The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2001.
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 2001
1 Doug Bartlett, 87, Australian rugby league footballer. Barry Donath, 68, Australian Olympic shot putter (1956). Danilo Donati, 75, Italian costume designer (Romeo and Juliet, Fellini's Casanova) and production designer (Life Is Beautiful), Oscar winner (1969, 1977). Ellis R. Dungan, 92, American film director. Michael Gallanagh, 82, Irish Fianna Fáil politician and Army captain. Cor de Jager, 76, Dutch army officer, Chief of Defence (1980–1983). Lin Haiyin, 83, Taiwanese writer, organ dysfunction. Celia M. Hunter, 82, American environmentalist and conservationist. Chris Rees, 70, Welsh politician. Pavel Sadyrin, 59, Soviet and Russian football player and manager, cancer.
2 John W. Collins, 89, American chess master, author and teacher. Chase Craig, 91, American comic strip and comic book writer and cartoonist, fall. Bruce Halford, 70, British racing driver. Martha Kneale, 92, British philosopher. Roger McDonough, 92, American librarian. Amir Abdullah Khan Rokhri, 85, Pakistani politician. Max Rood, 74, Dutch jurist and politician. Naomi Schor, 58, American literary critic and theorist, brain hemorrhage. Manuel Velasco Suárez, 86, Mexican neurologist, scientist and humanist, Governor of Chiapas (1970−1976). Dmitri Voskoboynikov, 60, Soviet Russian Olympic volleyball player (1964). Willie Woodburn, 82, Scottish footballer.
3 Juan José Arreola, 83, Mexican writer, academic, and actor. Dee Barton, 64, American jazz trombonist, big band drummer and composer. Marike de Klerk, 64, First Lady of South Africa, as wife of President Frederik Willem de Klerk, murdered. Anthony Gigliotti, 79, American clarinetist and music teacher (Philadelphia Orchestra). Nebojša M. Krstić, 37, Serbian theologian and sociologist, car accident. Grady Martin, 72, American country music guitarist (The Nashville A-Team), heart attack. Gerhart M Riegner, 90, German philosopher, and the secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress from 1965 to 1983. Harry Winter, 87, Austrian singer.
4 Silvio Clementelli, 75, Italian film producer. Pierre de Bénouville, 87, French Army officer, member of the Resistance during World War II, and politician. Mercedes Matter, 87/88, American painter, draughtswoman, and writer. Eddie Popowski, 88, American baseball coach and manager. Princess Maria Francesca of Savoy, 86, Italian royal and daughter of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. John Townsend, 85, American basketball player. Ed Whalen, 74, Canadian television personality and journalist, heart attack.
5 Zhang Banglun, 82, Chinese Olympic footballer (1948). Anton Benya, 89, Austrian politician and trade unionist. Peter Blake, 53, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist, shot. Muhamed Kreševljaković, 62, Bosnian politician and Mayor of Sarajevo. Moya Lear, 86, American businesswoman and philanthropist.Philanthropist widow of Learjet developer dies at 86 Franco Rasetti, 100, Italian-American physicist. Bill Roberts, 89, British athlete and Olympian (1936, 1948). Dharam Singh, 82, Indian field hockey player and Olympic champion (1952). Valo Urho, 85, Finnish Olympic sailor (1948). Tomás Vio, 80, Argentine Olympic basketball player (1948).
6 Colin Buchanan, 94, Scottish town planner. Robert W. Camac, 61, American thoroughbred horse racing trainer and breeder, shot. Thomas William Gould, 86, English Royal Navy submariner and World War II hero (Victoria Cross). Clarita Hunsberger, 95, American Olympic diver (1928). Lia Leismüller, 70, German Olympic alpine skier (1952). Charles McClendon, 78, American football player (University of Kentucky) and coach (Louisiana State University). Walt Mulconery, 69, American film editor (Flashdance, The Karate Kid, Touch and Go).Walt Allen Mulconery
7 David Astor, 89, British newspaper proprietor. Eva Calvo, 80, Mexican actress. Wally Cruice, 88, American NFL football player, assistant coach, and scout. James Crutchfield, 89, American blues singer, piano player and songwriter, heart disease. Peter Elias, 78, American information theorist, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Faith Hubley, 77, American animator (Moonbird, The Hole, Sesame Street, A Doonesbury Special), breast cancer. Billie Matthews, 71, American gridiron football coach. Subrata Mitra, 70, Indian cinematographer. Pauline Moore, 87, American actress (Heidi, The Three Musketeers, Young Mr. Lincoln, Charlie Chan at Treasure Island), ALS. Ray Powell, 73, British politician.
8 Agha Shahid Ali, 52, Kashmiri-American poet, brain cancer. Wink Bowman, 85, American basketball player. Mirza Delibašić, 47, Bosnian and Yugoslav basketball player, coach, and Olympian (1976, 1980). Maurice Gross, 67, French linguist and scholar. Betty Holberton, 84, American computer programmer, one of six original programmers of the ENIAC computer. Pete Perreault, 62, American gridiron football player (New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings). Sergei Suponev, 38, Soviet/Russian television director and children's television presenter, snowmobile accident. Miroslav Vlach, 66, Czech ice hockey player and Olympic medalist (1960, 1964). George Young, 71, American football executive.
9 Cesina Bermudes, 93, Portuguese obstetrician and feminist. Michael Carver, Baron Carver, 86, British Field Marshal. Gijs Kramer, 96, Dutch painter. Carol Lindroos, 71, Finnish Olympic discus thrower (1960). Joseph Mees, 78, Belgian prelate of the Catholic Church. Frederick Stewart, 85, British geologist. Lisa Welander, 92, Swedish neurologist.
10 Enrique Araneda, 94, Chilean footballer. Mikhail Budyko, 81, Russian climatologist. Gus Doerner, 79, American basketball player. Alan Fennell, 65, British writer and editor. Knut Fægri, 92, Norwegian botanist and palaeoecologist. Sadao Kikuchi, 68, Japanese Olympic ski jumper (1960, 1964). Ashok Kumar, 90, Indian film actor, heart failure. Vernon Richards, 86, Anglo-Italian anarchist, author, and photographer. Heinz Rögner, 72, German conductor.
11 Beverly Hope Atkinson, 66, American actress, cancer. Andrei Bantikov, 87, Russian and Soviet painter. Graham Billing, 65, New Zealand novelist, journalist and poet. Mainza Chona, 71, Zambian politician and diplomat, kidney failure. Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar, 92, Indian indologist and scholar. Zdeněk Dítě, 81, Czechoslovak film actor. Thomas Favors, 80, American baseball player. Teguh Karya, 64, Indonesian film director, complications from a stroke. Clark Mills, 86, American boatbuilder and designer. John Wilkinson Taylor, 95, American academic and UNESCO director-general. Tatsuo Watanabe, 73, Japanese Olympic ski jumper (1952).
12 Friedel Apelt, 99, German political activist and trades union official. Josef Bican, 88, Austrian-Czech footballer. Ardito Desio, 104, Italian explorer, geologist, and cartographer. Berit Granquist, 92, Swedish Olympic fencer (1936). Armando Theodoro Hunziker, 82, Argentine botanist (Botanical Museum of the National University of Córdoba), cancer. Farnham Johnson, 77, American gridiron football player (Chicago Rockets). Lê Phổ, 94, Vietnamese painter. Giuseppe Prisco, 80, Italian lawyer and sporting director. Jean Richard, 80, French actor, comedian, and circus entrepreneur, cancer. Roger Scotti, 76, French football player. U. S. Grant Sharp Jr., 95, United States Navy admiral. William Stobie, 51, Northern Irish paramilitary, shot.
13 Michael Bradshaw, 68, English actor. Larry Costello, 70, American basketball player (Philadelphia Warriors, Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers), and coach (Milwaukee Bucks), cancer. Yvan Craipeau, 90, French Trotskyist. Jack Hoffman, 71, American gridiron football player (Xavier University, Chicago Bears). György Kőszegi, 51, Hungarian weightlifter and Olympic silver medalist (1976, 1980). Karel Lomecký, 87, Czech canoeist and Olympian (1948). Nigel Lovell, 85, Australian actor and opera director. Beatrice Macola, 36, Italian actress, cerebral infarction. Vidadi Narimanbekov, 75, Azerbaijani painter. Chuck Schuldiner, 34, American death metal guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, brain cancer. Dušan Slobodník, 74, Slovak literary theoretician, translator and politician. Juha Tikka, 71, Finnish Olympic swimmer (1952).
14 Conte Candoli, 74, American jazz trumpeter, prostate cancer. Arghiri Emmanuel, 90, French marxian economist. Alfred Byrd Graf, 100, German-American botanist, photographer and author. John Guedel, 88, American radio and television producer (You Bet Your Life, People Are Funny, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet). Pauline Mills McGibbon, 91, Canadian politician, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Claude Santelli, 78, French film director and screenwriter. W. G. Sebald, 57, German writer, car collision. Eoin Ryan, Snr, 81, Irish politician, senator (1957–1987). André Tollet, 88, French chairman of the Paris liberation committee.ANDRÉ TOLLET Jack Tomson, 83, British-born Canadian ice hockey player (New York Americans).
15 Wilkie Cooper, 90, British cinematographer (Jason and the Argonauts).Cooper, Wilkie (1911-2001) Russ Haas, 27, American professional wrestler, heart failure. Bianca Halstead, 36, American hard rock singer, traffic collision. Franciszek Kępka, 61, Polish glider pilot and European champion. José O'Callaghan Martínez, 79, Spanish Jesuit priest and biblical scholar. Rufus Thomas, 84, American R&B/soul singer, heart failure.
16 Stuart Adamson, 43, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist of Big Country and The Raphaels, suicide by hanging. Roy Brocksmith, 56, American actor, diabetes. Stefan Heym, 88, German writer, heart failure. Martin Isaksson, 80, Finnish politician and diplomat. Carwood Lipton, 81, American soldier during World War II and member of the Band of Brothers. Lester Persky, 76, American film, television, and theatre producer, complications following heart surgery. Villy Sørensen, 72, Danish writer, philosopher and literary critic. Lincoln Tate, 67, American actor and marine. Gheorghe Vilmoș, 60, Romanian Olympic biathlete (1964, 1968, 1972).
17 Mohammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi, 73, Iranian-Iraqi Shia marja' and political theorist. Gerald Ashby, 52, English football referee, heart attack. Vittoria Avanzini, 86, Italian Olympic gymnast (1936). Luigi Bertoldi, 81, Italian socialist politician. Fred Chaney Sr., 87, Australian politician. Nelson Chelle, 70, Uruguayan Olympic basketball player (1956, 1960). Frédéric de Pasquale, 70, French actor. Martin Glaberman, 83, American marxist writer, historian, and academic. Eynon Hawkins, 81, Welsh rugby footballer. Vladimir Kazantsev, 48, Russian Airborne Forces major general, fall.Генерала-десантника подвела страховка Yolande Le Calvez, 91, French geologist, palaeontologist, geological engineer. Martha Mödl, 89, German soprano, and later mezzo-soprano. Wale Ogunyemi, 62, Nigerian dramatist, film actor, and playwright. Aleksandr Volodin, 82, Soviet and Russian playwright, screenwriter and poet. Alf Wood, 86, English football goalkeeper and manager.
18 Gilbert Bécaud, 74, French singer, composer ("What Now My Love"), pianist and actor, lung cancer. Dan DeCarlo, 82, American cartoonist (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats, Cheryl Blossom), pneumonia. Dimitris Dragatakis, 87, Greek classical music composer. Mary Hardwick, 88, English tennis player. Bill Howerton, 80, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants). Kira Ivanova, 38, Soviet Olympic figure skater (1980, 1984, 1988), homicide. Jim Letherer, 67, American civil rights activist. Marcel Mule, 100, French saxophonist. Tolomush Okeyev, 66, Kyrgyz screenwriter and film director. Amal Kumar Sarkar, 100, Indian judge and Chief Justice.