Deaths in May 2003

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2003.

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

 * Haukur Clausen, 74, Icelandic Olympic athlete.
 * Elizabeth Ann Hulette, 42, American professional wrestler and wrestling manager, drug and alcohol overdose.
 * István Kelen, 91, Hungarian-Australian sportsman, journalist, author, and playwright.
 * Shlomo Levi, 68, Israeli football player.
 * Paul Moore, 83, American bishop of the Episcopal Church and former US Marine Corps officer.
 * Wim van Est, 80, Dutch racing cyclist.

2

 * Mohammed Dib, 82, Algerian writer.
 * Blaga Dimitrova, 81, Bulgarian poet and politician, Vice President (1992-1993), cerebrovascular disease.
 * James Miller, 34, Welsh filmmaker and cameraman, killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
 * Henry Wise, Jr., 82, American physician and World War II Tuskegee Airman fighter pilot.
 * George Wyle, 87, American musical director and composer (theme to Gilligan's Island, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year), leukemia.

3

 * Queta Claver, 70, Spanish actress, singer, and dancer, cardiovascular disease.
 * Glen Culler, 75, American professor of electrical engineering.
 * Don Johnson, 62, American bowler, heart attack.
 * Suzy Parker, 70, American actress and model, wife of Bradford Dillman, arthritis, diabetes.
 * Marcel Roche, 82, French physician and scientist.
 * G. Venkateswaran, 55, Indian film producer.

4

 * Alexander Boghossian, 65, Ethiopian-American artist and teacher.
 * Sesto Bruscantini, 83, Italian baritone.
 * Arthur Oldham, 76, British composer and choirmaster.
 * Jean Tricart, 82, French geomorphologist.
 * Richard Trowbridge, 83, British admiral and Governor of Western Australia (1980–1983).
 * David Woodley, 44, American gridiron football player (Miami Dolphins), complications due to kidney and liver failure.

5

 * Sam Bockarie, 38, Sierra Leonean politician and army commander, gunshot wound.
 * David Lewin, 69, American music theorist.
 * Philip Powell, 82, British architect.
 * Sultan Rakhmanov, 52, Soviet weightlifter and Olympic champion, heart attack.
 * Waly Salomão, 59, Brazilian poet.
 * Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu, 90, South African anti-apartheid activist and ANC member, Parkinson's disease.

6

 * Steve Atkinson, 54, Canadian ice hockey player (Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals, Toronto Toros), heart attack.
 * Geoffrey Bardon, 63, Australian artist, teacher and aboriginal art advocate.
 * Oleksandr Bilash, 72, Ukrainian composer and author.
 * Tito García, 71, Spanish actor.
 * Colin Gunton, 62, British theologian and academic.
 * Jocelyn Herbert, 86, British stage designer.
 * Art Houtteman, 75, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles), heart attack.
 * Stanislav Kolář, 91, Czechoslovak and Czech table tennis player.
 * Dean L. May, 65, American academic, author and documentary filmmaker, heart attack.

7

 * Johan Andersen, 83, Danish sprint canoer (silver medal in men's K-1 1000 metres at the 1948 Summer Olympics).
 * Sisir Kumar Das, 66, Linguist, poet, playwright, translator, comparatist and a scholar of Indian literature.
 * Quentin Dean, 58, American actress, cancer.
 * Mike Hudock, 68, American gridiron football player.
 * Joshua Madaki, 55, Nigerian politician, car crash.
 * George Morrow, 69, American computer scientist and pioneer, aplastic anemia.

8

 * Slick Coffman, 92, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns).
 * Dorothy Ferguson, 80, Canadian-American baseball player, cancer.
 * Sam Lacy, 99, American sportswriter, reporter, and television/radio commentator.
 * Elvira Pagá, 82, Brazilian vedette, actress, singer, writer and painter.

9

 * Yves Brouzet, 54, French shot putter (four-time French champion; men's Olympic shot put: 1972, 1976).
 * Hans Engnestangen, 95, Norwegian Olympic speed skater and world champion.
 * Carmen Filpi, 80, American actor.
 * Antonio Ibáñez Freire, 89, Spanish politician and army officer.
 * Jack Gelber, 71, American playwright (The Connection), leukemia.
 * Russell B. Long, 84, American politician (U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1948 to 1987), heart attack.
 * Alexey Medvedev, 75, Soviet-Russian heavyweight weightlifter.
 * Elizabeth Neuffer, 46, American journalist, specialized in war crimes and human rights abuses, car accident in Iraq.
 * Bernard Spear, 83, English actor.

10

 * Ingo Buding, 61, West German tennis player.
 * Leonard Michaels, 70, American writer of short stories, novels, and essays.
 * Eleanor C. Pressly, 85, American mathematician and aeronautical engineer at NASA.
 * Ambros Speiser, 80, Swiss engineer and scientist.
 * Milan Vukcevich, 66, Yugoslav-born American chemist and Grandmaster of Chess Composition.
 * Joseph D. Ward, 89, American politician.

11

 * Karl Boyes, 67, American politician (Pennsylvania House of Representatives).
 * Noel Redding, 57, English former bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, liver cirrhosis.
 * John H. Rousselot, 75, American politician (U.S. Representative from California).
 * Ernie Toshack, 88, Australian cricketer.

12

 * Jim Clunie, 69, Scottish football player and manager.
 * Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, 70, French civil servant (U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees 1965–1977), cancer.
 * Stan Lay, 96, New Zealand javelin thrower (men's javelin throw at the 1928 Summer Olympics).
 * Renate Riemeck, 82, German historian and Christian peace activist.
 * Jeremy Sandford, 72, British screenwriter.

13

 * Theo Aronson, 73, South African-British royal biographer (Princess Alice, Queen Mother, Princess Margaret), cancer.
 * John Savage, 70, Canadian politician; former Premier of Nova Scotia, cancer.
 * René Voillaume, 97, French Catholic priest and theologian.
 * Byron Wolford, 72, American rodeo cowboy and professional poker player.
 * Marcos Zucker, 82, Argentine actor and comedian.

14

 * Tranquilo Cappozzo, 85, Argentine rower and Olympic champion.
 * Dave DeBusschere, 62, American basketball player (Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks), and coach (Detroit Pistons), heart attack.
 * Otto Edelmann, 86, Austrian operatic bass.
 * Al Fleming, 49, American basketbal player, cancer.
 * Ingvar Helle, 70, Norwegian politician.
 * Wendy Hiller, 91, British actress of stage and screen (I Know Where I'm Going!).
 * Pepper LaBeija, 54, American drag queen and fashion designer, heart attack.
 * Minarni, 59, Indonesian badminton player.
 * Gennadiy Nikonov, 52, Russian firearm engineer.
 * Dante Quinterno, 93, Argentine businessman and comics artist.
 * Gordon Salkilld, 76, English supporting actor.
 * Robert Stack, 84, American film and television actor, heart attack.

15

 * June Carter Cash, 73, American musician and wife of Johnny Cash, complications following surgery.
 * Pedro Chappé, 57, Cuban basketball player.
 * Desmond Dreyer, 93, British Royal Navy admiral.
 * Constantin Dăscălescu, 79, Romanian communist politician.
 * Stanley B. Kimball, 76, American historian, cancer.
 * Rik Van Steenbergen, 78, Belgian cyclist.
 * Rune Waldekranz, 91, Swedish film producer.

16

 * William Charles Anderson, 83, American writer and screen writer (Bat*21).
 * Mark McCormack, 72, American lawyer, sports agent and writer.
 * Stan Rofe, 69, Australian disc jockey and music news reporter, cancer.
 * Lazar Tasić, 72, Serbian football player.
 * Bogdan Śliwa, 81, Polish chess master.

17

 * Edith Carlmar, 91, Norwegian actress and Norway's first female film director.
 * Pop Ivy, 87, American football player and coach.
 * Irene Gut Opdyke, 81, Polish nurse, kidney failure, liver failure.
 * Luigi Pintor, 77, Italian politician and journalist.
 * Gerhard Schöpfel, 90, German Luftwaffe flying ace during World War II.

18

 * Marilyn Bendell, 81, American impressionist painter.
 * Peter Lasko, 79, German-British art historian.
 * Nick Roman, 55, American gridiron football player, heart attack.
 * Mentz Schulerud, 87, Norwegian author, radio personality and theatre director.

19

 * Johanna Budwig, 94, German biochemist, alternative cancer treatment advocate and author.
 * Kunhiraman Palat Candeth, 86, Indian Army general.
 * Paul Hagen, 83, Danish film and television actor.
 * Ludwig Lachner, German footballer and manager.
 * Aleksandr Miroshnichenko, 39, Kazakhstani boxer and Olympic medalist, fall.
 * Ivo Žídek, 76, Czech operatic tenor, known for his roles in the operas of Smetana, Dvořák and Janáček.

20

 * Jim Clough, 86, Australian politician.
 * Walter Höllerer, 80, German writer, literary critic, and literature academic.
 * Eddie Little, 48, American author and journalist, heart attack.
 * Howard Sims, 86, African-American vaudeville tap dancer, Alzheimer's disease.

21

 * Alejandro de Tomaso, 74, Argentinian racing driver and industrialist.
 * Yaroslav Golovanov, 70, Russian journalist, writer and science communicator, cerebrovascular disease.
 * Hermann A. Haus, 77, Slovene-American scientist.
 * Sumitra Mukherjee, 54, Indian Bengali actress.
 * Felice Orlandi, 77, Italian-American actor.
 * Frank D. White, 69, American politician (41st Governor of Arkansas), banker and banking regulator, heart attack.

22

 * Packiam Arokiaswamy, 82, Indian Roman Catholic prelate.
 * Big DS, 31, American hardcore rapper and record producer, lymphatic cancer.
 * Grover E. Murray, 86, American geologist and educator.
 * Noel Robins, 67, Australian partially quadriplegic sailor, traffic accident.

23

 * Fred W. Berger, 94, American film editor.
 * Ray Parry, 67, English football player.
 * Michael Pössinger, 84, German Olympic bobsledder.
 * Jean Yanne, 69, French actor and director (Weekend, This Man Must Die), heart attack.

24

 * François Boyer, 83, French screenwriter.
 * Neil Cherry, 56, New Zealand environmental scientist, ALS.
 * Don Hanmer, 83, American film actor.
 * Rachel Kempson, 92, English actress, stroke.
 * Jules Levy, 80, American television and film producer.
 * Allan McMahon, 48, Australian rugby footballer and coach, heart attack.
 * Arne Skouen, 89, Norwegian journalist, author and film director.

25

 * Almir Chediak, 52, Brazilian musician and entrepreneur, shot during robbery.
 * Richard Gardner, 72, American child psychiatrist, suicide.
 * David Hafler, 84, American audio engineer, Parkinson's disease.
 * George Edward Lynch, 86, American Roman Catholic prelate, Auxiliary Bishop of Raleigh.
 * Bill Paschal, 81, American football player (Georgia Tech, New York Giants, Boston Yanks).
 * Laurette Séjourné, 91, Mexican archeologist and ethnologist.
 * Jeremy Ward, 27, American keyboardist and sound technician, heroin overdose.
 * Sloan Wilson, 83, American novelist (The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place), Alzheimer's disease.

26

 * Alfredo Bravo, 78, Argentine politician and trade unionist, heart attack.
 * Melitta Brunner, 96, Austrian figure skater (ladies singles skating, bronze medal in pairs skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics).
 * Burr DeBenning, 66, American actor.
 * Gerald Hawkins, 75, British-American astronomer and author, heart attack.
 * Thomas Risley Odhiambo, 72, Kenyan entomologist and environmental activist.
 * Jim Root, 71, American football player (Miami University, Chicago Cardinals) and coach (New Hampshire, William & Mary).
 * Kathleen Winsor, 83, American author (Forever Amber).

27

 * Geoffrey Bawa, 83, Sri Lankan architect.
 * Luciano Berio, 77, Italian composer (Sinfonia).
 * François Bondy, 88, Swiss journalist and novelist.
 * Mac Colville, 87, Canadian ice hockey player (New York Rangers).
 * Al Hartley, 81, American comic book writer and -artist.
 * Stellan Nilsson, 81, Swedish football player.

28

 * Janet Collins, 86, American ballerina.
 * Phil Holloway, 86, New Zealand politician.
 * Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, 70, Soviet cosmonaut and rocket scientist, heart attack.
 * Dorothy Nelkin, 69, American sociologist of science and author.
 * James Plunkett, 83, Irish writer.
 * Ilya Prigogine, 86, Russian-Belgian physical chemist, 1977 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
 * Martha Scott, 90, American actress.
 * Momir Talić, 60, Bosnian Serb general in the Yugoslav People's Army and the VRS.
 * Marc Zuber, 59, English actor, heart attack.

29

 * W. R. Alford, 65, American mathematician, worked in the field of number theory, brain cancer.
 * Savita Ambedkar, 94, Indian social activist and doctor.
 * Trevor Ford, 79, Welsh international footballer, pneumonia.
 * Anthony Frederick, 38, American basketball player, heart attack.
 * David Jefferies, 30, British motorcycle racer, motorcycle crash.
 * Basil Langton, 91, English actor, director and photographer.
 * Joanna Paul, 57, New Zealand visual artist, poet and film maker.
 * Pierre Restany, 72, French art critic and cultural philosopher.
 * Wallace Terry, 65, American journalist and oral historian.

30

 * Zagir Ismagilov, 86, Soviet Bashkir composer and pedagogue.
 * Minoru Mochizuki, 96, Japanese martial artist.
 * Mickie Most, 64, English record producer, peritoneal mesothelioma.
 * Günter Pfitzmann, 79, German film actor, heart attack.
 * Lars T. Platou, 82, Norwegian politician.
 * John Morris Roberts, 75, British historian and broadcaster.
 * Silvester Sabolčki, 23, Croatian footballer, car crash.
 * Jason Sweeney, 16, American construction worker, murdered.

31

 * Nicolas Barone, 72, French road bicycle racer.
 * Janine Bazin, 80, French film and television producer.
 * Anil Biswas, 88, Indian film music director.
 * Francesco Colasuonno, 78, Italian prelate of the Catholic Church.
 * Hal Haskins, 78, American basketball player and coach.
 * Anthony Stodart, Baron Stodart of Leaston, 86, Scottish politician and life peer.
 * Li Lin, 79, Chinese physicist.
 * Billy Wade, 88, South African cricketer.