The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1996.
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 1996
1 Peter Bronfman, 67, Canadian businessman and entrepreneur, cancer. Constantine George Cholakis, 66, American district judge (United States District Court for the Northern District of New York). Alan Coldham, 90, Australian tennis player. Sonia Furió, 59, Spanish-Mexican actress, singer, and dancer. Irving Gordon, 81, American songwriter, myeloma cancer. Jacek Gutowski, 36, Polish weightlifter and Olympian (1988). Štefan Olekšák, 56, Slovak Olympic skier (1964). James Record, 77, American politician and author. Kalle Sievänen, 85, Finnish Olympic sports shooter (1956, 1960, 1964). Jan G. Waldenström, 90, Swedish physician.
2 Jules Bastin, 63, Belgian operatic bass. Jean Jérôme Hamer, 80, Belgian Roman Catholic cardinal. Mike Morgan, 54, American gridiron football player (Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints). Marri Chenna Reddy, 77, Indian politician.
3 John Bateman, 56, American Major League baseball player (Houston Colt .45s/Astros, Montreal Expos, Philadelphia Phillies). Georges Duby, 77, French historian, cancer. Norm Houser, 80, American racing driver. Babrak Karmal, 67, Afghan revolutionary and President of Afghanistan, liver cancer. Miguel Ortega, 87-88, Mexican Olympic modern pentathlete (1932). Solveig von Schoultz, 89, Finnish writer, novelist, and teacher.
4 Ernie Harris, 77, Welsh cricketer. Syd Heylen, 76, Australian actor, comedian, and variety performer, stroke. Azharul Islam, 52, Bangladeshi politician, cardiac arrest. Willard Parker, 84, American actor, heart attack. Leon Polk Smith, 90, American painter. Albert Winsemius, 86, Dutch economist, pneumonia. Ans Wortel, 67, Dutch painter, poet and writer. Jan Čuřík, 72, Czech cinematographer.
5 Robert Brewer, 72, United States Army officer during World War II. Wilf Carter, 91, Canadian Country and Western singer, songwriter, and yodeller, stomach cancer. Karl H. Fell, 59, German politician. Cliff Mapes, 74, American baseball player (New York Yankees, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers). Lyle Neat, 80, American basketball player. Carey Spicer, 87, American football and basketball player and coach. Adolf Bredo Stabell, 88, Norwegian diplomat.
6 Harry Babcock, 66, American gridiron football player (San Francisco 49ers). Jean Bertholle, 87, French painter. Victor Bruns, 92, German composer and bassoonist. Abdul Hamid Kishk, 63, Egyptian preacher, scholar of Islam, activist, and author. Robert Lees, 74, American linguist. Ricky Owens, 57, American singer. Pete Rozelle, 70, American commissioner of the National Football League, brain cancer. Alex Schoenbaum, 81, American collegiate football player and businessman.Alex Schoenbaum
7 José Donoso, 72, Chilean writer, journalist and professor, liver cancer. Johnny Hall, 79, American gridiron football player (Chicago Cardinals, Detroit Lions). Ali Hatami, 52, Iranian film director, screenwriter, art director, and costume designer, pancreatic cancer. Giuseppe Perego, 81, Italian comics artist. Phillip Reed, 88, American actor. Ryszard Szymczak, 51, Polish football player and Olympian (1972).
8 Rolf Blomberg, 84, Swedish explorer, writer, photographer and producer of documentary films. Prince Eugenio, Duke of Genoa, 90, Italian prince. Espanto III, 56, Mexican professional wrestler, heart attack. José Luis González, 70, Puerto Rican essayist, novelist, and journalist. Jack H. Hexter, 86, American historian. Ron Hibbert, 72, Australian rules footballer. Tommy Lahiff, 86, Australian rules football player. John Langeloth Loeb Sr., 94, American investor and executive. Paulene Myers, 83, American actress (Lady Sings the Blues, The Sting, My Cousin Vinny). Johnny Olszewski, 66, American gridiron football player. Howard Rollins, 46, American actor (Ragtime, In the Heat of the Night, A Soldier's Story), complications from AIDS-related lymphoma. Dorothy Schroeder, 68, American baseball player, intracranial aneurysm. Marin Sorescu, 60, Romanian poet, playwright, and novelist, heart attack. Kashiwado Tsuyoshi, 58, Japanese sumo wrestler, liver failure.
9 June Carlson, 72, American actress, aneurysm. Patty Donahue, 40, American vocalist of new wave group the Waitresses, lung cancer. Bruno Frietsch, 100, Finnish Olympic sports shooter (1936). Li Ki-joo, 70, South Korean football player. Yun Chi-young, 96, South Korean politician. Mary Leakey, 83, British paleoanthropologist. Diana Morgan, 88, British playwright and screenwriter. Alain Poher, 87, French politician. Ivor Roberts-Jones, 83, British sculptor. Raphael Samuel, 61, British Marxist historian and intellectual. Hans Schwarz, 84, German Olympic swimmer (1936). Woody Woodard, 79, American gridiron football player and coach, basketball coach, track coach, college athletics administrator.
10 Jakov Blažević, 84, Croatian lawyer and politician. John Duffey, 62, American bluegrass musician, heart attack. John Price, 83, Danish film actor and director, and the father of Danish screenwriter Adam Price. Richa Sharma, 32, Indian actress. Eric Webber, 76, English football player and manager. Faron Young, 64, American country music producer, singer and songwriter, suicide.
11 Juan Carlos Barbieri, 64, Argentine actor. Des Booth, 76, Australian politician. Charles Hamilton, 82, American paleographer, handwriting expert and author. Willie Rushton, 59, English cartoonist, comedian, and actor, heart attack. W. G. G. Duncan Smith, 82, British Royal Air Force flying ace during World War II. Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, 84, French photojournalist and politician, cancer.
12 Larry Gates, 81, American actor (Guiding Light, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, In the Heat of the Night). Willy Hufschmid, 78, Swiss Olympic handball player (1936). George Jumonville, 79, American Major League Baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies). Buks Marais, 68, South African rugby player. Anton Moravčík, 65, Slovak footballer. Nikola Nenov, 89, Bulgarian Olympic cyclist (1936). Vance Packard, 82, American journalist, social critic, and author.
13 Waheed Akhtar, 62, Indian poet, writer, critic, and a Muslim scholar and philosopher. Mae Barnes, 89, American jazz singer, dancer and comic entertainer. Edward Blishen, 76, English author and broadcaster. Jeff Brownschidle, 37, American ice hockey player (Hartford Whalers). James Cassels, 89, British Army officer. Francesco Gabrieli, 92, Italian arabist. Arthur Jacobs, 74, British music critic and musicologist. Eulace Peacock, 82, American sprinter, Alzheimer's disease. Clarence Wijewardena, 53, Sri Lankan singer, composer and musician, liver cirrhosis. Cao Yu, 86, Chinese playwright.
14 Doina Cojocaru, 48, Romanian handball player and Olympian (1976). John Craven, 49, English football player, heart attack. Lennart Holmqvist, 63, Swedish footballer. Howard B. Keck, 83, American businessman and Thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder. Andy McLaren, 74, Scottish football player. Gaston Miron, 68, French Canadian writer.
15 Dawn Crosby, 33, American heavy metal singer, liver failure from substance abuse. Giuseppe Dossetti, 83, Italian jurist, politician, and Catholic priest. Dave Kaye, 90, English pianist. Harry Kemelman, 88, American mystery writer and a professor of English, kidney failure. Tristan Keuris, 50, Dutch composer. Adalberto López, 73, Mexican football player. Sir Laurens van der Post, 90, South African Afrikaner author, farmer, journalist, philosopher, explorer and conservationist.
16 Camille Barbaud, 96, French Olympic athlete (1924). Quentin Bell, 86, English biographer and art historian. Sven Bergqvist, 82, Swedish football and ice hockey player (1936 Summer, 1936 Winter). Nokukhanya Bhengu, 92, South African women’s leader and anti-apartheid activist Charlie Epperson, 77, American basketball player (Wisconsin Badgers). George M. Jones, 85, United States Army brigadier general. Dolores Medio, 85, Spanish writer. Carlo Reguzzoni, 88, Italian football player. Arthur Shores, 92, American civil rights attorney.
17 Armando, 26, American house music producer and DJ, leukemia. Wayne Barlow, 84, American composer of classical music. Li Han-hsiang, 70, Chinese film director, heart attack. Johannes Kaiser, 60, German Olympic sprinter (1960). Adriaan Maas, 89, Dutch Olympic sailor (1932, 1936, 1948, 1952). Lawrie Miller, 73, New Zealand cricket player. Ruby Murray, 61, Northern Irish singer and actress, liver cancer. George Pfann, 94, American gridiron football player and coach. İlyas Seçkin, 78, Turkish politician. Stanko Todorov, 76, Bulgarian communist politician. Violet Walrond, 91, New Zealand Olympic swimmer (1920). Sun Yaoting, 92, last imperial Chinese eunuch.
18 Irving Caesar, 101, American lyricist and theater composer. Charles Deaton, 75, American architect. Gwilym Hugh Lewis, 99, British flying ace during World War I. József Mácsár, 58, Hungarian Olympic middle-distance runner (1964). Ayşe Şan, 58, Kurdish singer. Kálmán Sóvári, 86, Hungarian Olympic wrestler (1936, 1948). Suryakantam, 72, Indian actress.
19 Bobby Cole, 64, American musician, heart attack. Ted Darling, 61, Canadian sportscaster, Pick disease. Ejvind Hansen, 72, Danish sprint canoeist and Olympian (1948, 1952). Ronald Howard, 78, English actor and writer. Amata Kabua, 68, President of the Marshall Islands (1979–1996). Yulii Borisovich Khariton, 92, Russian nuclear physicist. Marcello Mastroianni, 72, Italian actor (La Dolce Vita, 8½, Divorce Italian Style), pancreatic cancer. Peter McLaren, 72, Australian rules footballer.
20 Melio Bettina, 80, American boxer. Osvaldo Lira, 92, Chilean priest, philosopher and theologian. Thakin Lwin, 82, Burmese politician, trade unionist, writer and journalist. Bengt Malmsten, 74, Swedish Olympic speed skater (1952, 1956). Charles Morton, 80, American Olympic racing cyclist (1936). Len Murphy, 87, Australian rules footballer. Carl Sagan, 62, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and author (Cosmos, Contact), pneumonia.
21 Kell Areskoug, 90, Swedish Olympic sprinter (1932, 1936). Enrico Benedetti, 56, Italian ice hockey player and Olympian (1964). Christine Brückner, 75, German writer. Clarence Gosse, 84, Canadian politician. Barry Gray, 80, American radio personality, known as "The father of Talk Radio". Kálmán Hazai, 83, Hungarian Olympic water polo player (1936). Margret Rey, 90, German-American children's author and illustrator, heart attack. Chuck Spieser, 67, American Olympic boxer (1948). Mickey Taborn, 74, American baseball player. Alfred Tonello, 67, French racing cyclist and Olympian (1952).
22 Oscar Alende, 87, Argentine politician. Mária Bartuszová, 60, Slovak sculptor. Nealie Duggan, 73, Irish Gaelic football player. Fred Green, 63, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Senators). Jack Hamm, 80, American cartoonist.Jack Hamm (5 March 1916 - 22 December 1996, USA) Chiang Hsiao-yung, 48, Taiwanese politician, esophageal cancer. Don Meade, 83, American National Champion jockey. Igor Oberberg, 89, Russian Empire-born German cinematographer.
23 Aram Karamanoukian, 86, Syrian Army Lieutenant General, politician and author. Rina Ketty, 85, Italian singer. Vicente González Lizondo, 54, Spanish politician, heart attack. Mića Popović, 73, Serbian artist. Ronnie Scott, 69, British jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner, accidental overdose of barbiturate. Infanta Maria Cristina of Spain, 85, Spanish princess, heart attack. Emrys Thomas, 96, Welsh socialist politician. Sophie Toscan du Plantier, 39, French television producer, beaten to death.
24 Al Adair, 67, Canadian politician and baseball player, heart attack. Takeo Doi, 92, Japanese aircraft designer.