The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1991.
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 1991
1 Ernst Albrecht, 77, German politician and member of the Bundestag. Charles D. Breitel, 82, American lawyer and politician. Karl Chmielewski, 88, German SS officer and concentration camp commandant. Barbara Hanrahan, 52, Australian artist, printmaker and writer. Zin Harris, 64, New Zealand cricket player. Thomas J. Hillery, 87, American politician. Robert Kerber, 78, American Olympic swimmer (1932). Jim Knox, 72, New Zealand trade unionist. Buster Mills, 83, American baseball player, coach, and scout. Pat O'Callaghan, 85, Irish Olympic hammer thrower (1928, 1932). Pyotr Pochynchuk, 37, Soviet and Russian athlete and Olympic medalist (1980). Alden Sanborn, 92, American rower and Olympic champion (1920). George Stigler, 80, American economist and Nobel Prize laureate (1982), heart failure.
2 Ernst Achenbach, 82, German politician. Jim McCarthy, 71, American football player. Bimal Mitra, 79, Indian writer. Tracy D. Terrell, 48, American education theorist, AIDS. John J. Tolson, 76, United States Army lieutenant general. Eleanor Tufts, 64, American art historian and academic, ovarian cancer.
3 René Brossy, 85, French Olympic cyclist (1928). Andrej Engel, 81, Slovak Olympic sprinter (1932). Arthur Fischer, 94, Swedish actor, writer, and sculptor. Jack Laird, 68, American screenwriter, heart disease. George Lott, 85, American tennis player and coach. Petre Țuțea, 89, Romanian philosopher, journalist, and economist.
4 Cliff Bastin, 79, English football player. Moysés Baumstein, 60, Brazilian artist. Bert T. Combs, 80, American jurist and politician, hypothermia. Alex Graham, 78, Scottish cartoonist (Fred Basset). Orestes Jordán, 78, Peruvian Olympic footballer (1936). Eugen Maucher, 79, German politician and member of the Bundestag. Dan McGee, 80, American baseball player (Boston Braves). Brian Randall, 71, Australian rules footballer. Irving Taylor, 72, Canadian Olympic ice hockey player (1948). Herb Thomas, 90, American baseball player and manager (Boston Braves, New York Giants). Norman Wykes, 85, English cricketer.
5 Earl Evans, 91, American gridiron football player (Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Bears). Robert Karvelas, 70, American actor (Get Smart). Aad Mansveld, 47, Dutch footballer, cancer. Héctor Orezzoli, 38, Argentine stage director and costume-, set-, and lighting designer, cardiopulmonary arrest. Richard Speck, 49, American convicted mass murderer, heart attack. Dimitrije Stefanović, 95, Yugoslav Olympic long-distance runner (1928). Jack Trevor Story, 74, English novelist. Roy Welensky, 84, Northern Rhodesian politician and Prime Minister. Hein van der Zee, 62, Dutch boxer and Olympian (1952).
6 Rodney Ackland, 83, English playwright, actor, and screenwriter. György Aczél, 74, Hungarian communist politician. Vladimir Colin, 70, Romanian author. Virgilio Corbo, 73, Italian archaeologist. Vishnu Madhav Ghatage, 83, Indian aeronautical engineer. Tsuguhiro Hattori, 71, Japanese baseball player. Terry Slater, 54, Canadian ice hockey player and coach. Mimi Smith, 85, British nurse and secretary, aunt and parental guardian of musician John Lennon. Sir Richard Stone, 78, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (1984), pneumonia.
7 Jute Bell, 91, American baseball player. Judith Hart, 67, British politician, cancer. Herb Jaffe, 70, American film producer (Fright Night), cancer. Ataur Rahman Khan, 86, Bangladeshi lawyer, politician and Prime Minister. Spiro Kostof, 55, American architectural historian, and academic, cancer. Gordon Pirie, 60, English Olympic runner (1952, 1956, 1960), cholangiocarcinoma.
8
Francisco de Assis Barbosa, 77, Brazilian essayist, historian, and journalist. Kimberly Bergalis, 23, American HIV/AIDS activistsLambert, Bruce (December 9, 1991). Kimberly Bergalis Is Dead at 23; Symbol of Debate Over AIDS Tests. New York Times Buck Clayton, 80, American trumpeter. Agaath Doorgeest, 77, Dutch Olympic hurdler (1936). Fyodor Konstantinov, 90, Soviet Marxist–Leninist philosopher and academician Ulysses S. Grant IV, 83, American geologist and paleontologist Attila Laták, 46, Hungarian Olympic wrestler (1972). Bill Lewis, 75, Australian politician Dove Kull, 94, American social worker and activist John McLaughlin, 86, Canadian politician
9
Berenice Abbott, 93, American photographer. Olga Bondareva, 54, Soviet mathematician and economist, traffic accident. Ken Day, 72, English cricketer David Hodge, 82, Scottish politician Maurice Joyeux, 81, French writer and anarchist. Greta Kempton, 90, American artist, heart failure. Gisèle Lestrange, 64, French graphic artist. Rizvan Teymurov, 24, Azerbaijani military officer
10
Mark Faber, 41, English cricket player, complications from surgery. Iain Finlayson, 39, British Olympic alpine skier (1972). Tippy Larkin, 74, American boxer, kidney failure. Franco Maria Malfatti, 64, Italian politician, president of the European Commission (1970–1972). José María Cabo Puig, 84, Spanish football player and manager. Ed Murphy, 73, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies). Jean Rigaux, 82, French songwriter and actor. Gustav Schäfer, 85, German Olympic rower (1936). György Szűcs, 79, Hungarian football player.
11
Enid Moodie Heddle, 87, Australian poet, editor children's writer. Kavisena Herath, 75, Ceylonese politician. Dick Kelley, 51, American baseball player (Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres). Robert Q. Lewis, 70, American television personality (What's My Line?) and actor, pulmonary emphysema. Artur Lundkvist, 85, Swedish writer. Matthew Rapf, 71, American television producer (Kojak, Ben Casey, The Loretta Young Show), influenza. Carmen Rosales, 74, Filipina actress and guerilla fighter during World War II. Joe Scibelli, 52, American gridiron football player (Los Angeles Rams). Simon Scott, 71, American actor (Trapper John, M.D., McHale's Navy, Cold Turkey), Alzheimer's disease. Mudiyanse Tennakoon, 57, Sri Lankan politician. Mario Tobino, 81, Italian poet, writer and psychiatrist. Pat Walshe, 91, American dwarf actor and circus performer, heart attack.
12
Eleanor Boardman, 93, American actress (The Crowd). Moshe Castel, 82, Israeli painter. Joaquim Gomis, 89, Spanish photographer, entrepreneur, and art collector. Harold St. John, 99, American botanist and academic. Ken Keltner, 75, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox). Peter Kienast, 42, Austrian Olympic bobsledder (1984, 1988). Henk Ngantung, 64, Indonesian painter and politician. Ted Rippon, 77, Australian rules footballer. Ronnie Ross, 58, British saxophonist, cancer. Marvin Stout, 76, American basketball player. Olli Ungvere, 85, Estonian actress. Amherst Villiers, 91, English engineer and painter. Richard Wyndham, 80, Canadian Olympic swimmer (1932).
13
Marcelle Bunlet, 91, French soprano Stuart Challender, 44, Australian conductor, AIDS-related complications. André Pieyre de Mandiargues, 82, French writer. Jan Hendriks, 63, German film actor. Judy Moorcroft, 58, British costume designer (A Passage to India, The Europeans, The Killing Fields). Vincent Saurin, 84, French rower and Olympian (1928).
14 John Arlott, 77, English broadcaster (Test Match Special). Guillermo Barreto, 62, Cuban drummer and timbalero. Larry Ciaffone, 67, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals). Robert Eddison, 83, English actor (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), pneumonia. Claude Faraggi, 49, French writer. Nikolay Gusakov, 57, Soviet Nordic combined skier and Olympic medalist (1956, 1960, 1964). J. C. Hamilton, 78, American baseball player. Josephus Serré, 84, Dutch Olympic modern pentathlete (1936).
15 Reidar Andersen, 80, Norwegian ski jumper and Olympic medalist (1936). Grete Mostny, 77, Austrian-Chilean anthropologist, cancer. Ray Smith, 55, Welsh actor, heart attack. Sid Youngelman, 60, American gridiron football player. Vasily Zaytsev, 76, Soviet sniper during World War II and Hero of the Soviet Union.
16 Ged Baldwin, 84, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1958-1980). H. C. Casserley, 88, British photographer. Herbert Hobein, 84, German Olympic field hockey player (1928). Horatio Luro, 90, American racehorse trainer, pancreatic cancer. Aurélien Noël, 87, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1967-1972). Fred Scott, 89, American actor. Pier Vittorio Tondelli, 36, Italian writer, AIDS-related complications. Mohammad Javad Tondguyan, 41, Iranian engineer and politician. Leopold Vogl, 81, Austrian football player and manager.
17 Mitsuo Aida, 67, Japanese poet, brain hemorrhage. John Anton Blatnik, 80, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1947–1974). Heinz Brücher, 76, German-Argentine botanist and SS officer during World War II, murdered. Jim Cunningham, 56, American basketball player. Jesse Flores, 77, Mexican Major League Baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians). Armand Frappier, 87, Canadian physisican. Chen Wen Hsi, 85, Chinese-Singaporean artist. Carl Shy, 83, American Olympic basketball player (1936). Joey Smallwood, 90, Canadian politician. Ronnie Starling, 82, English football player. Kurt Weyher, 90, German rear admiral of the navy (Kriegsmarine) of Nazi Germany.
18 George Abecassis, 78, British racing driver. Richard Bruck, 76, American mathematician. Kerry Fitzgerald, 43, Australian rugby referee. King Kolax, 79, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader, Alzheimer's disease. Jean Orcibal, 78, French historian on religion. Marion L. Starkey, 90, American historian. June Storey, 73, Canadian-American actress, cancer.
19 Joe Cole, 30, American roadie (Rollins Band, Black Flag), shot. Howie Dallmar, 69, American basketball player (Philadelphia Warriors), heart failure. Rudolf Eggenberg, 80, Swiss Olympic high jumper (1936). Ernest K. Gann, 81, American aviator, sailor, and author (Fate Is the Hunter, The High and the Mighty), kidney failure. Pearley Johnson, 86, American baseball player. Paul Maxwell, 70, Canadian-British actor (Coronation Street, Aliens, A Bridge Too Far).
20 Simone Beck, 87, French cookbook writer. Walter Chiari, 67, Italian actor, heart attack. John Brian Harley, 59, English cartographer. Lal Chand Yamla Jatt, 77, Indian folk singer. Waldemar Kazanecki, 62, Polish musician. Maynard C. Krueger, 85, American socialist politician and academic. Samuel Rabin, 80, English artist and Olympic wrestler (1928). Albert Van Vlierberghe, 49, Belgian cyclist and Olympian (1964). Gaston Waringhien, 90, French linguist. Don Williams, 56, American baseball player (Minnesota Twins).
21 José Miguel Barandiarán, 101, Spanish anthropologist, ethnographer, and catholic priest. Minna Citron, 95, American painter and printmaker. Alvin Robert Cornelius, 88, Pakistani jurist, legal philosopher and judge. Colin Douglas, 79, English actor. Francesco Golisano, 62, Italian film actor. Hannes Häyrinen, 77, Finnish actor. Sheldon Mayer, 74, American comics artist, writer, and editor. Byron N. Scott, 88, American lawyer and politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1935-1939. Wilhelm Straßburger, 84, German footballer.
22 Franz Brunner, 78, Austrian field handball player and Olympian silver medalist (1936). Joe Carter, 82, American football player (Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears). Hal Finney, 86, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates). James C. Fletcher, 72, American academic and NASA administrator. Ernesto Grassi, 89, Italian philosopher. Beaver Harris, 55, American jazz drummer. Mirza Nurul Huda, 72, Bangladesh politician and academic. Ernst Krenek, 91, Austrian-American composer.