Deaths in December 1985

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1985.

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 1985

1

• Kenshiro Abbe, 69, Japanese judoka.
• Héctor Cassina, 42, Argentine Olympic cyclist (1968).
• Agustí Centelles, 75–76, Spanish photographer.
• Hector Chotteau, 87, Belgian ice hockey player.
• Dada Dharmadhikari, 86, Indian social activist.
• Tania Fédor, 80, French actress.
• Oliver H. Fritz, 80, American politician.
• Tito Goya, 34, Puerto Rican actor, cirrhosis.
• Surya Bikram Gyawali, 87, Nepali historian.
• M'hamed Issiakhem, 57, Algerian painter.
• Mohanrao Kallianpurkar, 72, Indian dancer and choreographer.
• Barney Lepper, 87, American NFL football player.
• Harry Morris, 88, English footballer.
• Yvonne Rozille, 85, French actress.
• Agnes Sandström, 98, Swedish survivor of the sinking of the Titanic.
• Don Stoker, 62, English footballer.
• L. P. Vidyarthi, 54, Indian anthropologist.
• Christy Walsh, 64–65, Irish basketball player and Olympian.

2

• Aniello Dellacroce, 71, American mobster (Gambino crime family), cancer.
• Alexandru Frim, 77, Romanian Olympic bobsledder (1936).
• Heinz Hoffmann, 75, East German politician.
• Philip Larkin, 63, English poet (The Whitsun Weddings, The Less Deceived, High Windows), esophageal cancer.
• Stanley Newnham, 75, English cricketer.
• Calixte Savoie, 90, Canadian politician.
• Curly Thirlwell, 80, American sound engineer.

3

• Sir Conolly Abel Smith, 86, British naval admiral.
• Philip Sidney Bernstein, 84, American rabbi and humanitarian, heart failure.
• Satya Bhakta, 88, Indian politician.
• Bill Cox, 75, English golfer.
• Don Crosby, 61, Australian actor, heart attack.
• Sam Gilman, 70, American actor.
• Miloslav Kodl, 57, Czechoslovak Olympic basketball player (1952).
• Dock Mathieson, 71, Scottish musician and music director.

4

• Hatsu Ando, 73, Japanese politician.
• Frederick Boland, 81, Irish diplomat.
• J. Gregory Bruce, 88, American judge.
• Pearl Corkhill, 98, Australian nurse.
• Dina De Santis, 53, Italian actress.
• Ben Douglas, 76, American NFL football player.
• Ernest Fooks, 79, Austrian-Australian architect.
• Henry Freulich, 79, American cinematographer.
• Elmer E. Johnston, 87, American politician, member of the Washington House of Representatives (1947–1966).
• Roger Leenhardt, 82, French writer and filmmaker.
• Ethel Robertson, 83, Scottish businesswoman and philanthropist.
• Forest Sale, 74, American basketball player, heart attack.
• Bijoy Sarkar, 82, Indian poet and musician.

5

• Holmes Alexander, 79, American historian, journalist and politician, member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1931–1935), heart disease.
• Karl Ammitzböll, 70, Danish Olympic equestrian (1956).
• Mihail Celarianu, 92, Romanian poet.
• Oreste Capuzzo, 76, Italian Olympic gymnast (1932, 1936).
• Miguel Cuéllar, 69, Colombian chess player.
• Loris Fortuna, 61, Italian politician.
• Fernando Gómez Martínez, 88, Colombian politician.
• Alexia González-Barros González, 14, Spanish child and canonization candidate, spinal cancer.
• Jay W. MacKelvie, 95, American general.
• Sir Philip Margetson, 91, British police officer.
• James Auburn Pepper, 70, Canadian politician.
• Alec Roxburgh, 75, English footballer.
• V. Sivasubramaniam, 77, Sri Lankan judge.

6

• Slobodan Anđelković, 72, Yugoslav footballer.
• Carroll Cole, 47, American convicted serial killer, execution by lethal injection.
• Denis de Rougemont, 79, Swiss cultural theorist.
• Walter B. Gibson, 88, American writer and magician.
• Burleigh Grimes, 92, American Major League baseball player, cancer.
• Burr Tillstrom, 68, American puppeteer (Kukla, Fran and Ollie).
• John Vassos, 87, Romanian-born American industrial designer.
• Walter K. Wilson Jr., 79, American general.
• Bud Winter, 76, American track and field coach, heart attack.

7

• Dmitri Borgmann, 58, German-American linguist.
• Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia, 104, French art critic.
• Wilder W. Crane Jr., 57, American politician.
• Malcolm Dixon, 86, British biochemist.
• J. R. Eyerman, 79, American photojournalist.
• John Fallon, 72, Scottish golfer.
• Robert Graves, 90, English poet and novelist (I, Claudius), heart failure.
• Des Martin, 72, Australian rules footballer.
• John C. McQueen, 86, American general.
• Tom Mercer, 75, Australian rules footballer.
• Melvyn Millington, 74, English footballer.
• Shlomo Rosen, 80, Austrian-born Israeli politician.
• Aron Steuer, 87, American judge.
• Potter Stewart, 70, American judge, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1958–1981), stroke.

8

• Andrey Aldan-Semenov, 77, Soviet writer.
• Lewis H.M. Ayre, 71, Canadian businessman.
• Clifford W. Beck, 77–78, American politician, member of the Washington House of Representatives (1961–1979).
• Rex Boggan, 55, American NFL football player, heart attack.
• Ermenegildo Florit, 84, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal.
• Paul Kelpe, 83, German-born American painter.
• Clara Lynch, 103, American biologist.
• Ma Jir Bo, 58, Chinese painter.
• Dave Madison, 64, American Major League baseball player.
• Bradley Page, 84, American actor.
• Jack Pye, 82, English professional wrestler.
• Jimmy Rudd, 66, Irish footballer.
• Jack H. Skirball, 89, American film producer.
• Ray Thomas, 67, Canadian politician.
• Sir Harry Trusted, 97, British judge.
• Bill Wambsganss, 91, American Major League baseball player, heart failure.
• Chester A. Weidenburner, 72, American judge.

9

• Reginald Bedford, 75, Canadian pianist.
• Micheál de Búrca, 72, Irish artist.
• Donald John Dean, 88, English soldier.
• Anton Dunckern, 80, German Nazi militant.
• Hugo Gellert, 93, Hungarian-born American artist.
• Tirso Hernández, 93, Mexican Olympic sports shooter (1924).
• Calvin Jackson, 66, American jazz musician.
• Ernest Johnson, 64, American football coach.
• Kolle Lejserowitz, 62, Danish Olympic wrestler (1948).
• Jean-Claude Meunier, 35, French Olympic cyclist (1972).
• François Morren, 86, Belgian Olympic sprinter (1920).
• Charlie Munro, 68, New Zealand-born Australian jazz musician.
• Haruyoshi Ōkawa, 75–76, Japanese bear hunter.
• Federico Riu, 60, Spanish-born Venezuelan philosopher.
• Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling, 81, German composer.
• Wilhelm Unger, 81, German writer and journalist.
• Victor Vicas, 67, French filmmaker.
• Bror With, 85, Norwegian mechanical engineer.

10

• Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson, 58, American Tuscarora activist.
• Leslie Bonnet, 83, British duck breeder and writer.
• Albert Bruckner, 81, Swiss historian.
• Jadwiga Dzido, 67, Polish resistance worker.
• Floyd C. Miller, 83, American politician.
• Pierre Nord, 85, French writer.

11

• Charles Armstrong, 88, British soldier.
• Rupert Kettle, 70, English cricketer.
• Jean Martineau, 90, Canadian judge.
• Francis H. McAdams, 69, American transportation official.
• Bill McConnell, 58, Canadian Olympic rower (1948).
• Kathleen Ryan, 63, Irish actress, lung disease.
• Henry C. Schadeberg, 72, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1961–1965, 1967–1971).
• Maksym Skorupsky, 73, Ukrainian soldier.

12

• Anne Baxter, 62, American actress (All About Eve, The Razor's Edge, The Ten Commandments), stroke.
• Priscilla Capps Hill, 85, American philanthropist.
• Josef Hornauer, 77, German footballer.
• Barry MacKay, 79, English actor.
• Margaret Pitt Morison, 85, Australian architect.
• Charles Singleton, 72, American songwriter.
• Ian Stewart, 47, British keyboardist (The Rolling Stones), heart attack.

13

• Eduard Burdzhalov, 78–79, Soviet historian.
• Paul Caraway, 79, American general.
• Hugh Forbes, 68, British judge.
• Oscar Krokstedt, 77, Swedish naval admiral.
• Donald J. Russell, 85, American railroad executive.
• William Swinnerton, 86, New Zealand Olympic sailor (1956).
• Valerian Tevzadze, 91, Georgian-Polish resistance fighter.
• Ahrne Thorne, 80, Polish-born American newspaper editor.
• Antonio Tovar, 74, Spanish linguist.
• Ann Williams, 50, American actress, cancer.

14

• Charlie Bachman, 93, American football player and coach, heart attack.
• Catherine Doherty, 89, Russian-born Canadian social activist and spiritual writer.
• Sardon Jubir, 68, Malaysian politician.
• Robin Lovejoy, 60, Australian theatre director, liver cancer.
• Roger Maris, 51, American Major League baseball player, non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
• Curley Moore, 41–42, American singer, homicide.
• Thomas Urwin, 73, British politician, MP (1964–1983).
• Bruce Weintraub, 33, American set decorator, AIDS.
• Ruth Wilkinson, 84, New Zealand community leader and historian.

15

• Drew Bowers, 99, American politician.
• Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves, 83, Italian historian and philosopher.
• Austin Edwin Dewar, 73, Canadian politician.
• István Oláh, 58, Hungarian politician.
• Francesco Pernigo, 67, Italian footballer.
• Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, 85, Mauritian politician, prime minister (1968–1982).
• Carlos P. Romulo, 86, Filipino politician, heart failure.
• Forrest C. Shaklee, 91, American businessman, heart attack.
• Frank H. Sobey, 83, Canadian businessman.
• Jim Stuart, 66, American NFL football player.
• John Thompson, 82, Australian rules footballer.
• Jean van den Bosch, 75, Belgian diplomat.

16

• Bhima Bhattar, 81, Indian businessman.
• Thomas Bilotti, 45, American mobster (Gambino crime family), shot.
• Jan Bull, 58, Norwegian author and theatre director.
• Paul Castellano, 70, American crime boss, leader of the Gambino crime family (since 1976), shot.
• Don Coleman, 93, American actor.
• Red Hamill, 68, Canadian NHL ice hockey player.
• Tadashi Negishi, 73, Japanese Olympic rower (1936).
• William H. Pettit, 100, New Zealand evangelist and missionary.
• Jack Plunkett, 74, Australian rules footballer.
• Dick Pollard, 73, English cricketer.
• Dolores Rousse, 84, American actress.
• Walter Siepmann, 83, German industrialist.
• Mervyn Waite, 74, Australian cricketer.
• Claude Wardlaw, 84, British botanist.

17

• Elmer Bowman, 88, American Major League baseball player.
• Albert Cavens, 79, Belgian-born American actor.
• Victor Cornelins, 87, Danish musician.
• Otto Gotsche, 81, German political activist.
• Svend Iversen, 72, Danish Olympic sailor (1948).
• Alan H. Kempner, 88, American publishing executive and philanthropist.
• Harry M. Leonard, 85, American sound mixer.
• Leo Maguire, 81–82, Irish singer.
• Dorothy McKibbin, 88, American security guard (Los Alamos Laboratory).
• Ken O'Dea, 72, American Major League baseball player, lung cancer.
• Gwyn Richards, 79, Welsh rugby union and rugby league player.
• Stephan Riess, 86, German-American mineralologist.
• Hans Weiss, 75, German racing cyclist.

18

• Michael Ani, 68, Nigerian civil servant.
• Paul Baender, 79, German-Bolivian chess player.
• Kashyap Bandhu, 86, Indian politician.
• Miroslav Bartůšek, 64, Czechoslovak Olympic swimmer (1948).
• Wilf Cooke, 70, English footballer.
• Theresa Goell, 84, American archaeologist.
• Helen Goodwin, 58, English-born Canadian choreographer, drowned.
• Herbert Hyman, 67, American sociologist, heart attack.
• Jolyon Jackson, 37, Irish musician, Hodgkin's lymphoma.
• Joseph Janse, 76, Dutch-born American academics administrator.
• Josef Klapuch, 79, Czechoslovak Olympic wrestler (1936).
• Jef Lowagie, 82, Belgian Olympic cyclist (1928, 1936).
• Leonhard Mahlein, 64, German trade unionist.
• Pavel Mahrer, 85, Czechoslovak footballer.
• Xuân Diệu, 69, Vietnamese poet.

19

• Rik Clerckx, 49, Belgian Olympic runner (1964).
• Jan Dam, 80, Dutch Olympic boxer (1924).
• Wiktor Grotowicz, 66, Polish actor.
• Luis Korda, 73, Cuban photographer.
• Timo Mäki, 71, Finnish politician.
• Homer P. Rainey, 89, American academics administrator.
• Roger Robb, 78, American judge.
• Ivan Brude Stone, 78, American politician.

20

• Coral Buttsworth, 85, Australian tennis player.
• Ishaya Shamasha Dawid Bet-Zia, 78–79, Iranian writer.
• Richard R. Larson, 78, American politician.
• Emil Wecksten, 90, Finnish Olympic wrestler (1924).

21

• Merrill P. Barber, 75, American politician, member of the Florida Senate (1954–1958, 1963–1968).
• Kamatari Fujiwara, 80, Japanese actor (Seven Samurai).
• Joe Genewich, 88, American Major League baseball player.
• Américo Ghioldi, 86, Argentine politician.
• Frances E. Henne, 79, American librarian.
• Carlos Mérida, 94, Guatemalan artist.
• Gordon Allen Newkirk Jr., 57, American astrophysicist.
• Elliott Organick, 60, American computer scientist, leukemia.
• Georg Trump, 89, German typographer.
• Francis John Turner, 81, New Zealand geologist.

22

• Benjamin Bellamy, 94, English cricketer.
• D. Boon, 27, American musician (Minutemen), traffic collision.
• Richard P. Condie, 87, American conductor (Tabernacle Choir).
• Osvaldo Farrés, 82, Cuban musician.
• Ignace Gelb, 78, Polish-American grammatologist, leukemia.
• Lawrence Hauben, 54, American screenwriter (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), cancer.
• Gus Jenkins, 54, American musician.
• Neil Marten, 69, British politician, MP (1959–1983).
• Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon, 74, Indian poet.
• Eleoncio Mercedes, 28, Dominican Olympic boxer (1976), shot.
• James Stamp, 81, American musician.
• Clarence Underwood, 73, American football coach.
• Michael Henry Wilson, 84, British scientist and writer.

23

• Martin Beale, 57, British mathematician.
• Birabongse Bhanudej, 71, Thai royal and racing driver, heart attack.
• Alfred Brauer, 91, German-American mathematician.
• Charles Courtin, 83, French Olympic long jumper (1920).
• Margie Hines, 76, American voice actress (Popeye the Sailor, Dizzy Dishes).
• Imants Lešinskis, 54, Soviet Latvian double agent.
• Gina Kaus, 93, Austrian-American novelist and screenwriter.
• James Mackay, 80, New Zealand rugby player.
• Philip Mackie, 67, British screenwriter.
• Dante Magnani, 68, American NFL football player.
• Giovanna Scotto, 90, Italian actress.

24

• Ferhat Abbas, 86, Algerian politician, prime minister (1958–1961).
• Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, 81, American farmer, great-grandson of Abraham Lincoln.
• Tommy Blake, 54, American singer and songwriter, homicide.
• William B. Brown, 73, American judge.
• John F. Carrington, 71, English missionary and translator.
• Giulio Lamberti, 90, Italian Olympic rower (1928).
• Pierre Lefebvre, 30, Canadian professional wrestler, traffic collision.
• Biagio Marin, 94, Italian poet.
• Frank Purdue, 86, Australian politician.
• Habibur Rahman, 69–70, Bangladeshi politician.
• Kōzō Sasaki, 85, Japanese politician, heart failure.
• Erich Schaedler, 36, Scottish footballer, suicide.
• Tarzan Tyler, 58, Canadian professional wrestler and wrestling manager, traffic collision.
• Demetrio Vallejo, 75, Mexican union activist.
• Douglas Watt, 71, Canadian politician.

25

• Willard Ray Custer, 86, American aircraft engineer.
• Daniel Daney, 80, French Olympic boxer (1924).
• Madge Elder, 92, Scottish gardener and historian.
• Mick Howell, 39, Australian rules footballer.
• Rattan Jaidka, 85, Indian cricketer.
• George H. Kondolf, 85, American theatre producer, stroke.
• Samuel Mbappé Léppé, 49, Cameroonian footballer.
• Sir James Marshall-Cornwall, 98, British general.
• Raymond Clyne McNichols, 71, American judge, heart attack.
• Jacques Monod, 67, French actor.
• Joe Oriolo, 72, American animator and cartoonist (Felix the Cat), co-creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost.
• George Paterson, 71, Scottish footballer.
• George Rhodes, 67, American music director, heart attack.
• Eddie Taylor, 62, American blues musician.
• Patrick Teehan, 81, Irish politician, TD (1960–1961).
• Dave Zinkoff, 75, American sports announcer.

26

• J. Paul Austin, 70, American business executive (The Coca-Cola Company).
• Les Bell, 84, American Major League baseball player.
• Jim Bilbrey, 61, American Major League baseball player.
• François Châtelet, 60, French political philosopher.
• James Corry, 85–86, Canadian academics administrator and political scientist.
• Raif Denktaş, 34, North Cypriot musician and politician, traffic collision.
• Dinkar Desai, 69, Indian cricket umpire.
• Dian Fossey, 53, American primatologist, bludgeoned.
• Santosh Ganguli, 74, Indian cricket umpire.
• Špiro Grubišić, 81, Yugoslav Olympic rower (1936).
• James Jamieson, 64, Canadian NHL ice hockey player.
• Charles Ogle, 44, American racing driver, complications from a racing collision.
• Jackie Ormes, 74, American cartoonist, stroke.
• Luka Palamarchuk, 79, Soviet politician.
• Antoine Rivard, 87, Canadian politician.
• Margarete Schön, 90, German actress.
• Maxwell Staniforth, 92, British scholar and radio presenter.
• Udaykumar, 52, Indian actor and filmmaker.
• Lionel White, 80, American novelist.
• Cornelia Wood, 93, Canadian politician.

27

• Karl Beurlen, 84, German paleontologist.
• William B. Goggins, 87, American naval admiral.
• Harry Hopman, 79, Australian tennis player and coach, heart attack.
• Bill Isaacs, 71, Canadian lacrosse player.
• Anatoly Nikolayevich Levchenko, 38, Soviet fighter pilot, shootdown.
• Daniel Mangrané, 75, Spanish filmmaker.
• Jean Rondeau, 39, French racing driver, traffic collision.
• Herb Steinohrt, 88, Australian rugby league player.
• Ole Wanscher, 82, Danish furniture designer.
• Harold Whitlock, 82, British Olympic long-distance walker (1936).
• Audrey Wood, 80, American literary and theatrical agent.

28

• E. W. Adikaram, 80, Sri Lankan educationalist.
• Molly Blackburn, 55, South African civil rights activist, traffic collision.
• Renato Castellani, 72, Italian filmmaker.
• Gordon S. Haight, 84, American writer.
• Josef Lense, 95, Austrian physicist.
• Benny Morton, 78, American jazz musician.
• Bob Peden, 79, Scottish footballer.
• Eric Peters, 82, British tennis player.
• Ernie Thompson, 76, English footballer.
• Henry Winneke, 77, Australian politician.

29

• Nola Barber, 84, Australian politician and community worker.
• Ruggero Berti, 76, American Olympic cyclist (1932).
• José Armando Caro, 75, Argentine politician.
• Chu Song-woong, 44, South Korean actor.
• Harold S. Osborne, 98, American electrical engineer.
• Douglas Ryley, 80, British RAF officer.
• Léon Schumacher, 67, Luxembourgian footballer.

30

• Ansco Dokkum, 81, Dutch Olympic sailor (1936).
• Jake Forbes, 88, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Georges Haddad, 61, Lebanese Greek Catholic prelate.
• Alfred Heurtaux, 92, French flying ace.
• László Márkus, 58, Hungarian actor.
• Norm Matthews, 70, Australian rules footballer.
• Elsie McWilliams, 89, American songwriter.
• Bob Pearson, 78, English singer.
• Alexander J. Rohan, 74, American trade unionist.
• Alfred Rushforth, 87, Australian cricketer.
• Howard Taylor, 77, English cricketer.

31

• Lucia Catullo, 58, Italian actress.
• Andy Chapin, 33, American keyboardist, plane crash.
• István Csák, 70, Hungarian Olympic field hockey and ice hockey player (1936 Summer/Winter Olympics).
• Harold Horn, 61, American politician, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1971–1972).
• Mihalj Kečkeš, 72, Yugoslav footballer.
• Ruth Kemper, 83, American violinist and music teacher.
• Nicolae Kirculescu, 82, Romanian composer.
• Sllave Llambi, 66, Albanian footballer.
• Léon Lortie, 83, Canadian chemist.
• Mal Matheson, 79, New Zealand cricketer.
• Gabit Musirepov, 83, Soviet Kazakh playwright.
• Ricky Nelson, 45, American singer ("Poor Little Fool") and actor (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Rio Bravo), plane crash.
• Sam Spiegel, 84, Polish-born American film producer.
• Tachikawa Sumito, 56, Japanese singer.
• Jocelyn Toynbee, 88, British art historian.