Died on Friday, 12th December – Famous Deaths

12/12/2021

Vicente Fernández, Mexican actor, ranchera singer, and film producer (born 1940)

Vicente Fernández Gómez was a Mexican mariachi singer, actor and film producer. Nicknamed "Chente", "El Charro de Huentitán", "El Ídolo de México", and "El Rey de la Música Ranchera", Fernández started his career as a busker, and went on to become a cultural icon, having recorded more than 100 albums and contributing to more than 150 films. His repertoire consisted of rancheras and other Mexican classics such as waltzes.

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Bernie Fowler, American politician and environmental advocate (born 1924)

Clyde Bernard Fowler was an American politician from Maryland. He was a Calvert County Commissioner from 1970 to 1982, and served in the Maryland Senate between 1983 and 1994. Fowler is best known for his advocacy for the cleanup of the Patuxent River, the largest river to be found entirely within the State of Maryland.

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Maʻafu Tukuiʻaulahi, Tongan politician and military officer, Deputy Prime Minister (born 1955)

'Siosaʻia Lausiʻi, Lord Maʻafu Tukuiʻaulahi, also known as Lord Maʻafu, was a Tongan politician, military officer, and member of the Tongan nobility.

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12/12/2020

John le Carré, English author (born 1931)

David John Moore Cornwell, known by his pen name John le Carré, was an English author. Many of his espionage novels have been adapted for film or television. He has been described as a "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer", and is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Near the end of his life, le Carré became an Irish citizen.

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Ann Reinking, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (born 1949)

Ann Reinking was an American dancer, actress, choreographer, and singer. As a star of Broadway musicals, her credits include Over Here! (1974), Goodtime Charley (1975), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Sweet Charity (1986). On screen, her films include All That Jazz (1979), Annie (1982), and Micki & Maude (1984).

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12/12/2019

Danny Aiello, American actor (born 1933)

Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. was an American actor. He appeared in numerous motion pictures, including The Godfather Part II (1974), The Front (1976), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Hide in Plain Sight (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Moonstruck (1987), Harlem Nights (1989), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), Ruby (1992), Léon: The Professional (1994), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), Dinner Rush (2000), and Lucky Number Slevin (2006). He played Don Domenico Clericuzio in the miniseries The Last Don (1997).

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12/12/2017

Ed Lee, American politician and attorney, 43rd Mayor of San Francisco (born 1952)

Edwin Mah Lee was an American politician and attorney who served as the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco from 2011 until his death in 2017.

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Pat DiNizio, American singer and songwriter (born 1955)

Patrick Michael DiNizio was an American musician. He was best known for being the lead singer, songwriter and founding member of the band The Smithereens, which he formed in 1980 with Jim Babjak, Dennis Diken and Mike Mesaros from Carteret, New Jersey.

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12/12/2016

Shirley Hazzard, Australian-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1931)

Shirley Hazzard was an Australian-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She was born in Australia and also held U.S. citizenship.

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12/12/2015

Frans Geurtsen, Dutch footballer (born 1942)

Frans Geurtsen was a Dutch footballer, who played at both professional and international levels as a striker.

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Evelyn S. Lieberman, American politician, White House Deputy Chief of Staff (born 1944)

Evelyn May Lieberman was an American public affairs professional who, during the Clinton administration, became the first woman to serve as White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and was the first United States Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

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12/12/2014

Norman Bridwell, American author and illustrator, created Clifford the Big Red Dog (born 1928)

Norman Ray Bridwell was an American author and cartoonist best known for creating the Clifford the Big Red Dog book series.

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Ivor Grattan-Guinness, English mathematician, historian, and academic (born 1941)

Ivor Owen Grattan-Guinness was a historian of mathematics and logic.

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Herb Plews, American baseball player (born 1928)

Herbert Eugene Plews was an American Major League Baseball second baseman. He played four years in the majors, from 1956 to 1959 with the Washington Senators and in 1959 for the Boston Red Sox. In the minor leagues he played for Kansas City, Binghamton, Norfolk, and Denver before reaching the majors in 1956, and Toronto, Birmingham, Hawaii, Tacoma, and Arkansas after his major league career ended. During his playing career he served in the military from 1951 to 1952, during the Korean War. Plews batted left-handed and threw right-handed; he was listed as 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and 160 pounds (73 kg).

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12/12/2013

Tom Laughlin, American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator, and activist (born 1931)

Thomas Robert Laughlin Jr. was an American actor, filmmaker, educator, activist, and perennial candidate. He was best known as the star and director of the Billy Jack tetralogy of action drama films, produced between 1969 and 1977. His unique promotion of the 1974's The Trial of Billy Jack was a major influence on the way films are marketed.

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Abdul Quader Molla, Bangladeshi journalist and politician (born 1948)

Abdul Quader Mollah was a Bangladeshi Islamist leader, writer, and politician of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, who was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh (ICT) set up by the government of Bangladesh and hanged.

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Audrey Totter, American actress (born 1917)

Audrey Mary Totter was an American radio, film, and television actor and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s.

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12/12/2012

Joe Allbritton, American banker, publisher, and philanthropist, founded the Allbritton Communications Company (born 1924)

Joe Lewis Allbritton was an American banker, publisher and philanthropist.

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David Tait, English rugby player (born 1987)

David Tait was a professional rugby union player for Sale Sharks in the Guinness Premiership.

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12/12/2010

Tom Walkinshaw, Scottish race car driver, founded Tom Walkinshaw Racing (born 1946)

Thomas Dobbie Thomson Walkinshaw was a British racing car driver from Scotland and the founder of the racing team Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR). He was also involved in professional rugby union, as owner of Gloucester Rugby, and chairman of the team owners organisation for the Aviva Premiership.

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12/12/2008

Avery Dulles, American cardinal and theologian (born 1918)

Avery Robert Dulles was an American Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974, of the Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988, and as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University from 1988 to 2008. He was also an author and lecturer.

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Van Johnson, American actor (born 1916)

Charles Van Dell Johnson was an American actor and dancer. He had a prolific career in film, television, theatre and radio, which spanned over 50 years, from 1940 to 1992. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II, known for his upbeat and "all-American" screen persona, often playing young military servicemen, or in musicals.

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12/12/2007

François al-Hajj, Lebanese general (born 1953)

Major General François al-Hajj was a Lebanese military officer. He was assassinated by a car bomb on 12 December 2007.

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Ike Turner, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1931)

Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his wife Tina Turner as the leader of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

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12/12/2006

Paul Arizin, American basketball player (born 1928)

Paul Joseph Arizin, nicknamed "'Pitchin Paul", was an American basketball player who spent his entire National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Philadelphia Warriors from 1950 to 1962. He retired with the third highest career point total (16,266) in NBA history, and was named to the NBA's 25th, 50th and 75th anniversary teams. He was a high-scoring forward at Villanova University before being drafted by the Warriors of the fledgling NBA.

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Peter Boyle, American actor (born 1935)

Peter Richard Boyle was an American actor. He is known for his work as a character actor on film and television and received several awards including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

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Raymond P. Shafer, American attorney and politician, 39th Governor of Pennsylvania (born 1917)

Raymond Philip Shafer was an American attorney and politician who served as the 39th governor of Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1971. Prior to that, he served as the 23rd lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967 and as a Pennsylvania state senator from 1959 to 1962. He was a national leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party in the late 1960s.

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Alan Shugart, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Seagate Technology (born 1930)

Alan Field Shugart was an American engineer, entrepreneur and business executive whose career defined the modern computer disk drive industry.

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12/12/2005

Robert Newmyer, American actor and producer (born 1956)

Robert F. Newmyer was an American film producer, both commercial and independent.

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Annette Stroyberg, Danish actress (born 1936)

Annette Susanne Strøyberg was a Danish actress. Her films included Les Liaisons dangereuses (1959), which was directed by her first husband, Roger Vadim.

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Gebran Tueni, Lebanese journalist and politician (born 1957)

Gebran Ghassan Tueni was a Lebanese politician and the former editor and publisher of daily paper An Nahar, established by his grandfather, also named Gebran Tueni, in 1933. He was assassinated in 2005 as part of a series of assassinations of Syria's critics in Lebanon.

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12/12/2003

Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijani general and politician, 3rd President of Azerbaijan (born 1923)

Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev was an Azerbaijani politician who was a Soviet party boss in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1969 to 1982, and the third president of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003.

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12/12/2002

Dee Brown, American historian and author (born 1908)

Dorris Alexander "Dee" Brown was an American novelist, historian, and librarian. His most famous work, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970), details the history of the United States' westward colonization of the continent between 1860 and 1890 from the point of view of Native Americans.

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12/12/2001

Ardito Desio, Italian geologist and explorer (born 1897)

Count Ardito Desio was an Italian explorer, mountain climber, geologist, and cartographer.

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12/12/1999

Paul Cadmus, American painter and illustrator (born 1904)

Paul Cadmus was an American artist widely known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings. He also produced many highly finished drawings of single nude male figures. His paintings combine elements of eroticism and social critique in a style often called magic realism.

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Joseph Heller, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright(born 1923)

Joseph Heller was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is his debut novel Catch-22 (1961), a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for an absurd or contradictory choice. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature at least twice, in 1972 and 1975.

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12/12/1998

Lawton Chiles, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 41st Governor of Florida (born 1930)

Lawton Mainor Chiles Jr. was an American politician and military officer. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Florida from 1971 to 1989 and as the 41st governor of Florida from 1991 until his death in 1998.

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Morris Udall, American captain and politician (born 1922)

Morris King Udall was an American attorney and politician who served as a U.S. representative from Arizona from 1961 to 1991. As a member of the Democratic Party, he was a leading contender for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, but ultimately lost to eventual president, Jimmy Carter. Udall was noted by many for his independent and liberal views.

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12/12/1997

Evgenii Landis, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and academic (born 1921)

Evgenii Mikhailovich Landis was a Soviet mathematician who worked mainly on partial differential equations.

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12/12/1996

Vance Packard, American journalist, author, and critic (born 1914)

Vance Oakley Packard was an American journalist and social critic. He was the author of several books, including The Hidden Persuaders and The Naked Society. He was a critic of consumerism.

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12/12/1994

Stuart Roosa, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1933)

Stuart Allen Roosa was an American aeronautical engineer, smokejumper, United States Air Force pilot, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, who was the Command Module Pilot for the Apollo 14 mission. The mission lasted from January 31 to February 9, 1971, and was the third mission to land astronauts on the Moon. While Shepard and Mitchell spent two days on the lunar surface, Roosa conducted experiments from orbit in the Command Module Kitty Hawk. He was one of the 24 Apollo astronauts who reached the Moon, which he orbited 34 times.

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12/12/1993

József Antall, Hungarian historian and politician, 35th Prime Minister of Hungary (born 1932)

József Tihamér Antall Jr. was a Hungarian teacher, librarian, historian, and statesman who served as the first democratically elected prime minister of Hungary, holding office from May 1990 until his death in December 1993. He was also the leader of the Hungarian Democratic Forum from 1989.

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12/12/1985

Anne Baxter, American actress (born 1923)

Anne Baxter was an American actress, star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and seven Photoplay Awards, and was nominated for an Emmy and two Laurel Awards.

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12/12/1980

Jean Lesage, Canadian lawyer and politician, 19th Premier of Quebec (born 1912)

Jean Lesage was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the 19th premier of Quebec from July 5, 1960, to June 16, 1966. Alongside Georges-Émile Lapalme, René Lévesque and others, he is often viewed as the father of the Quiet Revolution. He is the namesake of the Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport, the main sections of Quebec's longest Autoroute highway Autoroute 20, and the provincial electoral district within Quebec City named Jean-Lesage.

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12/12/1975

Richard Baggallay, English colonel and cricketer (born 1884)

Richard Romer Claude Baggallay was an English army officer and cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1912 and 1919 and captained the side in 1913, 1914 and 1919.

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12/12/1970

Doris Blackburn, Australian politician (born 1889)

Doris Amelia Blackburn was an Australian social reformer and politician. She served in the House of Representatives from 1946 to 1949, the second woman after Enid Lyons to do so. Blackburn was a prominent socialist and originally a member of the Labor Party. She was married to Maurice Blackburn, a Labor MP, but he was expelled from the party in 1937 and she resigned from the party in solidarity. Her husband died in 1944, and she was elected to his former seat at the 1946 federal election – the first woman elected to parliament as an independent. However, Blackburn served only a single term before being defeated. She later served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

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12/12/1968

Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (born 1902)

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. She was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981.

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12/12/1966

Karl Ruberl, Austrian-American swimmer (born 1880)

Karl Ruberl, also known as Charles Ruberl Sr., was an Austrian swimmer who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century in the 200 meter events. He participated in swimming at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the silver medal in the 200 meter backstroke and the bronze medal in the 200 meter freestyle.

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12/12/1958

Albert Walsh, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (born 1900)

Sir Albert Joseph Walsh was Commissioner of Home Affairs and Education and chief justice of the Dominion of Newfoundland, and its first lieutenant governor upon its admission to the Canadian Confederation on 1 April 1949.

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12/12/1951

Mildred Bailey, American singer (born 1907)

Mildred Bailey was an American jazz singer during the 1930s and 1940s, known as "The Queen of Swing", "The Rockin' Chair Lady", and "Mrs. Swing".

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12/12/1948

Marjory Stephenson, British biochemist (born 1885)

Marjory Stephenson was a British biochemist. In 1945, she was one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the other being Kathleen Lonsdale.

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12/12/1941

César Basa, Filipino lieutenant and pilot (born 1915)

César Fernando María Tianko Basa was a Filipino military pilot who fought in World War II. He was one of the pioneer fighter pilots of the Philippine Army Air Corps, the forerunner of the Philippine Air Force, and was the first Filipino fighter pilot casualty during World War II.

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12/12/1939

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1883)

Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckling roles in silent films. One of the biggest stars of the silent era, Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He was also a founding member of United Artists as well as the Motion Picture Academy and hosted the 1st Academy Awards in 1929.

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12/12/1934

Thorleif Haug, Norwegian skier (born 1894)

Thorleif Haug was a Norwegian skier who competed in nordic combined and cross-country. At the 1924 Olympics he won all three Nordic skiing events. He was also awarded the bronze medal in ski jumping, but 50 years later a mistake was found in calculation of scores, Haug was demoted to fourth place, and his daughter presented her father's medal to Anders Haugen.

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12/12/1923

Raymond Radiguet, French author and poet (born 1903)

Raymond Radiguet was a French novelist and poet. His two novels, noted for their explicit themes and unique style and tone, were praised by many of the greatest writers of the time. He died unexpectedly at the age of twenty.

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12/12/1921

Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer and academic (born 1868)

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an American astronomer. Her discovery of how to effectively measure vast astronomical distances led to a shift in the understanding of the scale and nature of the universe.

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12/12/1913

Menelik II, Ethiopian emperor (born 1844)

Menelik II, baptised as Sahle Maryam, was king of Shewa from 1866 to 1889 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death in 1913. A member of the Solomonic dynasty, Menelik expanded the Ethiopian Empire to its greatest historical extent and defeated Italian colonial forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern Ethiopian state.

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12/12/1894

John Sparrow David Thompson, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Canada (born 1845)

Sir John Sparrow David Thompson was the fourth prime minister of Canada, serving from 1892 until his death in 1894. He had previously been fifth premier of Nova Scotia for a brief period in 1882. He is the only post-Confederation provincial premier to become prime minister, as of 2026.

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12/12/1889

Viktor Bunyakovsky, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and theorist (born 1804)

Viktor Yakovlevich Bunyakovsky was a Russian mathematician, member and later vice president of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

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12/12/1858

Jacques Viger, Canadian archeologist and politician, 1st Mayor of Montreal (born 1787)

Jacques Viger was an antiquarian, archaeologist, and the first mayor of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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12/12/1803

Prince Frederick Adolf of Sweden (born 1750)

Prince Frederick Adolf, Duke of Östergötland was a Swedish Prince, youngest son of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, a sister of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. He was given the title Duke of Östergötland.

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12/12/1794

Meshullam Feivush Heller, Ukrainian author (born 1742)

Reb Meshullam Feivush Heller of Zbarazh was the author of several Hasidic sefarim including the Yosher Divrei Emes.

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12/12/1766

Johann Christoph Gottsched, German philosopher, author, and critic (born 1700)

Johann Christoph Gottsched was a German philosopher, author, critic and grammarian of the Enlightenment.

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12/12/1751

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, English philosopher and politician, Secretary at War (born 1678)

Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was a British Tory politician and philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views and opposition to theology. Bolingbroke supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, which sought to overthrow the new king George I. Escaping to France, he became foreign minister for the Jacobite pretender James Francis Edward Stuart. He was attainted for treason but reversed course and was allowed to return to England in 1723. According to Ruth Mack, "Bolingbroke is best known for his party politics, including the ideological history he disseminated in The Craftsman (1726–1735) by adopting the formerly Whig theory of the Ancient Constitution and giving it new life as an anti-Walpole Tory principle."

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12/12/1572

Loredana Marcello, Dogaressa of Venice, botanist, author

Loredana Marcello was a Dogaressa of Venice by marriage to the Doge Alvise I Mocenigo. She was an author of letters and poetry and studied botany, and was regarded as a model of an educated and cultivated renaissance woman in contemporary Venice.

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12/12/1296

Isabella of Mar, first wife of Robert Bruce VII (born 1277)

Isabella of Mar was the first wife of Robert Bruce VII, Earl of Carrick. Isabella died before her husband was crowned King of Scotland. She and her husband were the grandparents of Robert II, King of Scotland, founder of the Royal House of Stuart.

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12/12/1204

Maimonides, Jewish physician, philosopher, and scholar (born 1135 or 1138)

Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam, was a Sephardic Jewish rabbi who is widely acknowledged as one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. Originally from Córdoba, where he was born on Passover Eve of 1135 or 1138, his family was exiled from Muslim-ruled Spain when they refused to convert to Islam shortly after the Almohad Caliphate conquered the Almoravid dynasty in 1148. Over the course of the next two decades, Maimonides resided in Fez, Acre, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Cairo before finally settling in Fustat between 1168 and 1171. During this period, he advanced his vocations and became renowned for his achievements as an astronomer, philosopher, and physician—even being appointed to serve as personal physician to Saladin of the Ayyubid Sultanate.

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12/12/0884

King Carloman II of the Franks (born c.866; hunting accident)

Carloman II was the King of West Francia from 879 until his death. A member of the Carolingians, he and his elder brother Louis III, divided the kingdom between themselves and ruled jointly until the latter's death in 882. Thereafter Carloman ruled alone until his own death. He was the second son of King Louis the Stammerer and Queen Ansgarde.

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