Deaths in May 1991

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1991.

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

 * Jack Cope, 77, South African writer.
 * Charles Sutherland Elton, 91, English zoologist.
 * Frank N. Ikard, 78, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1951–1961), heart attack.
 * Mary McAllister, 82, American silent film actress.
 * Cesare Merzagora, 92, Italian politician, acting president (1964).
 * Richard Thorpe, 95, American film director.

2

 * Richard Threlkeld Cox, 92, American physicist.
 * Robert Elter, 92, Luxembourgian footballer.
 * Susan Fassbender, 32, English singer, suicide.
 * Jens Haugland, 81, Norwegian politician.
 * Charles Kaufman, 86, American screenwriter, pneumonia.
 * Abby Crawford Milton, 110, American suffragist and supercentenarian.

3

 * Harry Gibson, 75, American musician, heart failure.
 * Truus Klapwijk, 87, Dutch Olympic swimmer (1924, 1928).
 * Jerzy Kosiński, 57, Polish-American novelist (Being There, The Painted Bird, Steps), suicide by asphyxiation.
 * Frank Leja, 55, American baseball player, heart attack.
 * Günther Noack, 78, German figure skater.
 * Yolande Plancke, 82, French Olympic sprinter (1928).
 * Carlos Márquez Sterling, 92, Cuban politician.
 * Margaret Tallichet, 77, American actress, cancer.

4

 * Dennis Crosby, 56, American actor and singer, son of Bing Crosby, suicide by gunshot.
 * George T. Delacorte Jr., 96, American magazine publisher.
 * Luigi Facelli, 92, Italian hurdler and Olympian.
 * Mohammed Khadda, 61, Algerian artist, lung cancer.
 * Chandravadan Mehta, 90, Indian playwright and author.
 * Xiaocun Sun, 84, Chinese politician.
 * Mohammed Abdel Wahab, 89, Egyptian singer, stroke.
 * Bernie Winters, 60, English comedian, stomach cancer.

5

 * Rolf Bremer, 64, German politician.
 * Chaim Gross, 89, Austrian-American sculptor and educator, heart attack.
 * Hermann Kopf, 89, German politician.
 * Jimmy Lile, 57, American knifemaker.
 * Rune Lindblad, 67, Swedish composer.
 * Richard A. Teague, 67, American automobile designer.
 * Arthur Trudeau, 88, American Army lieutenant general.

6

 * Mehrdad Avesta, 60, Iranian poet, heart attack.
 * Virgil Calotescu, 63, Romanian film director.
 * Thomas A. Carlin, 62, American actor (Caddyshack, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Ragtime).
 * Konstantinos Engolfopoulos, 79, Hellenic Navy officer.
 * Wilfrid Hyde-White, 87, British actor (My Fair Lady, The Third Man, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), heart failure.
 * Guido Martina, 85, Italian comic writer.
 * Chucky Mullins, 21, American football player and quadriplegic, pulmonary embolism.

7

 * Hans Bender, 84, German parapsychologist.
 * Lucien Duquesne, 90, French Olympic runner (1920, 1924, 1928).
 * Glenn Eagleston, 70, American flying ace.
 * Fred Eggan, 84, American anthropologist.
 * Bill McPeak, 64, American football player, heart attack.
 * Alexandre Prigogine, 78, Russian mineralogist and ornithologist.
 * Wolfgang Reichmann, 59, German actor, heart attack.
 * István Zsolt, 69, Hungarian football referee.

8

 * Edward G. Breen, 82, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1949–1951).
 * Ralph Theodore Breyer, 87, American Olympic swimmer (1924).
 * Ronnie Brody, 72, British actor.
 * Joseph Kramm, 83, American playwright.
 * Hilde Krüger, 78, German actress.
 * Jean Langlais, 84, French composer.
 * Ronald McKie, 81, Australian novelist, kidney disease.
 * Mireille Perrey, 87, French stage and film actress.
 * Michel Robida, 81, French writer.
 * Rudolf Serkin, 88, Austrian-American pianist, cancer.
 * Cedric Tallis, 76, American baseball executive, heart attack.
 * Alun Thomas, 65, Welsh rugby player.
 * Friedelind Wagner, 73, German opera director.

9

 * Yanka Dyagileva, 24, Russian poet and singer-songwriter, suicide.
 * Charles Fox, 69-70, English jazz critic.
 * Flip Keegstra, 76, Dutch Olympic sailor (1948, 1952).
 * István Messzi, 29, Hungarian Olympic weightlifter (1988), traffic collision.
 * Ross Story, 71, Australian politician.

10

 * Béla Balassa, 63, Hungarian economist.
 * Thomas Leather, 80, Australian cricket player.
 * Georg Strobl, 81, German ice hockey player and Olympic medalist.
 * Teisutis Zikaras, 68, Lithuanian-Australian sculptor.

11

 * Ho Dam, 62, North Korean politician.
 * Dino Di Luca, 88, Italian actor.
 * Jusuf Hatunić, 40, Yugoslav football player.
 * Friedrich Issak, 75, Estonian javelin thrower and journalist.

12

 * Danny Little Bear, 53, American professional wrestler, liver cancer.
 * Leland Hickman, 56, American poet, AIDS.
 * Deny King, 81, Australian naturalist, environmentalist, and painter, heart attack.
 * Konstantin Sokolsky, 86, Latvian singer.

13

 * Abderrahmane Farès, 80, Algerian politician.
 * Hal Gregg, 69, American baseball player.
 * David Mercer MacDougall, 86, Hong Kong politician.
 * Delia Parodi, 78, Argentine politician.
 * Carl Weinrich, 86, American organist.

14

 * Giampiero Albertini, 63, Italian actor, heart attack.
 * Joy Batchelor, 77, English animator.
 * Agehananda Bharati, 68, American Hindu monk and anthropologist, cancer.
 * Omar Truman Burleson, 85, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1947–1978).
 * Aladár Gerevich, 81, Hungarian Olympic fencer.
 * High Echelon, 24, American thoroughbred racehorse.
 * Jiang Qing, 77, Chinese actress and politician, widow of Mao Zedong, suicide by hanging.
 * José María Rodero, 68, Spanish actor.
 * Frank Sanucci, 90, Argentine-American composer.

15

 * Shintarō Abe, 67, Japanese politician, liver cancer.
 * Reno Browne, 70, American actress, cancer.
 * Amadou Hampâté Bâ, 90-91, Malian writer and ethnologist.
 * Andreas Floer, 34, German mathematician, suicide.
 * Ken Jones, 88, American baseball player.
 * Ronald Lacey, 55, English actor (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Red Sonja, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension), liver cancer.
 * Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, 89, Indian writer.
 * Fritz Riess, 68, German racing driver.
 * Ed Weir, 88, American gridiron football player.
 * İhsan Yüce, 62, Turkish actor.
 * Vukašin Šoškoćanin, 32, Yugoslav military commander, drowned.

16

 * Rufe Persful, 84, American criminal.
 * Herbert Schäfer, 63, German football player.
 * Willem Jacob Visser, 76, Dutch linguist.
 * Osmar White, 82, Australian journalist.

17

 * Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers, 83, Belgian diplomat.
 * Maurie Dunstan, 62, Australian footballer.
 * Göthe Grefbo, 69, Swedish actor.
 * G. Evelyn Hutchinson, 88, English ecologist.
 * Herman Kalckar, 83, Danish biochemist.
 * Harry Rée, 76, British academic.
 * Ross Somerville, 88, Canadian golfer.
 * Tom Trana, 53, Swedish rally driver, cancer.
 * Ilse Trautschold, 85, German actress.

18

 * Gerd Achgelis, 82, German aviator.
 * Edwina Booth, 86, American actress.
 * Muriel Box, 85, English screenwriter and director.
 * Nicholas Elko, 81, American Catholic prelate.
 * Litzi Friedmann, 81, Austrian spy for the Soviet Union.
 * Gunnar Johansson, 85, Swedish composer.
 * Rudolf Nierlich, 25, Austrian skier, traffic collision.
 * Jimmy Thomson, 64, Canadian ice hockey player, heart attack.
 * Hoang Van Hoan, 85-86, Vietnamese politician.

19

 * Gabino Arregui, 76, Argentine footballer.
 * Lloyd Butler, 66, American Olympic rower (1948).
 * Odia Coates, 49, American singer, breast cancer.
 * Royce Goodbread, 83, American football player.
 * Wim Lakenberg, 70, Dutch football player.
 * Mario Panzeri, 79, Italian composer.
 * Greg Rice, 75, American long-distance runner, stroke.
 * Nexhmedin Zajmi, 75, Albanian artist.

20

 * Milko Bambič, 86, Italian artist.
 * Bill Champion, 69, American racing driver.
 * Zdzisław Kostrzewa, 35, Polish footballer.
 * Joseph J. Maraziti, 78, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1973–1975).
 * Pete Runnels, 63, American baseball player, stroke.

21

 * Ioan P. Culianu, 41, Romanian historian and philosopher, shot.
 * Nicholas Dante, 49, American dancer and writer, AIDS.
 * Rajiv Gandhi, 46, Indian politician, prime minister (1984–1989), suicide bombing.
 * Julián Orbón, 65, Cuban composer, cancer.

22

 * Lino Brocka, 52, Filipino film director, traffic collision.
 * Shripad Amrit Dange, 91, Indian politician.
 * Valentin Iremonger, 73, Irish diplomat and poet.
 * Derrick Henry Lehmer, 86, American mathematician.
 * Jacob Millman, 79-80, Ukrainian-American electrical engineer.
 * Stan Mortensen, 69, English footballer.
 * Stan Richards, 59-60, American sportscaster.
 * Ernie Robinson, 83, English footballer.

23

 * Manning Clark, 76, Australian historian.
 * Henri Dauban de Silhouette, 90, British javelin thrower and Olympian.
 * David H. Frisch, 73, American nuclear physicist.
 * Wilhelm Kempff, 95, German pianist.
 * René Lefèvre, 93, French actor.
 * Fletcher Markle, 70, Canadian filmmaker, heart failure.
 * Kemal Satır, 80, Turkish politician.
 * Jean Van Houtte, 84, Belgian politician, prime minister (1952–1954).

24

 * John Anderton, 61, South African Olympic sprinter (1952).
 * Mo Bassett, 60, American football player.
 * Gene Clark, 46, American singer-songwriter (The Byrds), peptic ulcer disease.
 * Pat Scantlebury, 73, Panamanian-American baseball player.
 * Juozas Ūdras, 66, Lithuanian Olympic fencer (1952, 1956).

25

 * Lorne MacLaine Campbell, 88, Scottish army officer.
 * Eddie Fullerton, 56, Irish politician, shot.
 * Gunnar Johansen, 85, Danish-American pianist, liver cancer.
 * Doug Nott, 79, American football player.

26

 * Aleksandar Benko, 66, Yugoslav footballer.
 * José Caballero, 75, Spanish painter.
 * Doris M. Curtis, 77, American geologist.
 * Claudine Dupuis, 67, French actress.
 * Tom Eyen, 50, American playwright and lyricist (Dreamgirls), AIDS.
 * Tim Landers, 80, Irish footballer.
 * Eugène Lourié, 88, French filmmaker, stroke.
 * Kisaburo Osawa, 80-81, Japanese aikido teacher.
 * John Price, 71, American competitive sailor and Olympic silver medalist.
 * Wilfrid Roberts, 90, British politician.
 * Nick Wasnie, 88, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Hailu Yimenu, -9, Ethiopian politician, suicide.

27

 * Ed Dodd, 88, American cartoonist (Mark Trail).
 * Eric Heffer, 69, British politician.
 * Herman Struve Hensel, 89, American lawyer, heart failure.
 * Leopold Nowak, 86, Austrian musicologist.

28

 * Roy Cullenbine, 77, American baseball player, heart disease.
 * Garton Hone, 90, Australian tennis player.
 * Victor Aloysius Meyers, 93, American politician and musician.
 * Ethel L. Payne, 79, American journalist, editor, and foreign correspondent.
 * Walter Steinbauer, 45, German bobsledder and Olympic medalist.

29

 * Margaret Barr, 86, Australian choreographer.
 * Peter Betz, 61, German Olympic rower (1952).
 * Coral Browne, 77, Australian-American actress (An Englishman Abroad, Dreamchild, The Ruling Class), breast cancer.
 * Andrew Mensaros, 69, Australian politician.
 * John Tronolone, 80, American mobster (Cleveland crime family).
 * Henry Walston, Baron Walston, 78, British politician.

30

 * Edgar Bodenheimer, 83, German-American author and law professor.
 * Manolo Gómez Bur, 74, Spanish actor.
 * Uma Shankar Dikshit, 90, Indian politician.
 * Walter Dirks, 90, German theologian.
 * Roland V. Libonati, 93, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1957–1965).
 * Jim Magnuson, 44, American baseball player, alcohol poisoning.
 * Eugene Oberst, 89, American football player, javelin thrower, and Olympic medalist.
 * Lafayette G. Pool, 71, American tank commander.

31

 * Rubens Josué da Costa, 62, Brazilian football player.
 * Ronald Garvey, 87, British colonial administrator.
 * Magnus Hestenes, 85, American mathematician.
 * Ian Milner, 79, New Zealand political scientist and alleged KGB spy.
 * Robert Schlapp, 91, British physicist.
 * Hans Schwartz, 78, German footballer.
 * Angus Wilson, 77, English novelist, stroke.
 * Artur Woźniak, 77, Polish football player.
 * Yuri Zhukov, 83, Soviet journalist, publicist and political figure.