# Deaths in December 1987
## Contents

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* 31
The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1987.
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 1987
### 1

* James Baldwin, 63, African-American novelist, playwright and poet (Go Tell It on the Mountain), stomach cancer.
* Donn F. Eisele, 57, American Air Force officer and NASA astronaut (Apollo 7), heart attack.
* Buddy Fogelson, 87, American army colonel, businessman and horse & cattle breeder, husband of Greer Garson.
* Punch Imlach, 69, Canadian NHL ice hockey coach and general manager (Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres), heart attack.

### 2

* Edward Barnsley, 87, English designer and maker of furniture.
* Juan Alberto Melgar Castro, 57, Honduran army officer, president of Honduras, heart attack.
* Robert Filliou, 61, French artist (Fluxus).
* Trygve Henrik Hoff, 49, Norwegian singer, composer and writer.
* Luis Federico Leloir, 81, French-born Argentinian physician and biochemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, heart attack.
* Hubert Noël, 63, French film actor.
* Myrta Silva, 60, Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and television producer (Sonora Matancera).
* Ernst Steinhoff, 79, Nazi German rocket scientist.
* Princess Red Wing, 91, American tribal elder.
* Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, 73, Soviet physicist (black hole evaporation).

### 3

* Andrew Foster, 62, American pioneer of deaf education in African countries, plane crash.
* Robert Haskell, 84, American politician, Governor of Maine.
* George Seawright, appr. 36, Scottish-born Northern Irish politician, paramilitary in Ulster Volunteer Force, assassinated.
* Yevgeny Tolstikov, 74, Soviet polar explorer, Hero of the Soviet Union.
* Dorin Liviu Zaharia, 43, Romanian musician and composer.

### 4

* Pericle Fazzini, 74, Italian painter and sculptor (The Resurrection).
* Bryan Fowler, 89, British polo player and Olympian.
* Meinrad von Lauchert, 82, Nazi German Wehrmacht general.
* Arnold Lobel, 54, American author of children's books (Frog and Toad, Mouse Soup), cardiac arrest.
* Rouben Mamoulian, 90, Georgian-born American film and theatre director (Oklahoma!, Carousel).
* Constantin Noica, 78, Romanian philosopher, essayist and poet.
* Giorgio Prodi, 59, Italian medical scientist and oncologist.

### 5

* Pappy Daily, 85, American country music record producer, co-founded record label Starday Records.
* Leonid Dimov, 61, Romanian postmodernist poet and translator, heart attack.
* Bobby Garrett, 55, American NFL footballer (Green Bay Packers), heart attack.
* Daud Kamal, 52, Pakistani poet.
* Rudolf Mentzel, 87, German chemist and Nazi policy-maker.
* Molly O'Day, 64, American country music vocalist, cancer.
* Conny Plank, 47, German record producer and musician, laryngeal cancer.
* Eugene Siler, 87, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

### 6

* James Dobson, 67, American film and television actor (Flying Leathernecks), heart attack.
* Peter Lorenz, 64, German politician, kidnapped by militants, heart attack.
* David J. Schwartz, 60, American motivational writer and coach (The Magic of Thinking Big).
* Izler Solomon, 77, American orchestra conductor, heart failure.
* Ba Swe, 72, Prime Minister of Burma.

### 7

* Gareth Bennett, 58, British Anglican priest, suicide. (body found on this date)
* Michael Crossley, 75, British World War II Royal Air Force flying ace.
* Michael Hornby, 88, British vice chairman of retail chain WHSmith.
* Jane Mouton, 57, American management theorist.
* Jaime Ongpin, 49, Filipino businessman and politician, Secretary of Finance, suicide.
* Helen Porter, 88, British botanist from Imperial College London.
* Denis Rogers, 70, New Zealand doctor and local politician (Mayor of Hamilton), heart attack.

### 8

* Fay Baker, 70, American actress and writer (The House on Telegraph Hill), breast cancer.
* Sigrid Helliesen Lund, 95, Norwegian peace activist, notably in World War II.
* Yolanda Vadiz, 28, Puerto Rican soprano, carbon monoxide poisoning.
* Ulfert Wilke, 80, German-born American painter, museum director and art collector (abstract expressionism), stroke.
* Notable individuals killed in the 1987 Alianza Lima plane crash:
** Marcos Calderón, 59, Peruvian football coach and player (Sport Boys, Peru).
** Luis Antonio Escobar, 18, Peruvian international footballer (Club Alianza Lima, Peru).
** José González Ganoza, 33, Peruvian international footballer (Club Alianza Lima, Peru).
** Alfredo Tomassini, 23, Peruvian footballer (Club Alianza Lima).
** Johnny Watson, 24, Peruvian footballer (Club Alianza Lima).

### 9

* Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, 73, German prince, head of the House of Hanover.
* Diana Forbes-Robertson, 72, British writer, stroke.
* François Gall, 75, Hungarian-French modern impressionist painter, heart attack.

### 10

* Giovanni Arpino, 60, Italian writer and journalist (L'ombra delle colline).
* Jascha Heifetz, 86, Lithuanian-born American violinist, complications from a fall.
* Carlota Jaramillo, 83, Ecuadorian pasillo singer, complications from a fall.
* Stylianos Kyriakides, 77, Greek Cypriot marathon runner and Olympian.
* Denis Sanders, 58, American film director and producer (A Time Out of War), heart attack.
* Slam Stewart, 73, American jazz double bass player, heart failure.

### 11

* G. A. Kulkarni, 64, Indian writer of short stories.
* Emil Mazuw, 87, German governor of the Province of Pomerania, convicted of war crimes.
* William Thornton Mustard, 73, Canadian physician and cardiac surgeon, heart attack.
* Rosi Wolfstein, 99, German socialist politician.

### 12

* Bodil Begtrup, 84, Danish women's rights activist, chairman of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
* Clifton Chenier, 62, American musician, pioneer of zydeco, kidney disease.
* Enrique Jorrín, 60, Cuban charanga violinist, composer and music director.
* Nolan Leary, 98, American actor and playwright.
* Pinky Tomlin, 80, American songwriter, bandleader and actor, heart attack.

### 13

* Julien Darui, 71, French international footballer (CO Roubaix-Tourcoing, France).
* Bil Dwyer, 80, American cartoonist and humourist (Dumb Dora).
* Bernard Epton, 66, American politician, member of the Illinois House of Representatives, coronary.
* Na. Parthasarathy, 54, Indian writer of Tamil historical novels.
* Josefina Passadori, 87, Italian-born Argentine writer and poet.
* Elias Porter, 73, American psychologist.
* Stanisław Radkiewicz, 84, Polish communist activist, Minister of Public Security.
* Claude T. Smith, 55, American band conductor and composer.
* George Wunder, 75, American cartoonist and comic illustrator (Terry and the Pirates), heart attack.

### 14

* Copi, (Raúl Damonte Botana), 48, Argentinian writer, cartoonist and playwright, AIDS.
* Merlyn Hans Dethlefsen, 53, American officer of the U.S. Air Force, Medal of Honor recipient.
* Tim Dinsdale, 63, British cryptozoologist, attempted to prove existence of Loch Ness Monster, heart attack.
* Siegfried Haß, 89, Nazi German Wehrmacht general, Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipient.
* Milt Josefsberg, 76, American screenwriter, stroke.
* Georg Knöpfle, 83, German international footballer, coach and Olympian (FSV Frankfurt, Germany).
* Valentina Kulagina, 85, Russian painter and designer of books, posters and exhibitions.
* Mogens Lassen, 86, Danish architect and designer.
* Nikos Stavridis, 77, Greek film and theatre actor.
* J. P. Strom, 69, American law enforcement officer, chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, heart attack.
* John Winterton, 89, British Army officer, Military Governor and Commander of the Free Territory of Trieste.

### 15

* Seitnebi Abduramanov, 73, Soviet soldier in the Red Army, recipient of the Order of Glory.
* Septima Poinsette Clark, 89, American educator and civil rights activist.
* George Fulford, 85, Canadian businessman and politician, House of Commons member.
* Ángel Infante, 73, Mexican actor and singer.
* Ivo Lapenna, 78, Italian law professor, president of the Universal Esperanto Association.
* Ray Malavasi, 57, American NFL football coach (Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos), heart attack.
* Pierre Massé, 89, French economist, engineer, applied mathematician and high official in the French government.
* Tiny Moore, 67, American Western swing musician.
* P. Ramamurthi, 79, Indian politician, Communist Party of India member.
* Elisabeth Zaisser, 89, German politician, East German Minister of Education.
* Alfred Zerbel, 83, Nazi German Wehrmacht officer, West German Bundeswehr general.

### 16

* Leonard Beecher, 81, English-born Anglican Archbishop of East Africa.
* Hob Broun, 37, American author, asphyxiation.
* Minnie Evans, 95, American artist.
* Albert P. Morano, 79, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, cerebral hemorrhage.
* John Russell, 66, British politician, member of the House of Lords.

### 17

* Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, 87, Dutch cardinal, Archbishop of Utrecht.
* Irving Allen, 82, Austro-Hungarian–born American theatre and film producer and director (Climbing the Matterhorn).
* Georges Burou, 77, French gynecologist (sex reassignment surgery), drowned.
* Arkady Raikin, 76, Soviet comedian, actor and director.
* Lucy Walker, (Dorothy Lucie Sanders), 80, Australian romance novelist.
* Linda Wong, 36, American pornographic actress, drug overdose.
* Marguerite Yourcenar, 84, Belgian-born French-American novelist and essayist (Memoirs of Hadrian).

### 18

* Dimitrije Bašičević, 66, Yugoslavian artist, curator and art critic.
* Chaudhary Rahim Khan, 64, Indian politician, Member of Parliament.
* Warne Marsh, 60, American tenor saxophonist, heart attack.

### 19

* Murat Aitkhozhin, 48, Soviet molecular biologist.
* Ralph Waldo Christie, 94, American admiral in the U.S. Navy.
* Hermann Claasen, 87, German photographer.
* Leo Jung, 95, American architect of Orthodox Judaism.
* John F. O'Leary, 61, American administrator of Federal Energy Administration and director of U.S. Bureau of Mines, cancer.
* C. Donald Peterson, 69, American politician, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, cancer.
* Esther Shiner, 63, Canadian municipal politician, deputy mayor of New York.
* André de la Varre, 83, American filmmaker of travel documentaries.

### 20

* Ruben Ecleo Sr., 53, Filipino cult leader, founded the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association.
* Jake Eisenhart, 65, American Major League baseballer (Cincinnati Reds).
* Dan Sikes, 58, American professional golfer, complications from stomach surgery.

### 21

* Fred R. Feitshans Jr., 78, American film editor (Wild in the Streets).
* Carl E. McGowan, 76, American lawyer and U.S. circuit judge, cancer.
* Ralph Nelson, 71, American film and television director, writer and actor (Lilies of the Field, Father Goose, Charly), cancer.
* Robert Paige, 76, American actor and TV newscaster and political correspondent (Son of Dracula), aortic aneurysm.
* Henry Strater, 91, American painter and illustrator, founded the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

### 22

* A. N. Alcaff, 62, Indonesian actor and film director.
* Henry Cotton, 80, English professional golfer, three-time British Open winner.
* Roderick Firth, 70, American philosopher, professor of philosophy at Harvard, pneumonia.
* Gustav Fröhlich, 85, German actor and film director (Metropolis), complications after surgery.
* Mimí Langer, 77, Austrian-born Latin American psychoanalyst and human rights activist, cancer.
* Paule Marrot, 85, French textile designer.
* John McMichael, 39, Northern Irish loyalist (Ulster Defence Association), car bomb.
* Dudley Meredith, 52, American AFL footballer (Buffalo Bills).
* Dorothy M. Needham, 91, English biochemist (muscle biochemistry).
* Geoffrey Parsons, 77, English lyricist.
* José do Patrocínio Oliveira, 83, Brazilian musician and voice actor.
* Luca Prodan, 34, Italian-Scottish musician based in Argentina (Sumo).
* T. Ranganathan, 62, Indian-born American Carnatic musician.
* Alice Terry, 88, American film actress and director (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), Alzheimer's disease.

### 23

* Paschoal Silva, 87, Brazilian footballer (Brazil).

### 24

* Roy M. Davenport, 78, American rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
* Nino Espinosa, 34, Dominican Major League baseballer (New York Mets), heart attack.
* Eugen Kogon, 84, German historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor.
* John Wesley Hanes II, 95, American investment banker, Under Secretary of the Treasury, Alzheimer's Disease.
* Betty Noyes, 75, American singer and actress (Singin' in the Rain).
* Josef Myrow, 77, Russian Empire–born American composer ("You Make Me Feel So Young"), Parkinson's disease.
* M. G. Ramachandran, 70, Indian actor and politician, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, heart attack and stroke.
* Manoug Parikian, 67, Turkish-born British concert violinist.
* Sara Scuderi, 81, Italian opera singer.
* Joop den Uyl, 68, Dutch politician and journalist, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, brain tumour.
* Kulwant Singh Virk, 66, Indian author, stroke.

### 25

* Alexander Gregory Barmine, 88, Soviet Army defector to the U.S.A., stroke
* Ruth Bonner, 87, Soviet Communist activist.
* John H. Humphrey, 72, British bacteriologist and immunologist, co-founded the British Society for Immunology.
* Vadim Knizhnik, 25, Soviet physicist (Knizhnik–Zamolodchikov equations), heart attack.
* Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, 54, American trumpeter and band leader, stroke.
* Zita Moulton, 104, American model and actress of theatre and film.
* Nat Tarnopol, 56, American record producer, heart failure.
* Victor Whitsey, 71, British Church of England Bishop of Hertford and Chester, sexual abuser.

### 26

* J. A. Baker, 61, English author (The Peregrine), cancer.
* S. M. Banerjee, 68, Indian politician, trade unionist and communist sympathiser, member of the Lok Sabha.
* Dorothy Bliss, 71, American carcinologist, cancer.
* Neil Colville, 73, Canadian NHL ice hockey player (New York Rangers).
* Melford Stevenson, 85, English barrister and High Court judge, heart attack.
* Leslie Thompson, 86, Jamaican-born English jazz trumpeter and trombonist.
* Luis E. Valcárcel, 96, Peruvian historian, anthropologist and writer, Minister of Education.

### 27

* Rewi Alley, 90, New Zealand-born Chinese writer and political activist, member of the Chinese Communist Party.
* John Astor, 64, British politician, Member of Parliament.
* Manoj Basu, 86, Indian writer of Bengali novels and short stories.
* Shanti Devi, 61, Indian woman who claimed to remember her previous life.
* Priscilla Dean, 91, American theatre and silent-screen actress (The Gray Ghost), complications from a fall.
* Josef Grohé, 85, German Nazi Party official, Gauleiter of Gau Cologne-Aachen.
* Bernard Hailstone, 77, English painter.
* Theodore Pike, 83, Irish colonial administrator and rugby union international, governor of British Somaliland.
* Stepan Popel, 78, Ukrainian chess champion.
* Wilbur Schramm, 80, American scholar and authority on mass communication.
* Anthony West, 73, English author and literary critic, son of H. G. Wells, stroke.

### 28

* Happy Akhand, 27, Bangladeshi rock singer and songwriter (Miles.
* George I. Forsythe, 69, American general of the U.S. Army.
* John Hunt, 82, British general practitioner, co-founded the Royal College of General Practitioners.
* Edward Kleban, 48, American musical theatre composer and lyricist, throat cancer.
* Charles Malik, 81, Lebanese diplomat, philosopher and politician, Lebanese representative to the U.N., kidney failure.
* Joseph Sittler, 83, American Lutheran minister and theologian, cancer.

### 29

* John F. Aiso, 78, American nisei military leader, lawyer and judge, head injury sustained in a mugging.
* Sheldon Andelson, 56, American higher education administrator and a political fund-raiser, AIDS.
* Patrick Bissell, 30, American ballet dancer (American Ballet Theatre), overdose.
* Brigitte Heinrich, 46, German journalist and politician, member of the European Parliament, heart attack.
* Jun Ishikawa, 88, Japanese author, lung cancer.
* Wilbert E. Moore, 73, American sociologist, president of the American Sociological Association.
* Ulysses Kae Williams, 66, American DJ, record label owner and producer.
* Yanina Zhejmo, 78, Soviet actress.

### 30

* Leslie Arliss, 86, English screenwriter and director (The Man in Grey, The Wicked Lady).
* Datta Naik, 60, Indian film music director.
* Manolo Urquiza, 67, Cuban-born media personality.
* Theodore Zichy, 79, British actor, photographer and film director, suicide.

### 31

* George Doherty, 67, American NFL footballer, college coach and athletics administrator, heart attack.
* Merle Evans, 96, American cornet player and circus band conductor (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus).
* Randall Garrett, 60, American science fiction and fantasy author (Lord Darcy).
* Gene Leggett, 52, American Methodist minister, defrocked for being homosexual, hepatitis.
* Leo Steiner, 47–48, American restauranteur, co-owner of Carnegie Deli, brain tumour.
* Jerry Turner, 58, American television news anchorman, esophageal cancer.

### Unknown date

* Malcolm Butler, 75, Northern Irish international footballer (Accrington Stanley, Ireland).
* Michael Clemente, 79, New York mobster in the Genovese crime family.
* Dorothy K. Haynes, 68–69, Scottish horror and supernatural writer, breast cancer.
* Kurt Frederick Ludwig, 83–84, Nazi German spy.
* Birendra Nath Mazumdar, 82, Indian medical officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
* Marcus Owen, 52, Welsh professional snooker player.
* Ian Wilson, 86, English actor.