1737 – James Louis Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland, dies at 70
1957 – John Van Druten, English playwright (I Remember Mama, I am a Camera) and theater director, dies at 56
1959 – Walter Williams, American, claimed to be last survivor of the US Civil War, dies at 117 (age disputed)
1967 – Alfred Courtens, Belgian sculptor, dies at 78
1982 – Frederick Terman, American professor of engineering at Stanford University known as the “father of Silicon Valley”, dies at 82
1993 – Antoon Veerman, Dutch ARP asst sect of Education (1973-75), dies at 77
1995 – Ruth Nita Barrow, 1st female Governor-General of Barbados (1990-95), dies at 79
2000 – Rob Buck, American musician (10,000 Maniacs), dies at 42
2015 – Douglas Dick, American actor and psychologist (Rope, Waterfront), dies at 95
2019 – Shahdon Winchester, Trinidadian soccer winger (27 caps; Murciélagos), dies in a traffic collision at 27
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 18th December 2025
1787 – Soame Jenyns, British writer (View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion) and Member of Parliament (1741-80), dies at 83
1892 – Richard Owen, English zoologist (Dinosauria), dies at 88
1901 – William F. Perry, American Brigadier General in the Confederate Army (Civil War), dies at 78
1915 – Henry Enfield Roscoe, English chemist (vanadium and photochemistry), dies at 82
1937 – Robert W. Bingham, American newspaper proprietor, attorney and ambassador to the UK (1933-37), dies of cancer at 66
1977 – Cyril Ritchard, Australian actor (Peter Pan; Hans Brinker), dies at 80
1977 – Walter Breedveld, Dutch writer (Een schip vergaat), dies at 76
2004 – Vijay Hazare, Indian cricket batsman and captain (30 Tests, 7 x 100, HS 164no; Maharashtra, Central India, Baroda, Holkar), dies at 89
2007 – Jack Linkletter, American TV host (Haggis Baggis, Hootenanny), dies at 70
2022 – Count Desmond [Edward Benjamin], American sword swallower, dies at 81
Famous Deaths for 17th December 2025
1651 – Wolfgang Schonsleder, German composer (Missa super Laudate), and clergyman, dies at 81
1811 – John Antes, American composer and missionary, dies at 71
1881 – Lewis H Morgan, US ethnologist (Iroquois-indians), dies at 62
1891 – Msiri, ruler of the Garanganze Kingdom, Congo (Katanga), dies in battle against Belgian funded expedition
1892 – George Brayton, American engineer who developed the Brayton Cycle combustion engine, dies at 62
1946 – Constance Garnett, English translator of Russian (first to translate Chekhov and Dostoevsky into English), dies at 84
1967 – Barry Byrne, American architect (Church of St. Francis Xavier in Kansas City), dies at 83
1992 – Günther Anders, German Jewish philosopher, dies at 90
1994 – Jan Wiegel, director and producer (Uninhabitable Country), dies at 64
2011 – Kim Jong-il, Supreme Leader of North Korea (1994-2011), dies of a suspected heart attack at 70
Famous Deaths for 16th December 2025
1783 – Yoriyuki Arima, Japanese mathematician (approximated the value of pi and its square, pi^2), dies at 68
1858 – Richard Bright, English physician (Bright’s disease/nephritis), dies at 69
1861 – Karol Joseph Lipinski, Polish composer and virtuoso violinist, dies at 71
1928 – Elinor Wylie, American poet and writer (b. 1885)
1935 – Thelma Todd, actress (Horse Feathers, Bohemian Girl), dies of 30
1940 – William Wallace, Scottish composer, dies at 80
1944 – Philip Guedalla, English barrister and historian, dies at 55
1991 – Ferdinando Orlandi, Italian actor (The House with Laughing Windows), dies at 66
2020 – Kálmán Sóvári, Hungarian soccer defender (17 caps; Újpesti Dózsa, VM Egyetértés), dies at 79
2022 – Siniša Mihajlović, Serbian soccer defender (63 caps Yugoslavia; RS Belgrade, Roma, Sampdoria, Lazio) and manager (Serbia, Bologna, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, AC Milan, Torino), dies from leukemia at 53
Famous Deaths for 15th December 2025
1598 – Philip van Marnix, Flemish ruler of St Aldegonde and poet, dies at 58
1699 – Henrik van Reede tot Drakenstein, Dutch botanist and VOC official, dies at about 63
1831 – Paulus Roelof Cantz’laar, Dutch naval officer, and colonial governor (Curaçao, 1820-28; Dutch West Indies, 1828-31), dies at 60
1880 – Carlo Boncompagni di Mombello, Italian minister of Justice, dies at 76
1924 – T. Frank Appleby, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives – (R) New Jersey, 1921-23), dies at 60
1968 – Antonio J. Barrette, French Canadian politician, premier of Quebec, dies at 69
1984 – Jan Peerce [Jacob Pincus Perelmuth], American tenor (NBC Symphony, 1938-55; NY Metropolitan Opera, 1941-67; “Bluebird of Happiness”), dies at 80
1986 – Serge Lifar, Russian-French ballet dancer (Ballet Russes, 1923-29), ballet master (Paris Opera Ballet, 1930-44 and 1947-58), and choreographer, dies at 81
2009 – Carolyn DeZurik, American country and polka singer and yodeler (The Cackle Sisters; Prairie Ramblers; The Polka Chips), dies at 90
2022 – Shirley Eikhard, Canadian Juno Award-winning country singer-songwriter (Something to Talk About), dies of cancer at 67
Famous Deaths for 14th December 2025
1886 – Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski, Polish-Russian composer, dies at 27
1951 – Coretté Alefred [Hardy], American-Russian-Soviet jazz, spiritual and pop lyrical and dramatic soprano, dancer, and actress, dies at 70
1958 – Joseph Vandemeulebroek, Belgian politician (Mayor of Brussels,1939-41 and 1944-56), dies at 82
1967 – Frank Moran, American heavyweight boxer and film actor, dies of a heart attack at 80
1989 – Konrad Lechner, German cellist, composer, and conductor, dies at 78
1990 – Hope Sansberry, American actress (Rats are Coming), dies at 94
1998 – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist, dies at 74
2000 – Ralph Louis Wain, British agricultural scientist, dies at 89
2003 – Don Conicannon, British miner, labor union official and politician (Member of Parliament, 1966-87), dies at 73
2012 – Klaus Köste, German gymnast, dies at 69
Famous Deaths for 13th December 2025
1124 – Callistus/Callixtus II [Guido di Borgogna], Italian Pope (1119-24), dies
1793 – Johann Joachim Christoph Bode, German literary translator, dies at 63
1862 – Maxcy Gregg, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 48
1868 – Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist and explorer, dies at 74
1894 – Sarah Parker Remond, African-American abolitionist, dies at 68
1908 – Augustus Le Plongeon, French-American photographer and antiquitarian, dies at 83
1934 – Thomas A. Watson, American assistant to Alexander Graham Bell in inventing the telephone, dies at 80
1935 – Victor Grignard, French chemist (Nobel 1912 – development of the Grignard reaction), dies at 64
1945 – Irma Grese, German Nazi concentration camp guard known as the “Hyena of Auschwitz”, and convicted war criminal, executed by hanging at 22
1963 – Hubert ME Pierlot, Belgian advocate/premier (1939-45), dies at 79
Famous Deaths for 12th December 2025
1788 – Joseph Gibbs, English composer and organist, dies at 88
1852 – Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma, Dutch Frisian merchant, poet, and story teller (Rhymes and Tales), dies at 60
1877 – José de Alencar, Brazilian writer (O Guarani), dies at 48
1958 – Milutin Milanković, Serbian astronomer and geophysicist (linked long-term changes in climate to astronomical factors affecting the amount of solar energy received at Earth’s surface), dies at 79
1965 – Johnny Lee, American actor (Song of the South, The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show), dies from a heart attack at 67
1976 – John “Jack” Cassidy, American stage and screen actor and Grammy Award-winning singer (Shangri-La; The Eiger Sanction: She Loves Me; Columbo), dies in an apartment fire at 49
1998 – Marco Denevi, Argentine writer (Rosaura at Ten in the Morning, Secret Ceremony), dies at 76
2003 – Heydar Aliyev [Heydər Əliyev], Soviet-Azerbaijani politician (President of Azerbaijan, 1983-2003), dies at 80
2006 – Paul Arizin, American College/Basketball HOF small forward (NBA C’ship 1956; 10 x NBA All Star; NBA scoring champion 1952, 57; Philadelphia Warriors), dies in his sleep at 78
2021 – Vicente Fernández, Mexican Grammy Award-winning singer, known as “El Rey de la Música Ranchera” (The King of Ranchera Music), actor, and film producer, dies at 81
Famous Deaths for 11th December 2025
969 – Nicephorus Phocas [Nikephoros II Phokas], Byzantine emperor (963-969), assassinated in his sleep at about 57 by his nephew and his wife’s lover John Tzimiskes and entourage
1573 – Alardus/Eilard de Waterlant, duke of Alva, hanged
1899 – Andrew Wauchope, British Major-General, dies in Battle of Magersfontein in the Boer war, South Africa. Another British Major, The Marquess of Winchester also killed.
1938 – Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist and internationalist (Nobel Peace Prize 1921), dies at 69
1950 – Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer, dies at 57
1979 – Claire Carleton, American actress (Alice-Cimarron City), dies at 66
1981 – I. D. du Plessis, South African writer and director (3rd World), dies at 81
1996 – William Rushton, actor, author and cartoonist (TW3, Private Eye), dies of a heart attack at 59
2008 – Patricia Hutchinson, British diplomat (Ambassador to Uruguay, 1980-83), dies at 82
2021 – Anne Rice, American Gothic novelist (Interview With A Vampire), dies of complications from a stroke at 80
Famous Deaths for 10th December 2025
1508 – René II, Duke of Lorraine, dies at 57
1736 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Portuguese ruler of Malta (b. 1663)
1910 – Pablo Hernandez Salces, Spanish composer, dies at 76
1946 – Walter Johnson, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (3 x Triple Crown of Pitching; World Series 1924; AL MVP 1913, 24; Washington Senators), dies from a brain tumour at 59
1959 – Charles Jones, West Indian cricket batsman (4 Tests), dies at 57
1968 – Thomas Merton, French-American Catholic writer and Trappist monk (7 Story Mountain), accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan at 53
1992 – Bernard Reichel, Swiss composer, dies at 91
2005 – Richard Pryor, American Emmy and 5X Grammy Award-winning comedian (Live on the Sunset Strip), actor (Silver Streak; Stir Crazy), and screenwriter (Blazing Saddles), dies of a heart attack at 65
2022 – Grant Wahl, American sports journalist (CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports), dies from a heart attack covering FIFA World Cup at 48
2024 – Michael Cole, American actor (The Mod Squad – “Pete”), dies at 84