Category: Famous Deaths

990 – Ekkehart II [Palatinus], Swiss monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall known for his poetry, dies
1616 – William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright (Romeo and Juliet; Macbeth: Hamlet), dies at about 52
1762 – Johann Samuel Endler, German composer, musician, and conductor, dies at 67
1774 – Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, German painter, dies at 61
1827 – Johanna Cornelia Wattier-Ziesenis, Dutch actress (Phaedra, Lady Macbeth), dies at 65
1853 – Auguste Laurent, French chemist who laid the foundations of organic chemistry, dies of tuberculosis at 45
1960 – Toyohiko Kagawa, Japanese Christian social reformer and writer, dies at 71
1985 – Sam Ervin, American politician (U.S. Senator from North Carolina) and Watergate committee chairman, dies at 88
2012 – Tommy Marth, American rock saxophone player (the Killers, 2008-2010), dies of self-inflicted gunshot at 33
2019 – Johan Witteveen, Dutch economist, Minister of Finance (1963–65; 1967–71) and managing director of the IMF (1973-78), dies at 97

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536 – St. Agapetus I, Bishop of Rome (535-36), dies at 46
1355 – Eleonora Plantagenet, daughter of King Edward II, dies at 36
1616 – Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, Spanish author (Don Quixote), dies of likely diabetes at 68
1844 – Henri-Montan Berton, French composer, dies at 76
1933 – Henry Royce, English industrialist and automobile founder (Rolls-Royce), dies at 70
1976 – Frutuoso de Lima Viana, Brazilian pianist and composer, dies at 79
1983 – Earl “Fatha” Hines, American jazz pianist and bandleader (Deep Forest), dies at 79
1994 – Jack Bently, English trombonist, dies at 80
1996 – Harold “Jug” McSpaden, American golfer, course designer (17 PGA Tour wins), dies of carbon monoxide poisoning at 87
2023 – Mike Coulman, English rugby union prop (9 Tests England, 1 British and Irish Lions; Moseley RUFC) and rugby league front rower (3 Tests GB, 5 England; Salford RLFC), dies at 78

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1898 – Louis Théodore Gouvy, French-German composer, dies at 78
1910 – Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens], American author (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), dies at 74
1981 – Harry Lee, cricketer (scored 18 and 1 in only Test for England), dies
1982 – Joe Sawyer [Sauers], Canadian actor (Adventures of Rin Tin Tin – “Sgt. Biff O’Hara”), dies of liver cancer at 75
1985 – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-American fashion designer (monokini, miniskirt), dies of cancer at 62
1992 – Robert Harris, American criminal and murderer, executed in a gas chamber at 39 in San Quentin State Prison, California
2000 – Neal Matthews, Jr., American singer (The Jordanaires), dies at 70
2005 – Gerry Marshall, British auto racer (625 x overall and class saloon wins), dies from heart failure at 63
2013 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor, dies at 107
2013 – Chrissy Amphlett, Australian singer- songwriter (Divinyls – “I Touch Myself”), dies of breast cancer at 53

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1662 – Gerard Terborch, the elder, Dutch painter, dies
1874 – Alexander H. Bailey, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), dies at 56
1918 – Karl Ferdinand Braun, German inventor, co-developed wireless telegraphy (Nobel 1909), dies at 67
1951 – Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1873)
1977 – Wilmer Allison, American tennis player (US Nat C’ship 1935), dies at 72
1979 – Peter Donald, British-born American actor and radio host dubbed “one of radio’s great dialecticians” (Masquerade Party), dies at 60
1982 – Archibald MacLeish, American poet (Conquistador) and playwright (J.B.), dies at 89
1992 – Marjorie Gestring, American springboard diver (Olympic gold 1936), dies at 69
2008 – VL Mike [Michael Allen], American rapper, shot to death by unknown assailant at 32
2013 – Howard Phillips, American politician, dies from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease at 72

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1916 – Ephraim Shay, American inventor of Shay type of geared steam locomotive, dies at 76
1923 – Thomas Payne Westendorf, American songwriter (“I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen”), dies at 75
1943 – Alexander Schmorell, German resistance fighter, beheaded
1992 – Deacon Lunchbox [Timothy Tyson Ruttenber], American poet and performance artist, dies in car crash with a drunk driver at 41
1993 – George Mickelson, American politician (Governor of South Dakota 1987-93), dies in a plane crash at 52
1997 – El Duce [Eldon Wayne Hoke], American singer and drummer (The Mentors), dies from a “misadventure” on a train-track at 39
2005 – George Pan Cosmatos, Greek film director (b. 1941)
2010 – Carl Williams, Australian criminal (b. 1970)
2016 – Walter Kohn, Austrian-born American scientist (Nobel Prize Chemistry 1998), dies at 93
2018 – Graciela Agudelo, Mexican pianist and avant garde composer (Celebration of Wine), dies at 72

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1558 – Roxelana, wife of Otttoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, dies at ~54
1612 – Emanuel Van Meteren, Flemish merchant and historian, dies at 76
1871 – Omar Pasha [Mihajlo Latas], Serbian-Ottoman field marshal (Crimean War) and Governor (Bosnia, Iraq), dies at 64
1906 – Luis Martín, Spanish Superior-General of the Society of Jesus, dies at 59
1928 – Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński, Polish pianist, composer, and conductor, dies of a heart attack at 58
1944 – Thomas Hitchcock Jr., American polo player (Westchester Cup 1924,27,30,39), dies testing a new fighter plane during WWII at 44
1955 – Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate (theory of relativity), dies of an abdominal aortic aneurysm at 76
1995 – Arturo Frondizi, 35th President of Argentina (1958-62), dies at 86
2019 – Lorraine Warren, American paranormal investigator (Amityville haunting), dies in her sleep at 92
2022 – Harrison Birtwistle, British contemporary classical composer (The Minotaur; The Mask of Orpheus), dies at 87

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1761 – Thomas Bayes, English mathematician
1835 – William Henry Ireland, English forger (Shakespearean manuscripts), dies
1899 – Hans Balatka, Moravian-American conductor (Milwaukee Musikverein; Chicago Oratorio Society), author (Condensed History of Music), and composer, dies at 74
1937 – Yi Sang, Korean author and poet (Dying Words, Wings, Child’s Bone), dies of tuberculosis in a Japanese prison camp at 26
1945 – Ion Pillat, Romanian poet and senator (Umbra timpului), dies at 54
1993 – Turgut Özal, Turkish politician (President of Turkey 1989-93, PM of Turkey 1983-89), dies at 65
1994 – Peter Hacker, American journalist/actor (NBC, Broadcast News), dies at 69
1998 – Linda McCartney (née Eastman), American photographer, musician (Wings) and wife of Paul McCartney, dies of breast cancer at 56
2011 – Eric Gross, Austrian-Australian pianist, composer (Na shledanou v Praze (Good-bye in Prague); Moonscape), conductor, and educator (University of Sydney, 1960-91), dies at 84
2023 – April Stevens [Caroline LoTempio], American vocalist (“Deep Purple” – the song, not the band), dies at 93

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744 – al-Walid II, Umayyad caliph (743-744), killed at 35
1743 – Cornelis van Bijnkershoek, Dutch jurist who helped develop international law along positivist lines, dies at 69
1930 – José Carlos Mariátegui, Peruvian journalist, political philosopher and activist (b. 1894)
1981 – Eric Hollies, English cricket spin bowler (13 Tests, 44 wickets; dismissed Donald Bradman for 0 in his final Test innings), dies at 68
1993 – John Meefout, Dutch sculptor (Laying Woman), dies at 77
1995 – Cyril Enfield, film Director, dies at 80
1996 – Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuban filmmaker (Muerte de un burócrata), dies at 67
1999 – Alexander “Skip” Spence, Canadian-American guitarist, singer and songwriter (Jefferson Airplane), dies of lung cancer at 52
2011 – William A. Rusher, American lawyer and columnist, dies at 87
2020 – Kenneth Gilbert, Canadian harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, and educator, dies at 88

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1754 – Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (Riccati equation), dies at 77
1863 – Jan Nepomuk Kanka, Czech composer, dies at 90
1965 – Sydney Chaplin, English actor, half brother of Charlie Chaplin and his business manager, dies at 80
1980 – Marshall Reed, American actor (The Madmen of Mandoras, Mysterious Island), dies from a massive hemorrhage at 62
1982 – Arthur Lowe, British actor (Dad’s Army, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Ruling Class), dies following a stroke at 66
1989 – Nesuhi Ertegün, Turkish–American jazz record producer and label executive (Atlantic Records; Warner Music), dies from complications of cancer surgery at 71
1994 – John Curry, British figure skater (Olympic gold, World C’ship gold, European C’ship gold 1976), dies from AIDS at 44
2007 – Brant Parker, American cartoonist (co-creator of “The Wizard of Id”), dies at 86
2009 – Clement Freud, British writer, broadcaster and former liberal MP, dies at 84
2013 – Sal Castro, Mexican-American activist, dies from thyroid cancer at 79

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1322 – Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere, English soldier (b. 1275)
1471 – Richard Neville [16th Earl of Warwick], English nobleman and military commander known as Warwick the Kingmaker, slain in battle at 42
1983 – Pete Farndon, English rock bassist (The Pretenders – “Brass In Pocket”), drowns in his bathtub after a drug overdose at 30
1983 – Willem Frederik Bon, Dutch composer (Les Prédictions) and pedagogue, dies at 42
1984 – Dioniysis Papagiannopoulos, Greek stage and screen actor, dies of a stroke at 71
1986 – Horst Bastian, German writer and screenwriter, dies at 46
1993 – Jo Boer, Dutch painter and author (Catharina and the Magnolias), dies at 85
2010 – Peter Steele [Petrus Ratajczyk], American heavy metal singer-songwriter, and bassist (Type O Negative), dies of sepsis at 48
2012 – John Herbert “Jonathan” Frid, Canadian actor (Barnabas Collins-Dark Shadows), dies of pneumonia at 87
2023 – Ken Archer, Australian cricket batsman (5 Tests; Queensland CA), dies at 95

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