# Deaths in December 1986
## Contents

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The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1986.
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 1986
### 1

* Percy Bullock, 93, English cricketer.
* Ernest Burkhart, 94, American murderer (Osage Indian murders).
* Fred Collard, 74, Australian politician, member of the Australian House of Representatives (1961–1975).
* Lee Dorsey, 61, American singer ("Ya Ya", "Working in the Coal Mine"), emphysema.
* Halbert Harvill, 93, American university president, coach, and politician (Austin Peay State University).
* Horace Heidt, 85, American pianist and big band leader.
* Bobby Layne, 59, American NFL footballer (Detroit Lions), cardiac arrest.
* Robert Lee, 73, Taiwanese-born British actor (Mind Your Language).
* Lien Chen-tung, 82, Taiwanese politician, Minister of the Interior.
* Frank McCarthy, 74, American U.S. army general and film producer (Patton), cancer.
* Martin John O'Connor, 86, American Roman Catholic Prelate, rector of the Pontifical North American College.
* Wanis al-Qaddafi, 64, Libyan politician, prime minister of Libya, heart attack.

### 2

* Desi Arnaz, 69, Cuban-American actor (I Love Lucy) and television producer (Desilu), lung cancer.
* Paul Bascomb, 74, American jazz tenor saxophonist.
* Vrest Orton, 89, American businessman (Vermont Country Store).
* Billy Rancher, 29, American musician, cancer.
* Ken Scott, 58, American actor.
* Dick van Dyke, 55, American politician, member of the Washington House of Representatives, suicide.
* Eli L. Whiteley, 72, American infantry captain in the U.S. Army, Medal of Honor recipient, heart attack.

### 3

* Guillermo Baldwin, 76, Peruvian Olympic sports shooter (1956).
* Ajit Kumar Basu, 73–74, Indian cardiac surgeon, recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize.
* Lena Frances Edwards, 86, American physician, recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom.
* Austin Hayes, 28, English-born footballer (Northampton Town, Ireland), lung cancer.
* Bob Howard, 80, American singer.
* Anthony Mascarenhas, 58, Pakistani journalist and author (Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood).
* Bob Moorhead, 48, American Major League baseballer (New York Mets).

### 4

* Leslie Bolton, 77, Danish footballer.
* Hugh Boyle, 88, Irish-born South African bishop.
* Campo Elías Delgado, 52, Colombian spree killer, shot.
* Lynwood Gill, 95, Australian cricketer.
* Reuben Nakian, 89, American sculptor, heart failure.

### 5

* George Abrams, 87, American baseball player (Cincinnati Reds).
* Moshe Baram, 75, Russian-born Israeli politician.
* Alf Baud, 94, Australian rules footballer.
* Raymond Caruana, 26, Maltese political activist, shot.
* Nil Ratan Dhar, 94, Indian soil scientist, founding member of The World Academy of Sciences, complications from fall.
* Charles Duguid, 102, Scottish-born Australian physician and Aboriginal rights activist.
* Roberto Escalada, 72, Argentinian actor, heart attack.
* Theodor Kretschmer, 85, Nazi German Wehrmacht general, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
* Lê Trọng Tấn, 72, Vietnamese army general.
* Rolf Schock, 53, French-born American philosopher, accident while repairing vehicle.
* Edward Youde, 65, British politician and diplomat, Governor of Hong Kong, ambassador to China, heart attack.

### 6

* René Brô, 56, French artist.
* George Crerar 72, Scottish cricketer and rugby union player.
* Thomas Dowler, 78, American collegiate athlete.
* Elvie Dreeszen, 66, American politician, member of the Iowa Senate (1981–1983).
* Rozelle Gayle, 67, American jazz pianist and actor, cancer.
* Robert J. Love, 68, Canadian-born American flying ace, heart failure.
* Bhagwan Sahay, 81, Indian politician, governor of Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir.

### 7

* Enrico Arrigoni, 92, Italian-American anarchist and political activist.
* Roberto Bianchi Montero, 79, Italian actor, director and screenwriter.
* John Bogart, 86, American Major League Baseball player (Detroit Tigers).
* Sydney J. Harris, 69, American journalist (Chicago Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times).
* Concha Méndez, 88, Spanish poet and dramatist (Generation of '27).
* Homa J. Porter, 90, American businessman and political activist.

### 8

* Ernst Biberstein, 87, Nazi German colonel and war criminal.
* Harrison Brown, 69, American nuclear chemist and geochemist (Manhattan Project), lung cancer.
* Walter E. Foran, 67, American politician, member of New Jersey Senate, lung cancer.
* Ernest Gross, 83, French Olympic footballer (1924).
* Georg Henke, 78, East German diplomat, ambassador to North Korea.
* Hollywood Fats, 32, American blues guitarist, heart attack.
* Anatoly Marchenko, 48, Soviet dissident and author, hunger strike.
* John Melville, 84, British painter.
* Arthur S. Moreau Jr., 55, American naval admiral, heart attack.
* Heinz Neukirchen, 71, Nazi German naval admiral.
* Henry Reed, 72, British poet and radio dramatist.
* Christopher Sykes, 79, English writer and biographer.
* Harald Throne-Holst, 81, Norwegian chemical engineer, president of the Federation of Norwegian Industries.

### 9

* Linda Cook, 24, English murder victim.
* Éamon de Valera, Jnr., 73, Irish obstetrician and gynaecologist, illegally supplied babies to childless couples.
* Maurice E. Dockrell, 78, Irish politician, Teachta Dála, Lord Mayor of Dublin.
* Sherwood Fries, 66, American NFL player (Green Bay Packers).
* Odd Hilt, 71, Norwegian sculptor.
* T. J. Morgan, 79, Welsh academic, Professor of Welsh at Swansea University.
* Walter J. Stoessel Jr., 66, American diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State, ambassador to three countries, leukemia.
* Maxwell Wintrobe, 85, Austrian-born American physician (hematology).
* Anatoly Zverev, 55, Russian artist.

### 10

* George Ambrum, 43, Australian rugby league player (North Sydney, Australia).
* Kamal Bhandarkar, 75, Indian cricketer.
* Benoît Bickel, 86, Swiss writer.
* Si Burick, 77, American sports editor and columnist.
* Susan Cabot, 59, American actress (Tomahawk, Gunsmoke), murdered.
* Yrjö Hakoila, 54, Finnish Olympic rower (1952).
* Emil Johansson, 79, Swedish Olympic boxer (1928).
* Bruno Mora, 49, Italian footballer (AC Milan, Italy), stomach tumour.
* Fred Stone, 51, Canadian musician.
* Leon G. Turrou, 91, American special agent with the FBI.
* Kate Wolf, 44, American folk singer, leukemia.

### 11

* Jean-Paul Deschatelets, 74, Canadian politician.
* José Domínguez Rodríguez, 71, Cuban bishop.
* Karl-Gustav Lagerfelt, 77, Swedish diplomat, ambassador to Austria and the Netherlands.
* Clarence A. Martin, 90, American army general.
* Fritz Maurischat, 93, German production designer (Martin Luther).
* Gus Walker, 74, English bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force.

### 12

* Rashid Choudhury, 54, Bangladeshi artist.
* Yvonne Deslandres, 63, French writer, curator, archivist, and art historian.
* Antoni Gościński, 77, Polish medic and Nazi concentration camp internee.
* Léon Jean, 85, French politician.
* Gary Lewis, 44, American NFL football player (San Francisco 49ers), Lou Gehrig's disease.
* Harry Owens, 84, American bandleader and songwriter ("Sweet Leilani").
* Carlos Ramírez, 70, Colombian baritone and actor.
* Alexander H. Smith, 82, American mycologist (fungi).
* Clifford Stine, 80, American cinematographer (The Incredible Shrinking Man).
* Paul Verner, 75, East German politician (Socialist Unity Party of Germany).
* Buddy Williams, 68, Australian country singer.
* Johnny Wyrostek, 67, American Major League baseballer (Cincinnati Reds).

### 13

* Heather Angel, 77, British actress (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland), cancer.
* Ella Baker, 83, American civil rights activist.
* Kuwasi Balagoon, 39, American anarchist and political activist (Black Panther Party), fungal pneumonia.
* Glyn Daniel, 72, Welsh archaeologist and editor (Antiquity).
* Thomas Jefferson, 66, American jazz trumpeter.
* Martha Mears, 76, American singer ("Long Ago (and Far Away)", "My Foolish Heart").
* Smita Patil, 31, Indian actress (Bhumika, Chakra), complications from childbirth.
* Kim Peyton, 29, American swimmer and Olympic gold medalist, brain tumour.
* İlhami Sancar, 76–77, Turkish politician, Ministry of National Defense).
* Henry Winston, 75, American political activist, member of Communist Party USA.

### 14

* Bassey Eyo Ephraim Adam III, 81, Nigerian Efik leader.
* Cheryl Araujo, 25, American rape victim who inspired the movie The Accused, traffic collision.
* Claude Bertrand, 67, French actor, cancer.
* Leo Dove, 83, Australian Olympic sports shooter (1948).
* Fritz Goro, 84–85, German-born American photographer.
* Aleksey Gushchin, 64, Soviet Olympic gold medalist sports shooter (1960).
* John Anker Johansen, 92, Norwegian Olympic gymnast (1920).
* Antal Páger, 87, Hungarian actor (Drama of the Lark).
* Pedro Sainz Rodríguez, 89, Spanish writer and royal advisor.
* Teh Cheang Wan, 58, Singaporean politician (Minister of National Development), suicide.

### 15

* David James, 66, British politician, author and adventurer, Member of Parliament.
* Friedrich Karl von Koenig-Warthausen, 80, German aviator and world circumnavigator.
* Serge Lifar, 81, Soviet and French ballet dancer and choreographer (Paris Opera).
* Seymour Lipton, 83, American sculptor (New York School).
* Mykolas Ruzgys, 71, American-born Lithuanian basketball player and coach.
* John Zaremba, 78, American actor (Ben Casey, The Time Tunnel).

### 16

* Lucy Thurston Blaisdell, 83, First Lady of Honolulu (1955–1959).
* Bryant L. Boatner, 79, United States Air Force general.
* Jake Caulfield, 69, American Major League Baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics).
* Arpad Darazs, 64, Hungarian-American music educator.
* Oleg Goncharenko, 55, Soviet Ukrainian Olympic speed skater (1956, 1960).
* Clyde Vidrine, 47–48, American bodyguard for Edwin Edwards, shot.

### 17

* Peter Beauvais, 70, German television director and scriptwriter.
* Guillermo Cano Isaza, 61, Colombian journalist, editor of El Espectador, murdered.
* Alfred Williams Carter, 92, Canadian WWI flying ace.
* John Lambert Gibson, 80, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1945–1953).
* William Gillies, 72, Scottish Olympic sports shooter (1960, 1964)
* Oscar Goldman, 60–61, American mathematician.
* Oakley Haldeman, 77, American songwriter, composer and author ("Here Comes Santa Claus").
* Władysław Moes, 86, Polish landowner, inspiration for Tadzio in Death in Venice.
* Mary Verghese, 61, Indian physician.

### 18

* George Amy, 83, American film editor (Air Force, Yankee Doodle Dandy).
* Alain Caron, 48, Canadian ice hockey player.
* Mamo Clark, 72, American actress (One Million B.C.), cancer.
* Winifred Deforest Coffin, 75, American actress (The Red Skelton Show).
* John D. deButts, 71, American businessman, chief executive officer of AT&T, heart attack.
* Morton Fried, 63, American anthropology teacher, cardiac arrest.
* Ulrico Girardi, 56, Italian Olympic bobsledder (1956).
* Dorothy Molter, 79, American resort owner (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness).
* Thomas M. Tarpley, 64, American general in the U.S. Army.

### 19

* Torsten Anderson, 82, New Zealand wrestler.
* V. C. Andrews, 63, American novelist (Flowers in the Attic), breast cancer.
* Mario de Armas, 70, Cuban Olympic sports shooter (1952)
* Avelar Brandão Vilela, 74, Brazilian cardinal.
* Andrei Chabanenko, 77, Soviet naval admiral.
* Bert Cook, 62, New Zealand rugby union and league player.
* Werner Dankwort, 91, German diplomat, ambassador to Brazil and Canada.
* Willy Favre, 43, Swiss Olympic alpine skier (1964, 1968)
* Fritiof Fryxell, 86, American geologist and naturalist.
* Domingo García, 82, Peruvian footballer.
* Roger Grove, 78, American NFL player (Green Bay Packers).
* Hulan Jack, 79, Saint Lucian–born American politician, cancer.
* Kenyon Nicholson, 92, American playwright.
* Ernest Gordon Rupp, 76, British Methodist preacher, theologian and historian.

### 20

* Ferdinand Brandner, 83, Austrian aerospace engineer, Nazi SS member.
* Rossella Como, 47, Italian actress and television personality, cancer.
* Joe DeSa, 27, American Major League baseballer (St. Louis Cardinals), traffic collision.
* Zoltán Greguss, 83, Hungarian actor.
* Julie Kogon, 68, American lightweight boxer.
* Kathleen Morris, 93, Canadian painter, member of Beaver Hall Group.
* William A. Nolen, 58, American surgeon and medical columnist (McCall's magazine).
* Silvano Melea Otieno, 54–55, Kenyan lawyer, heart attack.
* Sir Harry Platt, 100, English orthopaedic surgeon, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
* Floriano Vaz, 23, Indian writer, shot.

### 21

* Willy Coppens, 94, Belgian flying ace, "balloon buster".
* Gilbert Laithwaite, 92, Irish-born British diplomat.
* S. Nadesan, 82, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician.
* Francis Junior Pierce, 62, American hospital corpsman, Medal of Honor recipient, lung cancer.
* Bill Simpson, 55, Scottish actor (Dr. Finlay's Casebook), pneumonia.

### 22

* Mary Burchell, (Ida Cook), 82, British novelist and humanitarian, cancer.
* Helena Modjeska Chase, 86, American artist and writer.
* Fred Cooper, 65, English cricketer.
* Celius Dougherty, 84, American composer.
* Maurice Grosser, 83, American painter and author.
* John Macy, 69, American government administrator, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
* Nii Amaa Ollennu, 80, Ghanaian politician, acting president.
* David Penhaligon, 42, British politician, Member of Parliament, President of the Liberal Party, traffic collision.
* Saqi, 61, Pakistani actor.
* Jean-Paul St. Laurent, 74, Canadian politician, House of Commons member.
* Harvey Stephens, 85, American actor and pilot.

### 23

* Heidi Abel, 57, Swiss television presenter.
* Gerhard Bienert, 88, German actor.
* John Davies, 43, Australian rules footballer.
* Marjorie Husted, 94, American businesswoman ("Betty Crocker").
* János Karlovits, 87, Hungarian Olympic pole vaulter (1928).
* Hazard E. Reeves, 80, American sound editor, heart attack.
* R. Gordon Wasson, 88, American ethnomycologist (hallucinogenic mushrooms) and author.

### 24

* Guy Barnett, 58, British politician, Member of Parliament, heart attack.
* Gardner Fox, 75, American comic book writer and novelist, co-creator of Flash, pneumonia.
* Eric Malcolm Jones, 79, British intelligence officer, director of GCHQ.
* Arnold Kettle, 70, British Marxist literary critic.
* Bob Lulham, 60, Australian rugby league player (Balmain Tigers, Australia), heart attack.
* Albert Widmann, 74, German chemist and convicted war criminal (Aktion T4).
* Sir Richard van der Riet Woolley, 80, English astronomer, Astronomer Royal.

### 25

* Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, 86, Bulgarian philosopher.
* Édouard Barbazan, 84, French Olympic high jumper (1924).
* Alexander Maurice Cameron, 88, British Army officer.
* Stefan Haag, 61 Austrian-Australian singer, director, and producer.
* Friedrich von Ledebur, 86, Austrian actor, (Moby Dick, Alexander the Great).
* James C. Oliver, 91, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
* Hamao Umezawa, 72, Japanese microbiologist, pneumonia.

### 26

* William Macmahon Ball, 85, Australian academic and diplomat.
* Carl Cohen, 73, American gambling executive (El Rancho Vegas, Sands Hotel and Casino).
* Bobby Crues, 67, American minor league baseball player.
* Bina Das, 75, Indian revolutionary.
* Jerry Dolan, 85, Australian rules footballer.
* Leslie Dwyer, 80, English actor, respiratory failure.
* Håkon Gundersen, 79, Norwegian Olympic footballer (1936 Summer Olympics).
* Elsa Lanchester, 84, British actress (Witness for the Prosecution, Come to the Stable, Mary Poppins), pneumonia.

### 27

* George Dangerfield, 82, American author (The Strange Death of Liberal England), literary editor of Vanity Fair, leukemia.
* Tom Hanson, 95, Australian rules footballer.
* Amanda Junquera Butler, 88, Spanish writer.
* Cara Knott, 20, American murder victim.
* Lars-Erik Larsson, 78, Swedish composer and conductor (A Winter's Tale, Pastoral Suite), diabetes.
* Dumas Malone, 94, American historian (Jefferson and His Time).
* Albert W. Sherer Jr., 70, American diplomat, ambassador to Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea and Czechoslovakia.

### 28

* Joseph Leon Blau, 77, American philosopher and Jewish historian.
* Lothar Bolz, 83, East German politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
* Märta Boman, 84, Swedish politician.
* Jacques Couderc de Fonlongue, 95, French Olympic equestrian (1928).
* Terry Dolan, 36, American right-wing political activist, closeted homosexual who publicly attacked gay rights, AIDS.
* Harry Else, 80, American Negro league baseball player.
* Huang Kecheng, 84, Chinese People's Liberation Army general.
* Alton Lennon, 80, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
* John D. MacDonald, 70, American novelist (The Executioners), complications from heart surgery.
* Jan Nieuwenhuys, 64, Dutch painter.
* Joel Resnicoff, 38, American artist and fashion illustrator, AIDS.

### 29

* John Antill, 82, Australian composer (Corroboree).
* Venka Asenova, 56, Bulgarian chess player.
* Orville Hodge, 82, American Auditor of Public Accounts and convicted embezzler.
* Philip B. Hofmann, 77, American businessman, chairman of Johnson & Johnson, heart attack.
* Sitaram Lalas, 78, Indian lexicographer.
* Harold Macmillan, 92, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
* Grete Mosheim, 81, German-born actress (Car of Dreams), cancer.
* Pietro Parente, 95, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal.
* Andrei Tarkovsky, 54, Soviet film director (Mirror, Andrei Rublev, Stalker), lung cancer.

### 30

* Cassie Brown, 67, Canadian journalist and author (Death on the Ice, The Wreck of the Florizel).
* Thomas R. Fortune, 69, American politician, member of the New York State Assembly (1969–1982).
* Michael Hankinson, 80, British screenwriter, film editor, and director.
* İlhan Koman, 65, Turkish-Swedish sculptor (Akdeniz).
* Charles Magnante, 81, American accordionist.
* Era Bell Thompson, 81, American novelist.

### 31

* Clayton Bourne, 82, Canadian Olympic swimmer (1924).
* Provine Bradley, 79, American Negro Leagues baseball player.
* Piero Chiara, 73, Italian writer.
* Donald Fleming, 81, Canadian politician, Member of Parliament, International Monetary Fund official, stroke.
* Lloyd Haynes, 52, American actor (Room 222), lung cancer.
* Nathaniel Honono, 78, South African activist.
* Ole Johansen, 82, Norwegian politician.
* Geoffrey Audley Miles, 96, British admiral in the Royal Navy.
* Raj Narain, 69, Indian politician, member of Lok Sabha, heart attack.
* Don Sleet, 48, American jazz trumpeter, lymphoma.
* Bartho Smit, 62, South African writer, cancer.
* Esther Sutherland, 54, American actress.
* Dwight Taylor, 83, American author and screenwriter, heart attack.

### Unknown date

* Pearl Frush, 79, American pin-up and glamour illustration artist.
* Jim O'Connolly, 60, English actor, director and screenwriter (Edgar Wallace Mysteries).
* Robert Osgood, 64–65, American expert on foreign and military policy,
* Toño Salazar, 99, Salvadoran caricaturist, illustrator and diplomat, Parkinson's disease.
* John R. Wiegand, 74, German-born American scientist (Wiegand effect).