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