Deaths in 1987

	Contents
January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
← 1986	1987	1988 →

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1987. 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.

Deaths in 1987

January

• January 2 – Jean de Gribaldy, 64, French road cyclist and directeur sportif
• January 5 – Herman Smith-Johannsen, 111, Norwegian skier and supercentenarian
• January 9 – Arthur Lake, 81, American actor
• January 10
  • Håkan Malmrot, 86, Swedish breaststroke swimmer and dual Olympic gold medalist
  • Marion Hutton, 67, American singer and actress, cancer
• January 14 – Douglas Sirk, 89, German film director
• January 15 – Ray Bolger, 83, American actor, singer and dancer, the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, bladder cancer
• January 22 – R. Budd Dwyer, 47, American politician, suicide
• January 23 – Asim Ferhatović, 53, Yugoslav footballer, heart attack
• January 27 – Norman McLaren, 72, Scottish Canadian animator and director
• January 28 – Galo Plaza, 80, Ecuadorian statesman, President of Ecuador, heart attack
• January 31 – Yves Allégret, 81, French film director

February

• February 1
  • Gustav Knuth, 85, German film actor
  • Alessandro Blasetti, 86, Italian film director and screenwriter
• February 2
  • Alistair MacLean, 64, Scottish novelist of thrillers and adventure stories^[1]
  • Carlos José Castilho
    , 59, Brazilian international footballer, suicide
• February 3 – Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu, 82, younger brother of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, lung cancer
• February 4 – Liberace, 67, American pianist, singer and actor, pneumonia as a complication of AIDS
• February 5 – Otto Wöhler, 92, German general, convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity
• February 7 – Claudio Villa, 61, Italian singer and actor, heart attack
• February 10 – Robert O'Brien, 78, American racing driver
• February 11 – Mark Ashton, 26, Irish gay rights activist, pneumonia as a complication of AIDS
• February 12
  • Dennis Poore, 70, British entrepreneur, financier and racing driver
  • Raymond Vouel, 63, Luxembourg politician, deputy Prime Minister
• February 14 – Dmitry Kabalevsky, 82, Russian composer, conductor and pianist
• February 22 – Andy Warhol, 58, American artist, director and writer^[2]
• February 23
  • Esmond Knight, 80, English actor, heart attack
  • José Afonso, 57, Portuguese singer-songwriter, teacher and activist, sclerosis^[3]
• February 25
  • James Coco, 56, American stage and screen actor, heart attack
  • Elisabeth Coit
    , 94-95, American architect
• February 27 – Franciszek Blachnicki, 65, Polish priest, poisoning^[4]
• February 28 – Joan Greenwood, 65, English actress, acute bronchitis and asthma

March

• March 1 – Freddie Green, 75, American swing jazz guitarist, heart attack
• March 2 – Randolph Scott, 89, American film actor, heart and lung ailments
• March 3 – Danny Kaye, 76, American singer, actor, dancer and comedian, complications of heart failure, internal bleeding, and hepatitis C^[5]
• March 7 – Waldo Salt, 72, American screenwriter
• March 9 – Bobby Locke, 69, South African professional golfer
  • Gordon Tottle, 61, American ice hockey player
• March 11 – Joe Gladwin, 81, English actor, bronco-pneumonia complications
• March 12 – Woody Hayes, 74, American college football coach, heart attack
• March 15 – W. Sterling Cole, 82, American politician, lawyer and civil servant, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, member of the United States House of Representatives
• March 19 – Louis de Broglie, 94, French physicist contributing to quantum theory and Nobel laureate in Physics
• March 21
  • Robert Preston, 68, American stage and film actor and singer, lung cancer
  • Dean Paul Martin, 35, American pop singer and film and television actor, air crash
• March 26
  • Georg Muche, 91, German painter, printmaker, architect, author, and teacher
  • Eugen Jochum, 84, German conductor
• March 27 – Stane Kavčič, 67, Prime Minister of Slovenia
• March 28
  • Maria von Trapp, 82, Austrian matriarch of the Trapp family, heart failure
  • Patrick Troughton, 67, English actor, best known for playing Doctor Who, heart attack
  • Alphonse Alley, 56, Beninese military officer, President of Dahomey (Benin)

April

• April 1 – Henri Cochet, 85, French tennis player, world number one player
• April 2
  • Wang Renmei, 72, Chinese actress and singer, cerebral hemorrhage
  • Buddy Rich, 69, American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader, cardiac failure related to malignant brain tumour
• April 4 – C. L. Moore, 76, American science fiction and fantasy writer
• April 5 – Leabua Jonathan, 72, Prime Minister of Lesotho, heart attack
• April 11
  • Erskine Caldwell, 83, American novelist and short story writer, complications of emphysema and lung cancer
  • Kent Taylor, 79, American film and television actor
  • Primo Levi, 67, Italian chemist and writer and Jewish Holocaust survivor, suicide by jumping^[6]
  • Hédi Váradi, 57, Hungarian actress
• April 12 – Mike Von Erich (Michael Adkisson), 23, American professional wrestler, suicide by overdose
• April 15 – Masatoshi Nakayama, 74, Japanese karate master
• April 17
  • Carlton Barrett, 36, Jamaican reggae drummer, murdered in conspiracy initiated by his wife
  • Cornelius Van Til, 91, Dutch-born American Christian philosopher, reformed theologian, and presuppositional apologist
  • Dick Shawn, 63, American actor and comedian, heart attack
• April 19
  • Milt Kahl, 78, Animator for the Disney Studio, pneumonia
  • Antony Tudor, 79, English dancer and choreographer
  • Maxwell D. Taylor, 85, American Army general and diplomat, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

May

• May 2 – Karl Davis, 25, African-American fashion designer, pneumonia and AIDS
• May 3 – Dalida, 54, Egyptian-French singer and actress, suicide by overdose
• May 4
  • Paul Butterfield, 44, American blues harmonica player, singer and bandleader, overdose
  • Cathryn Damon, 56, American actress, ovarian cancer
• May 6 – William J. Casey, 74, American CIA director, brain tumour
• May 7 – Colin Blakely, 56, Northern Irish actor, leukaemia
• May 8
  • Sir James Plimsoll, 70, Australian diplomat, Governor of Tasmania, Ambassador to the United States, High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, heart attack
  • Carl Tchilinghiryan, 77, German businessman
• May 9 – Thodoros Kefalopoulos, 92-93, Greek actor
• May 13
  • Ismael Rivera, 55, Puerto Rican composer and salsa singer, heart attack
  • Signe Amundsen, 87, Norwegian operatic soprano
• May 14 – Rita Hayworth, 68, American actress and dancer, complications associated with Alzheimer's disease
• May 17 – Gunnar Myrdal, 88, Swedish economist, Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences
• James Tiptree, Jr.
  (Alice Bradley Sheldon), 71, American science fiction and fantasy author, suicide past with husband
• May 21 – Alejandro Rey, 57, Argentine-American actor and television director, lung cancer
• May 24 – Hermione Gingold, 89, English actress, heart problems and pneumonia
• May 27
  • Colin McCahon, 67, New Zealand artist
  • John Howard Northrop, 95, American biochemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, suicide
• May 29
  • Charan Singh, 84, Prime Minister of India, cardiovascular collapse
  • Jozef Langenus, 88, Belgian middle-distance runner and Olympian
• May 31 – John Abraham, 49, Indian filmmaker, short story writer and screenwriter, complications from a fall

June

• June 1
  • Errol Barrow, 67, Caribbean statesman, first Prime Minister of Barbados
  • Rashid Karami, 65, Lebanese statesman, Prime Minister of Lebanon, assassinated
  • Domenico Piemontesi, 84, Italian professional road bicycle racer
• June 2 – Andrés Segovia, 94, Spanish virtuoso classical guitarist, heart attack
• June 3 – Will Sampson, 53, American painter, actor and rodeo performer, post-operative kidney failure
• June 6 – Richard Münch, 71, German actor
• June 9
  • Madge Kennedy, 96, American stage, film and television actress, respiratory failure
  • Raya Dunayevskaya, 77, Russian-born American philosopher, founder of Marxist humanism in the United States
• June 10 – Elizabeth Hartman, 43, American stage and screen actress, suicide by jumping
• June 13
  • Vera Caspary, 87, American screenwriter, novelist and playwright, stroke
  • Geraldine Page, 62, American film, stage and television actress, heart attack
• June 14 – Les Favell, 57, Australian test cricketer
• June 20 – Salim Ali, 90, Indian ornithologist and naturalist, prostate cancer
• June 22 – Fred Astaire, 88, American actor, singer and dancer, pneumonia
• June 24 – Jackie Gleason, 71, American actor and comedian
• June 26
  • Arthur F. Burns, 83, Austro-Hungarian born American economist and diplomat, US Ambassador to West Germany, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
  • Henk Badings, 80, Indonesian-born Dutch composer
• June 30 – Federico Mompou, 94, Spanish composer and pianist, respiratory failure

July

• July 2 – Michael Bennett, 44, American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer and dancer, AIDS-related lymphoma
• July 3 – Viola Dana, 90, American silent-screen actress
• July 4 – Abdul Halim, 75, Indonesian politician, Prime Minister of Indonesia
• July 6 – Elli Stenberg, 84, Finnish politician, member of the Parliament of Finland^[7]
• July 8 – Gerardo Diego, 90, Spanish poet
• July 10 – John Hammond, 76, American record producer, civil rights activist and music critic, strokes
• July 11 – Tom Waddell, 49, American physician, decathlete Olympian and founder of the Gay Olympics, AIDS
• July 17
  • Kristjan Palusalu, 79, Estonian heavyweight wrestler and dual Olympic gold medalist
  • Yujiro Ishihara
    , 52, Japanese actor and singer, liver cancer
• July 20 – Richard Egan, 65, American actor, prostate cancer
• July 28 – James Burnham, 81, American philosopher and political theorist, kidney and liver cancer^[8]
• July 29 – Arthur Chipperfield, 81, Australian test cricketer

August

• August 1 – Pola Negri, 90, Polish-American stage/film actress and singer, pneumonia secondary to a brain tumour
• August 2 – Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, 66, President of Bangladesh, Chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Bangladesh High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, heart attack
• August 5 – Anatoli Papanov, 64, Soviet stage, film and voice actor, heart attack
• August 6
  • Léon Noël, 99, French diplomat, politician and historian
  • Ira C. Eaker, 91, United States Army Air Forces general during World War II
• August 7
  • Camille Chamoun, 87, President of Lebanon, heart attack
  • Nobusuke Kishi, 90, Japanese politician, Prime Minister of Japan
• August 10
  • Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas, 94, Greek poet, lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Greece
  • Casey Donovan, 43, American pornographic actor
  • Patrick O'Boyle
    , 91, American Roman Catholic prelate
• August 16 – Andrei Mironov, 46, Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, complications from wrongly administered drug
• August 17
  • Rudolf Hess, 93, German Nazi official, Deputy Führer, ostensibly suicide by hanging
  • Clarence Brown, 97, American film director, kidney failure
  • Carlos Drummond de Andrade, 84, Brazilian poet and writer
• August 19 – Hayden Rorke, 76, American actor best known for playing Colonel Bellows in I Dream of Jeannie, multiple myeloma
• August 23 – Didier Pironi, 35, French racing driver and power boat racer, powerboat racing accident
• August 24 – Bayard Rustin, 75, American civil and gay rights activist, perforated appendix
• August 26 – Georg Wittig, 90, German chemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry
• August 28 – John Huston, 81, American film director, screenwriter, and actor, pneumonia as a complication of lung disease
• August 29 – Lee Marvin, 63, American film and television actor, heart attack

September

• September 1 – Gerhard Fieseler, 91, German World War I flying ace, aerobatics champion and aircraft designer and manufacturer
• September 2 – Alfredo Oscar Saint Jean, 60, Argentine Army division general and politician, de facto President of Argentina
• September 3 – Morton Feldman, 61, American composer, pancreatic cancer
• September 4
  • Bill Bowes, 79, English test cricketer, player in the Bodyline series, heart attack
  • Richard Marquand, 49, Welsh film and television director, stroke
• September 9
  • Bill Fraser, 79, Scottish stage, screen and television actor, emphysema
  • Gerrit Jan Heijn, 56, Dutch businessman, murdered after abduction
• September 11
  • Peter Tosh, 42, Jamaican reggae singer and musician, murdered after being taken hostage at his home
  • Lorne Greene, 72, Canadian actor, radio personality and singer, pneumonia
• September 12
  • John Qualen, 87, Canadian-born American actor, heart failure
  • J. Lawton Collins, 91, American Army general, Chief of Staff of the United States Army
• September 13 – Mervyn LeRoy, 86, American film producer, director and actor, heart issues complicated by Alzheimer's disease
• September 17 – Vladimir Basov, 64, Soviet actor, film director and screenwriter
• September 18 – Américo Tomás, 92, Portuguese Navy officer and politician, President of Portugal, infection
• September 19 – Einar Gerhardsen, 90, Norwegian politician, Prime Minister of Norway
• September 21 – Jaco Pastorius, 35, American jazz bassist, composer and producer, brain hemorrhage after being attacked at a club
• September 22
  • Hákun Djurhuus, 78, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
  • Dan Rowan, 65, American actor and comedian, lymphoma
• September 23
  • Bob Fosse, 60, American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director, heart attack
  • Erland Van Lidth De Jeude, 34, Dutch-American wrestler, opera singer and actor, heart failure
• September 25
  • Mary Astor, 81, American actress, respiratory failure due to pulmonary emphysema
  • Emlyn Williams, 81, Welsh writer, dramatist and actor, complications from bowel cancer^[9]
• September 29 – Henry Ford II, 70, president of Ford Motor Company, pneumonia
• September 30 – Alfred Bester, 73, American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scriptwriter for comics, complications related to broken hip

October

• October 2
  • Madeleine Carroll, 81, English actress, pancreatic cancer
  • Sir Peter Medawar, 72, Brazilian-born British biologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine
• October 3
  • Jean Anouilh, 77, French dramatist and screenwriter, heart attack^[10]
  • Catherine Bramwell-Booth, 104, English Salvation Army officer, granddaughter of Salvation Army founder, ^[11]
  • Hans Gál, 97, Austrian-Scottish composer, teacher and author
• October 8
  • Spencer Gordon Bennet, 94, American film producer and director
  • Konstantinos Tsatsos, 88, Greek diplomat, professor of law and politician, President of Greece
• October 9 – William P. Murphy, 95, American physician, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine
• October 11 – Jaime Pardo Leal, 46, Colombian lawyer, union leader, and politician, assassinated
• October 12
  • Snake Henry, 92, American baseball player
  • Fahri Korutürk, 84, Turkish admiral, diplomat and politician, President of Turkey
  • Alf Landon, 100, American oil man and politician, Republican candidate in 1936 presidential election
• October 13
  • Walter Houser Brattain, 85, American physicist at Bell Labs, Nobel laureate in Physics, Alzheimer's disease
  • Kishore Kumar, 58, Indian actor and playback singer, heart attack
• October 15 – Thomas Sankara, 37, Burkinabe politician, Prime Minister and President of Burkina Faso, assassinated
• October 19
  • Jacqueline du Pré, 42, British cellist, multiple sclerosis
  • Hermann Lang, 78, German racing driver
• October 20 – Andrey Kolmogorov, 84, Russian mathematician
• October 22 – Lino Ventura, 68, Italian-born French actor
• October 27 – Vijay Merchant, 76, Indian test cricketer
• October 28 – André Masson, 91, French artist
• October 29 – Woody Herman, 74, American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader
• October 30 – Joseph Campbell, 83, American writer on comparative mythology and comparative religion, complications of esophageal cancer

November

• November 1 – René Lévesque, 65, Canadian politician, Premier of Quebec, heart attack
• November 5 – Georges Franju, 75, French filmmaker
• November 6
  • Zohar Argov, 32, Israeli singer and convicted rapist, suicide by hanging
  • Jean Rivier, 91, French composer of classical music
• November 7 – Arne Borg, 86, Swedish swimmer, 5-time Olympic gold medalist and holder of multiple world records
• November 10 – Seyni Kountché, 56, Nigerien military officer, President of Niger, brain tumour
• November 12 – Cornelis Vreeswijk, 50, Dutch-born Swedish singer-songwriter, poet and actor
• November 18 – Jacques Anquetil, 53, French road racing cyclist, 5-time Tour de France winner, stomach cancer
• November 23 – Antonio Sastre, 76, Argentine international footballer
• November 26 – Duncan Sandys, 79, British politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies

December

• December 1
  • James Baldwin, 63, African-American novelist, essayist, playwright and poet, stomach cancer ^[12]
  • Donn F. Eisele, 57, American Air Force officer and NASA astronaut, heart attack
• December 2
  • Juan Alberto Melgar Castro, 57, Honduran military officer, president of Honduras, heart attack
  • Luis Federico Leloir, 81, French-born Argentine physician and biochemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, heart attack
  • Yakov Zeldovich, 73, Soviet physicist
• December 4 – Rouben Mamoulian, 90, Georgian-born American film director
• December 8
  • Marcos Calderón, 59, Peruvian football coach and player, air crash
  • José González Ganoza, 33, Peruvian international footballer, air crash
• December 10 – Jascha Heifetz, 86, Lithuanian-born American violinist, complications from a fall
• December 17 – Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, 87, Dutch cardinal, Archbishop of Utrecht
• December 21 – Ralph Nelson, 71, American film and television director, producer, writer, and actor
• December 22 – Alice Terry, 88, American screen actress and director, Alzheimer's disease
• Bacoor, Cavite

Pablo Gomez Sarino

• December 24
  • Joop den Uyl, 68, Dutch politician and journalist, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, brain tumour
  • M. G. Ramachandran, 70, Indian actor and politician, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, heart attack and stroke as complications of kidney failure
• December 27
  • Priscilla Dean, 91, American theatre and silent-screen actress, complications from a fall
  • Anna Eliza Williams
    , 114, British supercentenarian and oldest person in the world
• December 29 - Ellen Louise Mertz, 91, Denmark's first female geologist

References