The following is a list of notable deaths in February 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.
February 2001
1 Vinnie Burke, 79, American jazz bassist. Nikolay Devyatkov, 93, Soviet and Russian scientist and inventor. Sam Harshaney, 90, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns). Charley House, 88, American baseball player. Harry How, 81, Canadian politician. John Jarrard, 47, American country music songwriter, respiratory failure. Amryl Johnson, 56, Trinidadian poet and writer. Robert Lichello, 74, American author. Harold Maguire, 88, British air marshal and Director-General of Intelligence. Rafael Lapesa Melgar, 92, Spanish philologist and literature historian. John Pierrakos, 79, Greek-American physician and psychiatrist. Leslie Vincent, 91, American actor (Forever Amber, Destry Rides Again, Paris Underground).
2 June Lazenby Green, 87, American district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Carol Anne Letheren, 58, Canadian Olympic Association official, brain aneurysm. Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, 75, French classical pianist. Freddy Wittop, 89, Dutch costume designer (winner of Tony Award for Best Costume Design for Hello Dolly!).
3 Bobby Colburn, 89, American basketball player. Helmut Gude, 75, German Olympic middle-distance runner (1952). Otmar Kaufhold, 48, German Olympic rower (1976). Frederick Lawton, 89, British judge. Teiichi Nishi, 93, Japanese Olympic sprinter (1932). Gerald Suster, 49, British revisionist historian, occult writer, and novelist.
4 Wilhelm Altvater, 80, German politician and member of the Bundestag. Sonia Arova, 73, Bulgarian ballerina, pancreatic cancer. Jean Ausseil, 75, Monegasque politician, Minister of State (1985 and 1991). David Beattie, 76, New Zealand jurist and Governor-General. Gord Brydson, 94, Canadian ice hockey player (Toronto Maple Leafs). Šime Bujas, 74, Croatian Olympic rower (1948). Barry Cockcroft, 68, British television documentary director and filmmaker (Too Long a Winter). Alyaksandar Dubko, 63, Belarusian politician. Larry Fisher, 93, American real estate developer and philanthropist. J. J. Johnson, 77, American jazz trombonist, suicide by gunshot. Raimo Kangro, 51, Estonian composer. Alois Lipburger, 44, Austrian ski jumper, traffic collision. Dragan Maksimović, 51, Serbian actor, beaten. Allan Mansley, 54, English football player, heart attack. Ernie McCoy, 79, American racecar driver. Natalia Melmann, 15, Argentinian murder victim. Fred Murphy, 62, American football player (Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings). Pankaj Roy, 72, Indian cricketer. Tony Steedman, 73, English actor. Iannis Xenakis, 78, Greek-French composer.
5 Jean Davy, 89, French actor. Mark Joseph Hurley, 81, American Roman Catholic prelate, aneurysm. David Iftody, 44, Canadian member of Parliament (House of Commons for Provencher, Manitoba), snowmobile accident. Elsa Irigoyen, 81, Argentine Olympic fencer (1948, 1952). Jerry McQuaig, 89, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics). Louise Moreau, 80, French politician. Harry Wendell Reeves, 90, American Olympic sports shooter (1952). Gerald Scherba, 73, American biologist. Jack Shapiro, 93, American gridiron football player. Fernando Viola, 49, Italian football player, traffic collision. Jean Denton, Baroness Denton of Wakefield, 65, British politician and racing driver. Inna Zubkovskaya, 77, Russian ballerina.
6 Geoffrey Bibby, 83, English-Danish archaeologist. Kojo Botsio, 84, Ghanaian diplomat and politician. Gus Boulis, 51, Greek-born American businessman and murder victim, homicide. Fulgence Charpentier, 103, French Canadian journalist, editor and publisher, pneumonia. Stephen Halaiko, 92, American Olympic boxer (1928). Agha Hilaly, 90, Pakistani diplomat. Arthur W. Hummel, 80, American diplomat. Jack Hyles, 74, American Baptist megachurch pastor, heart failure. Filemon Lagman, 47, Filipino revolutionary socialist and workers' leader, homicide. Folke Lind, 87, Swedish football player and Olympian (1936). R. W. Southern, 88, British medieval historian. Charles Tran Van Lam, 87, South Vietnamese diplomat and politician. Emily Vermeule, 72, American classical scholar and archaeologist, heart disease.
7 Jean-Paul Beugnot, 69, French basketball player, coach, and Olympian (1952, 1956, 1960). Marianne Breslauer, 91, German photographer and photojournalist. Dieter Dengler, 62, German-American aviator and Vietnam War prisoner-of-war escapee (Little Dieter Needs to Fly), suicide by gunshot. Dale Evans, 88, American actress, singer and wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers, heart failure. Michael Grylls, 66, British politician. Helmut Hentrich, 95, German architect. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 94, American author, aviator, and wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh, stroke, pneumonia. Stanley Lingar, 37, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection. King Moody, 71, American actor (Get Smart) and comedian.
8 Ivo Caprino, 80, Norwegian film director and writer, cancer. Roger Delage, 78, French musicologist and conductor. Leslie Edwards, 84, British ballet dancer. Arlene Eisenberg, 66, American family and parenting writer (What to Expect When You're Expecting), breast cancer. Walter Generati, 87, Italian road bicycle racer. Pauline Koner, 88, American dancer and choreographer. Chen Lifu, 100, Chinese politician and anti-communist of the Republic of China. Muboraksho Mirzoshoyev, 39, Tajikistani musician and Tajik rock music pioneer, tuberculosis. Brian Nissen, 73, British actor and television announcer. R. J. Rushdoony, 84, American historian, theologian and father of Christian Reconstructionism.
9 Agustín Cárdenas, 73, Cuban sculptor. Vicente Dauder, 76, Spanish football goalkeeper and manager. William Epstein, 88, Canadian civil servant and United Nations disarmament official. Pat Kirkwood, 73, American racing driver. Leonard Mandel, 73, American physicist. Reginald Marsh, 74, English actor. José Rochel, 57, Spanish Olympic handball player (1972). Gunnar Seidenfaden, 92, Danish diplomat and botanist. Herbert A. Simon, 84, American economist (Nobel Prize in Economics, Turing Award). Dilbagh Singh, 74, Indian air marshal.
10 Ramzan Akhmadov, 31, Chechen general, killed in action. Lewis Arquette, 65, American actor (The Waltons, Tango & Cash, Scream 2), heart failure. Abraham Beame, 94, American politician, 104th Mayor of New York City (1974–1977). Kenneth E. BeLieu, 87, American government official. Helge Bengtsson, 84, Swedish football player. K. Thavamani Devi, Sri Lankan actress. Niccolò Galli, 17, Italian promising footballer, traffic accident. Johnny Hatley, 70, American football player (Chicago Bears, Chicago Cardinals, Denver Broncos), coach, executive, and rodeo performer. Mogubai Kurdikar, 96, Indian classical vocalist. Robert H. Lounsberry, 82, American politician. Miné Okubo, 88, American artist and writer. René Schroeder, 80, Luxembourgian Olympic gymnast (1948, 1952). Buddy Tate, 87, American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist (Count Basie Orchestra).
11 Jean-Charles Richard Berger, 76, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1963-1968). José Luis Borbolla, 81, Mexican footballer. Claude Desouches, 89, French Olympic sailor (1936, 1948). Edward E. Fitzgerald, 81, American sports author and editor (Book of the Month Club). Sy Gomberg, 82, American screenwriter (When Willie Comes Marching Home), heart attack. Olle Håkansson, 73, Swedish football player. Jaiganesh, Indian Tamil film actor, cancer. Raymond Lewis, 48, American basketball and streetball player, complications following leg amputation. Masao Ono, 77, Japanese football player. Charles C. Price, 87, American chemist. John Saunders, 50, American football player (Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers). Donald Sellers, 26, American gridiron football player, traffic accident. Judita Vaičiūnaitė, 63, Lithuanian writer. Maurice Zermatten, 90, French-speaking Swiss writer.
12 Bhakti Barve, 52, Indian actress, traffic collision. Rosalie Gwathmey, 92, American painter and photographer. Tiberio Mitri, 74, Italian boxer, railway accident. Franco Pedroni, 74, Italian football player and manager. Herbert Robbins, 86, American mathematician, statistician and co-author of What is Mathematics?. Ralph Smart, 92, Australian film and television producer. Kristina Söderbaum, 88, Swedish-German film actress, producer and photographer.
13 Ugo Fano, 88, Italian-American physicist, Alzheimer's disease. Frank Gosling, 83, Bermudian Olympic diver (1948, 1952). Manuela, 57, German singer, cancer. Moses Taiwa Molelekwa, 27, South African jazz pianist, murdered. Bent Pedersen, 72, Danish footballer. George T. Simon, 88, American jazz writer and drummer. Montague Woodhouse, 5th Baron Terrington, 83, British politician. Owen Torrey, 75, American sailor and Olympic medalist (1948). Victor Veysey, 85, American politician.
14 Max Charbit, 92, French footballer. Gerald Clawson, 83, Canadian Olympic swimmer (1936). Charles B. Fitzsimons, 76, Irish-American actor, film producer and director, liver disease. Guy Grosso, 67, French actor and humorist. Forrest Hall, 79, American football player (San Francisco 49ers). Richard Laymon, 54, American horror author, heart attack. Maurice Levitas, 84, Irish-born British sociologist. Alan Ross, 78, Indian-British poet and editor. Ploutis Servas, 93, Cypriot politician, journalist, and author. Piero Umiliani, 74, Italian composer of film scores. Helmut Wielandt, 90, German mathematician. Jim Winkler, 73, American football player (Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore Colts).
15 Boris Goldovsky, 92, Russian-American conductor and broadcaster. Dulal Guha, 72, Indian film director of Bollywood films in the 1960s and '70s. Burt Kennedy, 78, American screenwriter and director (The War Wagon, Support Your Local Sheriff!, The Virginian, Combat!). Ken Kiff, 65, English figurative artist. Ricardo Otxoa, 26, Spanish cyclist, bicycle accident. Edwin Plowden, Baron Plowden of Plowden, 94, British industrialist and public servant. Folke K. Skoog, 92, Swedish-American plant physiologist and Olympic runner (1932).
16 Ali Artuner, 56, Turkish footballer. Bob Buhl, 72, American baseball player (Milwaukee Braves, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies). Jerry Frei, 76, American football player (Wisconsin) and coach (Oregon, Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Chicago Bears). Howard W. Koch, 84, American film and television director and producer (The Manchurian Candidate, Maverick), Alzheimer's disease. William H. Masters, 85, American gynaecologist (Masters and Johnson), Parkinson's disease. Bobby Scarr, 74, Canadian Olympic basketball player (1948). Ludwig Schlanger, 96, Austrian Olympic wrestler (1928). Helen Vita, 72, Swiss chanson singer, actress, and comedian, cancer.
17 Debbie Dean, 73, American singer. Gilly Flower, 92, English actress and model. Bob Geary, 67, Canadian football player and manager in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Paulette Houtéer, 88, French Olympic gymnast (1928). Juan Liscano, 86, Venezuelan poet, folklorist, writer and critic. Marta Majowska, 89, Polish gymnast and Olympian (1936). Matild Manukyan, 87, Turkish businesswoman of Armenian descent. Khalid Abdul Muhammad, 53, American black nationalist leader (Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party), brain aneurysm. John Sutherland, 90, American film producer. Richard Wurmbrand, 91, Romanian Lutheran priest and academic. Zvonimir Červenko, 74, Croatian general.
18 Balthus, 92, French painter. Roger A. Caras, 72, American wildlife photographer, writer, and television personality, heart attack. Sir Colin Cole, 78, British officer of arms. Claude Davey, 92, Welsh rugby union player. Dale Earnhardt, 49, American NASCAR race car driver, racing accident.