Deaths in October 2004
The following is a list of notable deaths in October 2004.
October 2004
- Richard Avedon, 81, American portrait and fashion photographer, cerebral hemorrhage.
- Joyce Jillson, 58, American astrologer, newspaper columnist, author and actress, kidney failure.
- Bruce Palmer, 58, Canadian bassist (Buffalo Springfield), heart attack.
- John Cerutti, 44, American Major League Baseball baseball player, announcer for the Toronto Blue Jays, natural causes.
- Ralph Citro, 78, American boxing historian, archivist and cutman, member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
- Tish Daija, 78, Albanian composer. (Albanian)
- Janet Leigh, 77, American actress (Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate), vasculitis.
- Frits van Turenhout, 91, Dutch sports journalist. (Dutch)
- Helmut Bantz, 83, German gymnast and Olympian (gold medal in pommel horse gymnastics, 1956), after long illness.
- Gordon Cooper, 77, American NASA astronaut and aeronautical engineer, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, heart failure.
- William H. Dobelle, 62, American biomedical researcher, eye doctor and inventor (artificial vision research), complications of diabetes.
- Michael Grant, 89, British ancient historian.
- William Clark, Baron Clark of Kempston, 86, British politician.
- Frederica de Laguna, 98, American anthropologist and archaeologist, studied Alaskan native cultures.
- Johnny Kelley, 97, American long-distance runner and Olympian (1936, 1948).
- Pete McCarthy, 51, British travel writer and broadcaster, cancer.
- Marvin Santiago, 56, Puerto Rican salsa singer, complications of diabetes.
- Veríssimo Correia Seabra, 57, Bissau-Guinean military commander, beaten to death in mutiny.
- Harbhajan Singh Yogi, 75, spiritual leader and head of the Sikh Dharma in the western hemisphere, heart failure.
- Kenneth Bigley, 62, British civil engineer taken hostage in Iraq, beheaded by hostage takers.
- T. J. Binyon, 68, British author, Oxford professor, Pushkin scholar and crime novelist.
- Tony Lanfranchi, 69, British racing driver, cancer.
- Dame Rosemary Murray, 91, British chemist, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1975–1977).
- Hildy Parks, 78, American actress, writer and TV producer, complications of stroke.
- Sir John Richards, 77, British army general.
- Ken Caminiti, 41, American baseball player, drug overdose.
- Christopher Reeve, 52, American actor (Superman and sequels), stem cell research campaigner, heart failure caused by septicemia.
- Arthur H. Robinson, 89, American cartographer and geographer, after short illness.
- Maurice Shadbolt, 72, New Zealand novelist, playwright and journalist, Alzheimer's disease.
- Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian, 82, British peer, politician and landowner.
- Ben Komproe, 62, Netherlands Antilles politician, Prime Minister (2003) and Minister of Justice (2003–2004), kidney failure and complications from gastric surgery.
- Mary Loos, 94, American actress, screenwriter, and novelist, complications from stroke.
- Keith Miller, 84, Australian Test cricketer, Australian rules footballer, fighter pilot and journalist.
- Csaba Pálinkás, 45, Hungarian Olympic cyclist.
- Gulshan Rai, 80, Indian film producer and distributor, after long illness.
- Lillian Zuckerman, 88, American character actress.
- Mohammad Va'ez Abaee-Khorasani, 64, Iranian cleric and reformist politician, physical illness.
- Erik Bye, 78, Norwegian journalist (AP, BBC, NRK), radio/TV host, actor, singer/songwriter, cancer.
- Adremy Dennis, 28, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection.
- David Grose, 59, American archaeologist and classicist.
- Nirupa Roy, 73, Indian film actress, heart attack.
- Bernice Rubens, 76, British Booker Prize-winning novelist (The Elected Member), complications from stroke.
- Tetsu Yano, 80, Japanese science fiction writer and translator, founder of the Science Fiction Writers of Japan.
- Ivor Wood, 72, British animator (Paddington Bear, The Wombles), cancer.
- Vlassis Bonatsos, 54, Greek entertainer.
- Willie Browne, 68, Irish soccer player.
- Juan Francisco Fresno, 90, Chilean Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile (1983-1990).
- Cordell Jackson, 81, American rockabilly musician.
- Sheila Keith, 84, British actress.
- Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell, 67, British historian and member of the House of Lords, complications of emphysema.
- Ivan Shamiakin, 83, Soviet Belarusian writer.
- Doug Bennett, 52, Canadian rock singer (Doug and the Slugs), after long illness.
- Vincent Brome, 94, British biographer and novelist.
- Uzi Hitman, 52, Israeli singer, songwriter and composer, heart attack.
- Pierre Salinger, 79, American journalist, Senator (California, 1964) and Press Secretary to John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, heart failure.
- Ray Boone, 81, American Major League Baseball player, patriarch of first third-generation MLB family, after long illness.
- Julius Harris, 81, American actor (Live and Let Die, Super Fly, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three), heart failure.
- Betty Hill, 85, American alien abduction claimant, lung cancer.
- Bas Pease, 81, British physicist.
- Antoine Abel, 69, Seychellois writer.
- Anita Bitri, c. 36, Albanian pop singer, carbon monoxide poisoning.
- Frank Chapple, 83, British trade unionist (General Secretary of EETPU, 1966–1984).
- Kenneth E. Iverson, 84, Canadian computer scientist, inventor of the APL programming language, stroke.
- Paul Nitze, 97, American diplomat and Cold War arms negotiator.
- Sang Lee, 51, Korean-American three-cushion billiard player, stomach cancer.
- Lewis Urry, 77, Canadian chemical engineer and inventor (alkaline battery, lithium battery).
- William Brown, 66, American operatic tenor.
- Veronika Cherkasova, 45, Belarus journalist, stabbed.
- Anthony Hecht, 81, American poet, lymphoma.
- Chuck Hiller, 70, American Major League Baseball baseball player and coach, first National League player to hit a World Series grand slam, leukemia.
- Tevfik Gelenbe, 73, Turkish actor and comedian, complications of cancer. (Turkish)
- Lynda Lee-Potter, 69, British newspaper columnist (Daily Mail), brain tumour.
- Imad Abbas, Palestinian Hamas militant and assistant to Adnan al-Ghoul, targeted killing by the IDF.
- Adnan al-Ghoul, Palestinian Hamas chief explosives expert, alleged "father" of the Qassam rocket, targeted killing by the IDF.
- Everett Rogers, 73, American communication scholar and sociologist, founder of diffusion of innovations theory.
- Victoria Snelgrove, 21, American college junior, shot with pepper spray projectile by Boston Police.
- Bertie Brownlow, 84, Australian cricketer.
- Brian Cartledge, 63, Australian cricketer.
- Samuel L. Gravely, Jr., 82, American naval pioneer (first African American fleet commander and admiral), complications from stroke.
- Jean-François Leuba, Swiss National Council President (1995–1996), lawyer and jurist. (French)
- Katherine Victor, 81, American cult film actress.
- Jim McDonald, 77, American baseball player.
- Robert Merrill, 87, American operatic baritone, natural causes.
- Bill Nicholson, 85, British football manager (Tottenham Hotspur, 1958–1974), player, coach, and scout.
- George Silk, 87, New Zealand WWII photojournalist (Life), congestive heart failure.
- Randy Dorton, 50, American engine builder (Hendrick Motorsports), victim of the 2004 Martinsville plane crash.
- Bethany Goldsmith, 77, American baseball player.
- Ricky Hendrick, 24, American NASCAR stock car driver and partial team owner (Hendrick Motorsports), plane crash.
- James Aloysius Hickey, 84, American Roman Catholic Cardinal, Archbishop of Washington, D.C. (1980–2000), Bishop of Cleveland, Ohio (1974–1980).
- Jokin Ormaetxea, 24, Spanish professional cyclist, car accident.
- Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra, 84, Indian politician (foreign minister, 1979–1980), cardiac arrest.
- John Peel, 65, British BBC disc jockey and guru of the British independent music scene, heart attack.
- Al Clouston, 94, Canadian storyteller and humourist.
- Hermione Cobbold, Baroness Cobbold, 99, British aristocrat.
- Lester Lanin, 97, American jazz big band leader.
- Paulo Sérgio Oliveira da Silva ("Serginho"), 30, Brazilian footballer (São Caetano), heart attack during match.
- Rosalind Hicks, 85, British literary guardian and daughter of Agatha Christie.
- Shosei Koda, 24, Japanese backpacker, beheaded by kidnappers in Iraq.
- Jimmy McLarnin, 96, British boxer, two-time welterweight world champion (1933, 1934).
- Gil Mellé, 72, American artist, jazz saxophonist and film and television composer, heart attack.
- Graham Roberts, 75, British actor (The Archers, Z-Cars).
- Ted Taylor, 79, Mexican-born American theoretical physicist, nuclear weapon designer and eventual nuclear disarmament advocate, coronary artery disease.
- William E. Wallace, 87, American chemist, complications from Parkinson's disease.
- Charles F. Wheeler, 88, American cinematographer (Tora! Tora! Tora!).
- HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, 102, British royal, aunt of Queen Elizabeth II.
- Jacinto João, 60, Portuguese footballer, heart attack.
- Edward Oliver LeBlanc, 81, Dominican political leader, chief minister (1961–1967) and premier (1967–1974).
- Vaughn Meader, 68, American Grammy-winning comedian and JFK impersonator, emphysema.
- Gerard Ross Norton, 89, South African soldier and Victoria Cross recipient (1944),
- Peter Twinn, 88, British mathematician, World War II codebreaker, and entomologist.