The following is a list of notable deaths in April 2005.
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.
April 2005
1 Álvaro Alsogaray, 91, Argentinian politician and businessman, cancer. Philip Amelio, 27, American actor and teacher, bacterial infection. Lee Artoe, 88, American football player (Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Dons, Baltimore Colts). Paul Bomani, 80, Tanzanian politician and diplomat. Alexander Brott, 90, Canadian composer, conductor and violinist. Oswaldo Fadda, 84, Brazilian practitioner and developer of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, pneumonia. Harald Juhnke, 75, German entertainer. Jack Keller, 68, American songwriter, wrote themes to Bewitched and Gidget, leukemia. Thomas Kling, 47, German poet, lung cancer. Barry Stern, 45, American drummer (Trouble, Zoetrope), complications following surgery. Claes Turitz, 76, Swedish Olympic sailor (1960). Robert Coldwell Wood, 81, American political scientist and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, stomach cancer.
2 Jorge Brion, 71, Curaçaoan Olympic footballer (1952). Gérard Faucomprez, 60, French Olympic ice hockey player (1968). Trevor Foster, 90, Welsh rugby player. Nasri Maalouf, 94, Lebanese politician. Patricia McGee, 70, American politician and senator, pulmonary fibrosis. Philémon De Meersman, 90, Belgian cyclist. John O'Leary, 58, American politician, former U.S. ambassador to Chile, Lou Gehrig's disease. Pope John Paul II, 84, Polish Roman Catholic prelate, pope (since 1978), archbishop of Kraków (1964–1978), septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse. Jacques Poitrenaud, 82, French film director and actor. Jacques Rabemananjara, 91, Malagasy politician, playwright and poet.
3 Aleksy Antkiewicz, 81, Polish boxer and Olympic medalist (1948, 1952). Rick Blight, 49, Canadian ice hockey player (Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings), suicide. Frank Clair, 87, Canadian Football League coach (Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Rough Riders), heart failure. Tony Croatto, 65, Italian-born Puerto Rican composer-singer, lung and brain cancer. Jef Eygel, 72, Belgian basketball player and Olympian (1952). Kader Firoud, 85, Algerian-French football player and manager. François Gérin, 60, Canadian politician, member of the House of Commons of Canada (1984–1993). Walt McCormick, 78, American football player (Washington Huskies, USC Trojans, San Francisco 49ers).
4 Gordon Barton, 75, Australian businessman and political activist. Edward Bronfman, 77, Canadian businessman and philanthropist, colon cancer. Blanchette Brunoy, 89, French actress. Donald L. Kimball, 72, American politician and newspaper editor, member of the Iowa House of Representatives (1957–1961). Antonio Rivera, 41, Puerto Rican world champion boxer, asthma.
5 Manuel Ballester, 85, Spanish chemist. Saul Bellow, 89, Canadian-born American Nobel Prize-winning author. Robert Borg, 91, American military officer and Olympic equestrian (1948, 1952, 1956). Michel Fontaine, 71, French Olympic sports shooter (1972). Abdul Mannan, 75, Bangladesh politician, minister of Home Affairs (1972–1973). Dale Messick, 98, American creator of the Brenda Starr comic strip. Dragoljub Minić, 68, Yugoslav chess Grandmaster. Chung Nam-sik, 88, South Korean football player, manager, and Olympian (1948). Debralee Scott, 52, American actress (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Forever Fernwood, Police Academy), cirrhosis. Nils Svenwall, 86, Swedish art director. Neil Welliver, 75, American landscape painter, pneumonia.
6 Frank Conroy, 69, American author and memoirist, colorectal cancer. Anthony F. DePalma, 100, American orthopedic surgeon, teacher, and humanitarian. Károly Ecser, 73, Hungarian weightlifter and Olympian (1964). Francesco Laudadio, 55, Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. Bernd Lorenz, 57, German football player. Geoff Millman, 70, English cricketer. Rainier III, 81, Prince of Monaco since 1949, kidney failure. Gerard Peters, 84, Dutch track and road cyclist.
7 Cliff Allison, 73, British Formula One driver. Grigoris Bithikotsis, 82, Greek singer. Aleksandar Despić, 78, Serbian physicist and academic. Max von der Grün, 78, German novelist. Sydney Hudson, 94, British SOE agent and Olympic alpine skier (1936). Bob Kennedy, 84, American Major League Baseball player and manager. Haji Khanmammadov, 86, Azerbaijani and Soviet composer. Melih Kibar, 53, Turkish composer, skin cancer. Jose Melis, 85, Cuban-American former bandleader for The Tonight Show. Givi Nodia, 57, Soviet Georgian football player, heart attack. Yvonne Vera, 40, Zimbabwean novelist and writer, AIDS-related complications. Erna Woll, 88, German composer and church musician.
8 Altti Alarotu, 59, Finnish pole vaulter and Olympian (1968). Al Gettel, 87, American baseball pitcher. Maurice Lafont, 77, French football player. Eddie Miksis, 78, American baseball player. Yoshitarō Nomura, 85, Japanese film director, pneumonia. Douglas Northcott, 88, British mathematician (ideal theory). Onna White, 83, Canadian Broadway choreographer.
9 César Civita, 99, American-Argentine publisher. Andrea Dworkin, 58, American radical feminist writer and anti-pornography activist, myocarditis. Claude Greder, 71, French Olympic water polo player (1960). Anton Heyboer, 81, Dutch painter and printmaker. Scott Mason, 28, Australian cricketer, heart attack. Jerrel Wilson, 63, American football player (Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots), cancer.
10 Carl Abrahams, 93, Jamaican painter. Archbishop Iakovos of America, 93, Ottoman-American primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (1959–1996), pulmonary fibrosis. Norbert Brainin, 82, Austrian violinist and founder of the Amadeus Quartet. Frederick C. Branch, 82, first African-American officer of the United States Marine Corps. Horacio Casarín, 86, Mexican football player and coach, Alzheimer's disease.Murió el domingo Horacio Casarín Aatos Lehtonen, 91, Finnish footballer and Olympian (1936). Al Lucas, 26, American gridiron football player (Carolina Panthers), spinal cord injury suffered during game. Wally Tax, 57, Dutch singer and songwriter. Anatoly Trofimov, 64, Soviet and Russian KGB officer, homicide. Chen Yifei, 58, Chinese painter.
11 John Bennett, 75, British actor (Watership Down, The Pianist, Doctor Who). John Brosnan, 57, British writer and film critic, acute pancreatitis. Jerry Byrd, 85, American Lap steel guitarist, Parkinson's disease. Floyd Chance, 79, American session musician. Junior Delgado, 46, Jamaican reggae singer, famed for his roots style. André François, 89, French cartoonist. James Hamilton, 87, British politician. Maurice Hilleman, 85, American microbiologist. Harry Holmqvist, 97, Swedish Olympic middle-distance runner (1936). David Hughes, 74, British novelist. Ivan Komarov, 83, Soviet Ukrainian Olympic fencer (1952). Lucien Laurent, 97, French football player, scored the first ever goal at a FIFA World Cup, and Olympian (1928). Charles Mays, 64, American politician, athlete, and Olympian (1968). Mattie McDonagh, 68, Irish Gaelic footballer. Doug Peden, 88, Canadian basketball player and Olympic medalist (1936). George Younce, 75, American Southern Gospel singer.
12 Max Bumgardner, 81, American football player (Texas Longhorns, Detroit Lions). Rodolfo Gonzales, 76, Mexican boxer, poet, political organizer, and activist, kidney failure. Ehud Manor, 63, Israeli songwriter. Shahrokh Meskoob, 81, Iranian writer, translator, social critic, literary historian, and university professor, cancer. Georgi Pachedzhiev, 89, Bulgarian football manager. Barney Poole, 81, American football player. Dale Schroeder, 86, American carpenter and philanthropist. Cyril Sidlow, 89, Welsh football player. Gene Tapia, 80, American racing driver. Nelly Uchendu, 54/5, Nigerian musician, cancer.
13 Don Blasingame, 73, American baseball player and manager. Salvatore Camarata, 91, American musician and co-founder of Disneyland Records. Julia Darling, 48, English novelist and poet, breast cancer. Wolfgang Droege, 55, German-Canadian founder of white supremacist group the Heritage Front, shot. Hiroaki Fukushi, 54, Japanese baseball player. Kay Gardella, 82, American television critic for the New York Daily News, cancer. Bob Hoffman, 87, American football player (Washington Redskins, Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Dons). Johnnie Johnson, 80, American musician, pneumonia. Nikola Ljubičić, 89, Serbian general and politician, president of Serbia (1982–1984). Ede Mađar, 73, Serbian Olympic gymnast (1952). Vaikom Chandrasekharan Nair, 85, Indian writer and journalist. Henry Proctor, 75, American competition rower and Olympic champion (1952). Philippe Volter, 45, Belgian actor, suicide. Nathaniel Weyl, 94, American writer, economist who testified in the Alger Hiss case. Juan Zanotto, 69, Italian-Argentinian comic book artist.
14 Chet Aubuchon, 88, American basketball player (Michigan State Spartans). Benny Bailey, 79, American jazz trumpeter. Saunders Mac Lane, 95, American mathematician. Lothar Lindtner, 87, Norwegian actor. Gilberto Navarro, 75, Chilean Olympic sports shooter (1960, 1964). Ivailo Petrov, 82, Bulgarian writer. Richard Popkin, 81, American academic philosopher, pulmonary emphysema. Bernard Schultze, 89, German abstract painter.
15 Jimmy Allan, 73, Scottish cricketer. Al Baisi, 87, American football player (West Virginia Mountaineers, Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles). Martin Blumenson, 86, American military historian. Amjad Bobby, 63, Pakistani music composer and director. Peter Cargill, 41, Jamaican footballer, traffic collision. Art Cross, 87, American Indianapolis 500 racing driver. Jaime Fernández, 67, Mexican actor, heart attack. John Fred, 63, American pop singer, kidney disease. Ken Funston, 79, South African cricket player. John Hultberg, 83, American avant-garde painter. Carlos Muñoz, 86, Spanish actor. Ted Pavelec, 86, American football player (Detroit Lions). Margaretta Scott, 93, English actress ("Mrs. Pumphrey" in All Creatures Great and Small).
16 Alfredo Abrantes, 75, Portuguese footballer. Laura Canales, 50, American Tejano singer, pneumonia. Herm Gilliam, 58, American National Basketball Association player (Portland Trail Blazers), heart attack. Kim Mu-saeng, 62, South Korean actor, pneumonia. Marla Ruzicka, 28, American activist and aid worker, car bombing in Iraq. Volker Vogeler, 74, German film director and screenwriter. Kay Walsh, 93, British actress.
17 Hans Gruijters, 73, Dutch politician and journalist. James Archibald Houston, 83, Canadian author and artist. István Ilku, 72, Hungarian football goalkeeper. Lucien Masset, 90, French Olympic gymnast (1936, 1948). Vishnu Kant Shastri, 76, Indian politician, heart attack. Juan Pablo Torres, 58, Cuban trombonist, bandleader, and producer, brain tumor.
18 Claus Bjørn, 60, Danish author, historian, and television and radio broadcaster. Donald Bruce, Baron Bruce of Donington, 92, British politician and peer. Peter F. Flaherty, 80, American politician and attorney. Bassel Fleihan, 42, Lebanese deputy and minister, complications following bomb attack on Rafiq Hariri. Clarence "Big House" Gaines, 81, American Basketball Hall of Fame coach, stroke. Géza Hoffmann, 76, Hungarian Olympic wrestler (1952). Norberto Höfling, 80, Romanian football player and coach. Julien Meuris, 83, Belgian Olympic basketball player (1948, 1952). Sam Mills, 45, American former NFL player (New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers), and assistant coach, cancer. Fred Negus, 81, American football player (Chicago Rockets/Hornets, Chicago Bears). Norman D. Newell, 96, American paleontologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History. Kenneth Schermerhorn, 75, American music director and conductor, non-Hodgkin lymphoma.