Deaths in December 1990

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1990.

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 1990

1 Raymond Clark, 66, American Olympic canoeist (1948). Sergio Corbucci, 63, Italian film director and screenwriter, heart attack. Simone Melchior Cousteau, 71, French aquanaut, cancer. Pierre Dux, 82, French actor. Robert Gordon, 77, American director and actor. Erich Hüttenhain, 85, German academic mathematician and cryptographer. Anton Kochinyan, 77, Soviet Armenian politician. Carla Lehmann, 73, Canadian actress. Vito Miceli, 74, Italian politician and general. David A. Morse, 83, American labor bureaucrat. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 90, Indian diplomat and politician. Octavio Beras Rojas, 84, Dominican Roman Catholic cardinal.

2 Richard Benner, 46-47, American film director and screenwriter, AIDS. John Britton, 71, American baseball player. Marc Cerboni, 35, French Olympic fencer (1984). Aaron Copland, 90, American composer and conductor, Alzheimer's disease. Robert Cummings, 80, American actor, kidney failure and complications from pneumonia. Paul Hoffmann, 88, German actor. Edward Oldfield, 70, Australian politician. Paddy Smith, 96, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox). Clint Thomas, 94, American baseball player. Georg Wildhagen, 70, German filmmaker.

3 Tim Dlugos, 40, American poet, AIDS. Gerry Doyle, 79, Irish footballer. Rolf Hansen, 85, German film director. Heino Mandri, 68, Estonian film and stage actor. Ray Wagner, 88, American gridiron football player.

4 Edward Binns, 74, American actor (12 Angry Men, North by Northwest, Judgment at Nuremberg), heart attack. Jack J. Catton, 70, American Air Force general. Charles B. MacDonald, 68, American army historian, cancer. Nelson Peterson, 77, American football player (Cleveland Rams, Washington Redskins). Naoto Tajima, 78, Japanese athlete and Olympic champion (1932, 1936). Kimio Yada, 77, Japanese Olympic track and field athlete (1936).

5 Peter Blum, 65, South African poet. Robert Chesley, 47, American playwright, AIDS. Kai Curry-Lindahl, 73, Swedish zoologist. Lucy Dawidowicz, 75, American historian. Narayan Gopal, 51, Nepali singer, diabetes. Josef Jedlička, 63, Czechoslovak writer. Ott-Heinrich Keller, 84, German mathematician. Alfonso A. Ossorio, 74, Filipino-American artist. Jack Pleis, 73, American jazz musician. Howard Allen Schneiderman, 63, American entomologist. Karl Seitz, 86, Austrian Olympic water polo player (1936). Steve Shaw, 25, American actor, traffic collision.

6 Ed Bell, 69, American football player (Green Bay Packers). Natan Brand, 46, Israeli classical pianist, lymphoma. Victor Groom, 92, British RAF officer and WWI flying ace. Bob Hamilton, 74, American golfer. Bill Hardman, 57, American trumpeter, intracerebral hemorrhage. George Healis, 84, American Olympic rower (1928). Otto Hitzfeld, 92, German general. F. Jay Nimtz, 75, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1957–1959). Remi Prudhomme, 48, American football player (Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints). Polingaysi Qöyawayma, 98, American Hopi educator. Tunku Abdul Rahman, 87, Malaysian politician, prime minister (1957–1970). . Pavlos Sidiropoulos, 42, Greek rock singer, songwriter and guitarist, heroin overdose.

7 Joan Bennett, 80, American actress, heart failure. Horst Bienek, 60, German novelist, AIDS. Norman Bower, 83, British politician. Dee Clark, 52, American soul singer, heart attack. Jean Duceppe, 67, Stage and television actor from Montreal, Quebec. Lew Flick, 75, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics). Reinaldo Arenas Fuentes, 47, Cuban novelist, playwright and poet, suicide. Pierre Henri Landry, 92, Russian-French tennis player. Luis Frangella, 46, Argentine-American artist, AIDS. Jean Paul Lemieux, 86, Canadian painter. Ralph McKinzie, 96, American sports coach. Frederick Melland, 86, British lacrosse and Olympic ice hockey player (1928). Peter Mieg, 84, Swiss composer. Oscar Millard, 82, English screenwriter. Rinaldo Ossola, 77, Italian politician. David Richmond, 49, American civil rights activist, lung cancer. Cleto Rodríguez, 67, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient. Dario Salata, 77, Italian Olympic sailor (1948, 1952). Vilmos Énekes, 75, Hungarian boxer.

8 John Alexander, 67, American opera singer, heart attack. Deane C. Davis, 90, American politician, governor of Vermont (1969–1973). Ed Edmondson, 71, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1953–1973). Tadeusz Kantor, 75, Polish painter and theatre director. Boris Kochno, 86, Russian dancer, librettist and poet, accidental fall. Lana Marconi, 73, Romanian-French actress. Forrest S. Petersen, 68, American pilot, brain cancer. Martin Ritt, 76, American film director (Hud, Norma Rae, Sounder), heart disease. Wendell Rollins, 73, American Olympic cyclist (1948). William Atcheson Stewart, 75, Canadian politician.

9 Ben Duijker, 87, Dutch Olympic cyclist (1928). Henry Hicks, 75, Canadian politician, traffic collision. Mike Mazurki, 82, American actor and professional wrestler. Ella Molnár, 84, Hungarian Olympic swimmer (1924). Nirala, 53, Pakistani comedian and actor. Arthur O'Bryan, 67, Australian rules footballer.

10 Yves Devernay, 53, French organist and composer, heart attack. Armand Hammer, 92, American industrialist and philanthropist, bone marrow cancer. Carl Jamissen, 80, Norwegian footballer. Dorothea Kent, 74, American actress, breast cancer. Marino Morettini, 59, Italian Olympic cyclist (1952). Doyle Nave, 75, American football player. Cec Ruddell, 73, Australian rules footballer. Bert Weeks, 73, Canadian politician.

11 Lloyd Gross, 85, Canadian ice hockey player. Drago Jelić, 76, Yugoslavian Olympic gymnast (1948). Arthur Kornhauser, 94, American industrial psychologist, stroke. Peter Millman, 84, Canadian astronomer. Robert Noble, 80, Canadian physician. Wynn Pearce, 62, American television actor (Outlaws). David Turner, 63, British playwright.

12 Giorgio Ghezzi, 60, Italian footballer, heart attack. Jack Harley, 79, British botanist. Concha Piquer, 83, Spanish actress and singer, heart attack. Ian Trethowan, 68, British journalist and broadcaster, ALS.

13 Buddy Justus, 37, American convicted spree killer, execution by electric chair. Edwin Lester, 95, American theatre director. Marta Linden, 87, American actress. Alice Marble, 77, American tennis player and Grand Slam winner, pernicious anemia. Alfred Dennis Sieminski, 79, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1951–1959), heart attack. Jaroslav Volf, 57, Czechoslovak Olympic ice hockey player (1960). Archie Ware, 72, American baseball player.

14 Friedrich Dürrenmatt, 69, Swiss crime novelist, dramatist and satirist, heart failure. Nan Wood Graham, 91, American artist, model for American Gothic. Red Heron, 72, Canadian ice hockey player. Gunild Keetman, 86, German musicologist. Zhang Qun, 101, Taiwanese politician, premier (1947–1948). Francisco Gabilondo Soler, 83, Mexican composer. Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, 64, German businessman and noble, complications from heart surgery. Pietro Tordi, 84, Italian actor.

15 Julio Gutiérrez, 72, Cuban musician. Mikayil Jabrayilov, 38, Soviet Azerbaijani soldier, killed in battle. John Keefer Mahony, 79, Canadian WWII VC recipient. Bill Otis, 100, American baseball player (New York Highlanders). Jean Paige, 95, American silent film actress. Ed Parker, 59, American martial artist, heart attack. Frederic Seebohm, Baron Seebohm, 81, British banker, traffic collision. Tamao Shiwaku, 84, Japanese Olympic runner (1936). Chen Zhifang, 83-84, Chinese diplomat.

16 Marc Augier, 82, French far-right writer. Douglas Campbell, 94, American aviator and flying ace during World War I. Wally Flager, 69, American baseball player (Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies). Don Hooper, 76, Australian rules footballer. Art Koeninger, 84, American football player (Philadelphia Eagles). Jackie Mittoo, 42, Jamaican-Canadian musician, cancer.

17 William Cobb, 72-73, American roller coaster designer. John Grover, 75, English cricket player. Frank Hutchison, 93, New Zealand cricket player. Eurialo De Michelis, 86, Italian writer. Ludwig Lachmann, 84, German economist. Guy Lafarge, 86, French composer of operettas and popular songs.

18 Bernard Addison, 85, American guitarist. Keith Benson, 73, Australian rugby league player. Arthur Roy Clapham, 86, British botanist. Charlie Gibson, 91, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics). Geoffrey Giles, 67, Australian politician. Tadahiko Hayashi, 72, Japanese photographer, liver cancer. Orazio Orlando, 57, Italian actor, heart attack. Anne Revere, 87, American actress, pneumonia. Connie Russell, 67, American singer and actress (Red Hot Riding Hood), in 1947, she became a network staff singer on NBC, joining Manor House Summer Party for an eight-week stint as the program's featured singer, she also had success on Eddie Cantor's television program when he liked her so well in a guest appearance that he signed her to a contract. Greta Stevenson, 79, New Zealand mycologist. Paul Tortelier, 76, French cellist. Hazel Walker, 76, American amateur basketball player.

19 Rubem Braga, 77, Brazilian writer. Edmond Delfour, 83, French footballer. Norbert Dufourcq, 86, French musicologist. Basil Henson, 72, English actor. Michael Oakeshott, 89, English philosopher. Count Oluf of Rosenborg, 67, Danish noble. Billy Tidwell, 60, American football player (San Francisco 49ers).

20 Edward J. Bonin, 85, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1953–1955). Marc Chirik, 83, Russian-French communist revolutionary. Valeriu Călinoiu, 62, Romanian Olympic footballer (1952). Andrea Dunbar, 29, English playwright, intracerebral hemorrhage. John Hewetson, 77, British newspaper editor. Saul Mariaschin, 66, American basketball player (Boston Celtics). Lauro Mumar, 66, Filipino basketball player and Olympian (1948). Mahmudun Nabi, 54, Bangladeshi singer. Karl Rolvaag, 77, American politician and diplomat, governor of Minnesota (1963–1967). Gershom Schocken, 78, Israeli politician and journalist, liver cancer. Elmo Tanner, 86, American singer and whistler. Bernie Waldron, 70, Australian rules footballer.

21 Sigurd Anderson, 86, Norwegian-American politician, governor of South Dakota (1951–1955). Medard Boss, 87, Swiss psychiatrist. Yi Geon, 81, Korean prince and Imperial Japanese Army officer during World War II. Kelly Johnson, 80, American aeronautical engineer. Magda Julin, 96, Swedish figure skater, Olympic champion (1920). Ivan Knunyants, 84, Soviet chemist. Surendra Mohanty, 68, Indian author and politician. József von Platthy, 90, Hungarian Olympic equestrian (1936). Valmari Toikka, 87, Finnish Olympic cross-country skier (1932). Fred Washington, 23, American football player (Chicago Bears), traffic collision.

22 Cecil Effinger, 76, American composer. Robin Friday, 38, English footballer, heart attack. Ward Hawkins, 77, American author. Ken Irvine, 50, Australian rugby player, leukaemia. Henning Sundesson, 81, Swedish Olympic long distance runner (1936). Lawrence Watson, 73, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1963-1968).

23 Ladislau Brosovszky, 39, Romanian footballer. Pierre Chenal, 86, French filmmaker. Serge Danot, 59, French animator. József Darányi, 85, Hungarian Olympic shot putter (1928, 1932, 1936). Lindsay Fricker, 85, Australian rules footballer. Pierre Gripari, 65, French writer, complications from surgery. Richard Irving, 73, American actor, director and producer. Frank King, 64, Barbadian cricketer. Foy D. Kohler, 82, American diplomat. Herbert Salzman, 74, American businessman and Economics consultant.