Deaths in December 1989

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1989.

Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.

December 1989

1

• Alvin Ailey, 58, American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist, AIDS.
• Danilo Atienza, 38, Filipino pilot in the Philippine Air Force, plane crash.
• Michał Antoniewicz, 92, Polish equestrian and dual Olympic medalist.
• André Charles Biéler, 93, Swiss-born Canadian painter.
• Billy Lyall, 36, Scottish singer, keyboard player and flautist with The Alan Parsons Project and the Bay City Rollers, AIDS.
• Nikolai Patolichev, 81, Soviet politician, Soviet Minister of Trade.
• Bill Stout, 62, American journalist, cardiac arrest.
• Mitchell Ucovich, 74, American NFL football player.
• William Vandivert, 77, American photographer.

2

• Karl-Erik Alberts, 78, Swedish cinematographer.
• Harland Bartholomew, 100, American civil engineer and urban planner with St Louis, Missouri, with his plans intended to promote racial segregation.
• Keith Ewert, 71, Australian accountant and politician, member of the Australian House of Representatives.
• Oldřich Hanč, 74, Czechoslovakian speed skater and Olympian.
• Ruth Mary Reynolds, 73, American political and civil rights activist.
• Richard Shannon, 69, American film and television actor.
• William Taylour, 85, British archaeologist.

3

• Sourou-Migan Apithy, 76, Beninese politician, president of Dahomey (Benin).
• Mario Astorri, 69, Italian footballer and coach.
• Connie B. Gay, 75, American country musician, cancer.
• Fernando Martín, 27, Spanish professional basketballer, five-time Spanish swimming champion, traffic collision.
• Jean-Paul Moulinot, 77, French actor.
• Alexander Obukhov, 71, Soviet physicist and applied mathematician.
• Paul Wei Ping-ao, 60, Chinese and Hong Kong actor.
• Carlo Rim, 86, French film screenwriter, producer and director.
• Nihal Silva, 35, Sri Lankan comedian and actor, shot.

4

• Gerald Carson, 90, American advertising executive, social historian and writer.
• Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones, 80, Welsh barrister and politician.
• Émile Janssens, 87, Belgian colonial official and military officer.
• Steve Lembo, 63, American Major Leagues baseball player.
• Angelo Ruggiero, 49, American mobster, member of Gambino crime family, cancer.
• May Swenson, 76, American poet and playwright.

5

• Juan Manuel Acuña, 68, Chilean international footballer.
• Edoardo Amaldi, 81, Italian physicist.
• Nathan Huggins, 62, American historian, author and educator.
• Sofiya Kalistratova, 82, Soviet lawyer and human rights activist.
• Li Keran, 82, Chinese painter and art educator, heart attack.
• George Machin, 66, British politician.
• Tadeusz Miksa, 63, Polish footballer.
• John Pritchard, 71, English conductor, music director of the San Francisco Opera, lung cancer.
• George Selden, 60, American author.

6

• Frances Bavier, 86, American stage and television actress, heart failure.
• C. L. Dellums, 89, American labor activist.
• Sammy Fain, 87, American composer, musician and vocalist (Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Incredible Mr. Limpet), heart attack.
• David Hardman, 88, British politician.
• Rolf Johannesson, 89, Nazi German and West German naval admiral.
• Marc Lépine, 25, Canadian mass murderer (École Polytechnique massacre), suicide by gunshot.
• Mélinée Manouchian, 75–76, French-Armenian résistante and the widow of Missak Manouchian.
• Art Parks, 78, American Major Leagues baseball player.
• John Payne, 77, American film actor, congestive heart failure.
• Ćamil Sijarić, 75, Yugoslav novelist and short story writer, traffic collision.

7

• William "Haystacks" Calhoun, 55, American professional wrestler.
• Phil Dokes, 34, American NFL football player, heart failure.
• Hans Hartung, 85, German-French abstract painter and soldier.
• Lucien Le Guével, 74, French racing cyclist.
• Carlos DeLuna, 27, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection.
• Stuart Novins, 75, American television journalist, respiratory failure.
• Sirima, 25, Sri Lankan-English singer, stabbed.
• Vadim Spiridonov, 45, Soviet film actor and director, heart failure.
• Luis Calderón Vega, 77–78, Mexican politician and writer.
• Melchior Wezel, 86, Swiss gymnast and Olympic gold medalist.

8

• Albert Barrett, 86, English footballer.
• Szymon Datner, 87, Polish historian and Holocaust survivor.
• Max Grundig, 81, German businessman, founder of Grundig AG.
• Mykola Livytskyi, 82, Soviet Ukrainian politician, prime minister and president of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile.
• Stanley Steingut, 69, American politician, speaker of the New York House Assembly, lung cancer.

9

• Brett Austin, 30, New Zealand swimmer and Olympian.
• Edward J. Bloustein, 64, American, president of Rutgers University.
• Gunnar Bøe, 72, Norwegian politician and economist.
• William P. Ennis, 85, American lieutenant-general in the United States Army.
• Basil Hayward, 61, English footballer and manager, heart attack.
• Takeshi Kaikō, 58, Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, literary critic, and television documentary writer, esophageal cancer.
• Doug Scovil, 62, American football player and coach, heart attack.
• S. Somasundaram, 70, Indian vocalist.
• R. G. Springsteen, 85, American B movie and television director.

10

• Frank Baker, 71, English footballer.
• Sam Barkas, 79, English footballer and manager.
• Paul Collaer, 98, Belgian musicologist, pianist, and conductor.
• George Edmonds, 96, English professional footballer.
• Nico Gardener, 83, British bridge player.
• Frederick Hedges, 86, Canadian rower and Olympic medalist.
• Robin Hughes, 69, British film and television actor, liver disease.
• Steve Sebo, 75, American football and baseball player and coach.
• Harold Thomas, 75, Welsh rugby union and rugby league footballer.
• Huang Zhen, 80, Chinese politician, Chinese ambassador to Hungary, Indonesia and France.

11

• Allez France, 19, American Thoroughbred racehorse.
• Carlos Almaraz, 48, Mexican-born American artist, AIDS.
• Lindsay Crosby, 51, American actor and singer, son of Bing Crosby, suicide by gunshot.
• Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 94, American photographer, pneumonia.
• Howard Lang, English actor.

12

• Carlos Barral, 60–61, Spanish poet, politician and publisher, abdominal aortic aneurysm.
• Sid Colin, 74, English scriptwriter.
• Helen Creighton, 90, Canadian folklorist and author.
• Bill Kennedy, 77, Scottish professional footballer.
• Suihō Tagawa, 90, Japanese manga artist.

13

• Paul Crowe, 65, American NFL football player.
• Peter Bernard David de la Mare, 69, New Zealand physical organic chemist.
• Michele Fanelli, 82, Italian long-distance runner and Olympian.
• Sammy Lerner, 86, Romanian-born American songwriter for musical theatre and film, cancer.
• Felix McGrogan, 75, Scottish footballer.
• Stan Randall, 81, Canadian businessman and politician.

14

• Lucien Aguettand, 88, French art director.
• Reuben Bennett, 75, Scottish professional footballer and manager.
• Robert D. Blue, 91, American politician, governor of Iowa (1945–1949), stroke.
• Narciso Busquets, 58, Mexican theatre, film, television and radio actor, and voice-over.
• Ants Eskola, 81, Soviet and Estonian actor.
• Gerry Healy, 76, British political activist.
• Seiichi Katsumata, 81, Japanese politician, Soviet spy.
• Jock Mahoney, 70, American actor and stuntman, stroke.
• Frederick Nolting, 78, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to South Vietnam.
• Georges Poitou, 63, French mathematician.
• Andrei Sakharov, 68, Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, human rights activist and Nobel laureate in Physics, dilated cardiomyopathy.
• Howard Walton, 73, British tennis player.

15

• Anders "Akka" Andersson, 52, Swedish ice hockey player and dual Olympian.
• Ben Barzman, 79, Canadian journalist, screenwriter and novelist.
• Emile de Antonio, 70, American director and producer of documentaries, heart attack.
• José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, 42, Colombian drug lord and leader of the Medellín Cartel, shot.
• Charles Holland, 81, British road-racing cyclist and Olympic medalist.
• Philly Lutaaya, 38, Ugandan musician, AIDS.
• Arnold Moss, 79, American actor, lung cancer.
• Diptendu Pramanick, 79, Indian film personality.
• Vanja Sutlić, 64, Yugoslav philosopher.
• Edward Underdown, 81, English theatre, cinema and television actor.
• Ali Şen, 80, Turkish actor.

16

• Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, 76, Argentine racing driver, pancreatic cancer.
• Charlie Long, 51, American AFL football player.
• Silvana Mangano, 59, Italian film actress, lung cancer.
• Gianni Poggi, 68, Italian tenor.
• Aileen Pringle, 94, American stage and silent-screen actress.
• John Ramsbotham, 83, British Anglican clergyman.
• René Tavernier, 74, French poet and philosopher.
• Lee Van Cleef, 64, American film and television actor, heart attack.
• Robert Smith Vance, 58, American judge, assassinated by letter bomb.
• Marjorie Westbury, 84, English radio actress and singer.
• Priscilla White, 89, American diabetes researcher, heart attack.

17

• Gilbert Allart, 87, French hurdler and Olympian.
• Walt Bachrach, 85, American businessman, lawyer and Republican politician, mayor of Cincinnati, stroke.
• Edward Boyd, 72–73, Scottish writer.
• Zeb Eaton, 69, American Major Leagues baseball player.
• Gustav Engel, 96, German historian.
• Josephine Hill, 90, American silent-screen actress.
• Asen Panchev, 83, Bulgarian international footballer.
• Luciano Salce, 67, Italian film director, comedian, television host, producer, actor and lyricist, heart attack, melanoma.
• Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa, 94, Romanian sociologist, journalist, and diplomat.
• Albert Coady Wedemeyer, 93, American Army general.

18

• Brad Beckman, 24, American NFL football player, traffic collision.
• Olwen Brogan, 89, British archaeologist.
• Bobby Capó, 67, Puerto Rican musician, heart attack.
• Sir George Harvie-Watt, 86, British barrister and politician.
• Sydney Irving, 71, British politician.
• Enar Josefsson, 73, Swedish cross-country skier and Olympic medalist.
• Jack Kilpatrick, 72, British ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.
• Louise Little, early 90s, Grenadian-born American activist, mother of Malcolm X.
• Jerzy Rutkowski, 75, Polish political activist and resistance fighter.
• Stanley Senanayake, 72, Sri Lankan police officer, Inspector General of the Sri Lanka Police.
• Jean Strauss, 77, Luxembourgian sprint canoeist and Olympian.

19

• Herbert Blaize, 71, Grenadian politician, prime minister of Grenada, prostate cancer.
• Audrey Christie, 77, American actress, singer and dancer, emphysema.
• Abdul Jalil Choudhury, 63–64, Bengali Deobandi Islamic scholar, teacher and politician.
• Barthold Fles, 87, Dutch-born American literary agent and author, diabetes.
• Stella Gibbons, 87, English author, journalist and poet.
• John Heddle, 46, British politician, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Floyd Jones, 72, American blues musician, heart failure.
• Preben Mahrt, 69, Danish film actor.
• Kirill Mazurov, 75, Soviet politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia.
• Georges Rouquier, 80, French film director, screenwriter and actor.
• Óndra Łysohorsky, 84, Czechoslovakian poet.

20

• Irma Beilke, 85, German operatic soprano, concert singer and academic voice teacher.
• Kurt Böhme, 81, German bass.
• Elisheva Cohen, 78, German-born Israeli designer and museum curator.
• Gentry Crowell, 57, American politician, Tennessee secretary of state, suicide by gunshot.
• Donald L. McFaul, 32, United States Navy SEAL, killed in the United States invasion of Panama.

21

• Sir Hugh Elliott, 3rd Baronet, 76, British ornithologist, conservationist and hereditary peer.
• Ján Cikker, 78, Czechoslovakian composer.
• Rotimi Fani-Kayode, 34, Nigerian-born English photographer, AIDS.
• Elsie Griffin, 94, English opera singer.
• Harry Hibbs, 47, Canadian musician, cancer.
• Ralph "Blackie" Schwamb, 63, American Major League baseballer and convicted murderer.
• Soedjatmoko, 67, Indonesian politician and diplomat, cardiac arrest.
• Ethel Swanbeck, 96, American politician, member of Ohio House of Representatives.
• José Zacarías Tallet, 96, Cuban writer.
• Dwane Wallace, 78, American aircraft designer, president of Cessna.

22

• Samuel Beckett, 83, Irish-French novelist, playwright, and short story writer, emphysema.
• Howard Bowen, 81, American economist and college president.
• Theodore M. Burton, 82, American Mormon Genealogical Department director.
• Archie Campbell, 86, American Major Leagues baseballer.
• Giorgio Cavallon, 85, Italian-born American abstract artist.
• Harry Kraf, 82, American lawyer and politician.
• Vasile Milea, 62, Romanian general and politician, suicide.
• Gustavo Pizarro, 73, Chilean international footballer.
• Massimo Serato, 73, Italian film actor, heart attack.

23

• Jeff Alexander, 79, American conductor, arranger, and composer of film, radio and television scores, cancer.
• Peter Bennett, 72, British stage and television actor.
• Milko Gaydarski, 43, Bulgarian international footballer and Olympic medalist.
• Shahzad Khalil, 44–45, Pakistani television director and producer, heart attack.
• Richard Rado, 83, German-born British mathematician.
• Lennart Strandberg, 74, Swedish sprinter and Olympian.

24

• Charles Moore, 11th Earl of Drogheda, 79, British hereditary peer.
• Victor Fontana, 41, Romanian biathlete and Olympian, shot.
• Ernest Nathan Morial, 60, American politician, civil rights advocate, heart attack.
• Florică Murariu, 34, Romanian international rugby union player, shot.
• Roger Pigaut, 70, French actor and film director, cardiovascular disease.
• Ollie Savatsky, 78, American NFL football player.

25

• Benny Binion, 85, American career criminal who established illegal gambling operations, heart failure.
• Elena Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian communist politician, deputy Prime Minister of Romania and wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, executed by firing squad.
• Nicolae Ceaușescu, 71, Romanian communist politician and dictatorial president of Romania (1974–1989), executed by firing squad.
• Gus Dahlström, 83, Swedish film actor.
• Betty Garde, 84, American stage, radio, film and television actress.
• Türkan Hanımsultan, 70, Ottoman princess and chemical engineer, daughter of Enver Pasha.
• George Hotchkiss, 83, American NBL basketball coach.
• Frederick F. Houser, 85, American politician and judge.
• Masaad Kassis, 71, Israeli Arab politician.
• Joseph Livingston, 84, American business journalist and columnist.
• Jean-Étienne Marie, 72, French composer of contemporary music.
• Billy Martin, 61, American Major Leagues baseball player and manager, traffic collision.
• Riccardo Morandi, 87, Italian civil engineer, noted for his bridge designs.
• Robert Pirosh, 79, American film and television screenwriter and director.
• Bo Randall, 80, American knifemaker
• Wally Ris, 65, American swimmer, dual Olympic gold medalist and world record holder.
• Domenico Scala, 86, Italian cinematographer.
• A. J. Seymour, 75, Guyanese poet, essayist, memoirist.

26

• Lennox Berkeley, 86, English composer.
• Doug Harvey, 65, Canadian NHL ice hockey player, cirrhosis.
• Kōyō Ishikawa, 85, Japanese photographer.
• Paul Jennings, 71, English author.
• Roy Joiner, 83, American Major Leagues baseball player.
• Jörgen Lehmann, 91, Danish-Swedish physician and chemist.
• James J. Manderino, 57, American politician, speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, heart attack.
• Maryon Pearson, 88, wife of Lester B. Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada.
• K. Shankar Pillai, 87, Indian cartoonist.
• Sybil Sassoon, 95, British noblewoman and socialite, Chief Staff Officer in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the Second World War.
• Mohan Singh, 80, Indian general and politician, cancer.
• Peggy Thorpe-Bates, 75, English stage, screen and television actress.
• Seán Walsh, 64, Irish politician.

27

• Rodney Arismendi, 76, Uruguayan politician and political writer.
• Kurt Baum, 89, Austro-Hungarian-born American singer.
• Maurice Dunkley, 75, English footballer.
• Finlay Hart, 87–88, Scottish communist politician.
• Gene Johnson, 87, American football and basketball coach.
• Dada Amir Haider Khan, 89, Pakistani communist activist.
• Gerard Maarse, 60, Dutch speed skater and dual Olympian.
• Arthur Rhames, 32, American guitarist, tenor saxophonist, and pianist, AIDS.
• John Monteath Robertson, 89, Scottish chemist and crystallographer.
• Ron Ulmer, 76, New Zealand track cyclist and national champion.
• George William Weidler, 63, American saxophonist and songwriter, husband of Doris Day.

28

• Solomon Birnbaum, 98, Austro-Hungarian, British and Canadian expert in Yiddish linguistics and Hebrew paleography.
• Marin Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian economist and diplomat, brother of Nicolae Ceaușescu, suicide by hanging.
• Brian Coburn, 53, English actor who portrayed himself as Scottish.
• Karl Humenberger, 83, Austrian footballer and manager.
• Pavel Kurochkin, 89, Soviet army general.
• Ricardo López Méndez, 86, Mexican poet and lyricist.
• Hermann Oberth, 95, Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and rocket pioneer.
• William Scott, 76, Northern Irish abstract painter.

29

• Adrien Albert, 82, Australian medicinal chemist.
• Süreyya Ağaoğlu, 86, Azerbaijani-born Turkish writer and lawyer, cerebral hemorrhage.
• Scott Burton, 50, American sculptor, AIDS.
• Saman Piyasiri Fernando, 31, Sri Lankan politician, murdered.
• Hiroshi Inoue, 57, Japanese botanist, cancer.
• Marion Keisker, 72, American record producer, first person to record Elvis Presley.
• Saša Večtomov (born Alexandr Večtomov), 59, Czechoslovak cellist, suicide.
• Ive Šubic, 67, Yugoslav painter, graphic artists and illustrator.

30

• Sten Abel, 90, Norwegian sailor and Olympic medalist.
• Charles H. Blosser, 94, American after whom Blosser Municipal Airport is named.
• Øyvind Anker, 85, Norwegian librarian.
• Augusto Del Noce, 79, Italian philosopher and political thinker.
• Etienne Leroux, 67, South African writer.
• Esther McCoy, 85, American architectural historian and author.
• Yasuji Miyazaki, 73, Japanese swimmer and Olympian.
• Fumiteru Nakano, 74, Japanese tennis player.
• Madoline Thomas, 99, Welsh stage, film and television actress, complications from a broken hip.

31

• Christia Adair, 96, American suffragist and civil rights activist.
• Lilly Daché, 97, French-born American hatmaker.
• Georges de Bourguignon, 79, Belgian fencer and Olympic medalist.
• Clarence Hammar, 90, Swedish sailor and Olympic medalist.
• Ignatius Kilage, 48, Papua New Guinean politician, Governor-General of Papua New Guinea.
• Mihály Lantos, 61, Hungarian international footballer and manager.
• Wendell Mosley, 57, American football player and coach.
• Bendt Rothe, 68, Danish actor.
• Gerhard Schröder, 79, West German politician.

References