1531 – Jan Łaski, Polish statesman and diplomat (b. 1456)
1903 – Arthur Shrewsbury, English cricket batsman (23 Tests [7 captain]; 1277 runs @ 35 47; Nottinghamshire), dies at 47
1984 – Bill Holland, American auto racer (Indianapolis 500 1949; runner-up 1947, 48, 50), dies at 76
1988 – Virginia Farmer, actress (Cyrano de Bergerac), dies at 90
1998 – (Edwin) “Ted” Astley, British arranger, bandleader, and film and television composer (The Mouse That Roared; The Saint), dies at 76
2004 – Tony Randall [Leonard Rosenberg], American actor (The Odd Couple), dies aged 84
2006 – Freddie Garrity, English pop singer (Freddie and the Dreamers – “I’m Telling You Now”), dies at 69
2007 – Bernard Blaut, Polish soccer midfielder (36 caps; KP Legia Warsaw, FC Metz) and manager (UAE), dies at 67
2009 – Robert F. Furchgott, American pharmacologist (co-winner Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1998), and educator, dies at 92
2009 – Nicholas Maw, British composer, dies at 73
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 18th May 2023
1733 – Georg Böhm, German organist and composer, dies at 71
1807 – John Douglas, Scottish Anglican bishop and man of letters, dies at 86
1953 – Tom Killick, English cricketer (at the crease 2 Tests for Eng 1929), dies at 69
1965 – Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis, Dutch historian of science (biography of Archimedes), dies at 72
1975 – Leroy Anderson, American composer (Syncopated Clock), dies at 66
1993 – Heinrich Albertz, German theologist and mayor of Berlin (1966-67), dies at 78
1996 – Simon Weinstock, English businessman and racehorse owner, dies at 44
2002 – David “Davey Boy” Smith, English professional wrestler (WWF Intercontinental Championship; British Bulldogs), dies of a heart attack at 39
2013 – Steve Forrest, American actor (SWAT), dies at 87
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 2023
1807 – John Gunby, Maryland Soldier in the American Revolutionary War (b. 1745)
1839 – Archibald Alison, Scottish author (b. 1757)
1851 – Adriaan van Bevervoorde, Dutch journalist (Treason), dies at 31
1886 – John Deere, American blacksmith and manufacturer (founded Deere and Company), dies at 82
1927 – Harold Geiger, U.S. Army aviation pioneer (b. 1884)
1964 – Steve Owen, American Pro Football Hall of Fame tackle (NY Giants) and coach (NFL C’ship 1927, 34, 38; NY Giants), dies at 66
1972 – Sir Gordon Lowe, British tennis player, Member of Parliament (Australasian C’ship 1915), dies at 87
2004 – Ezzedine Salim, leader of Iraqi Governing Council (b. 1943)
2007 – Lloyd Alexander, author (b. 1924)
2021 – Héctor Silva, Argentine rugby union number 8 (24 caps; Los Tilos) and coach (Argentina 1985-87), dies from COVID-19 at 76
Famous Deaths for 16th May 2023
1669 – Reyer Anslo, writer/poet, dies at about 42
1691 – Jacob Leisler, becomes 1st American colonist hanged for treason
1703 – Charles Perrault, French author and fairy tale writer (Tales of Mother Goose), dies at 75
1782 – Daniuel Charles Solander, botanist, dies
1805 – Christiaan Brunings, Dutch hydraulic engineer, dies at 68
1938 – Joseph Strauss, American civil engineer (chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge), dies at 68
1952 – Frances Benjamin Johnston, American pioneering female photographer
1996 – Jeremy Boorda, U.S. Navy admiral (25th Chief of Naval Operations), commits suicide at 56
2013 – Paul Shane, English comedian and actor, dies at 72
2020 – Arthur Summons, Australian rugby union fly-half (10 Tests; Gordon RFC) and rugby league five-eighth (9 Tests; Western Suburbs RLFC), dies at 84
Famous Deaths for 15th May 2023
1698 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (Fête de Vénus), dies at 56
1782 – Richard Wilson, Welsh landscape painter, dies at 67
1940 – Willem Adriaan Bonger, Dutch criminologist (Race and Crime), suicide at 63
1967 – Jaromír Fiala, Czech composer, dies at 74
1977 – Modibo Keïta, 1st President of Mali (1960-68), dies at 61
1994 – Frederik von Pallandt, Danish-Dutch pop singer and guitarist (Nina and Frederik), murdered in the Philippines at 60
1998 – John Hawkes, American writer (2nd Skin), dies at 72
2010 – Diether de la Motte, German composer and music theorist, dies at 82
2011 – Bob Flannigan, American jazz singer (The Four Freshmen), dies at 84
2012 – Jean Craighead George, American writer (Julie of the Wolves), dies at 92
Famous Deaths for 14th May 2023
1873 – Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician and writer (b. 1797)
1887 – Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (b. 1808)
1889 – Volney E. Howard, American politician, dies at 79
1935 – Magnus Hirschfeld, German physician and gay rights advocate, dies of a heart attack at 67
2001 – Gil Langley, Australian cricketer (Australian wicket-keeper 1951-56), dies at 81
2006 – James Botten, South African cricketer (all-rounder in 1965 South African series v England), dies at 67
2010 – Goh Keng Swee, former Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore (b. 1918)
2012 – Derek Hammond-Stroud, English operatic baritone, dies at 86
2021 – Ester Mägi, Estonian composer ‘First Lady of Estonian music’, dies at 99
2021 – Sándor Balassa, Hungarian composer (Requiem for Lajos Kassák; The Third Planet), and educator (Liszt Ferenc Academy, 1981-95), dies at 86
Famous Deaths for 13th May 2023
1619 – Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Dutch lawyer and statesman, beheaded at 71
1732 – Theodor Schwartzkopff, German composer, dies at 72
1831 – Christian Gottfried Körner, German lawyer, dies at 74
1939 – Stanislaw Lesniewski, Polish logician and mathematician (Warsaw School of Logic), dies at 53
1962 – Frank Jenks, American stage and screen actor (Colonel Flack, Zombies on Broadway), dies of cancer at 59
1962 – Franz Kline, American abstract expressionist painter, dies of heart failure at 51
1971 – Valerian Mikhaylovich Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Russian composer, dies 67
1994 – Duncan Hamilton, Irish racing driver, dies at 74
1999 – Meg Greenfield, American Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer (Washington Post; Newsweek), dies of cancer at 68
2005 – Eddie Barclay, French record producer (b. 1921)
Famous Deaths for 12th May 2023
1003 – Gerbert, French scholar, dies in Rome
1649 – Isaac Doreslaer, English lawyer/diplomat, murdered
1792 – Charles Simon Favart, French dramatist, dies at 81
1820 – Jacob Andries van Braam, Dutch merchant and colonial administrator (Suriname), dies at 49
1864 – J.E.B. Stuart [James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart], Confederate General in the American Civil War, killed in action at 31
1906 – Gabriel C. Wharton, American civil engineer and Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 81
1924 – Henri Maréchal, French composer and music critic, dies at 82
1976 – Rudolf Kempe, German conductor (Tonhalle Orch 1965-72), dies at 65
1989 – Joe Valdez Caballero, American creator of hard taco, shell, dies at 81
1990 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian member of Central Committee of Communist Party, dies at 83
Famous Deaths for 11th May 2023
1947 – Ture Rangström, Swedish composer, dies at 62
1962 – Hans Luther, German politician (Chancellor, 1925-6), dies at 83
1970 – Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist, dies at 62
1976 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (Finlandia House) and designer, dies at 78
1994 – Alfred James Broomhall, British Protestant Christian medical missionary to China, dies at 82
1995 – Tibor Sarai, Hungarian composer, dies at 76
1995 – Ivo Samkalden, Dutch Minister of Justice (PvdA), Mayor of Amsterdam (1967-77), dies at 82
2013 – Oliver “Ollie” Mitchell, American musician and bandleader (The Wrecking Crew), dies of cancer at 86
2019 – Harold Lederman, American boxing judge and analyst (HBO), dies of cancer at 79
2020 – Jerry Stiller, American comedian (Seinfield – “Frank Constanza”; King of Queens -“Arthur”; Stiller and Meara), dies of natural causes at 92
Famous Deaths for 10th May 2023
1764 – Picander [Christian Henrici], German writer (Die Weiberprobe), dies
1818 – Paul Revere, American silversmith and patriot who alerted the colonial militia to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, dies at 83
1945 – Richard Glücks, German SS officer and concentration camp administrator, committed suicide at 56
1955 – Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer, dies of a heart attack at 73
1968 – Philippa Bevans, British actress (Notorious Landlady, World of Henry Orient), dies at 55
1970 – Mari Blanchard, American actress and femme fatale (Kathy-Klondike), dies of cancer at 47
1982 – Peter Weiss, German author and playwright (Marat/Sade), dies at 65
2002 – Lynda Lyon Block, convicted murderer (b. 1948)
2021 – Tony Armatrading, British stage and screen actor (Colour Blind; Notting Hill), dies of cancer at 59
2022 – Glyn Shaw, Welsh rugby union prop (12 caps; Neath RFC), and rugby league prop (7 caps Wales, 1 GB; Widnes RLFC, Wigan RLFC), dies at 71