Deaths in December 1998

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1998.

Contents
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← November	December	January →

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 1998

1

• Delila (Richards) Abbott, 90, American politician, feminist and writer.[1]
• Aisha Abd al-Rahman, 85, Egyptian author and professor of literature, heart attack.[2]
• Bertil Nordahl, 81, Swedish football player and manager.
• Freddie Young, 96, British cinematographer.

2

• Theodora Mead Abel, 99, American clinical psychologist.
• Ben Guintini, 79, American baseball player.
• Bob Haggart, 84, American dixieland jazz musician.
• Mikio Oda, 93, Japanese athlete and the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist.
• Brian Stonehouse, 80, British painter and SEO agent during World War II.[3]

3

• Wayland Drew, 66, Canadian writer.
• Mohammad Mokhtari, 56, Iranian writer, poet and activist, murdered.
• George Murcell, 73, British actor.
• Bernice Shackleton, 97, New Zealand journalist and writer.
• Graham Townsend, 56, Canadian musician, cancer.
• Ed Widseth, 88, American football player.[4]

4

• Percy Ames, 66, English footballer.
• Druie Bowett, English artist.
• Egil Johansen, 64, Norwegian-Swedish jazz musician.
• Suzanne Jovin, 21, German-born American student, murdered.[5]

5

• Hazel Bishop, 92, American chemist.
• Jack Connor, 78, English footballer.
• Jean Fenwick, 91, Trinidad-born American actress.
• Albert Gore Sr., 90, American politician and father of Al Gore.[6]
• Boris Kabishev, 76, Soviet Air Defence Forces officer and World War II veteran.
• Cheung Tze-keung, 43, Chinese criminal, execution by firing squad.[7]

6

• César Baldaccini, 77, French sculptor.
• Peg Leg Bates, 91, American entertainer.[8]
• Hoshiar Singh Dahiya, 61, Indian Army officer.
• Robert Marasco, 62, American horror novelist and playwright, lung cancer.
• George Roden, 60, American leader of the Branch Davidian sect, heart attack.[9]
• Michael Zaslow, 56, American actor, cancer.

7

• John Addison, 78, British composer.
• Daniel Lee Corwin, 40, American serial killer, Execution by lethal injection.[10]
• Martin Rodbell, 73, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, multiple organ failure.

8

• Michael Craze, 56, British actor, heart attack.
• Aaron Hopa, 27, New Zealand rugby union player, diving accident.
• Hamilton H. Howze, 89, American general and commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.
• Aeneas Mackintosh, 71, Scottish Anglican priest.
• Odo Josef Struger, 67, Austrian automation pioneer.[11]

9

• Paul Lewis Hancock, 61, British geologist, bone cancer.
• Bill Looby, 67, American soccer player.
• Phillip Abbott Luce, 63, American author, lecturer and communist.
• Archie Moore, 81, American boxer and World Light Heavyweight Champion, heart failure.[12]
• Mohammad-Ja'far Pouyandeh, 44, Iranian writer and activist, murdered.

10

• Wim Hora Adema, 84, Dutch children's author and feminist.[13]
• Buddy Feyne, 86, American lyricist.
• Wang Ganchang, 91, Chinese nuclear physicist.
• Ray Goossens, 74, Belgian artist, animator, writer and film director.
• Kamel Messaoudi, 37, Algerian Chaabi musician.
• Charles D. Mize, 77, United States Marine Corps officer, complications following pneumonia and leukemia.[14]
• Swami Satyabhakta, 99, Indian scholar, philosopher and reformer.
• Vida Tomšič, 85, Slovenian communist and World War II partisan fighter.

11

• Jack Coleman, 74, American basketball player.
• André Lichnerowicz, 83, French differential geometer and mathematical physicist.
• Kavi Pradeep, 83, Indian poet and songwriter.[15]
• Lynn Strait, 30, American singer and vocalist of band Snot, car accident.
• Max Streibl, 66, German politician.

12

• Lawton Chiles, 68, American Senator from Florida and Governor of Florida.[16]
• Tito Díaz, 28, Salvadoran footballer, murdered.
• Jimmy "Orion" Ellis, 53, American singer, murdered during robbery.
• Willis J. Gertsch, 92, American arachnologist.
• Colin Minton, 53, English darts player.
• Mo Udall, 76, American politician.[17]

13

• Helen Adolf, 102, Austrian–American linguist and literature scholar.
• Dean Fausett, 85, American painter.[18]
• Lew Grade, 91, British impresario.[19]
• Sir Richard Thomas, 66, British admiral and Black Rod.
• Wade Watts, 79, African-American gospel preacher and civil rights activist.
• Ariadna Welter, 68, Mexican movie actress.
• Norbert Zongo, 49, Burkinabé investigative journalist, murdered.

14

• Norman Fell, 74, American actor, bone marrow cancer.
• A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., 70, African-American civil rights advocate, author and judge, stroke.[20]
• Brian Lewis, 55, English footballer.[21]
• Annette Strauss, 74, American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas.

15

• Brady Boone, 40, American professional wrestler and referee, car accident.
• Dame Unity Lister, 85, British politician.
• Jan Meyerowitz, 85, American composer, conductor, pianist and writer.[22]
• Rowena Moore, 88, African-American union and civic activist.
• Ján Podhradský, 82, Slovak footballer.
• Johnny Riddle, 93, American baseball player and coach.

16

• Jocelyn Crane, 89, American carcinologist.
• William Gaddis, 75, American novelist.[23]
• Jack Gallagher, 82, Canadian oilman.
• Johnny Gorsica, 83, American baseball player.
• Jean de Montrémy, 85, French industrialist, racing driver, and race car designer.
• Paul Rivière, 86, French Resistance fighter and politician.
• Maneklal Sankalchand Thacker, 94, Indian engineer and academic.
• Philip True, 50, American foreign correspondent, murdered.[24]

17

• Allan D'Arcangelo, 68, American artist and printmaker.[25]
• John Burns Brooksby, 83, Scottish veterinarian.
• Antonina Khudyakova, 81, Soviet Air Force officer and squadron commander during World War II.
• Harry Osman, 87, English footballer.
• Alberto Jover Piamonte, 64, Filipino Roman Catholic archbishop.

18

• Agustín Barboza, 85, Paraguayan singer and composer.
• C. S. Chellappa, 86, Indian writer, journalist and political activist.
• Sohel Chowdhury, 35, Bangladeshi film actor, murdered.[26]
• Lev Demin, 72, Soviet cosmonaut.[27]
• Denny Galehouse, 87, American baseball player
• Harry Haddock, 73, Scottish footballer.[28]
• Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, 38-39, Filipino militant, founder of Abu Sayyaf, shot.
• Vinod Mishra, 51, Indian communist politician, heart attack.
• Dorothy Nyswander, 104, American health educator.
• Basil Travers, 79, Australian sportsman and educator.

19

• Garry Blaine, 65, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Cully Dahlstrom, 86, American ice hockey player.[29]
• Mohammad Taghi Falsafi, 90, Iranian Ayatollah and preacher.
• Mel Fisher, 76, American treasure hunter.
• Gordon Gunter, 89, American marine biologist and fisheries scientist.
• Antonio Ordóñez, 66, Spanish bullfighter, liver cancer.
• Ron Turner, 76, British illustrator and comic book artist, stroke and heart attack.[30]
• Qian Zhongshu, 88, Chinese literary scholar and writer, cancer.

20

• Irene Hervey, 89, American actress, heart failure.[31]
• Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, 84, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Bindy Johal, 27, Canadian gangster, shot.
• C. P. Lyons, Canadian outdoorsman and natural historian.
• B. V. Raman, 86, Indian astrologer.

21

• Roger Avon, 84, British actor.
• Karl Denver, 67, Scottish singer, brain tumor.[32]
• André Dewavrin, 87, French officer during World War II.
• Anne Ferguson, 57, Scottish physician and clinical researcher, pancreatic cancer.[33]
• Clifford Inniss, 88, Barbadian cricketer and lawyer.
• Ernst-Günther Schenck, 94, German doctor and member of the SS.
• Richard Turnbull, 89, British colonial governor.

22

• Leif Erickson, 92, American attorney and politician.
• Virginia Graham, 86, American talk show host, heart attack.[34]
• Charlie Hill, 80, Welsh footballer.
• Subhashis Nag, 43, Indian mathematician.
• Donald Soper, Baron Soper, 95, British Methodist minister, socialist and pacifist.
• Michelle Thomas, 30, American actress and comedian, cancer.[35]

23

• Tony Bartl, Czech artist.
• Mark Chatfield, 45, American breaststroke swimmer, lymphoma.
• Giulio Cesare Graziani, 83, Italian aviator.
• Jack Hilton, 77, English rugby player.
• Peggy Kelman, 89, Australian aviation pioneer.
• David Manners, 98, Canadian-American actor.[36]
• Joe Orlando, 71, Italian American illustrator, writer and cartoonist.[37]
• Anatoly Rybakov, 87, Soviet and Russian writer.
• Pierre Vallières, 60, Québécois journalist and writer, heart failure.

24

• Syl Apps, 83, Canadian ice hockey player, heart attack.
• Ester Carloni, 101, Italian actress.
• Viola Farber, 67, American choreographer and dancer.
• Matt Gillies, 77, Scottish football player and manager.[38]
• Peter Janssens, 64, German musician and composer.
• Daan Kagchelland, 84, Dutch sailor and Olympic champion.
• William R. Perl, 92, American lawyer and psychologist.
• Raemer Schreiber, 88, American physicist.[39]
• Irving Segal, 80, American mathematician.

25

• Bryan MacLean, 52, American singer, guitarist and songwriter, heart attack.[40]
• Hugh Martell, 86, British Royal Navy officer.
• John McGrath, 60, English footballer and manager in the Football League.
• Richard Paul, 58, American actor, cancer.[41]
• John Pulman, 75, English snooker player, domestic accident.[42]
• Marcella Rabwin, 90, Hollywood figure and civic leader.

26

• Ron Chismar, 64, American football coach.
• Cathal Goulding, 75, Chief of Staff of the IRA and the Official IRA, cancer.
• Hurd Hatfield, 81, American actor, heart attack.[43]
• Helmut Mahlke, 85, German Oberstleutnant in the Luftwaffe during World War II.
• Nell McLarty, 86, Australian cricketer.
• Michael Sherard, 88, British fashion designer.[44]

27

• Kevork Ajemian, 66, Lebanese-Armenian writer, journalist, novelist and activist.
• Dany Bustros, 39, Lebanese belly dancer, socialite and stage actress, suicide.[45]
• Clara Heyn, 74, Israeli botanist and professor, cancer.
• Anne Holm, 76, Danish journalist and children's writer.
• Robert S. Johnson, 78, American fighter pilot during World War II.
• Roy Powell, English rugby league player, heart attack.[46]

28

• Wang Dezhao, 93, Chinese physicist.
• Tyisha Miller, 19, African-American victim, shot by police.
• Shorty Rollins, 69, American racing driver.
• Robert Rosen, 64, American theoretical biologist.[47]

29

• Geoff Crawford, 82, Australian politician.
• Jean-Claude Forest, 68, French writer and illustrator of comics, asthma.
• Phyllis Kennedy, 84, American film actress.
• Don Taylor, 78, American actor and film director, heart failure.[48]
• Patras Yusaf, 62, Pakistani Roman Catholic bishop.

30

• G. Stan Jones, 72, Canadian and television actor
• Daryl Arnold, 74, American farmer, businessman and diplomat, traffic accident.[49]
• Joan Brossa, 79, Catalan poet, playwright and visual artist.
• Abbas Guliyev, 82, Azerbaijani Red Army captain and Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Keisuke Kinoshita, 86, Japanese film director, stroke.
• Johnny Moore, 64, American R&B singer with The Drifters, pneumonia.[50]
• George Webb, 86, British actor.

31

• Kirsty Bentley, 15, New Zealand teenage murder victim, blunt force trauma.[51]
• George Lynn Cross, 93, American botanist and author.
• H. Dunlop Dawbarn, 83, American businessman, philanthropist and politician.[52]
• Ted Glossop, Australian rugby player and coach, cancer.
• Gene Harlow, 79, American football player and coach.
• Alan Morris, 44, English footballer, murdered.
• Arnold Stickley, 72, English golfer.

References

1. "Obituary: Delila (Dee) Richards Abbott". The Deseret News. Salt Lake City, Utah. December 2, 1998. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
2. "Obituary: Aisha Abdul-Rahman". The Independent. December 15, 1998. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
3. The Independent (January 20, 1999). "Obituary: Brian Stonehouse". London, UK. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
4. "College football loses member of Hall of Fame". The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY). December 5, 1998.
5. Beach, Randall (December 8, 2012). "Tips in 1998 slaying of Yale student Suzanne Jovin focus on mentally disturbed grad student". New Haven Register. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
6. Molotsky, Irvin (December 7, 1998). "Albert Gore Sr., Veteran Politician, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
7. Lo, Clifford (March 11, 2011). "How Big Spender abducted two of HK's tycoons". South China Morning Post. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
8. Dunning, Jennifer (December 8, 1998). "Peg Leg Bates, One-Legged Dancer, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
9. "Ex-Cult Leader Who Fled Mental Hospital Is Dead". December 8, 1998. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
10. "Texas executes serial killer Daniel Corwin for 1987 Southeast Texas slayings". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. December 8, 1998. Archived from the original on January 29, 2015.
11. Brier, Steven E. (December 27, 1998). "O. Struger, 67, A Pioneer In Automation". New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
12. Mee, Bob (December 11, 1998). "Obituary: Archie Moore". The Independent. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
13. Koerts, Agnes (December 17, 1998). "Journalist en inspirator, maar vooral talentenjager: Wim Hora Adema 1914-1998". Trouw (in Dutch).
14. "Charles Mize, Marine in 3 Wars, Dies at 77". The New York Times. New York Times Websites. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
15. Singh, Kuldip (December 15, 1998). "Obituary: Kavi Pradeep". The Independent. London. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
16. Pearson, Richard (December 13, 1998). "Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles Dies". Washington Post. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
17. Severo, Richard, "Morris K_ Udall, Fiercely Liberal Congressman, Dies at 76," December 14, 1998, New York Times, retrieved May 25, 2019
18. "Obituary: William Dean Fausett". Deseret News. December 16, 1998. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
19. Hoge, Warren (December 14, 1998). "Lew Grade, 91, Flamboyant Shaper of British TV and Movies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
20. Glaberson, William (December 15, 1998). "A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., Federal Judge, Is Dead at 70". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
21. Ponting, Ivan (January 2, 1999). "Obituary". London: The Independent. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
22. Allan Kozinn (December 26, 1998). "Jan Meyerowitz, 85, Composer on Moral Subjects". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
23. Gussow, Mel (December 17, 1998). "William Gaddis, 75, Innovative Author Of Complex, Demanding Novels, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
24. Preston, Julia (December 18, 1998). "U.S. Journalist Slain in Mexico, Autopsy Shows". New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
25. Smith, Roberta (December 23, 1998). "Allan D'Arcangelo, 68, Painter of Pop Images". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
26. Biswas, Prokash (December 18, 2015). "No trial even 17 years after actor Sohel Chowdhury's murder". Retrieved May 25, 2019.
27. "Biographies of USSR / Russian Cosmonauts; Lev Dyomin". spacefacts.de. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
28. "HARRY HADDOCK". scottishfa.co.uk. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
29. "Cully Dahlstrom". Hockey Reference. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
30. "Turner, Ron". Modified 29 October 2014. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (sf-encyclopedia.com). Entry by 'DRL', David Langford.
31. "Irene Hervey". Los Angeles Times. L.A. Times Hollywood Star Walk. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
32. Leigh, Spencer (January 20, 1999). "Obituary Karl Denver". The Independent. London. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
33. "Professor Anne Ferguson". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
34. "Virginia Graham, Popular Host of Early Television Talk Shows," The New York Times, December 25, 1998, p. B11. Retrieved 26 May 2019
35. Pace, Eric (December 28, 1998). "Michelle Thomas, 30, Actress On TV Soap Opera and Sitcoms". New York Times. p. 8. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
36. Pace, Eric (1999). "David Manners, 98; Menaced on Screen by Lugosi", obituary, The New York Times, January 3, 1999. Retrieved May 26, 2019
37. "Joe Orlando". Lambiek Comiclopedia. August 16, 2012. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
38. Ponting, Ivan (December 31, 1998). "Obituary: Matt Gillies". The Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
39. Pace, Eric (December 31, 1998). "R.E. Schreiber, 88, Nuclear Bomb Physicist". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
40. "Obituary: Bryan MacLean". The Independent. January 1, 1999. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
41. "Richard Paul, 58; Character Actor". Los Angeles Times. Reuters. December 28, 1998. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
42. "John Pulman". The Times. December 31, 1998. p. 25.
43. Tom Vallance. "Obituary: Hurd Hatfield". The Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
44. Pick, Michael (February 1, 1999). "Obituary: Michael Sherard". The Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
45. "Dany Bustros dies from gunshot wound". The Daily Star. December 28, 1998. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
46. Hadfield, Dave (December 28, 1998). "Rugby League: International dies of heart attack aged 33". The Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
47. Rosen, Robert (March 2006). "Autobiographical Reminiscences of Robert Rosen". Axiomathes. 16 (1–2): 1–23. doi:10.1007/s10516-006-0001-6. Complex Systems Biology and Life’s Logic in memory of Robert Rosen
48. Weiskind, Ron (January 1, 1999). "Longtime Hollywood actor, director raised in Freeport". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. B-7. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
49. Car Crash Kills Daryl Arnold, Ex-Envoy to Singapore, 73 January 1998, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 2011
50. Perrone, Pierre (January 6, 1999). "Obituary: Johnny Moore". The Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
51. "Coroner: Kirsty Bentley killed by massive blow to the head". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland, New Zealand. July 16, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
52. H. Dunlop Dawbarn ’37