Deaths in 2005
The following is a list of figures who died in 2005.
- Edward Patten, 66, member of Gladys Knight and The Pips
- Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski, German politician, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (1966-1968)
- Hugh Nibley, 94, historian primarily concerned with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Henk Zeevalking, 82, Dutch politician
- Tom Patterson, 84, founder of Stratford Festival of Canada
- David F. Bradford, 61, former presidential advisor and professor at Princeton
- Father Luigi Giussani, 82, founder of the Communion and Liberation Catholic youth movement
- Reggie Roby, 43, retired NFL punter
- Harry Simeone, 94, helped createChristmas songs like Little Drummer Boy
- Simone Simon, 94, French actress
- Lee Eun Ju (이은주), 25, Korean actress, suicide
- Zdzislaw Beksinski, 75, painter and fantasy artist, murder
- Ara Berberian, 74, Bass with the Metropolitan Opera.
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante, 75, Cuban writer
- Dr. Gene Scott, 75, U.S. televangelist, author
- Ernest Vandiver, 86, former governor of the U.S. state of Georgia (1959-1963)
- Sandra Dee, 62, American actress, kidney failure and pneumonia
- Dalene Matthee, 67, Afrikaans-South African author, heart failure
- Hunter S. Thompson, 67, American journalist, suicide
- John Raitt, 88, classic Broadway star and father of Bonnie Raitt, pneumonia
- Jimmy Young, 56, American boxer, heart failure
- Kihachi Okamoto (岡本喜八), 82, Japanese film director, esophageal cancer
- Uli Derickson, 60, famous stewardess during 1985 airplane hostage event
- Robert R. Merhige, Jr., 86, U.S. district court judge
- F. M. Busby, 83, American science fiction writer
- Jens Martin Knudsen, 74, Danish astrophysicist
- César Marcelak, 92, cyclist, French champion 1948
- Dan O'Herlihy, 85, Irish film actor
- Omar Sivori, 69, Argentinian and Italian footballer, 1957-1965 with Juventus Turin
- Harald Szeemann, 71, Swiss curator and art historian
- William Gibson, 82, American independent film producer and director
- Russ Klar, 90, US auto racer
- Narriman Sadek (Nariman Sadeq), 70, last queen of Egypt, ex-wife of King Farouk
- Marcello Viotti, 50, Italian conductor
- Frederick Vosburgh, 100, National Geographic editor
- Gerry Wolff, 84, German actor
- (body found) Cecilia Cubas, 32, kidnapped in October 2004, daughter of former President of Paraguay Raúl Cubas Grau
- Pierre Bachelet, 60, French singer
- Samuel Francis, 57, U.S. political columnist
- Dudu Geva, 54, Israeli cartoonist
- Najai Turpin, 23, boxer, participant in boxing reality show "The Contender", suicide
- Ron Burgess, 87, former footballer with Tottenham Hotspur and Wales
- Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex, 85, Greek novelist and journalist, natural causes
- Rafik Hariri, 60, twice Prime Minister of Lebanon, car bomb
- Aubelin Jolicoeur, 81, Haitian journalist and columnist
- Martin Perels, 44, Dutch actor
- Otto Plaschkes, 75, British movie producer, including Georgy Girl
- Dick Weber, 75, professional bowler, father of Pete Weber
- Nelson Briles, 61, U.S. baseball pitcher
- Aldo Carotenuto, 71?, Italian psychoanalyst
- Sixten Ehrling, 86, Swedish conductor
- Ndiaga Mbaye, 57, Senegalese musician
- Lúcia dos Santos, 97, Portuguese nun, last survivor of the three shepherd children of the Fatima apparition in 1917
- Maurice Trintignant, 87, French racing driver, twice winner of the Monaco Grand Prix
- Marinus van der Goes van Naters, 104, Dutch politician
- Brian Kelly, 73, actor
- Alfred Sirven, 77, former Elf Aquitaine executive
- Sammi Smith, 61, US country singer, won Grammy for Help Me Make it Through the Night
- Dorothy Stang, 74, American nun, murdered in Anapu, Brazil
- Karl-Heinz Tuschel, 76, East German science fiction author
- Rafael Vidal, 41, Venezuelan Olympic medalist, car crash
- Samuel W. Alderson, 90, inventor of crash test dummies [1]
- Jack L. Chalker, 60, American science fiction writer
- Raymond Hermantier, 81, French actor
- Dénes Kovács, 74, Hungarian violinist
- Stan Richards, 74, British actor
- Humbert Balsan, 50, French film producer
- Allan Bromley, 79, physicist, Presidential advisor
- Jean Cayrol, 93, French author
- Michel François-Poncet, 70, Paribas executive
- Ben Jones, 80, former prime minister and foreign minister of Grenada
- Arthur Miller, 89, American playwright, congestive heart failure
- Sylvia Rafael, 67, Mossad agent convicted of 1973 Lillehammer murder
- Tyrone Davis, 66, R&B singer (Turn Back The Hands Of Time), complications of a stroke
- Hanno Helbling, 74, Swiss journalist (NZZ)
- Kate Peyton, 39, BBC producer, shot in Mogadishu, Somalia
- Ursula Schröder-Feinen, 70, German soprano
- Marthe Wéry, 75, Belgian painter
- Luigi Barbero, 105, Italian World War I veteran
- Victor Castelli, 52, soloist with the New York City Ballet, pneumonia
- Helmut Eder, 88, Austrian composer
- George Herman, 85, journalist and moderator of CBS' Face the Nation for 15 years
- Keith Knudsen, 56, drummer for American rock band Doobie Brothers, pneumonia
- Nathalie Krassovska, 86, ballerina
- Gaston Rahier, 58, Belgian 125cc Motocross World Champion (1975-1977)
- Jimmy Smith, 76, Jazz organist
- Javier Tusell, 59, Spanish historian
- Penelope Aitken, 94, socialite and political hostess
- Nedžad Botonjič, 27, Slovenian footballer
- Steve Burgh, 54, record producer and session musician
- Atli Dam, 72, former Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
- Vinod Chandra Pande, 72, political figure in India, former governor of three states
- John Tiffen Patterson, 64, television and film director
- Madeleine Rebérioux, 84, French historian
- Paul Rebeyrolle, 78, French painter
- Jeremy Swan, 82, cardiologist, co-inventor of the Swan-Ganz heart catheter
- Santo Ambulo, 104, Italian World War I veteran
- Lazar Berman, 74, classical pianist
- Elbert N. Carvel, 94, American politician, former governor of Delaware
- Hubert Curien, 80, French researcher, first president of European Space Agency
- Camilo Delgado, 75?, Puerto Rican television show host
- Karl Haas, 91, US classical music radio program host
- Merle Kilgore, 70, country music manager and songwriter
- Armin Müller, 76, German writer and painter
- Derick Daniels, 76, one time president and chief executive of Playboy Enterprises
- Gnassingbe Eyadema, 67, president of Togo since 1967
- Bob McAdorey, 69, Canadian television and radio broadcaster
- Günter Reimann, 100, German economist
- Michalina Wisłocka, 84, Polish sexologist
- Carmine Alfano, 108, Italian World War I veteran
- Adriano Cerqueira, 66, Portuguese journalist and former news anchor at RTP, cancer
- Robert Brannum, 78, basketball player
- Ossie Davis, 87, actor and activist, natural causes
- Nils Egerbrandt, 78, Swedish cartoonist
- Gunhild Foerster, 111, supercentenarian, oldest documented person in Washington State
- Luis Sánchez, 51, former major league closer for the Angels [2]
- Corrado Cardinal Bafile, 101, Italian Cardinal
- Joseph Anthony De Palma, 91, Bishop of De Aar, South Africa
- Malou Hallström, 63, Swedish actress, ex-wife of Lasse Hallström
- David Hönigsberg, 45, composer and conductor
- Ernst Mayr, 100, evolutionary biologist
- Raul Usupov, Georgian politician and deputy governor of the Kvemo Kartli region
- Zurab Zhvania, 41, Prime Minister of Georgia
- Yvon DesRochers, 59, head of the organizing committee of the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, suicide
- Birgitte Federspiel, 79, Swedish actress (Babette's Feast,1988)
- Svein Kvia, 57, Norwegian footballer
- Goffredo Lombardo, 83, Italian film producer
- Magomed Omarov, deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan
- Max Schmeling, 99, German world heavyweight boxing champion
- Werner Arnold, 74, Swiss cyclist (1950s)
- Henrique Canto e Castro, 75, Portuguese actor
- Olivier Dollfus, 73, French geographer
- Edward D. Freis, 92, physician
- Anderl Heckmair, 98, Austrian mountaineer, made first ascent of the Eiger north face
- Franco Mannino, 80, prolific Italian film and classical composer
- John Vernon, 72, Canadian actor, following heart surgery
- Stanley Ronald (Ron) Basford, 72, Canadian cabinet minister (1970s)
- Nel Benschop, 87, Dutch poetess
- Yutsuko Chusonji, 42, Japanese manga artist noted for her "oyaji gal" stories
- Horace Hagedorn, 89, developer and marketer of Miracle-Gro plant food
- Malcolm Hardee, 55, alternative comedian and compere, drowning
- Erich Kaestner, 93, German Oscar winner for camera design
- Robert McCartney, 23?, IRA murder victim
- H. Narasimhaiah, 84, physicist, educator and rationalist from Bangalore
- Ivan Noble, 37, BBC journalist, brain tumour
- Wolfgang Becker, 94, German film and television director
- Martyn Bennett, 33, Scottish musician, cancer
- Dario Sala, 92, Italian inventor of Das, writer
- Toni Berger, 83, German actor
- Eric Griffiths, 64, member of pre-Beatles The Quarrymen
- Jean Hengen, 92, first Archbishop of Luxembourg
- Karl Heinz Jacoby, 86, Auxiliary Bishop of Trier
- Ephraim Kishon, 80, Israeli satirist, dramatist, screenwriter, and film director
- José Luis Martinez, 34, Spanish shot put champion
- Bill Shadel, 96, United States journalist who covered D-Day and moderated a 1960 Presidential Debate
- Guus Zoutendijk, 74, Dutch politician and businessman
- Karen Bach, 32, French actress
- Christian Bieniek, 48, German writer and childbook author
- Daniel Branca, 53, Argentinian Disney comic book artist
- Jim Capaldi, 60, British rock musician and songwriter (Traffic), stomach cancer
- Lucien Carr, 79, UPI editor, early Beat generation figure
- Christian Christensen, 78, Danish former European middle-weight boxing champion
- Jacques Villeret, 53, French actor and comedian
- Gilbert Bennion, 106, one of four remaining Australian veterans of World War I
- Donald Dempsey Sr., 72?, American recording executive who helped launch Ozzy Osbourne and Merle Haggard
- Shoaib Khan, 40?, Pakistani criminal organization leader, heart attack in jail
- Nick McDonald, 76, United States Dallas police officer who arrested Lee Harvey Oswald after the JFK assassination
- Aurélie Nemours, 94, French painter
- Jonathan Welsh, 67?, Canadian actor of stage, television and film
- Roy Fraser Elliott, 83, Canadian lawyer and philanthropist
- Rudi Falkenhagen, 71, Dutch actor, throat cancer
- Cordelia Scaife May, 76, sister of billionaire Richard Scaife and one of the world's richest people
- Josie MacAvin, 85, Oscar and Emmy winning set decorator
- William Augustus Bootle, 102, United States district judge who helped oversee desegregation in the US south
- Philip Johnson, 98, United States architect
- Vicky LaMotta, 75, ex-wife of American boxer Jake LaMotta
- Ray Peterson 65, United States popular singer (Tell Laura I Love Her), cancer
- Max Velthuijs, 81, Dutch writer and illustrator
- Nettie Witziers-Timmer, 81, Dutch athlete
- Dieter Zehentmayr, 63, Austrian caricaturist
- June Bronhill, 75, Australian opera and operetta singer, known for The Merry Widow
- Vladimir Savchenko, 72, Ukrainian science fiction writer
- Chalkie White, 76, rugby union coach
- Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare, 85, former Deputy Speaker of the United Kingdom|UK]] House of Lords
- Johnny Carson, 79, United States comedian and television host, emphysema
- Douglas Knight, 83, former president of Lawrence University and Duke University
- Charles Martin, 45, American football player, kidney ailment
- Mutsuko Sakura (桜むつ子), 83, Japanese actress, lung cancer
- Sir William Deakin, 91, British WWII hero and founder of St. Antony's College at Oxford University
- John Gibel, 56, comic strip writer (Flo & Friends)
- César Gutiérrez, 61, one of three players in Major League Baseball history with a 7-for-7 game
- Carlo Orelli, 110, supercentenarian, oldest Italian veteran of World War I
- Patsy Rowlands, 71, British actress, known for her roles in the Carry On films, breast cancer
- William Trager, 94, American malaria researcher
- Consuelo Velázquez, 88, Mexican songwriter and lyricist, and author of the enduring song "Bésame mucho"
- Rose Mary Woods, 87, former Nixon secretary and key Watergate figure [3]
- Steve Susskind, 62, American voice-over actor
- Parveen Babi, 49, Indian actress
- John L. Hess, 87, journalist
- Don Poier, 53, United States NBA basketball announcer for the Memphis Grizzlies
- Carl Schlettwein, 79, founder of Basler Afrika Bibliographien
- Theun de Vries, 97, Dutch writer
- Per Borten, 91, former Prime Minister of Norway
- Beverly Dennis, 79, actress on The Red Buttons Show who turned psychotherapist
- Roland Frye, American English literature professor and theologian
- Dick Gallagher, 49, Off-Broadway composer
- Christel Justen, 47, German swimmer, 1974 European champion
- Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, 91, Polish journalist and highly decorated World War II hero, head of the Radio Free Europe Polish section
- Chuck Olin, 68, filmmaker known for his 1998 documentary about the only all-Jewish fighting unit during World War II
- Miriam Rothschild, 96, British zoologist, entomologist and author
- Bill Andersen, 90, New Zealand communist and trade union leader
- Donald Beardslee, 61, United States murderer, executed in San Quentin State Prison, California
- Cal Bolder, 74, bodybuilder and actor
- K. Sello Duiker, 30, South African novelist, suicide
- Hans Gratzer, 63, Austrian director and theatre manager
- Ardyth Kennelly, 92, US novelist whose books were popular in the 1940s and 50s
- Anita Kulcsár, 28, Hungarian handball player
- Ricardo Suriñach, 76, Catholic Bishop of Ponce, Puerto Rico (2000-2003), natural causes
- Lamont Bentley, 31, television and film actor, car crash
- Bernard Béreau, 64, French footballer
- Gabriella Brune, 92, British actress
- Bob Moch, 90, 1936 Summer Olympics Rowing Gold Medal Winner
- George Walker, 78, volcanologist
- Peter Whatley, former professional wrestler under the name Pez Whatley
- Charlie Bell, 44, former CEO of McDonald's, colon cancer
- Christina Gunnardo, 54, Swedish musician
- Hildegard Joos, 95, Austrian painter
- Virginia Mayo, 84, United States actress, notably in the 1940s and 1950s
- Albert Schatz, 84, microbiologist, discoverer of streptomycin
- Zhao Ziyang, 85, former Chinese Communist Party General Secretary, complications of multiple strokes
- Daniel Zufferey, 35, French language author
- H. Bentley Glass, 98, United States biologist, known for controversial views [4]
- Agustín González, 74, prolific Spanish film actor
- Roger Ibanez, 73, French actor
- Ndongo Lô, 30, Senegalese singer (Mbalax)
- Marjorie Williams, 47, United States Washington Post columnist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair
- Victoria de los Angeles, 81, Spanish soprano
- Deem Bristow, 57, video game voice actor
- William H. Crosby Jr., 90, pioneering hematologist
- Walter Ernsting, 84, German science fiction author (Perry Rhodan)
- Elizabeth Janeway, 91, United States feminist author
- Fred Julsing, 62, Dutch comic book artist
- Dan Lee, 35, animator for movie Finding Nemo
- Werner Lesser, 72?, German ski jumper
- Henk Molleman, 69, Dutch politician and civil servant
- Sven Christer Swahn, 71, Swedish writer and translator
- Ruth Warrick, 89, United States actress best known for Citizen Kane and All My Children, of pneumonia
- Dennis Flanagan, 85, United States Long time editor of Scientific American
- Ofelia Guilmain, 83, Spanish film and stage actress, worked mostly in Mexico after the Spanish Civil War
- Alfred Hause, 84, German composer and conductor
- Charlotte MacLeod, 82, United States mystery writer
- Conroy Maddox, 92, British surrealist painter
- Carl Mohner, 88, German artist and actor
- Rudolph Moshammer, 64, German fashion designer
- Georges Piroué, 85, French language writer
- Jesús Soto, 81, Venezuelan kinetic artist [5]
- Earl Cameron, 89?, Canadian broadcaster and The National-anchor (1959-1966)
- Nell Rankin, 81, United States mezzo-soprano opera singer, sang with the Metropolitan Opera for many years
- Manfred Fuhrmann, 79, German philologist
- Achille Maramotti, 78, Italian fashion entrepreneur
- Sal Pacino, 82, United States character actor, father of actor Al Pacino
- Amrish Puri, 72, Indian actor, massive cerebral hemorrhage
- Edmund S. Valtman, 90, Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist
- Spencer Dryden, 61, drummer for United States rock group Jefferson Airplane, cancer
- Jean-Luc Fugaldi, 58, French footballer
- James Griffin, 61, member of 1970s group Bread
- Miriam Hyde, 91, Australian composer (Valley of Rocks)
- J.R. (Bud) McCaig, 75, co-owner of the NHL's Calgary Flames
- Fabrizio Meoni, 47, Italian motorcyclist, died after crashing on the 11th stage of the Paris Dakar Rally
- Ruth Packer, 94, British soprano, famous for playing Verdi heroines
- Jerzy Pawlowski, 72, Polish Olympic champion in fencing
- Thelma White, 94, United States actress, starred in Reefer Madness
- Gene Baylos, 98, comedian
- Margherita Carosio, 96, Italian soprano
- Fernand Cazenave, 80, French rugby player and coach
- Tommy Fine, 90, who pitched in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Browns
- James Forman, 76, United States former executive secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, colon cancer
- Erwin Hillier, 93, British cinematographer
- Gordon John "Jack" Horner, 91?, Minnesota sports journalist
- Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg, 77, Princess of Belgium, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
- Helmut Losch, 57, East German heavy weight weightlifting champion
- Amer Ali Nayef, deputy police chief of Baghdad, shot together with his son [6]
- Jose Manuel Perez, 41, Spanish motorcyclist after crashing 6 January on the 7th stage of the Paris Dakar Rally, internal injuries [7]
- Werner Quintens, 67, Belgian clergyman
- Jan Pieter Cardinal Schotte, 76, Belgian official of the Roman Curia, Cardinal since 1994
- Fritz Aigner, 74, Austrian painter
- Gonzalo Gavira, 79, sound effects creator, The Exorcist, The Towering Inferno
- Bernard Goodall, 67, businessman and former Reading F.C. footballer
- Koji Hashimoto, 68, Japanese film Director and Assistant Director
- Badja D'jola, 56, African-American film actor
- Jacqueline Joubert, 83, one of the first television presenters on French TV
- Suad Katana, 35, Bosnian footballer
- Campbell McComas, 52, Australian impersonator, raconteur, broadcaster, chameleon
- Warren Spears, 50, choreographer, dancer
- Michel Thomas, 90, Polish linguist and teacher
- David White, 50, British Commander of British forces on Gibraltar, found dead in his swimming-pool
- Pierre Daninos, 91, French novelist (The Diary of Major Thompson)
- Eileen Desmond, 72, former Irish politician, Minister for Health & Social Welfare (1981-1982)
- Ernst Deubelbeiss, 84, Swiss convicted of the 1951 murder of Armin Bannwart
- Bernard "Buddy" Diliberto, 73, United States sports commentator in New Orleans, Louisiana, massive heart attack
- Rosemary Kennedy, 86, sister of John F. Kennedy
- Rossana Maiorca, 54?, Italian free-diver, daughter of Enzo Maiorca
- Ivar Medaas, 66, Norwegian musician
- Hans Walder, 84, Prosecutor General of the Swiss Confederation (1968-1973)
- Lois Hole, 71, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
- Jürg von Känel, 53, climber, mountain guide, writer of guide books
- Makgatho Mandela, 54, South African last surviving son of Nelson Mandela, AIDS
- Louis Robichaud, 79, Canadian former premier of New Brunswick
- Ali Šukrija, 85, Yugoslav communist politician from Kosovo
- Antonio Benítez Rojo, 73, Cuban writer
- Eduardo Hay, 89, Mexican IOC member (since 1974), professor of gynaecology
- René Le Hénaff, 102?, early French director and editor, sued Charlie Chaplin for plagiarism over City Lights
- Danny Sugerman, 50, manager for The Doors
- Humphrey Carpenter, 58, British biographer and broadcaster
- Paul Darragh, 51, Irish equestrian showjumper, suspected heart failure
- Ali Al-Haidri, ?, Iraqi governor of Baghdad province, assassinated
- Frank Harary, 84, mathematician, a foremost expert on graph theory
- Robert Heilbroner, 85, United States economist
- Bud Poile, 80, member of Hockey Hall of Fame
- Alton Tobey, 90, United States muralist and painter
- JN Dixit, 68, Indian national security adviser and former foreign secretary
- Will Eisner, 87, United States comic book artist and pioneering graphic novelist
- Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), 88, Chinese negotiator with the PRC
- John Lawrence, 70, United States Los Angeles Times business journalist
- Claude Meillassoux, 79, French anthropologist and economist
- H. David Dalquist, 86, founder of Nordic Ware, creator of Bundt cake pan
- Arnold Denker, 90, United States chess player
- Cyril Fletcher, 91, British comedian and star of That's Life.
- Frank Kelly Freas, 82, United States science fiction artist
- Ronald 'Bo' Ginn, 70, United States former U.S. Congressman from Georgia
- Maclyn McCarty, 93, geneticist and DNA research pioneer
- Edo Murtić, 83, Croatian painter
- Charles Paul Wilp, 72, German photographer
- Shirley Chisholm, 80, United States first black woman ever to serve in the U.S. Congress
- Hugh John Frederick Lawson, 6th Baron Burnham, 73, British Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords and former deputy managing director of the Daily Telegraph
- Bob Matsui, 63, United States Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives
- Paul Michaelis, 90, German painter and graphist
- Dmitri Nelyubin, 33, Russian cyclist, stabbed to death
- Willem Scholten, 77, Dutch former politician
External links and references
- Specialised websites
- Dead People Server
- Life in Legacy: Week in Review
- The Blog of Death
- Online Searchable Death Indexes and Records: US genealogy directory
- Obituaries on general news websites
- Newsgroup: alt.obituaries
For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2004, Deaths in 2003, Deaths in 2002, Deaths in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995...