Deaths in May 2004

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2004.

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

 * Ejler Bille, 94, Danish artist.
 * Vladimir Chernyshov, 52, Russian volleyball player and Olympic champion.
 * Shimon Even, 68, Israeli computer science researcher.
 * Ram Prakash Gupta, 80, Indian politician.
 * Felix Haug, 52, Swiss pop musician (Double), heart attack.
 * Larkin Kerwin, 79, Canadian physicist.
 * Lojze Kovačič, 75, Slovene writer.
 * Jean-Jacques Laffont, 57, French economist, cancer.
 * John Howland Rowe, 85, American archaeologist and anthropologist.

2

 * Moe Burtschy, 82, American Major League Baseball player, heart attack.
 * Duncan Carse, 91, English explorer and actor.
 * Nelson Gidding, 84, American screenwriter, congestive heart failure.
 * Paul Guimard, 83, French writer.
 * John Hammersley, 84, British mathematician.
 * Allan Lindberg, 85, Swedish Olympic pole vaulter.
 * Hyam Maccoby, 80, Jewish-British scholar and dramatist.
 * Tony Poeta, 71, Canadian professional ice hockey player (Chicago Black Hawks).

3

 * Anthony Ainley, 71, British actor (Doctor Who), cancer.
 * Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, 84, British aristocrat and politician.
 * Ken Downing, 86, English racing driver.
 * Darrell Johnson, 75, American MLB catcher and manager, cancer.
 * Volus Jones, 90, American animator.
 * Gilbert Lani Kauhi, 66, American actor and comedian, diabetes.
 * James Mace, 52, American historian, professor, and researcher.
 * Lygia Pape, 77, Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, and filmmaker.
 * Derrick Robins, 89, English cricket player and sports promoter.
 * Vladimir Terebilov, 88, Soviet judge and politician.

4

 * Coxsone Dodd, 72, Jamaican reggae pioneer, heart attack.
 * Tage Frid, 88, Danish woodworker, complications of Alzheimer's disease.
 * Hugh Gillin, 78, American actor (Back to the Future Part III).
 * Torsten Hägerstrand, 87, Swedish geographer, inventor of time geography.
 * Boris Petrovsky, 95, Soviet and Russian general surgeon.
 * David Reimer, 39, Canadian gender-reassignment victim, suicide.
 * Erik Smith, 73, German-British music producer.
 * Jean-Pierre Vigier, 84, French theoretical physicist.

5

 * Thea Beckman, 80, Dutch author of children's books (Crusade in Jeans).
 * John Cornforth, 66, English architectural historian.
 * José Maceda, 87, Filipino composer and ethnomusicologist.
 * Kate Mundt, 74, Danish film actress.
 * Ritsuko Okazaki, 44, Japanese singer-songwriter and author, sepsis.
 * František Sláma, 80, Czech chamber music performer.

6

 * Virginia Capers, 78, American actress (Raisin, Lady Sings the Blues, Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Tony winner (1974), pneumonia.
 * Pepper Gomez, 77, American professional wrestler and bodybuilder, gastritis.
 * Kjell Hallbing, (aka Louis Masterson), 69, Norwegian author of westerns.
 * Philip Kapleau, 91, American teacher of Zen Buddhism.
 * Barney Kessel, 80, American jazz guitarist and studio musician, brain cancer.
 * James A. Krumhansl, 84, American physicist.
 * Joe Lafata, 82, American baseball player (New York Giants).
 * Charlotte Thiele, 85, German actress.
 * Daniel Thompson, 69, American poet.

7

 * Nick Berg, 26, American businessman and hostage, beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq.
 * Joseph Crespo, 79, French rugby player.
 * Douglas John Foskett, 85, British librarian.
 * Oliver David Jackson, 84, Australian army officer.
 * William J. Knight, 74, American Vietnam War combat pilot, astronaut and politician, leukemia.
 * Waldemar Milewicz, 48, Polish war journalist, killed in Iraq.

8

 * Lewis Caine, 39, Australian organised crime figure, murdered during the Melbourne gangland killings.
 * António Champalimaud, 86, Portuguese banker and industrialist.
 * Valentin Ezhov, 83, Soviet and Russian screenwriter and playwright, stroke.
 * Quentin Hughes, 84, British architect and army officer.
 * Robert P. Multhauf, 84, American science historian, curator, and author.
 * John Peel, 91, British politician, MP for Leicester South East (1957–1974).
 * Ronnie Robinson, 53, American basketball player.

9

 * Laxmi Chhaya, 56, Indian actress, dancer and teacher, cancer.
 * Tommy Farrell, 82, American film and television actor.
 * Brenda Fassie, 39, South African singer, AIDS-related complications.
 * Alan Gewirth, 91, American philosopher and author, cancer.
 * Akhmad Kadyrov, 52, Chechen politician, President of Chechnya, land mine explosion.
 * Alan King, 76, American comedian and actor, lung cancer.
 * Wayne McLeland, 79, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers).
 * Olive Osmond, 79, American matriarch of the Osmond singing family.
 * Sido L. Ridolfi, 90, American politician.
 * Walter H. Stockmayer, 90, American chemist and university teacher.
 * Percy M. Young, 91, British musicologist.

10

 * Orvar Bergmark, 73, Swedish football player and manager.
 * Ray Ferritto, 75, American mobster associated with the Cleveland and Los Angeles crime families.
 * Phil Gersh, 92, American talent and literary agent.
 * Eric Kierans, 90, Canadian economist and politician.
 * Portland Mason, 55, British-American child actress and writer.
 * Ershad Sikder, 49, Bangladeshi politician, criminal, and serial killer, executed.
 * Ibsen Sørensen, 90, Danish Olympic rower (men's coxed four rowing at the 1936 Summer Olympics).
 * Dennis Wilshaw, 78, English international footballer, heart attack.

11

 * Mick Doyle, 63, Irish rugby union player and coach, traffic collision.
 * Danny McLennan, 79, Scottish football player and coach.
 * Abdul Reza Pahlavi, 79, Iranian royal and member of the Pahlavi dynasty.
 * Ku Sang, 84, Korean poet.
 * Alf Valentine, 74, West Indian cricket player.
 * John Whitehead, 55, American R&B artist, shot.
 * Giorgos Zongolopoulos, 101, Greek sculptor, painter and architect.

12

 * Álvaro Cardoso, 90, Portuguese football player.
 * Syd Hoff, 91, American children's author and cartoonist.
 * John LaPorta, 84, American jazz clarinetist, composer and educator, stroke.
 * Dave Piontek, 69, American professional basketball player (Rochester / Cincinnati Royals, St. Louis Hawks, Chicago Packers).
 * John Robson, 54, English footballer, multiple sclerosis (MS).
 * Alexander Skutch, 99, American naturalist, writer, and ornithologist.

13

 * Kjell Bækkelund, 74, Norwegian classical pianist.
 * Magnar Estenstad, 79, Norwegian cross-country skier and Olympic silver medalist.
 * Bergfrid Fjose, 89, American politician.
 * Muhammad Nawaz, 79, Pakistani Olympic javelin thrower (men's javelin throw at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics).
 * Carlo Scarascia-Mugnozza, 84, Italian politician.
 * Evon Z. Vogt, 86, American cultural anthropologist.

14

 * Rudi Arndt, 77, American politician.
 * Charlotte Benkner, 114, American supercentenarian, oldest recognized person in United States.
 * Rip Coleman, 72, American baseball player (New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles).
 * Günter Gaus, 74, German journalist and commentator.
 * Jesús Gil, 71, Spanish businessman and politician, controversial owner of Atlético Madrid football club, stroke.
 * Bill Hoffman, 86, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies).
 * Jack Holland, 56, Irish journalist, novelist, and poet, cancer.
 * Torsten Johansson, 84, Swedish tennis player.
 * Anna Lee, 91, British-American actress, pneumonia.
 * Lu Leonard, 77, American actress.
 * Shaun Sutton, 84, British television executive.

15

 * Gloria E. Anzaldúa, 61, American writer, academic and feminist, diabetes.
 * Jack Bradbury, 89, American animator (Pinocchio, Bambi, Fantasia) and comic book artist, kidney failure.
 * Marius Constant, 79, Romanian-French composer and conductor.
 * Gill Fox, 88, American political cartoonist, comic book artist, and animator.
 * Henrique Frade, 69, Brazilian football player.
 * William H. Hinton, 85, American writer, and marxist, author of Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village.
 * Narciso Ibáñez Menta, 91, Spanish actor, cardiovascular disease.
 * Tatsuya Mihashi, 80, Japanese actor.
 * Robert K. Morgan, 85, American US Air Force pilot, former pilot of the Memphis Belle, injuries from a fall.
 * Clint Warwick, 63, British bass guitarist (The Moody Blues), hepatitis.

16

 * Riccardo Brengola, 87, Italian violinist and professor.
 * June Carroll, 87, American lyricist, singer and actress.
 * Jim Colclough, 68, American gridiron football player.
 * Simone Del Duca, 91, French businesswoman and philanthropist.
 * Peter Hill-Norton, Baron Hill-Norton, 89, British Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet.
 * Kamala Markandaya, 80, Indian novelist and journalist.
 * Marika Rökk, 90, Egyptian-German actress, heart attack.
 * Billy Stone, 78, American professional football player (Bradley University, Baltimore Colts, Chicago Bears).
 * June Taylor, 86, American television dancer and choreographer.

17

 * Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, 97, South African naturalist and museum official.
 * Gunnar Graps, 57, Estonian rock singer and percussionist, heart attack.
 * Ken Mudford, 81, New Zealand Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
 * Buster Narum, 63, American baseball Major League Baseball pitcher (Orioles, Senators).
 * Jørgen Nash, 84, Danish poet and performance artist.
 * Tony Randall, 84, American actor (Pillow Talk, The Odd Couple, Inherit the Wind), Emmy winner (1975), pneumonia.
 * James Armstrong Richardson, 82, Canadian member of House of Commons, Minister of Supply and Services, Minister of National Defence.
 * Cathy Rosier, 59, French model and actress, aneurysm.
 * Ezzedine Salim, 60–61, Iraqi politician, president of the Iraqi Governing Council.
 * Enrique Zobel, 77, Filipino businessman, pilot, and polo player.

18

 * Çetin Alp, 56, Turkish singer, heart attack.
 * Arnold Orville Beckman, 104, American inventor, industrialist and philanthropist.
 * John Maxwell Cowley, 81, Australian-American physicist and academic.
 * Heinrich Isser, 76, Austrian Olympic bobsledder.
 * Elvin Jones, 76, American jazz drummer, John Coltrane Quartet of the 1960s, heart attack.
 * Lincoln Kilpatrick, 72, American actor, lung cancer.
 * Hyacinthe Thiandoum, 83, Senegalese Roman Catholic Cardinal, Archbishop of Dakar.

19

 * Mary Dresselhuys, 97, Dutch actress and comedian.
 * Jack Eckerd, 91, American businessman.
 * Haruhiko Kindaichi, 91, Japanese linguist and a scholar of kokugogaku.
 * Melvin J. Lasky, 84, American journalist, intellectual and anti-communist.
 * Robert David MacDonald, 74, Scottish playwright, translator and theatre director.
 * Arnold Moore, 90, American blues artist.
 * John Naka, 89, American horticulturist, teacher, author, and master bonsai cultivator.
 * E. K. Nayanar, 87, Indian politician, three-time Chief Minister of Kerala, India, heart attack.
 * Carl Raddatz, 92, German stage and film actor.
 * Elvio Romero, 77, Paraguayan poet.
 * Leonid Shcherbakov, 77, Russian triple jumper and Olympic silver medalist.

20

 * Gary Ballman, 63, American gridiron football player.
 * Lúcio de Castro, 93, Brazilian Olympic pole vaulter.
 * Sophie Charlotte Ducker, 95, German-Australian botanist.
 * Stanisław Gronkowski, 82, Polish actor.
 * Len Murray, 81, British trade union leader, pneumonia.
 * Claire Wilbur, 70, American actress and Academy Award-winning producer of short films, lung cancer.

21

 * Jean-Pierre Blanc, 62, French film director and screenwriter, cancer.
 * Proinsias Mac Cana, 77, Academic and Celtic scholar.
 * June Cochran, 62, American model and beauty queen.
 * Gunnar Dahlen, 86, Norwegian football player.
 * Rick Henderson, 76, American jazz alto saxophonist and arranger.
 * Toshikazu Kase, 101, Japanese civil servant and diplomat, heart attack.
 * Gene Wood, 78, American television personality and announcer of game shows, lung cancer.

22

 * Richard Biggs, 44, American actor (Babylon 5, Days of Our Lives, Strong Medicine), aortic dissection.
 * Samuel Curtis Johnson, Jr., 76, American businessman, fourth generation president of SC Johnson company.
 * Zinovy Korogodsky, 77, Russian theater director and academic.
 * Alexandr Savko, 37, Belarusian wrestler, heart attack.
 * Mikhail Voronin, 59, Russian gymnast, double Olympic champion, cancer.

23

 * Adele Leigh, 75, English operatic soprano, heart attack.
 * Ramon Margalef, 85, Spanish biologist and ecologist.
 * Trudy Marshall, 84, American actress, lung cancer.
 * Harry Preston, 72, Canadian Olympic field hockey player (Field hockey at the 1964 Summer Olympics).
 * Maxime Rodinson, 89, French historian, sociologist and orientalist.

24

 * Ya'akov Grundman, 64, Polish-Israeli football player and manager, cancer.
 * Prentice Marshall, 77, American district judge, bladder cancer.
 * Henry Ries, 86, American photographer, known for his photos of the 1948 Berlin Air Lift.
 * Milton Shulman, 90, Canadian author, film and theatre critic.
 * Edward Wagenknecht, 104, American literary critic and teacher.

25

 * Nikolai Chernykh, 72, Soviet and Russian astronomer.
 * David Dellinger, 88, American antiwar activist, member of Chicago Eight.
 * Antonia Ivanova, 74, Bulgarian grandmaster chess player.
 * Nicholas Luard, 66, British writer and politician.
 * Robert P. Sharp, 92, American geomorphologist and expert on the geology of Earth and Mars.
 * Roger Williams Straus, Jr., 87, American publisher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

26

 * Robert Chapman, 81, New Zealand political scientist and historian.
 * Gino de Pellegrín, 77, Argentine Olympic alpine skier.
 * Rewata Dhamma, 74, Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar.
 * Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel, 93, Scottish landowner and a financier.

27

 * Umberto Agnelli, 69, Italian industrialist, head of Fiat, lymphoma.
 * Denis ApIvor, 88, British composer.
 * Patience Cleveland, 73, American actress (Donnie Darko, Psycho III, General Hospital), cancer.
 * Ladislav Hecht, 94, Czechoslovak tennis player.
 * Jim Marshall, 63, British Labour MP, heart attack.
 * Mikhail Postnikov, 76, Soviet mathematician, known for his work in algebraic and differential topology.
 * Sigrid Lorenzen Rupp, 61, German-American architect, stomach cancer.
 * Ronald Smith, 82, British classical pianist and teacher.
 * Werner Tübke, 74, German painter.

28

 * Michael Alison, 77, British Privy Council member, minister and MP.
 * Gerald Anthony, 52, American actor, best known for playing Marco Dane on the TV show One Life to Live, suicide.
 * Vittore Branca, 90, Philologist, literary critic, and Italian academic.
 * Harvey Brooks, 88, American physicist.
 * Francis Brunn, 81, German juggler.
 * Josie Carey, 73, American lyricist, host of children's show "Children's Corner".
 * Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, 82, French photographer.
 * Jerzy Klempel, 51, Polish Olympic handball player and coach.
 * Irene Manning, 91, American actress and singer (Yankee Doodle Dandy), heart failure.
 * Catherine Dean May, 90, American politician.

29

 * Lawrence Rosario Abavana, 84, Ghanaian politician and teacher.
 * Anjuman Ara Begum, 62, Bangladeshi vocalist, pneumonia.
 * Barry Brown, 42, Jamaican reggae singer, head trauma following fall.
 * Zebedy Colt, 74, American actor, musician, and adult film director.
 * Archibald Cox, 92, American lawyer, Watergate special prosecutor.
 * Samuel Dash, 79, American lawyer, chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate scandal, heart failure.
 * Magne Havnå, 40, Norwegian professional boxer, boating accident.
 * Jack Rosenthal, 72, British television dramatist, multiple myeloma.
 * Forrest Tucker, 83, American career criminal.
 * Ivica Šerfezi, 68, Croatian pop singer, stomach cancer.

30

 * Fenner Albert Chace, 95, American carcinologist.
 * Raymond M. Clausen, Jr., 56, American marine, Medal of Honour recipient, liver failure.
 * Alfred Coppel, 82, American author.
 * Gérard de Sède, 82, French author.
 * Rafał Kurmański, 21, Polish speedway rider, suicide.
 * Nizamuddin Shamzai, 51, Pakistani Sunni Islamic scholar, assassinated.
 * Ed Stanczak, 82, American basketball player (Anderson Packers, Boston Celtics).
 * Klavdiya Tochonova, 82, Soviet Olympic shot putter.

31

 * Lionel Abrahams, 76, South African novelist, poet, critic, and publisher.
 * Pierre Duval, 71, French-Canadian operatic tenor.
 * Artimus Parker, 52, American professional football player (Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets).
 * Robert Quine, 61, American punk rock guitarist, suicide.
 * Étienne Roda-Gil, 62, French songwriter, screenwriter and anarchist, stroke.