Deaths in December 2007

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

December 2007

1

• Rassim al-Jumaili, 69, Iraqi actor and comedian, kidney failure.
• Jennifer Davidson, 38, American executive, senior vice president of programming and scheduling for Cartoon Network.
• Elisabeth Eybers, 92, South African-born poet. (Afrikaans)
• Tony Fall, 67, British rally driver and Opel Motorsport Team director, heart attack.
• Ken McGregor, 78, Australian tennis player, stomach cancer.
• Danny Newman, 88, American publicist for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, pulmonary fibrosis.
• Anton Rodgers, 74, British actor.

2

• Jennifer Alexander, 35, Canadian-born American ballet dancer, car accident.
• Robert O. Anderson, 90, American founder and former CEO of ARCO.
• Elizabeth Hardwick, 91, American co-founder of The New York Review of Books.
• David Maybury-Lewis, 78, British anthropologist.
• Eleonora Rossi Drago, 82, Italian actress, cerebral haemorrhage. (Italian)
• Les Shannon, 81, British footballer and manager.
• Thomas Torrance, 94, British theologian.

3

• Art Arfons, 81, American jet-car driver and drag racer, three-time world land speed record holder.
• John Belgrave, 67, New Zealand public servant, Chief Ombudsman (2003–2007), cancer.
• Jaime Fuster, 66, Puerto Rican politician and jurist, Resident Commissioner (1985–1992), heart attack. (Spanish)
• Susumu Katsumata, 63, Japanese manga artist and illustrator, melanoma. (Japanese)
• James Kemsley, 59, Australian cartoonist (Ginger Meggs), motor neurone disease.
• Keshav Meshram, 70, Indian writer and critic, lung cancer.
• Lord Bloody Wog Rolo, 62, Australian activist, renal cell carcinoma.

4

• Chad "Pimp C" Butler, 33, American rap artist (UGK), sleep apnea and accidental overdose.
• Jake Gaudaur, 87, Canadian Commissioner of the Canadian Football League (1968–1984), cancer.
• Jay H. Gordon, 77, American politician, Vermont Auditor of Accounts (1965–1969), smoke inhalation.
• Stanley McArdle, 85, British admiral.
• Norval Morrisseau, 75, Canadian Ojibwe artist, founder of the Woodlands Style, Parkinson's disease.
• David "Chip" Reese, 56, American professional poker player, heart attack.
• Herman Rose, 98, American cityscape painter, cancer.
• Carlos Valdes, 81, Cuban conga player, respiratory failure.

5

• M. V. Dhond, 93, Indian literary and art critic. (Marathi)
• Robin Gloag, 64, British co-founder of Stagecoach Group, car accident.
• Arnold Hardy, 85, American Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, complications from hip surgery.
• Andrew Imbrie, 86, American composer.
• Dan Iosif, 57, Romanian revolutionary, lung cancer.
• Jillian Kesner-Graver, 58, American actress (Happy Days), Orson Welles historian, staph infection.
• Alois Kracher, 48, Austrian winemaker, pancreatic cancer.
• George Paraskevaides, 91, Cypriot businessman (Joannou & Paraskevaides) and philanthropist.
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, 79, German composer.
• Tony Tenser, 87, British film producer.
• Rene Villanueva, 53, Filipino playwright and author, stroke.
• John Winter, 83, Australian athlete, 1948 Olympics high jump gold medalist.

6

• Wolfgang Assbrock, 55, German politician, member of the CDU and Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. (German)
• George Bednar, 65, American football player and Harvey Wallbanger cocktail promoter.
• Mike Donkin, 56, British reporter and journalist (BBC News), cancer.
• Katy French, 24, Irish model, suspected overdose.
• Jacques Hébert, 84, Canadian politician, Senator (1983–1998).
• John Hill, 95, British politician, Conservative MP for South Norfolk (1955–1974).
• John Pilkington Hudson, 97, British hortculturist and bomb disposal expert.
• Murray Klein, 84, American businessman, co-owner of New York City's Zabar's food emporium, lung cancer.
• Shelley Rohde, 74, British journalist and author.
• Ken Southworth, 89, American cartoon animator (Hanna-Barbera, Walt Disney Animation Studios), stroke.
• András Szöllősy, 86, Hungarian composer.

7

• Noel Forster, 75, British artist.
• Fuad Hassan, 78, Indonesian Minister of Education (1985–1993), cancer.
• John Hollowbread, 73, British football goalkeeper (Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton).

8

• Donald Burton, 73, British actor, husband of actress Carroll Baker, emphysema.
• Ioan Fiscuteanu, 70, Romanian actor, colon cancer.
• Dmitry Grigorieff, 89, American Episcoplian prelate, dean emeritus of Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Washington D.C., cardiac arrest.
• Roger King, 63, American TV executive (King World, CBS), developed Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and The Oprah Winfrey Show, stroke.
• Gerardo García Pimentel, 24, Mexican crime reporter, homicide by gunshot.
• Al Scaduto, 79, American cartoonist (They'll Do It Every Time).

9

• John Stuart Archer, 64, British chemical engineer and academic administrator.
• Edward Dutkiewicz, 46, British artist.
• Wayne Howard, 58, American comic book artist (Charlton Comics), heart attack.
• Jim Langley, 78, British footballer for England, Fulham, and QPR, heart attack.
• Matthew J. Murray, 24, American spree killer, suicide by gunshot.
• Elspeth Rostow, 90, American academic, University of Texas dean, widow of Walt Whitman Rostow, heart attack.
• Kurt Schmied, 81, Austrian footballer, former member of the national team. (German)
• Thore Skogman, 76, Swedish musician, stroke. (Swedish)
• Rafael Sperafico, 26, Brazilian racing driver, race crash.
• J. Fife Symington Jr., 97, American diplomat to Trinidad and Tobago, complications of old age.
• Gordon Zahn, 84, American Catholic peace activist, co-founder of Pax Christi USA, complications of Alzheimer's disease.

10

• Jack Crichton, 91, American industrialist.
• George Morris, 76, American football player (Georgia Tech, San Francisco 49ers), apparent heart attack.
• Aqsa Parvez, 16, Canadian allegedly killed for refusing to wear hijab, strangled.
• Jerry Ricks, 67, American blues guitarist.
• Gordon Samuels, 84, Australian Governor of New South Wales (1996–2001).
• Henrietta Yurchenko, 91, American folklorist.

11

• Ashleigh Aston Moore, 26, American-born Canadian actress, accidental heroin overdose.
• Allan Berube, 61, American gay historian and writer, complications from stomach ulcers.
• José Luis Calva, 38, Mexican writer, serial killer and cannibal, apparent suicide.
• Freddie Fields, 84, American Hollywood agent, producer and studio executive, lung cancer.
• Pat Hannigan, 71, Canadian NHL ice hockey player.
• Christie Hennessy, 62, Irish singer and songwriter, cancer.
• Nicholas Kao Se Tseien, 110, Chinese supercentenarian, world's oldest Catholic priest.
• Karl Ludwig, Archduke of Austria, 89, Austrian son of Emperor Charles I of Austria. (German).
• Ottomar Pinto, 76, Brazilian politician, Governor of Roraima (2004–2007), heart attack.
• Tatsuzō Shimaoka, 88, Japanese potter, living national treasure, acute liver failure.
• Terry Yates, 57, American biologist, discovered source of hantavirus, brain cancer.

12

• Basuki, 51, Indonesian comedian.
• Ted Corbitt, 88, American ultramarathon runner, respiratory complications.
• Shawn Eckardt, 40, American bodyguard and businessman, conspired to assault Nancy Kerrigan, natural causes.
• Josep Guinovart, 80, Spanish artist. (Spanish)
• François al-Hajj, 54, Lebanese Army general, roadside bomb.
• Alfons Maria Stickler, 97, Austrian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. (German)
• Jim Nevill, 80, British government official, former head of Scotland Yard bomb squad.
• Ike Turner, 76, American R&B musician and record producer, ex-husband of singer Tina Turner, cocaine overdose.
• Schuster Vance, 47, American actor, cancer.
• Lee Vincent, 91, American bassist and radio personality (WILK), heart failure.
• Yuli Mikhailovich Vorontsov, 78, Russian diplomat, former ambassador to the United Nations and United States.

13

• Philippe Clay, 80, French singer and actor.
• Fuat Deniz, 40, Swedish-Assyrian sociologist, homicide by stabbing.
• Wiggo Hanssen, 84, Norwegian Olympic speed skater.
• Laura Huxley, 96, American musician and author, widow of Aldous Huxley, cancer.
• Alain Payet, 60, French adult film director. (French)
• Robert Russin, 93, American sculptor.
• Floyd Red Crow Westerman, 71, American musician, actor (Dances With Wolves) and Native American activist, leukemia.

14

• Issam al-Zaim, 67, Syrian economist, heart attack.
• Hank Kaplan, 87, American boxing historian, cancer.
• Maria Lauterbach, 20, American marine and murder victim.
• Clarence Marshall, 82, American Major League Baseball pitcher (New York Yankees).
• Frank Morgan, 73, American saxophonist.
• Hryhoriy Nestor, 116?, Ukrainian who claimed to be the oldest person in the world.
• Emory Sekaquaptewa, 78, American indigenous Hopi anthropologist.

15

• John Berg, 58, American actor, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Jean Bottéro, 93, French historian. (French)
• St. Clair Bourne, 64, American documentary filmmaker (Half Past Autumn), pulmonary embolism.
• Julia Carson, 69, American member of the House of Representatives from Indiana since 1997, lung cancer.
• Gerard Fairtlough, 77, British biochemist and entrepreneur.
• Andrzeja Górska, 91, Polish nun, abbess of the Grey Ursulines. (Polish)
• Ryan Gracie, 33, Brazilianmartial artist.
• Clem Jones, 89, Australian Lord Mayor of Brisbane (1961–1975), pneumonia.
• Matjaž Klopčič, 73, Slovenian film director.
• Diane Middlebrook, 68, American biographer and poet, cancer.
• Tejeshwar Singh, 60, Indian publisher, newsreader and theatre activist, cardiac arrest.
• Ace Vergel, 55, Filipino actor, cardiac arrest.
• Jonathan Witchell, 33, British BBC reporter for Radio Kent.

16

• Dan Fogelberg, 56, American singer-songwriter ("Same Old Lang Syne"), prostate cancer.
• Harald Genzmer, 98, German composer of classical music. (German)
• Ismail Gulgee, 81, Pakistani painter, homicide by strangulation.
• Serge Vinçon, 58, French politician. (French)

17

• Don Chevrier, 69, Canadian sportscaster.
• Joel Dorn, 65, American jazz, pop and R&B record producer, heart attack.
• Jim Holstein, 77, American basketball player (Minneapolis Lakers).
• Tom Murphy, 83, American politician, speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives (1973–2002), complications of a stroke.
• Jack Zander, 99, American animator (Tom and Jerry).

18

• Walter Bowart, 68, American co-founder of East Village Other, colon cancer.
• Gerald Le Dain, 83, Canadian jurist, Justice of the Supreme Court.
• Carl Graff-Wang, 64, Norwegian Olympic handball player.
• Samuel Karlin, 83, American mathematician, heart attack.
• Jack Linkletter, 70, American television host, son of Art Linkletter, lymphoma.
• Motiur Rahman, 58, Indian politician, Rashtriya Janata Dal member of the Rajya Sabha since 2005, heart attack.
• Bill Strauss, 60, American writer and satirist, founder of political comedy group Capitol Steps, pancreatic cancer.

19

• Frank Capra, Jr., 73, American movie studio executive, son of director Frank Capra, prostate cancer.
• James Costigan, 81, American actor and television writer (Eleanor and Franklin), heart failure.
• Desmond C. Derbyshire, 83, British linguist.
• John A. Garraty, 87, American historian, heart failure.
• Albert L. O'Neil, 87, American politician, Boston City Council (1971–1999).

20

• Tommy Byrne, 87, American baseball player.
• Jeanne Carmen, 77, American actress and pin-up girl, lymphoma.
• Arabella Churchill, 58, British founder of Children's World charity, granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill, pancreatic cancer.
• Russell Coffey, 109, American serviceman, one of three known remaining American veterans of World War I.
• Lorne Davis, 77, Canadian ice hockey player (Montreal Canadiens) and scout (Edmonton Oilers).
• Ted Finn, 68, Canadian intelligence official, director of CSIS (1984–1987).
• John Gibbs, 90. British Anglican prelate, Bishop of Coventry (1976–1985).
• Peer Hultberg, 72, Danish author and psychoanalyst. (Danish)
• Lydia Mendoza, 91, American Tejano music singer and guitarist.
• Nataline Sarkisyan, 17, American student denied health insurance claim, leukemia.
• Kazumi Tanaka, 56, Japanese voice actor, brother of Ryouichi Tanaka, heart failure.
• Robbie Williams, 45, Australian politician, first Indigenous Australian Brisbane City councillor, former ATSIC commissioner, heart attack.

21

• Carol Bly, 77, American author and poet, ovarian cancer.
• Kex Gorin, 56, British drummer (Magnum), kidney cancer.
• Ken Hendricks, 66, American contractor and billionaire, fall from roof.
• Hans Imhoff, 85, German businessman, founder of Imhoff Chocolate Museum in Cologne. (German)
• Jack Lamabe, 71, American Major League Baseball pitcher.
• Ken Lee, 75, Chinese-born Australian businessman, owner and co-founder of Bing Lee superstores, cancer.
• Saadia Marciano, 57, Israeli Black Panthers leader, member of the Knesset.
• Norton Nascimento, 45, Brazilian actor, heart failure. (Portuguese)
• Jiří Pauer, 88, Czech composer, theatre director and academic.
• Jeani Read, 60, Canadian journalist, cancer.
• Battista Serioli, 107, Italian World War I veteran. (Italian)

22

• Joe Ames, 86, American singer (Ames Brothers), heart attack.
• Chrysostomos I, 80, Cyprian prelate, Archbishop of Cyprus (1977–2006).
• Sir Charles Court, 96, Australian politician, Premier of Western Australia (1974–1982).
• Andy Davis, 80, American football player (Washington Redskins).
• Sylvan Fox, 79, American journalist, complications from pneumonia.
• Andrew Glyn, 64, British economist.
• Julien Gracq, 97, French writer.
• Leila Backman Shull, 113, American supercentenarian, seventh-oldest living person in the world.
• Lucien Teisseire, 88, French road bicycle racer.
• Marvin Wachman, 90, American historian, President of Lincoln University and Temple University, heart failure.
• Ruth Wallis, 87, American singer-songwriter, complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• Takashi Yamamoto, 58, Japanese politician. (Japanese)

23

• Dale Baird, 71, American thoroughbred horse trainer, car crash.
• Evelyn Gandy, 87, American politician, Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi (1976–1980).
• W.F. Ganong, 83, American neuroendocrinologist, prostate cancer.
• Michael Kidd, 92, American film and stage choreographer, cancer.
• Aloísio Lorscheider, 83, Brazilian Roman Catholic prelate and cardinal, heart failure.
• Tyler MacDuff, 82, American actor.
• Hans Mild, 73, Swedish footballer and ice hockey player. (Swedish)
• Oscar Peterson, 82, Canadian jazz pianist, kidney failure and complications from a stroke.
• Rhoda Pritzker, 93, American philanthropist, member of the Pritzker family.
• Ferreira Queimado, 94, Portuguese former chairman of S.L. Benfica, after long illness. (Portuguese)
• Kevin Sinclair, 65, New Zealand-born Hong Kong reporter, editor and columnist for the South China Morning Post, cancer.
• Osvaldo Reyes, 88, Chilean painter, stroke.
• Frank Swaelen, 77, Belgian politician, former President of the Senate and Minister of State. (Dutch)

24

• Jim Angel, 67, Australian radio newsreader, stroke.
• Cláudio Camunguelo, 60, Brazilian composer and singer, diabetes. (Portuguese)
• Reinhard Heß, 62, German ski jumping coach, pancreatic cancer.
• Wilhelmina Jashemski, 97, American archaeologist, renal failure.
• Andreas Matzbacher, 25, Austrian cyclist, car accident.
• Nicholas Pumfrey, 56, British judge, stroke.
• George Warrington, 55, American transportation official, President of Amtrak (1998–2002), pancreatic cancer.

25

• Jim Beauchamp, 68, American Major League Baseball player and coach, leukemia.
• Tommy Harmer, 79, British footballer (Tottenham Hotspur, Watford and Chelsea).
• John Hayes, 80, New Zealand test cricketer.
• Patricia Kirkwood, 86, British actress, Alzheimer's disease.
• Hugh Massingberd, 60, British genealogist and journalist, former The Daily Telegraph obituary editor.
• Mighty King Kong, 34, Kenyan reggae musician.
• Hans Otte, 81, German avant-garde composer and pianist.
• G. P. Sippy, 93, Indian film producer and director.
• Carlos Eduardo Sousa Jr., 17, American student, tiger attack.
• Tatiana, 4, Siberian tiger at San Francisco Zoo, mauled a visitor to death, shot.

26

• Raúl Bernao, 66, Argentine footballer, hepatitis.
• Jim Castiglia, 89, American football and baseball player, natural causes.
• Joe Dolan, 68, Irish singer and entertainer, brain haemorrhage.
• John A. Garraty, 87, American biographer, heart failure.
• Andrew Grima, 86, British jeweller.
• Voitto Liukkonen, 67, Finnish sports commentator. (Finnish)
• Paul D. MacLean, 94, American physician, developed triune brain concept, heart attack.
• Nina Menshikova, 79, Russian actress. (Russian)
• Stu Nahan, 81, American sportscaster, lymphoma.
• John Pappenheimer, 92, American physiologist, respiratory failure.

27

• Kit Ahern, 92, Irish politician.
• Ben D. Altamirano, 77, American politician, member of the New Mexico Senate since 1971, heart attack.
• Ben Bamfuchile, 47, Zambian coach of the Namibia national football team, after short illness.
• Benazir Bhutto, 54, Pakistani Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister (1988–1990, 1993–1996), assassinated.
• Edward A. Brennan, 73, American businessman, former Chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company.
• Sir Howard Colvin, 88, British architectural historian.
• Steven Florio, 58, American businessman, former CEO of Condé Nast, heart attack.
• Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 85, Polish film director. (Polish)
• Jaan Kross, 87, Estonian writer. (Estonian)
• Ed LaDou, 52, American pizza chef, popularized gourmet California-style pizzas, cancer.
• Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, 94, Brazilian pretender to the title Emperor of Brazil. (Portuguese)
• Peter Wing, 93, Canadian politician, mayor of Kamloops, North America's first mayor of Chinese descent, stroke.

28

• Aidin Nikkhah Bahrami, 25, Iranian basketball player, road accident.
• Serigne Saliou Mbacké, 92, Senegalese religious leader, fifth caliph of the Mouride Islamic movement.
• Sun Daolin, 86, Chinese actor.
• Tab Thacker, 45, American NCAA wrestling champion, actor (Police Academy films, City Heat, Wildcats), diabetes complications.

29

• Olayr Coan, 48, Brazilian actor and theater director, car accident. (Portuguese)
• Phil Dusenberry, 71, American advertising executive, lung cancer.
• Kevin Greening, 44, British former BBC Radio 1 disc jockey.
• Vincent Gruppuso, 67, American businessman, founder of Kozy Shack puddings, complications from diabetes.
• Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar, 74, Yemeni politician, Parliamentary speaker since 1993, cancer.
• Joan Ingpen, 91, British classical music manager (Ingpen & Williams), launched the career of Luciano Pavarotti.
• Nonja, 55, Indonesian Sumatran orangutan thought to be world's oldest.
• Phil O'Donnell, 35, Scottish footballer (Motherwell) with one Scotland cap, heart failure.
• H. D. Thoreau, Jr., 84, American track-and-field authority and Olympics official, complications from Alzheimer's and stroke.
• Shu Uemura, 79, Japanese makeup artist, pneumonia.

30

• Bert Bolin, 82, Swedish meteorologist, stomach cancer.
• Kinkri Devi, 82, Indian environmentalist.
• Laila Kaland, 68, Norwegian politician, MP (1985–2001), after long illness. (Norwegian)
• Jorge Machiñena, 71, Uruguayan deputy (1985–2000), President of the Chamber (1996–1997), heart attack. (Spanish)
• Leonard B. Meyer, 89, American musicologist.
• Victor Navarra, 55, American coordinator for New York Marathon, cancer. .
• Doreen Norton, 85, British nursing pioneer.
• Willie Robinson, 81, American blues singer, injuries from a fire.
• Ric Williamson, 55, American chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, heart attack.
• Louis Wolfson, 95, American businessman, bred and raced 1978 U.S. Triple Crown champion Affirmed, colon cancer.

31

• Tommy Dickson, 78, British footballer (Linfield, Northern Ireland), after long illness.
• Tony Elliott, 48, American football player (New Orleans Saints), natural causes.
• Ralph Emmerson, 94, British Anglican prelate, Bishop of Knaresborough (1972–1979).
• Michael Goldberg, 83, American abstract expressionist painter, heart attack.
• Bill Idelson, 88, American actor and script writer, complications from a broken hip.
• Kathryn Ish, 71, American television, voiceover and theater actress (Laverne & Shirley), cancer.
• Milton L. Klein, 97, Canadian politician, MP for Cartier (1963–1968).
• Markku Peltola, 51, Finnish actor and musician. (Finnish)
• Muhammad Osman Said, 85, Libyan Prime Minister (1960–1963).
• Ettore Sottsass, 90, Italian designer, heart failure.