The following is a list of notable deaths in April 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.
April 1997
1 Milton Brunson, 67, American gospel musician and pastor. Jack Carroll, 66, Canadian Olympic sprinter (1952). Evsey Domar, 82, Russian American economist. Jolie Gabor, 100, Hungarian-American socialite. John R. Hargrove Sr., 73, American attorney and district judge (United States District Court for the District of Maryland). Makar Honcharenko, 84, Soviet-Ukrainian football player and coach. Jerry Pacht, 75, American judge, cerebral hemorrhage. Franz Seltenheim, 82, Austrian Olympic swimmer (1936).
2 Zaki Badr, 71, Egyptian general and politician. Al Blanche, 87, American baseball player (Boston Braves/Bees). Anthony Bushell, 92, English film actor and director. Craig D. Button, 32, United States Air Force pilot, suicide by plane crash. Zsolt Durkó, 62, Hungarian composer. Orvis A. Kennedy, 89, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1938-1940). Reg Lewis, 77, English football player. Yulii Meitus, 94, Ukrainian composer. David Shahar, 70, Israeli fiction writer, translator, and editor. Tomoyuki Tanaka, 86, Japanese film producer, stroke.
3 Thomas Barthel, 74, German ethnologist and epigrapher. Jerome Cosentino, 65, American politician. Sergei Filatov, 70, Soviet and Russian equestrian and Olympian (1956, 1960, 1964). Ivor McIvor, 79, Australian rules footballer. Dan Swartz, 62, American basketball player (Boston Celtics). John Ugelstad, 76, Norwegian chemical engineer and inventor. Robert W. Ward, 67, American businessman and politician, cancer. Henriette Wyeth, 79, American artist.
4 Lawrence A. Appley, 93, American organizational theorist. Kevin Coverdale, 56, Australian rules footballer. Herta Ehlert, 92, German nazi camp guard during World War II. Billy Graham, 61, American comics artist. Sugimura Haruko, 88, Japanese actress. Leo Picard, 96, Israeli geologist. Mike Raven, 72, British radio disc jockey, actor and sculptor. Vladimir Soloukhin, 72, Russian poet and writer. Shoichiro Takenaka, 84, Japanese Olympic long-distance runner (1932). Alparslan Türkeş, 79, Turkish politician, heart attack. Rudolf Ulrich, 75, German film actor.
5 Ignazio Buttitta, 97, Italian poet. Heberto Castillo, 58, Mexican political activist. Richard Clifton-Dey, 66, British artist. Paul W. Cronin, 59, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1973-1975), brain cancer. Paul de Bruyn, 89, German athlete and Olympian (1932, 1936). Stoney Edwards, 67, American country singer, stomach cancer. Allen Ginsberg, 70, American poet and writer, liver cancer. Warren Godfrey, 66, Canadian ice hockey player (Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings). August Heckscher II, 83, American public intellectual and writer, heart failure. Bill Holland, 81, American baseball player (Washington Senators). Aklilu Lemma, 61, Ethiopian scientist. John R. McKinney, 76, American soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor. Riley Morris, 62-63, American football player (Oakland Raiders, Boston/New Bedford Sweepers). Albino Simões Neto, 73, Portuguese Olympic rower (1948, 1952).
6 Max Alvarado, 68, Filipino actor, heart failure. Bernard Chevallier, 84, French Olympic equestrian (1948). Jack Kent Cooke, 84, Canadian-American businessman, cardiac arrest, heart attack. Stephan Hermlin, 81, German author. Peter Jeffrey, 83, Royal Australian Air Force officer and flying ace. David Keith-Lucas, 86, British aeronautical engineer. Frank Kirwin, 75, Australian rules footballer. Barbara Yu Ling, Singapore-British actress. Joaquin Mazdak Luttinger, 73, American physicist. Rosita Serrano, 84, Chilean singer, chronic bronchitis. Pierre-Henri Teitgen, 88, French lawyer, professor and politician.
7 Luis Aloma, 73, Cuban baseball player (Chicago White Sox). Josef Deutschmann, 76, Austrian Olympic cross-country skier (1948). Aaron Kramer, 75, American poet and social activist. Sam Parks, Jr., 87, American golfer. Georgy Shonin, 61, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 6), heart attack.
8 Kwame Baah, 58, Ghanaian soldier and politician. Bob Cain, 72, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns), cancer. Charles Hayes, 79, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1983-1993), lung cancer. Laura Nyro, 49, American songwriter, singer, and pianist, ovarian cancer. Homer Peel, 94, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants), and manager. Alejo Peralta, 80, Mexican baseball executive.
9 Mae Boren Axton, 82, American songwriter and music promoter. Joe Coleman, 74, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers). Helene Hanff, 80, American writer, peritonitis, diabetes. Geoffrey Hardy-Roberts, 89, British Army officer, politician and courtier. John Hollar, 74, American football player (Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions). Yank Rachell, 94, American country blues musician. Stevo Teodosievski, 72, Macedonian artist and humanist. Wu Zuoren, 88, Chinese painter.
10 Bèto Adriana, 71, Antillean sportsman and Olympian (1960, 1972). Erik Blumenfeld, 82, German politician. Michael Dorris, 52, American novelist and scholar, suicide. Stan Eastham, 83, English footballer and Olympian (1936). Fred Emery, 71, Australian psychologist.Alastair Crombie (1997) "Emery, Frederick Edmund (Fred) (1925–1997)" in ANU Reporter, 21 May 1997, p 7. Retrieved 5 September 2020. Alan Gibson, 73, English journalist, writer and radio broadcaster. Ben Gregory, 50, American football player (Buffalo Bills). Gösta Johansson, 68, Swedish ice hockey player and Olympian (1952), liver cancer. Marcel Maes, 52, Belgian cyclist. Toshiro Mayuzumi, 68, Japanese composer. Mehtab, 78, Indian actress. Martin Schwarzschild, 84, German-American astrophysicist. Edgar Sulite, 39, Filipino martial arts teacher. Francis Walder, 90, Belgian writer and soldier. Glanville Williams, 86, Welsh legal scholar.
11 Castor de Andrade, 71, Brazilian mobster and bicheiro. Yehia Emam, 78, Egyptian footballer and Olympian (1948). Muriel McQueen Fergusson, 97, Canadian activist, judge and politician. Rajko Kojić, 40, Serbian/Yugoslav guitarist. Milt Smith, 68, American baseball player (Cincinnati Redlegs). Radovan Stojičić, 46, Serbian police general, leader of the Public Security Service and acting Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia. Wang Xiaobo, 44, Chinese novelist and essayist, heart attack. Junzō Yoshimura, 88, Japanese architect.
12 Kevin Belcher, 35, American football player (Los Angeles Raiders, Denver Broncos). Wally Catchlove, 90, Australian cricketer. Ivar Eriksson, 87, Swedish football defender. Nechama Leibowitz, 91, Israeli bible scholar and commentator. Moro Lorenzo, Filipino basketball player and executive. Dorothy Norman, 92, American photographer, writer, and arts patron. Eric Pearce, 92, Australian broadcaster. James Ross, 85, Scottish surgeon. Jørgine Stene Sørensen, 91, Norwegian chemist. George Wald, 90, American scientist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
13 Mustafa Amin or Mostafa Amin, 83, Egyptian columnist and journalist. Madhava Ashish, 77, British-Indian spiritualist, mystic, writer and agriculturist. Dorothy Frooks, 101, American author, lawyer, and suffragist. Josef Krejci, 86, Austrian Olympic handball player (1936). David McCord, 99, American poet. Shuhei Nishida, 86, Japanese Olympic pole vaulter (1932, 1936), heart failure. Harry Rosenberg, 88, American baseball player (New York Giants). Zbigniew Szajewski, 82, Polish Olympic wrestler (1936, 1952). Voldemar Väli, 94, Estonian Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic medalist (1924, 1928, 1936). Foffie Williams, 83, West Indian cricketer.
14 Gerda Christian, 83, German private secretary of Adolf Hitler during World War II, cancer. Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk, 93, New Zealand poet, polemicist and pretender to the Polish throne. Kit Denton, 68, Australian writer and broadcaster. Gus Dugas, 90, Canadian-born baseball outfielder (Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators). Rusty Jackson, 46, American football player (Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills). John Jennings, 94, English footballer. Michael Stroka, 58, American television actor, kidney cancer. Walter Taylor, 84, American anthropologist and archaeologist. Finn Wold, 69, Norwegian-American biochemist, cancer.
15 Don Bexley, 87, American actor and comedian, heart and kidney failure. L. Brent Bozell, Jr., 71, American conservative activist and Roman Catholic writer. David Dockendorf, 73, American sound engineer. Bob Friedrichs, 90, American baseball player (Washington Senators). Jaime Garcia Goulart, 89, Portuguese Catholic missionary and bishop. Jim Holloway, 88, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies). Zdeněk Mlynář, 66, Czech politic writer, political analyst and lawyer. Sam Moskowitz, 76, American writer, critic, and science fiction historian. Harry Nicholas, 92, British trade unionist. Kō Nishimura, 74, Japanese actor. Sipan Shiraz, 29, Armenian poet, sculptor and painter. Carlos Enrique Taboada, 67, Mexican screenwriter and director. Richard Tousey, 88, American astronomer, pneumonia.
16 Doris Angleton, 46, American socialite and murder victim, shot.McCabe, Scott (April 15, 2012). "Crime History: Socialite wife of Houston bookie found dead". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 5 September 2020. Jan Bruins, 56, Dutch motorcycle road racer. Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid, 76, Colombian activist, politician and diplomat, kidney failure. John Elliott, 62, Australian Olympic wrestler (1952, 1956). Thaddeus Golas, 72, American writer. Doug McMahon, 79, Canadian soccer player. Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, 66, Mexican newspaper publisher, pancreatic cancer. Roland Topor, 59, French graphic artist, author and actor, cerebral hemorrhage. Claude Tresmontant, 71, French philosopher, hellenist and theologian.
17 Mitsu Arakawa, 69, American professional wrestler, heart failure. Dale Burnett, 88, American gridiron football player (New York Giants). Tom Franckhauser, 59, American gridiron football player (Los Angeles Rams, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings), heart attack. Allan Francovich, 56, American film maker, heart attack. Chaim Herzog, 78, Israeli politician, general, and author. Henry George Lang, 78, New Zealand economist, university professor and company director. Gérard Lecomte, 70, French arabist. Biju Patnaik, 81, Indian politician, aviator and businessman. Mary French Rockefeller, 86, American heiress, socialite and philanthropist. Hena Rodríguez, 81, Colombian sculptor.
18 Rolf Andersson, 67, Swedish football player. Edward Barker, 46, English cartoonist. Bob Carpenter, 79, American basketball player (Fort Wayne Pistons, Tri-Cities Blackhawks). Herbert Czaja, 82, German politician. Jeanne Hoban, 72, British Trotskyist, Alzheimer's disease. Francis Johnson, 86, American Olympic basketball player (1936). Don Pietromonaco, 61, American actor and radio personality, complications from emphysema. Eddie Quigley, 75, English football player and manager. Juan Félix Sánchez, 95, Venezuelan folk artist. Georgia Schmidt, 92, American actress.
19 Walter Gordon, 77, United States Army soldier during World War II. Eldon Hoke, 39, American musician, railroad accident. Carl Walter Liner, 82, Swiss painter. Alexander Slawik, 96, German nazi cryptographer and Japanese ethnologist. Maria Wittek, 97, Polish officer during World War II.
20 Eva Blanco, 16, Spanish girl and murder victim, stabbed. Pai Hsiao-yen, 16, Taiwanese girl and murder victim, murdered. Jean Louis, 89, French-American costume designer. Henry Mucci, 88, United States Army Rangers colonel, stroke.