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.

April 2008

30

Joseph Adam Jonas (lead singer of the band Jonas Brothers)

29

• Bo Yang, 88, Chinese writer. [1]
• Albert Hofmann, 102, Swiss researcher, chemist and discoverer of LSD. [2]

28

• Ivan Caesar, 41, American football player (Boston College, Minnesota Vikings, Portland Forest Dragons), gunshot. [3]
• Max Cherry, 81, Australian Olympics and Commonwealth Games athletics coach, heart attack. [4], [5]
• Jack Hanrahan, 75, American Emmy Award–winning television script writer. [6]
• Sir Derek Higgs, 64, British Chairman of Alliance & Leicester, sudden illness. [7]
• Ed Marion, 81, American official in the National Football League from 1960 to 1987. [8]
• Will Robinson, 96, American coach, first African-American Division I college basketball (ISU) coach and scout for the Detroit Pistons.[9][10]

27

• "Big" Ron O'Brien, 56, American disc jockey, pneumonia. [11] [12]
• Mike Patrick, 55, American former NFL punter (New England Patriots). [13]
• Marios Tokas, 54, Cypriot composer, cancer. [14] [15]

26

• Pamela Bone, 68, Australian journalist, columnist for The Age, multiple myeloma. [16]
• Wallace Gichere, 53, Kenyan photojournalist. [17]
• Yossi Harel, 90, Israeli captain of Exodus, cardiac arrest. [18]

25

• Enrico Donati, 99, Italian-born American surrealist. [19]
• Sonny Grandelius, 79, American football player and coach. [20]
• Humphrey Lyttelton, 86, British jazz trumpeter and chairman of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, following heart surgery. [21]
• John H. McConnell, 84, American owner of Worthington Industries and the Columbus Blue Jackets. [22]

24

• Geraldo Brandão, 68, Portuguese football trainer (FC Penafiel). [23] (Portuguese)
• Tristram Cary, 82, British film and television composer. [24]
• Harry Geris, 60, Canadian Olympic wrestler. [25]
• Jimmy Giuffre, 86, American jazz clarinetist, pneumonia. [26]
• Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, 39, American entertainer, member of Howard Stern's Wack Pack, pneumonia. [27] [28]
• Canhoto da Paraíba, 79, Brazilian musician and violinist, heart attack. [29] (Portuguese)
• Carlos Robalo, 76, Portuguese politician (CDS/PP) and secretary of state (1980–1981). [30] (Portuguese)

23

• Jean-Daniel Cadinot, 64, French film director and producer, heart attack. [31]
• Don Gillis, 85, Canadian-born American sportscaster. [32]
• Martha Kostuch, 58, Canadian environmentalist, multiple system atrophy. [33] [34]
• Rustam Sani, 64, Malaysian politician, sociologist, political scientist and blogger. [35]
• DeVan Shumway, 77, American spokesman for Richard Nixon's reelection committee, lung disease. [36]
• Harold Stephenson, 87, English first-class cricketer who kept wicket for Somerset. [37]
• William H. Stewart, 86, American surgeon general (1965–1969), complications from renal failure. [38]

22

• Cameron Argetsinger, 87, American auto racing pioneer. [39]
• Monna Bell, 70, Chilean singer, stroke. [40] (Spanish)
• Ed Chynoweth, 66, Canadian president of the Western Hockey League (1972–1995) and CHL (1975–1995), cancer. [41]
• Paul Davis, 60, American singer ("I Go Crazy," "'65 Love Affair," "Cool Night"), heart attack. [42]
• Safdar Kiyani, 60, Pakistani teacher and pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Balochistan, shot. [43]
• Francisco Martins Rodrigues, 81, Portuguese anti-Fascist resistant, Marxist-Leninist Committee founder, cancer. [44] (Portuguese)
• Ernst Vlcek, 67, Austrian science fiction author. [45] (German)

21

• Darell Garretson, 76, American professional basketball referee. [46] [47]
• Aaron Shearer, 88, American classical guitarist. [48]
• Carmem Silva, 92, Brazilian actress, multiple organ failure. [49] (Portuguese)
• Al Wilson, 68, American soul singer ("Show and Tell"), kidney failure. [50]

20

• Richard Alexander, 73, British politician, Conservative MP for Newark (1979–1997), cancer. [51]
• Bebe Barron, 82, American composer, pioneer of electronic music. [52]
• Gazanfer Bilge, 85, Turkish freestyle wrestler, 1948 Olympic champion. [53]
• Farid Chopel, 55, French actor and singer, cancer. [54] (French)
• Orish Grinstead, 27, American rhythm and blues singer, member of 702, kidney failure [55]
• Monica Lovinescu, 84, Romanian writer. [56] (Romanian)
• Derek McKay, 58, Scottish footballer (Deveronvale, Dundee, Aberdeen, Barrow), heart attack. [57]
• VL Mike, 32, American rapper, shot. [58]
• Tariq Niazi, 68, Pakistani field hockey player, member of 1968 Olympic gold medal team, cardiac arrest. [59]
• Geoff Polites, 60, Australian chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover. [60] [61]
• William R. Snodgrass, 85, American government official, Comptroller of Tennessee (1955–1999). [62]
• Harry Ulinski, 83, American football player (Washington Redskins), sepsis. [63]

19

• Alessandro Cevese, 57, Italian ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho, Mauritius and Madagascar, car accident. [64]
• Lawrence Hertzog, 56, American television writer and producer, cancer. [65]
• Alfonso López Trujillo, 72, Colombian Catholic archbishop, president of Pontifical Council for the Family, diabetes. [66]
• John Marzano, 45, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox), co-host of Leading Off on mlb.com, injuries from a fall. [67]
• Eduardo Melo Peixoto, 80, Portuguese Catholic vicar in Braga, far-right-wing and anticommunist activist. [68] (Portuguese)
• Germaine Tillion, 100, French anthropologist, member of French Resistance. [69]
• Constant Vanden Stock, 93, Belgian former president of RSC Anderlecht football club. [70] (Dutch)

18

• Peter Howard, 80, American music director and arranger, complications of Parkinson's Disease. [71]
• Zoya Krakhmalnikova, 79, Russian dissident and writer. [72] (Russian)
• Kay Linaker, 94, American actress and screenwriter (The Blob). [73]
• Palmira Cabrita Matias, Portuguese founder of SOS Children's Villages in Portugal. [74] (Portuguese)
• Joy Page, 83, American actress (Casablanca), complications from a stroke and pneumonia. [75]
• Rosalie Ritz, 84, American courtroom artist (O.J. Simpson Trial, Sirhan Sirhan trial), lung cancer. [76]

17

• Lou Allen, 83, American football player (Pittsburgh Steelers). [77]
• Aimé Césaire, 94, French Martiniquan poet and politician. [78]
• Richard Chopping, 90, British illustrator. [79]
• Gwyneth Dunwoody, 77, British Labour member of parliament for Crewe and Nantwich, following open heart surgery. [80]
• Danny Federici, 58, American keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, melanoma. [81]
• Nicolette Goulet, 52, American actress (The Guiding Light), daughter of Robert Goulet, breast cancer. [82]
• George Pollard, 89, American portrait painter (Harry Truman, Muhammad Ali), pneumonia. [83]
• Rosario Sanchez, 88, Spanish female anti-Franco veteran of the Spanish Civil War. [84]
• Mikhail Tanich, 84, Russian poet, kidney problems. [85] (Russian)

16

• Joe Alston, 81, American badminton player and FBI agent. [86]
• Lucia Cunanan, 80, Filipino restaurateur credited with inventing sisig, murdered by hammer. [87] [88]
• Joe Feeney, 76, American tenor (The Lawrence Welk Show). [89]
• Pedro Bandeira Freire, 68, Portuguese writer, founder and director of Cinema Quarteto. [90] (Portuguese)
• Edward Norton Lorenz, 90, American professor of meteorology, cancer. [91]
• Fadel Shana'a, 23, Palestinian Reuters cameraman, flechette shell. [92]
• Joseph Solman, 99, American painter with Works Progress Administration. [93]
• Martin Spitzer, 89, Czech World War II holocaust survivor and resistance fighter, author of Storm Over Tatra

15

• Imre Antal, 72, Hungarian pianist, TV personality, actor and humorist, cancer. [94] (Hungarian)
• David Cass, 71, American economist. [95]
• Sean Costello, 28, American blues guitarist and singer. [96]
• Hazel Court, 82, British actress (The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven), heart attack. [97]
• Clifford Davies, 59, American musician, former drummer for Ted Nugent, apparent suicide by gunshot. [98]
• Brian Davison, 65, British musician, former drummer for progressive rock band The Nice. [99]
• Parvin Dowlatabadi, 84, Iranian children's author and poet, heart attack. [100] [101]
• Renata Fronzi, 82, Argentine-born Brazilian actress, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. [102] (Portuguese)
• Miguel Galván, 50, Mexican comedian and TV personality, respiratory arrest. [103]
• Hendrik S. Houthakker, 83, American economist. [104]
• Fernand Jaccard, 100, Swiss football midfielder. [105] (French)
• Benoît Lamy, 62, Belgian motion picture writer-director. [106] (French)
• Krister Stendahl, 86, Swedish Lutheran theologian and bishop. [107]
• Mahinarangi Tocker, 52, New Zealand musician, asthma attack. [108]

14

• Horst Bingel, 74, German author. [109] (German)
• Olivia Cenizal, 81, Filipino actress. [110]
• Angela Feroldi, 110, Italian supercentenarian. [111]
• Madeline Lee Gilford, 84, American actress and theatrical producer, wife of the late Jack Gilford. [112]
• Werner "Frick" Groebli, 92, Swiss ice skating comedian (Frick and Frack). [113]
• Tommy Holmes, 91, American baseball player (Boston Braves). [114]
• Jamaica Jackson, 26, American football linebacker (Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Berlin Thunder), cardiac arrhythmia. [115]
• Ollie Johnston, 95, American animator, the last of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men". [116]
• Marisa Sannia, 61, Italian singer. [117] (Italian)
• Donald Sloan, 81, Scottish rugby union player (Edinburgh Academical, Scotland). [118]
• Robert Somervaille, 86, Australian lawyer, chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1987–1991). [119]
• June Travis, 93, American actress. [120]
• Stan Flack, 42, American web pioneer and founder of MacMinute. [121]

13

• Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, 51, American kidnapper. [122]
• Brandi Hawbaker, 26, American poker player, suicide. [123]
• Eduardo Martins, 68, Brazilian journalist and author, cancer and respiratory failure. [124] (Portuguese)
• Michael Mills, 80, Irish government ombudsman (1984–1994). [125]
• Valentina Pugacheva, 73, Russian actress, respiratory problems. [126] (Russian)
• Mark Speight, 42, British TV presenter, body found on this date after suicide by hanging. [127]
• John Archibald Wheeler, 96, American physicist who coined the term "black hole", pneumonia. [128]
• Khasan Yandiyev, 51, Russian deputy head of Ingushetia Supreme Court, shot. [129]

12

• Cecilia Colledge, 87, British figure skater and 1936 Olympic silver medallist. [130]
• Valda Cooper, 92, Australian-born American journalist for the Associated Press. [131]
• Dieter Eppler, 81, German film actor and director of radio dramas. [132] (German)
• Donald Forbes, 73, British convicted murderer. [133]
• Patrick Hillery, 84, Irish president (1976–1990) and minister (1959–1973), European commissioner for Ortoli Commission. [134]
• Abbas Katouzian, 86, Iranian painter. [135]
• Artur Maurício, 63, Portuguese Constitutional Court president (2004–2007), after long illness. [136] (Portuguese)
• Barbara McDermott, 95, American survivor of the RMS Lusitania sinking. [137]
• Buzz Nutter, 77, American football player (Colts, Steelers), heart failure. [138]
• Augusta Wallace, 78, New Zealand district judge (1975–1990), after long illness. [139]
• Jerry Zucker, 58, Israeli-born American businessman, cancer. [140] [141]

11

• Claude Abbes, 80, French football player. [142] (French)
• Clyde Cook, 72, American president of Biola University (1982–2007). [143]
• Willoughby Goddard, 81, British actor. [144]
• Harry Goonatilake, 78, Sri Lankan Air Force Commander (1976–1981). [145]
• Robert Hartmann, 91, American speechwriter for President Gerald Ford, cardiac arrest. [146]
• Joan Jackson, 92, British muse of poet John Betjeman. [147]
• Jack Lemmon, 80, American journalist and editor for The Washington Post, cardiac arrest. [148]
• Bob Pellegrini, 73, American football linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles). [149]

10

• Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, 88, Mexican cardinal, archbishop emeritus of Mexico. [150] (Spanish)
• Robert W. Greene, 78, American investigative journalist, heart failure. [151]
• Andy Knight, 46, Canadian animator and director, stroke. [152]
• Dickson Mabon, 82, British Labour and SDP MP (1955–1983). [153]
• Shomu Mukherjee, 65, Indian director and producer. [154]
• Jeremiah Nyagah, 87, Kenyan politician, after short illness. [155]
• Kim Santow, 67, Australian judge (NSW Supreme Court), chancellor of the University of Sydney (2001–2007), brain tumour. [156]

9

• Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, Pakistani Al Qaeda senior operative, death from probable hepatitis confirmed on this date. [157]
• Timothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley, 79, British Green Party member of the House of Lords. [158]
• George Butler, 71, American record producer and A&R man (Blue Note, Columbia), complications from Alzheimer's disease. [159]
• Herman Carr, 83, American physicist, pioneer of MRI, heart disease. [160]
• Diego Catalán, 80, Spanish philologist, grandson of Ramón Menéndez Pidal, heart disease. [161] (Spanish)
• Burt Glinn, 82, American photographer, kidney failure and pneumonia. [162]
• Erkki Junkkarinen, 78, Finnish singer. [163] (Finnish)
• Bob Kames, 82, American polka musician, songwriter and popularizer of the Chicken Dance, prostate cancer. [164]
• Daniela Klemenschits, 25, Austrian tennis player, abdominal cancer. [165]
• Steffen Krauß, 43, German footballer. [166] (German)
• Lloyd Lamble, 94, Australian actor. [167]
• Jacques Morel, 85, French actor, voice of Obelix. [168] (French)
• Flora Pereira, 79, Portuguese Fado singer. [169] (Portuguese)
• Choubeila Rached, 75, Tunisian singer. [170]
• Elizabeth Stefan, 112, American supercentenarian, verified seventh-oldest person in the world. [171]
• Marvin Sylvor, 75, American carousel designer, kidney failure. [172]
• Aline Wainwright, 78, Canadian feminist, cancer. [173]

8

• Cedella Booker, 81, Jamaican mother of Bob Marley, natural causes. [174]
• John Button, 74, Australian senator, minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce (1983–1993), pancreatic cancer. [175]
• Graham Higman, 91, British mathematician. [176]
• Seaman Jacobs, 96, American television writer, cardiac arrest. [177]
• Stanley Kamel, 65, American actor (Monk), heart attack. [178]
• Ogawa Kunio, 80, Japanese novelist. [179]
• Hersh Lyons, 92, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals). [180]
• M. Lois Murphy, 91, American pediatric oncologist. [181]
• Nadezhda Rumyantseva, 77, Russian actress, after long illness. [182] (Russian)
• Jacqueline Voltaire, 59, British-born Mexican soap opera actress for Televisa, cancer. [183] (Spanish)

7

• Ludu Daw Amar, 92, Burmese journalist, writer and activist. [184]
• Kunio Egashira, 70, Japanese chairman of Ajinomoto, pancreatic cancer. [185]
• Sir Frank Little, 82, Australian Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus of the archdiocese of Melbourne. [186]
• Joe Shell, 89, American member of the California State Assembly (1953–1963). [187]
• Gloria Taylor, 57, British activist and mother of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor, heart attack. [188]
• Andrei Tolubeyev, 63, Russian actor, after long illness. [189] (Russian)
• Esko Tommola, 77, Finnish news anchor, after long illness. [190] (Finnish)
• Phil Urso, 82, American jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. [191]

6

• Lakshman de Alwis, 68, Sri Lankan national athletics coach, suicide bomb attack. [192]
• Tony Davies, 68, New Zealand rugby union player (All Blacks). [193]
• Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, 55, Sri Lankan highways minister, suicide bomb attack. [194]
• Kuruppu Karunaratne, 47, Sri Lankan Olympic marathoner, suicide bomb attack. [195]
• Abraham Osheroff, 92, American social activist, veteran of the Spanish Civil War (Abraham Lincoln Brigade), heart attack. [196]
• Gib Shanley, 76, American radio sportscaster (Cleveland Browns). [197]
• Teoh Chye Hin, 94, Malaysian secretary-general of the Asian Football Confederation (1974–1978). [198]

5

• Herbert Breiteneder, 54, Austrian European Rallycross Championship runner-up (1987, 1988), rally accident. [199] (German)
• Iris Burton, 77, American talent agent, pneumonia and complications of Alzheimer's disease. [200]
• Evangelino da Costa Neves, 82, Brazilian former president of Coritiba football club, multiple organ failure. [201] (Portuguese)
• Alex Grasshoff, 79, American documentary filmmaker whose Oscar was revoked. [202]
• Eugene Ehrlich, 85, American lexicographer and author. [203]
• Charlton Heston, 84, American Academy Award–winning film actor (Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments), NRA president. [204]
• Engla Höglund, 10, Swedish murder victim. [205]
• Sarah Lee, 76, American professional wrestler, Alzheimer's disease. [206]
• Walt Masterson, 87, American baseball player, stroke. [207]
• McKelvey, 9, British race horse, euthanised after fall during Grand National. [208]
• Saad Razuqui, Iraqi army commander, shot. [209] (Spanish)
• Steve Sinnott, 56, British general secretary of the National Union of Teachers since 2004. [210]
• Jeu Sprengers, 69, Dutch chairman of the Royal Netherlands Football Association. [211]
• Michael White, 59, Australian inventor of narrative therapy, cardiac arrest. [212]
• Kaku Yamanaka, 113, Japanese supercentenarian, oldest person in Japan. [213]

4

• Fay McKay, 78, American entertainer ("The Twelve Daze of Christmas"). [214]
• Jerry Rosholt, 85, American journalist and historian. [215]
• Wu Xueqian, 87, Chinese politician, foreign minister (1982–1988). [216]

3

• Johnny Byrne, 73, Irish writer (Doctor Who, Space: 1999). [217]
• Andrew Crozier, 64, British poet, brain tumour. [218]
• Hrvoje Ćustić, 24, Croatian footballer (NK Zadar), head injury. [219]
• William D. Eberle, 84, American businessman, U.S. Trade Representative (1971–1974), kidney failure. [220]
• Frosty Freeze, 44, American B-boy, breakdancer and member of the Rock Steady Crew. [221]
• Jeremy Knowles, 72, British-born Harvard University dean of Arts and Sciences (1991–2002), prostate cancer. [222]
• Ivan Korade, 44, Croatian general and murder suspect, apparent suicide by gunshot. [223]
• Brendan O'Brien, 67, Irish musician (The Dixies), probable heart attack. [224]
• Vladimir Preclik, 78, Czech sculptor and writer. [225]

2

• Norberto Collado Abreu, 87, Cuban naval officer, helmsman of the yacht Granma which carried Fidel Castro to Cuba in 1956. [226]
• Sir Geoffrey Cox, 97, British founder of ITN News at Ten. [227]
• Ray Poole, 86, American football player (New York Giants), cancer. [228]
• Yakup Satar, 110, Crimean-born supercentenarian, believed to be the last Turkish veteran of World War I. [229] (Turkish)
• Mona Seilitz, 65, Swedish actress and entertainer, cancer. [230] [231] (Swedish)
• Adam Studziński, 97, Polish Roman Catholic Dominican priest, World War II chaplain of Polish forces. [232]
• Taotao, 36, China's oldest captive giant panda, brain thrombus and cerebral hemorrhage. [233]

1

• Mosko Alkalai, 77, Israeli actor (Blaumilch Canal, The Fox in the Chicken Coop, Yana's Friends), respiratory failure. [234] [235]
• Triston Jay Amero, 26, American hotel bomber, pulmonary edema. [236]
• Shosh Atari, 58, Israeli radio presenter and actress, heart attack. [237]
• Péter Baczakó, 56, Hungarian weightlifter, 1980 Olympic champion, cancer. [238]
• Sabin Bălaşa, 75, Romanian painter, heart attack. [239]
• Sherry Britton, 89, American burlesque dancer turned musical stage actress (Guys and Dolls). [240] [241]
• Wally Bronner, 81, American founder of Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, cancer. [242]
• Jim Finney, 83, British football referee. [243]
• Licínio Pereira da Silva, 63, Portuguese last political prisoner of PIDE during Estado Novo, nosocomial infection. [244] (Portuguese)
• Floyd Simmons, 84, American decathlon Olympic bronze medallist (1948, 1952) and actor (South Pacific). [245] [246]
• Marvin Stone, 26, American basketball player for Saudi Arabian Al-Ittihad (Jeddah) team, heart attack. [247]

March 2008

See Deaths in March 2008.

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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  • Writers We've Lost
  • 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, ...