Deaths in April 2008

The following is a list of notable deaths in April 2008.

April 2008

1

• Mosko Alkalai, 77, Israeli actor (Blaumilch Canal, The Fox in the Chicken Coop, Yana's Friends), respiratory failure.
• Triston Jay Amero, 26, American hotel bomber, pulmonary edema.
• Shosh Atari, 58, Israeli radio presenter and actress, heart attack.
• Péter Baczakó, 56, Hungarian weightlifter, 1980 Olympic champion, cancer.
• Sabin Bălaşa, 75, Romanian painter, heart attack.
• Sherry Britton, 89, American burlesque dancer turned actor (Guys and Dolls).
• Wally Bronner, 81, American founder of Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, cancer.
• Jim Finney, 83, British football referee.
• Gabriel Mkhumane, Swazi opposition leader, shot.
• Licínio Pereira da Silva, 63, Portuguese last political prisoner of PIDE during Estado Novo, nosocomial infection. (Portuguese)
• Floyd Simmons, 84, American decathlon Olympic bronze medallist (1948, 1952) and actor (South Pacific).
• Otto Soemarwoto, 82, Indonesian professor and ecologist, Order of the Golden Ark recipient. (Indonesian)
• Marvin Stone, 26, American basketball player for Saudi Arabian Al-Ittihad (Jeddah) team, heart attack.

2

• Norberto Collado Abreu, 87, Cuban naval officer, helmsman of the yacht Granma which carried Fidel Castro to Cuba in 1956.
• Sir Geoffrey Cox, 97, British founder of ITN News at Ten.
• Ray Poole, 86, American football player (New York Giants), cancer.
• Yakup Satar, 110, Crimean-born supercentenarian, believed to be the last Turkish veteran of World War I.
• Mona Seilitz, 65, Swedish actress and entertainer, cancer. (Swedish)
• Adam Studziński, 97, Polish Roman Catholic Dominican priest, World War II chaplain of Polish forces.
• Taotao, 36, Chinese oldest captive giant panda, brain thrombus and cerebral hemorrhage.

3

• Johnny Byrne, 73, Irish writer (Doctor Who, Space: 1999).
• Andrew Crozier, 64, British poet, brain tumour.
• Hrvoje Ćustić, 24, Croatian footballer (NK Zadar), head injury.
• William D. Eberle, 84, American businessman, U.S. Trade Representative (1971–1974), kidney failure.
• Frosty Freeze, 44, American B-boy, breakdancer and member of the Rock Steady Crew.
• Jeremy R. Knowles, 72, British-born Harvard University dean of Arts and Sciences (1991–2002), prostate cancer.
• Ivan Korade, 44, Croatian general and murder suspect, apparent suicide by gunshot.
• Vladimir Preclik, 78, Czech sculptor and writer.
• Robert Tomasulo, 73, American computer scientist.

4

• Harley Dickinson, 69, Australian politician, member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1982–1992).
• Fay McKay, 78, American entertainer ("The Twelve Daze of Christmas").
• Jerry Rosholt, 85, American journalist and historian.
• Wu Xueqian, 87, Chinese politician, foreign minister (1982–1988).

5

• Giuseppe Attardi, 84, American molecular biologist.
• Iris Burton, 77, American talent agent, pneumonia and complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• Eugene Ehrlich, 85, American lexicographer and author.
• Alex Grasshoff, 79, American documentary filmmaker known for having his Academy Award revoked.
• Charlton Heston, 84, American actor (Ben-Hur, Ten Commandments, Planet of the Apes), NRA president, pneumonia.
• Walt Masterson, 87, American baseball player, stroke.
• McKelvey, 9, British race horse, euthanised after fall during Grand National.
• Steve Sinnott, 56, British general secretary of the National Union of Teachers since 2004.
• Jeu Sprengers, 69, Dutch chairman of the Royal Dutch Football Association.
• Wang Donglei, 23, Chinese footballer, car accident. (Chinese)
• Michael White, 59, Australian inventor of narrative therapy, cardiac arrest.
• Kaku Yamanaka, 113, Japanese supercentenarian, oldest person in Japan.

6

• James Barrier, 55, American wrestler.
• Lakshman de Alwis, 68, Sri Lankan national athletics coach, suicide bomb attack.
• Tony Davies, 68, New Zealand rugby union player (All Blacks).
• Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, 55, Sri Lankan highways minister, suicide bomb attack.
• Abdou Latif Guèye, 52, Senegalese politician, sixth vice-president of the National Assembly (2007–2008), car accident. (French)
• Kuruppu Karunaratne, 47, Sri Lankan Olympic marathoner, suicide bomb attack.
• Abraham Osheroff, 92, American social activist, veteran of the Spanish Civil War (Abraham Lincoln Brigade), heart attack.
• Gib Shanley, 76, American radio sportscaster (Cleveland Browns).
• Teoh Chye Hin, 94, Malaysian secretary-general of the Asian Football Confederation (1974–1978).

7

• Ludu Daw Amar, 92, Burmese journalist, writer and activist.
• Kunio Egashira, 70, Japanese chairman of Ajinomoto, pancreatic cancer.
• Ruth Greenglass, 84, American atomic spy for the Soviet Union, wife of David Greenglass, sister-in-law of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• Bobby Howard, 63, American football player (San Diego Chargers), cancer.
• Sir Frank Little, 82, Australian Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus of the archdiocese of Melbourne.
• Joe Shell, 89, American member of the California State Assembly (1953–1963).
• Mark Speight, 42, British TV presenter (SMart), suicide by hanging.
• Gloria Taylor, 57, British activist and mother of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor, heart attack.
• Andrei Tolubeyev, 63, Russian actor, after long illness. (Russian)
• Esko Tommola, 77, Finnish news anchor, after long illness. (Finnish)
• Phil Urso, 82, American jazz tenor saxophonist and composer.

8

• Timothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley, 79, British Green Party member of the House of Lords.
• Cedella Booker, 81, Jamaican mother of Bob Marley, natural causes.
• John Button, 74, Australian senator, minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce (1983–1993), pancreatic cancer.
• Loren Driscoll, 79, American tenor.
• Graham Higman, 91, British mathematician.
• Seaman Jacobs, 96, American television writer, cardiac arrest.
• Stanley Kamel, 65, American actor (Monk), heart attack.
• Ogawa Kunio, 80, Japanese novelist.
• Hersh Lyons, 92, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals).
• Nadezhda Rumyantseva, 77, Russian actress, after long illness.
• Jacqueline Voltaire, 59, British-born Mexican soap opera actress for Televisa, malignant melanoma.
• Cees Wijdekop, 94, Dutch Olympic canoer.

9

• Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, Pakistani al-Qaeda senior operative, death from probable hepatitis confirmed on this date.
• George Butler, 71, American record producer and A&R man (Blue Note, Columbia), complications from Alzheimer's disease.
• Herman Carr, 83, American physicist, pioneer of MRI, heart disease.
• Diego Catalán, 80, Spanish philologist, grandson of Ramón Menéndez Pidal, heart disease. (Spanish)
• Burt Glinn, 82, American photographer, kidney failure and pneumonia.
• Michael Golomb, 98, American mathematician.
• Erkki Junkkarinen, 78, Finnish singer. (Finnish)
• Bob Kames, 82, American polka musician, songwriter and popularizer of the Chicken Dance, prostate cancer.
• Daniela Klemenschits, 25, Austrian tennis player, abdominal cancer.
• Lloyd Lamble, 94, Australian actor.
• Jacques Morel, 85, French actor, voice of Obelix. (French)
• Choubeila Rached, 75, Tunisian singer.
• Elizabeth Stefan, 112, American supercentenarian, verified seventh-oldest person in the world.
• Marvin Sylvor, 75, American carousel designer, kidney failure.

10

• Francis Coleman, 84, Canadian-born British conductor, television producer and director.
• Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, 88, Mexican cardinal, archbishop emeritus of Mexico.
• Robert W. Greene, 78, American investigative journalist, heart failure.
• Dickson Mabon, 82, British Labour and Social Democratic Party MP (1955–1983).
• Jeremiah Nyagah, 87, Kenyan politician, after short illness.
• Marcel Pertry, 86, Belgian footballer (Cercle Brugge). (Dutch)
• Gopal Raju, 80, American publisher, pioneer of Indian ethnic media in USA (India Abroad, Indo-Asian News Service), jaundice.
• Kim Santow, 67, Australian judge (NSW Supreme Court), chancellor of the University of Sydney (2001–2007), brain tumour.

11

• Claude Abbes, 80, French football player. (French)
• Clyde Cook, 72, American president of Biola University (1982–2007).
• Willoughby Goddard, 81, British actor.
• Harry Goonatilake, 78, Sri Lankan Air Force Commander (1976–1981).
• Joan Jackson, 92, British muse of poet John Betjeman.
• Bob Pellegrini, 73, American football linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles).
• Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, 91, American author, daughter of Florenz Ziegfeld and Billie Burke, heart failure.

12

• Cecilia Colledge, 87, British figure skater and 1936 Olympic silver medallist.
• Valda Cooper, 92, Australian-born American journalist for the Associated Press.
• Dieter Eppler, 81, German film actor and radio drama director.
• Donald Forbes, 73, British convicted murderer.
• Patrick Hillery, 84, Irish president (1976–1990) and minister (1959–1973), European commissioner for Ortoli Commission.
• Abbas Katouzian, 86, Iranian painter.
• Artur Maurício, 63, Portuguese Constitutional Court president (2004–2007), after long illness. (Portuguese)
• Barbara McDermott, 95, American survivor of the RMS Lusitania sinking.
• Buzz Nutter, 77, American football player (Colts, Steelers), heart failure.
• Augusta Wallace, 78, New Zealand district judge (1975–1990), after long illness.
• Dwaine Wilson, 47, American former Canadian Football League player, drowned.
• Jerry Zucker, 58, Israeli-born American businessman, cancer.

13

• Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, 51, American kidnapper.
• Larry Elliott, 72, American college football coach (Washburn University).
• Robert Greacen, 87, Irish poet.
• Michael Mills, 80, Irish first government ombudsman (1984–1994).
• John Archibald Wheeler, 96, American physicist who coined the term "black hole", pneumonia.
• Khasan Yandiyev, 52, Russian deputy head of Ingushetia Supreme Court, shot.
• Ross Yockey, 64, American Emmy Award-winning author, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

14

• Olivia Cenizal, 81, Filipino actress.
• Miguel Galván, 50, Mexican actor and comedian, respiratory arrest.
• Madeline Lee Gilford, 84, American actress and theatrical producer, wife of Jack Gilford.
• Werner "Frick" Groebli, 92, Swiss ice skating comedian (Frick and Frack).
• Tommy Holmes, 91, American baseball player (Boston Braves).
• Ollie Johnston, 95, American animator, the last of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men".
• Marisa Sannia, 61, Italian singer. (Italian)
• Robert Somervaille, 86, Australian lawyer, chairman of the Australian Telecommunications Commission (1987–1991).
• June Travis, 93, American actress.

15

• Imre Antal, 72, Hungarian pianist, TV personality, actor and humorist, cancer.
• David Cass, 71, American economist.
• Sean Costello, 28, American blues guitarist and singer.
• Hazel Court, 82, British actress (The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven), heart attack.
• Clifford Davies, 59, American musician, drummer for Ted Nugent, apparent suicide by gunshot.
• Brian Davison, 65, British musician, drummer for progressive rock band The Nice.
• Parvin Dowlatabadi, 84, Iranian children's author and poet, heart attack.
• Renata Fronzi, 82, Argentine-born Brazilian actress, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. (Portuguese)
• Miguel Galván, 50, Mexican comedian and TV personality, respiratory arrest.
• Hendrik S. Houthakker, 83, American economist.
• Fernand Jaccard, 100, Swiss football midfielder. (French)
• Benoît Lamy, 62, Belgian motion picture writer-director.
• Krister Stendahl, 86, Swedish Lutheran theologian and bishop.
• Mahinarangi Tocker, 52, New Zealand musician, asthma attack.

16

• Joe Alston, 81, American badminton player and FBI agent.
• Lucia Cunanan, 80, Filipino restaurateur credited with inventing sisig, murdered by hammer.
• Joe Feeney, 76, American tenor (The Lawrence Welk Show), emphysema.
• Edward Norton Lorenz, 90, American professor of meteorology, cancer.
• Fadel Shana'a, 23, Palestinian Reuters cameraman, flechette shell.
• Joseph Solman, 99, American painter with Works Progress Administration.

17

• Aimé Césaire, 94, French Martiniquan poet and politician.
• Richard Chopping, 90, British illustrator.
• Gwyneth Dunwoody, 77, British Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich, following open heart surgery.
• Danny Federici, 58, American keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, melanoma.
• Nicolette Goulet, 52, American actress (The Guiding Light), daughter of Robert Goulet, breast cancer.
• Zoya Krakhmalnikova, 79, Russian Christian dissident and writer.
• George Pollard, 89, American portrait painter (Harry Truman, Muhammad Ali), pneumonia.
• Rosario Sánchez Mora, 88, Spanish female anti-Franco veteran of the Spanish Civil War.
• Mikhail Tanich, 84, Russian poet, kidney problems. (Russian)
• Su-Lin Young, 96, American explorer.

18

• Peter Howard, 80, American music director and arranger, complications of Parkinson's Disease.
• Michael de Larrabeiti, 73, British author (The Borrible Trilogy).
• Kay Linaker, 94, American actress and screenwriter (The Blob).
• Joy Page, 83, American actress (Casablanca), complications from a stroke and pneumonia.
• Rosalie Ritz, 84, American courtroom artist (O.J. Simpson Trial, Sirhan Sirhan trial), lung cancer.
• William W. Warner, 88, American biologist and writer, complications of Alzheimer's disease.

19

• Bob Bledsaw, 65, American founder of Judges Guild, cancer.
• Alessandro Cevese, 57, Italian ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho, Mauritius and Madagascar, car accident.
• Lawrence Hertzog, 56, American television writer and producer (Nowhere Man), cancer.
• Alfonso López Trujillo, 72, Colombian Catholic archbishop, president of Pontifical Council for the Family, diabetes.
• John Marzano, 45, American baseballl player (Boston Red Sox), co-host of Leading Off on mlb.com, injuries from a fall.
• Germaine Tillion, 100, French anthropologist, member of French Resistance.
• Constant Vanden Stock, 93, Belgian president of RSC Anderlecht football club.

20

• Richard Alexander, 73, British politician, Conservative MP for Newark (1979–1997), cancer.
• Bebe Barron, 82, American composer, pioneer of electronic music.
• Gazanfer Bilge, 85, Turkish freestyle wrestler, 1948 Olympic champion.
• Farid Chopel, 55, French actor and singer, cancer. (French)
• Orish Grinstead, 27, American rhythm and blues singer, member of 702, kidney failure.
• Monica Lovinescu, 84, Romanian writer.
• Derek McKay, 58, Scottish footballer (Deveronvale, Dundee, Aberdeen, Barrow), heart attack.
• VL Mike, 30, American rapper, shot.
• Nissan Nativ, 86, Israeli director, actor and acting teacher.
• Tariq Niazi, 68, Pakistani field hockey player, member of 1968 Olympic gold medal team, cardiac arrest.
• Geoff Polites, 60, Australian CEO of Jaguar Land Rover.
• William R. Snodgrass, 85, American government official, Comptroller of Tennessee (1955–1999).
• Harry Ulinski, 83, American football player (Washington Redskins), sepsis.

21

• Darell Garretson, 76, American professional basketball referee.
• Aaron Shearer, 88, American classical guitarist.
• Carmen Silva, 92, Brazilian actress, multiple organ failure. (Portuguese)
• Al Wilson, 68, American soul singer ("Show and Tell"), kidney failure.

22

• Cameron Argetsinger, 87, American auto racing pioneer.
• Monna Bell, 70, Chilean singer, stroke.
• Bob Childers, 61, American singer-songwriter, emphysema.
• Ed Chynoweth, 66, Canadian president of the Western Hockey League (1972–1995) and CHL (1975–1995), cancer.
• Paul Davis, 60, American singer ("I Go Crazy", "'65 Love Affair", "Cool Night"), heart attack.
• Safdar Kiyani, 60, Pakistani teacher and pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Balochistan, shot.
• Dora Ratjen, 89, German high jumper, disguised as female to compete for Nazi Germany at 1936 Summer Olympics. (German)
• Francisco Martins Rodrigues, 81, Portuguese anti-Fascist resistant, Marxist-Leninist Committee founder, cancer. (Portuguese)
• Daniel Lee Siebert, 54, American serial killer, pancreatic cancer.

23

• Jean-Daniel Cadinot, 64, French film director and producer, heart attack.
• Don Gillis, 85, Canadian-born American sportscaster.
• Martha Kostuch, 58, Canadian environmentalist, multiple system atrophy.
• Cook Lougheed, 86, American entrepreneur and philanthropist.
• Loreto Paras-Sulit, 99, Filipino writer.
• Rustam Sani, 64, Malaysian politician, sociologist, political scientist and blogger.
• Harold Stephenson, 87, British first-class wicketkeeper (Somerset).
• William H. Stewart, 86, American surgeon general (1965–1969), complications from renal failure.

24

• Lucy Appleby, 88, British traditional cheesemaker.
• Tristram Cary, 82, British film and television composer.
• James Day, 89, American television host, respiratory failure.
• Harry Geris, 60, Canadian Olympic wrestler.
• Jimmy Giuffre, 86, American jazz clarinetist, pneumonia.
• Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, 39, American entertainer, member of Howard Stern's Wack Pack, pneumonia.
• Carlos Robalo, 76, Portuguese politician, Secretary of State (1980–1981). (Portuguese)
• Trilochan Singh, 85, Indian field hockey player, member of the gold medal-winning 1948 Summer Olympics team.

25

• Enrico Donati, 99, Italian-born American surrealist painter and sculptor.
• Sonny Grandelius, 79, American football player and coach.
• R. Laird Harris, 97, American Presbyterian minister and Old Testament scholar.
• Humphrey Lyttelton, 86, British jazz trumpeter and chairman of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, following surgery for aortic aneurysm.
• John H. McConnell, 84, American owner of Worthington Industries and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

26

• Henry Brant, 94, Canadian-born American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer.
• Moisey Feigin, 103, Russian artist, Guinness World Record–holder for the oldest professional working artist.
• Wallace Gichere, 53, Kenyan photojournalist.
• Yossi Harel, 90, Israeli captain of Exodus, cardiac arrest.

27

• Art Johnson, 88, American baseball player.
• Ram Gupta, 72, Indian cricket umpire.
• Ron O'Brien, 56, American disc jockey, pneumonia.
• Mike Patrick, 55, American former NFL punter (New England Patriots).
• Hal Stein, 79, American jazz musician. .
• Marios Tokas, 54, Greek Cypriot composer, cancer.
• Sallie Wilson, 76, American ballerina, cancer.
• Frances Yeend, 95, American soprano opera singer.

28

• Diana Barnato Walker, 90, British aviator, first British woman to break the sound barrier.
• John Barron, 74, Irish hurler.
• Ivan Caesar, 41, American football player (Boston College, Minnesota Vikings, Portland Forest Dragons), gunshot.
• Max Cherry, 81, Australian Olympics and Commonwealth Games athletics coach, heart attack.
• Tarka Cordell, 40, British musician, suicide.
• John Patrick Crecine, 69, American president of Georgia Tech (1987–1994).
• Hans Eder, 81, Austrian Olympic skier.
• Jack Hanrahan, 75, American Emmy Award–winning television script writer.
• Sir Derek Higgs, 64, British chairman of Alliance & Leicester, sudden illness.
• Ed Marion, 81, American official in the National Football League from 1960 to 1987.
• Will Robinson, 96, American coach, first African American Division I college basketball (ISU) coach, Detroit Pistons scout.

29

• John Berkey, 75, American science fiction artist.
• Bo Yang, 88, Taiwanese writer.
• Ernesto Bonino, 86, Italian singer. (Italian)
• Gordon Bradley, 74, British footballer and coach (North American Soccer League), Alzheimer's disease.
• Lewis Croft, 88, American actor (Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz).
• Chuck Daigh, 84, American racing driver, heart and respiratory disease.
• Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, 87, Iranian Anglican Bishop, first ethnic Iranian Christian bishop since the 7th century.
• Julie Ege, 64, Norwegian actress (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), breast cancer.
• Tatsuo Hasegawa, 92, Japanese automotive engineer, development chief of the first Toyota Corolla.
• Albert Hofmann, 102, Swiss researcher, chemist and discoverer of LSD, heart attack.
• Sir Anthony Kershaw, 92, British Conservative MP (1955–1987).
• Francis Mahoney, 80, American basketball player (Boston Celtics).
• Charles Tilly, 78, American sociologist, historian and political scientist.
• Micky Waller, 66, British drummer (Jeff Beck Group, Cyril Davies), liver failure.

30

• John Cargher, 89, Australian radio broadcaster, hosted Singers of Renown since 1966.
• Juancho Evertsz, 85, Dutch Antillean politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles (1973–1977). (Dutch)
• Ling Ling, 22, Chinese panda, lived in Ueno Zoo, Tokyo, oldest giant panda in Japan, heart failure.
• M. G. Pandithan, 68, Malaysian politician, leukemia.
• Clarence Ross, 84, American bodybuilder.
• Allan Sparrow, 63, Canadian politician, activist and Toronto city councillor (1974–1980), colorectal cancer.