1841 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologist, dies at 76
1893 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian statesman, dies at 87
1934 – Bonnie Parker, American outlaw of Bonnie and Clyde fame, killed in police ambush in Louisiana at 23
1941 – Slavko Osterc, Slovenian composer (Iz Satanovega Dnevnika (From Satan’s Diary); Illusions), and pedagogue, dies at 45
1969 – Diane Aubrey, actress (Haunted Strangler), dies of a heart attack at 79
1998 – Andreas Liebenberg, South African military commander, dies at 60
2006 – Lloyd Bentsen, American politician (Senator-D-Texas, 1971-93, 1989 Democrat VP nominee), dies at 85
2008 – (Bruce) “Utah” Phillips, American folk singer-songwriter (“Green Rolling Hills”; “The Goodnight-Loving Trail”) storyteller, poet, and labor organizer, dies of heart disease at 73
2022 – Eric Schneider, Dutch actor (Drop Out, Family, Flanagan), dies at 87
2023 – Sheldon Reynolds, American soul and funk guitarist (Commodores, 1983-87; Earth, Wind and Fire, 1987-2002), dies at 63
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 22nd May 2024
1801 – Heinrich Gottfried Reichard, German composer, and translator, dies at 58
1851 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, American writer, journalist (b. 1755)
1885 – Victor Hugo, French author (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables), dies at 83
1904 – Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French neurologist, hysteria specialist, and namesake of Tourette’s syndrome, dies from syphilis at 46
1949 – Hans Pfitzner, German composer (Palestrina), dies at 80
1965 – Heinrich Barth, Swiss philosopher (Das Sein in der Zeit), dies
1966 – Tom Goddard, English cricket off-spin bowler (8 Tests; 22 wickets @ 26.72; Gloucestershire), dies at 65
1967 – Langston Hughes, American poet (Weary Blues), playwright (Mulatto), and librettist (Troubled Island), dies at 65
2003 – Ousmane Zongo, Burkinabé shooting victim
2008 – Robert Asprin, American author (b. 1946)
Famous Deaths for 21st May 2024
1542 – Hernando de Soto, Spanish conquistador and 1st European to discover the Mississippi River, dies of a fever while searching for gold, near the Mississippi River at about 46
1954 – János Hammerschlag, Hungarian composer, dies at 68
1968 – Doris Lloyd, English American actress (Oliver Twist), dies of heart strain at 71
1973 – Ivan Konev, Russian general (Marshal of the Soviet Union – led Red Army on WWII Eastern Front, commanded Warsaw Pact forces), dies at 75
1988 – Bruno Frei [Benedikt Freistadt], Austrian Marxist journalist, dies at 91
1996 – Alfred “Lash” LaRue, American actor (Lash of the West, Wyatt Earp), dies of emphysema at 78
2013 – Frank Comstock, American big band and pop orchestral arranger (Les Brown; Doris Day; Warner Bros; Brian Setzer), film and television composer (Rocky and His Friends; Adam-12), and recording artist (Project: Comstock – Music from Outer Space), dies at 90
2019 – Rik Kuypers, Belgian director (Sea Gulls Die in the Harbor), dies at 94
2022 – Jiří Zídek Sr., Czech basketball center (considered best Czech player ever; FIBA European All-Star 1966, 67; USK Praha) and coach (USK Praha, Sparta Praha), dies at 78
2023 – Ray Stevenson, Northern Irish actor (King Arthur, Rome), dies at 58
Famous Deaths for 20th May 2024
1444 – Bernardino of Siena, Italian priest and Franciscan missionary, dies at 63
1449 – Peter, Duke of Coimbra and writer (Virtuosa Benfeitoria), dies at 56
1939 – Joe Carr, American Pro Football HOF contributor (NFL President 1921-39), dies from a heart attack at 59
1942 – Hector Guimard, French Art Nouveau architect and designer (entrances to Paris Metros),
1956 – Max Beerbohm, English caricaturist, writer and parodist (Saturday Review), dies at 83
1985 – George Memmoli, American actor (Earl-Hello Larry), dies at 46
2002 – Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist and popular science writer, dies of cancer at 60
2007 – Norman Von Nida, Australian golfer, coach, broadcaster (British Open 1948 3rd), dies at 93
2018 – Carol Mann, American golfer (1964 Western Open, 1965 US Open), dies at 77
2021 – Florian Pilkington-Miksa, English rock drummer (Curved Air), and sculptor, dies of pneumonia at 70
Famous Deaths for 19th May 2024
1526 – Emperor Go-Kashiwabara, 104th Emperor of Japan (1500-26), dies at 63
1567 – Juan Bautista de Toledo, Spanish architect (El Escorial), dies (b. c. 1515)
1845 – Maria EJ Versfelt, mistress of general Moreau/marshal Ney, dies at 68
1895 – Jose Marti y Perez, Cuban poet (Versos sencillos) essayist and politician (fought for independence from Spain), dies fighting the Battle of Dos Rios at 42
1912 – Bolesław Prus, Polish writer (The Outpost), dies at 64
1943 – Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter and one of the founders of the Estonian National Museum, dies at 77
1969 – Coleman Hawkins, American jazz musician who virtually created tenor saxophone for jazz, dies at 64
1970 – Tadeusz Breza, Polish writer (The Bronze Gate), dies at 64
2004 – Mary Dresselhuys, Dutch actress (b. 1907)
2014 – Sante Kimes ‘Dragon Lady’, American convicted con artist and murderess, dies at 79
Famous Deaths for 18th May 2024
1692 – Elias Ashmole, English antiquarian and collector (Ashmolean Museum), dies at 74
1697 – Guillaume Dumanoir, French composer, dies at 81
1930 – João Marcelino Arroio, Portuguese composer (Amor de Perdiçâo), dies at 68
1981 – Arthur O’Connell, American actor (Mr Peepers, Second Hundred Years), dies at 73
1995 – Robert Harris, British actor (Big Caper, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Laughing Anne), dies at 95
1999 – Betty Robinson, American runner, dies at 87
2013 – Steve Forrest, American actor (SWAT), dies at 87
2017 – Jacque Fresco, American industrial designer and founder of the Venus Project, dies at 101
2018 – Jacques Guyonnet, Swiss composer, dies at 85
2021 – Charles Grodin, American stage and screen actor (Heartbreak Kid; Midnight Run; Ishtar: Beethoven series), writer, and talk show host, dies of bone marrow cancer at 86
Famous Deaths for 17th May 2024
1796 – Jacob Wilhelm Lustig, German composer, dies at 89
1797 – Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist (Le Philosophe sans le savoir), dies at 77
1838 – Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French statesman, dies at 84
1896 – Sophus Tromholt, Norwegian astrophysicist and photographer (photographed Sami people), dies at 45
1916 – Gervais Salvayre, French composer (Calypso; La Résurrection), and music critic dies at 68
1920 – Maitland Hathorn, South African cricketer (325 runs in 12 Tests South African 1901-11), dies at 42
1969 – Clarence “Pants” Rowland, American baseball manager (World Series 1917; Chicago White Sox 1915-18) and MLB umpire (American League 1923-27), dies at 91
1985 – Abe Burrows [Borowitz], American Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning songwriter, composer and writer (Guys and Dolls), dies from Alzheimer’s disease at 74
2010 – Walasse Ting, Chinese-American painter (b. 1929)
2020 – (Judge) “Lucky” Peterson, American contemporary blues, soul, and RandB musician (“The Son of A Bluesman”), dies from ahead injury after a fall at 55
Famous Deaths for 16th May 2024
1762 – Ernst Christian Hesse, German composer, dies at 86
1830 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (mathematical theory of heat conduction) and Egyptologist, dies at 62
1984 – Irwin Shaw, American writer (Rich Man, Poor Man), dies at 71
1984 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian and actor (Taxi -“Latka”), dies of cancer at 35
1985 – Margaret Hamilton, American character actress (The Wizard of Oz), dies of a heart attack at 82
1988 – Louise Wood, American director of Girl Scouts of USA (1961-72), dies at 78
1988 – Kay Baxter, American bodybuilder (NPC Gold’s Classic 1981), dies in car crash at 42
1989 – Hassan Khaled, sheik of Lebanon, murdered
1990 – Dag Drollet, Cheyenne Brando’s boyfriend killed by her brother Christian
2023 – Uwe Kitzinger, German-British political scientist, educator and administrator (President of Templeton College Oxford), dies of a heart attack at 95
Famous Deaths for 15th May 2024
1685 – Henri Otto, Spanish marquis of Caretto/Savona/Grana, dies
1773 – Alban Butler, English Catholic priest and writer, dies at 62
1940 – Joseph Limburg, Dutch lawyer and politician, dies at 73
1958 – Michael G the Boer, historian (Harbor of Amsterdam), dies at 91
1976 – Samuel Eliot Morison, American historian (Admiral of the Ocean Sea), dies at 88
1986 – Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (b. 1958)
1994 – Jan Bakker, Dutch WWII resistance fighter and journalist (Parool), dies at 79
2004 – Clint Warwick [Albert Eccles], English bassist (Moody Blues), dies at 63
2007 – Yolanda King, American actress and activist, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1955)
2008 – Willis Lamb, American physicist (Nobel 1955), dies at 94
Famous Deaths for 14th May 2024
1608 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)
1832 – John van Speijk, Dutch heroic sailor, buried
1912 – August Strindberg ‘Father of modern Swedish Literature’, Swedish dramatist and writer (Miss Julie), dies at 63
1943 – Henri La Fontaine, Belgian international lawyer (1st Socialist to win Nobel Peace Prize 1913), dies at 89
1947 – John Ray Sinnock, US chief engraver (1925-47), dies at 59
1978 – Bill Lear, American engineer, manufacturer and CEO (Lear Jet Corp), dies at 75
1982 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor (The Mole People, Leave it to Beaver), dies from a heart attack at 73
1987 – Rita Hayworth [Margarita Cansino], American actress (Gilda; Cover Girl; The Lady from Shanghai), dies of Alzheimer’s disease at 68
1997 – Princess Caradja-Kretzulesco, descendant of Dracula, dies at 76
2018 – Tom Wolfe, American journalist and author (The Right Stuff), dies at 88