Category: Famous Deaths

1916 – Princess Augusta of Cambridge, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and granddaughter of George III, dies at 94
1926 – Claude Monet [Oscar-Claude], French impressionist painter (Water Lilies, Haystacks, Poplars), dies from lung cancer at 86
1953 – Jorge Negrete [Moreno], Mexican singer and actor (The Rebel, La madrina del diablo), dies of hepatitis at 42
1963 – Herbert H Lehman, (Gov-D-NY), dies
1983 – Robert Aldrich, American director and producer (The Dirty Dozen, Last Sunset), dies at 65
1993 – Doug Hopkins, American guitarist and songwriter (Gin Blossoms), commits suicide using a pistol at 32
1995 – Stanley Keith Runcorn, British geophysicist (reversals of earth’s magnetic field), dies at 73
1995 – Bill Bruton, American baseball outfielder (NL stolen bases leader 1953-55 Milwaukee Braves), dies of a heart attack at 70
2002 – Roone Arledge, American sports broadcasting executive (President ABC Sports – Monday Night Football; ABC News), dies of prostate cancer at 71
2007 – Andrew Imbrie, American contemporary classical composer, and pianist, dies at 86

More Famous Deaths »

365 – Felix II, Italian anti-pope, dies after failing to regain position as Pope from Liberius
1963 – J. D. Tippit, American police officer, murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald at 39, shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy
1963 – C. S. Lewis [Clive Staples], British author (The Chronicles of Narnia), dies of renal failure at 64
1982 – Max Deutsch, Austrian-French composer, dies at 90
1983 – Michael Conrad, American Emmy Award-winning actor (Hill Street Blues – “Sgt. Phil Esterhaus”), dies of cancer at 58
1994 – John Michael Grimes, British set designer (Philby, Burgess and MacLean), dies at 70
2000 – Christian Marquand, French actor, director and screenwriter (b. 1927)
2002 – Arne Mellnäs, Swedish contemporary classical composer (Aura; Capricorn Flakes; Rolando furioso), and educator (Royal College of Music, 1963-83), dies at 69
2011 – Paul Motian, American jazz drummer (Bill Evans Trio; Keith Jarrett), composer, and bandleader (Electric Bebop Band), dies of bone marrow cancer at 80
2015 – Kim Young-sam, politician and activist – President of South Korea (1993-98), dies at 87

More Famous Deaths »

1866 – Miguel I, King of Portugal (1828-34), dies at 64
1915 – Theodor Leschetizky, Polish pianist, composer, and teacher (Contes de Jeunesse), dies at 85
1947 – Joseph Allard, French Canadian fiddler and composer, dies at 74
1974 – Johnny Mack Brown, American actor (Lawman is Born, Back Trail), dies from a cardiac condition at 70
1981 – Robert Bradford, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1941)
1982 – Joachim Stutschewsky, Austrian-Israeli cellist, composer, and musicologist, dies at 91
1992 – Clem Beauchamp, American film actor, stuntman, and production manager (Tarzan; Dick Tracy; The Adventures of Superman), dies at 94
1994 – Tom Villard, American actor (b. 1953)
2001 – Juan Carlos Lorenzo, Argentine soccer forward (Boca Juniors, Sampdoria, Atlético Madrid) and manager (Argentina, Boca Juniors, Lazio, Roma), dies at 79
2003 – Gene Anthony Ray, American dancer and actor (Fame – “Leroy”), dies from complications of a stroke at 41

More Famous Deaths »

1187 – Emperor Gaozong of Song, 10th emperor of Song dynasty, dies at 80
1927 – Ole Olsen, Norwegian composer, organist, and military bandleader, dies at 77
1932 – Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Russian woman who was the 2nd wife of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, commits suicide at 31
1953 – Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, Founder and first King of Saudi Arabia (1932-53), dies of a heart attack at 78
1971 – Maude Fealy, American actor and drama coach (The Ten Commandments), dies at 88
1980 – Carmel Myers, American stage and silent and sound screen actress (Ben-Hur; Svengali), dies of a heart attack at 81
1988 – David Bauer, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame player and builder (priest, school coach; National Team manager), dies at 64
2002 – William Schutz, American psychologist (b. 1925)
2005 – K. R. Narayanan, 10th President of India (1997-2002), dies at 85
2018 – Paula Wayne [Watkins], American stage and Emmy Award-winning actress (Golden Boy; Everglade!), pop vocalist (“Everything’s Great”), and civil rights activist, dies of cancer at 84

More Famous Deaths »

1839 – Hayim Rapoport, Rabbi of Ostrowiec and author (Maxim Chayyim), dies
1897 – Édouard Deldevez, French violinist and composer, dies at 80
1912 – Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (Taras Bulba), conductor and ethnomusicologist, dies at 70
1944 – Walter Guinness, Lord Moyne, Anglo-Irish politician, British prefect (Middle-East), assassinated by Jewish terrorists at 64
1963 – Djuanda Kartawidjaja, Indonesian teacher, engineer, and politician (11th and final Prime Minister of Indonesia, 1957-59). dies of a heart attack at 52
1968 – Guillaume Landré, Dutch composer, dies at 63
2001 – Anthony Shaffer, English dramatist (Sleuth), dies at 75
2005 – Miguel Aceves Mejía, Mexican actor, composer and singer, dies at 90
2010 – Robert Lipshutz, American attorney and counsel to the Carter Adminisrtation (b. 1921)
2022 – Betty Johnson, American pop and cabaret singer (Jack Paar Show; “I Dreamed”), dies at 93

More Famous Deaths »

1764 – William Hogarth, English satiric painter and engraver (Rake’s Progress), dies at 66
1773 – Amédée-François Frézier, French military engineer and explorer (b. 1682)
1803 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician, dies at 82
1867 – John Fawcett, English composer, dies at 77
1935 – Akos Buttykai, Hungarian composer, dies at 64
1956 – Walter Gieseking, French-German pianist, composer, and lepidopterist, dies at 60
1965 – Hans Knappertsbusch, German conductor (Bavarian State Opera, 1922-36), dies at 77
1971 – Vincent Coleman, American actor (For the Freedom of Ireland, Salome), dies at 71
1993 – Absolutely Nobody [David Powers], Wash lt-gov candidate, dies at 37
1995 – Georgia Neese Gray, 1st Woman Treasurer of USA, dies at 95

More Famous Deaths »

1564 – Johannes Acronius Frisius, German physician and mathematician (b. 1520)
1976 – Viswanatha Satyanarayana, Indian Telugu writer (Ramayana Kalpa Vrukshamu, Veyipadagalu), dies at 81
1977 – Kristian Hauger, Norwegian jazz pianist, orchestra leader and songwriter (“Charleston i Grukkedalen”), dies at 71
1978 – Jacques Mornard [Ramon Mercader], Spanish communist (murdered Trotsky in Mexico with an ice axe), dies at 64
1994 – Lee Allen, American tenor sax player (“Walkin’ With Mr Lee”), dies of cancer at 68
1999 – Tony Crombie, English jazz drummer and bandleader, dies at 74
2010 – Marion Brown, American jazz alto saxophonist, (Marion Brown Quartet; John Coltrane -“Ascension”; Artie Schepp), avant garde composer, writer, and ethnomusicologist, dies at 79
2013 – Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish-German influential literary critic, dies at 93
2014 – Edward Regan, American Republican politician and Comptroller of New York (1979-93), dies at 84
2021 – Colin Powell, American General and 1st Black US Secretary of State (2001-05), dies from complications of COVID-19, blood cancer, and Parkinson’s disease at 84

More Famous Deaths »

1857 – Thomas Crawford, American sculptor (Statue of Freedom on dome of US Capitol), dies of cancer at 43
1893 – Lip Pike, American baseball player, dies at 48
1939 – Eleanor Rigby, a real person whose name may have suggested the title to The Beatles song (b. 1895)
1963 – Édith Piaf [Édith Giovanna Gassion], French singer (No, I Don’t Regret Anything; Le Vie En Rose), dies of liver failure at 47
1967 – Ervin Major, Hungarian composer, dies at 66
1976 – Connee Boswell, American jazz singer (Pete Kelly’s Blue), dies at 68
1979 – Paul Paray, French organist, conductor (Detroit Symphony, 1951-62), and composer, dies at 93
2015 – Hilla Becher (née Wobeser), German artist, worked collaboratively with husband Bernd Becher, dies at 81
2018 – Mary Midgley, British-American philosopher (Animals and Why They Matter), dies at 99
2020 – Leon Biriotti, Uruguayan composer and oboist, dies at 90

More Famous Deaths »

1749 – Franz Freiherr von der Trenck, Austrian soldier (b. 1711)
1902 – Lionel Pigot Johnson, British poet and critic (Ireland and Other Poems), dies of a stroke at 35
1946 – Barney Oldfield, American auto racer (International Motorsports Hall of Fame; first to drive at 60mph on circular track), dies of a heart attack at 67
1989 – Secretariat, American thoroughbred race horse (Triple Crown, 1973), euthanized while suffering from laminitis at 19
1990 – Avis Bunnage, British actress (Rising Damp, Coronation Street), dies at 67
1993 – Jim Holton, Scottish soccer defender (15 caps; Manchester United, Coventry City), dies of a heart attack at 42
1994 – F. Gwendolen Rees, Welsh zoologist and parasitologist, dies at 88
2016 – Caroline Crawley, British alt-rock singer (Shelleyan Orphan; Babacar), dies at 53
2019 – Diahann Carroll [Carol Diann Johnson] American Tony Award-winning stage and screen actress (No Strings; Julia; Claudine; Dynasty – “Dominique”), dies of cancer at 84
2021 – Laurie Davidson, New Zealand yacht designer (Black Magic 1995; Team New Zealand 2000; America’s Cup HOF 2007), dies at 94

More Famous Deaths »

1568 – Elisabeth of Valois, daughter of King Henry II of France and 3rd wife of Philip II of Spain, dies in childbirth at 23
1881 – Orson Pratt, American mathematician and religious leader, dies at 70
1884 – Hans Makart, Austrian painter (Plague in Florenz), dies at 44
1936 – John Heisman, American football coach (legalised forward pass, originated the center-snap; Heisman Trophy named after him), dies from pneumonia at 66
1953 – Arnold Bax, British composer known for his orchestral music (Tintagel), and memoirist (Farewell My Youth), dies of heart failure at 69
1976 – Victoria Spivey, American vaudeville and blues singer, pianist, organist, and songwriter (“Dope Head Blues”; Organ Grinder Blues”), dies at 69
1982 – Vivien Merchant [Ada Thompson], British actress (Alfie; The Homecoming; The Offence), dies from alcoholism at 53
1989 – Joseph Wybran, Belgian physician and Jewish leader, murdered in mysterious circumstances at 49
2005 – Adrian Ratiu, Romanian composer, dies at 77
2007 – M.N. Vijayan, Indian writer, orator, and academic, dies at 77

More Famous Deaths »