Deaths in 1977

ContentsJanuary – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December ← 19761977 1978→ __NOTOC__

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1977. 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.

Deaths in 1977 January

January 2 – Erroll Garner, American musician (b. 1921) January 4 – Ibrahim Biçakçiu, Albanian politician, 2-time Prime Minister of Albania leader of World War II (b. 1905) January 5 – Artur Adson, Estonian poet, writer and theatre critic (b. 1889) January 14 Anthony Eden, British politician, 62nd prime minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1897) Peter Finch, English-born actor (b. 1916) Anaïs Nin, French-born American diarist and writer (b. 1903) January 17 – Gary Gilmore, American murderer (b. 1940) January 18 Džemal Bijedić, Yugoslavian politician, 27th prime minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1917) Carl Zuckmayer, German writer and playwright (b. 1896) January 19 – Yvonne Printemps, French singer and actress (b. 1894) January 20 – Dimitrios Kiousopoulos, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1892) January 23 – Pascual Pérez, Argentine world Flyweight boxing champion (b. 1926) January 26 – Dietrich von Hildebrand, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1889) January 28 Burt Mustin, American actor (b. 1884) Talib Haji Hamzah, Malaysian armed robber executed in Singapore (b. 1953) January 29 Freddie Prinze, American actor and comedian (b. 1954) Johnny Franz, English record producer (b. 1922)

February

February 3 – Pauline Starke, American actress (b. 1901) February 5 – Oskar Klein, Swedish theoretical physicist (b. 1894) February 9 – Alia Toukan, Queen consort of Jordan (b. 1948) February 11 Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer and statesman, 5th president of India (b. 1905)Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed president of India Louis Beel, prime minister of the Netherlands (b. 1902) February 16 – Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1905) February 18 Newsboy Brown, American boxer (b. 1905)Newsboy Brown Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905) February 27 John Dickson Carr, American crime novelist (b. 1906) Allison Hayes, American actress (b. 1930) February 28 – Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, American actor (b. 1905)Renowned comedian Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

March

March 1 – Diallo Telli, Guinean diplomat and politician, 1st secretary general of the Organisation of African Unity (b. 1925) March 3 – Brian Faulkner, last prime minister of Northern Ireland (b. 1921) March 4 Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (b. 1951) Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, German jurist and senior government official, last führer of Nazi Germany (b. 1887) March 5 – Tom Pryce, British Formula One racing driver (b. 1949) March 8 – Henry Hull, American actor (b. 1890) March 10 E. Power Biggs, English-American organist (b. 1906) Willem Schermerhorn, Dutch politician and civil engineer, 28th prime minister of the Netherlands (b. 1894) March 14 Cynthia Carew Pole, British socialite and local councillor (b. 1908) Fannie Lou Hamer, American civil rights activist (b. 1917) March 15 – Antonino Rocca, Italian professional wrestler (b. 1921) March 18 – Marien Ngouabi, 3rd president of Congo (b. 1938) March 19 William L. Laurence, Lithuanian-born American science journalist (b. 1888) Pehr Victor Edman, Swedish chemist (b. 1916)EDMAN, PEHR VICTOR March 20 – Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham, English politician, 9th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1909) March 22 – Ernest Gugenheim, French rabbi (b. 1916) March 27 – Diana Hyland, American actress (b. 1936) March 29 – Eugen Wüster, industrialist and terminologist (b. 1898) Charles Nicoletti, Chicago mafioso, shot in the back of the head three times as he sat in his car. March 30 – Abdel Halim Hafez, Egyptian singer and actor (b. 1929)

April

April 2 – John Whitaker, British gymnast (b. 1886) April 5 – Carlos Prío Socarrás, 11th president of Cuba (b. 1903) April 7 – Karl Ritter, German film producer and director (b. 1888) April 11 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (b. 1900) April 17 – William Conway, Northern Irish cardinal (b. 1913) April 20 – Wilmer Allison, American tennis champion (b. 1904) April 21 – Gummo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1892) April 28 Ricardo Cortez, American actor (b. 1899) Sepp Herberger, German footballer and manager (b. 1897)

May

May 5 – Ludwig Erhard, German politician, 28th Chancellor of Germany (West Germany) (b. 1897) May 7 – Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, Spanish Carlist pretender (b. 1889) May 9 – James Jones, American writer (b. 1921) May 10 – Joan Crawford, American actress (b. c. 1904) May 13 – Otto Deßloch, German World War II Luftwaffe general (b. 1889) May 15 – Herbert Wilcox, British film director and producer (b. 1892) May 16 – Modibo Keïta, 1st president of Mali (b. 1915) May 25 – Willoughby Norrie, British army general and Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1893) May 26 – Shewalul Mengistu, Ethiopian poet and political activist (b. 1944) May 30 – Paul Desmond, American jazz saxophonist and composer (b. 1924) May 31 – William Castle, American film director (b. 1914)

June

June 2 – Stephen Boyd, Northern Irish actor (b. 1931) June 3 Archibald Hill, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886) Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director (b. 1906) June 13 – Tom C. Clark, American lawyer and politician (b. 1899) June 14 – Alan Reed, American actor (b. 1907) June 16 – Wernher von Braun, German-born American rocket scientist (b. 1912) June 22 – Marston Morse, American mathematician (b. 1892) June 25 – Olave Baden-Powell, first Chief Guide for Britain (b. 1889) June 26 – Sergei Lemeshev, Russian operatic lyric tenor (b. 1902) June 30 – Paul Hartmann, American actor (b. 1889)

July

July 2 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born American writer (b. 1899) July 9 Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist and author (b. 1907)Loren Eiseley American anthropologist Alice Paul, American women's rights activist (b. 1885) July 21 – Lee Miller, American model and wartime photojournalist (b. 1907) July 23 – Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer (b. 1915)ARSENIO ERICO: THE LEGEND WHO BRIDGED PARAGUAYAN AND ARGENTINE FOOTBALL July 25 – David Toro, 35th president of Bolivia (b. 1898) July 26 – Prince Charles of Luxembourg, Prince of Luxembourg (b. 1927) July 30 – Jean de Laborde, French admiral (b. 1878) July 31 – Giuseppe Castellano, Italian general (b. 1893)

August

August 1 – Francis Gary Powers, American U-2 spy plane pilot (b. 1929) August 2 – Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, Portuguese Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1888) August 3 Alfred Lunt, American actor (b. 1892) Makarios III, Greek-Cypriot archbishop, 1st president of Cyprus (b. 1913) August 4 Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889) Ernst Bloch, German Marxist philosopher (b. 1885) August 6 – Sir Alexander Bustamente, Jamaican politician, 1st prime minister of Jamaica (b. 1884) August 8 – Son Ngoc Thanh, 2nd prime minister of Cambodia (b. 1908) August 9 – Beryl May Dent, English mathematical physicist (b. 1900) August 13 – Henry Williamson, English naturalist, farmer and prolific ruralist (b. 1895) August 14 – Alexander Luria, Russian neuropsychologist (b. 1902) August 16 – Elvis Presley, American actor, musician and singer-songwriter (b. 1935) August 19 – Groucho Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1890) August 23 Sebastian Cabot, English actor (b. 1918) Naum Gabo, Russian sculptor (b. 1890) August 29 – Jean Hagen, American actress (b. 1923)

September

September 1 – Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (b. 1896) September 4 – E. F. Schumacher, German statistician and economist (b. 1885) September 6 – John Edensor Littlewood, British mathematician (b. 1885) September 8 – Zero Mostel, American actor (b. 1915) September 12 – Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist (b. 1946) September 13 – Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (b. 1882)Allen Hughes, "Leopold Stokowski Is Dead of a Heart Attack at 95", The New York Times, 14 September 1977. September 16 Marc Bolan, British singer and guitarist (b. 1947) Maria Callas, Greek soprano (b. 1923) September 18 – Paul Bernays, Swiss mathematician (b. 1888)

October

October 3 – Tay Garnett, American film director (b. 1894) October 10 – Jean Duvieusart, Belgian politician, 36th prime minister of Belgium (b. 1900) October 11 – MacKinlay Kantor, American writer and historian (b. 1904) October 12 – Dorothy Davenport, American actress (b. 1895) October 14 – Bing Crosby, American pop singer and actor (b. 1903) October 17 – Sir Michael Balcon, English film producer (b. 1896) October 20 – Three members of American rock group, Lynyrd Skynyrd, killed in plane crash: Ronnie Van Zant, lead singer (b. 1948) Cassie Gaines, lead singer (b. 1948) Steve Gaines, lead singer and guitarist (b. 1949) October 25 – Félix Gouin, French politician (b. 1884) October 27 James M. Cain, American writer (b. 1892) Miguel Mihura, Spanish playwright (b. 1905)

November

November 3 – Florence Vidor, American actress (b. 1895) November 4 – Betty Balfour, English screen actress (b. 1902) November 5 René Goscinny, French comic book writer (b. 1926) Guy Lombardo, Canadian-American bandleader (b. 1902) November 9 – Gertrude Astor, American actress (b. 1887) November 10 – Dennis Wheatley, English writer (b. 1897) November 14 A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Indian religious leader (b. 1896) Ferdinand Heim, German general, branded the "Scapegoat of Stalingrad" (b. 1897) November 16 – Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois (b. 1898), Monégasque princess November 18 Victor Francen, Belgian actor (b. 1888) Kurt Schuschnigg, 11th chancellor of Austria (b. 1897) November 21 – Richard Carlson, American actor (b. 1912) November 30 – Olga Petrova, English-born American actress (b. 1884)

December

December 3 – Jack Beresford, British Olympic rower (b. 1899) December 5 – Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Soviet general, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1895) December 9 – Clarice Lispector, Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist (b. 1920) December 10 – Adolph Rupp, American college basketball coach (b. 1901) December 12 – Clementine Churchill, wife of Winston Churchill (b. 1885) December 16 Gustaf Aulén, Bishop of Strängnäs in the Church of Sweden (b. 1879) Yngve Larsson, Swedish politician (b. 1881) December 19 Takeo Kurita, Japanese admiral (b. 1889) Nellie Tayloe Ross, American politician (b. 1876) Jacques Tourneur, French-American filmmaker (b. 1904) December 24 – Juan Velasco Alvarado, 58th president of Peru (b. 1910) December 25 Sir Charlie Chaplin, British actor, producer and director (b. 1889) Oliver P. Smith, American general (b. 1893) December 26 – Howard Hawks, American film director (b. 1896) December 28 – Charlotte Greenwood, American actress (b. 1890)

References