The following is a list of notable deaths in October 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.
October 2005
1 Román Torán Albero, 73, Spanish chess player. David Frederick Case, 73, British audiobook narrator, throat cancer. Bruce Chamberlain, 66, Australian politician. Tom Clyde, 82, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics). Robert Hanson, 85, American aviator, last-surviving crew-member of the "Memphis Belle". Peter Hubbard-Miles, 78, British politician. Herbert Huber, 74, German botanist. Paul Pena, 55, American blues guitarist and songwriter, complications of diabetes and pancreatitis.
2 Bud Black, 73, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers). Hamilton Camp, 70, British-American singer and actor (Heaven Can Wait, The Smurfs, DuckTales), heart attack. Pat Kelly, 61, American former Major League Baseball All-Star, heart attack. George Pargeter, 82, Canadian ice hockey player (Montreal Canadiens). Nipsey Russell, 80, American comedian, poet and actor, cancer. August Wilson, 60, American playwright (Fences, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson), liver cancer.
3 Erdal Barkay, 77, Turkish Olympic athlete (1948, 1952). Ronnie Barker, 76, British actor and writer (The Two Ronnies, Porridge, Open All Hours), heart failure. Seymour Boardman, 83, American artist. Emilinha Borba, 82, Brazilian singer and actress, heart attack. Betty Bryant, 85, British-Australian actress. Alastair G. W. Cameron, 80, Canadian-American astrophysicist and pioneer on Stellar nucleosynthesis, heart failure. David Cohen, 90, American politician, heart failure. Guillaume Dustan, 39, French writer, pulmonary embolism. Mario Encarnación, 30, Dominican baseball player (Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs). Nurettin Ersin, 86–87, Turkish army general. Henry Howard, 75, American politician, member of the Georgia House of Representatives. Chintamoni Kar, 90, British-Indian sculptor. Sara Levi-Tanai, 95, Israeli choreographer and song writer. André Riou, 87, French football player. Alfredo Rodríguez, 68, Cuban pianist from the 1960s to 2000s. Milton Lewis Schwartz, 85, American district judge (United States District Court for the Eastern District of California). Franco Scoglio, 64, Italian soccer trainer, heart attack. Roy Sleap, 65, English footballer and Olympian (1960). Bolesław Szadkowski, 60, Polish footballer. Alvin Wistert, 89, American gridiron football player (Michigan Wolverines). Jeff Young, 63, Welsh rugby union player, Alzheimer's disease.
4 Don Arioli, 69, American-Canadian actor and writer. John Falloon, 63, New Zealand politician, former New Zealand Cabinet minister, brain cancer. Mike Gibbins, 56, Welsh drummer (Badfinger), intracranial aneurysm. Stanley K. Hathaway, 81, American politician, Governor of Wyoming, (1967–1975), Secretary of the Interior (1975). Vakhtang Jordania, 62, Soviet and Georgian conductor, cancer. Harold Leventhal, 86, American folk music promoter. Lester Lockett, 93, American baseball player. Witold Majewski, 75, Polish footballer. Ronald Rivlin, 90, British-American physicist, mathematician, rheologist. William J. Ruane, 79, American philanthropist and financier, lung cancer. André Waterkeyn, 88, Belgian engineer and Olympic field hockey player (1948). Richard Zobel, 53, American actor, cancer.
5 Álvaro Domecq y Díez, 88, Spanish aristocrat. Shirley Ellis, 76, American soul music singer and songwriter. Horst Floth, 71, West German bobsledder and Olympic silver medalist (1968, 1972), cancer. George S. Hammond, 84, American scientist and theoretical chemist. Leopold Horner, 94, German chemist. John van Hengel, 83, American entrepreneur and food bank pioneer, Parkinson's disease.
6 Warren Benson, 81, American composer. Harry Bugin, 76, American actor (Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy). Ray Bumatai, 52, American comedian and actor (Rocket Power), brain cancer. Ettore Cunial, 99, Italian prelate, world's oldest Roman Catholic bishop. Louise Gore, 80, American Republican politician, cancer. Marta Grandi, 90, Italian entomologist.Obituaries Marta Grandi (1915–2005) Egil Solsvik, 89, Norwegian wrestler and Olympian (1948). John V. Wehausen, 92, American applied mathematician.
7 Devery Freeman, 92, American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and union activist. Roger A. Freeman, 77, British military aviation historian. Richard Stone Reeves, 85, American equestrian portraitist. Charles Rocket, 56, American actor and comedian (Saturday Night Live, Dumb and Dumber, Hocus Pocus), suicide. Jovan Soldatović, 84, Serbian and Yugoslav sculptor. Michael Ward, 80, English surgeon and an expedition doctor on the 1953 first ascent of Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary.
8 Tin Dekkers, 89, Dutch Olympic boxer (1936). Sonny Fisher, 73, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Alfred Goldie, 84, English mathematician. Erik Grønseth, 80, Norwegian sociologist. George Hislop, 78, Canadian gay activist, Parkinson's disease. Swede Larsen, 91, American baseball player (Boston Bees). Juan Malo, 83, Spanish Olympic sports shooter (1960). Harry Pitt, 91, British mathematician. Micaela Portilla, 83, Spanish anthropologist and historian.
9 Clóvis Bornay, 89, Brazilian carnival designer and museum curator, heart attack. Sergio Cervato, 76, Italian football player. Tom Cheek, 66, American sportscaster, longtime Toronto Blue Jays announcer, brain cancer. Serge Lancel, 77, French archaeologist, historian and philologist. Madurai N. Krishnan, 76, Indian musician.N. Krishnan passes away Billy Myles, 81, American R&B songwriter and singer. Louis Nye, 92, American comedian, lung cancer. Zora Singh, 77, Indian Olympic racewalker (1960).
10 Angelo Argea, 75, Greek longtime caddy for legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, liver cancer. Wayne C. Booth, 84, American professor, literary critic, and rhetorician, complications of dementia. Per Frantzen, 85, Norwegian footballer. Nick Hawkins, 40, English guitarist (Big Audio Dynamite), heart attack. Tomislav Krizmanić, 76, Croatian Olympic boxer (1952). Roland Kuhn, 93, Swiss psychiatrist. Gerd Lauck, 74, German footballer. Gene Lenz, 68, American swimmer and Olympian (1960). Apollo Milton Obote, 79, Ugandan political leader, president (1980-1985), kidney failure. Zecharia Ratzabi, 71, Israeli footballer. Attilâ İlhan, 80, Turkish poet and writer, heart attack.
11 Sergio Citti, 72, Italian screenwriter and film director, heart attack. Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, 87, Pakistani Urdu poet, writer, journalist, broadcaster, and lexicographer. Oscar Hold, 86, English football player and manager, bladder cancer. Jan Holden, 74, British actress (The Cheaters). Joseph Neri, 91, French cyclist. Arthur Seldon, 89, British libertarian economist. Edward Szczepanik, 90, Polish economist and last Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile. Cor Veldhoen, 66, Dutch soccer player (Feyenoord and national team). Aloysius John Wycislo, 97, American prelate, Bishop Emeritus of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
12 Zhang Bairen, 90, Chinese underground Roman Catholic bishop, heart disease. Robert Sidney Foster, 91, British colonial officer (Governor of Fiji). Frank Galbally, 82, Australian lawyer. Erwin Graf, 88, American basketball player. Ghazi Kanaan, 63, Syrian politician and Interior Minister, suicide by gunshot. Baker Knight, 72, American songwriter ("Lonesome Town"). Franco Manfroi, 66, Italian cross-country skier and Olympian (1964, 1968). Mike Naymick, 88, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals). C. Delores Tucker, 78, American politician and civil rights activist. Jack White, 63, American reporter.
13 Eevald Äärma, 93, Estonian pole vaulter and Olympian (1936). Mustapha Bettache, 74, Moroccan football player. Emile Capouya, 80, American publisher, author, and literary critic. István Eörsi, 74, Hungarian left-wing intellectual, leukemia. Vivian Malone Jones, 63, American civil rights pioneer, stroke. Theda Marshall, 81, American baseball player. Israel Sánchez, 76, Cuban Olympic wrestler (1948). Volker Tulzer, 65, Austrian Olympic middle-distance runner (1964). Wayne Weiler, 70, American racecar driver, heart attack. Marian Zieliński, 75, Polish weightlifter and Olympic medalist (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968).
14 Edmund Bacon, 95, American urban planner. Ian Breakwell, 62, British artist, cancer. Winifred Mary Curtis, 100, British-Australian botanist, author, and researcher. Oleg Lundstrem, 89, Russian jazz musician. Louis Polonia, 70, French footballer and Olympian (1960). Elda Pucci, 77, Italian politician and professor.
15 Leo Bogart, 84, American sociologist, babesiosis. Giuseppe Caprio, 90, Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Jason Collier, 28, American basketball player (Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks), heart arrhythmia. Earl Gardner, 82, American basketball player (Minneapolis Lakers). Ramón Gaya, 95, Spanish painter and writer. Penn Kemble, 64, American political activist, brain cancer. Alfred Obschernikat, 79, German Olympic water polo player (1956). Louis Pojman, 70, American philosopher and professor. Sundara Ramaswamy, 74, Indian novelist, poet, translator, and literary critic. Don Rowe, 69, American baseball player (New York Mets), and pitching coach, Parkinson's disease. Mildred Shay, 94, American actress. Raymond Tuckey, 95, English tennis player. Rik Van Nutter, 76, American actor, heart attack. Al Widmar, 80, American MLB pitcher and pitching coach, colon cancer. Matti Wuori, 60, Finnish advocate and politician, cancer.
16 Jean Bastia, 86, French film director, screenwriter and film producer. Jack Carpenter, 82, American football player (Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers). Elmer Dresslar Jr., 80, American voice actor and vocalist, voice of the Jolly Green Giant, cancer. Francesco Fortugno, 54, Italian politician, homicide. Ursula Howells, 83, British character actress (The Forsyte Saga). Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., 90, American history professor, expert on native american history. John Larch, 91, American character actor. José María Medina, 84, Uruguayan football player. Barrington Moore, Jr., 92, American sociologist. Børge Mortensen, 83, Danish Olympic cyclist (1948). David Reilly, 34, American musician (God Lives Underwater), accidental death.
17 Alfonso Bortolotti, 93, Italian sculptor. Tom Gill, 92, American comic book artist (The Lone Ranger).Tom Gill at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Archived November 4, 2010. Ba Jin, 100, Chinese writer, cancer and Parkinson's disease. Jean Lescure, 93, French poet. Antal Moldrich, 71, Hungarian Olympic modern pentathlete (1956). Donald Kofi Tucker, 67, American civil rights activist, complications of diabetes.
18 William Evan Allan, 106, Australian soldier, last Australian World War I veteran. Carlos António Gomes, 73, Portuguese goalkeeper with Sporting Lisbon and Portugal's national team, Parkinson's disease. Johnny Haynes, 71, English footballer, car accident. John Hollis, 77, British actor of TV and film. Stephen Katz, 59, American teacher and screenwriter, prostate cancer. Bill King, 78, American sports broadcaster, pulmonary embolism. Heini Nettesheim, 89, German Olympic wrestler (1936, 1952). Alexander Yakovlev, 81, Russian politician and architect of perestroika, stroke.
19 Bob Carpenter, 87, American baseball player (New York Giants, Chicago Cubs). Jim Morgan, 62, Australian rugby league footballer. Ron Mrozinski, 75, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies). Wolf Rilla, 85, German-British film director and writer. Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas, 80, Bolivian politician, President (1969), heart attack. Nguyen Van Toan, 73, South Vietnamese Lieutenant general in the ARVN.
20 Dan Anca, 58, Romanian footballer and manager. Jean-Michel Folon, 71, Belgian artist, leukemia.