Deaths in May 1996

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1996.

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

 * Herbert Brownell, 92, American politician, cancer.
 * Billy Byers, 69, American jazz trombonist and arranger.
 * François Chalais, 76, French journalist, leukemia.
 * Jim Gleeson, 84, American baseball player.
 * Eric Houghton, 85, English football player and manager.
 * David M. Kennedy, 90, American diplomat, cardiovascular disease.
 * Luana Patten, 57, American actress (Song of the South, Johnny Tremain, Joe Dakota), respiratory failure.

2

 * Emile Habibi, 73, Palestinian-Israeli writer and communist politician, cancer.
 * Danny Kamekona, 60, American actor (The Karate Kid Part II, Problem Child, Honeymoon in Vegas).
 * María Luisa Ponte, 77, Spanish actress.
 * Henri Rust, 90, Dutch film editor.
 * Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby, 97, British politician.

3

 * Guy Casaril, 62, French film director.
 * Donald G. Fink, 84, American engineer.
 * Tim Gullikson, 44, American tennis player and coach, brain cancer.
 * Alex Kellner, 71, American baseball player.
 * Hermann Kesten, 96, German writer.
 * Detlev Kittstein, 52, German field hockey player.
 * Patsy Montana, 87, American country music singer-songwriter.
 * Ray Stevens, 60, American professional wrestler, heart attack.
 * Jack Weston, 71, American actor (Dirty Dancing, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Ritz), lymphoma.
 * Keith Daniel Williams, 48, American murderer, execution by lethal injection.

4

 * Jean Crépin, 87, French Army officer during World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War.
 * Edward E. Haddock, 84, American politician.
 * Gus Keriazakos, 64, American baseball player.
 * Eduardo Franco Raymundo, 62, Spanish chess player.

5

 * Gaëtan Duval, 65, Mauritian politician.
 * David Lasser, 94, American writer and political activist.
 * Rodney M. Love, 87, American politician.
 * Jokūbas Minkevičius, 75, Lithuanian politician.
 * Ai Qing, 86, Chinese poet.
 * Salli Terri, 73, Canadian-American singer and arranger.
 * Charles H. Zimmerman, 88, American aeronautical engineer.

6

 * Donald T. Campbell, 79, American psychologist and scholar.
 * Geoffrey S. Dawes, 78, British fetal physiologist.
 * Ed Love, 85, American animator.
 * Hamlet Mkhitaryan, 33, Soviet/Russian football player, brain cancer.
 * Wally Nightingale, 40, British musician, drug-related illness.
 * Suzanne Ridgeway, 78, American film actress.
 * Leo Joseph Suenens, 91, Belgian Roman Catholic cardinal, thrombosis.

7

 * William Copley, 77, American painter, writer, and gallerist.
 * Don McNeill, 88, American radio personality.
 * Albert Meltzer, 76, British anarchist.
 * Narciso G. Reyes, 82, Filipino diplomat and author.
 * José Lázaro Robles, 72, Brazilian football player.
 * Howard Smith, 76, British diplomat.

8

 * Beryl Burton, 58, English racing cyclist, heart attack.
 * Serge Chermayeff, 95, Russian-British architect, industrial designer, and writer.
 * Luis Miguel Dominguín, 69, Spanish bullfighter, cerebral hemorrhage.
 * Robert Geib, 84, Luxembourgish football player.
 * Ludwig Hoelscher, 88, German composer, musician and music educator.
 * Bill Naito, 70, American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist, cancer.
 * Celedonio Romero, 83, Spanish musician.
 * Karl Ullrich, 85, German SS officer during World War II.
 * Garth Williams, 84, American children's illustrator.

9

 * Khaptad Baba, 1995, Nepalese spiritual saint.
 * Lu Dingyi, 89, Chinese politician.
 * Carl Fallberg, 80, American cartoonist and artist.
 * Gustave Gingras, 78, Canadian physician.
 * Calvin Waller, 58, United States Army lieutenant general, complications from a heart attack.

10

 * Jože Babič, 79, Slovenian filmmaker.
 * Poul Borum, 61, Danish poet and writer.
 * Joe Holden, 82, American baseball player, manager and scout.
 * Ethel Smith, 93, American organist.
 * Curt Teichert, 91, German-American palaeontologist and geologist.

11

 * Nnamdi Azikiwe, 91, President of Nigeria.
 * Rodney Culver, 26, American football running back, plane crash.
 * Ademir de Menezes, 73, Brazilian football player and manager.
 * Øivind Johannessen, 71, Norwegian football player.
 * Sam Ragan, 80, American poet.
 * Vittorio Sala, 77, Italian screenwriter and film director.
 * Princess Maria de los Dolores of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, 86, Sicillian princess.
 * Mikheil Tumanishvili, 75, Soviet theatre director.
 * Merrill B. Twining, 93, United States Marine Corps general.
 * Ivan Vyshnevskyi, 39, Ukrainian football player, melanoma.
 * Margaret Wright, 76, American politician and community activist.
 * Notable climbers killed in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster
 * Scott Fischer, 40, American mountaineer.
 * Rob Hall, 35, New Zealand mountaineer.
 * Yasuko Namba, 47, Japanese businesswoman.
 * Andy Harris, 31, New Zealand mountain guide.

12

 * Ghazaleh Alizadeh, 47, Iranian poet and writer, suicide.
 * Richard Kendall Brooke, 66, South African ornithologist.
 * Homer Keller, 81, American composer of contemporary classical music.
 * Mohamed Abdel Rahman, 81, Egyptian fencer.
 * Martin Roman, 86, German jazz pianist.

13

 * Harry Hyde, 71, American NASCAR crew chief, myocardial infarction.
 * William Hughes Mulligan, 78, American judge.
 * Morris Edward Opler, 89, American anthropologist.
 * Chaim Menachem Rabin, 80, Israeli linguist.

14

 * Marian Barone, 72, American gymnast and olympian.
 * Vera Chapman, 98, British writer.
 * Edward Gurney, 82, American attorney and politician.
 * Jan Hertl, 67, Czech football player.
 * Sridharan Jeganathan, 44, Sri Lankan cricket player.
 * Ludwig Preiß, 85, German politician.
 * Dick Randall, 70, American filmmaker.
 * Adone Stellin, 75, Italian association football player.
 * Kumi Sugai, 77, Japanese painter, sculptor and printmaker.
 * Usilaimani, 62, Tamil actor.
 * Leopold Šťastný, 84, Czechoslovak soccer player and coach.

15

 * Nordine Ben Ali, 76, Algerian-French football player and manager.
 * Javier del Granado, 83, Bolivian writer.
 * Newt V. Mills, 96, American politician.
 * Paul Nogier, 87, French neurologist and physician.
 * Virgil Walter Ross, 88, American animator.

16

 * Danilo Alvim, 75, Brazilian football player and manager, pneumonia.
 * Jeremy Michael Boorda, 56, American admiral, suicide.
 * Claude Gordon, 80, American trumpeter, band director, educator, and author, cancer.
 * Olga Madar, 80, American labor unionist.

17

 * Scott Brayton, 37, American open-wheel racing driver, racing accident.
 * Willis Conover, 75, American radio producer, lung cancer.
 * Mary Haas, 86, American linguist.
 * Rusi Modi, 71, Indian cricket player.
 * Nick Origlass, 88, Australian Trotskyist politician.
 * Johnny "Guitar" Watson, 61, American musician and singer-songwriter, myocardial infarction.

18

 * Czesław Bobrowski, 92, Polish politician and economist.
 * Mario Braggiotti, 90, American pianist, composer and raconteur.
 * Dawee Chullasapya, 81, Thai Air Force air marshal.
 * Chet Forte, 60, American television director and sports radio talk show host, heart attack.
 * Kevin Gilbert, 29, American musician, accidental asphyxiation.
 * Yosef Porat, 86, German-Israeli chess player.
 * T. B. Werapitiya, 71, Sri Lankan cricket player.

19

 * John Beradino, 79, American baseball player and actor, pancreatic cancer.
 * Herbert Büchs, 82, German Air Force officer.
 * Jake Ford, 50, American basketball player.
 * Hideji Hōjō, 93, Japanese author, novelist, and playwright.
 * Janaki Ramachandran, 72, Indian actor and politician, cardiac arrest.
 * Margaret Rawlings, 89, English actress.
 * Charles Verlinden, 89, Belgian medievalist.
 * Zygmunt Ziembiński, 75, Polish legal philosopher and logician.

20

 * Jean-Jacques Delbo, 87, French actor.
 * Dean Harens, 75, American actor.
 * Jon Pertwee, 76, English actor, comedian, cabaret performer and TV presenter, heart attack.
 * Janez Vidic, 73, Slovene painter and illustrator.

21

 * Vladimir Belyakov, 78, Soviet gymnast.
 * Paul Delph, 39, American musician.
 * Raffaele di Paco, 87, Italian road racing cyclist.
 * Karl Hoffmann, 81, German Indologist.
 * Fernando Volio Jiménez, 71, Costa Rican politician.
 * Lash LaRue, 78, American actor, pulmonary emphysema.
 * Fritz Ligges, 57, German equestrian, heart attack.

22

 * Robert Christie, 82, Canadian actor and director.
 * Cuthbert Hurd, 85, American computer scientist and entrepreneur.
 * Seymour H. Knox III, 70, American sports executive.
 * Veikko Lavi, 84, Finnish singer, songwriter and writer.
 * Maurice Piot, 83, French fencer.
 * George H. Smith, 73, American writer.
 * Wong Peng Soon, 78, Malaysian badminton player, pneumonia.

23

 * Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, 46, Egyptian al-Qaeda leader, drowned.
 * Patrick Cargill, 77, English actor, brain cancer.
 * Dorothy Hyson, 81, American actress, stroke.
 * Sim Iness, 65, Athletics competitor.
 * Evert Karlsson, 75, Swedish ski jumper.
 * Bernhard Klodt, 69, German football player, heart attack.
 * Kronid Lyubarsky, 62, Soviet dissident, heart attack.
 * Tanju Okan, 57, Turkish recording artist; singer, cirrhosis.
 * Peter Pasetti, 79, German actor, cancer.

24

 * John Abbott, 90, English actor.
 * Jorge Bolaños, 51, Ecuadorian football player.
 * Harry Campion, 91, British statistician and director.
 * Thomas Connolly, 86,United States Navy admiral, aviator, gymnast and Olympic medalist.
 * José Cuatrecasas, 93, Spanish-American pharmacist and botanist.
 * Jacob Druckman, 67, American composer, lung cancer.
 * Enrique Álvarez Félix, 62, Mexican actor, heart attack.
 * Johan Kraag, 82, President of Suriname.
 * Joseph Mitchell, 87, American writer.
 * Kshitindramohan Naha, 64, Indian geologist and professor.
 * Lois Pereiro, 38, Poet; writer, AIDS-related complications.
 * Norman René, 45, American director, AIDS-related complications.
 * Roland Varno, 88, Dutch-American actor and secret agent.

25

 * Renzo De Felice, 67, Italian historian.
 * John Morrison, 1st Baron Margadale, 89, British politician.
 * Guy Mazeline, 96, French writer.
 * Bradley Nowell, 28, American musician and the lead singer and guitarist of Sublime, opioid overdose.
 * Vladimir Ukhov, 72, Russian racewalker.
 * Barney Wilen, 59, French saxophonist.
 * Dimitar Yordanov, 66, Bulgarian football player.

26

 * Ole Berntsen, 81, Danish sailor.
 * Don Bollweg, 75, American baseball player.
 * Haika Grossman, 76, Israeli politician and member of Knesset.
 * Gerard Hallock, 90, American ice hockey player.
 * Stefan Jędrychowski, 86, Polish journalist and communist politician.
 * Ovidiu Papadima, 86, Romanian literary critic, folklorist, and essayist.
 * Milan Ribar, 66, Yugoslav/Croatian football manager.
 * Heije Schaper, 89, Dutch lieutenant general of the Royal Netherlands Air Force and politician.
 * Mike Sharperson, 34, American baseball player, accident.

27

 * George Boolos, 55, American philosopher and mathematical logician, pancreas cancer.
 * Pud Brown, 79, American jazz reed player.
 * Aksel Bonde Hansen, 77, Danish rower.
 * Philip B. Healey, 74, American politician.

28

 * Walter Brandi, 68, Italian actor.
 * Nirmala Devi, 68, Indian film actress and singer.
 * George Kojac, 86, American swimmer and Olympic champion.
 * Rollin Prather, 70, Canadian football player.
 * Jimmy Rowles, 77, American jazz pianist, vocalist, and composer.

29

 * Jennings Lang, 81, American actor, pneumonia.
 * Isidro Maiztegui, 90, Argentinian composer.
 * Antonín Mrkos, 78, Czech astronomer.
 * Hrant Shahinyan, 72, Soviet/Armenian gymnast.
 * Jeremy Sinden, 45, British actor, lung cancer.
 * Tamara Toumanova, 77, Russian ballet dancer.

30

 * John Cameron, Lord Cameron, 96, Scottish judge.
 * Heather Canning, 63, English actress.
 * William Dally, 88, American rower.
 * Léon-Étienne Duval, 92, French catholic prelate and cardinal.
 * François Genoud, 80, Swiss Nazi collaborator, suicide.
 * John Kahn, 48, American bass guitarist.
 * Alo Mattiisen, 35, Estonian composer.
 * Arthur "T-Boy" Ross, 47, American singer-songwriter.
 * Natividad Vacío, 83, American actor.

31

 * Walter C. Beckham, 80, United States Army Air Forces fighter ace and nuclear scientist.
 * Ton de Leeuw, 69, Dutch composer.
 * Luciano Lama, 74, Italian politician and trade unionist.
 * Timothy Leary, 75, American psychologist and writer, prostate cancer.
 * Thomas Francis Xavier Smith, 67, American politician, cancer.