The following is a list of notable deaths in May 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.
May 1997
1 Elena Altieri, 80, Italian actress. Tridib Chaudhuri, 85, Indian politician and Indian independence activist. Russell G. Cleary, 63, American brewer, complications from heart surgery. Friedl Däuber, 86, German alpine and cross-country skier and Olympian (1936). Fernand Dumont, 69, Canadian sociologist, philosopher, and theologian. Ralph Earhart, 74, American football player (Green Bay Packers). Jim McDonald, 81, American football player (Detroit Lions), and coach. Arthur Milne, 82, Scottish football player. Bo Widerberg, 66, Swedish actor and film director, stomach cancer.
2 Raymond Sarif Easmon, 84, Sierra Leonean doctor and writer. Sir John Eccles, 94, Australian neurophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Heinz Ellenberg, 83, German biologist, botanist and ecologist. Paulo Freire, 75, Brazilian educator and philosopher, heart attack. Walter Hill, 62, American serial killer, execution by electrocution. Robin Kinahan, 80, Northern Irish politician and Orange Order member. Werner Lott, 89, German U-boat commander during World War II. David Madson, 33, American LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist, shot. Ralph McCreath, 78, Canadian figure skater. Queen Mother Moore, 98, African-American civil rights leader and a black nationalist. Don O'Riley, 52, American baseball player (Kansas City Royals), shot. Keith R. Porter, 84, Canadian-American cell biologist, pneumonia. Eugene Vale, 81, American novelist. Jimmy Wilson, 77, American Negro league baseball player.
3 Bruce Beetham, 61, New Zealand academic and politician, heart failure. Gerrit den Braber, 68, Dutch songwriter and lyricist, stroke. Sébastien Enjolras, 21, French racing driver, racing accident. Hughie Green, 77, English presenter, game show host and actor, cancer. Sir John Junor, 78, British journalist and editor of the Daily Express. Louis, Prince Napoléon, 83, French member of the Bonaparte dynasty. Narciso Yepes, 69, Spanish guitarist, cancer.
4 Suhayr al-Qalamawi, 85, Egyptian literary figure and politician. Jerome Alden, 76, American playwright and screenwriter, kidney cancer. Egidio Armelloni, 87, Italian Olympic gymnast (1936, 1948). Wijeyananda Dahanayake, 94, Sri Lankan politician. Rudolf Edinger, 94, Austrian weightlifter and Olympian (1924). Esin Engin, 51, Turkish musician, composer, and film actor, leukemia. Hilary Grivich, 19, American gymnast and diver, traffic collision. Fernando Hernández, 52, Costa Rican footballer, cancer. Lee Miglin, 72, American businessman and philanthropist, stabbed. Alvy Moore, 75, American actor (Green Acres, The Littles, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind), heart failure. Lyman Bradford Smith, 92, American botanist. Lou Stathis, 44, American author, critic and editor, brain tumor. Butch Weis, 96, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs).
5 Giulio Balestrini, 89, Italian footballer.GIULIO BALESTRINI Bob Briggs, 52, American gridiron football player (San Diego Chargers, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs). Sir George Burns, 86, British Army officer. Walter Gotell, 73, German actor (From Russia with Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights), cancer. Alan Gussow, 65, American artist, author and conservationist, cancer. Dick Ives, 71, American college basketball player (Iowa Hawkeyes). Murray Kempton, 79, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, pancreatic cancer. David Scherman, 81, American photojournalist and editor, cancer. Jumpin' Joe Williams, 82, American football player (Cleveland Rams, Pittsburgh Pirates).
6 Ridge Bond, 74, American actor and singer. Sydney Joseph Freedberg, 82, American art historian and curator. Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, 76, Mexican actor, lung cancer. John Edwards Hill, 68, British mammalogist. Günther Jerschke, 75, German actor. Wang You, 86, Chinese biochemist.
7 John C. Ewers, 87, American ethnologist and museum curator. Yip Hon, 93, Chinese gambling tycoon, heart attack. George Lynch, 78, American race car driver. Tom Lysons, 62, Canadian politician.
8 Joachim Angermeyer, 73, German businessman and politician. Bijoy Chandra Bhagavati, 92, Indian politician. Ralph Wendell Burhoe, 85, American theologian. Scott Carpenter, 22, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection. Pat Hughes, 94, English tennis player. Bernhard Nooni, 88, Estonian football player. Clara Ottesen, 85, Norwegian government official, aid worker and politician. Nunzio Provenzano, 74, American mobster. William R. Royal, 92, American Air Force scuba diver. Michael Shersby, 64, British politician.Obituary: Sir Michael Shersby Patrick Cosgrove. The Independent. 9 May 1997, Retrieved 11 August 2020 Kai-Uwe von Hassel, 84, German politician, heart attack. Micheline Kerney Walsh, 77, Irish archivist and historian. Bob Whitcher, 80, American baseball player (Boston Braves).
9 Rawya Ateya, 71, Egyptian woman and first female parliamentarian in the Arab world. Augusto Céspedes Patzi, 93, Bolivian writer, politician, diplomat, and journalist. Bob Devaney, 82, American gridiron football coach, heart attack. Marco Ferreri, 68, Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, heart attack. Pierre Garsau, 35, Algerian-born French Olympic water polo player (1988, 1992). Willy Hess, 90, Swiss musicologist and composer. Hoke Howell, 67, American actor. Kazumi Kawai, 32, Japanese actress, suicide by jumping. Rina Lasnier, 81, Québécois poet. Marie-Thérèse Paquin, 91, Canadian pianist.Marie-Thérèse Paquin Paul Zastupnevich, 75, American costume designer.
10 Bernard Anderson, 77, American jazz trumpeter. Jacinto Quincoces, 91, Spanish football player, manager, and Olympian (1928). Silvano Tranquilli, 71, Italian actor. Joan Weston, 62, American Roller derby skater, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Orton Havergal Hicks, 96, veteran film industry executive and entrepreneur, founder & former president of Films, Inc. Prof Heng-tse TU, 84, former Head of the Department of Political Science and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Soochow University
11 William Ragsdale Cannon, 81, American theologian and bishop of the United Methodist Church. David Christie, 49, French singer-songwriter, suicide. Ernie Fields, 92, American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader. Markus Gähler, 31, Swiss Olympic ski jumper (1992). Genine Graham, 70, English actress. Dean M. Kelley, 70, American legal scholar, cancer. Catherine McLeod, 75, American actress. Howard Morton, 71, American actor, stroke. Vince Sherlock, 87, American baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers). Peter Stackpole, 83, American photographer.
12 Louis Barbarin, 94, American jazz drummer. Charles-Arthur Gauthier, 84, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1962-1980). Einar Gundersen, 81, Norwegian footballer. Jiří Pecka, 79, Czechoslovak slalom and sprint canoeist and Olympian (1948). Henk Plenter, 83, Dutch football player. Avraham Yitzchak Stern, 61, Israeli administrator and politician. Frank A. Wenstrom, 93, American politician. Eric Whiteside, 92, Indian Olympic sprinter (1936).
13 Olle Dahlberg, 68, Swedish Olympic speed skater (1956, 1960). Laurie Lee, 82, English poet, novelist and screenwriter, colorectal cancer. Carlos Augusto León, 82, Venezuelan poet, historian, politician and scientist. Tommy Turrentine, 69, American swing and hard bop trumpeter and composer. Zdeňka Veřmiřovská, 83, Czechoslovak/Czech gymnast and Olympian (1936, 1948). Eduard Zakharov, 22, Russian boxer and Olympian (1996), stabbed.
14 Jambyn Batmönkh, 71, Mongolian communist politician. Mel Bay, 84, American musician and music publisher. Harry Blackstone, Jr., 62, American magician and television performer, pancreatic cancer. Thelma Carpenter, 75, American jazz singer and actress, cardiac arrest. Bernie Constable, 76, English cricketer. Eddie Delker, 91, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies). Samuel Hoyt Elbert, 89, American linguist. Alan Furlan, 77, Italian-American actor. Morton Heilig, 70, American virtual reality technology pioneer and filmmaker. Boris Parsadanian, 72, Armenian-Estonian composer. Val Peat, 50, British sprinter and Olympian (1968). Bessie Schonberg, 90, German-American dancer and choreographer.
15 Oscar Berger, 96, American editorial cartoonist. Eric Dwyer, 79, Australian cricketer. David Martin, 89, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (1961-1974), pneumonia. Matylda Ossadnik, 80, Polish Olympic gymanst (1936). Trevor Porteous, 63, English football player and coach. Saadallah Wannous, Syrian playwright, cancer.
16 Donatien Mahele Lieko Bokungu, 56, Zairean general, execution by firing squad. Flor Crowley, 62, Irish Fianna Fáil politician. Giuseppe De Santis, 80, Italian film director (Bitter Rice), heart attack. Elbridge Durbrow, 93, American diplomat and ambassador, stroke. William McGregor, 47, Canadian Olympic judoka (1972). Bones McKinney, 78, American basketball player (Washington Capitols, Boston Celtics), and coach. Harry Charles Moore, 56, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection. Wang Zengqi, 77, Chinese writer.
17 Tusten Ackerman, 95, American basketball player. Mikhail Bychkov, 70, Soviet Russian ice hockey player and Olympian (1960). Chris Julian, 60, English motorcycle racer, gyrocopter accident. Durgabai Kamat, 117/118, first Indian female actress of Indian cinema. Roscoe L. Koontz, 74, American health physicist. Oskar Zeissner, 68, German Olympic cyclist (1952).
18 Bridgette Andersen, 21, American actress. Mikhail Anikushin, 79, Soviet and Russian sculptor. Horst Lippmann, 70, German concert promoter and jazz musician. Paolo Panelli, 71, Italian comedian and film actor, pulmonary edema. Antonio Cornejo Polar, 60, Peruvian academic and literature and cultural critic. Soenario, 94, Indonesian politician and Foreign Minister. Raymond Van Dijck, 62, Belgian Olympic pole vaulter (1960).
19 Aaron Henry, 74, American civil rights leader and politician, congestive heart failure. Sombhu Mitra, 81, Indian actor, director and playwright. René Nyman, 80, Finnish Olympic sailor (1936, 1948, 1952, 1960). Troy Ruttman, 67, American race car driver, lung cancer. Pāvels Seņičevs, 72, Soviet Latvian Olympic sports shooter (1964, 1968).
20 Joe Allen, 49, American college basketball player (Bradley Braves). Alex Friedmann, 78, Danish footballer. Eduardo Jardón, 82, Spanish Olympic field hockey player (1948). Don Parker, 88, British racing driver. John Rawlins, 94, American film editor and director. Wakafutase Tadayuki, 55, Japanese sumo wrestler. Virgilio Barco Vargas, 75, Colombian politician, cancer. Gopal Yonjan, 53, Nepalese musician, complications of jaundice.
21 Ron Allan, 73, Australian rules footballer. William Aston, 80, Australian politician. Amasa Stone Bishop, 76, American nuclear physicist, pneumonia. Noël Browne, 81, Irish politician. Fiorenzo Carpi, 78, Italian composer and pianist. Piper Davis, 79, American baseball player.
22 Myrtle Bachelder, 89, American chemist and Women's Army Corps officer. Alziro Bergonzo, 90, Italian architect and painter. Donald Curtis, 82, American actor. Herman de Coninck, 53, Belgian poet, essayist, journalist and publisher, heart attack. Genildo Ferreira de França, Brazilian spree killer, suicide by gunshot.Rampage leaves 16 dead, Telegraph Herald (May 24, 1997). Retrieved 16 August 2020 Jimmy Heale, 82, English footballer. Alfred Hershey, 88, American biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, heart failure. Raúl Gómez Jattin, 51, Colombian poet. Arthur Milne, 82, Scottish football player. Renzo Montagnani, 66, Italian actor, lung cancer.