Deaths in May 1991

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1991.

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 1991

1 Jack Cope, 77, South African writer. Charles Sutherland Elton, 91, English zoologist. Frank N. Ikard, 78, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1951–1961), heart attack. Mary McAllister, 82, American silent film actress. Cesare Merzagora, 92, Italian politician, acting president (1964). Richard Thorpe, 95, American film director.

2 Gábor Boróczi, 52, Hungarian Olympic ice hockey player (1964). Richard Threlkeld Cox, 92, American physicist. Robert Elter, 92, Luxembourgish Olympic footballer (1920, 1924). Susan Fassbender, 32, English singer, suicide. Jens Haugland, 81, Norwegian politician. Charles Kaufman, 86, American screenwriter, pneumonia. Abby Crawford Milton, 110, American suffragist and supercentenarian. James Augustine Walsh, 84, American district judge (United States District Court for the District of Arizona).

3 Harry Gibson, 75, American musician, heart failure. Eric Guy, 58, Australian rules footballer. Truus Klapwijk, 87, Dutch Olympic swimmer (1924, 1928). Jerzy Kosiński, 57, Polish-American novelist (Being There, The Painted Bird, Steps), suicide by asphyxiation. Frank Leja, 55, American baseball player (New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels), heart attack. Günther Noack, 78, German figure skater. Yolande Plancke, 82, French Olympic sprinter (1928). Carlos Márquez Sterling, 92, Cuban politician. Margaret Tallichet, 77, American actress, cancer. Don Whitmire, 68, American navy officer and college football player.

4 Dennis Crosby, 56, American actor and singer, son of Bing Crosby, suicide by gunshot. George T. Delacorte Jr., 96, American magazine publisher. Luigi Facelli, 92, Italian hurdler and Olympian (1924, 1928, 1932, 1936). Mohammed Khadda, 61, Algerian artist, lung cancer. Bill Macdonald, 62, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates). Chandravadan Mehta, 90, Indian playwright and author. Eugene P. Spellman, 60, American district judge (United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida). Xiaocun Sun, 84, Chinese politician. Mohammed Abdel Wahab, 89, Egyptian singer, stroke. Bernie Winters, 60, English comedian, stomach cancer.

5 Rolf Bremer, 64, German politician. Chaim Gross, 89, Austrian-American sculptor and educator, heart attack. Hermann Kopf, 89, German politician. Jimmy Lile, 57, American knifemaker. Rune Lindblad, 67, Swedish composer. Rolf Lund, 60, Norwegian Olympic sailor (1972). Richard A. Teague, 67, American automobile designer.

6 Mehrdad Avesta, 60, Iranian poet, heart attack. Virgil Calotescu, 63, Romanian film director. Thomas A. Carlin, 62, American actor (Caddyshack, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Ragtime). Konstantinos Engolfopoulos, 79, Greek navy officer. Wilfrid Hyde-White, 87, British actor (My Fair Lady, The Third Man, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), heart failure. Guido Martina, 85, Italian comic writer. Chucky Mullins, 21, American football player and quadriplegic, pulmonary embolism. Béla Pósa, 76, Hungarian footballer. Herbert Schäfer, 63, German footballer and Olympian (1952, 1956).

7 Martín Alarcón, 63, Mexican Olympic long-distance runner (1948). Hans Bender, 84, German parapsychologist. Lucien Duquesne, 90, French Olympic runner (1920, 1924, 1928). Glenn Eagleston, 70, American flying ace. Fred Eggan, 84, American anthropologist. Bill McPeak, 64, American football player (Pittsburgh Steelers), heart attack. Alexandre Prigogine, 78, Russian mineralogist and ornithologist. Wolfgang Reichmann, 59, German actor, heart attack. István Zsolt, 69, Hungarian football referee.

8 Hans Arnold, 49, German footballer. Edward G. Breen, 82, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1949–1951). Ralph Theodore Breyer, 87, American Olympic swimmer (1924). Ronnie Brody, 72, British actor. Joseph Kramm, 83, American playwright. Hilde Krüger, 78, German actress. Jean Langlais, 84, French composer. Ronald McKie, 81, Australian novelist, kidney disease. Mireille Perrey, 87, French stage and film actress. Michel Robida, 81, French writer. Rudolf Serkin, 88, Austrian-American pianist, cancer. Cedric Tallis, 76, American baseball executive, heart attack. Alun Thomas, 65, Welsh rugby player. Friedelind Wagner, 73, German opera director.

9 Loran Ellis Baker, 85, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1945-1949). Yanka Dyagileva, 24, Russian poet and singer-songwriter, suicide. Charles Fox, 69-70, English jazz critic. Flip Keegstra, 76, Dutch Olympic sailor (1948, 1952). István Messzi, 29, Hungarian Olympic weightlifter (1988), traffic collision. Adrian Anthony Spears, 80, American district judge (United States District Court for the Western District of Texas). Ross Story, 71, Australian politician.

10 Béla Balassa, 63, Hungarian economist. Thomas Leather, 80, Australian cricket player. Georg Strobl, 81, German ice hockey player and Olympic medalist (1932, 1936). Teisutis Zikaras, 68, Lithuanian-Australian sculptor.

11 Ho Dam, 62, North Korean politician. Dino Di Luca, 88, Italian actor. Jusuf Hatunić, 40, Yugoslav football player. Friedrich Issak, 75, Estonian javelin thrower and journalist. Peter Mangels, 63, Brazilian Olympic sailor (1952). Denis Zanoni, 50, Australian rules footballer.

12 Danny Little Bear, 53, American professional wrestler, liver cancer. Leland Hickman, 56, American poet, AIDS. Clive Johnston, 65, Australian cricketer. Deny King, 81, Australian naturalist, environmentalist, and painter, heart attack. Aleksander Niezabitowski, 82, Polish footballer. Konstantin Sokolsky, 86, Latvian singer.

13 Abderrahmane Farès, 80, Algerian politician. Hal Gregg, 69, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants). David Mercer MacDougall, 86, Hong Kong politician. Delia Parodi, 78, Argentine politician. László Szomjas, 86, Hungarian Olympic sports shooter (1924). Carl Weinrich, 86, American organist.

14 Giampiero Albertini, 63, Italian actor, heart attack. Joy Batchelor, 77, English animator. Agehananda Bharati, 68, American Hindu monk and anthropologist, cancer. Omar Truman Burleson, 85, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1947–1978). José Carvalhosa, 80, Portuguese Olympic equestrian (1952). Aladár Gerevich, 81, Hungarian Olympic fencer (1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960). High Echelon, 24, American thoroughbred racehorse. Jiang Qing, 77, Chinese actress and politician, widow of Mao Zedong, suicide by hanging. José María Rodero, 68, Spanish actor. Frank Sanucci, 90, Argentine-American composer. Louis Stynen, 84, Belgian architect.

15 Shintarō Abe, 67, Japanese politician, liver cancer. Reno Browne, 70, American actress, cancer. Amadou Hampâté Bâ, 90-91, Malian writer and ethnologist. Andreas Floer, 34, German mathematician, suicide. Ken Jones, 88, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers, Boston Braves). Ronald Lacey, 55, English actor (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Red Sonja, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension), liver cancer. Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, 89, Indian writer. Fritz Riess, 68, German racing driver. Fraser Sweatman, 77, Canadian figure skater and Olympian (1936). Ed Weir, 88, American gridiron football player (Frankford Yellow Jackets). William Williamson, 75, Canadian Olympic canoeist (1936). İhsan Yüce, 62, Turkish actor. Vukašin Šoškoćanin, 32, Yugoslav military commander, drowned.

16 Jim Bicknell, 80, Australian rules footballer. Rufe Persful, 84, American criminal. Herbert Schäfer, 63, German football player. Willem Jacob Visser, 76, Dutch linguist. Osmar White, 82, Australian journalist.

17 Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers, 83, Belgian diplomat. Maurie Dunstan, 62, Australian footballer. Göthe Grefbo, 69, Swedish actor. G. Evelyn Hutchinson, 88, English ecologist. Herman Kalckar, 83, Danish biochemist. Harry Rée, 76, British academic. Ross Somerville, 88, Canadian golfer. Tom Trana, 53, Swedish rally driver, cancer. Ilse Trautschold, 85, German actress.

18 Gerd Achgelis, 82, German aviator. Edwina Booth, 86, American actress. Muriel Box, 85, English screenwriter and director. Nicholas Elko, 81, American Catholic prelate. Litzi Friedmann, 81, Austrian spy for the Soviet Union. Gunnar Johansson, 85, Swedish composer. Rudolf Nierlich, 25, Austrian skier (1988), traffic collision. Jimmy Thomson, 64, Canadian ice hockey player (Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Black Hawks), heart attack. Hoang Van Hoan, 85-86, Vietnamese politician.

19 Gabino Arregui, 76, Argentine footballer. Lloyd Butler, 66, American Olympic rower (1948). Odia Coates, 49, American singer, breast cancer. Royce Goodbread, 83, American football player. Wim Lakenberg, 70, Dutch football player. Mario Panzeri, 79, Italian composer. Greg Rice, 75, American long-distance runner, stroke. Nexhmedin Zajmi, 75, Albanian artist.

20 Milko Bambič, 86, Italian artist. Bill Champion, 69, American racing driver. Zdzisław Kostrzewa, 35, Polish footballer. Joseph J. Maraziti, 78, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1973–1975). Pete Runnels, 63, American baseball player (Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox, Houston Colt .45s), stroke.

21 Ioan P. Culianu, 41, Romanian historian and philosopher, shot. Nicholas Dante, 49, American dancer and writer, AIDS. Rajiv Gandhi, 46, Indian politician, prime minister (1984–1989), suicide bombing. Julián Orbón, 65, Cuban composer, cancer. Sam Pothecary, 85, English cricketer. Kalaivani Rajaratnam, 22, Sri Lankan assassin of Rajiv Gandhi.

22 Lino Brocka, 52, Filipino film director, traffic collision. Shripad Amrit Dange, 91, Indian politician. Valentin Iremonger, 73, Irish diplomat and poet. Derrick Henry Lehmer, 86, American mathematician. Jacob Millman, 79-80, Ukrainian-American electrical engineer. Stan Mortensen, 69, English footballer. Stan Richards, 59-60, American sportscaster. Ernie Robinson, 83, English footballer. René Soulier, 79, French Olympic middle-distance runner (1936). Clarrie White, 77, Australian rules footballer.

23 Manning Clark, 76, Australian historian. Henri Dauban de Silhouette, 90, British Olympic javelin thrower (1924). David H. Frisch, 73, American nuclear physicist. Wilhelm Kempff, 95, German pianist. René Lefèvre, 93, French actor. Fletcher Markle, 70, Canadian filmmaker, heart failure. Edmond Michiels, 77, Belgian Olympic water polo player (1936). Kemal Satır, 80, Turkish politician. Jean Van Houtte, 84, Belgian politician, prime minister (1952–1954).

24 John Anderton, 61, South African Olympic sprinter (1952). Mo Bassett, 60, American football player (Cleveland Browns). Gene Clark, 46, American Hall of Fame singer (The Byrds), and songwriter ("Eight Miles High", "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better"), peptic ulcer disease. Bill Flynn, 83, Australian rules footballer. Pat Scantlebury, 73, Panamanian-American baseball player (Cincinnati Redlegs). Juozas Ūdras, 66, Lithuanian Olympic fencer (1952, 1956).

25 Lorne MacLaine Campbell, 88, Scottish army officer. Eddie Fullerton, 56, Irish politician, shot. Gunnar Johansen, 85, Danish-American pianist, liver cancer. Bob Merrick, 73, Australian rules footballer. Doug Nott, 79, American football player (Boston Redskins, Detroit Lions).

26 Aleksandar Benko, 66, Yugoslav footballer. José Caballero, 75, Spanish painter. Doris M. Curtis, 77, American geologist. Claudine Dupuis, 67, French actress. Tom Eyen, 50, American playwright and lyricist (Dreamgirls), AIDS. Ossie Green, 85, Australian rules footballer. Tim Landers, 80, Irish footballer. Eugène Lourié, 88, French filmmaker, stroke. Kisaburo Osawa, 80-81, Japanese aikido teacher. John Price, 71, American competitive sailor and Olympic silver medalist (1952).