Deaths in January 1988

The following is a list of notable deaths in January 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

 * Margot Bryant, 90, English actress (Coronation Street).
 * Albert Decaris, 86, French artist.
 * Marcel Hillaire, 79, German-American character actor (Sabrina, Take the Money and Run).
 * Clementine Hunter, 101, American folk artist.
 * Anwar Hussain, 62, Indian actor and producer.

2

 * Dada Bhagwan, 79, Indian spiritual leader, founded the Akram Vignan movement.
 * Bill Crawford-Compton, 72, New Zealand flying ace of Royal Air Force during the World War II.
 * E. B. Ford, 86, British ecological geneticist.
 * Jesse Gray, 64, American civil rights leader and politician, member of the New York State Assembly.
 * Fritz Heider, 91, Austrian psychologist.
 * Yukio Kasahara, 98, general in the Imperial Japanese Army.
 * Varadarajan Mudaliar, 61, Indian crime boss, heart attack.
 * Lia Zoppelli, 67, Italian actress.

3

 * Rose Ausländer, 86, Austro-Hungarian-poet.
 * William Cagney, 82, American actor (Lost in the Stratosphere, Flirting with Danger), brother of James Cagney, heart attack.
 * Joie Chitwood, 75, American racecar driver and businessman.
 * John Dopyera, 94, Slovak-American inventor (resonator guitar).
 * Gaston Eyskens, 82, Belgian politician, Prime Minister of Belgium.
 * Bill Gibb, 44, Scottish fashion designer, bowel cancer.
 * Patrick McGeehan, 80, American actor (Aunt Mary, The Red Skelton Show), cerebral hemorrhage.
 * Franz Muxeneder, 67, Austrian actor (The White Horses).

4

 * Ruth Bleier, 64, American neurophysiologist, cancer.
 * Mary Jane Carr, 92, American author (Young Mac of Fort Vancouver).
 * Alice Duncan-Kemp, 86, Australian writer and indigenous rights activist.
 * Henfil, 43, Brazilian cartoonist, caricaturist, journalist and writer, AIDS from blood transfusion.
 * Charles Phibbs Jones, 81, Irish-born general in the British Army.
 * Lily Laskine, 94, French harpist.
 * Carl Shipp Marvel, 93, American chemist (Polybenzimidazole).
 * Jane Seitz, 45, German film editor, suicide.
 * Chin Sophonpanich, 77, Thai entrepreneur, founded Bangkok Bank and Bangkok Insurance.

5

 * Joe Keohane, 69, Irish Gaelic football manager and player (John Mitchels, Kerry).
 * "Pistol" Pete Maravich, 40, American basketball player (Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Jazz), heart failure.
 * Harold Matson, 89, American literary agent, founder of Harold Matson Company.
 * Go Mishima, 63–64, Japanese homoerotic fetish artist, founder of magazine Sabu, complications from cirrhosis.
 * Herbert Waddell, 85, Scottish international rugby union player.

6

 * Brent Collins, 46, American actor (As the World Turns, Another World), heart attack.
 * L. P. Davies, 73, British novelist.
 * Bern Dibner, 90, Ukrainian-American electrical engineer, industrialist and historian of science and technology.

7

 * Michel Auclair, 65, German-born French actor (Funny Face, The Day of the Jackal).
 * Zara Cisco Brough, 69, Chief of the Nipmuc Nation.
 * Roy Dennis, 82, American college football coach (Occidental College).
 * Frieda Fordham, 84, British psychiatric social worker.
 * Carlo Hintermann, 64, Italian actor, traffic accident.
 * Trevor Howard, 74, English actor (Brief Encounter, The Third Man, Sons and Lovers), cirrhosis of the liver.
 * Arthur R. M. Lower, 98, Canadian historian.
 * Venko Markovski, 72, Bulgarian and Macedonian writer, poet and Communist politician.
 * Liao Mengxing, 83, Chinese political activist, secretary of the Soong Ching-ling.
 * La Meri, 88, American dancer and choreographer.
 * Michael Mills, 68, English television producer and director (Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em).
 * Marilyn Schreffler, 42, American voice actress (Olive Oyl), liver cancer.

8

 * Vyacheslav Aleksandrov, 20, Soviet Guards Junior Sergeant and squad commander in the Afghanistan war, Mujahideen attack.
 * Ray Bauduc, 81, American jazz drummer.
 * Gérard Buhr, 59, French film and television actor.
 * Jared French, 82, American painter.
 * Einar Gjerstad, 90, Swedish archaeologist (Lund University).
 * Boyd "Red" Morgan, 72, American NFL footballer (Washington Redskins) and actor (The Amazing Transparent Man).
 * Frank Pace, 75, American politician, U.S. Secretary of the Army, heart attack.
 * Frank J. Zappala, 89, American politician and lawyer, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, heart failure.

9

 * Gregory Ain, 79, American architect.
 * Florence Eiseman, 88, American fashion designer, emphysema.
 * Gombloh, 39, Indonesian singer and songwriter, lung disease.
 * Juraj Krnjević, 92, Croatian politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
 * Thierry Maulnier, 78, French journalist and dramatist.
 * Jukichi Uno, 73, Japanese actor.

10

 * Ronald King, 78, New Zealand rugby union player (West Coast, New Zealand All Blacks).
 * Bai T. Moore, 71, Liberian poet and novelist (Murder in the Cassava Patch), heart attack.
 * Hugh A. Robertson, 55, American film director and editor (Midnight Cowboy), cancer.

11

 * Pappy Boyington, 75, American combat pilot and U.S. Marine Corps fighter ace during World War II, lung cancer.
 * George Ewart Evans, 78, British writer and folklorist.
 * David Gaines, 40, American environmentalist, founder of the Mono Lake Committee, car accident.
 * Robert F. Kennon, 85, American politician and judge, Governor of Louisiana.
 * Con O'Neill, 75, British diplomat, British Ambassador to China and Finland.
 * Isidor Isaac Rabi, 89, Austro-Hungarian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Laureate, cancer.
 * John J. Williams, 83, American businessman and politician, U.S. Senator, heart and respiratory failure.

12

 * Joe Albany, 63, American modern jazz pianist, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
 * Hiram Bingham IV, 84, American diplomat (U.S. Foreign Service).
 * Martin Cecil, 78, Anglo-Canadian peer, Marquess of Exeter (Emissaries of Divine Light).
 * Spencer Chan, 95, American actor.
 * Suniti Choudhury, 70, Indian nationalist, co-assassin of a British magistrate.
 * Giuseppe Insalaco, 46, Italian politician, Mayor of Palermo, murdered by the mafia.
 * Connie Mulder, 62, South African politician and cabinet minister, cancer.
 * Bruno Prevedi, 59, Italian tenor.
 * Piero Taruffi, 81, Italian racing driver.
 * F. D. Washington, 75, American minister.

13

 * Viktors Arājs, 78, Russian-Nazi officer, leader of the Arajs Kommando.
 * Chiang Ching-kuo, 77, Chinese politician, eldest son of Chiang Kai-shek, president of Taiwan, heart attack.
 * Donald Healey, 89, English car designer, rally driver and speed record holder.
 * Kenneth Marks, 67, British politician, member of Parliament.
 * Alfred Easton Poor, 88, American architect (James Madison Memorial Building).

14

 * Walter Assef, 74, Canadian politician and Vaudevillian, mayor of Thunder Bay.
 * Vladimir Lavrinenkov, 68, Soviet fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union.
 * Jimmy Maelen, 47, American percussionist, leukemia.
 * Georgy Malenkov, 86, Soviet politician, Premier of the Soviet Union.

15

 * Arthur James Richard Ash, 81, Canadian politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
 * Ingeborg Beling, 83, German ethologist (chronobiology).
 * Seán MacBride, 83, Irish Republican Army leader and politician, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize.
 * Carlos Rangel, 58, Venezuelan writer, journalist and diplomat, suicide.
 * Gibreab Teferi, 65, Ethiopian activist, poet and playwright.
 * Maurice K. Temerlin, 64, American psychologist and author, heart attack.

16

 * Andrija Artuković, 88, Croatian lawyer and politician, Minister of Interior of Croatia.
 * Ballard Berkeley, 83, English actor (Fawlty Towers).
 * Harlan Hubbard, 88, American artist and writer.
 * Lakshmi Kant Jha, 74, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, kidney failure.
 * Bob Keegan, 63, British actor (Z-Cars, The First Lady), lung cancer.

17

 * Belle Baranceanu, 85, American artist
 * Leela Mishra, 80, Indian actress (Sholay), heart attack.
 * Roy Padilla Sr., 61, Filipino politician, governor of Camarines Norte, assassinated.
 * Percy Qoboza, 50, South African journalist, author and critic of the apartheid government, heart attack.
 * Skeeter Skelton, 59, American lawman and firearms writer.
 * Charlotte Wassef, 75, Egyptian beauty queen, Miss World 1935.
 * Edward Weinfeld, 86, American judge of the U.S. District Court, cancer.

18

 * Chauncey Eskridge, 70, American attorney, attorney for Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr..
 * Jean Mitry, 83, French film theorist, critic and filmmaker.
 * Angelo de Mojana di Cologna, 82, Italian Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, heart attack.
 * John Rossiter, 74, Australian politician, member of Victorian Legislative Assembly, father of Susan Renouf.

19

 * Amelia Bayntun, 68, English actress (Blitz!, Carry On).
 * Bridget Boland, 74, Irish-British screenwriter (War and Peace, Gaslight), playwright and novelist.
 * Cesare Brandi, 81, Italian art critic and historian.
 * Gladys Elphick, 83, Australian founding president of the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia.
 * Yevgeny Mravinsky, 84, Russian conductor and pianist, heart attack.

20

 * Paul Esser, 74, German actor (Sender Freies Berlin).
 * Abdul Ghaffar Khan, 97, Pakistani independence activist, stroke.
 * Philippe de Rothschild, 85, French Grand Prix motor racing driver, screenwriter and playwright.
 * Dora Stratou, 84–85, Greek actress and choreographer.

21

 * Vincent Lingiari, 79, Australian Aboriginal rights activist.
 * Werner Nachmann, 62, German politician, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, heart failure.
 * Abraham Sofaer, 91, Burmese-born British actor (Victoria Regina, A Matter of Life and Death), congestive heart failure.
 * Zev Vilnay, 87, Moldovan-Israeli geographer, author and lecturer.

22

 * Parker Fennelly, 96, American actor (The Trouble with Harry).
 * Nadia Russo, 86, Romanian military aviator during World War II.

23

 * Bantcho Bantchevsky, 81, Bulgarian-born American singer, public suicide.
 * Dan Daniel, 73, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, heart attack.
 * Johnny Gee, 72, American Major League baseballer (Pittsburgh Pirates).
 * Charles Glen King, 91, American biochemist (Vitamin C), heart failure.
 * Ann Rork Light, 79, American silent-screen actress, emphysema and lung cancer.
 * Hollingsworth Morse, 77, American television director.

24

 * Anthony Courtney, 79, British Royal Navy officer and politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Werner Fenchel, 82, German-Danish mathematician (Fenchel's duality theorem).
 * Lorenzo Greene, 88, American historian of black history.
 * Trygve Nagell, 92, Norwegian mathematician (Diophantine equations).

25

 * Jurgis Baltrušaitis, 84, Lithuanian art historian and art critic.
 * Steve Chomyszak, 43, American AFL and NFL footballer (Cincinnati Bengals), pancreatic cancer.
 * Carlos Mauro Hoyos, 48, Colombian jurist and politician, Inspector General of Colombia, assassinated.
 * Boris Kulagin, 63, Soviet ice hockey player and coach.
 * Colleen Moore, 88, American silent-screen actress (Flaming Youth), cancer.

26

 * Raymond Charles Barker, 76, American author, leader of the New Thought spiritual movement, cerebral hemorrhage.
 * Allan Watt Downie, 86, Scottish microbiologist (eradication of smallpox).
 * Paul G. Goebel, 86, American NFL footballer (Columbus Panhandles) and politician (mayor of Grand Rapids).
 * K. P. Hormis, 70, Indian banker and lawyer (Federal Bank).
 * Gershon Iskowitz, 68, Polish-Canadian artist.
 * Calum MacLeod, 76, crofter who built Calum's Road on the Island of Raasay.
 * Hugh J. Schonfield, 86, British bible scholar.
 * Raymond Williams, 66, Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic.
 * Freddie Wolff, 77, British runner and Olympic gold medalist.

27

 * Massa Makan Diabaté, 49, Malian historian, author and playwright (Le lieutenant de Kouta).
 * Edward Pawley, 86, American actor of radio, films and Broadway (Two Seconds, Elmer Gantry), heart condition.

28

 * Frederick Sumner Brackett, 91, American physicist (spectroscopy).
 * Klaus Fuchs, 76, German theoretical physicist and Soviet spy.
 * Dick Pope Sr., 87, American founder of Cypress Gardens.
 * Luska Twyman, 74, American politician, mayor of Glasgow, Kentucky.

29

 * Hilda Charlton, 81–82, English-born American professional dancer and spiritual teacher.
 * Howard Clewes, 75, English screenwriter and novelist (The Day They Robbed the Bank of England).
 * Mihiel Gilormini, 69, Puerto Rican U.S. Air Force officer in World War II.
 * James Rhyne Killian, 83, American president of MIT, chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
 * Seth Neddermeyer, 80, American physicist, co-discovered the muon, worked on Manhattan Project, Parkinson's disease.
 * Rogier van Otterloo, 46, Dutch composer and conductor, mesothelioma.

30

 * Eddie Cano, 60, American Jazz pianist and composer, heart attack.
 * Bum Day, 89, American college footballer (Georgia Bulldogs).
 * Wallace Groves, 86, American financier and fraudster, stroke.
 * S. K. Wankhede, 73, Indian cricket administrator, politician, Deputy speaker of Bombay Legislative Assembly.

31

 * David Ahern, 40, Australian composer and music critic, asthma attack.
 * Homer Brightman, 86, American screenwriter (Cinderella, The Three Caballeros).
 * Wallace Kyle, 78, Australian Air Chief Marshal, Governor of Western Australia.
 * Harold Loeffelmacher, 81, American musician and bandleader.
 * Agus Subekti, 67, Indonesian admiral, commander of the Indonesian Marine Corps, Vice Governor of West Irian.

Unknown date

 * Ilona Fehér, 86, Hungarian violinist (Hungarian violin school).