The following is a list of notable deaths in February 2007.
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.
February 2007
1 Whitney Balliett, 80, American jazz critic, cancer. Ray Berres, 99, American baseball player who was second-oldest living major league player, pneumonia. Emery Bopp, 82, American artist and art teacher. Ahmad Abu Laban, 60, Egyptian-born Danish Muslim leader, key figure in the Muhammad cartoons controversy, cancer. Gian Carlo Menotti, 95, Italian-born opera composer (Amahl and the Night Visitors). Antonio María Javierre Ortas, 85, Spanish cardinal and prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship (1992–1996), cardiac arrest. Adelina Tattilo, 78, Italian founder of Playmen magazine. Seri Wangnaitham, 70, Thai dancer, choreographer and national artist, heart failure.
2 Edmund Arnold, 93, American newspaper designer, pneumonia. Vijay Arora, 62, Indian film and television actor, intestinal condition. Loren Grey, 91, American educational psychologist and son of Zane Grey, age-related complications. Billy Henderson, 67, American singer with The Spinners, diabetes. Joe Hunter, 79, American pianist and bandleader of The Funk Brothers. Terry McMillan, 53, American harmonica player. Gisèle Pascal, 85, French actress. Filippo Raciti, 40, Italian police officer, fatal injury by football hooligan. Eric Von Schmidt, 75, American folk/blues singer-songwriter, stroke. Masao Takemoto, 87, Japanese gymnast, gold medallist at 1960 Summer Olympics, bile duct cancer. Shannon J. Wall, 87, American union official, president of the National Maritime Union (1973–1990).
3 Liliane Ackermann, 68, French Jewish community leader, writer and lecturer. George Becker, 78, American president of United Steelworkers (1993–2001), prostate cancer. Ralph de Toledano, 90, Moroccan-born American political columnist and author. Stephan R. Epstein, 46, British professor of economic history at LSE, epileptic seizure. Pedro Knight, 85, Cuban–American musician and husband of Celia Cruz. Mohamed Sanni-Thomas, 79, Ghanaian Olympic athlete. Devi Das Thakur, 77, Indian lawyer and politician, Governor of Assam (1990–1991).
4 Steve Barber, 68, American Major League Baseball pitcher, pneumonia. Bauer, 81, Brazilian World Cup footballer. Paul Burwell, 57, British percussionist. Ilya Kormiltsev, 47, Russian poet and translator, spinal cancer. Barbara McNair, 72, American singer and actress, throat cancer. Jules Olitski, 84, Ukrainian-born American abstract painter and sculptor, cancer.
5 John S. Beckett, 80, Irish musician. Arthur J. Dixon, 88, Canadian member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (1952–1975). Calvin Henry Glauser, 84, Canadian politician. Angela King, 68, Jamaican diplomat, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997–2004), cancer. Leo T. McCarthy, 76, New Zealand-born American politician and Lieutenant Governor of California (1983–1995), kidney failure. Alfred Worm, 61, Austrian investigative journalist, heart attack.
6 Dick Allen, 62, British film editor. Wolfgang Bartels, 66, German bronze medal-winning Olympic alpine skier (1964). Lew Burdette, 80, American baseball player, MVP of the 1957 World Series, stomach cancer. Helen Duncan, 65, New Zealand union leader and politician, cancer. Doug Gailey, 59, New Zealand rugby league player, complications of a fall. Lee Hoffman, 74, American science fiction and western writer, heart attack. Len Hopkins, 76, Canadian politician, Liberal MP from Ontario (1965–1997), pneumonia. Robert Kimpton, 93, Australian cricketer. Frankie Laine, 93, American singer ("Mule Train"), complications of hip replacement surgery. Reiner Merkel, 55, German manager, CEO of German Press Agency Picture Alliance, heart attack. Nelson W. Polsby, 72, American political scientist and author, heart failure. Sir Gareth Roberts, 66, British physicist and principal of Wolfson College, Oxford. Glenn Sarty, 77, Canadian original producer of CBC's The Fifth Estate, Take 30 and Take 60, emphysema. Bent Skovmand, 62, Danish plant scientist and conservationist, founder of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, brain tumor. Harry Webster, 89. British automotive engineer.Harry Webster Willye White, 68, African American first 5-time U.S. track and field Olympian, pancreatic cancer.
7 Tommy James, 83, American football player with the Cleveland Browns, congestive heart failure. Ken Kennedy, 61, American computer scientist at Rice University, pancreatic cancer. Josephine Lenard, 85, American baseball player (AAGPBL). Alan MacDiarmid, 79, Nobel winning chemist, death from a fall off a bridge . Fred Mustard Stewart, 74, American author, cancer. Brian Williams, 46, British former rugby union player for Wales and Neath RFC, heart attack.
8 Joe Edwards, 85, American comic book artist best known for his Archie and Li'l Jinx comics, heart failure. Adele Faccio, 86, Italian civil right activist. Dick Harding, 72, Canadian Olympic sprinter. Florence Melton, 95, American inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Shelby Metcalf, 76, American coach for Texas A&M basketball, cancer. Ismail Semed, Chinese Muslim Uighur separatist, execution by firing squad. Anna Nicole Smith, 39, American 1993 Playmate of the Year, widow of J. Howard Marshall, accidental drug overdose. Ian Stevenson, 88, Canadian psychiatrist and reincarnation researcher. Peter Thornton, 81, British museum curator and historian. Harriett Woods, 79, American Lieutenant Governor of Missouri (1985–1989), leukemia.
9 Hank Bauer, 84, American baseball outfielder and manager, three-time All Star, cancer. Francisco Calamita, 84, Spanish Olympic swimmer. Eddie Feigner, 81, American softball player, respiratory failure. Benedict Kiely, 87, Irish writer and broadcaster. Emil Kiszka, 80, Polish Olympic sprinter. Andrew McAuley, 39, Australian ocean kayak adventurer, presumed drowned. Ian Richardson, 72, British actor (House of Cards, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Brazil). Bruno Ruffo, 86, Italian motorcycle racer, three-time world champion (1949–1951).
10 Bill Clement, 91, Welsh rugby union player and soldier. Gary Frisch, 38, South African co-founder of Gaydar dating website, fall from balcony. Jeong Da-bin, 26, South Korean actress, suspected suicide by hanging. James C. Melby, 57, American professional wrestling historian, author and magazine editor. Charles S. Swartz, 67, American filmmaker, brain cancer. Charles R. Walgreen Jr., 100, American president of Walgreens (1939–1971), son of founder Charles R. Walgreen. Cardis Cardell Willis, 69, American comic. David Boynton, 61, American historian and photographer, hiking accident.
11 Jorge Antonio, 89, Argentinian Peronist party politician and business man. Lorentz Eldjarn, 86, Norwegian biochemist. Marianne Fredriksson, 79, Swedish writer and journalist, heart attack. Derek Gardner, 92, British marine painter. Charles Langford, 84, American Alabama state senator and lawyer, represented Rosa Parks during Montgomery bus boycott. Jules Maenen, 75, Dutch Olympic cyclist. Yunus Parvez, 75, Indian Bollywood actor, complications of diabetes. Jim Ricca, 79, American football player (Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions), cerebral aneurysm. Joe Wilkinson, 72, English footballer (Hartlepool United).
12 Violet Barasa, 31, Kenyan women's volleyball team captain and Olympic competitor. Warren Batchelder, 89, American animator for Warner Bros. Georg Buschner, 81, East German football coach, prostate cancer. Jimmy Campbell, 63, British musician. Valucha deCastro, 77, Brazilian musician, liver disease. Peter Ellenshaw, 93, English-born American special effects technician (Mary Poppins, The Black Hole) and matte painter (Dick Tracy), Oscar winner (1965). Thomas E. Fairchild, 94, American Federal Appeals Court Judge. Peggy Gilbert, 102, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader, complications of hip surgery. Ellen Hanley, 80, American Broadway theatre actress, stroke. Joseph Low, 95, American children's book illustrator. John MacLeod of MacLeod, 71, British 29th chief of the Clan MacLeod, leukaemia. Joseph McKeown, 82, British photojournalist, after a fall. Hasan Özbekhan, 86, Turkish economist. Paolo Pileri, 62, Italian motorcycle racer (1973–1979), 1975 World Champion and Capirossi team manager, natural causes. Randy Stone, 48, American short film director and casting director (The X-Files), Oscar winner (1995), heart failure. Sulejman Talović, 18, American Salt Lake City spree killer, shot by police. Geraldine Warrick-Crisman, 76, African-American TV executive, former assistant New Jersey state treasurer, breast cancer. Eldee Young, 71, American musician, bass player for Ramsey Lewis Trio, heart attack.
13 Sir Charles Harington, 96, British general. Elizabeth Jolley, 83, Australian author, illness. Bruce M. Metzger, 93, American professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and expert on Greek biblical manuscripts. Charlie Norwood, 65, American Republican representative from Georgia since 1995, cancer. Eliana Ramos, 18, Uruguayan model, heart attack caused by anorexia nervosa. Johanna Sällström, 32, Swedish actress. Sir Richard Wakeford, 84, British Air Marshal.
14 Ryan Larkin, 63, Canadian animator, Oscar nominee and subject of the Oscar-winning animated short Ryan, lung cancer. Thomas Marealle, 91, Tanzanian politician and Paramount Chief, pneumonia. Benito Medero, 84, Uruguayan Minister of Agriculture (1972–1974). Gareth Morris, 86, British flautist and music teacher. John O'Banion, 59, American singer and actor, accident causing blunt force trauma. Lee Patterson, 77, Canadian actor (One Life to Live, Surfside 6, Texas), heart failure.Lee Patterson John Penn, 85, British architect. Steven Pimlott, 53, British theatre director, lung cancer. Richard S. Prather, 85, American novelist. Emmett Williams, 81, American poet and Fluxus artist.
15 Robert Adler, 93, Austrian-born American co-inventor of the TV remote control, heart failure. Bill Carson, 80, American guitarist. Walker Edmiston, 81, American voice actor (Transformers, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Dick Tracy), cancer. Ray Evans, 92, American songwriter, partner of Jay Livingston for hits such as "Buttons and Bows", heart attack. Stephen Gardiner, 82, British architect. Buddy Hancken, 92, American baseball player. Daniel McDonald, 46, American Broadway actor, brain cancer. Mordkhe Schaechter, 79, American Yiddish linguist and lexicographer.
16 Samararatne Dharmasena, 56, Sri Lankan Olympic sprinter. Herminio Iglesias, 77, Argentinian Peronist Party politician. Jakov Lind, 80, Austrian Holocaust survivor and author. Norman Miscampbell, 81, British politician, Conservative MP for Blackpool North (1962–1992). Sheridan Morley, 65, British broadcaster and author, heart failure. Eustathe Joseph Mounayer, 91, Syrian Syriac Catholic hierarch, archbishop of Damascus (1978–2001).Archbishop Eustathe Joseph Mounayer Ralph Penza, 74, American senior correspondent and substitute anchor for WNBC. Lilli Promet, 85, Estonian writer. Gene Snyder, 79, American Republican representative from Kentucky (1963–1965, 1967–1987). John G. Truxal, 82, American control theorist.
17 Mike Awesome, 42, American professional wrestler (ECW, FMW, WCW), suicide by hanging. Mehmet Altınsoy, 82, Turkish politician, intracranial hemorrhage. Mai Ghoussoub, 54, Lebanese author and publisher. Jurga Ivanauskaitė, 45, Lithuanian writer, cancer. Mary Kaye, 83, American singer/guitarist and leader of the Mary Kaye Trio, respiratory and heart failure. Dermot O'Reilly, 64, Irish-born Canadian singer and musician with Ryan's Fancy. Maurice Papon, 96, French World War II Vichy government official convicted of deporting Jews to Nazi death camps.
18 Chris Bearchell, 53, Canadian gay liberation activist, breast cancer.