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The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1989.

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 1989

1

• Antonio Janigro, 71, Italian cellist and conductor.
• Sally Kirkland, 76, fashion editor at Vogue and Life, emphysema.
• Scooter Lowry, 69, American child actor (Our Gang). (body found on this date)
• Marion Mack, 87, American film actress (The General), heart failure.
• Edward Ochab, 82, Polish communist politician, Chairman of the Polish Council of State.
• Muneyoshi Tokugawa, 91, Japanese army officer and politician.
• Douglass Watson, 68, American actor (Another World), heart attack.
• David Webster, 44, South African anti-apartheid activist, assassinated.

2

• Bennie Benjamin, 81, Virgin Islands–born American songwriter (Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Wheel of Fortune)).
• James Crabe, 57, American cinematographer (Rocky, The China Syndrome, The Karate Kid), complications of AIDS.
• Veniamin Kaverin, 87, Russian writer and dramatist.
• Gerald Scarpelli, 60–61, American mobster and hitman (Chicago Outfit), suicide.
• Giuseppe Siri, 82, Italian cardinal, Archbishop of Genoa.
• Maki Yūkō, 95, Japanese mountain climber.

3

• Sheikh Abbas, 76–77, Algerian diplomat and writer, rector of the Great Mosque of Paris.
• Gordon Dailley, 77, Canadian-born British ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.
• Christine Jorgensen, 62, American trans-gender woman, actress and singer, bladder and lung cancer.
• Muriel Ostriche, 92, American silent-screen actress.
• Roland Robinson, 82, British politician (Member of Parliament), and diplomat (Governor of Bermuda).
• William Squire, 72, Welsh actor (Callan).

4

• Adnan Khayr Allah, 49, Iraqi military officer and Saddam Hussein's brother-in-law, Minister of Defence, helicopter crash.
• Chalam, 59, Indian film actor (Mattilo Manikyam).
• Morris Copeland, 93, American economist (flow of funds analysis).
• Larry Fleisher, 58, American attorney and sports agent, founded the National Basketball Players Association, heart attack.
• John R. Heller Jr., 84, American director of the National Cancer Institute, known for the Tuskegee syphilis study.
• Herschel C. Loveless, 77, American politician, Governor of Iowa, lung cancer.
• James McKeown, 88, Irish missionary in the Gold Coast (Ghana), founded the Church of Pentecost.
• Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay, 68, Indian writer.
• Lydia Pasternak Slater, 87, Soviet research chemist and poet.
• Jean-Marie Tjibaou, 53, French New Caledonian politician, leader of Kanak independence movement, assassinated.
• Evelle J. Younger, 70, American lawyer, Attorney General of California.

5

• Hermann Hölter, 89, German modern pentathlete, Nazi German army general.
• Sister Mary Leo, 94, New Zealand religious sister, trained some of the world's best sopranos.
• Wolfgang Neuss, 65, German actor and Kabarett artist, cancer.
• Jennifer Hodge de Silva, 38, Canadian filmmaker.
• Naval Tata, 84, Indian industrialist and philanthropist.
• Stefan E. Warschawski, 85, Russian-born American mathematician (conformal maps, minimal surfaces, harmonic functions).

6

• Earl Blaik, American football player and coach (United States Military Academy).
• Tally Brown, 64, American singer and actress.
• Adolfo Constanzo, 26, Cuban-American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader, assisted suicide.
• Thakin Soe, 82–83, Burmese politician, founding member of the Communist Party of Burma.
• L. D. Weldon, 80–81, American track and field coach of decathletes.

7

• Miranda Campa, 75, Swiss-Italian actress.
• Frank Cluskey, 59, Irish politician, leader of the Labour Party, cancer.
• Willie Covan, 91, American tap dancer, actor and vaudeville performer (The Duke Is Tops).
• Darío Echandía, 91, Colombian politician, acting president of Colombia, Colombian ambassador to the U.K.
• Earl J. Hamilton, 89–90, American historian.
• Mills Lane, 77, American banker (Citizens & Southern National Bank).
• John Whittet, 63, American officer in the U.S. Navy, drowned.

8

• Hendrik Allik, 88, Estonian politician (Estonian Communist Party).
• Felice Mario Boano, 85–86, Italian automobile designer and coachbuilder (Fiat).
• Mariga Guinness, 56, English-born architectural conservationist, co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society, heart attack.
• Andreas Hillgruber, 64, German historian, throat cancer.
• Tony Lucadello, 76, American professional baseball scout, suicide by shooting.
• Ruggero Maccari, 69, Italian screenwriter (Profumo di donna, La Famiglia).
• Rudolf Uhlenhaut, 82, British-German engineer (Mercedes-Benz).

9

• Karl Brunner, 73, Swiss economist.
• Timothy Farrell, 66, American actor (Jail Bait, The Violent Years, Glen or Glenda)
• Alex Fraser, 72, Canadian politician, member of the B.C. Legislative Assembly.
• Fred Halsted, 47, American gay pornographic film director and actor, suicide.
• Enrique Lucero, 68, Mexican actor (Canoa: A Shameful Memory).
• Kenneth A. Roberts, 76, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, heart failure.
• Keith Whitley, 34, American country music singer and songwriter (When You Say Nothing at All, I'm No Stranger to the Rain), alcohol poisoning.

10

• Wilhelm Bleckwenn, 82, Nazi German Wehrmacht general.
• Joseph Brennan, 88, American ABL basketballer (Brooklyn Visitations).
• Richard Green, 52, American teacher, New York City Schools Chancellor, cardiac arrest due to asthma.
• Dimitar Ilievski-Murato, 35, Yugoslavian mountaineer, first Macedonian to climb Mount Everest.
• Stewart Perowne, 87, British diplomat and archaeologist of the Middle East.
• Kalu Rinpoche, 84, Tibetan Buddhist lama and teacher.
• Woody Shaw, 44, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader, kidney failure.
• Hassler Whitney, 82, American mathematician (singularity theory), stroke.

11

• Vin Brown, 67, Australian rules footballer.
• Xiao Wangdong, 78, Chinese Communist revolutionary and a lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army.

12

• Nicholas Wilder, 51–52, American art dealer, complications from AIDS.

13

• Jack Grout, 79, American golfer.
• Charlie Mutton, 98, Australian politician.
• Bjørn Puggaard-Müller, 67, Danish film actor.

14

• Nikifor Kalchenko, 83, Soviet politician.
• Joe Primeau, 83, Canadian professional ice hockey player.
• Hans Stubbe, 87, German agronomist and plant breeder.
• E. P. Taylor, 88, Canadian business tycoon, investor and philanthropist.

15

• Johnny Green, 80, American songwriter, conductor and pianist.
• Noel O'Brien, 56, Australian rules footballer.
• Noriko Tsukase, 43, Japanese voice actress and singer, rectal cancer.

16

• Lamar Allen, 74, American college football player and coach, and Negro League baseballer.
• Ralph Gibson, 83, Australian communist organiser and writer.
• Josephine R. Hilgard, 83, American developmental psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
• Théodore Strawinsky, 82, Russian-Swiss painter.

17

• Hallvard Eika, 68, Norwegian politician, member of the Norwegian Parliament.
• Walter Gross, 85, German actor.
• Finn Juhl, 77, Danish architect, interior and industrial designer.
• Lucia Moholy, 95, Austro-Hungarian–born photographer and publications editor.
• Specs Toporcer, 90, American Major League baseballer, injuries sustained from a fall.

18

• Donald Hiss, 82, American legal secretary, younger brother of Alger Hiss.
• Hermann Höcherl, 77, German politician and lawyer, member of the Nazi Party.
• Ed McIlvenny, 64, Scottish footballer who represented the United States.
• Dorothy Ruth, 67, American daughter of US baseballer Babe Ruth and his mistress Juanita Jennings.

19

• Anton Diffring, 72, German actor, cancer.
• Abel Herzberg, 95, Dutch lawyer and writer.
• John J. Muccio, 89, Italian-American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, Iceland and South Korea.
• Gerd Oswald, 79, German director of American film and television, cancer.
• Yiannis Papaioannou, 79, Greek composer and teacher.
• Robert Webber, 64, American actor, Lou Gehrig's disease.

20

• John Hicks, 85, British economist, Nobel Memorial laureate in Economic Sciences.
• Pavel Juráček, 53, Czech screenwriter and film director.
• Lyn Murray, 79, English-American composer, conductor and arranger of music, cancer.
• Warren G. Magnuson, 84, American lawyer and politician, President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
• Gilda Radner, 42, American actress, comedian, writer and singer, ovarian cancer.
• Mike Reinbach, 39, American Major League baseballer, car accident.
• Gōgen Yamaguchi, 80, Japanese martial artist, subarachnoid hemorrhage.

21

• Tito Colliander, 85, Finnish Eastern Orthodox Christian writer.
• Margot Zemach, 57, American illustrator of children's books, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

22

• Carlton Massey, 59, American NFL footballer.
• Rush Rhees, 84, American philosopher.
• Robert Richardson Sears, 80, American psychologist.

23

• Ansa Ikonen, 75, Finnish film and theatre actress.
• James Kay Thomas, 87, American lawyer and politician, Attorney General of West Virginia.
• George Thomas, 61, American NFL footballer.
• Georgy Tovstonogov, 73, Russian-Georgian theatre director, heart attack.
• Earle Wilson, 73, American triple-jumper and Olympian.

24

• S. K. Dey, 82, Indian politician.
• Guus Dräger, 71, Dutch footballer.
• Tom Harper, 86, American football player and coach.
• Steve McCall, 55, American jazz drummer.
• Tripti Mitra, 63, Indian actress.

25

• Ben H. Brown Jr., 75, American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, cancer.
• Ab DeMarco, 73, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Jean Despeaux, 73, French boxer and Olympic gold medalist.
• Soma Wickremanayake, 74, Sri Lankan educator and politician, member of the Ceylonese Parliament.

26

• Phineas Newborn Jr., 57, American jazz pianist, growth on lungs.
• Don Revie, 61, English international footballer and manager, motor neurone disease.
• Kazuko Takatsukasa, 59, elder sister to Emperor Akihito of Japan, heart failure.

27

• Jerry Anderson, 35, American NFL footballer, drowned.
• Jess Sweetser, 87, American golfer.
• Arseny Tarkovsky, 81, Russian poet and translator.

28

• Wally Anderzunas, 43, American basketballer.
• Abbas Nalbandian, 39–40, Iranian playwright, suicide.
• Iván Palazzese, 27, Italian-Venezuelan motorcycle racer, racing accident.
• Baltasar Lopes da Silva, 82, Portuguese writer, poet and linguist, cerebrovascular disease.
• John M. Systermans, Belgian-missionary and priest.
• Muttathu Varkey, 76, Indian novelist, short story writer and poet.

29

• Nora Barlow, 103, British botanist and geneticist, granddaughter of Charles Darwin.
• John Cipollina, 45, American guitarist, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
• George C. Homans, 78, American sociologist, founder of behavioral sociology, heart ailment.
• Joseph Van Ingelgem, 77, Belgian international footballer.
• Donald L. Katz, 81, American chemist and chemical engineer.
• Tariq Mehmood, 50, Pakistani military officer of Pakistan Army, parachute accident.
• Giuseppe Patanè, 57, Italian opera conductor, heart attack.
• Bob Waters, 50, American footballer, Lou Gehrig's disease.

30

• Jane Fauntz, 78, American swimmer and diver, and Olympic medalist, leukemia.
• James Harry Lacey, 72, British Royal Air Force fighter pilot in World War II.
• Thoreau MacDonald, 88, Canadian illustrator, graphic and book designer, and artist.
• Zinka Milanov, 83, Croatian operatic dramatic soprano, stroke.
• Claude Pepper, 88, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, stomach cancer.

31

• Heinz Hasselberg, 75, German cyclist and Olympian.
• Edward Hubbard, 51, English architectural historian, ankylosing spondylitis.
• C. L. R. James, 88, Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist writer, chest infection.
• Owen Lattimore, 88, American Orientalist and writer.
• Raisa Orlova, 70, Russian writer and American studies scholar.
• G. Vanmikanathan, 88, Indian scholar and author.

Unknown date

• John Sutton, 60–61, Irish hurler.

References

1. "Douglass Watson, 67, Theater and TV Actor". The New York Times. May 6, 1989. p. 1 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
2. "Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Of Genoa Is Dead at 82". The New York Times. May 3, 1989. p. D 27. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
3. John T. McQuiston (May 4, 1989). "Christine Jorgensen, 62, Is Dead; Was First to Have a Sex Change". The New York Times. p. D 22. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
4. "Fleisher Service Tomorrow". The New York Times. May 7, 1989. p. 1 44. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
5. "Herschel Loveless, 77, Ex-Governor of Iowa". The New York Times. May 6, 1989. p. 1 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
6. William N. Wallace (May 7, 1989). "Earl (Red) Blaik, 92, Army's Top Football Coach". The New York Times. p. 1 44. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
7. Eric Pace (May 25, 1989). "Andreas Hillgruber, 64, Historian In West German Dispute, Is Dead". The New York Times. p. D 22. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
8. "Rudolf Uhlenhaut, Automotive Engineer, 82". The New York Times. May 20, 1989. p. 1 34. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
9. Eric Pace (May 10, 1989). "Prof. Karl Brunner Is Dead at 73; Economist and Early Monetarist". The New York Times. p. D 29. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
10. "Kenneth Roberts, 76, Former House Member". The New York Times. May 12, 1989. p. B 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
11. "Keith Whitley Is Dead; Country Singer Was 33". The New York Times. May 13, 1989. p. 1 31. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
12. "Stewart Perowne, 87, Diplomat and Author". The New York Times. May 16, 1989. p. B 6. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
13. Jon Pareles (May 12, 1989). "Woody Herman Shaw, 44, Jazz Trumpeter, Dies". The New York Times. p. B 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
14. Glenn Fowler (May 12, 1989). "Hassler Whitney, Geometrician; He Eased 'Mathematics Anxiety'". The New York Times. p. B 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
15. "Nicholas Wilder, 51, Artist and Art Dealer". The New York Times. May 16, 1989. p. B 6. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
16. Glenn Fowler (May 20, 1989). "Donald Hiss, 82, Ex-U.S. Official And Lawyer in Washington Firm". The New York Times. p. 1 34. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
17. Howard W. French (May 22, 1989). "John J. Muccio, 89; Was U.S. Diplomat In Several Countries". The New York Times. p. D 11. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
18. G. S. Bourdain (May 20, 1989). "ROBERT WEBBER, ACTOR, DIES AT 64". The New York Times. p. 1 34. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
19. "Lyn Murray, 79, Dies; Composed Film Scores". The New York Times. June 10, 1989. p. 1 12. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
20. Wolfgang Saxon (May 21, 1989). "Warren G. Magnuson Dies at 84; Held Powerful Positions in Senate". The New York Times. p. 1 46. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
21. Dennis Hevesi (May 21, 1989). "Gilda Radner, 42, Comic Original Of 'Saturday Night Live' Zaniness". The New York Times. p. 1 46. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
22. Glenn Collins (May 23, 1989). "Margot Zemach, 57, Author, Dies; Also Illustrated Books for Children". The New York Times. p. A 27. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
23. Alfonso A. Narvaez (May 26, 1989). "Dr. Robert R. Sears, 80, Is Dead; Child Pyschologist and Educator". The New York Times. p. A 18. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
24. "Phineas Newborn Jr., 57, Top Jazz Pianist". The New York Times. May 28, 1989. p. 1 38. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
25. "George Homans, 78, Sociologist And Harvard Professor Emeritus". The New York Times. May 31, 1989. p. A 20. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
26. Harold C. Schonberg (May 31, 1989). "Zinka Milanov, Soprano, Is Dead at 83". The New York Times. p. A 20. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
27. C. Gerald Fraser (June 2, 1989). "C. L. R. James, Historian, Critic And Pan-Africanist, Is Dead at 88". The New York Times. p. D 15. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
28. Eric Pace (June 1, 1989). "Owen Lattimore, Far East Scholar Accused by McCarthy, Dies at 88". The New York Times. p. B 8. Retrieved March 24, 2024.

• May 1989 events
• 1989 deaths
• Lists of deaths in 1989