Deaths in December 2007

Deaths in 2007 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- →

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2007.

31

• Olayr Coan, 48, Brazilian actor, car accident. [1] (Portuguese)
• Tommy Dickson, 78, British footballer (Linfield, Northern Ireland). [2]
• Tony Elliott, 48, American football player (New Orleans Saints). [3]
• Michael Goldberg, 83, American abstract expressionist painter, heart attack. [4]
• Bill Idelson, 88, American actor and script writer, complications from a broken hip. [5]
• Kathryn Ish, 71, American television, voiceover and theater actress (Laverne & Shirley), cancer. [6]
• Milton L. Klein, 97, Canadian politician, Member of Parliament for Cartier (1963–1968). [7]
• Markku Peltola, 51, Finnish actor and musician. [8] (Finnish)
• Ettore Sottsass, 90, Italian designer, heart failure. [9]

30

• Bert Bolin, 82, Swedish meteorologist, stomach cancer. [10]
• Laila Kaland, 68, Norwegian politician, MP (1985–2001), after long illness. [11] (Norwegian)
• Jorge Machiñena, 71, Uruguayan deputy (1985–2000), President of the Chamber (1996–1997), heart attack. [12] [13] (Spanish)
• Riccardo Mancini, 56, Italian journalist and publisher, president of CICAP Rome. [14] (Italian)
• Leonard B. Meyer, 89, American musicologist. [15]
• Victor Navarra, 55, American coordinator for New York Marathon, cancer. [16].
• Abdul Razzak, 68, Afghan Guantanamo Bay detainee, cancer. [17]
• Willie Robinson, 81, American blues singer, injuries from a fire. [18]
• Ric Williamson, 55, American chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, heart attack. [19]
• Louis Wolfson, 95, American businessman, bred and raced 1978 U.S. Triple Crown champion Affirmed, colon cancer. [20]

29

• Narciso de Andrade, 82, Brazilian poet, multiple organ failure. [21] (Portuguese)
• Phil Dusenberry, 71, American advertising executive, lung cancer. [22]
• Kevin Greening, 44, British former BBC Radio 1 disc jockey. [23]
• Vincent Gruppuso, 67, American founder of Kozy Shack puddings, complications from diabetes. [24]
• Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar, 74, Yemeni politician, Parliamentary speaker since 1993, cancer. [25]
• Joan Ingpen, 91, British classical music manager (Ingpen & Williams), launched the career of Luciano Pavarotti. [26]
• Nonja, 55, Indonesian Sumatran orangutan thought to be world's oldest. [27]
• Phil O'Donnell, 35, British footballer (Motherwell) with one Scotland cap, heart failure. [28] [29]
• H. D. Thoreau, Jr., 84, American track-and-field authority and Olympics official, complications from Alzheimer's and stroke. [30]
• Shu Uemura, 79, Japanese makeup artist, pneumonia. [31]

28

• Terry Armour, 46, American entertainment columnist (Chicago Tribune), co-host of Stan and Terry Show on WCKG. [32] [33]
• Aidin Nikkhah Bahrami, 25, Iranian basketball player, road accident. [34]
• Serigne Saliou Mbacké, 92, Senegalese religious leader, fifth caliph of the Mouride Islamic movement. [35]
• Zacarias Santana, 83, Brazilian journalist, heart failure. [36] (Portuguese)
• Andrzej Siewierski, 43, Polish musician, lead singer of Azyl P. [37] (Polish)
• Sun Daolin, 86, Chinese actor. [38]
• Tab Thacker, 45, American NCAA wrestling champion, actor (Police Academy films, City Heat, Wildcats), diabetes complications. [39]

27

• Kit Ahern, 92, Irish politician. [40]
• Ben D. Altamirano, 77, American politician, member of the New Mexico Senate since 1971, heart attack. [41]
• Ben Bamfuchile, 47, Zambian coach of the Namibia national football team, after short illness. [42]
• Benazir Bhutto, 54, Pakistani Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister (1988–1990, 1993–1996), assassinated. [43]
• Edward A. Brennan, 73, American businessman, former Chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company. [44]
• Sir Howard Colvin, 88, British architectural historian. [45]
• Steven Florio, 58, American businessman, former CEO of Condé Nast, heart attack. [46]
• Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 85, Polish film director. [47] (Polish)
• Jaan Kross, 87, Estonian writer. [48] (Estonian)
• Ed LaDou, 52, American pizza chef, popularized gourmet California-style pizzas, cancer. [49]
• Toni Menzinger, 102, German politician. [50] (German)
• Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, 94, Brazilian pretender to the title Emperor of Brazil. [51] (Portuguese)
• Czesław Przewoźnik, 80, Polish politician. [52] [53] (Polish)
• Peter Wing, 93, Canadian politician, mayor of Kamloops, North America's first mayor of Chinese descent, stroke. [54]

26

• Raúl Bernao, 66, Argentine footballer, hepatitis. [55]
• Jim Castiglia, 89, American football and baseball player, natural causes. [56]
• James DeAngelis, 97, American football player, natural causes. [57]
• Joe Dolan, 68, Irish singer and entertainer, brain haemorrhage. [58] [59]
• John A. Garraty, 87, American biographer, heart failure. [60]
• Andrew Grima, 86, British jeweller. [61]
• Voitto Liukkonen, 67, Finnish sports commentator. [62] (Finnish)
• Paul D. MacLean, 94, American physician, developed triune brain concept, heart attack. [63]
• Nina Menshikova, 79, Russian actress. [64] (Russian)
• Stu Nahan, 81, American sportscaster, lymphoma. [65]
• John Pappenheimer, 92, American professor of physiology at Harvard University, respiratory failure. [66]

25

• Jim Beauchamp, 68, American Major League Baseball player and coach, leukemia. [67]
• Tommy Harmer, 79, British footballer (Tottenham Hotspur, Watford and Chelsea). [68]
• John Hayes, 80, New Zealand test cricketer. [69]
• Patricia Kirkwood, 86, British actress. [70]
• Hugh Massingberd, 60, British genealogist and journalist, former The Daily Telegraph obituary editor. [71] [72] [73]
• Mighty King Kong, 34, Kenyan reggae musician. [74]
• Hans Otte, 81, German avant-garde composer and pianist. [75]
• G. P. Sippy, 93, Indian film producer and director. [76]
• Tatiana, 4, Siberian tiger at San Francisco Zoo, mauled a visitor to death, shot. [77]

24

• Jim Angel, 67, Australian radio newsreader, stroke. [78]
• Cláudio Camunguelo, 60, Brazilian composer and singer, diabetes. [79] (Portuguese)
• Reinhard Hess, 62, German ski jumping coach, pancreatic cancer. [80]
• Wilhelmina Jashemski, 97, American archaeologist, renal failure. [81]
• Andreas Matzbacher, 25, Austrian cyclist, car accident. [82]
• Nicholas Pumfrey, 56, British judge, stroke. [83]
• George Warrington, 55, American transportation official, President of Amtrak (1998-2002), pancreatic cancer. [84]

23

• Dale Baird, 72, American thoroughbred horse trainer, car crash. [85]
• Evelyn Gandy, 87, American Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi (1976–1980). [86]
• W.F. Ganong, 83, American neuroendocrinologist, prostate cancer. [87]
• Michael Kidd, 92, American film and stage choreographer, cancer. [88]
• Aloísio Lorscheider, 83, Brazilian cardinal, heart failure. [89]
• Hans Mild, 73, Swedish footballer and ice hockey player. [90](Swedish)
• Oscar Peterson, 82, Canadian jazz pianist, kidney failure and complications from a stroke. [91] [92]
• Rhoda Pritzker, 93, American philanthropist, member of the Pritzker family. [93]
• Ferreira Queimado, 94, Portuguese former chairman of S.L. Benfica, after long illness. [94] [95] (Portuguese)
• Kevin Sinclair, 65, New Zealand-born Hong Kong reporter, editor and columnist for the South China Morning Post, cancer. [96]
• Osvaldo Reyes, 88, Chilean painter, stroke. [97] (Spanish)
• Frank Swaelen, 77, Belgian politician, former President of the Senate and Minister of State. [98] [99] (Dutch)

22

• Joe Ames, 86, American singer (Ames Brothers), heart attack. [100]
• Chrysostomos I, 80, Archbishop of Cyprus (1977–2006). [101]
• Sir Charles Court, 96, Premier of Western Australia (1974–1982). [102]
• Sylvan Fox, 79, American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, complications from pneumonia. [103]
• Andrew Glyn, 64, British economist. [104]
• Julien Gracq, 97, French writer. [105] (French)
• Leila Backman Shull, 113, American supercentenarian, seventh-oldest living person in the world. [106]
• Lucien Teisseire, 88, French road bicycle racer. [107]
• Marvin Wachman, 90, American historian, President of Lincoln University and Temple University, heart failure. [108]
• Ruth Wallis, 87, American singer-songwriter, complications of Alzheimer's disease. [109]
• Takashi Yamamoto, 58, Japanese politician. [110] (Japanese)

21

• Carol Bly, 77, American author and poet, ovarian cancer. [111]
• Ken Hendricks, 66, American contractor and billionaire, fall from roof. [112]
• Hans Imhoff, 85, German businessman, founder of Imhoff Chocolate Museum in Cologne. [113] (German)
• Jack Lamabe, 71, American Major League Baseball pitcher. [114]
• Ken Lee, 75, Chinese-born Australian owner and co-founder of Bing Lee superstores, cancer. [115]
• Saadia Marciano, 57, Israeli Black Panthers leader, member of the Knesset. [116]
• Norton Nascimento, 45, Brazilian actor, heart failure. [117] (Portuguese)
• Jiří Pauer, 88, Czech composer, theatre director and academic. [118]
• Battista Serioli, 107, Italian World War I veteran. [119] (Italian)

20

• Tommy Byrne, 87, American baseball player. [120]
• Jeanne Carmen, 77, American actress and pin-up girl, lymphoma. [121]
• Arabella Churchill, 58, British founder of Children's World charity, granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill, pancreatic cancer. [122]
• Russell Coffey, 109, American serviceman, one of three known remaining American veterans of World War I. [123]
• Lorne Davis, 77, Canadian NHL ice hockey player (Montreal Canadiens) and scout (Edmonton Oilers). [124]
• Ted Finn, 68, Canadian director of CSIS (1984–1987). [125]
• Peer Hultberg, 72, Danish author and psychoanalyst. [126] (Danish)
• Lydia Mendoza, 91, American Tejano music singer and guitarist. [127]
• Kazumi Tanaka, 56, Japanese seiyuu, brother of Ryouichi Tanaka, heart failure. [128]
• Robbie Williams, 45, first Indigenous Australian Brisbane City councillor, former ATSIC commissioner, heart attack. [129] [130]

19

• Frank Capra, Jr., 73, American movie studio executive, son of director Frank Capra, prostate cancer. [131] [132]
• James Costigan, 81, American actor and television writer (Eleanor and Franklin), heart failure. [133]
• John A. Garraty, 87, American historian, heart failure. [134]
• Albert L. O'Neil, 87, American politician, Boston City Council (1971–1999). [135]

18

• Walter Bowart, 68, American co-founder of East Village Other, colon cancer. [136]
• Gerald Le Dain, 83, Canadian Supreme Court judge. [137]
• Jack Linkletter, 70, American television host, son of Art Linkletter, lymphoma. [138]
• Motiur Rahman, 58, Indian politician, Rashtriya Janata Dal member of the Rajya Sabha since 2005, heart attack. [139]
• Bill Strauss, 60, American writer on generations, satirist, and founder of the Capitol Steps, pancreatic cancer. [140]

17

• Don Chevrier, 69, Canadian sportscaster. [141]
• Joel Dorn, 65, American jazz, pop and R&B record producer, heart attack. [142]
• Jim Holstein, 77, American basketball player (Minneapolis Lakers). [143]
• Tom Murphy, 83, American politician, speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives (1973–2002), complications of a stroke. [144]
• Jack Zander, 99, American animator (Tom and Jerry). [145]

16

• Dan Fogelberg, 56, American singer-songwriter ("Same Old Lang Syne"), prostate cancer. [146]
• Harald Genzmer, 98, German composer of classical music. [147] (German)
• Ismail Gulgee, 81, Pakistani painter, homicide by strangulation. [148]
• Serge Vinçon, 58, French politician. [149] (French)

15

• John Berg, 58, American actor, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. [150]
• Jean Bottéro, 93, French historian. [151] (French)
• St. Clair Bourne, 64, American documentary filmmaker (Half Past Autumn), pulmonary embolism. [152]
• Julia Carson, 69, American member of the House of Representatives from Indiana since 1997, lung cancer. [153]
• Andrzeja Górska, 91, Polish nun, abbess of the Grey Ursulines. [154] (Polish)
• Ryan Gracie, 33, Brazilian martial artist. [155]
• Clem Jones, 89, Australian Lord Mayor of Brisbane (1961–1975), pneumonia. [156] [157]
• Diane Middlebrook, 68, American biographer and poet, cancer. [158]
• Tejeshwar Singh, 60, Indian publisher, newsreader and theatre activist, cardiac arrest. [159]
• Ace Vergel, 55, Filipino actor, cardiac arrest. [160]
• Jonathan Witchell, 33, British BBC reporter for Radio Kent. [161]

14

• Issam al-Zaim, 67, Syrian economist, heart attack. [162]
• Hank Kaplan, 87, American boxing historian, cancer. [163]
• Maria Lauterbach, 20, American marine and murder victim. [164]
• Clarence Marshall, 82, American Major League Baseball pitcher (New York Yankees). [165]
• Frank Morgan, 73, American saxophonist. [166]
• Hryhoriy Nestor, 116?, Ukrainian who claimed to be the oldest person in the world. [167]
• Emory Sekaquaptewa, 78, American indigenous Hopi anthropologist. [168]

13

• Philippe Clay, 80, French singer and actor. [169]
• Fuat Deniz, 40, Swedish-Assyrian sociologist, homicide by stabbing. [170]
• Laura Huxley, 96, American musician and author, widow of Aldous Huxley, cancer. [171]
• Alain Payet, 60, French adult film director. [172] (French)
• Robert Russin, 93, American sculptor. [173]
• Floyd Red Crow Westerman, 71, American musician, actor (Dances With Wolves) and Native American activist, leukemia. [174]

12

• Basuki, 51, Indonesian comedian. [175]
• Ted Corbitt, 88, American ultramarathon runner, respiratory complications. [176]
• Shawn Eckardt, 40, American bodyguard and businessman, conspired to assault Nancy Kerrigan, natural causes. [177]
• Josep Guinovart, 80, Spanish artist. [178] (Spanish)
• François al-Hajj, 54, Lebanese Army general, roadside bomb. [179] [180]
• Alfons Maria Stickler, 97, Austrian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. [181] (German)
• Ike Turner, 76, American R&B musician and record producer, ex-husband of Tina Turner, cocaine overdose. [182] [183]
• Schuster Vance, 47, American actor, cancer. [184]
• Lee Vincent, 91, American bassist and radio personality (WILK), heart failure. [185]
• Yuli Mikhailovich Vorontsov, 78, Russian diplomat, former ambassador to the United Nations and United States. [186]

11

• Allan Berube, 61, American gay historian and writer, complications from stomach ulcers. [187]
• José Luis Calva, 38, Mexican writer, serial killer and cannibal, apparent suicide. [188]
• Freddie Fields, 84, American Hollywood agent, producer and studio executive, lung cancer. [189]
• Pat Hannigan, 71, Canadian NHL ice hockey player. [190]
• Christie Hennessy, 62, Irish singer and songwriter, cancer. [191]
• Nicholas Kao Se Tseien, 110, Chinese supercentenarian, world's oldest Catholic priest. [192]
• Karl Ludwig, Archduke of Austria, 89, Austrian son of Emperor Charles I of Austria. [193] [194] (German).
• Ottomar Pinto, 76 , Brazilian politician, Governor of Roraima (2004–2007), heart attack. [195]
• Tatsuzō Shimaoka, 88, Japanese potter, living national treasure, acute liver failure. [196]
• Terry Yates, 57, American biologist, discovered source of hantavirus, brain cancer. [197]

10

• George Morris, 76, American football player (Georgia Tech, San Francisco 49ers), apparent heart attack. [198]
• Aqsa Parvez, 16, Canadian allegedly killed for refusing to wear hijab, strangled. [199]
• Jerry Ricks, 67, American blues guitarist. [200]
• Gordon Samuels, 84, Australian Governor of New South Wales (1996–2001). [201] [202]

9

• Wayne Howard, 58, American comic book artist (Charlton Comics), heart attack. [203]
• Jim Langley, 79, British footballer for England, Fulham, and QPR, heart attack. [204]
• Matthew J. Murray, 24, American spree killer, suicide by gunshot. [205]
• Elspeth Rostow, 90, American academic, University of Texas dean, widow of Walt Whitman Rostow, heart attack. [206]
• Kurt Schmied, 81, Austrian footballer, former member of the national team. [207] (German)
• Thore Skogman, 76, Swedish musician, stroke. [208] (Swedish)
• Rafael Sperafico, 26, Brazilian racing driver, race crash. [209]
• J. Fife Symington Jr., 97, American diplomat to Trinidad and Tobago, complications of old age. [210]
• Gordon Zahn, 84, American Catholic peace activist, co-founder of Pax Christi USA, complications of Alzheimer's disease. [211]

8

• Donald Burton, 73, British actor, husband of actress Carroll Baker, emphysema. [212]
• Ioan Fiscuteanu, 70, Romanian actor, colon cancer. [213]
• Roger King, 63, American television executive, developed Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and Oprah Winfrey Show, stroke. [214]
• Gerardo García Pimentel, 24, Mexican crime reporter, homicide by gunshot. [215]
• Al Scaduto, 79, American cartoonist (They'll Do It Every Time). [216]

7

• Noel Forster, 75, British artist. [217]
• Fuad Hassan, 78, Indonesian Minister of Education (1985–1993), cancer. [218]
• John Hollowbread, 73, British football goalkeeper (Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton). [219]

6

• Wolfgang Assbrock, 55, German politician, member of the CDU and Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. [220] (German)
• George Bednar, 65, American NFL player and Harvey Wallbanger cocktail promoter. [221]
• Mike Donkin, 56, British reporter and journalist (BBC News), cancer. [222]
• Katy French, 24, Irish model, suspected overdose. [223] [224]
• Jacques Hébert, 84, Canadian Senator (1983–1998). [225]
• John Hill, 95, British politician, Conservative MP for South Norfolk (1955-1974). [226]
• Shelley Rohde, 74, British journalist and author. [227]
• Ken Southworth, 89, American cartoon animator (Hanna-Barbera, Walt Disney Animation Studios), stroke.[228]
• András Szöllősy, 86, Hungarian composer. [229]

5

• M. V. Dhond, 93, Indian literary and art critic. [230] (Marathi)
• Robin Gloag, 64, British co-founder of Stagecoach Group, car accident. [231]
• Arnold Hardy, 85, American Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, complications from hip surgery. [232]
• Andrew Imbrie, 86, American composer. [233]
• Dan Iosif, 57, Romanian revolutionary, lung cancer. [234]
• Jillian Kesner-Graver, 58, American actress (Happy Days), Orson Welles historian, staph infection. [235]
• Alois Kracher, 48, Austrian winemaker, pancreatic cancer. [236]
• George Paraskevaides, 91, Cypriot businessman (Joannou & Paraskevaides) and philanthropist. [237]
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, 79, German composer. [238]
• Tony Tenser, 87, British film producer. [239]
• Rene Villanueva, 53, Filipino playwright and author, stroke. [240] [241]
• John Winter, 83, Australian athlete, 1948 Olympics high jump gold medalist. [242]

4

• Chad "Pimp C" Butler, 33, American rap artist (UGK). [243]
• Jake Gaudaur, 87, Canadian Commissioner of the CFL (1968–1984), cancer. [244] [245]
• Jay H. Gordon, 77, American politician, Vermont Auditor of Accounts (1965–1969), smoke inhalation. [246] [247]
• Norval Morrisseau, 75, Canadian Ojibwe artist, founder of the Woodlands Style, Parkinson's disease. [248]
• David "Chip" Reese, 56, American professional poker player, heart attack. [249]
• Herman Rose, 98, American cityscape painter, cancer. [250]
• Carlos Valdes, 81, Cuban conga player, respiratory failure. [251]

3

• Art Arfons, 81, American jet-car driver and drag racer, three-time world land speed record holder. [252]
• John Belgrave, 67, New Zealand public servant, Chief Ombudsman (2003–2007), cancer. [253]
• Jaime Fuster, 66, Puerto Rican politician and jurist, Resident Commissioner (1985–1992), heart attack. [254] (Spanish)
• Susumu Katsumata, 63, Japanese mangaka and illustrator, melanoma. [255] (Japanese)
• James Kemsley, 59, Australian cartoonist (Ginger Meggs), motor neurone disease. [256]
• Liliana Macellari, 78, Italian translator and literary agent, widow of Anthony Burgess. [257]
• Lord Bloody Wog Rolo, 62, Australian activist, renal cell carcinoma. [258]

2

• Jennifer Alexander, 35, Canadian-born American ballet dancer, car accident. [259]
• Robert O. Anderson, 90, American founder and former CEO of ARCO. [260]
• Elizabeth Hardwick, 91, American co-founder of The New York Review of Books. [261]
• David Maybury-Lewis, 78, British anthropologist. [262]
• Eleonora Rossi Drago, 82, Italian actress, cerebral haemorrhage. [263] (Italian)
• Les Shannon, 81, British footballer and manager. [264]
• Thomas Torrance, 94, British theologian. [265]

1

• Rassim al-Jumaili, 69, Iraqi actor and comedian, kidney failure. [266]
• Jennifer Davidson, 38, American senior vice president of programming and scheduling for Cartoon Network. [267]
• Elisabeth Eybers, 92, South African-born poet. [268] (Afrikaans)
• Tony Fall, 67, British rally driver and Opel Motorsport Team director, heart attack. [269]
• Ken McGregor, 78, Australian tennis champion, stomach cancer. [270]
• Danny Newman, 88, American publicist for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, pulmonary fibrosis. [271]
• Anton Rodgers, 74, British actor. [272]