Deaths in August 1988

The following is a list of notable deaths in August 1988.

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

 * Orville Carlisle, 71, American inventor of the model rocket motor.
 * Red Coffey, 65, American voice actor and comedian (Tom and Jerry).
 * John Dearden, 80, American Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Detroit, pancreatic cancer.
 * Florence Eldridge, 86, American actress (Long Day's Journey into Night).
 * Yoshimoto Ishin, 72, Japanese businessman and Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest.
 * Kim Yong-ki, 79, South Korean agrarian movement leader.
 * Sheldon Kinser, 45, American race car driver, cancer.
 * John F. Laboon, 67, American officer in the U.S. Navy and Roman Catholic chaplain.
 * Steve Mills, 34, English footballer (Southampton), leukemia.
 * Gertrude Welcker, 92, German stage and silent-screen actress (Chronicles of the Gray House, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler).

2

 * Jack Breslin, 68, American university administrator (Michigan State University).
 * Joe Carcione, American consumer advocate, the "Green Grocer", intestinal cancer.
 * Raymond Carver, 50, American short-story writer (What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral), lung cancer.
 * Nityanand Kanungo, 88, Indian politician, Governor of Bihar and Gujarat.
 * Nada Klaić, 68, Croatian historian.
 * José Magriñá, 70, Cuban international footballer.

3

 * Lillian Bilocca, 59, British fisheries worker, known for improving safety in the fishing industry, peritoneal cancer.
 * Campbell Copelin, 87, English-Australian actor.
 * Tucker McGuire, 75, American-born British film and television actress.
 * Krishnaswami Ramiah, 96, Indian agricultural scientist and geneticist, director of National Rice Research Institute.
 * Vic Watson, 90, English international footballer (West Ham United, England).

4

 * Allan Adair, 90, British army Major General.
 * Brian Brake, 61, New Zealand photographer, heart attack.
 * Richard Leppla, 74. Nazi German fighter ace.
 * George Commey Mills-Odoi, 72, Ghanaian judge and Attorney General.
 * Joe Vandeleur, 84, Anglo-Irish British Army officer.
 * Harry Lee Waterfield, 77, American politician, Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky.

5

 * James Devereux, 85, American general of the U.S. Marine Corps, member of U.S. House of Representatives, pneumonia.
 * Colin Higgins, 47, French-Australian-American screenwriter, actor, director and producer, AIDS.
 * Arif Hussain Hussaini, 41, Indian-Pakistani revolutionary leader, assassinated.
 * James M. Masters Sr., 77, American general in the U.S. Marine Corps.
 * Ralph Meeker, 67, American film, stage and television actor (Kiss Me Deadly, Paths of Glory), heart attack.
 * Gil North, 72, British author of detective stories (Cluff).

6

 * John Bingham, 79, English thriller, detective and spy novelist (My Name Is Michael Sibley), MI5 spy.
 * James Hervey Johnson, 87, American atheist, writer and editor of The Truth Seeker, white supremacist, heart attack.
 * Anatoly Levchenko, 47, Soviet cosmonaut, brain tumour.
 * Francis Ponge, 89, French essayist and poet.
 * J. Skelly Wright, 77, American circuit judge, prostate cancer.

7

 * David L. Hoggan, 65, American author, neo-Nazi anti-Semite, heart attack.
 * Wilfred Jackson, 82, American animator (Mickey Mouse, Silly Symphony).
 * David E. Skinner II, 67–68, American shipping heir, owner of the Space Needle and Seattle Seahawks, cancer.

8

 * Alan Ameche, 55, American NFL player (Baltimore Colts), heart attack.
 * Kid Chocolate, 78, Cuban boxer, World Junior Lightweight Champion.
 * George Estregan, 49, Filipino film actor.
 * Henri Frenay, 82, French military officer and member of the French Resistance.
 * William Kininmonth, 83, Scottish architect.
 * Félix Leclerc, 82, Canadian singer-songwriter, heart attack.
 * Liu Liangmo, 78, Chinese musician and Chinese Christian leader.
 * Alan Napier, 85, English actor (Batman), pneumonia.
 * Dominic Serventy, 84, Australian ornithologist, president of Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union.

9

 * Woodrow Adams, 71, American guitarist and harmonica player.
 * Jimmie Fidler, 89, American columnist, journalist and radio and television personality.
 * M. Carl Holman, 69, American civil rights advocate (Civil Rights Commission), cancer.
 * Giacinto Scelsi, 83, Italian composer, cerebral hemorrhage.
 * Ramón Valdés, 63, Mexican actor and comedian, stomach cancer.

10

 * Arnulfo Arias, 86, Panamanian politician, President of Panama, heart attack.
 * Antoine Blanchard, 77, French painter.
 * Jean Brachet, 79, Belgian biochemist (RNA).
 * Gerd Grieg, 93, Norwegian actress.
 * Benny Johnson, 40, American NFL football player (Houston Oilers), heart attack.
 * Guido Mannari, 43, Italian actor (The Driver's Seat), heart attack.
 * Havzi Nela, 54, Albanian poet, executed.
 * Adela Rogers St. Johns, 94, American journalist, novelist and screenwriter.
 * Paul Thek, 54, American painter and sculptor, AIDS.

11

 * Nellikode Bhaskaran, 64, Indian actor (Sarapancharam).
 * Alfred Kelbassa, 63, German international footballer (STV Horst-Emscher, Borussia Dortmund, West Germany).
 * Pauline Lafont, 25, French actress, hiking accident.
 * K. Avukader Kutty Naha, 68, Indian politician, Deputy Chief Minister of Kerala.
 * Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, 56, French opera director, pulmonary embolism following a fall.
 * Anne Ramsey, 59, American actress (The Goonies, Throw Momma from the Train), cancer.
 * Jack Regan, 75, Australian rules footballer (Collingwood).

12

 * Jean-Michel Basquiat, 27, American artist (Hollywood Africans), heroin overdose.
 * Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar, 92, Indian guru, writer and spiritual leader.

13

 * Mel Almada, 75, Mexican Major League baseballer (Boston Red Sox).
 * Fred Below, 61, American blues drummer, liver cancer.
 * Keith Hancock, 90, Australian historian and academic.
 * Martin Hellinger, 84, Nazi German dentist, tasked with removing gold filling from corpses at Ravensbrück concentration camp.
 * Thomas Henty, 32, English actor, haemophilia.
 * John Wendell Holmes, 78, Canadian diplomat, Canadian delegate to the United Nations.
 * Gajanan Jagirdar, 81, Indian film director, screenwriter and actor, heart attack.
 * Peggy Mann, 69, American Big Band singer.
 * Otto Passman, 88, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, heart attack.
 * William H. Phelps Jr., 85, Venezuelan ornithologist and businessman, circulatory problems.
 * Pydimarri Venkata Subba Rao, 72, Indian author, author of the National Pledge of India.
 * Tenor Saw, 21, Jamaican dancehall singjay, hit and run accident.
 * Gordon H. Scherer, 81, American lawyer and politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, heart attack.
 * Edward Bennett Williams, 68, American lawyer and businessman, co-founder of Williams & Connolly, colon cancer.

14

 * Roy Buchanan, 48, American guitarist and blues musician, suicide.
 * Robert Calvert, 43, South African–born British writer, poet and musician, heart attack.
 * Michael Crowder, 54, British historian and author.
 * Enzo Ferrari, 90, Italian motor racing driver and car maker, leukemia.
 * Kōri Hisataka, 81, Japanese founder of Shōrinjiryū Kenkōkan Karate.
 * Kailas Nath Wanchoo, 85, Indian Chief Justice.
 * Monroe Wheeler, 89, American publisher and museum coordinator (Museum of Modern Art), stroke.

15

 * Barry Bingham Sr., 82, American media patriarch in Louisville, Kentucky, brain tumour.
 * Rudy Collins, 54, American jazz drummer.
 * Han Deqin, 95, Chinese general in the National Revolutionary Army.
 * Ronald Stein, 58, American film composer, pancreatic cancer.
 * Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, 86, German composer and music historian.
 * Hartman Turnbow, 83, Mississippi farmer, orator and activist during the Civil Rights Movement.

16

 * Rashad Barmada, 74–75, Syrian politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Syria.
 * Smokey Haangala, 38, Zambian poet and composer.
 * Herbert Pagani, 44, Italian artist and musician, leukaemia.

17

 * Jack Cutting, 80, American international content supervisor and animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
 * Nino Frank, 84, Italian-born French film critic and writer, coined the term "film noir".
 * Bruno Mathsson, 81, Swedish architect and furniture designer.
 * Connie Meijer, 25, Dutch cyclist, heart attack.
 * Akhtar Abdur Rahman, 64, Pakistani Army general, plane crash.
 * Arnold Lewis Raphel, 45, American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, plane crash.
 * Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., 74, American lawyer and politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, lung cancer.
 * Siddique Salik, 52, Pakistani army officer, plane crash.
 * Victoria Shaw, 53, Australian film and television actress, emphysema.
 * Samuel Silkin, 70, British politician, Attorney General for England and Wales.
 * Jack Straus, 58, American professional poker player, aortic aneurysm.
 * Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, 64, Pakistani military officer, President of Pakistan, plane crash.

18

 * Sir Frederick Ashton, 83, British ballet dancer and choreographer (Symphonic Variations, Ondine).
 * Felix Maria Davídek, 67, Czechoslovakian Roman Catholic bishop.
 * Li Gotami Govinda, 92, Indian painter, writer and composer.
 * Seiryū Inoue, 56–57, Japanese photographer.
 * Gary Little, 49, American judge, focus of sexual abuse allegations, suicide.
 * Michael Perrin, 82, Canadian-British scientist, directed first British atomic bomb program.
 * Jessica Powers, 83, American poet and nun, stroke.
 * Ernst Simon, 88, German educator and religious philosopher.

19

 * Patrick Donner, 83, British Member of Parliament.
 * Don Haggerty, 74, American actor (The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Sands of Iwo Jima).
 * Jerome Zerbe, 84, American photographer.

20

 * Jean-Paul Aron, 63, French writer and journalist, AIDS.
 * Leon McAuliffe, 71, American Western swing guitarist.
 * Joan G. Robinson, 78, British author and illustrator of children's books (When Marnie Was There).
 * Lazarus Salii, 51, Palau politician, President of Palau, suicide by shooting.

21

 * H. G. Adler, 78, Czechoslovakian-English poet and novelist, Holocaust survivor, heart failure.
 * Teddy Diaz, 25, Filipino musician and composer (The Dawn), murdered.
 * Ray Eames, 78, American artist and designer.
 * Chris Gittins, 86, British actor (The Archers).
 * Stuart Leary, 55, South African footballer and first-class cricketer, suicide.
 * Jerry Warren, 63, American film director, screenwriter and actor (Teenage Zombies), brain cancer.

22

 * Rejhan Demirdžić, 61, Bosnian half of comedy duo Momo and Uzeir.

23

 * Gerald Drayson Adams, 88, Canadian-American business executive and film writer (Dead Reckoning, The Big Steal).
 * José Manuel de Sousa e Faro Nobre de Carvalho, 76, Portuguese army brigadier-general, Governor of Macau.
 * C. Desmond Greaves, 74, English Marxist activist and historian.
 * Laud Humphreys, 57, American sociologist and Episcopal priest, lung cancer.
 * Josef Klehr, 83, German Nazi SS-Oberscharführer, Nazi concentration camp supervisor.
 * Hans Lewy, 83, Prussian-American mathematician (partial differential equations), leukemia.
 * Menotti Del Picchia, 96, Brazilian poet, journalist and painter.
 * Jack Sher, 75, American newspaper columnist and film writer (Goodbye, Raggedy Ann), respiratory and heart problems.
 * Robert Walcott, 78, American historian.

24

 * C. Chhunga, 72, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Mizoram.
 * Leonard Frey, 49, American actor (Fiddler on the Roof), AIDS.
 * Kenneth Leighton, 58, British composer and pianist, oesophageal cancer.
 * Abu Jafar Shamsuddin, 77, Bangladeshi writer.
 * Nat Stuckey, 54, American country singer (Sweet Thang), lung cancer.

25

 * Caziel, 82, Polish-born artist.
 * Price Daniel, 77, American jurist and politician, Governor of Texas, stroke.
 * Françoise Dolto, 79, French pediatrician and psychoanalyst, pulmonary fibrosis.
 * Percy Foreman, 86, American criminal defense attorney (James Earl Ray), cardiac arrest.
 * Henry Joseph Gallagher, 73, British soldier in the Korean War (Distinguished Conduct Medal).
 * Jimmy Lloyd, 69, American actor (The Sea Hound).
 * Irving Mansfield, 80, American producer, publicist and writer, heart attack.
 * Art Rooney, 87, American owner of Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team, stroke.

26

 * Donald De Lue, 90, American sculptor (Harvey S. Firestone Memorial).
 * Oscar Marzaroli, 55, Italian-born Scottish photographer, cancer.
 * Carlos Paião, 30, Portuguese singer and songwriter, car accident.
 * Fred Peart, 74, British politician, leader of the Houses of Lords and Commons.
 * Milton Sperling, 76, American film producer and screenwriter, owner of United States Pictures, cancer.

27

 * Lala Aragami, 65, Indian poet.
 * Jinavajiralongkorn, 91, Supreme Patriarch of Thailand.
 * Max Black, 79, Azerbaijani-British-American philosopher of language, mathematics, science and art, heart complications.
 * Charles Farrell, 88, Irish stage, film and television actor.
 * Gunther von Fritsch, 82, Austro-Hungarian born American film director (The Curse of the Cat People), stroke.
 * Irene Higginbotham, 70, American songwriter and concert pianist (Good Morning Heartache).
 * Jack Kane, 80, Australian senator.
 * John Lie, 77, Indonesian Navy rear admiral, stroke.
 * Mario Montenegro, 60, Filipino film actor, heart attack.
 * John Riordan, 85, American mathematician and author (combinatorics), Alzheimer's disease.
 * William Sargant, 81, British psychiatrist (electroconvulsive therapy).
 * Costas Taktsis, 60, Greek writer, murdered.
 * Benjamin Willis, 86, American educator and school administrator, heart attack.

28

 * Hazel Dawn, 98, American actress (The Pink Lady).
 * Paul Grice, 75, British philosopher of language.
 * Guy Hocquenghem, 41, French writer and philosopher, AIDS.
 * Jean Marchand, 69, Canadian trade unionist and politician, Member of Parliament, Secretary of State for Canada.
 * Max Shulman, 69, American writer and humorist (Dobie Gillis), bone cancer.

29

 * David A. Hargrave, 42, American game designer and writer of fantasy and science fiction role-playing games.
 * Horace Henderson, 83, American jazz pianist, organist, arranger and bandleader.
 * Wilfred Johnson, 52, American mobster, murdered.
 * Algirdas Klimaitis, 77–78, Lithuanian paramilitary commander, antisemite (Kaunas pogrom).
 * Mykola Lukash, 68, Ukrainian literary translator.
 * Lưu Quang Vũ, 40, Vietnamese playwright and poet, traffic collision.
 * Abuna Takla Haymanot, 70, Ethiopian patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
 * Xuân Quỳnh, 45, Vietnamese poet, car crash.

30

 * James N. Black, 48, American jazz drummer.
 * Eren Eyüboğlu, 75, Romanian-born Turkish artist.
 * Nikolai Fefilov, 42, Soviet serial killer, beaten to death in jail.
 * Jack Marshall, 76, New Zealand politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand.
 * Helenus Milmo, 80, Irish lawyer in Britain and High Court judge.
 * Leonidas Proaño, 78, Ecuadorian prelate, Bishop of Riobamba.

31

 * Grace Eldering, 87, American public health scientist (vaccine for whooping cough).
 * Lin Jaldati, 75, Dutch-born, East German-based singer, Holocaust survivor.
 * Vasil Mzhavanadze, 85, Georgian Soviet politician, First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party.

Unknown date

 * Surat Alley, 82–83, Indian trade unionist and political activist in Britain.