Annual mortality (part 2)

Continuing our review of 2003’s notable deaths, here’s July through December…

July

• Herbie Mann (Jul 1, age 73)—popularized the flute in jazz, conversant in numerous world music genres
• Najeeb Halaby (Jul 2, at 87)—led Pan Am into the jet age, father of Queen Noor (King Hussein’s widow)
• Barry White (Jul 4, age 58)—the deep, deep voice of disco R&B, longtine record producer
• N!xau (announced Jul 5, around 59)—the “Coke bottle from the sky” in this Namibian Bushman’s 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy was a great cinema moment
• Buddy Ebsen (Jul 6, at 95)—a long career as a hoofer, many acting roles, but he’ll always be Jed Clampett
• Lord Hartley Williams Shawcross (Jul 10, age 101)—the UK’s chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials
• Benny Carter (Jul 12, at 95)—esteemed jazz sax player, composer, arranger, composer, conductor, leader
• Compay Segundo (Jul 13, age 95)—legendary Cuban musician, rediscovered by Ry Cooder and featured in the Buena Vista Social Club
• Tex Schramm (Jul 15, at 83)—longtime owner of the Dallas Cowboys when they were (ugh) “America’s Team”
• Odai Hussein (age 39) and Qusay Hussein (age 37) (Jul 22)—murdering assassinating killing them was supposed to signal the end of Iraqi insurgency, wasn’t it?
• John Schlesinger (Jul 25, at 77)—British-born movie director of Far From the Madding Crowd, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Marathon Man, and of course the masterful Midnight Cowboy
• Bob Hope (Jul 27, at 100)—I asked earlier whether Ol’ Ski-nose was the last of the vaudevilleans, but no one else offered any thoughts on the idea
• Tex McCrary (Jul 29, at 92)—broadcasting pioneer (devised the idea of “talk-show") and political publicist
• Sam Phillips (Jul 30, age 80)—a man who knew talent when he saw it ... Elvis, Jerry Lee, Roy O, Twitty, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and more

• Peter Safar (Aug 3, age 79)—pioneering giant in the field of resuscitation medicine, a man of the highest integrity and social conscience
• Gregory Hines (Aug 9, at 57)—actor, led resurgence of tap dancing as an art, beginning with father Maurice and brother Maurice Jr. in Hines, Hines, and Dad
• Idi Amin (Aug 16, about 80)—genocidal despot who ran the horror that was Uganda in the 1970s
• Sergio Vieira de Mello (Aug 19, age 55)—Brazilian diplomat, United Nations envoy in Iraq, died in Baghdad office bombing
• John Geoghan (Aug 23, age 68)—tip of the Catholic priest pedophilia/sexual-abuse iceberg, killed by another Massachusetts prisoner
• Bobby Bonds (Aug 23, at 57)—speedy and powerful outfielder of the 1970s, father of the best player in many decades
• Jinx Falkenburg (Aug 27, age 84)—wife, colleague, and business partner of Tex McCrary (see his Jul 29 listing)
• Charles Bronson (Aug 30, at 81)—tough-guy actor in war movies, westerns, and the Death Wish series

• Warren Zevon (Sep 7, age 56)—sardonic, sarcastic, off-beat rock singer-songwriter, best known for minor hit Werewolves of London
• Leni Riefenstahl (Sep 8, age 101)—German filmmaker who created documentaries glorifying the Berlin Olympics and the Third Reich
• Edward Teller (Sep 9, age 95)—the “father of the H-bomb”, archconservative militarist who destroyed the career of J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Anna Lindh (Sep 11, at 46)—Swedish foreign minister and rising star in European diplomatic circles, whose stabbing death reminded us of the murder of Olaf Palme in 1986
• John Ritter (Sep 12, age 54)—despite a plethora of intelligent, nuanced performances on TV and in movies, the son of singing cowboy Tex Ritter will always be seen as Jack Tripper in Three’s Company
• Johnny Cash (Sep 12, age 71)—legendary singer-songwriter, husband of the great June Carter Cash (who passed away on May 15), progressive activist, Man in Black
• Sheb Wooley (Sep 16, at 82)—actor in movie and TV westerns, composed/sang 1958 hit Purple People Eater, wrote theme song of Hee Haw
• Edward Said (Sep 25, age 67)—foremost intellectual of Palestinean and Arab modernism, esteemed author and professor at Columbia University
• George Plimpton (Sep 25, at 76)—erudite author and editor, wrote with great good humor of his fumbling attempts at a wide variety of athletic endeavors
• Robert Palmer (Sep 26, age 54)—dapper British blues/soul rocker, so Addicted To Love that he was Simply Irresistable
• Donald O’Connor (Sep 27, age 78)—acted and hoofed for 60 years, but he’ll always be defined by his Make ‘Em Laugh routine from Singin’ in the Rain
• Elia Kazan (Sep 28, at 94)—pre-eminent American director on stage and screen, sullied by his decision to name names in front of Congressional committees
• Althea Gibson (Sep 28, age 76)—first black winner at Wimbledon and US national tennis champion, later a pioneer in women’s professional golf

• Willie Shoemaker (Oct 12, age 72)—jockey who rode winners in 11 Triple Crown races among his 8833 victories, passed Johnny Longden’s (see Feb 14 listing) record for career wins in 1970, retired in 1990, and held the record until 1999
• Joan Kroc (Oct 12, age 75)—widow of McDonald’s founder Ray, former owner of San Diego Padres, philanthropist who gave a $200 million endowment to National Public Radio when she died
• Elliott Smith (Oct 21, at 34)—singer-songwriter, nominated for an Oscar for a song in movie Good Will Hunting
• Louise Day Hicks (Oct 21, age 87)—Boston school board member who embodied violent opposition to busing for desegregation in the turbulent 1960s and ‘70s
• Madame Chiang Kai-shek, nee Meiling Soong (Oct 23, age 105)—widow of the last non-Communist leader of China and first ruler of Taiwan
• Walter Washington (Oct 27, age 88)—first elected mayor of Washington DC, and the first black mayor of a major American city

• Bobby Hatfield (Nov 5, at 63)—the soaringly sweet tenor half of the Righteous Brothers, who paired with mellow baritone Bill Medley to create “blue-eyed soul” classics like You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling
• Art Carney (Nov 9, age 85)—consummate supporting actor, known forever as Ed Norton on The Honeymooners in the 1950s, who also won an Oscar for 1974 movie Harry and Tonto
• Don Gibson (Nov 17, at 75)—country music singer and songwriter, penned such chestnuts as I Can’t Stop Loving You and Oh, Lonesome Me (both written in a single afternoon in 1958)
• Warren Spahn (Nov 24, age 82)—winningest lefthanded pitcher in history with 363 victories, pitched 21 seasons and won 20 or more games in 13 of them
• Gertrude Ederle (Nov 30, age 98)—first woman to swim the English Channel, a tremendously important athletic milestone for women

• David Hemmings (Dec 3, age 62)—British actor, probably best known for his lead role in Antonioni’s enigmatic 1966 film Blowup
• Ruben Gonzalez (Dec 8, age 84)—Cuban pianist, the second member of Buena Vista Social Club to pass away in 2003 (see Jul 13 listing)
• Paul Simon (Dec 9, at 78)—Democratic Senator and 1988 presidential aspirant from Illinois, distinguished by his bowties and resonant speaking style, who endorsed Howard Dean just before his death
• Judd Marmor (Dec 16, age 93)—renowned psychiatrist who led the effort within the medical and health professions to recognize that homosexuality is not a mental disorder
• Otto Graham (Dec 17, at 82)—Hall of Fame quarterback who starred at Northwestern and then led Cleveland teams that played in AAFC and NFL championship games for 10 consecutive seasons
• Hope Lange (Dec 19, age 70)—Oscar-winner for Peyton Place, later won Emmys for her starring role in TV’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
• George Elliott (Dec 20, age 85)—as a radar operator in training, tried to alert Hickam Field about incoming Japanese bomber squadrons early in the morning of December 7, 1941
• Alan Bates (Dec 27, age 69)—though most remembrances talk about his roles in such films as Zorba the Greek, Women in Love, An Unmarried Woman, and Gosford Park, my mind turns to Phillipe de Broca’s anti-war cult favorite Roi de Coeur
• John Gregory Dunne (Dec 30, at 71)—husband of Joan Didion, part of a large artistic clan (brother of Dominick, uncle of Griffin and Dominique), wrote novels like True Confessions and collaborated with his wife on such screenplays as The Panic in Needle Park and A Star Is Born

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