Deaths in 2007

The following is a list of notable deaths in 2007. Links to other years follow.

Names are listed under the date of death, not the date it was announced. Names under each date are listed in alphabetical order by family name. Only persons meeting the Wikipedia notability guidelines are listed and with a reference to a reliable source. A typical entry appears in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship, reason for notability, established cause of death, reference.

Causes of death such as "old age" and "natural causes" are not cited unless stated in the reference.

March 2007

24

• Jun Bernardino, 59, Philippine Basketball Association commissioner (1993–2002) and sports executive. [1]
• Jean Schwinden, 81, former First Lady of Montana, wife of Ted Schwinden, cancer. [2]

23

• Ed Bailey, 75, American baseball player (1953–1966) and Knoxville, Tennessee city councilman (1983–1995), throat cancer. [3]
• Bertel Gardberg, 90, Finnish designer, silversmith and academician. [4] (Finnish)
• Attila Kaszás, 47, Hungarian actor, stroke. [5] (Hungarian)
• Mao Anqing, 84, Chinese author and son of Mao Zedong. [6]
• Damian McDonald, 34, Australian olympian, traffic accident. [7]
• Eric Medlen, 33, American NHRA driver, diffuse axonal injury from car accident. [8]
• Vinício Pereira, 51, Portuguese founding member of Portuguese Surfing Federation, president of European Surfing Federation. [9]
• Walter Turnbull, 62, American founder of the Boys Choir of Harlem, stroke. [10]

22

• Nisar Bazmi, 83, Pakistani composer, kidney failure. [11]
• Robert Krakoff, 72, American President and CEO of Nielsen Business Media. [12]
• Daniel Díaz Maynard, 73, Uruguayan politician, Deputy (1990–2005). [13] [14] (Spanish)
• Genia Walschek, 90, Swiss footballer, last living member of the 1938 Swiss national team. [15] (German)

21

• Drew Hayes, 37, American comic book writer/artist (Poison Elves), heart attack. [16]
• Sven O. Høiby, 70, Norwegian journalist and father of Mette Marit, Crown Princess of Norway, lung cancer. [17] (Norwegian)
• Catherine Seipp, 49, American conservative columnist, lung cancer. [18]

20

• Albert Baez, 94, American physicist and father of Joan Baez and Mimi Fariña, natural causes. [19]
• Raynald Fréchette, 73, Canadian lawyer, Quebec Superior Court judge and National Assembly of Quebec member, cancer. [20] (French)
• Sébastien Gressez, 28, French musician, shot. [21]
• Rita Joe, 75, Canadian Mi'kmaq poet, Parkinson's disease. [22]
• Gilbert E. Patterson, 67, American bishop of Church of God in Christ, heart failure. [23]
• Taha Yassin Ramadan, 69, Iraqi vice-president (1991–2003), execution by hanging. [24]
• Ernie Wright, 67, American football offensive lineman in the 1960s, cancer. [25].

19

• Lloyd Algernon Best, 73, Trinidadian economist, politician and columnist, prostate cancer. [26]
• Calvert DeForest, 85, American actor, comedian and David Letterman sidekick known as Larry "Bud" Melman. [27]
• Robert Dickson, 62, Canadian professor, award-winning Franco-Ontarian writer and poet, cancer. [28]
• Luther Ingram, 69, American R&B singer and songwriter ("(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right"), kidney failure. [29] [30]
• Boonchu Rojanasathien, 86, Thai Deputy Prime Minister (1975–1976), senior executive with Bangkok Bank, cancer. [31]
• Charles Stafford, 83, American journalist, co-winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, leukemia. [32]
• Shimon Tzabar, 81, Israeli artist, author, poet and former Haaretz columnist, pneumonia. [33].

18

• Michael Coers, 62, American Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer. [34]
• William N. Panzer, 64, American co-producer of the Highlander films (1986–2007) and TV series (1992–1998), skating accident. [35]
• John G. (Jack) Samson, 84, American author, editor of Field and Stream magazine, complications of Alzheimer's disease. [36]
• Bob Woolmer, 58, British cricketer for England (1975–1981) and Pakistan cricket team coach, manual strangulation.[37]
• Kenneth Zebroski, 61, American politician, member of the New York State Assembly, hepatitis and blood clot. [38]
• Juan Manuel Zúñiga, 43, Mexican Lucha Libre professional wrestler known as Angel Azteca. [39]

17

• John Backus, 82, American computer scientist who led the IBM team that developed Fortran. [40]
• Roger Bennett, 48, American Southern Gospel pianist (The Cathedrals, Legacy Five), complications of leukemia. [41]
• Jim Cronin, 55, American conservationist who founded Monkey World, liver cancer. [42]
• Freddie Francis, 89, British film director and two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer, stroke. [43]
• Eiji Funakoshi, 84, Japanese actor (Fires on the Plain), stroke. [44]
• Illarion Golitsyn, 78, Russian painter, car accident. [45]
• Ernst Haefliger, 87, Swiss operatic tenor, heart failure. [46]
• Buck Jones, 33, American country music singer, hit by vehicle. [47]
• Wilford "Crazy Ray" Jones, 76, American cheerleading fan of the Dallas Cowboys, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. [48]
• Tanya Reinhart, 63, Israeli linguist and peace activist, stroke. [49]
• Emil "Kembala" Trifonov, 43, Bulgarian journalist, car accident. [50]

16

• Georges Bordonove, 86, French writer and historian. [51] (French)
• Luz Franco, 52, Portuguese actress, dramatist and director, cancer. [52] (Portuguese)
• Sajjadul Hasan, 28, Bangladeshi domestic cricketer, motorcycle accident. [53]
• Sir Arthur Marshall, 103, British aviation engineer. [54]
• Raymond Nasher, 85, American art collector, founder of Nasher Sculpture Center, Nasher Museum of Art and NorthPark Center. [55].
• Manjural Islam Rana, 22, Bangladeshi national cricketer, motorcycle accident. [56]
• Carol Richards, 84, American actress and singer ("Silver Bells" with Bing Crosby). [57]
• Bill Sabo, 46, American musician, original drummer for Shok Paris, heart failure. [58]
• Tupper Saussy, 70, American composer, musician, author, and artist, heart attack. [59]
• Milton Wexler, 98, American psychoanalyst and researcher, respiratory failure. [60]

15

• Blanquita Amaro, 83, Cuban-born actress and dancer, heart attack. [61]
• Sally Clark, 42, British solicitor wrongly convicted of killing two of her sons. [62]
• Maria Gandolfi-Benni, 110, Italian supercentenarian. [63]
• Charles Harrelson, 69, American convicted murderer, father of actor Woody Harrelson, heart attack. [64]
• Jay Kennedy, 50, American editor-in-chief of King Features Syndicate, drowning. [65]
• Bowie Kuhn, 80, American Major League Baseball commissioner (1969–1984), respiratory failure. [66]
• Orlando Martinez, 65, Cuban-born American baseball player and manager. [67]
• Jack Metcalf, 79, American Republican Representative from Washington state (1995–2001), complications of Alzheimer's disease. [68]
• Datuk Wira Poh Ah Tiam, 55, Malaysian politician, cancer and renal failure. [69] [70]
• Stuart Rosenberg, 79, American TV and film director (Cool Hand Luke), heart attack. [71]
• Herman Stein, 91, American film and television composer. [72]
• Jean Talairach, 96, French psychiatrist and neurosurgeon. [73] (French)
• Jovan Zebic, 67, Serbian politician, ally of Slobodan Milosevic. [74]

14

• Lucie Aubrac, 94, French member of the Resistance during World War II. [75]
• Roger Beaufrand, 98, French Olympian, oldest Olympic champion at time of death. [76] [77]
• Tommy Cavanagh, 78, British football player and manager of Burnley. [78]
• Stan Duke, 70, American pioneer black TV sportscaster, heart attack. [79]
• Mary Fortin, 97, American philanthropist, mother of Stockard Channing. [80]
• Sa'dun Hammadi, 76, Iraqi Prime Minister (1991), leukemia. [81]
• Fitzgerald "Mighty Terror" Henry, 86, Trinidadian calypso musician. [82]
• Gareth Hunt, 65, British actor (The New Avengers), pancreatic cancer. [83]
• Zygmunt Kęstowicz, 86, Polish actor. [84] (Polish)
• Manso Pinheiro, 65, Portuguese publisher (História de Portugal), pancreatic cancer. [85] (Portuguese)

13

• Jorge Díaz, 77, Argentine-born Chilean playwright. [86] (Spanish)
• Herbert Fux, 79, Austrian actor and politician. [87] (German)
• Harald Leupold-Löwenthal, 80, Austrian psychoanalyst. [88] [89] (German)
• Wendy Russell Reves, 90, American philanthropist. [90]
• Arnold Skaaland, 82, American professional wrestler. [91]
• Karol Spišák, 65, Slovak film, theatre and TV director. [92] (Slovak)
• Nicole Stéphane, 83, French actress (Le Silence de la mer). [93] (French)

12

• Arnold Drake, 83, American comic book writer (Doom Patrol), pneumonia and septic shock. [94]
• Vilma Ebsen, 96, American sister and dancing partner of Buddy Ebsen. [95]
• Jack Gaster, 99, British Member of Communist Party of Great Britain, solicitor and civil rights campaigner. [96]
• Preah Maha Ghosananda, 77, Cambodian Buddhist Sangharaja and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. [97]
• Antonio Ortiz Mena, 99, Mexican Finance Secretary (1958–1970), IDB President (1971–1987), complications from a fall. [98] (Spanish)
• Isidoro Vejo Rodríguez, 92, Uruguayan Minister of Public Works (1963–1967). [99] (Spanish)
• Marie Thiebat-Forcheri, 110, Italian supercentenarian. [100]
• Yeap Ghim Guan, 66, Malaysian lawyer and politician, founding member of the DAP, complications from a stroke. [101]

11

• Gilbert Aldana, 29, American mixed martial artist, Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran, drowning. [102] [103]
• Cecil Anstey OAM, 96, Australian state cricketer and hockey Olympian, QLD junior cricket co-founder, first QUT Registrar. [104] [105]
• Betty Hutton, 86, American singer/actress (The Miracle of Morgan's Creek), complications from colon cancer. [106]
• Tom Jacobs, 61, American poker player, runner-up in the 1992 World Series of Poker Main Event. [107]
• Anil Suchit, 39, Trinidadian chutney singer, lung disorder. [108]
• Martha Sosman, 56, American judge, member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, breast cancer. [109]

10

• Bud Allin, 62, American golfer, winner of five PGA Tour events, cancer. [110]
• Ricardo Espalter, 82, Uruguayan actor and comedian, renal failure. [111] (Spanish)
• Benis Frank, 82, American military historian, heart failure. [112]
• Richard Jeni, 49, American comedian, apparent suicide by gunshot. [113]
• Ernie Ladd, 68, American NFL player and wrestler, cancer. [114]
• Ben Pappas, 29, Australian skateboarder and murder suspect, apparent suicide. [115] [116]
• Lanna Saunders, 65, American soap opera actress (Days of our Lives), multiple sclerosis. [117]
• Martha B. Sosman, 56, American Justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, respiratory failure. [118]
• Angela Webber, 52, Australian comedienne and writer, cancer. [119]

9

• Rosy Afsari, 60, Bangladeshi film actress, kidney failure. [120]
• Otto Wolff von Amerongen, 88, German business leader. [121]
• Brad Delp, 55, American lead singer of 1970s AOR band Boston, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. [122] [123] [124]
• Ron Evans, 67, Australian chairman of the AFL Commission, former Essendon chairman and player, abdominal cancer. [125]
• Jeanne Hopkins Lucas, 71, American politician, first black woman to serve in the Senate of North Carolina. [126]
• Gerardo Mello Mourão, 90, Brazilian writer (A Invenção do Mar, O País dos Mourões), multiple organ failure. [127] (Portuguese)
• Juan Carlos Portantiero, 73, Argentine sociologist, renal failure. [128] [129] (Spanish).

8

• Alejandro Cruz, 82, Mexican professional wrestler known as "The Black Shadow", pneumonia. [130]
• Cruz Hernández, 128?, Salvadoran claimant to the title of world's oldest person. [131]
• John Inman, 71, British actor (Are You Being Served?), liver disease. [132] [133]
• György Kocsis, 44, Hungarian actor. [134] (Hungarian)
• Curtis Magnuson, 66, American president of Hugo's grocery store chain, after long illness. [135]
• Herman Ridderbos, 98, Dutch theologian. [136] (Dutch)
• Richard Trexler, 74, American historian of the Florentine Renaissance, complications from a kidney transplant. [137].
• Viky Vanita, 59, Greek actress. [138] (Greek)
• John Vukovich, 59, American baseball player and coach, brain tumor complications. [139]

7

• Bill Chinnock, 59, American singer and Emmy Award–winning composer, suicide after battling Lyme disease. [140]
• Eduardo Darnauchans, 53, Uruguayan singer and composer, heart failure. [141] [142] (Spanish)
• Paul deLay, 55, American blues harmonica player, leukemia. [143]
• Frigyes Hidas, 78, Hungarian composer. [144]
• Pino Lancetti, 78, Italian clothing designer. [145]
• Emil Mailho, 97, American baseball player. [146]
• Morgan Mellish, 36, Australian Walkley Award-winning journalist for the Australian Financial Review, plane crash. [147]
• Neil North, 74, British film actor (both versions of The Winslow Boy). [148]
• Andy Sidaris, 76, American film director, throat cancer. [149]
• Sándor Szakácsi, 54, Hungarian actor, cancer of the larynx. [150] (Hungarian)
• Carla Thorneycroft, Baroness Thorneycroft, 93, Italian–born British philanthropist. [151]
• Bill Threlfall, 81, British tennis player, coach and commentator. [152]
• Billy Walkabout, 57, Cherokee-American highly decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, pneumonia and renal failure. [153] [154]

6

• Xenia Azoubel, 81, Russian-born ballerina with the Roland Petit ballet company, pedestrian traffic accident. [155] [156]
• Jean Baudrillard, 77, French postmodernist philosopher and sociologist. [157]
• Moshe Beisky, 86, Israeli Supreme Court judge (1979–1991). [158]
• Lina Buffolente, 82, Italian comic book artist. [159] (Italian)
• Allen Coage, 63, American-born Olympic judo bronze medalist and professional wrestler known as "Bad News Brown". [160] [161]
• José Luis Coll, 75, Spanish humorist, multiple organ failure. [162] (Spanish)
• Shane Cross, 20, Australian skateboarder, motorcycle accident. [163]
• Ernest Gallo, 97, American co-founder of E & J Gallo Winery. [164]
• Pierre Moinot, 86, French novelist elected to Académie française. [165] (French)
• Ray Stern, 74, American professional wrestler, complications from heart surgery. [166]

5

• Wilfred Baker, 106, British World War I veteran believed to be second oldest man in Scotland. [167]
• John Baugh, 91, American founder of foodservice distributor Sysco. [168]
• Peronne Boddaert, 37, Dutch theologian, pneumonia. [169] (Dutch)
• Yvan Delporte, 78, Belgian editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine (1956–1968). [170] (French)
• Milan Kiš, 72, Slovak actor, after short illness. [171] (Slovak)
• Ivo Lorscheiter, 79, Brazilian Catholic Bishop and advocate of liberation theology, multiple organ failure. [172] [173]
• Ivan Supek, 91, Croatian scientist, philosopher and writer. [174] (Croatian)

4

• Natalie Bodanya, 98, American operatic soprano. [175]
• Anita Bowser, 86, American scholar and Indiana State Senator, breast cancer. [176]
• Thomas Eagleton, 77, United States Senator for Missouri (1969–1987), heart and respiratory complications. [177]
• Bob Hattoy, 56, American President of California Fish & Game Commission, AIDS activist, complications from AIDS. [178]
• Sunil Kumar Mahato, 41, Indian parliamentarian, shot. [179]
• Tadeusz Nalepa, 63, Polish blues and rock singer, after long illness. [180] (Polish)
• Robert Prince, 78, American television and film score composer nominated for an Emmy. [181]
• John Taylor, 46, American blues singer/guitarist, leader of Johnny Widebars & The Shovelheads, motorcycle accident. [182]
• Ian Wooldridge, 75, British sports journalist, cancer. [183]

3

• Osvaldo Cavandoli, 87, Italian cartoonist. [184] (Italian)
• Josep Maria Huertas Claveria, 67, Spanish journalist and historian, cerebral hemorrhage. [185] (Spanish)
• Alfonso Iglesias Soto, 82, Mexican actor and comedian known as "Pompín Iglesias", cardiac arrest. [186] (Spanish)
• Benito Lorenzi, 81, Italian football striker (Italy, Inter Milan). [187]
• Godwin Patrick Olu Obasi, 73, Nigerian Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (1984–2003). [188]
• Gene Oliver, 71, American baseball player in the 1960s, complications from lung surgery. [189]
• Saul Swimmer, 70, American documentary filmmaker (The Concert for Bangladesh), heart failure. [190]
• Marjabelle Young Stewart, 82, American etiquette authority and author, pneumonia. [191]

2

• Doris Anderson, 85, Canadian feminist, writer and editor of Chatelaine, pulmonary fibrosis. [192]
• Thomas Kleppe, 87, United States Secretary of Interior (1975–1977) and Representative from North Dakota, Alzheimer's disease. [193]
• Clem Labine, 80, American baseball pitcher (Brooklyn and LA Dodgers), complications of brain surgery. [194] [195]
• Harold Michelson, 87, American production designer twice nominated for an Academy Award. [196]
• Mike Mooney, 37, American football player with Georgia Tech and the 1993 San Diego Chargers. [197]
• Ivan Safronov, 51, Russian defence correspondent for Kommersant, fall from building. [198]
• João Alfacinha da Silva, 58, Portuguese writer, stroke. [199] (Portuguese)
• William C. Sturtevant, 80, American Smithsonian Institution curator, emphysema. [200]
• Henri Troyat, 95, French writer and historian, member of the Académie française. [201] [202]

1

• Manuel Bento, 58, Portuguese football goalkeeper (Portugal, SL Benfica), cardiopulmonary arrest. [203]
• Otto Brandenburg, 72, Danish singer and actor. [204] (Danish)
• Joel Brodsky, 67, American photographer specializing in rock and roll musicians, heart attack. [205]
• Collette Brosset, 85, French actress. [206] (French)
• Myer Feldman, 92, American political adviser to President Kennedy. [207]
• Eddie Firestone, 86, American movie actor (Duel, Good Morning Miss Dove), heart failure. [208]
• George Gabb, 79, Belizean artist, sculptor and writer, cardiac arrest. [209]
• Nelly Goitiño, 77, Uruguayan teacher, lawyer, actress, theatre director and politician, leukemia. [210] (Spanish)
• Sir Sydney Gun-Munro, 90, Governor-General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1979–1985), after long illness. [211]
• Tinos Rusere, 61, Zimbabwean Deputy Minister for Mines and Environment, kidney failure. [212]

February 2007

See Deaths in February 2007.

January 2007

See Deaths in January 2007.

External links

• Obituaries on the Web
  • Recent AP Obituaries
  • The New York Times: Obituaries
  • Washington Post: Obituaries
  • The Boston Globe: Obituaries
  • Mail & Guardian (South Africa) Obituaries
  • The Guardian (UK): Obituaries
  • Daily Telegraph: Obituaries
  • The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Obituaries

• Specialized websites
  • The Blog of Death
  • Celebrity Death Beeper
  • Celebrity Obits
  • Dead or Alive
  • Dead People Server
  • Find a Grave
  • Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom Casualties
  • Myspace Deaths
  • VIPatients.com
  • Writers We've Lost
  • Written in Stone - Literary deaths

For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2006, Deaths in 2005, Deaths in 2004, Deaths in 2003, Deaths in 2002, Deaths in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, ...