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The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2001.
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.
1
- Danilo Donati, 75, Italian costume designer and production designer (two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Costume Design).[1]
- Ellis R. Dungan, 92, American film director.
- Michael Gallanagh, 82, Irish Fianna Fáil politician and Army captain.
- Cor de Jager, 76, Dutch army officer, Chief of Defence (1980-1983).
- Lin Haiyin, 83, Taiwanese writer, organ dysfunction.
- Celia M. Hunter, 82, American environmentalist and conservationist.[2]
- Chris Rees, 70, Welsh politician.
- Pavel Sadyrin, 59, Soviet and Russian football player and manager, cancer.[3]
2
- John W. Collins, 89, American chess master, author and teacher.[4]
- Chase Craig, 91, American comic strip and comic book writer and cartoonist, fall.[5]
- Bruce Halford, 70, British racing driver.
- Martha Kneale, 92, British philosopher.
- Roger McDonough, 92, American librarian.
- Amir Abdullah Khan Rokhri, 85, Pakistani politician.
- Max Rood, 74, Dutch jurist and politician.[6]
- Naomi Schor, 58, American literary critic and theorist, brain hemorrhage.[7]
- Manuel Velasco Suárez, 86, Mexican neurologist, scientist and humanist.
- Dmitri Voskoboynikov, 60, Russian Olympic volleyball player.[8]
- Willie Woodburn, 82, Scottish footballer.[9]
3
- Juan José Arreola, 83, Mexican writer, academic, and actor.[10]
- Dee Barton, 64, American jazz trombonist, big band drummer and composer.[11]
- Marike de Klerk, 64, First Lady of South Africa, as wife of President Frederik Willem de Klerk, murdered.
- Anthony Gigliotti, 79, American clarinetist and music teacher (Philadelphia Orchestra).[12]
- Nebojša M. Krstić, 37, Serbian theologian and sociologist, car accident.
- Grady Martin, 72, American country music guitarist (The Nashville A-Team), heart attack.[13]
- Gerhart M Riegner, 90, German philosopher, and the secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress from 1965 to 1983.[14]
- Harry Winter, 87, Austrian singer.[15]
4
- Silvio Clementelli, 75, Italian film producer.
- Pierre de Bénouville, 87, French Army officer, member of the Resistance during World War II, and politician.[16]
- Mercedes Matter, 87/88, American painter, draughtswoman, and writer.[17]
- Eddie Popowski, 88, American baseball coach and manager.
- Princess Maria Francesca of Savoy, 86, Italian royal and daughter of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.[18]
- John Townsend, 85, American basketball player.
- Ed Whalen, 74, Canadian television personality and journalist, heart attack.
5
- Anton Benya, 89, Austrian politician and trade unionist.
- Peter Blake, 53, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist, shot.[19]
- Muhamed Kreševljaković, 62, Bosnian politician and Mayor of Sarajevo.
- Franco Rasetti, 100, Italian-American physicist.[20]
- Bill Roberts, 89, British athlete.[21]
- Dharam Singh, 82, Indian field hockey player and Olympic champion.[22]
- Tomás Vio, 80, Argentine basketball player.
6
- Colin Buchanan, 94, Scottish town planner.[23]
- Robert W. Camac, 61, American thoroughbred horse racing trainer and breeder, murdered.
- Thomas William Gould, 86, English Royal Navy submariner and World War II hero (Victoria Cross).[24]
- Charles McClendon, 78, American football player (University of Kentucky) and coach (Louisiana State University).[25]
- Walt Mulconery, 69, American film editor (Flashdance, The Karate Kid, Touch and Go).[26]
7
- David Astor, 89, British newspaper proprietor.[27]
- Eva Calvo, 80, Mexican actress.
- Wally Cruice, 88, American NFL football player, assistant coach, and scout.
- James Crutchfield, 89, American blues singer, piano player and songwriter, heart disease.[28]
- Peter Elias, 78, American information theorist, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.[29]
- Faith Hubley, 77, American animator (Moonbird, The Hole, Sesame Street, A Doonesbury Special), breast cancer.[30]
- Billie Matthews, 71, American gridiron football coach.[31]
- Subrata Mitra, 70, Indian cinematographer.
- Pauline Moore, 87, American actress (Heidi, The Three Musketeers, Young Mr. Lincoln, Charlie Chan at Treasure Island), ALS.[32]
- Ray Powell, 73, British politician.[33]
8
- Agha Shahid Ali, 52, Kashmiri-American poet, brain cancer.[34]
- Mirza Delibašić, 47, Bosnian and Yugoslav basketball player and coach.[35]
- Maurice Gross, 67, French linguist and scholar.[36]
- Betty Holberton, 84, American computer programmer, one of six original programmers of the ENIAC computer.[37]
- Pete Perreault, 62, American gridiron football player.[38]
- Sergei Suponev, 38, Soviet/Russian television director and children's television presenter, snowmobile accident.
- Miroslav Vlach, 66, Czech ice hockey player and Olympic medalist.[39]
- George Young, 71, American football executive.[40]
9
- Cesina Bermudes, 93, Portuguese obstetrician and feminist.
- Michael Carver, Baron Carver, 86, British Field Marshal.[41]
- Joseph Mees, 78, Belgian prelate of the Catholic Church.[42]
- Frederick Stewart, 85, British geologist.[43]
- Lisa Welander, 92, Swedish neurologist.
10
- Mikhail Budyko, 81, Russian climatologist.
- Gus Doerner, 79, American basketball player.
- Alan Fennell, 65, British writer and editor.
- Knut Fægri, 92, Norwegian botanist and palaeoecologist.[44]
- Ashok Kumar, 90, Indian film actor, heart failure.[45]
- Vernon Richards, 86, Anglo-Italian anarchist, author, and photographer.[46]
- Heinz Rögner, 72, German conductor.[47]
11
- Beverly Hope Atkinson, 66, American actress, cancer.
- Andrei Bantikov, 87, Russian and Soviet painter.[48]
- Graham Billing, 65, New Zealand novelist, journalist and poet.
- Mainza Chona, 71, Zambian politician and diplomat, kidney failure.
- Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar, 92, Indian indologist and scholar.[49]
- Zdeněk Dítě, 81, Czechoslovak film actor.
- Teguh Karya, 64, Indonesian film director, complications from a stroke.
- Clark Mills, 86, American boatbuilder and designer.
- John Wilkinson Taylor, 95, American academic and UNESCO director-general.[50]
12
- Friedel Apelt, 99, German political activist and trades union official.
- Josef Bican, 88, Austrian-Czech footballer.
- Ardito Desio, 104, Italian explorer, geologist, and cartographer.[51]
- Berit Granquist, 92, Swedish Olympic fencer (women's foil at the 1936 Summer Olympics).[52]
- Armando Theodoro Hunziker, 82, Argentine botanist (Botanical Museum of the National University of Córdoba), cancer.[53]
- Farnham Johnson, 77, American gridiron football player (Chicago Rockets).[54]
- Lê Phổ, 94, Vietnamese painter.
- Giuseppe Prisco, 80, Italian lawyer and sporting director.
- Jean Richard, 80, French actor, comedian, and circus entrepreneur, cancer.[55]
- Roger Scotti, 76, French football player.[56]
- U. S. Grant Sharp, Jr., 95, United States Navy admiral.[57]
- William Stobie, 51, Northern Irish paramilitary, shot.
13
- Michael Bradshaw, 68, English actor.[58]
- Larry Costello, 70, American basketball player and coach, cancer.[59]
- Yvan Craipeau, 90, French Trotskyist.[60]
- Jack Hoffman, 71, American gridiron football player (Xavier University, Chicago Bears).[61]
- György Kőszegi, 51, Hungarian weightlifter and Olympic silver medalist.[62]
- Nigel Lovell, 85, Australian actor and opera director.
- Beatrice Macola, 36, Italian actress, cerebral infarction.
- Vidadi Narimanbekov, 75, Azerbaijani painter.
- Chuck Schuldiner, 34, American death metal guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, brain cancer.
- Dušan Slobodník, 74, Slovak literary theoretician, translator and politician.
14
- Conte Candoli, 74, American jazz trumpeter, prostate cancer.[63]
- Arghiri Emmanuel, 90, French marxian economist.[64]
- Alfred Byrd Graf, 100, German-American botanist, photographer and author.[65]
- John Guedel, 88, American radio and television producer (You Bet Your Life, People Are Funny, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet).[66]
- Pauline Mills McGibbon, 91, Canadian politician, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
- Claude Santelli, 78, French film director and screenwriter.[67]
- W. G. Sebald, 57, German writer, car collision.[68]
- Eoin Ryan, Snr, 81, Irish politician and senator.
15
- Wilkie Cooper, 90, British cinematographer (Jason and the Argonaut).[69]
- Russ Haas, 27, American professional wrestler, heart failure.[70]
- Bianca Halstead, 36, American hard rock singer, traffic collision.
- Franciszek Kępka, 61, Polish glider pilot and European champion.
- José O'Callaghan Martínez, 79, Spanish Jesuit priest and biblical scholar.
- Rufus Thomas, 84, American R&B/soul singer, heart failure.[71]
16
- Stuart Adamson, 43, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist of Big Country and The Raphaels, suicide by hanging.[72]
- Roy Brocksmith, 56, American actor, diabetes.[73]
- Stefan Heym, 88, German writer, heart failure.[74]
- Martin Isaksson, 80, Finnish politician and diplomat.
- Carwood Lipton, 81, American soldier during World War II and member of the Band of Brothers.[75]
- Lester Persky, 76, American film, television, and theatre producer, complications following heart surgery.[76]
- Villy Sørensen, 72, Danish writer, philosopher and literary critic.[77]
- Lincoln Tate, 67, American actor and marine.
17
- Mohammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi, 73, Iranian-Iraqi Shia marja' and political theorist.
- Gerald Ashby, 52, English football referee, heart attack.[78]
- Luigi Bertoldi, 81, Italian socialist politician.
- Fred Chaney, Sr., 87, Australian politician.
- Nelson Chelle, 70, Uruguayan basketball player.[79]
- Frédéric de Pasquale, 70, French actor.[80]
- Martin Glaberman, 83, American marxist writer , historian, and academic.[81]
- Martha Mödl, 89, German soprano, and later mezzo-soprano.[82]
- Wale Ogunyemi, 62, Nigerian dramatist, film actor, and playwright.[83]
- Aleksandr Volodin, 82, Soviet and Russian playwright, screenwriter and poet.
- Alf Wood, 86, English football goalkeeper and manager.
18
- Gilbert Bécaud, 74, French singer, composer ("What Now My Love"), pianist and actor, lung cancer.[84]
- Dan DeCarlo, 82, American cartoonist (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats, Cheryl Blossom), pneumonia.[85]
- Dimitris Dragatakis, 87, Greek classical music composer.[86]
- Mary Hardwick, 88, English tennis player.
- Bill Howerton, 80, American baseball player.[87]
- Kira Ivanova, 38, Soviet Olympic figure skater (bronze medal winner in women's figure skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics), homicide.[88]
- Jim Letherer, 67, American civil rights activist.
- Marcel Mule, 100, French saxophonist.[89]
- Tolomush Okeyev, 66, Kyrgyz screenwriter and film director.
- Amal Kumar Sarkar, 100, Indian judge and Chief Justice.
- Fyodor Shutkov, 77, Russian sailor.[90]
- Marcelle Tassencourt, 87, French actress and theatre director.[91]
- Cecil Waidyaratne, 63, Sri Lankan general.
- Clifford T. Ward, 57, English singer-songwriter, pneumonia.[92]
19
- Susheela Gopalan, 71, Indian communist leader and politician.
- Christine Kittrell, 72, American R&B singer, emphysema.[93]
- Wang Ruowang, 83, Chinese author and dissident, lung cancer.
- Julia Sánchez, 71, Peruvian track and field sprinter.
- Hans Warren, 80, Dutch writer, liver problems.[94]
- Dale Waters, 92, American football player.[95]
- Jakob Weidemann, 78, Norwegian artist.[96]
- Arkie Whiteley, 37, Australian actress (A Town Like Alice, Mad Max 2, Princess Caraboo), adrenal cancer.[97]
- Kiyoji Ōtsuji, 78, Japanese photographer, photography theorist, and educator.[98]
20
- Manuhuia Bennett, 85, New Zealand anglican prelate.
- Foster Brooks, 89, American actor and comedian, heart failure.[99]
- Edward Evans, 87, English film and television actor (The Grove Family, Coronation Street, Z-Cars).[100]
- Kōji Nanbara, 74, Japanese actor, heart attack.[101]
- Léopold Sédar Senghor, 95, Senegalese politician and poet, President (1960 -1980).[102]
- Joan Wheeler, 88, American actress.[103]
21
- Heinz Macher, 81, German Waffen-SS member and Nazi official during World War II.
- Kevin Manser, 72, Australian actor, cancer.
- Jacques Mauclair, 82, French film actor.[104]
- Ed Salem, 73, American gridiron football player, complications from diabetes.
- Dick Schaap, 67, American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author.[105]
- Thomas Sebeok, 81, Hungarian-American polymath, semiotician, and linguist.[106]
- Leonid Smirnov, 85, Soviet statesman.
- Namık Kemal Yolga, 87, Turkish diplomat and statesman.
- Vladimir Zherikhin, 56, Soviet/Russian paleoentomologist and coleopterist.
22
- Grzegorz Ciechowski, 44, Polish rock musician (Republika) and film music composer, heart attack after surgery.[107]
- Bob Davis, 68, American baseball player.[108]
- Angèle Durand, 76, Belgian singer and actress.[109]
- Lance Fuller, 73, American actor.[110]
- Jovan Gojković, 26, Serbian football player, traffic collision.
- Shidzue Katō, 104, Japanese feminist and politician.
- Jan Kott, 87, Polish theatre critic and political activist, heart attack.[111]
- Lance Loud, 50, American television personality and magazine columnist, liver failure as a result of hepatitis C.[112]
- Jacques Mayol, 74, French diver and holder of many records in free diving, suicide by hanging.[113]
- Gene Taylor, 72, American jazz double bassist.[114]
- Liu Zihou, 92, Chinese politician, governor of Hubei and Hebei.
23
- Mark Clinton, 86, Irish Fine Gael politician.
- Vicente Gómez, 90, Spanish guitarist and composer.[115]
- Bola Ige, 71, Nigerian lawyer and politician (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria), shot.[116]
- Dimitri Obolensky, 83, Russian-born British historian.[117]
- Pedro Richards, 45, English footballer, pneumonia.[118]
- Donald C. Spencer, 89, American mathematician,.[119]
- Jelle Zijlstra, 83, Dutch politician and economist, Prime Minister (1966-1967), dementia.[120]
24
- Doug Adam, 78, Canadian ice hockey player and coach.[121]
- Hiroshi Kuroki, 94, Japanese politician and governor of Miyazaki Prefecture, pneumonia.
- Robert Leckie, 81, United States Marine and author, Alzheimer's disease.
- Harvey Martin, 51, American gridiron football player, pancreatic cancer.[122]
- Hank Soar, 87, American gridiron football player.[123]
- Gareth Williams, 48, British musician (This Heat), cancer.
25
- Mike Davis, 45, American professional wrestler, heart attack.[124]
- Bryan Drake, 76, New Zealand operatic baritone.[125]
- Andrew J. Evans Jr., 83, American air force officer and flying ace.[126]
- Ramón García, 77, Cuban baseball player.[127]
- Alfred A. Tomatis, 81, French otolaryngologist and inventor.[128]
- Billy Wells, 70, American football player.[129]
26
- Jacques Cauvin, French archaeologist.[130]
- Edward Downes, 90, American musicologist, radio personality, and music critic.[131]
- Nigel Hawthorne, 72, British actor (The Madness of King George, Yes Minister, Tarzan), pancreatic cancer, heart attack.[132]
- Paul Landres, 89, American film and television editor and director, cancer.[133]
- Tom McBride, 87, American baseball player.[134]
- George Rochester, 93, British physicist, heart failure.[135]
27
- Momčilo Cemović, 73, Montenegrin politician.
- Pete D'Alonzo, 72, American gridiron football player.[136]
- Robert Fowler, 70, South African cyclist (silver medal winner of the men's cycling team pursuit at the 1952 Summer Olympics).[137]
- Ian Hamilton, 63, British critic, poet, magazine publisher, cancer.[138]
- John Hoffman, 58, American baseball player.[139]
- Paul Hogarth, 84, British artist.[140]
- Boris Rybakov, 83, Russian historian.
- Helen Rodríguez Trías, 72, American pediatrician and women's rights activist, cancer.
28
- Frankie Gaye, 60, American soul musician and brother of Marvin Gaye, heart attack.
- T. R. Govindachari, 86, Indian chemist and academic.
- Hovie Lister, 75, American gospel singer and manager of The Statesmen Quartet.[141]
- Arne Rettedal, 75, Norwegian politician.
- Anthony Royle, Baron Fanshawe of Richmond, 74, British politician and businessman.[142]
- Sam Solon, 70, American politician, malignant melanoma.
- Gerard van Leijenhorst, 73, Dutch politician and chemist.[143]
29
- Tom Bourke, 83, Australian rugby player.
- Cássia Eller, 39, Brazilian singer and musician, heart attack.[144]
- Florian Fricke, 57, German musician, stroke.[145]
- György Kepes, 95, Hungarian-American painter, photographer, designer, and art theorist.[146]
- Anatoly Kubatsky, 93, Soviet/Russian actor.
- Clinton D. McKinnon, 95, American politician and journalist.
- Josef Věntus, 70, Czech rower ad Olympic medalist.[147]
- Louis Waltniel, 76, Belgian politician and industrialist.
30
- Eric Cheney, 77, British motorcycle designer.
- Chaim Kreiswirth, 83, Belgian orthodox rabbi.
- Samuel Mockbee, 57, American architect, leukemia.[148]
- Ray Patterson, 90, American animator (The Smurfs, Dumbo, Challenge of the GoBots).[149]
- Sheila Sherlock, 83, British physician, pulmonary fibrosis.[150]
- Ralph Sutton, 79, American jazz pianist, stroke.[151]
- Vladislav Čáp, 75, Czech figure skater.
31
- Mathew H. Ahmann, 70, American Catholic layman and civil rights activist, cancer.
- John Grigg, 2nd Baron Altrincham, 77, British writer, historian and politician.[152]
- Guido di Tella, 70, Argentine businessman, academic and diplomat, cerebral hemorrhage.[153]
- Eileen Heckart, 82, American actress (Butterflies Are Free, The Bad Seed, The First Wives Club), Oscar winner (1973), lung cancer.[154]
- Paul Hubschmid, 84, Swiss actor (Funeral in Berlin, My Fair Lady, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms), pulmonary embolism.[155]
- Harshad Mehta, 47, Indian stockbroker and fraudster.
- Bernie Purcell, 73, Australian rugby player and coach.
- T. M. Chidambara Ragunathan, 78, Tamil, writer, journalist and literary critic.
- David Swift, 82, American screenwriter and film director (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Parent Trap, Pollyanna), heart failure.[156]
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