Deaths in 2002

The following is a list of notable deaths in 2002. Names are listed under the date of death and not the date it was announced. Names under each date are listed in alphabetical order by family name.

Deaths of notable animals (that is, those with their own Wikipedia articles) are also reported here.

A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

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

January 2002

• 2 Zac Foley, 31, bass guitarist for EMF
• 3 Freddy Heineken, 78, beer magnate
• 7 Jon Lee, 33, British drummer
• 8 Dave Thomas, 69, US entrepreneur, founder of Wendy's hamburger restaurants
• 11 Cyrus Vance, 87, former United States Secretary of State, international peacemaker
• 12 Stanley Unwin, 90, comedian
• 13 Ted Demme, film and television director
• 16 Bobo Olson, American boxer
• 16 Ron Taylor, American actor
• 17 Camilo José Cela, 85, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature
• 17 Peter Adamson, 71, British actor
• 18 Alex Hannum, 78, pro basketball coach
• 19 Jeff Astle, 59, English footballer
• 20 Luule Viilma, 51, Estonian doctor, esotericist and practitioner of alternative medicine, died in car crash.
• 21 Peggy Lee, 81, American singer & actress
• 22 Eric de Maré, 91, architectural photographer and writer
• 23 Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist
• 23 Robert Nozick, philosopher
• 28 Dick Lane, 73, American football player
• 28 Astrid Lindgren, 94, Swedish children's book author
• Julian Faber, 84, English business executive

February 2002

• 6 Max Perutz, founder of molecular biology
• 7 Elisa Bridges, 28, Playboy model
• 7 Jack Fairman, 88, British Formula One driver
• 8 Joachim Hoffmann, German historian
• 9 Princess Margaret, 71, British royal family (sister of Queen Elizabeth II)
• 11 Barry Foster, 74, (heart attack), British actor
• 12 Theresa Bernstein, 111, artist
• 12 William Lee Dwyer, 72, United States federal judge
• 12 George Eiferman, 76, bodybuilder, won Mr.Universe in 1962
• 12 John Eriksen, 44, Danish footballer
• 13 Waylon Jennings, 64, country music performer, actor, disc jockey, former member of Buddy Holly's band
• 15 Mike Darr baseball player
• 15 Howard K. Smith, TV journalist
• 15 Kevin Smith, played Ares on Xena series
• 19 Virginia Hamilton, African American, award-winning children's book author
• 21 John Thaw, 60, (cancer), British actor, most famous for the detective series Morse and The Sweeney
• 21 A. L. Barker, British author
• 22 Brendan O'Dowda, 76, Irish tenor
• 22 Sir Raymond Firth, 100, British anthropologist
• 22 Chuck Jones, US animator
• 24 Leo Ornstein, 109, radical composer/pianist
• 27 Spike Milligan, 83, Irish actor, comedian and writer
• 28 Mary Stuart, 75, soap opera actress best known for her 35-year starring role on Search for Tomorrow

March 2002

• 3 Al Pollard, NFL player and broadcaster, lymphoma [1]
• 11 Rudolf Hell, 100, German inventor and manufacturer
• 13 Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher
• 14 Tan Yu, 75, Filipino entrepreneur
• 17 Rosetta LeNoire, 90, African-American stage and television actress
• 18 Maude Farris-Luse, 115, supercentenarian & one-time "Oldest Recognized Person in the World"
• 20 Ivan Novikoff, 102, Russian premier ballet master
• 25 Kenneth Wolstenholme, 81, British football commentator
• 27 Milton Berle, American comedian dubbed "Mr. Television"
• 27 Dudley Moore, 66, UK actor and writer
• 27 Billy Wilder, 95, Austrian-born American film director (Double Jeopardy)
• 29 Rico Yan, 27, Filipino movie & TV actor
• 30 Queen Elizabeth (née Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon), 101, Britain's "Queen Mum"; mother of Queen Elizabeth II
• 31 Barry Took, 73, UK comedian and writer

April 2002

• 5 Layne Staley, 34, former Alice in Chains frontman, died after injecting a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a "speedball"
• 7 John Agar, 82, American actor (as well as the first husband of actress/politician Shirley Temple Black)
• 8 Maria Felix, Mexican film star
• 9 Leopold Vietoris (aged 110), Austrian mathematician
• 15 Byron White, United States Supreme Court justice
• 16 Franz Krienbühl, Swiss speed skater
• 16 Robert Urich, 55, American TV actor
• 18 Thor Heyerdahl, 87, Norwegian anthropologist
• 19 (Body discovered), Layne Staley, singer (Alice in Chains)
• 23 Linda Boreman, formerly known as Linda Lovelace, 53, former porn star turned political activist; killed in a car crash
• 25 Lisa Lopes, American singer; killed in car crash in Honduras
• 25 Indra Devi (aged 102; "Yoga teacher to the stars")
• 27 Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll
• 27 Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, German Industrialist and art collector
• 28 Alexander Lebed, Russian general and politician
• 28 Lou Thesz, professional wrestler

May 2002

• 2 William Thomas Tutte, 84, Bletchley Park cryptographer and British, later Canadian, mathematician.
• 3 Barbara Castle, 91, British Labour politician and female life peer
• 3 Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, 73, president of Somaliland and formerly prime minister of Somalia and British Somaliland.
• 3 Mohan Singh Oberoi, 103, Indian hotelier and retailer
• 5 Hugo Banzer Suárez, 75, president of Bolivia, as dictator 1971-1978 and democratic president 1997-2001
• 6 Pim Fortuyn, 54, assassinated Dutch politician
• 7 Seattle Slew, 28, last triple crown winner on 25th anniversary of winning Kentucky Derby
• 11 Joseph Bonanno, 97, Sicilian former Mafia boss
• 13 Morihiro Saito, 74, a teacher of the Japanese martial art of aikido
• 13 Ruth Cracknell, 76, redoubtable Australian actress most famous for the long-running role of Maggie Beare in the series "Mother and Son"
• 13 Valery Lobanovsky, 63, former Ukrainian coach
• 15 Nellie Shabalala, 49, South African singer and wife of leader/founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joseph Shabalala.
• 16 Edwin Alonzo Boyd, 88, Canadian bank-robber and prison escapee of the 1950s
• 16 Alec Campbell, 103, Australia's last surviving ANZAC died in a nursing home
• 17 Joe Black, 78, Baseball first Black pitcher to win a World Series game
• 18 Davey Boy Smith, 39, 'British Bulldog' professional wrestler
• 19 John Gorton, 90, 19th Prime Minister of Australia
• 20 Stephen Jay Gould, 60, paleontologist and popular science author
• 21 Niki de Saint Phalle, 71, French artist
• 22 (remains discovered; actual death probably took place on or around May 1, 2001), Chandra Levy, 24, U.S. Congressional intern
• 23 Sam Snead, 89, golfer
• 26 Mamo Wolde, 69, Ethiopian marathon runner

June 2002

• 1 Hansie Cronje, 32, (air crash), South African cricketer
• 4 Fernando Belaúnde Terry, democratic president of Peru, 1963-1968 and 1980-1985
• 4 Caroline Knapp, 42, author of Drinking: A Love Story
• 5 Dee Dee Ramone, founding member of The Ramones
• 6 Hans Janmaat, controversial far-right politician in the Netherlands
• 10 John Gotti, imprisoned mobster
• 11 Robbin Crosby, guitarist of rock band Ratt
• 11 Robert Roswell Palmer, historian, writer
• 12 Bill Blass, fashion designer
• 14 Jose Bonilla boxing former world champion, of asthma
• 14 June Jordan, 65, American writer and teacher, of breast cancer
• 15 Said Belqola, Moroccan referee of the 1998 FIFA World Cup final
• 17 Fritz Walter, football player, captain of 1954 World Cup winners
• 17 Willie Davenport, Olympic Games champion
• 18 Jack Buck, Major League Baseball announcer
• 18 Nancy Addison, 54, soap actress died of cancer
• 22 Ann Landers, author & syndicated newspaper columnist
• 22 Darryl Kile, 33, Major League Baseball player
• 23 Pedro "El Rockero" Alcazar, Panamanian boxer; died after losing his world Flyweight championship to Fernando Montiel in Las Vegas the night before
• 23 Arnold Weinstock, 77, British businessman
• 24 Miles Francis Stapleton Fitzalan-Howard, 86, 17th Duke of Norfolk
• 24 Pierre Werner, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, "father of the Euro"
• 26 Jay Berwanger, college football player, first winner of the Heisman Trophy
• 27 John Entwistle, 57, (heart attack), bassist for The Who
• 28 Arthur "Spud" Melin, responsible for marketing hula-hoop and frisbee
• 29 Rosemary Clooney, 74, singer

July 2002

• 4 Winnifred Van Tongerloo, oldest living survivor of the Titanic
• 4 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., African-American General
• 5 Ted Williams, Baseball Hall of Fame member
• 5 Katy Jurado, 68, Mexican actress who was once married to Ernest Borgnine
• 6 Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (b. 1932)
• 6 John Frankenheimer, 74, film director
• 8 Ward Kimball, Disney animator
• 9 Rod Steiger, 77, (kidney failure), actor
• 9 Laurence Janifer, science fiction writer
• 10 John Wallach, journalist
• 13 Yousuf Karsh, 93, celebrity portrait photographer as "Karsh of Ottawa"
• 14 Joaquín Balaguer, 95, former President of the Dominican Republic
• 15 Samantha Runnion, 5, child who was kidnapped, sexually abuse and murdered by Alejandro Avila
• 16 John Cocke, key figure in the development of RISC architecture
• 16 Jack Olsen, "True crime" writer
• 19 Alexander Ginzburg, leading Soviet dissident (alternatively Aleksandr Ginzburg)
• 19 Alan Lomax, documenter of blues and folk songs
• 22 Prince Ahmed bin Salman, member of the Saudi Arabian royal family, owner of Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner War Emblem
• 22 Chuck Traynor, 64, American pornographer
• 23 Leo McKern, 82, Australian actor best known for playing Rumpole of the Bailey and one of the Number Twos in The Prisoner
• 23 William Pierce, rocket scientist, neo-Nazi, author of "The Turner Diaries"
• 23 Chaim Potok, 73, US author
• 24 Maurice Denham, 92, British actor
• 24 Mike Clark, 61, former NFL kicker
• 25 Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher
• 29 Peter Bayliss, 80, British actor

August 2002

• 3 Carmen Silvera, 80, UK television and theatre actress (Dad's Army, 'Allo 'Allo!)
• 3 (approx date) Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman child- murder victims
• 5 Josh Ryan Evans, American actor ("Timmy" on Passions)
• 5 Chick Hearn, television and radio announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team since 1960
• 5 Franco Lucentini, 82, Italian writer (The Sunday Woman)
• 6 Edsger Dijkstra, computer scientist
• 10 Doris Wishman, cult movie director
• 12 Enos Slaughter, baseball Hall of Famer
• 12 Marjorie Williamson, university administrator
• 14 Larry Rivers, American painter
• 14 Dave Williams, singer of Drowning Pool
• 15 Jesse Brown, former United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs
• 19 Abu Nidal, terrorist
• 19 Sunday Silence, thoroughbred race horse, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes
• 24 Wayne Simmons, American Football player
• 24 Hoyt Wilhelm, Baseball Hall of Fame member
• 25 Dorothy Hewett, Australian poet, playwright and novelist
• 27 Richard Ricci, Utah handyman suspected of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart
• 30 Maia Berzina, 91, Russian geographer, cartographer and ethnologer
• 31 Lionel Hampton, 94, jazz musician
• 32 Allan George Bromley, 55, computer scientist, historian of computing

September 2002

• 4 Frankie Albert, National Football League star
• 8 Alfonso Ramirez famous Mexican bullfighter
• 11 Johnny Unitas, National Football League Hall of fame quarterback
• 12 Kim Hunter, 79, American stage, television and Oscar-winning film actress (played "Stella Kowalski" in the original Broadway and film versions of A Streetcar Named Desire)
• 18 Bob Hayes, National Football League Dallas Cowboys star, and Olympic games Hall of Fame member
• 19 Sergei Bodrov Jr., Russian movie star
• 21 Angelo Buono, Jr., the "Hillside Strangler"
• 21 Robert L. Forward, physicist and science fiction author
• 22 Joseph Nathan Kane, 103, American historian and author
• 22 Jan de Hartog, novelist and playwright

October 2002

• 1 Walter Annenberg, publisher and philanthropist
• 2 Heinz von Foerster, physicist and philosopher, one of the founders of constructivism
• 3 Bruce Paltrow, television and film producer, father of actress Gwyneth Paltrow with Blythe Danner
• 4 Alphonse Chapanis, a founder of ergonomics
• 6 Claus von Amsberg, diplomat; husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
• 12 Audrey Mestre, 28, French world record-setting free diver
• 12 Nozomi Momoi, 24, Japanese AV idol
• 13 Stephen Ambrose, 66, historian and author of "Band of Brothers"
• 17 Derek Bell, Member of The Chieftains, harpist
• 17 Henri Renaud, 67, French jazz pianist and record company executive
• 18 Roman Tam, Hong Kong canto-pop singer
• 19 Manuel Alvarez Bravo, 100, pre-eminent Mexican photographer
• 20 Barbara Berjer, soap opera actress for over thirty years
• 22 Richard Helms, former CIA director
• 24 Winton M. Blount last United States Postmaster General to have served in a Presidential Cabinet
• 24 Harry Hay, US gay rights activist and Mattachine Society founder
• 24 Adolph Green, 87, American lyricist and playwright
• 25 Richard Harris, 72, (Hodgkin's disease), Irish actor & singer
• 25 Paul Wellstone, United States Senator
• 28 Margaret Booth, 104, Academy Award-winning film editor
• 29 Chang-Lin Tien, educator, 7th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
• 30 Jam Master Jay, 37, DJ of Run DMC, murdered
• 31 Yuri Ahronovitch, Russian conductor
• 31 Baroness Hylton-Foster, 94, British peer

November 2002

• 2 Charles Sheffield, science fiction author and physicist
• 2 Brian Behan, Irish writer, younger brother of Brendan Behan
• 2 Tonio Selwart, 106, Bavarian actor and Broadway performer
• 3 Jonathan Harris, TV's "Dr. Smith" on Lost in Space
• 3 Lonnie Donegan, 71, skiffle musician
• 4 Antonio Margheriti, 72, Italian filmmaker, heart attack
• 6 Sid Sackson, board game designer
• 7 Rudolf Augstein, founder and chief editorialist of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel
• 9 Merlin Santana, 26, actor
• 15 Myra Hindley, 60, the Moors murderess
• 15 Eddie Bracken, 82, actor
• 17 Abba Eban, 88, Israeli foreign affair minister
• 18 James Coburn, 74, Oscar-winning actor
• 19 Prince Alexandre de Merode, International Olympic Committee member
• 21 Hadda Brooks, 86, American jazz singer, pianist and composer
• 23 Roberto Matta, Chilean artist
• 24 John Rawls, political theorist
• 26 Verne Winchell, founder of Winchell's Donuts (nicknamed "The Donut King")
• 30 Tim Woods, 68, professional wrestler who wrestled as Mr. Wrestling

December 2002

• 3 Glenn Quinn, Irish actor
• 5 Roone Arledge, 71, Creator of Monday Night Football and Nightline
• 5 Ne Win, Burmese dictator
• 6 Charles Rosen, Pioneer in artificial intelligence
• 7 Paddy Tunney, Irish traditional artist
• 6 Father Philip Berrigan, priest, political activist
• 9 Stan Rice, painter, educator, poet, husband of author Anne Rice
• 10 Andres Küng, Swedish journalist, writer, entrepreneur and politician of Estonian origin.
• 10 Ian MacNaughton, director of most episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus
• 12 Dee Brown, author (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee)
• 13 Zal Yanofsky member of The Lovin' Spoonful music group.
• 17 Hank Luisetti, basketball star and innovator
• 18 Bert Millichip, British football administrator
• 18 Wayne Owens, former U.S. Congressman (D-UT)
• 18 Ramon John Hnatyshyn, former Governor-General of Canada
• 19 Arthur Rowley, English Footballer, holder of the record for most career league goals scored.
• 20 Joanne Campbell, British actress who starred in the comedy series, Me and My Girl (1980s)
• 22 Kenneth Tobey, prolific character actor (appeared in about 100 films including: Twelve O'Clock High, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Thing from Another World and Airplane!)
• 22 Desmond Hoyte, President of Guyana from 1985 to 1992
• 23 Joe Strummer, former singer for The Clash.
• 24 Jake Thackray, English singer-songwriter
• 25 William T. Orr, television executive (brought Maverick, F-Troop and 77 Sunset Strip to TV)
• 26 Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer
• 26 Armand Zildjian, cymbals manufacturer
• 27 George Roy Hill, film director (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting)
• 30 Mary Wesley novelist, author of The Camomile Lawn

External links

For earlier deaths, see Deaths in 2001, Deaths in 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994 ...