Deaths in March 2008
The following is a list of notable deaths in March 2008.
March 2008
- Haroldo de Andrade, 73, Brazilian radio presenter (Rádio Globo), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. (Portuguese)
- Kevin John Dunn, 57, British Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle.
- Bhanbhagta Gurung, 86, Nepalese Gurkha soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross.
- Raúl Reyes, 59, Columbian FARC second-in-command, airstrike.
- Moustafa Soheim, 70, Egyptian Olympic fencer.
- Sid Spindler, 75, Polish-born Australian senator (Democrats) (1990–1996), liver cancer.
- Andrey Tissin, 32, Russian world and European canoeing champion, Olympian and coach, drowning. (Russian)
- George Toley, 91, American collegiate tennis coach.
- Sofiko Chiaureli, 70, Georgian actress.
- Roger Gill, 35, Guyanese Olympic sprinter, car accident.
- Jeff Healey, 41, Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist and vocalist, lung cancer.
- Carl Hoddle, 40, English footballer (Leyton Orient, Barnet), brain aneurysm.
- Paul Raymond, 82, British pornographic magazine publisher and property magnate.
- Ted Robinson, 84, American golf course architect, pancreatic cancer.
- Frederick Seitz, 96, American physicist who co-discovered the Wigner-Seitz cell.
- Ramón Barquín, 93, Cuban army colonel and diplomat, opponent of Fulgencio Batista, led 1956 coup attempt, cancer.
- William Brice, 86, American painter and UCLA professor, injuries from fall.
- Giuseppe Di Stefano, 86, Italian operatic tenor, after long coma following assault.
- Donald S. Lopez, Sr., 84, American deputy director of the National Air and Space Museum, heart attack.
- Malcolm McKenna, 77, American paleontologist.
- Norm O'Neill, 71, Australian cricketer, throat cancer.
- Annemarie Renger, 88, German politician (SPD), Speaker of Parliament (1972–1976).
- Iván Ríos, 45, Columbian FARC commander, shot by his Chief of Security.
- Norman "Hurricane" Smith, 85, British singer, recording engineer (The Beatles, Pink Floyd) and record producer.
- Kenneth Woollcombe, 84, British Bishop of Oxford (1971–1978).
- Robert Bruning, 79, Australian actor, heart attack.
- E. Gary Gygax, 69, American co-creator of role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
- Tina Lagostena Bassi, 82, Italian politician.
- Elena Nathanael, 67, Greek actress, lung cancer.
- Leonard Rosenman, 83, American Academy Award-winning composer (Barry Lyndon, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), heart attack.
- Semka Sokolović-Bertok, 72, Croatian actress, stroke.
- George Walter, 79, Antiguan Premier (1971–1976), heart attack.
- Eve Carson, 22, American student leader (UNC Chapel Hill), shot.
- Derek Dooley, 78, British footballer and former chairman of Sheffield United.
- Elfriede Kaun, 93, German 1936 Olympic bronze medalist in the high jump. (German)
- Nader Khalili, 72, Iranian architect, heart failure.
- John C. Mackie, 87, American Representative from Michigan (1965–1967).
- Richard Miles McCool, 86, American Medal of Honor recipient for actions during World War II.
- Stephen Oliver, 66, American actor (Peyton Place), gastric cancer.
- Hajibey Sultanov, 86, Azerbaijani astronomer, fire accident. (Azerbaijani)
- Joseph Weizenbaum, 85, German-born American computer scientist, inventor of ELIZA computer program, stroke.
- Ihor Yemchuk, 77, Ukrainian Olympic silver (1952) and bronze (1956) medal-winning rower.
- Gloria Shayne Baker, 84, American songwriter (Rain Rain Go Away, Do You Hear What I Hear?), lung cancer.
- Lili Boniche, 87, Algerian-born French singer of Andalusian Arabic songs.
- Don Curtis, 80, American professional wrestler, stroke.
- Gustaw Holoubek, 84, Polish film and theatre actor and politician.
- Stanislav Konopásek, 84, Czechoslovakian Olympic silver medallist in ice hockey (1948).
- Peter Poreku Dery, 89, Ghanaian cardinal, Archbishop of Tamale (1974–1994).
- K. Sivanesan, 51, Sri Lankan Tamil Parliament member (TNA), roadside bomb.
- Malvin Wald, 90, American screenwriter (The Naked City).
- Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, 71, Spanish noblewoman and author.
- Isaías Carrasco, 43, Spanish Basque politician, shot.
- Leonardo Costagliola, 87, Italian football goalkeeper (ACF Fiorentina).
- Dick Durrell, 82, American founding publisher of People magazine, lung cancer.
- David Gale, 86, American mathematician, heart attack.
- Leon Greenman, 97, British Holocaust survivor, only Englishman sent to Auschwitz.
- Julius Paltiel, 83, Norwegian Holocaust survivor.
- Francis Pym, 86, British Conservative Party politician, Foreign Secretary (1982–1983).
- Howard Wing, 92, Chinese Olympic cyclist.
- Al-Bandari bint Abdulaziz, 80, Saudi sister of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
- Ossie Álvarez, 74, American Major League Baseball player (Washington Senators, Detroit Tigers).
- Erwin Ballabio, 89, Swiss football goalkeeper. (German)
- Carol Barnes, 63, British ITN news presenter, stroke.
- Charles A. Gillespie, Jr., 72, American diplomat, Ambassador to Colombia and Chile, cancer.
- Donald C. MacDonald, 94, Canadian politician, former leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party.
- Les Smith, 80, English footballer (Wolves, Aston Villa), cancer.
- Gus Giordano, 84, American Emmy Award-winning jazz dancer, pneumonia.
- Florent Jodoin, 85, Canadian Olympic cyclist.
- Simon Reisman, 88, Canadian chief negotiator of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, cardiac arrest.
- Varvara Semennikova, 117?, Russian who claimed to be oldest living person.
- Richard Biegenwald, 67, American serial killer.
- William Richard Bradford, 61, American serial killer, natural causes.
- Hugh Brown, 88, British Labour politician, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (1974–1979).
- Chuck Day, 65, American blues guitarist, wrote the distinctive riff in "Secret Agent Man".
- Kurt Eberling, Sr., 77, German-American inventor of SpaghettiOs, cancer.
- Robert P. Foster, 90, American academic administrator, president of Northwest Missouri State University (1964–1977).
- Ricardo García, 81, Mexican Olympic cyclist.
- Dennis Irwin, 56, American jazz double bassist, complications of cancer.
- Ana Kalandadze, 83, Georgian poet.
- Vangelis Kazan, 70, Greek actor. (Greek)
- Lee Ho-seong, 41, South Korean baseball player, thief and murderer, suicide by drowning.
- Radovan Lukavský, 88, Czech actor.
- Otto Schnellbacher, 84, American football and basketball player, cancer.
- Dave Stevens, 52, American illustrator, creator of The Rocketeer, leukemia.
- J. I. Albrecht, 77, American-born Canadian manager and director in the Canadian Football League, complications from a stroke.
- Zakaria Deros, 62, Malaysian former politician, heart attack.
- John Roderick, 93, American journalist (AP) and author, extensively covered China (1930s–2000s), heart failure and pneumonia.
- Phyllis Spira, 64, South African prima ballerina, complications of surgery.
- Michael J. Todd, 50, British Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police.
- Lukas Vischer, 81, Swiss theologian.
- Folke Eriksson, 82, Swedish Olympic water polo player. (Swedish)
- Erwin Geschonneck, 101, German actor.
- Jorge Guinzburg, 59, Argentine journalist and comedian, pulmonary infection.
- Alun Hoddinott, 78, Welsh composer.
- Cassià Maria Just, 81, Spanish cleric, former abbot of Santa Maria de Montserrat, stroke. (Spanish)
- Howard Metzenbaum, 90, American politician, Senator from Ohio (1974, 1976–1995).
- Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan, 66, Romanian actor, cancer.
- Károly Németh, 85, Hungarian politician.
- Lazare Ponticelli, 110, last official French veteran of World War I.
- Asesela Ravuvu, 77, Fijian politician and former University of the South Pacific academic, natural causes.
- Tom Tuohy, 90, British chemist, averted potential disaster at Windscale.
- Taslim Arif, 53, Pakistani cricketer, lung infection.
- Tessa Birnie, 73, New Zealand concert pianist.
- Bill Bolick, 90, American country music performer (The Blue Sky Boys).
- Iosif Boyarsky, 90, Russian former Soyuzmultfilm director, one of the fathers of Soviet animation.
- Claire Brooks, 76, British politician.
- Martin Fierro, 66, American saxophonist, cancer.
- Scarlet Garcia, 23, Filipino model, shot.
- Rafael Tufiño, 85, Puerto Rican painter and printmaker, lung cancer.
- Mel Brandt, 88, American actor and announcer.
- Clyde Cameron, 95, Australian politician, MP (1949–1980), Minister in the Whitlam Government.
- Mike Dawson, 54, American football player, heart attack.
- Chiara Lubich, 88, Italian Catholic activist, founder of the Focolare Movement.
- Ingvald Ulveseth, 83, Norwegian politician. (Norwegian)
- Jacob DeShazer, 95, American bombardier, participant in the Doolittle Raid.
- Mikey Dread, 54, Jamaican singer, record producer and broadcaster, brain tumor.
- Vytautas Kernagis, 56, Lithuanian singer, television announcer, gastric cancer.
- G. David Low, 52, American astronaut, colon cancer.
- Benjamin Ngoubou, 83/84, Gabonese foreign minister.
- Sam C. Pointer, Jr., 73, American federal judge for the District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (1970–2000).
- Ken Reardon, 86, Canadian ice hockey defenceman (Montreal Canadiens), Alzheimer's disease.
- Ross Scaife, 47, American classicist and digital humanist, cancer.
- Yury Tsuranov, 72, Soviet Olympic sport shooter.
- Vicki Van Meter, 26, American pilot, suicide by gunshot.
- Anura Bandaranaike, 59, Sri Lankan politician.
- Bill Brown, 95, Australian cricket captain, member of 1948 Invincibles team.
- Ola Brunkert, 61, Swedish session drummer for ABBA, injuries from accidental fall.
- Wayne Davis, 44, American football player, motor neurone disease.
- Ivan Dixon, 76, American actor and director (Hogan's Heroes), hemorrhage.
- Gary Hart, 66, American professional wrestling manager, heart attack.
- John Hewer, 86, British actor (Captain Birdseye), natural causes.
- Otto Jemelka, 93/94, Czechoslovakian Olympic modern pentathlete.
- Metropolitan Laurus, 80, Czechoslovakian-born American first hierarch of the ROCOR.
- Daniel MacMaster, 39, Canadian rock vocalist (Bonham), group A streptococcal infection.
- Mary Meader, 91, American aerial photographer.
- Bob Purkey, 78, American baseball player, Alzheimer's disease.
- John Shedd Reed, 90, American president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (1967–1986), natural causes.
- Jonathan Williams, 79, American poet, photographer and publisher, founder of The Jargon Society.
- Hazel Barnes, 92, American philosopher.
- Andrew Britton, 27, British-born spy novelist, undiagnosed heart condition.
- Alan Buckley, 66, British rugby union and rugby league player.
- Mariano Di Gangi, 84, Canadian Presbyterian minister.
- Philip Jones Griffiths, 72, British photojournalist, cancer.
- Martin Halliday, 81, British physician.
- Jyrki Hämäläinen, 65, Finnish journalist, editor of Suosikki magazine.
- Anthony Minghella, 54, British director (The English Patient, Cold Mountain), BFI chairman, post-surgery haemorrhage.
- Geoffrey Pearson, 80, Canadian diplomat, son of former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.
- Oreste Rizzini, 67, Italian voice actor, stomach cancer. (Italian)
- Crispin Sanchez, 82, American pioneer of Mexican American education and sports.
- Joe Blackledge, 79, British cricketer, former captain and president of the Lancashire County Cricket Club.
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Sri Lankan/British science fiction author (2001: A Space Odyssey), heart failure.
- Hugo Claus, 78, Belgian author, voluntary euthanasia.
- John Dowie, 93, Australian sculptor, stroke.
- Mia Permanto, 19, Finnish singer, finalist in Idols.
- Raghuvaran, 59, Indian actor, cardiac arrest.
- Paul Scofield, 86, British Academy Award–winning actor (A Man for All Seasons), leukaemia.
- Chantal Sébire, 53, French esthesioneuroblastoma sufferer and euthanasia activist, Pentobarbital overdose
- Eric Ashton, 73, British rugby league player for Wigan and Great Britain, cancer.
- Sobhan Babu, 71, Indian actor, cardiac arrest.
- Ann Baumgartner, 89, American aviator.
- Alexandru Custov, 53, Romanian footballer. (Romanian)
- Klaus Dinger, 61, German drummer (Neu!, Kraftwerk), heart failure.
- Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro, 81, Italian claimant to headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. (Italian)
- Jon Hassler, 74, American author, progressive supranuclear palsy.
- Al Hofmann, 60, American drag racer, heart attack.
- Carlos Galvão de Melo, 86, Portuguese general, Conservative member of National Salvation Junta. (Portuguese)
- Bestia Salvaje, 46, Mexican lucha libre wrestler, liver disease.
- Abigail Taylor, 6, American girl whose severe swimming pool injury led to tougher laws. .
- Brian Wilde, 80, British comedic actor (Porridge, Last of the Summer Wine).
- Gadzhi Abashilov, 58, Russian journalist, chief of VGTRK TV company in Dagestan, shot.
- Henri Blaffart, 42, Belgian wildlife conservationist for Conservation International in New Caledonia, drowned.
- Tamás Bujkó, 45, Hungarian judo competitor, stabbed and beaten.
- Denis Cosgrove, 59, British geographer and Alexander von Humboldt professor of geography at UCLA, cancer.
- Roy Foster, 62, American baseball player.
- John Fowler, 42, American drummer (Steelheart), brain aneurysm.
- Lynne Golding-Kirk, 87, Australian ballerina, complications of surgery.
- George Gross, 85, Canadian sports journalist, founding sports editor of the Toronto Sun, heart attack.
- Shusha Guppy, 72, Iranian writer and singer.
- Raymond Leblanc, 92, Belgian comic book producer and publisher (The Adventures of Tintin).
- John List, 82, American mass murderer, complications of pneumonia.
- Gabriel París Gordillo, 98, Columbian military governor, chairman of Colombian Military Junta. (Spanish)
- Waltrude Schleyer, 92, German widow of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, advocate against the Red Army Faction.
- Ilyas Shurpayev, 32, Russian journalist responsible for North Caucasus news on Channel One, murder by strangulation.
- Merv Wallace, 91, New Zealand cricket captain (1952–1953).
- Robert Dyk, 71, American television reporter (ABC News, WMTW-TV), cancer.
- Cachao López, 89, Cuban musician credited with creating mambo, renal failure.
- Robert J. McIntosh, 85, American politician, U.S. Representative from Michigan (1957–1959).
- Harvey Picker, 92, American philanthropist.
- Adolfo Suárez Rivera, 81, Mexican cardinal, Archbishop Emeritus of Monterrey, brain hemorrhage.
- Big Jack Armstrong, 62, American radio DJ.
- Neil Aspinall, 66, British road manager for The Beatles and executive of Apple Corps, lung cancer.
- Al Copeland, 64, American restaurateur, founder of Popeyes Chicken, salivary gland cancer.
- Hugo Correa, 81, Chilean journalist and science fiction writer. (Spanish)
- Maryam Farman Farmaian, 94, Iranian feminist activist.
- E. A. Markham, 68, Montserrat-born British poet and writer.
- George Switzer, 92, American mineralogist, acquired the Hope Diamond for the Smithsonian Institution, pneumonia.
- Chase Tatum, 34, American World Championship Wrestling wrestler and road manager for Outkast, apparent accidental drug overdose.
- Vaino Vahing, 68, Estonian writer and psychiatrist. (Estonian)
- Severin Cecile Abega, 52, Cameroonian author and anthropologist.
- Chalmers Alford, 53, American jazz guitarist, diabetes.
- Rafael Azcona, 81, Spanish screenwriter, lung cancer.
- Victor Christ-Janer, 92, American architect.
- John Cushley, 65, Scottish footballer (Celtic, West Ham United), motor neurone disease.
- Ray Drinkwater, 76, British footballer (Queens Park Rangers).
- Boris Dvornik, 68, Croatian actor, stroke.
- Mary Joan Nielubowicz, 79, American head of the Navy Nurse Corps (1983–1987).
- Hal Riney, 75, American advertising executive, founder of Publicis & Hal Riney, cancer.
- Dina Sassoli, 87, Italian actress. (Italian)
- Steven Sueppel, 42, American vice-president of Hills Bank and Trust Company, thief and murderer, suicide by car crash.
- Sam Toy, 84, British chair of Ford UK (1980–1986).
- Richard Widmark, 93, American actor (Kiss of Death, Judgment at Nuremberg), after long illness.
- Sherri Wood, 28, Canadian journalist (Toronto Sun), brain cancer.
- Art Aragon, 80, American boxer, stroke.
- Ben Carnevale, 92, American college basketball coach.
- Tony Church, 77, British actor.
- Jimmy Dell, 83, British Wing Commander and test pilot.
- Thierry Gilardi, 49, French journalist and TF1 sports commentator, heart attack.
- Sergey Kramarenko, 61, Russian football player.
- Abby Mann, 80, American screenwriter (Judgment at Nuremberg), heart failure.
- Herb Peterson, 89, American fast food pioneer, inventor of the McDonald's Egg McMuffin.
- Gene Puerling, 78, American vocal jazz musician, singer, musical arranger for the Hi-Los and Singers Unlimited.
- Edward Rafeedie, 79, American senior judge for the California Central District Court, cancer.
- Sérgio de Souza, 73, Brazilian journalist, co-founder and editor of Caros Amigos magazine, respiratory illness. (Portuguese)
- Ivan Toms, 55, South African physician, activist against apartheid and conscription, meningitis.
- Heath Benedict, 24, American football offensive lineman (Newberry College), 2008 NFL Draft prospect.
- Christian Bergelin, 62, French politician. (French)
- Robert Fagles, 74, American professor, poet and translator of ancient epics, prostate cancer.
- Donald Hunter, 81, British football player.
- Manuel Marulanda, 78, Columbian founder and commander-in-chief of terrorist organization FARC.
- Wally Phillips, 82, American radio personality, pioneer of talk radio, Alzheimer's disease.
- Jean-Marie Balestre, 86, French former President of FISA and later FIA.
- Beverly Broadman, 60, American broadcaster with CNN and CBS News, cancer.
- Billy Consolo, 73, American baseball player and coach, heart attack.
- George Pruteanu, 60, Romanian literary critic and senator, heart attack.
- Lorne Ferguson, 77, Canadian ice hockey player.
- Kunio Lemari, 65, Marshall Islands acting President (1996–1997).
- Michael Podro, 77, British art historian.
- Herb Rich, 79, American football player.
- Ron Slinker, 62, American professional wrestler.
- Helen Yglesias, 92, American novelist.
- Angus Fairhurst, 41, British artist, suicide by hanging.
- Allan Ganley, 77, British jazz drummer.
- Josef Mikl, 78, Austrian painter, cancer.
- Isabella Nardoni, 5, Brazilian murder victim, thrown out of window.
- Ralph Rapson, 93, American architect, heart attack.
- Albert Stallard, Baron Stallard, 86, British Labour MP and life peer.
- Myint Thein, 62, Burmese National League for Democracy spokesman, stomach cancer.
- Marie-Françoise Audollent, 70, French actress, accidental fall. (French)
- Anders Göthberg, 32, Swedish guitarist (Broder Daniel). (Swedish)
- Douglas Kent Hall, 69, American writer and photographer.
- David Leslie, 54, British racing driver and commentator, Farnborough plane crash.
- Sean Levert, 39, American R&B singer.
- Richard Lloyd, 63, British racing driver and team owner, Farnborough plane crash.
- Jim Mooney, 88, American comic book artist.
- David D. Newsom, 90, American Ambassador to the Philippines (1977–1978), respiratory failure.
- Dith Pran, 65, Cambodian-born American journalist, survivor of the Killing Fields, pancreatic cancer.
- Nikolai Baibakov, 97, Russian economist, Gosplan head (1955–1957, 1965–1985), pneumonia.
- Jules Dassin, 96, American film director (The Naked City, Rififi, Never on Sunday), influenza.
- William Louis Dickinson, 82, American judge and Representative from Alabama (1965–1993), colon cancer.
- Eliyahu Boruch Finkel, 60, Israeli rabbi and lecturer.
- Robert F. Goheen, 88, American President of Princeton University (1957–1972), Ambassador to India (1977–1980), heart failure.
- Bill Keightley, 81, American equipment manager for Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball since 1962, bleeding from spinal tumor.
- David Todd, 93, American architect, designed Manhattan Plaza, former chairman of NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.