2008 deaths

Henki Kolstad (3 February 1915 – 14 July 2008) was a Norwegian actor and pop-cultural national treasure. With his debut at the Oslo national theater, he was known for his appearances in Olsenbanden, the children's series Jul i Skomakergata, Herr Klinke in Den Spanske Flue, and Vi gifter oss. Notable mentions include the Amanda and the Order of St. Olav awards.Kolstad and his wife Else were together for 76 years. They had one son and two daughters.Henki was also known for voicing several local Disney characters such as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, Grumpy in the 1982 dub of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Maurice in Beauty and the Beast and the Sultan of Agrabah in Aladdin.
Henki's younger brother, Lasse Kolstad, was also a well-known actor. His older brother Knut Kolstad was a politician.

Doris Gibson Parra del Riego (28 April 1910 – 23 August 2008) was a Peruvian magazine writer and publisher. She is most noted as the founder and editor of the Peruvian weekly news magazine Caretas.She has been described as "a feminist before the movement had begun, and according to many, a visionary who influenced the course of Peru's recent history through the brave and defiant reporting of the magazine she created".

Alec Nathan Wildenstein (August 5, 1940 – February 18, 2008) was a French-born American billionaire businessman, art dealer, racehorse owner, and breeder.

Solange Troisier (19 July 1919 – 9 September 2008) was a French physician, Inspector General of Prisons, and deputy for the Val-d'Oise. She was a left-wing Gaullist, a feminist, and was active in many committees on social issues.

Paul Tessier (August 1917 – June 6, 2008) was a French maxillofacial surgeon. He was considered the father of modern craniofacial surgery.

Fernand Meyssonnier (1931–2008) was an executioner in the last years of French Algeria. He acted as an executioner from 1947 to 1961 and killed more than 200 people.
He is the author of a book "The Executioner's Tale" (Paroles de bourreau : Témoignage unique d'un éxécuteur des arrêts criminels) answering questions about his career as an executioner.He inherited the job of executioner from his father Maurice Meyssonnier in 1947 when he ended compulsory education. His ancestors had been executioners from ages ago. When Algeria became independent from France in 1961, the guillotine was replaced by execution by firing squad.In 1961, shortly before Algerian independence, Fernand Meyssonnier went to Tahiti where he met his future wife with whom he had a daughter, and founded several businesses. After his retirement, he went to metropolitan France. He bought a house in Fontaine-de-Vaucluse where he died on August 8, 2008.
Meyssonnier had been erroneously called the "last (French) executioner alive". In fact, he died the same year as Marcel Chevalier, the last French chief executioner, who served from 1976 to 1977.

Georges Nguyen Van Loc (2 April 1933 – 7 December 2008) was a French policeman, actor, and author.
Van Loc worked as a policeman, police inspector and commissioner in his native Marseille for many years. He later wrote an autobiography about his career as a police officer and played himself in a television series based on his life. He created the first GIPN. He was nicknamed "le Chinois" ("the Chinese") despite his Vietnamese descent.

Thierry Gilardi (26 July 1958 – 25 March 2008) was a French football commentator.

Pierre Sancan (24 October 1916 – 20 October 2008) was a French composer, pianist, teacher and conductor. Along with Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux, he was a major figure among French musicians in the mid-twentieth-century transition between modern and contemporary eras; but outside France his name is almost unknown.

Philippe Pinchemel (10 June 1923 – 16 March 2008) was a French geographer. He received the Lauréat Prix International de Géographie Vautrin Lud in 2004.