The following is a list of notable deaths in February 2003.
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 2003
1 Anne Burr, 84, American actress (Native Son, The Hasty Heart, As the World Turns). Carrenza Howard, 89, American baseball player. Bodil Kjer, 85, Danish actress. Richard Lyng, 84, American administrator, United States Secretary of Agriculture (1986-1989). Adalberto Ortiz, 88, Ecuadorian writer. Mongo Santamaría, 85, Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. Nancy Whiskey, 67, Scottish folk singer ("Freight Train"). Crew of STS-107 killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster: Michael P. Anderson, 43, American, payload commander. David M. Brown, 46, American, mission specialist. Kalpana Chawla, 40, American, mission specialist. Laurel Clark, 41, American, mission specialist. Rick Husband, 45, American, commander. William C. McCool, 41, American, pilot. Ilan Ramon, 48, Israeli, payload specialist.
2 Randy Chin, 65, Jamaican record producer, diabetes. Bjørner Drøger, 90, Danish Olympic rower (1936). Tom Edmunds, 77, Australian politician. József Gál, 84, Hungarian Olympic wrestler (1952). Lou Harrison, 85, American composer, noted for his microtonal works, heart attack. Jack Lauterwasser, 98, English racing cyclist, cycling engineer, and Olympian (1928), fall at home. Richard C. Lee, 86, American politician, Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut. Won-kuk Lee, 95, South Korean martial artist (Chung Do Kwan). Marcello Truzzi, 67, American professor of sociology, cancer. Emerson Woelffer, 88, American abstract expressionist artist and teacher. Eizo Yuguchi, 57, Japanese football player and Olympian (1968), stomach cancer.
3 Fulgencio Berdugo, 84, Colombian football player. Teresa Brennan, 51, Australian philosopher and academic, traffic collision.Teresa Brennan, Founded FAU’S Doctoral Program Natascha Artin Brunswick, 93, German-American mathematician and economist. Lana Clarkson, 40, American actress (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Scarface, Barbarian Queen), shot by record producer Phil Spector. Venanzo Crocetti, 89, Italian sculptor. João César Monteiro, 64, Portuguese film director, actor, writer and film critic, lung cancer. Trevor Morris, 82, Welsh footballer and World War II pilot. Peter Schat, 67, Dutch composer, cancer.
4 Charles McLaren, 3rd Baron Aberconway, 89, British industrialist and horticulturalist. Benyoucef Benkhedda, 82, Algerian politician, head of Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (1961–1962). Charlie Biddle, 76, American-Canadian jazz bassist, played with Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. John Biolo, 86, American football player (Green Bay Packers). Jean Brossel, 84, French physicist and modern quantum optics pioneer. Pierre Carteus, 59, Belgian football player. Jerome Hines, 81, American operatic bass. Marie Menheer, 78, American baseball player. Jim Mertz, 86, American baseball player (Washington Senators). Qalandar Momand, 72, Pakistani poet and writer. James Needs, 83, British film editor. André Noyelle, 71, Belgian road racing cyclist and Olympian (1952). Jaroslav Šajtar, 81, Czech chess master.
5 Helge Boes, 32, German-American CIA officer and lawyer, explosion. Guillermo González Calderoni, 54, Mexican Federal Judicial Police official, murdered. René Cardona Jr., 63, Mexican filmmaker and actor. Micky Fenton, 89, England football player. Larry LeSueur, 93, American journalist, Parkinson's disease. Julio Sabater, 76, Puerto Rican sprinter and Olympian (1948). Antonina Shuranova, 66, Russian stage, television and film actress. Simon Tozer, 69, British Olympic rower (1956). Joseph P. Vigorito, 84, American politician (U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 24th congressional district). Manfred von Brauchitsch, 97, German auto racing driver, winner of three Grand Prix races in the 1930s.
6 Eric Ashby, 85, English naturalist and wildlife cameraman. José Craveirinha, 80, Mozambican journalist, story writer and poet. Arthur Doherty, 71, Irish politician. René Haby, 83, French politician. Túlio Miraglia, 73, Brazilian Olympic sports shooter (1972). Robert William St. John, 100, American author, broadcaster, and journalist. Peter Saunders, 91, British theatre impresario.
7 Jim Cominsky, 84, American basketball player (Rochester Royals). François Désbonnet, 82, French Olympic water polo player (1948). Luigi Ferrando, 91, Italian racing cyclist György Müller, 64, Hungarian swimmer and Olympian (1960). Amalia Nieto, 95, Uruguayan painter, engraver and sculptor. Malcolm Roberts, 58, English pop singer, heart attack . Stephen Whittaker, 55, British actor and director (Nicholas Nickleby, Sons and Lovers), complications following surgery.
8 Alfred Aston, 90, French football winger and manager. Hank Blade, 82, Canadian ice hockey player (Chicago Black Hawks). William Louis Culberson, 73, American lichenologist, cancer. John Charles Cutler, 87, American surgeon. Augusto Monterroso, 81, Honduran writer, heart failure. Jan Płonka, 82, Polish Olympic alpine skier (1952). K. K. Soundar, 78, Tamil film actor. Alice Treff, 96, German film actress. Konrad Weichert, 68, German Olympic sailor (1968, 1972).
9 Tanya Anacleto, 26, Mozambican swimmer and Olympian (2000). Herma Bauma, 88, Austrian javelin thrower and Olympian (1936, 1948, 1952). Ruby Braff, 75, American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda, 76, Japanese-Turkish mathematician. Ken McKinlay, 74, British speedway rider. Billy Parker, 61, American baseball player (California Angels), cancer. Vera Ralston, 82, Czech-American figure skater and "B" actress, star of ice capades, and Olympian (1936), cancer. Nikolay Teterkin, 78, Soviet Russian Olympic canoeist (1952). Ebeneser Þórarinsson, 71, Icelandic Olympic cross-country skier (1952).
10 Chuck Aleno, 85, American baseball player (Cincinnati Reds). Ralph Beard, 73, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals). Antoni Czubiński, 74, Polish historian. Edgar de Evia, 92, American photographer, pneumonia. Antoinette Feuerwerker, 90, French jurist and member of the French Resistance during World War II. Curt Hennig, 44, American professional wrestler, drug overdose. Lars-Eric Kjellgren, 84, Swedish screenwriter and film director. José Lewgoy, 82, American-Brazilian actor. Clark MacGregor, 80, American politician and congressman (1961–1970). Robert Rush Miller, 86, American zoologist and ichthyologist. Walter Thomas James Morgan, 102, British biochemist. Max Pécas, 77, French filmmaker, writer and producer, lung cancer. Jan Veselý, 79, Czech cyclist and Olympian (1952). Carmen Vidal, 87, Spanish cosmetologist and businesswoman.Carmen Vidal, fundadora de Germaine de Capuccini Ron Ziegler, 63, former press secretary for Richard Nixon during the Watergate Scandal, heart attack.
11 Socorro Avelar, 77, Mexican actress, stomach cancer. Arndt Bause, 66, German composer, pulmonary embolism. Alfons Flinik, 76, Polish Olympic field hockey player (1952, 1960). Marc Iliffe, 30, British strongman, suicide by hanging. Daniel Toscan du Plantier, 61, French film producer, heart attack. Moses Hogan, 45, American composer and arranger of choral music, brain cancer. Nobuyoshi Sadanaga, 74, Japanese Olympic long-distance runner (1960). Jaroslav Šourek, 75, Czech long-distancer runner and Olympian (1952). Luke Chia-Liu Yuan, 90, Chinese-American physicist and grandson of Yuan Shikai.
12 Wally Burnette, 73, American baseball player (Kansas City Athletics). Ron Eland, 79, South African weightlifter and Olympian (1948). Michel Graillier, 56, French jazz pianist. Vali Myers, 72, Australian artist, cancer. Devendra Satyarthi, 94, Indian folklorist and writer. Jeanne Stuart, 94, British stage and film actress. Haywood Sullivan, 72, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Athletics) and owner (Boston Red Sox), stroke. Dick Whitman, 82, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies). Kemmons Wilson, 90, American businessman, founder of Holiday Inn.
13 Joe Connelly, 85, American television and radio scriptwriter. James Thomas Flexner, 95, American historian and biographer. Kid Gavilán, 77, Cuban world boxing champion, heart attack. Robert Ivers, 68, American actor. Axel Jensen, 71, Norwegian author, ALS. Stacy Keach, Sr., 88, American actor (Pretty Woman, Teen Wolf, The Parallax View). Stuart Keith, 71, British-American ornithologist. Olle Ljunggren, 82, Swedish Olympic middle-distance runner (1948). Leonor Llausás, 73, Mexican actress, heart attack. Walt Whitman Rostow, 86, American political advisor.
14 Dolly, 6, the world's first cloned mammal, euthanization following a lung disease. Gunnar Johansson, 78, Swedish football player and manager. Joseph Peter Kinneary, 97, American district judge (United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio). Johnny Longden, 96, American jockey. Paul E. Meehl, 83, American clinical psychologist. Ulrich Mense, 76, German Olympic sailor (1964). Grigory Mkrtychan, 78, Soviet and Russian ice hockey goalkeeper and Olympian (1956). Anil Nandy, 79-80, Indian footballer and Olympian (1948). Archie Savage, 88, American dancer, choreographer, and film and theatre actor. Giuseppe Spagnoli, 56, Italian wrestler and Olympian (1976).
15 Aldo Albera, 80, Italian Olympic canoeist (1952). Vincent Apap, 93, Maltese sculptor. Alexander Bennett, 73, British ballet dancer, teacher and ballet master, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. Miroslav Horníček, 84, Czech actor, writer, director, and artist. H. Dale Jackson, 72, American Baptist minister. Vlastimil Koubek, 75, Czech-American architect, cancer. Roberto Leydi, 74, Italian ethnomusicologist. Gwyn Manning, 87, Welsh footballer and Olympian (1948). Fritz Pollard, 87, American athlete and Olympic medalist (1936). Francisque Ravony, 60, Malagasy lawyer and politician, heart attack. Joaquín Solano, 89, Mexican Olympic medalist in equestrianism (1948). Moe White, 83, Canadian ice hockey player (Montreal Canadiens). Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, 95, British judge.
16 Philip John Gardner, 88, British recipient of the Victoria Cross. Jim Gordon, 76, American television and radio newscaster, cancer. István Havasi, 72, Hungarian race walker and Olympian (1964). Abu Ishaque, 76, Bangladeshi novelist. Jean Van Leer, 83, Belgian Olympic field hockey player (1952, 1956). Rusty Magee, 47, American composer of musicals, cancer. Aleksandar Tišma, 79, Serbian novelist.
17 Steve Bechler, 23, American baseball player (Baltimore Orioles), ephedra overdose. Julian Bigelow, 89, American computer engineer, built one of the first digital computers (IAS machine). Allen Britton, 88, American music educator, contributed to the history of music pedagogy. Donald J. Porter, 81, American district judge (United States District Court for the District of South Dakota). Pete Schrum, 68, American actor.
18 Quentin Anderson, 90, American literary critic and cultural historian (Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman), heart attack. Ittla Frodi, 72, Swedish actress, writer and producer. Giacomo Gesino, 85, Italian Olympic wrestler (1948). Isser Harel, 90/91, Israeli spymaster and director of the Mossad. Beth Marion, 90, American B-movie actress, stroke. Roberto Villacián, 74, Cuban Olympic gymnast (1948).
19 Washington Beltrán, 88, Uruguayan politician, President (1965–1966). Buck Divecha, 75, Indian cricket player. Igor Gorbachyov, 75, Soviet and Russian actor, theater director and pedagogue. James Hardy, 84, American pioneer surgeon. Tanya Moiseiwitsch, 88, English theatre designer. Johnny Paycheck, 64, American country music singer, pulmonary emphysema.
20 Maurice Blanchot, 95, French writer, philosopher and literary theorist.