Deaths in December 1997

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1997.

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 1997

1 Julius Barnathan, 70, American broadcast engineer, lung cancer. Stéphane Grappelli, 89, French-Italian jazz violinist. Alex McGregor, 89, Australian rules footballer. Władysław Młynek, 67, Polish teacher, writer and poet. Jiří Pleskot, 75, Czech actor. Khan Ataur Rahman, 68, Bangladeshi film actor, director, and singer. Edwin Rosario, 34, Puerto Rican boxer, aneurysm."Edwin Rosario Is Dead at 34, Troubled Boxing Champion", The New York Times, December 3, 1997. Retrieved 4 April 2020

2 Guido Brunner, 67, Spanish-German diplomat and politician. Silvio Ceccato, 83, Italian philosopher and linguist. Shirley Crabtree, 67, British wrestler known as Big Daddy, stroke. Anat Elimelech, 23, Israeli model and actress, shot."הילדה הכי יפה בירושלים": רצח ענת אלימלך (in Hebrew) Harald Gelhaus, 82, German U-boat commander during World War II. Robert A. Hall, 86, American linguist. Steve Hamilton, 63, American basketball player, colon cancer. Michael Hedges, 43, American composer, guitarist and singer-songwriter, traffic collision. Marge Kotlisky, 70, American actress (Major League, Thief, Sixteen Candles). Endicott Peabody, 77, American gridiron football player and politician, leukemia. Robert E. Williams, 61, American murderer, execution by electrocution.

3 Stan Anderson, 58, Scottish football player. Domenico Enrici, 88, Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. Benito Jacovitti, 74, Italian comic artist. Vic Lombardi, 75, American Major League Baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates). Olaf Pedersen, 77, Danish historian of science.

4 Leo August, 83, American philatelist. Morton Bard, 73, American psychologist and author of The Crime Victim's Book. Buck Barry, 80, American actor and radio and television personality. Joe Brown, 71, American boxer. Ho Sin Hang, 97, Hong Kong entrepreneur and philanthropist. G. S. Jayanath, Sri Lankan army officer, killed in action. Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas, 90, Lithuanian artist. Alberto Manzi, 73, Italian school teacher, writer and television host. K. A. Nizami, 71, Indian historian and diplomat. Pepper Sharpe, 78, American baseball player. Richard Vernon, 72, English actor (Goldfinger, Gandhi, The Man in Room 17), complications from Parkinson's disease. Joseph Wolpe, 82, South African psychiatrist.

5 Rudolf Bahro, 62, East Germany dissident and politician, cancer. Forrest Burmeister, 84, American gridiron football player (Cleveland Rams). Eugen Cicero, 57, Romanian-German jazz pianist. Frederick Dainton, Baron Dainton, 83, British academic chemist. Ali Forney, 22, American gay and transgender youth, shot. Lutz Hoffmann, 38, East German gymnast and Olympic silver medalist (1980), suicide. John E. Moss, 82, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1953-1978). Jakob Sverdrup, 78, Norwegian historian. Jan Voigt, 69, Norwegian actor, dancer and museum director.

6 Bob Adkins, 80, American football player (Green Bay Packers). George Chisholm, 82, Scottish jazz trombonist and vocalist. Lou Clinton, 60, American baseball player, pneumonia. Eliot Daniel, 89, American songwriter and lyricist. Gilbert Delahaye, 74, Belgian author (Martine). Willy den Ouden, 79, Dutch swimmer and Olympic champion (1932, 1936).Cees Zevenbergen (1998-12-31). Willy den Ouden (1918–1997) (in Dutch), Retrieved 4 April 2020. Jagmohan Kaur, 49, Indian singer and actress. Peter Leventritt, 82, American bridge player. Eddie Myers, 91, British Army officer and author. Willie Pastrano, 62, American boxer, liver cancer. Chris Walder, 97, Dutch footballer.

7 Billy Bremner, 54, Scottish footballer and manager, suspected heart attack. Barry S. Brook, 81, American musicologist. Félix Candela, 87, Spanish architect. Torbjörn Caspersson, 87, Swedish cytologist and geneticist. Fernand Cornez, 90, French road bicycle racer. Karl August Folkers, 91, American biochemist. George R. Gardiner, 80, Canadian businessman and philanthropist. Armando Valente, 94, Italian racewalker and Olympian (1924). Annette B. Weiner, 64, American anthropologist. Woodrow Wyatt, 79, British politician, author and journalist.

8 Bob Bell, 75, American actor famous for his alter-ego, Bozo the Clown. Walter Molino, 82, Italian comics artist and illustrator. Léon Poliakov, 87, French historian. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, 84, Cuban communist politician, Parkinson's disease. Laurean Rugambwa, 85, Tanzanian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Bob Tanner, 90, American football player (Frankford Yellow Jackets). Stephen Tredre, 34, English actor and writer, bone cancer. Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, 54, Nigerian army general, politician and Vice President.

9 Tamara Geva, 91, Russian-American actress, ballet dancer, and choreographer. Angelo Herndon, 84, American labor organizer. K. Shivaram Karanth, 95, Indian polymath. Michael Lee Lockhart, 37, American convicted serial killer, execution by lethal injection. Keith W. Piper, 76, American football coach, congestive heart failure. Stefano Ludovico Straneo, 95, Italian entomologist and author. John D. Winters, 80, American historian.

10 Luis Bagnato, 73, Argentine footballer. Anatoliy Banishevskiy, 51, Azerbaijani football player, diabetic coma attack. Kalmen Kaplansky, 85, Canadian human rights and trade union activist. Ken Keller, 63, American football player (Philadelphia Eagles). Yevgeni Mayorov, 59, Soviet ice hockey player and Olympian (1964), A.L.S. Eve McVeagh, 78, American actress (High Noon, The Clear Horizon, The Glass Web).

11 Roger Brown, 72, American social psychologist. Eddie Chapman, 83, English criminal and spy during World War II. Robert Cosmoc, 66, Romanian footballer. Jorge Castañeda y Álvarez de la Rosa, 76, Mexican diplomat. Simon Jeffes, 48, English classical guitarist, composer and arranger, brain tumor, brain cancer. Paul Scull, 90, American football player. Harold Madison Wright, 89, Canadian engineer and Olympic sprinter (1932).

12 Jim Bob Altizer, 65, American calf and steer roper. R. Stanton Avery, 90, American inventor. Wacław Gajewski, 86, Polish geneticist. Brian Deneke, 19, American punk musician, homicide by vehicular impact. Evgenii Landis, 76, Soviet and Russian mathematician. M. G. Soman, 53, Indian Air Force officer and actor.

13 Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, 33, Italian businessman and member of the Agnelli family, stomach cancer. Martin Carter, 70, Guyanese poet and political activist. Paddy DeMarco, 69, American lightweight boxer. Don Edward Fehrenbacher, 77, American historian and Pulitzer Prize winner. Harry Glaß, 67, German ski jumper and Olympian (1956). Gran Harrison, 80, American football player (Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions). Harry Lippiatt, 79, Australian rules footballer. Jimmy Milne, 86, Scottish football player and manager. W. D. Mochtar, 69, Indonesian actor. David Nicholson, 93, Australian politician. Alexander Oppenheim, 94, British mathematician. Georges Rose, 87, French footballer. David Rousset, 85, French writer and political activist. Claude Roy, 82, French poet and essayist, cancer.

14 John Adair, 84, American anthropologist. Owen Barfield, 99, British philosopher, author, critic, and member of the Inklings. Frank Baumholtz, 79, American baseball and basketball player (Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies). Marion Bell, 78, American singer and musical theatre performer. Leola Brody, 75, American baseball player. Teodoro Goliardi, 70, Uruguayan fencer and Olympian (1956, 1960). Gerald Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth, 73, British peer and businessman. Stubby Kaye, 79, American actor (Guys and Dolls, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cat Ballou), comedian and singer, lung cancer. Edna F. Kelly, 91, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1949-1969). Nico Lutkeveld, 81, Dutch javelin thrower and Olympian (1948). Emily Cheney Neville, 77, American author. Torsten Nilsson, 92, American politician. Kurt Winter, 51, Canadian guitarist and songwriter, kidney failure.

15 Karsten Andersen, 77, Norwegian conductor. Cosmo Campoli, 74, American sculptor. Siegfried Flügge, 85, German theoretical physicist. Albert Heremans, 91, Belgian football player. Amin Ahsan Islahi, 93, Pakistani Muslim scholar. Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz, 75, Serbian writer and literary critic. Aleksandar Strain, 78, Croatian Olympic cyclist (1948).

16 Lillian Disney, 98, American ink artist and wife of Walt Disney, stroke. Ralph Fasanella, 84, American painter. Kim Hak-sun, 73, Korean human rights activist. Oksana Ivanenko, 91, Soviet and Ukrainian children's writer and translator. Nicolette Larson, 45, American pop singer, cerebral edema. David L. McDonald, 91, American admiral, Chief of Naval Operations. Hu Ning, 81, Chinese physicist and writer. José Pi, 65, Spanish Olympic sailor (1960). William A. Smalley, 74, American linguist, heart attack. Frans Stafleu, 76, Dutch botanist. Richard Warwick, 52, English actor, AIDS-related complications.

17 Juan Francisco Barraza, 62, Salvadoran football player and manager, cardiac problems. Paul Bindrim, 77, American psychotherapist. Ernest Bromley, 85, American minister and civil rights activist. Katharine Fowler-Billings, 95, American writer, naturalist, and geologist. Reginald Victor Jones, 86, British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert. Karl Kainberger, 85, Austrian Olympic football player (1936). Marie Gudme Leth, 102, Danish textile printer. Mel Mazzera, 83, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Phillies). Uzi Narkiss, 72, Israeli general. Peter Taylor, 75, English film editor (The Bridge on the River Kwai, Summertime, The Taming of the Shrew), Oscar winner (1958). Leo Turner, 69, Australian rules football player. Hanna Walz, 79, German politician.

18 Lennart Andersson, 83, Swedish athlete and Olympian (1936). Ted Bond, 93, American baseball player. Geoff Campion, 81, British comics artist.Norman Wright and David Ashford, Masters of Fun and Thrills: The British Comic Artists Vol. 1, Norman Wright (pub.), 2008, pp. 7-21 Chris Farley, 33, American comedian and actor (Saturday Night Live, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep), drug overdose. Harriet Holter, 75, Norwegian social psychologist. Michel Quoist, 76, French catholic priest, theologian and writer, pancreatic cancer. George Tsutakawa, 87, American painter and sculptor. James Kemsey Wilkinson, founder of Wilko. Kasino Hadiwibowo, 47, Indonesian comedian and actor, a member of Warkop DKI, brain tumor.

19 Michael Alldredge, 56, American actor (Scarface, Iron Eagle, Shoot the Moon). Siegfried Barth, 81, German Luftwaffe bomber pilot during World War. David Bradley, 77, American motion picture director and actor. Jack Bruen, 48, American basketball coach, cancer. Bonny Hicks, 29, Singaporean model and writer, plane crash. Sara Northrup Hollister, 73, American occultist and second wife of author L. Ron Hubbard. Masaru Ibuka, 89, Japanese electronics industrialist and co-founder of Sony, heart failure. Patsy Lawlor, 64, Irish businesswoman and politician. Jimmy Rogers, 73, American blues musician, colon cancer. David Schramm, 52, American astrophysicist, plane crash. Fyodor Simashev, 52, Soviet Russian cross-country skier and Olympian (1968, 1972). Uldis Ģērmanis, 82, Latvian historian, writer and publicist.

20 Jim Gibbons, 73, Irish politician. Richard Glazar, 77, Czech-Jewish Holocaust survivor, suicide by self-defenestration. Jūzō Itami, 64, Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director, suicide by jumping. Wenceslas Kalibushi, 78, Rwandan Catholic bishop. Denise Levertov, 74, American poet, lymphoma. Esko Lyytikkä, 68, Finnish Olympic rower (1952). Hugh McMahon, 91, Scottish footballer.