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 and choreographer, AIDS. Michał Antoniewicz, 92, Polish Olympic equestrian (1928). André Charles Biéler, 93, Swiss-Canadian painter. Billy Lyall, 36, Scottish singer, keyboard player, and flautist, AIDS. Nikolai Patolichev, 81, Soviet politician. Bill Stout, 62, American journalist, cardiac arrest. Mitchell Ucovich, 74, American football player. William Vandivert, 77, American photographer. 2
Karl-Erik Alberts, 78, Swedish cinematographer. Harland Bartholomew, 100, American urban planner. Keith Ewert, 71, Australian politician. Oldřich Hanč, 74, Czechoslovak Olympic speed skater (1936). Ruth Mary Reynolds, 73, American political activist. Richard Shannon, 69, American actor. William Taylour, 85, British archaeologist. 3
Sourou-Migan Apithy, 76, Beninese politician, president of Dahomey (1964–1965). Mario Astorri, 69, Italian footballer. Connie B. Gay, 75, American country musician, cancer. Fernando Martín, 27, Spanish basketball player, five-time swimming champion, traffic collision. Jean-Paul Moulinot, 77, French actor. Alexander Obukhov, 71, Russian physicist. Paul Wei Ping-ao, 60, Chinese actor. Carlo Rim, 86, French filmmaker. Nihal Silva, 35, Sri Lankan comedian and actor, shot. 4
Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones, 80, Welsh politician. Émile Janssens, 87, Belgian colonial official and military officer. Steve Lembo, 63, American baseball player. José María Velasco Maidana, 89, Bolivian film director, composer, conductor, actor, painter and dancer. Angelo Ruggiero, 49, American mobster (Gambino crime family), cancer. May Swenson, 76, American poet. 5
Juan Manuel Acuña, 68, Chilean football player. Edoardo Amaldi, 81, Italian physicist, coined the term "neutrino". Nathan Huggins, 62, American historian. Sofiya Kalistratova, 82, Soviet lawyer and human rights activist. Li Keran, 82, Chinese artist, heart attack. George Machin, 66, British politician. Tadeusz Miksa, 63, Polish footballer. John Pritchard, 68, English conductor, music director of the San Francisco Opera, lung cancer. George Selden, 60, American author. 6
Frances Bavier, 86, American actress, heart failure. C. L. Dellums, 89, American labor activist. Sammy Fain, 87, American composer, and musician (Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Incredible Mr. Limpet), heart attack. 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. Art Parks, 78, American baseball player. John Payne, 77, American actor, congestive heart failure. Ćamil Sijarić, 75, Yugoslav writer, traffic collision. 7
Haystacks Calhoun, 55, American professional wrestler, diabetes. Phil Dokes, 34, American football player, heart failure. Hans Hartung, 85, German-French abstract painter and soldier. Lucien Le Guével, 74, French racing cyclist. Carlos DeLuna, 27, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection. Stuart Novins, 75, American television journalist, respiratory failure. Sirima, 25, English singer, stabbed. Vadim Spiridonov, 45, Soviet actor and film director, heart failure. Luis Calderón Vega, 78, Mexican politician and writer. Melchior Wezel, 86, Swiss gymnast. 8
Albert Barrett, 86, English football player. Szymon Datner, 87, Polish historian and Holocaust survivor. Max Grundig, 81, German businessman (Grundig). Mykola Livytskyi, 82, Soviet Ukrainian politician, president in exile (since 1967). Stanley Steingut, 69, American politician, lung cancer. 9
Brett Austin, 30, New Zealand Olympic swimmer (1984). Edward J. Bloustein, 64, American academic administrator. Gunnar Bøe, 72, Norwegian politician and economist. William P. Ennis, 85, American general. Basil Hayward, 61, English footballer, heart attack. Takeshi Kaikō, 58, Japanese writer, esophageal cancer. Doug Scovil, 62, American football player, heart attack. S. Somasundaram, 70, Indian musician. R. G. Springsteen, 85, American film director. 10
Frank Baker, 71, English football player. Sam Barkas, 79, English footballer. Paul Collaer, 98, Belgian musicologist, pianist, and conductor
George Edmonds, 96, English footballer. Nico Gardener, 83, British bridge player. Frederick Hedges, 86, Canadian Olympic rower (1928). Robin Hughes, 69, British actor, liver disease. Steve Sebo, 75, American sportsman and coach. Harold Thomas, 75, Welsh rugby player. Huang Zhen, 80, Chinese politician. 11
Allez France, 19, American Thoroughbred racehorse. Carlos Almaraz, 48, Mexican-American artist, AIDS. Lindsay Crosby, 51, American actor, son of Bing Crosby, suicide by gunshot. Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 94, American photographer, pneumonia. Howard Lang, 78, English actor. 12
Carlos Barral, 61, Spanish poet, politician and publisher, abdominal aortic aneurysm. Sid Colin, 74, English scriptwriter. Helen Creighton, 90, Canadian folklorist. Bill Kennedy, 77, Scottish footballer. Suihō Tagawa, 90, Japanese manga artist. 13
Paul Crowe, 65, American football player. Peter Bernard David de la Mare, 69, New Zealand chemist. Michele Fanelli, 82, Italian Olympic runner (1932). Sammy Lerner, 86, Romanian-American songwriter, cancer. Felix McGrogan, 75, Scottish football player. Stan Randall, 81, Canadian politician. 14
Lucien Aguettand, 88, French art director. 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. 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. Frederick Nolting, 78, American diplomat. Georges Poitou, 63, French mathematician. Andrei Sakharov, 68, Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, and human rights activist, Nobel Prize recipient (1975), dilated cardiomyopathy. 15
Anders Andersson, 52, Swedish ice hockey player. Ben Barzman, 79, Canadian journalist and screenwriter. Emile de Antonio, 70, American documentarian, heart attack. José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, 42, Colombian drug lord (Medellín Cartel), shot. Charles Holland, 81, British racing cyclist. Philly Lutaaya, 38, Ugandan musician, AIDS. Arnold Moss, 79, American actor, lung cancer. Diptendu Pramanick, 79, Indian film personality. Vanja Sutlić, 64, Yugoslav philosopher. Edward Underdown, 81, English actor. Ali Şen, 80, Turkish actor. 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. Gianni Poggi, 68, Italian singer. Aileen Pringle, 94, American actress of the silent film era. John Ramsbotham, 83, British Anglican prelate. René Tavernier, 74, French poet and philosopher. Lee Van Cleef, 64, American actor (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Escape from New York), heart attack. Robert Smith Vance, 58, American judge, letter bombing, explosion. Marjorie Westbury, 84, English actress. Priscilla White, 89, American diabetes researcher, heart attack. 17
Gilbert Allart, 87, French Olympic hurdler (1924). Edward Boyd, 72–73, Scottish writer. Zeb Eaton, 69, American baseball player. Gustav Engel, 96, German historian. Josephine Hill, 90, American actress. Asen Panchev, 83, Bulgarian footballer. 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. 18
Brad Beckman, 24, American football player, traffic collision. Olwen Brogan, 89, British archaeologist. Bobby Capó, 67, Puerto Rican musician, heart attack. George Harvie-Watt, 86, British politician. Sydney Irving, 71, British politician. Enar Josefsson, 73, Swedish Olympic skier (1952). Jack Kilpatrick, 72, English ice hockey player. Jerzy Rutkowski, 75, Polish political activist. Stanley Senanayake, 72, Sri Lankan police officer. Jean Strauss, 77, Luxembourgian Olympic canoeist (1936). 19
Herbert Blaize, 71, Grenadian politician, prime minister (since 1984), prostate cancer. Audrey Christie, 77, American actress, emphysema. Barthold Fles, 87, Dutch-American literary agent and author, diabetes. Stella Gibbons, 87, English writer. John Heddle, 46, British politician, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Floyd Jones, 72, American blues musician, heart failure. Preben Mahrt, 69, Danish actor. Kirill Mazurov, 75, Soviet and Belarusian politician. Georges Rouquier, 80, French filmmaker. Óndra Łysohorsky, 84, Czechoslovak poet. 20
Irma Beilke, 85, German singer. Kurt Böhme, 81, German bass. Elisheva Cohen, 78, German-Israeli designer and museum curator. 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. Ján Cikker, 78, Slovak composer. Rotimi Fani-Kayode, 34, Nigerian-English photographer, AIDS. Elsie Griffin, 94, English singer. Harry Hibbs, 47, Canadian musician, cancer. Blackie Schwamb, 63, American baseball player and convicted murderer. Soedjatmoko, 67, Indonesian politician and diplomat, cardiac arrest. Ethel Swanbeck, 96, American politician. José Zacarías Tallet, 96, Cuban writer. Dwane Wallace, 78, American aircraft designer, president and chairman of Cessna. 22
Samuel Beckett, 83, Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer, emphysema. Howard Bowen, 81, American economist. Theodore M. Burton, 82, American Mormon general authority. Archie Campbell, 86, American baseball player. Giorgio Cavallon, 85, Italian-American abstract artist. Harry Kraf, 82, American politician. Vasile Milea, 62, Romanian general and politician, suicide. Gustavo Pizarro, 73, Chilean footballer. Massimo Serato, 73, Italian actor, heart attack. 23
Jeff Alexander, 79, American composer, cancer. Peter Bennett, 72, British actor. Milko Gaydarski, 43, Bulgarian footballer. Shahzad Khalil, 45, Pakistani television producer, heart attack. Richard Rado, 83, German-British mathematician. Lennart Strandberg, 74, Swedish Olympic sprinter (1936). 24
Charles Moore, 11th Earl of Drogheda, 79, British hereditary peer. Victor Fontana, 41, Romanian Olympic biathlete (1972, 1976), shot. 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. Ollie Savatsky, 78, American football player. 25
Benny Binion, 85, American gambler and criminal, heart failure. Elena Ceaușescu, 73, Romanian communist politician and first lady (1974–1989), execution by firing squad. Nicolae Ceaușescu, 71, Romanian communist politician and dictator, president (1974–1989), execution by firing squad. Gus Dahlström, 83, Swedish actor. Betty Garde, 84, American actress. Türkan Hanımsultan, 70, Ottoman princess and chemist. George Hotchkiss, 83, American basketball coach. Frederick F. Houser, 85, American politician. Masaad Kassis, 71, Israeli Arab politician. Joseph Livingston, 84, American journalist. Jean-Étienne Marie, 72, French composer. Billy Martin, 61, American baseball player and manager, traffic collision. Riccardo Morandi, 87, Italian bridge designer. Robert Pirosh, 79, American screenwriter and director. Wally Ris, 65, American Olympic swimmer (1948). Domenico Scala, 86, Italian cinematographer. A. J. Seymour, 75, Guyanese poet. 26
Lennox Berkeley, 86, English composer. Doug Harvey, 65, Canadian ice hockey player, cirrhosis. Kōyō Ishikawa, 85, Japanese photographer. Paul Jennings, 71, English author. Roy Joiner, 83, American baseball player. Jörgen Lehmann, 91, Danish-Swedish chemist. James J. Manderino, 57, American politician, heart attack. K. Shankar Pillai, 87, Indian cartoonist. Sybil Sassoon, 95, British noblewoman and socialite. Mohan Singh, 80, Indian general and politician. Peggy Thorpe-Bates, 75, English actress. Seán Walsh, 64, Irish politician. 27
Rodney Arismendi, 76, Uruguayan politician. Kurt Baum, 89, Austrian-American singer. Maurice Dunkley, 75, English football player. Finlay Hart, 87–88, Scottish politician. Dada Amir Haider Khan, 89, Pakistani communist activist. Gerard Maarse, 60, Dutch Olympic speed skater (1952, 1956). Arthur Rhames, 32, American musician, AIDS. Ron Ulmer, 76, New Zealand racing cyclist. George William Weidler, 63, American songwriter. 28
Solomon Birnbaum, 98, Austrian-Canadian linguist and paleographer. 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. Pavel Kurochkin, 89, Soviet soldier. Ricardo López Méndez, 86, Mexican poet and lyricist. Hermann Oberth, 95, Austro-Hungarian-German physicist and aeronautic engineer. William Scott, 76, Northern Irish artist. 29
Adrien Albert, 82, Australian chemist. Süreyya Ağaoğlu, 86, Turkish writer and lawyer, cerebral hemorrhage. Scott Burton, 50, American sculptor, AIDS. Saman Piyasiri Fernando, 31, Sri Lankan politician, murdered. Hiroshi Inoue, 57, Japanese botanist, cancer. Marion Keisker, 72, American record producer, first person to record Elvis Presley. Alexandr Večtomov, 59, Czechoslovak cellist, suicide. Ive Šubic, 67, Yugoslav artist. 30
Sten Abel, 90, Norwegian Olympic sailor (1920). Øyvind Anker, 85, Norwegian librarian. Augusto Del Noce, 79, Italian philosopher. Etienne Leroux, 67, South African writer. Esther McCoy, 85, American architectural historian. Yasuji Miyazaki, 73, Japanese Olympic swimmer. 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. Georges de Bourguignon, 79, Belgian Olympic fencer (1948). Clarence Hammar, 90, Swedish Olympic sailor (1924, 1928). Ignatius Kilage, 48, Papua New Guinean politician, governor-general (since 1989). Mihály Lantos, 61, Hungarian football player and manager. Bendt Rothe, 68, Danish actor. Gerhard Schröder, 79, West German politician. References 

1989-12
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