Deaths in April 2008

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

April 2008

1

• Mosko Alkalai, 77, Israeli actor (Blaumilch Canal, The Fox in the Chicken Coop, Yana's Friends), respiratory failure. [1]
• Triston Jay Amero, 26, American hotel bomber, pulmonary edema. [2]
• Shosh Atari, 58, Israeli radio presenter and actress, heart attack. [3]
• Péter Baczakó, 56, Hungarian weightlifter, 1980 Olympic champion, cancer. [4]
• Sabin Bălaşa, 75, Romanian painter, heart attack. [5]
• Sherry Britton, 89, American burlesque dancer turned actor (Guys and Dolls). [6]
• Wally Bronner, 81, American founder of Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, cancer. [7]
• Jim Finney, 83, British football referee. [8]
• Gabriel Mkhumane, Swazi opposition leader, shot. [9]
• Licínio Pereira da Silva, 63, Portuguese last political prisoner of PIDE during Estado Novo, nosocomial infection. [10] (Portuguese)
• Floyd Simmons, 84, American decathlon Olympic bronze medallist (1948, 1952) and actor (South Pacific). [11]
• Otto Soemarwoto, 82, Indonesian professor and ecologist, Order of the Golden Ark recipient. [12] (Indonesian)
• Marvin Stone, 26, American basketball player for Saudi Arabian Al-Ittihad (Jeddah) team, heart attack. [13]

2

• Norberto Collado Abreu, 87, Cuban naval officer, helmsman of the yacht Granma which carried Fidel Castro to Cuba in 1956. [14]
• Sir Geoffrey Cox, 97, British founder of ITN News at Ten. [15]
• Ray Poole, 86, American football player (New York Giants), cancer. [16]
• Yakup Satar, 110, Crimean-born supercentenarian, believed to be the last Turkish veteran of World War I. [17]
• Mona Seilitz, 65, Swedish actress and entertainer, cancer. [18] (Swedish)
• Adam Studziński, 97, Polish Roman Catholic Dominican priest, World War II chaplain of Polish forces. [19]
• Taotao, 36, Chinese oldest captive giant panda, brain thrombus and cerebral hemorrhage. [20]

3

• Johnny Byrne, 73, Irish writer (Doctor Who, Space: 1999). [21]
• Andrew Crozier, 64, British poet, brain tumour. [22]
• Hrvoje Ćustić, 24, Croatian footballer (NK Zadar), head injury. [23]
• William D. Eberle, 84, American businessman, U.S. Trade Representative (1971–1974), kidney failure. [24]
• Frosty Freeze, 44, American B-boy, breakdancer and member of the Rock Steady Crew. [25]
• Jeremy R. Knowles, 72, British-born Harvard University dean of Arts and Sciences (1991–2002), prostate cancer. [26]
• Ivan Korade, 44, Croatian general and murder suspect, apparent suicide by gunshot. [27]
• Vladimir Preclik, 78, Czech sculptor and writer. [28]
• Robert Tomasulo, 73, American computer scientist. [29]

4

• Harley Dickinson, 69, Australian politician, member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1982–1992). [30]
• Fay McKay, 78, American entertainer ("The Twelve Daze of Christmas"). [31]
• Jerry Rosholt, 85, American journalist and historian. [32]
• Wu Xueqian, 87, Chinese politician, foreign minister (1982–1988). [33]

5

• Giuseppe Attardi, 84, American molecular biologist. [34]
• Iris Burton, 77, American talent agent, pneumonia and complications of Alzheimer's disease. [35]
• Eugene Ehrlich, 85, American lexicographer and author. [36]
• Alex Grasshoff, 79, American documentary filmmaker known for having his Academy Award revoked. [37]
• Charlton Heston, 84, American actor (Ben-Hur, Ten Commandments, Planet of the Apes), NRA president, pneumonia. [38]
• Walt Masterson, 87, American baseball player, stroke. [39]
• McKelvey, 9, British race horse, euthanised after fall during Grand National. [40]
• Steve Sinnott, 56, British general secretary of the National Union of Teachers since 2004. [41]
• Jeu Sprengers, 69, Dutch chairman of the Royal Dutch Football Association. [42]
• Wang Donglei, 23, Chinese footballer, car accident. [43] (Chinese)
• Michael White, 59, Australian inventor of narrative therapy, cardiac arrest. [44]
• Kaku Yamanaka, 113, Japanese supercentenarian, oldest person in Japan. [45]

6

• James Barrier, 55, American wrestler. [46]
• Lakshman de Alwis, 68, Sri Lankan national athletics coach, suicide bomb attack. [47]
• Tony Davies, 68, New Zealand rugby union player (All Blacks). [48]
• Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, 55, Sri Lankan highways minister, suicide bomb attack. [49]
• Abdou Latif Guèye, 52, Senegalese politician, sixth vice-president of the National Assembly (2007–2008), car accident. [50] (French)
• Kuruppu Karunaratne, 47, Sri Lankan Olympic marathoner, suicide bomb attack. [51]
• Abraham Osheroff, 92, American social activist, veteran of the Spanish Civil War (Abraham Lincoln Brigade), heart attack. [52]
• Gib Shanley, 76, American radio sportscaster (Cleveland Browns). [53]
• Teoh Chye Hin, 94, Malaysian secretary-general of the Asian Football Confederation (1974–1978). [54]

7

• Ludu Daw Amar, 92, Burmese journalist, writer and activist. [55]
• Kunio Egashira, 70, Japanese chairman of Ajinomoto, pancreatic cancer. [56]
• Ruth Greenglass, 84, American atomic spy for the Soviet Union, wife of David Greenglass, sister-in-law of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. [57]
• Bobby Howard, 63, American football player (San Diego Chargers), cancer. [58]
• Sir Frank Little, 82, Australian Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus of the archdiocese of Melbourne. [59]
• Joe Shell, 89, American member of the California State Assembly (1953–1963). [60]
• Mark Speight, 42, British TV presenter (SMart), suicide by hanging. [61]
• Gloria Taylor, 57, British activist and mother of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor, heart attack. [62]
• Andrei Tolubeyev, 63, Russian actor, after long illness. [63] (Russian)
• Esko Tommola, 77, Finnish news anchor, after long illness. [64] (Finnish)
• Phil Urso, 82, American jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. [65]

8

• Timothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley, 79, British Green Party member of the House of Lords. [66]
• Cedella Booker, 81, Jamaican mother of Bob Marley, natural causes. [67]
• John Button, 74, Australian senator, minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce (1983–1993), pancreatic cancer. [68]
• Loren Driscoll, 79, American tenor. [69]
• Graham Higman, 91, British mathematician. [70]
• Seaman Jacobs, 96, American television writer, cardiac arrest. [71]
• Stanley Kamel, 65, American actor (Monk), heart attack. [72]
• Ogawa Kunio, 80, Japanese novelist. [73]
• Hersh Lyons, 92, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals). [74]
• Nadezhda Rumyantseva, 77, Russian actress, after long illness. [75]
• Jacqueline Voltaire, 59, British-born Mexican soap opera actress for Televisa, malignant melanoma. [76]
• Cees Wijdekop, 94, Dutch Olympic canoer. [77]

9

• Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, Pakistani al-Qaeda senior operative, death from probable hepatitis confirmed on this date. [78]
• George Butler, 71, American record producer and A&R man (Blue Note, Columbia), complications from Alzheimer's disease. [79]
• Herman Carr, 83, American physicist, pioneer of MRI, heart disease. [80]
• Diego Catalán, 80, Spanish philologist, grandson of Ramón Menéndez Pidal, heart disease. [81] (Spanish)
• Burt Glinn, 82, American photographer, kidney failure and pneumonia. [82]
• Michael Golomb, 98, American mathematician. [83]
• Erkki Junkkarinen, 78, Finnish singer. [84] (Finnish)
• Bob Kames, 82, American polka musician, songwriter and popularizer of the Chicken Dance, prostate cancer. [85]
• Daniela Klemenschits, 25, Austrian tennis player, abdominal cancer. [86]
• Lloyd Lamble, 94, Australian actor. [87]
• Jacques Morel, 85, French actor, voice of Obelix. [88] (French)
• Choubeila Rached, 75, Tunisian singer. [89]
• Elizabeth Stefan, 112, American supercentenarian, verified seventh-oldest person in the world. [90]
• Marvin Sylvor, 75, American carousel designer, kidney failure. [91]

10

• Francis Coleman, 84, Canadian-born British conductor, television producer and director. [92]
• Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, 88, Mexican cardinal, archbishop emeritus of Mexico. [93]
• Robert W. Greene, 78, American investigative journalist, heart failure. [94]
• Dickson Mabon, 82, British Labour and Social Democratic Party MP (1955–1983). [95]
• Jeremiah Nyagah, 87, Kenyan politician, after short illness. [96]
• Marcel Pertry, 86, Belgian footballer (Cercle Brugge). [97] (Dutch)
• Gopal Raju, 80, American publisher, pioneer of Indian ethnic media in USA (India Abroad, Indo-Asian News Service), jaundice. [98]
• Kim Santow, 67, Australian judge (NSW Supreme Court), chancellor of the University of Sydney (2001–2007), brain tumour. [99]

11

• Claude Abbes, 80, French football player. [100] (French)
• Clyde Cook, 72, American president of Biola University (1982–2007). [101]
• Willoughby Goddard, 81, British actor. [102]
• Harry Goonatilake, 78, Sri Lankan Air Force Commander (1976–1981). [103]
• Joan Jackson, 92, British muse of poet John Betjeman. [104]
• Bob Pellegrini, 73, American football linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles). [105]
• Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, 91, American author, daughter of Florenz Ziegfeld and Billie Burke, heart failure. [106]

12

• Cecilia Colledge, 87, British figure skater and 1936 Olympic silver medallist. [107]
• Valda Cooper, 92, Australian-born American journalist for the Associated Press. [108]
• Dieter Eppler, 81, German film actor and radio drama director. [109]
• Donald Forbes, 73, British convicted murderer. [110]
• Patrick Hillery, 84, Irish president (1976–1990) and minister (1959–1973), European commissioner for Ortoli Commission. [111]
• Abbas Katouzian, 86, Iranian painter. [112]
• Artur Maurício, 63, Portuguese Constitutional Court president (2004–2007), after long illness. [113] (Portuguese)
• Barbara McDermott, 95, American survivor of the RMS Lusitania sinking. [114]
• Buzz Nutter, 77, American football player (Colts, Steelers), heart failure. [115]
• Augusta Wallace, 78, New Zealand district judge (1975–1990), after long illness. [116]
• Dwaine Wilson, 47, American former Canadian Football League player, drowned. [117]
• Jerry Zucker, 58, Israeli-born American businessman, cancer. [118]

13

• Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, 51, American kidnapper. [119]
• Larry Elliott, 72, American college football coach (Washburn University). [120]
• Robert Greacen, 87, Irish poet. [121]
• Michael Mills, 80, Irish first government ombudsman (1984–1994). [122]
• John Archibald Wheeler, 96, American physicist who coined the term "black hole", pneumonia. [123]
• Khasan Yandiyev, 52, Russian deputy head of Ingushetia Supreme Court, shot. [124]
• Ross Yockey, 64, American Emmy Award-winning author, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. [125]

14

• Olivia Cenizal, 81, Filipino actress. [126]
• Miguel Galván, 50, Mexican actor and comedian, respiratory arrest. [127]
• Madeline Lee Gilford, 84, American actress and theatrical producer, wife of Jack Gilford. [128]
• Werner "Frick" Groebli, 92, Swiss ice skating comedian (Frick and Frack). [129]
• Tommy Holmes, 91, American baseball player (Boston Braves). [130]
• Ollie Johnston, 95, American animator, the last of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men". [131]
• Marisa Sannia, 61, Italian singer. [132] (Italian)
• Robert Somervaille, 86, Australian lawyer, chairman of the Australian Telecommunications Commission (1987–1991). [133]
• June Travis, 93, American actress. [134]

15

• Imre Antal, 72, Hungarian pianist, TV personality, actor and humorist, cancer. [135]
• David Cass, 71, American economist. [136]
• Sean Costello, 28, American blues guitarist and singer. [137]
• Hazel Court, 82, British actress (The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven), heart attack. [138]
• Clifford Davies, 59, American musician, drummer for Ted Nugent, apparent suicide by gunshot. [139]
• Brian Davison, 65, British musician, drummer for progressive rock band The Nice. [140]
• Parvin Dowlatabadi, 84, Iranian children's author and poet, heart attack. [141]
• Renata Fronzi, 82, Argentine-born Brazilian actress, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. [142] (Portuguese)
• Miguel Galván, 50, Mexican comedian and TV personality, respiratory arrest. [143]
• Hendrik S. Houthakker, 83, American economist. [144]
• Fernand Jaccard, 100, Swiss football midfielder. [145] (French)
• Benoît Lamy, 62, Belgian motion picture writer-director. [146]
• Krister Stendahl, 86, Swedish Lutheran theologian and bishop. [147]
• Mahinarangi Tocker, 52, New Zealand musician, asthma attack. [148]

16

• Joe Alston, 81, American badminton player and FBI agent. [149]
• Lucia Cunanan, 80, Filipino restaurateur credited with inventing sisig, murdered by hammer. [150]
• Joe Feeney, 76, American tenor (The Lawrence Welk Show), emphysema. [151]
• Edward Norton Lorenz, 90, American professor of meteorology, cancer. [152]
• Fadel Shana'a, 23, Palestinian Reuters cameraman, flechette shell. [153]
• Joseph Solman, 99, American painter with Works Progress Administration. [154]

17

• Aimé Césaire, 94, French Martiniquan poet and politician. [155]
• Richard Chopping, 90, British illustrator. [156]
• Gwyneth Dunwoody, 77, British Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich, following open heart surgery. [157]
• Danny Federici, 58, American keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, melanoma. [158]
• Nicolette Goulet, 52, American actress (The Guiding Light), daughter of Robert Goulet, breast cancer. [159]
• Zoya Krakhmalnikova, 79, Russian Christian dissident and writer. [160]
• George Pollard, 89, American portrait painter (Harry Truman, Muhammad Ali), pneumonia. [161]
• Rosario Sánchez Mora, 88, Spanish female anti-Franco veteran of the Spanish Civil War. [162]
• Mikhail Tanich, 84, Russian poet, kidney problems. [163] (Russian)
• Su-Lin Young, 96, American explorer. [164]

18

• Peter Howard, 80, American music director and arranger, complications of Parkinson's Disease. [165]
• Michael de Larrabeiti, 73, British author (The Borrible Trilogy). [166]
• Kay Linaker, 94, American actress and screenwriter (The Blob). [167]
• Joy Page, 83, American actress (Casablanca), complications from a stroke and pneumonia. [168]
• Rosalie Ritz, 84, American courtroom artist (O.J. Simpson Trial, Sirhan Sirhan trial), lung cancer. [169]
• William W. Warner, 88, American biologist and writer, complications of Alzheimer's disease. [170]

19

• Bob Bledsaw, 65, American founder of Judges Guild, cancer. [171]
• Alessandro Cevese, 57, Italian ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho, Mauritius and Madagascar, car accident. [172]
• Lawrence Hertzog, 56, American television writer and producer (Nowhere Man), cancer. [173]
• Alfonso López Trujillo, 72, Colombian Catholic archbishop, president of Pontifical Council for the Family, diabetes. [174]
• John Marzano, 45, American baseballl player (Boston Red Sox), co-host of Leading Off on mlb.com, injuries from a fall. [175]
• Germaine Tillion, 100, French anthropologist, member of French Resistance. [176]
• Constant Vanden Stock, 93, Belgian president of RSC Anderlecht football club. [177]

20

• Richard Alexander, 73, British politician, Conservative MP for Newark (1979–1997), cancer. [178]
• Bebe Barron, 82, American composer, pioneer of electronic music. [179]
• Gazanfer Bilge, 85, Turkish freestyle wrestler, 1948 Olympic champion. [180]
• Farid Chopel, 55, French actor and singer, cancer. [181] (French)
• Orish Grinstead, 27, American rhythm and blues singer, member of 702, kidney failure. [182]
• Monica Lovinescu, 84, Romanian writer. [183]
• Derek McKay, 58, Scottish footballer (Deveronvale, Dundee, Aberdeen, Barrow), heart attack. [184]
• VL Mike, 30, American rapper, shot. [185]
• Nissan Nativ, 86, Israeli director, actor and acting teacher. [186]
• Tariq Niazi, 68, Pakistani field hockey player, member of 1968 Olympic gold medal team, cardiac arrest. [187]
• Geoff Polites, 60, Australian CEO of Jaguar Land Rover. [188]
• William R. Snodgrass, 85, American government official, Comptroller of Tennessee (1955–1999). [189]
• Harry Ulinski, 83, American football player (Washington Redskins), sepsis. [190]

21

• Darell Garretson, 76, American professional basketball referee. [191]
• Aaron Shearer, 88, American classical guitarist. [192]
• Carmen Silva, 92, Brazilian actress, multiple organ failure. [193] (Portuguese)
• Al Wilson, 68, American soul singer ("Show and Tell"), kidney failure. [194]

22

• Cameron Argetsinger, 87, American auto racing pioneer. [195]
• Monna Bell, 70, Chilean singer, stroke. [196] (Spanish)
• Bob Childers, 61, American singer-songwriter, emphysema. [197]
• Ed Chynoweth, 66, Canadian president of the Western Hockey League (1972–1995) and CHL (1975–1995), cancer. [198]
• Paul Davis, 60, American singer ("I Go Crazy", "'65 Love Affair", "Cool Night"), heart attack. [199]
• Safdar Kiyani, 60, Pakistani teacher and pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Balochistan, shot. [200]
• Dora Ratjen, 89, German high jumper, disguised as female to compete for Nazi Germany at 1936 Summer Olympics. [201] (German)
• Francisco Martins Rodrigues, 81, Portuguese anti-Fascist resistant, Marxist-Leninist Committee founder, cancer. [202] (Portuguese)
• Daniel Lee Siebert, 54, American serial killer, pancreatic cancer. [203]

23

• Jean-Daniel Cadinot, 64, French film director and producer, heart attack. [204]
• Don Gillis, 85, Canadian-born American sportscaster. [205]
• Martha Kostuch, 58, Canadian environmentalist, multiple system atrophy. [206]
• Cook Lougheed, 86, American entrepreneur and philanthropist. [207]
• Loreto Paras-Sulit, 99, Filipino writer. [208]
• Rustam Sani, 64, Malaysian politician, sociologist, political scientist and blogger. [209]
• Harold Stephenson, 87, British first-class wicketkeeper (Somerset). [210]
• William H. Stewart, 86, American surgeon general (1965–1969), complications from renal failure. [211]

24

• Lucy Appleby, 88, British traditional cheesemaker. [212]
• Tristram Cary, 82, British film and television composer. [213]
• James Day, 89, American television host, respiratory failure. [214]
• Harry Geris, 60, Canadian Olympic wrestler. [215]
• Jimmy Giuffre, 86, American jazz clarinetist, pneumonia. [216]
• Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, 39, American entertainer, member of Howard Stern's Wack Pack, pneumonia. [217]
• Carlos Robalo, 76, Portuguese politician, Secretary of State (1980–1981). [218] (Portuguese)
• Trilochan Singh, 85, Indian field hockey player, member of the gold medal-winning 1948 Summer Olympics team. [219]

25

• Enrico Donati, 99, Italian-born American surrealist painter and sculptor. [220]
• Sonny Grandelius, 79, American football player and coach. [221]
• R. Laird Harris, 97, American Presbyterian minister and Old Testament scholar. [222]
• Humphrey Lyttelton, 86, British jazz trumpeter and chairman of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, following surgery for aortic aneurysm. [223]
• John H. McConnell, 84, American owner of Worthington Industries and the Columbus Blue Jackets. [224]

26

• Henry Brant, 94, Canadian-born American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. [225]
• Moisey Feigin, 103, Russian artist, Guinness World Record–holder for the oldest professional working artist. [226]
• Wallace Gichere, 53, Kenyan photojournalist. [227]
• Yossi Harel, 90, Israeli captain of Exodus, cardiac arrest. [228]

27

• Art Johnson, 88, American baseball player. [229]
• Ron O'Brien, 56, American disc jockey, pneumonia. [230]
• Mike Patrick, 55, American former NFL punter (New England Patriots). [231]
• Hal Stein, 79, American jazz musician. [232].
• Marios Tokas, 54, Greek Cypriot composer, cancer. [233]
• Sallie Wilson, 76, American ballerina, cancer. [234]
• Frances Yeend, 95, American soprano opera singer. [235]

28

• Diana Barnato Walker, 90, British aviator, first British woman to break the sound barrier. [236]
• Ivan Caesar, 41, American football player (Boston College, Minnesota Vikings, Portland Forest Dragons), gunshot. [237]
• Max Cherry, 81, Australian Olympics and Commonwealth Games athletics coach, heart attack. [238]
• Tarka Cordell, 40, British musician, suicide. [239]
• John Patrick Crecine, 69, American president of Georgia Tech (1987–1994). [240]
• Hans Eder, 81, Austrian Olympic skier. [241]
• Jack Hanrahan, 75, American Emmy Award–winning television script writer. [242]
• Sir Derek Higgs, 64, British chairman of Alliance & Leicester, sudden illness. [243]
• Ed Marion, 81, American official in the National Football League from 1960 to 1987. [244]
• Will Robinson, 96, American coach, first African American Division I college basketball (ISU) coach, Detroit Pistons scout. [245]

29

• John Berkey, 75, American science fiction artist. [246]
• Bo Yang, 88, Taiwanese writer. [247]
• Ernesto Bonino, 86, Italian singer. [248] (Italian)
• Gordon Bradley, 74, British footballer and coach (North American Soccer League), Alzheimer's disease. [249]
• Lewis Croft, 88, American actor (Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz). [250]
• Chuck Daigh, 84, American racing driver, heart and respiratory disease. [251]
• Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, 87, Iranian Anglican Bishop, first ethnic Iranian Christian bishop since the 7th century. [252]
• Julie Ege, 64, Norwegian actress (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), breast cancer. [253]
• Tatsuo Hasegawa, 92, Japanese automotive engineer, development chief of the first Toyota Corolla. [254]
• Albert Hofmann, 102, Swiss researcher, chemist and discoverer of LSD, heart attack. [255]
• Sir Anthony Kershaw, 92, British Conservative MP (1955–1987). [256]
• Francis Mahoney, 80, American basketball player (Boston Celtics). [257]
• Charles Tilly, 78, American sociologist, historian and political scientist. [258]
• Micky Waller, 66, British drummer (Jeff Beck Group, Cyril Davies), liver failure. [259]

30

• John Cargher, 89, Australian radio broadcaster, hosted Singers of Renown since 1966. [260]
• Juancho Evertsz, 85, Dutch Antillean politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles (1973–1977). [261] (Dutch)
• Ling Ling, 22, Chinese panda, lived in Ueno Zoo, Tokyo, oldest giant panda in Japan, heart failure. [262]
• M. G. Pandithan, 68, Malaysian politician, leukemia. [263]
• Clarence Ross, 84, American bodybuilder. [264]
• Allan Sparrow, 63, Canadian politician, activist and Toronto city councillor (1974–1980), colorectal cancer. [265]