The following is a list of notable deaths in December 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.
December 2003
1 Hamza Alavi, 82, Pakistani-British sociologist and activist (Campaign Against Racial Discrimination). Fernando Di Leo, 71, Italian film director and script writer. Clark Kerr, 92, American academic, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (1952–58), complications from a fall. Eugenio Monti, 75, Italian bobsledder and Olympian (1956, 1964, 1968), suicide by gunshot. Ken Moore, 86, American football player (New York Giants). Carl Schenkel, 55, Swiss film director, heart attack. Uday Singh Taunque, 21, U.S. Army soldier.
2 Ruth Nanda Anshen, 103, American philosopher, author and editor. Suzanne Cloutier, 80, Canadian film actress, liver cancer. Alan Davidson, 79, British food writer and diplomat. Vic Gordon, 92, British Australian actor of vaudeville, television and film. Ignaz Kiechle, 73, German politician and minister for agriculture (1983–1993). Coy Koopal, 71, Dutch footballer. Frances Morris, 95, American actress. Rudolph A. Peterson, 98, American banker. Jim Sheehan, 90, American baseball player (New York Giants).
3 Dulce Chacón, 49, Spanish poet, novelist and playwright, pancreatic cancer. Jay Difani, 80, American baseball player (Washington Senators). Ellen Drew, 88, American film actress, liver ailment. Heinrich Enea, 81, Romanian Olympic bobsledder (1956). Sita Ram Goel, 82, Indian historian, activist, writer, and publisher. David Hemmings, 62, British actor and director, heart attack.
4 Jace Bugg, 27, American professional golfer. Ramón Climent, 74, Chilean footballer. John H. Hannah, Jr., 64, American judge (U.S. District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas), heart attack. John Haley, 72, American attorney, plane crash. Iggy Katona, 87, American racing driver. Dezső Lemhényi, 85, Hungarian water polo player, coach and Olympic champion (1948, 1952). Georges Moreel, 79, French footballer. Louis Prahm, 91, Danish Olympic field hockey player (1936). Jimmy Smith, 92, Scottish football player. David Vaughan, 59, English psychedelic artist. Jacques Viau, 84, Canadian lawyer and reformist.
5 Paul Busby, 85, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies). Vasile Chitaru, 44, Romanian footballer. Bob Gregory, 82, American comics artist and writer. Felix Kaspar, 88, Austrian figure skater and Olympian (1936). Jack Keller, 61, American poker player. José Manuel Pesudo, 67, Spanish football goalkeeper and coach. Antony Rowe, 79, English rower and Olympian (1948). Gregorio García Segura, 74, Spanish composer of film scores. Yasuo Tanaka, 71, Japanese voice actor.
6 Haddis Alemayehu, 93, Ethiopian Foreign Minister and novelist. John Bingham, 61, British classical pianist. Paul-Louis Halley, 69, French businessman, plane crash.Shopping magnate killed in air crash Hans Hotter, 84, German operatic bass-baritone. José María Jiménez, 32, Spanish road bicycle racer, heart attack. Barry Long, 77, Australian spiritual teacher and writer. P. Madhavan, 75, Indian film director and producer in Tamil cinema. Javier Montez, 74, American Olympic middle-distance runner (1952). Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, 85, Guatemalan military ruler, President of Guatemala. Jerry Tuite, 36, American wrestler, heart attack.
7 Roland Asselin, 86, Canadian Olympic fencer (1948, 1952, 1956). Barta Barri, 92, Hungarian-Spanish film actor. Robert R. Benton, 79, American set decorator, respiratory failure. Carl F. H. Henry, 90, American Evangelical theologian and founder of Christianity Today magazine. Esko Karu, 57, Canadian cross-country skier (1968). Azie Taylor Morton, 67, American public servant (Treasurer of the United States), complications from a stroke. Joe Skeen, 76, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1981-2003), Parkinson's disease.
8 Lewis M. Allen, 81, American film and Broadway producer, nominated for seven Tony Awards, pancreatic cancer. Margaret Jean Anderson, 84, Canadian businesswoman and senator (representing Northumberland--Miramichi, New Brunswick). Nelson Bobb, 79, American professional basketball player (Temple University, Philadelphia Warriors), cancer. Agnès Delahaie, 83, French actress and film producer. Robert Detweiler, 73, American competition rower and Olympic champion (1952), naval officer, and scientist. Timothy Feruka, 49, Zambian Olympic boxer (1972). Rubén González, 84, Cuban pianist. Pekka Siitoin, 59, Finnish satanist, occultist and neo-Nazi, esophageal cancer. Francine Weisweiller, 87, French socialite and patron of Jean Cocteau.
9 Carol M. Bundy, 61, American serial killer, heart failure. Blackie Ko, 50, Taiwanese film director, stuntman, singer and actor, blood poisoning. Keith McCreary, 63, Canadian hockey player (Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Flames), cancer. Thomas M. Rees, 78, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1965-1977). Bill Schroeder, 80, American basketball and football player (Wisconsin Badgers, Chicago Rockets, Sheboygan Red Skins). Gladys Shelley, 91, American lyricist and composer. Paul Simon, 75, American author and politician, United States Senator from Illinois (1985-1997), surgical complications. Norm Sloan, 77, American college basketball player and coach (The Citadel, University of Florida, North Carolina State).
10 Abida Ahmed, 80, Indian politician, First Lady of India as wife of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974-1977). Robert L. Bartley, 66, American newspaper editor (The Wall Street Journal editorial page) and Pulitzer Prize winner. Oswald Cheung, 81, Hong Kong lawyer and politician, complications from burns. Elizabeth Harrower, 85, American actress and television writer, cancer. László Jeszenszky, 76, Hungarian Olympic middle-distance runner (1952, 1952). Sean McClory, 79, Irish actor. Bill Morey, 83, American actor. Bob Ross, 69, American publisher (Bay Area Reporter) and gay rights activist, complications from diabetes.Bob Ross -- pioneering gay journalist and activist Raúl Armando Savoy, 63, Argentine football player. Don Wheeler, 81, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox).
11 Malcolm Clarke, 60, British composer. Ahmadou Kourouma, 76, Ivorian novelist. Shah Ahmad Noorani, 77, Pakistani Islamic scholar, mystic, philosopher, revivalist and an ultra–conservative politician. Ann Petersen, 76, Belgian actress. Paschoal Rapuano, 93, Brazilian Olympic rower (1936). Ram Kishore Shukla, 80, Indian politician. Paulos Tzadua, 82, Ethiopian Catholic Archbishop of Addis Ababa.
12 Heydar Aliyev, 80, Azerbaijani politician, served as the third president of Azerbaijan. Ross Belsher, 70, Canadian politician (member of Parliament of Canada for Fraser Valley East, British Columbia). Eva Besnyö, 93, Dutch-Hungarian photographer. Michael Casson, 78, British potter. Howard Edward Crosby, 70, Canadian politician and lawyer, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1978-1993). Joseph Anthony Ferrario, 77, American Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Honolulu (1982–1993), heart attack. Earl Gillespie, 81, American sportscaster, voice of the Milwaukee Braves. Marcello Giombini, 75, Italian composer. Keiko, 27, orca famed for Reino Aventura and Free Willy, pneumonia. Rudolf Krause, 76, German football player and coach. Kurt Magnus, 91, German scientist. George Pastushok, 81, American basketball player (St. John's Red Storm, Providence Steamrollers). Fadwa Tuqan, 86, Palestinian poet. Skip Wolters, 74, Singaporean Olympic water polo player (1956).
13 Elizabeth Bates, 56, American professor of cognitive science, pancreatic cancer. Luis González y González, 78, Mexican historian. Mollie Hardwick, 87, British writer. Alexis Kanner, 61, French-Canadian film and television actor, heart attack. Yuriy Kutenko, 71, Soviet Ukrainian decathlete and Olympian (1956, 1960). David Perlov, 73, Israeli documentary filmmaker. Balasubramaniam Ramamurthi, 81, Indian neurosurgeon and author. William Roth, 82, American lawyer and politician United States Senator from Delaware from 1971 to 2001. Xie Tian, 89, Chinese actor and director. Webster Young, 71, American jazz trumpeter (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie), brain cancer. Māris Čaklais, 63, Latvian poet and writer.
14 Daniel Arasse, 59, French art historian, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Don Concannon, 73, British Labour Party politician. Jeanne Crain, 78, American actress, heart attack. Vladimir Kotyrev, 72, Soviet Russian Olympic canoeist (1952). Blas Ople, 75, Filipino journalist and politician, heart attack. François Rauber, 70, French pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. Frank Sheeran, 83, American labor union leader and mobster, "The Irishman", cancer.
15 Valerio Bonini, 79, Italian racing cyclist. Johnny Cunningham, 46, British folk musician, heart attack. Jack Gregory, 80, British athlete and Olympic silver medalist (1948, 1952). Garvin Hamner, 79, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies). Göthe Hedlund, 85, Swedish speed skater and Olympic medalist (1948, 1952). David S. Lewis, 86, American aerospace engineer. Keith Magnuson, 56, Canadian ice hockey player (Chicago Black Hawks), road accident. Edward Montagne, 91, American television series producer and film director. Sergio Vergara, 76, Chilean Olympic fencer (1964). Dora Wasserman, 84, Russian-Canadian actress, playwright, and theater director.
16 Siegfried Hold, 72, German cinematographer. Alfred Lynch, 72, English actor, cancer. Judd Marmor, 93, American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Hugo Moser, 77, Argentine television and film producer and screenwriter, cardiovascular disease. Madlyn Rhue, 68, American actress (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Days of Our Lives, Bracken's World), pneumonia. Aglaja Schmid, 77, Austrian stage and film actress. Veikko Sinisalo, 77, Finnish actor. Robert Stanfield, 89, Canadian politician (member of Parliament representing Colchester—Hants and Halifax, Nova Scotia), pneumonia. Gary Stewart, 58, American country music singer "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)", suicide by gunshot. Peter Hardy, Baron Hardy of Wath, 72, British Labour Party politician.
17 Fujinishiki Akira, 66, Japanese sumo wrestler. Bonnie Baker, 85, Canadian baseball player. Thomas Coulter, 92, Canadian-American ice hockey player (Chicago Black Hawks). Ed Devereaux, 78, Australian actor, cancer. Otto Graham, 82, American gridiron football (Cleveland Browns) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, heart aneurysm. Wally Hedrick, 75, Seminal American artist in the 1950s California counterculture, gallerist, and educator. Mary Ann Jackson, 80, American child actress, heart attack. Franz Offenberger, 72, Austrian Olympian speed skater (1952, 1956, 1960). José Richa, 69, Brazilian politician. David Smith, 69, English cricketer. Alan Tilvern, 86, English actor and voice artist (Bhowani Junction, The Lord of the Rings, Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Jim Wolf, 51, American gridiron football player (Prairie View A&M, Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs), multiple sclerosis.
18 Charles Berlitz, 90, American linguist, spoke 32 languages. Glenn Cunningham, 91, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1957-1971). Jack Dormand, 84, British politician. Ergilio Hato, 77, Dutch Antillean goalkeeper from Curaçao and Olympian (1952). Branko Horvat, 75, Croatian economist and politician. Cresson Kearny, 89, United States Army officer. Susan Travers, 94, only English woman to serve in the French Foreign Legion. Richard Wahlstrom, 72, American Olympic rower (1952).
19 Roger Conant, 94, American herpetologist, cancer. Yan Frid, 95, Soviet screenwriter and film director.