The following is a list of notable deaths in August 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.
August 1997
1 Kenneth W. Bilby, 78, American RCA executive, leukemia. Berta Alves de Sousa, 91, Portuguese pianist and composer. Ngiratkel Etpison, 73, Palauan politician. Dame Bertha Isaacs, 97, Bahamian teacher, tennis player, politician and women's rights activist. Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson, 72, Australian taxonomic botanist, cancer. Angel Acuña Lizaña, 78, Mexican Olympic basketball player (1948). Norio Nagayama, 48, Japanese spree killer and novelist, execution by hanging. Gene Richardson, 69, American baseball player. Sviatoslav Richter, 82, Ukrainian pianist, heart attack. Janet G. Travell, 95, American physician and medical researcher, heart failure. Hans von Luck, 86, German Wehrmacht officer during World War II.
2 William S. Burroughs, 83, American author (Naked Lunch, Junkie) and visual artist, heart attack. John Churcher, 91, British army general. Antonis Daglis, Greek serial killer, suicide by hanging. Joyce Dingwell, 89, Australian writer. Feim Ibrahimi, 61, Albanian composer. Harald Kihle, 92, Norwegian painter and illustrator. James Krüss, 71, German children's author and illustrator. Fela Kuti, 58, Nigerian musician and human rights activist, AIDS (disputed). Russ Mosley, 79, American football player (Green Bay Packers). Frank E. Smith, 79, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1951-1962), complications from strokes. Ricardo Muñoz Suay, 79, Spanish film director, producer and screenwriter. Michèle Pujol, 46, French intellectual, feminist, and human rights activist, cancer. Rhydwen Williams, 80, Welsh poet, novelist and baptist minister.
3 Peter A. Carruthers, 62, American physicist. Joan Erikson, 94, Austrian-Canadian author, educator, and dance ethnographer. Mladen Koščak, 60, Croatian football player and Olympian (1956). Pietro Rizzuto, 63, Canadian politician, member of the Senate of Canada (1976- ). Nirmal Chandra Sinha, 85–86, Indian tibetologist and author. Pete Willett, 95, American baseball player.
4 Horace Bristol, 88, American photographer. Ces Burke, 83, New Zealand cricketer. Dick Bush, 65, British cinematographer (Tommy, Victor Victoria, Twins of Evil). Jeanne Calment, 122, French supercentenarian and the oldest person ever documented in history, senility. Tom Eckersley, 82, English poster artist and teacher of design. Nicholas J. Hoff, 91, Hungarian-American aeronautics and astronautic engineer. Gene Johnson, 61, American gridiron football player (Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants). Jens Lundgaard, 86, Danish footballer. Lloyd Marshall, 83, American light heavyweight boxer. Ariel Maughan, 74, American basketball player. Ray Renfro, 67, American gridiron football player (Cleveland Browns). Sidney Simon, 80, American painter, sculptor, and muralist. Alexander Young, 58, Scottish musician, lung cancer.
5 Dick Day, 77, Australian rules footballer. Clarence M. Kelley, 85, American politician and director of the FBI. Poul Møller, 77, Danish Conservative People's Party politician. Don Steele, 61, American disc jockey, lung cancer. Michael J. Tully Jr., 64, American lawyer and politician, heart attack.
6 Lance Barnard, 78, Australian politician and diplomat. Bill Behr, 78, American basketball player. Maria Antonietta Beluzzi, 67, Italian actress, infarction. Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, 72, Indian writer. Shin Ki-ha, 56, South Korean politician, plane crash. Jürgen Kuczynski, 92, German economist and communist. Tom Normanton, 80, British politician. John Porter, 93, Canadian ice hockey player and Olympian (1928). Noel Teggart, 55, Irish Olympic cyclist (1972). Samuel Paul Welles, 89, American palaeontologist. Bora Öztürk, 42, Turkish football player, cancer.
7 Rudolf Blügel, 70, German politician and member of the Bundestag. Jules Goedhuys, 92, Belgian racing cyclist. Kay Halle, 93, American journalist, author and World War II OSS operative. Elisabeth Höngen, 90, German operatic mezzo-soprano and actress. Eugene Langenraedt, 90, Belgian Olympic sprinter (1928). Robert Major, 82, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1968-1972). Volker Prechtel, 55, German actor, cancer. Léon Spartz, 70, Luxembourgian Olympic footballer (1952).
8 Joseph Aquilina, 78, Maltese author and linguist. Orville H. Hampton, 80, American screenwriter. Dardanelle Hadley, 79, American jazz musician. William Lithgow, 77, English cricketer. Plato Malozemoff, 87, Russian-American engineer and businessman, congestive heart failure. Paul Rudolph, 78, American architect, peritoneal mesothelioma. Oad Swigart, 82, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates).
9 Doug Adams, 47, American gridiron football player (Cincinnati Bengals). Max Bloesch, 89, Swiss Olympic handball player (1936). Gabriel Cattand, 73, French actor. Herbert de Souza, 61, American sociologist and activist, AIDS-related complications. Ilpo Koskela, 52, Finnish ice hockey player and Olympian (1968, 1972). Trần Đại Nghĩa, 83, Vietnamese scientist and military engineer.
10 Peter Braestrup, 66–67, American journalist, heart attack. Valery Chaptynov, 52, Russian politician. Roy Chipman, 58, American basketball coach, colorectal cancer. Malú Gatica, 75, Chilean actress and singer. William Jordy, 80, American architectural historian. Steve Kraftcheck, 68, Canadian ice hockey player (Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs). Jean-Claude Lauzon, 43, Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter, plane crash. Carlton Moss, 88, American screenwriter, actor and film director. Conlon Nancarrow, 84, American-Mexican composer. Marie-Soleil Tougas, 27, Canadian actress and tv host, plane crash. Bob Welborn, 69, American racing driver. George Zames, 63, Polish-Canadian control theorist and professor.
11 Miksa Bondi, 79, Hungarian Olympic boxer (1948). Bert McTaggart, 81, Australian rules footballer. Frank Pearson, 77, American Negro league baseball player. Jacques Robert, 76, French author, screenwriter and journalist.
12 Luther Allison, 57, American blues guitarist, cancer. Anna Balakian, 82, Armenian-American professor of comparative literature, congestive heart failure. Rex Barney, 72, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers). Ambrogio Bessi, 82, Italian Olympic basketball player (1936). Gösta Bohman, 86, Swedish politician. Jack Delano, 83, American photographer, kidney failure. Rob Denton, 89, American soccer player and Olympian (1936). Keith Harper, 70, Australian rules football player. Robert Hetzron, 58, Hungarian-born linguist. Gulshan Kumar, 46, Indian businessman and film producer, shot. Dick Marx, 73, American jazz pianist and arranger, traffic collision. Mario Montuori, 77, Italian film cinematographer and painter. Abe Newborn, 77, American talent agent and theatre producer, congestive heart failure. Sam Nolutshungu, 52, South African academic, cancer. Len Norris, 83, Canadian editorial cartoonist. Achilles Papapetrou, 90, Greek theoretical physicist. Albert L. Smith, Jr., 65, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1981-1983). Conrad von Molo, 90, Austrian film producer and editor. Ali Yata, 76, Moroccan communist leader.
13 Vladimir Gribov, 67, Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist. António de Herédia, 96, Portuguese Olympic sailor (1928, 1936, 1948). Robert L. Leggett, 71, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1963-1979). Dick Mather, 56, Canadian politician, heart attack. Emil Mosbacher, 75, American yachtsman and Chief of Protocol of the United States, cancer. Harlow Rothert, 89, American Olympic shot putter (1928, 1932). Marjorie Lynette Sigley, 68, English artist, writer, actress, choreographer and theatre director, cancer. Carel Weight, 88, English painter.
14 John Elliot, 79, British novelist, screenwriter and television producer. Charlie Fleming, 70, Scottish footballer. Diana E. Forsythe, 49, American anthropology researcher, hiking accident. Frederick Carl Galda, 79, American attorney and politician. George Pfister, 78, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers), and coach, heart attack. Guido Vincenzi, 65, Italian football player and manager, A.L.S.
15 Ida Gerhardt, 92, Dutch writer and poet. Ray Heatherton, 88, American singer, Broadway performer and television personality, Alzheimer's disease. Lubka Kolessa, 95, Canadian-Ukrainian pianist and educator. Lawrence Morgan, 82, Australian rules footballer, equestrian and Olympian (1960). Steve Pruski, 73, Canadian football player. Dave Solomon, 84, Fijian-New Zealand rugby player and coach. Çesk Zadeja, 70, Albanian composer.
16 Yanick Dupré, 24, Canadian ice hockey player (Philadelphia Flyers), leukemia. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, 48, Pakistani Qawwali musician, heart attack. Robert Lang, 80, Swiss cyclist. Alf Malland, 80, Norwegian actor. Plum Mariko, 29, Japanese female professional wrestler, wrestling accident. Jacques Pollet, 75, French racing driver. Donn Reynolds, 76, Canadian country music singer and yodeler. Hendrik van den Bergh, 82, South African police official. Roger Vrigny, 77, French writer.
17 Burnum Burnum, 61, Australian Aboriginal activist, actor, and author, heart disease. Secondo Magni, 85, Italian racing cyclist. Don Owens, 65, American gridiron football player (Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Cardinals). David Schweitzer, 72, Israeli football player and manager. Richard Skalak, 74, American biomedical engineering pioneer.
18 Praphas Charusathien, 84, Thai military officer and politician. Fedor Hanžeković, 84, Croatian film director. Don Knight, 64, English actor (The Apple Dumpling Gang, Swamp Thing, The Hawaiians), stroke. Ante Pivčević, 71, Croatian Olympic sailor (1960). Maria Prymachenko, 89, Ukrainian folk art painter. Frank P. Sanders, 78, American Under Secretary of the Navy (1972–73). Robert Swenson, 40, American professional wrestler (WCCW) and actor (Batman & Robin, Bulletproof), heart failure. Tochiakagi Takanori, 42, Japanese sumo wrestler. Harry R. Wellman, 98, American academic.
19 Cathleen Cordell, 82, American actress, emphysema. René van Hove, 84, Dutch Olympic cyclist (1936). Jim Karcher, 83, American gridiron football player (Boston/Washington Redskins). Robson Lowe, 92, English philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer. Petr Novák, 51, Czech rock musician, poisoned. Mario Velarde, 57, Mexican football player.
20 Scott Armstrong, 83, American basketball player. Norris Bradbury, 88, American physicist, infectious disease. William Humphrey, 73, American writer, cancer. Leo Jaffe, 88, American film executive. Bob Switzer, 83, American inventor, businessman and environmentalist, Parkinson's disease.
21 Misael Pastrana Borrero, 73, President of Colombia. Somers Cox, 86, New Zealand Olympic rower (1932). Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai, Afghani politician and diplomat, prime minister of afghanistan (since 1997), plane crash. Jean Horsley, 84, New Zealand artist. William Jopling, 86, Italian-British leprologist. Guillermo Molina, 88, American baseball player. Yuri Nikulin, 75, Soviet/Russian actor and clown, heart failure.
22 Prince Álvaro of Orleans, 87, Spanish noble and Infante. James Edmund Jeffries, 72, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1979-1983). James K. Johnson, 81, United States Air Force officer. François Lachenal, 79, Swiss publisher and diplomat. Eduardo Lopes, 79, Portuguese road and track cyclist, cerebral vascular accident. Bill MacIntosh, 66, Canadian Olympic sailor (1952). Matti Sippala, 89, Finnish athlete and Olympian (1932). Robin Skelton, 71, British-Canadian academic, writer, poet, and anthologist.