Deaths in May 1990

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1990.

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

 * Fred Blackburn, 87, British politician.
 * Sunset Carson, 69, American actor.
 * Heciyê Cindî, 82, Kurdish linguist and researcher from Armenia.
 * Djalma Dias, 50, Brazilian footballer, cardiopulmonary arrest.
 * Sergio Franchi, 64, Italian-American singer and actor, brain cancer.
 * Lothar Geitler, 90, Austrian botanist.
 * Oskar Kuhn, 82, German palaeontologist.
 * Rab Bruce Lockhart, 73, Scottish rugby player and academic.
 * Jindřich Maudr, 84, Czechoslovak wrestler.
 * Frits Warmolt Went, 86, Dutch-American biologist.

2

 * Germain Bazin, 88, French art historian.
 * Ronald Berndt, 73, Australian anthropologist.
 * Ann Casson, 74, English actress.
 * William L. Dawson, 90, American composer.
 * David Rappaport, 38, English actor, suicide by gunshot.

3

 * Carlos Cerutti, 21, Argentine basketball player, traffic collision.
 * Dovima, 62, American supermodel, liver cancer.
 * Audrey Ferris, 80, American actress.
 * Mathilda Guez, 71, French Tunisian-Israeli politician.
 * Karl Ibach, 75, German politician.
 * Shōtarō Ikenami, 67, Japanese author, leukemia.
 * Pimen I of Moscow, 79, Soviet patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (since 1970).
 * Mary Lea Johnson Richards, 63, American theatre producer, liver cancer.

4

 * Luther Clifford, 66, American baseball player.
 * John Ormond, 67, Welsh poet.
 * Emily Remler, 32, American guitarist, heart failure.
 * Shepard Stone, 82, American journalist.
 * Johnny Wright, 73, American baseball player.

5

 * Endre Bohem, 89, Hungarian-American filmmaker.
 * Walter Bruch, 82, German electrical engineer and television pioneer.
 * Reginald Goodall, 88, English conductor.
 * Jean Keller, 84, French Olympic runner (1924, 1928, 1932).
 * Elton Rule, 72, American television executive (American Broadcasting Company).

6

 * Charles Farrell, 89, American actor, heart failure.
 * Lotte Jacobi, 93, Prussian-American photographer.
 * Irmtraud Morgner, 56, German writer, cancer.
 * Eduardo Nicol, 83, Mexican-Catalan philosopher.

7

 * Ann Bishop, 90, English biologist, pneumonia.
 * Elizete Cardoso, 69, Brazilian singer and actress, cancer.
 * Ashley Lawrence, 55, New Zealand conductor.
 * Nicholas Sanduleak, 56, American astronomer, cardiac arrest, heart attack.
 * Sam Tambimuttu, 58, Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer and politician.
 * Charlie Walker, 78, English football player.
 * Prince Andrej of Yugoslavia, 60, Yugoslav royal, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

8

 * Tomás Ó Fiaich, 66, Irish Roman Catholic cardinal, heart attack.
 * June James, 27, American football player, traffic collision.
 * Luigi Nono, 66, Italian composer.
 * Edsard Schlingemann, 23, Dutch Olympic swimmer (1984), traffic collision.
 * Rudolf Sellner, 84, German actor.

9

 * Lü Wei (diver), 23-24, Chinese diver, murdered.
 * Pauline Frederick, 82, American journalist, heart attack.
 * David Stuart Parker, 71, American territorial administrator, heart failure.
 * Patrick Piggott, 75, English composer.
 * Misha Raitzin, 59-60, Soviet-Israeli-American singer, lung aneurysm.
 * George Kennedy Young, 79, British politician.

10

 * Hilda Buck, 75, New Zealand cricket player.
 * Walter Mahan, 87, American football player.
 * Susan Oliver, 58, American actress and aviator, colorectal cancer.
 * Walker Percy, 73, American philosophical writer, prostate cancer.

11

 * Stratos Dionysiou, 54, Greek singer, aortic aneurysm.
 * Heidemarie Hatheyer, 78, Austrian actress.
 * Winford Stokes, 39, American convicted serial killer, execution by lethal injection.
 * David Wade, 78, American general.
 * Harry Whittle, 68, British hurdler and Olympian.
 * Hanne Wieder, 65, German actress, cancer.
 * Venedikt Yerofeyev, 51, Soviet writer and dissident, throat cancer.

12

 * Bill Bufalino, 72, American Mafia lawyer, leukemia.
 * John E. Davis, 77, American politician, governor of North Dakota (1957–1961).
 * Andrei Kirilenko, 83, Soviet statesman and politician.
 * Nate Monaster, 78, American scriptwriter.
 * Anthony Masters, 70, British production designer and set decorator.
 * Earl Seibert, 79, Canadian ice hockey player, brain cancer.

13

 * Jorge Garate, 72, Argentine film editor.
 * Albert Hendrickx, 73, Belgian racing cyclist.
 * Ray Jennison, 80, American football player.
 * Hans Raff, 79, German Olympic runner (1936).

14

 * André Amellér, 78, French composer.
 * Gerald T. Flynn, 79, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1959–1961).
 * Tarcisio Longoni, 76, Italian politician.
 * Ruth Mason, 76, New Zealand botanist.
 * Mary Oppen, 81, American poet, ovarian cancer.
 * Bill Pace, 58, American football player.
 * Ned Pines, 84, American publisher.
 * Franklyn Seales, 37, American actor, AIDS.

15

 * Jerzy Drzewiecki, 87, Polish airplane engineer.
 * Peter Grimwade, 47, British television director and screenwriter, leukemia.
 * Anna Schchian, 84, Soviet botanist.
 * Yves Van Massenhove, 81, Belgian racing cyclist.
 * Doug Young, 81, Canadian ice hockey player.

16

 * Luis Aldás, 80, Argentine actor.
 * Rein Aren, 62, Soviet actor.
 * Fernando Claudín, 74, Spanish historian.
 * Sammy Davis Jr., 64, American singer ("The Candy Man") and actor (Ocean's 11), throat cancer.
 * Robert Gall, 71, French lyricist.
 * Jim Henson, 53, American puppeteer (The Muppets) and film director (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal), toxic shock syndrome.
 * Eduardo Mateo, 49, Uruguayan singer, songwriter, and guitarist, cancer.
 * Pretzel Pezzullo, 79, American baseball player, cancer.
 * Alija Sirotanović, 75, Yugoslav udarnik.

17

 * Manuel Anatol, 87, French footballer.
 * Rudolf Breuss, 91, Austrian naturopath and pseudoscientific diet advocate.
 * Auguste Jordan, 81, French footballer.
 * Jimmy Lawrence, 76, American gridiron football player.
 * Detlev Peukert, 39, German historian, AIDS.
 * Carlos Riquelme, 76, Mexican actor.
 * Jackie Stewart, 68, Scottish footballer.
 * Frank Wright, 54, American jazz musician.

18

 * Joseph-Marie Trịnh Văn Căn, 69, Vietnamese Roman Catholic cardinal.
 * Jill Ireland, 54, English actress and singer, breast cancer.
 * Lorna Johnstone, 87, English equestrian.
 * Karl Meyer, 90, German-American biochemist.
 * Rafael Hernández Ochoa, 74, Mexican politician.
 * Dalton Prejean, 30, American convicted murderer, execution by electrocution.
 * Yannis Spyropoulos, 78, Greek painter.
 * Eje Thelin, 51, Swedish trombonist.

19

 * Jim Balfour, 75, Australian politician.
 * Olive Byrne, 86, American writer.
 * Hector Dyer, 79, American runner and Olympic champion.
 * Hermann Wulf, 74, German Wehrmacht officer during World War II.

20

 * Bina Mossman, 97, American musician and politician.
 * Peter Rabe, 68, German-American author, lung cancer.
 * Aage Rubæk-Nielsen, 76, Danish equestrian and Olympian.
 * Franklin Williams, 72, American diplomat.

21

 * Mrs. Victor Bruce, 94, British racer.
 * Morris Levy, 62, American record executive, cancer.
 * Ed Steitz, 69, American basketball coach.
 * Lily von Essen, 93, Swedish tennis player.
 * Max Wall, 82, English actor and comedian, fall.

22

 * Rocky Graziano, 71, American boxer, cardiopulmonary failure.
 * Pat Reid, 79, British historian and soldier.
 * Ling Shuhua, 90, Chinese modernist writer and painter.
 * Leslie Spriggs, 80, British politician.

23

 * Affandi, 83, Indonesian artist.
 * Charlie Keller, 73, American baseball player.
 * Elliott Lewis, 72, American actor.
 * Giuseppe Santomaso, 82, Italian painter and educator.
 * Ted Tinling, 79, British-American fashion designer.

24

 * Jeanne de Salzmann, 101, French-Swiss choreographer.
 * Augie Donatelli, 75, American baseball umpire.
 * K. S. Hegde, 80, Indian politician and judge.
 * John Kendall-Carpenter, 64, English rugby player.
 * Jacques Lob, 57, French comic book artist.
 * Dries van der Lof, 70, Dutch racing driver.
 * Julijans Vaivods, 94, Soviet Roman Catholic cardinal.

25

 * D. S. Amalorpavadass, 57, Indian theologian.
 * Athanasios Asimakopulos, 59, Canadian economist, leukemia.
 * Ray Atkeson, 83, American photographer.
 * Hans-Werner Kraus, 74, German U-boat commander during World War II.
 * William Overgard, 64, American cartoonist.
 * Vic Tayback, 60, American actor (Alice), heart attack.
 * Gary Usher, 51, American musician, lung cancer.

26

 * Marguerite S. Church, 97, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1951–1963).
 * René David, 64, French legal scholar.
 * Brūno Kalniņš, 91, Latvian politician and historian.
 * Emil Konopinski, 78, American nuclear scientist.
 * Don McFadyen, 83, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Chris McGregor, 53, South African musician, lung cancer.
 * Varlen Pen, 73, Soviet Russian-Korean painter and graphic artist.
 * Nicole Riche, 64, French actress.

27

 * Heino Dissing, 77, Danish racing cyclist.
 * Adele Duttweiler-Bertschi, 97, Swiss philanthropist.
 * Emil Handschin, 62, Swiss ice hockey player.
 * Pyotr Lomako, 85, Soviet politician.
 * Jessie MacWilliams, 73, English mathematician.
 * Robert Baumle Meyner, 81, American politician, governor of New Jersey (1954–1962).
 * Mieko Takamine, 71, Japanese actress and singer.

28

 * Ralph Alger Bagnold, 94, English geologist.
 * Bill Davies, 74, Canadian football player.
 * Julius Eastman, 49, American musician, cardiac arrest.
 * Inna Gulaya, 50, Soviet actress, drug overdose.
 * Giorgio Manganelli, 67, Italian writer.
 * Taiichi Ohno, 78, Japanese industrialist (Toyota Production System).
 * Wilhelm Wagenfeld, 90, German industrial designer and engineer.

29

 * Yves Brayer, 82, French painter.
 * Jimmy Creighton, 84, Canadian ice hockey player, Parkinson's disease.
 * Bill MacKenzie, 78, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Albert Spaulding, 75, American anthropologist.
 * Alexander Tsvetkov, 75, Bulgarian chess player.

30

 * Charles Morris, Baron Morris of Grasmere, 92, British academic.
 * John Francis Hackett, 78, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
 * Ole Scavenius Jensen, 69, Danish Olympic rower (1952).
 * Wilderich Freiherr Ostman von der Leye, 66, German politician.
 * José Solís, 76, Spanish politician.

31

 * Clotario Blest, 90, Chilean unionist.
 * Jerzy Kaliszewski, 77, Polish actor.
 * Art Lund, 75, American singer.
 * Michael Raffetto, 90, American actor, throat cancer.
 * Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr., 72, American CIA agent and writer, heart failure.
 * Charlie Shoemaker, 50, American baseball player, suicide by gunshot.
 * Willy Spühler, 88, Swiss politician.