Deaths in May 1998

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1998.

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

 * Eldridge Cleaver, 62, American writer and political activist, prostate cancer.
 * Heinie Heltzel, 84, American baseball player.
 * Brian Kendall, 51, New Zealand boxer, cancer.
 * J. S. Roskell, 84, English historian of the Middle Ages.

2

 * Clyde Connell, 96, American abstract expressionist sculptor.
 * Justin Fashanu, 37, English footballer, suicide.
 * Johnny Grodzicki, 81, American baseball player.
 * Hide, 33, Japanese musician, suicide by hanging.
 * Kevin Lloyd, 49, English actor (The Bill), alcoholism.
 * Maidie Norman, 85, American actress and literature and theater teacher, lung cancer.
 * Carey Wilber, 81, American journalist and television writer.

3

 * Jesse Alto, 71, American poker player.
 * Erich Bergel, 67, German flutist and conductor.
 * Louis Berry, 83, African American civil rights attorney.
 * Erika Cheetham, 58, English writer.
 * Johannes Driessler, 77, German composer, organist, and lecturer.
 * Tom Elliot, 72, Scottish rugby player.
 * Jean-Baptiste Hachème, 68, Beninese military officer and politician.
 * Raimund Harmstorf, 58, German actor, suicide by hanging.
 * David Vincent Hooper, 82, British chess player and writer.
 * Venkatesh Kulkarni, Indian-American novelist and academic, leukemia.
 * Loren MacIver, 89, American painter.
 * René Mugica, 88, Argentine actor, film director and screenwriter.
 * Gene Raymond, 89, American actor, pneumonia.
 * Les Samuels, 69, English footballer.
 * Xue Yue, 101, Chinese Nationalist military general.
 * Gojko Šušak, 53, Croatian politician, lung cancer.

4

 * Gordon Beningfield, 61, English wildlife artist, broadcaster and naturalist.
 * Alois Estermann, 43, Swiss officer of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, murdered.
 * Albert Glasser, 82, American composer, conductor and arranger of B-movie music.
 * Theodor Oberländer, 93, German Ostforschung scientist and politician.
 * Nicolò Rode, 86, Italian sailor and Olympic champion.

5

 * Juan Gimeno, 84, Spanish road cyclist.
 * Alan Glyn, 79, British politician.
 * Tommy McCook, 71, Jamaican saxophonist, pneumonia and heart failure.
 * Eleanor Ragsdale, 72, American civil rights activist.
 * Frithjof Schuon, 90, Swiss author, poet and painter.
 * Paul Seymour, 70, American basketball player and coach.

6

 * Chatchai Chunhawan, 78, Thai army officer, diplomat and politician, liver cancer.
 * Sybil Connolly, 77, Irish fashion designer.
 * Juan Antonio García Díez, 57, American politician, liver cancer.
 * Aleksei Gritsai, 84, Soviet and Russian artist.
 * John Joseph, 65, Pakistani Roman Catholic bishop, suicide.
 * Arvid Laurin, 96, Swedish sailor and Olympic medalist.
 * Erich Mende, 81, German politician, Vice-Chancellor of West Germany.

7

 * Blue Lu Barker, 84, American jazz and blues singer.
 * Allan McLeod Cormack, 74, South African American physicist, cancer.
 * István Hasznos, 73, Hungarian water polo player and Olympic champion (1952).
 * Jack Heslop-Harrison, 78, British soldier and botanist, heart attack.
 * John Meyers, 58, American football player, heart problems.
 * Eddie Rabbitt, 56, American singer and songwriter, lung cancer.
 * Allen Wikgren, 91, American theologian and New Testament scholar.

8

 * Donald Stephen Lowell Cardwell, 78, British historian of science and technology.
 * Jacques Dumesnil, 94, French film and television actor.
 * Johannes Kotkas, 83, Estonian Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic champion (1952).
 * Raymond Premru, 63, American trombonist and compose, esophageal cancer.
 * Jennings Randolph, 96, American politician.
 * Charles Rebozo, 85, American banker and businessman.

9

 * Lester Butler, 38, American blues harmonica player and singer, drug overdose.
 * Donald Conroy, 77, United States Marine Corps colonel.
 * Bernard Dwork, 74, American mathematician.
 * Alice Faye, 83, American actress and singer, stomach cancer.
 * Rudolf Ismayr, 89, German weightlifter and Olympic champion.
 * Rommie Loudd, 64, American gridiron football player, coach, and executive, diabetes.
 * Talat Mahmood, 74, Indian playback singer, heart attack.
 * Bob Mellish, Baron Mellish, 85, British politician.
 * Earl R. Parker, 85, American engineer and professor.
 * Nat Perrin, 93, American comedy screenwriter, producer and director.
 * R. J. G. Savage, 70, British palaeontologist, pancreatic cancer.
 * Gerhard Siedl, 69, German football player.
 * Marianne Strengell, 88, Finnish-American modernist textile designer.

10

 * Lajos Czinege, 74, Hungarian military officer and politician.
 * José Francisco Antonio Peña Gómez, 61, Dominican Republic politician, pulmonary edema.
 * Robert Jewell, 78, Australian actor (Doctor Who).
 * Oreste Kirkop, 74, Maltese singer.
 * Cesare Perdisa, 65, Italian racing driver.
 * Ronald Ridenhour, 52, American soldier during the Vietnam War, heart attack.
 * Clara Rockmore, 87, American classical violin prodigy and theremin performer.
 * Sumitro, 71, Indonesian general.
 * Alberto Valdés, 80, Mexican American painter
 * George Wright, 77, American organist.

11

 * Willy Corsari, 100, Dutch actor, author and composer.
 * Gene Fowler Jr., 80, American film editor (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Hang 'Em High).
 * Ernst Ising, 98, German physicist.
 * John Morrison, 94, Australian novelist and short story writer.
 * Hans van Zon, 57, Dutch serial killer, alcohol poisoning.

12

 * Myoung Hwa Cho, 44, American murder victim, homicide by asphyxiation.
 * Hermann Lenz, 85, German writer, poet, and novelist.
 * John McCarthy, 81, American gridiron football player.
 * Graham Shaw, 63, English football player.

13

 * Gunnar Jansson, 90, Swedish football player.
 * Oscar G. Johnson, 77, United States Army soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor.
 * Chantal Mauduit, 34, French alpinist, climbing accident.
 * Frank Ragano, 75, American mafia lawyer.

14

 * Mabel Esther Allan, 83, British children's author.
 * Bill Bishop, 67, American gridiron football player.
 * Garth Boesch, 77, American ice hockey player.
 * Tom D'Andrea, 88, American actor.
 * Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 108, American journalist, writer and conservationist.
 * Charlie Hall, 50, American gridiron football player.
 * Geoffrey Kendal, 88, English actor.
 * Floyd Lounsbury, 84, American linguist, anthropologist and epigrapher.
 * Yitzhak Moda'i, 72, Israeli politician.
 * Shawkat Osman, 81, Bangladeshi novelist and short story writer.
 * Karl Schmid, 87, Swiss rower and Olympic medalist.
 * Frank Sinatra, 82, American singer ("My Way", "That's Life") and actor (From Here to Eternity), Oscar winner (1954), heart attack.
 * Mahmud of Terengganu, 68, Malaysian sultan.
 * Jade Wilson, 21, New Zealand squash player, suicide.

15

 * Joe Cibulas, 77, American football player.
 * Gunter d'Alquen, 87, German nazi correspondent.
 * John Hawkes, 72, American novelist.
 * Richard Jaeger, 85, German politician.
 * Earl Manigault, 53, American basketball player, congestive heart failure.
 * Packy Rogers, 85, American baseball player, manager and scout.
 * Naim Talu, 78, Turkish politician and former Prime Minister of Turkey.
 * Patrick Wall, 81, British commando during World War II and later a politician.

16

 * Pierre Cardinal, 73, French screenwriter and director.
 * Idov Cohen, 88, Romanian-Israeli politician and journalist.
 * Milan Creighton, 90, American football player and coach.
 * William Alexander Hewitt, 83, American diplomat and businessman.
 * Rufino Linares, 47, American baseball player, traffic collision.

17

 * Genie Chance, 71, American journalist, radio broadcaster and politician.
 * Hugh Cudlipp, 84, British journalist and newspaper editor.
 * Nina Dorliak, 89, Russian soprano and a voice teacher.
 * Gasper Urban, 75, American gridiron football player.
 * Sarojini Yogeswaran, 97, Sri Lankan politician.

18

 * Obaidullah Aleem, Indian poet, heart failure.
 * Odd Engström, 56, Swedish politician, heart attack.
 * Roy Evans, 88, Welsh table tennis player.
 * Enid Marx, 95, English painter and designer.

19

 * Edwin Astley, 76, British composer.
 * Hank Earl Carr, 30, American murderer and spree killer, suicide by gunshot.
 * Leela Devi, 66, Indian writer, translator, and teacher.
 * Dorothy Donegan, 76, American jazz pianist and vocalist, cancer.
 * Teresa Prekerowa, 76, Polish historian and author.
 * Sōsuke Uno, 75, Japanese politician and Prime Minister of Japan, lung cancer.

20

 * Chuck Bloedorn, 85, American basketball player.
 * Tom Bolack, 80, American businessman and politician.
 * Linwood G. Dunn, 93, American visual effects artist (West Side Story, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Mighty Joe Young).
 * Ricardo Franco, 48, Spanish screenwriter and film director, heart attack.
 * Jacob Katz, 93, Israeli historian and educator.
 * Wolf Mankowitz, 73, English writer, playwright and screenwriter, cancer.
 * Walter McKinnon, 87, New Zealand Army officer.
 * Robert Normann, 81, Norwegian jazz guitarist.
 * Alfredo Yabrán, 53, Argentine businessman and associate of Carlos Menem, suicide.
 * Santiago Álvarez, 79, Cuban filmmaker, Parkinson's disease.

21

 * Erik Bladström, 80, Swedish sprint canoeist and Olympic champion.
 * Li Bo, 69, Chinese ecologist, traffic collision.
 * Pedro Escartín, 95, Spanish football player, referee, coach, and author.
 * Douglas Fowley, 86, American actor (Singin' in the Rain, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Mighty Joe Young).
 * Robert Gist, 80, American actor and film director.
 * Jan Gullberg, 62, Swedish surgeon and science writer, stroke.
 * Jim Power, 102, Irish hurler.
 * Rajanala Kaleswara Rao, 73, Indian film actor.
 * Torgny Säve-Söderbergh, 83, Swedish writer and professor of Egyptology.

22

 * Domenico Cantatore, 82, Italian painter.
 * John Derek, 71, American actor and film director, heart failure.
 * Arthur R. Gralla, 85, United States Navy Vice Admiral, pneumonia.
 * Fred Hatfield, 73, American baseball player.
 * Eddie MacCabe, 71, Canadian sports journalist and writer.
 * Robert W. Morgan, 60, American radio personality, lung cancer.
 * José Enrique Moyal, 87, Australian mathematical physicist.
 * Francisco Lucas Pires, 53, Portuguese lawyer, and politician.

23

 * Tony Halik, 77, Polish documentary film maker, author of travel books, and explorer.
 * Grace Hartman, Canadian social activist and politician.
 * Vic Kulbitski, 76, American gridiron football player.
 * Andreas Liebenberg, 60, South African military commander.
 * Ebbe Rode, 88, Danish stage and film actor, pneumonia.
 * Monroe K. Spears, American university professor and literary critic.
 * Telford Taylor, 90, American lawyer.

24

 * Francys Arsentiev, 40, American mountaineer, hypothermia and/or cerebral edema.
 * George Kelly, 82, American jazz tenor saxophonist.
 * Tommy Moore, 35, American golfer, primary amyloidosis.
 * Premnath Moraes, 75, Sri Lankan actor, film director and scriptwriter.
 * Lucio Muñoz, 68, Spanish painter and engraver.
 * Charles Rycroft, 83, British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

25

 * Steve Michael, 42, American HIV/AIDS activist, complications from AIDS.
 * Gary Thomas Row, 64, American informant for the FBI, heart attack.
 * Claude Stubbs, 93, Australian politician.
 * Todd Witsken, 34, American tennis player, brain cancer.

26

 * Emil Braginsky, 76, Soviet and Russian screenwriter.
 * Linda Hayes, 74, American rhythm and blues singer.
 * Edgar A. Silinsh, 71, Soviet and Latvian scientist.
 * Charlie White, 70, American baseball player.
 * Sergey Yablonsky, 73, Soviet and Russian mathematician.

27

 * Minoo Masani, 92, Indian politician.
 * Robert Muller, 72, German-British journalist and screenwriter.
 * Ghazaros Saryan, 77, Armenian composer.
 * Shu Tong, 92, Chinese politician.

28

 * Chung-Yao Chao, 95, Chinese theoretical physicist.
 * Ragnar Fjørtoft, 84, Norwegian meteorologist.
 * Bill Giles, 66, American football player and coach.
 * Phil Hartman, 49, Canadian-American comedian and actor (Saturday Night Live, NewsRadio, The Simpsons), Emmy winner (1989), shot.
 * Anatoliy Kabayda, 85, Ukrainian community and political activist.
 * Bill Meek, 77, American football player and coach.
 * Lana Morris, 68, British actress, heart attack.
 * George T. Oubre, 80, American politician.
 * Dieter Renner, 48, German football player and coach.
 * Giovanni Valetti, 84, Italian road racing cyclist.
 * Bill Williams, 37, American game designer, programmer and author, cystic fibrosis.

29

 * Orlando Anderson, 23, American gangster and suspected murderer of rapper Tupac Shakur, gunshot wound.
 * Eric Atkinson, 70, Barbados cricket player..
 * Ted Dunbar, 61, American jazz guitarist and composer, stroke.
 * Barry Goldwater, 89, American politician and author, complications from a stroke.
 * Hazel P. Heath, 88, American politician and entrepreneur.
 * Marion Milner, 98, British author and psychoanalyst.
 * Philip O'Connor, 81, British writer and surrealist poet.

30

 * Sam Aaronovitch, 78, British economist, academic and communist.
 * Jozef Baláži, 78, Slovak football player and manager.
 * Leon Bender, 22, American football player, epilepsy.
 * Walter Carr, 73, Scottish actor and comedian.
 * William Moreton Condry, 80, English naturalist, kidney failure.
 * Robin Jackson, 49, Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary, lung cancer.
 * Jan Pickard, 70, South African rugby player.
 * Max Prieto, 79, Mexican football player.
 * Wolfram Röhrig, 81, German pianist, composer and conductor.

31

 * Sammy Collins, 75, English football player.
 * Lotti Huber, 85, German actress.
 * Valeriy Hubulov, 31, South Ossetian politician, murdered.
 * Michio Suzuki, 71, Japanese mathematician.
 * Charles Van Acker, 86, Belgian-American racecar driver.
 * Stanisław Wisłocki, 76, Polish conductor of classical music.