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
Category: Famous Deaths
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
Famous Deaths for 13th May 2024
1742 – Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (b. 1719)
1832 – Georges Cuvier [Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier], French naturalist and zoologist, dies at 62
1839 – Israel Ashkenazi of Shklov, founded Ashkenazic community (1815), dies
1925 – Boris Savinkov, Russian writer and revolutionary, dies in prison under mysterious circumstances at 46
1926 – Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian Catholic prelate and the fourth vicar apostolic of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands, dies at 68
1939 – Stanislaw Lesniewski, Polish logician and mathematician (Warsaw School of Logic), dies at 53
1982 – Gara Garayev [Kara Karayev], Soviet-Azerbaijani composer (Seven Beauties), dies at 64
1996 – John “Jack” Baines, British mountaineering publisher, dies at 57
2006 – Jaroslav Pelikan, American historian (b. 1923)
2020 – Rolf Hochhuth, German playwright (Der Stellvertreter), dies at 89
Famous Deaths for 12th May 2024
1838 – Jędrzej Śniadecki, Polish writer, physician, chemist (creation of modern Polish terminology in the field of chemistry), dies at 69
1864 – J.E.B. Stuart [James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart], Confederate General in the American Civil War, killed in action at 31
1878 – Catherine Beecher, American educator (championed higher education for women), dies at 77
1906 – Gabriel C. Wharton, American civil engineer and Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 81
1907 – Joris-Karl Huysmans, French writer (Against the Grain), dies at 59
1941 – Ruth Stonehouse, American silent film actress and director, dies at 48
1970 – Wladyslaw Anders, Polish army general (WWI and WWII), and politician (Parliament-in exile), dies at 78
1994 – Helen Lee Mai, Hong Kong actress, dies at 63
2001 – Alexei Tupolev, Russian aircraft designer (b. 1925)
2017 – Bill Dowdy, American jazz drummer (The Three Sounds), dies at 84
Famous Deaths for 11th May 2024
1631 – Christoph Buel, German composer, dies at 57
1849 – Juliette Récamier, French socialite, dies at 71
1857 – Eugène François Vidocq, French criminal and police detective, dies at 81
1956 – Walter Sydney Adams, American astronomer and director of Mount Wilson, dies at 79
1962 – Hans Luther, German politician (Chancellor, 1925-6), dies at 83
1965 – Lode Baekelmans, Belgian writer (Tille), dies at 84
1994 – Alfred James Broomhall, British Protestant Christian medical missionary to China, dies at 82
1996 – Joan Thirkettle, British journalist, dies at 48
1996 – Ademir de Menezes, Brazilian footballer (Brazil national team 1945-53), dies at 73
2007 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, Chief and Head-of-Head of Samoa (1962-2007), dies at 94