Deaths in March 1997

The following is a list of notable deaths in March 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

 * Stanislaus Joseph Brzana, 79, American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.
 * Hans Robert Jauss, 75, German academic.
 * Martin Furnival Jones, 84, British Director General of MI5 (1965–1972).
 * Monte Kennedy, 74, American baseball player.
 * Václav Roziňák, 74, Czechoslovak ice hockey player.
 * Annie Beatrice van der Biest Thielan Wetmore, 87, Dutch-American ornithologist.

2

 * Yahaya Ahmad, 49, Malaysian businessman, helicopter crash.
 * Abdel Azim Ashry, 85, Egyptian basketball player and referee.
 * Judi Bari, 47, American environmentalist, feminist, and labor leader, breast cancer.
 * Douglas Blackwood, 87, British publisher and fighter pilot during World War II.
 * Horace Cutler, 84, British politician.
 * Richard De Smet, 81, Belgian Jesuit priest, missionary and indologist.
 * Amleto Frignani, 64, Italian football player.
 * Herman H. Fussler, 82, American librarian, writer and editor.
 * Albert Gazier, 88, French trade union leader and politician.
 * Grete Heublein, 89, German track and field athlete and Olympian.
 * Walter Leinweber, 89, German ice hockey player.
 * J. Carson Mark, 83, Canadian-American mathematician, complications from a fall.
 * Waldo Nelson, 98, American pediatrician, stroke.
 * Vicente Parra, 66, Spanish actor, lung cancer.
 * Wendell Thompson Perkins, 69, American painter.
 * Martin Smith, 50, English rock drummer, internal bleeding.

3

 * Bradford Angier, 86, American wilderness survivalist.
 * Jascha Brodsky, 89, Russian-American violinist.
 * Eric Edwards, Baron Chelmer, 82, English peer and solicitor.
 * Harry Davis, 88, American baseball player.
 * Lola Beer Ebner, 86, Israeli fashion designer.
 * Billy Jurges, 88, American baseball player.
 * Mulumba Lukoji, 53, Congolese politician and professor.
 * William Edward McManus, 83, American prelate of the Catholic Church.
 * Santiago Ojeda Pérez, 52, Spanish judoka.
 * Erik Waaler, 94, Norwegian professor of medicine.

4

 * Joe Baker-Cresswell, 96, English Royal Navy officer and aide-de-camp to King George VI.
 * Roger Brown, 54, American basketball player, colon cancer.
 * Leo Catozzo, 84, Italian film editor.
 * Robert H. Dicke, 80, American astronomer and physicist.
 * Stanley Fink, 61, American lawyer and politician, cancer.
 * Edward Klabiński, 76, Polish racing cyclist.
 * Robert Lampman, 76, American economist, lung cancer.
 * Carey Loftin, 83, American actor and stuntman.
 * Paul Préboist, 70, French actor.
 * József Simándy, 80, Hungarian tenor.

5

 * Zalman Abramov, 88, Israeli politician.
 * Amjad Ali, 89, Pakistani politician and a civil servant.
 * Samm Sinclair Baker, 87, American self-help writer.
 * Ralph Bass, 85, American R&B record producer.
 * Frank Brennan, 72, Scottish footballer.
 * Jean Dréville, 90, French film director.
 * William Roberts, 83, American screenwriter, respiratory failure.
 * Edmund Brinsley Teesdale, 81, Hong Kong Colonial Secretary.

6

 * Frank Anderson, 83, Australian rules football player.
 * Rosalyn Boulter, 80, British film actress.
 * Ed Furgol, 79, American golfer.
 * Cheddi Jagan, 78, President of Guyana.
 * Michael Manley, 72, Prime Minister of Jamaica (1972–1980; 1989–1992), prostate cancer.

7

 * Wilfred Conwell Bain, 89, American music educator.
 * Gösta Brännström, 70, Swedish sprinter and Olympian.
 * Chuck Green, 77, American tap dancer.
 * Martin Kippenberger, 44, German artist and sculptor, liver cancer.
 * Agnieszka Osiecka, 60, Polish poet, writer, film director and journalist, cancer.
 * Edward Mills Purcell, 84, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, respiratory failure.
 * Kim Yale, 43, American comic book writer and editor (Suicide Squad, Deadshot, Sgt. Rock), breast cancer.

8

 * Leon Danielian, 76, American ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer.
 * Masuo Ikeda, 63, Japanese painter, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, ceramist, novelist, and film director from Nagano Prefecture.
 * Gershon Liebman, 92, French rabbi and holocaust survivor.
 * Lefter Millo, 30, Albanian football player, car accident.
 * Alexander Salkind, 75, French-Mexican film producer (Superman).
 * Alfred Sheinwold, 85, American bridge player and writer, stroke.

9

 * The Notorious B.I.G., 24, American rapper ("Juicy", "Big Poppa", "Mo Money Mo Problems"), shot.
 * Jean-Dominique Bauby, 44, French journalist and author (Elle magazine), pneumonia during locked-in syndrome.
 * John Boyd, 70, United States Air Force fighter pilot and military strategist, cancer.
 * Robert B. Leighton, 77, American experimental physicist.
 * John S. McKiernan, 85, American politician.
 * Terry Nation, 66, Welsh television writer (Doctor Who), emphysema.
 * Ray Prochaska, 77, American gridiron football player and coach.
 * Bezawada Gopala Reddy, 89, Indian politician.
 * Veronica Wedgwood, 86, English historian.
 * Dwight Locke Wilbur, 93, American medical doctor and president of the A.M.A.

10

 * Jimmy Airlie, 60, Scottish trade unionist, cancer.
 * LaVern Baker, 67, American R&B singer, cardiovascular disease.
 * Raymond Bass, 87, American Navy adniral, gymnast and Olympian.
 * Stan Drake, 75, American cartoonist.
 * Yorozuya Kinnosuke, 64, Japanese kabuki actor, pneumonia, laryngeal cancer.
 * David Moroder, 66, Italian luger and sculptor.
 * Imam Mustafayev, 87, Azerbaijani communist politician.
 * Ossie O'Brien, 68, British politician.
 * Wesley Ramey, 87, American boxer.
 * Ghulam Rasool Santosh, 68, Indian painter and poet.
 * Johannes Theodor Suhr, 101, Danish Roman Catholic bishop.
 * Wilf Wooller, 84, Welsh cricketer, rugby player, and journalist.
 * Hideo Ōba, 87, Japanese film director and screenwriter.

11

 * Lars Ahlin, 81, Swedish author and aesthetician.
 * Robert Browning, 83, Scottish Byzantinist.
 * Stefan Fernholm, 37, Swedish discus thrower, shot putter, and Olympian.
 * Hugh Lawson, 61, American jazz pianist, cancer.
 * Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair, 80, Indian poet, playwright, film director and actor, kidney failure.
 * Hugo Weisgall, 84, American composer and conductor.

12

 * Shamsul-hasan Shams Barelvi, 79-80, Pakistani Islamic scholar.
 * Hendrik Brugmans, 90, Dutch academic and linguist.
 * Ernst-Georg Drünkler, 76, German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II.
 * Bertram Myron Gross, 84, American social scientist, congestive heart failure.
 * William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel, 90, Anglo-Irish peer and Labour politician.
 * Wally Wolf, 66, American swimmer, water polo player, and Olympic champion.

13

 * Ronald Fraser, 66, English actor, haemorrhage.
 * Horace Kolimba, 57, Tanzanian politician.
 * Leo O'Brien, 89, Australian cricket player and sportsman.
 * Joe Repko, 76, American football coach and player.

14

 * Jurek Becker, 59, Polish-German writer, film author and GDR dissident, colorectal cancer.
 * Joseph Fuchs, 97, American classical violinist.
 * Alija Isaković, 65, Bosnian writer, publicist, and playwright.
 * Jim McConn, 68, American politician and mayor of Houston, Texas.
 * Nicolas Morn, 65, Luxembourgian cyclist and Olympian.
 * Terence O'Sullivan, 73, Irish Fianna Fáil politician.
 * Veerendra Patil, 73, Indian politician.
 * Fred Zinnemann, 89, Austrian-American film director (From Here to Eternity, A Man for All Seasons, High Noon), Oscar winner (1954), heart attack.

15

 * C. Arulampalam, 88, Sri Lankan Tamil politician.
 * Gail Davis, 71, American actress (Annie Oakley) and singer, cancer..
 * Victor Dumitrescu, 72, Romanian football player.
 * Svend Wiig Hansen, 74, Danish sculptor and painter.
 * Vernon Harrell, 56, American R&B singer and songwriter.
 * Kåre Holt, 80, Norwegian author.
 * Ed Kullman, 73, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Dorab Patel, 72, Pakistani jurist and lawmaker, leukemia.
 * Victor Vasarely, 90, Hungarian-French artist, cancer.

16

 * Berta Bojetu, 51, Slovene writer, poet and actress.
 * Paal Frisvold, 89, Norwegian general.
 * Leda Gloria, 88, Italian actress.
 * Harry Holgate, 63, Australian politician and Premier of Tasmania, cancer.
 * Zvonko Monsider, 76, Croatian football goalkeeper.
 * John Montague Stow, 85, British colonial official.
 * Star Stowe, 40, American model and Playboy centerfold, murdered.
 * John White, 80, American rower and Olympian.

17

 * Prem Jayanth, 64, Sri Lankan actor and film producer.
 * Fritz Moravec, 74, Austrian mountaineer and author.
 * Charles G. Overberger, 76, American chemist, Parkinson's disease.
 * Ferenc Sipos, 64, Hungarian football player and trainer.
 * Jermaine Stewart, 39, American R&B singer, AIDS-related liver cancer.

18

 * Erik de Mauny, 76, English journalist and author.
 * Jean Fievez, 86, Belgian football player.
 * Wilbur Knorr, 51, American historian of mathematics, melanoma.
 * Ilse Schwidetzky, 89, German anthropologist.

19

 * José Crespo, 96, Spanish film actor.
 * Willem de Kooning, 92, Dutch abstract expressionist artist, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Jacques Foccart, 83, French businessman and politician.
 * Eugène Guillevic, 89, French poet.
 * Purnendu Pattrea, 66, Indian poet, writer, illustrator and film director.
 * Claude Pierson, 66, French film director, writer and producer.
 * Shoukry Sarhan, 72, Egyptian actor.
 * Mac Van Valkenburg, 75, American electrical engineer and university professor.

20

 * Ronnie Barron, 53, American actor and musician, heart problems, heart attack.
 * Jean Engstrom, 76, American actress.
 * Carlo Fassi, 67, Italian figure skater and coach.
 * Britt G. Hallqvist, 83, Swedish hymnwriter, poet, and translator.
 * Marino Marini, 72, Italian musician.
 * V. S. Pritchett, 96,British writer and literary critic.
 * Tony Zale, 83, American boxer, Alzheimer's disease.

21

 * Wilbert Awdry, 85, British children's author and The Railway Series creator.
 * Charles Booth, 72, British diplomat.
 * John Nemechek, 27, American NASCAR race car driver, complications from racing accident.
 * Pekka Parikka, 57, Finnish film director and screenwriter.

22

 * Lauritz Royal Christensen, 82, American epidemiologist.
 * Mary Peters Fieser, 87, American chemist.
 * James G. Stewart, 89, American sound engineer.
 * Harry Thode, 86, Canadian geochemist and nuclear chemist.

23

 * Timothy Joseph Harrington, 78, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
 * Hugh Lawson, 85, British politician.
 * Pyotr Lushev, 73, Soviet Army general during the Cold War.
 * Pearson Mwanza, 29, Zambian football player.

24

 * Martin Caidin, 69, American author, screenwriter, and aviator, cancer.
 * U. Alexis Johnson, 88, American diplomat, pneumonia.
 * Bill Miller, 69, American professional wrestler, heart attack.
 * Roberto Sánchez Vilella, 84, Governor of Puerto Rico (1965–1969).

25

 * Baltazar, 71, Brazilian footballer.
 * Stan Coster, 66, Australian country music singer-songwriter.
 * Rosario Granados, 72, Argentine-Mexican film actress, heart attack.
 * Pedro Medina, 39, Cuban refugee and murder convict, execution by electric chair.
 * Norm Ryan, 86, Australian politician.
 * C. J. F. Williams, 66, British philosopher, cardiac arrest.

26

 * Norman Alexander, 89, New Zealand physicist.
 * Marshall Applewhite, 65, leader of the Heaven's Gate cult group, suicide.
 * Otto John, 88, German defector and spy.
 * Hartmut Losch, 53, German athlete.
 * George Post, 90, American watercolorist and art educator, pneumonia.
 * Nina Mason Pulliam, 90, American journalist, author, and civic leader, complications from respiratory infection.
 * Dickie Williams, 72, Welsh rugby player.

27

 * George Malcolm Brown, 71, English geologist.
 * David A. Clarke, 53, American civil-rights worker, attorney, and politician, PCNSL.
 * Bob Dillabough, 55, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Lane Dwinell, 90, American manufacturer and politician, heart failure.
 * Hugh Horner, 72, Canadian physician and politician, heart attack.
 * Charles Lillard, 53, American-Canadian poet and historian.
 * Ella Maillart, 94, Swiss adventurer, travel writer and photographer.
 * Benno Premsela, 76, Dutch designer, visual artist and art collector.
 * Émile Stijnen, 89, Belgian footballer.

28

 * Arthur Arntzen, 90, Norwegian politician.
 * Lesley Cunliffe, 51, American journalist and writer, stomach cancer.
 * Claro Duany, 79, Cuban baseball player.
 * Tai Kanbara, 98, Japanese poet, painter, author, art critic and Japanese futurism pioneer, heart failure.

29

 * George William Gregory Bird, 80, British medical doctor, researcher and haematologist, renal failure.
 * Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, 61, German football player.
 * Wilhelm Friedrich de Gaay Fortman, 85, Dutch politician and jurist.
 * Finn Høffding, 98, Danish composer.
 * Aleksandr Ivanov, 68, Soviet football player.
 * Pupul Jayakar, 81, Indian cultural activist and writer.
 * Norman Pirie, 89, British biochemist and virologist.
 * Ellen Pollock, 94, British actress.
 * Hans Quest, 81, German actor and film director, cancer.
 * Anthony Roberts, 41, American basketball player, shot.
 * Eddie Ryder, 74, American actor, writer, and television director.
 * Ruth Sager, 79, American geneticist, bladder cancer.
 * Gordon Stephenson, 88, British-Australian town planner and architect.
 * Edmundo Pisano Valdés, 77, Chilean plant ecologist, botanist and agronomist, stomach cancer.

30

 * Jack Bernhard, 82, American film and television director.
 * Bill Smith, 62, American baseball player.
 * Jon Stone, 64, American writer, director and producer, ALS.
 * Maria Śliwka, 61, Polish volleyball player.
 * Tadeusz Żenczykowski, 90, Polish lawyer and political activist.

31

 * Eugenie Anderson, 87, American diplomat.
 * Friedrich Hund, 101, German physicist.
 * John Norman Davidson Kelly, 87, British theologian and academic.
 * Marvin Liebman, 73, American activist and gay rights advocate.
 * Dorothy Liu, 62, Hong Kong pro-Beijing politician and lawyer, pancreatic cancer
 * Stephen Kalong Ningkan, 76, Malaysian politician.
 * Lyman Spitzer, 82, American theoretical physicist and astronomer, heart disease.