Deaths in May 1989

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 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

 * Antonio Janigro, 71, Italian cellist and conductor.
 * Sally Kirkland, 76, fashion editor at Vogue and Life, emphysema.
 * Scooter Lowry, 69, American child actor (Our Gang). (body found on this date)
 * Marion Mack, 87, American film actress (The General), heart failure.
 * Edward Ochab, 82, Polish communist politician, Chairman of the Polish Council of State.
 * Muneyoshi Tokugawa, 91, Japanese army officer and politician.
 * Douglass Watson, 68, American actor (Another World), heart attack.
 * David Webster, 44, South African anti-apartheid activist, assassinated.

2

 * Bennie Benjamin, 81, Virgin Islands–born American songwriter (Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Wheel of Fortune)).
 * James Crabe, 57, American cinematographer (Rocky, The China Syndrome, The Karate Kid), complications of AIDS.
 * Veniamin Kaverin, 87, Russian writer and dramatist.
 * Gerald Scarpelli, 60–61, American mobster and hitman (Chicago Outfit), suicide.
 * Giuseppe Siri, 82, Italian cardinal, Archbishop of Genoa.
 * Maki Yūkō, 95, Japanese mountain climber.

3

 * Sheikh Abbas, 76–77, Algerian diplomat and writer, rector of the Great Mosque of Paris.
 * Gordon Dailley, 77, Canadian-born British ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.
 * Christine Jorgensen, 62, American trans-gender woman, actress and singer, bladder and lung cancer.
 * Muriel Ostriche, 92, American silent-screen actress.
 * Roland Robinson, 82, British politician (Member of Parliament), and diplomat (Governor of Bermuda).
 * William Squire, 72, Welsh actor (Callan).

4

 * Adnan Khayr Allah, 49, Iraqi military officer and Saddam Hussein's brother-in-law, Minister of Defence, helicopter crash.
 * Chalam, 59, Indian film actor (Mattilo Manikyam).
 * Morris Copeland, 93, American economist (flow of funds analysis).
 * Larry Fleisher, 58, American attorney and sports agent, founded the National Basketball Players Association, heart attack.
 * John R. Heller Jr., 84, American director of the National Cancer Institute, known for the Tuskegee syphilis study.
 * Herschel C. Loveless, 77, American politician, Governor of Iowa, lung cancer.
 * James McKeown, 88, Irish missionary in the Gold Coast (Ghana), founded the Church of Pentecost.
 * Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay, 68, Indian writer.
 * Lydia Pasternak Slater, 87, Soviet research chemist and poet.
 * Jean-Marie Tjibaou, 53, French New Caledonian politician, leader of Kanak independence movement, assassinated.
 * Evelle J. Younger, 70, American lawyer, Attorney General of California.

5

 * Hermann Hölter, 89, German modern pentathlete, Nazi German army general.
 * Sister Mary Leo, 94, New Zealand religious sister, trained some of the world's best sopranos.
 * Wolfgang Neuss, 65, German actor and Kabarett artist, cancer.
 * Jennifer Hodge de Silva, 38, Canadian filmmaker.
 * Naval Tata, 84, Indian industrialist and philanthropist.
 * Stefan E. Warschawski, 85, Russian-born American mathematician (conformal maps, minimal surfaces, harmonic functions).

6

 * Earl Blaik, American football player and coach (United States Military Academy).
 * Tally Brown, 64, American singer and actress.
 * Adolfo Constanzo, 26, Cuban-American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader, assisted suicide.
 * Thakin Soe, 82–83, Burmese politician, founding member of the Communist Party of Burma.
 * L. D. Weldon, 80–81, American track and field coach of decathletes.

7

 * Miranda Campa, 75, Swiss-Italian actress.
 * Frank Cluskey, 59, Irish politician, leader of the Labour Party, cancer.
 * Willie Covan, 91, American tap dancer, actor and vaudeville performer (The Duke Is Tops).
 * Darío Echandía, 91, Colombian politician, acting president of Colombia, Colombian ambassador to the U.K.
 * Earl J. Hamilton, 89–90, American historian.
 * Mills Lane, 77, American banker (Citizens & Southern National Bank).
 * John Whittet, 63, American officer in the U.S. Navy, drowned.

8

 * Hendrik Allik, 88, Estonian politician (Estonian Communist Party).
 * Felice Mario Boano, 85–86, Italian automobile designer and coachbuilder (Fiat).
 * Mariga Guinness, 56, English-born architectural conservationist, co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society, heart attack.
 * Andreas Hillgruber, 64, German historian, throat cancer.
 * Tony Lucadello, 76, American professional baseball scout, suicide by shooting.
 * Ruggero Maccari, 69, Italian screenwriter (Profumo di donna, La Famiglia).
 * Rudolf Uhlenhaut, 82, British-German engineer (Mercedes-Benz).

9

 * Karl Brunner, 73, Swiss economist.
 * Timothy Farrell, 66, American actor (Jail Bait, The Violent Years, Glen or Glenda)
 * Alex Fraser, 72, Canadian politician, member of the B.C. Legislative Assembly.
 * Fred Halsted, 47, American gay pornographic film director and actor, suicide.
 * Enrique Lucero, 68, Mexican actor (Canoa: A Shameful Memory).
 * Kenneth A. Roberts, 76, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, heart failure.
 * Keith Whitley, 34, American country music singer and songwriter (When You Say Nothing at All, I'm No Stranger to the Rain), alcohol poisoning.

10

 * Wilhelm Bleckwenn, 82, Nazi German Wehrmacht general.
 * Joseph Brennan, 88, American ABL basketballer (Brooklyn Visitations).
 * Richard Green, 52, American teacher, New York City Schools Chancellor, cardiac arrest due to asthma.
 * Dimitar Ilievski-Murato, 35, Yugoslavian mountaineer, first Macedonian to climb Mount Everest.
 * Stewart Perowne, 87, British diplomat and archaeologist of the Middle East.
 * Kalu Rinpoche, 84, Tibetan Buddhist lama and teacher.
 * Woody Shaw, 44, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader, kidney failure.
 * Hassler Whitney, 82, American mathematician (singularity theory), stroke.

11

 * Vin Brown, 67, Australian rules footballer.
 * Xiao Wangdong, 78, Chinese Communist revolutionary and a lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army.

12

 * Nicholas Wilder, 51–52, American art dealer, complications from AIDS.

13

 * Jack Grout, 79, American golfer.
 * Charlie Mutton, 98, Australian politician.
 * Bjørn Puggaard-Müller, 67, Danish film actor.

14

 * Nikifor Kalchenko, 83, Soviet politician.
 * Joe Primeau, 83, Canadian professional ice hockey player.
 * Hans Stubbe, 87, German agronomist and plant breeder.
 * E. P. Taylor, 88, Canadian business tycoon, investor and philanthropist.

15

 * Johnny Green, 80, American songwriter, conductor and pianist.
 * Noel O'Brien, 56, Australian rules footballer.
 * Noriko Tsukase, 43, Japanese voice actress and singer, rectal cancer.

16

 * Lamar Allen, 74, American college football player and coach, and Negro League baseballer.
 * Ralph Gibson, 83, Australian communist organiser and writer.
 * Josephine R. Hilgard, 83, American developmental psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
 * Théodore Strawinsky, 82, Russian-Swiss painter.

17

 * Hallvard Eika, 68, Norwegian politician, member of the Norwegian Parliament.
 * Walter Gross, 85, German actor.
 * Finn Juhl, 77, Danish architect, interior and industrial designer.
 * Lucia Moholy, 95, Austro-Hungarian–born photographer and publications editor.
 * Specs Toporcer, 90, American Major League baseballer, injuries sustained from a fall.

18

 * Donald Hiss, 82, American legal secretary, younger brother of Alger Hiss.
 * Hermann Höcherl, 77, German politician and lawyer, member of the Nazi Party.
 * Ed McIlvenny, 64, Scottish footballer who represented the United States.
 * Dorothy Ruth, 67, American daughter of US baseballer Babe Ruth and his mistress Juanita Jennings.

19

 * Anton Diffring, 72, German actor, cancer.
 * Abel Herzberg, 95, Dutch lawyer and writer.
 * John J. Muccio, 89, Italian-American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, Iceland and South Korea.
 * Gerd Oswald, 79, German director of American film and television, cancer.
 * Yiannis Papaioannou, 79, Greek composer and teacher.
 * Robert Webber, 64, American actor, Lou Gehrig's disease.

20

 * John Hicks, 85, British economist, Nobel Memorial laureate in Economic Sciences.
 * Pavel Juráček, 53, Czech screenwriter and film director.
 * Lyn Murray, 79, English-American composer, conductor and arranger of music, cancer.
 * Gilda Radner, 42, American actress, comedian, writer and singer, ovarian cancer.
 * Warren G. Magnuson, 84, American lawyer and politician, President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
 * Gōgen Yamaguchi, 80, Japanese martial artist, subarachnoid hemorrhage.

21

 * Tito Colliander, 85, Finnish Eastern Orthodox Christian writer.
 * Margot Zemach, 57, American illustrator of children's books, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

22

 * Carlton Massey, 59, American NFL footballer.
 * Rush Rhees, 84, American philosopher.
 * Robert Richardson Sears, 80, American psychologist.

23

 * Ansa Ikonen, 75, Finnish film and theatre actress.
 * James Kay Thomas, 87, American lawyer and politician, Attorney General of West Virginia.
 * George Thomas, 61, American NFL footballer.
 * Georgy Tovstonogov, 73, Russian-Georgian theatre director, heart attack.
 * Earle Wilson, 73, American triple-jumper and Olympian.

24

 * S. K. Dey, 82, Indian politician.
 * Guus Dräger, 71, Dutch footballer.
 * Tom Harper, 86, American football player and coach.
 * Steve McCall, 55, American jazz drummer.
 * Tripti Mitra, 63, Indian actress.

25

 * Ben H. Brown Jr., 75, American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, cancer.
 * Ab DeMarco, 73, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Jean Despeaux, 73, French boxer and Olympic gold medalist.
 * Soma Wickremanayake, 74, Sri Lankan educator and politician, member of the Ceylonese Parliament.

26

 * Phineas Newborn Jr., 57, American jazz pianist, growth on lungs.
 * Don Revie, 61, English international footballer and manager, motor neurone disease.
 * Kazuko Takatsukasa, 59, elder sister to Emperor Akihito of Japan, heart failure.

27

 * Jerry Anderson, 35, American NFL footballer, drowned.
 * Jess Sweetser, 87, American golfer.
 * Arseny Tarkovsky, 81, Russian poet and translator.

28

 * Wally Anderzunas, 43, American basketballer.
 * Abbas Nalbandian, 39–40, Iranian playwright, suicide.
 * Iván Palazzese, 27, Italian-Venezuelan motorcycle racer, racing accident.
 * Baltasar Lopes da Silva, 82, Portuguese writer, poet and linguist, cerebrovascular disease.
 * John M. Systermans, Belgian-missionary and priest.
 * Muttathu Varkey, 76, Indian novelist, short story writer and poet.

29

 * Nora Barlow, 103, British botanist and geneticist, granddaughter of Charles Darwin.
 * John Cipollina, 45, American guitarist, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
 * George C. Homans, 78, American sociologist, founder of behavioral sociology, heart ailment.
 * Joseph Van Ingelgem, 77, Belgian international footballer.
 * Donald L. Katz, 81, American chemist and chemical engineer.
 * Tariq Mehmood, 50, Pakistani military officer of Pakistan Army, parachute accident.
 * Giuseppe Patanè, 57, Italian opera conductor, heart attack.
 * Bob Waters, 50, American footballer, Lou Gehrig's disease.

30

 * Jane Fauntz, 78, American swimmer and diver, and Olympic medalist, leukemia.
 * James Harry Lacey, 72, British Royal Air Force fighter pilot in World War II.
 * Thoreau MacDonald, 88, Canadian illustrator, graphic and book designer, and artist.
 * Zinka Milanov, 83, Croatian operatic dramatic soprano, stroke.
 * Claude Pepper, 88, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, stomach cancer.

31

 * Heinz Hasselberg, 75, German cyclist and Olympian.
 * Edward Hubbard, 51, English architectural historian, ankylosing spondylitis.
 * C. L. R. James, 88, Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist writer, chest infection.
 * Owen Lattimore, 88, American Orientalist and writer.
 * Raisa Orlova, 70, Russian writer and American studies scholar.
 * G. Vanmikanathan, 88, Indian scholar and author.

Unknown date

 * John Sutton, 60–61, Irish hurler.