Deaths in 2009
The following is a list of notable deaths in 2009. 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.
Deaths of notable animals (that is, those animals with their own Wikipedia articles) are also reported here.
A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:
- Name, age, country of citizenship and reason for notability, established cause of death, reference.
- Julius Patching, 92, Australian Olympic official. [1]
- Corky Trinidad, 69, Filipino-born American cartoonist, pancreatic cancer. [2]
- Bahtiyar Vahapzade, 84, Azeribaijani poet
- Giacomo Bulgarelli, 68, Italian footballer. [3]
- Cris Daluz, 74, Filipino actor. [4]
- Alison Des Forges, 66, American human rights activist, plane crash. [5]
- Beverly Eckert, 57, American 9/11 widow, member of 9/11 Family Steering Committee, plane crash. [6]
- Ed Grothus, 85, American anti-nuclear activist, cancer. [7]
- Willy Haugli, 81, Norwegian Chief Constable of Oslo. [8] (Norwegian)
- Lis Hartel, 87, Danish equestrian. [9]
- Hugh Leonard, 82, Irish playwright. [10]
- Coleman Mellett, 34, American jazz guitarist (Chuck Mangione's band), plane crash. [11]
- Domenica Niehoff, 63, German prostitution activist, complications from lung disease. [12]
- Gerry Niewood, 65, American jazz saxophonist (Chuck Mangione's band), plane crash. [13]
- Ted Uhlaender, 68, American baseball player. [14]
- Albert Barillé, 88, French television screenwriter and producer. [15] (German)
- Estelle Bennett, 67, American singer (The Ronettes). [16]
- Willem Johan Kolff, 97, Dutch-born American physician, inventor of the artificial kidney. [17]
- Penny Ramsey, Australian actress, cancer. [18]
- Rail Rzayev, 64, Azerbaijani general, head of the Air Force, shot. [19]
- Mildred Wolfe, 96, American artist, after long illness. [20]
- Jan Błoński, 78, Polish literary critic. [21] (Polish)
- Virginia Call, 111, American supercentenarian. [22]
- Carolyn George, 81, American dancer and photographer, primary lateral sclerosis. [23]
- Berting Labra, 75, Filipino character actor, emphysema. [24]
- Jeremy Lusk, 24, American motocross racer, brain injury. [25]
- Sefafín Vásquez Elizalde, 86, Mexican Bishop of Ciudad Guzmán. [26]
- Robert Woodruff Anderson, 91, American Academy Award–nominated playwright and screenwriter, pneumonia. [27]
- Kazys Bradūnas, 91, Lithuanian émigré, poet and editor. [28] (Lithuanian)
- Reg Davies, 79, British footballer. [29]
- Eluana Englaro, 38, Italian patient in right to die case, withdrawal of nutrition. [30]
- Neville Hamilton, 48, British footballer. [31]
- Danny Hughes, 72, British mountain running administrator, heart attack. [32]
- Mel Kaufman, 50, American football player (Washington Redskins). [33]
- Vic Lewis, 89, British jazz guitarist. [34]
- Wesley L. McDonald, 84, United States Navy four-star admiral and naval aviator. [35]
- Orlando "Cachaito" López, 76, Cuban bassist (Buena Vista Social Club), complications from prostate surgery. [36]
- Don Maclennan, 79, South African poet and playwright. [37]
- Sean F. Scott, 39, American ALS activist, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. [38]
- Abdul-Khaliq al-Mukhtar, 49, Iraqi actor, kidney failure. [39]
- Eddie Ayers, 54, American college football player (UCLA), 1976 Rose Bowl player, lupus. [40]
- Guy Chichester, 73, American activist, founding member of Clamshell Alliance. [41]
- Marian Cozma, 26, Romanian handball player, stabbed. [42]
- Harry Hillaker, 89, American aeronautical engineer (F-16). [43]
- Neil McNeill, 87, Australian politician, member of the House of Representatives (1961–1963). [44]
- Terry Spencer, 90, British RAF fighter pilot and war photographer, cancer. [45]
- Bob Stephen, 50, Canadian football player, heart attack. [46]
- Darwin Wright, 85, American politician, Mayor of Anderson, South Carolina (1972–1998). [47]
- Molly Bee, 69, American country singer ("I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"), complications from a stroke. [48]
- John Higson Cover, Jr., 88, American scientist, inventor of the Taser, pneumonia. [49]
- Blossom Dearie, 82, American jazz singer and pianist (Schoolhouse Rock!), after long illness. [50]
- Reg Evans, 80, Australian actor, bushfire. [51]
- John Gabler, 78, American baseball pitcher (New York Yankees, Washington Senators). [52]
- Sir George Godber, 100, British doctor, Chief Medical Officer (1960–1973). [53]
- Richard Gordon, 61, British author, heart attack. [54] (Chinese)
- Joe Haverty, 72, Irish football player. [55]
- Betty Jameson, 89, American golfer, three-time major championship winner. [56]
- Jacques Lancelot, 88, French clarinetist, heart failure. [57] (Japanese)
- Brian Naylor, 78, Australian news presenter, bushfire. [58]
- Jorge Reyes, 56, Mexican musician (Chac Mool), heart attack. [59] (Spanish)
- Piotr Stańczak, 42, Polish geologist, beheaded. [60]
- Epsie Wilson, 110, American supercentenarian. [61]
- Richard Zann, 64, Australian ornithologist, bushfire. [62]
- Bashir Ahmad, 68, Indian-born British politician, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow region, heart attack. [63]
- Philip Carey, 83, American actor, lung cancer. [64]
- Jorge Guerra, 66, Chilean entertainer, heart attack. [65] (Spanish)
- George Karpati, 74, Canadian neurologist. [66]
- Shirley Jean Rickert, 82, American actress (Our Gang), after long illness. [67]
- James Whitmore, 87, American Academy Award–nominated actor, lung cancer. [68]
- Andrés Bermúdez, 58, Mexican tomato-farming magnate and member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2006, stomach cancer. [69]
- Chuck Bodak, 93, American boxing cutman, stroke. [70]
- Roberto Gonzales, 66, Filipino actor, heart attack. [71]
- John W. Grace, 82, Canadian Privacy Commissioner (1983–1990), heart attack. [72]
- Khalid Hasan, 74, Pakistani journalist and author, cancer. [73]
- George Hughes, 83, American football player (Pittsburgh Steelers). [74]
- Payton Jordan, 91, American coach of 1968 United States Olympic track and field team, cancer. [75]
- Frederiek Nolf, 21, Belgian cyclist, heart attack. [76]
- Leo Orenstein, 89, Canadian director, producer and writer. [77]
- Raaphi Persitz, 74, Israeli chess master. [78]
- Mordechai Tsanin, 103, Israeli Yiddish writer. [79] (Hebrew)
- Dana Vávrová, 41, Czech-born German actress and film director, cancer. [80] (German)
- Noah Weinberg, 78, American-born Israeli rabbi, founder of Aish HaTorah. [81]
- Xiangzhong Yang, 49, Chinese-born American stem cell scientist, cancer. [82]
- Cipriano Calderón Polo, 81, Spanish Bishop of Thagora (1989–2003). [83]
- Antonie Dixon, 40, New Zealand murderer, suicide. [84]
- Christophe Dupouey, 40, French cyclist, World Cross Country Champion (1996), suicide. [85]
- Arnljot Eggen, 85, Norwegian writer. [86] (Norwegian)
- Herbert Hamrol, 106, American centenarian, one of the last survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, pneumonia. [87]
- Ramón Hernández, 68, Puerto Rican baseball player. [88] (Spanish)
- Lux Interior, 62, American singer, songwriter and musician (The Cramps), heart condition. [89]
- Ed Schwartz, 62, American radio personality, kidney and heart disease. [90]
- Mark Shepherd, 86, American chairman of Texas Instruments (1976–1988), complications from pulmonary fibrosis. [91]
- David Snow, 84, British ornithologist. [92]
- Doreen Washington, 110, Australian supercentenarian. [93]
- Ben Blank, 87, American television graphics innovator (CBS, ABC). [94]
- Tom Brumley, 73, American steel guitarist (The Buckaroos), heart attack. [95]
- Rabindra Kumar DasGupta, 93, Indian scholar of Bengali and English literature. [96]
- Kurt Demmler, 65, German songwriter, suicide by hanging. [97]
- Martin Fréchette, 37, Canadian actor, brain cancer. [98] (French)
- Millard Fuller, 74, American co-founder of Habitat for Humanity International, after short illness. [99]
- Shambhu Hegde, 71, Indian Yakshagana artist, cardiac arrest. [100]
- Warren Kimbro, 74, American Black Panther and charitable organization executive, heart attack. [101]
- Mike Maloy, 59, American-born Austrian basketball player. [102]
- Max Neuhaus, 69, American musician, cancer. [103]
- Ciarán Ó Con Cheanainn, 27, Irish linguist. [104]
- António dos Reis Rodrigues, 90, Portuguese Bishop of Madarsuma (1966–1998). [105]
- Jorge Serguera, 76, Cuban journalist, President of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (death announced on this date). [106]
- Sheng-yen, 79, Chinese-born Taiwanese Buddhist Zen master, kidney disease. [107]
- Pavlo Zahrebelnyi, 84, Ukrainian writer, after long illness. [108]
- Donald Alexander, 87, American Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (1973–1977), cancer. [109]
- Paul Birch, 46, British footballer, bone cancer. [110]
- Ralph Carpenter, 99, American conservationist. [111]
- Alan Davies, 75, British rugby league footballer, emphysema. [112]
- Phil Easton, 59, British radio presenter, brain haemorrhage. [113]
- Russ Germain, 62, Canadian broadcaster, lung cancer. [114]
- Paul Galloway, 74, American journalist (Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune), heart attack. [115]
- Howard Kanovitz, 79, American painter, bacterial infection after heart surgery. [116]
- Ralph Kaplowitz, 89, American basketball player (New York Knicks), kidney failure. [117]
- Fredrik Kayser, 90, Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II. [118] (Norwegian)
- James E. Long, 68, American politician, North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance (1985–2009), complications of a stroke. [119]
- Jean Martin, 86, French actor (The Battle of Algiers, The Day of the Jackal). [120] (French)
- Ezzat Negahban, c. 82, Iranian archaeologist. [121] (Persian)
- Joe M. Rodgers, 75, American construction executive, Ambassador to France (1985–1989), cancer. [122]
- Michelle Splitter, 19, Brazilian basketball player, leukemia. [123]
- Jim Wilson, 67, American football player (San Francisco 49ers) and wrestler, cancer. [124]
- Joanna Wiszniewicz, c. 62, Polish historian (death announced on this date). [125] (Polish)
- Kazuhiro Yamauchi, 76, Japanese baseball player, liver failure. [126]
- Nancy Adams, 84, American co-owner of the Tennessee Titans, after short illness. [127]
- Joe Ades, 74, American salesman. [128]
- Dorothy Brant, 102, British Conservative Party official. [129]
- Flora Crater, 94, American feminist and political activist. [130]
- Lukas Foss, 86, American composer, conductor, pianist and professor, heart attack. [131]
- Tim Grundy, 50, British radio and television presenter, heart attack. [132]
- Michael Homer, 50, American executive (Netscape), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. [133]
- Ranbir Singh Hooda, 94, Indian politician, after long illness. [134]
- Peter Howson, 89, Australian politician, Minister for Air (1964–1968) and Environment, Aborigines and the Arts (1971–1972), fall. [135]
- John A. Knight, c. 78, American General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene (1985–2001). [136]
- Arieh Levavi, 96, Israeli Director General of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1964–1967). [137] (Hebrew)
- Yoya Martínez, 96, Chilean actress, natural causes. [138] (Spanish)
- Jim McWithey, 81, American race car driver. [139]
- Edward Joseph O'Donnell, 77, American Bishop of Lafayette (1994–2002). [140]
- Sir Alan Muir Wood, 87, British civil engineer. [141]
External links
- English language obituaries on the Web
- General
- US
- South Africa
- UK
- Australia
- Canada
- Specialized websites
For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2008, 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, ...