1996 deaths

Richard Motoso Sakakida (Japanese: 榊田 元宗, November 19, 1920 – January 23, 1996) was a United States Army intelligence agent stationed in the Philippines at the outbreak of World War II. He was captured and tortured for months after the fall of the country to Imperial Japan, but managed to convince the Japanese that he was a civilian and was released. Employed by the Japanese Fourteenth Army (though still under suspicion), he gathered and passed along valuable information to the Philippine resistance. He also planned and participated in the mass escape of about 500 Filipino prisoners.

Wanda McKay (born Dorothy Quackenbush; June 22, 1915 – April 11, 1996) was an American actress and model.

Walter Dobrzynski, better known as Walter Dobschinski (October 29, 1908, Berlin - February 16, 1996, Berlin) was a German jazz trombonist and bandleader.
Dobschinski received formal musical training on piano at the Berlin Conservatory, but concentrated on trombone once he became interested in jazz music. He played with Teddy Stauffer for most of the 1930s, including on tours of western Europe and on the ship SS Reliance. In 1939 he worked with Kurt Hohenberger, and was involved with the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra during World War II. Following the war, he led a swing jazz ensemble for Berliner Rundfunk, recording extensively with this group; Rex Stewart appeared on some of these recordings. He continued leading ensembles in the 1950s, but in his later career he concentrated on arranging and composition.

Lila Georgia Everett Finn Shanley (November 28, 1909 – November 15, 1996), stage name Lila Finn, was an American stuntwoman, stunt double, actress, and athlete. After first working as a stunt double for Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane (1937), she doubled for many leading Hollywood actresses, including Vivien Leigh, Paulette Goddard, Donna Reed, Betty Hutton, and Sandra Dee, appearing in more than 100 films over nearly six decades. She was the founding president of the Stuntwomen's Association of Motion Pictures, established in 1958, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. She also competed on the United States women's national volleyball team from 1955 to 1960 and won a team silver medal in the 1959 Pan American Games.

Melvin Wallace Bleeker (August 20, 1920 – April 24, 1996) was a professional American football player who played halfback for four seasons in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams.

David William Robert Brand, Lord Brand (21 October 1923 – 14 April 1996) was a British lawyer and judge. He had a conservative outlook on life, and as a judge he had a reputation for both speedy decisions and severe sentences.His university education was interrupted by service in the British Army during World War II. He then became an advocate, and after a career as a prosecutor, he was a sheriff in southern Scotland from 1968 to 1970. He was Solicitor-General for Scotland from 1970 to 1972, and then served from 1972 to 1989 as a Senator of the College of Justice. In 1994, he was briefly an appellate judge in Botswana.

Jean Howell (November 21, 1927 – July 23, 1996) was an American television actress. She also appeared occasionally in films.
Howell was the daughter of Burl Howell and Esther Hyde ‘’Buddy’’ Howell, along with her sister Dixon. The family moved to Sebastopol, California area in 1935. She graduated in 1944 from Analy High School in Sebastopol, and later from the University of Washington.On stage, Howell acted in New York in summer stock theater and at the Horseshoe Theater in Los Angeles. Television programs on which she appeared included Perry Mason, Space Patrol, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Four Star Theater, Lux Video Theatre, and Telephone Time. Her films included the 1957 western Hell's Crossroads.Howell was married to actor Larry Thor for four months in 1956.In her later years, Howell was an advocate for environmental efforts to clean up Santa Monica Bay. She gave talks about ecology and also trained speakers for similar activities.Howell died of cancer on July 23, 1996, in Santa Monica, California. She was 68.

Douglas Franklin Wright (March 25, 1940 – September 6, 1996) was an American serial killer who murdered at least seven people between 1969 and 1991. He was sentenced to death for three of these murders and was executed in 1996 at the Oregon State Penitentiary, becoming the first person to be executed in Oregon since 1962. He was also the first person executed in Oregon by lethal injection.

Georges Géret (18 October 1924 – 7 April 1996) was a French film actor. He appeared in over 80 films between 1954 and 1992. He was born in Lyon, France.

Suzy Pierson (1902–1996) was a French film actress. She played lead roles in several silent films of the 1920s.