The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2005.
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 2005
1 Gust Avrakotos, 67, American CIA agent who armed the mujaheddin of Afghanistan, stroke. Mary Hayley Bell, 94, British actress, Alzheimer's disease. Béla Berger, 74, Hungarian-Australian chess master. Hermann Buchner, 86, German World War II flying ace. Jack Colvin, 71, American actor, (The Incredible Hulk), coronary thrombosis. Michael Evans, 61, American White House photographer, cancer. Ray Hanna, 77, New Zealand-English pilot and founder of The Old Flying Machine Company. Karin Himboldt, 85, German film actress. Michael Kehlmann, 78, Austrian theatre and television film director, screenwriter and actor. Victor Premasagar, 78, Indian theologian and Bishop of Medak (1983–1992). Red Pryor, 79, American basketball player. Eddie Schroeder, 94, American speed skater and Olympian (1932, 1936).
2 Nikolai Artemov, 97, Soviet and Russian physiologist. Anant Bhargava, 81-82, Indian Olympic wrestler (1948). Lillian Browse, 99, British art dealer. Shawn Paul Humphries, 34, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection.Humphries dies by lethal injection Malik Joyeux, 25, French professional surfer, drowned. William P. Lawrence, 75, American U.S. Navy Vice Admiral, first to fly at twice the speed of sound. Leonard Lewis, 78, British television director and producer. Peter Menegazzo, 61, Australian cattle baron, plane crash. Tom Miller, 87, American gridiron football player (Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Green Bay Packers). Jaime Morón, 55, Colombian football player and Olympian (1972). Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, Australian convicted of drug trafficking, execution by hanging. Mohammed Hamza Zubeidi, 67, Iraqi politician, former prime minister under Saddam Hussein.
3 Frederick Ashworth, 93, American naval officer, weaponeer who dropped atomic bomb on Nagasaki. John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead, 73, British aristocrat and politician. Peter Cook, 62, Australian politician, melanoma. Lance Dossor, 89, Australian pianist. Peter E. Haas, 86, American billionaire businessman, president, CEO and chairman of Levi Strauss & Co. Kikka, 41, Finnish pop and schlager singer, heart attack. Kåre Kristiansen, 85, Norwegian politician, minister of Oil and Energy (1983–1986). Lupe Madera, 52, Mexican boxer. Eldon Brooks Mahon, 87, American district judge (United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas). Herb Moford, 77, American baseball player. Atsuko Tanaka, 73, Japanese avant-garde artist. Roy Valdés, 85, Cuban baseball player (Washington Senators).
4 Ted Allbeury, 88, British author of espionage fiction. Débora Arango, 98, Colombian artist. Percy Brandt, 83, Swedish actor. Errol Brathwaite, 81, New Zealand writer. Alfred Farag, 76, Egyptian playwright. Gregg Hoffman, 42, American film producer (Saw). Gloria Lasso, 83, Spanish singer, heart attack. Jacob Pins, 88, German-Israeli woodcut artist and art collector.
5 John Alvheim, 75, Norwegian politician. Gerald Smedley Andrews, 101, Canadian frontier teacher, land surveyor, and soldier. Wesley Baker, 47, American convicted murderer, executed in Maryland. Gerard Bruggink, 88, Dutch fighter pilot during World War II and recipient of the Military Order of William. Liu Binyan, 80, Chinese author and dissident, cancer. Ursula Buckel, 79, German soprano. Netai Bysack, 84, Indian Olympic cyclist (1952). Milo Dor, 82, Serbian-Austrian author, heart failure. Edward L. Masry, 73, American attorney and mentor to Erin Brockovich, complications of diabetes. Kevin "Big Kev" McQuay, 56, Australian businessman and media personality, heart attack. Ed Murphy, 75, American soccer player and Olympian (1956). Harry Pepl, 60, Austrian jazz guitarist and composer. Frits Philips, 100, Dutch businessman, grandson of the founder of Philips, complications from a fall. Billy Reed, 83, American basketball and baseball player (Boston Braves). Bob Richardson, 77, American fashion photographer. Bill Robinson, 71, British rugby league player. Claude Ambrose Rogers, 85, English mathematician. Vladimir Toporov, 77, Russian philologist.
6 Charly Gaul, 72, Luxembourgish cyclist, winner of the 1958 Tour de France, pneumonia. Richard Grimsdale, 76, British electrical engineer, built the world's first transistorised computer. Paul Halla, 74, Austrian footballer. Peter Hollfelder, 75, German classical pianist. Hanns Dieter Hüsch, 80, German political satirist. Koba Kurtanidze, 41, Soviet Georgian judoka. Stephen L. Mosko, 57, American composer. Devan Nair, 82, President of Singapore (1981–1985), dementia. Emery Nix, 86, American football player (TCU Horned Frogs, New York Giants). Jerzy Pajaczkowski-Dydynski, 111, Polish-born oldest man in the UK at the time of his death. Danny Williams, 63, South African singer, lung cancer. William P. Yarborough, 93, American Army officer.
7 Martine Bercher, 61, American football player. Adrian Biddle, 53, British cinematographer (Aliens, The Princess Bride, Thelma & Louise), heart attack. Marvin Braude, 85, American member of Los Angeles City Council. Carroll A. Campbell, Jr., 65, American politician, South Carolina governor (1987–1995), and member of U.S. House of Representatives (1979–1987), heart attack. Bud Carson, 75, American football player, former NFL head coach, emphysema. Bill Cupolo, 81, Canadian ice hockey player (Boston Bruins). Loomis Dean, 88, American photographer, notably for Life magazine. Beach Dickerson, 81, American actor. Thukha, 95, Burmese film director, actor, and film producer. Eddy Verstraeten, 57, Belgian road bicycle racer.
8 John Beale, 72, British virologist. R. W. Bradford, 58, American writer, publisher of Liberty magazine, kidney cancer. Rose Heilbron, 91, British judge, pneumonia. Donald Martino, 74, American composer. George D. Painter, 91, British biographer. David S. Saxon, 85, American physicist and educator. Leo Scheffczyk, 85, German Roman Catholic cardinal and theologian. Roger Shattuck, 82, American writer and critic, prostate cancer. Jim Simons, 55, American golfer, accidental multiple drug toxicity. J. N. Williamson, 73, American horror writer, author and publisher. Georgiy Zhzhonov, 90, Russian actor and writer, lung cancer.
9 Norman Blundell, 88, Australian cricketer. Mike Botts, 61, American drummer, toured and recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Dan Fogelberg, and Tina Turner, cancer. Ron Filipek, 61, American basketball player (Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles, Philadelphia 76ers). Rudolf Meidner, 91, Swedish economist and socialist. Homer Mensch, 91, American internationally known bass player, Juilliard teacher. Eunice Norton, 97, American classical pianist and music promoter. Robert Sheckley, 77, American science fiction author, brain aneurysm. György Sándor, 93, Hungarian pianist, Juilliard teacher, heart failure. Boris Taslitzky, 94, French painter.
10 Juan Ecker, 75, Argentine rower and Olympian (1952). Evgenii Feinberg, 93, Soviet physicist. Mary Jackson, 95, American schoolteacher and actress (The Waltons, Parenthood), Parkinson's disease. Eugene McCarthy, 89, American politician, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (1959–1971), U.S. Representative (1949–1959), Parkinson's disease. Jim McIntyre, 78, American basketball player (Minnesota Golden Gophers). Richard Pryor, 65, American comedian and actor (Stir Crazy, Harlem Nights), heart attack and complications of multiple sclerosis. Clark G. Reynolds, 65, American naval historian, heart attack.
11 Walt Cudzik, 73, American NFL football player (Washington Redskins, Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills). Robert Frojen, 75, American water polo player and Olympian (1956). Maria Kaniewska, 94, Polish actress, screenplay writer, film director. Norman Leavitt, 92, American film and television actor. Richard Sandbrook, 59, British environmentalist, cancer. Hayim Tadmor, 82, Israeli assyriologist and professor. Max Walters, 85, British botanist and academic.
12 Amerigo Cacioni, 97, Italian cyclist. Sandipan Chattopadhyay, 72, Indian Bengali writer. Eric D'Arcy, 81, Australian Roman Catholic archbishop. John Griffin, 75, Canadian Olympic alpine skier (1952). Max Mariu, 53, First Maori Catholic bishop. Robert Newmyer, 49, American film producer (The Santa Clause, Training Day, Sex, Lies, and Videotape), heart attack. David Pritchard, 86, British chess player and chess writer. Ramanand Sagar, 87, Indian director, producer, and writer. Juraj Szikora, 58, Slovak football player. Gebran Tueni, 48, Lebanese journalist and politician, assassinated by a car bomb. Gyula Trebitsch, 91, Hungarian-German film producer. Annette Vadim, 69, Danish actress, cancer.
13 John Barraclough, 79, Australian politician. César Bonoris, 78, Argentine gymnast and Olympian (1948, 1952). Thérèse De Grijze, 79, Belgian Olympic gymnast (1948). Roland Guy, 77, British army general. John Langstaff, 84, American singer and music educator. Majid Musisi, 38, Ugandan football player, AIDS-related complications. Dick Nolan, 66, Canadian musician. Stanley "Tookie" Williams, 51, American convicted murderer and co-founder of the Crips turned anti-gang activist, execution by lethal injection. Roberto Wagner Fernandes, 40, Brazilian serial killer and rapist, plane crash.
14 Erhard Ahmann, 64, German football manager. Ruth Amiran, 91, Israeli archaeologist. Stew Bowers, 90, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox). Gordon Duncan, 41, Scottish musician and bagpiper, suicide. Tull Gasmann, 78, Norwegian Olympic alpine skier (1952). Rokuro Ishikawa, 80, Japanese businessman (Kajima Corporation). Sudhir Joshi, 57, Indian actor, heart attack. Fritz Kristoffersen, 88, Norwegian footballer. Tom Milne, 79, British film critic. John B. Nixon, 77, American convicted murderer, executed in Mississippi. C. I. Paul, 61, Indian (Malayalam) actor, heart attack. Trevanian, 74, British author, wrote under pseudonyms such as "Trevanian". Rakel Wahl, 84, Norwegian Olympic cross-country skier (1952, 1956).
15 T. K. Balachandran, 77, Indian actor, cancer. Maurice Beresford, 85, British economic historian and archaeologist. James Ingo Freed, 75, American architect, Parkinson's disease. Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 84, Italian writer and director of movies and theatre. Heinrich Gross, 90, Austrian alleged nazi doctor and war criminal during World War II. Jiřina Hauková, 86, Czech poet and translator. Walter Haut, 83, American Army lieutenant, central figure in the Roswell UFO incident in 1947. Stan Leonard, 90, Canadian golfer, heart failure. Julián Marías, 91, Spanish philosopher and father of author Javier Marías. John McIntyre, 89, Scottish theologian. Akira Ohgi, 70, Japanese baseball player and manager, lung cancer. Jim Ostendarp, 82, American football coach at Amherst College for 33 years. Enrico Paoli, 97, Italian international chess master. William Proxmire, 90, American politician, Democratic Senator from Wisconsin (1957–1989), complications of Alzheimer's disease. Darrell Russell, 29, American football player (Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins), car accident.
16 Robert L. Baird, 85, American jockey and trainer in thoroughbred horse racing. Anthony Barber, 85, British politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer, complications of Parkinson's disease. Boyi Bhimanna, 94, Indian Telugu poet, Parkinson's disease. Kenneth Bulmer, 84, English writer (pseudonyms included Alan Burt Akers and Dray Prescot). Aleksandr Mazur, 92, Heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Ukraine. Joseph Owades, 86, American biochemist, inventor of light beer. Helmut H. Schaefer, 80, German mathematician. David Schiaffino, 92, Argentine Olympic sports shooter (1948, 1952).