The following is a list of notable deaths in April 1980.
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 1980
1 S. A. Ayer, 81, Indian politician. Jack Bonnyman, 60, Australian footballer. Hope Collins, 75, Australian footballer. Ismayil Daghistanli, 73, Soviet Azerbaijani actor. Joseph Desfosses, 82, Canadian politician.DESFOSSES, Joseph Romeo Ambrose Flack, 78, American novelist. Concetto Gallo, 67, Italian politician and Sicilian nationalist activist. Kosuke Gomi, 58, Japanese novelist, lung cancer. Clementina D. Griffin, 93, American academic administrator. Sandy Gunn, 89, Scottish rugby player. Joyce Heron, 63, British actress. Hervé Morvan, 63, French painter. Oldwig von Natzmer, 75, German general. Corrado Schlaepfer, 57, Swiss Olympic fencer (1948). Christian Sole, 83, Norwegian politician. Bert Taylor, 79, Australian footballer. Knut Richard Thyberg, 83, Swedish diplomat.
2 Edmund Burns, 87, American actor. Dick Howorth, 70, English cricketer.Cricket ace dies Harold Johnson, 58, American astronomer, heart attack. Raymond Lantier, 93, French archaeologist. Art Lasky, 70, American boxer. Russell Paulson, 82, American politician, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1951–1955). Stanley Forman Reed, 95, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1938–1957).Ex-Justice Stanley Reed, 95, Dead; On Supreme Court From '38 to '57; Rail Seizure and Communists Declined Rights Appointment Louis B. Seltzer, 82, American journalist.LOUIS B. SELTZER, 82 RETIRED EDITOR, DIES; Led Successes at Cleveland Press and Was Called 'Mr. Cleveland' for Promoting Rebuilding George Wallach, 97, Scottish Olympic runner (1912).
3 Archie Benn, 83, Australian politician. Sir Hugh Boustead, 84, British diplomat. Herbert Bowman, 82, American tennis player, heart attack.Herbert L. Bowman Dies at 82; Won State Tennis Title 3 Times Delbert L. Bristol, 61, American soldier. Sir Edward Bullard, 72, British geophysicist.EDWARD BULLARD, GEOPHYSICIST, DEAD; Briton Pioneered Theory That the Continents Were Once Joined as Single Supercontinent Theory Widely Accepted Studied at Cambridge Isla Cameron, 53, British actress and singer, choked. Sir Douglas Campbell, 80, British general. Ulick Richardson Evans, 91, British chemist. Luella Gear, 82, American actress.Luella Gear Robert Lemaignen, 87, French politician. Bob Linton, 77, American baseball player. Mary McCarty, 56, American actress (Trapper John, M.D.).Character actress Mary McCarty, 56 Barry Metcalfe, 44, Australian footballer. Park In-deok, 83, South Korean writer and activist. Bob Trowbridge, 49, American baseball player, embolism.Trowbridge Dies At 49 Ella Watson, 97, American charwoman, subject of American Gothic (photograph).
4 Rita Romilly Benson, 79, American actress and acting teacher.Rita Romilly Benson Dead at 79; Actress Taught at Arts Academy Aleksander Ford, 71, Polish filmmaker, suicide. Roy Gordon, 81, Canadian chemist. Han Groenewegen, 91, Dutch architect. Maurice Gusman, 91, Russian-born American businessman and philanthropist.Maurice Gusman, 91, of Miami; Ukraine Emigre Built a Fortune; First Job at $3 a Week Ray Lawson, 93, Canadian politician, lieutenant governor of Ontario (1946–1952).Ray Lawson dies in Miami Marie-Thérèse Pinto, 85, Chilean sculptor active in Paris. Alice Orme Smith, 91, American landscape architect.Alice Orme Smith, 91, A Landscape Architect Red Sovine, 62, American country musician, traffic collision.Woodrow Wilson (Red) Sovine, Country Singer, Dies After Crash Władysław Tatarkiewicz, 94, Polish philosopher and historian. Robert Emmet Tracy, 70, American Roman Catholic prelate. Bell I. Wiley, 74, American historian.Bell I. Wiley Dead at 72; A Historian of Civil War
5 Alexander Belov, 56, Soviet soldier. Max Cetto, 77, German-Mexican architect. Antonio Gattorno, 76, Cuban-American painter. Breta Luther Griem, 82, American dietician.TV Nutritionist Dies Pavel Markov, 83, Soviet theatre critic. Wesley Oler, 88, American baseball player and Olympic athlete (1912). Georges Piot, 83, French Olympic rower (1924, 1928). Jocelyn Ryburn, 70, New Zealand philanthropist, fall. Bakri Sapalo, 84, Ethiopian linguist, developed the Oromo language writing system. Ruffy Silverstein, 66, American professional wrestler, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.RALPH SILVERSTEIN Dick Smith, 68, American football player. Roy Stewart, 78, American football coach, complications from surgery.Ex-coach, athletic chief Roy Stewart, 70, is dead Hans Vogel, 80, German helminthologist.
6 Antony Balch, 42, English filmmaker, stomach cancer. John Collier, 78, British author.JOHN COLLIER DEAD; SHORT STORY WRITER; Author, 78, Also Wrote Films and Novels Collaborated on 'The African Queen' Uncle Was a Writer Source of a Sondheim Musical Nils Ericson, 74, Swedish actor and singer. Barry Fisher, 46, Australian cricketer, suicide. Sir T. M. Knox, 79, British philosopher and academic administrator. Frank Saker, 72, Canadian Olympic canoeist (1936). Mahmoud Shaker, 53, Egyptian Air Force marshal, heart attack. Kustaa Vilkuna, 77, Finnish linguist and historian.
7 Malcolm Braly, 54, American author, traffic collision.MALCOLM BRALY, 50; WRITER ON PRISONS; Spent 20 Years in Institutions Author of 'On the Yard' and San Quentin Memoirs Talents Are Discovered Sir Lancelot Cutforth, 80, British general. Michel Delesalle, 72, French Olympic ice hockey player (1936). Sir Charles F. Goodeve, 76, Canadian chemist, complications from Parkinson's disease. Ricky Lancelotti, 35, American singer, drug overdose. Maria Michi, 58, Italian actress. Yuri Milonov, 84, Soviet political activist. Armando Miranda, 40, Brazilian footballer. Balkrishna Mohoni, 78, Indian cricketer. Paddy O'Connell, 91, Irish footballer. Jakob Rosenberg, 86, German-American art historian and curator.Jakob Rosenberg, 86, Authority On Works of Rembrandt, Dead; Joined Harvard Faculty Popular Undergraduate Teacher
8 Abdul Karim al-Shaikhly, 42, Iraqi politician and diplomat, assassinated. Wilhelm Arwe, 82, Swedish ice hockey player. Bill Eastman, 68, British soldier. Boy Edgar, 65, Dutch jazz musician, physician and humanitarian. Michael T. Gottlieb, 79, American bridge player.Michael Gottlieb, 79, a Bridge Star; An Early Culbertson Partner Fred Hartley, 74, Scottish pianist and composer. Alexis Nihon, 77, Belgian-born Canadian businessman.Services for Nihon held in Nassau Vincenzo Pinton, 66, Italian Olympic fencer (1936, 1948, 1952). Harry Williams, 81, English footballer. Kōjirō Yoshikawa, 76, Japanese sinologist.
9 Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, 45, Iraqi Islamic scholar, torture murder. Kathleen Burke, 66, American actress and model.Kathleen Burke dead at 66 Mieczysław Chmura, 46, Polish ice hockey player, embolism. A. G. Drachmann, 88, Danish historian and librarian. Finn Halse, 69, Norwegian novelist. Howard Harpster, 72, American football player and coach, cancer.Howard Harpster, 72; Football Star in College Arturo Matte, 86, Chilean politician. Ed Morgan, 75, American baseball player. Ichiro Nakayama, 81, Japanese economist.
10 Frank P. Culver Jr., 90, American jurist. Ernst Gottlieb, 87, Czechoslovak-Brazilian Olympic tennis player (1924). Byron F. Johnson, 85, American general. Kay Medford, 63, American actress (Funny Girl), cancer.KAY MEDFORD, 59, STAGE, FILM COMIC; Best Known for Roles as Mamma in 'Birdie' and 'Funny Girl' Corrado Pavolini, 82, Italian writer.Writer Dies Karl Hermann Pillney, 84, Austrian pianist and composer. Janis Rácenis, 65, Latvian-Venezuelan zoologist. Antonia White, 81, British novelist.
11 Maurice Blomme, 53, Belgian racing cyclist. Charley Borah, 74, American Olympic athlete (1928). Cousin Emmy, 77, American country musician. Ernie Collett, 65, English footballer, traffic collision. Sidney Dickinson, 89, American painter.Sidney Dickinson, 89; A Painter and Teacher Norman Hargreaves-Mawdsley, 58, British historian, heart attack.Deaths Charlotte Henry, 66, American actress (Alice in Wonderland, Babes in Toyland, Jungle Menace), cancer.Movies' First 'Alice' Dies Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, 44–45, Turkish journalist and television producer, shot. Florence Lake, 75, American actress. Sir Tom Macdonald, 81, New Zealand politician. Wayne McCall, 61, American politician, member of the Florida House of Representatives (since 1974), cancer.Colleagues mourn 'a man of rare wit' Einar Østvedt, 76, Norwegian historian. Nicholas Phipps, 66, British actor and screenwriter. Bruce Scharp, 74, Australian footballer. Ehtisham ul Haq Thanvi, 64, Pakistani Islamic scholar, heart attack. Jim Toohey Sr., 93, Australian footballer. József Tunyogi, 73, Hungarian Olympic wrestler (1932). Vernon S. Welch, 73, American politician, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives (1939–1954). Yakov Zarobyan, 71, Soviet Armenian politician.
12 Ruggero Bonomi, 82, Italian general. Stanley de Silva, 23, Sri Lankan cricketer, traffic collision. Maria Dietz, 86, German politician. Adolf Ehrecke, 80, German politician and Nazi official. Izydora Kosach-Borysova, 92, Soviet Ukrainian-American writer and agronomist. Louis Litif, 45, American bookmaker and drug trafficker, shot.LITIF Clark McConachy, 84, New Zealand billiards and snooker player.BILLIARDS GREAT DIES, 84 Toshio Mori, 70, American author. Mel Preibisch, 65, American baseball player. Arkady Severny, 41, Soviet singer, stroke. Bruce Shanks, 72, American editorial cartoonist.Artist Dies Al Sidorik, 60, American football player.SIDORIK William Tolbert, 66, Liberian politician, president (since 1971) and vice president (1952–1971), shot.Liberia's Tolbert reported ousted, slain by sergeant Manouchehr Vazifekhah, 39–40, Iranian interrogator, shot. Sonja Wigert, 66, Norwegian-Swedish actress and spy.
13 Frederick D. Alexander, 70, American politician and civil rights activist.Frederick D. Alexander, North Carolina Official Suroor Barabankvi, 61, Pakistani poet and lyricist, heart attack. Earl Brown, 79, American baseball player and politician.EARL BROWN IS DEAD; FORMER COUNCILMAN; Headed City's Human Rights Panel --Harlem Leader Had Been Reporter and Editor, Too A Frequent Maverick Played Semipro Baseball Cecil Arthur Butler, 77, Australian businessman. Frank Crowley, 70, American Olympic runner (1932).Frank Crowley Markus Höttinger, 23, Austrian racing driver, racing crash. Stan Huntington, 90, Australian footballer. Leslie William Leigh, 59, Sierra Leonean police officer and pilot, heart attack. Sir Arthur Massey, 86, British physician and author. Humphrey Procter-Gregg, 84, English composer. Harold E. Rosecrans, 83, American general.ROSECRANS, HAROLD E., Brig. Gen. USMC Ret. Karl Stegger, 67, Danish actor. Charles Edward Michael Terry, 82–83, Hong Kong businessman. Pepino Toledo, 60, Guatemalan footballer, traffic collision.Murio "Pepino" Toledo Oliver Vardy, 73, Canadian politician.Death frees Vardy of extradition
14 Shimon Dzigan, 74, Polish-Israeli comedian, heart attack.Jewish comic dies Tom Fadden, 85, American actor.Tom Fadden Ferenc Farkas de Kisbarnak, 87, Hungarian general and scouting leader. John McGrath, 52, Irish hurler. Raymond Munro Myers, 85, Canadian politician.Ontario Tory R. Myers Gianni Rodari, 59, Italian children's author, complications from surgery. Elisa Elvira Zuloaga, 79, Venezuelan painter and engraver.
15 Gerty Archimède, 70, Guadeloupean politician. Raymond Bailey, 75, American actor (The Beverly Hillbillies), heart attack.Actor Raymond Bailey dies at 75 Donald Elmer Black, 88, Canadian politician, MP (1935–1953). Sir Ian Campbell, 81, British naval admiral. Paul Langton, 66, American actor (Peyton Place). Marius Matheron, 86, French racing cyclist. Jimmy Moore, 91, English footballer. Pablo Olmedo, 51, Spanish footballer.