Deaths in 2008

The following is a list of notable deaths in 2008. Names are listed by date of death, not the date it was announced. Names under each date are listed in alphabetical order by family name.

Please note that there is long-standing consensus that deaths of notable animals, i.e. those with their own Wikipedia articles, are reported here.

A typical entry appears in the following sequence:

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

September 2008

12

• George Putnam, 94, American television newsman. [1]
• Bob Quinn, 93, Australian footballer (Port Adelaide) and Military Medal recipient. [2]
• Charlie Walker, 81, American honky tonk singer. [3]

11

• Bennett Campbell, 65, Canadian politician, premier of Prince Edward Island (1978–1979), cancer. [4]
• Dave Hanner, 78, American NFL player and coach (Green Bay Packers), heart attack. [5]
• Klaus Johann Jacobs, 71, German-born Swiss billionaire, cancer. [6] (German)
• Nils Johan Ringdal, 56, Norwegian author and historian. [7] (Norwegian)

10

• Saleh Aridi, 50, Lebanese pro-Syrian politician, car bomb. [8]
• Gérald Beaudoin, 79, Canadian senator and lawyer. [9]
• David Chipp, 81, British editor-in-chief of the Press Association and Reuters. [10]
• Florian Goebel, 35, German astrophysicist, fall. [11] (Spanish)
• Vernon Handley, 77, British conductor. [12]
• Sherrill Headrick, 71, American football player, cancer. [13]
• Reginald Shepherd, 44, American poet, complications from colon cancer. [14]
• Paul Williams, 85, British politician, MP (1953–1964). [15]

9

• Eddie Crowder, 77, American football player and coach, complications of leukemia. [16]
• Jacob Lekgetho, 34, South African footballer. [17]
• P. N. Menon, 80, Indian film director, after long illness. [18]
• Warith Deen Mohammed, 74, American Islamic leader, son of Elijah Muhammad. [19]
• Richard Monette, 64, Canadian actor and director, pulmonary embolism. [20]
• Nouhak Phoumsavanh, 98, Laotian politician, president (1992–1998), natural causes. [21] [22]

8

• Ahn Jae-hwan, 36, South Korean actor, body found on this date after suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. [23]
• Nathan Green Gordon, 92, American politician and Medal of Honor recipient, lt. governor of Arkansas (1947–1967), pneumonia. [24]
• Bheki Mseleku, 53, South African-born British jazz musician, diabetes. [25]
• Ralph Plaisted, 80, American Arctic explorer, natural causes. [26]
• Evan Tanner, 37, American MMA fighter and UFC middleweight champion, body found on this date after apparent heat exposure. [27]
• Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, 73, Indian violinist. [28]
• Hector Zazou, 60, French composer and record producer. [29]

7

• Kune Biezeveld, 60, Dutch theologian. [30]
• Ilarion Ciobanu, 76, Romanian actor. [31] (Romanian)
• Chris Dudek, 42, German drummer (Sodom). [32]
• Peter Glossop, 80, British operatic baritone. [33]
• Don Gutteridge, 96, American Major League Baseball player, coach and manager. [34]
• Don Haskins, 78, American college basketball coach. [35]
• Georg Kahn-Ackermann, 90, German journalist and politician. [36] (German)
• Gregory Mcdonald, 71, American author (Fletch), cancer. [37]
• Nagi Noda, 35, Japanese pop star and director, injuries from traffic accident. [38]
• Steve Norbury, 37, British Superside driver, race crash. [39]
• Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, 66, Austrian literary scholar and critic. [40] (German)
• Larry Shaben, 73, Canadian politician, member of Legislative Assembly of Alberta (1975–1989), cancer. [41]

6

• Dino Dvornik, 44, Croatian actor and pop singer. [42]
• Aril Edvardsen, 69, Norwegian evangelical preacher and missionary. [43]
• Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala, 78, Egyptian politician, field marshal and defence minister, throat cancer. [44]
• Antonio Innocenti, 93, Italian cardinal. [45]
• Allan Lawrence, 82, Canadian politician, MP for Northumberland—Durham (1972–1988). [46]
• Sören Nordin, 91, Swedish harness racing trainer. [47]
• Anita Page, 98, American actress (The Broadway Melody), natural causes. [48]
• Bill Shorthouse, 86, British footballer. [49]
• Mike Swoboda, 69, American politician, mayor of Kirkwood, Missouri (2000–2008), complications of shooting. [50]

5

• Raymond Bernabei, 83, American soccer player, complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. [51]
• Robert Giroux, 94, American editor and publisher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). [52]
• Fernando Barbosa Lima, 74, Brazilian journalist and television producer, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. [53] (Portuguese)
• Béla G. Németh, 83, Hungarian historian. [54] (Hungarian)
• Thupten Jigme Norbu, 86, Tibetan Lama (Taktser Rinpoche), eldest brother of the 14th Dalai Lama. [55]
• Doyle Parrack, 86, American college basketball coach. [56]
• Luis Santibáñez, 72, Chilean football team manager, complications from a kidney condition. [57]
• Mila Schön, 91, Italian fashion designer. [58]

4

• Mary Dunn, 66, American Iyengar yoga instructor, peritoneal cancer. [59]
• Colin Egar, 81, Australian test cricket umpire. [60]
• Dick Enderle, 60, American football player. [61]
• Abdul Samad Ismail, 84, Malaysian journalist, lung infection and kidney failure. [62]
• Alain Jacquet, 69, French pop artist, cancer. [63]
• Tommy Johnston, 81, British footballer, top scorer for Leyton Orient. [64]
• Erik Nielsen, 84, Canadian deputy prime minister (1984–1986), brother of Leslie Nielsen, heart attack. [65]
• Waldick Soriano, 75, Brazilian composer and singer, prostate cancer. [66] (Portuguese)
• Fernando Torres, 80, Brazilian actor, voice-over artist, director and producer, emphysema. [67]

3

• Abdulla Alishayev, Russian Dagestani journalist, shot. [68]
• Donald Blakeslee, 89, American Air Force officer. [69]
• Françoise Demulder, 61, French war photographer, heart attack. [70]
• Michael Hammer, 60, American management theorist, cranial bleeding. [71]
• Earl Lunsford, 74, American Canadian Football League player and Hall of Famer (Calgary Stampeders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers). [72]
• Géo Voumard, 87, Swiss composer and producer, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival. [73]

2

• Andreas Zeier Cappelen, 93, Norwegian politician and minister. [74] (Norwegian)
• Todd Cruz, 52, American Major League Baseball player. [75]
• Arne Domnérus, 83, Swedish jazz alto saxophonist and clarinetist. [76]
• Joey Giardello, 78, American boxer, middleweight boxing champion (1963–1965), heart failure. [77]
• Mark Guardado, 46, American president of Hells Angels San Francisco chapter, shot. [78]
• Shaykh Abdullah al-Harari, 98, Ethiopian-born Lebanese scholar, founder of the Al-Ahbash movement. [79]
• Bill Meléndez, 91, Mexican-born American animator (Peanuts). [80]
• Sir Denis Rooke, 84, British industrialist. [81]

1

• Thomas J. Bata, 93, Czech-born Canadian businessman (Bata Shoes). [82]
• Calvin Beale, 85, American demographer, colon cancer. [83]
• Ian Edward Fraser, 87, British recipient of the Victoria Cross. [84]
• Helen Galland, 83, American retail executive, president of Bonwit Teller (1980–1983), heart attack. [85]
• Kevin Heinze, 80, Australian pioneer gardening television presenter, heart attack. [86]
• Mel Ignatow, 70, American murderer, fall. [87]
• Sheldon Keller, 85, American comedy writer, complications from Alzheimer's disease. [88]
• Don LaFontaine, 68, American voice-over artist, complications from pneumothorax. [89]
• Henry Wako Muloki, 87, Ugandan Kyabazinga of Busoga since 1995, esophageal cancer. [90]
• Michael Pate, 88, Australian actor and writer, pneumonia. [91]
• Oded Schramm, 46, Israeli mathematician, fall. [92]
• Jorio Vivarelli, 86, Italian sculptor and graphic artist. [93] (Italian)

August 2008

See Deaths in August 2008.

July 2008

See Deaths in July 2008.

June 2008

See Deaths in June 2008.

May 2008

See Deaths in May 2008.

April 2008

See Deaths in April 2008.

March 2008

See Deaths in March 2008.

February 2008

See Deaths in February 2008.

January 2008

See Deaths in January 2008.

External links

• English language obituaries on the Web
  • General
    • Obituaries.com
    • Recent AP Obituaries
    • Variety Magazine Obituaries
  • US
    • The New York Times: Obituaries
    • Washington Post: Obituaries
    • The Boston Globe: Obituaries
    • Los Angeles Times: Obituaries
  • South Africa
    • Mail & Guardian (South Africa) Obituaries
  • UK
    • The Daily Telegraph: Obituaries
    • The Guardian: Obituaries
    • The Independent: Obituaries
    • The Times: Obituaries
    • The Scotsman: Obituaries
    • Lasting Tribute: Obituaries
  • Australia
    • The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Obituaries

• Specialized websites
  • Dead or Alive
  • Dead People Server
  • Death List
  • Died Today
  • Entertainment Insiders
  • Famous Dead Database
  • Find a Grave
  • Life In Legacy
  • Very Important Patients
  • Writers We've Lost
  • Written in Stone - Literary deaths

For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2007, 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, ...