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 and choreographer, AIDS.^[1]
• Michał Antoniewicz, 92, Polish Olympic equestrian (1928).^[2]
• André Charles Biéler, 93, Swiss-Canadian painter.
• Billy Lyall, 36, Scottish singer, keyboard player, and flautist, AIDS.^[3]
• Nikolai Patolichev, 81, Soviet politician.^[4]
• Bill Stout, 62, American journalist, cardiac arrest.
• Mitchell Ucovich, 74, American football player.^[5]
• William Vandivert, 77, American photographer.

2

• Karl-Erik Alberts, 78, Swedish cinematographer.
• Harland Bartholomew, 100, American urban planner.^[6]
• Keith Ewert, 71, Australian politician.
• Oldřich Hanč, 74, Czechoslovak Olympic speed skater (1936).^[7]
• Ruth Mary Reynolds, 73, American political activist.^[8]
• Richard Shannon, 69, American actor.
• William Taylour, 85, British archaeologist.^[9]

3

• Sourou-Migan Apithy, 76, Beninese politician, president of Dahomey (1964–1965).^[10]
• Mario Astorri, 69, Italian footballer.^[11]
• Connie B. Gay, 75, American country musician, cancer.
• Fernando Martín, 27, Spanish basketball player, five-time swimming champion, traffic collision.^[12]
• Jean-Paul Moulinot, 77, French actor.^[13]
• Alexander Obukhov, 71, Russian physicist.
• Paul Wei Ping-ao, 60, Chinese actor.
• Carlo Rim, 86, French filmmaker.^[14]
• Nihal Silva, 35, Sri Lankan comedian and actor, shot.

4

• Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones, 80, Welsh politician.^[15]
• Émile Janssens, 87, Belgian colonial official and military officer.
• Steve Lembo, 63, American baseball player.^[16]
• José María Velasco Maidana, 89, Bolivian film director, composer, conductor, actor, painter and dancer.
• Angelo Ruggiero, 49, American mobster (Gambino crime family), cancer.^[17]
• May Swenson, 76, American poet.^[18]

5

• Juan Manuel Acuña, 68, Chilean football player.
• Edoardo Amaldi, 81, Italian physicist, coined the term "neutrino".^[19]
• Nathan Huggins, 62, American historian.^[20]
• Sofiya Kalistratova, 82, Soviet lawyer and human rights activist.
• Li Keran, 82, Chinese artist, heart attack.^[21]
• George Machin, 66, British politician.
• Tadeusz Miksa, 63, Polish footballer.
• John Pritchard, 68, English conductor, music director of the San Francisco Opera, lung cancer.^[22]
• George Selden, 60, American author.^[23]

6

• Frances Bavier, 86, American actress, heart failure.^[24]
• C. L. Dellums, 89, American labor activist.^[25]
• Sammy Fain, 87, American composer, and musician (Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Incredible Mr. Limpet), heart attack.^[26]
• David Hardman, 88, British politician.
• Rolf Johannesson, 89, German naval admiral.
• Marc Lépine, 25, Canadian mass murderer (École Polytechnique massacre), suicide by gunshot.
• Mélinée Manouchian, 76, French-Armenian résistante and the widow of Missak Manouchian.^[27]
• Art Parks, 78, American baseball player.^[28]
• John Payne, 77, American actor, congestive heart failure.^[29]
• Ćamil Sijarić, 75, Yugoslav writer, traffic collision.^[30]

7

• Haystacks Calhoun, 55, American professional wrestler, diabetes.
• Phil Dokes, 34, American football player, heart failure.^[31]
• Hans Hartung, 85, German-French abstract painter and soldier.^[32]
• Lucien Le Guével, 74, French racing cyclist.^[33]
• Carlos DeLuna, 27, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
• Stuart Novins, 75, American television journalist, respiratory failure.^[34]
• Sirima, 25, English singer, stabbed.
• Vadim Spiridonov, 45, Soviet actor and film director, heart failure.^[35]
• Luis Calderón Vega, 78, Mexican politician and writer.^[36]
• Melchior Wezel, 86, Swiss gymnast.^[37]

8

• Albert Barrett, 86, English football player.
• Szymon Datner, 87, Polish historian and Holocaust survivor.^[38]
• Max Grundig, 81, German businessman (Grundig).^[39]
• Mykola Livytskyi, 82, Soviet Ukrainian politician, president in exile (since 1967).
• Stanley Steingut, 69, American politician, lung cancer.^[40]

9

• Brett Austin, 30, New Zealand Olympic swimmer (1984).
• Edward J. Bloustein, 64, American academic administrator.^[41]
• Gunnar Bøe, 72, Norwegian politician and economist.
• William P. Ennis, 85, American general.^[42]
• Basil Hayward, 61, English footballer, heart attack.^[43]
• Takeshi Kaikō, 58, Japanese writer, esophageal cancer.
• Doug Scovil, 62, American football player, heart attack.^[44]
• S. Somasundaram, 70, Indian musician.
• R. G. Springsteen, 85, American film director.^[45]

10

• Frank Baker, 71, English football player.^[46]
• Sam Barkas, 79, English footballer.^[47]
• Paul Collaer, 98, Belgian musicologist, pianist, and conductor^[48]
• George Edmonds, 96, English footballer.
• Nico Gardener, 83, British bridge player.
• Frederick Hedges, 86, Canadian Olympic rower (1928).^[49]
• Robin Hughes, 69, British actor, liver disease.
• Steve Sebo, 75, American sportsman and coach.^[50]
• Harold Thomas, 75, Welsh rugby player.^[51]
• Huang Zhen, 80, Chinese politician.^[52]

11

• Allez France, 19, American Thoroughbred racehorse.
• Carlos Almaraz, 48, Mexican-American artist, AIDS.^[53]
• Lindsay Crosby, 51, American actor, son of Bing Crosby, suicide by gunshot.^[54]
• Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 94, American photographer, pneumonia.^[55]
• Howard Lang, 78, English actor.

12

• Carlos Barral, 61, Spanish poet, politician and publisher, abdominal aortic aneurysm.^[56]
• Sid Colin, 74, English scriptwriter.^[57]
• Helen Creighton, 90, Canadian folklorist.^[58]
• Bill Kennedy, 77, Scottish footballer.^[59]
• Suihō Tagawa, 90, Japanese manga artist.^[60]

13

• Paul Crowe, 65, American football player.^[61]
• Peter Bernard David de la Mare, 69, New Zealand chemist.
• Michele Fanelli, 82, Italian Olympic runner (1932).^[62]
• Sammy Lerner, 86, Romanian-American songwriter, cancer.^[63]
• Felix McGrogan, 75, Scottish football player.^[64]
• Stan Randall, 81, Canadian politician.

14

• Lucien Aguettand, 88, French art director.^[65]
• Reuben Bennett, 75, Scottish football player and manager.
• Robert D. Blue, 91, American politician, governor of Iowa (1945–1949), stroke.
• Narciso Busquets, 58, Mexican actor and voice-over.^[66]
• Ants Eskola, 81, Soviet and Estonian actor.
• Gerry Healy, 76, British political activist.
• Seiichi Katsumata, 81, Japanese politician.
• Jock Mahoney, 70, American actor and stuntman, stroke.^[67]
• Frederick Nolting, 78, American diplomat.^[68]
• Georges Poitou, 63, French mathematician.^[69]
• Andrei Sakharov, 68, Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, and human rights activist, Nobel Prize recipient (1975), dilated cardiomyopathy.^[70]

15

• Anders Andersson, 52, Swedish ice hockey player.^[71]
• Ben Barzman, 79, Canadian journalist and screenwriter.^[72]
• Emile de Antonio, 70, American documentarian, heart attack.
• José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, 42, Colombian drug lord (Medellín Cartel), shot.^[73]
• Charles Holland, 81, British racing cyclist.^[74]
• Philly Lutaaya, 38, Ugandan musician, AIDS.
• Arnold Moss, 79, American actor, lung cancer.^[75]
• Diptendu Pramanick, 79, Indian film personality.
• Vanja Sutlić, 64, Yugoslav philosopher.^[76]
• Edward Underdown, 81, English actor.^[77]
• Ali Şen, 80, Turkish actor.^[78]

16

• Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, 76, Argentine racing driver, pancreatic cancer.
• Charlie Long, 51, American football player.
• Silvana Mangano, 59, Italian actress, dancer, and model, lung cancer.^[79]
• Gianni Poggi, 68, Italian singer.^[80]
• Aileen Pringle, 94, American actress of the silent film era.^[81]
• John Ramsbotham, 83, British Anglican prelate.
• René Tavernier, 74, French poet and philosopher.^[82]
• Lee Van Cleef, 64, American actor (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Escape from New York), heart attack.^[83]
• Robert Smith Vance, 58, American judge, letter bombing, explosion.
• Marjorie Westbury, 84, English actress.
• Priscilla White, 89, American diabetes researcher, heart attack.^[84]

17

• Gilbert Allart, 87, French Olympic hurdler (1924).^[85]
• Edward Boyd, 72–73, Scottish writer.^[86]
• Zeb Eaton, 69, American baseball player.^[87]
• Gustav Engel, 96, German historian.
• Josephine Hill, 90, American actress.
• Asen Panchev, 83, Bulgarian footballer.^[88]
• Luciano Salce, 67, Italian film director and actor, heart attack, melanoma.
• Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa, 94, Romanian sociologist, journalist, and diplomat.
• Albert Coady Wedemeyer, 92, American general, World War II veteran, and anti-communist ally of the Kuomintang.^[89]

18

• Brad Beckman, 24, American football player, traffic collision.^[90]
• Olwen Brogan, 89, British archaeologist.^[91]
• Bobby Capó, 67, Puerto Rican musician, heart attack.^[92]
• George Harvie-Watt, 86, British politician.
• Sydney Irving, 71, British politician.
• Enar Josefsson, 73, Swedish Olympic skier (1952).^[93]
• Jack Kilpatrick, 72, English ice hockey player.^[94]
• Jerzy Rutkowski, 75, Polish political activist.
• Stanley Senanayake, 72, Sri Lankan police officer.
• Jean Strauss, 77, Luxembourgian Olympic canoeist (1936).^[95]

19

• Herbert Blaize, 71, Grenadian politician, prime minister (since 1984), prostate cancer.
• Audrey Christie, 77, American actress, emphysema.^[96]
• Barthold Fles, 87, Dutch-American literary agent and author, diabetes.^[97]
• Stella Gibbons, 87, English writer.^[98]
• John Heddle, 46, British politician, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Floyd Jones, 72, American blues musician, heart failure.^[99]
• Preben Mahrt, 69, Danish actor.
• Kirill Mazurov, 75, Soviet and Belarusian politician.
• Georges Rouquier, 80, French filmmaker.^[100]
• Óndra Łysohorsky, 84, Czechoslovak poet.

20

• Irma Beilke, 85, German singer.
• Kurt Böhme, 81, German bass.^[101]
• Elisheva Cohen, 78, German-Israeli designer and museum curator.^[102]
• Gentry Crowell, 57, American politician, suicide by gunshot.
• Donald L. McFaul, 32, American Navy SEAL, killed in battle.

21

• Sir Hugh Elliott, 3rd Baronet, 76, British ornithologist and hereditary peer.^[103]
• Ján Cikker, 78, Slovak composer.^[104]
• Rotimi Fani-Kayode, 34, Nigerian-English photographer, AIDS.^[105]
• Elsie Griffin, 94, English singer.^[106]
• Harry Hibbs, 47, Canadian musician, cancer.
• Blackie Schwamb, 63, American baseball player and convicted murderer.^[107]
• Soedjatmoko, 67, Indonesian politician and diplomat, cardiac arrest.^[108]
• Ethel Swanbeck, 96, American politician.
• José Zacarías Tallet, 96, Cuban writer.^[109]
• Dwane Wallace, 78, American aircraft designer, president and chairman of Cessna.

22

• Samuel Beckett, 83, Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer, emphysema.^[110]
• Howard Bowen, 81, American economist.^[111]
• Theodore M. Burton, 82, American Mormon general authority.^[112]
• Archie Campbell, 86, American baseball player.^[113]
• Giorgio Cavallon, 85, Italian-American abstract artist.^[114]
• Harry Kraf, 82, American politician.^[115]
• Vasile Milea, 62, Romanian general and politician, suicide.^[116]
• Gustavo Pizarro, 73, Chilean footballer.^[117]
• Massimo Serato, 73, Italian actor, heart attack.^[118]

23

• Jeff Alexander, 79, American composer, cancer.^[119]
• Peter Bennett, 72, British actor.
• Milko Gaydarski, 43, Bulgarian footballer.^[120]
• Shahzad Khalil, 45, Pakistani television producer, heart attack.
• Richard Rado, 83, German-British mathematician.^[121]
• Lennart Strandberg, 74, Swedish Olympic sprinter (1936).^[122]

24

• Charles Moore, 11th Earl of Drogheda, 79, British hereditary peer.
• Victor Fontana, 41, Romanian Olympic biathlete (1972, 1976), shot.^[123]
• Ernest Nathan Morial, 60, American politician, heart attack.
• Florică Murariu, 34, Romanian rugby player, shot.
• Roger Pigaut, 70, French actor and film director, cardiovascular disease.^[124]
• Ollie Savatsky, 78, American football player.^[125]

25

• Benny Binion, 85, American gambler and criminal, heart failure.^[126]
• Elena Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian communist politician and first lady (1974–1989), execution by firing squad.^[127]
• Nicolae Ceaușescu, 71, Romanian communist politician and dictator, president (1974–1989), execution by firing squad.^[128]
• Gus Dahlström, 83, Swedish actor.
• Betty Garde, 84, American actress.^[129]
• Türkan Hanımsultan, 70, Ottoman princess and chemist.
• George Hotchkiss, 83, American basketball coach.^[130]
• Frederick F. Houser, 85, American politician.
• Masaad Kassis, 71, Israeli Arab politician.
• Joseph Livingston, 84, American journalist.
• Jean-Étienne Marie, 72, French composer.^[131]
• Billy Martin, 61, American baseball player and manager, traffic collision.^[132]
• Riccardo Morandi, 87, Italian bridge designer.^[133]
• Robert Pirosh, 79, American screenwriter and director.^[134]
• Wally Ris, 65, American Olympic swimmer (1948).^[135]
• Domenico Scala, 86, Italian cinematographer.
• A. J. Seymour, 75, Guyanese poet.^[136]

26

• Lennox Berkeley, 86, English composer.^[137]
• Doug Harvey, 65, Canadian ice hockey player, cirrhosis.^[138]
• Kōyō Ishikawa, 85, Japanese photographer.
• Paul Jennings, 71, English author.^[139]
• Roy Joiner, 83, American baseball player.^[140]
• Jörgen Lehmann, 91, Danish-Swedish chemist.^[141]
• James J. Manderino, 57, American politician, heart attack.^[142]
• K. Shankar Pillai, 87, Indian cartoonist.
• Sybil Sassoon, 95, British noblewoman and socialite.^[143]
• Mohan Singh, 80, Indian general and politician.^[144]
• Peggy Thorpe-Bates, 75, English actress.
• Seán Walsh, 64, Irish politician.

27

• Rodney Arismendi, 76, Uruguayan politician.^[145]
• Kurt Baum, 89, Austrian-American singer.^[146]
• Maurice Dunkley, 75, English football player.^[147]
• Finlay Hart, 87–88, Scottish politician.
• Dada Amir Haider Khan, 89, Pakistani communist activist.
• Gerard Maarse, 60, Dutch Olympic speed skater (1952, 1956).^[148]
• Arthur Rhames, 32, American musician, AIDS.^[149]
• Ron Ulmer, 76, New Zealand racing cyclist.
• George William Weidler, 63, American songwriter.

28

• Solomon Birnbaum, 98, Austrian-Canadian linguist and paleographer.^[150]
• Marin Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian economist and diplomat, brother of Nicolae Ceaușescu, suicide by hanging.
• Brian Coburn, 53, Scottish actor.
• Karl Humenberger, 83, Austrian football player.^[151]
• Pavel Kurochkin, 89, Soviet soldier.
• Ricardo López Méndez, 86, Mexican poet and lyricist.
• Hermann Oberth, 95, Austro-Hungarian-German physicist and aeronautic engineer.^[152]
• William Scott, 76, Northern Irish artist.^[153]

29

• Adrien Albert, 82, Australian chemist.^[154]
• Süreyya Ağaoğlu, 86, Turkish writer and lawyer, cerebral hemorrhage.
• Scott Burton, 50, American sculptor, AIDS.^[155]
• Saman Piyasiri Fernando, 31, Sri Lankan politician, murdered.^[156]
• Hiroshi Inoue, 57, Japanese botanist, cancer.
• Marion Keisker, 72, American record producer, first person to record Elvis Presley.^[157]
• Alexandr Večtomov, 59, Czechoslovak cellist, suicide.
• Ive Šubic, 67, Yugoslav artist.

30

• Sten Abel, 90, Norwegian Olympic sailor (1920).^[158]
• Øyvind Anker, 85, Norwegian librarian.^[159]
• Augusto Del Noce, 79, Italian philosopher.^[160]
• Etienne Leroux, 67, South African writer.^[161]
• Esther McCoy, 85, American architectural historian.^[162]
• Yasuji Miyazaki, 73, Japanese Olympic swimmer.^[163]
• Fumiteru Nakano, 74, Japanese tennis player.
• Madoline Thomas, 99, Welsh actress.

31

• Christia Adair, 96, American suffragist and civil rights activist.
• Lilly Daché, 97, French-American hatmaker.^[164]
• Georges de Bourguignon, 79, Belgian Olympic fencer (1948).^[165]
• Clarence Hammar, 90, Swedish Olympic sailor (1924, 1928).^[166]
• Ignatius Kilage, 48, Papua New Guinean politician, governor-general (since 1989).^[167]
• Mihály Lantos, 61, Hungarian football player and manager.^[168]
• Bendt Rothe, 68, Danish actor.^[169]
• Gerhard Schröder, 79, West German politician.^[170]