Deaths in April 1989

The following is a list of notable deaths in April 1989.

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.

1

 * Roy Francis, 70, Welsh rugby league footballer and coach (Hull FC, Barrow, Wales).
 * Nedda Harrigan, 89, American actress, cancer.
 * Shreedhar Mahadev Joshi, 85, Indian politician and independence activist, Member of Parliament.
 * Erich Lüth, 87, German writer and film director.
 * Jan A. Rajchman, 77, Polish-American electrical engineer (Magnetic-core memory).
 * George Robledo, 62, Chilean international footballer (Newcastle United, Chile), heart attack.

2

 * E. Chambré Hardman, 89, Anglo-Irish photographer.
 * Daniel Spry, 86, Canadian Army general during World War II.
 * Zainon Munshi Sulaiman, 86, Malaysian politician, member of the Malaysian Parliament.
 * Norman Zinberg, 76–76, American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who studied addiction.

3

 * Mustafa Çağatay, 51, Turkish-Cypriot politician, Prime Minister of Turkish Cyprus, traffic accident.
 * Friedrich-Jobst Volckamer von Kirchensittenbach, 94, Nazi German army general.
 * Edward Martell, 80, British politician, member of the London County Council.
 * Pinchas Hacohen Peli, 58, Israeli Orthodox rabbi, poet and scholar of Jewish philosophy.
 * Vishnu Sahay, 87, Indian politician, Governor of Assam.
 * Norman Wooland, 79, English actor (Hamlet).

4

 * Gerard Casey, appr. 29, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, shot.
 * Woody Crumbo, 77, American artist, flute player and dancer.
 * John Gretton, 48, English peer, owner of Stapleford Park.
 * Madeline Hurlock, 91, American silent-screen actress.
 * Harvey Jablonsky, 80, American general in the U.S. Army, vice president of the Northrop Corporation, congestive heart failure.
 * Narayanan Nambudiripad, Indian Sanskrit scholar.
 * Roberto Nicolosi, 74, Italian jazz double-bassist.
 * Baruch Harold Wood, 79, English chess player, founded the magazine CHESS.

5

 * Geoffrey Binnie, 80, British civil engineer and writer (Jubilee Dam, Eye Brook Reservoir).
 * Frank Foss, 93, American pole vaulter and Olympic gold medalist.
 * María Cristina Gómez, 56, El Salvadoran murder victim.
 * Bill Gunn, 54, American playwright, actor and director (Ganja and Hess), encephalitis.
 * Harold Hayes, 62, American journalist and writer (Esquire magazine).
 * Marjorie Hoshelle, 71, American actress.
 * Kurt Lischka, 79, Nazi German SS official, Gestapo chief and commandant of the Security police.
 * Bill Mehlhorn, 90, American professional golfer.
 * Karel Zeman, 78, Czech film director and animator (Cesta do pravěku, Na kometě).

6

 * Zofia Batycka, 81, Polish model and actress.
 * Tufton Beamish, 72, British Army officer and politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Torsten Billman, 79, Swedish artist.
 * Sylvia Cassedy, 59, American novelist and poet (Behind the Attic Wall).
 * Marion Holland, 80, American children's book writer and illustrator, cancer.
 * Pannalal Patel, 76, Indian author (Malela Jeev, Manvini Bhavai), brain haemorrhage.
 * John Paul Riddle, 87, American pilot, co-founded Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

7

 * Hassan al-Amri, 68–69, Yemeni lieutenant general and Prime Minister of the Yemen Arab Republic.
 * Amena Begum, 63–64, Bangladeshi politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Efraín Morote Best, 67, Peruvian lawyer, chief administrator of San Cristóbal of Huamanga University.
 * Clyde Moody, 73, American Bluegrass musician.
 * Evelyn Finley, 73, American B-movie actress and stuntwoman (Ghost Guns), heart failure.
 * Cheng Nan-jung, 41, Taiwanese publisher and pro-democracy activist, suicide by immolation.
 * André Reybaz, 59, French actor.
 * Jack Ruby, 45–46, Jamaican record producer.
 * Basawon Singh, 80, Indian independence activist, co-founder of the Congress Socialist Party.
 * Elizabeth Sudmeier, 76, American spy, founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency.

8

 * Albert Bormann, 86, German Nazi Gruppenführer, adjutant to Adolf Hitler, brother of Martin Bormann.
 * Lloyd Francis MacMahon, 76, American judge of the U.S. District Court, cerebral hemorrhage.
 * A. M. Rajah, 59, Indian playback singer and music director, train accident.
 * John Wyer, 79, English car racing engineer and team manager.

9

 * Friedrich Ritter, 90, German botanist (cacti).
 * Albert Vigoleis Thelen, 85, German author and translator.

10

 * Joan Barry, 85, British actress (Rome Express).
 * George Genereux, 54, Canadian trap shooter and Olympic gold medalist.
 * Bessie Griffin, 66, American gospel singer, breast cancer.
 * Nikolai Grinko, 68, Ukrainian actor (Ivan's Childhood, Stalker).
 * Jacob Horton, American vice-president of Southern Company's Gulf Power Unit, allegedly murdered.
 * Takehiro Irokawa, 60, Japanese writer, heart attack.
 * Sandy Sandberg, 78, American NFL footballer (Pittsburgh Pirates).

11

 * Noel Carrington, 93–94, English author and publisher, founder of Puffin Books.
 * Emil Grosswald, 76, Romanian-American mathematician (number theory).
 * Hiram Sherman, 81, American actor (Two's Company; How Now, Dow Jones), stroke.
 * Sarban, 78, British writer and diplomat, British Ambassador to Paraguay.

12

 * Ekkirala Bharadwaja, 50, Indian spiritual advisor.
 * Gerald Flood, 61, British actor of stage and television (Crane), heart attack.
 * Bill Harper, 92, Scottish footballer (Hibernian, Scotland).
 * Abbie Hoffman, 52, American political and social activist, co-founded the Youth International Party, suicide by overdose.
 * Willie McNaught, 66, Scottish international footballer (Raith Rovers, Scotland).
 * Antonio Porta, 53, Italian author and poet.
 * Sugar Ray Robinson, 67, American professional boxer, welterweight and middleweight world champion, heart disease.
 * Georges Sébastian, 85, Hungarian-born French conductor.
 * Tilda Thamar, 67, Argentinian actress, car accident.

13

 * Paul II Cheikho, 82, Iraqi patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church.
 * António Ferreira Gomes, 83, Portuguese Roman Catholic bishop.
 * Terry Miller, 46, American businessman and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, bone cancer.
 * Bill Putnam, 69, American audio engineer, songwriter and producer.

14

 * Werner von Clemm, 91, German-born American banker.
 * Chiang Hsiao-wen, 53, eldest son of Chiang Ching-kuo, throat cancer.
 * Laurence Meynell, 89, English author.

15

 * Ray Agee, 68, American blues and R&B singer and songwriter.
 * William Attwood, 69, American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Guinea and Kenya, congestive heart failure.
 * Edward M. Brecher, 77, American science writer and author (Licit and Illicit Drugs).
 * David Cuthbertson, 88, Scottish physician and biochemist, director of the Rowett Research Institute.
 * Hu Yaobang, 73, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, heart attack.
 * Bernard-Marie Koltès, 41, French playwright and theatre director, AIDS.
 * Freda Lingstrom, 95, British BBC Television producer (Flower Pot Men, Andy Pandy).
 * Alita Román, 76, Argentine film actress (Mujeres que trabajan, Concierto de almas).
 * Connie Simmons, 64, American NBA basketballer (New York Knicks).
 * Frances Steloff, 101, American founder of the Gotham Book Mart.
 * Charles Vanel, 96, French actor and director (The Wages of Fear, The Woman Who Dared).
 * Philip de Zulueta, 64, British diplomat, Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister.

16

 * T. Coleman Andrews Jr., 64, American politician, member of the Virginia House of Delegates, heart attack.
 * Tawfiq Yusuf 'Awwad, 77, Lebanese writer (Tawahin Beirut) and diplomat, Lebanese ambassador to five countries, rocket attack.
 * Hugh Barton, 78, British Hong Kong businessman, chairman and managing director of Jardine Matheson.
 * Brynjólfur Bjarnason, 90, Icelandic politician, chairman of the Communist Party of Iceland.
 * Jocko Conlan, 89, American baseball umpire (National League).
 * John Dighton, 79, British playwright and screenwriter (The Happiest Days of Your Life, The Man in the White Suit, Roman Holiday).
 * Harald Edelstam, 76, Swedish diplomat, Ambassador to Algeria, cancer.
 * Kaoru Ishikawa, 73, Japanese engineer and professor (Ishikawa diagram).
 * John Holmes Jenkins, 48–49, American historian and champion poker player, shot.
 * Bob Jones, 59, American white supremacist political activist (Ku Klux Klan).
 * Dominic Olejniczak, 80, American politician (mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin) and football executive (Green Bay Packers), stroke.
 * Saroj Pathak, 59, Indian novelist.
 * Thierry Paulin, 25, French serial killer, AIDS.
 * Hakkı Yeten, 78, Turkish footballer and club president (Beşiktaş, Turkey).

17

 * Inji Aflatoun, 65, Egyptian painter and women's activist.
 * Psyche Cattell, 95, American psychologist.
 * Ken Gee, 72, English international rugby league footballer (Wigan, England).
 * Charles Lampkin, 76, American actor (Roots: The Next Generations) and musician.
 * Cecil Leeson, 86, American saxophonist.
 * Villano II, 39, Mexican Luchador enmascarado (masked professional wrestler), suicide.

18

 * Hilde Benjamin, 87, East German judge and Minister of Justice.
 * Ruth VanSickle Ford, 91, American painter, owner of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
 * Julia Smith, 84, American composer and pianist.

19

 * Ferdinand aus der Fünten, 79, Nazi German SS-Hauptsturmführer, head of the Amsterdam Central Office for Jewish Emigration.
 * Dame Daphne du Maurier, 81, English novelist and playwright (Rebecca, The Birds, My Cousin Rachel), heart failure.
 * George Paxton, 75, American saxophonist and big band leader (Coed Records), apparent suicide.
 * George Whitmore, 43, American playwright, novelist and poet, AIDS.

20

 * Harold Barlow, 89, British engineer (Royal Medal).
 * Doru Davidovici, 43, Romanian aviator and writer, training crash.
 * Edward DeSaulnier, 68, American politician and judge, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, suicide.
 * Kenneth Harrison, 50, American serial killer, suicide.
 * Maurice Nyagumbo, 64, Zimbabwean politician, suicide.
 * Martin Ragaway, 66, American comedy writer.
 * Lydia Sherwood, 82, British film and stage actress.

21

 * Princess Deokhye of Korea, 76, last princess of the Korean royal family.
 * James Kirkwood Jr., 64, American playwright, author and actor (A Chorus Line, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead), AIDS.
 * Paul Mitchell, 53, Scottish-American co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems, pancreatic cancer.
 * James N. Rowe, 51, American officer in the U.S. Army, assassinated.

22

 * Jan Baars, 85, Dutch fascist.
 * Paul Beard, 87, English violinist (London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra).
 * Kenny McBain, 42, Scottish TV director and producer (Inspector Morse, Grange Hill).
 * Siegfried Ruff, 82, Nazi German physician, acquitted of war crimes.
 * Emilio Segrè, 84, Italian-American physicist, discovered technetium and astatine, Nobel laureate in Physics, heart attack.
 * Dmitry Selivanov, 25, Soviet rock singer (Grazhdanskaya Oborona), suicide.
 * Tommy Thompson, 70, American NFL and CFL footballer (Philadelphia Eagles), brain cancer.
 * Tony Tursi, 88, Italian-American mobster in Puerto Rico.

23

 * K. Suryanarayana Adiga, 74, Indian lawyer and politician, member of Mysore Legislative Council, chairman of Karnataka Bank.
 * Norm Baker, 66, Canadian professional basketball and lacrosse player.
 * Marc Daniels, 77, American television director (I Love Lucy, Star Trek), congestive heart failure.
 * Hamani Diori, 72, Nigerien politician, president of Republic of Niger.
 * Hu Die, 81, Chinese actress (The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple), stroke.
 * Stefan Korboński, 88, Polish-American politician, lawyer and journalist, aneurysm.
 * Harry Bolton Seed, 66, British-American geotechnical earthquake engineer, cancer.

24

 * Franz Binder, 77, Austrian international footballer and coach (Rapid Wien, Austria).
 * Clyde Geronimi, 87, American animation director (Walt Disney Productions).
 * Li Jingquan, 79, Chinese politician and governor of Sichuan.
 * Henry G. Parks Jr., 72, American businessman, complications from Parkinson's disease.
 * Lee Roberts, 75, American actor.
 * Edgar Sanabria, 77, Venezuelan diplomat and politician, interim President of Venezuela, stroke.
 * Santana, 53, Portuguese international footballer (Benfica, Portugal)).
 * Johnny Stark, 66, French impresario, heart attack.

25

 * Kenneth Cockrel Sr., 50, American politician, member of the Detroit Common Council, heart attack.
 * George Coulouris, 85, English film and stage actor (Citizen Kane).
 * Sam Fletcher, 55, American singer (I Believe in You).
 * Yap Thiam Hien, 75, Indonesian human rights lawyer, internal bleeding.
 * Norma Klein, 50, American young adults' book author.
 * Alan Robertson, 69, English population geneticist.
 * John Barton Wolgamot, 86, American poet.

26

 * Lucille Ball, 77, American actress and comedienne (I Love Lucy), ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.
 * Robert Gysae, 78, Nazi German U-boat commander.
 * Robert S. Kennemore, 68, American officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.
 * Carl Monroe, 29, American NFL footballer (San Francisco 49ers), accidental overdose.

27

 * Howard Brookner, 34, American film director (Burroughs, Bloodhounds of Broadway), AIDS.
 * Leopold Buczkowski, 83, Polish writer.
 * Marcel J. E. Golay, 86, Swiss-born American mathematician and physicist (Golay Detector, Golay cell).
 * Harold Gurden, 85, British politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Konosuke Matsushita, 94, Japanese founder of Panasonic, pneumonia.
 * Frank O'Rourke, 72, American writer (A Mule for the Marquesa), suicide.
 * T. Amrutha Rao, 68, Indian politician, member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
 * William Arthur Smith, 71, American artist.

28

 * Stanley Roy Badmin, 83, English painter and etcher.
 * Jack Cummings, 84, American film producer and director.
 * Géza von Cziffra, 88, Hungarian and Austrian film director and screenwriter (Kiss Me Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers).
 * Pinchoo Kapoor, 61–62, Indian actor (Don, Roti, Avtaar).
 * Esa Pakarinen, 78, Finnish actor, singer and comedian (Pekka and Pätkä), cancer.
 * Raúl Sendic, 63, Uruguayan lawyer and trade unionist, founder of the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
 * Roy Lee Williams, 74, American labor leader, president of the Teamsters, cardiac disease and emphysema.

29

 * Donald Deskey, 94, American industrial designer.
 * Ehsan Tabari, 72, Iranian philosopher and poet, kidney and heart failure.
 * Vic Wilcox, 76, New Zealand farmer and trade unionist, secretary-general of the Communist Party of New Zealand, cancer.

30

 * Yi Bangja, 87, wife of Crown Prince Euimin, last Crown Prince of the Korean Empire, cancer.
 * Birge Clark, 96, American architect (Lou Henry Hoover House, Norris House).
 * Nelson Dalzell, 68, New Zealand rugby union player (Canterbury, All Blacks).
 * Edwin F. Kalmus, 95, Austrian-American music publisher.
 * Gottfried Köthe, 83, Austrian mathematician (Köthe conjecture, topological vector spaces).
 * Sergio Leone, 60, Italian film director and producer (Dollars Trilogy), heart attack.
 * Stumpy Thomason, 83, American NFL footballer (Brooklyn Dodgers).
 * Taiji Tonoyama, 73, Japanese actor.
 * Guy Williams, 65, American actor (Zorro, Lost in Space), brain aneurysm.

Unknown date

 * Hassan Djamous, Chadian military commander, Commander-in-Chief of the Chadian National Army.
 * Josef Papp, appr. 55, American engineer, likely hoaxer.
 * Doug Smith, 71, English jockey and trainer, suicide.
 * Harry White, 72–73, Irish republican paramilitary.