Deaths in February 1997

The following is a list of notable deaths in February 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.

February 1997

1 Simion Bughici, 82, Romanian politician. Herb Caen, 80, American journalist and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, lung cancer. Heiner Carow, 67, German film director and screenwriter. Ed Danowski, 85, American football player (New York Giants). Mitchell Goodman, 73, American writer, teacher, and activist. William Kintner, 81, American soldier, foreign policy analyst, and diplomat. Kiki Kogelnik, 62, Austrian painter, sculptor and printmaker, cancer. Thelma Moss, 79, American actress, psychologist and parapsychologist. Lillian Porter, 79, American film and television actress. Marjorie Reynolds, 79, American actress and dancer, heart failure. Bo Russell, 81, American gridiron football player (Washington Redskins). Francisco Tobar García, 68, Ecuadorian poet, playwright, journalist, and diplomat, lung cancer. Wilcomb E. Washburn, American historian, prostate cancer.

2 Godfrey Baseley, 92, British radio executive. Raúl de Anda, 88, Mexican actor, screenwriter, film producer and director. Erich Eliskases, 83, Austrian-Argentinian chess grandmaster. Karsten Johannesen, 77, Norwegian footballer. Qin Jiwei, 82, Chinese general and member of the Politburo. Sanford Meisner, 91, American actor and acting teacher. Art Merewether, 94, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates). Martin Mussgnug, 60, German politician. Raimundo Saporta, 70, Spanish club basketball administrator. Chico Science, 30, Brazilian singer and composer, traffic collision. Theodoros Stamos, 74, Greek-American painter. Seán Ó Síocháin, 82, Irish Gaelic footballer, hurler, and broadcaster.

3 Boris de Rachewiltz, 70, Italian-Russian egyptologist and writer. Jerry Beit haLevi, 84, Israeli football player and manager. Bohumil Hrabal, 82, Czech writer, fall. Agi Jambor, 87, Hungarian-born American pianist. Stan Kostka, 84, American football player (Brooklyn Dodgers), and coach. Harry H. Wachtel, 79, American lawyer and civil rights activist, Parkinson's disease. Mikhail Yakushin, 86, Russian football player and manager. Jun'ichi Yoda, 91, Japanese poet. Mario Zucchini, 86, Italian Olympic ice hockey player (1936).

4 Henry H. Barschall, 81, German-American physicist. Robert Clouse, 68, American film director and producer (Enter the Dragon), kidney failure. Artie Combes, 83, Australian cricketer. Benjamin David de Jesus, 56, Philippine prelate of the Catholic Church, shot. Ross Lee Finney, 90, American composer. Paulo Francis, 66, Brazilian journalist, novelist and critic, heart attack. Robi Ghosh, 65, Indian actor. A R Mallick, 78, Bangladeshi historian and educationist. Alek Rapoport, 63, Russian nonconformist artist.Levintov, Aleksandr. Alek Rapoport and Others. American Russia. Moscow, Poligraphics, 1999. . P. 209-224. Davide Sorrenti, 20, Italian-American photographer. James Tattersall, 56, British tennis player. Cyril Toumanoff, 83, Russian-American historian. Darrell Tully, 79, American football player (Detroit Lions), and coach. Leandy Young, 87, American baseball player.

5 Frederick J. Almgren, Jr., 63, American mathematician, complication following surgery. Bob Brown, 58, Canadian professional wrestler ("Bulldog" Bob Brown). Robert Elem, 69, American blues guitarist and singer. Dorothy Fosdick, 83, American foreign policy expert. Pamela Harriman, 76, English-American political activist, diplomat, and socialite, cerebral hemorrhage. Oren Harris, 93, American politician and district judge. René Huyghe, 90, French art historian. Jürgen Neukirch, 59, German mathematician. Harry Trotsek, 84, American Thoroughbred racehorses trainer and owner.

6 Ernie Anderson, 73, American disc jockey, and television and radio announcer, cancer. Harry Essex, 86, American screenwriter and director. Roger Laurent, 83, Belgian racing driver. Riza Lushta, 81, Kosovar Albanian football striker. Amby Murray, 83, American baseball player (Boston Bees). Cliff Thompson, 78, American ice hockey player (Boston Bruins).

7 Nina Albright, 89, American comic book artist. Owen Aspinall, 69, American politician and Governor of American Samoa. John Baker, 59, British musician and composer. Sam DeCavalcante, 84, American mobster, heart attack. Allan Edwall, 72, Swedish actor, author, composer and singer, prostate cancer. Gérard Higny, 65, Belgian rower and Olympian (1960, 1964). Maynard Pirsig, 95, American legal scholar. Manny Salvo, 84, American baseball player (New York Giants, Boston Bees/Braves, Philadelphia Phillies). Daniil Shafran, 74, Soviet/Russian cellist. Rösli Streiff, 96, Swiss alpine skier and world champion. Jose Garcia Villa, 88, Filipino poet, novelist, and painter. Jim Walkup, 87, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers). Mary Wills, 82, American costume designer, kidney failure.

8 Nathan Lerner, 83, American photographer. Henry Margenau, 95, German-American physicist and philosopher of science. Robert Ridgely, 65, American actor (Philadelphia, Beverly Hills Cop II, Blazing Saddles), cancer. Corey Scott, 28, American motorcycle stunt rider, traffic collision. Michael Voslenski, 76, Soviet and Russian writer, scientist, diplomat and dissident. Hal Warnock, 85, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns). Walter Wiora, 90, German musicologist and music historian.

9 David Austick, 76, British politician and bookshop owner. Taylor Drysdale, 83, American swimmer, swimming coach and Olympian (1936). Barry Evans, 53, English actor. Fritz Grasshoff, 83, German painter, poet and songwriter. Leni Junker, 91, German sprint runner and Olympian (1928). Mikhail Lavrov, 69, Soviet Russian Olympic racewalker (1956). Jack Owens, 92, American blues singer and guitarist. Williams Sassine, 53, Guinean novelist. Max Tetley, 87, Australian rules footballer. Luis Velásquez, 77, Guatemalan long-distance runner and Olympian (1952).

10 Harriet Andreassen, 71, Norwegian labour activist and politician. Conrad M. Arensberg, 86, American anthropologist and scholar, respiratory failure. Lou Bennett, 70, American jazz organist. Milton Cato, 81, Saint Vincentian politician and first Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Brian Connolly, 51, Scottish singer-songwriter, musician and actor. Jan Kramer, 83, Dutch Olympic rower (1936). Robert Mallary, 79, American sculptor and computer art pioneer, leukemia. Ted McCarthy, 85, Australian rules footballer. Jerome Namias, 86, American meteorologist. Olaf Strand, 98, Norwegian middle-distance runner and Olympian (1928). Tadeusz Trojanowski, 64, Polish Olympic wrestler (1960).

11 Nalanda Ellawala, 29, Sri Lankan politician, shot. Robert A. Graham, 84, American Jesuit priest and historian. Lewis Jacobs, 92, American screenwriter, film director and critic. Don Porter, 84, American actor. Glen Stewart, 84, American baseball player (New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies). Ray Terrell, 77, American gridiron football player.

12 Nora Beloff, 78, English journalist and political writer. James Cossins, 63, English actor, heart disease. Francis Healy, 86, American Major League Baseball player (New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals). Ruth Winifred Howard, 96, American psychologist. Victor Huthart, 72, British Olympic sports shooter (1960). Federico Pisani, 22, Italian footballer, traffic collision. Heikki Raitio, 72, Finnish Olympic fencer (1948, 1952).

13 Bobby Adams, 75, American baseball player. John R. Bartels, 99, American district judge (United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York). Thies Christophersen, 79, German neo-nazi and Holocaust denier. Robert Klark Graham, 90, American eugenicist and businessman. Robert Herman, 82, American scientist. Don Jordan, 62, American boxer, complications following robbery. Eduardo Kapstein, 82, Chilean Olympic basketball player (1936, 1948). Ernő Rubik, 86, Hungarian aircraft designer. Reg Ryan, 71, Irish football player. Atta Shad, 57, Pakistani poet, playwright, and intellectual.

14 Lélia Gousseau, 88, 20th-century French classical pianist. Jack Matheson, 76, American gridiron football player (Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears). Charles Moffett, 67, American free jazz drummer. Miguel Rodriguez, 35, Filipino actor and model, pancreatitis. William L. Scott, 81, American politician, Alzheimer's disease. Chōbyō Yara, 94, Japanese politician and teacher. Mohammed Yousuf, 57, Pakistani singer.

15 Oscar W. Adams Jr., 72, American lawyer and first African-American Alabama Supreme Court justice. Arne Berg, 87, Swedish Olympic road racing cyclist (1932, 1936). William Dippie, 89, Scottish cricketer. Philip Hershkovitz, 87, American mammalogist. Billie-Jo Jenkins, 13, English murder victim. Mazhar-Ul-Haque Khan, 73, Pakistani hurdler and Olympian (1948). Bob Lacey, 54, American football player (Minnesota Vikings). Paul Page, 69, American gridiron football player (Baltimore Colts). Frode Rinnan, 91, Norwegian architect and politician. Jack Sparling, 80, Canadian comic book artist (Claire Voyant, Strange Adventures, Ghost Rider).

16 Peter Bullock, 72, English cricketer. Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda, 79, Syrian leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ethel Owen, 103, American actress. Alvis Vītoliņš, 50, Latvian chess master, suicide by jumping. Jack Wilson, 82, British rower and Olympic champion (1948). Chien-Shiung Wu, 84, Chinese-American experimental physicist, watershed stroke.

17 Spartaco Bandinelli, 75, Italian boxer and Olympian (1948). Kenny Graham, 72, British jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. Leonard Ho, 72, Hong Kong film producer. Ichimaru, 90, Japanese recording artist and geisha. Bärbel Inhelder, 83, Swiss psychologist. Joe Kieyoomia, 77, American Navajo prisoner of war during World War II. Darcy Ribeiro, 74, Brazilian anthropologist, historian, sociologist, author and politician, cancer. Georg L. Samuelsen, 87, Faroese editor and voice actor.

18 Bozorg Alavi, 93, Iranian writer, novelist, and intellectual, heart attack. Enrique Peralta Azurdia, 88, President of Guatemala. Antonio de Almeida, 69, French conductor and musicologist, lung cancer, liver cancer. Gerd Domhardt, 51, German composer. Eric Fenby, 90, English composer, conductor, pianist and organist. Reggie Forte, 47, American activist and founding member of the Black Panther Party. Jnan Prakash Ghosh, 87, Indian harmonium and tabla player and musicologist. Emily Hahn, 92, American journalist and author. Austin Knickerbocker, 78, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics). Ingrid Larsen, 84, Danish Olympic diver (1932). Geoffrey Swaebe, 86, American diplomat and ambassador, complications of pneumonia.

19 David Ashkenazi, 81, Russian pianist, accompanist and composer. Jarmil Burghauser, 75, Czech composer, conductor, and musicologist. Frank Delfino, 86, American actor, bone marrow cancer. Deng Xiaoping, 92, Chinese politician leader of the People's Republic of China, complications of lung infections. Buddy Edelen, 59, American marathon runner and Olympian (1964). António Gedeão, 90, Portuguese poet, essayist, writer and playwright. Yutaka Haniya, 87, Japanese writer and critic. Karin Magnussen, 89, German nazi eugenicist, biologist, and researcher during World War II. Lois Marshall, 73, Canadian soprano. Leo Rosten, 78, American humorist. Edsall Walker, 86, American Negro league baseball player.

20 Afonsinho, 82, Brazilian football player. Paul Anxionnaz, 94, French politician. Zachary Breaux, 36, American jazz guitarist, drowned. Ruth Clark, 80, American pollster and researcher. Pierre Gascar, 80, French journalist, literary critic, writer, and screenwriter. Thomas G. Kavanagh, 79, American judge, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court (1975–1979).Thomas G. Kavanagh