley Park cryptographer and British, later Canadian, mathematician.
3 Barbara Castle, 91, British Labour politician and female life peer
3 Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, 73, president of Somaliland and formerly prime minister of Somalia and British Somaliland.
3 Mohan Singh Oberoi, 103, Indian hotelier and retailer
5 Sir Clarence Seignoret 83, president of Dominica (1983–1993).
5 Hugo Banzer Suárez, 75, president of Bolivia, as dictator 1971-1978 and democratic president 1997-2001
6 Pim Fortuyn, 54, assassinated Dutch politician
7 Seattle Slew, 28, last triple crown winner on 25th anniversary of winning Kentucky Derby
10 Lynda Lyon Block, 54, convicted murderer, executed by electric chair in Alabama.
10 Leslie Dale Martin, 35, convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection in Louisiana
11 Joseph Bonanno, 97, Sicilian former Mafia boss
13 Morihiro Saito, 74, a teacher of the Japanese martial art of aikido
13 Ruth Cracknell, 76, redoubtable Australian actress most famous for the long-running role of Maggie Beare in the series "Mother and Son"
13 Valery Lobanovsky, 63, former Ukrainian coach
15 Nellie Shabalala, 49, South African singer and wife of leader/founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joseph Shabalala.
16 Edwin Alonzo Boyd, 88, Canadian bank-robber and prison escapee of the 1950s
16 Alec Campbell, 103, Australia's last surviving ANZAC died in a nursing home
17 Earl Hammond, 80, American voice actor best known for voicing Mumm Ra and Jaga in the television series Thundercats
17 Joe Black, 78, Baseball first Black pitcher to win a World Series game
18 Davey Boy Smith, 39, 'British Bulldog' professional wrestler
19 John Gorton, 90, 19th Prime Minister of Australia
20 Stephen Jay Gould, 60, paleontologist and popular science author
21 Niki de Saint Phalle, 71, French artist
22 (remains discovered; actual death probably took place on or around May 1, 2001), Chandra Levy, 24, U.S. Congressional intern
23 Sam Snead, 89, golfer
26 Mamo Wolde, 69, Ethiopian marathon runner
28 Napoleon Beazley, 25, convicted juvenile offender, executed by lethal injection in Texas.

June 2002

1 Hansie Cronje, 32, (air crash), South African cricketer
4 Fernando Belaúnde Terry, democratic president of Peru, 1963–1968 and 1980–1985
4 John W. Cunningham, 86, American author
4 Caroline Knapp, 42, author of Drinking: A Love Story
5 Dee Dee Ramone, founding member of The Ramones
6 Hans Janmaat, controversial far-right politician in the Netherlands
10 John Gotti, imprisoned mobster
11 Robbin Crosby, guitarist of rock band Ratt
11 Robert Roswell Palmer, historian, writer
12 Bill Blass, fashion designer
14 Jose Bonilla boxing former world champion, of asthma
14 June Jordan, 65, American writer and teacher, of breast cancer
15 Said Belqola, Moroccan referee of the 1998 FIFA World Cup final
17 Fritz Walter, football player, captain of 1954 World Cup winners
17 Willie Davenport, Olympic Games champion
18 Jack Buck, Major League Baseball announcer
18 Nancy Addison, 54, soap actress died of cancer
19 Count Flemming Valdemar of Rosenborg, 80, Danish prince
21 Henry Keith, Baron Keith of Kinkel, 80, British jurist
22 Ann Landers, author & syndicated newspaper columnist
22 Darryl Kile, 33, Major League Baseball player
23 Pedro "El Rockero" Alcazar, Panamanian boxer; died after losing his world Flyweight championship to Fernando Montiel in Las Vegas the night before
23 Arnold Weinstock, 77, British businessman
24 Miles Francis Stapleton Fitzalan-Howard, 86, 17th Duke of Norfolk
24 Pierre Werner, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, "father of the Euro"
26 Jay Berwanger, college football player, first winner of the Heisman Trophy
27 John Entwistle, 57, (heart attack), bassist for The Who
28 Arthur "Spud" Melin, responsible for marketing hula-hoop and frisbee
29 Rosemary Clooney, 74, singer
30 Dave Wilson, 70, American television director

July 2002

4 Sir Jake Saunders, 85, British banker
4 Winnifred Van Tongerloo, oldest living survivor of the Titanic
4 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., African-American General
5 Ted Williams, Baseball Hall of Fame member
5 Katy Jurado, 68, Mexican actress who was once married to Ernest Borgnine
6 Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (b. 1932)
6 John Frankenheimer, 74, film director
8 Sir Robert Bellinger, 92, former Lord Mayor of London
8 Ward Kimball, Disney animator
9 Rod Steiger, 77, (kidney failure), actor
9 Laurence Janifer, science fiction writer
10 John Wallach, journalist
13 Yousuf Karsh, 93, celebrity portrait photographer as "Karsh of Ottawa"
14 Joaquín Balaguer, 95, former President of the Dominican Republic
15 Samantha Runnion, 5, child who was kidnapped, sexually abuse and murdered by Alejandro Avila
16 Alan Charles Clark, 82, British Roman Catholic prelate
16 John Cocke, key figure in the development of RISC architecture
16 Jack Olsen, "True crime" writer
19 Alexander Ginzburg, leading Soviet dissident (alternatively Aleksandr Ginzburg)
19 Alan Lomax, documenter of blues and folk songs
21 John Cunningham, 84, British World War II fighter pilot
22 Prince Ahmed bin Salman, member of the Saudi Arabian royal family, owner of Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner War Emblem
22 Chuck Traynor, 64, American pornographer
23 Alberto Castillo, 87, Argentine tango singer and actor
23 Leo McKern, 82, Australian actor best known for playing Rumpole of the Bailey and one of the Number Twos in The Prisoner
23 William Pierce, rocket scientist, neo-Nazi, author of "The Turner Diaries"
23 Chaim Potok, 73, US author
24 Maurice Denham, 92, British actor
24 Mike Clark, 61, former NFL kicker
25 Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher
29 Peter Bayliss, 80, British actor

August 2002

1 Jack Tighe, 88, American baseball coach
3 Carmen Silvera, 80, UK television and theatre actress (Dad's Army, 'Allo 'Allo!)
3 (approx date) Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman child- murder victims
5 Josh Ryan Evans, American actor ("Timmy" on Passions)
5 Chick Hearn, television and radio announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team since 1960
5 Franco Lucentini, 82, Italian writer (The Sunday Woman)
6 Edsger Dijkstra, computer scientist
9 George Alfred Barnard, 86, British statistician
10 Doris Wishman, cult movie director
12 Enos Slaughter, baseball Hall of Famer
12 Marjorie Williamson, university administrator
14 Larry Rivers, American painter
14 Dave Williams, singer of Drowning Pool
15 Jesse Brown, former United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs
18 David Keynes Hill, 87, British biophysicist
19 Abu Nidal, terrorist
19 Sunday Silence, thoroughbred race horse, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes
20 Augustine Geve, Solomon Islands Cabinet Minister, assassinated
22 Allan George Bromley, 55, computer scientist, historian of computing
24 Wayne Simmons, American Football player
24 Hoyt Wilhelm, Baseball Hall of Fame member
25 Dorothy Hewett, Australian poet, playwright and novelist
27 Richard Ricci, Utah handyman suspected of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart
27 John S. Wilson, 89, American music critic.
30 Thomas J. Anderson, 91, American publisher and politician
30 Maia Berzina, 91, Russian geographer, cartographer and ethnologer
31 Lionel Hampton, 94, jazz musician
31 George Porter, 81, British Nobel Prize winner in chemistry

September 2002

2 Sir Robert Wilson, 75, British astronomer
4 Frankie Albert, National Football League star
7 Uziel Gal, designer of the Uzi submachine gun
8 Alfonso Ramirez famous Mexican bullfighter
9 Geoffrey Dummer, 92, British engineer
11 Johnny Unitas, National Football League Hall of fame quarterback
12 Kim Hunter, 79, American stage, television and Oscar-winning film actress (played "Stella Kowalski" in the original Broadway and film versions of A Streetcar Named Desire)
15 Robert William Pope, 86, British Anglican prelate, Dean of Gibraltar.
16 Archibald Hall, 78, British criminal
18 Bob Hayes, National Football League Dallas Cowboys star, and Olympic games Hall of Fame member
19 Sergei Bodrov Jr., Russian movie star
21 Angelo Buono, Jr., the "Hillside Strangler"
21 Robert L. Forward, physicist and science fiction author
22 Joseph Nathan Kane, 103, American historian and author
22 Jan de Hartog, novelist and playwright
22 Anthony Milner, 77, British musician
30 Robert Battersby, 77, British soldier and politician

October 2002

1 Walter Annenberg, publisher and philanthropist
2 Heinz von Foerster, physicist and philosopher, one of the founders of constructivism
3 Bruce Paltrow, television and film producer, father of actress Gwyneth Paltrow with Blythe Danner
4 Alphonse Chapanis, a founder of ergonomics
6 Claus von Amsberg, diplomat; husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
9 Aileen Wuornos, 46, convicted of killing six men, lethal injection
12 Sir Desmond Fitzpatrick, 89. British general.
12 Audrey Mestre, 28, French world record-setting free diver
12 Nozomi Momoi, 24, Japanese AV idol
13 Stephen Ambrose, 66, historian and author of "Band of Brothers"
17 Derek Bell, Member of The Chieftains, harpist
17 Henri Renaud, 67, French jazz pianist and record company executive
18 Roman Tam, Hong Kong canto-pop singer
19 Manuel Alvarez Bravo, 100, pre-eminent Mexican photographer
20 Barbara Berjer, soap opera actress for over thirty years
21 Beatrice Serota, Baroness Serota, 83, British politician
22 Richard Helms, former CIA director
23 David Henry Lewis, 85, New Zealand sailor and adventurer
24 Winton M. Blount last United States Postmaster General to have served in a Presidential Cabinet
24 Harry Hay, US gay rights activist and Mattachine Society founder
24 Adolph Green, 87, American lyricist and playwright
25 Richard Harris, 72, (Hodgkin's disease), Irish actor & singer
25 Paul Wellstone, United States Senator
28 Margaret Booth, 104, Academy Award-winning film editor
29 Chang-Lin Tien, educator, 7th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
30 Jam Master Jay, 37, DJ of Run DMC, murdered
31 Yuri Ahronovitch, Russian conductor
31 Sir Napier Crookenden, 87, British Army general
31 Baroness Hylton-Foster, 94, British peer

November 2002

2 Charles Sheffield, science fiction author and physicist
2 Brian Behan, Irish writer, younger brother of Brendan Behan
2 Tonio Selwart, 106, Bavarian actor and Broadway performer
3 Jonathan Harris, TV's "Dr. Smith" on Lost in Space
3 Lonnie Donegan, 71, skiffle musician
4 Antonio Margheriti, 72, Italian filmmaker, heart attack
6 Sid Sackson, board game designer
7 Rudolf Augstein, founder and chief editorialist of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel
8 Dorothy Mackie Low, 86, British novelist
9 Merlin Santana, 26, actor
14 Eddie Bracken, 87, actor
15 Myra Hindley, 60, the Moors murderess
15 John Joseph Stewart,79, New Zealand rugby coach
16 Sir George Gardiner, 67, British politician
17 Abba Eban, 88, Israeli foreign affair minister
18 James Coburn, 74, Oscar-winning actor, heart attack
19 Prince Alexandre de Merode, International Olympic Committee member, lung cancer
21 Hadda Brooks, 86, American jazz singer, pianist and composer
21 J. Roger Pichette, 81, Canadian politician
22 Christine Marion Fraser, 64, Scottish novelist
23 Roberto Matta, 91 Chilean artist
24 John Rawls, 81, political theorist
26 Verne Winchell, founder of Winchell's Donuts (nicknamed "The Donut King")
27 Stanley Black, 89, British musician
30 Tim Woods, 68, professional wrestler who wrestled as Mr. Wrestling, heart attack, heart attack

December 2002

3 Glenn Quinn, 32, Irish actor
5 Roone Arledge, 71, Creator of Monday Night Football and Nightline
5 Ne Win, 91, Burmese dictator,
6 Ernest West Basden, 50, convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection in North Carolina
6 Charles Rosen, Pioneer in artificial intelligence
7 Paddy Tunney, Irish traditional artist
6 Father Philip Berrigan, 79, priest, political activist, cancer
9 Stan Rice, 60, painter, educator, poet, husband of author Anne Rice, cancer
10 Desmond Keith Carter, 35, convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection in North Carolina.
10 Andres Küng, Swedish journalist, writer, entrepreneur and politician of Estonian origin.
10 Ian MacNaughton, director of most episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus
12 Dee Brown, 94, author (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee)
13 Zal Yanofsky member of The Lovin' Spoonful music group.
17 John Aubrey Davis, Sr., 90, American civil rights activist.
17 Hank Luisetti, basketball star and innovator
17 Ernest Marvin Carter, Jr., convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma.
18 Bert Millichip, British football administrator
18 Wayne Owens, 65, former U.S. Congressman (D-UT), heart attack
18 Ramon John Hnatyshyn, 68, former Governor-General of Canada, pancreatitis
19 Arthur Rowley, English Footballer, holder of the record for most career league goals scored.
20 Joanne Campbell, British actress who starred in the comedy series, Me and My Girl (1980s)
22 Kenneth Tobey, prolific character actor (appeared in about 100 films including: Twelve O'Clock High, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Thing from Another World and Airplane!), natural causes
22 Desmond Hoyte, President of Guyana from 1985 to 1992
23 Joe Strummer, former singer for The Clash.
24 James Ferman, 72, American film censor.
24 Jake Thackray, English singer-songwriter, heart failure
25 William T. Orr, television executive (brought Maverick, F-Troop and 77 Sunset Strip to TV)
26 Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer
26 Armand Zildjian, cymbals manufacturer
27 George Roy Hill, film director (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting)
30 Mary Wesley, 90, novelist, author of The Camomile Lawn