Deaths in May 2001

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2001.

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

 * Happy Hairston, 58, American basketball player (Cincinnati Royals, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers), prostate cancer.
 * Waldemar Kikolski, 33, Polish paralympic athlete, road accident.
 * Ernie Pomfret, 60, British middle-distance runner.
 * Elsa Prawitz, 69, Swedish film and stage actress.
 * Ernie Wheelwright, 61, American football player.

2

 * Enrico Bovone, 55, Italian basketball player, suicide.
 * Poul Dalsager, 72, Danish politician.
 * Georges Dard, 82, French football player.
 * Vlasta Foltová, 88, Czechoslovak gymnast and Olympic silver medalist.
 * Dick Jamieson, 63, American football player (Baltimore Colts, New York Titans) and coach.
 * Howard Kahane, 73, American professor of philosophy.
 * Gina Mastrogiacomo, 39, American actress (Goodfellas, Harry and the Hendersons, Jungle Fever), myocarditis.
 * Abdul Sattar Khan Niazi, 85, Pakistani religious and political leader.
 * Ted Rogers, 65, British comedian, complications after open-heart surgery.
 * Theodore Roosevelt III, 86, American banker and government official.
 * Klement Steinmetz, 86, Austrian football (soccer) player.

3

 * Philip George Houthem Gell, 86, British immunologist.
 * Jim Godman, 55, American professional bowler.
 * Billy Higgins, 64, American jazz drummer, hepatitis.
 * Karel Kalaš, 90, Czech operatic bass and actor.
 * Princess Rosemary of Salm-Salm, 97, German noblewoman.
 * Robert Millner Shackleton, 91, British field geologist.
 * Hank Schmulbach, 76, American baseball player.

4

 * Anne Anastasi, 92, American psychologist.
 * Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, American socialite, shot.
 * Gene Grabosky, 64, American professional football player (Syracuse University, Buffalo Bills).
 * Vaska Ilieva, 78, Macedonian folk singer from Yugoslavia and North Macedonia.
 * Arne Sucksdorff, 84, Swedish film director, pneumonia.

5

 * Charles Black, 85, American constitutional scholar.
 * Boozoo Chavis, 70, American accordion player, singer, songwriter and bandleader (Zydeco).
 * Morris Graves, 90, American expressionist painter, stroke.
 * Cliff Hillegass, 83, American creator of CliffsNotes, stroke.
 * Bill Homeier, 82, American racecar driver (three Indianapolis 500s).
 * David Jamieson, 80, British Army officer, recipient of the Victoria Cross.
 * Aleksandr Petrov, 61, Soviet/Russian basketball player.
 * Hans Rampf, 70, German ice hockey player.
 * Terry Ryan, 78, American screenwriter, congestive heart failure.
 * Wang Yinglai, 93, Chinese biochemist.

6

 * René Bondoux, 95, French fencer and Olympic champion.
 * Mike Hazlewood, 59, English singer, composer and songwriter, heart attack.
 * Karl Wilhelm Krause, 90, German Waffen-SS officer during World War II.
 * Zoltán Nemere, 59, Hungarian fencer, traffic collision.
 * Cecil Price, 63, American deputy sheriff and Ku Klux Klan member, fall.

7

 * Malati Bedekar, 96, Indian writer.
 * Jacques de Bourbon-Busset, 89, French novelist, essayist and politician.
 * Prem Dhawan, 77, Indian lyricist, music composer, and actor of Bollywood, cardiac arrest.
 * Edwin Finckel, 83, American jazz pianist, composer (George White's Scandals) and music educator.
 * Joseph Greenberg, 85, American linguist, pancreatic cancer.
 * Dick Kimble, 85, American baseball player.
 * Margaretha Krook, 75, Swedish actress, lung cancer.
 * Boris Ryzhy, 26, Russian poet and geologist, suicide.
 * Simon Slåttvik, 83, Norwegian Olympic skier (gold medal winner of the Nordic combined at the 1952 Winter Olympics).
 * Al Tucker, 58, American basketball player.
 * Arthur Christopher Watson, 74, British diplomat.

8

 * Larry Hornung, 55, Canadian ice hockey player, cancer.
 * John McMahon, 83, Australian-English cricket player.
 * Piero Natoli, 53, Italian actor and film director, intracranial aneurysm.
 * Luis Rijo, 73, Uruguayan football player.
 * Clay King Smith, 30, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.

9

 * Marie Cardinal, 72, French novelist.
 * Antoinette Downing, 96, American architectural historian and preservationist.
 * Saul Elkins, 93, American film producer, writer and director.
 * Andrés Framini, 86, Argentine labor leader and politician.
 * Miroslav Kárný, 81, Czech historian and writer.
 * Nikos Sampson, 65, Cypriot politician, de facto President of Cyprus (1974), cancer.
 * Werner Schuster, 62, German politician.
 * William T. Stearn, 90, British botanist.
 * Kauko Wahlsten, 77, Finnish rower and Olympic medalist.
 * Smokey Yunick, 77, American mechanic and car designer, leukemia.

10

 * Turi Ferro, 80, Italian actor (Liolà, The Seduction of Mimi, Malizia), heart attack.
 * James E. Myers, 81, American songwriter ("Rock Around the Clock"), actor and director.
 * Sudhakarrao Naik, 66, Indian politician.
 * M. Krishnan Nair, 74, Indian film director.
 * Frank Newby, 75, English structural engineer.
 * Arthur Tange, 86, Australian public servant.
 * Dorothy Burr Thompson, 100, American classical archaeologist and art historian.
 * Deborah Walley, 57, American actress (Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Beach Blanket Bingo, Spinout) and voice-over artist, esophageal cancer.

11

 * Douglas Adams, 49, British author (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who), heart attack.
 * Jesús Aguirre, 66, Spanish intellectual, Jesuit priest, and aristocrat, pulmonary embolism.
 * Michael J. Bird, 72, British writer.
 * Guy Carlton, 47, American Olympic weightlifter (bronze medal winner in heavyweight weightlifting at the 1984 Summer Olympics), suicide.
 * Alan William James Cousins, 97, South African astronomer.
 * Nick Lalich, 85, Serbian American basketball player, esophageal cancer.
 * Emmett Watson, 82, American newspaper columnist.
 * Wolfgang Winkler, 60, West German luger and Olympic medalist.

12

 * John Cliff, 82, American film and television actor.
 * Ollie Cline, 75, American gridiron football player.
 * Perry Como, 88, American singer, actor and television personality, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Didi, 72, Brazilian footballer, pneumonia.
 * Willy Gysi, 83, Swiss field handball player.
 * Norman Kay, 72, British composer and writer, ALS.
 * Paul Morgan, 52, British engineer, plane crash.
 * Jonathan Niva, 58, Kenyan football player.
 * Mel Payton, 74, American basketball player.
 * Fritz Pfenninger, 66, Swiss cyclist.
 * Simon Raven, 73, British writer.
 * Eleanor Sayre, 85, American curator and art historian.
 * Alexei Tupolev, 75, Soviet aircraft designer.
 * Georgie Woodgate, 77, British tennis player.
 * Corissa Yasen, 27, American basketball player, suicide.

13

 * Sergey Afanasyev, 82, Russian engineer and politician.
 * Eddra Gale, 79, American actress (8½, What's New Pussycat?, The Graduate, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, Somewhere in Time).
 * Salvador Garmendia Graterón, 72, Venezuelan author,.
 * Frank Millar, 76, Northern Irish unionist politician.
 * Jason Miller, 62, American actor (The Exorcist, Rudy) and playwright (That Championship Season), Tony winner (1973), heart attack.
 * Harold Minter, 98, American film editor.
 * R. K. Narayan, 94, Indian writer.
 * Ray Straw, 67, English footballer.
 * Ralph Tabakin, 79, American actor.
 * Susumu Takahashi, 80, Japanese Olympic middle-distance runner.

14

 * Mauro Bolognini, 78, Italian film and stage director.
 * Eric Bradbury, 80, British comic artist.
 * Paul Bénichou, 92, French-Algerian writer, intellectual, and literary historian.
 * Alex Glasgow, 65, English singer-songwriter (On Your Way, Riley!, When the Boat Comes In).
 * Gil Langley, 81, Australian cricketer and politician.
 * Elisabeth Lennartz, 98, German stage actress.
 * Loften Mitchell, 82, American playwright and theatre historian.
 * Armando Nannuzzi, 75, Italian cinematographer and camera operator.
 * Ettore Puricelli, 84, Uruguayan-Italian football player and manager.
 * Juan Verdaguer, 85, Uruguayan actor, cardiovascular disease.

15

 * Jean-Philippe Lauer, 99, French architect and Egyptologist.
 * Juracy Magalhães, 95, Brazilian military officer and politician.
 * Ralph Miller, 82, American college basketball coach.
 * Bobby Murdoch, 56, Scottish footballer, stroke.
 * William Oates, 71, English first-class cricketer.
 * Georgy Shakhnazarov, 76, Soviet-Armenian politician and political scientist.
 * Sacha Vierny, 81, French cinematographer.

16

 * Antonio Flores, 77, Mexican football player.
 * Prince Ital Joe, 38, Dominican-American reggae artist, car accident.
 * Brian Pendleton, 57, British guitarist (The Pretty Things), lung cancer.
 * Witold Stachurski, 54, Polish boxer.

17

 * Robert Elton Brooker, 95, American business executive at Sears, Roebuck & Co.
 * Ike Brown, 59, American baseball player, cancer.
 * Gerd Buchdahl, 86, German-English philosopher of science.
 * Ikuma Dan, 77, Japanese composer.
 * Enid Hattersley, 96, English politician and Lord Mayor of Sheffield.
 * Robert Knapp, 77, American actor (Days of Our Lives, Dragnet, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I.).
 * Jacques-Louis Lions, 73, French mathematician.
 * Murray Murdoch, 96, Canadian ice hockey player and coach.
 * Frank G. Slaughter, 93, American novelist and physician.

18

 * Rosa Beddington, 45, British biologist, cancer.
 * Ralph Enckell, 88, Finnish diplomat.
 * Irene Hunt, 99, American children's writer.
 * Alexey Maresyev, 84, Russian military pilot, infarction.
 * Stella Mary Newton, 100, British fashion designer and dress historian.
 * Maurice Noble, 90, American animation artist and designer.
 * Seán Mac Stíofáin, 73, English-Irish chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, stroke.
 * Robert F. Woodward, 92, American diplomat.

19

 * Fred Derby, 61, Surinamese politician and trade unionist.
 * John Joseph Egan, 84, American Roman Catholic priest and social activist.
 * Joe Graydon, 82, American big band vocalist, television host, personal manager and concert producer.
 * Josef Haunzwickel, 86, Austrian Olympic athlete (men's pole vault at the 1936 Summer Olympics).
 * Patricia Hilliard, 85, British stage and film actress.
 * Vidkunn Hveding, 80, Norwegian politician.
 * Joe Lovitto, 50, American baseball player, cancer.
 * Hans Mayer, 94, German literary scholar.
 * Susannah McCorkle, 55, American jazz singer, suicide.
 * Mike Sammes, 73, English musician and vocal session arranger.
 * Pat Falken Smith, 75, American television writer.
 * Bob Tinning, 75, Australian rower.
 * John Warner, 78, British actor.

20

 * Carl Eric Almgren, 88, Swedish Army general.
 * Renato Carosone, 81, Italian musician.
 * Bob Keely, 91, American baseball coach, scout and player.
 * Art Mergenthal, 80, American gridiron football player.
 * Bud Thomas, 90, American baseball player.

21

 * Philip W. Buchen, 85, American attorney and White House Counsel.
 * Mel Hoderlein, 77, American baseball player.
 * Mario Martinelli, 95, Italian resistance member during World War II and politician.
 * Cecil G. Murgatroyd, 42, Australian politician, musician, and comedian, cancer.
 * Johnny Rainford, 70, English footballer.
 * Gabriele Rumi, 61, Italian Formula One team owner, cancer.
 * Tad Szulc, 74, Polish-American journalist, cancer.
 * Fritz Uhl, 73, Austrian operatic tenor.
 * Graham Webster, 87, British archaeologist.
 * Hu Xieqing, 95, Contemporary Chinese painter.

22

 * Lorez Alexandria, 71, American jazz singer.
 * Katharine Bartlett, 93, American physical anthropologist.
 * Jenő Fock, 85, Hungarian communist politician, prime minister (1967-1975).
 * Ralph Hamner, 84, American baseball player.
 * Jean Hougron, 77, French novelist.
 * Leamon King, 65, American sprinter and Olympic champion.
 * Whitman Mayo, 70, American actor (Sanford and Son, Boyz n the Hood, Hell Town), heart attack.
 * Jack Watling, 78, British actor (The Plane Makers, The Power Game, Pathfinders), cancer.

23

 * Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, 72, Palestinian-American academic.
 * Liu Anyuan, 73, Chinese lieutenant general.
 * Harald Bergström, 93, a Swedish mathematician.
 * Jean Champion, 84, French film actor.
 * Lita Chevret, 92, American actress.
 * Charles D. Cook, 66, American politician.
 * Tommy Eyre, 51, British keyboardist, cancer.
 * Walter Eytan, 90, Israeli diplomat.
 * Bob Gaona, 70, American gridiron football player (Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles).
 * Chuck Gelatka, 87, American professional football player (Mississippi State, New York Giants).
 * Boris Gyuderov, 74, Bulgarian Olympic volleyball player (1964).
 * Lee Chiaw Meng, 64, Singaporean politician, cancer.
 * Arno Mohr, 90, German painter and graphic artist.
 * Alessandro Natta, 83, Italian communist politician.
 * P. Ramachandran, 79, Indian politician, Governor of Kerala.
 * Jamileh Sheykhi, 71, Iranian actress, heart attack.
 * Harry Townes, 86, American actor (Finian's Rainbow, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek) and an Episcopalian priest.
 * Arseny Vorozheykin, 88, Soviet/Russian fighter ace during World War II.

24

 * Lucy Boscana, 85, Puerto Rico actress.
 * Jo Ann Greer, 74, American singer.
 * Tor Jevne, 72, Norwegian football player.
 * Paul Kor, 74, Israeli painter and children's writer, lung cancer.
 * Ridvan Qazimi, 37, Kosovar Albanian insurgent nationalist, K.I.A.
 * Patricia Robertson, 38, American physician and NASA astronaut, plane crash.
 * Javier Urruticoechea, 49, Spanish footballer, car crash.

25

 * Delme Bryn-Jones, 67, Welsh baritone.
 * John W. Holmes, 84, American film editor.
 * Alberto Korda, 72, Cuban photographer, heart attack.
 * Arturo Maly, 61, Argentine actor, heart attack.
 * Malcom McLean, 87, American businessman and shipper.
 * Harold Ridley, 94, British ophthalmologist.

26

 * Vittorio Brambilla, 63, Italian Formula One race car driver, heart attack.
 * Roman Codreanu, 48, Romanian Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic medalist.
 * Johnny Gordon, 69, English football player.
 * Anne Haney, 67, American actress (Mrs. Doubtfire, The American President, Liar Liar), heart failure.
 * Moven Mahachi, 53, Zimbabwean Minister of Defence of the Republic of Zimbabwe, traffic collision.
 * Hal Moe, 91, American gridiron football player and coach.
 * William Molloy, Baron Molloy, 82, British politician.
 * Dea Trier Mørch, 59, Danish artist and writer, cancer.

27

 * Ramon Bieri, 71, American actor (Sarge, Room 222, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke), cancer.
 * Helen Oakley Dance, 88, Canadian-American jazz journalist, record producer, and music historian.
 * Victor Kiam, 74, American entrepreneur and owner of the New England Patriots football team.
 * Agda Rössel, 90, Swedish politician.
 * Nikolay Yeryomenko, 52, Soviet/Russian actor and film director, stroke.

28

 * Tony Ashton, 55, English rock pianist, music producer and artist, cancer.
 * Francis Bebey, 71, Cameroonian writer and composer.
 * Joe Moakley, 74, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives, leukemia.
 * Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, 79, Indian medical scientist.
 * Rockets Redglare, 52, American character actor and comedian (After Hours, Desperately Seeking Susan), hepatitis and liver cirrhosis.
 * Elizabeth S. Russell, 88, American geneticist.
 * Francisco Varela, 54, Chilean biologist, philosopher and neuroscientist, heart attack.

29

 * John Fleming, 81, British art historian.
 * Eddie Forrest, 79, American football player (San Francisco 49ers).
 * Akira Fujita, 93, Japanese Olympic water polo player (men's water polo at the 1932 Summer Olympics).
 * Charley Pell, 60, American college football player and coach, lung cancer.
 * Vytautas Sakalauskas, 68, Soviet and Lithuanian politician.
 * Hédi Temessy, 76, Hungarian actress.

30

 * Werner Fricker, 65, German-American soccer player and official.
 * Terry Gathercole, 65, Australian Olympic swimmer (silver medal winner of the men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics).
 * Inderjit Singh Gill, 79, Indian Army officer.
 * Adrian Hastings, 71, British Roman Catholic priest and historian.
 * Nikolai Korndorf, 54, Russian-Canadian composer and conductor.
 * John Pickering, 56, English footballer.
 * Jaime Benítez Rexach, 92, Puerto Rican author, academic and politician.
 * Renée Schuurman, 61, South African tennis player.
 * Rajko Tomović, 81, Serbian and Yugoslav scientist.
 * Denis Whitaker, 86, Canadian athlete, soldier, and author.

31

 * Santos Amaro, 93, Cuban baseball player.
 * Arlene Francis, 93, American actress, talk show host, and game show panelist (What's My Line?), Alzheimer's disease and cancer.
 * Faisal Husseini, 60, Palestinian politician, heart attack.
 * Tony Johnson, 76, Australian politician.
 * Jagannath Kaushal, 86, Indian politician.
 * Kwoh-Ting Li, 91, Taiwanese economist and politician.
 * Tex McKenzie, 70, American professional wrestler, abdominal aortic aneurysm.
 * Walter E. Rogers, 92, American politician.
 * German Ugryumov, 52, Soviet and Russian navy and security services official, heart attack.
 * Rosemary Verey, 82, English garden designer.