Deaths in August 1997

The following is a list of notable deaths in August 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.

1

 * Ángel Acuña, 78, Mexican basketball player.
 * Kenneth W. Bilby, 78, American RCA executive, leukemia.
 * Berta Alves de Sousa, 91, Portuguese pianist and composer.
 * Ngiratkel Etpison, 72, Palau politician.
 * Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson, 72, Australian taxonomic botanist, cancer.
 * Norio Nagayama, 48, Japanese spree killer and novelist, execution by hanging.
 * Sviatoslav Richter, 82, Ukrainian pianist, heart attack.
 * Janet G. Travell, 95, American physician and medical researcher, heart failure.
 * Hans von Luck, 86, German Wehrmacht officer during World War II.

2

 * William S. Burroughs, 83, American author (Naked Lunch, Junkie) and visual artist, heart attack.
 * John Churcher, 91, British army general.
 * Antonis Daglis, Greek serial killer, suicide.
 * Joyce Dingwell, 89, Australian writer.
 * Feim Ibrahimi, 61, Albanian composer.
 * Harald Kihle, 92, Norwegian painter and illustrator.
 * James Krüss, 71, German children's author and illustrator.
 * Fela Kuti, 58, Nigerian musician and human rights activist, AIDS (disputed).
 * Frank E. Smith, 79, American politician, complications from strokes.
 * Ricardo Muñoz Suay, 79, Spanish film director, producer and screenwriter.
 * Michèle Pujol, 46, French intellectual, feminist, and human rights activist, cancer.
 * Rhydwen Williams, 80, Welsh poet, novelist and baptist minister.

3

 * Peter A. Carruthers, 62, American physicist.
 * Joan Erikson, 94, Austrian-Canadian author, educator, and dance ethnographer.
 * Mladen Koščak, 60, Croatian football player.
 * Pietro Rizzuto, 63, Canadian politician.
 * Nirmal Chandra Sinha, 85–86, Indian tibetologist and author.

4

 * Horace Bristol, 88, American photographer.
 * Dick Bush, 65, British cinematographer (Tommy, Victor Victoria, Twins of Evil).
 * Jeanne Calment, 122, French supercentenarian and the oldest person ever documented in history, senility.
 * Tom Eckersley, 82, English poster artist and teacher of design.
 * Nicholas J. Hoff, 91, Hungarian-American aeronautics and astronautic engineer.
 * Gene Johnson, 61, American gridiron football player.
 * Lloyd Marshall, 83, American light heavyweight boxer.
 * Ariel Maughan, 74, American basketball player.
 * Ray Renfro, 67, American gridiron football player.
 * Sidney Simon, 80, American painter, sculptor, and muralist.
 * Alexander Young, 58, Scottish musician, lung cancer.

5

 * Clarence M. Kelley, 85, American politician and director of the FBI.
 * Poul Møller, 77, Danish Conservative People's Party politician.
 * Don Steele, 61, American disc jockey, lung cancer.
 * Michael J. Tully Jr., 64, American lawyer and politician, heart attack.

6

 * Lance Barnard, 78, Australian politician and diplomat.
 * Maria Antonietta Beluzzi, 67, Italian actress, infarction.
 * Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, 72, Indian writer.
 * Shin Ki-ha, 56, South Korean politician, aviation accident.
 * Jürgen Kuczynski, 92, German economist and communist.
 * Tom Normanton, 80, British politician.
 * John Porter, 93, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Samuel Paul Welles, 89, American palaeontologist.
 * Bora Öztürk, 42, Turkish football player, cancer.

7

 * Rudolf Blügel, 70, German politician and member of the Bundestag.
 * Jules Goedhuys, 92, Belgian racing cyclist.
 * Kay Halle, 93, American journalist, author and World War II OSS operative.
 * Elisabeth Höngen, 90, German operatic mezzo-soprano and actress.
 * Volker Prechtel, 55, German actor, cancer.

8

 * Joseph Aquilina, 78, Maltese author and linguist.
 * Orville H. Hampton, 80, American screenwriter.
 * Dardanelle Hadley, 79, American jazz musician.
 * Plato Malozemoff, 87, Russian-American engineer and businessman, congestive heart failure.
 * Paul Rudolph, 78, American architect, peritoneal mesothelioma.

9

 * Doug Adams, 47, American gridiron football player.
 * Max Bloesch, 89, Swiss field handball player and Olympian.
 * Gabriel Cattand, 73, French actor.
 * Herbert de Souza, 61, American sociologist and activist, AIDS-related complications.
 * Ilpo Koskela, 52, Finnish ice hockey player.
 * Trần Đại Nghĩa, 83, Vietnamese scientist and military engineer.

10

 * Peter Braestrup, 66–67, American journalist, heart attack.
 * Valery Chaptynov, 52, Russian politician.
 * Roy Chipman, 40, American basketball coach, colorectal cancer.
 * Malú Gatica, 75, Chilean actress and singer.
 * William Jordy, 80, American architectural historian.
 * Steve Kraftcheck, 68, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Jean-Claude Lauzon, 43, Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter, aviation accident.
 * Carlton Moss, 88, American screenwriter, actor and film director.
 * Conlon Nancarrow, 84, American-Mexican composer.
 * Bob Welborn, 69, American racing driver.
 * George Zames, 63, Polish-Canadian control theorist and professor.

11

 * Miksa Bondi, 79, Hungarian boxer.
 * Bert McTaggart, 81, Australian rules footballer.
 * Frank Pearson, 77, American Negro league baseball player.
 * Jacques Robert, 76, French author, screenwriter and journalist.

12

 * Luther Allison, 57, American blues guitarist, cancer.
 * Anna Balakian, 82, Armenian-American professor of comparative literature, congestive heart failure.
 * Rex Barney, 72, American baseball player.
 * Gösta Bohman, 86, Swedish politician.
 * Jack Delano, 83, American photographer, kidney failure.
 * Keith Harper, 70, Australian rules football player.
 * Robert Hetzron, 58, Hungarian-born linguist.
 * Gulshan Kumar, 41, Indian businessman and film producer, murdered.
 * Dick Marx, 73, American jazz pianist and arranger, car accident.
 * Mario Montuori, 77, Italian film cinematographer and painter.
 * Abe Newborn, 77, American talent agent and theatre producer, congestive heart failure.
 * Sam Nolutshungu, 52, South African academic, cancer.
 * Len Norris, 83, Canadian editorial cartoonist.
 * Achilles Papapetrou, 90, Greek theoretical physicist.
 * Albert L. Smith, Jr., 65, American politician.
 * Conrad von Molo, 90, Austrian film producer and editor.
 * Ali Yata, 76, Moroccan communist leader.

13

 * Vladimir Gribov, 67, Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist.
 * Robert L. Leggett, 71, American politician.
 * Dick Mather, 56, Canadian politician, heart attack.
 * Emil Mosbacher, 75, American yachtsman and Chief of Protocol of the United States, cancer.
 * Harlow Rothert, 89, American Olympic shot putter.
 * Marjorie Lynette Sigley, 68, English artist, writer, actress, choreographer and theatre director, cancer.
 * Carel Weight, 88, English painter.

14

 * John Elliot, 79, British novelist, screenwriter and television producer.
 * Charlie Fleming, 70, Scottish footballer.
 * Diana E. Forsythe, 49, American anthropology researcher, hiking accident.
 * Frederick Carl Galda, 79, American attorney and politician.
 * George Pfister, 78, American baseball player and coach, heart attack.
 * Guido Vincenzi, 65, Italian football player and manager, A.L.S.

15

 * Ida Gerhardt, 92, Dutch writer and poet.
 * Ray Heatherton, 88, American singer, Broadway performer and television personality, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Lubka Kolessa, 95, Canadian-Ukrainian pianist and educator.
 * Lawrence Morgan, 82, Australian rules footballer, equestrian and Olympian.
 * Steve Pruski, 73, Canadian football player.
 * Dave Solomon, 84, Fijian-New Zealand rugby player and coach.
 * Çesk Zadeja, 70, Albanian composer.

16

 * Yanick Dupré, 24, Canadian ice hockey player, leukemia.
 * Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, 48, Pakistani Qawwali musician, heart attack.
 * Alf Malland, 80, Norwegian actor.
 * Plum Mariko, 29, Japanese female professional wrestler, wrestling accident.
 * Jacques Pollet, 75, French racing driver.
 * Donn Reynolds, 76, Canadian country music singer and yodeler.
 * Hendrik van den Bergh, 82, South African police official.
 * Roger Vrigny, 77, French writer.

17

 * Burnum Burnum, 61, Australian Aboriginal activist, actor, and author, heart disease.
 * Secondo Magni, 85, Italian racing cyclist.
 * Don Owens, 65, American gridiron football player.
 * David Schweitzer, 72, Israeli football player and manager.
 * Richard Skalak, 74, American biomedical engineering pioneer.

18

 * Praphas Charusathien, 84, Thai military officer and politician.
 * Fedor Hanžeković, 84, Croatian film director.
 * Don Knight, 64, English actor (The Apple Dumpling Gang, Swamp Thing, The Hawaiians), stroke.
 * Maria Prymachenko, 89, Ukrainian folk art painter.
 * Frank P. Sanders, 78, American Under Secretary of the Navy (1972–73).
 * Robert Swenson, 40, American professional wrestler (WCCW) and actor (Batman & Robin, Bulletproof), heart failure.
 * Harry R. Wellman, 98, American academic.

19

 * Cathleen Cordell, 82, American actress, emphysema.
 * Jim Karcher, 83, American gridiron football player.
 * Robson Lowe, 92, English philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer.
 * Petr Novák, 51, Czech rock musician, poisoned.
 * Mario Velarde, 57, Mexican football player.

20

 * Norris Bradbury, 88, American physicist, infectious disease.
 * William Humphrey, 73, American writer, cancer.
 * Leo Jaffe, 88, American film executive.
 * Bob Switzer, 83, American inventor, businessman and environmentalist, Parkinson's disease.

21

 * Misael Pastrana Borrero, 73, President of Colombia.
 * Somers Cox, 86, New Zealand rower and Olympian.
 * Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai, Afghani politician and diplomat, plane crash.
 * Jean Horsley, 84, New Zealand artist.
 * William Jopling, 86, Italian-British leprologist.
 * Yuri Nikulin, 75, Soviet/Russian actor and clown, heart failure.

22

 * Prince Álvaro of Orleans, 87, Spanish noble and Infante.
 * James Edmund Jeffries, 72, American politician.
 * James K. Johnson, 81, United States Air Force officer.
 * François Lachenal, 79, Swiss publisher and diplomat.
 * Eduardo Lopes, 79, Portuguese road and track cyclist, cerebral vascular accident.
 * Matti Sippala, 89, Finnish athlete.
 * Robin Skelton, 71, British-Canadian academic, writer, poet, and anthologist.
 * Mary Louise Smith, 82, American politician and women's rights activist, lung cancer.
 * Brendan Smyth, 70, Northern Irish Roman Catholic priest and convicted child molester, heart attack.
 * Virgil Wagner, 75, Canadian football player.
 * Roy Zimmerman, 79, American gridiron football player.

23

 * Mike Calhoun, 40, American football player (Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
 * Eric Gairy, 75, Prime Minister of Grenada (1974–1979).
 * Buddy Hassett, 85, American baseball player, bone cancer.
 * Lucy Somerville Howorth, 102, American lawyer, feminist and politician.
 * John Kendrew, 80, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
 * Elena Mayorova, 39, Soviet and Russian actress, burns.
 * Jean Poperen, 72, French politician.
 * Jan Šejna, 70, Czechoslovak Army Major General and defector.

24

 * Werner Abrolat, 73, German actor.
 * Davide Ancilotto, 23, Italian basketball player, brain ischemia during game.
 * Hardial Bains, 58, Indian-Canadian microbiology lecturer and communist politician, cancer.
 * Rex Ellsworth, 89, American thoroughbred horse breeder.
 * Louis Essen, 88, English physicist.
 * Tete Montoliu, 64, Spanish jazz pianist, lung cancer.
 * Zofia Rydet, 86, Polish photographer.
 * Edgar F. Shannon, Jr., 79, American university director, cancer.
 * Luigi Villoresi, 88, Italian motor racing driver.

25

 * Clodomiro Almeyda, 74, Chilean politician, colon cancer.
 * Mauro Cristofani, 56, Linguist and researcher in Etruscan studies.
 * Muriel Frances Dana, 80, American silent film era child actress.
 * Peter Dews, 67, British stage director.
 * James Gould, 83, New Zealand rower.
 * Carl Richard Jacobi, 89, American journalist and author.
 * Füreya Koral, 87, Turkish ceramics artist.
 * Noé Murayama, 67, Mexican actor.
 * Bijan Najdi, 55, Iranian writer and poet.
 * Robert Pinget, 78, French avant-garde writer.
 * Camilla Spira, 91, German actress.
 * Vitaly Tulenev, 60, Soviet and Russian painter, visual artist and art teacher.

26

 * Marcello Aliprandi, 63, Italian film director.
 * Hone Glendinning, 85, British cinematographer.
 * William Kenneth Kiernan, 81, Canadian businessman and politician.
 * Brendan McCarthy, 52, American football player, heart attack.

27

 * Sotiria Bellou, 76, Greek singer, cancer.
 * Sally Blane, 87, American actress, cancer.
 * Ing Chang-ki, 79, Chinese industrialist and Go player, cancer.
 * Johannes Edfelt, 92, Swedish writer, poet, and literary critic.
 * Noël Henderson, 69, Northern Irish rugby player.
 * James Lindsay, 90, British politician.
 * Dick N. Lucas, 77, American animator (The Fox and the Hound, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Rescuers).
 * Samuel A. Peeples, 79, American writer, cancer.
 * Brandon Tartikoff, 48, American television executive, Hodgkin's lymphoma.

28

 * Frank Bencriscutto, 68, American concert band conductor and composer.
 * Joyce Ebert, 64, American actress, cancer.
 * Werner Mieth, 85, American gridiron football player.
 * Peter Springett, 51, English footballer, cancer.
 * Masaru Takumi, 61, Japanese yakuza lord, murdered.
 * Lloyd A. Thompson, 65, Nigerian classicist and academic.

29

 * Richard Cottam, 72, American political scientist, Iranist and CIA operative.
 * Osborne Cowles, 98, American basketball player and coach.
 * Kansari Halder, 86, Indian politician.
 * Rudolf Pichlmayr, 65, German surgeon.
 * Nelly Prono, 71, Paraguayan actress, cerebrovascular disease.

30

 * John D. Craig, 94, American writer, film producer, and television host.
 * Frunze Dovlatyan, 70, Armenian film director and actor.
 * Toshiya Fujita, 65, Japanese film director, film actor, and screenwriter, liver failure.
 * Dale Lewis, 64, American wrestler and Olympian.
 * Ernst Wilimowski, 81, German–Polish football player.
 * Veselin Đuranović, 72, Montenegro politician.

31

 * Will Hare, 81, American actor (Back to the Future, The Rose, Silent Night, Deadly Night), heart attack.
 * Heinz Kaufmann, 83, German rower.
 * John M. Leddy, 83, United States Department of State official.
 * Lotus Weinstock, 54, American stand-up comedian, author, musician, and actress, brain tumor.
 * People killed in the 1997 Pont de l'Alma car crash:
 * Diana, Princess of Wales, 36, British royal and activist.
 * Dodi Fayed, 42, Egyptian film producer (Chariots of Fire, Hook).
 * Henri Paul, 41, French chauffeur.