1858 – Johann Baptist Cramer, German-British pianist, composer and music publisher, dies at 87
1968 – Edna Ferber, American author and playwright (American Beauty, Cimarron), dies at 82
1996 – George Abel, Canadian ice hockey player (Olympic gold 1952), dies at 80
2001 – Alec Stock, English football manager (b. 1917)
2010 – Daryl Gates, LAPD Chief, dies at 83
2011 – Allan Blakeney, Canadian politician (10th Premier of Saskatchewan), dies at 85
2011 – Paul Des Marais, American composer, dies at 90
2013 – George Beverly Shea, Canadian-American Grammy Award-winning gospel singer (Billy Graham Crusades, 1947-2013), dies at 104
2019 – Fay McKenzie, American actress and singer (The Party, Sierra Sue), dies at 101
2020 – Luis Sepúlveda, Chilean writer and political activist (The Old Man Who Read Love Stories), dies of COVID-19 at 70
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 15th April 2023
1965 – Sydney Chaplin, English actor, half brother of Charlie Chaplin and his business manager, dies at 80
1972 – Otto Brenner, German trade union leader (Industrial Union of Metalworkers), dies at 64
1989 – Charles Vanel, French actor and director (Wages of Fear), dies at 96
1991 – Martin Ashe, American actor, dies at 81
2002 – Byron “Whizzer” White, American football player and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, dies at 84
2005 – Margaretta Scott, British actress (Crescendo, Where’s Charley, Counterblast), dies from pneumonia and breast cancer at 93
2007 – Brant Parker, American cartoonist (co-creator of “The Wizard of Id”), dies at 86
2019 – Joe Terry (Terranova), American Doo-wop singer (Danny and The Juniors – “At The Hop”), dies at 78
2019 – Owen Kay Garriott, American electrical engineer and NASA astronaut (Skylab 3, STS 9), dies at 88
2020 – Dámaso García, Dominican baseball second baseman (MLB All-Star 1984, 85; Silver Slugger Award 1982; Toronto Blue Jays), dies from a malignant brain tumour at 63
Famous Deaths for 14th April 2023
711 – Childebert III, king of the Franks, dies (b. 678/9)
1322 – Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere, English soldier (b. 1275)
1888 – William Fiske Sherwin, American composer, dies at 62
1925 – Pieter D. van Essen, Dutch artillery officer, dies at 54
1943 – Geoffrey Turton Shaw, English organist, composer, and educator, dies at 63
1949 – Joseph Augustine Cushman, American paleontologist, dies at 68
1983 – Elisabeth Lutyens, English composer, dies at 76
1985 – Reginald Beane, American pianist (Starlit Time: Once Upon a Tune), dies at 63
1990 – Thurston Harris, American pop vocalist (The Sharps, Little Bitty Pretty One), dies of a heart attack at 58
2004 – Micheline Charest, French Canadian television producer (b. 1953)
Famous Deaths for 13th April 2023
1806 – Jean-Jacques Bachelier, French painter, dies at ~82
1911 – John McLane, American politician, dies at 59
1919 – Phoebe Hearst, American philanthropist and suffragist, dies at 76
1928 – Luis Iruarrizaga Aguirre, Basque priest, organist and composer of religious music, dies at 36
1978 – Albert Termote, Flemish-Dutch sculptor of equestrian bronzes (Charles the Great), dies at 91
1983 – Gerry Hitchens, English footballer, dies at 48
2004 – Caron Keating, British television presenter, dies at 41
2005 – Don Blasingame, American baseball player, dies at 73
2007 – Don Selwyn, Māori actorand film director, dies at 71
2018 – Miloš Forman, Czech-American award-winning director (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Amadeus, The Firemen’s Ball), dies at 86
Famous Deaths for 12th April 2023
1748 – William Kent, English sculptor/architect (Kensington Palace), dies
1777 – Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French satirical novelist (The Skimmer), dies at 70
1938 – Fyador Chaliapin, Russian operatic bass-baritone (Boris Godunov), dies at 65
1971 – Wynton Kelly, American jazz pianist (Dizzy Gillespie; Miles Davis), dies of epileptic seizure at 39
1988 – Alan Paton, South African author (Cry, the Beloved Country, Too Late the Phalarope) and anti-apartheid activist, dies of cancer at 85
2006 – Puggy Pearson, American poker player (World Series of Poker Main Event 1973; 4 x World Series of Poker bracelets), dies from heart failure at 77
2009 – John Maddox, British science writer and editor (Nature), dies at 83
2015 – Sheila Kitzinger, British author, anthropologist and child birth educator, dies at 86
2016 – Arnold Wesker, British playwright (Chips with Everything), dies at 83
2017 – Barry “Frosty” Smith, American rock, country and blues touring and session drummer (Lee Michaels; Roky Erikson; Doug Sahm), dies at 71
Famous Deaths for 11th April 2023
1812 – Gottlieb Schick, German painter (Opfer Noachs), dies at 35
1906 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (The New York Sun – “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus”), dies at 67
1976 – Liam Dunn, American actor, dies at 59
1988 – Jean “Jeff” Donnell, American actress (Gidget Goes to Rome, Hoedown, 9 Girls), dies at 66 of a heart attack
1992 – Eve Merriam [Moskovitz], American writer and poet (Inner City Mother Goose), dies of liver cancer at 75
1996 – Jessica Dubroff, American aviator (attempting to become the youngest person to fly a light utility aircraft across the United States), crashed at 7
2001 – Kamal Ranadive, Indian cancer researcher (Indian Women Scientists’ Association; Indian Cancer Research Centre), dies at 83
2007 – Kurt Vonnegut, American author (Slaughterhouse Five, Sirens of Titan), dies from head trauma at 84
2011 – Billy Bang [William Walker], American free jazz violinist and composer, dies of lung cancer at 63
2013 – Angela Voigt, East German long jumper (Olympic gold 1976), dies at 61
Famous Deaths for 10th April 2023
1533 – Frederik I, King of Denmark and Norway (1523-33), dies at 61
1585 – Gregory XIII [Ugo Boncompagni], Italian pope (1572-85) who introduced the Gregorian (New Style) calendar in 1582, dies at 83
1599 – Gabrielle d’Estrée, mistress of King Henry IV of France (b. 1571)
1619 – Thomas Jones, Archbishop of Dublin (b. c1550)
1909 – Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (Atalanta in Calydon), dies at 72
1945 – Charles Nordhoff, English-born writer (b. 1887)
1962 – Michael Curtiz, Hungarian-born director (b. 1886)
1974 – Roger Bastide, French sociologist study of Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Caribbean religions, dies at 76
1975 – Marjorie Main [Mary Tomlinson], American vaudeville and screen actress (The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films; Another Thin Man), dies of lung cancer at 85
2014 – Jim Flaherty, Canadian politician, Minister of Finance (2006-2014), dies at 64
Famous Deaths for 9th April 2023
1654 – Matei Basarab, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1588)
1886 – Joseph Victor von Scheffel, German writer (Ekkehard), dies at 60
1917 – Edward Thomas, poet, killed in WW I
1945 – Georg Elser, German failed assassin of Hitler, dies at Dachau concentration camp at 42
1964 – Hesketh Pearson, English biographer and playwright (Writ for Libel), dies at 77
1971 – Will Harridge, American Baseball HOF executive (President American League 1931-59), dies at 87
2005 – Andrea Dworkin, American radical feminist (Pornography: Men Possessing Women), dies of heart failure at 58
2007 – Egon Bondy, Czech philosopher and writer (b. 1930)
2019 – Marilynn Smith, American golfer, co-founder LPGA (Titleholders Championship 1963-64), dies at 89
2021 – Ekkehard Fasser, Swiss bobsledder (Olympic gold, four-man 1988; World C’ship gold 1983; World Cup champion 1985-86), dies at 68
Famous Deaths for 8th April 2023
1537 – Willem Aerts, Flemish architect, dies
1725 – John Wise, American clergyman and political activist who protested against British taxes, dies at 73
1759 – Francois de La Croix, French composer, dies at 76
1919 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, retail pioneer (Five-and-Dimes; self-service display cases) and founder of F. W. Woolworth Co, dies at 66
1958 – Ethel Turner, Australian author (Seven Little Australians), dies at 88
1965 – Jack Durston, English cricket fast bowler (1 Test, 5 wickets; Middlesex CCC) and soccer goalkeeper (Queens Park Rangers, Brentford), dies at 71
1969 – Haskell Karp, American heart transplant patient, who received 1st fully artificial heart, dies after 65 hours at 48
2004 – Enda Colleran, Gaelic footballer (b. 1941)
2006 – Gerard Reve, Dutch writer (Evenings, Dear Guys), dies at 82
2008 – Stanley Kamel, American actor (b. 1943)
Famous Deaths for 7th April 2023
1307 – Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I of England (b. 1271)
1444 – John Capreolus, French theologist (Libri IV), dies at about 50
1767 – Franz Sparry, Austrian composer, dies at 51
1880 – Diederich Krug, German pianist and composer (Le petit Chevalier), dies at 60
1932 – Erv A Kelley, US policeman, shot to death by Pretty Boy Floyd
1970 – Josina Machel, Mozambican independence activist, and wife of Mozambique’s 1st president Samora Machel, dies at 25
1994 – Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Prime Minister of Rwanda (1993-94) and one of the 1st female political figures in Africa, assassinated by the presidential guard in the opening stages of the Rwandan Genocide at 40
2000 – Heinz [Burt], British rock bassist (The Tornados – “Telstar”), dies from complications of a stroke at 57
2005 – Bob Kennedy, American MLB baseball player, 1939-57 (Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and 3 other teams, manager, 1963-68 (Chicago Cubs, Oakland A’s), and executive, 1976-92, dies at 84
2011 – Duke of Grafton, 11th Duke of Grafton, British peer, dies at 92