Deaths in December 2005

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2005.

December 2005

1

• Gust Avrakotos, 67, CIA agent who armed the mujaheddin of Afghanistan. [1]
• Mary Hayley Bell, 94, British actress, memoirist and writer, Alzheimer's disease. [2]
• Hermann Buchner, 86, German World War II fighter pilot.
• Jack Colvin, 73, American actor, (The Incredible Hulk), coronary thrombosis.
• Michael Evans, 61, White House photographer, noted for capturing the trademark image of Ronald Reagan wearing a cowboy hat, cancer.[3]
• Ray Hanna, 77, New Zealand-born warbird pilot and founder of The Old Flying Machine Company, natural causes. [4]

2

• Kenneth Boyd, 57, American convicted murderer, executed in North Carolina, the 1,000th U.S. execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 [5]
• Lillian Browse, 99, British art dealer. [6]
• Shawn Paul Humphries, 34, American convicted murderer, executed in South Carolina
• Malik Joyeux, 25, professional surfer, killed at Hawaii's Banzai Pipeline [7]
• William P. Lawrence, 75, retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral, first to fly at twice the speed of sound [8]
• Peter Menegazzo, early 60s, Australian cattle baron, killed (along with his wife Angela) in a plane crash [9], [10]
• Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, Australian executed at Changi Prison in Singapore for trafficking 396 grams of heroin in 2002, hanging [11]
• Mohammed Amza Zubeidi, 67, former Iraqi prime minister under Saddam Hussein

3

• Peter Aschwanden, 63, American illustrator.
• Frederick Ashworth, 93, American naval officer, weaponeer who dropped atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
• Peter Cook, 62, Australian politician, melanoma.
• Lance Dossor, 90, Australian pianist.
• John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead, 73, British aristocrat and politician.
• Maurice Harris, 84, trumpet player, Hollywood, studio, TV and sessions player (The Tonight Show).
• Kikka Sirén, 41, Finnish pop/schlager singer.
• Kåre Kristiansen, 85, Norwegian politician; minister of Oil and Energy (1983–1986).
• Bill Robinson, 71, British rugby league player.
• Allan Waters, 84, Canadian broadcasting icon.

4

• Débora Arango, 98, Colombian artist.
• Percy Brandt, 83, Swedish actor.
• Gregg Hoffman, 42, film producer (Saw), natural causes. [12]
• Gloria Lasso, 83, Spanish singer.
• Doug Murphy, 53, former CBS (KPIX) news anchorman, house fire.

5

• John Alvheim, 75, Norwegian politician.
• Gerald Smedley Andrews, 101, Canadian civil servant.
• Wesley Baker, 47, American convicted murderer, executed in Maryland.
• Peter Beet, 68, British railway preservation pioneer.
• Liu Binyan, 80, Chinese author and dissident, cancer. [13].
• Netai Bysack, 84, Indian Olympic cyclist.
• Milo Dor, 82, Serbian-Austrian author, heart failure.
• Edward L. Masry, 73, attorney and mentor to Erin Brockovich, complications of diabetes.
• Kevin "Big Kev" McQuay, 56, Australian businessman and media personality, heart attack. [14]
• Frits Philips, 100, Dutch businessman; grandson of the founder of Philips, complications from a fall.

6

• Charly Gaul, 72, Luxembourgan cyclist, winner of the 1958 Tour de France
• Richard Grimsdale, 76, built the world's first transistorised computer and was at the forefront of work on Read Only Memory [15]
• Hanns Dieter Hüsch, 80, German political satirist
• Jerzy Pajaczkowski-Dydynski, 111, oldest man in the UK at the time of his death [16]
• Danny Williams, 63, South African popular singer, lung cancer

7

• Lucy d'Abreu, 113, oldest person in the UK at the time of her death. [17]
• Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, airplane passenger fatally shot by U.S. Air Marshals after allegedly claiming he had placed a bomb aboard.
• James Bastien, 71, author of instructional books for the piano. [18]
• Martine Bercher, 61, American football player.
• Adrian Biddle, 53, British cinematographer (Aliens, The Princess Bride, Thelma & Louise), heart attack.
• Marvin Braude, 85, American member of Los Angeles City Council.
• Carroll A. Campbell, Jr., 65, former South Carolina governor (1987–1995), and member of U.S. House of Representatives (1979–1987), heart attack and complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• Bud Carson, 75, former NFL head coach, emphysema.
• Loomis Dean, 88, photographer, notably for Life magazine.
• Devan Nair, 82, former president of Singapore. [19]

8

• R. W. Bradford, 58, publisher of Liberty magazine, kidney cancer.
• Dame Rose Heilbron, 91, British judge. [20]
• George D. Painter, 91, British biographer.[21]
• Leo Scheffczyk, 85, German Roman Cardinal Deacon of San Francesco Saverio alla Garbatella, Germany. [22]
• Roger Shattuck, 82, American writer and critic, prostate cancer. [23]
• J.N. Williamson, 73, American horror writer, author and publisher.

9

• Alan John Beale, 72, British virologist.
• Norman Blundell, 88, Australian cricketer.
• Mike Botts, 61, American drummer, toured and recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Dan Fogelberg, Tina Turner and others, cancer.
• Homer Mensch, 91, internationally known bass player, Juilliard teacher.
• Eunice Norton, 97, American classical pianist and music promoter.
• György Sándor, 93, internationally famous pianist, Juilliard teacher, heart failure.
• Robert Sheckley, 77, American science fiction author, brain aneurysm.
• Brian Whittle, 59, British journalist and news agency head [24].

10

• Frank Cooke, 92, American entrepreneur.
• Mary Jackson, 95, American film and television actress (The Exorcist III, Parenthood).
• Donald Martino, 74, American composer.
• Eugene McCarthy, 89, former Democratic United States Senator from Minnesota (1959–1971), and United States Representative (1949–1959) and presidential primary candidate. [25]
• Jim McIntyre, 78, American basketball player.
• Richard Pryor, 65, American comedian and actor (Stir Crazy, Harlem Nights), heart attack and complications of multiple sclerosis.
• Gardner Read, 92, American classical composer.
• Clark G. Reynolds, 65, American naval historian. [26]
• Bob Richardson, 73, fashion photographer.

11

• Walter Cudzik, 73, American NFL and American Football League center for the Boston Patriots
• Hayim Tadmor, 82, Israeli Assyriologist and professor [27]
• Del Philpott, 82, American soldier and scientist

12

• Gebran Tueni, 48, Lebanese journalist and politician.

13

• John Barraclough, 79, Australian politician.
• Dick Nolan, 66, Canadian musician.
• Stanley Tookie Williams, 51, American convicted murderer and co-founder of the Crips turned anti-gang activist, executed by lethal injection for killing 4 people in California.

14

• Erhard Ahmann, 64, German football manager.
• Stew Bowers, 90. American baseball player.
• Gordon Duncan, 41, Scottish musician and bagpiper, suicide [28]
• Sudhir Joshi, 57, Indian actor, heart attack
• John B. Nixon, 77, American convicted murderer, executed in Mississippi
• William "Duke" Procter, 106, Canadian WWI veteran [29]
• Rodney William Whitaker, 74, British author, wrote under pseudonyms such as "Trevanian"
• Will Wilson, 93, American politician, Attorney General of Texas (1957-1963).

15

• Maurice Beresford, 85, British economic historian and archaeologist.
• James Ingo Freed, 75, American architect.
• Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 84, Italian writer and director of movies and theatre.
• Heinrich Gross, 90, Austrian alleged Nazi doctor and war criminal. [30] [31]
• Walter Haut, 83, retired U.S. Army lieutenant, central figure in the Roswell UFO incident in 1947. [32]
• Stan Leonard, 90, Canadian golfer, heart failure. [33]
• Julian Marías, 91, Spanish philosopher and father of author Javier Marías.
• John McIntyre, 89, Scottish theologian. [34]
• Akira Ohgi, 70, Japanese baseball player and manager.
• Jim Ostendarp, 82, football coach at Amherst College for 33 years. [35]
• William Proxmire, 90, former Democratic Senator from Wisconsin (1957–1989), giver of the Golden Fleece Awards for wasteful government spending, complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• Darrell Russell, 29, former NFL player for the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, car accident.

16

• Anthony Barber, 85, British politician and former Conservative Party Chancellor of the Exchequer, complications of Parkinson's disease.
• Boyi Bhimanna, 94, Indian Telugu poet.
• Kenneth Bulmer, 84, English writer (pseudonyms included Alan Burt Akers and Dray Prescot). [36]
• Joseph Owades, 86, American biochemist, inventor of light beer. [37] [38]
• John Spencer, 58, American actor (The West Wing, The Rock), heart attack.
• Sverre Stenersen, 79, Norwegian Gold medal winner in the 1956 Winter Olympics.
• Enzo Stuarti, 86, Italian tenor, was in many Broadway musicals, heart failure. [39]

17

• Jack Anderson, 83, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, complications of Parkinson's disease. [40]
• Marc Favreau, 76, French Canadian television and film actor, best known for his creation of the clown Sol.
• Jacques Fouroux, 58, French rugby union captain and coach, heart attack. [41]
• Haljand Udam, 69, Estonian translator and encyclopedist.

18

• Belita, 82, British skater, dancer and actress.
• Doug Dye, 84, New Zealand microbiologist.
• Howie Ferguson, 75, former NFL player.
• Doris Fisher, Baroness Fisher of Rednal, 86, British politician. [42]
• Barry Halper, 66, baseball memorabilia collector and limited partner for the New York Yankees. [43]
• Belita Jepson-Turner, 82, Olympic skater and film actress. [44]
• John McIntyre, 89, Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly (1982), former acting principal and professor of divinity of the University of Edinburgh. [45][46]
• P.M. Sayeed, 64, India's Minister of Power, heart attack. [47]
• Alan M. Voorhees, 83, transportation engineer and city planner [48]

19

• Billy Amstell, 94, British jazz musician.
• Sir Charles Brett, 77, Northern Irish architectural historian.
• George Bromilow, 74, British footballer at the 1956 Summer Olympics.
• Keith Duckworth, 72, British automotive designer. [49]
• Vincent Gigante, 77, Genovese family crime boss, heart disease.
• Phyllis Gretzky, 64, mother of NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, lung cancer.
• Julio Iglesias, Sr., 90, Spanish gynaecologist who is among the oldest men to have fathered a child (also Julio Iglesias's father and Enrique Iglesias's grandfather), heart attack.
• Marjorie Kellogg, 83, American author and playwright (Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon). [50]

20

• Raoul Bott, 82, Harvard mathematician, cancer. [51]
• Argentina Brunetti, 98, Argentine-Italian actress. (It's a Wonderful Life, The Caddy), writer, journalist.
• Theodore Holmes Bullock, 90, American neuroscientist.
• Bradford Cannon, 98, Boston plastic surgeon, pneumonia. [52]
• Genrikh Fedosov, 73, Soviet football player.
• William W. Howells, 97, American anthropologist. [53]
• Billy Hughes, 57, American former child/film actor during the 1960s. [54]
• Graham Wilson, 66, Australian rugby league player.

21

• Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent, 90, Spanish officer of arms.
• Myron Healey, 82, American film actor who normally played Western villains. [55]
• Elrod Hendricks, 64, Baltimore Orioles coach, former MLB catcher, heart attack. [56]
• Hallam Tennyson, 85, British radio producer and great-grandson of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, suspected victim of murder. [57]

22

• Richard Bellucci, 91, American ear surgeon and inventor.
• Cooper Evans, 81, former Republican US Representative from Iowa from 1981–1987.
• Aurora Miranda, 90, Brazilian entertainer, sister of Carmen Miranda; she appeared in The Three Caballeros (1945) in which she danced with Donald Duck.
• Bill Scott, 82, Australian author.

23

• Lajos Baróti, 91, Hungarian football coach. [58]
• Selma Jeanne Cohen, 85, dance historian, editor of The International Encyclopedia of Dance. [59]
• G. Blakemore Evans, 93, Shakespeare scholar, author of The Riverside Shakespeare, stroke. [60]
• Truman Gibson, 93, anti-segregation lawyer and boxing promoter. [61]
• Camille Gravel, 90, Louisiana lawyer and civil rights activist, advisor to three governors. [62]
• Norman D. Vaughan, 100, American explorer and sportsman, part of Richard Byrd's 1928 South Pole expedition. [63][64]
• Yao Wenyuan, 74, Chinese Communist political leader, member of the Gang of Four. [65]

24

• Douglas Bigelow, 49, chief of web security at AOL, pancreatic cancer [66]
• Georg Johannesen, 74, Norwegian author and professor of rhetoric. [67]
• Constance Keene, 84, American classical pianist known for playing the romantic repertoire [68]
• Harold Lawton, 106, British academic and veteran of the First World War [69]
• Michael Vale, 83, American actor who appeared in over 1,300 commercials as the sleepy doughnut maker for Dunkin' Donuts from 1982–1997, diabetes. [70]
• Wang Daohan, 90, negotiator for People's Republic of China in cross-straits talks, who contributed to the formation of the 1992 Consensus with Koo Chen-fu from the Republic of China on Taiwan [71]

25

• Felice Andreasi, 77, Italian actor.
• Derek Bailey, 75, free improvising avant-garde guitarist, motor neuron disease. [72]
• Robert Barbers, 61, former Philippines senator, heart attack. [73]
• Bhanumathi, 80, Indian film actress, director, singer/songwriter. [74]
• Donald Dawson, 97, executive assistant to Harry S. Truman. [75]
• Henry Kock, 53, Canadian horticulturist and eco-activist, brain cancer. [76]
• Birgit Nilsson, 87, Swedish soprano. [77]
• Joseph Pararajasingham, 71, Sri Lankan politician and supporter of the Tamil Tiger rebels, shot and killed at a midnight Christmas Mass. [78]
• Roy Stuart, 70, American actor.[79]

26

• Mikuláš Athanasov, 75, Czechoslovak wrestler.
• Julian "Bud" Blake, 87, American cartoonist (Tiger). [80]
• Muriel Costa-Greenspon, 68, mezzo-soprano at the New York City Opera for 30 years. [81]
• John Diebold, 79, pioneering American computer engineer. [82]
• Ernesto Leal, 60, presidential chief of staff and former foreign minister of Nicaragua, pneumonia. [83] (Spanish)
• Kerry Packer, 68, publishing, media and gaming tycoon, Australia's richest individual amassing a fortune of over $6 billion. [84]
• Vincent Schiavelli, 57, American actor (Ghost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), lung cancer. [85]
• John Taylor, 80, Canadian football player (St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy and Montreal Alouettes). [86]

27

• Stuart Alexander, 44, American businessman and murderer.
• Philip N. Carney, 86, American politician, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
• Xavier Connor, 88, Australian jurist, foundation judge of the Federal Court of Australia, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission 1985 - 1987.
• Ted Ditchburn, 84, English football goalkeeper (Tottenham Hotspur, England national football team). [87]
• John McCabe, 75, American writer.
• Giancarlo Primo, 81, Italian basketball coach, the first to defeat National Teams USA and USSR in 1970s. [88]
• Erich Topp, 91, German U-boat commander in World War II. [89]
• Tokuji Wakasa, 91, Japanese businessman, former president of All Nippon Airways.

28

• Bruce Carver, 57, American video game developer.
• Patrick Cranshaw, 86, American film and television actor [90]
• Richard De Angelis, 73, comedian and actor (The Wire), congestive heart failure [91]
• Stevo Žigon, 79, Serbian actor and theatre director

29

• Armand Phillip Bartos, 95, American architect. [92]
• Gerda Boyesen, 83, Norwegian psychologist.
• Dan Carnevale, 87, American baseball player.
• Abuna Yesehaq Mandefro, 72, Ethiopian-Orthodox Archbishop. [93]
• Eileen Nolan, 85, British Director of the Women's Royal Army Corps. [94]
• Elizabeth Parcells, 54, American operatic coloratura soprano. [95]
• Clint Sampson, 44, American football player. [96]

30

• Eddie Barlow, 65, South African cricketer. [97]
• Candy Barr, 70, exotic dancer, pneumonia. [98]
• Charles J. Bowles, 83, American physical education expert.
• Pasquale Carpino, 69, Italian-Canadian Singing Chef.[99]
• Tory Dent, 47, American poet, essayist and art critic. [100]
• Rona Jaffe, 74, American novelist (The Best of Everything, Mazes and Monsters), cancer. [101]
• Fred "Jock" Smith, 79, Scottish footballer (Hull City, Sheffield United and Millwall).
• Bobby Stevens, 98, American baseball player. [102]

31

• Sanora Babb, 98, American writer. [103]
• Enrico Di Giuseppe, 73, American operatic tenor, cancer. [104]
• Maurice Dodd, 83, British cartoonist (The Perishers), brain haemorrhage. [105]
• Sir John Peel, 101, British gynaecologist. [106]
• Maclovia Ruiz, 95, American dancer, pneumonia. [107]
• David Silsoe, 75, British lawyer. [108]
• Phillip Whitehead, 68, British Labour Party MEP for Derby North, former television producer, heart attack. [109]