The following is a list of notable deaths in October 1998.
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.
October 1998
1 Pauline Julien, 70, Quebec singer, songwriter, actress and feminist activist, suicide. Steve Knowlton, 76, American Olympic alpine skier (1948). Sjur Lindebrække, 89, Norwegian banker and politician. Vladimir Ossipoff, 90, Russian-American architect. Gabriel Sandu, 45, Romanian football player.
2 Gene Autry, 91, American Hall of Fame singer ("Back in the Saddle Again", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") and actor (The Gene Autry Show), lymphoma. Armando Barrientos, 92, Cuban Olympic fencer (1948). Jerzy Bińczycki, 61, Polish stage and film actor, heart attack. Jimmy Caesar, 63, American comedian and impressionist. DONDI, 37, American graffiti artist, AIDS. William J. Eccles, 81, Canadian historian and academic. Olin J. Eggen, 79, American astronomer. Olivier Gendebien, 74, Belgian racing driver. Enrico Pagani, 69, Italian Olympic basketball player (1952). Korla Pandit, 77, American composer, pianist, and organist, heart attack. Raúl Pini, 75, Uruguayan footballer. Raymond Raikes, 88, British theatre producer, director and broadcaster. D. French Slaughter Jr., 73, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1985–1991). Adrian Spies, 78, American screenwriter. Roger Vivier, 90, French women's shoe designer. Richard Way, 84, British civil servant and academic administrator. Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, 36, Mongolian politician and revolutionary, assassinated.
3 Hugo Batalla, 72, Uruguayan politician, vice president (1995–1998), lung cancer. Arthur Clues, 74, Australian rugby player. George Davis, 84, American art director (The Robe, The Diary of Anne Frank, Funny Face), Oscar winner (1954, 1960). David C. Evans, 74, American computer scientist. Bernard Fox, 81, American figure skater. Colin Greenwood, 62, South African rugby player. Roddy McDowall, 70, British-American actor (Planet of the Apes, Cleopatra, Fright Night), lung cancer. G. S. Venkataraman, 68, Indian botanist. Anne-Marie Walters, 75, Swiss-British Special Operations Executive during World War II. George Yates, 90, Australian businessman and politician.George Henry Yates, Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 4 July 2019
4 S. Arasaratnam, 68, Sri Lankan academic, historian and author. Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, 62, Swiss politician. Lee Grissom, 90, American baseball player. Enea Pavani, 77, Italian curler. Tony Shelly, 61, New Zealand racing driver.
5 João Capucho, 81, Portuguese Olympic sailor (1948). Megs Jenkins, 81, English actress. Krzysztof Jung, 47, Polish painter, graphic artist and performer, asthma. Georges Margot, 96, French Olympic equestrian (1936). Pierre Martory, 77, French poet. Federico Zeri, 77, Italian art historian. Arne Øien, 69, Norwegian economist and politician.
6 Mark Belanger, 54, American baseball player (Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers), lung cancer. Ambrose Burke, 102, English professor and Catholic priest. Rolan Bykov, 68, Soviet and Russian actor, theatre and film director and screenwriter, lung cancer.Rolan Bykov (1929-1998) at Bibliothèque nationale de France website (in French), Retrieved 4 July 2019 Bob Gude, 80, American football player (Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles). Jean-François Jenny-Clark, 54, French double bass player, cancer. James Larkin, 66, Irish Gaelic football player and politician. Samuel Messick, 67, American psychologist. Stéphane Morin, 29, Canadian ice hockey player (Quebec Nordiques, Vancouver Canucks), heart problems. Joseph J. Sandler, 71, British psychoanalyst. Guillaume Tell, 96, French Olympic long-distance runner (1924, 1928). Chuck Walton, 57, American gridiron football player (Detroit Lions). Jerome Weidman, 85, American playwright and novelist.
7 Evelyn Daniel Anderson, 72, American educator and disability rights advocate. Nellie Carrington, 82, British athlete and Olympian (1936). Richard Cyert, 77, American economist and statistician, cancer. Cees de Vreugd, 46, Dutch strongman, heart attack. W. B. Gallie, 86, Scottish social theorist and philosopher. Niilo Hartikka, 89, Finnish Olympic middle-distance runner (1936). Arnold Jacobs, 83, American tubist. Kjell Sverre Johansen, 54, Norwegian Olympic rower (1972, 1976). Renato Malavasi, 94, Italian film actor. Joseph P. Merlino, 76, American Party politician. Lee Nak-hoon, 62, South Korean actor, heart disease and diabetes. Ru Zhijuan, 72, Chinese writer.
8 Laurențiu Bozeșan, 38, Romanian footballer. Curtis Cassell, 85, German-British rabbi. Zhang Chongren, 91, Chinese artist and sculptor. Mohanlal Lallubhai Dantwala, 89, Indian agricultural economist, academic and writer. Jashim, 48, Bangladeshi film actor, producer and freedom fighter, brain haemorrhage. Rolf Kestener, 68, Brazilian swimmer and Olympian (1948). West Nkosi, 58, South African music producer, saxophonist and songwriter, traffic collision. Gigi Reder, 70, Italian character actor. Glenn Spearman, 51, American jazz tenor saxophonist, cancer. Valerio Vallania, 92, Argentine Olympic athlete (1928). Anatol Vieru, 72, Romanian music theoretician, pedagogue, and composer.
9 Robert Allen, 92, American actor, cancer. Anthony Alonzo, 50, Filipino actor, singer, and councilor of Quezon City, skin cancer. Beth Bonner, 46, American long-distance runner, traffic collision. George Rankin Irwin, 91, American scientist in the field of fracture mechanics and strength of materials. Rosario Joanette, 82, Canadian ice hockey player (Montreal Canadiens). Ian Johnson, 80, Australian cricketer. John Geddes MacGregor, 88, British-American author, scholar, and priest. Nagbhushan Patnaik, 63, Indian communist revolutionary and politician. Gustavo Petricioli, 70, Mexican economist, heart attack. Xiao Yang, 69, Chinese politician.
10 Clark Clifford, 91, American lawyer and politician. Jackie Forster, 71, English news reporter, actress and lesbian rights activist. Marvin Gay Sr., 84, American minister and father of Marvin Gaye, pneumonia. Pierce Lyden, 90, American actor. William Markowitz, 91, American astronomer. Tony Marvin, 86, American radio and television announcer. Rod Morrison, 73, Canadian ice hockey player (Detroit Red Wings). Rachel Cosgrove Payes, 75, American novelist and author. Konstantin Petrzhak, 91, Russian nuclear physicist. Tommy Quaid, 41, Irish hurler, injuries sustained from a fall. Berta Rahm, 88, Swiss architect, writer and feminist activist. Strick Shofner, 79, American baseball player (Boston Red Sox). Rocco Spinola, 67, Italian Olympic weightlifter (1960). El Tappe, 71, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs), and coach, cancer.
11 George Bain, 68–69, Australian rugby league footballer. Richard Denning, 84, American actor, heart attack. Fred Harris, 86, English footballer. Lars Theodor Jonsson, 94, Swedish cross-country skier and Olympian (1928). Michael Wynn, 7th Baron Newborough, 81, British peer and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officer.Obituary: Lord Newborough, The Independent, 28 October 1998. Retrieved 5 July 2019. Spottswood William Robinson III, 82, American civil rights attorney and US Circuit Judge. Gaius Shaver, 88, American football player and Olympian (1932).
12 Jürgen Aschoff, 85, German physician, biologist and behavioral physiologist. Mario Beaulieu, 68, Canadian politician, member of the Senate of Canada (1990–1994). Valdemar Kendzior, 72, Danish footballer. Bernhard Minetti, 93, German actor. Julio Saraceni, 86, Argentine film director. Ineko Sata, 94, Japanese author and communist. Matthew Shepard, 21, American murder victim, beaten to death. Wilson Allen Wallis, 85, American economist and statistician.
13 Thomas Byberg, 82, Norwegian speed skater and Olympic medalist (1948). Dmitry Filippov, 54, Soviet and Russian politician and industrialist, assassinated. P. T. Narasimhachar, 93, Indian Kannada playwright and poet. Bojan Pečar, 38, Serbian/Yugoslav musician, heart attack. Jeremy Vargas Sagastegui, 27, American criminal, execution by lethal injection. Gérard Charles Édouard Thériault, 66, Canadian pilot and Chief of the Defence Staff.
14 Cleveland Amory, 81, American author, reporter and animal rights activist, abdominal aortic aneurysm. Leopoldina Bălănuță, 63, Romanian actress. Dasarath Deb, 82, Indian communist politician. Hipólito Gil, 94, Argentine Olympic sailor (1936). Betty Gillies, 90, American aviation pioneer. Giorgio Oberweger, 84, Italian discus thrower and Olympic medalist (1936, 1948). Frankie Yankovic, 83, American polka musician, heart failure.
15 Rolf Agop, 90, German conductor and academic. Colette Darfeuil, 92, French actress. Mãe Cleusa Millet, 75, Brazilian physician and spiritual leader. Molly O'Day, 88, American actress, she became one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1928, she received a star in the Motion Pictures category on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 Ike Owens, 79, Welsh rugby player. Iain Crichton Smith, 70, Scottish poet and novelist.
16 Carlos Aldabe, 79, Argentine football player and coach. Frank Carswell, 78, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers), and manager. Jon Postel, 55, American computer scientist, complications from heart surgery. Collins J. Seitz, 84, American lawyer and judge. Joseph Stamler, 86, American lawyer and judge. Léontine Stevens, 91, Belgian Olympic athlete (1928). M. Vasalis, 89, Dutch poet and psychiatrist.
17 Antonio Agri, 66, Argentine musician, cancer. Germán List Arzubide, 100, Mexican poet and revolutionary. Brian Dickson, 82, Canadian military officer and judge. Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi, 63, Pakistani religious leader, shot. Joan Hickson, 92, English actress (Miss Marple). Carmen Molina, 78, Mexican actress, singer, and dancer. Hakim Said, 78, Pakistani scholar and philanthropist, murdered. Tron, 26, German hacker and phreaker, suicide by hanging. Karel Vohralík, 53, Czech Olympic ice hockey player (1972).
18 Frédéric Fitting, 96, Swiss Olympic fencer (1920, 1924, 1928, 1936). Peter A. Griffin, 61, American mathematician, author, and blackjack expert. Alfred Praks, 96, Estonian Olympic wrestler (1924, 1928). Dick Sheppard, 53, English footballer. George Shaw Wheeler, 90, American advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and defector.
19 Arnold M. Auerbach, 86, American comedy writer. Frank J. Brasco, 66, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives, (1967–1975). Tommy Burks, 58, American farmer and politician, murdered. Chaduranga, 82, Indian Kannada writer. Edward Flannery, 86, American Roman Catholic priest and author, pancreatic cancer. Fritz Honka, 63, German serial killer. Charlton Ogburn, 87, American journalist and author, suicide. Compton I. White Jr., 77, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1963–1967).
20 Anni Bruk, 74, Austrian Olympic shot putter (1948). John Mowbray Didcott, 67, South African lawyer and judge, cancer. Frank Gillard, 89, British BBC reporter and radio pioneer. Gerhard Jahn, 71, German politician, cancer. Spike Nelson, 92, American football player and coach. René Pleimelding, 73, French football player and manager.
21 Marcel Bellefeuille, 57, Canadian Olympic boxer (1960). Josef Bremm, 84, Nazi Germany Wehrmacht officer. Scott Brower, 34, American ice hockey player, traffic collision. Alexander Cairncross, 87, British economist. Cheng Lianzhen, 77, Chinese politician and bandit leader. Phil Haugstad, 74, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds). John Hazen, 71, American basketball player (Boston Celtics). John David Kelly, 64, American circuit judge (United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit). Nicholas Kemmer, 86, Russian-British nuclear physicist.