Deaths in May 2002

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2002.

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

 * Ade Bethune, 88, American Catholic liturgical artist.
 * Aspy Engineer, 89, Indian Air Force officer.
 * John Nathan-Turner, 54, British television producer (Doctor Who), infection.
 * Tom Sutton, 65, American comic book artist (Vampirella, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider), heart attack.
 * Roger Teillet, 89, Canadian politician.

2

 * Rosa García Ascot, 100, Spanish composer and pianist.
 * Peter Thomas Bauer, 86, Hungarian-British economist.
 * Olive Cook, 90, British writer and artist, cancer.
 * Constanța Crăciun, 88, Romanian politician and educator.
 * Devika, 59, Indian actress, heart attack.
 * Carl Heger, 92, Danish actor.
 * Sihung Lung, 72, Taiwanese movie and TV actor, liver failure.
 * Izet Sarajlić, 72, Bosnian historian of philosophy, essayist, and poet.
 * Ron Soble, 70, American actor in films and television.
 * Richard Stücklen, 85, German politician, President of the Bundestag.
 * Judy Toll, 44, American actress, writer and comedian, melanoma.
 * W. T. Tutte, 84, British-Canadian cryptographer during World War II and mathematician.

3

 * Livingston L. Biddle, Jr., 83, American author and promoter of funding for the arts.
 * Malcolm Bosse, 75, American author, known for his historical novels set in Asia.
 * Barbara Castle, 91, British Labour politician and female life peer.
 * Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal, 73, president of Somaliland and former prime minister of the Somali Republic.
 * Mohan Singh Oberoi, 103, Indian hotelier and retailer.
 * Yevgeny Svetlanov, 73, Russian conductor, composer and pianist.
 * Mariana Yampolsky, 76, Mexican photographer.

4

 * Don Allard, 66, American football player (New York Titans, Boston Patriots) and coach.
 * Clarence Boston, 85, American college football coach, head coach of New Hampshire Wildcats from 1949 to 1964.
 * Ernesto Díaz, 49, Colombian football player.
 * John Hasted, 81, British physicist and folk musician.
 * John Kohn, 76, American writer and producer, cancer.
 * Rolf Friedemann Pauls, 86, German diplomat.
 * Elizabeth Russell, 85, American actress.
 * Gerónimo Saccardi, 52, Argentine football player and manager, heart attack.
 * Abu Turab al-Zahiri, 79, Saudi Arabian writer of Arab Indian descent.

5

 * Randy Anderson, 42, American wrestling referee, testicular cancer.
 * Hugo Banzer, 75, Bolivian politician, Bolivian dictator (1971 to 1978), President of Bolivia (1997 to 2001), lung cancer.
 * Dick Farman, 85, American professional football player (Washington State, Washington Redskins).
 * Andrei Rostotsky, 45, Soviet and Russian actor, film director, screenwriter, and TV host, fall.
 * Clarence Seignoret, 83, president of Dominica (1983–1993).
 * George Sidney, 85, American film director (Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, Anchors Aweigh), lymphoma.
 * Mike Todd, Jr., 72, American film producer, introduced short-lived movie format Smell-O-Vision (Scent of Mystery), lung cancer.
 * Čestmír Vycpálek, 80, Czech football player and manager.
 * Louis C. Wyman, 85, American politician (U.S. Representative for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district), cancer.

6

 * Murray Adaskin, 96, Canadian violinist, composer, conductor and teacher.
 * Heinz Arndt, 87, German-Australian economist, traffic collision.
 * Otis Blackwell, 71, American songwriter, singer and pianist ("Great Balls of Fire", "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up", "Return to Sender").
 * James Lawton Collins Jr., 84, U.S. Army brigadier general and military historian.
 * Harry George Drickamer, 83, American chemical engineer, a pioneer in high-pressure studies of condensed matter.
 * Pim Fortuyn, 54, Dutch politician, assassinated.
 * Shanta Gandhi, 84, Indian theatre director, dancer and playwright.
 * Bjørn Johansen, 61, Norwegian jazz musician.
 * Bronisław Pawlik, 76, Polish actor, stomach cancer.
 * Saleh Selim, 71, Egyptian football player and actor, liver cancer.

7

 * Kevyn Aucoin, 40, American make-up artist and author (The Art of Makeup, Making Faces, Face Forward), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.
 * Durga Bhagwat, 92, Indian scholar, socialist and writer.
 * Bernard Burrows, 91, British diplomat.
 * Ewart Jones, 91, Welsh chemist.
 * Robert Kanigher, 86, American comic book writer and editor (Wonder Woman, The Flash, Sgt. Rock).
 * Masakatsu Miyamoto, 63, Japanese football player and manager, pneumonia.
 * Xavier Montsalvatge, 90, Spanish composer and music critic.
 * Seattle Slew, 28, American thoroughbred racehorse champion.
 * Monica Sinclair, 77, British operatic contralto.

8

 * Sylvester Barrett, 75, Irish politician (Minister for the Environment, Minister for Defence, Member of the European Parliament).
 * Basil Chubb, 80, English-Irish political scientist and author (The Government and Politics of Ireland).
 * Edward Jackson, 76, English diplomat, (Ambassador to Cuba, Ambassador to Belgium).
 * Tilly Lauenstein, 85, German film and television actress.
 * Lou Lombardo, 70, American film editor (The Wild Bunch, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Moonstruck), stroke.
 * Ahmad Mazhar, 84, Egyptian actor, pneumonia.
 * Boyce McDaniel, 84, American nuclear physicist, worked on the Manhattan Project, heart attack.

9

 * Dan Devine, 77, American football player and coach (Arizona State, Missouri, Green Bay Packers, Notre Dame).
 * Robert Layton, 76, Canadian politician and a member of Parliament (House of Commons representing Lachine and Lachine—Lac-Saint-Louis, Quebec).
 * Leon Stein, 91, American composer and music analyst.
 * Sam Walton, 59, American gridiron football player (East Texas State, New York Jets, Houston Oilers), heart attack.

10

 * Philip Edward Archer, 77, Ghanese lawyer and Chief Justice (1991-1995).
 * Kaifi Azmi, 83, Indian Urdu poet.
 * Lynda Lyon Block, 54, American convicted murderer, executed by electric chair.
 * George Cates, 90, American music arranger, conductor, songwriter and record producer.
 * John Cunniff, 57, American hockey player and coach (Hartford Whalers, Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils), esophageal cancer.
 * Austen Kark, 75, British television executive, managing director of the BBC World Service.
 * David Riesman, 92, American sociologist, educator, and commentator on American society.
 * Yves Robert, 81, French actor, screenwriter, director, and producer, cerebral hemorrhage.

11

 * Joseph Bonanno, 97, Italian-American mafia boss, heart attack.
 * Renaude Lapointe, 90, Canadian journalist and a politician.
 * Bill Peet, 87, American animator and screenwriter (Cinderella, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland).
 * Steve Rachunok, 85, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers).
 * Abida Sultan, 88, Pakistani princess and daughter of Nawab Hamidullah Khan.
 * Jerzy Tabeau, 83, Polish Holocaust survivor.
 * Nika Turbina, 27, Soviet and Russian poet, suicide.

12

 * Edward M. Carey, 85, American oil industry executive.
 * Richard Chorley, 74, English geographer, heart attack.
 * Luciano Galesi, 75, Italian Olympic sports shooter.
 * Bruce Hansen, 74, New Zealand Olympic equestrian.

13

 * Clinton Adams, 83, American artist, art historian and head of the Tamarind Institute, liver cancer.
 * Alan P. Bell, 70, American psychologist (Kinsey Institute).
 * Ruth Cracknell, 76, Australian actress (Mother and Son), pneumonia.
 * George Gordienko, 74, Canadian professional wrestler and artist, melanoma.
 * Valeriy Lobanovskyi, 63, Ukrainian football coach, stroke.
 * Douglas Pike, 77, American historian and scholar on the Vietnam War.
 * Morihiro Saito, 74, Japanese aikido teacher, cancer.

14

 * Derek Birley, 75, British educationist, writer and sports historian.
 * Rawshan Jamil, 71, Bangladeshi actress and dancer.
 * José Lutzenberger, 75, Brazilian agronomist and environmentalist, heart attack.
 * Gordon J. F. MacDonald, 72, American geophysicist.
 * Dale Morey, 83, American basketball player.
 * Ray Stricklyn, 73, American actor and publicist, emphysema.

15

 * Kofoworola Ademola, 88, Nigerian educationist.
 * Bernard Benjamin, 92, British statistician, a leading figure in the field of demography.
 * Darwood Kaye, 72, American child actor (Our Gang), hit and run accident.
 * Tatiana Okunevskaya, 88, Soviet and Russian actress.
 * Bryan Pringle, 67, British actor.

16

 * Shoichi Arai, 36, Japanese professional wrestling promoter, suicide.
 * Alec Campbell, 103, Australia's last surviving ANZAC at the Gallipoli campaign during World War I.
 * Jim Dewar, 59, Scottish musician, stroke.
 * Big Dick Dudley, 34, American professional wrestler (ECW), kidney failure.
 * Kenneth Fung, 90, Hong Kong politician and businessman.
 * Salcia Landmann, 90, Jewish Ukrainian writer.
 * José Reis, 94, Brazilian scientist, journalist, and science writer.
 * José Riesgo, 82, Spanish actor.
 * Gavril Serfőző, 75, Romanian football player.

17

 * Dave Berg, 81, American cartoonist (Mad, The Lighter Side of...), cancer.
 * Joe Black, 78, American first Black baseball pitcher to win a World Series game (Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Redlegs, Washington Senators), prostate cancer.
 * Edwin Alonzo Boyd, 88, Canadian bank robber and prison escapee of the 1950s (Citizen Gangster).
 * James Chichester-Clark, 79, Northern Ireland politician, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1971.
 * John de Lancie, 80, American oboist, principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and director of the Curtis Institute of Music.
 * László Kubala, 74, Hungarian and Slovak football player.
 * Sharon Sheeley, 62, American songwriter.
 * Little Johnny Taylor, 59, American singer.
 * Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, 61, Turkish folk musician, composer, poet, and author, heart failure.
 * Norman Vaughan, 79, English comedian.

18

 * Sergio Andreoli, 80, Italian football player.
 * Song Hye-rim, 65, North Korean actress, best, breast cancer.
 * Wolfgang Schneiderhan, 86, Austrian classical violinist.
 * Davey Boy Smith, 39, British professional wrestler, myocardial infarction, heart attack.
 * Zypora Spaisman, 86, Polish-American actress and Yiddish] theatre empresaria.
 * Gordon Wharmby, 68, British actor (Last of the Summer Wine), cancer.

19

 * René de Chambrun, 95, French-American aristocrat, lawyer, businessman and author.
 * Raymond Durgnat, 69, British film critic (Films and Filming, Film Comment, Monthly Film Bulletin) and author.
 * Herbert Familton, 74, New Zealand alpine skier (men's downhill, men's giant slalom at the 1952 Winter Olympics).
 * John Gorton, 90, 19th Prime Minister of Australia.
 * Earl Hammond, 80, American voice actor (Thundercats).
 * Walter Lord, 84, American historian, Parkinson's disease.
 * Otar Lordkipanidze, 72, Georgian archaeologist, heart attack.
 * Giuseppe Maria Scotese, 86, Italian screenwriter and film director.
 * Bryant Tuckerman, 86, American mathematician.

20

 * David Abrahamsen, 98, Norwegian forensic psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author.
 * Renzo Barbera, 82, Italian businessman and soccer executive.
 * Jerry Dunphy, 80, American Los Angeles television news anchor, heart attack.
 * Stephen Jay Gould, 60, American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author, cancer.
 * Sándor Kónya, 78, Hungarian tenor.
 * Eberle Hynson Schultz, 84, American football player.

21

 * Rogers Albritton, 78, American philosopher, pulmonary emphysema.
 * Joe Cobb, 86, American child actor, appeared as the original "fat boy" in the Our Gang comedies.
 * Michel Grosclaude, 75, French linguist, and author of works on grammar and lexicography.
 * Andrzej Herder, 64, Polish film and theatre actor.
 * Roy Paul, 82, Welsh footballer.
 * Niki de Saint Phalle, 71, French artist, pulmonary emphysema.
 * Bob Poser, 92, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Browns).

22

 * Fritz Ackley, 65, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox).
 * Sultan Ahmed, 64, Indian film director and producer.
 * Joe Cascarella, 94, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Cincinnati Reds).
 * Paul Giel, 69, American baseball player (New York/San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Minnesota Twins).
 * Warren Hacker, 77, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Redlegs, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox).
 * Dick Hern, 81, British racehorse trainer.
 * Fritz Hippler, 92, German filmmaker.
 * Creighton Miller, 79, American football player and attorney, heart attack.
 * Alexandru Todea, 89, Romanian Greek-Catholic cardinal.
 * Patrick Wolrige-Gordon, 66, British (Scottish) politician (Member of Parliament for East Aberdeenshire).

23

 * Umberto Bindi, 70, Italian singer-songwriter, heart disease.
 * Wally Fromhart, 89, American football player and coach.
 * Timur Novikov, 43, Russian visual artist, designer, art theorist, philosopher, and musician, pneumonia.
 * Sam Snead, 89, American golfer, complications from a stroke.
 * Dorothy Spencer, 93, American film editor (Stagecoach, Cleopatra, Earthquake).

24

 * Joseph Bau, 81, Polish-Israeli artist, philosopher, animator, comedian, and poet, pneumonia.
 * Susie Garrett, 72, American actress (Punky Brewster) and jazz vocalist, cancer.
 * Antonia Pantoja, 79, Puerto Rican educator, feminist, and civil rights leader, cancer.
 * Itō Toshihito, 40, Japanese actor, subarachnoid hemorrhage.
 * Xi Zhongxun, 88, Chinese communist revolutionary.

25

 * Pat Coombs, 75, English actress (Till Death Us Do Part, EastEnders, Ooh... You Are Awful), pulmonary emphysema.
 * Bart de Graaff, 35, Dutch television presenter/producer and founder of broadcasting network BNN, kidney failure.
 * Ștefan Augustin Doinaș, 80, Romanian neoclassical poet, heart failure.
 * Zoran Janković, 62, Yugoslavian Olympic water polo player (1964 silver medal, 1968 gold medal, 1972), liver cancer.
 * Michel Jobert, 80, French politician, cerebral hemorrhage.
 * Pål-Nils Nilsson, 72, Swedish photographer and filmmaker.
 * Nathan Mantel, 83, American biostatistician, heart attack.
 * Jack Pollard, 75, Australian sports journalist, stroke.

26

 * Jon Bannenberg, English-Australian yacht designer, brain cancer.
 * Flora Lewis, 84, American journalist (The Washington Post, The New York Times), cancer.
 * Ivo Maček, 88, Croatian pianist, composer and academian.
 * John Alexander Moore, 86, American biologist.
 * Vicente Nebrada, 72, Venezuelan dancer and choreographer, cancer.
 * Jean-Jacques Petter, 74, French primatologist.
 * Mamo Wolde, 69, Ethiopian Olympic long-distance runner (1968 gold medal, 1968 silver medal, 1972 bronze medal), liver cancer.

27

 * Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, 93, Scottish historian and paleographer.
 * Barbara Hamilton, 14th Baroness Dudley, 95, British noblewoman, member of the House of Lords.
 * Ray Mathew, 73, Australian author.
 * Vitaly Solomin, 60, Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter, stroke.

28

 * Ibrahim al-Urayyid, 94, Bahraini writer and poet.
 * Napoleon Beazley, 25, American juvenile offender, executed by lethal injection.
 * Mildred Benson, 96, American journalist and author of children's books (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories), lung cancer.
 * Jean Berger, 92, German-American composer and conductor.
 * Ruby Bradley, 94, US Army colonel and one of the most decorated women in its military history.
 * Norman King, 87, New Zealand politician and cabinet minister.
 * David Parker Ray, 62, American serial killer, heart attack.
 * Wes Westrum, 79, American baseball player (New York Giants) and manager (New York Mets, San Francisco Giants), cancer.
 * Rostislav Yurenev, 90, Soviet and Russian film critic and teacher.

29

 * Stan Bentham, 87, English footballer, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Gunnar Jarring, 94, Swedish diplomat and Turkologist.
 * Sándor Mátrai, 69, Hungarian football player.
 * Sher Ali Khan Pataudi, 89, Pakistani politician and diplomat.
 * Elémire Zolla, 75, Italian essayist, philosopher and historian.

30

 * Kees Boertien, 74, Dutch politician (Christian Democratic Appeal) and jurist.
 * Kenny Craddock, 52, British instrumentalist (Ringo Starr, Ginger Baker, Gerry Rafferty), composer and producer, car crash.
 * John B. Keane, 73, Irish playwright, novelist and essayist, prostate cancer.
 * Mario Lago, 90, Brazilian lawyer, poet, composer and actor, pneumonia.
 * Walter Laird, 81, British ballroom dancer.

31

 * Jeremy Bray, 71, British politician (member of Parliament representing Middlesbrough West, Motherwell and Wishaw and Motherwell South).
 * Subhash Gupte, 72, Indian cricket player.
 * Eleanor D. Wilson, 93, American actress (Weekend, Alice's Restaurant, Reds) and artist.