Deaths in May 1998

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.

### 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.
- 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, murdered.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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, 57, 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.
- 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

- 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, gunshot wound.
- 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, murdered.
- Michio Suzuki, 71, Japanese mathematician.
- Charles Van Acker, 86, Belgian-American racecar driver.
- Stanisław Wisłocki, 76, Polish conductor of classical music.