Deaths in October 1997

The following is a list of notable deaths in October 1997.

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

 * Francisco Aramburu, 75, Brazilian footballer.
 * Georg Bodenhausen, 92, Dutch civil servant.
 * Jerome H. Lemelson, 74, American engineer, inventor and patent holder, liver cancer.
 * Gul Mohammed, 40, Shortest adult human, heart attack.
 * Inbal Perlmuter, 26, Israeli rock musician, singer, composer and lyricist, car accident.

2

 * Carybé, 86, Argentine-Brazilian artist, historian and journalist, heart failure.
 * Douglas Fairbairn, 70, American author.
 * Esa Seeste, 84, Finnish gymnast.
 * Guillermo Meza Álvarez, 80, Mexican painter.

3

 * Michael Adekunle Ajasin, 88, Nigerian politician.
 * John Ashley, 62, American actor, producer and singer, heart attack.
 * Walter Baumgartner, 92, Swiss film composer.
 * Richard Gilkey, 72, American painter, suicide.
 * Verna Hillie, 83, American film actress, stroke.
 * Jarl Kulle, 70, Swedish actor and director, bone cancer.
 * Millard Lampell, 78, American movie and television screenwriter, lung cancer.
 * Phil Medley, 81, American songwriter.
 * Charlie Parsley, 71, American basketball player and college coach.
 * Hadassah Rosensaft, 85, Polish holocaust survivor, liver failure.
 * A. L. Rowse, 93, British historian and author.
 * George Urban, 76, Hungarian writer.
 * Blake Wayne Van Leer, 71, United States Navy officer.

4

 * Nelson Coral Nye, 90, American author and editor.
 * Otto Ernst Remer, 85, German Wehrmacht officer during World War II.
 * Anne Strachan Robertson, 87, Scottish archaeologist, numismatist and writer.
 * Gunpei Yokoi, 56, Japanese video game designer and creator of the Game Boy, traffic collision.
 * Georgi Yumatov, 71, Soviet and Russian film actor, aneurysm.

5

 * Chitta Basu, 70, Indian politician, heart attack.
 * Mary Jayne Gold, 88, American heiress, pancreatic cancer.
 * Andrew Keir, 71, Scottish actor (Cleopatra, Rob Roy, Mary, Queen of Scots).
 * Debbie Linden, 36, British glamour model and actress, heroin overdose.
 * Dave Marr, 63, American golfer and sportscaster, stomach cancer.
 * Brian Pillman, 35, American professional wrestler (WCW, WWF, ECW), heart attack.
 * Tommy Ring, 67, Scottish footballer.
 * Larisa Rozanova, 78, Soviet and Ukrainian pilot and navigator during World War II.
 * Curtis Williams Sabrosky, 87, American entomologist.
 * Arthur Tracy, 98, American vocalist and actor, heart attack.
 * Bernard Yago, 81, Ivoirian cardinal of the Catholic Church.

6

 * Orlando Ramón Agosti, 73, Argentine general and part of the military junta, cancer.
 * George T. Barclay, 87, American football player and coach.
 * Warren Louis Boudreaux, 79, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, heart failure.
 * Robert Endean, 71, Australian marine scientist.
 * Adrienne Hill, 60, English actress (Doctor Who), cancer.
 * Yevgeny Khaldei, 80, Soviet naval officer and photographer.
 * Johnny Vander Meer, 82, American baseball player, abdominal aneurysm.

7

 * Felicisimo Ampon, 76, Filipino tennis player.
 * Johnny Darrell, 57, American country music artist, diabetes.
 * Wan Laiming, 97, Chinese animator.
 * Gus Marker, 92, Canadian ice hockey player.
 * Aldo Sebben, 77, American football, cross country, and track and field coach.
 * Janez Vrhovec, 76, Yugoslav actor of Slovenian-German origin.

8

 * Henryk Bista, 63, Polish actor.
 * Albert Blumberg, 91, American philosopher and political activist.
 * Bertrand Goldberg, 84, American architect and industrial designer.
 * Robin Lee, 77, American figure skater.
 * Brown Meggs, 66, American writer and music executive.
 * Nininho, 73, Brazilian football player.
 * Desmond J. Scott, 79, New Zealand flying ace during World War II.
 * Sant Singh Sekhon, 89, Indian playwright and writer.
 * George Everard Kidder Smith, 84, American architectural writer and photographer.
 * William Spong Jr., 77, American politician.

9

 * Michael Cummings, 78, British newspaper cartoonist.
 * Monty Hoyt, 53, American figure skater and Olympian, melanoma.
 * Arch Johnson, 75, American actor, cancer.
 * Jean Pasqualini, French/Chinese journalist.
 * Joel Pritchard, 72, American politician, lymphoma.
 * Roy Rappaport, 71, American anthropologist.

10

 * D. J. Ambalavanar, 69, Sri Lankan Tamil bishop.
 * Marjorie Harris Carr, 82, American scientist and environmental activist.
 * Michael J. S. Dewar, 79, American theoretical chemist.
 * Hans-Joachim Kasprzik, 69, German film and television director and screenwriter.
 * George Malcolm, 80, English pianist, harpsichordist, composer, and conductor.
 * Anne Marriott, 83, Canadian writer, stroke.
 * Dencio Padilla, 69, Filipino actor and comedian, heart attack.
 * Walt Simon, 57, American basketball player.
 * Thomas Whiteside, 79, American journalist, heart failure.

11

 * Paul Doughty Bartlett, 90, American chemist.
 * Giacinto Bosco, 92, Italian jurist, academic and politician.
 * Lina Gennari, 86, Italian actress and operetta singer.
 * Käthe Gold, 90, Austrian actress.
 * Will Sherman, 69, American gridiron football player.
 * Ivan Yarygin, 48, Soviet / Russian heavyweight freestyle wrestler, car crash.

12

 * Raúl Arellano, 62, Mexican football forward.
 * John Denver, 53, American singer ("Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Poems, Prayers & Promises", "Annie's Song") and activist, plane crash.
 * Talib El-Shibib, 63, Iraqi politician.
 * Draga Garašanin, 76, Serbian archaeologist.
 * Kenneth Hahn, 77, American civil servant, heart failure.
 * Fred McCain, 79, Canadian politician.
 * Isadore Twersky, 67, American orthodox rabbi and professor.

13

 * Ian Stuart Black, 82, British novelist, playwright and screenwriter.
 * Joyce Compton, 90, American actress.
 * Gary Lee Davis, 53, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
 * Kārlis Irbītis, 92, Latvian aeroplane designer.
 * Richard Mason, 78, British novelist, lung cancer.
 * William Staveley, 68, Royal Navy officer, heart attack.
 * Adil Çarçani, 75, Albanian politician.

14

 * Hy Averback, 76, American actor, producer and director.
 * Piedade Coutinho, 77, Brazilian swimmer and Olympian.
 * Jacqueline Delubac, 90, French stage and film actress, traffic collision.
 * George Forrest, 72, British classicist and academic, cancer.
 * Henry Pelling, 77, British historian.
 * Harold Robbins, 81, American writer, heart failure.
 * Barbara Slater, 76, American film actress.

15

 * MacDonald Critchley, 97, British neurologist.
 * Peter J. Dalessandro, 79, United States Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient.
 * Jack Dwyer, 70, American gridiron football player.
 * Walter Fritzsch, 76, German football player and manager.
 * Parker T. Hart, 87, American diplomat.
 * Bill McKay, 76, Irish rugby player.
 * John Merricks, 26, English sailor and Olympian, traffic collision.

16

 * A. H. Armstrong, 88, English educator and author.
 * Dick Cavalli, 74, American cartoonist, heart attack.
 * Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, 94, Greek princess, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Noel Ferrier, 66, Australian comedian, actor, and theatrical producer.
 * Lotte Goslar, 90, German-American dancer.
 * Adam Kennedy, 75, American actor, novelist, and painter, heart attack.
 * Audra Lindley, 79, American actress (Three's Company, Another World, The Heartbreak Kid), leukemia.
 * James A. Michener, 90, American author, kidney failure.

17

 * Larry Jennings, 64, American magician.
 * Giorgio Pisanò, 73, Italian journalist, essayist and neo-fascist politician.
 * László Szabados, 86, Hungarian swimmer and Olympic medalist.
 * Ben Welden, 96, American actor.
 * Fang Yi, 81, Chinese Communist revolutionary, diplomat, and politician.

18

 * Leonard Andrzejewski, 73, Polish actor.
 * Ramiro Castillo, 31, Bolivian footballer, suicide by hanging.
 * Gordon Clark, 83, English football player.
 * Walter William Curtis, 84, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, pneumonia.
 * Nancy Dickerson, 70, American radio and television journalist, stroke.
 * Trude Eipperle, 89, German operatic soprano.
 * Vince Gironda, 79, American bodybuilder, personal trainer and author.
 * Roberto Goizueta, 65, Cuban businessman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, cancer.
 * Milt Neil, 83, American animator (Fantasia, Dumbo, The Three Caballeros).
 * William Rotsler, 71, American artist, cartoonist, pornographer and author.
 * Paul Edwin Zimmer, 54, American poet and author, heart attack.

19

 * Donald R. Bensen, 70, American editor and science fiction writer.
 * Glen Buxton, 49, American guitarist and composer, complications from pneumonia.
 * Claudia Drake, 79, American actress and singer.
 * Harold French, 100, English film director, screenwriter and actor.
 * Arthur Ibbetson, 75, British cinematographer (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Where Eagles Dare, The Bounty).
 * Francisco Guerrero Marín, 46, Spanish composer.
 * William J. McGill, 75, American psychologist and author.
 * Pilar Mercedes Miró Romero, 57, Spanish screenwriter and film director, heart attack.
 * Stella Sierra, 80, Panamanian poet and prose writer.

20

 * John Jacobs, 50, American student and anti-war activist, complications from melanoma.
 * Frank Robert Miller, 89, Canadian air chief marshal.
 * Manush Myftiu, 78, Albanian politician.
 * Manuel Rodríguez Barros, 71, Spanish racing cyclist.
 * Li Ruishan, 76, Chinese politician.
 * Ron Tarr, 60, British actor, cancer.
 * Henry Vestine, 52, American guitarist, heart and respiratory failure.
 * Robin Woods, 83, English Anglican bishop.

21

 * Dolph Camilli, 90, American baseball player.
 * John Whitney Hall, 81, American Japanologist.
 * Lorenzo Sumulong, 92, Filipino politician.
 * Aale Tynni, 84, Finnish poet and translator.
 * Waldemar F. A. Wendt, 85, United States Navy admiral.
 * Dick Wilkins, 72, American gridiron football player.

22

 * Leonid Amalrik, 92, Soviet animator.
 * Reinhard Lauck, 51, German footballer, traffic collision.
 * Quentin Smythe, 81, South African sergeant and recipient of the Victoria Cross, cancer.
 * Valerie Taylor, 84, American author and feminist.
 * Matthew Trupiano, 58, American mobster, heart attack.

23

 * Ann Devroy, 49, American political journalist, uterine cancer.
 * Claire Falkenstein, 89, American visual artist, stomach cancer.
 * Bert Haanstra, 81, Dutch filmmaker, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Pinchas Lapide, 74, Israeli theologian and historian.
 * Kim Lim, 61, Singaporean-British sculptor and printmaker.
 * Bob Manning, 71, American big band singer, pneumonia.
 * Michael Peter, 48, Field hockey player from West Germany.
 * Georges Pianta, 85, French politician.
 * Babette Rosmond, 75, American author.
 * Alfredo dos Santos, 77, Brazilian footballer.
 * Luther George Simjian, 92, Armenian-American inventor and entrepreneur.
 * Trevor Smith, 87, English footballer and manager.
 * Gerd Tacke, 91, German businessman and CEO of Siemens.

24

 * Luis Aguilar, 79, Mexican actor, and singer.
 * Skip Alexander, 79, American golfer.
 * Michael Balfour, 79, English actor, cancer.
 * Don Messick, 71, American voice actor (Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons), stroke.

25

 * William J. Hirsch, 88, American thoroughbred racehorses trainer, Alzheimer's disease.
 * Tina Lattanzi, 99, Italian actress and voice actress.
 * Jamie Livingston, 41, American photographer and film maker, brain tumor.
 * Mina Rees, 95, American mathematician.

26

 * Georg Adelly, 78, Swedish film actor.
 * Teng Haiqing, 88, Chinese military officer and a politician.
 * William B. Hutchinson, 88, American physician.
 * Rolf Kukowitsch, 84-85, German football coach.
 * Donald Ray Matthews, 90, American politician.
 * Rankin M. Smith, Sr., 72, American businessman and philanthropist.

27

 * Mahala Andrews, 58, British vertebrae palaeontologist.
 * Achim Gercke, 95, German Nazi politician.
 * Billy Neill, 47, Northern Irish football player.
 * Vladimir Sokoloff, 84, American pianist and accompanist.
 * Thomas Dale Stewart, 96, American anthropologist.
 * Reuben Sturman, 73, American businessman and pornographer.
 * François-Henri de Virieu, 65, French journalist and television presenter, pancreatic cancer.

28

 * Walter Capps, 63, American politician, heart attack.
 * Toni Carabillo, 71, American feminist, graphic designer, and historian, lung cancer.
 * Paul Jarrico, 82, American screenwriter, traffic collision.
 * Marian E. Koshland, 76, American immunologist, lung cancer.
 * Bryan Lefley, 49, Canadian ice hockey player (New York Islanders) and coach, car accident.
 * Klaus Wunderlich, 66, German musician, heart attack.

29

 * Len Beurton, 83, English communist and Soviet agent.
 * H. C. Coombs, 91, Australian economist and public servant.
 * William Crook, 72, American politician and ambassador, congestive heart failure.
 * Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten, 97, German junker, businessman and author.
 * Paul Guth, 87, French journalist and writer.
 * Anton LaVey, 67, American author, musician, and occultist, pulmonary edema.
 * Andreas Gerasimos Michalitsianos, 50, Greek-American astronomer and astrophysicist, brain tumor.
 * Big Nick Nicholas, 75, American jazz saxophonist and singer, heart failure.
 * Anthony Velonis, 86, American painter and designer.

30

 * Jacques Derogy, 72, French journalist, cancer.
 * Samuel Fuller, 85, American screenwriter, novelist, and film director.
 * Barney Martin, 74, American baseball player.
 * Sydney Newman, 80, Canadian film and television producer (The Avengers, Doctor Who), heart attack.

31

 * Zubeida Agha, 75, Pakistani artist.
 * Bram Appel, 75, Dutch footballer.
 * Hans Bauer, 70, German footballer.
 * Sidney Darlington, 91, American electrical engineer.
 * Tadeusz Janczar, 71, Polish film actor.
 * Taisto Kangasniemi, 73, Finnish heavyweight wrestler.
 * Wilfrid Oulton, 86, British Royal Air Force officer, cancer.
 * George Roth, 86, American gymnast and Olympic champion.