Notable Deaths on December 11

Anne Rice was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing The Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted the first volume in the series into a commercially successful film, Interview with the Vampire (1994).

Bettie Mae Page was an American model who gained recognition in the 1950s for her pin-up photos. She was often referred to as the "Queen of Pinups": her long jet-black hair, blue eyes, and trademark bangs have influenced artists for generations. After her death, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner called her "a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society".

Keith Chegwin, also known by the nickname Cheggers, was an English television presenter and actor, appearing in several children's entertainment shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Cheggers Plays Pop.

Edward Arnold Chapman was an English criminal and wartime spy. During the Second World War he offered his services to Nazi Germany as a spy and subsequently became a British double agent. His British Secret Service handlers codenamed him Agent Zigzag in acknowledgement of his erratic personal history.

David Bonderman was an American billionaire businessman. He was the founding partner of TPG Inc., and its Asian affiliate, Newbridge Capital. He was also one of the minority owners of the NBA's Boston Celtics as well as the co-founder and co-majority owner of the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League. At the time of his death, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$7.4 billion, making him the 400th richest person in the world.

Jeanne Roques, known professionally as Musidora, was a French actress, film director, screenwriter, playwright and novelist. A major figure of French silent cinema, she became internationally known for portraying Irma Vep in Louis Feuillade's serial Les Vampires (1915–1916), and Diana Monti in Judex (1917).

Arthur Hays Sulzberger was publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961. During that time, daily circulation rose from 465,000 to 713,000 and Sunday circulation from 745,000 to 1.4 million; the staff more than doubled, reaching 5,200; advertising linage grew from 19 million to 62 million column inches per year; and gross income increased almost sevenfold, reaching $117 million.

Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız was a prominent Turkish ultranationalist writer, novelist, and poet. Atsız self-identified as a racist, Pan-Turkist, Turanist, and was the ideologue of Atsızism. He was the author of over 30 books and numerous articles and was in strong opposition to the government of İsmet İnönü, which he criticized for co-operating with the communists. He was accused of being a sympathizer of Nazi Germany and plotting to overthrow the Turkish government.

Samuel Cooke was an American soul singer and songwriter. Considered one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the "King of Soul" for his distinctive vocals, pioneering contributions to the genre, and significance in popular music. During his thirteen-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as 20 singles in the Top 10 of Billboard's Black Singles chart. In 1964, he was shot and killed by the manager of a motel in Los Angeles. His family has since questioned the circumstances of his death. In 2015, Cooke was ranked number 28 in Billboard magazine's list of the "35 Greatest R&B Artists of All Time" and number 3 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "200 Greatest Singers of All Time", behind only Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin.

Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya was a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1966. She was the wife of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and mother to their two daughters, Olga and Elena Rostropovich.

General Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, was a British Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars. During the Second World War he commanded the British Eighth Army in the North African campaign from November 1941 until he was dismissed in June 1942 after a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Gazala.

Arthur Leslie Lydiard was a New Zealand runner and athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularising the sport of running and making it commonplace across the sporting world. His training methods are based on a strong endurance base and periodisation.

Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282, and previously as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire. His reign saw considerable recovery of Byzantine power, including the enlargement of the Byzantine army and navy. It also included the reconstruction of the city of Constantinople, and the increase of its population. His re-establishment of the University of Constantinople contributed to the Palaeologan Renaissance, a cultural flowering between the 13th and 15th centuries.

James Robert Flynn was an American-born New Zealand moral philosopher and intelligence researcher. Originally from Washington, D.C., and educated at the University of Chicago, Flynn emigrated to Dunedin in 1963, where he taught political studies at the University of Otago. He was noted for his publications about the continued year-after-year increase of IQ scores throughout the world, which is now referred to as the Flynn effect. In addition to his academic work, he championed social democratic politics throughout his life.

Lester Junior "Dick" Hoerner was an American professional football player who was a fullback for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) from 1947 to 1951. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes in 1942 and 1946. He helped lead the Rams to three consecutive NFL championship games from 1949 to 1951, played for the 1951 Los Angeles Rams team that won the 1951 NFL Championship Game, and was selected to play in the inaugural 1951 Pro Bowl. He was the Rams' all-time leading rusher at the end of his playing career with the team. He concluded his professional football career as a member of the Dallas Texans in 1952.

Hujjatul Islam Sheikh Muhammad Mussa Shariefi was a senior Islamic Twelver Shia religious scholar/alim from the Kargil district of Ladakh. He was renowned for his philosophical and mystical Friday prayer sermons which were always attended by thousands of people from the length and breadth of Kargil. He became the Imam e Jumu'ah of Jamia Masjid Kargil after the death of the immensely popular Shia mystic and scholar, Hujjat ul Islam wal Muslimeen Aqa Sheikh Khanteypa. He gained immense popularity for his usage of the local dialect for delivering his Friday sermons. He was one of the last members of a group of religious scholars from Kargil who attained higher Islamic Studies in the Hawza 'Ilmiyya Najaf, before the rule of Ba'ath Party in Iraq. He is renowned for his piety and his role in propagating Islam and establishing numerous Islamic institutions in Kargil.

Äbış Kekılbaev was a Kazakh public and political figure, Hero of Labour of Kazakhstan (2009), People’s Writer of Kazakhstan (1992), and Honored Cultural Worker of the Kyrgyz Republic (1995). He is a laureate of the State Prize, a philologist, and an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. He also holds the title of Honorary Professor at both Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Served as a Senator of Kazakhstan from 2002 to 2010, State Secretary of Kazakhstan from 1996 to 2002, and the Supreme Council Chairman from 1994 until its dissolution in 1995.

John Gillespie Magee Jr. was a World War II Anglo-American Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and war poet, who wrote the sonnet "High Flight". He was killed in an accidental mid-air collision over England in 1941.

Percy William Kilbride was an American character actor. He made a career of playing country "hicks," most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.

Pandit Ravi Shankar was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he was, together with sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan, among the most prominent exponents of Hindustani classical music in the second half of the 20th century, and played a major role in bringing Indian classical music to international audiences. Shankar influenced many musicians in India and throughout the world. He was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999. He is also the father of American singer Norah Jones and British-American musician and sitar player Anoushka Shankar.

Nikephoros II Phokas, Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless greatly contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century. In the east, Nikephoros completed the conquest of Cilicia and retook the islands of Crete and Cyprus, opening the path for subsequent Byzantine incursions reaching as far as Upper Mesopotamia and the Levant; these campaigns earned him the sobriquet "pale death of the Saracens."

Kenneth Frank Charles Woolley, was an Australian architect. In a career spanning 60 years, he is best known for his contributions to project housing with Pettit and Sevitt, as well as for being a four-time winner of the Wilkinson Award, including three times for his own house, and his longstanding partnership with Sydney Ancher and Bryce Mortlock. He is regarded as being a prominent figure in the development of the Sydney School movement and in Australian vernacular building.

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd or Llywelyn the Last was Prince of Gwynedd from 1255 to 1282. After successful campaigns across Wales in 1257, Llywelyn proclaimed himself Prince of Wales in 1258, and was recognised as such by Henry III of England in 1267 as part of the Treaty of Montgomery. He remained in this position until his death in an ambush at Cilmeri in 1282, one of the final events in Edward I’s conquest of Wales.

Adam Elsheimer was a German Baroque painter who worked in Rome. Though his career was short, his relatively few paintings were very influential in the early 17th century. His works were nearly all small oils on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light effects, and an innovative treatment of landscape. He was an influence on many other artists, including Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens.

Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah was a Pakistani politician, diplomat and author. She joined the Pakistani foreign service in 1948, and was the country's first female civil servant, as well as the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD from the University of London. She was Pakistan's ambassador to Morocco from 1964 to 1967, and a delegate to the United Nations, calling for a more gender-inclusive language in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Jaan Anvelt, was an Estonian Bolshevik revolutionary and writer. He served the Russian SFSR, was a leader of the Communist Party of Estonia, the first premier of the Soviet Executive Committee of Estonia, and the chairman of the Council of the Commune of the Working People of Estonia. Imprisoned during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in 1937, he died from the injuries sustained during a beating by Aleksandr Langfang while in NKVD custody.

Ibn Rushd, Latinized as Averroes, was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who was proficient in a variety of intellectual fields, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, mathematics, neurology, Islamic jurisprudence, law, and linguistics. The author of more than 100 books and treatises, his philosophical works include numerous commentaries on Aristotle, for which he was known in the Western world as "The Commentator" and "Father of Rationalism".

Emperor Kōkaku was the 119th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōkaku reigned from 1779 until his abdication in 1817 in favor of his son, Emperor Ninkō. After his abdication, he ruled as Daijō Tennō also known as a Jōkō (上皇) until his death in 1840. The next emperor to abdicate was Akihito, 202 years later.

William Milligan was a renowned Scottish theologian. He studied at the University of Halle in Germany, and eventually became a professor at the University of Aberdeen. He is best known for his commentary on the Revelation of St. John. He also wrote two other well-known books that are classics: The Resurrection of our Lord and The Ascension of our Lord.

John Strype was an English clergyman, historian and biographer from London. He became a merchant when settling in Petticoat Lane. In his twenties, he became perpetual curate of Theydon Bois, Essex and later became curate of Leyton; this allowed him direct correspondence with several highly notable ecclesiastical figures of his time. He wrote extensively in his later years.

Olive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It deals boldly with such contemporary issues as agnosticism, existential independence, individualism, the professional aspirations of women, and the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier.

Simon Harry Piers Jeffes was an English classically trained guitarist, composer and arranger. He formed, and was the primary performer of, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He was the composer of the ballet Still Life at the Penguin Cafe, of the much-recorded piece Music for a Found Harmonium, and other music recorded by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

Myron Frederick "Moose" Grimshaw was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1905 through 1907 for the Boston Americans. Listed at 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m), 173 lb., Grimshaw was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. He was born in St. Johnsville, New York, but was raised in Canajoharie, New York.

Mustafa Muğlalı was an officer of the Ottoman Army and the general of the Turkish Army. He served as an officer in World War I and the Turkish War of Independence. As a General of the Third Army, he took part in the defense of Diyarbakır during the Sheikh Said Rebellion in 1925.

James Leroy Bottomley was an American professional baseball player, scout and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1922 to 1937, most prominently as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals where he helped lead the team to four National League pennants and two World Series titles.

Nadir Afonso, GOSE was a Portuguese geometric abstractionist painter. Formally trained in architecture, which he practiced early in his career with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir Afonso later studied painting in Paris and became one of the pioneers of Kinetic art, working alongside Victor Vasarely, Fernand Léger, Auguste Herbin, and André Bloc.

Ivan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet, and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature. He is regarded as the greatest writer in Slovene, and has sometimes been compared to Franz Kafka and James Joyce.

John Patrick Foley was an American Catholic prelate who served as Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem from 2007 to 2011. He previously served as president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications from 1984 to 2007. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007.

Dona Maria Leopoldina of Austria was the first Empress of Brazil as the wife of Emperor Dom Pedro I from 12 October 1822 until her death. She was also Queen of Portugal during her husband's brief reign as King Dom Pedro IV from 10 March to 2 May 1826.

Augusta Fox Bronner was an American psychologist and criminologist, best known for her work in juvenile psychology. She co-directed the first child guidance clinic, and her research shaped psychological theories about the causes behind child delinquency, emphasizing the need to focus on social and environmental factors over inherited traits.

Kamehameha V, reigned as the fifth monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1863 until his death in 1872. His motto was "Onipaʻa": immovable, firm, steadfast, or determined; he is said to have worked diligently for his people and kingdom, being described as the last great traditional chief.

André Lichnerowicz was a French differential geometer and mathematical physicist. He made pioneering contributions to the theory of the scalar curvature, holonomy groups, Kähler geometry, and the mathematical study of Einstein's equations. He also made contributions to symplectic geometry, and is considered the founder of modern Poisson geometry.

Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, known as le Grand Condé, was a French military commander. A tactician and strategist, he is regarded as one of France's greatest generals, particularly celebrated for his triumphs in the Thirty Years' War and his campaigns during the Franco-Dutch War.

Vincent du Vigneaud was an American biochemist. He was recipient of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone," a reference to his work on the peptide hormone oxytocin.

Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba, known as the Grand Duke of Alba in Spain and Portugal and as the Iron Duke or shortly 'Alva' in the Netherlands and Belgium, was a Spanish military officer, statesman and diplomat.

Carl Josef Anton von In der Maur auf Strelburg und zu Freifeld was an Austrian aristocrat and statesman who twice served in the court of Johann II as the Governor of Liechtenstein from 1884 until 1892 and again from 1897 until 1913.

Pope Damasus I, also known as Damasus of Rome, was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death in 384. He presided over the Council of Rome of 382, which established the canon, or official list, of sacred scripture.

Henry IV, nicknamed the Impotent, was King of Castile and León and the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Castile and León. During Henry's reign, the nobles became more powerful and the nation became less centralised.

Louise Emma Augusta Dahl-Wolfe was an American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for Harper's Bazaar, in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland. At Harper's Bazaar she pioneered a new standard in color photography.

Marie Paul Auguste Charles Fabry was a French physicist working on optics. Together with Alfred Pérot he invented the Fabry–Pérot interferometer. He is also one of the co-discoverers of the ozone layer.

Ranuccio II Farnese was the sixth Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1646 until his death nearly 50 years later. He was also the Duke of Castro from 1646 until 1649.

Robert Q. Lewis was an American radio and television entertainer, comedian, game show host and actor. Although born with the Goldberg name, he grew up as Lewis, his father's professional name.

David Lewis was an American actor. He was best known for being the original actor to portray Edward Quartermaine from 1978 to 1993 on the American soap opera General Hospital.

Ögedei Khan was the second khan of the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis Khan, he continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun.

Hema Upadhyay was an Indian visual artist, based in Mumbai. She was known for photography and sculptural installations. She was active from 1998 until her death in 2015.

Juho Kekkonen was Finnish head of forestry, logging caretaker and tenant farmer. He was also known as the father of Urho Kekkonen, the 8th President of Finland.

José Luis Cuciuffo was an Argentine professional footballer who played as a centre back and who was part of the 1986 FIFA World Cup-winning Argentina national team.

Christian Lous Lange was a Norwegian historian, teacher, and political scientist. He was one of the world's foremost exponents of the theory and practice of internationalism.

Chona Menachem Mendel (Mendel) Weinbach was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, educator, author, and speaker. As the co-founder and dean of Ohr Somayach Institutions, a Jerusalem-based yeshiva for newly-observant Jewish men, he was considered one of the fathers of the modern-day baal teshuva movement.

Pietro Accolti, known as the "cardinal of Ancona", was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and judge of the Roman Rota.

Richard Brocklesby, an English physician, was born at Minehead, Somerset.

Oliver Fisher Winchester was an American businessman and politician, best known as being the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

Ludwig Mond FRS was a German-born British chemist and industrialist. He discovered an important, previously unknown, class of compounds called metal carbonyls.

Hugh Thackeray Turner was an English Arts and Crafts architect and also an amateur china painter.

Charles Émile Picard was a French mathematician. He was elected the fifteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française in 1924.

Sedat Simavi was a Turkish journalist, writer and film director. He established many newspapers and magazines.

Richard Sagrits was an Estonian painter.

Richard James McDonald and Maurice James "Mac" McDonald, known as the McDonald brothers, were American entrepreneurs who founded McDonald's.

Lee Wiley was an American jazz singer during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

G. A. Kulkarni, or known simply as "GA", was an Indian Sahitya Akademi Award winner Marathi writer of short stories.

Nils Artur Lundkvist was a Swedish writer, poet and literary critic. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1968.

William George Rushton was an English cartoonist, comedian, actor and satirist who co-founded the satirical magazine Private Eye.

James Lynn Strait II was an American singer. He was the lead vocalist and lyricist for the nu metal band Snot.

Ahmadou Kourouma was an Ivorian novelist.

Barbara Joan Branden was a Canadian-American writer, editor, and lecturer, known for her relationship and subsequent break with novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand.

H. Arnold Steinberg, was a Canadian businessman, philanthropist and Chancellor of McGill University.