# Deaths in 1985

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1985. Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

## Deaths in 1985
### January

* January 2 – Gabriel Elorde, Filipino professional boxer (b. 1935)
* January 4 – Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)
* January 5 – Robert Surtees, American cinematographer (b. 1906)
* January 11 – Sir William McKell, 12th Governor-General of Australia (b. 1891)
* January 14
** Jetta Goudal, Dutch actress (b. 1891)
** Anagarika Govinda, German buddhist lama (b. 1898)
* January 18 – Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, Sudanese religious thinker (b. 1909)
* January 19 – Eric Voegelin, German-American philosopher (b. 1901)
* January 22
** Sir Arthur Bryant, British historian (b. 1899)
** Mikhail Gromov, Soviet aviator (b. 1899)
* January 23 – Rubén Rabanal, Argentine politician (b. 1935)
* January 26 – Kenny Clarke, American jazz drummer and bandleader (b. 1914)

### February

* February 3 – Frank Oppenheimer, American particle physicist (b. 1912)
* February 4 – Jesse Hibbs, American film director (b. 1906)
* February 6 – Neil McCarthy, English actor (b. 1932)
* February 8
** Sir William Lyons, British automobile engineer and designer (b. 1901)
** Marvin Miller, American actor (b. 1913)
* February 11 – Henry Hathaway, American film director (b. 1898)
* February 12 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (b. 1924)
* February 20 – Clarence Nash, American actor (b. 1904)
* February 21
** Ina Claire, American actress (b. 1893)
** Louis Hayward, British actor (b. 1909)
** John G. Trump, American electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist (b. 1907)
* February 22
** Efrem Zimbalist, Russian-American violinist (b. 1889)
** Alexander Scourby, American film, television, and voice actor (b. 1913)
* February 26 – Tjalling Koopmans, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
* February 27
** Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American politician (b. 1902)
** J. Pat O'Malley, English actor (b. 1904)

### March

* March 3 – Iosif Shklovsky, Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1916)
* March 7 – George Schick, Czechoslovakian conductor and music educator (b. 1908)
* March 8 – Edward Andrews, American actor (b. 1914)
* March 10
** Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1911)
** Bob Nieman, American baseball player (b. 1927)
* March 11
** Tom Adams, Barbadian politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1931)
** Nazem Akkari, Lebanese politician, 19th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1902)
* March 12
** Earle Clements, American politician, governor of Kentucky (b. 1896)
** Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American conductor (b. 1899)
* March 13 – Mabel Alvarez, American painter (b. 1891)
* March 15 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian (b. 1921)
* March 16 – Roger Sessions, American composer (b. 1896)
* March 21 – Sir Michael Redgrave, British actor (b. 1908)
* March 23
** Doctor Richard Beeching, Chairman of British Rail (b. 1913)
** Zoot Sims, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1925)
* March 28 – Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter (b. 1887)
* March 29
** The Singing Nun (Jeannine Deckers), Belgian nun and singer (b. 1933)
** Gerhard Stock, German Olympic athlete (b. 1911)
* March 30 – Shizuko Kasagi, Japanese singer (b. 1914)
* March 31
** Michel Georges-Michel, French painter, journalist, novelist (b. 1883)
** Richard McKeon, American philosopher (b. 1900)

### April

* April 6 – Terence Sanders, British Olympic rower – coxless fours (b. 1901)
* April 7 – Carl Schmitt, German jurist, political theorist and professor of law (b. 1888)
* April 8 – John Frederick Coots, American songwriter (b. 1897)
* April 10 – Alfredo Duhalde, Chilean statesman (b. 1898)
* April 11 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian Communist politician, leader of the Party of Labour 22nd Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1908)
* April 14
** Noele Gordon, British actress (b. 1919)
** Kate Roberts, Welsh-language author (b. 1891)
* April 15 – Jack Medica, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1914)
* April 16 – Scott Brady, American actor (b. 1924)
* April 17 – Evadne Price, Australian-British writer, actress and astrologer (b. 1888)
* April 18 – Gertrude Caton–Thompson, English archaeologist (b. 1888)
* April 19 – Sergei Aleksandrovich Tokarev, Russian ethnologist (b. 1899)
* April 21
** John Welsh, Irish actor (b. 1914)
** Tancredo Neves, Brazilian elected president and former Prime Minister (b. 1910)
* April 22 – Paul Hugh Emmett, American chemical engineer (b. 1900)
* April 26 – Albert Maltz, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1908)

### May

* May 1 – Denise Robins, British romance novelist (b. 1897)
* May 4 – Clarence Wiseman, 10th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1907)
* May 5 – Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (b. 1901)
* May 6
** Pete Desjardins, American Olympic diver (b. 1907)
** Julie Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (b. 1968)
* May 7 – Dawn Addams, British actress (b. 1930)
* May 8
** Karl Marx, German composer and music teacher (b. 1897)
** Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (b. 1918)
** Dolph Sweet, American actor (b. 1920)
* May 9 – Edmond O'Brien, American actor (b. 1915)
* May 10
** Tahar Ben Ammar, Tunisian politician, 8th Prime Minister of Tunisia (b. 1889)
** Florizel von Reuter, American violinist and composer (b. 1890)
* May 11 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist, creator of Dick Tracy (b. 1900)
* May 12 – Jean Dubuffet, French artist (b. 1901)
* May 13 – Leatrice Joy, American actress (b. 1893)
* May 14 – Barbara Yung, Hong Kong actress (b. 1959)
* May 16 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
* May 18
** Penn Nouth, Cambodian politician, 7-time Prime Minister of Cambodia (b. 1906)
** Hilding Rosenberg, Swedish composer (b. 1892)
* May 19 – Maqbular Rahman Sarkar, Bangladeshi academic (b. 1928)
* May 22
** Charles Murphy, American architect. (b. 1890)
** Wolfgang Reitherman, German animator, director and producer (b. 1909)

### June

* June 5 – George Brown, Baron George-Brown, British politician (b. 1914)
* June 6
** Norman W. Walker, British businessman (b. 1886)
** Vladimir Jankélévitch, French philosopher and musicologist (b. 1903)
* June 7
** Georgia Hale, American actress (b. 1905)
** Stanley Skinner, professional ice hockey player (b. 1893)
* June 9 – Clifford Evans, British actor (b. 1912)
** Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Japanese novelist (b. 1899)
* June 10 – George Chandler, American actor (b. 1898)
* June 11 – Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (b. 1954)
* June 12 – Helmuth Plessner, German philosopher and sociologist (b. 1892)
* June 15
** Percy Fender, English cricketer (b. 1892)
** Andy Stanfield, American Olympic athlete (b. 1927)
* June 17
** Georgia Hale, American silent film actress (b. 1900)
** George Jackson, English footballer (b. 1893)
** John Boulting, English filmmaker (b. 1913)
** Kirill Moskalenko, Soviet military commander (b. 1902)
* June 19 – Bonnie Nettles, American religious leader (b. 1927)
* June 20 – Ralph A. Wolfe, American comic book artist and animator (b. 1894)
* June 21 – Tage Erlander, Swedish politician, 25th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1901)
* June 27 – Elias Sarkis, Lebanese lawyer, 27th President of Lebanon (b. 1924)
* June 28 – James Craig, American actor (b. 1912)
* June 30 – Haruo Remeliik, Palauan politician, 1st President of Palau (b. 1933)

### July

* July 1 – Pauli Murray, American civil rights activist, lawyer, author and priest (b. 1910)
* July 3 – Erik Ågren, Swedish boxer (b. 1916)
* July 4 – Jan de Quay, Dutch politician and psychologist, 31st Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1901)
* July 8
** Phil Foster, American actor (b. 1913)
** Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian-born American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
* July 9
** Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
** Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1896)
* July 14 – Lluís Solé, Spanish geographer and academic (b. 1908)
* July 15 – Rama Devi, Indian nationalist leader (b. 1889)
* July 16 – Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
* July 17 – Margo, Mexican-American actress (b. 1917)
* July 19
** Janusz Zajdel, Polish writer (b. 1938)
** Louisa Ghijs, Belgian stage actress and wife of Johannes Heesters (b. 1902)
* July 21 – Alvah Cecil Bessie, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1904)
* July 22 – Matti Järvinen, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1909)
* July 23
** Kay Kyser, American bandleader (b. 1905)
** Mickey Shaughnessy, American actor (b. 1920)
* July 25 – Grant Williams, American actor (b. 1931)
* July 26 – Grace Albee, American printmaker and wood engraver. (b. 1890)
* July 27 – John Scarne, American magician and card expert (b. 1903)

### August

* August 1 – D. H. Turner, British art historian and museum curator (b. 1931)
* August 2 – Frank Faylen, American actor (b. 1905)
* August 5 – Arnold Horween, Harvard Crimson and NFL football player (b. 1898)
* August 6
** Forbes Burnham, Guyanese political leader, 1st Prime Minister of Guyana and 2nd President of Guyana (b. 1923)
** Karl Diebitsch, German Nazi uniform designer (b. 1899)
** John Harmon, American actor (b. 1905)
* August 8 – Louise Brooks, American actress (b. 1906)
* August 9 – Clive Churchill, Australian rugby league player and coach (b. 1927)
* August 10 – Kenny Baker, American actor and singer (b. 1912)
* August 11 – Hector Grey, Scottish street trader and company director (b. 1904)
* August 12
** Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (b. 1941)
** Manfred Winkelhock, German racing driver (b. 1951)
* August 13 – J. Willard Marriott, American entrepreneur, founder of Marriott International (b. 1900)
* August 14
** Marie Bell, French actress and stage director (b. 1900)
** Gale Sondergaard, American actress (b. 1899)
* August 15 – Lester Cole, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1904)
* August 20 – Donald O. Hebb, Canadian neuropsychologist (b. 1904)
* August 22 – Paul Peter Ewald, German crystallographer and physicist (b. 1888)
* August 24 – Morrie Ryskind, American dramatist (b. 1895)
* August 25
** Paul Harris, American actor (b. 1917)
** Samantha Smith, American schoolgirl activist (b. 1972)
* August 28
** Ruth Gordon, American actress, screenwriter, and playwright (b. 1896)
** Miguel Otero Silva, Venezuelan writer (b. 1908)
* August 29
** Evelyn Ankers, British actress (b. 1918)
** Patrick Barr, British actor (b. 1908)
** Paul Kligman, Canadian actor (b. 1923)
* August 30 – Taylor Caldwell, Anglo-American writer (b. 1900)
* August 31 – Sir Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

### September

* September 1
** Stefan Bellof, German racing driver and 1984 World SportsCars (Group C) Champion (b. 1957).
** Saunders Lewis, Welsh writer and founder of the Welsh National Party (Plaid Cymru) (born 1893)
* September 4
** Isabel Jeans, British actress (b. 1891)
** George O'Brien, American actor (b. 1899)
* September 6 – Rodney Robert Porter, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1917)
* September 7
** Bruiser Kinard, American football player (Brooklyn Dodgers) and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (b. 1914)
** José Zabala-Santos, Filipino cartoonist (b. 1911)
** George Pólya, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1887)
* September 8 – John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1897)
* September 9 – Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
* September 10
** Ernst Öpik, Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1893)
** Jock Stein, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1922)
** Chong Yun Jing, Singaporean administrative officer and victim of a medical malpractice case (b. 1963)
* September 11
** William Alwyn, English composer (b. 1905)
** Henrietta Barnett, British Women's Royal Air Force officer (b. 1905)
** Masako Natsume, Japanese actress (b. 1957)
* September 13
** Winifred Cecil, American operatic soprano (b. 1907)
** Augusto Rademaker, Brazilian admiral and former military junta member (b. 1905)
* September 14
** Julian Beck, American actor (b. 1925)
** John Holt, American writer and educator (b. 1923)
* September 17 – Laura Ashley, Welsh designer (b. 1925)
* September 19 – Italo Calvino, Italian writer (b. 1923)
* September 22 – Axel Springer, German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG (b. 1912)
* September 27 – Lloyd Nolan, American actor (b. 1902)
* September 30
** Floyd Crosby, American cinematographer (b. 1899)
** Charles Richter, American seismologist and physicist, creator of the Richter magnitude scale (b. 1900)
** Simone Signoret, French actress (b. 1921)

### October

* October 1 – E. B. White, American writer (b. 1899)
* October 2
** Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)
** George Savalas, American actor (b. 1924)
* October 5 – Abdus Sattar, Bangladeshi statesman, 8th President of Bangladesh (b. 1906)
* October 6 – Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (b. 1921)
* October 9 – Emílio Garrastazu Médici, Brazilian general and statesman, 28th President of Brazil (b. 1905)
* October 10
** Yul Brynner, Russian actor (b. 1920)
** Orson Welles, American actor and director (b. 1915)
* October 12
** Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (The Price Is Right) (b. 1910), cerebral hemorrhage.
** Ricky Wilson, American guitarist (b. 1953)
* October 13 – Francesca Bertini, Italian actress (b. 1892)
* October 14 – Emil Gilels, Soviet pianist (b. 1916)
* October 17 – Abdelmunim Al-Rifai, Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1917)
* October 18 – Stefan Askenase, Polish-Belgian classical pianist and pedagogue (b. 1896)
* October 21 – Dan White, American politician and murderer (Moscone–Milk assassinations) (b. 1946)
* October 24 – László Bíró, Hungarian inventor of the ballpoint pen (b. 1899)
* October 27 – Thomas Townsend Brown, American inventor (b. 1905)
* October 29 – John Davis Lodge, American actor and politician (b. 1903)
* October 31 – Hardit Malik, Indian fighter pilot and diplomat (b. 1894)

### November

* November 1
** Phil Silvers, American entertainer (b. 1911)
** Wetzel Whitaker, American animator, film director, and film producer (b. 1908)
* November 2 – Don Bragg, American basketball player (b. 1933)
* November 5
** Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895)
** Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist (b. 1898)
* November 6 – Sanjeev Kumar, Indian actor (b. 1937)
* November 8 – Nicolas Frantz, Luxembourgish cyclist (b. 1899)
* November 9 – Marie-Georges Pascal, French actress (b. 1946)
* November 11
** James Hanley, British novelist, playwright and writer (b. 1897)
** Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender (b. 1959)
** Arthur Rothstein, American photographer (b. 1915)
* November 13
** William Pereira, American architect (b. 1909)
** George Robert Vincent, American sound recording pioneer (b. 1898)
* November 14 – Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (b. 1888)
* November 16 – John Sparkman, American politician (b. 1899)
* November 17
** Lon Nol, Cambodian general and statesman, 32nd Prime Minister of Cambodia and 7th President of Khmer Republic (b. 1913)
** Jimmy Ritz, American actor (b. 1904)
* November 19 – Stepin Fetchit, American actor (b. 1902)
* November 22 – María Sabina, Mexican curandera (b. 1894)
* November 24 – Big Joe Turner, American blues singer (b. 1911)
* November 25 – Geoffrey Grigson, British poet, writer, critic (b. 1905)
* November 27 – Fernand Braudel, French historian (b. 1902)

### December

* December 2 – Philip Larkin, English poet and novelist (b. 1922)
* December 6 – Carroll Cole, American serial killer (b. 1938)
* December 7
** Robert Graves, English writer (b. 1895)
** Potter Stewart, American Supreme Court Justice (b. 1915)
* December 12
** Anne Baxter, American actress (b. 1923)
** Ian Stewart, Scottish rock musician (b. 1938)
* December 14 – Roger Maris, American baseball player (New York Yankees) (b. 1934)
* December 15
** Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, 1st Prime Minister of Mauritius (b. 1900)
** Carlos P. Romulo, Filipino diplomat (b. 1899)
* December 16 – Paul Castellano, American Mafia boss (b. 1915)
* December 20 – Coral Buttsworth, Australian tennis champion (b. 1900)
* December 22
** D. Boon, American singer, songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
** Richard P. Condie, American conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (b. 1898)
* December 23
** Ferhat Abbas, Algerian nationalist, 1st president of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (b. 1899)
** Prince Bira, Prince of Siam and Formula One driver (b. 1914)
* December 24 – Erich Schaedler, Scottish footballer (b. 1949)
* December 26 – Dian Fossey, American biologist (b. 1932)
* December 27
** Harry Hopman, Australian tennis player and coach (b. 1906)
** Harold Whitlock, British Olympic athlete (b. 1903)
* December 28 – Renato Castellani, Italian director (b. 1913)
* December 31
** Ricky Nelson, American actor and musician (b. 1940)
** Sam Spiegel, Polish-American film producer (b. 1903)