The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2004.
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 2004
1 Fathi Arafat, 71, Palestinian physician, founder of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, stomach cancer. Mammad Araz, 71, Azerbaijani poet. Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, 93, German-born Dutch royal, spouse of Queen Juliana and father of Queen Beatrix, lung and colon cancer. Norman Newell, 85, English record producer and lyricist. Damon Simonelli, 45, American planetary scientist, heart failure. David Vienneau, 53, Canadian journalist, pancreatic cancer.
2 Larry Buchanan, 81, American B-movie director, producer and writer, complications of collapsed lung. Kevin Coyne, 60, English musician, filmmaker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. Cachita Galán, 61, Argentine singer, cancer. Dame Alicia Markova, 94, English ballerina, stroke. Nadine Shamir, 32, American techno singer/songwriter, complications during childbirth. Louis W. Truman, 96, Senior American Army officer. Mona Van Duyn, 83, American poet, US Poet Laureate (1992), bone cancer. Ron Watson, 75, Australian rugby league footballer.
3 Shiing-Shen Chern, 93, Chinese mathematician, heart failure following heart attack. Robert Dhéry, 83, French comedian, actor, director and screenwriter. Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster, 90, Irish nobleman. June Maston, 76, Australian Olympic sprinter (1948), and athletics coach. Pavel Pavlov, 52, Bulgarian sprinter and Olympian (1980). Maria Perschy, 66, Austrian actress, cancer. Helmut Rix, 78, German linguist, car accident. Josef Schwammberger, 92, German SS (Schutzstaffel) officer and labor camp commander during World War II. Fred Silva, 77, American gridiron football player, heart attack. Marek Stachowski, 68, Polish composer. Yaroslav Starobogatov, 72, Russian zoologist and academic.
4 Mahmut Atalay, 70, Turkish freestyle wrestler, coach, and Olympian (1964, 1968), heart attack. Willem Duyn, 67, Dutch singer, actor, and entertainer, heart attack. Carl Esmond, 102, Austrian film and stage actor. Tom Fitzgerald, 53, American soccer coach (University of Tampa), motorcycle accident. Terry Kosens, 63, American football player (Minnesota Vikings). Sergio Mocellini, 68, Italian bobsledder and Olympian (1964, 1968). Thomas Reddin, 88, American police officer.Thomas Reddin, 88, Former Los Angeles Police Chief, Is Dead Elena Souliotis, 61, Greek operatic soprano, heart failure. Svend Wad, 76, Danish boxer and Olympic medalist (1948). Ron Williamson, 51, American minor league baseball player and murder convict, liver cirrhosis.
5 Giuseppe Campora, 81, Italian operatic tenor. Seymour Ginsburg, 76, American computer scientist, Alzheimer's disease. Neil Hallett, 80, Belgian-English actor. Cristiano Júnior, 25, Brazilian footballer, cardiac arrest after on-field collision. Manzanita, 48, Spanish singer and guitarist, heart attack. Jose Pellissery, 53–54, Indian film and theatre actor. Øystein Rottem, 58, Norwegian philologist, literary historian and literary critic, cancer. Hicham Zerouali, 27, Moroccan footballer, car accident.
6 Frank Reginald Carey, 92, British fighter ace during World War II. Raymond Goethals, 83, Belgian soccer coach, colorectal cancer. Árpád Makay, 93, Hungarian cinematographer. Adrian Morris, 75, English painter. John Norton, 86, United States Army general. Enrique Salinas, 52, Mexican businessman, asphyxiation. Hamp Tanner, 77, American football player (Georgia Bulldogs, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Texans). Christine Wodetzky, 66, German actress.
7 Pacita Abad, 58, Filipino painter, lung cancer. Frederick Fennell, 90, American conductor, founder of Eastman Wind Ensemble. María Rosa Gallo, 82, Argentine actress, pneumonia. Julije Knifer, 80, Croatian abstract painter. Floyd Nattrass, 86, Canadian Olympic sports shooter (1964). Zuzana Navarová, 45, Czech singer and songwriter, cancer. Jay Van Andel, 80, American co-founder and former chairman of Amway, Parkinson's disease. Oscar M. Ruebhausen, 92, American lawyer and adviser to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. Pierre Schmitz, 84, Luxembourgian Olympic gymnast (1948). Jerry Scoggins, 93, American musician ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett").
8 Dimebag Darrell, 38, American heavy metal guitarist (Pantera, Damageplan), shot. Cleve Gray, 86, American abstract painter. Johnny Lockett, 89, British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. Jackson Mac Low, 82, American poet, composer and performance artist, complications from stroke. Noel Mills, 60, New Zealand rower and Olympic silver medalist (1972). C. S. Rao, 80, Indian actor, writer and director. Alberts Riekstiņš, 97, Latvian Olympic cross-country skier (1936). Leslie Scarman, Baron Scarman, 93, British jurist, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (1977–1986).
9 Andrea Absolonová, 27, Czech diver and adult model known as Lea De Mae, brain cancer. Henny Backus, 93, American actress, stroke. David Brudnoy, 64, American radio talk show host (Boston), Merkel cell carcinoma. Paul Edwards, 81, Austrian-American philosopher. Peter Emery, 78, British Conservative politician (Honiton, 1967–1997; East Devon, 1997–2001). Jimmy Gauld, 75, Scottish football player. Philippe Gigantès, 81, Canadian former senator, cancer. Jean Tournier, 78, French cinematographer. Sergey Voychenko, 49, Belarusian artist and designer, complications following heart bypass surgery.
10 Khoren Abrahamyan, 74, Armenian actor and director. Bruno Arcari, 89, Italian football player player and coach. Norman Borrett, 87, English sportsman and Olympian (1948). Emilio Cruz, 66, Cuban-American artist, pancreatic cancer. Herbert Jäger, 78, German footballer and Olympian (1952). Bob King, 81, American college basketball coach (New Mexico Lobos, Indiana State Sycamores). Vern McKee, 74, American athlete and coach. Radner Muratov, 76, Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, stroke. Homi Wadia, 93, Indian film director and producer. Gary Webb, 49, American investigative reporter ("Dark Alliance"), suicide by gunshot.
11 Christopher Blake, 55, English actor and screenwriter, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. José Luis Cuciuffo, 43, Argentinian footballer and 1986 Football World Cup champion, hunting accident. Arthur Lydiard, 87, New Zealand marathon runner and athletics coach, heart attack. Marian Masłoń, 74, Polish footballer. Theodor Obrietan, 77, Austrian Olympic rower (1948). Harry Roesli, 53, Indonesian singer-songwriter, heart attack. Margaret Shaw, 101, American photographer and folklorist. M. S. Subbulakshmi, 88, Indian carnatic musician and singer, heart problems. Masao Yazawa, 89, Japanese Olympic sprinter (1936).
12 Reidar Alveberg, 88, Norwegian Olympic bobsledder (1952, 1956). Joseph Beyrle, 81, United States Army and Soviet Red Army soldier, heart attack. Pramod Chakravorty, 75, Indian film producer and director. Herbert Dreilich, 62, German rock musician, cancer. Frits Helmuth, 73, Danish film actor. Rollin Hotchkiss, 93, American biochemist and molecular genetics pioneer. George Hunter, 77, South African boxer and Olympic champion (1948). Frank Isola, 79, American jazz drummer. Harry McNally, 68, English football player, coach and manager, heart attack. Phaswane Mpe, 34, South African novelist, AIDS-related complications. Fabian O'Dea, 86, Canadian lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. Eduard Ohlinger, 37, German Olympic weightlifter (1988). Maurizio Perissinot, 53, Italian rally driver. Syed Mir Qasim, 83, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir (1971–1975). William B. Rosson, 86, United States Army general, heart attack. Bernarda Bryson Shahn, 101, American painter, lithographer, widow of Ben Shahn. Pavlo Vasylyk, 78, Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarch.
13 Donald S. Jones, 76, United States Navy admiral. Andre Rodgers, 70, Bahamian baseball player (New York/San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates), first Bahamian to play in Major League Baseball. Tom Turesson, 62, Swedish footballer. David Wheeler, 77, English computer scientist.
14 Curt Christensen, 84, Danish footballer. Candice Daly, 38, American film and TV actress (The Young and the Restless), polydrug intoxication. John Downey, 77, American contemporary classical composer, conductor, and pianist. Danny Doyle, 87, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox). Rod Kanehl, 70, American baseball player (New York Mets), heart attack. Alexey Korneyev, 65, Russian footballer. Anselmo López, 94, Spanish basketball coach and administrator. Fernando Poe Jr., 65, Filipino actor and former presidential candidate, stroke. Alex Sarkisian, 82, American college gridiron football player (Northwestern Wildcats). Agostino Straulino, 90, Italian Olympic sailor (1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964). Carsten Peter Thiede, 52, German archaeologist and New Testament scholar, heart attack.
15 Alma Duncan, 87, Canadian painter, graphic artist, and filmmaker. Chiang Fang-liang, 88, Belarus-Taiwanese widow of Chiang Ching-kuo and First Lady of the Republic of China (1978–1988), pulmonary and cardiac failure. Vassal Gadoengin, 61, Nauruan politician and then-incumbent Speaker of Parliament, heart attack. Jiban Ghosh, 69, Indian cricket umpire. Sidonie Goossens, 105, British harpist. Pauline LaFon Gore, 92, American lawyer. Jim Holliday, 55–56, American pornographic film producer and historian, complications from diabetes. Lucien Musset, 82, French historian, specializing in the history of the Vikings. Rodney O'Gliasain Kennedy-Minott, 76, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Sweden, complications of pancreatitis.
16 Ted Abernathy, 71, American baseball player. Laxmikant Berde, 50, Indian actor, kidney failure.Laxmikant Berde biography Martha Carson, 83, American gospel-country music singer. Richard B. Fisher, 68, American investment banker, cancer. Deyda Hydara, 58, Gambian journalist and editor, homicide. Stefano Madia, 49, Italian actor.Roma: Comune, morto consigliere Lista Civica Stefano Madia Agnes Martin, 92, American abstract painter, pneumonia. Bobby Mattick, 89, American former baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds), and manager (Toronto Blue Jays), stroke. Seymour Melman, 86, American economist and academic. Mahmoud Messadi, 93, Tunisian author and intellectual. Yehudit Naot, 60, Israeli scientist and politician, throat cancer.Yehudit Naot (1944 - 2004) Lawrence O'Brien, 53, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada, cancer. Freddie Perren, 61, American two-time Grammy Award-winning record producer, stroke. Prathapachandran, 63, Indian actor. Hans-Rudolf Rösing, 99, German U-boat commander during World War II. William Silverman, 87, American physician and neonatology pioneer, kidney failure.
17 Erich Auer, 81, Austrian theater, film and television actor. Andreu Bosch, 73, Spanish footballer. Dick Heckstall-Smith, 70, British saxophone player (Colosseum, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers), cancer. James Ling, 81, American businessman. Agnes Mary Mansour, 73, American Catholic nun and politician, breast cancer. Gyula Marsovszky, 68, Swiss Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. Ib Mossin, 71, Danish actor, singer and director. Dietrich Schwanitz, 64, German writer and literary scholar, pulmonary embolism. Tom Wesselmann, 73, American pop artist, surgical complications. Sir James Wilson, 83, British army general.
18 Noel Beaton, 78, Australian MP (Bendigo, 1960–1969) and journalist. Freddy Chaves, 86, Belgian football player. Vijay Hazare, 89, Indian cricketer, captain of India (1951–1953), complications following intestinal cancer. Bill Jobko, 69, American football player (Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons). Mariella Lotti, 85, Italian film actress.