Deaths in October 1997
# Deaths in October 1997

## Contents

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The following is a list of notable deaths in October 1997.

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.

## October 1997

### 1

* Francisco Aramburu, 75, Brazilian footballer.
* Georg Bodenhausen, 92, Dutch civil servant.
* Jerome H. Lemelson, 74, American engineer, inventor and patent holder, liver cancer.
* Gul Mohammed, 40, Shortest adult human, heart attack.
* Inbal Perlmuter, 26, Israeli rock musician, singer, composer and lyricist, car accident.

### 2

* Carybé, 86, Argentine-Brazilian artist, historian and journalist, heart failure.
* Douglas Fairbairn, 70, American author.
* Esa Seeste, 84, Finnish gymnast.
* Guillermo Meza Álvarez, 80, Mexican painter.

### 3

* Michael Adekunle Ajasin, 88, Nigerian politician.
* John Ashley, 62, American actor, producer and singer, heart attack.
* Walter Baumgartner, 92, Swiss film composer.
* Richard Gilkey, 72, American painter, suicide.
* Verna Hillie, 83, American film actress, stroke.
* Jarl Kulle, 70, Swedish actor and director, bone cancer.
* Millard Lampell, 78, American movie and television screenwriter, lung cancer.
* Phil Medley, 81, American songwriter.
* Charlie Parsley, 71, American basketball player and college coach.
* Hadassah Rosensaft, 85, Polish holocaust survivor, liver failure.
* A. L. Rowse, 93, British historian and author.
* George Urban, 76, Hungarian writer.
* Blake Wayne Van Leer, 71, United States Navy officer.

### 4

* Nelson Coral Nye, 90, American author and editor.
* Otto Ernst Remer, 85, German Wehrmacht officer during World War II.
* Anne Strachan Robertson, 87, Scottish archaeologist, numismatist and writer.
* Gunpei Yokoi, 56, Japanese video game designer and creator of the Game Boy, traffic collision.
* Georgi Yumatov, 71, Soviet and Russian film actor, aneurysm.

### 5

* Chitta Basu, 70, Indian politician, heart attack.
* Mary Jayne Gold, 88, American heiress, pancreatic cancer.
* Andrew Keir, 71, Scottish actor (Cleopatra, Rob Roy, Mary, Queen of Scots).
* Debbie Linden, 36, British glamour model and actress, heroin overdose.
* Dave Marr, 63, American golfer and sportscaster, stomach cancer.
* Brian Pillman, 35, American professional wrestler (WCW, WWF, ECW), heart attack.
* Tommy Ring, 67, Scottish footballer.
* Larisa Rozanova, 78, Soviet and Ukrainian pilot and navigator during World War II.
* Curtis Williams Sabrosky, 87, American entomologist.
* Arthur Tracy, 98, American vocalist and actor, heart attack.
* Bernard Yago, 81, Ivoirian cardinal of the Catholic Church.

### 6

* Orlando Ramón Agosti, 73, Argentine general and part of the military junta, cancer.
* George T. Barclay, 87, American football player and coach.
* Warren Louis Boudreaux, 79, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, heart failure.
* Robert Endean, 71, Australian marine scientist.
* Adrienne Hill, 60, English actress (Doctor Who), cancer.
* Yevgeny Khaldei, 80, Soviet naval officer and photographer.
* Johnny Vander Meer, 82, American baseball player, abdominal aneurysm.

### 7

* Felicisimo Ampon, 76, Filipino tennis player.
* Johnny Darrell, 57, American country music artist, diabetes.
* Wan Laiming, 97, Chinese animator.
* Gus Marker, 92, Canadian ice hockey player.
* Aldo Sebben, 77, American football, cross country, and track and field coach.
* Janez Vrhovec, 76, Yugoslav actor of Slovenian-German origin.

### 8

* Henryk Bista, 63, Polish actor.
* Albert Blumberg, 91, American philosopher and political activist.
* Bertrand Goldberg, 84, American architect and industrial designer.
* Robin Lee, 77, American figure skater.
* Brown Meggs, 66, American writer and music executive.
* Nininho, 73, Brazilian football player.
* Desmond J. Scott, 79, New Zealand flying ace during World War II.
* Sant Singh Sekhon, 89, Indian playwright and writer.
* George Everard Kidder Smith, 84, American architectural writer and photographer.
* William Spong Jr., 77, American politician.

### 9

* Michael Cummings, 78, British newspaper cartoonist.
* Monty Hoyt, 53, American figure skater and Olympian, melanoma.
* Arch Johnson, 75, American actor, cancer.
* Jean Pasqualini, French/Chinese journalist.
* Joel Pritchard, 72, American politician, lymphoma.
* Roy Rappaport, 71, American anthropologist.

### 10

* D. J. Ambalavanar, 69, Sri Lankan Tamil bishop.
* Marjorie Harris Carr, 82, American scientist and environmental activist.
* Michael J. S. Dewar, 79, American theoretical chemist.
* Hans-Joachim Kasprzik, 69, German film and television director and screenwriter.
* George Malcolm, 80, English pianist, harpsichordist, composer, and conductor.
* Anne Marriott, 83, Canadian writer, stroke.
* Dencio Padilla, 69, Filipino actor and comedian, heart attack.
* Walt Simon, 57, American basketball player.
* Thomas Whiteside, 79, American journalist, heart failure.

### 11

* Paul Doughty Bartlett, 90, American chemist.
* Giacinto Bosco, 92, Italian jurist, academic and politician.
* Lina Gennari, 86, Italian actress and operetta singer.
* Käthe Gold, 90, Austrian actress.
* Will Sherman, 69, American gridiron football player.
* Ivan Yarygin, 48, Soviet / Russian heavyweight freestyle wrestler, car crash.

### 12

* Raúl Arellano, 62, Mexican football forward.
* John Denver, 53, American singer ("Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Poems, Prayers & Promises", "Annie's Song") and activist, plane crash.
* Talib El-Shibib, 63, Iraqi politician.
* Draga Garašanin, 76, Serbian archaeologist.
* Kenneth Hahn, 77, American civil servant, heart failure.
* Fred McCain, 79, Canadian politician.
* Isadore Twersky, 67, American orthodox rabbi and professor.

### 13

* Ian Stuart Black, 82, British novelist, playwright and screenwriter.
* Joyce Compton, 90, American actress.
* Gary Lee Davis, 53, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
* Kārlis Irbītis, 92, Latvian aeroplane designer.
* Richard Mason, 78, British novelist, lung cancer.
* William Staveley, 68, Royal Navy officer, heart attack.
* Adil Çarçani, 75, Albanian politician.

### 14

* Hy Averback, 76, American actor, producer and director.
* Piedade Coutinho, 77, Brazilian swimmer and Olympian.
* Jacqueline Delubac, 90, French stage and film actress, traffic collision.
* George Forrest, 72, British classicist and academic, cancer.
* Henry Pelling, 77, British historian.
* Harold Robbins, 81, American writer, heart failure.
* Barbara Slater, 76, American film actress.

### 15

* MacDonald Critchley, 97, British neurologist.
* Peter J. Dalessandro, 79, United States Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient.
* Jack Dwyer, 70, American gridiron football player.
* Walter Fritzsch, 76, German football player and manager.
* Parker T. Hart, 87, American diplomat.
* Bill McKay, 76, Irish rugby player.
* John Merricks, 26, English sailor and Olympian, traffic collision.

### 16

* A. H. Armstrong, 88, English educator and author.
* Dick Cavalli, 74, American cartoonist, heart attack.
* Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, 94, Greek princess, Alzheimer's disease.
* Noel Ferrier, 66, Australian comedian, actor, and theatrical producer.
* Lotte Goslar, 90, German-American dancer.
* Adam Kennedy, 75, American actor, novelist, and painter, heart attack.
* Audra Lindley, 79, American actress (Three's Company, Another World, The Heartbreak Kid), leukemia.
* James A. Michener, 90, American author, kidney failure.

### 17

* Larry Jennings, 64, American magician.
* Giorgio Pisanò, 73, Italian journalist, essayist and neo-fascist politician.
* László Szabados, 86, Hungarian swimmer and Olympic medalist.
* Ben Welden, 96, American actor.
* Fang Yi, 81, Chinese Communist revolutionary, diplomat, and politician.

### 18

* Leonard Andrzejewski, 73, Polish actor.
* Ramiro Castillo, 31, Bolivian footballer, suicide by hanging.
* Gordon Clark, 83, English football player.
* Walter William Curtis, 84, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, pneumonia.
* Nancy Dickerson, 70, American radio and television journalist, stroke.
* Trude Eipperle, 89, German operatic soprano.
* Vince Gironda, 79, American bodybuilder, personal trainer and author.
* Roberto Goizueta, 65, Cuban businessman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, cancer.
* Milt Neil, 83, American animator (Fantasia, Dumbo, The Three Caballeros).
* William Rotsler, 71, American artist, cartoonist, pornographer and author.
* Paul Edwin Zimmer, 54, American poet and author, heart attack.

### 19

* Donald R. Bensen, 70, American editor and science fiction writer.
* Glen Buxton, 49, American guitarist and composer, complications from pneumonia.
* Claudia Drake, 79, American actress and singer.
* Harold French, 100, English film director, screenwriter and actor.
* Arthur Ibbetson, 75, British cinematographer (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Where Eagles Dare, The Bounty).
* Francisco Guerrero Marín, 46, Spanish composer.
* William J. McGill, 75, American psychologist and author.
* Pilar Mercedes Miró Romero, 57, Spanish screenwriter and film director, heart attack.
* Stella Sierra, 80, Panamanian poet and prose writer.

### 20

* John Jacobs, 50, American student and anti-war activist, complications from melanoma.
* Frank Robert Miller, 89, Canadian air chief marshal.
* Manush Myftiu, 78, Albanian politician.
* Manuel Rodríguez Barros, 71, Spanish racing cyclist.
* Li Ruishan, 76, Chinese politician.
* Ron Tarr, 60, British actor, cancer.
* Henry Vestine, 52, American guitarist, heart and respiratory failure.
* Robin Woods, 83, English Anglican bishop.

### 21

* Dolph Camilli, 90, American baseball player.
* John Whitney Hall, 81, American Japanologist.
* Lorenzo Sumulong, 92, Filipino politician.
* Aale Tynni, 84, Finnish poet and translator.
* Waldemar F. A. Wendt, 85, United States Navy admiral.
* Dick Wilkins, 72, American gridiron football player.

### 22

* Leonid Amalrik, 92, Soviet animator.
* Reinhard Lauck, 51, German footballer, traffic collision.
* Quentin Smythe, 81, South African sergeant and recipient of the Victoria Cross, cancer.
* Valerie Taylor, 84, American author and feminist.
* Matthew Trupiano, 58, American mobster, heart attack.

### 23

* Ann Devroy, 49, American political journalist, uterine cancer.
* Claire Falkenstein, 89, American visual artist, stomach cancer.
* Bert Haanstra, 81, Dutch filmmaker, Alzheimer's disease.
* Pinchas Lapide, 74, Israeli theologian and historian.
* Kim Lim, 61, Singaporean-British sculptor and printmaker.
* Bob Manning, 71, American big band singer, pneumonia.
* Michael Peter, 48, Field hockey player from West Germany.
* Georges Pianta, 85, French politician .
* Babette Rosmond, 75, American author.
* Alfredo dos Santos, 77, Brazilian footballer.
* Luther George Simjian, 92, Armenian-American inventor and entrepreneur.
* Trevor Smith, 87, English footballer and manager.
* Gerd Tacke, 91, German businessman and CEO of Siemens.

### 24

* Luis Aguilar, 79, Mexican actor, and singer.
* Skip Alexander, 79, American golfer.
* Michael Balfour, 79, English actor, cancer.
* Don Messick, 71, American voice actor (Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons), stroke.

### 25

* William J. Hirsch, 88, American thoroughbred racehorses trainer, Alzheimer's disease.
* Tina Lattanzi, 99, Italian actress and voice actress.
* Jamie Livingston, 41, American photographer and film maker, brain tumor.
* Mina Rees, 95, American mathematician.

### 26

* Georg Adelly, 78, Swedish film actor.
* Teng Haiqing, 88, Chinese military officer and a politician.
* William B. Hutchinson, 88, American physician.
* Rolf Kukowitsch, 84-85, German football coach.
* Donald Ray Matthews, 90, American politician.
* Rankin M. Smith, Sr., 72, American businessman and philanthropist.

### 27

* Mahala Andrews, 58, British vertebrae palaeontologist.
* Achim Gercke, 95, German Nazi politician.
* Billy Neill, 47, Northern Irish football player.
* Vladimir Sokoloff, 84, American pianist and accompanist.
* Thomas Dale Stewart, 96, American anthropologist.
* Reuben Sturman, 73, American businessman and pornographer.
* François-Henri de Virieu, 65, French journalist and television presenter, pancreatic cancer.

### 28

* Walter Capps, 63, American politician, heart attack.
* Toni Carabillo, 71, American feminist, graphic designer, and historian, lung cancer.
* Paul Jarrico, 82, American screenwriter, traffic collision.
* Marian E. Koshland, 76, American immunologist, lung cancer.
* Bryan Lefley, 49, Canadian ice hockey player (New York Islanders) and coach, car accident.
* Klaus Wunderlich, 66, German musician, heart attack.

### 29

* Len Beurton, 83, English communist and Soviet agent.
* H. C. Coombs, 91, Australian economist and public servant.
* William Crook, 72, American politician and ambassador, congestive heart failure.
* Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten, 97, German junker, businessman and author.
* Paul Guth, 87, French journalist and writer.
* Anton LaVey, 67, American author, musician, and occultist, pulmonary edema.
* Andreas Gerasimos Michalitsianos, 50, Greek-American astronomer and astrophysicist, brain tumor.
* Big Nick Nicholas, 75, American jazz saxophonist and singer, heart failure.
* Anthony Velonis, 86, American painter and designer.

### 30

* Jacques Derogy, 72, French journalist, cancer.
* Samuel Fuller, 85, American screenwriter, novelist, and film director.
* Barney Martin, 74, American baseball player.
* Sydney Newman, 80, Canadian film and television producer (The Avengers, Doctor Who), heart attack.

### 31

* Zubeida Agha, 75, Pakistani artist.
* Bram Appel, 75, Dutch footballer.
* Hans Bauer, 70, German footballer.
* Sidney Darlington, 91, American electrical engineer.
* Tadeusz Janczar, 71, Polish film actor.
* Taisto Kangasniemi, 73, Finnish heavyweight wrestler.
* Wilfrid Oulton, 86, British Royal Air Force officer, cancer.
* George Roth, 86, American gymnast and Olympic champion.
