The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1992.
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 1992
1 Don Allum, 55, British oarsman, first person to row across the Atlantic Ocean in both directions, heart attack. Magne Bleness, 59, Norwegian actor and theatre director. Chile Gómez, 83, Mexican-American Major League Baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators). Floyd Hicks, 77, American politician and attorney, member of the United States House of Representatives (1965-1977). Sam Lowry, 72, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics). Anton Malatinský, 72, Slovak football player. Robert Mitchell, 81, American Olympic weightlifter (1936). Packie Nelson, 85, American football player (Chicago Bears). Paulo Rónai, 85, Hungarian-Brazilian translator, philologist, and critic. Jefferson Souza, 84, Brazilian Olympic water polo player (1932). D. G. M. Wood-Gush, 70, South African ethologist.
2 Jack Caffery, 58, Canadian ice hockey player (Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins). Tony Cuesta, 66, Cuban exile. Jaime de la Rosa, 71, Filipino actor. Michael Gothard, 53, English actor (For Your Eyes Only, The Three Musketeers, Arthur of the Britons), suicide by hanging. Pete Gross, 55, American sports announcer, cancer. Ralph Izzard, 82, English journalist, author, and adventurer. Mikhail Karyukov, 87, Soviet film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. Frank Nash, 85, Australian rules footballer. Frank D. O'Connor, 82, American lawyer and politician. Lorne Parkin, 70, Canadian football player (Toronto Argonauts).
3 Nureddin al-Atassi, 63, Syrian politician, president (1966–1970). Luis Alcoriza, 74, Mexican screenwriter and film director. Prayoon Chanyavongs, 77, Thai comics artist and cartoonist. Frank Follwell, 86, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1949-1957). Charlie McInnes, 76, Australian rules footballer. James O'Hara, 65, Irish-American actor (Suddenly, Batman, Death of a Gunfighter). Andrei Sepci, 81, Romanian football player. Frank Steele, 87, Canadian ice hockey player (Detroit Falcons). Clifford Walker, 73, English cricketer. Bill Ward, 71, American football player (Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions).
4 Jorge Brauer, 79, Argentine Olympic sailor (1948, 1952). Henry Clausen, 87, American lawyer and investigator. Yancho Dimitrov, 49, Bulgarian Olympic footballer (1968). Alfie Ferguson, 65, British unionist politician. Bert James, 69, Australian rules footballer. Sidney Schofield, 81, British politician.
5 Felipe Padilla de Leon, 80, Filipino composer. Emil Haury, 88, American archaeologist. Levan Maruashvili, 80, Georgian geographer and alpinist. Monisha, 21, Indian actress, traffic collision. Rakesh Singh, 22, Indian Army officer and war hero, killed in action. Hilary Tindall, 54, English actress, bowel cancer. Frank I. Wright, 71, American thoroughbred horse racing trainer and commentator.
6 Paula Frías Allende, 29, Chilean humanitarian, complications from a medical error. J. Michel Fournier, 87, Canadian politician. Percy Herbert, 72, English actor (The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Guns of Navarone, Cimarron Strip), heart attack. Heorhii Maiboroda, 79, Ukrainian composer. Yngve Sköld, 93, Swedish composer. László Szabó, 84, Hungarian Olympic rower (1936). Hank Worden, 91, American actor (The Searchers, The Alamo, The Lone Ranger).
7 Zoltán Adamik, 64, Hungarian Olympic sprinter (1952). Alojzy Ehrlich, 77-78, Polish table tennis player. Richard J. Hughes, 83, American politician, and judge. Felix Jackson, 90, German-American screenwriter. Thomas Pardoe, 80, English boxer and Olympian (1932). Bill Shockley, 55, American gridiron football player (New York Titans, Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers). Chancellor Williams, 98, American sociologist, historian and writer.
8 Frederick Barkham, 87, English cricketer. Thoppil Bhasi, 68, Indian playwright, screenwriter, and film director. Helen Callaghan, 69, Canadian baseball player. Hugh Devore, 82, American football player. Armanda Guiducci, 69, Italian writer, literary critic, and Marxist feminist. Kathy Osterman, 49, American politician, cancer. Frithjof Prydz, 49, Norwegian ski jumper, tennis player and Olympian (1972). Poola Tirupati Raju, 88, Indian writer, philosopher, and academic. Franz Sarnitz, 73, Austrian Olympic sports shooter (1960). William Shawn, 85, American magazine editor (The New Yorker). Edmund Zieliński, 83, Polish ice hockey player and Olympian (1936).
9 Carl Barger, 62, American baseball executive, aortic aneurysm. Eşref Bilgiç, 84, Turkish international football player and manager. Thomas Bottomore, 72, British marxist sociologist. Joe Clark, 95, Australian politician. Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel, 80, French diplomat. Franco Franchi, 64, Italian actor, comedian and singer. George Fraser, 81, Canadian football player. Vincent Gardenia, 72, Italian-American actor (Bang the Drum Slowly, Little Shop of Horrors, Death Wish), Emmy winner (1990), heart attack. Yahya Haqqi, 87, Egyptian novelist. Luisito Rey, 47, Spanish singer, pneumonia.
10 Celia Gámez, 87, Argentinian film actress, Alzheimer's disease. Joan Gardner, 66, American voice actress, cancer Dan Maskell, 84, English tennis player and commentator, heart failure. Josephine McKim, 82, American swimmer, Olympic champion (1928, 1932), and world record-holder. John G. A. O'Neil, 55, American politician, traffic collision. Jacques Perret, 91, French writer. Babe Phelps, 84, American baseball player. Émile Poussard, 83, French Olympic diver (1932). Bernard Reichel, 91, Swiss composer. Jim Reid, 79, Australian rules footballer.
11 Billy Cook, 83, Northern Irish football player and manager. William Michael Cosgrove, 76, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Lon Evans, 80, American gridiron football player (Green Bay Packers). Ronald Good, 96, British botanist. Andy Kirk, 94, American jazz saxophonist, tubist, and band leader, Alzheimer's disease. Suzanne Lilar, 91, Belgian novelist and playwright. William A. Redmond, 84, American politician. Michael Robbins, 62, English actor, prostate cancer. William Stevenson, 69, Canadian Olympic canoeist (1948, 1956).
12 Ali Amini, 87, Iranian politician, prime minister (1961–1962). Damir Anić, 48, Croatian Olympic gymnast (1968). Nick Borelli, 87, American football player. Malachy Carey, 36, Northern Irish IRA volunteer, assassinated. Ghislain Delaunois, 68, Belgian Olympic fencer (1952, 1956). Angelos Lambrou, 80, Greek Olympic sprinter (1928, 1932). Bernard Lievegoed, 87, Dutch psychiatrist. Jasu Patel, 68, Indian cricket player. Sir Robert Rex, 83, Niuean politician, premier (since 1974). Rube Walker, 66, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers), lung cancer.
13 Ellis Arnall, 85, American politician. Jens Bolling, 77, Norwegian actor and theatre director. Oscar Britt, 73, American gridiron football player (Washington Redskins). Eddie Daniels, 70, American baseball player. Mono Mohan Das, 82, Indian politician. K. C. Irving, 93, Canadian businessman. Luther Jeralds, 54, American football player (Dallas Texans, Edmonton Eskimos). Miskow Makwarth, 87, Danish actor. Aleksandar Tirnanić, 82, Yugoslav football player and manager. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, 93, American businessman, film producer, and philanthropist.
14 Watazumi Doso, 81, Japanese bamboo flutist. Kingo Machimura, 92, Japanese politician. William H. Oldendorf, 67, American neurologist, physician, and researcher. Louis Pauly, 86, French Olympic sailor (1928). Severino Rigoni, 78, Italian cyclist and Olympic silver medalist (1936).
15 Sándor Ambrózy, 89, Hungarian sculptor. Sven Delblanc, 61, Swedish author and academic, cancer. Rosaire Gauthier, 88, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1957-1958). Marcel Lachmann, 84, French Olympic field hockey player (1928, 1936). Yolande Laffon, 97, French actress. Otto Lington, 89, Danish composer, bandleader and violinist. Ennio Morlotti, 82, Italian painter. Dick Mulligan, 74, American baseball player (Washington Senators, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Braves). Jim Musick, 82, American gridiron football player (Boston Braves/Redskins). Hermann Stövesand, 86, German actor. William Ware Theiss, 61, American costume designer (Star Trek, Harold and Maude, Bound for Glory), AIDS.
16 Erica Brausen, 84, British art dealer and gallerist. Monk Dorsett, 83, College football and basketball player. Adil Guliyev, 70, Soviet-Azerbaijani fighter pilot and flying ace during World War II. Erik Johansson, 65, Swedish ice hockey player and Olympic medalist (1952). Anton Koolhaas, 80, Dutch journalist and writer. Gonzalo Rodríguez Martín-Granizo, 64, Spanish Navy admiral general.
17 Serafima Amosova, 78, Soviet bomber commander during World War II. Günther Anders, 90, German philosopher. Dana Andrews, 83, American actor, congestive heart failure. Luis Child, Colombian Olympic swimmer (1948). George N. Craig, 83, American politician, Governor of Indiana (1953–1957). Andrew Jacobs Sr., 86, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1949–1951). William Knecht, 62, American competition rower and Olympic champion (1960, 1964). Rinus Terlouw, 70, Dutch footballer and Olympian (1948, 1952), Alzheimer's disease. Keith Wiegard, 54, Australian rules footballer and Olympic water polo player (1960). Suren Yeremyan, 84, Soviet and Armenian historian and cartographer.
18 Antonio Amurri, 67, Italian author, radio and television writer and lyricist. Vojin Bakić, 77, Yugoslav sculptor. Per Brandtmar, 74, Danish football player. Howard Cann, 97, American basketball player and coach. Mark Goodson, 77, American game show producer (The Price Is Right, I've Got a Secret, What's My Line?), pancreatic cancer. Clara Hale, 87, American humanitarian, complications from a stroke. Vladimir Semyonovich Semyonov, 81, Soviet diplomat, pneumonia.
19 Gianni Brera, 73, Italian journalist and novelist, traffic collision. Howard Cann, 97, American Hall of Fame basketball coach (NYU Violets), and Olympic shot putter (1920). Abraham Charnes, 75, American mathematician and economist. Eric Cole, 86, British Army officer and cricketer. Louis Ducreux, 81, French actor, screenwriter and composer. Vladimir Grebennikov, 60, Soviet ice hockey player and Olympic medalist (1960). H. L. A. Hart, 85, English legal philosopher. Rosel H. Hyde, 92, American lawyer. Reggie Ingle, 89, English cricketer.
20 A. Hamid Arief, 68, Indonesian actor. Peter Brocco, 89, American actor (Spartacus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Our Man Flint), heart attack. Bernard Dubourg, 47, French poet. Luciano Dal Falco, 67, Italian politician. Harald Huffmann, 84, German field hockey player and Olympic medalist (1936). Steve Ross, 65, American media executive, prostate cancer. Walter Zadek, 92, German-Israeli photographer.
21 Stella Adler, 91, American actress and acting teacher, heart failure. Sybil Andrews, 94, English-Canadian artist. Philip Farkas, 78, American classical musician. David Hare, 75, American surrealist artist, aortic aneurysm. Albert King, 69, American blues guitarist and singer, heart attack. Nathan Milstein, 88, Ukrainian-American violinist, heart attack. Alex Quaison-Sackey, 68, Ghanaian diplomat.
22 Bolaji Badejo, 39, Nigerian visual artist and actor (Alien), sickle-cell disease. Charles B. Black, 71, American basketball player. Harry Bluestone, 85, American violinist, tuberculosis. Rajendran Christie, 54, Indian field hockey player and Olympic medalist (1964, 1968). Brian Doyle, 62, English football player. Frederick William Franz, 99, American Jehovah's Witness leader. Gavin Hoare, 58, Australian rules footballer. William Janney, 84, American actor.