Category: Famous Deaths

1631 – John Donne, Metaphysical poet, dies (birth date unknown)
1917 – Emil Adolf von Behring, German physician, won the first Nobel Prize for Physics (1901) for his serum to cure diphtheria, dies at 63
1934 – Franz Ehrle, German Jesuit and Vatican librarian (modernised the Vatican Library), dies at 88
1945 – Maurice Rose, American army officer (WWI; WWII), highest-ranking American killed by enemy fire in Europe, dies at 45
1957 – Gene Lockhart, American actor (Going My Way), dies at 65
1968 – Grover Lowdermilk, American MLB baseball pitcher (St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, and 4 other teams), dies at 83
1995 – Carl Story, American bluegrass musician (Rambling Mountaineers), dies at 78
1996 – Dante Giacosa, Italian engineer and automobile designer (Fiat), dies at 91
1997 – Friedrich Hund, German physicist who worked on atoms and molecules (Hund’s Law), dies at 101
2023 – John Brockington, American football running back (First-team All-Pro 1971, 73; Pro Bowl 1971, 72, 73; Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs), dies at 74

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1202 – Joachim of Fiore, Italian Catholic mystic and Christian theologian who founded the Abbey of San Giovanni di Fiore and wrote prophecies of the three ages of human history, dies at about 66 or 67
1949 – Dattaram Hindlekar, Indian cricket wicketkeeper (4 Tests, 3 dismissals; Bombay), dies at 40
1966 – Erwin Piscator, German theater and film director (Nathan the Wise; Revolt of the Fishermen), dies at 72
1967 – Jean Toomer, American poet and novelist (Cane, Blue Meridian), dies at 72
1972 – Peter Whitney, American actor (Rough Riders), dies at 55
1979 – José María Velasco Ibarra, Ecuadorian politician, who served as president 5 times (1934-72), dies at 86
1984 – Peter Yarrall, strongest Englishman (weighed 826 lb (374.7 kg), dies
1984 – Hollis Frampton, American photographer and experimental filmmaker (Zorns Lemma, Critical Mass), dies of cancer at 48
1998 – Ramsay Ames [Phillips], American actress, model and dancer (The Mummy’s Ghost; Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves), dies of lung cancer at 79
2004 – Hubert Gregg, British broadcaster (b. 1914)

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1629 – Jacob de Gheyn II, Dutch artist (b. 1565)
1788 – Charles Wesley, British Methodist leader (brother of John Wesley) and hymn writer (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing), dies at 80
1792 – Gustav III, King of Sweden (1771-92), dies of septicemia at 46 after being shot by an assassin thirteen days earlier
1945 – Ferenc Csik, Hungarian swimmer (Olympics gold medal 100m freestyle 1936), dies of war wounds at 31
1956 – Infante Alfonso of Spain, younger brother of King Juan Carlos, dies from an accidental gunshot at 14
1959 – Sara Wennerberg-Reuter, Swedish composer, dies at 84
1979 – Ray Ventura, French jazz pianist and big band bandleader (“Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise”), dies at 69
1994 – Bill Travers [William Inge Lindon-Travers], British actor, director, officer and animal rights activist (Born Free, Gorgo), dies at 72
2003 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (SARS) (b. 1956)
2014 – Hobart “Hobie” Alter, American surf and sailing entrepreneur (created the Hobie Cat catamaran), dies of cancer at 80

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1701 – Domenico Guidi, Italian sculptor, dies at 75
1799 – Bendix Friedrich Zinck, Danish organist and composer, dies at 83
1891 – Dick Pilling, English cricket wicketkeeper (8 Tests, 14 dismissals; Lancashire CCC), dies of tuberculosis at 35
1931 – Ban Johnson, American Baseball HOF executive (founder and president of MLB American League, 1900-27), dies after a long illness at 67
1947 – Karol Świerczewski, Polish general who served the Soviet Union and Republican Spain, assassinated at 50
1975 – Renzo Massarani, Italian composer, dies at 77
1979 – Emmett Kelly, American circus clown (Weary Willy), dies at 80
1994 – Eugene Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright (Rhinoceros, Bald Soprano), dies at 84
2006 – Proinsias Ó Maonaigh, Irish musician (b. 1922)
2015 – Miroslav Ondříček, Czech BAFTA and Academy Award winning cinematographer (Amadeus; Ragtime), dies at 80

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1769 – Josef Antonin Gurecky, composer, dies at 60
1923 – James Dewar, Scottish chemist and physicist (Dewarfles/cordiet), dies at 80
1938 – William Stern, German-American philosopher (Intelligence of Children), dies at 66
1943 – Grigori Yakovlevich Bakhchivangi, Russian test pilot (world speed record in BI-1 rocket plane), but killed in its crash at 35
1972 – Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician, dies at 67
2000 – Ian Dury, English rock musician (The Blockheads) and actor (Judge Dredd), dies at 57
2003 – Paul Zindel, American playwright and novelist (The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-theMoon Marigolds), dies from lung cancer at 66
2014 – James Schlesinger, American economist and public servant (US Secretary of Energy, 1977-79; US Secretary of Defense, 1973-75; Chair of Atomic Energy Commission, 1973-75), dies at 85
2018 – Stephane Audran, French actress (Just Before Nightfall, Babette’s Feast), dies at 85
2023 – Jocelyn Morlock, Canadian contemporary and post-modern classical composer (My Name is Amanda Todd; Bird in the Tangled Sky), and music educator, dies at 53

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304 – Saint Emmanuel, Christian martyr killed under Diocletian
1797 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist and father of modern geology, dies at 70
1831 – Richard Allen, 1st African American ordained by Methodist-Episcopal church, dies at 71
1865 – Thomas Hancock, English pioneer of the rubber industry (Stoke Newington), dies at 79
1892 – Anton Wallerstein, German composer, dies at 78
1986 – Bartlett Robinson, American actor (Wendy and Me, Mona McCluskey), dies at 73
1991 – Paul Gayten American RandB pianist, songwriter, bandleader, producer (Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Chuck Berry), and record company executive (Chess Records), dies at 71
1994 – Constantine Koukouchkine, Russian diplomat, murdered in Algeria at 41
2019 – Heinz Winbeck, German composer, conductor and teacher, dies at 73
2020 – Jimmy Wynn, American baseball outfielder (MLB All Star 1967, 74, 75; Houston Colt 45s/Astros, LA Dodgers), dies at 78

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1712 – Nehemiah Grew, English naturalist (b. 1641)
1799 – Constantin Reindl, German composer, dies at 60
1818 – Caspar Wessel, Danish-Norwegian mathematician, dies at 72
1877 – Elkanah Brackin Greer, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 51
1924 – John Reedman, cricketer (Test for Aust 1894, 17 and 4, 1 for 24), dies
1987 – Henry Richardson LaBouisse, American diplomat (headed UNICEF (1965-79), dies at 83
1996 – John Snagge, British newsreader and commentator for the BBC (Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race), dies at 91
2021 – Stan Albeck, American basketball coach (Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, New Jersey Nets, Chicago Bulls), dies from a stroke at 89
2022 – Kathryn Hays [Kay Piper], American actress (Kim Hughes in “As the World Turns”, 1972-2010), dies at 87
2025 – J. Bennett Johnston, American politician (Sen-D-LA, 1972-97), dies at 92

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1284 – Hugh III of Cyprus, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem (b 1235)
1921 – James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, dies at 86
1930 – Henry Faulds, British surgeon, fingerprinting pioneer, and founder of the Tokyo Institute for the Blind, dies at 86
1960 – Paul Joostens, Belgian avant-garde artist, dies at 70
1976 – Nelson Case, American TV host (Trash or Treasure), dies at 66
1990 – Ray Goulding, American comedian (Bob and Ray), dies of kidney failure at 68
2009 – Martin Brozius, Dutch actor (Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden), dies at 67
2010 – Johnny Maestro, American rock vocalist (Crests – “16 Candles”; Brooklyn Bridge), dies at 70
2020 – John Davies, Australian swimmer (Olympic gold 200m breaststroke 1952; WR 200m breaststroke 2:34.4 1952), dies at 90
2020 – Bill Rieflin, American rock drummer (Nine Inch Nails; R.E.M.; King Crimson. 2013-20), dies of cancer at 59

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1103 – Eudes I, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1058)
1555 – Julius III [Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte], Counter-Reformation Pope (1550-55), dies at 67
1862 – Karl Robert von Nesselrode, German-Russian chancellor, dies at 81
1952 – Klaas Schilder, Dutch vicar and theologist (Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (liberated)), dies at 61
1977 – Bennie Green, American swing jazz and soul trombonist (Earl Hines), dies at 53
1994 – Alvara del Portillo, Spanish Opus Dei bishop, dies at 80
1995 – Alan Barton, English singer (Smokie, Black Lace), dies in a bus crash at 41
1995 – Davie Cooper, Scottish soccer winger (22 caps; Clydebank, Rangers 376 games, Motherwell), dies of a subarachnoid haemorrhage at 39
1999 – Luis María Argaña, Paraguayan politician and high court judge, Vice President of Paraguay, assassinated by armed gunmen at 66
2015 – Roy Douglas, English composer and arranger (Tomorrow We Live – At Dawn We Die), dies at 107

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1832 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and social philosopher (Faust), dies at 82
1840 – Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician, dies at 41
1871 – Johnny Cuzens, Australian aboriginal cricketer (1st Australian indigenous tour to UK 1868), dies
1913 – Song Jiaoran, Chinese Nationalist and revolutionary (Leader of Kuomintang party 1912-13), assassinated at 30
1937 – Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, English aviator and ornithologist, dies at 71
1963 – Cilly Aussem, German tennis player (French C’ships, Wimbledon 1931), dies of liver failure at 54
1969 – Ernst Deutsch [Dorian], Jewish-Austrian actor (3rd Man, Golem), dies at 78
1986 – Mark Dinning, American singer (“Teen Angel”), dies of a heart attack at 52
2007 – ]Uppaluri Gopala] U.G. Krishnamurti, Indian philosophe and lecturer, dies of injuries after a fall at 88
2013 – Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter (200m world record), dies from cancer at 60

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