Famous People Who Died in 1986

Deaths 1 - 200 of 423

Bill Veeck (1914-1986)

Jan 2 American Baseball HOF executive (owner Chicago WS, Cleveland Indians [World Series 1948], St. Louis Browns), dies of lung cancer at 71

Jan 2 Herbert Magidson, American lyricist, winner of first Academy Award for Best Original Song ("The Continental"; "Gone With The Wind"; "The Masquerade Is Over"), dies at 79
Jan 2 Una Merkel, American actress (42nd Street, Abraham Lincoln), dies at 82
Jan 3 Jens Bjerre, Danish composer, dies at 82
Jan 4 Christopher Isherwood, English novelist (Lions & Shadows), dies at 81
Jan 4 Phil Lynott, Irish rock musician (Thin Lizzy), dies of an overdose at 36 [1]
Jan 5 Ilmari Salminen, Finnish athlete (Olympic gold 10,000m 1936), dies at 83
Jan 6 Louis Lebeer, Dutch art historian, dies at 90
Jan 7 Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (Pedro Páramo), dies at 68
Jan 7 Philip D. Eastman, American children's book writer and illustrator (b. 1909)
Jan 8 Mansel Treharne Thomas, Welsh composer, dies at 76
Jan 8 Pierre Fournier, French cellist, and teacher (Paris Conservatoire, 1937-49), dies at 79
Jan 8 Yaroslav Seifert, Czech poet (Nobel 1984), dies at 84
Jan 9 Lucia Chase, American ballerina and co-founder of American Ballet Theater, dies at 88
Jan 10 Joe Farrell, American jazz saxophonist, dies at 48
Jan 10 Joseph Kraft, American columnist, dies at 61
Jan 11 Sid Chaplin, UK novelist (b. 1916)
Jan 12 Marcel Arland, French author (L'ordre, Lumière du Soir), dies at 86
Jan 14 Daniel Balavoine, French singer-songwriter, dies in a helicopter crash at 33
Jan 14 Donna Reed, American actress (From Here to Eternity; It's a Wonderful Life; The Donna Reed Show), dies of cancer at 64
Jan 14 Walter Leblanc, Belgian painter, dies at 53
Jan 15 James H "Jim" Crowley, US football player (Notre Dame), dies at 83
Jan 16 Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, author, and publisher (b. 1892)
Jan 18 Claire James, American actress (Jack Armstrong), dies at 65
Jan 20 Franz Kemser, German 4 man bobsled (Olympic gold 1952), dies at 75
Jan 23 Joseph Beuys, West German avant-garde artist (Fluxus movement), dies at 64
Jan 24 Flo Hyman, American volleyball player (Olympic silver 1984), dies of undiagnosed Marfan syndrome at 31
Jan 24 Gordon MacRae, American singer and actor (Oklahoma!, Carousel), dies of pneumonia at 64
Jan 24 L. Ron Hubbard, American sci-fi writer (Death Quest) and founder of the Scientology cult, dies at 74
Jan 25 Ernst Schnabel, German writer and pioneer of the radio documentary, dies at 72
Jan 25 Horace Smith, New Zealand cricket fast bowler (1 Test; lone wicket off first ball), dies at 73
Jan 27 Lilli Palmer [Peiser], German actress (Cloak and Dagger, Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter), dies from abdominal cancer at 71
Jan 28 Christa McAuliffe, American teacher, dies in the Challenger space shuttle disaster at 37
Jan 28 Ellison S Onizuka, Hawaii, Mjr USAF/ast, dies in Challenger disaster
Jan 28 Francis R Scobee, Wash, USAF/astronaut, dies in Challenger disaster
Jan 28 Greg Jarvis - Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1944)
Jan 28 Judith Arlene Resnik, Akron Oh, astr, dies in Challenger disaster
Jan 28 Michael J. Smith, American astronaut (51L-Challenger disaster), dies in Challenger at 40
Jan 28 Ronald E McNair, American astronaut and physicist, dies in Challenger disaster at 35
Jan 29 Leif Erickson, American actor (Invaders from Mars, On the Waterfront), dies at 74
Jan 30 Ticker Freeman, American pianist (Dinah Shore Show), dies at 74
Feb 1 Alva Myrdal, Swedish sociologist, diplomat and leader of the disarmament movement (Nobel Peace Prize 1982), dies at 84
Feb 1 Dick James [Leon Vapnick], British dance band vocalist and Beatles' music publisher (Northern Songs), dies of a heart attack at 65
Feb 6 Dandy Nichols [Daisy Sander], British actress (Till Death Us Do Part, Confessions of a Window Cleaner), dies at 78
Feb 6 Frederick Coutts, Scottish 8th Salvation Army General, dies at 86
Feb 6 Minoru Yamasaki, American architect (World Trade Center, NYC), dies of stomach cancer at 73
Feb 7 Armand Preud'homme, Belgium organist and composer (Kempenland), dies at 81
Feb 7 Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegalese historian (b. 1923)
Feb 10 "Uncle" Art Satherley, British-American record producer (1968 Academy of Country Music Award), dies at 96
Feb 10 Brian Aherne, British actor (I Confess, Titanic, Juarez), dies at 83
Feb 11 Evelio Javier, Filipino politician, lawyer, and civil servant (b. 1942)
Feb 11 Frank Herbert, American sci-fi author (Dune series), dies of a massive pulmonary embolism after surgery for pancreatic cancer at 65
Feb 12 Guy Douglas Hamilton Warrack, composer, dies at 86
Feb 12 Sid Stone, American comedian (Milton Berle Show), dies at 82
Feb 14 Edmund Rubbra, English composer (Morning Watch), dies after a stroke at 86
Feb 16 Howard Da Silva [Silverblatt], American actor (1776, The Lost Weekend, The Blue Dahlia), dies from lymphoma at 76
Feb 17 Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (Kingdom Happiness), dies at 90
Feb 17 Red Ruffing, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (6 × MLB All-Star; World Series 1932, 36–39, 41; NY Yankees), dies from stroke related problems at 80
Feb 19 Adolfo Celi, Italian film actor and director (Next Man, Murders in Rue Morgue), dies at 63
Feb 19 James Eastland, American politician (Sen-D-Miss 1943-78), dies at 81
Feb 19 Paul Stewart, American actor (Citizen Kane, Kiss Me Deadly), dies from a heart attack at 77
Feb 20 Francisco Mignone, Brazilian composer, dies at 88
Feb 20 Koss Rietkerk, Dutch foreign minister (VVD), dies at 58
Feb 21 Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer ("...And Ladies of the Club"), dies at 90
Feb 21 Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese sugarcane farmer, once thought to be the world's oldest man ever but now disputed (b. 1865)

Tommy Douglas (1904-1986)

Feb 24 Canadian politician and "Father of Medicare", dies of cancer at 81

Jacques Plante (1929-1986)

Feb 27 Canadian Ice Hockey goalie who was the first to wear a goaltender mask, dies of stomach cancer at 57

Feb 28 Laura Z. Hobson, American TV writer and panelist (I've Got a Secret), dies at 85

Olof Palme (1927-1986)

Feb 28 Prime Minister of Sweden (1969-76, 1982-86), assassinated at 59 while walking home from the cinema with his wife

Feb 28 William Dollar, American ballet dancer and choreographer, dies at 79
Mar 2 Marcel Liebman, Belgian historian, dies at 56
Mar 2 Zafer Masri, mayor of Nablus, murdered
Mar 4 Ding Ling, Chinese writer (The Sun Shines Over the Sanggan River), dies at 81

Elizabeth Smart (1913-1986)

Mar 4 Canadian author (By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept), dies of a heart attack at 72

Mar 4 Henri Knap, Dutch journalist and writer, dies at 75
Mar 4 Howard Greenfield, American song lyricist ("Calendar Girl"; "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do"; "Love Will Keep Us Together"; theme to "Bewitched"), dies of a brain tumor at 50
Mar 4 Richard Manuel, Canadian rock vocalist and pianist (The Band - "The Shape I'm In"; "Tears Of Rage"), commits suicide at 42
Mar 5 Teddy Hoad, West Indies cricket batsman, captain (4 Tests, Barbados), dies at 90
Mar 6 Adolph Caesar, actor (Club Paradise, Soldier's Story), dies

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)

Mar 6 American sculptor and painter (Cow's Skull, Flowers), dies at 98

Mar 6 István Pelle, Hungarian gymnast (Olympic gold pommel horse & floor exercise 1932), dies at 78
Mar 7 Jacob K Javits, American politician (Sen-R-NY), dies in Palm Beach, Florida at 81
Mar 8 Hubert Fichte, German writer, dies of an AIDS related illness at 50
Mar 9 Ned Calmer, TV host (In the First Person), dies at 78

Ray Milland (1905-1986)

Mar 10 Welsh actor (The Lost Weekend-Academy Award 1945), dies at 81

Mar 11 Sonny Terry, American bind Piedmont blues musician, dies at 74
Mar 13 Alvaro Fayad Delgado, Colombian guerilla leader (M-19), dies
Mar 14 Benno Ammann, Swiss composer (Missa Defensor Pacis) and conductor, dies at 81
Mar 14 Edith Atwater, American actress (Phyllis-Love on a Rooftop), dies at 74
Mar 14 Huw Wheldon, Welsh broadcaster (BBC), dies at 69
Mar 14 Jozef Kresanek, Slovak composer, dies at 73
Mar 17 Hal Buckley, American actor (John Quincy-OK Crackerby), dies at 51
Mar 17 John Bagot Glubb, British commandant and writer (A soldier with the Arabs), dies at 88
Mar 18 Bernard Malamud, American novelist (The Fixer, The Natural, Pulitzer 1967), dies at 71
Mar 21 August De Boodt, Belgian politician (Minister of Reconstruction), dies at 90
Mar 22 Charles Starrett, American actor (The Mask of Fu Manchu, Bonanza Town), dies at 82
Mar 22 Derek Farr, British actor (8 O'Clock Walk, Doctor at Large), dies from cancer at 74
Mar 22 Mark Dinning, American singer ("Teen Angel"), dies of a heart attack at 52
Mar 24 Sarah Cunningham, American actress (Trapper John, M.D. - "Nurse Andrews"), dies of a heart attack while attending the Oscar ceremony at 67
Mar 26 Bartlett Robinson, American actor (Wendy & Me, Mona McCluskey), dies at 73
Mar 27 Cass Canfield, US publisher, dies at 88
Mar 28 Victor J Lopez, actor (Chuey-Man From Atlantis), dies at 39
Mar 28 Virginia Gilmore, American actress (Jennie, Western Union), dies at 66
Mar 29 Harry Ritz [Joachim], American vaudevillian, actor and comedian (Ritz Brothers - The Gorilla;, Hi'ya, Chum; Straight, Place and Show, solo cameo - Silent Movie), dies at 78
Mar 29 Paul Grimault, French animator (Le Roi et l'oiseau - The King and the Bird), dies at 89

James Cagney (1899-1986)

Mar 30 American actor (Yankee Doodle Dandy), dies at 86

Mar 30 John Ciardi, American poet and interpreter (Dante), dies at 69
Mar 31 Jerry Paris, American director (Happy Days) and actor (The Dick Van Dyke Show- "Jerry"), dies at 60
Mar 31 O'Kelly Isley, American singer (Isley Brothers), dies of a heart attack at 48
Apr 1 Erik Bruhn, Danish dancer (National Ballet of Canada), dies at 57
Apr 3 Peter Pears, English tenor (Death in Venice), dies at 75
Apr 4 Frank Mortelmans, Belgian painter, dies at 87
Apr 5 Colin McCool, Australian cricketer (14 Tests for Australia, 36 wkts), dies at 69
Apr 5 Manly Wade Wellman, sci-fi author (Devil's Planet), dies at 82
Apr 6 Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-born Italian soccer winger (13 caps Argentina, 35 Italy; Independiente, Juventus), dies at 84
Apr 7 Jean Mogin, Belgian poet (Pastures of Silence), and playwright, dies at 64
Apr 7 Leonid Kantorovich, Russian Soviet economist (Father of linear programming, Nobel Prize for Economics 1975), dies at 74
Apr 8 Yukiko Okada, Japanese idol singer, dies at 18
Apr 10 Joseph P Addabbo, US defense specialist/(Sen-D), dies at 61
Apr 10 Linda Creed, American singer and songwriter ("The Greatest Love Of All"), dies of breast cancer at 37 [1]
Apr 12 Valentin Kataev, Russian writer (b. 1897)
Apr 13 Johnny Dollar, American country & rockabilly singer, commits suicide at 53
Apr 13 Stephen Stucker, American actor (Trading Places, Airplane), dies at 38
Apr 14 Horst Bastian, German writer and screenwriter, dies at 46

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)

Apr 14 French author and feminist (The Mandarins, The Second Sex, She Came to Stay), dies of pneumonia at 78

Jean Genet (1910-1986)

Apr 15 French novelist (The Thief's Journal, Our Lady of the Flowers) and playwright (The Balcony, The Maids), dies of throat cancer at 75

Apr 15 Sergei Anokhin, Soviet test pilot (world records for gliding flights), dies at 76
Apr 15 Tim McIntire, American actor (Brubaker; Stand By Your Man), singer-songwriter, and musician (Funzone), dies of congestive heart failure at 41
Apr 17 Bessie Head, Botswana writer (When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, A Question of Power), dies at 49
Apr 17 Paul Costello, American double sculls rower (Olympic gold 1920, 24, 28), dies at 86
Apr 17 Teddy Kotick, American jazz double bassist (Phil Woods; Charlie Parker; Bill Evans), dies of a brain tumor at 57
Apr 18 Marcel Dassault [Bloch], French airplane engineer and manufacturer, dies at 94
Apr 19 Alvin Childress, actor (Amos-Amos 'n' Andy), dies at 78
Apr 19 Dag Wirén, Swedish composer, dies at 80
Apr 20 Sibte Hassan, Pakistani activist, journalist and writer, dies at 73
Apr 21 Salah Jaheen, Egyptian poet and cartoonist, dies at 55
Apr 22 Mircea Eliade, Romanian religious historian (Le Yoga) & author, dies at 79

Harold Arlen (1905-1986)

Apr 23 American popular song composer ("Over the Rainbow"; "It's Only A Paper Moon"; "Stormy Weather"), dies of cancer at 81

Apr 23 Jim Laker, English cricket spin bowler (46 Tests; 193 wickets; world best 19-90 4th Test v Australia 1956), dies from complications of gall bladder surgery at 64
Apr 23 Otto Preminger, Austro-Hungarian-American theatre and film director, producer (Laura; Advise & Consent; Anatomy of A Murder), and actor (Stalag 17),, dies of lung cancer at 80
Apr 24 Bill Edrich, English cricket all-rounder (39 Tests, 6 x 100, HS 219no, 41 wickets; MCC, Middlesex CCC), dies following a fall at 70

Wallis Simpson (1896-1986)

Apr 24 American divorcee whom British King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry, dies at 89

Apr 26 Bessie Love, American actress (Broadway Melody, Isadora), dies at 87

Broderick Crawford (1911-1986)

Apr 26 American actor (All the King's Men, Highway Patrol), dies after a series of strokes at 74

Apr 26 Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter, dies at 87
Apr 29 Seamus McElwaine, Irish IRA-terrorist, killed at 25
May 1 Hugo Peretti, American songwriter and record producer, dies at 69
May 1 Hylda Baker, English comedy actress (b. 1905)
May 2 Henri Toivonen, Finnish rally driver (3 x World Rally C'ship round wins for Talbot, Opel, Porsche, Lancia), dies in a rally accident at 29
May 3 Robert Alda, American actor (Supertrain, By Popular Demand), dies at 72
May 5 John William Haussermann Jr., American composer, dies at 76
May 5 Rui Coelho, Portuguese composer, dies at 94
May 7 Gaston Defferre, French Socialist politician, dies at 75
May 7 Jeffrey Mylett, American actor and songwriter, (Godspell), dies from complications of HIV/AIDS at 36
May 9 Dirk de Vroome, Dutch campaigner & Limbourg activist, dies at 60
May 9 Herschel Bernardi, American actor (Arnie, Voice of Charlie the Tuna, Front), dies of a heart attack at 62

Tenzing Norgay (1914-1986)

May 9 Tibetan climber who was the 1st to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 71

May 11 Fritz Pollard, early African American NFL star and coach, dies at 92
May 11 Henry P. McIlhenny, American philanthropist, dies at 76
May 12 Elisabeth Bergner, Austrian British stage actress, dies at 85
May 12 Lee Bonnell, American actor, dies at 67
May 15 Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (b. 1958)
May 15 Theodore H. White, American journalist (Making of President, Pulitzer Prize1962), dies at 71
May 17 Jack Waldman, American jazz and rock keyboardist and avant garde composer dies of HIV related illness at 33
May 17 Lyudmila Pakhomova, Russian ice dancer (World C'ship gold x 6; Olympic gold USSR 1976; with Alexandr Gorshkov), dies from leukemia at 39
May 18 John Bubbles Sublett, American tap dancer (Black & Bubbles), dies at 84
May 19 Jimmy Lyons, American musician (b. 1931)
May 20 Bernard Naylor, English-Canadian organist, conductor, and composer, dies at 78
May 20 Willem Pee, Belgian linguist, dies at 83
May 22 Martin Gabel, American stage and screen actor (The Thief; Marnie; Lady In Cement), dies of a heart attack at 74
May 23 Sterling Hayden, actor (Blue & Gray), dies at 70
May 24 Gunnar Bjornstrand, Swedish actor (7th Seal, Devil's Eye), dies at 76
May 24 Stephen D Thorne, Lt Cmdr USN/astronaut, dies in a plane crash at 33
May 24 Yakima Canutt [Enos Edward], American rodeo cowboy, actor and director(Texas Terror), dies at 90
May 25 Chester Bowles, American ambassador and writer (Conscience of a Liberal), dies at 85
May 27 Gaston Duribreux, Flemish writer (Sour Dove), dies at 82
May 27 Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-born philosopher (b. 1921)
May 28 Lurene Tuttle, American actress (Father of Bride, Julia), dies at 79
May 30 Hank Mobley, American hard bop and soul jazz saxophonist, dies of pneumonia at 55
May 31 James Rainwater, American physicist (Nobel 1975-determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei), dies at 68
May 31 Jane Frank, American artist, dies at 67
Jun 2 Aurel Joliat, Canadian ice hockey player, dies at 84 (b. 1901)
Jun 2 Daniel Sternefeld, Belgian conductor and composer (Elegie), dies at 80
Jun 3 Anna Neagle, English actress (London Melody, Nurse Edith Cavell), dies at 81
Jun 3 Arthur Charles Ernest Hoérée, Belgian-French composer, dies at 89
Jun 3 Patricia Wheel, American actress (Christine-Woman to Remember), dies at 42
Jun 6 Herbert Eisenreich, Austrian writer, dies at 61
Jun 10 Merle Miller, American biographer (b. 1919)
Jun 11 Chesley Bonestell, American-born engineer, architect, and artist (b. 1888)
Jun 12 Antoon Breyne, Belgian journalist, dies at 76
Jun 12 Tony Desimone, combo leader (Ernie in Kovacsland), dies at 66

Benny Goodman (1909-1986)

Jun 13 American clarinetist and bandleader (King of Swing), dies at 77

Jun 13 Jim Ferrier, Australian golfer (PGA C'ship 1947), dies at 71

Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986)

Jun 14 American Tony and Academy Award-winning lyricist (with Frederick Loewe - My Fair Lady; Gigi; Camelot), and screenwriter, dies of lung cancer at 67

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Jun 14 Argentine short-story writer of fiction (Ficciones, El Aleph, The Book of Sand), essayist and poet, dies in Geneva at 86

Jun 14 Marlin Perkins, TV host (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom), dies at 81
Jun 15 Keki Tarapore, Indian cricketer (Test for India 1948), killed by motor-scooter at 75

On This Day