The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1997.
Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:
- Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.
May 1997
1
- Elena Altieri, 80, Italian actress.
- Tridib Chaudhuri, 85, Indian politician and Indian independence activist.
- Russell G. Cleary, 63, American brewer, complications from heart surgery.[1]
- Fernand Dumont, 69, Canadian sociologist, philosopher, and theologian.[2]
- Friedl Däuber, 86, German alpine and cross-country skier.[3]
- Jim McDonald, 81, American football player and coach.[4]
- Arthur Milne, 82, Scottish football player.
- Bo Widerberg, 66, Swedish actor and film director, stomach cancer.[5]
2
- Raymond Sarif Easmon, 84, Sierra Leonean doctor and writer.
- John Eccles, 94, Australian neurophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[6]
- Heinz Ellenberg, 83, German biologist, botanist and ecologist.
- Paulo Freire, 75, Brazilian educator and philosopher, heart attack.[7]
- Walter Hill, 62, American serial killer, execution by electrocution.
- Robin Kinahan, 80, Northern Irish politician and Orange Order member.[8]
- Werner Lott, 89, German U-boat commander during World War II.
- Ralph McCreath, 78, Canadian figure skater.
- Queen Mother Moore, 98, African-American civil rights leader and a black nationalist.[9]
- Keith R. Porter, 84, Canadian-American cell biologist, pneumonia.[10]
- Eugene Vale, 81, American novelist.[11]
- Jimmy Wilson, 77, American Negro league baseball player.[12]
3
- Bruce Beetham, 61, New Zealand academic and politician, heart failure.
- Gerrit den Braber, 68, Dutch songwriter and lyricist, stroke.[13]
- Sébastien Enjolras, 21, French racing driver, racing accident.
- Hughie Green, 77, English presenter, game show host and actor, cancer.[14]
- Sir John Junor, 78, British journalist and editor of the Daily Express.
- Louis, Prince Napoléon, 83, French member of the Bonaparte dynasty.
- Narciso Yepes, 69, Spanish guitarist, cancer.[15]
4
- Suhayr al-Qalamawi, 85, Egyptian literary figure and politician.[16]
- Jerome Alden, 76, American playwright and screenwriter, kidney cancer.[17]
- Wijeyananda Dahanayake, 95, Sri Lankan politician.
- Esin Engin, 51, Turkish musician, composer, and film actor, leukemia.
- Danilo Fioravanti, 83, Italian gymnast and Olympian.[18]
- Hilary Grivich, 19, American gymnast and diver, car accident.[19]
- Fernando Hernández, 52, Costa Rican footballer, cancer.
- Lee Miglin, 72, American businessman and philanthropist, murdered by serial killer Andrew Cunanan.[20]
- Alvy Moore, 75, American actor (Green Acres, The Littles, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind), heart failure.[21]
- Lyman Bradford Smith, 92, American botanist.[22]
- Lou Stathis, 44, American author, critic and editor, brain tumor.
5
- Bob Briggs, 52, American gridiron football player.[23]
- George Burns, 86, British Army officer.
- Walter Gotell, 73, German actor (From Russia with Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights), cancer.[24]
- Alan Gussow, 65, American artist, author and conservationist, cancer.[25]
- Murray Kempton, 79, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, pancreatic cancer.[26]
- David Scherman, 81, American photojournalist and editor, cancer.[27]
6
- Ridge Bond, 74, American actor and singer.[28]
- Sydney Joseph Freedberg, 82, American art historian and curator.[29]
- Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, 76, Mexican actor, lung cancer.[30]
- John Edwards Hill, 68, British mammalogist.
- Günther Jerschke, 75, German actor.[31]
- Wang You, 86, Chinese biochemist.
7
- John C. Ewers, 87, American ethnologist and museum curator.[32]
- Yip Hon, 93, Chinese gambling tycoon, heart attack.
- George Lynch, 78, American race car driver.[33]
- Tom Lysons, 62, Canadian politician.
8
- Joachim Angermeyer, 73, German businessman and politician.
- Bijoy Chandra Bhagavati, 92, Indian politician.
- Ralph Wendell Burhoe, 85, American theologian.[34]
- Scott Carpenter, 22, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
- Pat Hughes, 94, English tennis player.
- Bernhard Nooni, 88, Estonian football player.
- Clara Ottesen, 85, Norwegian government official, aid worker and politician.
- Nunzio Provenzano, 74, American mobster.
- William R. Royal, 92, American Air Force scuba diver.
- Michael Shersby, 64, British politician.[35]
- Kai-Uwe von Hassel, 84, German politician, heart attack.[36]
- Micheline Kerney Walsh, 77, Irish archivist and historian.[37]
- Bob Whitcher, 80, American baseball player.[38]
9
- Rawya Ateya, 71, Egyptian woman and first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
- Bob Devaney, 82, American gridiron football coach, heart attack.[39]
- Marco Ferreri, 68, Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, heart attack.[40]
- Willy Hess, 90, Swiss musicologist and composer.[41]
- Kazumi Kawai, 32, Japanese actress, suicide.
- Rina Lasnier, 86, Québécois poet.[42]
- Augusto Céspedes Patzi, 93, Bolivian writer, politician, diplomat, and journalist.
- Paul Zastupnevich, 75, American costume designer.
10
- Bernard Anderson, 77, American jazz trumpeter.
- Jacinto Quincoces, 91, Spanish football player and manager.[43]
- Silvano Tranquilli, 71, Italian actor.[44]
- Joan Weston, 62, American Roller derby skater, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.[45]
11
- William Ragsdale Cannon, 81, American theologian and bishop of the United Methodist Church.[46]
- David Christie, 49, French singer-songwriter, suicide.[47]
- Ernie Fields, 92, American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader.
- Genine Graham, 70, English actress.
- Dean M. Kelley, 70, American legal scholar, cancer.[48]
- Catherine McLeod, 75, American actress.[49]
- Howard Morton, 71, American actor, stroke.
- Peter Stackpole, 83, American photographer.[50]
12
- Louis Barbarin, 94, American jazz drummer.[51]
- Charles-Arthur Gauthier, 84, Canadian politician.
- Jiří Pecka, 79, Czechoslovak slalom and sprint canoeist.[52]
- Henk Plenter, 83, Dutch football player.
- Avraham Yitzchak Stern, 61, Israeli administrator and politician.[53]
- Frank A. Wenstrom, 93, American politician.[54]
13
- Laurie Lee, 82, English poet, novelist and screenwriter, colorectal cancer.[55]
- Carlos Augusto León, 82, Venezuelan poet, historian, politician and scientist.
- Tommy Turrentine, 69, American swing and hard bop trumpeter and composer.[56]
- Zdeňka Veřmiřovská, 83, Czechoslovak/Czech gymnast and Olympian.[57]
- Eduard Zakharov, 22, Russian boxer, homicide.[58]
14
- Jambyn Batmönkh, 71, Mongolian communist politician.
- Mel Bay, 84, American musician and music publisher.
- Harry Blackstone, Jr., 62, American magician and television performer, pancreatic cancer.[59]
- Thelma Carpenter, 75, American jazz singer and actress, cardiac arrest.[60]
- Samuel Hoyt Elbert, 89, American linguist.[61]
- Alan Furlan, 77, Italian-American actor.[62]
- Morton Heilig, 70, American virtual reality technology pioneer and filmmaker.
- Boris Parsadanian, 72, Armenian-Estonian composer.
- Val Peat, 50, British sprinter and Olympian.[63]
- Bessie Schonberg, 90, German-American dancer and choreographer.[64]
15
- Oscar Berger, 96, American editorial cartoonist.[65]
- David Martin, 89, American politician, pneumonia.
- Trevor Porteous, 63, English football player and coach.
- Saadallah Wannous, Syrian playwright, cancer.[66]
16
- Donatien Mahele Lieko Bokungu, 56, Zairean general, execution by firing squad.
- Flor Crowley, 62, Irish Fianna Fáil politician.
- Giuseppe De Santis, 80, Italian film director (Bitter Rice), heart attack.[67]
- Elbridge Durbrow, 93, American diplomat and ambassador, stroke.[68]
- Bones McKinney, 78, American basketball player and coach.[69]
- Harry Charles Moore, 56, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.[70]
- Wang Zengqi, 77, Chinese writer.[71]
17
- Tusten Ackerman, 95, American basketball player.
- Mikhail Bychkov, 70, Russian ice hockey player.[72]
- Chris Julian, 60, English motorcycle racer, gyrocopter accident.
- Durgabai Kamat, 97/98, first Indian female actress of Indian cinema.
- Roscoe L. Koontz, 74, American health physicist.[73]
18
- Bridgette Andersen, 21, American actress.
- Mikhail Anikushin, 79, Soviet and Russian sculptor.
- Horst Lippmann, 70, German concert promoter and jazz musician.[74]
- Paolo Panelli, 71, Italian comedian and film actor, pulmonary edema.
- Antonio Cornejo Polar, 60, Peruvian academic and literature and cultural critic.[75]
- Soenario, 94, Indonesian politician and Foreign Minister.[76]
19
- Aaron Henry, 74, American civil rights leader and politician, congestive heart failure.[77]
- Sombhu Mitra, 81, Indian actor, director and playwright.
- Troy Ruttman, 67, American race car driver, lung cancer.[78]
- Pāvels Seņičevs, 72, Soviet sports shooter.[79]
20
- Don Parker, 88, British racing driver.
- John Rawlins, 94, American film editor and director.[80]
- Virgilio Barco Vargas, 75, Colombian politician, cancer.[81]
- Gopal Yonjan, 53, Nepalese musician, complications of jaundice.
21
- William Aston, 80, Australian politician.
- Amasa Stone Bishop, American nuclear physicist, pneumonia.[82]
- Noël Browne, 81, Irish politician.
- Fiorenzo Carpi, 78, Italian composer and pianist.[83]
22
- Myrtle Bachelder, 89, American chemist and Women's Army Corps officer.[84]
- Alziro Bergonzo, 90, Italian architect and painter.
- Donald Curtis, 82, American actor.[85]
- Herman de Coninck, 53, Belgian poet, essayist, journalist and publisher, heart attack.[86]
- Genildo Ferreira de França, Brazilian spree killer, suicide.[87]
- Jimmy Heale, 82, English footballer.[88]
- Alfred Hershey, 88, American biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, heart failure.[89]
- Raúl Gómez Jattin, 51, Colombian poet.[90]
- Arthur Milne, 82, Scottish football player.
- Renzo Montagnani, 66, Italian actor, lung cancer.[91]
- Candis Pettway, 72, American artist.
- Cornelius Michael Power, 84, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
- T. R. Ramanna, 74, Indian film director and producer.
- Robert D. Russ, 64, United States Air Force general and commander of Tactical Air Command.
- Stanisław Swianiewicz, 97, Polish economist and historian.
- Klaus von Bismarck, 85, German broadcaster and cultural administrator.[92]
23
- Alison Adburgham, 85, English fashion journalist and author.
- James Lee Byars, 65, American conceptual and performance artist, cancer.[93]
- Dorothy Gulliver, 88, American actress, pneumonia.
- Sadayoshi Kobayashi, 92, Japanese field hockey player.[94]
- Lovie Lee, 88, American electric blues pianist and singer.[95]
- David M. Ludlum, 86, American historian, meteorologist, and author.[96]
- Albert Rosen, 73, Austrian-Irish conductor.
24
- Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali, 94, Iraqi politician and Prime Minister (1953-1954).[97]
- M. Aram, 70, Indian educator and peace advocate.
- Kinpei Azusa, 66, Japanese voice actor, laryngeal cancer.
- Robbie Branscum, 62, American children's author, heart attack.[98]
- Alfonso de Vinuesa, 38, Spanish racing driver, traffic collision.
- Edward Mulhare, 74, Irish actor (Knight Rider, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Von Ryan's Express), lung cancer.[99]
- Sepp Weiler, 76, West German ski jumper and Olympian.[100]
25
- Syd Bidwell, 80, British politician.[101]
- Chester Feldman, 71, American producer of game shows.
- Jay Hebert, 74, American golfer.[102]
- Joseph Hoffman, 88, American screenwriter.[103]
- Peter Rangmar, 40, Swedish comedian, actor and baritone.
- Ronald Vernieux, 86, Indian sprinter and Olympian.[104]
26
- Jack Bennett, 76, Australian rules football player.
- Jenny Rosenthal Bramley, 87, Russian-American physicist.[105]
- James Gordon, 88, American sprinter and Olympian.[106]
- Ralph Horween, 100, American football player and coach.[107]
- Bernard Jackson, 46, American football player and coach, liver cancer.[108]
- Jack Jersey, 55, Dutch singer, composer, and producer of light music, cancer.[109]
- Jack Vinall, 86, English football player and manager.[110]
- Manfred von Ardenne, 90, German physicist and inventor.[111]
27
- Robert Ambelain, 89, French essayist.[112]
- Henry Barakat, 83, Egyptian film director.[113]
- Karl Martz, 84, American studio potter and ceramic artist.[114]
- Azem Shkreli, 59, Albanian writer, poet, director and producer.
28
- Ronald V. Book, 60, American theoretical computer scientist.[115]
- Sydney Guilaroff, 89, American Hollywood hairdresser, pneumonia.[116]
- Édouard Muller, 77, French road bicycle racer.[117]
- Sung Nak-woon, 71, South Korean football forward.
- John H. Sengstacke, 84, American newspaper publisher, stroke.[118]
- John Stack, 73, American X-ray engineer, rower and Olympic champion.[119]
- Tatyana Sumarokova, 74, Soviet flight navigator during World War II.
29
- Jeff Buckley, 30, American singer, songwriter and guitarist, accidental drowning.[120]
- George Fenneman, 77, American radio and television announcer, emphysema.[121]
- Alexander Kazhdan, 74, Soviet-American Byzantinist.[122]
- William H. McNichols, Jr., 87, American politician and mayor of Denver, Colorado (1968-1983).
- Jack Parkinson, 73, American basketball player, brain tumor, brain cancer.
30
- West Arkeen, 36, American musician and songwriter for Guns N' Roses, opiate overdose.[123]
- Béla Barényi, 90, Austro-Hungarian automotive engineer.
- Winsome Cripps, 66, Australian sprinter.[124]
- Doris Lindsey Holland Rhodes, 87, American politician.
31
- Pat Collins, 62, American hypnotist.[125]
- Frei Damião, 98, Italian Roman Catholic priest and missionary, stroke.[126]
- James Bennett Griffin, 92, American archaeologist.
- Fazal Haq Mujahid, Afghanistan mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War, assassinated.
- Eddie Jones, 68, American jazz double bassist.[127]
- Oswald Kaduk, 90, German SS officer and war criminal during World War II.
- Jewel Lafontant, 75, American lawyer and White House official, breast cancer.[128]
- Ove Ljung, 79, Swedish Army officer.[129]
- Günter Luther, 75, German admiral.
- Johnny Papalia, 73, Canadian mobster, shot.[130]
- Poul Petersen, 76, Danish football player and manager.
References
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