Deaths in 2008

The following is a list of notable deaths in 2008. Names are listed under the date of death, not the date it was announced. Names under each date are listed in alphabetical order by family name.

A typical entry appears in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship and reason for notability, established cause of death, reference.

March 2008

12

• Mitchell Dolan, 15, England, Died from eating all the pies
• Luke "Hillbilly" Dobson, 17, England, Death by Banjo
• Ross "cockshaft" Dolan, 17, England, Death from anal
• Stephen "Batty" Bird, 17, England, Death from being pecked
• Robert "sorethroat" Fergusson, 17, England, Death by Karaoke
• Nathan "new hair cut" Dilks, 16, England, Death by hair cut
• Jasmine "I have a penis" Powell, 17, England, Death by penis
• Jessica "fisshy fanny" Shayler, 17, England, Death from smell

11

• Edoardo Luciani, 91, Italian politician, younger brother of Pope John Paul I. [1] (German)
• John Roderick, 93, American journalist (Associated Press). [2]
• Michael J. Todd, 50, British Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, apparent suicide by jumping. [3]

10

• Richard Biegenwald, 67, American serial killer. [4]
• Hugh Brown, 88, British Labour politician, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (1974–1979). [5]
• Vangelis Kazan, 70?, Greek actor. [6] (Greek)
• Lee Ho-seong, 41, South Korean baseball player (Haitai Tigers), suicide by drowning. [7]
• Radovan Lukavský, 88, Czech actor. [8] (Czech)
• Rogério Ribeiro, 78, Portuguese painter. [9] (Portuguese)
• Otto Schnellbacher, 84, American football and basketball player, cancer. [10]
• Dave Stevens, 52, American illustrator, creator of The Rocketeer, leukemia. [11]

9

• Gus Giordano, 84, American Emmy Award-winning jazz dancer. [12]
• Varvara Semennikova, 117?, Russian who claimed to be oldest living person. [13] (Russian)

8

• Carol Barnes, 63, British ITN news presenter, stroke. [14]
• Donald C. Macdonald, 94, Canadian politician, former leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party. [15]
• Simon Reisman, 88, Canadian chief negotiator of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, cardiac arrest. [16]
• Les Smith, 80, British ex-Aston Villa footballer, cancer. [17]

7

• Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, 72, Spanish noblewoman and author. [18] [19] (Spanish)
• Isaías Carrasco, 43, Spanish Basque politician (PSE-EE), shot. [20]
• Leonardo Costagliola, 87, Italian football goalkeeper (ACF Fiorentina). [21] (Italian)
• Dick Durrell, 82, American founding publisher of People magazine, lung cancer. [22]
• Leon Greenman, 97, British Holocaust survivor, only Englishman sent to Auschwitz. [23]
• Julius Paltiel, 83, Norwegian Holocaust survivor. [24] Template:No icon
• Francis Pym, 86, British Conservative politician, Foreign Secretary (1982–1983). [25]

6

• Don Curtis, 80, American professional wrestler, stroke. [26] [27] [28]
• Gustaw Holoubek, 84, Polish film and theatre actor and politician. [29]
• Stanislav Konopasek, 94, Czechoslovakian Olympic silver medallist in ice hockey (1948). [30]
• Peter Proeku Dery, 89, Ghanaian cardinal, Archbishop of Tamale (1974–1994). [31]
• K. Sivanesan, 51, Sri Lankan Tamil Parliament member (TNA), roadside bomb. [32]
• Malvin Wald, 90, American Academy Award-nominated screenwriter (The Naked City). [33]

5

• Eve Carson, 22, American student leader (UNC Chapel Hill), shot. [34]
• Derek Dooley, 78, British footballer and former chairman of Sheffield United. [35]
• Jimmy Faulkner, Irish guitarist. [36]
• Elfriede Kaun, 93, German Olympic bronze medalist. [37] (German)
• John C. Mackie, 87, American Representative from Michigan (1965–1967). [38]
• Richard Miles McCool, 86, American Medal of Honor recipient for actions during World War II. [39]
• Joel Serrão, 88, Portuguese historian, after long illness. [40] (Portuguese)
• Joseph Weizenbaum, 85, German-born American computer scientist, stroke. [41] (German)

4

• Erwin Ballabio, 89, Swiss footballer. [42] (German)
• Lauren Burk, 18, American murder victim. [43]
• Gary Gygax, 69, American co-creator of role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. [44]
• Enrico Job, 74, Italian scenographer. [45] (Italian)
• Elena Nathanael, 67, Greek actress, lung cancer. [46] (Greek)
• Leonard Rosenman, 83, American Academy Award-winning composer, heart attack. [47]
• Semka Sokolović-Bertok, 72, Croatian actress, stroke. [48] (Croatian)
• George Walter, 79, Antiguan Premier (1971–1976), heart attack. [49]

3

• Ramón Barquín, 93, Cuban army colonel and diplomat, opponent of Fulgencio Batista, cancer. [50]
• William Brice, 86, American abstract artist, complications from a fall. [51]
• Giuseppe Di Stefano, 86, Italian operatic tenor, after long coma following assault. [52]
• Donald S. Lopez, Sr., 84, American deputy director of the National Air and Space Museum, heart attack. [53]
• Norm O'Neill, 71, Australian cricketer. [54]
• Annemarie Renger, 88, German politician (SPD), Speaker of Parliament (1972–1976). [55] (German)
• Iván Ríos, 45, Colombian FARC commander. [56]
• Norman "Hurricane" Smith, 85, British singer, recording engineer (The Beatles, Pink Floyd) and record producer. [57] [58]
• Kenneth Woollcombe, 84, British Bishop of Oxford (1971–1978). [59]

2

• Sofiko Chiaureli, 70, Georgian actress. [60] (Russian)
• Roger Gill, 35, Guyanese Olympic sprinter, car accident. [61]
• Matt Golik, 59, American mayor of Wolf Point, Montana (1999–2008), accidental drowning. [62]
• Jeff Healey, 41, Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist and vocalist, cancer. [63]
• Carl Hoddle, 40, British football player, suspected heart attack. [64]
• Paul Raymond, 82, British pornographic magazine publisher and property magnate. [65]
• Frederick Seitz, 96, American physicist who co-discovered the Wigner-Seitz cell. [66]

1

• Haroldo de Andrade, 73, Brazilian radio presenter (Rádio Globo), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. [67] (Portuguese)
• Stella Bruce, 67, Indian Tamil writer, suicide by hanging. [68]
• Kevin John Dunn, 57, British Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle (2004–2008), pneumonia. [69] [70]
• Bhanbhagta Gurung, 86, Nepalese Gurkha soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross. [71]
• Raúl Reyes, 59, Colombian FARC second-in-command, airstrike. [72]
• Sid Spindler, 75, Polish-born Australian senator (Democrats) (1990–1996), liver cancer. [73]
• Andrey Tissin, 32, Russian world and European canoeing champion, Olympian and coach, drowning. [74] (Russian)
• George Toley, 91, American collegiate tennis coach. [75]

February 2008

See Deaths in February 2008.

January 2008

See Deaths in January 2008.

External links

• Obituaries on the Web
  • General
    • Obituaries.com
    • Recent AP Obituaries
    • Variety Magazine Obituaries
  • US
    • The New York Times: Obituaries
    • Washington Post: Obituaries
    • The Boston Globe: Obituaries
    • Los Angeles Times: Obituaries
  • South Africa
    • Mail & Guardian (South Africa) Obituaries
  • UK
    • The Daily Telegraph: Obituaries
    • The Guardian: Obituaries
    • The Independent: Obituaries
    • The Times: Obituaries
    • The Scotsman: Obituaries
    • Lasting Tribute: Obituaries
  • Australia
    • The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Obituaries

• Specialized websites
  • The Blog of Death
  • Dead or Alive
  • Dead People Server
  • Death List
  • Died Today
  • Entertainment Insiders
  • Famous Dead Database
  • Find a Grave
  • Life In Legacy
  • Very Important Patients
  • Writers We've Lost
  • Written in Stone - Literary deaths

For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2007, Deaths in 2006, Deaths in 2005, Deaths in 2004, Deaths in 2003, Deaths in 2002, Deaths in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, ...