Deaths in September 2008

The following is a list of notable deaths in September 2008.

September 2008

1

• Thomas J. Bata, 93, Czech-born Canadian businessman (Bata Shoes).
• Calvin Beale, 85, American demographer, colon cancer.
• Ian Edward Fraser, 87, British recipient of the Victoria Cross.
• Helen Galland, 83, American retail executive, president of Bonwit Teller (1980–1983), heart attack.
• Kevin Heinze, 80, Australian pioneer gardening television presenter, heart attack.
• Mel Ignatow, 70, American murderer, fall.
• Carl Kaufmann, 72, German Olympic silver medallist (1960).
• Sheldon Keller, 85, American comedy writer, complications from Alzheimer's disease.
• Don LaFontaine, 68, American voice-over artist, complications from pneumothorax.
• Henry Wako Muloki, 87, Ugandan Kyabazinga of Busoga since 1995, esophageal cancer.
• Michael Pate, 88, Australian actor and writer, pneumonia.
• Jerry Reed, 71, American musician (When You're Hot, You're Hot) and actor (Smokey and the Bandit), complications from emphysema.
• Oded Schramm, 46, Israeli mathematician, fall.
• Gerry White, 64, British businessman, prostate cancer.

2

• Andreas Zeier Cappelen, 93, Norwegian politician and minister. (Norwegian)
• Todd Cruz, 52, American Major League Baseball player.
• Arne Domnérus, 83, Swedish jazz alto saxophonist and clarinetist.
• Joey Giardello, 78, American boxer, middleweight boxing champion (1963–1965), heart failure.
• Abdullah al-Harari, 98, Ethiopian-born Lebanese scholar, founder of the Al-Ahbash movement, natural causes.
• Bill Meléndez, 91, Mexican-born American animator (Peanuts).
• Julia Pirie, 90, British MI5 spy.
• Sir Denis Rooke, 84, British industrialist.

3

• Abdulla Alishayev, Russian Dagestani journalist, shot.
• Lalla Bahia, Moroccan royalty, third wife of Mohammed V.
• Donald Blakeslee, 89, American Air Force officer.
• Paul Dilascia, 49, American software developer.
• Françoise Demulder, 61, French war photographer, heart attack.
• Mark Guardado, 46, American mobster, President of Hells Angels San Francisco chapter, shot.
• Michael Hammer, 60, American management theorist, cranial bleeding.
• Earl Lunsford, 74, American Canadian Football League player (Calgary Stampeders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers), Hall of Famer.
• Ron Rivera, 60, American public health innovator, malaria.
• May Shin, 91, Burmese actress and singer, pulmonary edema.
• Pierre Van Dormael, 56, Belgian guitarist, cancer.
• Géo Voumard, 87, Swiss composer and producer, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

4

• Mary Dunn, 66, American Iyengar Yoga instructor, peritoneal cancer.
• Colin Egar, 81, Australian test cricket umpire.
• Dick Enderle, 60, American football player.
• Fon Huffman, 95, American World War II veteran, last survivor of the Panay incident.
• Abdul Samad Ismail, 84, Malaysian journalist, lung infection and kidney failure.
• Alain Jacquet, 69, French pop artist, cancer.
• Jenny, 55, American western lowland gorilla, oldest gorilla in captivity (Dallas Zoo), euthanized.
• Tommy Johnston, 81, British footballer, top scorer for Leyton Orient.
• Erik Nielsen, 84, Canadian deputy prime minister (1984–1986), brother of Leslie Nielsen, heart attack.
• Eduard Paukson, 72, Estonian astrologer. (Estonian)
• Waldick Soriano, 75, Brazilian composer and singer, prostate cancer. (Portuguese)
• Fernando Torres, 80, Brazilian actor, voice-over artist, director and producer, husband of Fernanda Montenegro, emphysema.
• Jerome Weber, 92, Canadian abbot of St. Peter-Muenster of Saskatchewan.

5

• Raymond Bernabei, 83, American soccer player, complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
• Robert Giroux, 94, American editor and publisher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
• Miroslav Havel, 86, Czech-born Irish chief designer (Waterford Crystal).
• Thubten Jigme Norbu, 86, Tibetan lama (Taktser Rinpoche), eldest brother of the 14th Dalai Lama.
• Lucian Pye, 86, American political scientist and sinologist, expert on Chinese politics, pneumonia.
• Luis Santibáñez, 72, Chilean football team manager, complications from a kidney condition.
• Mila Schön, 91, Italian fashion designer.

6

• Aril Edvardsen, 69, Norwegian evangelical preacher and missionary.
• Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala, 78, Egyptian politician, field marshal and defence minister, throat cancer.
• Antonio Innocenti, 93, Italian cardinal.
• Nicole Lai, 34, Singaporean singer, skin cancer.
• Allan Lawrence, 82, Canadian politician, MP for Northumberland—Durham (1972–1988).
• Ray Loring, 65, American professor and composer, heart attack.
• Sören Nordin, 91, Swedish harness racing trainer.
• Anita Page, 98, American actress (The Broadway Melody), natural causes.
• Larry Shaben, 73, Canadian politician, member of Legislative Assembly of Alberta (1975–1989), cancer.
• Bill Shorthouse, 86, British footballer.
• Mike Swoboda, 69, American politician, mayor of Kirkwood, Missouri (2000–2008), complications of shooting.

7

• Kune Biezeveld, 60, Dutch theologian.
• Ilarion Ciobanu, 76, Romanian actor. (Romanian)
• Dino Dvornik, 44, Croatian actor and pop singer.
• Peter Glossop, 80, British operatic baritone.
• Don Gutteridge, 96, American Major League Baseball player, coach and manager.
• Don Haskins, 78, American college basketball coach, heart failure.
• Gregory Mcdonald, 71, American author (Fletch), cancer.
• Nagi Noda, 35, Japanese pop star and director, injuries from traffic accident.
• Gordon Stromberg, 80, Canadian politician, member of Legislative Assembly of Alberta (1971–1986).
• Richard "Popcorn" Wylie, 69, American musician.

8

• Ahn Jae-hwan, 36, South Korean actor, body found on this date after suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Nathan Green Gordon, 92, American politician and Medal of Honor recipient, Lt. Governor of Arkansas (1947–1967), pneumonia.
• Celia Gregory, 58, British actress.
• Bheki Mseleku, 53, South African-born British jazz musician, diabetes.
• Ralph Plaisted, 80, American Arctic explorer, natural causes.
• Evan Tanner, 37, American mixed martial arts fighter and UFC middleweight champion, body found on this date after apparent heat exposure.
• Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, 73, Indian violinist, after long illness.
• George Zarnecki, 92, Polish art historian and medievalist.
• Hector Zazou, 60, French composer and record producer.

9

• Betty Constable, 83, American squash player.
• Eddie Crowder, 77, American football player and coach, complications of leukemia.
• A.U. Fuimaono, 85, American Samoan politician, first Delegate to the United States House of Representatives (1970–1974).
• Nina Lawson, 82, British wigmaker for the Metropolitan Opera, pernicious anaemia.
• Jacob Lekgetho, 34, South African footballer.
• P. N. Menon, 80, Indian film director, after long illness.
• Warith Deen Mohammed, 74, American Islamic leader, son of Elijah Muhammad.
• Richard Monette, 64, Canadian actor and director, pulmonary embolism.
• Nouhak Phoumsavanh, 98, Laotian politician, president (1992–1998), natural causes.

10

• Saleh al Aridi, 50, Lebanese pro-Syrian politician, car bomb.
• Gérald Beaudoin, 79, Canadian lawyer and senator (1988–2004).
• José Antonio Dammert Bellido, 91, Peruvian bishop.
• Cameron Buchanan, 80, British footballer.
• David Chipp, 81, British editor-in-chief (Press Association, Reuters), first resident correspondent for Reuters in China.
• Patrick Flynn, 72, American composer and conductor, pulmonary embolism.
• Robert Glasgow, 83, American organist and University of Michigan professor emeritus.
• Vernon Handley, 77, British conductor.
• Sherrill Headrick, 71, American football player, cancer.
• Fitzroy Hoyte, 68, Trinidad Olympic cyclist.
• Domagoj Kapec, 18, Croatian ice hockey player, car accident.
• Frank Mundus, 82, American shark fisherman, alleged inspiration for Quint in Jaws, heart attack.
• Gary O'Donnell, 40, British soldier, improvised explosive device.
• Yuri Osipyan, 77, Russian physicist.
• Reginald Shepherd, 45, American poet, cancer.
• Paul Williams, 85, British politician, MP (1953–1964).

11

• Bennett Campbell, 65, Canadian politician, premier of Prince Edward Island (1978–1979), cancer.
• Florian Goebel, 35, German astrophysicist, fall.
• Dave Hanner, 78, American football player and coach (Green Bay Packers), heart attack.
• Klaus Johann Jacobs, 71, German-born Swiss billionaire, cancer.
• Fran Reed, 65, American teacher and fish skin artist, cancer.
• Nils Johan Ringdal, 56, Norwegian author and historian. (Norwegian)
• Martin Tytell, 94, American manual typewriter expert, cancer.
• Joan Winston, 77, American author, founder of Star Trek convention, Alzheimer's disease.

12

• Camila Ashland, 97, American actress.
• George Brown, 85, American football player.
• Simon Hantaï, 85, Hungarian-born French abstract artist.
• Tomislav Ladan, 76, Croatian encyclopedist and polymath, malignant tumor.
• Max Mermelstein, 65, American drug trafficker, cancer.
• George Putnam, 94, American television news reporter, heart failure.
• Bob Quinn, 93, Australian footballer (Port Adelaide) and Military Medal recipient.
• Marjorie Thomas, 85, British opera singer, after long illness.
• Paola S. Timiras, 85, American doctor, expert on the physiology of ageing, heart failure.
• Ferenc Velkey, 92, Hungarian Olympic handball player.
• Charlie Walker, 81, American country music singer, colon cancer.
• David Foster Wallace, 46, American author and essayist (Infinite Jest), suicide by hanging.

13

• Peter Camejo, 68, American politician and activist, lymphoma.
• Dean Hoge, 71, American sociologist, specialist in American Catholicism, cancer.
• Duncan Laing, 77, New Zealand swimming coach, cancer.
• James W. Snow, 79, Canadian politician, member of Legislative Assembly of Ontario (1967–1985), diabetes.
• Olin Stephens, 100, American yacht designer.
• Alice Van-Springsteen, 90, American stuntwoman, pneumonia.
• Abdullah Wardak, Afghan governor of Logar Province, suicide attack.

14

• John Burnside, 91, American inventor, brain cancer.
• Hyman Golden, 85, American co-founder of Snapple Beverage Corporation, complications from stroke.
• Ştefan Iordache, 67, Romanian actor, leukemia.
• Georgi Kitov, 65, Bulgarian archaeologist, heart attack.
• Lynn Kohlman, 62, American model and photographer, breast and brain cancer.
• Lobsang Nyima Pal Sangpo, 79, Tibetan 100th Ganden Tripa (1994–2002), head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
• Mu Tiezhu, 59, Chinese basketball player, heart attack.
• Ralph Russell, 90, British Urdu scholar.
• Walter H. Seward, 111, American supercentenarian, blood infection.
• Gennady Troshev, 61, Russian politician and military commander (Second Chechen War), plane crash.

15

• Marion Dewar, 80, Canadian politician, mayor of Ottawa (1978–1985), fall.
• Barthélémy Djabla, 72, Ivorian archbishop of Gagnoa.
• Gangadhar Gadgil, 85, Indian writer, cancer.
• Jean-Jacques Guissart, 81, French Olympic silver medal-winning (1952) rower.
• Charlotte Kohler, 99, American editor, heart failure.
• John Matshikiza, 53, South African actor, writer and poet, heart attack.
• Juraj Njavro, 70, Croatian doctor and politician, after long illness.
• J. Patrick Rooney, 80, American insurance advocate.
• Richard Wright, 65, British keyboardist (Pink Floyd) and songwriter ("The Dark Side of the Moon"), cancer.

16

• Jack Alderman, 57, American murderer, execution by lethal injection.
• Avraham Biran, 98, Israeli archaeologist, natural causes.
• Elizabeth Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon, 92, British peeress.
• John Fancy, 95, British World War II RAF airman.
• David Laycock, 61, English cricketer
• Andrei Volkonsky, 75, Russian composer.
• Charles Whitebread, 65, American professor of law, cancer.
• Norman Whitfield, 68, American Motown songwriter ("I Heard It Through the Grapevine") and record producer, diabetes.

17

• Princess Luluwah bint Abdulaziz Al Saud, 80, Saudi member of the royal family, sister of King Abdullah.
• James Crumley, 68, American crime writer, complications from kidney and pulmonary diseases.
• Didier Dagueneau, 52, French winemaker, plane crash.
• Princess Iniga of Thurn and Taxis, 83, German princess. (German)
• José María Cirarda Lachiondo, 91, Spanish bishop of the Archdiocese of Pamplona y Tudela (1978–1993).
• Anna Langford, 90, American politician, first African American woman to serve on the Chicago City Council, lung cancer.
• Michael Omondi, 46, Kenyan field hockey player, after short illness.
• Humberto Solás, 66, Cuban filmmaker, cancer.
• Robert Steinberg, 61, American physician, co-founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, lymphoma.

18

• Mauricio Kagel, 76, Argentine-born German composer.
• Peter Kastner, 64, Canadian actor, heart attack.
• Ron Lancaster, 69, American Canadian Football League quarterback and coach, heart attack.
• Howard Mann, 85, American actor and comedian, cancer.
• Sherman Parker, 37, American politician, member of Missouri House of Representatives (2003–2006), brain aneurysm.
• Fabiola Salazar, 42, Peruvian congresswoman since 2006, car accident.
• Henry Z. Steinway, 93, American businessman (Steinway & Sons).
• Don Ultang, 91, American Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer.
• Florestano Vancini, 82, Italian film director and screenwriter, after long illness.
• John Webb, 82, American judge of the Supreme Court of North Carolina (1986–1998), Parkinson's disease.

19

• Ernie Andres, 90, American college baseball coach and Major League Baseball player (Boston Red Sox).
• Marcel Dierkens, 83, Luxembourgian cyclist.
• Ned Harkness, 89, American ice hockey coach, stroke.
• Jun Ichikawa, 59, Japanese film director.
• David Jones, 74, British theatre and film director.
• Robert W. Morrison, 75, American educator.
• Dave Needham, 57, British bantamweight boxing champion (1974–1975).
• Earl Palmer, 83, American rhythm and blues drummer, after long illness. .
• Robert Royston, 90, American landscape architect.
• Dick Sudhalter, 69, American jazz trumpeter, pneumonia.

20

• Nappy Brown, 78, American blues singer.
• William Fox, 97, British actor.
• Duncan Glen, 75, British poet, literary critic and designer, professor emeritus of visual communication (Nottingham Trent).
• Steve Gray, 64, British musician.
• Ken Harris, 45, American member of Baltimore City Council (1999–2007), shot.
• Johnny H. Hayes, 67, American fundraiser for Al Gore's presidential campaigns, stomach cancer.
• Willi Heidel, 92, Romanian Olympic field handball player.
• Paul Howell, 57, British member of the European Parliament (1979–1994), plane crash.
• George Larson, 96, Canadian Olympic swimmer.
• Ed Sutton, 73, American football player, complications following heart bypass surgery.
• John Taylor, 87, American military archivist at National Archives and Records Administration, heart failure.
• Frank Valenti, 97 American mob boss (Rochester crime family).
• Ivo Žďárek, 47, Czech ambassador to Vietnam (2004–2008) and Pakistan (2008), suicide bombing.

21

• Mary Garber, 92, American sportswriter.
• Carlos González Cruchaga, 87, Chilean bishop of the Diocese of Talca (1967–1996).
• Nancy Hicks Maynard, 66, American journalist, advocate for diversity in journalism, organ failure.
• Sir Brian Pippard, 88, British physicist, Cavendish Professor of Physics (1971–1984).
• Barefoot Sanders, 83, American federal judge, natural causes.
• Paul Tansey, 59, Irish economics editor (The Irish Times).
• Brian Thomsen, 49, American novelist.^[1]
• Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, 92, Sri Lankan prime minister (1989–1993), president (1993–1994), after long illness.

22

• Michael Andreevich, 88, Russian prince.
• Plato Andros, 86, American National Football League player (Chicago Cardinals), Alzheimer's disease.
• H. Dale Cook, 84, American federal judge since 1974, cancer.
• Thomas Dörflein, 44, German zookeeper, surrogate parent of the polar bear Knut, heart attack.
• Connie Haines, 87, American singer, myasthenia gravis.
• Guillermo López Langarica, 50, Mexican YouTube celebrity, car accident. (Spanish)
• Buddy McDonald, 85, American child actor (Our Gang), heart failure.
• Petrus Schaesberg, 41, German art historian, suicide by jumping.

23

• Maria Esther Figueiredo Ferraz, 92, Brazilian Minister of Education (1982–1985) and first female minister, stroke. (Portuguese)
• Arne Haugestad, 73, Norwegian Supreme Court lawyer, Arne Treholt's defender. (Norwegian)
• Richard Henyard, 34, American murderer, execution by lethal injection.
• Wally Hilgenberg, 66, American National Football League player (Minnesota Vikings), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
• Rudolf Illovszky, 86, Hungarian footballer and manager, pneumonia.
• Peter Leonard, 66, Australian broadcaster, mesothelioma.
• Pedro Masó, 81, Spanish film director and producer, natural causes. (Spanish)
• Brock McElheran, 90, Canadian conductor and composer.
• Loren Pope, 98, American education consultant, heart failure.
• Sonja Savić, 47, Serbian actress, heroin overdose.
• Ellen Tarry, 101, American children's author.
• William Woodruff, 92, British historian and author.

24

• Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, 56, Ghanaian finance minister since 2005, after short illness.
• Oliver Crawford, 91, American television writer blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
• Irene Dailey, 88, American actress (Five Easy Pieces, The Amityville Horror), colon cancer.
• Sir Peter Derham, 83, Australian businessman and philanthropist, stroke.
• Uno Laht, 84, Estonian writer. (Estonian)
• Dick Lynch, 72, American football player and radio announcer (New York Giants), leukemia.
• Maurits van Nierop, 25, Dutch international cricketer, fall.
• Thiago Jotta da Silva, 24, Brazilian footballer, shot.
• Cherry Smith, 65, Jamaican singer (The Wailers).
• Mickey Vernon, 90, American baseball player, stroke.
• Vice Vukov, 72, Croatian singer and politician.
• Claude Wilton, 89, Irish politician and solicitor.
• Ruslan Yamadayev, 46, Chechen warlord and member of Russian State Duma, shot.

25

• Glenn Andrews, 99, American politician, Representative (1965–1967), oldest surviving member of the House of Representatives.
• Brian Donnelly, 59, New Zealand diplomat and politician, MP (1996–2008).
• Edward Klima, 77, American linguist, complications from brain surgery.
• Horațiu Rădulescu, 66, Romanian composer, spectral music pioneer.
• Ralph Sazio, 86, Canadian football coach (Hamilton Tiger-Cats).
• Jimmy Sirrel, 86, British football manager (Notts County), after long illness.
• Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz, 72, Belgian count, father of Princess Mathilde.
• Roger Vanderfield, 80, Australian rugby union referee, IRB chairman and ARU president.

26

• Bernadette Greevy, 68, Irish mezzo-soprano, after short illness.
• Joli Jászai, 101, Hungarian actress. (Hungarian)
• Géza Kalocsay, 95, Hungarian football player and manager. (Polish)
• Phyllis Welch MacDonald, 95, American theater and film actress.
• Raymond Macherot, 84, Belgian cartoonist.
• Stanisław Marucha, 71, Polish Olympic shooter.
• Jan Mazur, 88, Polish bishop of Siedlce.
• Marian McQuade, 91, American founder of National Grandparents Day, heart failure.
• Marc Moulin, 66, Belgian jazz musician and journalist, throat cancer.
• Paul Newman, 83, American actor (The Sting, The Color of Money, Road to Perdition), founder of Newman's Own, lung cancer.
• Cirio H. Santiago, 72, Filipino filmmaker and producer, complications from lung cancer.
• Yonty Solomon, 71, South African pianist, brain tumour.

27

• Len Browning, 80, British footballer.
• John Houston, 78, British painter.
• Mahendra Kapoor, 74, Indian playback singer, heart attack.
• Mario Maya, 71, Spanish dancer and choreographer, cancer.
• Jimmy Murray, 72, British footballer, prostate cancer.
• Henri Pachard, 69, American pornographic film director, throat cancer.
• Olaf Poulsen, 88, Norwegian president of the International Skating Union (1980–1994).
• Gerald Small, 52, American football player (Miami Dolphins).

28

• Andrzej Badeński, 65, Polish Olympic bronze medal-winning (1964) athlete. (Polish)
• Osborn Elliott, 83, American editor of Newsweek (1961–1976), complications from cancer.
• Jack Faulkner, 82, American football coach and administrator.
• Margot Gayle, 100, American historic preservationist and author.
• Malalai Kakar, 41, Afghan senior policewoman, shot.
• Konstantin Pavlov, 75, Bulgarian poet and screenwriter, after long illness.
• Thomas Thewes, 76, American businessman, co-owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, leukemia.

29

• Hayden Carruth, 87, American poet and literary critic, stroke.
• Richard Clayton, 93, American actor and talent agent (Burt Reynolds, James Dean), heart failure.
• Miguel Córcega, 79, Mexican actor and director.
• Milt Davis, 79, American football player (Baltimore Colts), cancer.
• Tim Fortescue, 92, British politician, MP (1966–1974).
• Elinor Guggenheimer, 96, American philanthropist and author.
• Louis Guss, 90. American actor (Moonstruck, Highlander, The Godfather).
• Stan Kann, 83, American organist and Tonight Show regular, complications from heart procedure.
• Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, 72, Indian politician.
• Antônio Sarto, 82, Brazilian bishop of Barra do Garças.
• Glenister Sheil, 78, Australian medical practitioner and politician, Senator (1974–1981, 1984–1990).
• Anthony Spero, 79, American financier, leader of Bonanno crime family, after short illness.
• Relus ter Beek, 64, Dutch politician, Minister of Defence (1989–1994), abolished conscription, lung cancer.
• Jock Wilson, 105, British soldier, UK's oldest D-Day veteran.

30

• Henry Adler, 93, American drummer, teacher of Buddy Rich.
• Ed Brinkman, 66, American baseball player and coach, lung cancer.
• Sam Calder, 92, Australian politician and World War II fighter pilot, MP (1966–1980).
• J. L. Chestnut, 77, American civil rights lawyer, kidney failure.
• Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, 82, Singaporean politician, MP (1981–1986), NCMP (1997–2001), heart failure.

References