# Deaths in May 1998
## Contents

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The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1998.
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 1998
### 1

* Eldridge Cleaver, 62, American writer and political activist, prostate cancer.
* Heinie Heltzel, 84, American baseball player.
* Brian Kendall, 51, New Zealand boxer, cancer.
* J. S. Roskell, 84, English historian of the Middle Ages.

### 2

* Clyde Connell, 96, American abstract expressionist sculptor.
* Justin Fashanu, 37, English footballer, suicide by hanging.
* Johnny Grodzicki, 81, American baseball player.
* Hide, 33, Japanese musician, suicide by hanging.
* Kevin Lloyd, 49, English actor (The Bill), alcoholism.
* Maidie Norman, 85, American actress and literature and theater teacher, lung cancer.
* Carey Wilber, 81, American journalist and television writer.

### 3

* Jesse Alto, 71, American poker player.
* Erich Bergel, 67, German flutist and conductor.
* Louis Berry, 83, African American civil rights attorney.
* Erika Cheetham, 58, English writer.
* Johannes Driessler, 77, German composer, organist, and lecturer.
* Tom Elliot, 72, Scottish rugby player.
* Jean-Baptiste Hachème, 68, Beninese military officer and politician.
* Raimund Harmstorf, 58, German actor, suicide by hanging.
* David Vincent Hooper, 82, British chess player and writer.
* Venkatesh Kulkarni, Indian-American novelist and academic, leukemia.
* Loren MacIver, 89, American painter.
* René Mugica, 88, Argentine actor, film director and screenwriter.
* Gene Raymond, 89, American actor, pneumonia.
* Les Samuels, 69, English footballer.
* Xue Yue, 101, Chinese Nationalist military general.
* Gojko Šušak, 53, Croatian politician, lung cancer.

### 4

* Gordon Beningfield, 61, English wildlife artist, broadcaster and naturalist.
* Alois Estermann, 43, Swiss officer of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, shot.
* Albert Glasser, 82, American composer, conductor and arranger of B-movie music.
* Theodor Oberländer, 93, German Ostforschung scientist and politician.
* Nicolò Rode, 86, Italian sailor and Olympic champion.

### 5

* Juan Gimeno, 84, Spanish road cyclist.
* Alan Glyn, 79, British politician.
* Tommy McCook, 71, Jamaican saxophonist, pneumonia and heart failure.
* Eleanor Ragsdale, 72, American civil rights activist.
* Frithjof Schuon, 90, Swiss author, poet and painter.
* Paul Seymour, 70, American basketball player and coach.

### 6

* Chatchai Chunhawan, 78, Thai army officer, diplomat and politician, liver cancer.
* Sybil Connolly, 77, Irish fashion designer.
* Juan Antonio García Díez, 57, American politician, liver cancer.
* Aleksei Gritsai, 84, Soviet and Russian artist.
* John Joseph, 65, Pakistani Roman Catholic bishop, suicide by gunshot.
* Arvid Laurin, 96, Swedish sailor and Olympic medalist.
* Erich Mende, 81, German politician, Vice-Chancellor of West Germany.

### 7

* Blue Lu Barker, 84, American jazz and blues singer.
* Allan McLeod Cormack, 74, South African American physicist, cancer.
* István Hasznos, 73, Hungarian water polo player and Olympic champion (1952).
* Jack Heslop-Harrison, 78, British soldier and botanist, heart attack.
* John Meyers, 58, American football player, heart problems.
* Eddie Rabbitt, 56, American singer and songwriter, lung cancer.
* Allen Wikgren, 91, American theologian and New Testament scholar.

### 8

* Donald Stephen Lowell Cardwell, 78, British historian of science and technology.
* Jacques Dumesnil, 94, French film and television actor.
* Johannes Kotkas, 83, Estonian Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic champion (1952).
* Raymond Premru, 63, American trombonist and compose, esophageal cancer.
* Jennings Randolph, 96, American politician.
* Charles Rebozo, 85, American banker and businessman.

### 9

* Lester Butler, 38, American blues harmonica player and singer, drug overdose.
* Donald Conroy, 77, United States Marine Corps colonel.
* Bernard Dwork, 74, American mathematician.
* Alice Faye, 83, American actress and singer, stomach cancer.
* Rudolf Ismayr, 89, German weightlifter and Olympic champion.
* Rommie Loudd, 64, American gridiron football player, coach, and executive, diabetes.
* Talat Mahmood, 74, Indian playback singer, heart attack.
* Bob Mellish, Baron Mellish, 85, British politician.
* Earl R. Parker, 85, American engineer and professor.
* Nat Perrin, 93, American comedy screenwriter, producer and director.
* R. J. G. Savage, 70, British palaeontologist, pancreatic cancer.
* Gerhard Siedl, 69, German football player.
* Marianne Strengell, 88, Finnish-American modernist textile designer.

### 10

* Lajos Czinege, 74, Hungarian military officer and politician.
* José Francisco Antonio Peña Gómez, 61, Dominican Republic politician, pulmonary edema.
* Robert Jewell, 78, Australian actor (Doctor Who).
* Oreste Kirkop, 74, Maltese singer.
* Cesare Perdisa, 65, Italian racing driver.
* Ronald Ridenhour, 52, American soldier during the Vietnam War, heart attack.
* Clara Rockmore, 87, American classical violin prodigy and theremin performer.
* Sumitro, 71, Indonesian general.
* Alberto Valdés, 80, Mexican American painter
* George Wright, 77, American organist.

### 11

* Willy Corsari, 100, Dutch actor, author and composer.
* Gene Fowler Jr., 80, American film editor (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Hang 'Em High).
* Ernst Ising, 98, German physicist.
* John Morrison, 94, Australian novelist and short story writer.
* Hans van Zon, 56, Dutch serial killer, alcohol poisoning.

### 12

* Myoung Hwa Cho, 44, American murder victim, homicide by asphyxiation.
* Hermann Lenz, 85, German writer, poet, and novelist.
* John McCarthy, 81, American gridiron football player.
* Graham Shaw, 63, English football player.

### 13

* Gunnar Jansson, 90, Swedish football player.
* Oscar G. Johnson, 77, United States Army soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor.
* Chantal Mauduit, 34, French alpinist, climbing accident.
* Frank Ragano, 75, American mafia lawyer.

### 14

* Mabel Esther Allan, 83, British children's author.
* Bill Bishop, 67, American gridiron football player.
* Garth Boesch, 77, American ice hockey player.
* Tom D'Andrea, 88, American actor.
* Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 108, American journalist, writer and conservationist.
* Charlie Hall, 50, American gridiron football player.
* Geoffrey Kendal, 88, English actor.
* Floyd Lounsbury, 84, American linguist, anthropologist and epigrapher.
* Yitzhak Moda'i, 72, Israeli politician.
* Shawkat Osman, 81, Bangladeshi novelist and short story writer.
* Karl Schmid, 87, Swiss rower and Olympic medalist.
* Frank Sinatra, 82, American singer ("My Way", "That's Life") and actor (From Here to Eternity), Oscar winner (1954), heart attack.
* Mahmud of Terengganu, 68, Malaysian sultan.
* Jade Wilson, 21, New Zealand squash player, suicide.

### 15

* Joe Cibulas, 77, American football player.
* Gunter d'Alquen, 87, German nazi correspondent.
* John Hawkes, 72, American novelist.
* Richard Jaeger, 85, German politician.
* Earl Manigault, 53, American basketball player, congestive heart failure.
* Packy Rogers, 85, American baseball player, manager and scout.
* Naim Talu, 78, Turkish politician and former Prime Minister of Turkey.
* Patrick Wall, 81, British commando during World War II and later a politician.

### 16

* Pierre Cardinal, 73, French screenwriter and director.
* Idov Cohen, 88, Romanian-Israeli politician and journalist.
* Milan Creighton, 90, American football player and coach.
* William Alexander Hewitt, 83, American diplomat and businessman.
* Rufino Linares, 47, American baseball player, traffic collision.

### 17

* Genie Chance, 71, American journalist, radio broadcaster and politician.
* Hugh Cudlipp, 84, British journalist and newspaper editor.
* Nina Dorliak, 89, Russian soprano and a voice teacher.
* Gasper Urban, 75, American gridiron football player.
* Sarojini Yogeswaran, 97, Sri Lankan politician.

### 18

* Obaidullah Aleem, Indian poet, heart failure.
* Odd Engström, 56, Swedish politician, heart attack.
* Roy Evans, 88, Welsh table tennis player.
* Enid Marx, 95, English painter and designer.

### 19

* Edwin Astley, 76, British composer.
* Hank Earl Carr, 30, American murderer and spree killer, suicide by gunshot.
* Leela Devi, 66, Indian writer, translator, and teacher.
* Dorothy Donegan, 76, American jazz pianist and vocalist, cancer.
* Teresa Prekerowa, 76, Polish historian and author.
* Sōsuke Uno, 75, Japanese politician and Prime Minister of Japan, lung cancer.

### 20

* Chuck Bloedorn, 85, American basketball player.
* Tom Bolack, 80, American businessman and politician.
* Linwood G. Dunn, 93, American visual effects artist (West Side Story, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Mighty Joe Young).
* Ricardo Franco, 48, Spanish screenwriter and film director, heart attack.
* Jacob Katz, 93, Israeli historian and educator.
* Wolf Mankowitz, 73, English writer, playwright and screenwriter, cancer.
* Walter McKinnon, 87, New Zealand Army officer.
* Robert Normann, 81, Norwegian jazz guitarist.
* Alfredo Yabrán, 53, Argentine businessman and associate of Carlos Menem, suicide by gunshot.
* Santiago Álvarez, 79, Cuban filmmaker, Parkinson's disease.

### 21

* Erik Bladström, 80, Swedish sprint canoeist and Olympic champion.
* Li Bo, 69, Chinese ecologist, traffic collision.
* Pedro Escartín, 95, Spanish football player, referee, coach, and author.
* Douglas Fowley, 86, American actor (Singin' in the Rain, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Mighty Joe Young).
* Robert Gist, 80, American actor and film director.
* Jan Gullberg, 62, Swedish surgeon and science writer, stroke.
* Jim Power, 102, Irish hurler.
* Rajanala Kaleswara Rao, 73, Indian film actor.
* Torgny Säve-Söderbergh, 83, Swedish writer and professor of Egyptology.

### 22

* Domenico Cantatore, 82, Italian painter.
* John Derek, 71, American actor and film director, heart failure.
* Arthur R. Gralla, 85, United States Navy Vice Admiral, pneumonia.
* Fred Hatfield, 73, American baseball player.
* Eddie MacCabe, 71, Canadian sports journalist and writer.
* Robert W. Morgan, 60, American radio personality, lung cancer.
* José Enrique Moyal, 87, Australian mathematical physicist.
* Francisco Lucas Pires, 53, Portuguese lawyer, and politician.

### 23

* Akiel Chambers, 11, Trinidadian murder victim.
* Tony Halik, 77, Polish documentary film maker, author of travel books, and explorer.
* Grace Hartman, Canadian social activist and politician.
* Vic Kulbitski, 76, American gridiron football player.
* Andreas Liebenberg, 60, South African military commander.
* Ebbe Rode, 88, Danish stage and film actor, pneumonia.
* Monroe K. Spears, American university professor and literary critic.
* Telford Taylor, 90, American lawyer.

### 24

* Francys Arsentiev, 40, American mountaineer, hypothermia and/or cerebral edema.
* George Kelly, 82, American jazz tenor saxophonist.
* Tommy Moore, 35, American golfer, primary amyloidosis.
* Premnath Moraes, 75, Sri Lankan actor, film director and scriptwriter.
* Lucio Muñoz, 68, Spanish painter and engraver.
* Charles Rycroft, 83, British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

### 25

* Steve Michael, 42, American HIV/AIDS activist, complications from AIDS.
* Gary Thomas Row, 64, American informant for the FBI, heart attack.
* Claude Stubbs, 93, Australian politician.
* Todd Witsken, 34, American tennis player, brain cancer.

### 26

* Emil Braginsky, 76, Soviet and Russian screenwriter.
* Linda Hayes, 74, American rhythm and blues singer.
* Edgar A. Silinsh, 71, Soviet and Latvian scientist.
* Charlie White, 70, American baseball player.
* Sergey Yablonsky, 73, Soviet and Russian mathematician.

### 27

* Minoo Masani, 92, Indian politician.
* Robert Muller, 72, German-British journalist and screenwriter.
* Ghazaros Saryan, 77, Armenian composer.
* Shu Tong, 92, Chinese politician.

### 28

* Chung-Yao Chao, 95, Chinese theoretical physicist.
* Ragnar Fjørtoft, 84, Norwegian meteorologist.
* Bill Giles, 66, American football player and coach.
* Phil Hartman, 49, Canadian-American comedian and actor (Saturday Night Live, NewsRadio, The Simpsons), Emmy winner (1989), shot.
* Anatoliy Kabayda, 85, Ukrainian community and political activist.
* Bill Meek, 77, American football player and coach.
* Lana Morris, 68, British actress, heart attack.
* George T. Oubre, 80, American politician.
* Dieter Renner, 48, German football player and coach.
* Giovanni Valetti, 84, Italian road racing cyclist.
* Bill Williams, 37, American game designer, programmer and author, cystic fibrosis.

### 29

* Orlando Anderson, 23, American gangster and suspected murderer of rapper Tupac Shakur, shot.
* Eric Atkinson, 70, Barbados cricket player..
* Ted Dunbar, 61, American jazz guitarist and composer, stroke.
* Barry Goldwater, 89, American politician and author, complications from a stroke.
* Hazel P. Heath, 88, American politician and entrepreneur.
* Marion Milner, 98, British author and psychoanalyst.
* Philip O'Connor, 81, British writer and surrealist poet.

### 30

* Sam Aaronovitch, 78, British economist, academic and communist.
* Jozef Baláži, 78, Slovak football player and manager.
* Leon Bender, 22, American football player, epilepsy.
* Walter Carr, 73, Scottish actor and comedian.
* William Moreton Condry, 80, English naturalist, kidney failure.
* Robin Jackson, 49, Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary, lung cancer.
* Jan Pickard, 70, South African rugby player.
* Max Prieto, 79, Mexican football player.
* Wolfram Röhrig, 81, German pianist, composer and conductor.

### 31

* Sammy Collins, 75, English football player.
* Lotti Huber, 85, German actress.
* Valeriy Hubulov, 31, South Ossetian politician, shot.
* Michio Suzuki, 71, Japanese mathematician.
* Charles Van Acker, 86, Belgian-American racecar driver.
* Stanisław Wisłocki, 76, Polish conductor of classical music.