Mildred Constantine (95) curator who brought new prestige to the graphic design and poster collections of New York's Museum of Modern Art in the '50s and '60s, when most museums all but ignored such contemporary arts. Constantine's groundbreaking 1968 exhibition, "Word & Image," was the first at the museum to consider seriously the major 20th-century posters in the Modern's collection. She died of heart failure in Nyack, New York on December 10, 2008.

François-Xavier Lalanne (81) French painter and sculptor whose menagerie of surrealistic animal sculptures included a cast-iron baboon with a fireplace in its belly, giant turtledoves that doubled as armchairs, and a herd of topiary dinosaurs. Lalanne created his own brand of surrealism when, in 1964, he unveiled Rhinocrétaire, a life-size Annam rhinoceros, whose side unfolded into a writing desk. The sculptor died in the village of Ury, south of Paris, France, on December 7, 2008.

Dorothy Porter (54) award-winning Australian poet best known for crime novels set in verse. Porter wrote six collections of poetry and two young adult novels besides her five verse novels. One of them, The Monkey’s Mask, was made into a film in 2001 starring Kelly McGillis. Porter’s newest novel, El Dorado, was shortlisted in 2008 for the Prime Minister's Literary Award for fiction. She died of breast cancer in Melbourne, Australia on December 10, 2008.

Johnny C. Quarles (62) author who wrote more than 12 novels set in the American West. Quarles's books included Fools Gold, Black Creek, and The Run. He was novelist-in-residence at Phillips University in Enid, Okla. (1995-98). He suffered from diabetes but died of a stroke in Enid, Oklahoma on December 7, 2008.

Hillary Waugh (88) author who helped to pioneer the police procedural novel in dozens of mysteries, notably Last Seen Wearing (1952), regarded as one of the best early police procedurals: a taut, terse, just-the-facts record of crime detection in which no clues are withheld from the reader. Waugh started out writing private-detective mysteries before he tried his hand at writing a novel that focused on the details of an unfolding police investigation. He died in Torrington, Connecticut on December 8, 2008.

Dr. D. Carleton Gajdusek (85) virologist who won the 1976 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on the mysterious epidemics now known as prion diseases. In later life, Gajdusek became notorious when he was charged with molesting the many young boys he had adopted in New Guinea and Micronesia and brought to live with him in Maryland. He pleaded guilty to one charge, served a year in prison, and left the US in 1998, dividing his time among Paris, Amsterdam, and Tromso, Norway, where he was found dead in his hotel room on December 12, 2008.

Herbert L. Hutner (99) Los Angeles private investment banker and lawyer who chaired the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts during the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations and was the fourth husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Hutner died two weeks before his 100th birthday, in Los Angeles, California on December 7, 2008.

Dorothy Kneedler Lawenda (94) entrepreneur who began importing natural, hand-woven wallcoverings from Asia in 1948 and cofounded, with her friend Lucienne Fauchere, an interior design company, Kneedler-Fauchere Imports, that later became an influential resource for the Los Angeles industry. Kneedler Lawenda died in Los Angeles, California on December 11, 2008.

David I. Margolis (78) industrialist who revived Colt Industries, became a close adviser to former New York Mayor Edward I. Koch, and was a member of the financial board that helped to steer the city out of its fiscal crisis in the '70s. Margolis died of cardiac arrest in New York City on December 13, 2008.

Howard M. Pack (90) president and later chairman of Seatrain Lines, a leader in the industry in changing the way ships carry goods from port to port. Pack died of heart failure in New York City on December 9, 2008.

S. Stephen Nakashima (86) World War II relocation camp survivor and longtime attorney who voted with the conservative majority on the University of California Board of Regents that banned affirmative action in UC hiring and admissions in the mid-'90s. The ban was revoked in 2001. Nakashima died in San Jose, California on December 11, 2008.

William S. Stevens (60) lawyer whose humorous law-review note on the relationship between baseball's infield fly rule, adopted in the 1860s, and Anglo-American common law became one of the most celebrated and imitated analyses in American legal history. Stevens was intrigued by the spirit of the rule and the piecemeal way it developed over time, which suggested the incremental way that common law evolved. He died of a heart attack in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was acting director of the Alaska Bar Association's continuing education program, on December 8, 2008.

Maddie Blaustein (48) voice actress who dubbed various animé characters under several stage names but was arguably best known for voicing Meowth in hundreds of episodes of the Pokemon TV animé series' first run. Blaustein also provided the voice for characters in dozens of other animé productions, including Solomon Moto in the Yu-Gi-Oh! second animé series and most recently E-123 Omega of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She died in her sleep in Brooklyn, New York on December 11, 2008.

Robert Chandler (80) former CBS News executive who helped to pioneer 60 Minutes and had a supervisory role over the TV news magazine in its early years. Chandler joined CBS News in 1963 as director of information services and later was vice president in charge of public affairs broadcasts. He was an early proponent of the 60 Minutes format. He died of heart failure in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on December 11, 2008.

Lauren Chapin (50) restaurant critic for the Kansas City Star for eight years. Chapin suffered a ruptured aneurysm that developed within an arteriovenous malformation—a tangle of blood vessels at the base of her brain. She died two days after collapsing while working out, in Kansas City, Missouri on December 10, 2008.

Marky Cielo (20) Filipino actor and dancer who became one of the first rising stars ever to join the popular reality-based artista program StarStruck, where he won the Ultimate Sole Survivor title of Batch 3. Cielo appeared in several GMA-7 Channel shows including Encantadia, Fantastikids, Bakekang, Asian Treasures, Boys Nxt Door, Kaputol ng Isang Awit, Codename: Asero, and most recently LaLola. He died unexpectedly in his sleep in Antipolo, Philippines on December 7, 2008.

Dakota Culkin (29) elder sister of former child actor Macauley Culkin, perhaps best known for the Home Alone movies in the '90s. Dakota Culkin died of massive head injuries a day after being struck by a car, in Los Angeles, California on December 10, 2008.

Van Johnson (92) actor whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as 30 Seconds over Tokyo, A Guy Named Joe, and The Caine Mutiny. With his tall, athletic build, handsome, freckled face, and sunny personality, the red-haired Johnson starred opposite Esther Williams, June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, and others during his 20 years with MGM. He proved to be a versatile actor, equally at home in comedies, war movies, musicals, and dramas. In later years he appeared in stage musicals, both on Broadway and on tour, and in dinner theater. He died in Nyack, New York on December 12, 2008.

Jonathan Marshall (84) longtime publisher of the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Daily Progress since 1963. Marshall was once a candidate for the US Senate, running unsuccessfully against incumbent Barry Goldwater in 1974. He had suffered from health issues since the '90s and died in Paradise Valley, Arizona on December 13, 2008.

Bettie Page (85) '50s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped to set the stage for the '60s sexual revolution. Page attracted national attention with magazine photographs of her sensuous figure in bikinis and see-through lingerie. She had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia when she suffered a heart attack and never regained consciousness. She died in Los Angeles, California on December 11, 2008.

Oliver Postgate (83) creator of stuffed cat Bagpuss and other much-loved British children's TV characters. Postgate's productions were a staple of British children's TV for 30 years, beginning in the '50s; they included musical Welsh locomotive Ivor the Engine, Norse prince Noggin the Nog, and The Clangers, a family of mouselike pink knitted aliens who spoke in whistles. His best-loved creation was Bagpuss, a pink "saggy, old cloth cat" who appeared in a '70s series and has topped several polls of Britain's best-loved children's shows. A cousin of actress Angela Lansbury, Postgate died in Broadstairs, England, 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of London, on December 8, 2008.

Robert Prosky (77) veteran character actor with hundreds of credits on stage and screen including Mrs. Doubtfire and Hill Street Blues. Prosky appeared in more than 200 plays on Broadway and with Arena Stage, a regional theater company in Washington. He also appeared in 38 films and on numerous TV shows. He died of complications from a heart procedure, in Washington, DC on December 8, 2008.

Scott Ruffalo (39) actor Mark Ruffalo’s elder brother, a hair stylist. Scott Ruffalo died a week after being found at his Beverly Hills home with a gunshot wound to the head. Two suspects in the shooting were released after an investigation determined that Ruffalo had shot himself during a game of Russian roulette. He was removed from life support and died in Los Angeles, California on December 8, 2008.

Quincy Smith (24) former disc jockey on the Minneapolis radio station KMOJ Radio (89.9 FM), on the air five nights a week under the name "Q the Blacksmith" for less than two years until about a year ago. Smith died after being stunned with a Taser gun following a police confrontation outside his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 9, 2008.

Horst Tappert (85) German actor who played the title role of a police inspector who solved his cases through cold reasoning rather than brute force, in Derrick, a German TV detective series broadcast in 108 countries (1973-97). Tappert died in Munich, Germany on December 13, 2008.

Robin Toner (54) New York Times reporter who became the newspaper’s first female national political correspondent. In her 25-year Times career, Toner covered five Presidential elections and countless congressional and gubernatorial campaigns. She was known for her meticulous reporting and relentless fact checking; out of more than 1,900 articles with her by-line, she had only a half-dozen published corrections over the years. She died of colon cancer in Washington, DC on December 12, 2008.

Dennis Yost (65) lead singer of the '60s group the Classics IV, whose hits included "Spooky," "Stormy," and "Traces of Love." Yost died of respiratory failure in Hamilton, Ohio, about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati, on December 7, 2008.

Ali Alatas (76) former Indonesian foreign minister who represented Indonesia during an often-brutal dictatorship and was once considered for the top job at the United Nations. Alatas was his country's highest-ranking diplomat (1988-99)—the year after longtime President Suharto was swept from power after a wave of prodemocracy street protests. Alatas died one week after suffering a stroke, in Singapore on December 11, 2008.

Tassos Papadopoulos (74) Cyprus's hard-line former president who ushered the war-divided island into the European Union after rallying Greek Cypriots to reject a United Nations peace deal. Papadopoulos was hospitalized in November with severe breathing problems as a result of lung cancer and died in Nicosia, Cyprus on December 12, 2008.

Bill Patman (81) former US congressman (D-Texas, 1981-85) and state senator who championed low-interest loan rates. Patman served in Congress for two terms but failed to win reelection to a third term. He also served in the Texas Senate (1961-80). He was the son of John Wright Patman, who served in Congress for 47 years, became head of the House Banking Committee, and helped to write the Robinson-Patman Act, an antitrust law. Bill Patman died of stomach cancer in Houston, Texas on December 9, 2008.

Martha S. Putney (92) one of the first black women to serve in the Women's Army Corps during World War II who later wrote pioneering works of history on black Americans in the military. Putney died in Washington, DC on December 11, 2008.

Lt. Col. Betty Jane Williams (89) female pilot who joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), an elite group that flew noncombat missions during World War II, and was a test pilot in Texas. Williams was one of 1,074 women who successfully completed the flight training in Sweetwater, Texas as part of the WASP program, established during the war to cope with the domestic shortage of military pilots. She died of a stroke in Tarzana, California on December 8, 2008.

Avery, Cardinal Dulles (90) convert to Roman Catholicism, the first American Jesuit and the first US theologian outside a diocese to be named a cardinal. Dulles was the son of former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who served under President Dwight D. Eisenhower; the cardinal's uncle was Allen Dulles, who led the CIA during the Eisenhower administration. Avery Dulles died in an infirmary at Fordham University, where he had been a professor for 20 years, in New York City on December 12, 2008.

Ron Carey (72) former Teamsters president (1989-97), the first elected by the membership, who pledged to rid the union of mob corruption but was later forced from leadership in a financial scandal. Carey won reelection in 1996 over James P. Hoffa, son of former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, but the result was later overturned after charges that Carey's campaign illegally used about $885,000 in union funds. He died of lung cancer in Queens, New York on December 11, 2008.

Tillman Johnson (97) former Miller County (Texas) Chief Sheriff's deputy, among the law officers who investigated a series of unsolved murders in Texarkana's infamous Phantom Killer slayings in the '40s. Johnson was one of the last surviving chief investigators of three separate shooting incidents involving three young couples in the spring of 1946. Five people died in the shootings believed to be committed by an unidentified serial killer, and the mysterious murders drew national and international attention for more than 60 years. Johnson died in Texarkana, Texas on December 10, 2008.

Richard Marks (79) leprosy patient who educated tourists about Hansen's disease and the history of Kalaupapa and helped Hawaii to end its forced quarantine of the leprosy settlement. Marks had operated the peninsula's lone tour service, Damien Tours, with his wife since 1966. His advocacy and outspokenness about how he and other leprosy patients were ostracized from society, despite drugs that controlled the disease, led the state to reverse the quarantine policy in 1969 that had been instituted by the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1865. Marks died on Molokai, Hawaii, where he had been banished more than 50 years earlier, on December 9, 2008.

Christopher McCuin (26) Texas man accused of killing his girlfriend and cooking parts of her body earlier this year. McCuin was charged with capital murder in January 2008 in the death of 21-year-old Jana Shearer and was being held on $2 million bond. He was found unresponsive in his cell and died at a medical center in Tyler, Texas on December 7, 2008.

Manzoor Hussain Atif (80) four-time Olympian and longtime field hockey administrator. Atif, who played left fullback for Pakistan, won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and took part in the '52, '56, and '64 games. He was manager of the Pakistan field hockey teams that won gold at the 1968 Mexico Olympics and the Los Angeles games in '84. He was the first non-European chairman of the International Hockey Federation's Rules Board in 1994. He died of cancer in Islamabad, Pakistan on December 8, 2008.

Ibrahim Dossey (36) Ghanaian goalkeeper who became a key member of Ghana's historic under-23 team that won Africa's first Olympic football (Bronze) medal at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. Dossey moved to Romania in 2001, where he most recently played for several football clubs and signed a two-year contract extension with the second division side Targoviste. He died of serious head injuries sustained in a September 13 car accident, in Bucharest, Romania on December 9, 2008.

John Drake (49) member of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team that won the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. Drake played 12 matches including eight tests for NZ as a tighthead prop (1985-87). In recent years he worked as a TV commentator and newspaper columnist on rugby. He collapsed and died beside the swimming pool at his home in Auckland, New Zealand on December 13, 2008.

Max Elbin (88) longtime head pro at Burning Tree, the private golf club outside Washington where Presidents, congressmen, and business executives play golf. Elbin taught the game to six US Presidents. He became the 15th president of the Professional Golfers Association of America in 1965, serving three years during tumultuous times that reshaped the organization; with tour pros feeling their needs were not being met, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus led a move to create a separate division, which eventually became the PGA Tour. Elbin died of heart failure in Bethesda, Maryland on December 12, 2008.

Bent Jensen (60) Danish rowing coach who guided Canada's lightweight men's four crew to a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics last summer. Jensen went to Canada to coach at the national level in 2006 and was considered the top lightweight coach in the world. His career spanned 30 years. He also coached the Danish lightweight four to Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004 and a silver in 2000. He died of pancreatic cancer in Denmark on December 9, 2008.

Drazan Jerkovic (72) Croatian soccer player, top scorer at the 1962 World Cup in Chile and adored across the former Yugoslavia. Jerkovic played for Dinamo Zagreb in the '50s and '60s and the national team for the former Yugoslavia, of which Croatia was a part until gaining independence in 1991. He died of heart failure in Zagreb, Croatia on December 9, 2008.

Billey Joe Johnson (17) junior tailback at George County (Miss.) High School, considered one of the top high school football recruits in Mississippi and in the country. Johnson rushed for more than 1,500 yards in his last season, totaling over 4,000 in his career, and received athletic scholarship offers from several major schools including the University of Alabama, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State, and the University of Arkansas as a top-rated standout recruit by both Scout and Rivals. He died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound during a routine traffic stop in Lucedale, Mississippi on December 8, 2008.

Anani Matthia (81) International Olympic Committee member for 24 years. A pharmacist by profession, Matthia was elected a member from Togo in 1983 and was made an honorary member in 2007. In 1999, he received a "serious warning" from the IOC after an investigation of members' conduct in the Salt Lake City bidding scandal leading to the 2002 Winter Games. The IOC announced his death on December 9, 2008 but gave no other details.

Milt McAuley (89) patriarch of hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains whose guidebooks and guided hikes greatly popularized the trails that cut through Los Angeles back-country. McAuley continued hiking until 2005. He died in Canoga Park, California on December 10, 2008.

Kerryn McCann (41) Australian marathon gold medalist at the last two Commonwealth Games. McCann won the Commonwealth Games women's marathon at Manchester, England in 2002 and defended the title at Melbourne, Australia in '06. After exchanging the first position with Kenya's Hellen Cherono as they approached the 85,000-seat main stadium in Melbourne, McCann—then 38—surged ahead within sight of the finish line and won by 2 seconds. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2007 during her third pregnancy and underwent surgery and later chemotherapy. She was diagnosed with a secondary cancer in the liver earlier in the year and died in Wollongong, Australia on December 7, 2008.

Maksym Pashayev (20) professional football player who became captain of the under-21 national football club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the Ukrainian Premier League this past season. Pashayev was killed in a car accident in Hradyzk, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine on December 12, 2008.

Chris ("Flash") Richardson (28) member of the Harlem Globetrotters, in their 83rd consecutive season of touring the world. The 6-foot-7 Richardson was known for his dunking skills and a genial disposition. He was also active with organizations such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs, and adoption agencies. The Globetrotters were at a US military base in Japan as part of an annual holiday tour when Richardson died in his sleep, in Sasebo, Japan on December 10, 2008.

Sal Yvars (84) reserve catcher for the New York Giants who took part in, and ultimately revealed, an elaborate sign-stealing scheme that might have helped to propel the Giants to their storied 1951 National League pennant victory. Sign-stealing by mechanical means was outlawed by baseball in 1961. Yvars died of amyloidosis, an accumulation of abnormal proteins in the organs, in the Bronx, New York on December 10, 2008.