Notable Deaths on December 12

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. She was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981.

Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. was an American actor. He appeared in numerous motion pictures, including The Godfather Part II (1974), The Front (1976), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Hide in Plain Sight (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Moonstruck (1987), Harlem Nights (1989), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), Ruby (1992), Léon: The Professional (1994), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), Dinner Rush (2000), and Lucky Number Slevin (2006). He played Don Domenico Clericuzio in the miniseries The Last Don (1997).

Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckling roles in silent films. One of the biggest stars of the silent era, Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He was also a founding member of United Artists as well as the Motion Picture Academy and hosted the 1st Academy Awards in 1929.

Vicente Fernández Gómez was a Mexican mariachi singer, actor, and film producer. Nicknamed "Chente", "El Charro de Huentitán", "El Ídolo de México", and "El Rey de la Música Ranchera", Fernández started his career as a busker, and went on to become a cultural icon, having recorded more than 100 albums and contributing to more than 150 films. His repertoire consisted of rancheras and other Mexican classics such as waltzes.

Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the lineup in May 1963 at the request of manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt he did not fit the band's image. He remained as road manager and pianist for over two decades until his death, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989.

Paul Joseph Arizin, nicknamed "Pitchin Paul", was an American basketball player who spent his entire National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Philadelphia Warriors from 1950 to 1962. He retired with the then third highest career point total (16,266) in NBA history, and was named to the NBA's 25th, 50th and 75th anniversary teams. He was a high-scoring forward at Villanova University before being drafted by the Warriors of the fledgling NBA.

Stuart Allen Roosa was an American aeronautical engineer, smokejumper, United States Air Force pilot, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, who was the Command Module Pilot for the Apollo 14 mission. The mission lasted from January 31 to February 9, 1971, and was the third mission to land astronauts on the Moon. While Shepard and Mitchell spent two days on the lunar surface, Roosa conducted experiments from orbit in the Command Module Kitty Hawk. He was one of the 24 Apollo astronauts who reached the Moon, which he orbited 34 times.

Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was a British Tory politician and philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views and opposition to theology. Bolingbroke supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, which sought to overthrow the new king George I. Escaping to France, he became foreign minister for the Jacobite pretender James Francis Edward Stuart. He was attainted for treason but reversed course and was allowed to return to England in 1723. According to Ruth Mack, "Bolingbroke is best known for his party politics, including the ideological history he disseminated in The Craftsman (1726–1735) by adopting the formerly Whig theory of the Ancient Constitution and giving it new life as an anti-Walpole Tory principle."

Jean Lesage was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the 19th premier of Quebec from July 5, 1960, to June 16, 1966. Alongside Georges-Émile Lapalme, René Lévesque and others, he is often viewed as the father of the Quiet Revolution. He is the namesake of the Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport, the main sections of Quebec's longest Autoroute highway Autoroute 20, and the provincial electoral district within Quebec City named Jean-Lesage.

Doris Amelia Blackburn was an Australian social reformer and politician. She served in the House of Representatives from 1946 to 1949, the second woman after Enid Lyons to do so. Blackburn was a prominent socialist and originally a member of the Labor Party. She was married to Maurice Blackburn, a Labor MP, but he was expelled from the party in 1937 and she resigned from the party in solidarity. Her husband died in 1944, and she was elected to his former seat at the 1946 federal election – the first woman elected to parliament as an independent. However, Blackburn served only a single term before being defeated. She later served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Herbert Eugene Plews was an American Major League Baseball second baseman. He played four years in the majors, from 1956 to 1959 with the Washington Senators and in 1959 for the Boston Red Sox. In the minor leagues he played for Kansas City, Binghamton, Norfolk, and Denver before reaching the majors in 1956, and Toronto, Birmingham, Hawaii, Tacoma, and Arkansas after his major league career ended. During his playing career he served in the military from 1951 to 1952, during the Korean War. Plews batted left-handed and threw right-handed; he was listed as 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and 160 pounds (73 kg).

Raymond Philip Shafer was an American attorney and politician who served as the 39th governor of Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1971. Prior to that, he served as the 23rd lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967 and as a Pennsylvania state senator from 1959 to 1962. He was a national leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party in the late 1960s.

Thorleif Haug was a Norwegian skier who competed in Nordic combined and cross-country. At the 1924 Olympics he won all three Nordic skiing events. He was also awarded the bronze medal in ski jumping, but 50 years later a mistake was found in calculation of scores, Haug was demoted to fourth place, and his daughter presented her father's medal to Anders Haugen.

Avery Robert Dulles was an American Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974, of the Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988, and as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University from 1988 to 2008. He was also an author and lecturer.

Carloman II was the King of West Francia from 879 until his death. A member of the Carolingians, he and his elder brother Louis III, divided the kingdom between themselves and ruled jointly until the latter's death in 882. Thereafter Carloman ruled alone until his own death. He was the second son of King Louis the Stammerer and Queen Ansgarde.

Charles Van Dell Johnson was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He had a prolific career in film, television, theatre and radio, which spanned over 50 years, from 1940 to 1992. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II, known for his upbeat and "all-American" screen persona, often playing young military servicemen, or in musicals.

Morris King Udall was an American attorney and politician who served as a U.S. representative from Arizona from 1961 to 1991. As a member of the Democratic Party, he was a leading contender for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, but ultimately lost to eventual president Jimmy Carter. Udall was noted by many for his independent and liberal views.

Thomas Robert Laughlin Jr. was an American actor, filmmaker, educator, activist, and perennial candidate. He was best known as the star and director of the Billy Jack tetralogy of action drama films, produced between 1969 and 1977. His unique promotion of the 1974's The Trial of Billy Jack was a major influence on the way films are marketed.

Clyde Bernard Fowler was an American politician from Maryland. He was a Calvert County Commissioner from 1970 to 1982, and served in the Maryland Senate between 1983 and 1994. Fowler is best known for his advocacy for the cleanup of the Patuxent River, the largest river to be found entirely within the State of Maryland.