Deaths in May 1980

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1980.

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 1980

1

• Henry Levin, 70, American film director (Journey to the Center of the Earth), heart attack.
• Dave MacKay, 61, Canadian ice hockey player, respiratory failure.
• Gene Markey, 84, American screenwriter and naval admiral.
• Fred Ormskerk, 57, Surinamese soldier, torture murder.
• Ōuchi Hyōei, 91, Japanese economist and academic administrator.
• Johann Pscheidt, 90, Austrian building contractor and humanitarian.
• Shoba, 17, Indian actress, suicide by hanging.
• Sir Bruce Small, 84, Australian politician and businessman, cancer.
• George Tully, 76, American football player.
• George Woodend, 62, American baseball player.

2

• Théophile Alajouanine, 89, French neurologist.
• John Brewer, 74, American football player.
• Ben Mark Cherrington, 94, American academic administrator.
• John Henry Cook, 77, Canadian politician.
• Alioune Diop, 70, Senegalese writer and editor.
• Clarrie Grimmett, 88, New Zealand-born Australian cricketer.
• Mihkel Lepper, 80, Estonian actor.
• Sir Jocelyn Lucas, 90, British politician, MP (1939–1966).
• André-Marie Mbida, 65, Cameroonian politician.
• Cecile O'Rahilly, 85, Irish linguist.
• George Pal, 72, Hungarian-American animator (Puppetoons) and film director, heart attack.
• Alfred Lionel Rose, 82, Australian politician, veterinarian and soldier.
• Ragnvald Thunestvedt, 54, Danish Olympic racewalker (1952).
• Herbert Westmacott, 28, British soldier, shot.
• Julie Winterová-Mezerová, 87, Czech painter.

3

• Ted D. Clark, 59, American politician, member of the Iowa House of Representatives (1949–1953) and Senate (1953–1957).
• George P. Elliott, 61, American poet, novelist and essayist, heart attack.
• Mark Gosling, 93, English-Australian painter and politician.
• Wayne B. Hales, 86, American physicist and academic administrator.
• Fatah Jasin, 64, Indonesian politician.

4

• Emanuele Basile, 30, Italian police officer, shot.
• Siegfried Böhm, 51, East German politician, shot.
• Jaime Duque, 48, Colombian Olympic fencer (1960).
• Franz Götz, 67, German flying ace.
• Kay Hammond, 71, English actress.
• Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, 60, Scottish pianist and composer, heart attack.
• Fernando Hurtado Echenique, 77, Chilean politician.
• Anant Kanekar, 74, Indian writer.
• Bert Rogers, 63, Australian footballer.
• Josip Broz Tito, 87, Yugoslav politician, prime minister (1943–1963) and president (since 1953).
• Tadeusz Waśko, 57, Polish footballer.
• Reginald Westwood, 72, New Zealand cricketer.

5

• Henri Grenier, 80, Canadian Roman Catholic priest and theologian.
• Arvo Haanpää, 81, Finnish Olympic equestrian (1948).
• Aage Marius Hansen, 89, Danish Olympic gymnast (1912).
• Sir Archibald James, 86, British politician, MP (1931–1945).
• Kanhaiya Lal Kapoor, 69, Indian satirist and writer, cardiac arrest.
• Leonard Woods Labaree, 82, American historian and documentary editor.
• Betty May, 85, British singer, dancer and model, heart attack.
• Isabel Briggs Myers, 82, American writer and pseudoscientist (Myers–Briggs Type Indicator).
• Carl Pfeufer, 69, American comic book artist.
• Harry Ramoutar, 35, Trinidadian cricketer.
• Frank Scully, 80, Australian footballer.
• Homer Stryker, 85, American orthopedic surgeon and businessman (Stryker Corporation).
• Les Wade, 71, Canadian Olympic runner (1932).
• Stewart Way, 69, American basketball coach.

6

• María Luisa Bombal, 69, Chilean novelist (The Shrouded Woman), gastrointestinal bleeding.
• Lola Cornero, 88, Dutch actress.
• Anne Dalgarno, 70, English-born Australian politician and community leader.
• Alan Dower, 82, British politician, MP (1931–1950).
• Andrew Durant, 25, Australian musician and songwriter, cancer.
• Herb Hollyman, 40, American football coach.
• Glenn Holtzman, 49, American football player, heart attack.
• Adele Kern, 78, German opera singer.
• Frank Kirkleski, 75, American football player and coach.
• Arthur Levitt Sr., 79, American lawyer and politician, heart attack.
• Henning Müller, 83, Swedish tennis player.
• Ayinla Omowura, 47, Nigerian musician, bludgeoned.
• Frank H. Ono, 56, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient.
• Bryn Phillips, 79, Welsh rugby player.
• Arnold Sorsby, 79, Polish-British ophthalmologist.
• Hank Sweeney, 64, American baseball player.
• William Warbey, 76, British politician, MP (1945–1950, 1953–1966).

7

• Sigval Bergesen the Younger, 87, Norwegian shipping magnate.
• Federico Cafiero, 65, Italian mathematician.
• Dame Margaret Cole, 87, English writer, poet and politician.
• Neil Farren, 87, Irish Roman Catholic prelate and educator.
• Johnny Hunter, 54, Australian rugby player.
• Aoua Kéita, 67, Malian writer and politician.
• Steve Maronic, 62, American football player.
• William Parrington, 90, English cricketer.
• Risto Solanko, 78, Finnish diplomat.
• Claude Treglown, 87, English cricketer.

8

• Sir Geoffrey Baker, 67, British army marshal.
• Ricardo Calo, 61, Spanish footballer.
• Jimmy Connor, 70, Scottish footballer.
• Sam Coon, 77, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1953–1957).
• Luigi Fenaroli, 80, Italian botanist.
• John L. Head, 64, American basketball coach.
• Chieko Higashiyama, 89, Japanese actress.
• Charles Edward Hubbard, 79, British botanist.
• Yitzhak Kanev, 83–84, Russian-Israeli politician, MK (1950–1951).
• Henry Laurence Lindo, 68, Jamaican civil servant.
• Pierre Marchand, 31, French Olympic fencer (1972).
• Norman Mingo, 84, American commercial artist and illustrator (Mad).
• Farrokhroo Parsa, 58, Iranian politician, execution by firing squad.
• Perdigão Queiroga, 63, Portuguese filmmaker, traffic collision.
• Oswold Stephens, 83, New Zealand potter and chemist.
• Mayilai Seeni. Venkatasami, 79, Indian historian and writer.
• Fred Wigington, 82, American baseball player.

9

• Fernand Chevalier, 81, French politician.
• Rolf Hansen, 73, Norwegian Olympic runner (1936).
• Prince Himalaya of Nepal, 58, Nepali royal.
• Øivind Lorentzen, 97, Norwegian shipping magnate.
• James Alexander George Smith McCartney, 34, Turks and Caicos politician, plane crash.
• Kate Molale, 52, South African political activist, traffic collision.
• Pearl Farmer Richardson, 88, American peace activist.
• James Webb, 34, Scottish historian, suicide.

10

• Hans Bohn, 88, German typographer.
• Henri Crémieux, 83, French actor.
• Emiel Faignaert, 61, Belgian racing cyclist.
• Jack Flaherty, 71, British Olympic gymnast (1948).
• William Albert Flick, 90, Australian bacteriologist.
• Adele Ginzberg, 93, German-American writer and Jewish activist.
• Yoshie Katsurada, 68, Japanese mathematician.
• Kálmán Konrád, 83, Hungarian footballer.
• Frank Lynch, 71, British trade unionist and politician.
• Reba Monness, 69, American table tennis player.
• Leslie Peltier, 80, American astronomer.
• Jan Pivec, 72, Czech actor.
• Nadas Rastenis, 89, Lithuanian-American poet and translator.
• Sir Victor Seely, 79, British hereditary peer.

11

• John Beecher, 76, American poet and journalist, lung disease.
• Howard Mumford Jones, 88, American historian and literary critic.
• Kaarlo Mäkinen, 87, Finnish Olympic wrestler (1920, 1924, 1928).
• Zareh Mutafian, 73, Armenian-French painter.
• Przemysław Ogrodziński, 62, Polish diplomat.
• Henry Knox Sherrill, 89, American Episcopal prelate.
• Daniel John Snyder Jr., 64, American jurist, heart attack.
• Fernando Soto, 69, Mexican actor and comedian.
• Jesse Addison Udall, 86, American jurist and politician, member of the Arizona House of Representatives (1931–1938).
• Dyre Vaa, 77, Norwegian sculptor and painter.
• Gheza Vida, 67, Hungarian-Romanian sculptor.

12

• Ulbo de Sitter, 78, Dutch geologist.
• Bette Nesmith Graham, 56, American businesswoman (Liquid Paper) and philanthropist, complications from a stroke.
• Päiviö Hetemäki, 66, Finnish politician, MP (1945–1962).
• Sheikh Mukhtar, 65, Indian-Pakistani actor.
• William A. Robson, 84, British academic and public administration scholar.
• Lillian Roth, 69, American actress and singer.
• Miki Sawada, 78, Japanese social worker.
• Tadahiko Shimazu, 80, Japanese politician.

13

• Elliott Arnold, 67, American author, journalist and screenwriter.
• Marc Büchler, 50–51, Swiss Olympic equestrian (1956).
• Maruxa Fandiño Ricart, 82, Spanish anarchist activist.
• Fumio Gotō, 96, Japanese politician, acting prime minister (1936).
• Gerard Leembruggen, 83, Dutch tennis player.
• Francisco Otayza, 65, Peruvian Olympic sports shooter (1956).
• Freeman Tilden, 96, American writer.
• Otto Umbehr, 78, German photojournalist.

14

• Elma Bulla, 66, Hungarian actress.
• Dick Cassiano, 62, American football player.
• Carl Ebert, 93, German actor and stage director.
• Fatmawati, 57, Indonesian socialite, first lady (1945–1967), heart attack.
• Hugh Griffith, 67, Welsh actor (Ben-Hur, Tom Jones, Oliver!).
• Hilda Jerea, 64, Romanian pianist and composer.
• Christine Longford, 79, British playwright.
• Hans Rösch, 65, West German Olympic bobsledder (1956).
• Sir Norman Rydge, 79, Australian businessman.
• Sigrid Schultz, 87, American journalist and war correspondent.
• Subrantas Siswanto, 57, Indonesian politician, liver cancer.
• Wilhelm Weismann, 79, German composer and musicologist.

15

• Len Allum, 72, English footballer.
• Alfred Aslett, 79, English rugby player.
• Lela Bliss, 84, American actress.
• Andrea Borgnis, 50, Italian Olympic weightlifter (1960).
• John Somers Dines, 94, English meteorologist.
• Wilhelmus Doll, 79, Dutch Olympic wrestler (1924).
• Jóhann Hafstein, 64, Icelandic politician, prime minister (1970–1971).
• Donald D. Lorenzen, 60, American politician.
• Len Lye, 78, New Zealand sculptor and experimental filmmaker, leukemia.
• Milton Parsons, 75, American actor.
• Gordon Prange, 69, American historian and writer, cancer.
• Marion Frederic Ramírez de Arellano, 66, American submarine commander.
• Gordon E. Sawyer, 74, American sound director (West Side Story).
• Umberto Scarpelli, 75, Italian filmmaker.
• Ian Scott, 65, British Olympic racing cyclist (1948).

16

• Izis Bidermanas, 69, Lithuanian-French photographer.
• José Calvo, 64, Spanish actor.
• Hermann Flade, 47, German political scientist.
• Alexander Gray, 83, British RAF marshal.
• Roger Kent, 73, American politician.
• Fredrik Lange-Nielsen, 89, Norwegian mathematician and insurance executive.
• Alfred Lif, 72, Swedish skier.
• Kent Mackenzie, 50, English-American filmmaker (The Exiles).
• Cap Peterson, 37, American baseball player, kidney disease.
• Marin Preda, 57, Romanian novelist and publisher, alcohol poisoning.
• Joël Scherk, 33, French theoretical physicist, complications from diabetes.
• Robert Allan Smith, 71, British mathematician and physicist.
• Hazel M. Walker, 91, American jurist.
• Cornett Wood, 74, American animator.

17

• Suzanne Amblard, 83, French tennis player.
• Elmer Belt, 87, American urologist.
• Leo A. Berg, 72, American politician.
• Ernst Blum, 76, German footballer.
• Erling Brene, 83, Danish composer.
• Roger Close-Brooks, 73, English rower.
• Harold Connolly, 78, Canadian politician and journalist.
• Amos du Plooy, 58, South African rugby player.
• Tom Dwan, 90, Irish hurler.
• Harald Juell, 86, Norwegian diplomat.
• Gündüz Kılıç, 61, Turkish football player and manager.
• Olga Lakela, 90, Finnish-American botanist.
• Lippy Lipshitz, 77, Russian-born South African artist.
• George Mahaffy, 56, American stock car racing driver.
• Myrtle McGrain, 96, American actress and model.
• Thore Michelsen, 92, Norwegian Olympic rower (1920).
• Oala Oala-Rarua, 45, Papua New Guinean politician and diplomat, stroke.
• C. C. Roberts, 79, British businessman.
• Duncan Thompson, 85, Australian rugby player, coach and executive.
• Byron F. Wackett, 68, American politician, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1953–1976).
• Ernst Wiemann, 60, German opera singer.

18

• Semyon Chuykov, 77, Soviet artist.
• Ian Curtis, 23, English musician (Joy Division), suicide by hanging.
• Robert J. Dunne, 80, American football player and coach and jurist.
• Roman Jańczyk, 77, Polish footballer.
• Walter Kohut, 52, Austrian actor.
• Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, 94, American guitarist and astrologer.
• Bert Papworth, 81, British trade unionist.
• Antonín Svoboda, 72, Czech computer scientist.
• Notable victims of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens:
  • Reid Blackburn, 27, American photojournalist.
  • David A. Johnston, 30, American volcanologist.
  • Robert Landsburg, 48, American photographer.
  • Harry R. Truman, 83, American businessman.

19

• Richard Bott, 79, English Olympic skeleton racer (1948).
• Ros Bower, 57, Australian writer and television producer, cancer.
• Ragnar Gustavsson, 72, Swedish footballer.
• Mario Héber Usher, 58–59, Uruguayan politician and diplomat.
• Janet Hitchman, 63, British writer.
• Hiroya Ino, 88, Japanese politician.
• Sir Christopher Peto, 83, British soldier and politician, MP (1945–1955).
• Tapishwar Narain Raina, 59, Indian general and diplomat.
• Ray Rennahan, 84, American cinematographer.
• Joseph Schull, 74, Canadian playwright, screenwriter and historian, leukemia.
• Fay Stender, 48, American lawyer, suicide.

20

• Alf Bauman, 60, American football player, heart failure.
• James W. Huffman, 85, American politician and lawyer, member of the U.S. Senate (1945–1946).
• Gaus Khan, 71, Bangladeshi politician.
• Valentine Lentz, 82, American basketball coach.
• Ethel Maynard, 74, American politician, activist and nurse, member of the Arizona House of Representatives (1967–1973), heart failure.
• Sir Oscar Morland, 76, British diplomat.
• Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko, 59, Soviet medic, pneumonia.
• Hannes Volotinen, 68, Finnish politician.
• Jack Walsh, 67, Australian cricketer.
• Reginald Woodman, 74, English cricketer.
• Sir Vincent Ziani de Ferranti, 87, English businessman (Ferranti).

21

• Frank Croucher, 65, American baseball player.
• George Grebenstein, 95, American basketball player.
• Sir Cornelius Greenfield, 74, Rhodesian civil servant.
• Árpád Henney, 84, Hungarian politician.
• Hiroshi Inagaki, 74, Japanese filmmaker (Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto), liver disease.
• Ida Kamińska, 80, Polish actress and playwright, cardiovascular disease.
• Glenn Roberts, 67, American basketball player.
• Charles Sergel, 69, Brazilian-born British physician and Olympic rower (1932).
• Arnim O. Sundet, 76, American politician and businessman.
• Pearl Swanson, 84, American nutritionist.
• Arthur Tofte, 77, American science fiction author, cancer.
• Roberto Wachholtz, 80, Chilean politician.
• Paul Zimmermann, 84, German Nazi official.

22

• Bengala, 73, Brazilian football player and manager.
• Luke Cuni, 68, Albanian-Australian community leader, shot.
• Reginald Foort, 87, English organist.
• Len Janiak, 64, American football player.
• Louise Elisabeth de Meuron, 97, Swiss aristocrat.
• T. B. Tennekoon, 68, Sri Lankan politician, MP (1956–1977).
• Mahavir Tyagi, 80, Indian politician.

23

• Jens Enevoldsen, 72, Danish chess player.
• Terry Furlow, 25, American basketball player, traffic collision.
• Munir Sarhadi, 48–49, Pakistani musician.
• Frank Sundstrom, 79, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1943–1949).

24

• Ronald Burroughs, 62, British diplomat.
• Wilfred Clouston, 64, New Zealand flying ace, complications from a fall.
• Margaret B. Freeman, 80, American art historian and curator.
• Jorge González Camarena, 72, Mexican artist, stroke.
• Kim Jae-gyu, 56, South Korean general and politician, assassin of Park Chung Hee, execution by hanging.
• Ada Perkins, 20, Puerto Rican model, traffic collision.
• Raymond Francis Robbins, 68, American painter.
• Loftus Dudley Ward, 74, Canadian politician.

25

• Jesse Brown, 65, American baseball player.
• Alan Chadwick, 70, English gardener and agriculturalist.
• Paco Goyoaga, 60, Spanish Olympic equestrian (1956, 1960, 1964).
• Herbert Nachbar, 50, German novelist and playwright.
• Klaus Samelson, 61, German mathematician and computer scientist.
• Marquardt Slevogt, 71, German Olympic ice hockey player (1928, 1932).
• George West, 86, British Anglican prelate and missionary.

26

• Franz Bachelin, 84, German art director.
• Norah Balls, 93, British suffragette and magistrate.
• Adolfo Costa du Rels, 88, Bolivian diplomat and writer.
• Haldane Douglas, 86, American art director.
• Haig P. Manoogian, 64, American film professor and producer (Who's That Knocking at My Door).
• Ron McLean, 66, New Zealand environmentalist.
• Niels J. Mürer, 81, Norwegian journalist and writer.
• Emil Ochyra, 43, Polish Olympic fencer (1960, 1964).
• Sir Geoffrey Oliver, 82, British naval admiral.
• Ted Shapiro, 80, American pianist and songwriter.
• Charlotte Wilder, 81, American poet.

27

• Halfdan Olaus Christophersen, 77, Norwegian historian.
• Austin E. Cofrin, 96, American industrialist.
• Ted DeVita, 17, American aplastic anemic boy, inspiration for The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, transfusion hemosiderosis.
• Sadao Iguchi, 80, Japanese diplomat, pneumonia.
• Harold Masters, 84, New Zealand rugby player.
• John O'Brien, 71, Australian general.
• Gün Sazak, 48, Turkish politician, shot.
• Earl Sprackling, 89, American football player.
• Kintaro Usuda, 73, Japanese Olympic boxer (1928).
• Yoon Sang-won, 29, South Korean political activist, shot.

28

• Albert Brough, 84, English rugby player and footballer.
• Jack Greenhalgh, 71–72, British trade unionist.
• Henriette H. Lannes, 80, French educator.
• Rolf Nevanlinna, 84, Finnish mathematician.
• Lowell Fitz Randolph, 85, American botanist and geneticist.
• Miroslav Šašek, 63, Czech writer and illustrator.
• Frederic H. Smith Jr., 71, American general.
• Walter Tobagi, 33, Italian journalist, shot.
• Mirabel Topham, 88, British businesswoman, cancer.

29

• Albert Beckaert, 69, Belgian racing cyclist.
• Maximiano de Sousa, 62, Portuguese singer.
• Harvey L. Dueholm, 70, American politician, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1959–1979), cancer.
• Martin B. Lohmann, 98, American politician, member of the Illinois House of Representatives (1922–1932) and Senate (1932–1952).
• Robert Paterson, 63, English cricketer.
• Les Roberts, 79, English footballer.

30

• Otome Amatsu, 74, Japanese actress and entertainer.
• Alexei Khomich, 60, Soviet footballer.
• Charles Holland Locke, 92, Canadian jurist.
• Carl Radle, 37, American bassist (Derek and the Dominos, Gary Lewis & the Playboys), kidney failure.
• Walter Silz, 85, American linguist and literary scholar.
• Matei Socor, 71, Romanian composer and communist activist.

31

• Sonny Burke, 66, American composer and bandleader, cancer.
• Patrick Graham, 65, British naval admiral.
• Charlie Meyer, 83, South African rugby player.
• Juliusz Miller, 84, Polish footballer.
• Petrus Kanisius Ojong, 59, Indonesian journalist and businessman.
• Richard Trauner, 79, Austrian dentist and oral surgeon.

Sources

External links

• List of May 1980 deaths at IMDb