Deaths in April 2007

The following is a list of notable deaths in April 2007.

April 2007

1

• Laurie Baker, 90, British-born Indian architect.
• John Billings, 89, Australian co-developer of the Billings ovulation method.
• Norman Butler, 76, English cricketer.
• Herb Carneal, 83, American sportscaster, radio broadcaster for Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball team, congestive heart failure.
• Driss Chraibi, 80, Moroccan writer.
• Myrna "Screechy Peach" Crenshaw, 47, American singer and songwriter, breast cancer.
• Joseph Hirsch Dunner, 94, German-born British Orthodox rabbi.
• Hans Karl Filbinger, 93, German jurist and right-wing politician. (German)
• Char Fontane, 55, American actress and singer, daughter of Tony Fontane, breast cancer.
• Lou Limmer, 82, American Major League Baseball player for the Philadelphia Athletics.
• Salem Ludwig, 91, American character actor.
• Sally Merchant, 88, Canadian broadcaster and politician, cancer.
• Hannah Nydahl, 61, Danish teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, translator for her husband Ole Nydahl, lung and brain cancer.
• Ladislav Rychman, 84, Czech film director, heart attack.
• George Sewell, 82, British actor, cancer.
• Elliott Skinner, 82, American scholar and former ambassador, heart failure.

2

• William W. Becker, 85, American co-founder of the Motel 6 chain, heart attack.
• Janet Bloomfield, 53, British campaigner, Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (1993–1996), septic shock. .
• Jeannie Ferris, 66, Australian Senator, ovarian cancer.
• Henry Lee Giclas, 96, American astronomer.
• Paul Reed, 97, American comedian and actor (Car 54, Where Are You?), heart failure.
• Tadjou Salou, 32, Togolese international footballer, after long illness.

3

• Marion Eames, 85, British novelist (The Secret Room).
• Robin Montgomerie-Charrington, 91, British 1952 Grand Prix driver.
• Walter Nicks, 81, American dancer and choreographer.
• Thomas Hal Phillips, 84, American novelist and screenwriter.
• Zoltán Pongrácz, 95, Hungarian composer and conductor. (Hungarian)
• Bill Robinson, 88, American sailor and author.
• Eddie Robinson, 88, American college football coach (Grambling State University), Alzheimer's disease.
• Burt Topper, 78, American screenwriter, film director and film producer, pulmonary failure.
• Nina Wang, 69, Hong Kong businesswoman and Asia's richest woman.

4

• Jagjit Singh Chauhan, 80, Indian Sikh separatist leader, heart attack.
• Bob Clark, 67, American film director (A Christmas Story, Porky's), car accident.
• Reginald H. Fuller, 92, British-born biblical scholar and Anglican priest, complications of a broken hip.
• Terry Hall, 80, British ventriloquist and children's television presenter.
• Edward Mallory, 76, American television actor (Days of our Lives).
• Datuk K. Sivalingam, 59, Malaysian politician, heart attack.
• Karen Spärck Jones, 71, British professor emeritus of Computers and Information at the University of Cambridge, cancer.

5

• Maria Gripe, 83, Swedish author.
• Thomas Stoltz Harvey, 94, American pathologist.
• Leela Majumdar, 99, Indian Bengali language children's author.
• Mark St. John, 51, American guitarist (KISS, White Tiger), brain hemorrhage.
• Ali Sriti, 88, Tunisian oudist. (French)
• Darryl Stingley, 55, American football player, bronchial pneumonia.
• Poornachandra Tejaswi, 68, Indian writer and novelist in the Kannada language, cardiac arrest.
• John Winter, 39, American meteorologist for WFLA-TV, suicide by gunshot.

6

• Emma Bodie Begay, 119?, American Navajo woman who claimed to be the world's oldest person.
• Luigi Comencini, 90, Italian film director.
• Stan Daniels, 72, Canadian writer and producer (Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore Show), heart failure.
• Colin Graham, 75, British opera, theatre and television director, cardiac arrest.
• George C. Jenkins, 98, American Academy Award-winning production designer (All the President's Men), heart failure.
• Józef Kos, 106, one of the last six World War I veterans from Germany. (Polish)
• Jill McGown, 59, British mystery writer.
• James McGuinness, 81, British priest, Bishop of Nottingham (1974–2000).
• Raymond G. Murphy, 77, American Medal of Honor recipient during the Korean War.

7

• Neville Duke, 85, British World War II fighter pilot.
• Marià Gonzalvo, 85, Spanish captain of FC Barcelona and international footballer for Spain.
• Johnny Hart, 76, American cartoonist (B.C., The Wizard of Id), stroke.
• Brian Miller, 70, British footballer for Burnley and England.
• Otto Natzler, 99, American ceramics and glazing master, cancer.
• Barry Nelson, 89, American actor (The Shining), first to play James Bond on screen.

8

• Charles Bain, 93, West Indian Test cricket umpire.
• Natalia Clare, 87, American ballet dancer and instructor, complications of strokes.
• Victor Kneale, 89, Manx Speaker of the House of Keys (1990–1991).
• Sol LeWitt, 78, American artist known for his role in the Conceptualism and Minimalism movements, cancer.
• Bill Mescher, 79, American politician; member of the South Carolina Senate from 1993 until his death, stroke.

9

• Florence Arrowsmith, 102, British marital recordholder.
• Egon Bondy, 77, Czech philosopher and poet.
• AJ Carothers, 75, American playwright and television writer, cancer.
• Alain Etchegoyen, 55, French philosopher, cancer. (French)
• Sir Michael Fox, 85, British judge, Lord Justice of Appeal (1981–1992).
• Dorrit Hoffleit, 100, American research astronomer, brief illness.
• Mark Langford, 42, British businessman, former head of The Accident Group, car accident.
• Philip Mayne, 107, last surviving British officer of World War I.
• Harry Rasky, 78, Canadian documentary film producer, heart failure.

10

• Kevin Crease, 70, Australian television newsreader, cancer.
• Florence Finch, 113, British-born New Zealand supercentenarian, world's sixth-oldest person, cardio-respiratory failure.
• Walter Hendl, 90, American conductor, heart and lung disease.
• Ralph Heywood, 85, American football player.
• Awdy Kulyýew, 70, Turkmen exiled politician and Foreign Minister (1990–1992), complications from stomach surgery.
• George Mussallem, 99, Canadian politician and businessman.
• Salvatore Scarpitta, 88, American sculptor, complications from diabetes.
• Dakota Staton, 76, American jazz vocalist, after long illness.

11

• Roscoe Lee Browne, 81, American Emmy Award-winning actor (The Cosby Show, Soap), cancer.
• Loïc Leferme, 36, French free diver, drowning.
• Warren E. Preece, 85, American editor of Encyclopædia Britannica (1964–1975), heart failure.
• Ronald Speirs, 86, American World War II commanding officer of Easy Company (Band of Brothers).
• Warren Strelow, 73, American ice hockey goaltending coach for 1980 Winter Olympics gold medal team (Miracle on Ice). .
• Kurt Vonnegut, 84, American novelist and social critic, brain injury from a fall.

12

• Kelsie B. Harder, 84, American name expert, congestive heart failure.
• Len Hill, 65, British cricketer for Glamorgan and footballer for Newport County.
• James K. Lyons, 46, American film editor, squamous cell carcinoma.
• Pierre Probst, 93, French children's book author and illustrator. (French)
• Little Sonny Warner, 77, American singer who earned a gold record with "There’s Something on Your Mind".

13

• Birgitta Arman, 86, Swedish actress. (Swedish)
• Marie Clay, 81, New Zealand world-renowned reading expert, after short illness.
• Nathan Heffernan, 86, American judge, Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court (1983–1995).
• Hans Koning, 85, Dutch-born writer and journalist.
• Joe Lane, 80, Australian bebop jazz singer.
• Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, 88, American poet who wrote about the Dust Bowl.
• Neil Pickard, 78, Australian politician.
• Capil Rampersad, 46, Trinidad and Tobago cricketer.
• Joie Ray, 83, American open-wheel and stock car race driver, respiratory failure.
• Don Selwyn, 71, New Zealand actor and director, complications from a kidney infection.
• Marion Yorck von Wartenburg, 102, German World War II resistance fighter.

14

• Ladislav Adamec, 80, Czech communist politician, Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1988–1989). (Czech)
• Robert Buck, 93, American aviator who set several aviation records in his teens, complications from a fall.
• June Callwood, 82, Canadian journalist and activist, cancer.
• Bobby Cram, 67, British footballer for West Bromwich Albion and Colchester United.
• Don Ho, 76, American Hawaiian musician and entertainer, heart failure.
• Jim Jontz, 55, American congressman from Indiana (1987–1993), colon cancer.
• William Menster, 94, American Catholic priest, first member of the clergy to visit Antarctica.
• René Rémond, 88, French historian and academician. (French)
• Herman Riley, 73, American tenor saxophone jazz performer, heart failure.
• Audrey Santo, 23, American brain-injured girl claimed to have performed miracles, cardio-respiratory failure.
• Jim Thurman, 72, American children's television writer and voice of Sesame Street's "Teeny Little Super Guy," illness.
• Mike Webb, 51, American radio personality, stabbed.
• Frank Westheimer, 95, American chemist.

15

• Patricia Buckley, 80, Canadian-born socialite and fundraiser, wife of William F. Buckley, Jr., infection after long illness.
• Heo Se-uk, 54, South Korean protester against U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, septic shock following self-immolation burns.
• Brant Parker, 86, American cartoonist who co-created The Wizard of Id.
• Justine Saunders, 54, Australian actress, cancer.
• Peter Tsiamalili, 54, Papuan first administrator of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
• Donald Tuzin, 62, American anthropologist and leading authority on Melanesian culture, pulmonary hypertension.

16

• Frank Bateson, 97, New Zealand astronomer and writer.
• Seung-Hui Cho, 23, South Korean Virginia Tech mass murdererer, suicide by gunshot.
• Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, 49, Canadian instructor of French at Virginia Tech, homicide.
• Tran Bach Dang, 81, Vietnamese journalist and politician.
• Gaetan Duchesne, 44, Canadian NHL player (1981–1995), heart attack.
• Kevin Granata, 45, American associate professor of engineering at Virginia Tech, homicide.
• Robert Jones, 56, British Conservative politician (MP 1983–1997), minister in the government of John Major, liver cancer.
• Maria Lenk, 92, Brazilian Olympic swimmer (1932, 1936), rupture of aortic aneurysm.
• Liviu Librescu, 76, Romanian-born professor of engineering at Virginia Tech, Holocaust survivor, homicide.
• G. V. Loganathan, 50, Indian-born professor of engineering at Virginia Tech, homicide.
• Jack Wiebe, 70, Canadian politician, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan (1994–2000), Senator (2000–2004), lung cancer.

17

• Nair Bello, 75, Brazilian actress, heart failure. (Portuguese)
• James B. Davis, 90, American founder of The Dixie Hummingbirds, heart failure.
• Steven Derounian, 89, Bulgarian-born American Republican Representative from New York state (1953–1965).
• Len Fitzgerald, 76, Australian footballer, cancer.
• Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96, American actress (A Night at the Opera), TV personality (To Tell the Truth) and singer, heart failure.
• Bruce Haslingden, 84, Australian Olympic cross-country skier, staphylococcus infection.
• Raymond Kaelbel, 75, French international footballer.
• Leyly Matine-Daftary, 70, Iranian artist.
• Chauncey Starr, 95, American electrical engineer, pioneer in the field of nuclear energy.
• Glenn Sutton, 69, American country songwriter and record producer, heart attack.

18

• Josy Gyr-Steiner, 57, Swiss politician. (German)
• Iccho Itoh, 61, Japanese mayor of Nagasaki, shooting.
• Andrej Kvašňák, 70, Slovak footballer, lung cancer.
• Alvin Roth, 92, American contract bridge champion.
• Donald Stephens, 79, American long-serving mayor of Rosemont, Illinois, founder of Hummel figurine museum, stomach cancer.
• Tony Suarez, 51, American soccer player (Carolina Lightnin', Cleveland Force), 1981 Rookie of the Year.
• Dick Vosburgh, 77, American-born comedy writer and lyricist, cancer.

19

• Ken Albers, 82, American singer (The Four Freshmen).
• Anthony Brooks, 85, British agent who led French Resistance saboteurs after the Normandy Invasion, stomach cancer.
• Jean-Pierre Cassel, 74, French actor, cancer.
• Dermot Chichester, 7th Marquess of Donegall, 91, Irish soldier and aristocrat.
• Marie Hicks, 83, American civil rights activist, complications from Parkinson's disease.
• George Logie-Smith, 92, Australian musician.
• Worth McDougald, 82, American journalism educator, Director of the Peabody Awards (1963–1991), heart failure.
• Bohdan Paczyński, 67, Polish astrophysicist, brain tumor.
• Leszek Suski, 77, Polish Olympic fencer.
• Helen Walton, 87, American widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, natural causes.
• George D. Webster, 61, American football player.

20

• Yehuda Meir Abramowicz, 92, Israeli General Secretary of Agudat Israel (1972–1981).
• Audrey Fagan, 44, Irish-born Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner, suspected suicide by hanging.
• Fred Fish, 54, American computer programmer known for GNU Debugger.
• Michael Fu Tieshan, 75, Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association bishop of Beijing, cancer.
• Andrew Hill, 75, American jazz pianist and composer, lung cancer.
• Jan Kociniak, 69, Polish actor. (Polish)
• William Phillips, 60, American engineer, Johnson Space Center shooting gunman, suicide by gunshot.
• Robert Rosenthal, 89, American distinguished World War II pilot and lawyer, multiple myeloma.

21

• Boscoe Holder, 85, Trinidadian dancer, choreographer and painter.
• James Hamupanda Kauluma, 75, Namibian bishop and freedom fighter, prostate cancer. .
• Lobby Loyde, 65, Australian rock guitarist (Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs), lung cancer.
• Parry O'Brien, 75, American shot put champion at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, heart attack.
• Art Saaf, 85, American comic book artist (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle), Parkinson's disease.
• Bruce Van Sickle, 90, American federal judge (1971–2002), Alzheimer's disease.
• Don White, 81, English rugby union player and coach.

22

• Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, 84, South African-born endocrinologist, President of RCP (1983–1989) and Chair of the BHF.
• Karl Holzamer, 100, German founder and director-general of TV channel ZDF.
• Juanita Millender-McDonald, 68, American Democratic Representative (Calif.), Chair of House Administration Committee, cancer.
• Conchita Montenegro, 94, Spanish actress.
• Anne Pitoniak, 85, American character actress, cancer.

23

• Walter Bareiss, 87, German-American art collector, heart failure.
• Paul Erdman, 74, American economist, banker, and writer.
• David Halberstam, 73, American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, car accident.
• Axel Madsen, 77, American biographer, pancreatic cancer.
• Michael Smuin, 68, American ballet dancer, choreographer and director, heart attack.
• Boris Yeltsin, 76, first President of the Russian Federation (1991–1999), heart failure.

24

• Warren Avis, 91, American founder of Avis Rent A Car System and real estate developer.
• Ida R. Hoos, 94, American sociologist and critic of systems analysis, pneumonia.
• Roy Jenson, 80, Canadian actor, cancer.
• Jim Moran, 88, American automotive dealer and philanthropist.
• James Richards, 58, American veterinarian and feline expert, motorcycle accident while avoiding a cat.
• Kate Walsh, 60, Irish Progressive Democrat senator.
• Robert M. Warner, 79, American archivist who led the National Archives and Records Administration, heart attack.

25

• Edward Astley, 22nd Baron Hastings, 95, British landowner and politician.
• Alan Ball, 61, British footballer, youngest member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning team, heart attack.
• Barbara Blida, 57, Polish politician, suicide by gunshot.
• Polly Hill, 100, American horticulturist, founder of Polly Hill Arboretum.
• Les Jackson, 86, British cricketer, fast-medium bowler for Derbyshire and England.
• Arthur Milton, 79, British sportsman, last person to play both football and cricket for England, heart attack. .
• Johnny Perkins, 54, American National Football League player for the New York Giants, complications following heart surgery.
• Bobby "Boris" Pickett, 69, American one-hit wonder singer ("Monster Mash"), leukemia.

26

• Florea Dumitrache, 58, Romanian football player, digestive hemorrhage. (Romanian)
• Wolfgang Gewalt, 78, German zoologist, director of the Duisburg Zoo (1966–1993). (German)
• Lindsey Hughes, 57, British professor of Russian History at University College London, cancer.
• Henry LeTang, 91, American choreographer.
• Jack Valenti, 85, American president of the Motion Picture Association of America (1966–2004), complications of stroke.

27

• Al Hunter Ashton, 49, English actor and scriptwriter, heart failure.
• Svatopluk Beneš, 89, Czech actor. (Czech)
• Karel Dillen, 81, Belgian politician, founder of the Flemish Interest party.
• Bill Forester, 74, American NFL football player.
• Magda Gerber, 90s, Hungarian-born American educator.
• Kirill Lavrov, 81, Russian actor, after long illness.
• Mstislav Rostropovich, 80, Russian cellist and conductor, intestinal cancer.
• Robert E. Webber, 73, American scholar and author on Christian worship renewal, pancreatic cancer.

28

• Lloyd Crouse, 88, Canadian politician, Progressive Conservative MP (1957–1988), Lt.Governor of Nova Scotia (1989–1994).
• Luigi Filippo D'Amico, 82, Italian film director. (Italian)
• Dabbs Greer, 90, American actor (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Green Mile).
• René Mailhot, 64, Canadian journalist for Radio-Canada, pneumonia. (French)
• Tommy Newsom, 78, American musician from The Tonight Show, cancer.
• Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, 94, German physicist and philosopher.
• Bertha Wilson, 83, Canadian who was the first female Supreme Court judge, Alzheimer's disease.

29

• Milt Bocek, 94, American baseball player.
• Octavio Frias, 94, Brazilian publishing magnate, kidney failure.
• Josh Hancock, 29, American baseball relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, car accident.
• Donald P. Lay, 80, American judge of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1966–2006).
• Dick Motz, 67, New Zealand test cricketer.
• Joseph Nérette, 83, President of Haïti (1991–1992), lung cancer. (French)
• Arve Opsahl, 85, Norwegian actor, heart failure.
• Ivica Račan, 63, Croatian prime minister (2000–2003), cancer.
• Lee Roberson, 97, American founder of Tennessee Temple University.

30

• Edward F. Boyd, 92, American marketing executive at Pepsi who shunned racial stereotypes in advertising.
• Tom Cartwright, 71, British test cricketer for England, complications of heart attack.
• Grégory Lemarchal, 23, French singer, winner of Star Academy France, cystic fibrosis.
• Bernard Marszałek, 31, Polish offshore powerboat racer, 2003 World Champion, 2004 Euro Championship runner-up, asthma.
• Kevin Mitchell, 36, American football player for San Francisco 49ers (Super Bowl XXIX) and Washington Redskins, heart attack.
• Tom Poston, 85, American actor (Newhart).
• Claude Saunders, 95, Canadian rower and second-oldest national Olympic competitor.
• Gordon Scott, 79, American actor who portrayed Tarzan in six films (1955–1960), complications of surgery.
• Zola Taylor, 69, American singer, member of The Platters (1954–1964), complications of pneumonia.