The following is a list of notable deaths in January 2004.
Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence: Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.
January 2004
1
Harold Henning, 69, South African golfer. Elma Lewis, 82, American arts leader. Manuel Félix López, 66, Ecuadorian politician. Frederick Redlich, 93, Austrian-born American dean of the Yale University School of Medicine. John Stoneham, 95, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox).
2
Etta Moten Barnett, 102, American actress. Lynn Cartwright, 76, U.S. actress (A League of Their Own). Sir John Grandy, 90, British Royal Air Force officer. Paul Hopkins, 99, American baseball player, reported to be the oldest living former Major League Baseball player. Dame Sheila McKechnie, 55, Scottish trade unionist, housing campaigner and consumer activist, head of Shelter, cancer. Dennis Silverthorne, 80, American Olympic pairs figure skater (pairs figure skating at the 1948 Winter Olympics).
3
Lillian Beckwith, 87, English author. Des Corcoran, 75, Australian politician, Premier of South Australia. Taylor Duncan, 50, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics). David Lipschultz, 33, American journalist (USA Today, New York Times, SmartMoney and Red Herring). William Craig Reynolds, 70, American fluid physicist and mechanical engineer who specialized in turbulent flow and computational fluid dynamics. Sir James Waddell, 89, English civil servant. Leon Wagner, 69, American Major League Baseball player.
4
Joan Aiken, 79, English writer, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. James Counsilman, 83, American swimming coach. John Gallacher, Baron Gallacher, 83, British life peer. Brian Gibson, 59, English film director, What's Love Got to Do With It. Jake Hess, 76, American southern gospel singer. Allen H. Miner, 86, American director and screenwriter. Jeff Nuttall, 70, English poet, publisher, actor, painter, sculptor, jazz trumpeter, social commentator and author. Michael Straight, 87, American magazine publisher, author and a confessed spy for the KGB. John Toland, 91, American author and historian.
5
Charles Dumas, 66, American Olympic High Jump gold medalist. John Guerin, 64, American percussionist, heart failure. Norman Heatley, 92, British biochemist. Tug McGraw, 59, American Major League Baseball pitcher, brain cancer.
6
Vera Bradford, 99, Australian pianist and piano teacher. Pierre Charles, 49, Dominican politician, Prime Minister of Dominica. Sumita Devi, 68, Bangladeshi film actress. John Evans, 74, British footballer. William Hurst Rees, 86, British valuation surveyor. Francesco Scavullo, 82, American fashion photographer. Charles Laverne Singleton, 44, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection in Arkansas. Markku Salminen, 57, Finnish orienteer. Reg Smith, 91, English football player and manager. Thomas Stockham, 70, American scientist, known as the "father of digital recording".
7
Shalva Apkhazava, 23, Georgian footballer. Francis Yao Asare, Ghanaian pharmacist and politician. Russell Blunt, 95, American sports coach. Ingrid Thulin, 76, Swedish actress, Cries and Whispers.
8
Charles Brown, 57, American actor. Delfín Benítez Cáceres, 93, Paraguayan football player. Henry St John Fancourt, 103, British naval aviation pioneer. John A. Gambling, 73, American radio host, Rambling with Gambling. Hal Shaper, 72, South African songwriter. Louis Stanley, 92, British author, journalist, team principal of BRM, stroke.
9
Norberto Bobbio, 94, Italian senator, jurist, philosopher and political scientist. Lyndon Brook, 77, British actor. Yinka Dare, 31, Nigerian basketball player, heart attack. Nissim Ezekiel, 79, Indian poet, playwright and art critic. Rainer Hildebrandt, 89, German anti-communist resistance fighter and historian. Raymond Dayle Rowsey, 32, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection in North Carolina. Rogério Sganzerla, 57, Brazilian filmmaker, brain tumor.
10
Princess Kira of Prussia, 60, German princess. Sir Henry Leask, 90, British army general. Ewald Pyle, 93, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, New York Giants, Boston Braves). Alexandra Ripley, 70, American author, Scarlett.