Deaths in December 1999

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1999.

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 1999

1

• Gene Baker, 74, American baseball player.
• Stephen Brooks, 57, American film and television actor, heart attack.
• Fritz Fischer, 91, German historian.[1]
• Santidev Ghosh, 89, Indian author, singer, actor and dancer.
• Marilyn Harris, 75, American child actress.
• Jaakko Jalas, 79, Finnish botanist.
• Victor Perlo, 87, American Marxist economist.[2]
• Alexander Tatarenko, 74, Soviet Russian painter and art teacher.

2

• Joey Adams, 88, American comedian, vaudevillian, radio host, nightclub performer and author.[3]
• Mike Budnick, 80, American baseball player.
• Charlie Byrd, 74, American jazz guitarist, lung cancer.[4]
• Matt Cohen, 56, Canadian writer, lung cancer.
• Daniel J. Elazar, 65, American professor of political science.
• Richard Latter, 76, American theoretical physicist.

3

• Eckart Afheldt, 78, German general in the Bundeswehr.
• John Archer, 84, American film and television actor, lung cancer.[5]
• Anne Francine, 82, American actress and cabaret singer.
• Conrad Hunte, 67, Barbadian cricketer.
• Scatman John, 57, American jazz musician and poet, lung cancer.[6]
• Gordon Jones, 86, Australian rules footballer.
• Madeline Kahn, 57, American Tony Award-winning film, television and stage actress (Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Clue), ovarian cancer.[7]
• Rokanuzzaman Khan, 74, Bangladeshi journalist and literature.
• Edmond Safra, 67, Lebanese Brazilian banker.
• Jarl Wahlström, 81, Finnish salvationist, 12th General of the Salvation Army.
• Irina Zhdanovich, 93, Belarusian actress and theatre director.

4

• Rose Bird, 63, American first female justice, breast cancer.[8]
• Sylvester Clarke, 44, West Indian cricketer, heart attack.
• Alonzo Hanagan, 87, American photographer.
• Bert Hoffmeister, 92, Canadian Army officer, businessman, and conservationist.
• Nilde Iotti, 79, Italian politician of the Communist Party.
• Barry Mahon, 78, American film director, cinematographer and producer.[9]
• Daishōhō Masami, 32, Japanese sumo wrestler, pancreatic cancer.
• Luděk Pešek, 80, Swiss artist and novelist.
• John Douglas Pringle, 87, Australian journalist.[10]
• Leighton Durham Reynolds, 69, British academic.
• Nélida Roca, 70, Argentinian showbusiness diva and sex symbol, heart attack.
• John Olubi Sodipo, 64, Nigerian philosopher.
• Edward Vesala, 54, Finnish avant-garde jazz drummer, congestive heart failure.

5

• Ellwood Madill, 84, Canadian politician.
• Edvin Biuković, 30, Croatian comics artist, brain tumor.
• Ted Cooper, 79, American television scenic designer.
• Nathan Jacobson, 89, Polish-born American mathematician.[11]
• Bobby Marchan, 69, American singer-songwriter, liver cancer.[12]
• Masaru Sato, 71, Japanese composer of film scores.
• Kendall Taylor, 94, British pianist.

6

• Alexander Baron, 82, British author and screenwriter.
• Sender Garlin, 97, American journalist pamphleteer, and writer.
• Gwyn Jones, 92, Welsh novelist and story writer.
• Martha Sharp, 94, American Unitarian.
• Robert A. Swanson, American venture capitalist.[13]

7

• Kenny Baker, 78, British jazz musician.[14]
• Darling Légitimus, 92, French actress.
• William Wiley, 68, South African cricket player.

8

• Ronnie Clayton, 76, British boxer.
• Rupert Hart-Davis, 92, English publisher.
• Wally Hebert, 92, American baseball player.
• Everett Carll Ladd, 62, American political scientist, heart failure.[15]
• David Martin Long, 46, American murderer, executed by lethal injection.[16]
• Pupella Maggio, 89, Italian film actress.
• Hossein Makki, Iranian politician, orator and historian.
• Kjell Moe, 90, Norwegian footballer.
• B. R. Patton, 79, American politician.

9

• Whitey Kurowski, 81, American baseball player.
• Yakov Rylsky, 71, Soviet sabre fencer and Olympic champion.
• Shinkichi Takemura, 67, Japanese Olympic speed skater.
• Cecil Williamson, 90, British screenwriter, editor and film director.

10

• Antonio Blanco, 87, Spanish and American painter, heart and kidney disease.
• Rick Danko, 56, Canadian musician, member of The Band, heart failure.[17]
• Lex Goudsmit, 86, Dutch actor, stroke.
• Shirley Hemphill, 52, American stand-up comedian and actress, renal failure.
• Cornelia James, 82, British glovemaker and businesswoman.[18]
• Mike Randall, 80, British journalist and editor.
• Franjo Tuđman, 77, Croatian politician, President of Croatia (since 1990), cancer.[19]
• Pietro De Vico, 88, Italian film actor.

11

• Ed Jones, 87, American politician.
• Eiichi Miyazato, 77, Japanese master of Goju-ryu karate.
• Jack Oldfield, 100, British landowner and politician.
• Joseph Roos, 91, American journalist, publicist and Hollywood story editor.[20]
• Hans K. Ziegler, 88, German American communication satellites engineer.

12

• Huelet Benner, 82, American multi-discipline pistol shooter.[21]
• Paul Cadmus, 94, American artist.
• Gordon Chater, 77, English Australian comedian and actor.
• Joseph Heller, 76, American novelist (Catch-22), heart attack.[22]
• John W. R. Taylor, 77, British aviation expert.

13

• Peter Adams, 61, New Zealand-born Australian actor.
• Jill Craigie, 88, English documentary film director, screenwriter and feminist, heart failure.[23]
• Stane Dolanc, 74, Yugoslav communist politician, cerebral stroke.
• Nina Graboi, 81, Austrian-American artist, writer and philosopher.[24]
• Tarmo Uusivirta, 42, Finnish professional boxer, suicide.
• Robert Wagenhoffer, 39, American figure skater, complications of AIDS.
• Lady Mary Whitley, 75, British noblewoman.

14

• Sven Berlin, 88, English painter, writer and sculptor.[25]
• Allan La Fontaine, 88, Australian rules footballer.
• Douglas Leigh, 92, American advertising executive.
• Walt Levinsky, 70, American big band and orchestral player, composer, arranger and bandleader, brain tumour.
• J. W. Lockett, 62, American football player.
• Héctor Martínez, 60, Cuban baseball player.[26]
• Joseph K. Taussig Jr., 79, United States Navy officer during and after World War II, embolism.

15

• Rune Andréasson, 74, Swedish comic creator, cancer.
• Eddie Kazak, 79, American baseball player.
• Louis J. Schneider Jr., 78, American lawyer and politician.

16

• Henry Helstoski, 74, American politician.[27]
• Dorit Kreysler, 90, Austrian film actress.
• Jorge Tuero, Venezuelan television actor and comedian, killed during the Vargas tragedy.

17

• Rex Allen, 78, American actor and singer-songwriter, road accident.[28]
• Jürgen Moser, 71, German-American mathematician.
• Văn Phụng, Vietnamese songwriter.
• Tyron Silvapulle, Sri Lankan pilot, killed in action.
• Grover Washington Jr., 56, American jazz saxophonist, heart attack.[29]
• C. Vann Woodward, 91, American historian and Pulitzer prize winner.

18

• Þór Beck, 59, Icelandic footballer.
• Ken W. Clawson, 63, American journalist.
• Robert Dougall, 86, English broadcaster and ornithologist.[30]
• Joe Higgs, 59, Jamaican reggae musician, cancer.[31]
• Bertha Swirles, 96, British physicist.
• Logan Wright, 66, American pediatric psychologist, heart attack.

19

• Francis Greenlief, 78, major general in the United States Army, cancer.
• Brendan Hansen, 77, Australian politician.
• Ross Hutchinson, 85, Australian rules footballer, coach and politician.
• Desmond Llewelyn, 85, British film actor, played Q in the James Bond film series, road accident.[32]

20

• Bob Banham, 87, New Zealand rugby footballer.
• Dick Bertell, 64, American baseball player.[33]
• Riccardo Freda, 90, Italian film director.
• Manuel Antonio Rueda González, 78, Dominican writer and pianist.
• Jack Hawley, 79, American politician.
• Mario Carreño Morales, 86, Cuban painter.
• Irving Rapper, 101, American film director.
• Hank Snow, 85, Canadian country musician.[34]
• James Wainwright, 61, American actor.

21

• John Arnatt, 82, British actor.
• Nancy Atkinson, 89, Australian bacteriologist.
• Michael P. Malone, 59, American historian, cardiomyopathy.[35]
• Eddie McGirt, 79, American football coach.
• Sergey Nagovitsyn, 31, Russian singer and composer, brain haemorrhage.
• Bernard Smith, 92, American literary editor, film producer and literary critic.[36]
• Frank Stanley, 77, American cinematographer.
• Jalil Ziapour, 79, Iranian painter and academic.

22

• Per Aabel, 97, Norwegian actor, artist, dancer and choreographer.
• Howard H. Cooksey, 78, United States Army Lieutenant General, heart disease.[37]
• Monette Cummings, 85, American writer of pulp fiction.
• Hans Frankenthal, 73, German Holocaust survivor.
• Suvi Raj Grubb, 82, Indian record producer.
• Tamara Lees, 75, English film actress.
• Louis Pohl, 84, American painter, illustrator, art teacher, printmaker and cartoonist.
• Benny Quick, 55, German pop and Schlager singer, suicide.
• Roland Stone, 58, American rhythm and blues and pop singer.[38]

23

• Martin Charteris, Baron Charteris of Amisfield, 86, British Army officer and courtier of Queen Elizabeth II.
• Ronald Strutt, 4th Baron Belper, 87, British hereditary peer, British Army officer, and equestrian.
• Joe Calvert, British footballer.
• John Paton Davies Jr., 91, American diplomat and Medal of Freedom recipient.[39]
• Wallace Diestelmeyer, 73, Canadian figure skater.
• Lois Hamilton, 56, American model, actress and author, suicide.
• Eirene White, Baroness White, 90, British politician and journalist.[40]

24

• Tomasz Beksiński, 41, Polish radio presenter, suicide.
• Bill Bowerman, 88, American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc..
• Maurice Couve de Murville, 92, French politician, 152nd Prime Minister of France.
• Billy Davenport, 68, American drummer.
• João Figueiredo, 81, 30th President of Brazil.[41]
• Tito Guízar, 91, American singer and actor.
• Jiang Hua, 92, President of the Supreme Court of China.
• Joseph McGahn, 82, American politician.[42]
• William C. Schneider, 76, NASA mission director.
• Grete Stern, 95, German-Argentine photographer.

25

• Andrew Collins, 27, English cricketer.
• Peter Jeffrey, 70, English actor, prostate cancer.[43]
• Michael Bamidele Otiko, 65, Nigerian politician and educator.
• Alfonso Lastras Ramírez, 75, Mexican lawyer and politician.

26

• Ola Skjåk Bræk, 87, Norwegian banker and politician.
• Curtis Mayfield, 57, American R&B, soul and funk singer-songwriter and record producer, diabetes complications.[44]
• Shankar Dayal Sharma, 81, 9th president of India.

27

• Leslie Brown, 87, British Anglican prelate.
• Bernard Chacksfield, 86, British Royal Air Force officer.
• Pierre Clémenti, 57, French actor, liver cancer.
• Leonard Goldenson, 94, American T.V. and radio executive.[45]
• Michael McDowell, 49, American novelist and screenwriter, AIDS-related illness.[46]
• Horst Matthai Quelle, 87, German philosopher.
• George Warwick Smith, 83, Australian public servant.

28

• Josephine Barnes, 87, English obstetrician and gynaecologist.
• Donald Cotton, 71, British writer for radio and television.
• John Geoghegan, American publisher, brain aneurysm.
• Kenneth Hudson, 83, British journalist and broadcaster.
• Larry Dale Lee, 41, American financial and economic journalist, knife wounds.[47]
• Harry Monty, 95, Polish-American actor and stuntperson.
• Clayton Moore, 85, American actor.[48]
• Herbert Reiner Jr., 83, American diplomat.
• J. Stuart Wetmore, 84, American bishop.

29

• Colin Fairservice, 90, English professional cricketer.
• Edward Hollamby, 78, English architect and town planner, heart disease.[49]
• Sir Leon Radzinowicz, 93, Polish-born British criminologist.[50]
• José Cláudio dos Reis, 60, Brazilian sports administrator.
• Charles F. Spalding, 81, American heir, political advisor and investment banker, myeloma.
• Gerard Veringa, 75, Dutch politician.[51]
• Jerzy Waldorff, 89, Polish baron, TV personality and writer.

30

• Tom Aherne, 80, Irish footballer and hurler.
• Clint Albright, 73, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Arthur Bassett, 85, Welsh rugby player.
• Gordon Brown, 67, Scottish footballer.
• Lynne Mapp Drexler, 71, American abstract and representational artist, cancer.[52]
• Sarah Knauss, 119, American supercentenarian, oldest person in the world and oldest-ever US citizen.[53]
• Fritz Leonhardt, 90, German structural engineer.
• Terry Rosen, 60, American jazz guitarist, concert promoter, and radio DJ, accidental suicide.
• Donald Eugene Webb, 68, American criminal, stroke.[54]
• La Vern E. Weber, 76, United States Army officer, domestic accident.

31

• Alexandr Vladimirovich Gussev, 82, Russian helminthologist.
• William Hughes, Baron Hughes, 88, British politician.[55]
• Arthur Humberstone, 87, British animator, artist and director.
• Bob McKeen, 66, American basketball player.
• Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi, 85, Indian Islamic scholar and author.[56]
• Elliot Richardson, 79, American politician and diplomat, cerebral hemorrhage.[57]
• Jack Skidmore, 80, Australian trade unionist and politician.
• Matokie Slaughter, 80, American banjo player.
• Richard "Hock" Walsh, 51, Canadian blues singer, heart attack.
• Hamako Watanabe, 89, Japanese singer.
• Shirley Willer, 77, American feminist and activist.

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