The following is a list of notabledeaths in December 1996.

Entries for each day are listedalphabetically 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.

• Peter Bronfman, 67, Canadian businessman and entrepreneur, cancer.^[1]
• Alan Coldham, 90, Australian tennis player.
• Sonia Furió, 59, Spanish-Mexican actress, singer, and dancer.^[2]
• Irving Gordon, 81, American songwriter, myeloma cancer.^[3]
• Jacek Gutowski, 36, Polish weightlifter.^[4]
• James Record, 77, American politician and author.^[5]
• Jan G. Waldenström, 90, Swedish physician.

• Jules Bastin, 63, Belgianoperatic bass.^[6]
• Jean Jérôme Hamer, 80, BelgianRoman Catholic cardinal.^[7]
• Mike Morgan, 54, American gridiron football player.^[8]
• Marri Chenna Reddy, 77, Indian politician.

• John Bateman, 56, American Major League baseball player.^[9]
• Georges Duby, 77, French historian, cancer.^[10]
• Norm Houser, 80, American racing driver.
• Babrak Karmal, 67, Afghan revolutionary andPresident of Afghanistan,liver cancer.^[11]
• Solveig von Schoultz, 89, Finnish writer, novelist, and teacher.

• Syd Heylen, 76, Australian actor, comedian, and variety performer, stroke.
• Azharul Islam, 52, Bangladeshi politician, cardiac arrest.
• Willard Parker, 84, American actor, heart attack.^[12]
• Leon Polk Smith, 90, American painter.^[13]
• Albert Winsemius, 86, Dutch economist,pneumonia.
• Ans Wortel, 67, Dutch painter, poet and writer.^[14]
• Jan Čuřík, 72, Czech cinematographer.^[15]

• Robert Brewer, 72,United States Army officer during World War II.
• Wilf Carter, 91, CanadianCountry and Western singer, songwriter, and yodeller, stomach cancer.^[16]
• Karl H. Fell, 59, German politician.
• Cliff Mapes, 74, American baseball player.^[17]
• Carey Spicer, 87, American football and basketball player and coach.
• Adolf Bredo Stabell, 88, Norwegian diplomat.

• Harry Babcock, 66, American gridiron football player.^[18]
• Jean Bertholle, 87, French painter.^[19]
• Victor Bruns, 92, German composer and bassoonist.
• ʿAbd al-Hamid Kishk, 63, Egyptian preacher, scholar of Islam, activist, and author.
• Robert Lees, 74, American linguist.
• Ricky Owens, 57, American singer.
• Pete Rozelle, 70, American commissioner of theNational Football League, brain cancer.^[20]

• José Donoso, 72, Chilean writer, journalist and professor, liver cancer.^[21]
• Johnny Hall, 79, American gridiron football player.^[22]
• Ali Hatami, 52, Iranian film director, screenwriter, art director, and costume designer,pancreatic cancer.
• Giuseppe Perego, 81, Italian comics artist.^[23]
• Phillip Reed, 88, American actor.^[24]
• Ryszard Szymczak, 51, Polish football player.^[25]

• Rolf Blomberg, 84, Swedish explorer, writer, photographer and producer of documentary films.^[26]
• Prince Eugenio, Duke of Genoa, 90, Italian prince.
• Espanto III, 56, Mexican professional wrestler, heart attack.
• José Luis González, 70, Puerto Rican essayist, novelist, and journalist.^[27]
• Jack H. Hexter, 86, American historian.^[28]
• Tommy Lahiff, 86, Australian rules football player.
• John Langeloth Loeb Sr., 94, American investor and executive.^[29]
• Paulene Myers, 83, American actress (Lady Sings the Blues,The Sting,My Cousin Vinny).^[30]
• Johnny Olszewski, 66, American gridiron football player.^[31]
• Howard Rollins, 46, American actor (Ragtime,In the Heat of the Night,A Soldier's Story), complications fromAIDS-relatedlymphoma.^[32]
• Dorothy Schroeder, 68, American baseball player, intracranial aneurysm.
• Marin Sorescu, 60, Romanian poet, playwright, and novelist, heart attack.^[33]
• Kashiwado Tsuyoshi, 58, Japanesesumo wrestler,liver failure.

• June Carlson, 72, American actress, aneurysm.^[34]
• Patty Donahue, 40, American vocalist ofnew wave groupthe Waitresses,lung cancer.
• Li Ki-joo, 70, South Korean football player.
• Yun Chi-young, 96, South Korean politician.
• Mary Leakey, 83, Britishpaleoanthropologist.^[35]
• Diana Morgan, 88, British playwright and screenwriter.^[36]
• Alain Poher, 87, French politician.^[37]
• Ivor Roberts-Jones, 83, British sculptor.
• Raphael Samuel, 61, BritishMarxist historian and intellectual.^[38]
• Woody Woodard, 79, American gridiron football player and coach, basketball coach, track coach, college athletics administrator.

• Jakov Blažević, 84, Croatian lawyer and politician.
• John Duffey, 62, American bluegrass musician, heart attack.^[39]
• John Price, 83, Danish film actor and director, and the father of Danish screenwriter Adam Price.
• Richa Sharma, 32, Indian actress.
• Eric Webber, 76, English football player and manager.
• Faron Young, 64, Americancountry music producer, singer and songwriter, suicide.^[40]

• Juan Carlos Barbieri, 64, Argentine actor.
• Des Booth, 76, Australian politician.
• Charles Hamilton, 82, American paleographer, handwriting expert and author.
• Willie Rushton, 59, English cartoonist, comedian, and actor, heart attack.^[41]
• W. G. G. Duncan Smith, 82, BritishRoyal Air Forceflying ace during World War II.
• Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, 84, French photojournalist and politician, cancer.^[42]

• Larry Gates, 81, American actor (Guiding Light,Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,In the Heat of the Night).^[43]
• George Jumonville, 79, AmericanMajor League Baseball player.^[44]
• Buks Marais, 68, South African rugby player.
• Vance Packard, 82, American journalist, social critic, and author.^[45]

• Waheed Akhtar, 62, Indian poet, writer, critic, and a Muslim scholar and philosopher.
• Mae Barnes, 89, American jazz singer, dancer and comic entertainer.^[46]
• Edward Blishen, 76, English author and broadcaster.^[47]
• James Cassels, 89,British Army officer.
• Francesco Gabrieli, 92, Italianarabist.^[48]
• Arthur Jacobs, 74, British music critic and musicologist.
• Eulace Peacock, 82, American sprinter,Alzheimer's disease.^[49]
• Clarence Wijewardena, 53, Sri Lankan singer, composer and musician, liver cirrhosis.^[50]
• Cao Yu, 86, Chinese playwright.^[51]

• John Craven, 49, English football player, heart attack.^[52]
• Howard B. Keck, 83, American businessman andThoroughbredracehorse owner and breeder.^[53]
• Andy McLaren, 74, Scottish football player.
• Gaston Miron, 68, French Canadian writer.^[54]

• Dawn Crosby, 33, Americanheavy metal singer,liver failure fromsubstance abuse.
• Giuseppe Dossetti, 83, Italian jurist, politician, and Catholic priest.^[55]
• Dave Kaye, 90, English pianist.^[56]
• Harry Kemelman, 88, American mystery writer and a professor of English, kidney failure.^[57]
• Tristan Keuris, 50, Dutch composer.
• Adalberto López, 73, Mexican football player.
• Laurens van der Post, 90, South AfricanAfrikaner author, farmer, journalist,philosopher, explorer andconservationist.^[58]

• Quentin Bell, 86, English biographer and art historian.^[59]
• Sven Bergqvist, 82, Swedish football and ice hockey player.
• Nokukhanya Bhengu, 92, South African women’s leader andanti-apartheid activist^[60]
• George M. Jones, 85,United States Army brigadier general.
• Dolores Medio, 85, Spanish writer.
• Carlo Reguzzoni, 88, Italian football player.^[61]
• Arthur Shores, 92, Americancivil rights attorney.^[62]

• Armando, 26, Americanhouse music producer andDJ,leukemia.^[63]
• Wayne Barlow, 84, American composer of classical music.^[64]
• Li Han-hsiang, 70, Chinese film director, heart attack.^[65]
• Johannes Kaiser, 60, German sprinter.
• Adriaan Maas, 89, Dutch sailor and Olympian.^[66]
• Lawrie Miller, 73, New Zealand cricket player.
• Ruby Murray, 61, Northern Irish singer and actress, liver cancer.^[67]
• George Pfann, 94, American gridiron football player and coach.
• İlyas Seçkin, 78, Turkish politician.
• Stanko Todorov, 76, Bulgarian communist politician.
• Sun Yaoting, 92, last imperial Chineseeunuch.

• Irving Caesar, 101, American lyricist and theater composer.^[68]
• Charles Deaton, 75, American architect.^[69]
• Gwilym Hugh Lewis, 99, Britishflying ace during World War I.
• Ayşe Şan, 58,Kurdish singer.
• Suryakantam, 72, Indian actress.

• Bobby Cole, 64, American musician, heart attack.^[70]
• Ted Darling, 61, Canadian sportscaster, Pick disease.
• Ejvind Hansen, 72, Danishsprint canoeist.^[71]
• Ronald Howard, 78, English actor and writer.^[72]
• Amata Kabua, 68,President of the Marshall Islands (1979–1996).^[73]
• Yulii Borisovich Khariton, 92, Russian nuclear physicist.^[74]
• Marcello Mastroianni, 72, Italian actor (La Dolce Vita,8½,Divorce Italian Style),pancreatic cancer.^[75]

• Melio Bettina, 80, American boxer.
• Osvaldo Lira, 92, Chilean priest, philosopher and theologian.
• Thakin Lwin, 82, Burmese politician, trade unionist, writer and journalist.
• Charles Morton, 80, American racing cyclist and Olympian.^[76]
• Carl Sagan, 62, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and author (Cosmos,Contact),pneumonia.^[77]

• Kell Areskoug, 90, Swedish Olympic sprinter.^[78]
• Christine Brückner, 75, German writer.
• Clarence Gosse, 84, Canadian politician.
• Barry Gray, 80, American radio personality, known as "The father of Talk Radio".
• Kálmán Hazai, 83, Hungarian water polo player.^[79]
• Margret Rey, 90, German-American children's author and illustrator, heart attack.^[80]
• Alfred Tonello, 67, French racing cyclist.^[81]

• Oscar Alende, 87, Argentine politician.
• Mária Bartuszová, 60, Slovakian sculptor.
• Nealie Duggan, 73, IrishGaelic football player.
• Fred Green, 63, American baseball player.^[82]
• Chiang Hsiao-yung, 48, Taiwanese politician, esophageal cancer.
• Don Meade, 83, American National Champion jockey.^[83]
• Igor Oberberg, 89, Russian Empire-born German cinematographer.^[84]

• Aram Karamanoukian, 86,Syrian Army Lieutenant General, politician and author.
• Rina Ketty, 85, Italian singer.^[85]
• Vicente González Lizondo, 54, Spanish politician, heart attack.^[86]
• Mića Popović, 73, Serbian artist.^[87]
• Ronnie Scott, 69, Britishjazztenor saxophonist and jazz club owner, accidental overdose ofbarbiturate.^[88]
• Infanta Maria Cristina of Spain, 85, Spanish princess, heart attack.^[89]
• Emrys Thomas, 96, Welsh socialist politician.
• Sophie Toscan du Plantier, 39, French television producer, beaten to death.

• Al Adair, 67, Canadian politician and baseball player, heart attack.
• Takeo Doi, 92, Japanese aircraft designer.
• Leonard Firestone, 89, American businessman, diplomat, and philanthropist.^[90]
• Bobby Robinson, 46, Scottish football player.^[91]
• Nguyen Huu Tho, 86, Vietnamese revolutionary and politician.^[92]
• Milan Vasojević, 63, Serbian basketball coach.

• Lee Alexander, 69, American politician, cancer.^[93]
• Tony Dauksza, 84, American football player, film-maker, and outdoorsman.
• Roger Duchesne, 90, French actor.^[94]
• Bill Hewitt, 68, Canadian sportscaster, heart attack.
• Bill Osmanski, 80, American gridiron football player and coach.^[95]
• Al Schottelkotte, 69, American news anchor and reporter, cancer.
• Sue Bailey Thurman, 93, American author, historian andcivil rights activist.
• Clayton Tonnemaker, 68, American gridiron football player.^[96]
• Harry Watson, 92, New Zealand racing cyclist.^[97]
• August Wenzinger, 91, Swiss musician and conductor.^[98]

• Narcís Jubany Arnau, 83, Spanish Catholic cardinal.^[99]
• Ray Bray, 79, American gridiron football player.
• Michael Bruno, 64, Israeli economist, cancer.^[100]
• Frank Edwin Egler, 85, Americanplant ecologist.^[101]
• Frank Liebel, 77, AmericanNational Football League player.^[102]
• Eleanor Lynn, 80, American actress.
• Misha Mahowald, 33, American computationalneuroscientist, suicide.
• JonBenét Ramsey, 6, Americanchild beauty queen,asphyxia by strangulation and craniocerebral trauma.
• Morris Schapiro, 83, American investment banker andchess master.
• Olle Tandberg, 78, Swedish boxer.^[103]

• Gene Brabender, 55, AmericanMajor League Baseball pitcher,brain aneurysm.^[104]
• Mary Celine Fasenmyer, 90, American mathematician.
• Johnny Heartsman, 60, Americanblues musician and songwriter,stroke.^[105]
• Gabriel Loire, 92, French Frenchstained glass artist.
• Julián Mateos, 58, Spanish actor and film producer, lung cancer.^[106]
• Kourkène Medzadourian, 88, Armenian activist.
• Nicolae Militaru, 71, Romanian soldier and communist politician, cancer.
• Neil O'Donnell, 82, American basketball player.^[107]
• Juan José Ortega, 92, Mexican film director, producer and screenwriter.^[108]
• Sarmad Sindhi, 35, Pakistani folk singer and songwriter, traffic accident.
• Jean-Claude Tramont, 62, Belgian film director.^[109]

• Edward Carfagno, 89, American fencer and art director (Ben-Hur,The Bad and the Beautiful,Soylent Green),Oscar winner (1953,1954,1960).
• Ferd Dreher, 83, American gridiron football player.^[110]
• Katherine Pollak Ellickson, 91, American labor economist.^[111]
• Edward Gerard Hettinger, 94, AmericanRoman Catholic clergyman and bishop.
• Annik Shefrazian, 86-87,Iranian Armenian actress.

• Alma Birk, 79, British journalist and politician.
• Pennar Davies, 85, British writer.^[112]
• Mireille Hartuch, 90, French singer, composer, and actress.^[113]
• Margaret Herbison, 89, Scottish politician, cancer.
• Jerry Knight, 44, AmericanR&B vocalist and bassist, cancer.
• Dorothy Livesay, 87, Canadian poet.^[114]
• Daniel Mayer, 87, French politician and member of the French Resistance.^[115]
• Robert J. Morris, 82, Americananti-Communist activist, heart failure.^[116]
• Vasily Ilyich Mykhlik, 74,Soviet Air Forces pilot andHero of the Soviet Union.
• Tom Pedi, 83, American actor.
• Gino Sinimberghi, 83, Italian opera singer.^[117]
• Oswald Szemerényi, 83, Hungarianlinguist.^[118]

• Pokey Allen, 53, American gridiron football player and coach.
• Lew Ayres, 88, American actor (All Quiet on the Western Front,Dr. Kildare,Johnny Belinda).^[119]
• Lou Barle, 80, American basketball player.
• Erik Heiberg, 80, Norwegian sailor and Olympic medalist.^[120]
• Jack Nance, 53, American actor (Eraserhead,Twin Peaks,Dune), subdural hematoma.^[121]
• Lev Oshanin, 84, Russian poet, playwright and writer.
• Broome Pinniger, 94, Indian field hockey player.^[122]
• Keith A. Walker, 61, American writer, film producer, actor (The Fall Guy,The Goonies,Free Willy), cancer.^[123]

• Wesley Addy, 83, American actor.^[124]
• Annie Ducaux, 88, French actress.^[125]
• Sam Narron, 83, American baseball player and coach.^[126]
• Michael Roberts, 88, British historian of early modern Sweden.^[127]
• Winston P. Wilson, 85,United States Air Forcemajor general.^[128]

• List of December 1996 deaths atIMDb

• December 1996
• 1996 deaths
• Lists of deaths in 1996

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• CS1 Dutch-language sources (nl)
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1: unfit URL
• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
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• Use mdy dates from September 2021