Deaths in April 2003

The following is a list of notable deaths in April 2003.

Entries for each day are listed alphabetically 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.

April 2003

1

• Booker Bradshaw, 61, American record producer, actor, and Motown executive, heart attack.
• Lloyd L. Brown, 89, American writer, activist and labor organizer.
• Richard Caddel, 53, English poet, publisher and editor, a key figure in the British Poetry Revival, leukemia.
• Leslie Cheung, 46, Hong Kong actor and singer, suicide.
• Marcel Ernzer, 77, Luxembourgian cyclist.
• Jean-Yves Escoffier, 52, French cinematographer, heart failure.
• Sven Holmberg, 85, Swedish actor.
• Robert M. Levine, 62, American historian and academic, cancer.
• Mutsuhiro Watanabe, 85, Japanese war criminal during World War II.
• Adriaan Cornelis Zaanen, 89, Dutch mathematician, known for his books on Riesz spaces.

2

• Seymour Friedman, 85, American film director.
• Kaveh Golestan, 52, Iranian photojournalist and artist, land mine.
• Terenci Moix, 61, Spanish writer, pulmonary emphysema.
• Joan Phipson, 90, Australian children's writer.
• György Révész, 75, Hungarian screenwriter and film director.
• Harold S. Sawyer, 83, American politician (U.S. Representative for Michigan's 5th congressional district), throat cancer .
• Edwin Starr, 61, American soul singer, heart attack.
• Sékou Touré, 68, Ivorian football player.
• Michael Wayne, 68, American film producer and son of John Wayne, heart failure from complications of lupus.

3

• Homer Banks, 61, American songwriter and record producer ("(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right"), cancer.
• Arthur Guyton, 83, American physiologist, traffic collision.
• Scott Hain, 32, American convict, execution by lethal injection.
• Gunadasa Kapuge, 57, Sri Lankan musician, fall.

4

• Anthony Caruso, 86, American actor.
• Fred J. Cook, 92, American investigative journalist.
• Izzat Ghazzawi, 51, Palestinian writer.
• Abdul Kadir, 54, Indonesian footballer, kidney failure.
• Michael Kelly, 46, American journalist, columnist and magazine editor, war-related vehicular accident.
• Helmut Knochen, 93, German Nazi official and commander of the SiPo and SD.
• Billy McPhail, 75, Scottish football player, Alzheimer's disease.
• J. Quigg Newton, 91, American lawyer and politician.
• Resortes, 87, Mexican comedian, emphysema.
• Paul Ray Smith, 33, United States Army sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient, killed in action.

5

• Kirby Doyle, 70, American poet.
• Seymour Lubetzky, 104, American cataloging theorist and librarian.
• Frédéric Kibassa Maliba, 63, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) politician, heart attack.
• Federico Pizarro, 76, Argentine football player.

6

• David Bloom, 39, American television journalist (NBC News, Weekend Today), pulmonary embolism.
• Anita Borg, 54, American computer scientist, advocate for the advancement of women in computer science, brain cancer.
• Gerald Emmett Carter, 91, Canadian Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Toronto (1978-1990).
• Aleksandr Fatyushin, 52, Russian actor, pneumonia.
• Susan French, 91, American actress.
• Leon Levy, 77, American investor, fund manager, and philanthropist.
• Nicole Loraux, 59, French historian of classical Athens.
• Vic Metcalfe, 81, English football player.
• Babatunde Olatunji, 75, African drummer; recorded Drums of Passion, diabetes.
• Robert John Pratt, 96, Canada comedian and politician.
• Princess Tenagnework, 91, Ethiopian royal and eldest child of Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw.

7

• Cecile de Brunhoff, 99, French pianist and teacher, created the children's book character Babar the Elephant.
• David Greene, 82, British television and film director, pancreatic cancer.
• Jutta Hipp, 78, Germen-American jazz pianist and composer, pancreatic cancer.
• Maurice Kouandété, 70, Benin military officer and politician.
• Julio Anguita Parrado, 32, Spanish journalist and war correspondent (El Mundo), missile strike.
• Robin Winks, 72, American professor, historian, author and diplomat.

8

• Kathie Browne, 72, American film and television actress (Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Star Trek, The Love Boat).
• Patrick Fani Chakaipa, 70, Zimbabwean prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Harare (1976-2003).
• Charles Douglass, 93, Mexican-American sound engineer, credited as the inventor of the laugh track, pneumonia.
• Dee Gibson, 79, American basketball player.
• Maki Ishii, 66, Japanese composer of contemporary classical music, cancer.
• Spider Martin, 64, American photographer, suicide.
• Franz Rosenthal, 88, German-American professor of Semitic languages.
• Bing Russell, 76, American actor and baseball club owner, cancer.
• Correspondents killed in the Battle of Baghdad:
  • Tareq Ayyoub, 35, Jordanian journalist for Al Jazeera, missile strike.
  • José Couso Permuy, 37, Spanish cameraman, missile strike.
  • Taras Protsyuk, 35, Ukrainian cameraman, tank fire.

9

• Earl Bramblett, 61, American mass murderer, execution by electrocution.
• Ray Murray, 85, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Athletics, Baltimore Orioles).
• Rod Navarro, 67, Filipino actor.
• Jorge Oteiza, 94, Basque Spanish sculptor, painter, and writer.
• Robert Wallace Wilkins, 96, American medical researcher.
• Abraham Zabludovsky, 78, Mexican modernist architect (Rufino Tamayo Museum, National Auditorium).
• Vera Zorina, 86, Norwegian ballerina, actress and choreographer (The Goldwyn Follies, Star Spangled Rhythm), stroke.
• Wu Zuguang, 85, Chinese playwright, film director and social critic, stroke.

10

• Abdul-Majid al-Khoei, 40, Iraqi Shia cleric, stabbed.
• Chumy Chúmez, 75, Spanish cartoon humorist, writer and film director, liver cancer.
• Little Eva, 59, American pop singer (The Loco-Motion), cervical uterine cancer.
• Jack Fincher, 72, American screenwriter and journalist.
• Aatos Fred, 85, Finnish chess player, two-time Finnish Chess Championship winner (1947, 1955).
• Aubrey Jones, 91, British politician.
• Franco Valle, 63, Italian boxer (bronze medal in middleweight boxing at the 1964 Summer Olympics).

11

• Vasyl Barka, 94, Ukrainian-American poet, writer, and literary critic.
• John Nevill Eliot, 90, English entomologist.
• Cecil Howard Green, 102, American businessman and founder of Texas Instruments.
• Siddiq Manzul, 71, Sudanese football player.
• Brian Nelson, 55, Northern Irish paramilitary intelligence chief, brain haemorrhage.
• Lucy Saroyan, 57, American actress and photographer, liver cirrhosis.

12

• Clarence W. Blount, 81, American politician.
• Charles Janeway, 60, American immunologist.
• Sydney Lassick, 80, American film actor (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), complications of diabetes.
• Štefan Matlák, 69, Slovak football player.
• Chalom Messas, 94, Moroccan rabbi and writer.

13

• Farouk Afero, 63, Pakistani-Indonesian film actor, cancer.
• Majid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 64, Saudi prince and member of the House of Saud.
• Sean Delaney, 58, American musician, complications following strokes.
• Allen Eager, 76, American jazz tenor and alto saxophonist, liver cancer.
• D. Gale Johnson, 86, American economist and an expert on Russia and China.
• Lucy Taxis Shoe Meritt, 96, American classical archaeologist.
• Elder Tadej Štrbulović, 88, Serbian Orthodox elder and author.

14

• Pierre Blondiaux, 81, French rower (silver medal in men's coxless four at the 1952 Summer Olympics).
• Al Epperly, 84, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers).
• Addie McPhail, 97, American film actress.
• Jyrki Otila, 61, Finnish quiz show judge and member of the European Parliament.
• Milla Sannoner, 64, Italian film and television actress.

15

• Betty Baskcomb, 88, British actress (Everything in the Garden, Afternoon of a Nymph, Doctor on the Go).
• Don Bunce, 54, American football quarterback (Stanford, 1972 Rose Bowl MVP) and orthopedic surgeon, heart attack.
• Erin Leslie Fleming, 61, Canadian actress, suicide.
• Robert Helmick, 66, American president of the US Olympic Committee, cardiac failure.
• Rebeca Iturbide, 78, Mexican-American actress, gastrointestinal perforation.
• Maurice Rapf, 88, American screenwriter and professor of film studies.
• Franco Scandurra, 91, Italian actor.
• Leonard Tose, 88, American sports executive, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles (1969-1985).
• Keith Walwyn, 47, Kittitian footballer, complications during heart surgery.
• Theodore Weiss, 86, American poet, professor and literary magazine editor.

16

• Jack Donohue, 71, American-Canadian basketball coach.
• Isao Iwabuchi, 69, Japanese football player.
• Graham Jarvis, 72, Canadian actor in American films and television, multiple myeloma.
• Samuel J. LeFrak, 85, American real estate tycoon.
• Ray Mendoza, 73, Mexican professional wrestler, kidney failure.
• Lili Muráti, 88, Hungarian film and stage actress.
• Danny O'Dea, 91, British actor.
• Jewell Young, 90, American basketball player (Purdue University, Indianapolis Kautskys, Oshkosh All-Stars).

17

• Mario Sandoval Alarcón, 79, Guatemalan politician.
• Robert Atkins, 72, American nutritionist (Atkins Diet), suicide.
• H. B. Bailey, 66, American NASCAR driver, heart attack.
• Jean-Pierre Dogliani, 60, French football player.
• John Paul Getty Jr., 70, British philanthropist and book collector, chest infection.
• Earl King, 69, American Blues musician/songwriter, complications of diabetes.
• Koji Kondo, 30, Japanese football player.
• Yiannis Latsis, 92, Greek shipping tycoon.
• Ong Poh Lim, 81, Malayan/Singaporean badminton player.
• Jozef Schell, 67, Belgian biologist.
• Hilde Sessak, 87, German actress.
• Graham Stuart Thomas, 94, British horticultural artist, author and garden designer.
• Peter Cathcart Wason, 78, British cognitive psychologist, founded the study of the psychology of reasoning.
• Sergei Yushenkov, 52, Russian politician, member of Russian Parliament and critic of President Vladimir Putin, homicide.

18

• Rudolf Brunnenmeier, 62, German football player, alcohol-related issues.
• Edgar F. Codd, 79, English computer pioneer, heart failure.
• Jean Drucker, 61, French television executive, heart attack.
• Kiril Gospodinov, 68, Bulgarian stage and film actor.
• Toni Hagen, 85, Swiss geologist.
• Emil Loteanu, 66, Soviet and Moldovan film director.
• Diego Ronchini, 67, Italian road racing cyclist.
• Nguyễn Đình Thi, 78, Vietnamese writer, poet and composer.
• Juan Bautista Villalba, 78, Paraguayan football player.

19

• Mirza Tahir Ahmad, 74, Pakistani spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim movement.
• Cholly Atkins, 89, American dancer and choreographer, pancreatic cancer.
• Nazeh Darwazi, Palestinian freelance cameraman, shot by Israeli soldier.
• Denise Ramsden, 51, English Olympian sprint athlete.
• Aurelio Sabattani, 90, Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Chris Zachary, 59, American baseball player (Houston Colt .45s / Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers), cancer.

20

• Debbie Barham, 26, English comedy writer, anorexia nervosa.
• Johnny Douglas, 82, English musician.
• Len Duquemin, 78, British football player.
• Teddy Edwards, 78, American jazz tenor saxophonist, prostate cancer.
• Daijiro Kato, 26, Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, racing accident.
• Bernard Katz, 92, German-British Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist.
• Henri Lemaître, 81, Belgian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Richard Proenneke, 86, American naturalist, conservationist, and writer, cerebral hemorrhage.
• Bertram Ross, 82, American dancer and choreographer.
• Cole Weston, 84, American photographer.

21

• Robert Blackburn, 82, American artist and printmaker, one of America's foremost fine art lithographers.
• Balwant Gargi, 86, Indian dramatist, theatre director, and short story writer.
• Nina Simone, 70, American jazz singer, known as the "High Priestess of Soul", breast cancer.

22

• Felice Bryant, 77, American songwriter ("Bye Bye Love", "Wake Up Little Susie", "Raining in My Heart").
• James H. Critchfield, 86, American CIA operative during the Cold War, pancreatic cancer.
• Martha Griffiths, 91, American congresswoman and women's rights activist.
• Andrea King, 84, American actress.
• Ola H. Kveli, 81, Norwegian politician.
• Mike Larrabee, 69, American athlete, two gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics, pancreatic cancer.
• Len Reid, 86, Australian fighter pilot and politician.
• Fred Schaub, 42, German football player, car accident.
• Yuriy Voynov, 71, Soviet and Ukrainian football player and manager.
• Maria Wine, 90, Swedish-Danish poet and writer.

23

• Abram Bergson, 89, American economist.
• Jim Browne, 72, American basketball player (Chicago Stags, Denver Nuggets).
• Hansgeorg Bätcher, 89, German decorated Luftwaffe bomber ace during World War II.
• Fernand Fonssagrives, 93, French photographer.
• Raymond Galle, 89, French stage and film actor.
• Guy Mountfort, 97, British advertising executive and ornithologist.
• Austin Wright, 80, American novelist, literary critic and academic.

24

• Bob Dunn, 56, British Conservative Party politician.
• Nüzhet Gökdoğan, 92, Turkish astronomer, mathematician and academic.
• Yuri Kholopov, 70, Russian musicologist and educator.
• Gino Orlando, 73, Brazilian footballer, cardiac arrest.
• Belus Smawley, 85, American basketball player (Appalachian State, St. Louis Bombers, Baltimore Bullets) and coach.
• Fuzz White, 86, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns, New York Giants).

25

• Viktor Bushuev, 69, Soviet weightlifter (gold medal in men's lightweight weightlifting at the 1960 Summer Olympics).
• Lynn Chadwick, 88, English sculptor and artist.
• Jaime Silva Gómez, 67, Colombian footballer.
• Ted Joans, 74, American jazz poet, trumpeter, and painter, diabetes.
• Samson Kitur, 37, Kenyan athlete and an Olympic medalist.
• André Perraudin, 88, Swiss Roman Catholic prelate.
• Borislav Đurović, 51, Montenegrin football player.

26

• Bernhard Baier, 90, German water polo player (silver medal in men's water polo at the 1936 Summer Olympics).
• Rosemary Brown, 72, Canadian politician (NDP), first black woman elected to a provincial legislature, myocardial infarction, heart attack.
• Mohammed Ghazali, 78, Pakistan Air Force officer and cricket player.
• Yun Hyon-seok, 18, South Korean LGBT poet, writer, and activist, suicide.
• David Lavender, 93, American historian and writer.
• Danny Napoleon, 61, American baseball player (New York Mets).
• Edward Max Nicholson, 98, British environmentalist, a founder of the World Wildlife Fund.
• Peter Stone, 73, American screenwriter (Charade, Father Goose, 1776), Oscar and Tony-winner, pulmonary fibrosis.

27

• Peter M. Bowers, 84, Aeronautical engineer, journalist and aviation historian.
• Edward Gaylord, 83, American businessman, media mogul and philanthropist, cancer.
• Edward Loyden, 79, British politician.
• Piet Roozenburg, 78, Dutch draughts player.
• Elaine Anderson Steinbeck, 88, American actress and Broadway stage manager, wife of John Steinbeck.
• Dorothee Sölle, 73, German liberation theologian, heart attack.
• Juha Tiainen, 47, Finnish hammer thrower and Olympic champion, pneumonia.

28

• Ira Herskowitz, 56, American phage and yeast geneticist, pancreatic cancer.
• Ciccio Ingrassia, 80, Italian actor, comedian and film director, heart attack.
• Carmelo Morales, 72, Spanish racing cyclist.
• André Muhirwa, Burundian politician and Prime Minister.
• Charlie Tolar, 65, American gridiron football player.

29

• Ron Barclay, 88, New Zealand politician (member of New Zealand Parliament for New Plymouth).
• Janko Bobetko, 84, Croatian general, hailed as a hero of Croatia but charged with war crimes by the U.N.
• John Gilbert Hurst, 75, British archaeologist and pioneer of mediaeval archaeology.
• Etti Plesch, 89, Austro-Hungarian countess, huntress, racehorse owner, and socialite.
• Vasily Tolstikov, 85, Soviet diplomat and Communist Party official.
• Jerry Williams, 79, American radio host, a pioneer of talk radio.

30

• Gbenga Adeboye, 43, Nigerian singer, comedian and radio host, kidney-related disease.
• Ferdinand P. Beer, 87, French-American mechanical engineer and university professor.
• Possum Bourne, 47, New Zealand rally car driver, racing accident.
• Aureliano Chaves, 74, Brazilian politician.
• Chris Crowe, 63, English football player.
• Vasile Deheleanu, 92, Romanian football player.
• Lionel Wilson, 79, American voice actor, audiobook reader and children's author, pneumonia.

References