Deaths Date 1997 December | History by KabAstro

Dec 7 Billy Bremner, Scottish footballer (Leeds United), dies at 54 from a suspected heart attack
Dec 8 Bob Bell, clown (WGN's 1st Bozo), dies at 75
Dec 8 Léon Poliakov, French historian (The Aryan Myth), dies at 87
Dec 8 Nicholas Polunin, British botanist and environmentalist, dies at 88
Dec 9 Tamara Geva, Russian-born dancer and actress, dies at 91
Dec 10 Gershon Kingsley [Götz Ksinski], German-American composer, electronic music pioneer, and Moog synthesizer player (Popcorn), dies at 97
Dec 10 Jake Carey, American actor (Rock Rock Rock!, Go, Johnny, Go!), dies at 71
Dec 11 Kenneth W. Gatland, British aerospace scientist, dies at 73
Dec 12 (Irving) "Mouse" Randolph, American swing jazz trumpeter (Cab Calloway Orchestra), dies at 88
Dec 12 Evgenii Landis, Soviet Russian mathematician, dies at 77
Dec 13 Alexander Oppenheim, British mathematician (Oppenheim conjecture), dies at 94
Dec 13 Harry Glaß, German ski jumper (Olympic bronze 1956), dies at 67
Dec 13 Martin Carter, Guyanese poet and political activist, dies at 70
Dec 13 Rafael Jose Fernandez de la Calzada y Ferrer, restaurateur, dies at 83
Dec 14 Kurt Winter, Canadian musician (The Guess Who), dies of kidney failure at 51

Dec 14 Owen Barfield, British philosopher of language, dies at 99
Dec 14 Robert Sutton, New Zealand electronics engineer, dies at 82
Dec 14 Stubby Kaye [Bernard Solomon Kotzin], American actor (Guys & Dolls; Lil' Abner;, Cat Ballou), dies of lung cancer at 79
Dec 15 Pananayiotis Taki Vatikiotis, Middle Eastern scholar, dies at 69
Dec 16 Lillian Disney, widow of animator Walt Disney, dies of a stroke at 98
Dec 16 Nicolette Larson, American rock vocalist (Lotta Love; Twins), dies from brain seizure at 45
Dec 16 Richard Warwick, English actor (Johnny Dangerously, Sebastine, If), dies of AIDS complications at 52
Dec 17 Reginald Victor Jones, British scientist who worked in military intelligence in WWII, dies at 86

Chris Farley (1964-1997)

Dec 18 American actor and comedian (SNL, Wayne's World, Coneheads), dies of a drug overdose at 33

Dec 19 David Schramm, American astrophysicist (pioneer in establishing particle astrophysics as a vibrant research field), dies at 52
Dec 19 Jimmy Rogers, American blues musician (Muddy Waters' Band), dies at 73

Masaru Ibuka (1908-1997)

Dec 19 Japanese electronics industrialist (Sony Corp), dies at 89

Dec 20 Dawn Steel, American filmmaker, 1st woman to head Hollywood studio, dies of cancer at 51
Dec 20 Denise Levertov, American poet and essayist (Joy Beneath the Skin), dies at 74
Dec 20 Dick Spooner, English cricket wicket-keeper (7 Tests; 12 dismissals), dies at 77
Dec 20 Vincent Ciccone, inventor (Blow-Pops candy), dies at 81
Dec 21 Amie Comeaux, American country music singer, dies at 21
Dec 21 Bruce Woodcock, English boxer, European Heavyweight Champion, dies at 76
Dec 21 Harold Roxbee Cox, Baron Kings Norton, British aeronautical engineer, dies at 95
Dec 21 Juzo Itami, film director/actor (Lord Jim, Yuuguremade), dies at 64
Dec 21 Michael Lyne, British Air Vice-Marshal, dies at 78
Dec 22 Douglas Ranger, British surgeon, dies at 81
Dec 22 Hugh Edward Conway Seymour, 8th Marquess of Hertford, dies at 67
Dec 22 John Pinkerton, English computer scientist who designed the first business computer in England, the LEO computer, dies at 78
Dec 22 Johnny Coles, trumpeter, dies at 71
Dec 22 Juzo Itami, Japanese director, commits suicide at 64
Dec 23 Brian Malzard Foss, British psychologist, dies at 76
Dec 23 Donald Gunn MacRae, British sociologist, dies at 76
Dec 23 Hrvoje Horvatic, Croatian filmmaker (Hand on the Shoulder), dies from chicken pox at 39
Dec 23 Keith Bentley, English international racing cyclist, dies at 72
Dec 23 Stanley Cortez, American cinematographer (Magnificent Ambersons), dies at 89
Dec 24 Alan Fluck, Scottish musical educator, dies at 69
Dec 24 James Komack, American writer, director, and actor (The Courtship of Eddie's Father; Chico and the Man; Welcome Back, Kotter), dies at 73
Dec 24 Pierre Péladeau, Canadian businessman and founder of Quebecor, dies at 72

Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997)

Dec 24 Japanese writer and actor (Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Shogun), dies at 77

Dec 25 Anatoli Boukreev, mountaineer, dies at 39
Dec 25 Denver Pyle, American actor (The Dukes of Hazzard, The Andy Griffith Show), dies of lung cancer at 77
Dec 25 Giorgio Strehler, Italian opera and theatre director, dies at 76
Dec 25 Laurence Gower, academic, dies at 84
Dec 26 Cornelius Castoriadis, Greek philosopher and economist, dies at 75
Dec 26 John Hinde, English pioneering color photographer (color postcards, documented circus life), dies at 81 [1]
Dec 26 John Whitley, British air-marshal, dies at 92
Dec 27 Anthea Joseph, British music promoter, dies at 57
Dec 27 Billy Wright, Irish Protestant paramilitary leader (b. 1960)
Dec 27 Brendan Gill, American critic (The New Yorker), dies at 83
Dec 27 Buxton Orr, Anglo-Scottish composer, dies at 73
Dec 27 Dorothy Stroud, garden historian, dies at 87
Dec 27 Ewart Abner, American record label executive, President of Motown Records, manager of Stevie Wonder), dies at 74
Dec 27 Tom Hudson, British artist and teacher, dies at 75
Dec 28 Henry Barraud, French composer, dies at 97
Dec 28 James Lees-Milne, English writer and architectural historian, dies at 89
Dec 28 Ronald Clive Williams, Welsh actor and comedian (Twin Town), dies at 68
Dec 29 Pat Clarke, British cyclist, dies at 82
Dec 30 Shinichi Hoshi, Japanese novelist (b. 1926)
Dec 31 76 law enforcement officers, killed by felons in US this year
Dec 31 Billie Dove [Lilian Bohny], American actress (Black Pirate, Stolen Bride), dies at 96
Dec 31 Dominique de Menil, French-American arts patron (Menil Collection Houston) and human rights advocate, dies at 89
Dec 31 Floyd Cramer, American Country Music Hall of Fame pianist ("Last Date"; "On the Rebound"), dies of cancer at 64
Dec 31 Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, dies in ski accident at 39

Famous People Who Died in December 1997

Chris Farley (1964-1997)

Masaru Ibuka (1908-1997)

Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997)

Famous People by Cause of Death