Deaths in January 1989

The following is a list of notable deaths in January 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

 * Charles Cornell, 77, American Communist (Socialist Workers Party).
 * Musa Mwariama, 61, Kenyan revolutionary leader (Mau Mau rebellion), ingested snake venom.
 * Joseph Petre, 74, English peer.
 * G. Sankara Pillai, 58, Indian playwright, literary critic and director.
 * Anthony Pini, 86, Argentinian-Scottish cellist (London Philharmonic Orchestra).
 * Irvin Shapiro, 82, American producer, film importer and film distributor, complications from Parkinson's disease.
 * Aleka Stratigou, 62, Greek actress

2

 * Safdar Hashmi, 34, Indian playwright and director, and communist activist, murdered.

3

 * Robert Banks, 67, American chemist (Phillips Petroleum, Perkin Medal).
 * Betty Behrens, 84, British historian and academic (University of Cambridge).
 * Errol Le Cain, 47, British animator and children's book illustrator (Hiawatha's Childhood – Kate Greenaway Medal).
 * Laurence Grafftey-Smith, 96, British diplomat, member of the British Consular Service.
 * Eddie Heywood, 73, American jazz pianist and composer (Soft Summer Breeze, Canadian Sunset).
 * Bernhard Krüger, 84, Nazi German SS Sturmbannführer.
 * Lina Prokofiev, 91, Spanish singer
 * Sergei Sobolev, 80, Soviet mathematician.
 * Robert Thomas, 61, French writer, actor and film director.
 * Nick Virgilio, 60, American haiku poet, heart attack.
 * Jean Willes, 65, American film and television actress (The King and Four Queens, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), liver cancer.

4

 * Srikrishna Alanahalli, 41, Indian novelist and poet (Kaadu, Parasangada Gendethimma).
 * Ratanlal Brahmin, 88, Indian politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Pino Calvi, 58, Italian pianist, conductor and composer (Accarezzame).
 * Junko Furuta, 17, Japanese student, murdered.
 * Clare Leighton, 91, English–American artist, writer and illustrator, known for wood engravings.
 * D. R. Nanayakkara, 73, Sri Lankan cinema actor (Rekava, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
 * Robert Watson Pomeroy, 86, American businessman and politician, member of the New York Senate, heart failure.
 * Naomi Chapman Woodroof, 88, American agriculturalist, known for increasing peanut yields five-fold.

5

 * Philip Herschkowitz, 82, Romanian-born composer and music theorist.
 * Dexter Masters, 79, American editor and novelist (One World or None: a Report to the Public on the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb).
 * Nell O'Day, 79, American equestrian and actress, heart attack.

6

 * Eduardo Balderas, 81, Mexican-born American translator for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
 * Hans von Campenhausen, 85, Baltic German Protestant theologian.
 * Jim Hurtubise, 56, American race car driver, winner of 1966 Atlanta 500, heart attack.
 * Illingworth "Buck" Kerr, 83, Canadian painter, known for landscape paintings of Saskatchewan and Alberta prairies and foothills, suicide.
 * Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, 69, American figure in civil rights and women's movement, director of the United States Women's Bureau, heart attack.
 * Sir Edmund Leach, 78, British social anthropologist, president of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
 * Elisa Lispector, 77, Brazilian novelist (Além da Fronteira, O Muro de Pedras).
 * George Mercer, 44, American rapist and murderer, executed.
 * John Donald Robb, 96, American composer and arts administrator.
 * Kehar Singh, 53–54, Indian co-conspirator in the Indira Gandhi assassination, executed.
 * Satwant Singh, 26–27, Indian co-assassin of Indira Gandhi, executed.

7

 * Frank Adams, 58, British mathematician, Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge (Adams spectral sequence, Adams conjecture).
 * Alfred Dieck, 82, German archaeologist whose work has been largely discredited.
 * Hirohito, 87, longest reigning Emperor of Japan, cancer.
 * Josef Moll, 80, Nazi German Wehrmacht and West German Bundeswehr officer, Inspector of the Army.
 * Aslam Pahalwan, 61, Pakistani professional wrestler and world heavyweight champion.
 * Timothy Plowman, 44, American ethnobotanist, known for study of Erythroxylum, AIDS contracted from inoculations.
 * Stuart Rhodes, 78, English cricketer (Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club).

8

 * Mieczysław G. Bekker, 83–84, Polish American vehicular engineer, contributed to design and construction of the Lunar Roving Vehicle.
 * Ronald DiPerna, 41, American mathematician in nonlinear partial differential equations.
 * Johnny Jordaan, 64, Dutch singer of levenslied.
 * Kenneth McMillan, 56, American actor (Rhoda, Dune), liver disease.

9

 * Richard Barr, 71, American theatre director and producer, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers, AIDS-related liver failure.
 * Walter Köhler, 91, German Nazi Party politician, Minister President of Baden.
 * Marshall H. Stone, 85, American mathematician at Harvard (Stone–von Neumann uniqueness theorem), stroke.
 * Bill Terry, 90, American Major League baseballer (New York Giants).
 * John K. Waters, 82, American general in the U.S. Army, heart failure.

10

 * Chris Avram, 57, Romanian-Italian film actor
 * Yi Eungro, 84, Korean-born French painter and printmaker, heart attack.
 * Kai Fjell, 81, Norwegian painter.
 * Karl Geiringer, 89, Austrian-American musicologist and biographer of composers, complications from a fall.
 * Valentin Glushko, 80, Soviet engineer, program manager of the Soviet space program.
 * Royal Little, 92, American founder and chair of Textron.
 * Herbert Morrison, 83, American radio journalist, voice of the Hindenburg disaster.
 * Colin Winchester, 55, assistant commissioner in the Australian Federal Police, assassinated.

11

 * George Abell, 84, English civil servant and cricketer, director of the Bank of England.
 * Hai Deng, 86, Chinese Buddhist monk and martial artist, emeritus abbot of Shaolin Temple.
 * Michael Forrestal, 61, American National Security Advisor of President John F. Kennedy, aneurysm.
 * Ray Moore, 47, British broadcaster, host of early morning show on BBC Radio 2, throat cancer.
 * José Bustamante y Rivero, 94, Peruvian politician and diplomat, President of Peru.
 * Jackie Wright, 84, Northern Irish comedian, bald-headed sidekick of Benny Hill.

12

 * Ray Morehart, 89, American Major League baseballer (Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees).
 * Percy Price Jr., 52, American amateur boxer and Olympian.
 * Nikos Psacharopoulos, 60, Greek-American theatre producer and director, co-founder of Williamstown Theater Festival, colon cancer.
 * Satyam, 55–56, Indian composer.
 * Willy Schneider, 83, German schlager singer.

13

 * Hermann Bartels, 88, Nazi German architect and member of the SS.
 * Sterling Allen Brown, 87, American professor and poet, Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia, leukemia.
 * Thelma Cazalet-Keir, 89, British feminist and politician, Member of Parliament (Conservative Party).
 * Candy Csencsits, 33, American professional female bodybuilder and actress, breast cancer.
 * Hiram E. McCallum, 89, Canadian politician, Mayor of Toronto.
 * John Moorman, 83, English Bishop of Ripon.
 * José María Peña, 93, Spanish international footballer and manager, Olympian.
 * Joe Spinell, 52, American actor (The Godfather, Rocky, Taxi Driver)

14

 * Ernie Blake, 75, German-American co-founder of Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico, pneumonia.
 * Robert Lekachman, 68, American economist, promoter of social justice, liver cancer.
 * Robert Lembke, 75, German television presenter and game show host (Was bin ich? – What's my Line)
 * Ramesh Prasad Mohapatra, 49, Indian archaeologist, curator for archaeology at Odisha State Museum.
 * Marco Vassi, 51, American author, noted for erotica, pneumonia.
 * Richard Warner, 77, English actor (George and Margaret, When We Are Married)
 * Nguyễn Văn Xuân, 96, Vietnamese politician, prime minister of Vietnam.

15

 * Wendy Foster, 51, British architect, co-founder of Team 4 and Foster Associates, cancer.
 * Helen Logan, 82, American screenwriter.
 * Ibrahim Shihab, 65, Maldivian writer and politician.
 * Wilf Slack, 34, English international cricketer (English national team, Middlesex), heart attack.
 * Trevor Swan, 71, Australian economist (Solow–Swan growth model).

16

 * Mick Baxter, 32, English footballer (Preston North End, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth), cancer.
 * Pierre Boileau, 82, half of French crime-writing duo Boileau-Narcejac (Les Diaboliques, Vertigo).
 * Joseph Henry Lynch, 77, British artist (Tina, Autumn Leaves, Woodland Goddess).
 * Prem Nazir, 62, Indian actor (Vida Parayum Munpe, Iruttinte Athmavu), measles.
 * George Ray Tweed, 86, American radioman in the U.S. Navy, known for evading capture for more than two years, car accident.
 * Trey Wilson, 40, American actor (Raising Arizona, Bull Durham), cerebral hemorrhage.

17

 * Gordon Allott, 82, American politician (Republican), U.S. Senator.
 * Wajid Ali Khan Burki, 88, Pakistani ophthalmologist, lung cancer.
 * Michael Francke, 42, American judge, director of New Mexico and Oregon Corrections Departments, murdered.
 * Sam Longson, 88, British businessman, chairman of Derby County Football Club.
 * Óscar Vargas Prieto, 71, Peruvian soldier and politician, Prime Minister of Peru.
 * Georges Schéhadé, 83, Lebanese playwright and poet (Histoire de Vasco).
 * Alfredo Zitarrosa, 52, Uruguayan singer-songwriter and poet (Doña Soledad, Crece desde el Pie, Recordándote).

18

 * Bruce Chatwin, 48, British travel writer and novelist (On the Black Hill, Utz), AIDS.
 * Buster Clarkson, 73, American Major League and Negro League baseballer (Boston Braves).
 * John D. Hickerson, 90, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Philippines and Finland, cancer.
 * Irving Resnick, 72, American mobster, boxing promoter and manager, heart failure.

19

 * Devi Dja, 74, Indonesian-American dancer, actress and singer (Dardanella theatre company), cancer.
 * Viva Tattersall, 90, British stage and film actress (The Whispering Shadow).
 * Norma Varden, 90, English-American actress (Casablanca, The White Cliffs of Dover, The Sound of Music), heart failure.
 * Octavio Vial, 70, Mexican international football manager and World Cup coach.

20

 * Mete Adanır, 27, Turkish Cypriot footballer (Altay, Samsunspor), team bus accident.
 * Józef Cyrankiewicz, 77, Polish communist politician, prime minister and president of Poland.
 * John Harding, 92, British Army Field Marshall, Governor of Cyprus.
 * Alamgir Kabir, 50, Bangladeshi film director and cultural activist, drowned.
 * Beatrice Lillie, 94, Canadian-British actress, singer and comedic performer (Inside U.S.A., High Spirits).
 * Whistlin' Alex Moore, 89, American blues pianist and singer (Blue Bloomer Blues, Black Eyed Peas and Hog Jowls), heart attack.
 * Morris Starsky, 55, American political and social activist, philosophy professor (Arizona State University), heart disease.
 * Halsey Stevens, 80, American music professor, biographer and composer.

21

 * Muharrem Bajraktari, 92, Albanian Muslim guerrilla fighter (National Committee for a Free Albania).
 * William O. Burch, 84, American rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
 * Morley Drury, 85, Canadian-American footballer (University of Southern California).
 * Carl Furillo, 66, American Major League baseball player (Brooklyn & Los Angeles Dodgers), heart attack.
 * Leslie Halliwell, 59, British film critic (Filmgoer's Companion, Halliwell's Film Guide), esophageal cancer.
 * Gulabrao Patil, 67, Indian politician, Member of Parliament.
 * Robert H. Pierson, 78, American president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
 * Billy Tipton, (Dorothy Lucille Tipton), 74, American transgender jazz musician and bandleader, peptic ulcer.

22

 * Miodrag Andrić, 45, Serbian actor.
 * James Francis Collins, 83, American general in the U.S. Army, prostate cancer.
 * Sydney Goldstein, 85, British mathematician (Fluid dynamics).
 * Joseph Mattsson-Boze, 83, Swedish-American minister, pastor of Chicago's Philadelphia Church.
 * Ugo Pignotti, 90, Italian fencer and Olympic gold medalist.
 * S. Vithiananthan, 64, Sri Lankan writer, vice-chancellor of the University of Jaffna.
 * Willie Wells, 82, American Negro League baseballer, congestive heart failure.
 * Sándor Weöres, 75, Hungarian poet and author.

23

 * George Case, 73, American Major League baseballer (Washington Senators), emphysema.
 * Nguyễn Minh Châu, 58, Vietnamese novelist.
 * Salvador Dalí, 84, Spanish artist (Cabaret Scene, The Basket of Bread, The First Days of Spring), cardiac arrest.
 * M. Govindan, 69, Indian writer and cultural activist (Nokkukuthi).
 * Robert Kelly, 75, American officer in the U.S. Navy, known for evacuating General Douglas MacArthur from the Philippines, pneumonia.
 * John Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 81, Italian-born British peer and soldier, member of the House of Lords.
 * Hans Karl Meyer, 90, Nazi German admiral in the Kriegsmarine and flotilla admiral of the West German navy.
 * Angus Morrison, 86, English pianist, Order of the British Empire.
 * Lars-Erik Torph, 28, Swedish rally driver, rally crash as a spectator.
 * Gilbert L. Voss, 70–71, American conservationist and oceanographer (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute).

24

 * Ted Bundy, 42, American serial killer, executed.
 * Matelo Ferret, 70–71, French guitarist and composer, cancer.
 * Roberto Figueroa, 84, Uruguayan international footballer and Olympic gold medalist.
 * George Knudson, 51, Canadian professional golfer, cancer.
 * Sasha Putrya, 11, Ukrainian artist, leukemia.
 * Michael Scott, 83, Irish architect (Busáras building, Cork Opera House, Abbey Theatre).
 * Les Spann, 56, American jazz guitarist and flautist.
 * Chauncey Stillman, 81, American philanthropist, art collector, conservationist and banking heir.
 * Siegfried Wischnewski, 66, German stage and film actor (Derrick, Der Kommissar)

25

 * David Basnett, 64, British trade union leader, president of the Trades Union Congress.
 * Carlisle H. Humelsine, 73, American diplomat and military officer, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration.
 * Gustavo Álvarez Martínez, 51, Honduran military officer, head of the Honduran armed forces, assassinated.
 * Alvin Robinson, 51, American rhythm and blues singer, guitarist and songwriter (Something You Got).
 * Bikki Sunazawa, 57, Japanese woodcarver, painter, artist and sculptor, bone marrow cancer.
 * Dave Underwood, 60, English footballer.

26

 * Morton DaCosta, 74, American theatre and film director and producer, writer and actor (Plain and Fancy, Auntie Mame, The Music Man), heart failure.
 * Donnie Elbert, 52, American soul singer and songwriter (Where Did Our Love Go, I Can't Help Myself), stroke.
 * William Forrest, 86, American theatre, film and television actor, heart failure.
 * Albert Hofstadter, 78, American philosopher.
 * H. Claude Hudson, 102, American businessman and civil rights advocate, founder of Broadway Federal Savings and Loan Association.
 * Segundo Llorente, 82, Spanish Jesuit missionary, philosopher and author.

27

 * Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, 62, Irish writer (Dialann Deoraí, Deoraithe).
 * Abu Baker Asvat, 46, South African medical doctor, murdered.
 * David Buck, 52, English actor and voice actor (Horatio Hornblower, The Lord of the Rings)
 * Bayani Casimiro, 70, Filipino dancer.
 * Bob Haymes, 65, American singer, songwriter, actor and radio and television presenter (That's All), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
 * Robert A. Henle, 65–66, American electrical engineer (semiconductors).
 * Vasily Konovalenko, 59, Soviet artist (gemstone sculptures), cerebral hemorrhage.
 * Willibald Kreß, 82, German international footballer and manager (Dresdner SC).
 * Arthur Marshall, 78, British writer, raconteur and broadcaster (Call My Bluff).
 * Sir Thomas Sopwith, 101, British aviation pioneer and yachtsman, European ice hockey champion.

28

 * Michael Behrens, 77, British financier, banker, stockbroker, and restaurant and gallery owner, co-owner of the Ionian Bank.
 * Eugene Emond, 68, American officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
 * Choekyi Gyaltsen, Panchen Lama, 50, Tibetan Buddhist leader, heart attack.
 * Halina Konopacka, 88, Polish discus thrower and Olympic gold medalist.
 * Olli Puhakka, 72, Finnish Air Force ace in World War II.
 * Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia, 80, Indian scholar and archaeologist.
 * Marc Stevens, 45, American erotic performer, AIDS.
 * Yoshimaro Yamashina, 88, Japanese ornithologist.

29

 * Federico Cantú Garza, 81, Mexican painter, engraver and sculptor.
 * Mandel Kramer, 72, American actor and voice actor (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar).

30

 * Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz, 52, heir of the Spanish monarchy in the event of restoration, skiing accident.
 * Pegeen Fitzgerald, 84, American radio personality (The Fitzgeralds), breast cancer.
 * Jack George, 60, American NBA basketballer (Philadelphia Warriors, New York Knicks).
 * Friedrich Solmsen, 84, German-American philologist and professor of classical studies.

31

 * Yasushi Akutagawa, 63, Japanese composer and conductor.
 * Audrey Beecham, 73, English poet and historian, asthma.
 * Jack Douglas, 80, American comedy writer.
 * Bob Dunn, 80, American cartoonist, entertainer and gagwriter.
 * Arthur Reginald Evans, 83, Australian coastwatcher, rescuer of JFK.
 * Fernando Gonçalves Namora, 69, Portuguese writer and medical doctor (Retalhos da Vida de um Médico).
 * William Stephenson, 92, Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster (British Security Co-ordination).

Unknown date

 * Lewis Goram, 63, Scottish footballer (Bury F.C.).
 * Leo Holzer, 86–87, Austrian-Czech firefighter and Holocaust survivor.
 * Oliver Sipple, 47, American who prevented assassination attempt on U.S. President Gerald Ford.
 * Violet Winspear, 60, British romance author, cancer.