The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1995.
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 1995
1 Dennis Allen, 55, American actor and comedian. Emil Banjavic, 80, American football player (Detroit Lions). O. Roy Chalk, 88, American entrepreneur. Vaman Krushna Chorghade, 81, Indian writer and educator. John Dylan, 17, Thai actor. Luigi Giacobbe, 88, Italian cyclist. Henry Holbert, 68, American football player and coach. Martti Liimo, 54, Finnish basketball player and Olympian (1964). Sergio Pesce, 79, Italian cinematographer. Colin Tapley, 88, New Zealand actor. Maxwell R. Thurman, 64, American Army general, leukemia.
2 Robertson Davies, 82, Canadian novelist, heart attack. Art Herring, 89, American baseball player. Roxie Roker, 66, American actress (The Jeffersons), breast cancer. Mária Telkes, 94, Hungarian-American biophysicist, scientist and inventor. Biem Dudok van Heel, 77, Dutch Olympic sailor (1948, 1952, 1960). Pekka Viljanen, 74, Finnish Olympic racewalker (1952). Ira Wallach, 82, American screenwriter and novelist, pneumonia.
3 Hans Aardal, 74, Norwegian politician. Josep Bartolí, 85, Spanish painter, cartoonist and writer. Genni Batterham, 40, Australian film maker, writer and disability rights activist, multiple sclerosis. James Colgate Cleveland, 75, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1963-1981). Jimmy Jewel, 85, British comedic actor. Alexander Kaidanovsky, 49, Soviet/Russian actor, film director and screenwriter, heart attack. Louise Lenormand, 94, French Olympic diver (1924). Lautaro Murúa, 68, Chilean-Argentine actor, film director, and screenwriter, lung cancer. Rodney Paavola, 56, American Olympic ice hockey player (1960). Gerard John Schaefer, 49, American murderer, serial killer, and police officer, stabbed.
4 Warren Ambrose, 81, American mathematician. Little Beaver, 61, Canadian midget wrestler, pulmonary emphysema. Leonidas Berry, 93, American pioneer in gastroscopy and endoscopy. Giorgio Bocchino, 82, Italian Olympic fencer (1936). Petar Gligorovski, 57, Yugoslav and Macedonian animated film director and artist. Rudolf Hruska, 80, Austrian automobile designer and engineer. Robert Parrish, 79, American film director, editor, writer, and child actor. Jerry White, 47, American convicted murderer, execution by electrocution.
5 Keith Aitken, 73, Australian rugby league footballer. Desmond Flower, 10th Viscount Ashbrook, 90, Irish peer and soldier. Ilio Bosi, 92, Italian communist politician and trade unionist. Reiner Bredemeyer, 66, German composer. Bill Bruton, 70, American Major League Baseball player (Milwaukee Braves, Detroit Tigers), traffic accident. L. B. Cole, 77, American comic book artist. Charles Evans, 77, British mountaineer, surgeon, and educator. Davor Jelaska, 88, Yugoslavian Olympic rower (1936). Victor Matthews, Baron Matthews, 76, British peer and proprietor of the Daily Express. Lisa McPherson, 36, American member of the Church of Scientology, pulmonary embolism. Clair Cameron Patterson, 73, American geochemist. Keith Runcorn, 73, British geophysicist.
6 Yvonne Chauffin, 90, French writer and critic. Gerard Cowhig, 74, American gridiron football player (Los Angeles Rams, Chicago Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles). Cosslett Ó Cuinn, 88, Irish Anglican priest and biblical scholar. Busta Jones, 44, American musician. John Kenerson, 57, American football player (Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Titans). Trevor Key, 48, British photographer, brain tumour. Melvin Kranzberg, 78, American historian. Margaret Mayall, 93, American astronomer. Jack Milne, 88, American speedway rider. Robert Earl O'Neal, 34, American white supremacist and convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection. Robert Phalen, 58, American actor (Halloween, Starman, Three Days of the Condor), complications from AIDS. Claire Polin, 69, American composer, flautist and musicologist. Luis Regueiro, 87, Spanish football player and Olympian (1928). James Reston, 86, American journalist. Mario Vicini, 82, Italian road bicycle racer. Dmitri Volkogonov, 67, Russian historian and Colonel general, brain cancer.
7 James Derek Birchall, 65, English chemist, materials scientist, and inventor, traffic accident. Edmund D. Campbell, 96, American lawyer and politician. Harry Cavers, 85, Canadian politician. Tribute in Parliament by Walt Lastewka, then MP for St Catharines. Nick Connor, 91, American politician. (originally published December 1995) Mildred Adams Fenton, 96, American paleontologist and geologist. Kathleen Harrison, 103, English actress. Stella Inda, 71, Mexican film actress, pneumonia. Joe Kelly, 90, Australian politician. Sabahattin Kuruoğlu, 57, Turkish footballer. Johnny Mowers, 79, Canadian ice hockey player (Detroit Red Wings). Benn John Valsø, 68, Norwegian Olympic bobsledder (1948). Masashi Watanabe, 59, Japanese football player, manager, and Olympian (1964, 1968).
8 James Austin, 82, American football player (Brooklyn Dodgers, Detroit Lions). Arthur Birch, 80, Australian organic chemist. Ernest L. Boyer, 67, American educator and United States Commissioner of Education. Tom Burns, 89, British-Chilean publisher and editor. Bill Coldwell, 63, English football manager and scout. John Gillett, 69–70, British film critic and researcher. George J. Lewis, 91, Mexican actor, stroke. Robert Manuel, 79, French actor and film director. Maino Neri, 71, Italian football player, manager, and Olympian (1948, 1952). Ding Shande, 84, Chinese composer.
9 Severo Antonelli, 88, American photographer. Toni Cade Bambara, 56, American author, documentary film-maker, and social activist, colorectal cancer. Vivian Blaine, 74, American actress (Guys and Dolls) and singer, heart failure. Mario Brini, 87, Italian prelate. George Brown, 80, British Olympic sailor (1948). Pierre-Georges Castex, 80, French academic, literary critic and author. Hugh Clegg, 75, British academic and director, stroke. Tom Cole, 88–89, Australian labourer, outdoorsman and author. Benoit Comeau, 79, Canadian politician. Douglas Corrigan, 88, American aviator. Gwen Harwood, 75, Australian poet. Benny Lee, 79, Scottish comedy actor and singer. Gillian Rose, 48, British philosopher and non-fiction writer, ovarian cancer. Katharine Way, 93, American physicist. Hubert Louis Will, 81, American district judge (United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois).
10 Godfrey Agnew, 82, British civil servant. Alex Aronson, 83, German author. Kamal Bhattacharya, 80, Indian cricketer. Bonvi, 54, Italian comic book artist, car accident. Saša Božović, 83, Yugoslav partisan, physician, and author. Sarvadaman Chowla, 88, British-Indian American mathematician. Mary Lascelles, 95, British literary scholar. Paul Lohmann, 69, American cinematographer (Coffy, Nashville, Mommie Dearest). Lavinia Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, 79, British noblewoman. Phil Piratin, 88, British communist politician. Darren Robinson, 28, American rapper, cardiac arrest, heart attack.
11 Greg Bahnsen, 47, American Calvinist philosopher, apologist, and debater, complications following surgery. Étienne Becker, 59, French cinematographer. Allene Jeanes, 89, American chemical researcher. Arthur Mullard, 85, English actor, comedian and singer. Euan Robertson, 47, New Zealand distance runner and Olympian (1976), heart attack. Samuel Murray Rosenstein, 86, American judge (United States Court of International Trade). Abolhassan Sadighi, 101, Iranian sculptor and painter . Robert Shelton, 69, American music and film critic. Miko Tripalo, 69, Croatian politician. Woody Wheaton, 81, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics).
12 Roberto Agramonte, 91, Cuban ambassador, philosopher, and politician. Ike Altgens, 76, American photojournalist, photo editor, and field reporter, carbon monoxide poisoning. Evangeline Bruce, 81, American society hostess and writer. R. Ramanathan Chettiar, 82, Indian businessman and politician. Ángel Crespo, 69, Spanish poet and translator. Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark, 83, Danish princess. Jack Friel, 97, American college basketball coach (Washington State Cougars). Giovanni Giacomazzi, 67, Italian football player. Sanusi Hardjadinata, 81, Indonesian politician. Oles Honchar, 77, Ukrainian writer and public figure. Danny Kelleher, 29, English cricketer. Lyudmil Kirkov, 61, Bulgarian film director and actor. David Lightbown, 63, British politician. Andrew Nelson Lytle, 92, American novelist, dramatist, and essayist. David Marshall, 87, Singaporean politician and first Chief Minister, lung cancer. Mike Modak, 73, American baseball player (Cincinnati Reds). Moshe-Zvi Neria, 82, Israeli Orthodox writer and politician. Andrew Olle, 47, Australian radio and television presenter, brain cancer. Hugh Stewart, 88, Scottish cricketer. Homer Thornberry, 86, American politician and judge.
13 Gerda Bengtsson, 95, Danish textile artist who specialized in embroidery. Chrysanthos Mentis Bostantzoglou, 76–77, Greek political cartoonist, playwright, lyricist and painter. Ernie Case, 75, American quarterback for UCLA Bruins football and the Baltimore Colts. Ann Nolan Clark, 99, American writer who won the Newbery Medal. René Cloërec, 84, French composer and conductor. Anatoly Dyatlov, 64, Soviet engineer in charge during the Chernobyl disaster, heart attack.Dyatlov A.S. Chernobyl: How it was, 1995; Brief biography, page 3 (in Russian) Nancy LaMott, 43, American singer, uterine cancer. Eloy de Menezes, 85, Brazilian Olympic equestrian (1948, 1952, 1956).
14 Gustavus Hamilton-Russell, 10th Viscount Boyne, 64, Irish peer, soldier and banker. Eddie Clamp, 61, English footballer. G. C. Edmondson, 73, American science fiction author . Rob Harris, 28, American skysurfer, accident. Bob Rogers, 72, American Olympic bobsledder (1964). Eduardo Simian, 80, Chilean football player and politician. Constance Tipper, 101, English metallurgist and crystallographer.
15 János Adorján, 57, Hungarian handball player and Olympian (1972). Calvin Clarke, 79, American baseball player in the Negro leagues. Mano Dayak, 45, Nigerien Tuareg freedom fighter, activist and politician, plane crash. Crawford Douglas, 64, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1974-1979). Marion Holley, 85, American track and field athlete and Olympian (1928). Dave Holliday, 91, Australian rules footballer. Sariamin Ismail, 86, Indonesian novelist. Miroslav Katětov, 77, Czech mathematician, chess master, and psychologist. Johnny Lytle, 63, American vibraphone player. Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado, 83, Spanish politician and minister, traffic collision. Diana Poulton, 92, English lutenist. Jan Říha, 80, Czech football player.
16 Albert Alberts, 84, Dutch writer, translator, and journalist. Edith Bonlieu, 61, French Olympic alpine skier (1956). Giulio Cappelli, 84, Italian footballer and Olympian (1936). John A. Field Jr., 85, American judge. Simone Genevois, 83, French film actress. Shui Hua, 79, Chinese film director and screenwriter. Anthony Ingrassia, 51, American director, producer, and playwright. Bert Marcelo, 59, Filipino television personality. Johnny Moss, 88, American poker player. Charles Sauriol, 91, Canadian naturalist. Mariele Ventre, 56, Italian musician and singer, breast cancer.
17 Isa Alptekin, 94, Chinese Uyghur nationalist and pan-Turkic politician. Hendrikus Berkhof, 81, Dutch theologian. Cliff Blackmon, 81, American baseball player. Alfred Bula, 87, Swiss racing cyclist. Alfa Castaldi, 68, Italian photographer. Arthur Cirilli, 80, American lawyer, politician, and judge. George Cox, 91, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox).