Kuni Asaakira (b. 1901) December 9 – Donald MacDonald, American actor (b. 1898) December 11 – Jim Bottomley, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1900) December 12 Marcella Craft, American soprano (b. 1874) Russell Simpson, American actor (b. 1880) December 14 Edna Wallace Hopper, American stage actress (b. 1872) Stanley Spencer, British painter (b. 1891) December 19 – Andrés Martínez Trueba, 31st President of Uruguay (b. 1884) December 22 – Gilda Gray, Polish-born dancer and actress (b. 1901) December 23 – Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, British politician (b. 1881) December 24 – Edmund Goulding, American director (b. 1891) December 28 – Ante Pavelic, Croatian fascist leader and WWII war criminal (b. 1889) December 29 – Juan José Morosoli, Uruguayan writer (b. 1899) Unknown Al-Abbas ibn Ibrahim as-Samlali, Moroccan historian (b. 1877) Elena Săcălici, Romanian artistic gymnast (b. 1935) Nobel Prizes Physics – Emilio Gino Segrè, Owen Chamberlain Chemistry – Jaroslav Heyrovský Physiology or Medicine – Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg Literature – Salvatore Quasimodo Peace – Philip Noel-Baker Notes References