Deaths in April 2007

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The following is a list of notable deaths in April 2007.

April 2007

30

• Edward F. Boyd, 92, American marketing executive at Pepsi who shunned racial stereotypes in advertising. [1]
• Tom Cartwright, 71, British test cricketer for England, complications of heart attack. [2]
• Grégory Lemarchal, 23, French singer, winner of Star Academy France, cystic fibrosis. [3]
• Bernard Marszałek, 31, Polish offshore powerboat racer, 2003 World Champion, 2004 Euro Championship runner-up, asthma. [4]
• Kevin Mitchell, 36, American football player for San Francisco 49ers (Super Bowl XXIX) and Washington Redskins, heart attack. [5]
• Tom Poston, 85, American actor (Newhart). [6]
• Claude Saunders, 95, Canadian rower and second-oldest national Olympic competitor. [7]
• Gordon Scott, 79, American actor who portrayed Tarzan in six films (1955–1960), complications of surgery. [8]
• Zola Taylor, 69, American singer, member of The Platters (1954–1964), complications of pneumonia. [9]

29

• Milt Bocek, 94, American baseball player. [10]
• Octavio Frias, 94, Brazilian publishing magnate, kidney failure. [11]
• Josh Hancock, 29, American baseball relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, car accident. [12]
• Donald P. Lay, 80, American judge of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1966–2006). [13]
• Dick Motz, 67, New Zealand Test cricketer. [14]
• Joseph Nérette, 83, President of Haïti (1991–1992), lung cancer. [15] (French)
• Arve Opsahl, 85, Norwegian actor, heart failure. [16]
• Ivica Račan, 63, Croatian prime minister (2000–2003), cancer. [17]
• Lee Roberson, 97, American founder of Tennessee Temple University. [18]

28

• Lloyd Crouse, 88, Canadian politician, Progressive Conservative MP (1957–1988), Lt.Governor of Nova Scotia (1989–1994). [19]
• Luigi Filippo D'Amico, 82, Italian film director. [20] (Italian)
• Dabbs Greer, 90, American actor (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Green Mile). [21]
• René Mailhot, 64, Canadian journalist for Radio-Canada, pneumonia. [22] (French)
• Tommy Newsom, 78, American musician from The Tonight Show, cancer. [23]
• Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, 94, German physicist and philosopher. [24]
• Bertha Wilson, 83, Canadian who was the first female Supreme Court judge, Alzheimer's disease. [25]

27

• Svatopluk Beneš, 89, Czech actor. [26] (Czech)
• Karel Dillen, 81, Belgian politician, founder of the Flemish Interest party. [27]
• Bill Forester, 74, American NFL football player. [28]
• Kirill Lavrov, 81, Russian actor, after long illness. [29]
• Mstislav Rostropovich, 80, Russian cellist and conductor, intestinal cancer. [30]
• Robert E. Webber, 73, American scholar and author on Christian worship renewal, pancreatic cancer. [31]

26

• Florea Dumitrache, 58, Romanian football player, digestive hemorrhage. [32] (Romanian)
• Wolfgang Gewalt, 78, German zoologist, director of the Duisburg Zoo (1966–1993). [33] (German)
• Lindsey Hughes, 57, British professor of Russian History at University College London, cancer. [34]
• Henry LeTang, 91, American choreographer. [35]
• Jack Valenti, 85, American president of the Motion Picture Association of America (1966–2004), complications of stroke. [36]

25

• Alan Ball, 61, British footballer, youngest member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning team, heart attack. [37] [38]
• Barbara Blida, 57, Polish politician, suicide by gunshot. [39]
• Polly Hill, 100, American horticulturist, founder of Polly Hill Arboretum. [40]
• Les Jackson, 86, British cricketer, fast-medium bowler for Derbyshire and England. [41]
• Arthur Milton, 79, British sportsman, last person to play both football and cricket for England, heart attack. [42].
• Johnny Perkins, 54, American National Football League player for the New York Giants, complications following heart surgery. [43]
• Bobby "Boris" Pickett, 69, American one-hit wonder singer ("Monster Mash"), leukemia. [44]

24

• Warren Avis, 91, American founder of Avis Rent A Car System and real estate developer. [45]
• Ida R. Hoos, 94, American sociologist and critic of systems analysis, pneumonia. [46]
• Roy Jenson, 80, Canadian actor, cancer. [47]
• Jim Moran, 88, American automotive dealer and philanthropist. [48]
• James Richards, 58, American veterinarian and feline expert, motorcycle accident while avoiding a cat. [49]
• Kate Walsh, 60, Irish Progressive Democrat senator. [50]
• Robert M. Warner, 79, American archivist who led the National Archives and Records Administration, heart attack. [51]

23

• Walter Bareiss, 87, German-American art collector, heart failure. [52]
• Paul Erdman, 74, American economist, banker, and writer. [53]
• David Halberstam, 73, American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, car accident. [54]
• Axel Madsen, 77, American biographer, pancreatic cancer. [55]
• Michael Smuin, 68, American ballet dancer, choreographer and director, heart attack. [56]
• Boris Yeltsin, 76, first President of the Russian Federation (1991–1999), heart failure. [57] [58]

22

• Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, 84, South African-born endocrinologist, President of RCP (1983–1989) and Chair of the BHF. [59]
• Karl Holzamer, 100, German founder and director-general of TV channel ZDF. [60]
• Juanita Millender-McDonald, 68, American Democratic Representative (Calif.), Chair of House Administration Committee, cancer. [61]
• Conchita Montenegro, 94, Spanish actress. [62]
• Anne Pitoniak, 85, American character actress, cancer. [63]

21

• Boscoe Holder, 85, Trinidadian dancer, choreographer and painter. [64]
• James Hamupanda Kauluma, 75, Namibian bishop and freedom fighter, prostate cancer. [65].
• Lobby Loyde, 65, Australian rock guitarist (Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs), lung cancer.[66]
• Parry O'Brien, 75, American shot put champion at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, heart attack. [67]
• Art Saaf, 85, American comic book artist (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle), Parkinson's disease. [68]
• Bruce Van Sickle, 90, American federal judge (1971–2002), Alzheimer's disease. [69]

20

• Yehuda Meir Abramowicz, 92, Israeli General Secretary of Agudat Israel (1972–1981). [70]
• Audrey Fagan, 44, Irish-born Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner, suspected suicide by hanging. [71] [72]
• Fred Fish, 54, American computer programmer known for GNU Debugger. [73]
• Michael Fu Tieshan, 75, Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association bishop of Beijing, cancer. [74]
• Andrew Hill, 75, American jazz pianist and composer, lung cancer. [75]
• Jan Kociniak, 69, Polish actor. [76] (Polish)
• William Phillips, 60, American engineer, Johnson Space Center shooting gunman, suicide by gunshot. [77]
• Robert Rosenthal, 89, American distinguished World War II pilot and lawyer, multiple myeloma. [78]

19

• Ken Albers, 82, American singer (The Four Freshmen). [79]
• Anthony Brooks, 85, British agent who led French Resistance saboteurs after the Normandy Invasion, stomach cancer. [80]
• Jean-Pierre Cassel, 74, French actor, cancer. [81]
• Marie Hicks, 83, American civil rights activist, complications from Parkinson's disease. [82]
• Worth McDougald, 82, American journalism educator, Director of the Peabody Awards (1963–1991), heart failure. [83]
• Bohdan Paczyński, 67, Polish astrophysicist, brain tumor. [84]
• Leszek Suski, 77, Polish Olympic fencer. [85]
• Helen Walton, 87, American widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, natural causes. [86]
• George D. Webster, 61, American football player. [87]

18

• Josy Gyr-Steiner, 57, Swiss politician. [88] (German)
• Iccho Itoh, 61, Japanese mayor of Nagasaki, homicide by shooting. [89] [90]
• Andrej Kvašňák, 70, Slovak footballer, lung cancer. [91]
• Alvin Roth, 92, American contract bridge champion. [92]
• Donald Stephens, 79, American long-serving mayor of Rosemont, Illinois, founder of Hummel figurine museum, stomach cancer. [93]
• Tony Suarez, 51, American soccer player (Carolina Lightnin', Cleveland Force), 1981 Rookie of the Year. [94] [95]
• Dick Vosburgh, 77, American-born comedy writer and lyricist, cancer. [96]

17

• Nair Bello, 75, Brazilian actress, heart failure. [97] [98] (Portuguese)
• James B. Davis, 90, American founder of The Dixie Hummingbirds, heart failure. [99]
• Steven Derounian, 89, Bulgarian-born American Republican Representative from New York state (1953–1965). [100]
• Len Fitzgerald, 76, Australian footballer, cancer. [101] [102]
• Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96, American actress (A Night at the Opera), TV personality (To Tell the Truth) and singer, heart failure. [103]
• Bruce Haslingden, 84, Australian Olympic cross-country skier, staphylococcus infection. [104]
• Raymond Kaelbel, 75, French international footballer. [105]
• Chauncey Starr, 95, American electrical engineer, pioneer in the field of nuclear energy. [106]
• Glenn Sutton, 69, American country songwriter and record producer, heart attack. [107]

16

• Frank Bateson, 97, New Zealand astronomer and writer. [108]
• Seung-Hui Cho, 23, South Korean Virginia Tech mass murderer, suicide by gunshot. [109]
• Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, 49, Canadian instructor of French at Virginia Tech, homicide. [110]
• Tran Bach Dang, 81, Vietnamese journalist and politician. [111]
• Gaetan Duchesne, 44, Canadian NHL player (1981–1995), heart attack. [112]
• Kevin Granata, 45, American associate professor of engineering at Virginia Tech, homicide. [113]
• Robert Jones, 56, British Conservative politician (MP 1983–1997), minister in the government of John Major, liver cancer. [114]
• Maria Lenk, 92, Brazilian Olympic swimmer (1932, 1936), rupture of aortic aneurysm. [115]
• Liviu Librescu, 76, Romanian-born professor of engineering at Virginia Tech, Holocaust survivor, homicide. [116]
• G. V. Loganathan, 50, Indian-born professor of engineering at Virginia Tech, homicide. [117]
• Jack Wiebe, 70, Canadian politician, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan (1994–2000), Senator (2000–2004), lung cancer. [118]

15

• Patricia Buckley, 80, Canadian-born socialite and fundraiser, wife of William F. Buckley, Jr., infection after long illness. [119]
• Heo Se-uk, 54, South Korean protester against U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, septic shock following self-immolation burns. [120]
• Brant Parker, 86, American cartoonist who co-created The Wizard of Id. [121]
• Justine Saunders, 54, Australian actress, cancer. [122] [123]
• Peter Tsiamalili, 54, Papuan first administrator of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. [124] [125]
• Donald Tuzin, 62, American anthropologist and leading authority on Melanesian culture, pulmonary hypertension. [126]

14

• Ladislav Adamec, 80, Czech communist politician, Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1988–1989). [127] (Czech)
• Robert Buck, 93, American aviator who set several aviation records in his teens, complications from a fall. [128]
• June Callwood, 82, Canadian journalist and activist, cancer. [129]
• Bobby Cram, 67, British footballer for West Bromwich Albion and Colchester United. [130]
• Don Ho, 76, American Hawaiian musician and entertainer, heart failure. [131]
• Jim Jontz, 55, American congressman from Indiana (1987–1993), colon cancer. [132]
• William Menster, 94, American Catholic priest, first member of the clergy to visit Antarctica. [133]
• René Rémond, 88, French historian and academician. [134] (French)
• Herman Riley, 73, American tenor saxophone jazz performer, heart failure. [135]
• Audrey Santo, 23, American brain-injured girl claimed to have performed miracles, cardio-respiratory failure. [136]
• Jim Thurman, 72, American children's television writer and voice of Sesame Street's "Teeny Little Super Guy," illness. [137]
• Frank Westheimer, 95, American chemist. [138]

13

• Birgitta Arman, 86, Swedish actress. [139] (Swedish)
• Marie Clay, 81, New Zealand world-renowned reading expert, after short illness. [140]
• Nathan Heffernan, 86, American judge, Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court (1983–1995). [141]
• Hans Koning, 85, Dutch-born writer and journalist. [142]
• Joe Lane, 80, Australian bebop jazz singer. [143]
• Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, 88, American poet who wrote about the Dust Bowl. [144]
• Neil Pickard, 78, Australian politician. [145]
• Capil Rampersad, 46, Trinidad and Tobago cricketer. [146]
• Joie Ray, 83, American open-wheel and stock car race driver, respiratory failure. [147]
• Don Selwyn, 71, New Zealand actor and director, complications from a kidney infection. [148]
• Marion Yorck von Wartenburg, 102, German World War II resistance fighter. [149] (German)

12

• Kelsie B. Harder, 84, American name expert, congestive heart failure. [150]
• Len Hill, 65, British cricketer for Glamorgan and footballer for Newport County. [151]
• James Lyons, 46, American film editor, squamous cell carcinoma. [152]
• Pierre Probst, 93, French children's book author and illustrator. [153] (French)
• Little Sonny Warner, 77, American singer who earned a gold record with "There’s Something on Your Mind". [154]

11

• Roscoe Lee Browne, 81, American Emmy Award-winning actor (The Cosby Show, Soap), cancer. [155]
• Loïc Leferme, 36, French free diver, drowning. [156]
• Warren E. Preece, 85, American editor of Encyclopædia Britannica (1964–1975), heart failure. [157]
• Ronald Speirs, 86, American World War II commanding officer of Easy Company (Band of Brothers). [158]
• Warren Strelow, 73, American ice hockey goaltending coach for 1980 Winter Olympics gold medal team (Miracle on Ice). [159].
• Kurt Vonnegut, 84, American novelist and social critic, brain injury from a fall. [160]

10

• Kevin Crease, 70, Australian television newsreader, cancer. [161]
• Mary Ewen, 128?, Jamaican claimed to be oldest person in the Western hemisphere. [162]
• Florence Finch, 113, British-born New Zealand supercentenarian, world's sixth-oldest person, cardio-respiratory failure. [163]
• Walter Hendl, 90, American conductor, heart and lung disease. [164]
• Ralph Heywood, 85, American football player. [165]
• Awdy Kulyýew, 70, Turkmen exiled politician and Foreign Minister (1990–1992), complications from stomach surgery. [166]
• Salvatore Scarpitta, 88, American sculptor, complications from diabetes. [167]
• Dakota Staton, 76, American jazz vocalist, after long illness. [168] [169]

9

• Florence Arrowsmith, 102, British marital recordholder. [170]
• Egon Bondy, 77, Czech philosopher and poet. [171]
• AJ Carothers, 75, American playwright and television writer, cancer. [172]
• Alain Etchegoyen, 55, French philosopher, cancer. [173] (French)
• Sir Michael Fox, 85, British judge, Lord Justice of Appeal (1981–1992). [174]
• Dorrit Hoffleit, 100, American research astronomer, brief illness. [175]
• Mark Langford, 42, British businessman, former head of The Accident Group, car accident. [176]
• Philip Mayne, 107, last surviving British officer of World War I. [177]
• Harry Rasky, 78, Canadian documentary film producer, heart failure. [178]

8

• Natalia Clare, 87, American ballet dancer and instructor, complications of strokes. [179]
• Victor Kneale, 89, Manx Speaker of the House of Keys (1990–1991). [180]
• Sol LeWitt, 78, American artist known for his role in the Conceptualism and Minimalism movements, cancer. [181]
• Bill Mescher, 79, American politician; member of the South Carolina Senate from 1993 until his death, stroke. [182]

7

• Neville Duke, 85, British World War II fighter pilot. [183]
• Marià Gonzalvo, 85, Spanish captain of FC Barcelona and international footballer for Spain. [184]
• Johnny Hart, 76, American cartoonist (B.C., The Wizard of Id), stroke. [185]
• Brian Miller, 70, British footballer for Burnley and England. [186]
• Otto Natzler, 99, American ceramics and glazing master, cancer. [187]
• Barry Nelson, 89, American actor (The Shining), first to play James Bond on screen. [188]

6

• Emma Bodie Begay, 119?, American Navajo woman who claimed to be the world's oldest person. [189]
• Luigi Comencini, 90, Italian film director. [190]
• Stan Daniels, 72, Canadian writer and producer (Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore Show), heart failure. [191]
• Colin Graham, 75, British opera, theatre and television director, cardiac arrest. [192]
• George Jenkins, 98, American Academy Award-winning production designer (All the President's Men), heart failure. [193]
• Józef Kos, 106, one of the last six World War I veterans from Germany. [194] (Polish)
• Jill McGown, 59, British mystery writer. [195]
• James McGuinness, 81, British priest, Bishop of Nottingham (1974–2000). [196]
• Raymond G. Murphy, 77, American Medal of Honor recipient during the Korean War. [197]
• Jimmy Lee Smith, 76, American murderer whose story inspired the book and movie The Onion Field. [198]

5

• Maria Gripe, 83, Swedish author. [199]
• Thomas Stoltz Harvey, 94, American pathologist. [200]
• Leela Majumdar, 99, Indian Bengali language children's author. [201]
• Mark St. John, 51, American guitarist (KISS, White Tiger), brain hemorrhage. [202]
• Ali Sriti, 88, Tunisian oudist. [203] (French)
• Darryl Stingley, 55, American football player, bronchial pneumonia. [204]
• Poornachandra Tejaswi, 68, Indian writer and novelist in the Kannada language, cardiac arrest. [205]
• John Winter, 39, American meteorologist for WFLA-TV, suicide by gunshot. [206]

4

• Jagjit Singh Chauhan, 80, Indian Sikh separatist leader, heart attack. [207]
• Bob Clark, 67, American film director (A Christmas Story, Porky's), car accident. [208]
• Reginald H. Fuller, 92, British-born biblical scholar and Anglican priest, complications of a broken hip. [209]
• Terry Hall, 80, British ventriloquist and children's television presenter. [210]
• Edward Mallory, 76, American television actor (Days of our Lives). [211]
• Datuk K. Sivalingam, 59, Malaysian politician, heart attack. [212] [213]
• Karen Spärck Jones, 71, British professor emeritus of Computers and Information at the University of Cambridge, cancer. [214]

3

• Marion Eames, 85, British novelist (The Secret Room). [215]
• Robin Montgomerie-Charrington, 91, British 1952 Grand Prix driver. [216]
• Walter Nicks, 81, American dancer and choreographer. [217]
• Thomas Hal Phillips, 84, American novelist and screenwriter. [218]
• Zoltán Pongrácz, 95, Hungarian composer and conductor. [219] (Hungarian)
• Eddie Robinson, 88, American college football coach at Grambling State University, Alzheimer's disease. [220]
• Burt Topper, 78, American screenwriter, film director and film producer, pulmonary failure. [221]
• Nina Wang, 69, Hong Kong businesswoman and Asia's richest woman. [222]

2

• William W. Becker, 85, American co-founder of the Motel 6 chain, heart attack. [223]
• Janet Bloomfield, 53, British campaigner, Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (1993–1996), septic shock. [224].
• Jeannie Ferris, 66, Australian Senator, ovarian cancer. [225]
• Henry Lee Giclas, 96, American astronomer. [226]
• Paul Reed, 97, American comedian and actor (Car 54, Where Are You?), heart failure. [227]
• Tadjou Salou, 32, Togolese international footballer, after long illness. [228]

1

• Laurie Baker, 90, British-born Indian architect. [229]
• John Billings, 89, Australian co-developer of the Billings ovulation method. [230]
• Herb Carneal, 83, American sportscaster, radio broadcaster for Minnesota Twins MLB team, congestive heart failure. [231]
• Driss Chraibi, 80, Moroccan writer. [232]
• Myrna "Screechy Peach" Crenshaw, 47, American singer & songwriter, breast cancer. [233]
• Joseph Hirsch Dunner, 94, German-born British Orthodox rabbi. [234]
• Hans Karl Filbinger, 93, German jurist and right-wing politician. [235] (German)
• Char Fontane, 55, American actress and singer, daughter of Tony Fontane, breast cancer. [236]
• Lou Limmer, 82, American Major League Baseball player for the Philadelphia Athletics. [237]
• Salem Ludwig, 91, American character actor. [238]
• Sally Merchant, 88, Canadian broadcaster and politician, cancer. [239] [240]
• Hannah Nydahl, 61, Danish teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, translator for her husband Ole Nydahl, lung and brain cancer. [241]
• Ladislav Rychman, 84, Czech film director, heart attack. [242]
• George Sewell, 82, British actor, cancer. [243]
• Elliott Skinner‎, 82, American scholar and former ambassador, heart failure. [244] [245]