The following is a list of notable deaths in June 1997.
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.
June 1997
1 Florence Wysinger Allen, 84, African American artists' model. Ruth Atkinson, 78, American cartoonist, cancer. Garland T. Byrd, 72, American politician from Georgia. Giorgos P. Livanos, 70, Greek-American shipping magnate. Fred Rauch, 87, Austrian singer and songwriter. Mickey Rocco, 81, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians). Bernard Segal, 89, American lawyer civil rights activist, cancer. Robert Serber, 88, American physicist, brain cancer. Irvin Studer, 96, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1949-1958). Nikolai Tikhonov, 92, Soviet Russian-Ukrainian statesman.
2 Lukas Aurednik, 79, Austrian football player and football manager. Zhenya Belousov, 32, Soviet/Ukrainian pop singer, stroke. Martin Bronfenbrenner, 82, American economist. Doc Cheatham, 91, American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. Corwin Clatt, 73, American gridiron football player (Chicago Cardinals). Louise Huntington, 92, American actress. Helen Jacobs, 88, American tennis champion, heart failure. William Alexander Levy, 87, American architect. Kenneth McNaught, 78, Canadian historian. Nikolai Ozerov, 74, Soviet tennis player and actor. Eddie Thomas, 70, Welsh boxer and manager, cancer. Ida Turay, 89, Hungarian film actress.
3 Pidge Browne, 68, American baseball player (Houston Colt .45s). Salvatore Fiume, 81, Italian painter, sculptor, architect and writer. John Holt, 73, Jamaican cricket player. Dennis James, 79, American television personality and philanthropist, lung cancer. Meenakshi Shirodkar, 80, Indian actress.
4 Thomas Boylston Adams, 86, American business executive and writer. Katherine Esau, 99, German-American botanist. Robert E. Jones Jr., 84, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1947-1977). Ronnie Lane, 51, English musician, songwriter, and producer, pneumonia. Johnny "Hammond" Smith, 63, American soul jazz and hard bop organist, cancer. Pedro Zaballa, 58, Spanish football player.
5 Jack Wilson Evans, 74, American politician and mayor of Dallas, Texas, cancer. Elaine Ryan Hedges, 69, American feminist. Olga Kirsch, 72, South African and Israeli poet, brain tumor, brain cancer. J. Anthony Lukas, 64, American journalist and author, suicide by hanging. Gustav Richter, 84, German SS officer and aide to Adolf Eichmann during World War II.
6 Eitel Cantoni, 90, Uruguayan racecar driver. Jeffrey Ethell, 49-50, American author and pilot, plane crash. Magda Gabor, 81, Hungarian-American actress and socialite, and sister of Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor, kidney failure. Monica Golding, 94, British Army nurse and nursing administrator. Jack Gravell, 83, Australian rules footballer. Charles Jones, 86, Canadian-American composer of contemporary classical music. Hannu Leminen, 87, Finnish film director, set designer and screenwriter. Ted Nathanson, 72, American television director, lung cancer. Richard Neilson, 59, British diplomat. Eero Salminen, 63, Finnish Olympic high jumper (1960). Liao Shantao, 77, Chinese mathematician. Alangudi Somu, 64, Indian Tamil film lyricist.
7 Raghu Raj Bahadur, 73, Indian statistician. Lewis White Beck, 83, American philosopher and scholar of German philosophy. Jacques Canetti, 88, French music executive and talent manager. Victor Codron, 82, French cyclist. Stan Goletz, 79, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox). Paul Reade, 54, English composer. Stanley Schachter, 75, American social psychologist, colon cancer. Nadezhda Simonyan, 75, Soviet and Russian composer. Glyn Worsnip, 57, British radio presenter.
8 Betty Andujar, 84, American civic activist and politician. Norman Cleaveland, 96, American rugby player and Olympian (1924). Ken Hunt, 62, American baseball player (New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Washington Senators). Park Jaesam, 64, Korean poet. Reid Shelton, 72, American actor, stroke. George Turner, 80, Australian writer and critic. Amos Tutuola, 76, Nigerian writer, diabetes. Karen Wetterhahn, 48, American professor of chemistry, mercury poisoning. Gordon Wilson, 81, American football player.
9 Károly Bajkó, 52, Hungarian Olympic wrestler (1964, 1968, 1972). Robert W. Hansen, 86, American lawyer and jurist. Ismael Huerta, 80, Chilean admiral and politician, cardiac embolism. Stanley Knowles, 88, Canadian politician. Yevgeni Lebedev, 80, Soviet and Russian film and theater actor. Thornton Lee, 90, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, New York Giants). Witness Lee, 91-92, Chinese christian preacher and hymnist, cancer. V.L. Nakum, 72, Indian cricketer.
10 Hilton de Almeida, 64, Brazilian Olympic water polo player (1960). Carolina Cotton, 71, American singer and actress, ovarian cancer. Leo Fuld, 84, Dutch singer. Kim Ki-soo, 57, South Korean boxing champion and Olympian (1960), liver cancer. Ernst Krebs, 82, Swiss Olympic wrestler (1936). Zhou Lin, 85, Chinese politician. Renato Reyes, 52, Filipino basketball player and Olympian (1968).
11 Herman Basudde, 38, Ugandan kadongo kamu musician, traffic accident. Robert Bates, 48, Northern Irish Ulster loyalist, shot. Noel Burrows, 86, Australian rules footballer. Thalassa Cruso, 88, British-American presenter and author on horticulture, Alzheimer's disease. Ben Dunkelman, 83, Canadian-Israeli military officer, heart attack. Gonzalo Fonseca, 74, Uruguayan artist, stroke. Ralph Kohl, 73, American football player, coach and scout. Jakob Nirschl, 72, German bobsledder and Olympian (1956). Satyanarayan Rajguru, 93, Indian litterateur, epigraphist and historian. Mihir Sen, 66, Indian long distance swimmer, combination of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Kurt Stöpel, 89, German road bicycle racer. Lütfiye Sultan, 87, Turkish Ottoman princess. Yrjö Uimonen, 65, Finnish Olympic speed skater (1956).
12 Jo Backaert, 75, Belgian football player. Rick Baldwin, 42, American racing driver, racing accident. Pieter d'Hont, 80, Dutch sculptor. Colette Magny, 70, French singer and songwriter.Pierre Perrone, Obituary: Colette Magny, The Independent, 25 June 1997. Retrieved 8 August 2020 Vittorio Mussolini, 80, Italian film critic and producer. Bulat Okudzhava, 73, Soviet/Russian poet, writer, musician, and singer-songwriter. André Prébolin, 91, French Olympic long jumper (1936). Arnaldo Sentimenti, 83, Italian football player and coach. Veikko Vennamo, 84, Finnish politician. Joe Ben Wheat, 81, American archaeologist and author.
13 Al Berto, 49, Portuguese poet and painter, lymphoma. Ladislau Bonyhádi, 74, Romanian football player of Hungarian ethnicity. Fredrik Hultén, 30, Swedish Olympic rower (1988, 1992, 1996). Anand Narain Mulla, 95, Indian Urdu poet. George Strugar, 63. American gridiron football player (Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Titans/Jets), lung cancer.
14 Marjorie Best, 94, American costume designer (Giant, Rio Bravo, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Oscar winner (1950). Helmut Fischer, 70, German actor, carcinoma. Jean Fournel, 40, Canadian Olympic canoeist (1976). Richard Jaeckel, 70, American actor (The Dirty Dozen, Sometimes a Great Notion. Starman), melanoma. Dorothy Prior, 85, Canadian Olympic swimmer (1928, 1932). Helena Sanders, 86, British India-born British cultural activist, politician, poet, and activist for feline welfare, she was both the founder and the first leader of the Cornish political party Mebyon Kernow (MK), she won a seat on the Camborne–Redruth Urban District Council in 1953
15 Nicholas Danby, British organist and composer. George Denholm, 88, British flying ace during World War II. Frode Jakobsen, 90, Danish author and politician. Bill Lawrence, 91, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers). Edmond Leburton, 82, Belgian politician and Prime Minister. Robert C. McEwen, 77, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1965-1981). Attilio Redolfi, 73, Italian-French racing cyclist. Son Sen, 67, Cambodian communist politician and soldier, summary execution. Dal Stivens, 85, Australian writer.
16 Bill Barwick, 92, Australian Olympic middle-distance runner (1932). Mariya Batrakova, 74, Soviet and Russian Red Army officer and Hero of the Soviet Union. Rolf Ericson, 74, Swedish jazz trumpeter. Badi-ud-din Mahmud, 92, Sri Lankan politician. Elizabeth McBride, 42, American costume designer (Driving Miss Daisy, Thelma & Louise, The Shawshank Redemption), cancer. Michael O'Herlihy, 68, Irish television producer and director. Sukumaran, 49, Indian film actor and producer, heart attack. Sue Sumii, 95, Japanese social reformer, writer, and novelist. Tom Søndergaard, 53, Danish football player. Inge Wersin-Lantschner, 92, Austrian alpine skier and world champion. Andrzej Wojciechowski, 64, Polish Olympic boxer (1956).
17 Frances Foster, 73, American film, television and stage actress, cerebral hemorrhage. Bernhard Jensen, 85, Danish flatwater canoeist and Olympian (1948). Maurice Rootes, 80, British film editor. Hari Krishna Shastri, 59, Indian politician.
18 Waldo Don Carlos, 87, American football player (Green Bay Packers). James Willard Hurst, 86, American legal scholar and law history pioneer, cancer. Lev Kopelev, 85, Soviet author and dissident. Devon Russell, Jamaican rocksteady and reggae singer and record producer, brain tumour. Arvid Syrrist, 92, Norwegian footballer. Cândido Tavares, 85, Portuguese football goalkeeper and manager. José María Fernández Unsáin, 78, Argentine film director, screenwriter, and playwright. C. Martin Wilbur, 89, American historian and professor at Columbia University. Héctor Yazalde, 51, Argentine footballer, heart failure.
19 Basu Bhattacharya, Indian film director, acute pancreatitis. Robert Francis Byrnes, 79, American professor of history, heart attack. Jiří David, 74, Czech Olympic sprinter (1952). Cathleen Delany, 89, Irish actress. Olga Georges-Picot, 57, French actress, suicide. Thurman Green, 56, American jazz trombonist. Bobby Helms, 63, American country music singer, emphysema and asthma. Robert Henrion, 81, Belgian politician and Olympic fencer (1952). Ed Scheiwe, 79, American basketball player. Julia Smith, 70, English television director and producer, cancer. Stan Stasiak, 60, Canadian professional wrestler known as Stan Stasiak, heart failure.
20 John Akii-Bua, 47, Ugandan hurdler and the nation's first Olympic champion (1972, 1980). Armando Brancia, 79, Italian film and television actor. Paul Carell, 85, German Nazi politician and propagandist. Henri Haest, 70, Belgian Olympic hammer thrower (1952). Cahit Külebi, 80, Turkish poet and author, cancer. John Michael Macdonald, 91, Canadian politician. Lawrence Payton, 59, American tenor, songwriter, musician, and record producer, liver cancer. Alberto Rivera, 61, Spanish anti-Catholic religious activist, colon cancer. William Thoburn, 90, Canadian Olympic rower (1932).
21 Eusebio Hernández, 85, Chilean Olympic basketball player (1936). Shintarō Katsu, 65, Japanese actor, singer, producer, and director, pharyngeal cancer. Bill Lane, 80, American basketball player. Shantilal Jamnadas Mehta, 92, Indian surgeon and medical academic. Werner Mensching, 63, German figure skater and Olympian (1960). Arthur Prysock, 68, American jazz and R&B singer. Karl Ridderbusch, 65, German operatic bass. Fidel Velázquez Sánchez, 97, Mexican union leader, cardiac and respiratory failure. Vladimir Vinogradov, 75, Soviet diplomat. Don Vosberg, 77, American football player (New York Giants).
22 Lars Bergendahl, 88, Norwegian cross-country skier. William Slater Brown, 100, American novelist, biographer, and translator of French literature.