Deaths in May 1998

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1998.

Contents
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
← April	May	June →

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 1998

1

• Patrick Bayly, 83, British Royal Navy officer.
• Eldridge Cleaver, 62, American writer and political activist.[1]
• Heinie Heltzel, 84, American baseball player.

2

• Clyde Connell, 96, American abstract expressionist sculptor.
• Justin Fashanu, 37, English footballer, suicide.[2]
• Johnny Grodzicki, 81, American baseball player.
• Hide, 33, Japanese musician, suicide by hanging.[3]
• Kevin Lloyd, 49, English actor, alcoholism.[4]
• Maidie Norman, 85, American actress and literature and theater teacher, lung cancer.

3

• Jesse Alto, 71, American poker player.
• Louis Berry, 83, African American civil rights attorney.
• Erika Cheetham, 58, English writer.[5]
• Tom Elliot, 72, Scottish rugby player.
• Jean-Baptiste Hachème, 68, Beninese military officer and politician.
• Raimund Harmstorf, 58, German actor, suicide by hanging.
• Venkatesh Kulkarni, Indian-American novelist and academic, leukemia.
• Gene Raymond, 89, American actor, pneumonia.[6]
• Les Samuels, 69, English footballer.
• Gojko Šušak, 53, Croatian politician, lung cancer.[7]
• Xue Yue, 101, Chinese Nationalist military general.

4

• Gordon Beningfield, 61, English wildlife artist, broadcaster and naturalist.[8]
• Alfred Carrothers, 73, Canadian lawyer and academic, complications following a stroke.
• Alan Glyn, 79, British politician.
• Rafael Picó Santiago, 85, Puerto Rican politician.

5

• George Bird Evans, 91, American author, artist and dog breeder.
• Ashenafi Kebede, Ethiopian musician, novelist, and poet.
• Tommy McCook, 71, Jamaican saxophonist, pneumonia and heart failure.
• Lily McNicholas, 88, Irish nurse during World War II.
• Eleanor Ragsdale, 72, American civil rights activist.[9]
• Frithjof Schuon, 90, Swiss author, poet and painter.[10]
• Paul Seymour, 70, American basketball player and coach.

6

• Bai Baoshan, Chinese serial killer, execution by firing squad.
• Chatichai Choonhavan, 78, Thai army officer, diplomat and politician, liver cancer.[11]
• Sybil Connolly, 77, Irish fashion designer.[12]
• John Joseph, 65, Pakistani Roman Catholic bishop, suicide.
• Bob Kershaw, South African fighter pilot and businessman.
• Erich Mende, 81, German politician, Vice-Chancellor of West Germany.
• John Robert Mills, 81, British physicist.
• David Woodhouse, 4th Baron Terrington, 82, British peer.

7

• Blue Lu Barker, 84, American jazz and blues singer.
• Allan MacLeod Cormack, 74, South African American physicist, cancer.[13]
• István Hasznos, 73, Hungarian water polo player, Olympic champion (1952).
• Jack Heslop-Harrison, 78, British soldier and botanist.[14]
• Junie Hovious, 78, American football player.
• John Meyers, 58, American football player, heart problems.
• Jack Perkins, 76, American film actor.
• Eddie Rabbitt, 56, American singer and songwriter, lung cancer.[15]

8

• Patricia Kabbah, 65, Sierra Leonean lawyer.
• Johannes Kotkas, 83, Estonian heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic champion (1952).[16]
• Raymond Premru, 63, American trombonist, composer and music teacher, esophageal cancer.
• Jennings Randolph, 96, American politician from West Virginia.[17]

9

• Lester Butler, 38, American blues harmonica player and singer, drug overdose.
• Donald Conroy, 77, United States Marine Corps colonel.[18]
• Bernard Dwork, 74, American mathematician.
• Alice Faye, 83, American actress and singer, stomach cancer.[19]
• Bob Mellish, 85, British politician.
• R. J. G. Savage, 70, British palaeontologist.[20]
• Calo Scott, 78, Cuban-American jazz cellist.
• Marianne Strengell, 88, Finnish-American Modernist textile designer.

10

• Bernie Barkouskie, 69, American football player.
• José Francisco Peña Gómez, 61, Dominican Republic politician.[21]
• Ken McKenzie, 71, Australian rugby player.
• Cesare Perdisa, 65, Italian racing driver.
• Ronald Ridenhour, 52, American soldier during the Vietnam War, heart attack.[22]
• Clara Rockmore, 87, American classical violin prodigy and theremin performer.[23]
• George Wright (organist), 77, American organist.[24]

11

• Ernst Ising, 98, German physicist.
• John Morrison, 94, Australian novelist and short story writer.[25]
• Hans van Zon, 57, Dutch serial killer, Alcohol poisoning.

12

• Hermann Lenz, 85, German writer, poet, and novelist.[26]
• Graham Shaw, 63, English professional footballer.
• Myoung Hwa Cho, 44, American murder victim, homicide by asphyxiation.[27]
• Rao Muhammad Afzal Khan, Pakistani politician.

13

• Oscar G. Johnson, 77, United States Army soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor.
• Frank Ragano, 75, American mafia lawyer.[28]
• Arthur Rees, 85, Welsh rugby player.

14

• Mabel Esther Allan, 83, British children's author.
• Tom D'Andrea, 88, American actor.
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 108, American journalist, writer and conservationist.[29]
• Geoffrey Kendal, 88, English actor.
• Anthony Loton, 94, Australian politician.
• Floyd Lounsbury, 84, American linguist, anthropologist and epigrapher.[30]
• Shawkat Osman, 81, Bangladeshi novelist and short story writer.
• Frank Sinatra, 82, American entertainer, heart attack.[31]
• Mahmud of Terengganu, 68, Malaysian sultan.

15

• Joe Cibulas, 77, American football player.
• Gunter d'Alquen, 87, German nazi correspondent.
• John Hawkes, 72, American novelist.[32]
• Earl Manigault, 53, American basketball player, congestive heart failure.[33]
• William Reinstein, 59, American politician.
• Packy Rogers, 85, American baseball player, manager and scout.
• Naim Talu, 78, Turkish politician and former Prime Minister of Turkey.[34]

16

• Idov Cohen, 88, Romanian-Israeli politician and journalist.
• Milan Creighton, 90, American football player and coach.
• William Alexander Hewitt, 83, American diplomat and businessman.[35]
• Sevim Tanürek, Turkish classical music artist.

17

• Sir Charles Broughton, 87, British air marshal.
• Genie Chance, 71, American journalist, radio broadcaster and politician.[36]
• Hugh Cudlipp, Baron Cudlipp, 84, British journalist and newspaper editor.[37]
• Grace Mary Stern, 72, American politician.

18

• Obaidullah Aleem, Indian poet, heart failure.
• Odd Engström, 56, Swedish politician, heart attack.
• Enid Marx, 95, English painter and designer.[38]

19

• Edwin Astley, 76, British composer.[39]
• William Harrison Cook, 94, English Canadian food technologist and biochemist.
• Dorothy Donegan, 76, American jazz pianist and vocalist, cancer.[40]
• Edgar J. Lesher, 83, American aircraft designer, pilot and a professor.
• M. P. Narayana Pillai, 58, Indian journalist and writer.[41]
• Teresa Prekerowa, 76, Polish historian and author.
• Sōsuke Uno, 75, Japanese politician and Prime Minister of Japan.

20

• Tom Bolack, 80, American businessman and politician.
• Bill Crommelin, 95, Australian businessman and politician.
• Linwood G. Dunn, 93, American visual special effects pioneer in motion pictures.
• Wolf Mankowitz, 73, English writer, playwright and screenwriter, cancer.[42]
• Walter McKinnon, 87, New Zealand Army officer.

21

• Erik Bladström, 80, Swedish sprint canoeist and Olympic champion.
• Li Bo, 69, Chinese ecologist.[43]
• Douglas Fowley, 86, American actor.[44]
• Robert Gist, 80, American actor and film director.
• Jim Power, 102, Irish hurler.
• Rajanala Kaleswara Rao, 73, Indian film actor.
• Tripuraribhatla Ramakrishna Sastry, 84, Indian actor.

22

• Domenico Cantatore, 82, Italian painter.
• John Derek, 71, American actor and film director, heart failure.[45]
• Arthur R. Gralla, 85, United States Navy Vice Admiral.[46]
• Thomas Symington Halliday, 96, Scottish artist.
• Fred Hatfield, 73, American baseball player.
• Yitzhak Moda'i, 72, Israeli politician.
• José Enrique Moyal, 87, Australian mathematical physicist.
• Robert W. Morgan, 60, American radio personality, lung cancer.[47]
• Jack Watkins, 74, American basketball player.

23

• Grace Hartman, Canadian social activist and politician.
• Ebbe Rode, 88, Danish stage and film actor.
• Monroe K. Spears, American university professor and literary critic.[48]
• Telford Taylor, 90, American lawyer.[49]

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.[50]
• Lucio Muñoz, 68, Spanish painter and engraver.
• Charles Rycroft, 83, British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.[51]

25

• Steve Michael, 42, American HIV/AIDS activist.
• Gary Thomas Rowe, 64, American informant for the FBI, heart attack.[52]
• Claude Stubbs, 93, Australian politician.
• Todd Witsken, 34, American tennis player, brain cancer.[53]

26

• Emil Braginsky, 76, Soviet/Russian screenwriter.
• Edgar Silinsh, 71, Soviet/Latvian scientist in the field of semiconductor physics.
• Charlie White, 70, American baseball player.
• Sergey Yablonsky, 73, Soviet/Russian mathematician.[54]

27

• Walter De Giusti, Argentine spree killer.
• Minoo Masani, 92, Indian politician.[55]
• Ghazaros Saryan, 77, Armenian composer.

28

• Ragnar Fjørtoft, 84, Norwegian meteorologist.
• Bill Giles, 66, American football player and coach.
• Phil Hartman, 49, Canadian-American artist, writer, actor and comedian, homicide.[56]
• Bill Meek, 77, American football player and coach.
• Giovanni Valetti, 84, Italian road racing cyclist.
• Bill Williams, 37, American game designer, programmer and author, cystic fibrosis.[57]

29

• Orlando Anderson, 23, American gangster and suspected murderer of rapper Tupac Shakur, gunshot wound.[58]
• Ted Dunbar, 61, American jazz guitarist, composer, and educator, stroke.[59]
• Barry Goldwater, 89, American politician and author, complications from a stroke.[60]
• Hazel P. Heath, 88, American politician and entrepreneur.
• Marion Milner, 98, British author and psychoanalyst.

30

• Sam Aaronovitch, 78, British economist, academic and communist.
• Leon Bender, 22, American football player, seizure disorder.[61]
• Walter Carr, 73, Scottish actor and comedian.
• William Moreton Condry, 80, English naturalist, kidney failure.[62]
• Robin Jackson, 49, Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary, lung cancer.[63]
• Dan Leckie, Canadian politician.
• Jan Pickard, 70, South African rugby player.
• Wolfram Röhrig, 81, German pianist, composer and conductor.
• Wenche Selmer, 78, Norwegian architect.

31

• Charles Van Acker, 86, Belgian-American racecar driver.[64]
• Raymond Z. Bourque, 80, Canadian politician.
• Valeriy Hubulov, 31, South Ossetian politician.[65]
• Michio Suzuki, 71, Japanese mathematician.

References

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2. Obituary: Justin Fashanu
3. Seno, Alexandra A.; Murakami, Mutsuko. "Isolated in Their Grief". Asiaweek. Archived from the original on February 14, 2006. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
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