The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2000.
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 2000
1 Moses Abramovitz, 88, American economist. Robert V. Barron, 67, American TV and film director. Horst Bickel, 82, German medical doctor. Issy Bloomberg, 70, South African weightlifter and Olympian (1948, 1952). Neal Creque, 60, American organist and jazz composer. Peter Denton, 74, Australian pole vaulter and Olympian (1956). Jack Hemingway, 77, Canadian-American fly fisherman, writer and son of novelist Ernest Hemingway. Jim Olsen, 79, American basketball player. Elmer E. Rasmuson, 91, American banker, philanthropist and politician, heart failure. Jack Rooney, 76, Australian rugby league footballer. Erik Simonsen, 85, Danish Olympic long-distance runner (1952). Terry Wilshusen, 51, American baseball player (California Angels).
2 Chris Antley, 34, American jockey (Racing Hall of Fame) (winner of Kentucky Derby 1991, 1999), drug overdose. Gail Fisher, 65, American actress (Mannix), renal failure. Rosemarie Frankland, 57, Welsh actress, model and beauty queen, drug overdose. Alfonso Barrantes Lingán, 73, Peruvian politician. Pete "El Conde" Rodríguez, 67, American salsa singer, heart attack. Theodore Ropp, 89, American historian. Kurt Schmid, 68, Swiss rower and Olympic medalist (1952, 1960). Michael Schumann, 54, (East) German philosophy professor and politician, traffic accident. Daniel Singer, 74, Polish-American socialist writer and journalist, lung cancer. Emily Wilkens, 83, American fashion designer. Ray Young, 62, Australian politician. Bibiano Zapirain, 81, Uruguayan football player. Bian Zhilin, 89, Chinese poet and literature researcher.
3 Gwendolyn Brooks, 83, American poet, cancer. Hoyt Curtin, 78, American composer and music producer. Cletus Fischer, 75, American gridiron football player (New York Giants). Jun Fukuda, 77, Japanese film director, cancer. Bobby Kottarakkara, 48, Indian actor, heart attack. Red Nonnenkamp, 89, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox). Hugh Edward Richardson, 94, British diplomat and Tibetologist. Miklós Szabó, 91, Hungarian middle-distance runner and Olympian (1936).
4 Henck Arron, 64, Suriname politician and Prime Minister, cardiac arrest. H. C. Artmann, 79, Austrian poet and writer, heart attack. Tito Arévalo, 89, Filipino actor and musician. Horia Bernea, 62, Romanian painter. Miguel Caldés Luis, 30, Cuban baseball player and Olympian (1996, 2000). Ram Bahadur Chettri, 63, Indian football player and Olympian (1960). Chhinnalata, 77, Nepalese writer and poet. Colin Cowdrey, 67, English cricket player. Austin Davis, 78, American baseball player. Vincent M. Fennelly, 80, American film and television producer. Gisela Kahn Gresser, 94, American chess player. Manuel Licea, 79, Cuban singer, diabetes. Joe Nanini, 45, American rock drummer, intracranial aneurysm.
5 Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, 74, Malaysian governor. Ghulam Dastagir Alam, Pakistani theoretical physicist. Rupert Charles Barneby, 89, American botanist. Dieter Bogatzki, 58, German Olympic middle-distance runner (1964). Marie Skodak Crissey, 90, American developmental psychologist. Árpád Glatz, 61, Hungarian Olympic basketball player (1960, 1964). Matthew Lukwiya, 43, Ugandan physician, ebola virus disease. Antonio Sbordone, 68, Italian Olympic diver (1960). O. W. Wolters, 85, British academic, historian and author.
6 Peter Aird, 79, Scottish footballer. Donald Angelini, 74, American mobster. Thomas Babe, 59, American playwright, lung cancer. Gershom Browne, 102, British soldier. Walter Grauman, 85, American basketball player. Daniel Hittle, 50, American serial killer and mass murderer, execution by lethal injection. Enrique Anderson Imbert, 90, Argentine novelist and short-story writer. Werner Klemperer, 80, German actor (Hogan's Heroes, Judgment at Nuremberg, Houseboat), Emmy winner (1968, 1969), cancer. Chrystabel Leighton-Porter, 87, British model. Aziz Mian, 58, Pakistani qawwali, complications of hepatitis. Umasashi, 85, Indian Bengali film actress. Svetozar Vukmanović, 88, Yugoslav and Montenegrin communist politician.
7 Nilolay Butinov, 85, Soviet and Russian ethnographer. Agustin Walfredo Castellanos, 98, American cardiologist. Edward Castro, 50, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection. Vlado Gotovac, 70, Croatian poet and politician, liver cancer. Levi Jackson, 74, American football player, first African-American to captain Yale University. Toby Low, 1st Baron Aldington, 86, British politician. Leszek Podhorodecki, Polish historian.
8 Gary Bergman, 62, Canadian ice hockey player (Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota North Stars, Kansas City Scouts). Ann T. Bowling, 57, American geneticist, stroke. Rae Brown, 87, Canadian actress. Julian Dixon, 66, American politician, heart attack. Ionatana Ionatana, 62, Prime Minister of Tuvalu (1999 – 2000), heart attack. Charles Issawi, 84, Egyptian-American economist and historian. Marvin Leath, 69, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1979–1991). Milić od Mačve, 66, Serbian painter and artist. Tyrone McGriff, 42, American football player (Pittsburgh Steelers). Lionel Rogosin, 76, American filmmaker. Neil Staebler, 95, American politician, Alzheimer's disease. Al Timothy, 85, Trinidadian musician.Al Timothy Energetic jazz all-rounder whose song was a hit for Shirley Bassey
9 Robert Armitage, 45, South African cricketer, cancer. William Bagonza, 40, Ugandan Olympic boxer (1984). Ray Burns, 77, British singer. Bob Carlson, 87, American college football and college baseball player and coach. Eugenio Galvalisi, 85, Uruguayan football player. John Hock, 72, American football player (Chicago Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams), lung cancer. Marina Koshetz, 88, American opera singer and actress. Tyrone McGriff, 42, American football player, heart attack. Sachindra Lal Singh, 93, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Tripura. Billie Yorke, 89, British tennis player.
10 José Águas, 70, Portuguese football player. Paul Avery, 66, American journalist, pulmonary emphysema. Jack Cowan, 73, Canadian football player. Dick Healey, 77, Australian politician and sports broadcaster. Marius B. Jansen, 78, American academic and historian. James T. McHugh, 68, American Roman Catholic prelate. Andreas Mouratis, 74, Greek football player and Olympian (1952). Tony Mulvihill, 83, Australian politician. Willard Nixon, 72, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox). Teresa Sterne, 73, American concert pianist and record producer, Lou Gehrig's disease. Riley Stewart, 81, American baseball player. Marie Windsor, 80, American actress.
11 Kenneth Brinkhous, 92, American pathologist. Pauline Curley, 96, American vaudeville and silent film actress, pneumonia. Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, 85, Pakistani politician, diplomat and author. David Lewis, 84, American actor. Jack Liebowitz, 100, American book publisher (DC Comics). N. Richard Nash, 87, American dramatist. Johannes Virolainen, 86, Finnish politician. René Wheeler, 88, French screenwriter and film director.
12 Red Barkley, 88, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns, Boston Bees, Brooklyn Dodgers). Michael D'Asaro Sr., 62, American fencer and Olympian (1960). Götz Friedrich, 70, German opera and theatre director. Knud W. Jensen, 84, Danish businessman and art collector. Rosa King, 61, American jazz and blues musician. Dorothy Kirby, 80, American golfer. Libertad Lamarque, 92, Argentine-Mexican actress and singer, pneumonia. George Montgomery, 84, American actor, heart attack. J. H. Patel, 70, Indian politician and Chief Minister of Karnataka. Doug Peace, 81, Canadian Olympic cyclist (1936). Jimmy Scarth, 74, English football player. Ndabaningi Sithole, 80, Zimbabwean politician and rival of Robert Mugabe. Marius Zwiller, 95, French Olympic swimmer (1924).
13 Geoffrey Beyts, 92, British Indian Army officer. Roy Anthony Bridge, 79, Jamaican Olympic sports shooter (1960, 1964). Milt Crain, 78, American football fullback.Milt Crain Pierre Demargne, 97, French historian and archaeologist. Clarence Dybvig, 81, American politician. Aharon Harel, 68, Israeli politician. Jake Jones, 80, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox). Erhard Krack, 69, German politician and mayor of East Berlin. Chen Zhen, 45, Chinese-French conceptual artist, cancer.
14 Ventura Alonzo, 95, Mexican-born American musician. Johan Asker, 85, Swedish Olympic equestrian (1956). Francisco Cano Consuegra, 45, Spanish politician, explosion. J. H. Cottrell Jr., 83, American politician. Enoch Dumbutshena, 80, Zimbabwean judge, liver cancer. Allan Howe, 73, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1975–1977). Roger Judrin, 91, French writer and literary critic. Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, 82, Ukrainian Catholic bishop. John Mahnken, 78, American basketball player. Pavel Plotnikov, 80, Soviet air force general. Uldis Pūcītis, 63, Latvian actor, scriptwriter and film director, pulmonary embolism. Al Vincent, 93, American baseball player, manager, coach and scout.
15 Trevor Adams, 54, British actor, cancer. George Alcock, 88, English astronomer. Z. W. Birnbaum, 97, Polish-American mathematician and statistician. Jozef Boons, 57, Belgian racing cyclist and Olympian (1964), traffic accident. Haris Brkić, 26, Yugoslav basketball player, shot. James Brockway, 84, English poet and translator. Derwin Brown, 46, American police officer and sheriff-elect of DeKalb County, shot.Ex-Sheriff Given Life Term for Murder of Rival Bubba Floyd, 83, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers). Inigo Gallo, 68, Swiss comedian, radio personality, and actor, liver cancer. Gour Kishore Ghosh, 77, Bengali writer and journalist. Jacques Goddet, 95, French sports journalist and director of the Tour de France. Eric Mahn, 75, Chilean Olympic basketball player (1952). Valery Nikolin, 61, Soviet Russian Olympic sailor (1964). Chiang Peng-chien, 60, Taiwanese politician, pancreatic cancer.
16 William Brandt, 76, American politician and banker. Saad Dahlab, Algerian politician. Blue Demon, 78, Mexican masked wrestler and actor, myocardial infarction. Grigory Kiselyov, 63, Soviet Russian Olympic swimmer (1960). Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, 89, German physicist. Alain-Philippe Malagnac, 49, French actor, smoke inhalation. Victor Owusu, 76, Ghanaian politician and lawyer. Hugh W. Pinnock, 66, American Mormon leader, pulmonary fibrosis. Chuck Pratt, 61, American rock climber, heart attack. Theo Saevecke, 89, Nazi German SS officer and holocaust perpetrator.
17 Gerald Aylmer, 74, British historian. Peter Barrett, 65, American sailor and Olympic champion (1960, 1964, 1968). Gérard Blain, 70, French actor and film director, cancer. John Alexander Carroll, American academic. Harold Rhodes, 89, American music inventor, pneumonia. Jeroom Riske, 81, Belgian Olympic gymnast (1952). Erich Schmid, 93, Swiss conductor.
18 Paddy Barry, 72, Irish hurler. Hal Call, 83, American LGBT rights activist, and U.S. Army veteran, congestive heart failure. Lluís Claramunt, 49, Spanish artist.Bio at official website Pedro Consuegra, 70, Argentine Olympic water polo player (1960). José D'Andrea, 85, Argentine Olympic fencer (1948, 1952). Harry DeWolf, 97, Canadian naval officer during World War II. Lajos Dunai, 58, Hungarian football player and Olympian (1968). Stan Fox, 48, American race car driver, traffic collision. Randolph Apperson Hearst, 85, American newspaper publisher (Hearst Corporation). Norman Humphries, 83, English cricket player.Norman Humphries Kirsty MacColl, 41, British singer-songwriter, boating accident. Madhavapeddi Satyam, 78, Indian actor and singer. Giorgio Saviane, 84, Italian author.