Deaths in May 1989

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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.
• Edward Ochab, 82, Polish communist politician, Chairman of the Polish Council of State.
• Douglass Watson, 68, American actor, heart attack. ^[1]

2

• Bennie Benjamin, 81, Virgin Islands–born American songwriter.
• James Crabe, 57, American cinematographer, complications of AIDS.
• Veniamin Kaverin, 87, Russian writer, dramatist and screenwriter.
• Albert H. Kelley, 94, American film director.
• Charlie May, 90, Australian Rules footballer.
• Giuseppe Siri, 82, Italian cardinal. ^[2]

3

• Christine Jorgensen, 62, American trans-gender woman, actress and singer, bladder and lung cancer. ^[3]
• George Lowrie, 69, Welsh international footballer.
• John Mackey, 75, Irish hurler.
• Muriel Ostriche, 92, American silent-screen actress.
• Roland Robinson, 82, British politician and Governor of Bermuda.
• William Squire, 72, Welsh actor of stage, film and television.
• John Wiethe, 76, American NFL footballer, NBL basketballer. ^[4]

4

• Chalam, 59, Indian film actor.
• Larry Fleisher, 58, American attorney and sports agent, heart attack. ^[5]
• Herschel C. Loveless, 77, American politician, Governor of Iowa, lung cancer. ^[6]
• Jean-Marie Tjibaou, 53, French New Caledonian politician, leader of Kanak independence movement, assassinated.
• Evelle J. Younger, 70, American lawyer, California Attorney General.

5

• Dolph Eddy, 71, Australian politician.
• Wolfgang Neuss, 65, German actor and Kabarett artist, cancer.
• Peter P. Stevens, 79, American NFL football player and coach.
• Naval Tata, 84, Indian industrialist and philanthropist.

6

• Earl Blaik, American football player and coach. ^[7]
• Adolfo Constanzo, 26, Cuban-American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader, assisted suicide.
• Karl Heinrich Knappstein, 83, German journalist and diplomat, German Ambassador to the United States.

7

• Lou Brock, 71, American NFL football player.
• Miranda Campa, 75, Swiss-Italian actress.
• Frank Cluskey, 59, Irish politician, leader of the Labour Party, cancer.
• Howie Moss, 69, American Major League baseballer.
• Anton Rønneberg, 86, Norwegian writer and theatre critic.

8

• Luizinho das Arábias, 31, Brazilian footballer, heart attack.
• Felice Mario Boano, 85–86, Italian automobile designer and coachbuilder.
• Phil Grimes, 60, Irish hurler.
• Andreas Hillgruber, 64, German historian, throat cancer. ^[8]
• Tony Lucadello, 76, American professional baseball scout, suicide by shooting.
• Ruggero Maccari, 69, Italian screenwriter.
• Rudolf Uhlenhaut, 82, British-German engineer. ^[9]

9

• Karl Brunner, 73, Swiss economist. ^[10]
• Alex Fraser, 72, Canadian politician, member of the B.C. Legislative Assembly.
• Fred Halsted, 47, American gay pornographic film director, actor, publisher and sex club owner, suicide.
• Enrique Lucero, 68, Mexican actor.
• Kenneth A. Roberts, 76, American lawyer, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, heart failure. ^[11]
• Keith Whitley, 34, American country music singer and songwriter, alcohol poisoning. ^[12]

10

• Joseph Brennan, 88, American professional basketballer.
• Stewart Perowne, 87, British diplomat, archaeologist, explorer and historian. ^[13]
• Kalu Rinpoche, 84, Tibetan Buddhist lama, meditation master, scholar and teacher.
• Woody Shaw, 44, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader, kidney failure. ^[14]
• Hassler Whitney, 82, American mathematician, stroke. ^[15]

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. ^[16]

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. ^[17]
• 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. ^[18]
• 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. ^[19]

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. ^[20]
• Gilda Radner, 42, American actress, comedian, writer and singer, ovarian cancer. ^[21]
• Warren G. Magnuson, 84, American lawyer and politician, President pro tempore of the United States Senate. ^[22]
• 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. ^[23]

22

• Carlton Massey, 59, American NFL footballer.
• Rush Rhees, 84, American philosopher.
• Robert Richardson Sears, 80, American psychologist. ^[24]

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. ^[25]
• 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. ^[26]
• 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. ^[27]
• 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. ^[28]
• Owen Lattimore, 88, American Orientalist and writer. ^[29]
• 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. "John A. Wiethe, Politician, 76" . The New York Times . May 5, 1989. p. D 17. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
5. "Fleisher Service Tomorrow" . The New York Times . May 7, 1989. p. 1 44. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
6. "Herschel Loveless, 77, Ex-Governor of Iowa" . The New York Times . May 6, 1989. p. 1 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. "Rudolf Uhlenhaut, Automotive Engineer, 82" . The New York Times . May 20, 1989. p. 1 34. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
10. 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.
11. "Kenneth Roberts, 76, Former House Member" . The New York Times . May 12, 1989. p. B 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
12. "Keith Whitley Is Dead; Country Singer Was 33" . The New York Times . May 13, 1989. p. 1 31. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
13. "Stewart Perowne, 87, Diplomat and Author" . The New York Times . May 16, 1989. p. B 6. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
14. Jon Pareles (May 12, 1989). "Woody Herman Shaw, 44, Jazz Trumpeter, Dies" . The New York Times . p. B 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
15. Glenn Fowler (May 12, 1989). "Hassler Whitney, Geometrician; He Eased 'Mathematics Anxiety'" . The New York Times . p. B 10. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
16. "Nicholas Wilder, 51, Artist and Art Dealer" . The New York Times . May 16, 1989. p. B 6. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. G. S. Bourdain (May 20, 1989). "ROBERT WEBBER, ACTOR, DIES AT 64" . The New York Times . p. 1 34. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
20. "Lyn Murray, 79, Dies; Composed Film Scores" . The New York Times . June 10, 1989. p. 1 12. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
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. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. "Phineas Newborn Jr., 57, Top Jazz Pianist" . The New York Times . May 28, 1989. p. 1 38. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
26. "George Homans, 78, Sociologist And Harvard Professor Emeritus" . The New York Times . May 31, 1989. p. A 20. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
27. Harold C. Schonberg (May 31, 1989). "Zinka Milanov, Soprano, Is Dead at 83" . The New York Times . p. A 20. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
28. 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.
29. 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.