2012 deaths

Andy Samuel Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, comedian, television producer, singer, and writer whose career spanned seven decades in music and television. Known for his Southern drawl, his characters with a folksy-friendly personality, as well as his gruff but friendly voice, Griffith was a Tony Award nominee for two roles. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's film A Face in the Crowd (1957) and No Time for Sergeants (1958) before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead roles of Andy Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show (1960–1968) and Ben Matlock in the legal drama Matlock (1986–1995).

Richard Darryl Zanuck (; December 13, 1934 – July 13, 2012) was an American film producer. His 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Zanuck was also instrumental in launching the career of director Steven Spielberg, who described Zanuck as a "director's producer" and "one of the most honorable and loyal men of our profession."

Émile Allais (25 February 1912 – 17 October 2012) was a champion alpine ski racer from France; he won all three events at the 1937 world championships in Chamonix and the gold in the combined in 1938. Born in Megève, he was a dominant racer in the late 1930s and is considered to have been the first great French alpine skier.
Allais won the bronze medal in the combined (downhill and slalom), the only alpine medal event at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch, Germany. These Olympics were the first to award medals in alpine skiing. The previous year, he had won the silver medal in the downhill and combined at the 1935 world championships. In 1937 he was a triple world champion at Chamonix, France, winning all three events (downhill, slalom, and combined). The following year at Engelberg, Switzerland, he won the combined, and took silver in the downhill and slalom. He created the École Française de Ski which taught innovative methods of Anton Seelos (who was his trainer and instructor), characterised by parallel turns, controlling the speed by sideslipping, and turning by ruade (French: kick, back kick), i.e. kicking the backs of the skis up and pivoting on the tips while rotating the body in the direction of the turn. The École du Ski Français (ESF) is now the biggest Ski school in the world in terms of numbers of ski teachers, and is present in every single French ski resort, and even abroad.
After a spell in North and South America (Squaw Valley, California and Portillo, Chile) Allais held the post of technical director at Courchevel from 1954 to 1964, where he introduced many ideas from the U.S. regarding slope preparation and piste security. He later worked as a technical consultant for other resorts, notably La Plagne and Flaine. One of the Saulire couloirs at Courchevel is named after Allais.
As a consultant to Skis Rossignol, Allais helped to design the laminated-wood Olympic 41 ski (1941), and the first aluminum skis to win major ski races, the Métallais (1959) and Allais 60 (1960). The Olympic 41 later served as the basis of Rossignol's very successful Strato (1964).
In December 2005, 93-year-old Allais made the trip to the French Senate in Paris where he was honoured, along with a number of other ski instructors. His life has been all about skiing; he learned his skiing early, raced all over Europe, then coached the French Olympic ski team for seven years. Allais fought in World War II on skis, and even courted his wife at a ski meet. He turned 100 in February 2012.Allais died after an illness in a hospital in Sallanches in the French Alps on 17 October 2012.

Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (, German: [ˈʃvartskɔp͡f]; August 22, 1934 – December 27, 2012) was a United States Army general. While serving as the commander of United States Central Command, he led all coalition forces in the Gulf War against Ba'athist Iraq.
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Schwarzkopf grew up in the United States and later in Iran. He was accepted by the United States Military Academy and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army in 1956. After a number of initial training programs, Schwarzkopf interrupted a stint as an academy teacher and served in the Vietnam War, first as an adviser to the South Vietnamese Army and then as a battalion commander. Schwarzkopf was highly decorated in Vietnam and was awarded three Silver Stars, two Purple Hearts, and the Legion of Merit. Rising through the ranks after the Vietnam war, he later commanded the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division and was one of the commanders of the invasion of Grenada in 1983.
Assuming command of United States Central Command in 1988, Schwarzkopf was called on to respond to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 by the forces of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Initially tasked with defending Saudi Arabia from Iraqi aggression, Schwarzkopf's command eventually grew to an international force of over 750,000 troops. After diplomatic relations broke down, he planned and led Operation Desert Storm, an extended air campaign followed by a highly successful 100-hour ground offensive, which defeated the Iraqi Army and removed Iraqi troops from Kuwait in early 1991. Schwarzkopf was presented with military honors.
Schwarzkopf retired shortly after the end of the war and undertook a number of philanthropic ventures, only occasionally stepping into the political spotlight before his death from complications of pneumonia. A hard-driving military commander, easily angered, Schwarzkopf was considered an exceptional leader by many biographers and was noted for his abilities as a military diplomat and in dealing with the press.

Alan Leigh Sawyer (January 1, 1928 – June 30, 2012) was an American professional basketball player for the Washington Capitols of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins from 1945 to 1950. He missed the end of the 1948–49 season after an appendectomy. Sawyer helped lead the 1949–50 team to their first Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) championship. He was named to the first team of the All-Southern Division PCC team in 1949, and voted to the second team in 1950. He was selected in the third round of the 1950 NBA draft by the Capitols.After the Capitols were disbanded mid-season in 1951, its players were allocated to other teams, and Sawyer was drafted by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. However, he decided to return to the University of California, Los Angeles, to complete his degree.Sawyer later became a math teacher and coached basketball at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California.

Eugene Bleecher Selznick (March 19, 1930 – June 10, 2012) was an American Hall of Fame former volleyball player, and volleyball coach. He played on world championship and Pan American Games championship teams. He was also inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Agustín García Calvo (October 15, 1926 – November 1, 2012) was a Spanish philologist, philosopher, poet and playwright.

Arne Christiansen (19 May 1926 – 23 January 2012) was a Norwegian judge.
He was born in Oslo. He enrolled in law studies in 1945, and graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1949. He worked as a sub-director in the Ministry of Justice and the Police from 1964 to 1969, presiding judge in Eidsivating from 1970 to 1974 and as a Supreme Court Justice from 1974 to 1996. He also presided over the Norwegian Association of Judges and the International Association of Judges.He resided at Hosle. He died in 2012.

Herbert Loren Adams (April 14, 1928 – February 1, 2012) was an American baseball outfielder who played three seasons in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox. He was born in Hollywood, California, and later coached at Northern Illinois University.

Andreas Arntzen (1 June 1928 – 21 May 2012) was a Norwegian barrister.
He was a son of Sven Arntzen and father of presiding judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen.He took the cand.jur. degree in 1952, studied at Harvard Law School and was a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. In 1960 he became a barrister with access to work with Supreme Court cases. He was hired in the law firm founded by his father, today named Arntzen de Besche. He is best known as the defender of Arne Treholt in 1984–1985, together with Jon Lyng and Ulf Underland. From 1987 to 1989 he led the commission that delivered the Norwegian Official Report 1989: 2, scrutinizing the bankruptcy of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk. He died in May 2012.