• Source: Deaths in December 1989

The following is a list of notable deaths in December 1989.
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 1989






= 1

=
Alvin Ailey, 58, American dancer, director and choreographer, founder of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, AIDS.
Leo Amino, 78, Japanese-born American sculptor.
Michał Antoniewicz, 92, Polish equestrian, dual Olympic medalist.
Danilo Atienza, 38, Filipino air force pilot, plane crash.
André Charles Biéler, 93, Swiss-born Canadian painter.
Billy Lyall, 36, Scottish singer, keyboard player and flautist (The Alan Parsons Project, Bay City Rollers), AIDS.
Nikolai Patolichev, 81, Soviet politician, Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Bill Stout, 62, American journalist (CBS News), cardiac arrest.
Mitchell Ucovich, 74, American NFL footballer (Washington Redskins).
William Vandivert, 77, American photographer, co-founder of Magnum Photos.




= 2

=
Harland Bartholomew, 100, American civil engineer and urban planner.
Norman Davis, 76, New Zealand professor of English language and literature (Oxford).
Keith Ewert, 71, Australian accountant and politician, member of the Australian House of Representatives.
Oldřich Hanč, 74, Czechoslovakian speed skater and Olympian.
Ruth Mary Reynolds, 73, American political and civil rights activist.
Richard Shannon, 69, American film and television actor (The Tin Star).
William Taylour, 85, British archaeologist (Mycenaean Greece).




= 3

=
Sourou-Migan Apithy, 76, Beninese politician, president of Dahomey.
Mario Astorri, 69, Italian footballer and coach (Napoli).
Connie B. Gay, 75, American country musician, cancer.
Fernando Martín, 27, Spanish basketball player and swimmer, five-time Spanish swimming champion, traffic collision.
Syed Safdar Hussain Najafi, 57, Pakistani religious leader.
Jean-Paul Moulinot, 77, French actor.
Alexander Obukhov, 71, Soviet geophysicist and applied mathematician (atmospheric physics).
Paul Wei Ping-ao, 60, Chinese and Hong Kong actor (Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon).
Carlo Rim, 86, French film screenwriter, producer and director.
Nihal Silva, 35, Sri Lankan comedian and actor, shot.




= 4

=
Gerald Carson, 90, American advertising executive, social historian and writer.
Émile Janssens, 87, Belgian colonial official and military general.
Elwyn Jones, 80, Welsh barrister and politician, Lord Chancellor.
Steve Lembo, 63, American Major League baseballer (Brooklyn Dodgers).
Kathleen Manners, 95, English aristocrat.
Angelo Ruggiero, 49, American mobster, member of the Gambino crime family, cancer.
May Swenson, 76, American poet and playwright, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.




= 5

=
Juan Manuel Acuña, 68, Chilean international footballer (Chile national football team).
Edoardo Amaldi, 81, Italian physicist, coined the term "neutrino".
Nathan Huggins, 62, American historian and author, cancer.
Sofiya Kalistratova, 82, Soviet lawyer and human rights activist.
Li Keran, 82, Chinese painter and art educator, heart attack.
George Machin, 66, British politician, Member of Parliament.
Tadeusz Miksa, 63, Polish footballer (Lechia Gdańsk).
John Pritchard, 68, English conductor, music director of the San Francisco Opera, lung cancer.
George Selden, 60, American author (The Cricket in Times Square), gastrointestinal hemorrhage.




= 6

=
Frances Bavier, 86, American stage and television actress (The Andy Griffith Show), heart failure.
C. L. Dellums, 89, American labor activist, leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Sammy Fain, 87, American composer ("Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella", "I'll Be Seeing You"), heart attack.
David Hardman, 88, British politician, Member of Parliament.
Rolf Johannesson, 89, Nazi German and West German naval admiral.
Marc Lépine, 25, Canadian mass murderer (École Polytechnique massacre), suicide.
Mélinée Manouchian, 75–76, French-Armenian member of the French Resistance and widow of Missak Manouchian.
Art Parks, 78, American Major League baseballer (Brooklyn Dodgers).
John Payne, 77, American film actor (Miracle on 34th Street, The Restless Gun), heart failure.
Ćamil Sijarić, 75, Yugoslavian novelist and short story writer, traffic collision.




= 7

=
Haystacks Calhoun, 55, American professional wrestler.
Phil Dokes, 34, American NFL footballer (Buffalo Bills), heart failure.
Hans Hartung, 85, German-French abstract painter and soldier.
Lucien Le Guével, 74, French racing cyclist.
Carlos DeLuna, 27, American convicted murderer, executed.
Stuart Novins, 75, American television journalist, CBS News correspondent, respiratory failure.
Sirima, 25, English-French singer, murdered.
Vadim Spiridonov, 45, Soviet film actor and director, heart failure.
Luis Calderón Vega, 77–78, Mexican politician and writer, co-founder of the National Action Party.
Melchior Wezel, 86, Swiss gymnast and Olympic gold medalist.




= 8

=
Albert Barrett, 86, English footballer (Fulham).
Bruno Carette, 33, French humorist and comedian, member of Les Nuls.
Szymon Datner, 87, Polish historian and Holocaust survivor.
Max Grundig, 81, German businessman, founder of Grundig AG.
Mykola Livytskyi, 82, Soviet Ukrainian politician, prime minister and president of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile.
Stanley Steingut, 69, American politician, speaker of the New York State Assembly, lung cancer.




= 9

=
Brett Austin, 30, New Zealand swimmer and Olympian.
Edward J. Bloustein, 64, American president of Rutgers University, heart attack.
Gunnar Bøe, 72, Norwegian politician and economist.
William P. Ennis, 85, American general in the United States Army.
Basil Hayward, 61, English footballer and manager (Port Vale), heart attack.
Takeshi Kaikō, 58, Japanese novelist, short-story writer and journalist, esophageal cancer.
Doug Scovil, 62, American football player and NFL coach (Philadelphia Eagles), heart attack.
S. Somasundaram, 70, Indian Carnatic vocalist.
R. G. Springsteen, 85, American B movie and television director.




= 10

=
Frank Baker, 71, English footballer (Stoke City).
Sam Barkas, 79, English footballer and manager (Bradford City, England).
Paul Collaer, 98, Belgian musicologist, pianist and conductor.
George Edmonds, 96, English professional footballer (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Nico Gardener, 83, Latvian-born British bridge player.
Frank Gulotta, 82, American judge, diabetes.
Frederick Hedges, 86, Canadian rower and Olympic medalist.
Robin Hughes, 69, Argentinian-born British actor, liver disease.
Steve Sebo, 75, American football and baseball player and coach.
Harold Thomas, 75, Welsh rugby union and rugby league player (Salford, Wales).
Huang Zhen, 80, Chinese politician, ambassador to Hungary, Indonesia and France.




= 11

=
Allez France, 19, American Thoroughbred racehorse.
Carlos Almaraz, 48, Mexican-born American artist, AIDS.
John Buxton, 76, British poet and ornithologist.
Lindsay Crosby, 51, American actor and singer, suicide.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 94, American photographer (Harper's Bazaar), pneumonia.
Howard Lang, 78, English actor (The Onedin Line).




= 12

=
Carlos Barral, 60–61, Spanish poet and politician, member of the European Parliament, abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Sid Colin, 74, English scriptwriter (The Army Game).
Helen Creighton, 90, Canadian folklorist and author.
Bill Kennedy, 77, Scottish footballer (Southampton).
Suihō Tagawa, 90, Japanese manga artist.




= 13

=
Paul Crowe, 65, American NFL footballer (San Francisco 49ers).
Peter de la Mare, 69, New Zealand physical organic chemist.
Michele Fanelli, 82, Italian long-distance runner and Olympian.
Sammy Lerner, 86, Romanian-born American film and musical songwriter, cancer.
Roderick Mackenzie, 85, Scottish soldier and peer, chief of Clan Mackenzie.
Felix McGrogan, 75, Scottish footballer (Kilmarnock).
Stan Randall, 81, Canadian businessman and politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.




= 14

=
Lucien Aguettand, 88, French art director.
Reuben Bennett, 75, Scottish professional footballer and manager (Hull City).
Robert D. Blue, 91, American politician, governor of Iowa, stroke.
Ants Eskola, 81, Estonian actor, singer and artist.
Gerry Healy, 76, British political activist, leader of the Workers Revolutionary Party.
Seiichi Katsumata, 81, Japanese politician, Soviet spy, member of the House of Representatives.
Jock Mahoney, 70, American actor and stuntman (The Range Rider), stroke.
Frederick Nolting, 78, American diplomat, ambassador to South Vietnam, cardio-pulmonary arrest.
Georges Poitou, 63, French mathematician.
Andrei Sakharov, 68, Soviet nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics, dilated cardiomyopathy.
Howard Walton, 73, British tennis and table tennis player.




= 15

=
Anders "Akka" Andersson, 52, Swedish ice hockey player and dual Olympian.
Ben Barzman, 79, Canadian journalist, screenwriter and novelist (El Cid), stroke.
Emile de Antonio, 70, American documentary director (Rush to Judgment), heart attack.
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, 42, Colombian drug lord, leader of the Medellín Cartel, shot.
Charles Holland, 81, British road-racing cyclist and Olympic medalist.
Mikhail Kuznetsov, 76, Soviet flying ace, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Philly Lutaaya, 38, Ugandan musician, AIDS.
Arnold Moss, 79, American actor, lung cancer.
Diptendu Pramanick, 79, Indian film personality.
Ali Şen, 70, Turkish actor.
Vanja Sutlić, 64, Yugoslavian philosopher.
Edward Underdown, 81, English actor.




= 16

=
Niccolo d'Ardia Caracciolo, 48, Irish artist, traffic collision.
Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, 76, Argentinian racing driver, pancreatic cancer.
Charlie Long, 51, American AFL football player (Boston Patriots).
Silvana Mangano, 59, Italian film actress (The Verona Trial), lung cancer.
Gianni Poggi, 68, Italian tenor.
Aileen Pringle, 94, American stage and silent-screen actress.
John Ramsbotham, 83, British Anglican clergyman, Bishop of Wakefield.
René Tavernier, 74, French poet and philosopher.
Lee Van Cleef, 64, American actor (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), heart attack.
Robert Smith Vance, 58, American judge, letter bomb.
Marjorie Westbury, 84, English radio actress and singer.
Priscilla White, 89, American diabetes researcher, heart attack.




= 17

=
Gilbert Allart, 87, French hurdler and Olympian.
Walt Bachrach, 84, American politician, mayor of Cincinnati, stroke.
Edward Boyd, 72–73, Scottish writer (The View from Daniel Pike).
Zeb Eaton, 69, American Major League baseballer (Detroit Tigers).
Ghalib Halasa, 57, Jordanian novelist and short story writer.
Gustav Engel, 96, German historian.
Josephine Hill, 90, American silent-screen actress.
Asen Panchev, 83, Bulgarian international footballer (Levski Sofia, Bulgaria).
Luciano Salce, 67, Italian film director and actor (Le pillole di Ercole), myocardial infarction.
Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa, 94, Romanian politician, journalist and diplomat, ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Albert Coady Wedemeyer, 93, American army general.
William Wiswesser, 75, American chemist (Wiswesser line notation).




= 18

=
Ewen Bain, 64, Scottish cartoonist (Angus Og), influenza.
Brad Beckman, 24, American NFL football player (New York Giants), traffic collision.
Olwen Brogan, 89, British archaeologist.
Bobby Capó, 67, Puerto Rican musician, heart attack.
George Harvie-Watt, 86, British barrister and politician, Member of Parliament.
Sydney Irving, 71, British politician, Member of Parliament.
Enar Josefsson, 73, Swedish cross-country skier and Olympic medalist.
Jack Kilpatrick, 72, British ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.
Louise Little, early 90s, Grenadian-born American activist.
Jerzy Rutkowski, 75, Polish political activist and resistance fighter.
Robert E. Robinson, 42, American attorney and council member, murdered.
William Saltonstall, 84, American educator, principal of Phillips Exeter Academy.
Stanley Senanayake, 72, Sri Lankan police officer, Inspector General of the Sri Lanka Police.
Jean Strauss, 77, Luxembourgian sprint canoeist and Olympian.




= 19

=
Herbert Blaize, 71, Grenadian politician, prime minister of Grenada, prostate cancer.
Abdul Jalil Choudhury, 63–64, Bengali Deobandi Islamic scholar and politician, member of Assam Legislative Assembly.
Audrey Christie, 77, American actress, singer and dancer (The Voice of the Turtle), emphysema.
Lois Darling, 72, American author and illustrator, leukemia.
Barthold Fles, 87, Dutch-born American literary agent and author, diabetes.
Stella Gibbons, 87, English author, journalist and poet (Cold Comfort Farm).
John Heddle, 46, British politician, Member of Parliament, suicide.
Floyd Jones, 72, American blues musician (On the Road Again), heart failure.
Óndra Łysohorsky, 84, Czechoslovakian poet.
Kirill Mazurov, 75, Soviet politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia.
Georges Rouquier, 80, French film director, screenwriter and actor.
Henry Theel, 72, Finnish singer.




= 20

=
Irma Beilke, 85, German operatic soprano and concert singer (Städtische Oper Berlin).
Kurt Böhme, 81, German bass.
Elisheva Cohen, 78, German-born Israeli designer and museum curator.
Gentry Crowell, 57, American politician, Tennessee Secretary of State, suicide.
Jiro Harada, 95, Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army.
Donald L. McFaul, 32, American Navy SEAL, killed in U.S. invasion of Panama.




= 21

=
Ján Cikker, 78, Czechoslovakian composer.
Sir Hugh Elliott, 76, British ornithologist, conservationist and hereditary peer.
Inma de Santis, 30, Spanish actress, car accident.
Rotimi Fani-Kayode, 34, Nigerian-born English photographer, AIDS.
Elsie Griffin, 94, English opera singer.
Harry Hibbs, 47, Canadian musician, cancer.
Ralph "Blackie" Schwamb, 63, American Major League baseballer (St. Louis Browns) and convicted murderer.
Soedjatmoko, 67, Indonesian politician and diplomat, ambassador to the United States, cardiac arrest.
Ethel Swanbeck, 96, American politician, member of Ohio House of Representatives.
José Zacarías Tallet, 96, Cuban writer.
Dwane Wallace, 78, American aircraft designer, president of Cessna.
Edmund Warwick, 82, British actor.




= 22

=
Andrés do Barro, 42, Spanish singer-songwriter, liver cancer.
Samuel Beckett, 83, Irish-French novelist, playwright and short story writer, Nobel laureate in Literature, emphysema.
Howard Bowen, 81, American economist, president of Grinnell College and the University of Iowa.
Theodore M. Burton, 82, American Mormon Genealogical Department director.
Archie Campbell, 86, American Major League baseballer (Cincinnati Reds).
Giorgio Cavallon, 85, Italian-born American abstract artist.
Harry Kraf, 82, American politician, member of the New York State Senate.
Vasile Milea, 62, Romanian general and politician, Minister of National Defence, suicide.
Gustavo Pizarro, 73, Chilean international footballer.
Massimo Serato, 72, Italian film actor (El Cid, The Sun Still Rises), heart attack.




= 23

=
Jeff Alexander, 79, American conductor, arranger and composer, cancer.
Peter Bennett, 72, British stage and television actor.
John Cavendish, 73, British politician (House of Lords).
Milko Gaydarski, 43, Bulgarian international footballer and Olympic medalist (Levski Sofia, Bulgaria).
Clem Hawke, 91, Australian politician, father of Bob Hawke, stroke.
Shahzad Khalil, 44–45, Pakistani television director and producer (Tanhaiyaan), heart attack.
Lord Richard Percy, 68, English zoologist.
Richard Rado, 83, German-born British mathematician (Erdős–Rado theorem).
Lennart Strandberg, 74, Swedish sprinter and Olympian.




= 24

=
Victor Fontana, 41, Romanian biathlete and Olympian, shot.
Danny Huwé, 56, Belgian journalist, shot by sniper.
Charles Moore, 79, British hereditary peer, managing director of the Financial Times.
Ernest Nathan Morial, 60, American politician, Mayor of New Orleans, heart attack.
Florică Murariu, 34, Romanian international rugby union player (Steaua București, Romania), shot.
Roger Pigaut, 70, French actor and film director, cardiovascular disease.
Ollie Savatsky, 78, American NFL footballer (Cleveland Rams).




= 25

=
Benny Binion, 85, American career criminal who established illegal gambling operations, heart failure.
Gus Dahlström, 83, Swedish film actor.
Betty Garde, 84, American actress (Call Northside 777, Cry of the City).
Türkan Hanımsultan, 70, Ottoman princess and chemical engineer, daughter of Enver Pasha.
George Hotchkiss, 83, American NBL basketball coach (Oshkosh All-Stars).
Frederick F. Houser, 85, American politician and judge, Lieutenant Governor of California, heart attack.
Masaad Kassis, 71, Israeli Arab politician, member of the Knesset.
Joseph Livingston, 84, American business journalist and columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner.
Jean-Étienne Marie, 72, French composer of contemporary music.
Billy Martin, 61, American Major League baseballer and manager (New York Yankees), traffic collision.
Riccardo Morandi, 87, Italian civil engineer, noted for his bridge designs.
Robert Pirosh, 79, American screenwriter and director (Battleground, Go for Broke!), heart failure.
Bo Randall, 80, American knifemaker, founded Randall Made Knives.
Wally Ris, 65, American swimmer, dual Olympic gold medalist and world record holder.
Domenico Scala, 86, Italian cinematographer (Ossessione).
A. J. Seymour, 75, Guyanese poet, essayist and memoirist.
Romanian politicians executed by firing squad:
Elena Ceaușescu, 73, deputy prime minister
Nicolae Ceaușescu, 71, president




= 26

=
Lennox Berkeley, 86, English composer, respiratory infection.
Walter Bromley-Davenport, 86, British politician, Member of Parliament.
Sybil Cholmondeley, 95, British noblewoman and socialite, Chief Staff Officer in the Women's Royal Naval Service.
Buck Crump, 85, Canadian president of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Doug Harvey, 65, Canadian NHL ice hockey player (Montreal Canadiens), cirrhosis.
Kōyō Ishikawa, 85, Japanese photographer.
Paul Jennings, 71, English author.
Roy Joiner, 83, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs).
K. P. Krishnakumar, 31, Indian sculptor and painter, suicide.
Jörgen Lehmann, 91, Danish-Swedish physician and chemist (tuberculosis).
James J. Manderino, 57, American politician, speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, heart attack.
Maryon Pearson, 88, Canadian spouse of the prime minister.
K. Shankar Pillai, 87, Indian cartoonist, founded Shankar's Weekly.
Mohan Singh, 80, Indian army general and politician, member of the Rajya Sabha, cancer.
Peggy Thorpe-Bates, 75, English actress (Rumpole of the Bailey).
Seán Walsh, 64, Irish politician.




= 27

=
Rodney Arismendi, 76, Uruguayan politician and political writer.
Kurt Baum, 89, Austro-Hungarian–born American tenor (Metropolitan Opera).
Maurice Dunkley, 75, English footballer (Manchester City) and first-class cricketer (Northamptonshire).
Finlay Hart, 87–88, Scottish communist politician.
Gene Johnson, 87, American football and basketball coach, created the full-court press.
Dada Amir Haider Khan, 89, Pakistani communist activist.
Gerard Maarse, 60, Dutch speed skater and dual Olympian.
Arthur Rhames, 32, American guitarist, tenor saxophonist, and pianist, AIDS.
Walter Rose, 77, German footballer and manager (SpVgg Leipzig).
John Monteath Robertson, 89, Scottish chemist and crystallographer.
Ron Ulmer, 76, New Zealand track cyclist and national champion.
George William Weidler, 63, American saxophonist and songwriter, husband of Doris Day.




= 28

=
Solomon Birnbaum, 98, Austro-Hungarian, British and Canadian expert in Yiddish linguistics and Hebrew paleography.
Marin Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian economist and diplomat, brother of Nicolae Ceaușescu, suicide.
Brian Coburn, 53, English actor who portrayed himself as Scottish.
Earl Patrick Freeman, 57, Canadian professional wrestler, heart attack.
Karl Humenberger, 83, Austrian footballer and manager (Floridsdorfer, Austria).
Pavel Kurochkin, 89, Soviet army general.
Ricardo López Méndez, 86, Mexican poet and lyricist ("Amor").
Hermann Oberth, 95, Austro-Hungarian–born German physicist and rocket pioneer.
Ian Parry, 24, British photographer and photojournalist, plane crash.
Charles Rinker, 78, American lyricist.
William Scott, 76, Northern Irish abstract painter, Alzheimer's disease.




= 29

=
Süreyya Ağaoğlu, 86, Azerbaijani-born Turkish writer and lawyer, cerebral hemorrhage.
Adrien Albert, 82, Australian medicinal chemist.
Scott Burton, 50, American sculptor, AIDS.
Saman Piyasiri Fernando, 31, Sri Lankan politician, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, murdered.
Hap Glaudi, 77, American sportscaster (WWL-TV), lung cancer.
Marion Keisker, 72, American record producer, first person to record Elvis Presley.
Saša Večtomov (born Alexandr Večtomov), 59, Czechoslovakian cellist, suicide.
Bernard Lewis Welch, 77–78, British statistician (Welch's t-test), stroke.




= 30

=
Sten Abel, 90, Norwegian sailor and Olympic medalist.
Øyvind Anker, 85, Norwegian librarian.
Charles H. Blosser, 94, American after whom Blosser Municipal Airport is named.
Augusto Del Noce, 79, Italian philosopher and political thinker.
Paul-Henri Grauwin, 75, French army doctor.
Etienne Leroux, 67, South African writer.
Esther McCoy, 85, American architectural historian and author, emphysema.
Yasuji Miyazaki, 73, Japanese swimmer and Olympic gold medalist.
Fumiteru Nakano, 74, Japanese tennis player.
Madoline Thomas, 99, Welsh actress, complications from broken hip.




= 31

=
Christia Adair, 96, American suffragist and civil rights activist.
Lilly Daché, 97, French-born American hatmaker.
Georges de Bourguignon, 79, Belgian fencer and Olympic medalist.
Margaret Gordon, 50, British children's book illustrator (The Wombles).
Clarence Hammar, 90, Swedish sailor and Olympic medalist.
Ignatius Kilage, 48, Papua New Guinean politician, Governor-General of Papua New Guinea.
Mihály Lantos, 61, Hungarian international footballer and manager (MTK Hungária, Hungary).
Francis B. Loomis Jr., 86, American general in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Wendell Mosley, 57, American football player and coach.
Bendt Rothe, 68, Danish actor (Gertrud).
Gerhard Schröder, 79, West German politician, Minister of Defence.
Madhuri Singh, 66, Indian politician, member of Lok Sabha.




= Unknown date

=
Martin Bartesch, 63, Romanian-born member of the SS (Mauthausen concentration camp).
Ruth Moore, 85–86, American writer.
Nora O'Mahoney, 76–77, Irish actress and lay missionary (Darby O'Gill and the Little People).
Dietrich Prinz, 86, German-born computer science pioneer.
Yem Sambaur, 76, Cambodian politician, Prime Minister of Cambodia.




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Perang Pasifik
• Selandia Baru
• Amerika Serikat
• Klub 27
• Perang Dunia II
• Saddam Hussein
• Perang Vietnam
• Daftar konflik bersenjata yang sedang berlangsung
• Pfizer
• Kereta Ringan (MTR)
• Deaths in December 1989
• Deaths in 2024
• Deaths in December 2023
• 1989
• Deaths in December 2018
• Deaths in December 2022
• Lists of deaths by year
• Deaths in December 2013
• Deaths in December 2016
• Deaths in December 2021