Category: Famous Deaths

1802 – Thomas Girtin, English artist, watercolorist and etcher (“The White House, Chelsea”), dies in his painting room at 27 from suspected asthma, consumption, or ossification of the heart
1906 – Leon Vanderkindere, Belgian historian and mayor of Ukkel, dies at 64
1968 – Gerald Mohr, American radio and screen actor (The Angry Red Planet; The Sniper; Foreign Intrigue), dies of a heart attack at 54
1977 – Gertrude Astor [Eyster], American silent and sound screen character actress (The Strong Man: Hell Bound), dies of a stroke on her 90th birthday
1977 – Fred Haney, American MLB baseball player, 1922-29 (Detroit Tigers and 3 other teams), manager, 1939-41 and 1953-59 (Milwaukee Braves and 2 other teams), and executive, 1961-68 (Los Angeles Angels), dies of a heart attack at 81
1978 – Otto Siegl, Austrian composer, dies at 82
2005 – Avril Angers, British stand-up comedian and actress (Coronation Street, The Family Way), dies at 87
2020 – Amadou Toumani Touré, Mali politician, President of Mali (2002-12), dies at 72
2022 – Roland Guillas, French soccer midfielder (9 caps; ASSE Saint-Étienne, FC Grenoble, FC Rouen, FC Bordeaux, FC Lorient), dies at 86
2024 – Judith Jamison, American dancer and choreographer (artistic director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater), dies at 81

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618 – St Deusdedit/Adeodatus I, Italian Pope (615-18), dies
1773 – Friedrich Wilhelm, baron von Seydlitz, Prussian general, dies at 52
1833 – Maximilian Stadler, Austrian pianist and composer and Benedictine monk, dies at 85
1877 – Amalie Auguste of Bavaria, Queen consort of Saxony (1854-73), dies at 75
1979 – Yvonne de Gaulle, wife of French President Charles de Gaulle, dies at 79
1995 – Country Dick Montana [Daniel McLain], American rock drummer and vocalist (The Beat Farmers – “Happy Boy”), dies on stage during a performance in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada at age 40
1998 – Rumer Godden, English author (Thursday’s Children), dies at 90
2006 – Hannspeter Winter, Austrian plasma physicist, dies at 65
2010 – Jack Levine, American social realist painter, dies at 95
2021 – Margo Guryan, American jazz and pop pianist, songwriter, and singer (“I’m on My Way to Saturday”; “Take a Picture”), dies at 84

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1859 – Carl Gottlieb Reissiger, German kappelmeister and composer, dies at 61
1958 – Florence Walrath, American adoption agency founder (The Cradle), dies at 81
1975 – John Carmel Heenan, British clergyman, Catholic Cardinal (Archbishop of Westminster, 1963-75), dies of a heart attack at 70
1978 – Gene Tunney, American boxer (world heavyweight champion 1926-28), dies at 80
1984 – George Mathews, American stage and screen character actor (The Eve of St. Mark; Glynis – “Chick”), dies of heart disease at 73
2000 – Ingrid, Queen Mother of Denmark, Wife of King Frederik IX, ruler of Denmark (1947-72), dies at 90
2004 – [Harold] Howard Keel, American actor, singer (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; Kiss Me Kate), and president of the Screen Actors Guild (1958-59), dies of cancer at 87
2006 – Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, French journalist (b. 1924)
2007 – Earl Dodge, American politician (Prohibition Party) (b. 1932)
2023 – Federico Sacchi, Argentine soccer central defender (15 caps; Newell’s Old Boys, Racing Club, Boca Juniors), dies at 87

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1801 – Christian Friedrich Gregor, Moravian composer and bishop, dies at 78
1842 – William Hone, English author and bookseller (won landmark freedom of the press case against the government), dies at 62
1865 – Thérèse Wartel, French pianist and composer, dies at 51
2006 – Jance Garfat, American bassist (Dr. Hook, 1972-85 – “The Cover of the Rolling Stone”, “When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman”), dies in a motorcycle accident at 62
2007 – Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and writer, dies at 87
2016 – Zoltan Kocsis, Hungarian pianist and conductor, dies of cancer at 64
2020 – King Von [Dayvon Bennett], American rapper and songwriter (“Crazy Story”), dies in a nightclub gunfight at 26
2021 – Shawn Rhoden, Jamaican bodybuilder (Mr. Olympia 2018; IFBB British Grand Prix 2012), dies from a heart attack at 46
2023 – Norman Munnoch, Scottish rugby union hooker (3 caps; Watsonians RFC, RAFRU, Edinburgh District), dies at 94
2024 – Phyllis O’Donnell, Australian surfer (first Women’s World Surfing Champion 1964), dies at 87

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1701 – Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, French-born English politician, dies at about 40
1803 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French army general and writer (Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons)), dies at 61
1860 – Carl Binder, Austrian composer, dies at 43
1960 – Mack Sennett, Canadian-American film director and producer (Keystone Kops), dies at 80
1975 – Lionel Trilling, American literary critic and author (1969 Poses Award, The Liberal Imagination), dies at 70
1979 – Al Capp, [Alfred Gerald Caplin], American cartoonist (Li’l Abner), dies at 70
1990 – Humphrey Gibbs, Governor of Southern Rhodesia (1959-69), dies at 87
2000 – Jimmie Davis, American singer and songwriter (“You Are My Sunshine”), dies at 101
2022 – Bill Treacher, British actor (EastEnders, 1985-96 – “Arthur Fowler”), dies at 92
2024 – Elwood Edwards, American broadcast technician, and the voice of AOL’s catchphrase “You’ve got mail”, dies of complications from a stroke at 74

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1411 – Khalil Sultan, ruler of Transoxonia (b. 1384)
1658 – Antoine Le Maistre, French Jansenist (b. 1608)
1704 – Andreas Acoluthus, German orientalist and professor of theology, dies at 50
1791 – Maj. General Richard Butler, American soldier dies in battle against Native American forces during St. Clair’s Defeat, at 48
1906 – John H. Ketcham, American politician (b. 1832)
1932 – Belle Bennett, American actress (Stella Dallas, Iron Mask), dies of cancer at 41
1968 – Michel Kikoine, Lithuanian-French expressionist painter (Paysage Cezannien), dies at 76
1995 – Paul Eddington, British actor (Devil Rides Out, Yes Minister), dies at 68
2018 – Selma Engel [Saartje Wijnberg], Dutch born Jew, the first to tell of Nazi Sobibor extermination camp, dies at 96
2022 – Michael Doyle, Irish-American priest (Pastor of Sacred Heart – Camden, 1974-2020), poet. and anti-war activist (Camden 28), dies at 88

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1867 – Pieter J Jong, Dutch Zouave, dies in battle
1931 – Rudolf Wilhelm Canne, Fries playwright (Peaske), dies at 60
1945 – James Frederick Wagner, father of Priscilla Presley, dies in a plane crash
1962 – Harlow Curtice, President of General Motors (1953-58), dies at 69
1964 – John Henry Barbee, American blues guitarist and singer, dies of a heart attack at 58
1968 – Vern Stephens, American baseball shortstop (8 x MLB All Star; AL HR leader 1945; 3×AL RBI leader; St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox), dies of a heart attack at 48
1983 – Alfredo Antonini, Italian-American Emmy Award-winning conductor (CBS Symphony; Columbia Pan-American Orchestra), and composer (The Great City), dies during heart surgery at 82
1993 – Aidan Crawley, British journalist and politician (Labour MP 1945-51), dies at 85
2011 – Bob Forsch, American MLB baseball pitcher, 1974-1989 (St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros), dies of a thoracic aortic aneurysm at 61
2021 – Warren Powers, American football running back (Oakland Raiders) and coach (Washington State University 1977, University of Missouri 1978-84), dies from Alzheimers at 80

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1944 – Thomas Midgley, American chemist and inventor (b. 1889)
1949 – Jerome F. Donovan, American lawyer, Democratic politician, and US Congress member (1918-21), dies at 77
1961 – James Thurber, American humorist, playwright, and cartoonist (Men, Women and Dogs; The Male Animal; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), dies of pneumonia after brain surgery at 66
1968 – Ernst Hess, Swiss composer, dies at 56
1996 – Toni Stone, American baseball second baseman (first woman to play in men’s Negro League), dies at 75
2000 – Robert Cormier, American author known for “The Chocolate War” and “I Am the Cheese”, dies at 75
2002 – Charles Sheffield, American author and physicist (b. 1935)
2019 – Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican astrologist and actor, dies at about 87
2020 – John Sessions, Scottish actor and comedian (Whose Line Is It Anyway), dies of a heart attack at 67
2021 – Mohamed Soukhane, Algerian soccer defender (6 caps; Le Havre AC), dies at 90

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955 – Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, dies from an illness at 34 or 36
1711 – Christian Demelius, German composer and kapellmeister, dies at 68
1975 – Norbert Rosseau, Belgian composer, dies at 67
1989 – Louis Barron, American composer and electronic music pioneer (with his wife Bebe – Forbidden Planet), dies at 69
1994 – Syd Dernley, British hangman (1949-54), dies at 73
1999 – Jean Coutu, French-Canadian actor (Panic, And Hope to Die), dies at 74
2000 – Bernard Erhard, American voice actor (b. 1934)
2011 – Dorothy Howell Rodham, Mother of US First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, dies at 92
2012 – Pascual Pérez, Dominican baseball pitcher (MLB All Star 1983; Atlanta Braves), dies during apparent home robbery at 55
2023 – Erich Zakowski, German master mechanic-executive (founder, CEO Zakspeed racing team 1968-90), dies at 89

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1517 – Fra Bartolommeo, Italian artist, dies at 45
1913 – William Evans-Gordon, British politician (b. 1857)
1918 – [Stephen] István Tisza, Hungarian PM (1903-05, 1913-17), assassinated by soldiers at 57
1943 – Max Reinhardt [Goldmann], Austrian-American theatrical and film director (Oedipus Rex; A Midsummer’s Night Dream), and founder of the Salzburg Festival, dies of a stroke at 70
1994 – Lester Sill, American pioneer music publisher (Leiber and Stoller; Lee Hazlewood), and record label executive (Philles Records; Colpix; Colgems), dies at 76
2003 – Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Indian Carnatic vocalist, dies at 95
2009 – Ron Gowans, Australian jazz saxophonist, dies of cancer at 83
2010 – Theodore Sorenson, American presidential advisor to JFK and author (Kennedy), dies at 82
2021 – Peter Philpott, Australian cricket spin bowler (8 Tests, 26 wickets, best 5/90; NSW CA), dies due to complications from a fall at 86
2021 – Joan Carlyle, Welsh operatic soprano (Covent Garden, 1955-76), dies at 90

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