Deaths in May 1999

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1999.

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 1999

1

• Eddie Chamblee, 79, American tenor, alto saxophonist and vocalist.
• Alish Lambaranski, 84, Soviet and Azerbaijani statesman.
• Jos LeDuc, 54, Canadian professional wrestler, lung infection.
• Osman Ahmed Osman, 82, Egyptian engineer, entrepreneur, and politician.
• Jack Sepkoski, 50, American paleontologist.
• Brian Shawe-Taylor, 84, British racing driver.

2

• Thomas C. Cochran, 97, American economic historian and author.
• Bill Davidson, 64, American football player and coach and college athletics administrator.
• Igor M. Diakonoff, 84, Russian historian, linguist and translator.
• Ernest A. Gross, 92, American diplomat and lawyer.
• Douglas Harkness, 96, Canadian politician, teacher and farmer.
• Robert Arthur Humphreys, 91, British historian and professor of Latin American studies.
• Tibor Kalman, 49, American graphic designer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
• Oliver Reed, 61, British actor (The Devils, Oliver!, The Three Musketeers), alcohol intoxication, heart attack.
• Włodzimierz Sokorski, 90, Polish communist politician, writer, and brigadier general.
• Anahit Tsitsikian, 72, Armenian female violinist.

3

• Joe Adcock, 71, American baseball player and manager, Alzheimer's disease.
• Steve Chiasson, 32, Canadian ice hockey player, (Detroit Red Wings, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes), drunk driving crash.
• Godfrey Evans, 78, English cricketer.
• Giulio Fioravanti, 75, Italian operatic baritone.
• Princess Urraca of the Two Sicilies, 85, German noblewoman and member of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
• Josef Zeman, 84, Czech football player.

4

• Manny Babbitt, 50, U.S. Marine veteran of the Vietnam War and convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
• Albert Fearnley, 75, English rugby league football player, and coach.
• Wilfried Geeroms, 57, Belgian Olympic hurdler, cancer.
• Jean Marius René Guibé, 89, French naturalist.
• Mahendra Narayan Nidhi, 77, Nepali politician and Gandhian leader.
• John Salmon, 88, New Zealand photographer, conservationist, and author.
• Henry Tiller, 84, Norwegian boxer and Olympic medalist.

5

• Vasilis Diamantopoulos, 78, Greek actor, heart attack.
• John Howard, 86, British Army officer during World War II.
• Américo Paredes, 83, American author.
• Rodrigo Ruiz, 76, Mexican football player.

6

• Fehmi Agani, 67, Kosovan sociologist and politician.
• Keizo Hasegawa, 76, Japanese track and field athlete and Olympian.
• Kaii Higashiyama, 90, Japanese writer and artist.
• Sven Meyer, 21, German figure skater, suicide by gunshot.
• Johnny Morris, 82, British television presenter.
• Maria Laura Rocca, 81, Italian actress and writer.
• Mark Tuinei, 39, American football player, drug overdose.

7

• Joseph Gray, 79, Irish-born English Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Shrewsbury.
• Leon Hess, 85, American businessman and owner of the New York Jets.
• Elliot Pinhey, 88, British entomologist.
• Chen Yanyan, 83, Chinese actress and film producer.
• Yury Zakharanka, 47, Belarusian minister and oppositional politician, murdered by the Lukashenko regime.

8

• Edward Abraham, 85, English biochemist, stroke.
• Dirk Bogarde, 78, British actor (Doctor in the House, The Servant, A Bridge Too Far), heart attack.
• Ed Gilbert, 67, American voice actor (The Transformers, TaleSpin, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero), lung cancer.
• Soeman Hs, 95, Indonesian author.
• John Kotz, 80, American collegiate basketball player and early professional.
• Michael Nightingale, 76, English actor.
• Alan Paterson, 70, English high jumper and Olympian.
• Sally Payne, 86, American actress, stroke.
• Dana Plato, 34, American actress (Diff'rent Strokes), suicide by overdose.
• Leon Thomas, 61, American jazz and blues vocalist, heart failure.

9

• Harry Blech, 89, British violinist and conductor.
• Shirley Dinsdale, 72, American ventriloquist and television and radio personality, cancer.
• Derek Fatchett, 53, British politician, heart attack.
• Jürgen Fuchs, 48, East German writer and dissident, leukemia.
• Jim Hunt, 95, American athletic trainer.
• Božidar Kantušer, 77, Slovene composer of classical music, cerebral infarct, stroke.
• Wynona Lipman, American politician, cancer.
• Ivan M. Niven, 83, Canadian-American mathematician.
• George T. Raymond, 84, American civil rights leader.
• Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya, 96, Indian educationist.
• Ole Søltoft, 58, Danish actor.

10

• Hans Granlid, 72, Swedish novelist and literary researcher.
• Anésia Pinheiro Machado, Brazilian female pilot.
• John Munonye, 70, Nigerian writer.
• Carl Powis, 71, American baseball player.
• Shel Silverstein, 68, American poet, playwright, and cartoonist, heart attack.
• Eric Willis, 77, Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales (1976).

11

• José Fernández Aguayo, Spanish photography director.
• Eqbal Ahmad, 65, Pakistani political scientist, writer and pacifist, heart failure.
• Josef Dostál, 95, Czech botanist, pteridologist, conservationist and climber.
• Elaine Fifield, 68, Australian ballerina.
• Werner Fuchs, 50, German football player, heart attack.
• George Hunter, 60, Scottish motorcycle speedway rider.
• Birdy Sweeney, 67, Irish actor and comedian.
• Robert Thomas, 72, Welsh sculptor.

12

• William James Morgan, 84, Northern Irish unionist politician.
• Robert Rose, 47, Australian sportsman and quadriplegic, complications following surgery.
• Penny Santon, 82, American actress (Matt Houston, Funny Girl, Fletch).
• Saul Steinberg, 84, Romanian-American cartoonist and illustrator.
• Jerzy Stroba, 79, Polish Roman Catholic bishop.
• Daniel Frank Walls, 56, New Zealand theoretical physicist, cancer.

13

• Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz, 88, Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar.
• Roy Crowson, 84, English biologist.
• Meg Greenfield, 68, American editorial writer, cancer.
• Motohiko Hino, 53, Japanese jazz drummer, liver failure.
• Giuseppe Petrilli, 86, Italian professor and European Commissioner.
• Gene Sarazen, 97, American golf player, complications of pneumonia.
• John Whiting, 90, American sociologist and anthropologist.

14

• Manuel del Cabral, 92, Dominican poet, writer, and diplomat.
• Buck Houghton, 84, American television producer and writer, pulmonary emphysema.
• Tang Pao-yun, 55, Taiwanese actress.
• Joseph F. Smith, 79, American politician.
• William Tucker, 38, American guitarist, suicide.
• Grete Weil, 92, German writer.
• Asrat Woldeyes, 70, Ethiopian surgeon, heart ailment.
• Jerry Wunderlich, 73, American set decorator (The Exorcist, The Last Tycoon, WarGames).
• Nitya Chaitanya Yati, 74, Indian philosopher, psychologist, author and poet.

15

• Valeh Barshadly, 71, Azerbaijani Minister of Defense.
• Lily Fayol, 84, French singer.
• Rob Gretton, 46, British band manager (Joy Division, New Order), heart attack.
• Ernst Mosch, 73, German musician, composer and conductor.
• Kenneth Riches, 90, British Anglican bishop.
• Bob Wilson, 85, American gridiron football player.

16

• Minder Coleman, 95, American artist.
• Cam Fraser, 67, Canadian football player.
• Bobby Goldman, 60, American bridge player, writer, and official.
• George Hill Hodel, 91, American physician and suspect in several murders.
• Andy Norval, 87, Australian rugby player.
• Lembit Oll, 33, Estonian chess grandmaster, suicide.

17

• James Broughton, 85, American poet, playwright and filmmaker, heart failure.
• Bruce Fairbairn, 49, Canadian musician and record producer.
• Božidar Finka, 73, Croatian linguist and lexicographer.
• Henry Jones, 86, American actor, complications from a fall.
• Thelma Kalama, 68, American Olympic swimmer.
• Ed Rimkus, 85, American of Lithuanian descent bobsledder.

18

• Juan Manuel Couder, 64, Spanish tennis player.
• Hayrettin Erkmen, 84, Turkish politician.
• Dias Gomes, 76, Brazilian playwright, traffic collision.
• Hank Herring, 76, American boxer.
• Miguel Pedro Mundo, 61, American bishop of the Catholic Church.
• Augustus Pablo, 44, Jamaican record producer and musician, respiratory failure.
• Freddy Randall, 78, English jazz trumpeter and bandleader.
• Betty Robinson, 87, American athlete and winner of the first Olympic 100 m, Alzheimer's disease.

19

• James Blades, 97, English percussionist.
• Candy Candido, 85, American radio performer, bass player and voice actor.
• Rebecca Elson, 39, Canadian–American astronomer and writer, cancer.
• Larry Markes, 77, American comedian, singer and screenwriter.
• John McSweeney, Jr., 83, American film editor.
• Vera Scarth-Johnson, 87, British-Australian botanist and botanical illustrator.
• Xhafer Spahiu, 75, Albanian politician.
• Alister Williamson, 80, Australian-British actor.

20

• William Alfred, 76, American playwright, poet, and academic.
• Renato Gei, 78, Italian football player and manager.
• James E. Hill, 77, United States Air Force general and World War II flying ace, cancer.
• Robert Rhodes James, 66, British politician.
• Carlos Quirino, 89, Filipino biographer and historian.
• Colette Ripert, 69, French actress.

21

• Vanessa Brown, 71, Austrian-American actress, breast cancer.
• Jozef Cleber, 82, Dutch trombonist, violinist, and composer.
• Colin Hayes, 75, Australian trainer of thoroughbred racehorses.
• Norman Rossington, 70, English actor.
• Mario Tagliaferri, 71, Italian prelate of the Catholic Church.
• Fulvio Tomizza, 64, Italian writer.

22

• Milton Banana, 64, Brazilian bossa nova and jazz drummer.
• Loleh Bellon, 74, French stage and film actress and playwright.
• Mark Edward Bradley, 92, United States Air Force general and aviator pioneer.
• Rubén W. Cavallotti, 74, Uruguayan-Argentine film director.
• Duilio Coletti, 92, Italian film director and screenwriter, heart attack.
• Alfred Kubel, 90, American politician.

23

• Arthur Edward Ellis, 84, English football referee, cancer.
• Owen Hart, 34, Canadian professional wrestler (WWF), injuries sustained from fall.
• John T. Hayward, 90, American naval aviator during World War II, cancer.
• Asa Singh Mastana, 71, Indian musician and singer.
• John Prentice, 78, American cartoonist (Rip Kirby).
• Albert Charles Smith, 93, American botanist.

24

• Irene Bache, 98, British artist.
• Guru Hanuman, 98, Indian wrestling coach, car crash.
• T. N. Gopinathan Nair, 81, Indian dramatist, novelist, poet and screenwriter.
• Ramón Rubial, 92, Spanish socialist leader.
• Arnaldo Silva, 55, Portuguese football player.

25

• Fredda Brilliant, 96, Polish sculptor and actress.>
• Hillary Brooke, 84, American film actress, pulmonary embolism.
• Horst Frank, 69, German film actor, stroke.
• René Gallice, 80, French football player.
• Paul Moss, 90, American gridiron football player.
• Bal Dattatreya Tilak, 80, Indian chemical engineer.

26

• William Cutolo, 49, American mobster (Colombo crime family), murdered.
• Sir Hugh Fish, 76, English chemist.
• Belli Lalitha, 25, Indian folk singer, homicide.
• Felipe Rodríguez, 73, Puerto Rican singer of boleros, fall.
• Paul Sacher, 93, Swiss conductor, patron and impresario.
• Waldo Semon, 100, American inventor.
• Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, 89, Austrian political scientist and journalist.
• Jack Wells, 88, Canadian radio and television broadcaster.

27

• Alice Adams, 72, American short story writer and novelist.
• Zach de Beer, 70, South African politician and businessman, stroke.
• Francine Everett, 84, American actress and singer.
• Timo Lampén, 64, Finnish basketball player.
• William T. Moore, 81, American attorney and politician.
• Leah Ray, 84, American singer and actress.
• James Rowland, 76, Australian air chief marshal.
• Violet Webb, 84, English track and field athlete and Olympic medalist.

28

• Michael Barkai, 64, Israeli Navy general, suicide.
• Peter Bostock, 87, British Anglican priest.
• Florence MacMichael, 80, American character actress.
• Raphael Recanati, 75, Israeli-American shipping magnate, banker, and philanthropist, heart failure.
• Lady Rowlands, 95, American film actress.
• Petrus Van Theemsche, 83, Belgian racing cyclist.<
• B. Vittalacharya, 79, Indian film director and producer.

29

• Joe Busch, 91, Australian rugby player.
• João Carlos de Oliveira, 45, Brazilian athlete, complications of alcoholism.
• Bernard Lajarrige, 87, French film and television actor.
• Mattia Moreni, 78, Italian sculptor and painter.
• Richard Ray, 72, American politician.

30

• Don Harper, 78, Australian composer.
• Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, 67, English archaeologist, cancer.
• William R. Lawley Jr., 78, United States Army Air Forces officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor.
• Kalju Lepik, 78, Estonian poet.
• Paul S. Newman, 75, American writer of comic books and strips, heart attack.

31

• Emilio Baldonedo, 82, Argentine football player and manager.
• Inayat Hussain Bhatti, 71, Pakistani actor, script writer, social worker and columnist.
• Don Biederman, 59, Canadian stock car racer, brain aneurysm.
• Nicolas Bréhal, 46, French novelist and literary critic.
• Davor Dujmović, 29, Bosnian Serb actor, suicide.
• Willibald Hahn, 89, Austrian football player and manager.
• Anatoli Ivanov, 71, Soviet and Russian writer.
• Auguste Le Breton, 86, French novelist, lung cancer.
• Radomir Lukić, 84, Serbian jurist and academic.
• Charles Pierce, 72, American female impersonator.
• Virendra Kumar Sakhlecha, 69, Indian politician.

Other websites

• The Guardian (UK) obituaries

References

Preceded by Deaths in 1998

Deaths by year

Succeeded by Deaths in 2000