The following is a list of notable deaths in April 1989.
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 1989
1 Roy Francis, 70, Welsh rugby league footballer and coach (Hull FC, Barrow, Wales). Nedda Harrigan, 89, American actress, cancer. Paul Jappe, 91, American NFL player (New York Giants). Shreedhar Mahadev Joshi, 85, Indian politician and independence activist, Member of Parliament. Erich Lüth, 87, German writer and film director. Jan A. Rajchman, 77, Polish-American electrical engineer (Magnetic-core memory). George Robledo, 62, Chilean international footballer (Newcastle United, Chile), heart attack.
2 E. Chambré Hardman, 89, Anglo-Irish photographer. Bill Munn, 77, Australian rules footballer. Daniel Spry, 86, Canadian Army general during World War II. Zainon Munshi Sulaiman, 86, Malaysian politician, member of the Malaysian Parliament. Norman Zinberg, 76–76, American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who studied addiction.
3 Mustafa Çağatay, 51, Turkish-Cypriot politician, Prime Minister of Turkish Cyprus, traffic accident. Les Jones, 78, Australian rules footballer. Friedrich-Jobst Volckamer von Kirchensittenbach, 94, Nazi German army general. Max Kroger, 90, Australian rules footballer. Edward Martell, 80, British politician, member of the London County Council. Lev Nikitin, 63, Soviet Olympic sprint canoeist (1952). Pinchas Hacohen Peli, 58, Israeli Orthodox rabbi, poet and scholar of Jewish philosophy. Vishnu Sahay, 87, Indian politician, Governor of Assam. Lester Warden, 48, Australian cricketer. Norman Wooland, 79, English actor (Hamlet).
4 Gerard Casey, appr. 29, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, shot. Woody Crumbo, 77, American artist, flute player and dancer. John Gretton, 48, English peer, owner of Stapleford Park. Madeline Hurlock, 91, American silent-screen actress.
Harvey Jablonsky, 80, American general in the U.S. Army, vice president of the Northrop Corporation, congestive heart failure. Martti Luomanen, 82, Finnish Olympic middle-distance runner (1932). Roberto Nicolosi, 74, Italian jazz double-bassist. Pete Richards, 83, American NFL player (Frankford Yellow Jackets). Baruch Harold Wood, 79, English chess player, founded the magazine CHESS.
5 Geoffrey Binnie, 80, British civil engineer and writer (Jubilee Dam, Eye Brook Reservoir). Frank Foss, 93, American pole vaulter and Olympic gold medalist (1920). María Cristina Gómez, 46, El Salvadoran murder victim. Bill Gunn, 54, American playwright, actor and director (Ganja and Hess), encephalitis. Harold Hayes, 62, American journalist and writer (Esquire magazine). Marjorie Hoshelle, 71, American actress. Kurt Lischka, 79, Nazi German SS official, Gestapo chief and commandant of the Security police. Bill Mehlhorn, 90, American professional golfer. Karel Zeman, 78, Czech film director and animator (Cesta do pravěku, Na kometě).
6 Zofia Batycka, 81, Polish model and actress. Elizabeth Becker-Pinkston, 86, American Olympic diver (1924, 1928). Tufton Beamish, 72, British Army officer and politician, Member of Parliament. Torsten Billman, 79, Swedish artist. Sylvia Cassedy, 59, American novelist and poet (Behind the Attic Wall). Bruce Cunliffe, 63, American Olympic ice hockey player (1948). Marion Holland, 80, American children's book writer and illustrator, cancer. Edelf Hosmann, 87, Argentine Olympic sailor (1936). Tapani Niku, 94, Finnish Olympic cross-country skier (1924). Pannalal Patel, 76, Indian author (Malela Jeev, Manvini Bhavai), brain haemorrhage. Michael Reusch, 75, Swiss Olympic gymnast (1936, 1948). John Paul Riddle, 87, American pilot, co-founded Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. David Wilson, 74, New Zealand cricketer.
7 Hassan al-Amri, 68–69, Yemeni lieutenant general and Prime Minister of the Yemen Arab Republic. Amena Begum, 63–64, Bangladeshi politician, Member of Parliament. Efraín Morote Best, 67, Peruvian lawyer, chief administrator of San Cristóbal of Huamanga University. Jim Jones, 68, American NFL player (Detroit Lions). Clyde Moody, 73, American Bluegrass musician. Evelyn Finley, 73, American B-movie actress and stuntwoman (Ghost Guns), heart failure. Cheng Nan-jung, 41, Taiwanese publisher and pro-democracy activist, suicide by immolation. André Reybaz, 59, French actor. Jack Ruby, 45–46, Jamaican record producer. Basawon Singh, 80, Indian independence activist, co-founder of the Congress Socialist Party. Elizabeth Sudmeier, 76, American spy, founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency. Garland Williams, 67, American football player (Brooklyn Dodgers).
8 Albert Bormann, 86, German Nazi Gruppenführer, adjutant to Adolf Hitler, brother of Martin Bormann. Andy Karl, 75, American MLB player (Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Braves). Lloyd Francis MacMahon, 76, American judge of the U.S. District Court, cerebral hemorrhage. A. M. Rajah, 59, Indian playback singer and music director, train accident. John Wyer, 79, English car racing engineer and team manager.
9 Francesco De Zanna, 84, Italian Olympic bobsledder (1936). Birger Holmqvist, 88, Swedish Olympic ice hockey player (1924, 1928). Otto Huber, 75, American MLB player (Boston Bees). Friedrich Ritter, 90, German botanist (cacti). Albert Vigoleis Thelen, 85, German author and translator. Carl Wessler, 75, American animator and comic book writer.
10 Joan Barry, 85, British actress (Rome Express). George Genereux, 54, Canadian trap shooter and Olympic gold medalist (1952). Bessie Griffin, 66, American gospel singer, breast cancer. Nikolai Grinko, 68, Ukrainian actor (Ivan's Childhood, Stalker). Gaston Van Haezebrouck, 84, Belgian Olympic speed skater (1924). Jacob Horton, American businessman, vice-president of Gulf Power, plane crash.Plane Crash, Dead Canaries Expand Grand Jury Probe Into Southern Co. Takehiro Irokawa, 60, Japanese writer, heart attack. Sandy Sandberg, 78, American NFL footballer (Pittsburgh Pirates).
11 Noel Carrington, 93–94, English author and publisher, founder of Puffin Books. Emil Grosswald, 76, Romanian-American mathematician (number theory). Hiram Sherman, 81, American actor (Two's Company; How Now, Dow Jones), stroke. Sarban, 78, British writer and diplomat, British Ambassador to Paraguay.
12 Ekkirala Bharadwaja, 50, Indian spiritual advisor. Arnold Carter, 71, American MLB player (Cincinnati Reds). Gerald Flood, 61, British actor of stage and television (Crane), heart attack. Bill Harper, 92, Scottish footballer (Hibernian, Scotland). Abbie Hoffman, 52, American political and social activist, co-founded the Youth International Party, suicide by overdose. Willie McNaught, 66, Scottish international footballer (Raith Rovers, Scotland). Antonio Porta, 53, Italian author and poet. Sugar Ray Robinson, 67, American professional boxer, welterweight and middleweight world champion, heart disease. Georges Sébastian, 85, Hungarian-born French conductor. Vasile Teodosiu, 72, Romanian Olympic long-distance runner (1952). Tilda Thamar, 67, Argentinian actress, car accident.
13 Paul II Cheikho, 82, Iraqi patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church. António Ferreira Gomes, 83, Portuguese Roman Catholic bishop. Erich Herrmann, 74, German Olympic handball player (1936). Terry Miller, 46, American businessman and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, bone cancer. Tor Nilsson, 70, Swedish Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler (1948). Bill Putnam, 69, American audio engineer, songwriter and producer. Gilbert Scodeller, 57, French cyclist.
14 Werner von Clemm, 91, German-born American banker. Chiang Hsiao-wen, 53, eldest son of Chiang Ching-kuo, throat cancer. Laurence Meynell, 89, English author. Lance Pierre, 67, West Indian cricketer. Carr Smith, 88, American MLB player (Washington Senators).
15 Ray Agee, 68, American blues and R&B singer and songwriter. William Attwood, 69, American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Guinea and Kenya, congestive heart failure. Edward M. Brecher, 77, American science writer and author (Licit and Illicit Drugs). Brady Cowell, 89, American college sports player and coach. David Cuthbertson, 88, Scottish physician and biochemist, director of the Rowett Research Institute. Federico Gay, 92, Italian Olympic cyclist (1920). Hu Yaobang, 73, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, heart attack. Bernard-Marie Koltès, 41, French playwright and theatre director, AIDS. Freda Lingstrom, 95, British BBC Television producer (Flower Pot Men, Andy Pandy). Alita Román, 76, Argentine film actress (Mujeres que trabajan, Concierto de almas). Connie Simmons, 64, American NBA basketballer (New York Knicks). Frances Steloff, 101, American founder of the Gotham Book Mart. Charles Vanel, 96, French actor and director (The Wages of Fear, The Woman Who Dared). Philip de Zulueta, 64, British diplomat, Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister.
16 T. Coleman Andrews Jr., 64, American politician, member of the Virginia House of Delegates, heart attack. Tawfiq Yusuf 'Awwad, 77, Lebanese writer (Tawahin Beirut) and diplomat, Lebanese ambassador to five countries, rocket attack. Hugh Barton, 78, British Hong Kong businessman, chairman and managing director of Jardine Matheson. Brynjólfur Bjarnason, 90, Icelandic politician, chairman of the Communist Party of Iceland. Jocko Conlan, 89, American baseball umpire (National League). John Dighton, 79, British playwright and screenwriter (The Happiest Days of Your Life, The Man in the White Suit, Roman Holiday). Harald Edelstam, 76, Swedish diplomat, Ambassador to Algeria, cancer. Kaoru Ishikawa, 73, Japanese engineer and professor (Ishikawa diagram). John Holmes Jenkins, 48–49, American historian and champion poker player, shot. Bob Jones, 59, American white supremacist political activist (Ku Klux Klan). Miles Lawrence, 48, English cricketer. Dominic Olejniczak, 80, American politician (mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin) and football executive (Green Bay Packers), stroke. Saroj Pathak, 59, Indian novelist. Thierry Paulin, 25, French serial killer, AIDS. Sam Wheeler, 65, American Negro Leagues baseball player and Harlem Globetrotter. Hakkı Yeten, 78, Turkish footballer and club president (Beşiktaş, Turkey).
17 Inji Aflatoun, 65, Egyptian painter and women's activist. Psyche Cattell, 95, American psychologist. Ken Gee, 72, English international rugby league footballer (Wigan, England). Ivica Jelić, 71, Yugoslavian Olympic gymnast (1948, 1952). Charles Lampkin, 76, American actor (Roots: The Next Generations) and musician. Cecil Leeson, 86, American saxophonist. Candan Tarhan, 46, Turkish football manager. Villano II, 39, Mexican Luchador enmascarado (masked professional wrestler), suicide.
18 Adil Atan, 60, Turkish Olympic wrestler (1952, 1956). Hilde Benjamin, 87, East German judge and Minister of Justice. Ruth VanSickle Ford, 91, American painter, owner of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. William Hector Payne, 74, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1958-1962). Julia Smith, 84, American composer and pianist.
19 Ferdinand aus der Fünten, 79, Nazi German SS-Hauptsturmführer, head of the Amsterdam Central Office for Jewish Emigration. Harry Marker, 78, American NFL player (Pittsburgh Pirates). Dame Daphne du Maurier, 81, English novelist and playwright (Rebecca, The Birds, My Cousin Rachel), heart failure. George Paxton, 75, American saxophonist and big band leader (Coed Records), apparent suicide. Gale Staley, 89, American MLB player (Chicago Cubs). James Edgar Walker, 77, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1962-1974). George Whitmore, 43, American playwright, novelist and poet, AIDS.
20 Harold Barlow, 89, British engineer (Royal Medal). Doru Davidovici, 43, Romanian aviator and writer, training crash.