The following is a list of notable deaths in February 2008.
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 2008
1 Hélio Quaglia Barbosa, 66, Brazilian member of the Superior Court of Justice, multiple organ failure. Norman Bleehen, 77, British oncologist. Floyd Boring, 92, American Secret Service agent, helped foil Truman assassination attempt, heart attack. Beto Carrero, 70, Brazilian theme park owner (Beto Carrero World), endocarditis. Al DeMao, 87, American football center for the Washington Redskins (1945–1953). Ralph DiGia, 93, American World War II conscientious objector and peace activist with War Resisters League, pneumonia. Allan Grant, 88, American photojournalist for Life magazine. Earl Greenburg, 61, American head of NBC daytime, melanoma. Frank Fletcher Hamilton, 86, Canadian World War II pilot and politician. Russi Karanjia, 95, Indian journalist, editor of Blitz. Władysław Kawula, 70, Polish footballer. Shell Kepler, 49, American actress (General Hospital, Three's Company) and fashion designer (HSC), renal failure. Tony Silver, 82, American documentary filmmaker known for directing the film Style Wars. Ralph Wallace, 58, American politician, member of the Texas State House (1977–1992).
2 Gus Arriola, 90, American cartoonist (Gordo), Parkinson's disease. Billy Balbastro, 67, Filipino journalist and broadcaster, cancer. Ahmad Bourghani, 48, Iranian politician, heart failure. Earl Butz, 98, American politician, Secretary of Agriculture (1971–1976). Heinrich Dahlinger, 85, German field handball player, entrepreneur, kidney failure. Joshua Lederberg, 82, American Nobel Prize–winning molecular biologist. Barry Morse, 89, British-born Canadian actor (The Fugitive, Space: 1999). Katoucha Niane, 47, French supermodel and women's rights activist, drowning. Sir David Orr, 85, British businessman. Daoud Soumain, Chadian general, Army Chief of Staff, killed during the Battle of N'Djamena. Roger Testu, 94, French cartoonist. Ed Vargo, 79, American baseball umpire. Edward Wilson, 60, British actor (When the Boat Comes In), director of the National Youth Theatre, cancer.
3 Cyril Stanley Bamberger, 88, British Royal Air Force pilot. Samuel Boyle, 59, American bureau chief (New York City) of Associated Press (1981–2002), lung cancer. Charles Fernley Fawcett, 92, American adventurer, actor and freedom fighter. Ernesto Illy, 82, Italian food chemist and chairman of the illy coffee company. Sigurveig Jónsdóttir, 77, Icelandic actress, natural causes. Jorge Liderman, 50, Argentine-American composer, suicide by train. Jackie Orszaczky, 59, Hungarian-born Australian musician, cancer. Geoffrey Paish, 86, British tennis player and administrator. Algirdas Ražauskas, 55, Lithuanian politician. Cornelius L. Reid, 96, American vocal pedagogue. John Elliott Smart, 91, British submariner. Charley van de Weerd, 86, Dutch football player.
4 Chris Anderson, 81, American jazz pianist, complications from a stroke. Endel Aruja, 96, Estonian physicist. Sheldon Brown, 63, American bicycle mechanic and technical authority, heart attack. Larry Cruz, 66, Filipino journalist and restaurateur, pneumonia and complications from cancer. Augusta Dabney, 89, American actress (A World Apart, Running on Empty, The Paper). Tata Güines, 77, Cuban percussionist, kidney infection. Rose Hacker, 101, British activist. Richard Ho, 81, Malaysian civil servant. Harry Richard Landis, 108, American second-to-last World War I veteran. Stefan Meller, 65, Polish diplomat, foreign minister (2005–2006). Bertha Moss, 88, Argentine actor, cardiac arrest. Nikolay Popov, 76, Russian chief designer of T-80 tank, after long illness. John Snodgrass, 79, British diplomat. Peter Thomas, Baron Thomas of Gwydir, 87, British Conservative Party chairman (1970–1972), Welsh Secretary (1970–1974).
5 Sayed Nafees al-Hussaini, 74, Pakistani calligrapher. Zoran Antonijević, 62, Serbian soccer plater. Schoolboy Cleve, 82, American blues musician, harmonica and guitar player. Karl Ehrhardt, 83, American New York Mets fan known for his signs in the crowd. Ken Konz, 79, American football defensive back (Cleveland Browns), pneumonia. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 90, Indian founder of Transcendental Meditation movement, former guru to The Beatles. Vitaliy Ponomarenko, 33, Ukrainian powerlifting champion, heart condition. Winston Walls, 65, American musician, heart failure and diabetes.
6 John Alvin, 59, American film poster artist (Star Wars, Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), heart attack. Phyllis Barnhart, 85, American animator (The Secret of NIMH). Charles Borck, 91, Filipino Olympic basketball player and coach. George W. Dunaway, 85, United States Army soldier who served as the second Sergeant Major of the Army. Nikol Faridani, 72, Iranian aerial photographer, prostate cancer. Oliver Foot, 61, British President of Orbis International. John Grimsley, 45, American football linebacker (Houston Oilers, Miami Dolphins), accidental gunshot. Andrew Harwood, 62, Australian radio and TV presenter (It's Academic, Jeopardy!), actor (The Paul Hogan Show), asthma attack. George Hekkers, 84, American football player. Neville Holt, 95, Australian Olympic shooter. John McWethy, 61, American news correspondent (ABC News), skiing accident. Kurt Nemetz, 81, Austrian Olympic cyclist. Ruth Stafford Peale, 101, American writer, widow of Norman Vincent Peale. Kalpana Rai, 57, Indian actress. Tony Rolt, 89, British racing driver and last living participant in the first F1 World Championship race. *Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec, 78, French leader of the Druids of Brittany.
7 Richard Altick, 92, American historian and author. Alberto Bustamante Belaunde, 57, Peruvian politician, Prime Minister (1999–2000), heart attack. Andrew Bertie, 78, British Grand Master of the Order of Malta. Bill Bowman, 76, American football player. Hoàng Minh Chính, 85, Vietnamese dissident, pancreatic cancer. Tamara Desni, 96, German-born British actress. Lakshmipati, 50, Indian actor.Telugu comedian Chittajallu dead Helen Mayer, 75, Australian politician, MP (1983–1987). Benny Neyman, 56, Dutch singer, cancer. Daphne Robinson, 75, New Zealand cricketer. Guy Severin, 81, Russian academician and engineer. Kunal Singh, 30, Indian actor, suicide by hanging. Frank Wayman, 76, English footballer (Chester City), struck by motorcycle. Nicolaas Jan van Strien, 61, Dutch conservationist, cancer. Leona Wood, 86, American painter and dancer
8 John Bartlett, 58, Australian politician.Mr John Richard Bartlett (1949–2008) *Chua Ek Kay, 61, Singaporean painter and Cultural Medallion winner, nose cancer. Eva Dahlbeck, 87, Swedish actress and writer, infection. Frank J. Dixon, 87, American University teacher. Victor Dominguez, 72, Filipino congressman, cardiac arrest. Earl B. Fowler Jr., 82, American Vice Admiral. J. Hemachandran, 75, Indian politician and trade unionist, spinal cord injury. Robert Jastrow, 82, American astronomer, physicist and cosmologist, pneumonia. Stephen Kipkorir, 37, Kenyan long-distance runner, car crash. Swaran Lata, 83, Pakistani film actress. Jane Lumb, 65, British model and actress, appeared in Fry's Turkish Delight commercials, breast cancer. Ah Meng, 48, Sumatran orangutan, tourist icon at Singapore Zoo. K. Rajaram, 82, Indian politician. Rudie Sypkes, 57, Australian founder of the Chickenfeed retail chain and philanthropist, pulmonary fibrosis. Phyllis A. Whitney, 104, American mystery novelist, pneumonia.
9 Alfred Altenburger, 84, Swiss speed skater. Baba Amte, 93, Indian social activist, advocate for lepers, RLA recipient. John Anthony Derrington, 86, British civil engineer.Obituary John Derrington Robert DoQui, 73, American character actor (RoboCop, Coffy, Nashville). Scot Halpin, 54, American one time drummer for The Who, brain tumor. Günter Havenstein, 79, German Olympic runner. Christopher Hyatt, 64, American psychologist, occultist, and author, cancer. Gene Knutson, 75, American football player. Dorothy Podber, 75, American performance artist, shot Andy Warhol's Shot Marilyns paintings. Merril Sandoval, 82, American Navajo Code Talker during World War II. Joseph Tyree Sneed III, 87, American senior judge (Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit). Carm Lino Spiteri, 75, Maltese architect and politician. Jazeh Tabatabai, 77, Iranian avant-garde painter, poet, and sculptor, heart failure. Harry Tapping, 81, New Zealand cricketer. Guy Tchingoma, 22, Gabonese footballer, on-field collision. Mindrolling Trichen, 78, Tibetan ceremonial head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Georgy Yegorov, 89, Russian Soviet Navy Admiral of the Fleet.
10 John Abbotts, 83, English footballer. Arne Barhaugen, 76, Norwegian Olympic Nordic combined skier. Freddie Bell, 76, American rhythm and blues singer, cancer. Kirk Browning, 86, American television director, heart attack. Alaa Abdulkareem Fartusi, 29, Iraqi journalist and cameraman, victim of the Balad bomb blast. Ārijs Geikins, 71, Latvian playwright, writer, director, actor and drama teacher. Adeline Geo-Karis, 89, American politician, member of Illinois State Senate (1979–2007), natural causes. Steve Gerber, 60, American comic book writer (Howard the Duck, Captain America, Daredevil), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Ove Jørstad, 37, Norwegian footballer, cardiac arrest. Ron Leavitt, 60, American television writer and producer (Married... with Children, Unhappily Ever After, The Jeffersons), lung cancer. Dario Lodigiani, 91, American baseball player. William Long, 85, British politician, MP of Northern Ireland (1962–1972). Peter Marginter, 73, Austrian author. Inga Nielsen, 61, Danish soprano, cancer. Manuel Ortiz, 59, Cuban Olympic fencer. Roy Scheider, 75, American actor (Jaws, The French Connection, All That Jazz), staph infection. Ramón Daumal Serra, 95, Spanish Roman Catholic bishop. Chris Townson, 60, British drummer (John's Children). Ray Wu, 79, American biologist and educator.
11 Fouad al-Tikerly, 81, Iraqi novelist and judge, pancreatic cancer. Emilio Carballido, 82, Mexican playwright, heart attack. Tom Lantos, 80, American Representative from California since 1981, only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress, esophageal cancer. Torakichi Nakamura, 92, Japanese professional golfer, natural causes. Frank Piasecki, 88, American aeronautical engineer who invented the tandem rotor placement in helicopter design, stroke. Rahatullah, 18, Pakistani cricketer (Peshawar, Under-19 national team), shot. Alfredo Reinado, 39, East Timorese rebel, shot during attack on José Ramos-Horta. Zelig Sharfstein, 79, American chief rabbi of Cincinnati, heart condition. Melvin Alvah Traylor Jr., 92, American ornithologist and curator emeritus at the Field Museum of Natural History. Carolina Tronconi, 94, Italian gymnast, Olympic silver medalist (1928). Laura Urdapilleta, 76, Mexican ballerina.
12 T. O. S. Benson, 90, Nigerian lawyer. Oscar Brodney, 100, American lawyer and screenwriter (Harvey). John Brunious, 67, American jazz trumpeter, heart attack. Ron Chippindale, 75, New Zealand chief air accident investigator, car accident. Boris Chirikov, 79, Soviet and Russian physicist, cancer. Wilson Hermosa González, 64, Bolivian musician and composer (Los Kjarkas). David Groh, 68, American actor (Rhoda, General Hospital, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing), kidney cancer and heart failure. Thomas Grosser, 42, German footballer, heart attack during training. Preston Hanson, 87, American actor (Julius Caesar, The Loretta Young Show, Cage of Evil). Geoffrey Lewis, 87, British Professor of Turkish at Oxford University. Monica Morell, 54, Swiss singer, cancer. Imad Mughniyah, 45, Lebanese senior member of Hezbollah, car bomb.