Deaths in 2008

The following is a list of notable deaths in 2008. Names are listed under the date of death, not the date it was announced. Names under each date are listed in alphabetical order by family name.

A typical entry appears in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship and reason for notability, established cause of death, reference.

March 2008

31

• Nikolai Baibakov, 97, Russian economist, Gosplan head (1955–57, 1965–85), last of Stalin's ministers, pneumonia. [1] (Russian)
• Jules Dassin, 96, American Academy Award-nominated film director, (Rififi, The Naked City, Never on Sunday), flu. [2] (Greek)

30

• Marie-Françoise Audollent, 70, French actress, accidental fall. [3] (French)
• David Leslie, 54, British racing driver and commentator, Farnborough plane crash. [4]
• Sean Levert, 39, American R&B singer. [5]
• Richard Lloyd, 63, British racing driver and team owner, Farnborough plane crash. [6]
• Dith Pran, 65, Cambodian journalist, survivor of the Killing Fields, pancreatic cancer. [7]

29

• Raul Donazar Calvet, 72, Brazilian football player, twice Intercontinental Cup winner with Santos, pneumonia. [8] (Portuguese)
• Angus Fairhurst, 41, British artist, apparent suicide. [9]
• Ralph Rapson, 93, American architect, heart attack. [10]
• Albert Stallard, Baron Stallard, 86, British Labour MP and life peer. [11]
• Myint Thein, 62, Burmese National League for Democracy spokesman, stomach cancer. [12]

28

• Herb Rich, 79, American football player. [13]

27

• Jean-Marie Balestre, 86, French former President of FISA and later FIA. [14]
• Beverly Broadman, 60, American broadcaster with CNN and CBS News, cancer. [15]
• Billy Consolo, 73, American baseball player and coach, heart attack. [16]
• George Pruteanu, 60, Romanian literary critic and senator, heart attack. [17]
• Jayci Yaeger, 10, American cancer patient, made headlines when her imprisoned father was released for final meeting, brain cancer. [18]

26

• Heath Benedict, 24, American football offensive lineman (Newberry College), 2008 NFL Draft prospect. [19]
• Christian Bergelin, 62, French politician. [20] (French)
• Robert Fagles, 74, American professor, poet and translator of ancient epics, prostate cancer. [21]
• Wally Phillips, 82, American radio personality, pioneer of talk radio, Alzheimer's disease. [22]
• Erwin Wickert, 93, German writer and diplomat. [23] (German)

25

• Art Aragon, 80, American boxer, stroke. [24]
• Ben Carnevale, 92, American college basketball coach. [25]
• Tony Church, 77, British actor. [26]
• Jean Davies, 55, American judge (Minnesota First District), complications from brain surgery. [27]
• Thierry Gilardi, 49, French journalist and TF1 sports commentator, heart attack. [28]
• William Hyland, 79, American Deputy National Security Advisor and editor of Foreign Affairs journal, aortic aneurism. [29]
• Sergey Kramarenko, 61, Azerbaijani football goalkeeper (Neftchi Baku, USSR national team). [30]
• Abby Mann, 80, American Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Judgment at Nuremberg), heart failure. [31]
• Herb Peterson, 89, American fast food pioneer, inventor of the McDonald's Egg McMuffin. [32]
• Gene Puerling, 78, American vocal jazz musician, singer, musical arranger for the Hi-Los and Singers Unlimited. [33]
• Sérgio de Souza, 73, Brazilian journalist, co-founder and editor of Caros Amigos magazine, respiratory illness. [34] (Portuguese)
• Ivan Toms, 55, South African physician, activist against apartheid and conscription, meningitis. [35]

24

• Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, 53, American jazz guitarist, diabetes. [36]
• Neil Aspinall, 66, British road manager for The Beatles and executive of Apple Corps, lung cancer. [37]
• Rafael Azcona, 81, Spanish scriptwriter, lung cancer. [38]
• John Cushley, 65, Scottish footballer (Celtic, West Ham United), motor neurone disease. [39]
• Boris Dvornik, 68, Croatian actor, stroke. [40]
• Dina Sassoli, 87, Italian actress. [41] (Italian)
• Rajbir Singh, 56 Indian assistant commissioner of police, shot. [42]
• Richard Widmark, 93, American Academy Award-nominated actor (Kiss of Death, Judgment at Nuremberg), after long illness. [43]
• Sherri Wood, 28, Canadian journalist (Toronto Sun), brain cancer. [44]

23

• Big Jack Armstrong, 62, American radio DJ. [45]
• Rune Borg, 76, Swedish entrepreneur, father and manager of tennis player Björn Borg. [46]
• Al Copeland, 64, American restaurateur, founder of Popeyes Chicken, salivary gland cancer. [47] [48]
• Hugo Correa, 81/82, Chilean science fiction writer. [49] (Spanish)
• Georgy Gachev, 78, Russian philosopher, cultural and literary critic. [50]
• Hal Riney, 75, American advertising executive, founder of Publicis & Hal Riney, cancer. [51]
• Chase Tatum, 34, American former WCW wrestler and road manager for Outkast, apparent accidental drug overdose. [52] [53]

22

• Robert Dyk, 71, American television reporter (ABC News, WMTW-TV), cancer. [54]
• Arbella Ewing, 114, American who was the third-oldest verified person in the world. [55]
• Cachao López, 89, Cuban musician credited with creating mambo, renal failure. [56]
• Harvey Picker, 92, American philanthropist. [57]
• Adolfo Suárez Rivera, 81, Mexican cardinal, Archbishop Emeritus of Monterrey. [58]

21

• Gaji Abashilov, 58, Russian journalist, chief of VGTRK TV company in Dagestan, shot. [59]
• Denis Cosgrove, 59, British geographer and Alexander von Humboldt professor of geography at UCLA, cancer. [60]
• John Fowler, 42, American drummer (Steelheart), brain aneurysm. [61] [62]
• George Gross, 85, Canadian sports journalist, founding sports editor of the Toronto Sun, heart attack. [63]
• Shusha Guppy, 72, Iranian writer and singer. [64]
• Raymond Leblanc, 92, Belgian comic book producer and publisher (The Adventures of Tintin). [65]
• John List, 82, American mass murderer, complications of pneumonia. [66] [67]
• Gabriel París Gordillo, 98, Colombian military governor, chairman of Colombian Military Junta. [68] (Spanish)
• Ilyas Shurpayev, 32, Russian journalist responsible for North Caucasus news on Channel One, murder by strangulation. [69] [70]
• Merv Wallace, 91, New Zealand cricket captain (1952–1953). [71]

20

• Eric Ashton, 73, British rugby league player for Wigan and Great Britain, cancer. [72]
• Sobhan Babu, 71, Indian actor, cardiac arrest. [73]
• Miguel Cidras, 71, Uruguayan-born Brazilian maestro and music arranger. [74] (Portuguese)
• Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro, 81, Italian claimant to headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. [75] (Italian)
• Alexandru Custov, 53, Romanian footballer. [76] (Romanian)
• Jon Hassler, 74, American author, progressive supranuclear palsy. [77]
• Al Hofmann, 60, American drag racer, heart attack. [78]
• Carlos Galvão de Melo, 86, Portuguese general, Conservative member of National Salvation Junta. [79] (Portuguese)
• Bestia Salvaje, 46, Mexican lucha libre wrestler, liver disease. [80]
• Abigail Taylor, 6, American girl whose severe swimming pool injury led to tougher laws. [81].
• Brian Wilde, 80, British comedic actor (Porridge, Last of the Summer Wine). [82]

19

• Joe Blackledge, 79, British cricketer, former captain and president of the Lancashire County Cricket Club. [83]
• Sir Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Sri Lankan/British science fiction author (2001: A Space Odyssey), heart failure. [84]
• Hugo Claus, 78, Belgian author, voluntary euthanasia. [85]
• John Dowie, 93, Australian sculptor, stroke. [86]
• Mia Permanto, 19, Finnish singer, finalist in Idols. [87] (Finnish)
• Raghuvaran, 59, Indian actor, cardiac arrest. [88]
• Paul Scofield, 86, British Academy Award–winning actor (A Man for All Seasons), leukaemia. [89]
• Chantal Sébire, 53, French esthesioneuroblastoma sufferer and euthanasia activist, Pentobarbital overdose [90]
• Ama Sumani, 39, Ghanaian dialysis patient removed from the United Kingdom, myeloma. [91]

18

• Aaron Asher, 78, American literary editor and translator, cancer. [92]
• Andrew Britton, 27, British-born spy novelist (The Assassin, The Invisible), undiagnosed heart condition. [93]
• Philip Jones Griffiths, 72, British photojournalist, cancer. [94]
• Jyrki Hämäläinen, 65, Finnish journalist, editor of Suosikki magazine. [95]
• Živojin Žika Milenković, 81, Serbian actor, natural causes. [96] (Serbian)
• Anthony Minghella, 54, British Academy Award–winning director (The English Patient), BFI chairman, post-surgical haemorrhage. [97]
• Geoffrey Pearson, 80, Canadian diplomat, son of former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. [98] [99]
• Oreste Rizzini, 67, Italian voice actor, stomach cancer. [100] (Italian)
• Crispin Sanchez, 82, American pioneer of Mexican American education and sports. [101]

17

• Roland Arnall, 68, American owner of Ameriquest Mortgage, Ambassador to the Netherlands (2006–2008), cancer. [102]
• Monika Burg, 89, Austrian-French actress. [103] (German)
• Claus Luthe, 75, German automobile designer. [104]

16

• Anura Bandaranaike, 59, Sri Lankan politician. [105]
• Bill Brown, 95, Australian cricket captain, member of 1948 Invincibles team. [106] [107]
• Ola Brunkert, 61, Swedish session drummer for ABBA, injuries from accidental fall. [108] [109]
• Wayne Davis, 44, American football player, motor neurone disease. [110]
• Ivan Dixon, 76, American actor and director (Hogan's Heroes), hemorrhage. [111]
• Gary Hart, 66, American professional wrestling manager, heart attack. [112]
• John Hewer, 86, British actor (Captain Birdseye), natural causes. [113]
• Metropolitan Laurus, 80, Czechoslovakian-born American first hierarch of the ROCOR. [114]
• Daniel MacMaster, 39, American rock vocalist (Bonham), group A streptococcal infection. [115]
• Rodrigues Maximiano, 61, Portuguese magistrate, after long illness. [116] (Portuguese)
• Mary Meader, 91, American aerial photographer. [117]
• Bob Purkey, 78, American baseball player, Alzheimer's disease. [118] [119]
• Kjell Swanberg, 63, Swedish columnist. [120] [121] (Swedish)
• Jonathan Williams, 79, American poet, photographer and publisher, founder of The Jargon Society. [122]

15

• Jacob DeShazer, 95, American bombardier, participant in the Doolittle Raid. [123]
• Mikey Dread, 54, Jamaican singer, record producer and broadcaster, brain tumor. [124]
• Vytautas Kernagis, 56, Lithuanian singer, television announcer, gastric cancer. [125] (Lithuanian)
• G. David Low, 52, American astronaut, colon cancer. [126]
• Sam C. Pointer, Jr., 73, American federal judge for the District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (1970-2000). [127]
• Ken Reardon, 86, Canadian ice hockey defenceman (Montreal Canadiens), Alzheimer's disease. [128]
• Ross Scaife, 47, American classicist and digital humanist, cancer. [129]
• Vicki Van Meter, 26, American pilot, apparent suicide by gunshot. [130]

14

• Gary Binfield, 42, British swimmer, 1988 Olympic relay finalist, 15-time All-American at the University of South Carolina. [131]
• Clyde Cameron, 95, Australian politician, MP (1949–1980), Minister in the Whitlam Government. [132]
• Mike Dawson, 54, American football player, heart attack. [133]
• Chiara Lubich, 88, Italian Catholic activist, founder of the Focolare Movement. [134]
• Ingvald Ulveseth, 83, Norwegian politician. [135] (Norwegian)

13

• Taslim Arif, 53, Pakistani cricketer, lung infection. [136]
• Tessa Birnie, 73, New Zealand concert pianist. [137]
• Bill Bolick, 90, American country music performer (The Blue Sky Boys). [138]
• Iosif Boyarsky, 90, Russian former Soyuzmultfilm director, one of the fathers of Soviet animation. [139]
• Peter Cullen, 65, Australian environmental scientist and salinity expert, cardiac arrest. [140]
• Martin Fierro, 66, American saxophonist, cancer. [141]
• Scarlet Garcia, 23, Filipino model and actress, shot. [142]
• David Mwenje, 55, Kenyan politician. [143]
• Rafael Tufiño, 85, Puerto Rican painter and printmaker, lung cancer. [144]

12

• Erwin Geschonneck, 101, German actor. [145]
• Jorge Guinzburg, 59, Argentine journalist and comedian, pulmonary infection. [146] [147]
• Alun Hoddinott, 78, Welsh composer. [148]
• Cassià Maria Just, 81, Spanish cleric, former abbot of Santa Maria de Montserrat, stroke. [149] (Spanish)
• Howard Metzenbaum, 90, American politician, former Senator from Ohio (1974, 1976–1995). [150]
• Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan, 66, Romanian actor, cancer. [151]
• Károly Németh, 85, Hungarian politician. [152]
• Lazare Ponticelli, 110, last French veteran of World War I. [153]
• Asesela Ravuvu, 77, Fijian politician and former University of the South Pacific academic, natural causes. [154]

11

• J. I. Albrecht, 77, American-born Canadian manager and director in the CFL, complications from a stroke. [155]
• John Roderick, 93, American journalist, heart failure and pneumonia. [156]
• Phyllis Spira, 64, South African prima ballerina, complications of surgery. [157]
• Michael J. Todd, 50, British Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. [158]
• Zakaria Md Deros, 62, Malaysian former politician, heart attack. [159]

10

• Richard Biegenwald, 67, American serial killer. [160]
• William Richard Bradford, 61, American serial killer, natural causes. [161]
• Hugh Brown, 88, British Labour politician, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (1974–1979). [162]
• Richard Burke, 73, American founder of Trek Bicycle Corporation, complications from heart surgery. [163]
• Chuck Day, 65, American blues guitarist, wrote the distinctive riff in "Secret Agent Man". [164]
• Kurt Eberling, Sr., 77, German-American inventor of SpaghettiOs, cancer. [165]
• Marianne Gullestad, 62, Norwegian social anthropologist, after long illness. [166] (Norwegian)
• Dennis Irwin, 56, American jazz double bassist, complications of cancer. [167]
• Ana Kalandadze, 83, Georgian poet. [168]
• Vangelis Kazan, 70, Greek actor. [169] (Greek)
• Lee Ho-seong, 41, South Korean baseball player (Haitai Tigers), suicide by drowning. [170]
• Radovan Lukavský, 88, Czech actor. [171] (Czech)
• Rogério Ribeiro, 78, Portuguese painter. [172] (Portuguese)
• Otto Schnellbacher, 84, American football and basketball player, cancer. [173]
• Dave Stevens, 52, American illustrator, creator of The Rocketeer, leukemia. [174]

9

• Harriet Casdin-Silver, 83, American holographic artist, pneumonia. [175]
• Gus Giordano, 84, American Emmy Award-winning jazz dancer, pneumonia. [176]
• Bill Hayward, 66, American film producer (Easy Rider), suicide by gunshot. [177]
• Simon Reisman, 88, Canadian chief negotiator of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, cardiac arrest. [178]
• Varvara Semennikova, 117?, Russian who claimed to be oldest living person. [179]

8

• Al-Bandari bint Abdul Aziz Al Saud, 80, Saudi sister of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. [180]
• Carol Barnes, 63, British ITN news presenter, stroke. [181]
• Charles A. Gillespie, Jr., 72, American diplomat, Ambassador to Colombia and Chile, cancer. [182]
• Miguel Lemos, 52, Portuguese journalist (RTP). [183] (Portuguese)
• Jane Lumb, 65, British actress and model, breast cancer. [184]
• Donald C. MacDonald, 94, Canadian politician, former leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party. [185]
• Les Smith, 80, British ex-Aston Villa footballer, cancer. [186]

7

• Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, 72, Spanish noblewoman and author. [187]
• Isaías Carrasco, 43, Spanish Basque politician (PSE-EE), shot. [188]
• Leonardo Costagliola, 87, Italian football goalkeeper (ACF Fiorentina). [189] (Italian)
• Dick Durrell, 82, American founding publisher of People magazine, lung cancer. [190]
• David Gale, 86, American mathematician, heart attack. [191]
• Leon Greenman, 97, British Holocaust survivor, only Englishman sent to Auschwitz. [192]
• Julius Paltiel, 83, Norwegian Holocaust survivor. [193] [194]
• Francis Pym, 86, British Conservative Party politician, Foreign Secretary (1982–1983). [195]
• Cliff Thomas, 66, American songwriter, musician and bandleader (Cliff Thomas Trio). [196]

6

• Gloria Shayne Baker, 84, American songwriter (Rain Rain Go Away, Do You Hear What I Hear?), lung cancer. [197]
• Lili Boniche, 87, Algerian-born French singer of Andalusian Arabic songs. [198] (French)
• Don Curtis, 80, American professional wrestler, stroke. [199] [200] [201]
• Gustaw Holoubek, 84, Polish film and theatre actor and politician. [202]
• Erica Jesselson, 86, American benefactor of Jewish arts and education. [203]
• Stanislav Konopásek, 84, Czechoslovakian Olympic silver medallist in ice hockey (1948). [204]
• Peter Proeku Dery, 89, Ghanaian cardinal, Archbishop of Tamale (1974–1994). [205]
• K. Sivanesan, 51, Sri Lankan Tamil Parliament member (TNA), roadside bomb. [206]
• Malvin Wald, 90, American Academy Award-nominated screenwriter (The Naked City). [207]

5

• John Callaghan, 81, American sportscaster (WNAC-TV), lung cancer. [208]
• Eve Carson, 22, American student leader (UNC Chapel Hill), shot. [209]
• Derek Dooley, 78, British footballer and former chairman of Sheffield United. [210]
• Jimmy Faulkner, Irish guitarist. [211]
• Elfriede Kaun, 93, German 1936 Olympic bronze medallist in the high jump. [212] (German)
• Nader Khalili, 72, Iranian architect, heart failure. [213]
• John C. Mackie, 87, American Representative from Michigan (1965–1967). [214]
• Richard Miles McCool, 86, American Medal of Honor recipient for actions during World War II. [215]
• Joel Serrão, 88, Portuguese historian, after long illness. [216] (Portuguese)
• Joseph Weizenbaum, 85, German-born American computer scientist, inventor of ELIZA computer program, stroke. [217]

4

• Erwin Ballabio, 89, Swiss footballer. [218] (German)
• Gary Gygax, 69, American co-creator of role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. [219]
• Enrico Job, 74, Italian scenographer. [220] (Italian)
• Tina Lagostena Bassi, 82, Italian politician. [221] (Italian)
• Elena Nathanael, 67, Greek actress, lung cancer. [222] (Greek)
• Leonard Rosenman, 83, American Academy Award-winning composer, heart attack. [223]
• Semka Sokolović-Bertok, 72, Croatian actress, stroke. [224] (Croatian)
• George Walter, 79, Antiguan Premier (1971–1976), heart attack. [225]

3

• Ramón Barquín, 93, Cuban army colonel and diplomat, opponent of Fulgencio Batista, cancer. [226]
• William Brice, 86, American abstract artist, complications from a fall. [227]
• Giuseppe Di Stefano, 86, Italian operatic tenor, after long coma following assault. [228]
• Donald S. Lopez, Sr., 84, American deputy director of the National Air and Space Museum, heart attack. [229]
• Malcolm McKenna, 77, American paleontologist. [230]
• Norm O'Neill, 71, Australian cricketer. [231]
• Annemarie Renger, 88, German politician (SPD), Speaker of Parliament (1972–1976). [232] (German)
• Iván Ríos, 45, Colombian FARC commander. [233]
• Norman "Hurricane" Smith, 85, British singer, recording engineer (The Beatles, Pink Floyd) and record producer. [234] [235]
• Kenneth Woollcombe, 84, British Bishop of Oxford (1971–1978). [236]

2

• Sofiko Chiaureli, 70, Georgian actress. [237]
• Roger Gill, 35, Guyanese Olympic sprinter, car accident. [238]
• Jeff Healey, 41, Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist and vocalist, cancer. [239]
• Carl Hoddle, 40, British football player, suspected heart attack. [240]
• Paul Raymond, 82, British pornographic magazine publisher and property magnate. [241]
• Frederick Seitz, 96, American physicist who co-discovered the Wigner-Seitz cell. [242]

1

• Haroldo de Andrade, 73, Brazilian radio presenter (Rádio Globo), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. [243] (Portuguese)
• Stella Bruce, 67, Indian Tamil writer, suicide by hanging. [244]
• Kevin John Dunn, 57, British Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle (2004–2008), pneumonia. [245] [246]
• Bhanbhagta Gurung, 86, Nepalese Gurkha soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross. [247]
• Raúl Reyes, 59, Colombian FARC second-in-command, airstrike. [248]
• Sid Spindler, 75, Polish-born Australian senator (Democrats) (1990–1996), liver cancer. [249]
• Andrey Tissin, 32, Russian world and European canoeing champion, Olympian and coach, drowning. [250] (Russian)
• George Toley, 91, American collegiate tennis coach. [251]

February 2008

See Deaths in February 2008.

January 2008

See Deaths in January 2008.

External links

• Obituaries on the Web
  • General
    • Obituaries.com
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    • The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Obituaries

• Specialized websites
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  • Written in Stone - Literary deaths

For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2007, Deaths in 2006, Deaths in 2005, Deaths in 2004, Deaths in 2003, Deaths in 2002, Deaths in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, ...