Deaths in May 1997

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship, reason for notability, cause of death, 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.
• Friedl Däuber, 86, German alpine and cross-country skier and Olympian.
• Fernand Dumont, 69, Canadian sociologist, philosopher, and theologian.
• Ralph Earhart, 74, American football player.
• Jim McDonald, 81, American football player, and coach.
• Arthur Milne, 82, Scottish football player.
• Bo Widerberg, 66, Swedish actor and film director, stomach cancer.

2

• Raymond Sarif Easmon, 84, Sierra Leonean doctor and writer.
• Sir John Eccles, 94, Australian neurophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Heinz Ellenberg, 83, German biologist, botanist and ecologist.
• Paulo Freire, 75, Brazilian educator and philosopher, heart attack.
• Walter Hill, 62, American serial killer, execution by electrocution.
• Robin Kinahan, 80, Northern Irish politician and Orange Order member.
• Werner Lott, 89, German U-boat commander during World War II.
• David Madson, 33, American LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist, shot.
• Ralph McCreath, 78, Canadian figure skater.
• Queen Mother Moore, 98, African-American civil rights leader and a black nationalist.
• Don O'Riley, 52, American baseball player.
• Keith R. Porter, 84, Canadian-American cell biologist, pneumonia.
• Eugene Vale, 81, American novelist.
• Jimmy Wilson, 77, American Negro league baseball player.

3

• Bruce Beetham, 61, New Zealand academic and politician, heart failure.
• Gerrit den Braber, 68, Dutch songwriter and lyricist, stroke.
• Sébastien Enjolras, 21, French racing driver, racing accident.
• Hughie Green, 77, English presenter, game show host and actor, cancer.
• 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.

4

• Suhayr al-Qalamawi, 85, Egyptian literary figure and politician.
• Jerome Alden, 76, American playwright and screenwriter, kidney cancer.
• Egidio Armelloni, 87, Italian Olympic gymnast.
• Wijeyananda Dahanayake, 94, Sri Lankan politician.
• Rudolf Edinger, 94, Austrian weightlifter and Olympian.
• Esin Engin, 51, Turkish musician, composer, and film actor, leukemia.
• Hilary Grivich, 19, American gymnast and diver, traffic collision.
• Fernando Hernández, 52, Costa Rican footballer, cancer.
• Lee Miglin, 72, American businessman and philanthropist, stabbed.
• Alvy Moore, 75, American actor, heart failure.
• Lyman Bradford Smith, 92, American botanist.
• Lou Stathis, 44, American author, critic and editor, brain tumor.

5

• Giulio Balestrini, 89, Italian footballer.
• Bob Briggs, 52, American gridiron football player.
• Sir George Burns, 86, British Army officer.
• Walter Gotell, 73, German actor, cancer.
• Alan Gussow, 65, American artist, author and conservationist, cancer.
• Dick Ives, 71, American college basketball player.
• Murray Kempton, 79, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, pancreatic cancer.
• David Scherman, 81, American photojournalist and editor, cancer.

6

• Ridge Bond, 74, American actor and singer.
• Sydney Joseph Freedberg, 82, American art historian and curator.
• Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, 76, Mexican actor, lung cancer.
• John Edwards Hill, 68, British mammalogist.
• Günther Jerschke, 75, German actor.
• Wang You, 86, Chinese biochemist.

7

• John C. Ewers, 87, American ethnologist and museum curator.
• Yip Hon, 93, Chinese gambling tycoon, heart attack.
• George Lynch, 78, American race car driver.
• 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.
• 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.
• Kai-Uwe von Hassel, 84, German politician, heart attack.
• Micheline Kerney Walsh, 77, Irish archivist and historian.
• Bob Whitcher, 80, American baseball player.

9

• Rawya Ateya, 71, Egyptian woman and first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
• Augusto Céspedes Patzi, 93, Bolivian writer, politician, diplomat, and journalist.
• Bob Devaney, 82, American gridiron football coach, heart attack.
• Marco Ferreri, 68, Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, heart attack.
• Pierre Garsau, 35, Algerian-born French Olympic water polo player.
• Willy Hess, 90, Swiss musicologist and composer.
• Hoke Howell, 67, American actor.
• Kazumi Kawai, 32, Japanese actress, suicide by jumping.
• Rina Lasnier, 81, Québécois poet.
• Marie-Thérèse Paquin, 91, Canadian pianist.
• Paul Zastupnevich, 75, American costume designer.

10

• Bernard Anderson, 77, American jazz trumpeter.
• Jacinto Quincoces, 91, Spanish football player, manager, and Olympian.
• Silvano Tranquilli, 71, Italian actor.
• Joan Weston, 62, American Roller derby skater, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

11

• William Ragsdale Cannon, 81, American theologian and bishop of the United Methodist Church.
• David Christie, 49, French singer-songwriter, suicide.
• Ernie Fields, 92, American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader.
• Markus Gähler, 31, Swiss Olympic ski jumper.
• Genine Graham, 70, English actress.
• Dean M. Kelley, 70, American legal scholar, cancer.
• Catherine McLeod, 75, American actress.
• Howard Morton, 71, American actor, stroke.
• Vince Sherlock, 87, American baseball player.
• Peter Stackpole, 83, American photographer.

12

• Louis Barbarin, 94, American jazz drummer.
• Charles-Arthur Gauthier, 84, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada.
• Einar Gundersen, 81, Norwegian footballer.
• Jiří Pecka, 79, Czechoslovak slalom and sprint canoeist and Olympian.
• Henk Plenter, 83, Dutch football player.
• Avraham Yitzchak Stern, 61, Israeli administrator and politician.
• Frank A. Wenstrom, 93, American politician.

13

• Olle Dahlberg, 68, Swedish Olympic speed skater.
• Laurie Lee, 82, English poet, novelist and screenwriter, colorectal cancer.
• Carlos Augusto León, 82, Venezuelan poet, historian, politician and scientist.
• Tommy Turrentine, 69, American swing and hard bop trumpeter and composer.
• Zdeňka Veřmiřovská, 83, Czechoslovak/Czech gymnast and Olympian.
• Eduard Zakharov, 22, Russian boxer, stabbed.

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.
• Thelma Carpenter, 75, American jazz singer and actress, cardiac arrest.
• Bernie Constable, 76, English cricketer.
• Eddie Delker, 91, American baseball player.
• Samuel Hoyt Elbert, 89, American linguist.
• Alan Furlan, 77, Italian-American actor.
• Morton Heilig, 70, American virtual reality technology pioneer and filmmaker.
• Boris Parsadanian, 72, Armenian-Estonian composer.
• Val Peat, 50, British sprinter and Olympian.
• Bessie Schonberg, 90, German-American dancer and choreographer.

15

• Oscar Berger, 96, American editorial cartoonist.
• Eric Dwyer, 79, Australian cricketer.
• David Martin, 89, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives, pneumonia.
• Matylda Ossadnik, 80, Polish Olympic gymanst.
• Trevor Porteous, 63, English football player and coach.
• Saadallah Wannous, Syrian playwright, cancer.

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, heart attack.
• Elbridge Durbrow, 93, American diplomat and ambassador, stroke.
• William McGregor, 47, Canadian Olympic judoka.
• Bones McKinney, 78, American basketball player, and coach.
• Harry Charles Moore, 56, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
• Wang Zengqi, 77, Chinese writer.

17

• Tusten Ackerman, 95, American basketball player.
• Mikhail Bychkov, 70, Soviet Russian ice hockey player and Olympian.
• Chris Julian, 60, English motorcycle racer, gyrocopter accident.
• Durgabai Kamat, 117/118, first Indian female actress of Indian cinema.
• Roscoe L. Koontz, 74, American health physicist.

18

• Bridgette Andersen, 21, American actress.
• Mikhail Anikushin, 79, Soviet and Russian sculptor.
• Horst Lippmann, 70, German concert promoter and jazz musician.
• Paolo Panelli, 71, Italian comedian and film actor, pulmonary edema.
• Antonio Cornejo Polar, 60, Peruvian academic and literature and cultural critic.
• Soenario, 94, Indonesian politician and Foreign Minister.
• Raymond Van Dijck, 62, Belgian Olympic pole vaulter.

19

• Aaron Henry, 74, American civil rights leader and politician, congestive heart failure.
• Sombhu Mitra, 81, Indian actor, director and playwright.
• René Nyman, 80, Finnish Olympic sailor.
• Troy Ruttman, 67, American race car driver, lung cancer.
• Pāvels Seņičevs, 72, Soviet Latvian Olympic sports shooter.

20

• Joe Allen, 49, American college basketball player.
• Alex Friedmann, 78, Danish footballer.
• Eduardo Jardón, 82, Spanish Olympic field hockey player.
• Don Parker, 88, British racing driver.
• John Rawlins, 94, American film editor and director.
• Virgilio Barco Vargas, 75, Colombian politician, cancer.
• Gopal Yonjan, 53, Nepalese musician, complications of jaundice.

21

• Ron Allan, 73, Australian rules footballer.
• William Aston, 80, Australian politician.
• Amasa Stone Bishop, 76, American nuclear physicist, pneumonia.
• Noël Browne, 81, Irish politician.
• Fiorenzo Carpi, 78, Italian composer and pianist.
• Piper Davis, 79, American baseball player.

22

• Myrtle Bachelder, 89, American chemist and Women's Army Corps officer.
• Alziro Bergonzo, 90, Italian architect and painter.
• Donald Curtis, 82, American actor.
• Herman de Coninck, 53, Belgian poet, essayist, journalist and publisher, heart attack.
• Genildo Ferreira de França, Brazilian spree killer, suicide by gunshot.
• Jimmy Heale, 82, English footballer.
• Alfred Hershey, 88, American biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, heart failure.
• Raúl Gómez Jattin, 51, Colombian poet.
• Arthur Milne, 82, Scottish football player.
• Renzo Montagnani, 66, Italian actor, lung cancer.
• Candis Pettway, 72, American artist.
• Cornelius Michael Power, 83, 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.

23

• Alison Adburgham, 85, English fashion journalist and author.
• James Lee Byars, 65, American conceptual and performance artist, cancer.
• Oswaldo Calero, 52, Colombian footballer.
• Albert Cheetham, 81, Australian cricketer.
• Dorothy Gulliver, 88, American actress, pneumonia.
• Ken Keuper, 78, American football player.
• Sadayoshi Kobayashi, 92, Japanese Olympic field hockey player.
• Lovie Lee, 88, American electric blues pianist and singer.
• David M. Ludlum, 86, American historian, meteorologist, and author.
• Albert Rosen, 73, Austrian-Irish conductor.

24

• Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali, 94, Iraqi politician and Prime Minister.
• 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.
• Alfonso de Vinuesa, 38, Spanish racing driver, traffic collision.
• Jerzy Górski, 67, Polish Olympic canoeist.
• Edward Mulhare, 74, Irish actor, lung cancer.
• Sepp Weiler, 76, West German ski jumper and Olympian.

25

• Syd Bidwell, 80, British politician.
• Chester Feldman, 71, American producer of game shows.
• Jay Hebert, 74, American golfer.
• Joseph Hoffman, 88, American screenwriter.
• Peter Rangmar, 40, Swedish comedian, actor and baritone.
• Ronald Vernieux, 86, Indian sprinter and Olympian.

26

• Jack Bennett, 76, Australian rules football player.
• Jenny Rosenthal Bramley, 87, Russian-American physicist.
• James Gordon, 88, American Olympic sprinter.
• Ralph Horween, 100, American football player, and coach.
• Serge Hubert, 81, French Olympic sports shooter.
• Bernard Jackson, 46, American football player, and coach, liver cancer.
• Jack Jersey, 55, Dutch singer, composer, and producer of light music, cancer.
• Erik Pausin, 77, Austrian figure skater and Olympian.
• Jack Vinall, 86, English football player and manager.
• Manfred von Ardenne, 90, German physicist and inventor.

27

• Robert Ambelain, 89, French essayist.
• Henry Barakat, 82, Egyptian film director.
• Franc Cvenkelj, 72, Slovenian Olympic alpine skier.
• Karl Martz, 84, American studio potter and ceramic artist.
• Nic Roeser, 100, Luxembourgian Olympic gymnast.
• Azem Shkreli, 59, Albanian writer, poet, director and producer.

28

• Conway Baker, 85, American football player.
• Ronald V. Book, 60, American theoretical computer scientist.
• Sydney Guilaroff, 89, American Hollywood hairdresser, pneumonia.
• Édouard Muller, 77, French road bicycle racer.
• Sung Nak-woon, 71, South Korean football forward.
• John H. Sengstacke, 84, American newspaper publisher, stroke.
• John Stack, 73, American X-ray engineer, rower and Olympic champion.
• Tatyana Sumarokova, 74, Soviet flight navigator during World War II.

29

• Jeff Buckley, 30, American singer, songwriter and guitarist, accidental drowning.
• George Fenneman, 77, American radio and television announcer, emphysema.
• Alexander Kazhdan, 74, Soviet-American Byzantinist.
• William H. McNichols, Jr., 87, American politician and mayor of Denver, Colorado.
• Jack Parkinson, 73, American basketball player, brain tumor, brain cancer.

30

• West Arkeen, 36, American musician and songwriter for Guns N' Roses, opiate overdose.
• Béla Barényi, 90, Austro-Hungarian automotive engineer.
• Winsome Cripps, 66, Australian sprinter and Olympian.
• Doris Lindsey Holland Rhodes, 87, American politician.

31

• Expedito Alencar, 51, Brazilian Olympic boxer.
• Pat Collins, 62, American hypnotist.
• Frei Damião, 98, Italian Roman Catholic priest and missionary, stroke.
• José González, 90, Spanish Olympic swimmer.
• James Bennett Griffin, 92, American archaeologist.
• Fazal Haq Mujahid, Afghanistan mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War, assassinated.
• Kai Jensen, 100, Danish Olympic athlete.
• Eddie Jones, 68, American jazz double bassist.
• Oswald Kaduk, 90, German SS officer and war criminal during World War II.
• Jewel Lafontant, 75, American lawyer and White House official, breast cancer.
• Ove Ljung, 79, Swedish Army officer.
• Günter Luther, 75, German admiral.
• Johnny Papalia, 73, Canadian mobster, shot.
• Poul Petersen, 76, Danish football player, manager and Olympian.
• Leicester Spring, 88, New Zealand cricketer.