The following is a list of notable deaths in February 1987.
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 1987
1 Alessandro Blasetti, 86, Italian film director and screenwriter, complications from fall.Movie director Alessandro Blasetti dies. United Press International. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Christian Broda, 70, Austrian lawyer and politician, Minister of Justice, heart attack. Sala Burton, 61, Polish-born American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives (1983–1987), colon cancer. Salvadora Debayle, 91, First Lady of Nicaragua. Gustav Knuth, 85, German film actor.1. Februar 1987 - Gustav Knuth stirbt in Zürich (February 1 1987 - Gustav Knuth died in Zurich). Weltdeutscher Rundfunk (in German). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Jack Monohan Jr., 84, Australian rules footballer. Lee Aubrey "Speed" Riggs, 79, American tobacco auctioneer, voice of Lucky Strike cigarettes, heart failure.Obituaries: Lee Aubrey (Speed) Riggs; Lucky Strike Spokesman. L.A. Times. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024.
2 Merle Alexander, 79, American basketball player. Carlos José Castilho, 59, Brazilian international footballer (Fluminense, Brazil), suicide.Carlos José Castilho (Coach). National Football Teams. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Walter Clutterbuck, 92, English general in the British Army. Yakov Estrin, 63, Soviet chess player, ICCF World Champion. Spike Hughes, 78, British musician and composer.Hughes, Patrick Cairns [Spike]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (year of death only). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Néstor Lambertus, 80, Dominican baseball player. Alfred Lion, 78, German-born American record executive, co-founded Blue Note Records, heart failure. Olive Little, 69, American baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.Olive Little. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Alistair MacLean, 64, Scottish novelist of thrillers and adventure stories (The Guns of Navarone), heart failure. David du Plessis, 81, South African-born American Pentecostal minister.Obituaries: David J. du Plessis; Force in Pentecostal Movement. L.A. Times. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Ken Reid, 67, British comic artist and writer, co-creator of Roger the Dodger, stroke.Father of Fudge Dies. Manchester Evening News (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024.
3 Donald Aronow, 59, American speedboat designer, builder and racer, murdered.Donald Aronow, Boat Designer and Champion Racer, Shot to Death. New York Times. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Mustafa Bouyali, 46–47, leader of the Algerian Islamic Armed Movement, killed in an ambush.30. Algeria (1962-present). University of Central Kansas. Retrieved 17 Jul 2024. Theodore Cogswell, 68, American science fiction author.Obituary for Theodore R. Cogswell. Newspapers.com (The Times-Tribune). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu, 82, younger brother of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, lung cancer. George Derwent Thomson, 83–84, British classical scholar and Marxist philosopher.Thomson, George Derwent (Seoirse Mac Tomáis). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024.
4 Georges Bauer, 82, Luxembourgish Olympic water polo player (1928). Gunnar Böös, 92, Swedish Olympic fencer (1912). Paul Dresse, 85, Belgian writer. Bruce Jacobi, 51, American race car driver, racing accident.Former Indianapolis and NASCAR racing driver Bruce Jacobi died.... United Press International. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Meena Keshwar Kamal, 30, Afghani revolutionary political and women's rights activist, assassinated.Afghanistan’s Revolutionary Women. Tribune Magazine. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Liberace, 67, American pianist, singer and actor, pneumonia. Fyfe Robertson, 84, Scottish television journalist and broadcaster.Robertson, Fyfe [formerly James]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Carl Rogers, 85, American psychologist, heart attack after fall.Carl R. Rogers, 85, Leader in Psychotherapy, Dies. New York Times. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, 78, Welsh newspaper journalist, radio and television broadcaster.Vaughan-Thomas, Lewis John Wynford (1908-1987), broadcaster, author and public figure. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Patrick Waddington, 85, English actor. George W. Woodruff, 91, American engineer and businessman, pneumonia.
5 E. Michael Burke, 70, American navy officer, circus manager and Major League Baseball executive, cancer.Michael Burke Dies in Ireland; Head of Yankees from '66 to '73. New York Times. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. William Collier Jr., 84, American stage performer, producer and film actor.William Collier. Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Klāvs Elsbergs, 28, Latvian poet and translator, fall from building.Admired poet, dissident passes away. The Baltic Times. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. David Ensor, 80, British actor and politician, Member of Parliament.Alick Charles David Ensor. The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Armando Fosco, 64, American leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.Armando Fosco. Chicago Sun-Times (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Gustav Lechner, 73, Austro-Hungarian–born Yugoslav international footballer (Beograd, Yugoslavia). Otto Wöhler, 92, Nazi German general, convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity.Wöhler, Otto. Traces of War. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024.
6 Lalithambika Antharjanam, 77, Indian author.Antarjanam, Lalitambika (1909–1987). Encyclopedia.com (year of death only). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Julien Chouinard, 58, Canadian lawyer and Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, brain cancer.The Honourable Julien Chouinard. Supreme Court of Canada. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Ira Hall, 95, American racing driver. Donald MacCrimmon MacKay, 64, British physicist and professor. K. C. Nag, 93, Indian Bengali mathematician and author of mathematics textbooks.K.C. Nag, the Mathematics teacher who once was an inseparable part of Bengali school-level studies - GetBengal story. Get Bengal. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024.
7 Charles R. Barber, 85, American politician. Vara Martin Daniel, 69, American educator and First Lady of Guam (1961–1963). George Fritts, 67, American NFL player (Philadelphia Eagles). Cyril Horn, 82, English Olympic speed skater (1924, 1928). Tom Lavery, 75, South African Olympic athlete (1936). John Leypoldt, 40, American NFL footballer (Buffalo Bills), dysentery. Bennetto Payne, 77, Mexican professional boxer. Ralph Ricker, 79, American football coach. Stuart T. Saunders, 77, American railroad executive, heart failure. Claudio Villa, 61, Italian singer and actor, heart attack.Claudio Villa. New York Times. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Adriaan van Wijngaarden, 70, Dutch mathematician and computer scientist.Adriaan Van Wijngaarden. IEEE Computer Society. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024.
8 Tony Destra, 32, American drummer, traffic collision. Larnie Jordan, 72, American baseball player. Hendrik Koekoek, 74, Dutch farmer, politician and founder of the defunct Farmers' Party.H. (Hendrik) Koekoek. Parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Elsie Lee, 75, American author of fiction and non-fiction. Harriet MacGibbon, 81, American actress (The Beverly Hillbillies).Obituary: Harriet MacGibbon 8.2.87. Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Bob Masters, 74, American NFL player. Max Seydewitz, 94, German politician, Minister-President of Saxony.Seydewitz, Max. Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung (in German). Retrieved 19 Jul 2024. Bronisława Wajs, 78, Polish-Romani classic poet and singer.
9 Elio Bavutti, 72, Italian Olympic cyclist (1936). Larry French, 79, American Major League baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates), kidney and heart disease.Larry French. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved 20 Jul 2024. Louis Plack Hammett, 92, American physical chemist (Hammett equation).The centenary of the birth of Louis Hammett. De Gruyter. Retrieved 20 Jul 2024. Edna Manley, 86, Jamaican artist. Leo Turksma, 81, Dutch Olympic boxer (1924).
10 Angela Giussani, 64, Italian co-writer of comic book anti-hero series, Diabolik. Winifred Kastner, 83, British-born Australian radio broadcaster, community leader and welfare worker. Robert O'Brien, 78, American racing driver. William Rose, 68, American screenwriter (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner).Screenwriter William Rose, 68, Dies in England. L.A. Times. Retrieved 20 Jul 2024. Hans Rosenthal, 61, German director and radio & television host.Chapter Seventeen. Banished from the Fatherland: How Hans Rosenthal Survived the Nazi Regime. De Gruyter. Retrieved 20 Jul 2024. Sadequain, 56, Pakistani artist and poet.From the archives: 'Sadequain passes away at 57'. Dawn. Retrieved 20 Jul 2024. John Raymond Ylitalo, 70, American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay, cancer.J. Raymond Ylitalo. New York Times. Retrieved 20 Jul 2024.
11 Mark Ashton, 26, British gay rights activist, pneumonia.‘Pits and perverts:’ the legacy of communist Mark Ashton. Morning Star. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. Francesco Gabriotti, 72, Italian Olympic footballer (1936). Edith Gyömrői Ludowyk, 90, Hungarian-born psychotherapist, poet and communist militant.A Woman Against the Current. The Life Paths of Edit Gyömrői (Gelb, Rényi, Glück, Ujvári, Ludowyk). Academia.edu. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. Andy Linden, 64, American race car driver.Necrology (bottom of page). L.A. Times. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. John Malachi, 67, American jazz pianist. Bill McGee, 77, American Major League baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals).Bill McGee. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. John Moore, 53–54, American college basketball player (UCLA Bruins).
12 Jules Bergman, 57, American broadcast writer and journalist, science editor for ABC News. Lang Jeffries, 56, Canadian-American television and film actor, cancer. Shozo Makino, 71, Japanese Olympic swimmer (1932, 1936). Brian Maunsell, 51, New Zealand Olympic field hockey player (1964). Valentin Olenik, 47, Soviet Russian Olympic wrestler (1964, 1968). Dennis Poore, 70, British entrepreneur, financier and racing driver.Dennis Poore. FIA Results and Statistics. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. Howard Steel, 75, Australian rules footballer.
13 Heidi Becker-Ramlow, 32, German Olympic diver (1972, 1976). M. Bhaktavatsalam, 89, Indian independence activist and politician, Chief Minister of Madras State. Clifford Bias, 76, American alleged psychic.Obituary for Clifford L. Bias (Aged 76). Newspaper.com (The Indianapolis Star). Retrieved 22 Jul 2024. Dorothy Dean, 54, American writer and actress, cancer. Dhumal, 72, Indian actor in Bollywood films, heart attack. Arne Grunander, 69, Swedish ice hockey executive. Curly Page, 84, New Zealand Test cricketer and international rugby union player.Curly Page. Wisden. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024.
14 Rolf Dahlgren, 54, Swedish-Danish botanist and professor, traffic collision.The Rolf and Gertrud Dahlgren Prize for 2017 Awarded to Hans Walter Lack. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. Kulada Charan Das Gupta, 87, Indian judge of the Supreme Court of India.V The Das Court (1956–9). Oxford Academic. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. Stanley Ellis, 91, English cricketer. Wendy Holcombe, 23, American banjo player and singer, congenital heart defect.Gravestone: Holcombe, Wendy Lou. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. Dmitry Kabalevsky, 82, Soviet composer, conductor and pianist.Dmitri Kabalevsky, Russian who Composed 'Comedians'. New York Times. Retrieved 21 Jul 2024. Karolos Koun, 78, Greek theatre director, heart attack. Tsai Lan-chin, 22, Taiwanese singer and songwriter, heart attack. Mansfield Rangi, 51, New Zealand cricket umpire.