1999 deaths

Sydney Lewis (October 24, 1919 – March 12, 1999) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and art collector who founded the Best Products Company.

Jens Høyer Hansen (14 July 1940 – 10 August 1999) was a Danish-born jeweller who settled in New Zealand and did most of his well-known work in Nelson, New Zealand. Hansen was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in the country, including Tanya Ashken, Kobi Bosshard and Gunter Taemmler.He was the designer and creator of the prop ring used as The One Ring in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.

Elsa Rastad Bråten (1 February 1918 – 21 December 1999) was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.
She was born in Oslo as a daughter of typographer and politician Ingvald Rastad and Sigrid Hilton.
During the first cabinet Bratteli from 1971 to 1972, Bråten was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and the Police. She had served as political secretary (today known as political advisor) in the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs from 1959 to 1965.
She served as a deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo during the terms 1973–1977. From 1973 to 1976 she met as a regular representative, replacing Knut Frydenlund who was appointed to the second cabinet Bratteli. On the local level she was a member of Oslo city council from 1955 to 1963.
Bråten did not have a higher education. She worked as a journalist in Arbeiderbladet in 1945-1949 and 1950–1951, editor-in-chief of Arbeiderkvinnen from 1953 to 1959, and a consultant.

Grete Nash (née Helland-Hansen; 14 February 1939 – 20 March 1999) was a Norwegian ceramist.
She was born in Oslo to Eigil Helland-Hansen and Sophie Marie Eeg, and was a granddaughter of oceanographer Bjørn Helland-Hansen. She introduced the Japanese raku ware pottery tradition in Norway. Her wall plate Bysants from 1991 was acquired by the Storting, and she is represented in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, the West Norway Museum of Decorative Art and Sørlandets Art Museum. She was decorated Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 1998.

Marius Müller (20 August 1958 – 14 March 1999) was a Norwegian guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, radio host, television host and record producer. He was raised in Manglerud, Oslo and began his career as a professional musician at sixteen. He first became famous in 1981 with the song "Den du veit" and released a total of six solo albums and five albums within the band Funhouse where he was the front man. Müller died 14 March 1999 in a car accident in Groruddalen, Oslo. He was considered one of the foremost guitarists in Norway.

Paul Oskar Kristeller (May 22, 1905 in Berlin – June 7, 1999 in New York, United States) was a scholar of Renaissance humanism. He was awarded the Haskins Medal in 1992. He was last active as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University in New York, where he mentored both Irving Louis Horowitz and A. James Gregor.

Sergeant Major Huelet Leo "Joe" Benner (November 1, 1917 – December 12, 1999) was an American multi-discipline pistol shooter during what many consider the golden era of international and national competition (post-World War II through the mid-1960s). He was a member of three U.S. Olympic teams (1948, 1952, and 1956).

Robert Lee Patrick (October 27, 1917 – October 6, 1999) was a Major League Baseball outfielder. He played parts of two seasons in the major leagues, 1941 and 1942 for the Detroit Tigers. He appeared in nine games, going 4-for-15 at the plate. His career, like so many other players of the so-called Greatest Generation, was interrupted by World War II. He served in the U.S. Army attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant.

John Malach Shaw (November 14, 1931 – December 24, 1999) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

William M. Halsey (1915–1999) was an influential abstract artist in the American Southeast, particularly in his home state of South Carolina. He was represented by the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York City (1948–53). His mural studies for the Baltimore Hebrew Congregational Temple were included in Synagogue Art Today at the Jewish Museum, New York City (1952). His work was included in the annual International Exhibition of Watercolors, the Art Institute of Chicago (1939, 1941–43). He had work in the Whitney Museum's Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings (1953). A mid-career retrospective was held at the Greenville County Museum of Art in 1972 and then traveled to the Gibbes Museum of Art (formerly the Gibbes Art Gallery), Charleston, South Carolina, and the Florence Museum, Florence, South Carolina.