The following is a list of notable deaths in July 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.
July 1997
1 Lester Asheim, 83, American librarian and scholar of library science. Annie Fratellini, 64, French circus artist, film actress and clown, cancer. Joshua Hassan, 81, Gibraltarian politician and Chief Minister of Gibraltar. David Martin, 81, Australian novelist, poet, playwright, journalist, and reviewer and lecturer. Harold McQueen, Jr., 44, American convicted murderer, execution by electric chair. Robert Mitchum, 79, American actor (The Story of G.I. Joe, Cape Fear, The Night of the Hunter), complications from lung cancer and emphysema. Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 88, Iranian University professor. Gerhard Wiltfang, 51, German equestrian and Olympic champion (1972).
2 George Antonio, 82, English footballer. Chiquito, 65, Filipino actor and comedian, liver cancer. Flint Gregory Hunt, 38, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection. Dee Moore, 83, American Major League Baseball player (Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies). James Stewart, 89, American actor (It's a Wonderful Life, Rear Window, Vertigo), Oscar winner (1941), heart attack as a result of pulmonary embolism.
3 Johnny Copeland, 60, American blues guitarist and singer, complications during heart surgery. Gloster B. Current, 84, American NAACP activist, leukemia and pneumonia. Natalia Dumitresco, 81, French-Romanian abstract painter. Rufe Gentry, 79, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers). Michael James MacDonald, 87, Canadian politician and union leader. Thomas Sgovio, 80, American artist and Soviet Union Gulag inmate. Stanley Stanczyk, 72, American weightlifter and Olympian (1948, 1952).
4 William Cadogan, 7th Earl Cadogan, British peer and military officer. Bengt Danielsson, 75, Swedish anthropologist, writer, and a crew member on the Kon-Tiki raft expedition. Bob David, 76, American football player (Los Angeles Rams, Chicago Rockets). Charles Kuralt, 62, American journalist, complications from lupus. Slobodan Mišković, 52, Serbian handball coach, player and Olympian (1972). Miguel Najdorf, 87, Polish-Argentinian chess grandmaster. Amado Carrillo Palomino, 40, Mexican drug lord, complications during cosmetic surgery. Bevis Reid, 78, British track and field athlete and Olympian (1948). Eddie Smith, 70, Australian racing cyclist. John Zachary Young, 90, English zoologist and neurophysiologist.
5 Bob Dees, 67, American gridiron football player (Green Bay Packers). Jean-Marie Domenach, 75, French writer and intellectual. Kainoyama Isamu, 57, Japanese sumo wrestler. Mrs. Miller, 89, American singer. Les Norman, 83, Australian politician. Herm Schuessler, 82, American basketball player. Arunasalam Thangathurai, 61, Sri Lankan Tamil politician.
6 Chetan Anand, 76, Indian Hindi film producer, screenwriter and director. Gabriel Asaad, 90, Turkish-Swedish Assyrian composer and musician. Gabriel Berthomieu, 73, French rugby player. Dorothy Buffum Chandler, 96, American cultural leader. Helmi Abou El-Maati, Egyptian Olympic footballer (1948). Stanisław Horno-Popławski, 94, Russian-Polish painter, sculptor and pedagogue. Gene James, 72, American basketball player (New York Knicks, Baltimore Bullets). Jim MacBeth, 83, Australian rules footballer. Brun Smith, 75, New Zealand cricket player.
7 Mate Boban, 57, Bosnian Croat politician and the only president of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, stroke. Alfons De Winter, 88, Belgian football player. Jerry Doggett, 80, American sportscaster. Raffaele Dolfato, 34, Italian rugby player and entrepreneur, traffic collision. Sven Håkansson, 87, Swedish Olympic long-distance runner (1948). Henry Howell, 76, American politician, cancer. Jean Luciano, 76, French football player and manager. Jeep McClain, 75, American baseball player. Oku Mumeo, 101, Japanese politician and feminist. Luis Aguirre Pinto, 89, Chilean composer, folk musician and folklorist. Royston Tickner, 74, British actor. Rolando Tinio, 60, Filipino poet, dramatist, actor, and essayist. Erik Zetterström, 92, Swedish writer and playwright.
8 Charles L. Drake, 73, American geologist, heart failure. Dick van Dijk, 51, Dutch football player (FC Twente, Ajax Amsterdam), acute endocarditis. Georges Gay, 71, French racing cyclist. Guy Murchie, 90, American author and aviator. Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, 81, Bangladeshi jurist and statesman. Charles P. B. Taylor, 65, Canadian journalist, author, and thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder, cancer. Tony Thomas, 69, British-American film historian, author, and producer, pneumonia. Max E. Youngstein, 84, American film producer.
9 Carol Forman, 79, American actress. Aurelio González, 91, Paraguayan football player. Walter Korn, 89, Czech-American writer of books and magazine articles about chess. John Little, 50, American football player (New York Jets, Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills). André Meyer, 77, French Olympic field hockey player (1948, 1952). Georgeta Năpăruș, 66, Romanian modernist painter. David Pitblado, British principal private secretary to successive Prime Ministers. Stan Rojek, 78, American baseball player. Marianne Schönauer, 77, Austrian actress.
10 Ivor Allchurch, 67, Welsh football player. Bernard Elgood, 75, English cricketer and British Army officer. Dwight Lowry, 39, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins), heart attack. Abe Okpik, 69, Canadian Inuit community leader. Frank R. Parker, 57, American civil rights lawyer and activist, complications from an aortic aneurysm.
11 Felix Barker, 80, British drama critic and historian. Fred Beavis, 82, Canadian politician, pneumonia. Jack Carr, 83, Australian rules footballer. Percy Chivers, 88, Australian cricketer. Nina Bencich Woodside, 66, American public health official and college professor, plane crash. Joe Hauser, 98, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians). Edward Lasker, 85, American businessman and thoroughbred racehorse owner. Keshav Mangave, 71, Indian Olympic wrestler (1952). Alfred Mellows, 75, English rower and Olympic medalist (1948). Jock Sturrock, 82, Australian yachtsman and Olympian (1948, 1952, 1956, 1960) . Robert V. Whitlow, 78, American military officer, football coach, and sports club executive.
12 Pietro Buscaglia, 86, Italian football player. Meribeth E. Cameron, 92, American historian of China and academic. Blas Chumacero, 92, Mexican trade union leader. François Furet, 70, French historian, head injury while playing tennis, heart failure. Douglas Huebler, 72, American conceptual artist. Steve Karrys, 73, Canadian football player. Vinko Nikolić, 85, Croatian writer, poet and journalist. Frank Shuter, 54, New Zealand speedway rider, traffic collision. Jean Varenne, 71, French indologist. Miroslav Wiecek, 65, Czech football player.
13 Garfield Barwick, 94, Australian politician, lawyer, and Chief Justice of Australia. Miguel Ángel Blanco, 29, Spanish politician and ETA victim, executed. Alexandra Danilova, 93, Russian-American prima ballerina. Rosy Gibb, 54, Irish social worker, clown, and magician, cancer. Ekaterina Kalinchuk, 74, Soviet gymnast and Olympic champion (1952). Kurt Land, 84, Austrian-Argentine film director. Edi Rada, 74, Austrian figure skater and Olympic medalist (1948). Alf Tveten, 84, Norwegian Olympic sailor (1936).
14 Eddie Finnigan, 84, Canadian ice hockey player (St. Louis Eagles, Boston Bruins). Eugene Goossen, 76, American art critic and art historian, pneumonia. Joseph F. Holt, 73, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1953-1961). Alfredo Mury, 88, Guatemalan Olympic sports shooter (1952). Isaac Nicola, Cuban guitarist. George Rogge, 89, American football player (Chicago Cardinals). Polly Shackleton, 87, American politician. Hilda Watson, 75, Canadian politician.
15 Gordie Bruce, 78, Canadian ice hockey player (Boston Bruins). Alan J. Charig, 70, English palaeontologist, stroke. Dick Chorovich, 64, American gridiron football player (Baltimore Colts, Los Angeles Chargers). Cheryl Glass, 35, American racing driver, suicide by jumping. Eve Greene, 91, American screenwriter. Rosamund Greenwood, 90, British actress. Justinas Lagunavičius, 72, Soviet Lithuanian basketball player and Olympian (1952). Stefan Marinov, 66, Bulgarian physicist, suicide by jumping. László Tharnói-Kostyál, 85, Hungarian writer. John Tripson, 77, American football player (Detroit Lions). Gianni Versace, 50, Italian fashion designer and founder of the Versace fashion house, shot.
16 Ron Berry, 77, Welsh author and novelist. Rube Fischer, 80, American baseball player (New York Giants). Dora Maar, 89, French photographer, painter, and poet. William H. Reynolds, 87, American film editor (The Godfather, The Sound of Music, The Sting), Oscar winner (1966, 1974), cancer. Franciszek Sulik, 88-89, Polish-Australian chess master.
17 Bianco Bianchi, 80, Italian Olympic cyclist (1936). Don Bingham, 67, American gridiron football player (Chicago Bears). R. Krishnan, 87, Indian film director. Thomas Mellon Evans, 86, American financier, complications following a fall. Arthur Jepson, 82, English cricket player. Hugo Gunckel Lüer, 95, Chilean pharmacist and botanist. Bob Mitchell, 75, American football player (Los Angeles Dons). Dave Peterson, 66, American ice hockey coach Birgitte Price, 63, Danish actress. Gene Warren, 80, American visual effects artist (The Time Machine) and television producer (Land of the Lost), Oscar winner (1961), cancer. Robert C. Weaver, 89, American economist and academic.
18 André Drobecq, 96, French racing cyclist. Léon Gaultier, 82, French nazi collaborator during World War II and founding member of Front National. James Goldsmith, 64, Anglo-French financier, tycoon, and politician, pancreatic cancer. Igor Linchevski, Russian botanist. Angelo Polledri, 93, Italian rower and Olympian (1928). Oddvar Richardsen, 60, Norwegian football player and manager. Eugene Merle Shoemaker, 69, American geologist and planetary science pioneer, traffic collision.Malcolm W. Browne, Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, 69; Set Record for Finding Comets, New York Times (July 19, 1997), Retrieved 1 August 2020. Harold Spina, 91, American composer of popular songs. Gregorio Weber, 81, Argentinian biochemist.
19 Basil Bretherton, 80, Australian rules footballer. Frank Farrell, 50, British rock musician (Supertramp). Roy Finlayson, 88, Australian rules footballer. Hec Gervais, 63, Canadian curler. John E. Hines, 86, American Episcopal Church bishop. Harry Jones, 85, Australian rules footballer. Jim Peebles, 76, American football player (Washington Redskins). Tugolbay Sydykbekov, 85, Kyrgyzstani writer. James Goldsmith, 64, leader of the Referendum Party.
20 Puneet Nath Datt, 24, Indian Army officer, killed in action. Alf Engen, 88, Norwegian-American skier. Ed Klewicki, 85, American football player (Detroit Lions). M. E. H. Maharoof, 58, Sri Lankan politician, gunshot wounds. Drummond Matthews, 66, British marine geologist and geophysicist. Cliff McWatt, 75, West Indian cricketer. Eric Charles Milner, 69, Canadian mathematician. Arshi Pipa, 76, Albanian-American philosopher, writer and poet. Linda Stirling, 75, American showgirl, model, and actress, cancer.
21 Sjaak Alberts, 71, Dutch football player and Olympian (1952). Tony Alvarez, 40, Spanish Australian actor and singer, AIDS-related cancer. Paul K. Benedict, 85, American anthropologist and linguist, traffic collision. Roger Bowman, 69, American baseball player (New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates). Ellis V. Eichman, 84, American aircraft designer, plane crash.Veteran flier dies while testing airplane Růžena Grebeníčková, 71, Czech literary historian and theorist.