Notable Deaths on December 5

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Classical composer and musician. He completed more than 800 works in his life—including outstanding examples of most of the genres of his time: symphonies, concertos, chamber music, opera and choral music. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

Kirstie Louise Alley was an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as Rebecca Howe in the NBC sitcom Cheers (1987–1993), for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe in 1991. From 1997 to 2000, Alley starred as the lead in the sitcom Veronica's Closet, earning additional Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. On film, she played Mollie Jensen in Look Who's Talking (1989) and its two sequels, Look Who's Talking Too (1990) and Look Who's Talking Now (1993).

Richard Benjamin Speck was an American mass murderer who killed eight student nurses in their South Deering, Chicago, residence by stabbing, strangling, slashing their throats, or a combination of the three on the night of July 13–14, 1966. Speck also raped one victim before killing her. A ninth potential victim, student nurse Corazon Amurao, survived by hiding beneath a bed.

Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of Impressionism who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his long career, he was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of Impressionism's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions of nature, especially as applied to plein air (outdoor) landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise, which was exhibited in 1874 at the First Impressionist Exhibition, initiated by Monet and a number of like-minded artists as an alternative to the Salon.

Joseph Jefferson Jackson, nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the early 20th century. His .356 career batting average is one of the highest in major-league history. Jackson is often remembered for his association with the Black Sox Scandal in which eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis permanently banned Jackson and the other seven players from professional baseball after the 1920 season. During the World Series in question, Jackson had led both teams in several statistical categories and set a World Series record with 12 base hits, including, during the last game, the only home run in that World Series. Jackson's role in the scandal, banishment from the game, and exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame have been fiercely debated. In 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred removed Jackson and other deceased players from the MLB's permanently ineligible list, thus lifting the ban and making him once again eligible for the hall of fame.

Princess Alice of Battenberg was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II, and paternal grandmother of King Charles III. After marrying Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903, she adopted the style of her husband, becoming Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark.

Robert Joseph Dole was an American politician, attorney, and Army officer who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate during the final 11 years of his tenure, including three non-consecutive years as Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate. Prior to his 27 years in the Senate, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. Dole was also the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 presidential election and the vice presidential nominee in the 1976 presidential election.

Mercedes Grabowski, known professionally as August Ames, was a Canadian pornographic film actress. She appeared in more than 250 films, including a non-pornographic film in 2016, and was nominated for several AVN Awards. With a self-disclosed history of sexual abuse and mental illness, Ames died by suicide in 2017 at the age of 23 after a social media backlash following a tweet she posted, due to some perceiving the tweet as homophobic.

Norman Milton Lear was an American screenwriter and producer who wrote and produced more than 100 television shows during a career that lasted over 70 years. Lear created and produced numerous popular 1970s sitcoms, including All in the Family (1971–1979), Maude (1972–1978), Sanford and Son (1972–1977), One Day at a Time (1975–1984), The Jeffersons (1975–1985), and Good Times (1974–1979). His works introduced political and social themes to the sitcom format.

Frank Owen Gehry was a Canadian-American architect and designer known for his postmodern designs and use of unconventional forms and materials. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. His most famous works include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. These buildings are characterized by their sculptural, often undulating exteriors and innovative use of materials such as titanium and stainless steel.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram, popularly known as Amma, was an Indian politician and actress who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for six terms spanning more than fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. She was the longest-serving General Secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and regarded as one of the most influential politicians of post-independence India.

Francis II was King of France from 1559 to 1560. He was also King of Scotland as the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1558 until his death in 1560.

Michael I was the last king of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947.

Dom Pedro II, known as "the Magnanimous", was the second and final emperor of the Empire of Brazil. He reigned from 1831 until his deposition in the military coup of 1889, presiding over the longest and most stable reign in Brazilian history.

Joseph Donald Meredith, nicknamed "Dandy Don", was an American football player, sports commentator, and actor. He was a quarterback for nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the SMU Mustangs, and was selected by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 1960 NFL draft, which took place in November 1959. This draft occurred before the Dallas Cowboys were officially established in January 1960. The Cowboys later acquired Meredith's rights through a trade, allowing them to sign him. He was the second starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, following Eddie LeBaron, and is the first major franchise quarterback in Cowboys history. Under the mentorship of head coach Tom Landry, Meredith led the Cowboys to three straight postseason appearances from the 1966 to 1968 seasons, including back-to-back NFL Championship Game appearances in the 1966 and 1967 seasons. He was selected a second-team All-Pro in 1966 and made three straight Pro Bowls from 1966 to 1968.

David Warren Brubeck was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasting rhythms, meters, and tonalities, and combining different styles and genres, such as classical, jazz, and blues.

Beverly Lucy Garland was an American actress. Her work in feature films primarily consisted of small parts in a few major productions or leads in low-budget action and science-fiction movies; however, she had prominent recurring roles on several popular television series.

Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly, was an American writer who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.

Amrita Sher-Gil was a Hungarian–Indian painter. She has been called "one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century"reference demanded and a pioneer in modern Indian art. Drawn to painting from an early age, Sher-Gil started formal lessons at the age of eight. She first gained recognition at the age of 19, for her 1932 oil painting Young Girls. Sher-Gil depicted everyday life of the people in her paintings.

Nina Foch was an American actress who later became a drama instructor. Her career spanned 6 decades, consisting of over 50 feature films and over 100 television credits. She was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Foch established herself as a dramatic actress in the late 1940s, often playing cool, aloof sophisticates.

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho, known as Oscar Niemeyer, was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was best known for his design of civic buildings for Brasília, a planned city that became Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with other architects on the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. His exploration of the aesthetic possibilities of reinforced concrete was highly influential in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Robert Hudson Walker Jr. was an American actor who appeared in such films as Ensign Pulver (1964), Easy Rider (1969), Beware! The Blob (1972), and The Passover Plot (1976). He was a familiar presence on television in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Ne Win was a Burmese general and politician who served as Burma's head of government from 1958 to 1960 and again from 1962 to 1974; and also as head of state from 1962 to 1981. Ne Win was Burma's military dictator during the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma period of 1962 to 1988.

Robert Burgess Aldrich was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. An iconoclastic and maverick auteur working in many genres during the Golden Age of Hollywood, he directed mainly films noir, war movies, westerns and dark melodramas with Gothic overtones. His most notable credits include Vera Cruz (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Autumn Leaves (1956), Attack (1956), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and The Longest Yard (1974).

Albert Arnold Gore Sr. was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Tennessee from 1953 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a U.S. representative from the state's 4th congressional district from 1939 to 1953. He was the father of Al Gore, who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 until 2001, and who held Tennessee's other U.S. Senate seat from 1985 to 1993. A native of Granville, Tennessee, Gore graduated from Middle Tennessee State Teachers College and taught school. From 1932 to 1936 he was superintendent of schools for Smith County. He attended the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School, now the Nashville School of Law, from which he graduated in 1936.

Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky was a Soviet general who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, he served as the chief of the General Staff and deputy Minister of Defense, and later served as Minister of Defense from 1949 to 1953.

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, having been called the "father of electronic music", for introducing controlled chance into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.

Tyruss Gerald Himes, better known by his stage names Big Syke and Mussolini, was an American rapper best known for his work with the American hip-hop groups Thug Life and Outlawz. His stage name "Big Syke" is a revision of his childhood nickname "Little Psycho". He died at his home in Hawthorne, California, on December 5, 2016.

Sir Robert Charles Evans was a British mountaineer, surgeon, and educator. He was leader of the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition and deputy leader of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, both of which were successful.

Abanindranath Tagore was an Indian painter who was the principal artist and creator of the Indian Society of Oriental Art in 1907. He was also the first major exponent of Swadeshi values in Indian art. He founded the influential Bengal school of art, which led to the development of modern Indian painting. He was also a noted writer, particularly for children. Popularly known as 'Aban Thakur', his books Rajkahini, Buro Angla, Nalak, and Khirer Putul were landmarks in Bengali language children's literature and art.

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was a Pakistani politician and statesman who served as the fifth prime minister of Pakistan from 1956 to 1957 and before that as the prime minister of Bengal from 1946 to 1947. He is regarded as a patron of a Two-Nation Theory for the creation of Pakistan, for which he is revered as one of the leading founding member of Pakistan; and also as the pioneer of the Bengali civil rights movement in Bangladesh. Also he was the political mentor of Bangladesh's founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Tibor "Ted" Rubin was a Hungarian-American Army Corporal. A Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the U.S. in 1948, he fought in the Korean War and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the war, as a combatant and a prisoner of war (POW).

Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise to competition with the two other main television networks, NBC and CBS, in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s. He created many programs still airing today, such as Monday Night Football, ABC World News Tonight, Nightline and 20/20.

Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch, Lady Murdoch, also known as Elisabeth, Lady Murdoch, was an Australian philanthropist and matriarch of the Murdoch family. She was the wife of Australian newspaper publisher Sir Keith Murdoch and the mother of international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1963 for her charity work in Australia and overseas.

Clair Cameron Patterson was an American geochemist. Born in Des Moines and raised in nearby Mitchellville, Iowa, he graduated from Grinnell College. He later received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and spent his entire professional career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet and Russian chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was one of the world's strongest players from the mid-1940s into the mid-1970s, and was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics. He was also a renowned chess writer; his book Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 is widely considered one of the greatest chess books ever written.

Fabiola Fernanda María-de-las-Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón was Queen of the Belgians as the wife of King Baudouin from their marriage in 1960 until his death in 1993. The couple had no children, as all five of Fabiola's pregnancies resulted in miscarriage, so the Crown passed to her husband's younger brother, King Albert II.

Glenn Luther Martin was an early American aviation pioneer. He designed and built his own aircraft and was an active pilot, as well as an aviation record-holder. He founded an aircraft company in 1912 which through several mergers amalgamated into what is today known as Lockheed Martin.

Władysław Stanisław Reymont was a Polish novelist and the laureate of the 1924 Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel Chłopi.

Peter Alliss was an English professional golfer, television presenter, commentator, author and golf course designer. Following the death of Henry Longhurst in 1978, as lead golf analyst for the BBC and an analyst for ABC Sports, he was regarded by many as the "Voice of golf". In 2012 he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the Lifetime Achievement category.

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered a founder of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted.

Sir Henry John Delves Broughton, 11th Baronet, DL, was a British baronet who is chiefly known for standing trial for the murder of the 22nd Earl of Erroll. The event was the basis of the film White Mischief and of the British television drama The Happy Valley, both from 1987.

William Sterling "Deak" Parsons was an American naval officer who worked as an ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He is best known for being the weaponeer on the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion if the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he decided to arm the bomb in flight. While the aircraft was en route to Hiroshima, Parsons climbed into the cramped and dark bomb bay, and inserted the powder charge and detonator. He was awarded the Silver Star for his part in the mission.

Alfonso Angel Yangco Ossorio was a Filipino American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Manila in 1916 to wealthy Filipino parents from the province of Negros Occidental. His heritage was Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese. Between the ages of eight and thirteen, he attended school in England. At age fourteen, he moved to the United States. Ossorio attended Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island, graduating in 1934. From 1934 to 1938, he studied fine art at Harvard University and then continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. He became an American citizen in 1933 and served as a medical illustrator in the United States Army during World War II.

Gwen Harwood was an Australian poet and librettist. Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won numerous poetry awards and prizes, and one of Australia's most significant poetry prizes, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize is named for her. Her work is commonly studied in schools and university courses.

Michael Wayne Annett was an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro SS for JR Motorsports.

Sir Edward Youde was a British administrator, diplomat, and Sinologist. He served as Governor of Hong Kong from 20 May 1982 until his death on 5 December 1986.

Katherine Milhous (1894–1977) was an American artist, illustrator, and writer. She is known best as the author and illustrator of The Egg Tree, which won the 1951 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration. Born into a Quaker family active in the printing industry in Philadelphia, Milhous is also known for her graphic designs for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Her work has been exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Ernest Cary Brace was the longest-held civilian prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War. A decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot and mustang, Brace was court-martialed in 1961 for attempting to fake his own death. He flew as a civilian contract pilot before being captured in Laos in 1965 while flying supplies for USAID. He spent almost eight years as a POW and upon his release received a Presidential pardon in light of his good conduct.

George Brecht, born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer, as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobil Oil. He was a key member of, and influence on, Fluxus, the international group of avant-garde artists centred on George Maciunas, having been involved with the group from the first performances in Wiesbaden 1962 until Maciunas' death in 1978.

Eliza Roxey Snow was a Mormon Pioneer, poet, and second Relief Society general president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which she re-established in the Utah Territory in 1866. She was also one of the plural wives of Joseph Smith and then later of Brigham Young after Smith's death. Eliza R. Snow was the older sister of Lorenzo Snow, the LDS Church's fifth president.

Anca Parghel was a Romanian jazz singer, composer, arranger, pianist, choir conductor, and music teacher. As a jazz vocalist, she excelled in scat, vocal percussion, and improvisation. Her voice had a four octave range, this being one of the reasons she was compared to Yma Sumac in the Romanian music press. She had an exceptional ability to interpret songs in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye was a military officer, fur trader, and explorer. In the 1730s, he and his four sons explored the area west of Lake Superior and established trading posts there. They were part of a process that added Western Canada to the original New France territory that was centred along the Saint Lawrence basin.

Schalk Willem Burger was a South African military leader, lawyer, politician, and statesman who was acting president of the South African Republic from 1900 to 1902, whilst Paul Kruger was in exile. At the age of 21, Burger worked as a clerk in the office of the field coronet. He married his wife, Alida Claudina de Villiers, during this time.

Fred Bassetti was a Pacific Northwest architect and teacher. His architectural legacy includes some of the Seattle area's more recognizable buildings and spaces. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) described his role as a regional architect and activist as having made significant contributions to "the shape of Seattle and the Northwest, and on the profession of architecture."

Joseph Erlanger was an American physiologist who is best known for his contributions to the field of neuroscience. Together with Herbert Spencer Gasser, he identified several varieties of nerve fiber and established the relationship between action potential velocity and fiber diameter. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for these achievements.

Gaspard Bauhin or Caspar Bauhin, was a Swiss botanist whose Pinax theatri botanici (1623) described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to the later binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus. He was a disciple of the famous Italian physician Girolamo Mercuriale and he also worked on human anatomical nomenclature.

Henry Ross was a Canadian-Australian gold miner who died in the Eureka Rebellion at the Ballarat gold fields in the British Colony of Victoria, now the state of Victoria in Australia. Ross is particularly remembered for his part in the creation of the rebel miners' flag, since named the Eureka Flag.

Cecil Murray Harden was an American educator who became a Republican politician and an advocate of women's rights. She served five terms in the U.S. Representative representing Indiana's 6th congressional district. Harden was the only Republican woman elected to represent Indiana in the U.S. Congress until 2012.

Claude (Claudius) Honoré Désiré Dornier was a Franco-German airplane designer and founder of Dornier GmbH. His notable designs include the 12-engine Dornier Do X flying boat, for decades the world's largest and most powerful airplane. He also made several other successful aircraft.

Harry Horner was a Czech-born American art director who made a successful career in Hollywood as an Oscar-winning art director and as a feature film and television director. He was the father of Academy Award-winning film composer James Horner.

Talât Sait Halman, GBE was a Turkish poet, translator and cultural historian. He was the first Minister of Culture of Turkey. From 1998 onward, he taught at Bilkent University as the dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Letters.

Joan, often called Joan of Constantinople, was the countess of Flanders and Hainaut from 1205 until her death. She was the elder daughter of Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, and Marie of Champagne.

Franco Dino Rasetti was an Italian physicist, paleontologist and botanist. Together with Enrico Fermi, he discovered key processes leading to nuclear fission. Rasetti refused to work on the Manhattan Project on moral grounds.

Louis Dewis (1872–1946) was the pseudonym of Belgian Post-Impressionist painter Louis DeWachter, who was also an innovative and highly successful businessman. He helped organize and managed the first department store chain.

Karl Amadeus Hartmann was a German composer. A major figure of the musical life of post-war Germany, he has been described as the greatest German symphonist of the 20th century.

Victor Carl "Vic" Eliason was an American evangelical clergyman who founded the VCY America Radio Network, a conservative Christian broadcasting ministry, based in Milwaukee, along with Milwaukee television station WVCY-TV.

Constance Winsor Green, best known as Constance McLaughlin Green, was an American historian. She who won the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for History for Washington, Village and Capital, 1800–1878 (1962).

Peter Kenneth Gethin was a British racing driver and motorsport executive who competed in Formula One from 1970 to 1974. Gethin won the 1971 Italian Grand Prix with BRM.

John Patrick Healy, known as Jackie Healy-Rae, was an Irish independent politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry South constituency from 1997 to 2011.

Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg, was a German lawyer, and translator. He was also a poet of the Sturm und Drang and early Romantic periods.

William Brockway Edmondson was an American diplomat in the United States Foreign Service, who served as the United States Ambassador to South Africa from 1978-1981.

John III was Duke of Brabant, Lothier (1312–1355) and Limburg, the last Brabant male to rule them.

Johan Friis was a Danish statesman. He served as Chancellor under King Christian III of Denmark.

Jean François Sarasin was a French writer.

Johann Friedrich Fasch was a German violinist and composer. Much of his music is in the Baroque-Classical transitional style known as galant.

Alexandre Dumas, also known as Alexandre Dumas père, was a French novelist and playwright.

Alexander Movsesi Atabekian was an Armenian physician, publisher and anarchist communist.

Jan Kubelík was a Czech violinist and composer.

Emil Edwin "Judge" Fuchs was a German-born American baseball owner and executive.

Frederick Leonard Clark was an American movie and television character actor, often playing in authoritative roles.

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt was a Scottish radio engineer and pioneer of radio direction finding and radar technology.

Jesse Pearson was an American actor, singer, director, and writer.

Eugen Cicero, nicknamed "Mister Golden Hands", was a Romanian-German jazz pianist who performed in the mixed classical-swing style.

Andrew Welsh Imbrie was an American contemporary classical music composer and pianist.

Patriarch Alexy II was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Gennady Olegovich Logofet was a Soviet and Russian football player and football coach.

Patriarch Ignatius IV was the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All The East from 1979 to 2012.

Silvio Arturo Zavala Vallado was a Mexican historian who was considered to be a pioneer in law history studies and Mexico’s institutions.

Jacques Roubaud was a French poet, writer, and mathematician.