Deaths in January 1998

The following is a list of notable deaths in January 1998.

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

 * John F. Bateman, 83, American football player and coach.
 * Piero Filippone, 86, Italian art director.
 * Jack Forsey, 84, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Dennis Hatsell, 67, English football player.
 * Alfred Lagarde, 49, Dutch radio personality, stroke.
 * Haxhi Lleshi, 84, Albanian military leader and communist politician.
 * Xanthe Ryder, 71, British alpine skier and Olympian.
 * Åke Seyffarth, 78, Swedish speed skater and road cyclist.
 * Helen Wills Moody, 92, American tennis player.

2

 * Max Colpet, 92, American writer, scriptwriter and lyricist.
 * Sergei Frolov, 73, Soviet/Russian realist painter and graphic artist.
 * Virginia Galante Garrone, 91, Italian writer.
 * Donald McCormick, 86, British journalist and popular historian.
 * Frank Muir, 77, English comedy writer and radio and television personality.
 * Fred Naumetz, 75, American gridiron football player.
 * Rell Sunn, 47, American World surfing champion, cancer.
 * Nick Venet, 61, American record producer, Burkitt's lymphoma.

3

 * Wayne Ambler, 82, American baseball player.
 * Essie Coffey, 56, Australian Aboriginal community leader.
 * Howard Gilman, 73, American philanthropist and art collector, heart attack.
 * William Russell Kelly, 92, American businessman, cancer.
 * Margot Lumb, 85, English squash and tennis player.
 * George Shaw, 64, American gridiron football player.
 * Geoffrey Watson, 76, Australian statistician.

4

 * Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 103, Italian film director, complications from a fall.
 * Raymond Léopold Bruckberger, 90, French Dominican priest, writer, and screenwriter.
 * Thomas F. Frist, Sr., 87, American physician and businessman.
 * John Gary, 65, American singer, recording artist, and television host.
 * Roland Kaiser, 54, German actor and voice actor.
 * Ahmed Mohiuddin, 74, Pakistani scientist and scholar.
 * Giuseppe Primavera, 80, Italian chess player.
 * Sally Purcell, 53, British poet and translator, lymphoma of brain cells.
 * Mae Questel, 89, American actress (Betty Boop), Alzheimer's disease.
 * Francisco Soc Rodrigo, 83, Filipino playwright, broadcaster, lawyer and politician.
 * Rudy Sikich, 76, American gridiron football player.
 * Yusif Yusifov, 68, Soviet and Azerbaijani linguist and historian.

5

 * Hugo Avendaño, 70, Mexican singer and actor, pancreatic cancer.
 * David Bairstow, 46, English cricketer, suicide.
 * Sonny Bono, 62, American singer-songwriter, actor and politician, skiing accident.
 * Alik Cavaliere, 71, Italian sculptor.
 * Ana Cortés, 102, Chilean painter.
 * Ken Forssi, 54, American musician, brain tumor, brain cancer.
 * Roy Mayne, 62, American stock car racing driver.

6

 * Walt Barnes, 79, American football player and actor, diabetes.
 * Richard Clutterbuck, 80, British army general and military historian.
 * Otello Colangeli, 85, Italian film editor.
 * Jack T. Conway, 80, American labor unionist.
 * Alice Frost, 87, American actress.
 * Victorine du Pont Homsey, 97, American architect.
 * Murray Salem, 47, American television actor and screenwriter, AIDS-related complications.
 * Otto Schmitt, 84, American inventor, engineer and biophysicist.
 * Georgy Sviridov, 82, Soviet and Russian composer, heart attack.

7

 * Owen Bradley, 82, American musician and record producer.
 * Roger Dean, 84, Australian politician.
 * Jacqueline deWit, 85, American actress.
 * Richard Hamming, 82, American mathematician, heart attack.
 * Dorothy Leavey, 101, American philanthropist.
 * Alva Liles, 41, American gridiron football player.
 * Slava Metreveli, 61, Soviet and Georgian football player and manager.
 * Hiker Moran, 86, American baseball player
 * Valerio Perentin, 88, Italian rower and Olympian.
 * Vladimir Prelog, 91, Croatian-Swiss organic chemist.
 * Frank Roberts, 90, British diplomat.
 * Lawrence Treat, 94, American mystery writer.
 * Tere Velázquez, 55, Mexican actress, colorectal cancer.
 * Dorothy Wilson, 88, American film actress.

8

 * Doug Anderson, 70, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Bill Corbus, 86, American gridiron football player.
 * Walter Diemer, 94, American inventor of bubble gum, congestive heart failure.
 * Marie-Madeleine Dienesch, 83, French politician.
 * Tony Lavelli, 71, American basketball player and musician, heart attack.
 * Denys Lombard, 59, French historian and sinologist.
 * Akihiko Mori, 32, Japanese video game music composer, cancer.
 * Max Morris, 72, American basketball and gridiron football player.
 * Sam Perrin, 96, American screenwriter.
 * Shamima Shaikh, 37, South African journalist and Muslim women's rights activist, breast cancer.
 * Raziuddin Siddiqui, 90, Pakistan-born American physicist.
 * Michael Tippett, 90, English composer, pneumonia.

9

 * Hugo Zepeda Barrios, 90, Chilean politician and lawyer.
 * Paul H. Dunn, 73, American Mormon leader.
 * Kenichi Fukui, 79, Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize laureate, cancer.
 * Alberto Isaac, 74, Mexican swimmer, film director and screenwriter.
 * Imi Lichtenfeld, 87, Israeli martial artist.
 * Lia Manoliu, 65, Romanian discus thrower and Olympian, heart attack.
 * Kathleen Shannon, 62, Canadian film director and producer, lung cancer.
 * Charito Solis, 62, Filipino film actress, cardiac arrest.

10

 * Deng Guangming, 90, Chinese historian, cancer.
 * Wolfgang Hahn, 86, German mathematician.
 * Mona May Karff, 83, American chess player.
 * Victor Papanek, 74, Austrian-American designer.
 * Mario Santiago Papasquiaro, 44, Mexican poet, traffic accident.

11

 * Joe Becker, 89, American baseball player.
 * Erik Jarvik, 90, Swedish paleontologist.
 * Win Mortimer, 78, Canadian comic book and comic strip artist, cancer.
 * Ellis Rabb, 67, American actor and director, heart failure.
 * Ronald Rylance, 73, English rugby player.
 * Aydan Siyavuş, 50, Turkish basketball player and coach, heart attack.
 * Bedri Spahiu, 89, Albanian politician and general.
 * Klaus Tennstedt, 71, German conductor, cancer.
 * Georgi Vins, 69, Soviet dissident and Baptist pastor.
 * John Wells, 61, English actor, writer and satirist.

12

 * Florence Riefle Bahr, 88, American artist and activist, domestic accident.
 * Ramón Sampedro Cameán, 55, Spanish writer and euthanasia activist, suicide.
 * Roger Clark, 58, British rally driver, stroke.
 * Mark MacGuigan, 66, Canadian academic and politician, liver cancer.
 * Libuše Moníková, 52, Czech writer.
 * Ian Moores, 43, English footballer, cancer.
 * Phyllis Nelson, 47, American singer, breast cancer.
 * Robert Townsend, 77, American businessman and author, heart attack.

13

 * Martin Flämig, 84, German church musician.
 * Mihovil Logar, 95, Yugoslav composer and music writer.
 * Bob Martin, 75, Austrian singer.
 * Muslim Mulliqi, Albanian painter.
 * Andrew Rutherford, 68, British educationalist.

14

 * Safiye Ayla, 90, Turkish classical singer.
 * Tony De Vita, 65, Italian composer, conductor, arranger and pianist.
 * Arturo Enrile, 57, Filipino general, septic shock.
 * Mohammad Ghazi, 84, Iranian writer and translator and writer, laryngeal cancer.
 * Harry Simmons, 90, American baseball executive, writer and historian.

15

 * John A. Anderson, 65, American football coach, heart attack.
 * Hal Baylor, 79, American actor.
 * Marcelline Jayakody, 95, Sri Lankan Catholic priest, musician, author, journalist.
 * Gennady Kolbin, 70, Soviet politician.
 * Marguerite Kuczynski, 93, European economist and literary scholar.
 * Duncan McNaughton, 87, Canadian athlete and Olympian.
 * Gulzarilal Nanda, 99, Indian politician and economist.
 * E. Jack Neuman, 76, American writer and producer.
 * Ahmed Oudjani, 60, Algerian football player.
 * William George Pottinger, 81, British convicted fraudster.
 * Boris Tatushin, 64, Soviet football player and manager.
 * Harriet Van Horne, 77, American newspaper columnist and radio/television critic, breast cancer.
 * Junior Wells, 63, American blues vocalist and harmonica player, lymphoma.

16

 * Gayane C'ebotaryan, 79, Armenian composer and musicologist.
 * Hans Grünberg, 80, German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II.
 * Dimitris Horn, 76, Greek-Austrian actor, cancer.
 * Matti Kuusi, 83, Finnish folklorist, paremiographer and paremiologist.
 * Lorenzo Mongiardino, 81, Italian architect and interior designer, pneumonia.
 * Tommy Pederson, 77, American jazz trombonist and composer.
 * Emil Sitka, 83, American actor, stroke.
 * Luggi Waldleitner, 84, German film producer.

17

 * Alan E. Cober, 62, American illustrator.
 * Zygmunt Czyżewski, 87, Polish ice hockey and football player and manager.
 * Helvi Hämäläinen, 90, Finnish writer.
 * Junior Kimbrough, 67, American blues musician, heart attack.
 * Joseph S. Murphy, 64, American political scientist and university administrator, car accident.
 * Cliffie Stone, 80, American musician and radio and TV personality.
 * Luís Trochillo, 67, Brazilian football player.

18

 * Byron Bailey, 67, American gridiron and Canadian football player.
 * Joan Banks, 79, American actress, lung cancer.
 * Jose Calugas, 90, Filipino-American Philippine Scout and recipient of the Medal of Honor.
 * Guy Charbonneau, 75, Canadian politician.
 * Maria Judite de Carvalho, 76, Portuguese author.
 * Monica Edwards, 85, English children's writer.
 * Dan Georgiadis, 75, Greek football player and manager.
 * Antoine "T.C.D." Lundy, 34, American singer, ALS.
 * Gerry Ottenheimer, 63, Canadian politician.
 * Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, 71, American bank robber and con man, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive, heart attack.
 * Skeets Quinlan, 69, American gridiron football player.
 * Wilhelm Törsleff, 91, Swedish sailor and Olympian.
 * Josip Uhač, 73, Yugoslav-Croatian Apostolic nuncio.
 * James Villiers, 64, English actor, cancer.

19

 * Bengt Eklund, 73, Swedish actor.
 * Cornelis Kalkman, 69, Dutch botanist.
 * Al Negratti, 76, American basketball player and coach, cancer.
 * David Orlikow, 79, Canadian politician.
 * Carl Perkins, 65, American singer-songwriter, esophageal cancer.
 * Abraham Sinkov, 90, American cryptanalyst.
 * DeWitt Weaver, 85, American football player and coach.
 * Larisa Tarkovskaya, 64, Soviet film director and actress, lung cancer.

20

 * Harry Ashmore, 81, American journalist.
 * Bobo Brazil, 73, American professional wrestler, known as "Bobo Brazil", stroke.
 * Jacob Cohen, 74, American psychologist and statistician.
 * Zevulun Hammer, 61, Israeli politician, cancer.

21

 * Mary Bunting, 87, American academic and college president;.
 * Edward Carrick, 93, English art designer, author and illustrator.
 * Larry Gilbert, 55, American golfer, lung cancer.
 * Pakoda Kadhar, 58, Indian actor.
 * Friedrich Kessler, 96, American law professor.
 * Yoshifumi Kondō, 47, Japanese animator (Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke) and film director (Whisper of the Heart), aortic dissection.
 * Donald H. LeBrun, 85, American politician.
 * Jack Lord, 77, American actor (Hawaii Five-O, Dr. No, Stoney Burke), congestive heart failure.
 * Ralph C. Smith, 104, United States Army officer, lung ailment.
 * Louis Thiétard, 87, French cyclist.

22

 * C. Elmer Anderson, 85, American politician.
 * Edward F. Arn, 91, American lawyer and politician.
 * Hendrick Joseph Cornelius Maria de Cocq, 91, Dutch Roman Catholic bishop.
 * Harold Lindsell, 84, American evangelical author and scholar.
 * George Marks, 82, English football player.
 * Nino Pirrotta, 89, Italian musicologist.
 * Bill Sortet, 85, American gridiron football player.

23

 * Donald Davis, 69, Canadian actor.
 * John Forbes, 47, Australian poet.
 * Friedrich Josias, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 79, German nobleman.
 * Ralf Kirsten, 67, German film director and screenwriter.
 * Hilla Limann, 63, President of Ghana, diabetes.
 * Roy McKasson, 58, American football player, kidney transplant complications.
 * Alfredo Ormando, 39, Italian writer and gay rights activist, burns from self-immolation.
 * Victor Pasmore, 89, British artist and architect.
 * Ernest Peirce, 88, South African boxer.
 * Sajjad Hussain Qureshi, 101, Indian politician.
 * Lionel Wilson, 82, American politician, cancer.
 * Mohammad Yusuf, 81, Prime Minister of Afghanistan.

24

 * Nodar Akhalkatsi, 60, Georgian football manager, heart attack.
 * Walter Bishop Jr., 70, American jazz pianist, heart attack.
 * Walter D. Edmonds, 94, American writer,.
 * Mirosław Justek, 49, Polish football player.
 * Bob Russell, 90, American entertainer.
 * Elizabeth Sneyers, 84, Belgian lawyer and feminist.
 * Justin Tubb, 62, American country music singer and songwriter.

25

 * Hamid Algadri, 85, Indonesian independence pioneer.
 * Olive Brasno, 80, American dwarf dancer and actress.
 * Sidney Cole, 89, British film and television producer.
 * Dilawar Figar, 68, Pakistani writer, poet, and humorist.
 * Attia Hosain, 85, British-Indian novelist, author, journalist and actor.
 * Fritz Langner, 85, German football player and manager.
 * Roy Porter, 74, American jazz drummer.
 * Herman Stokes, 65, American athlete and Olympian.
 * Attila Zoller, 70, Hungary-American jazz guitarist.

26

 * Hogan Bassey, 65, Nigerian-British boxer.
 * Lord Nicholas Hervey, 36, British aristocrat and political activist, suicide by hanging.
 * Olaf Kortner, 77, Norwegian politician.
 * Ethelreda Leopold, 83, American film actress, pneumonia.
 * Lee Moses, 56, American R&B and soul singer and guitarist, lung cancer.
 * Mario Schifano, 63, Italian painter and collagist.
 * Shin'ichi Suzuki, 99, Japanese musician, philosopher and educator.

27

 * Alan Davies, 73, British air marshal.
 * Tamio Kageyama, 50, Japanese novelist, house fire, accident.
 * Elizabeth Mantell, 56, Scottish midwife and nurse.
 * Assia Noris, 85, Russian-Italian film actress.
 * Mykola Mykolaĭovych Shcherbak, 70, Soviet-Ukrainian zoologist, ecologist, and herpetologist.
 * Geoffrey Trease, 88, British writer.
 * Miklos Udvardy, 78, Hungarian biologist and biogeographer.

28

 * Louis Chaillot, 83, French cyclist and Olympian.
 * Bernard Joseph Flanagan, 89, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
 * Joe Holup, 63, American basketball player.
 * Shōtarō Ishinomori, 60, Japanese manga artist (Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Cyborg 009), heart failure.
 * Ken Jackson, 68, American gridiron football player.
 * Dagny Tande Lid, 94, Norwegian painter, illustrator and poet.
 * Lee Ya-Ching, 85, Chinese film actress, aviator and philanthropist.
 * John Morton-Finney, 108, American civil rights activist, lawyer and educator.

29

 * Joseph Alioto, 81, American politician, Mayor of San Francisco, prostate cancer.
 * Ugo Bologna, 80, Italian actor and voice actor, heart attack.
 * Karin Jonzen, 83, British figure sculptor.
 * Rob Mulders, 30, Dutch road racing cyclist, car crash.
 * Ed Smith, 84, American gridiron football player (Boston Redskins, Green Bay Packers).

30

 * Jim Barber, 85, American gridiron football player (Boston Redskins, Washington Redskins).
 * Héctor Campos-Parsi, 75, Puerto Rican composer.
 * Richard Cassilly, 70, American operatic tenor, cerebral hemorrhage after fall.
 * Samuel Eilenberg, 84, Polish-American mathematician.
 * Pappanamkodu Lakshmanan, 61, Indian film director, scriptwriter and lyricist.
 * Ferdy Mayne, 81, German-British actor, Parkinson's disease.
 * Lesslie Newbigin, 88, British theologian, missionary and author.
 * Emmette Redford, 93, American political scientist.
 * Luise Walker, 87, Austrian classical guitarist and composer.

31

 * Greta Arwidsson, 91, Swedish archaeologist.
 * Georges Combret, 91, French film director, producer and screenwriter.
 * Leho Laurine, 93, Estonian chess master.
 * Alice Miel, 91, American educator.
 * Karol Stryja, 82, Polish conductor and teacher.