The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2011.
Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence: Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.
May 2011
1 Alex, 52, Indian actor and magician, brief illness. Spyrydon Babskyi, 52, Ukrainian Orthodox hierarch, Archbishop of Vinnytsia in UOC-KP (1992–1993). Schalk Booysen, 83, South African Olympic sprinter. Sir Henry Cooper, 76, British Olympic heavyweight boxer. Brian Evans, 74, Welsh cricketer (Glamorgan). Kim Jun-bong, 58, South Korean taxi driver, suicide by crucifixion. Agustín García-Gasco Vicente, 80, Spanish Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Valencia (1992–2009), cardiac arrest. Moshe Landau, 99, Israeli jurist, Chief Justice (1980–1982), presided over Adolf Eichmann's trial (1961). Ted Lowe, 90, British snooker commentator. Steven Orszag, 68, American mathematician, chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Anny Rüegg, 98-99, Swiss alpine skier. Ivan Slavkov, 70, Bulgarian sports official. William O. Taylor II, 78, American journalist and publisher (The Boston Globe), brain tumor. J. Ernest Wilkins Jr., 87, American mathematician and nuclear scientist.
2 Leonid Abalkin, 80, Russian economist. Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, 46, Kuwaiti Al-Qaeda computer expert, shot. L.V. Banks, 78, American guitarist, singer and songwriter, heart failure. Ion Barbu, 72, Romanian football player. Robert W. Clower, 85, American economist. Lloyd Colteryahn, 79, American football player (Baltimore Colts).Lloyd K Colteryahn Sir Basil Hall, 93, British lawyer and civil servant, Treasury Solicitor (1975–1980). Danny Kassap, 28, Congolese-born Canadian long-distance runner. Osama bin Laden, 54, Saudi founder of Al-Qaeda, planned September 11 attacks, shot. Alexander Lazarev, 73, Russian actor. Eddie Lewis, 76, English footballer (Manchester United, West Ham United), cancer. Owen Roe McGovern, 93, Irish Gaelic football player. Lyuben Obretenov, 92, Bulgarian Olympic gymnast. René Emilio Ponce, 64, Salvadoran general and defence minister, army chief of staff during the Civil War. David Sencer, 86, American public health official, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1966–1977), heart disease. Shigeo Yaegashi, 78, Japanese footballer.
3 Paul Ackerley, 61, New Zealand hockey player and coach, skin cancer. Frédéric Affo, 68, Beninese politician and football executive. Robert Marshall Anderson, 77, American bishop, pancreatic cancer. Victor Auer, 74, American Olympic silver medal-winning (1972) sports shooter. Bob Balog, 86, American football player (Pittsburgh Steelers). Robert Brout, 82, American-born Belgian theoretical physicist. Odell Brown, 70, American jazz organist and songwriter ("Sexual Healing"). Jackie Cooper, 88, American actor (Skippy, Our Gang, Superman). C. Rollins Hanlon, 96, American cardiac surgeon, lymphoma. Richie Hubbard, 78, Canadian politician. Sergo Kotrikadze, 74, Georgian football player and coach, heart attack. Abdulla Kurd, 34, Turkish Kurdish Islamist militant. Mildred Robbins Leet, 88, American philanthropist, co-founder of Trickle Up, complications of a fall. Dale Martin, 59, American politician, member of the West Virginia House of Delegates (2000–2011). Larry McCormick, 71, Canadian politician, Member of Parliament for Hastings—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington (1993–2004). Marianna Nagy, 82, Hungarian pair skater. Patrick Roy, 53, French politician, pancreatic cancer. Peter Urbach, 71, German Cold War informant. Thanasis Veggos, 83, Greek actor, stroke. Armand Van Wambeke, 84, Belgian Olympic basketball player. Des Williams, 83, South African Olympic boxer.
4 James Beggs, 87, American Olympic rower. Lázaro Blanco, 73, Mexican photographer, cancer. Maurice Carpentier, 89, French cyclist. Frans de Kok, 87, Dutch conductor. Oliver Elmes, 76, British graphic designer (Doctor Who). Jacques Georges Habib Hafouri, 94, Syrian Catholic hierarch, Archbishop of Hassaké-Nisibi (1982–1996). Sammy McCrory, 86, Northern Irish footballer. Ronald H. Miller, 73, American professor of religion. Mary Murphy, 80, American actress (The Wild One). Thomas G. Nelson, 74, American federal judge, complications from declining health. Françoise Olivier-Coupeau, 51, French politician, cancer. Emil Reinecke, 78, German cyclist. Acacio Valbuena Rodríguez, 88, Spanish Roman Catholic prelate, Prefect for Western Sahara (1994–2009). Frans Sammut, 66, Maltese writer, natural causes. Bernard Stasi, 80, French politician, Minister for Overseas Departments and Territories (1973–1974), Alzheimer's disease. Richard Steinheimer, 81, American railroad photographer, Alzheimer's disease. Sada Thompson, 83, American actress (Family), lung disease.
5 Leslie Audus, 99, British botany professor (University of London), expert on plant growth hormones. Alice Bridges, 94, American Olympic bronze medal-winning (1936) swimmer. Nikolay Chuchalov, 78, Soviet Olympic wrestler. Claude Choules, 110, British-born Australian veteran, last combat veteran of World War I. Donald Crump, 78, Canadian commissioner of the Canadian Football League (1990–1991). Salomón Hakim, 81, Colombian neurosurgeon, researcher and inventor. Al Johnson, 88, American football player and coach. Arthur Laurents, 93, American playwright, librettist, stage director, and screenwriter (Anastasia, Rope, West Side Story). Dougie McCracken, 46, Scottish football player (Ayr United), suspected suicide. Yosef Merimovich, 86, Israeli football player and manager. Rolo Puente, 71, Argentine actor, pulmonary emphysema. Friedrich Rückert, 90, Austrian Olympic hockey player. Tommy Wright, 83, Scottish footballer. Dana Wynter, 79, German-born British actress (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Airport, The Man Who Never Was), heart failure.
6 Barry Connolly, 72, Australian football player. Oniroku Dan, 80, Japanese author, esophageal cancer. Sir Geoffrey Dhenin, 93, British air marshal. Bill Hopkins, 83, Welsh writer. Horace Freeland Judson, 80, American science historian (The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science), complications of a stroke. Antanas Krištopaitis, 89, Lithuanian painter. Kazi Nuruzzaman, 86, Bangladeshi veteran of the Liberation War, natural causes. Duane Pillette, 88, American baseball player (New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies). Dick Walsh, 85, American baseball executive, first commissioner of the North American Soccer League. Yoon Ki-won, 24, South Korean football player, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
7 Johnny Albino, 93, Puerto Rican bolero singer, heart attack. Seve Ballesteros, 54, Spanish golfer, brain cancer. Big George, 53, British broadcaster and music arranger. Willard Boyle, 86, Canadian physicist, Nobel laureate (2009). Shaukat Galiev, 82, Soviet Tatar poet and writer of children's books. Jack Gordon, 66, American politician, member of the Mississippi House of Representatives (1972–1980), State Senator (1980–1992; 1996–2011), brain cancer. Ross Hagen, 72, American actor (Daktari, Speedway). Allyson Hennessy, 63, Trinidadian broadcaster. Eilert Määttä, 75, Swedish ice hockey player and coach. Milan Mišík, 82, Slovak geologist. Gunter Sachs, 78, German photographer, author and multi-millionaire industrialist, suicide by gunshot. Robert Stempel, 77, American automobile executive, chairman and CEO of General Motors (1990–1992). Kate Swift, 87, American writer, stomach cancer. John Walker, 67, American musician (The Walker Brothers), liver cancer. Doric Wilson, 72, American playwright and gay activist.
8 Huthaifa al-Batawi, Iraqi al-Qaeda leader, shot. Wallace Clark, 84, Northern Irish maritime writer. Cornell Dupree, 68, American jazz and R&B guitarist, complications from emphysema. George Guțiu, 87, Romanian Catholic hierarch, Archbishop of Cluj-Gherla (1994–2002). Corwin Hansch, 92, American chemist, pneumonia. Li Desheng, 95, Chinese People's Liberation Army general. Charles McPhee, 49, American radio host, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Greg Percival, 86, Australian politician, member of the New South Wales Legislative Council (1977–1978; 1986–1988). Soňa Pertlová, 23, Czech chessplayer, cancer. Lionel Rose, 62, Australian world champion boxer. Hilton Rosemarin, 58, Canadian set decorator (Three Men and a Baby, Cocktail, Jumper), brain cancer. Carlos Trillo, 68, Argentine comic book writer (Cybersix). Galina Urbanovich, 93, Russian Olympic gold and silver medal-winning (1952) gymnast. Arkady Vaksberg, 83, Soviet and Russian lawyer, author, film maker and playwright. Sir Ronald Waterhouse, 85, British jurist.
9 George Allen, 87, American ichthyologist and fisheries scientist. William Y. Anderson, 89, Swedish-born American fighter pilot. David Cairns, 44, British politician, MP for Greenock and Inverclyde (2001–2005) and Inverclyde (since 2005), acute pancreatitis. Robert Ellsworth, 84, American politician and diplomat, Representative from Kansas (1961–1967), Ambassador to NATO (1969–1971), complications from pneumonia. Epiphanios of Vryoula, 76, American Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Spain and Portugal. Henry Feffer, 93, American professor and spine surgeon, treated Saddam Hussein, heart failure. Dolores Fuller, 88, American actress (Glen or Glenda), and songwriter ("Rock-A-Hula Baby"). Jeff Gralnick, 72, American television news producer. *Lidia Gueiler Tejada, 89, Bolivian politician, acting President (1979–1980), after a long illness. Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué, 71–72, Chadian politician and military officer, Vice President of Chad (1979–1982), President of the National Assembly of Chad (1997–2002).Tchad: décès de Kamougué, un des leaders de l’opposition Doug Leeds, 63, American executive, vice-chairman of American Theatre Wing, cancer. Ivo Pešák, 66, Czech singer, dancer and comic performer. Roland Spångberg, 88, Swedish Olympic water polo player. Newton Thornburg, 81, American novelist. Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay, 82, Nepali politician, Foreign Minister (1986–1990), altitude sickness. Wouter Weylandt, 26, Belgian road bicycle racer, race crash.
10 Omar Ahmad, 46, American entrepreneur (Napster) and politician, Mayor of San Carlos, California (2010–2011), heart attack. Michael Baze, 24, American jockey, accidental drug overdose. Bill Bergesch, 89, American baseball executive (Kansas City Athletics, New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds). Frank Boston, 72, American politician, member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1987–1999). John S. Carter, 65, American music producer, cancer. Bill Gallo, 88, American cartoonist and newspaper columnist, complications from pneumonia. Patrick Galvin, 83, Irish writer. Zim Ngqawana, 51, South African jazz saxophonist, stroke. Burt Reinhardt, 91, American broadcast executive, President of CNN (1982–1990), complications from strokes. David Weston, 75, British artist. Norma Zimmer, 87, American entertainer (The Lawrence Welk Show).
11 Clark Accord, 50, Surinamese–Dutch author and makeup artist, stomach cancer. Maurice Goldhaber, 100, American physicist. Leo Kahn, 94, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Staples, complications from a series of strokes. Albert Obiefuna, 81, Nigerian Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Onitsha (1995–2003). Leo Passage, 75, Dutch-born American hairstylist. Reach Sambath, 47, Cambodian journalist, stroke. Elisabeth Svendsen, 81, British hotelier and animal welfare campaigner, founder of The Donkey Sanctuary. Robert Traylor, 34, American basketball player (Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets), suspected heart attack. Glyn Williams, 92, Welsh footballer. Snooky Young, 92, American jazz trumpeter, complications of a lung ailment.
12 Chen Muhua, 90, Chinese politician. Harrison Chongo, 41, Zambian football player, malaria.