Deaths in May 1980

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The following is a list of notable deaths in May 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.

May 1980

1

Henry Levin, 70, American film director (Journey to the Center of the Earth), heart attack.
Dave MacKay, 61, Canadian ice hockey player, respiratory failure.
Gene Markey, 84, American screenwriter and naval admiral.^[1]
Fred Ormskerk, 57, Surinamese soldier, torture murder.
Ōuchi Hyōei, 91, Japanese economist and academic administrator.
Johann Pscheidt, 90, Austrian building contractor and humanitarian.
Shoba, 17, Indian actress, suicide by hanging.^[2]
Sir Bruce Small, 84, Australian politician and businessman, cancer.^[3]
George Tully, 76, American football player.
George Woodend, 62, American baseball player.

2

Théophile Alajouanine, 89, French neurologist.
John Brewer, 74, American football player.
Ben Mark Cherrington, 94, American academic administrator.^[4]
John Henry Cook, 77, Canadian politician.
Alioune Diop, 70, Senegalese writer and editor.
Clarrie Grimmett, 88, New Zealand-born Australian cricketer.^[5]
Mihkel Lepper, 80, Estonian actor.
Sir Jocelyn Lucas, 90, British politician, MP (1939–1966).
André-Marie Mbida, 65, Cameroonian politician.
Cecile O'Rahilly, 85, Irish linguist.
George Pal, 72, Hungarian-American animator (Puppetoons) and film director, heart attack.^[6]
Alfred Lionel Rose, 82, Australian politician, veterinarian and soldier.^[7]
Ragnvald Thunestvedt, 54, Danish Olympic racewalker (1952).
Herbert Westmacott, 28, British soldier, shot.
Julie Winterová-Mezerová, 87, Czech painter.

3

Ted D. Clark, 59, American politician, member of the Iowa House of Representatives (1949–1953) and Senate (1953–1957).
George P. Elliott, 61, American poet, novelist and essayist, heart attack.^[8]
Mark Gosling, 93, English-Australian painter and politician.^[9]
Wayne B. Hales, 86, American physicist and academic administrator.^[10]
Fatah Jasin, 64, Indonesian politician.

4

Emanuele Basile, 30, Italian police officer, shot.^[11]
Siegfried Böhm, 51, East German politician, shot.
Jaime Duque, 48, Colombian Olympic fencer (1960).
Franz Götz, 67, German flying ace.
Kay Hammond, 71, English actress.^[12]
Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, 60, Scottish pianist and composer, heart attack.^[13]
Fernando Hurtado Echenique, 77, Chilean politician.
Anant Kanekar, 74, Indian writer.
Bert Rogers, 63, Australian footballer.
Josip Broz Tito, 87, Yugoslav politician, prime minister (1943–1963) and president (since 1953).^[14]
Tadeusz Waśko, 57, Polish footballer.
Reginald Westwood, 72, New Zealand cricketer.

5

Henri Grenier, 80, Canadian Roman Catholic priest and theologian.
Arvo Haanpää, 81, Finnish Olympic equestrian (1948).
Aage Marius Hansen, 89, Danish Olympic gymnast (1912).
Sir Archibald James, 86, British politician, MP (1931–1945).
Kanhaiya Lal Kapoor, 69, Indian satirist and writer, cardiac arrest.
Leonard Woods Labaree, 82, American historian and documentary editor.^[15]
Betty May, 85, British singer, dancer and model, heart attack.
Isabel Briggs Myers, 82, American writer and pseudoscientist (Myers–Briggs Type Indicator).^[16]
Carl Pfeufer, 69, American comic book artist.
Harry Ramoutar, 35, Trinidadian cricketer.
Frank Scully, 80, Australian footballer.
Homer Stryker, 85, American orthopedic surgeon and businessman (Stryker Corporation).^[17]
Les Wade, 71, Canadian Olympic runner (1932).
Stewart Way, 69, American basketball coach.^[18]

6

María Luisa Bombal, 69, Chilean novelist (The Shrouded Woman), gastrointestinal bleeding.^[19]
Lola Cornero, 88, Dutch actress.
Anne Dalgarno, 70, English-born Australian politician and community leader.
Alan Dower, 82, British politician, MP (1931–1950).
Andrew Durant, 25, Australian musician and songwriter, cancer.
Herb Hollyman, 40, American football coach.
Glenn Holtzman, 49, American football player, heart attack.^[20]
Adele Kern, 78, German opera singer.
Frank Kirkleski, 75, American football player and coach.
Arthur Levitt Sr., 79, American lawyer and politician, heart attack.^[21]
Henning Müller, 83, Swedish tennis player.
Ayinla Omowura, 47, Nigerian musician, bludgeoned.
Frank H. Ono, 56, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient.
Bryn Phillips, 79, Welsh rugby player.
Arnold Sorsby, 79, Polish-British ophthalmologist.
Hank Sweeney, 64, American baseball player.
William Warbey, 76, British politician, MP (1945–1950, 1953–1966).

7

Sigval Bergesen the Younger, 87, Norwegian shipping magnate.^[22]
Federico Cafiero, 65, Italian mathematician.
Dame Margaret Cole, 87, English writer, poet and politician.
Neil Farren, 87, Irish Roman Catholic prelate and educator.
Johnny Hunter, 54, Australian rugby player.
Aoua Kéita, 67, Malian writer and politician.
Steve Maronic, 62, American football player.
William Parrington, 90, English cricketer.
Risto Solanko, 78, Finnish diplomat.
Claude Treglown, 87, English cricketer.

8

Sir Geoffrey Baker, 67, British army marshal.
Ricardo Calo, 61, Spanish footballer.
Jimmy Connor, 70, Scottish footballer.
Sam Coon, 77, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1953–1957).^[23]
Luigi Fenaroli, 80, Italian botanist.
John L. Head, 64, American basketball coach.
Chieko Higashiyama, 89, Japanese actress.
Charles Edward Hubbard, 79, British botanist.
Yitzhak Kanev, 83–84, Russian-Israeli politician, MK (1950–1951).
Henry Laurence Lindo, 68, Jamaican civil servant.
Pierre Marchand, 31, French Olympic fencer (1972).
Norman Mingo, 84, American commercial artist and illustrator (Mad).^[24]
Farrokhroo Parsa, 58, Iranian politician, execution by firing squad.
Perdigão Queiroga, 63, Portuguese filmmaker, traffic collision.
Oswold Stephens, 83, New Zealand potter and chemist.
Mayilai Seeni. Venkatasami, 79, Indian historian and writer.
Fred Wigington, 82, American baseball player.

9

Fernand Chevalier, 81, French politician.
Rolf Hansen, 73, Norwegian Olympic runner (1936).
Prince Himalaya of Nepal, 58, Nepali royal.
Øivind Lorentzen, 97, Norwegian shipping magnate.^[25]
James Alexander George Smith McCartney, 34, Turks and Caicos politician, plane crash.^[26]
Kate Molale, 52, South African political activist, traffic collision.
Pearl Farmer Richardson, 88, American peace activist.
James Webb, 34, Scottish historian, suicide.

10

Hans Bohn, 88, German typographer.
Henri Crémieux, 83, French actor.
Emiel Faignaert, 61, Belgian racing cyclist.
Jack Flaherty, 71, British Olympic gymnast (1948).
William Albert Flick, 90, Australian bacteriologist.^[27]
Adele Ginzberg, 93, German-American writer and Jewish activist.^[28]
Yoshie Katsurada, 68, Japanese mathematician.
Kálmán Konrád, 83, Hungarian footballer.
Frank Lynch, 71, British trade unionist and politician.
Reba Monness, 69, American table tennis player.
Leslie Peltier, 80, American astronomer.
Jan Pivec, 72, Czech actor.
Nadas Rastenis, 89, Lithuanian-American poet and translator.
Sir Victor Seely, 79, British hereditary peer.

11

John Beecher, 76, American poet and journalist, lung disease.^[29]
Howard Mumford Jones, 88, American historian and literary critic.^[30]
Kaarlo Mäkinen, 87, Finnish Olympic wrestler (1920, 1924, 1928).
Zareh Mutafian, 73, Armenian-French painter.
Przemysław Ogrodziński, 62, Polish diplomat.
Henry Knox Sherrill, 89, American Episcopal prelate.^[31]
Daniel John Snyder Jr., 64, American jurist, heart attack.^[32]
Fernando Soto, 69, Mexican actor and comedian.^[33]
Jesse Addison Udall, 86, American jurist and politician, member of the Arizona House of Representatives (1931–1938).^[34]
Dyre Vaa, 77, Norwegian sculptor and painter.
Gheza Vida, 67, Hungarian-Romanian sculptor.

12

Ulbo de Sitter, 78, Dutch geologist.
Bette Nesmith Graham, 56, American businesswoman (Liquid Paper) and philanthropist, complications from a stroke.^[35]
Päiviö Hetemäki, 66, Finnish politician, MP (1945–1962).
Sheikh Mukhtar, 65, Indian-Pakistani actor.
William A. Robson, 84, British academic and public administration scholar.
Lillian Roth, 69, American actress and singer.^[36]
Miki Sawada, 78, Japanese social worker.^[37]
Tadahiko Shimazu, 80, Japanese politician.

13

Elliott Arnold, 67, American author, journalist and screenwriter.^[38]
Marc Büchler, 50–51, Swiss Olympic equestrian (1956).
Maruxa Fandiño Ricart, 82, Spanish anarchist activist.
Fumio Gotō, 96, Japanese politician, acting prime minister (1936).
Gerard Leembruggen, 83, Dutch tennis player.
Francisco Otayza, 65, Peruvian Olympic sports shooter (1956).
Freeman Tilden, 96, American writer.^[39]
Otto Umbehr, 78, German photojournalist.

14

Elma Bulla, 66, Hungarian actress.
Dick Cassiano, 62, American football player.^[40]
Carl Ebert, 93, German actor and stage director.^[41]
Fatmawati, 57, Indonesian socialite, first lady (1945–1967), heart attack.^[42]
Hugh Griffith, 67, Welsh actor (Ben-Hur, Tom Jones, Oliver!).^[43]
Hilda Jerea, 64, Romanian pianist and composer.
Christine Longford, 79, British playwright.
Hans Rösch, 65, West German Olympic bobsledder (1956).
Sir Norman Rydge, 79, Australian businessman.^[44]
Sigrid Schultz, 87, American journalist and war correspondent.^[45]
Subrantas Siswanto, 57, Indonesian politician, liver cancer.
Wilhelm Weismann, 79, German composer and musicologist.

15

Len Allum, 72, English footballer.
Alfred Aslett, 79, English rugby player.
Lela Bliss, 84, American actress.^[46]
Andrea Borgnis, 50, Italian Olympic weightlifter (1960).
John Somers Dines, 94, English meteorologist.
Wilhelmus Doll, 79, Dutch Olympic wrestler (1924).
Jóhann Hafstein, 64, Icelandic politician, prime minister (1970–1971).
Donald D. Lorenzen, 60, American politician.
Len Lye, 78, New Zealand sculptor and experimental filmmaker, leukemia.^[47]
Milton Parsons, 75, American actor.
Gordon Prange, 69, American historian and writer, cancer.^[48]
Marion Frederic Ramírez de Arellano, 66, American submarine commander.
Gordon E. Sawyer, 74, American sound director (West Side Story).
Umberto Scarpelli, 75, Italian filmmaker.
Ian Scott, 65, British Olympic racing cyclist (1948).

16

Izis Bidermanas, 69, Lithuanian-French photographer.
José Calvo, 64, Spanish actor.
Hermann Flade, 47, German political scientist.
Alexander Gray, 83, British RAF marshal.
Roger Kent, 73, American politician.^[49]
Fredrik Lange-Nielsen, 89, Norwegian mathematician and insurance executive.
Alfred Lif, 72, Swedish skier.
Kent Mackenzie, 50, English-American filmmaker (The Exiles).^[50]
Cap Peterson, 37, American baseball player, kidney disease.^[51]
Marin Preda, 57, Romanian novelist and publisher, alcohol poisoning.
Joël Scherk, 33, French theoretical physicist, complications from diabetes.
Robert Allan Smith, 71, British mathematician and physicist.
Hazel M. Walker, 91, American jurist.
Cornett Wood, 74, American animator.

17

Suzanne Amblard, 83, French tennis player.
Elmer Belt, 87, American urologist.^[52]
Leo A. Berg, 72, American politician.
Ernst Blum, 76, German footballer.
Erling Brene, 83, Danish composer.
Roger Close-Brooks, 73, English rower.
Harold Connolly, 78, Canadian politician and journalist.^[53]
Amos du Plooy, 58, South African rugby player.
Tom Dwan, 90, Irish hurler.
Harald Juell, 86, Norwegian diplomat.
Gündüz Kılıç, 61, Turkish football player and manager.
Olga Lakela, 90, Finnish-American botanist.^[54]
Lippy Lipshitz, 77, Russian-born South African artist.
George Mahaffy, 56, American stock car racing driver.
Myrtle McGrain, 96, American actress and model.
Thore Michelsen, 92, Norwegian Olympic rower (1920).
Oala Oala-Rarua, 45, Papua New Guinean politician and diplomat, stroke.^[55]
C. C. Roberts, 79, British businessman.
Duncan Thompson, 85, Australian rugby player, coach and executive.^[56]
Byron F. Wackett, 68, American politician, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1953–1976).
Ernst Wiemann, 60, German opera singer.

18

Semyon Chuykov, 77, Soviet artist.
Ian Curtis, 23, English musician (Joy Division), suicide by hanging.
Robert J. Dunne, 80, American football player and coach and jurist.
Roman Jańczyk, 77, Polish footballer.
Walter Kohut, 52, Austrian actor.
Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, 94, American guitarist and astrologer.
Bert Papworth, 81, British trade unionist.
Antonín Svoboda, 72, Czech computer scientist.
Notable victims of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens:
- Reid Blackburn, 27, American photojournalist.^[57]
- David A. Johnston, 30, American volcanologist.^[57]
- Robert Landsburg, 48, American photographer.^[58]
- Harry R. Truman, 83, American businessman.^[59]

19

Richard Bott, 79, English Olympic skeleton racer (1948).
Ros Bower, 57, Australian writer and television producer, cancer.^[60]
Ragnar Gustavsson, 72, Swedish footballer.
Mario Héber Usher, 58–59, Uruguayan politician and diplomat.
Janet Hitchman, 63, British writer.
Hiroya Ino, 88, Japanese politician.
Sir Christopher Peto, 83, British soldier and politician, MP (1945–1955).
Tapishwar Narain Raina, 59, Indian general and diplomat.
Ray Rennahan, 84, American cinematographer.
Joseph Schull, 74, Canadian playwright, screenwriter and historian, leukemia.^[61]
Fay Stender, 48, American lawyer, suicide.^[62]

20

Alf Bauman, 60, American football player, heart failure.
James W. Huffman, 85, American politician and lawyer, member of the U.S. Senate (1945–1946).^[63]
Gaus Khan, 71, Bangladeshi politician.
Valentine Lentz, 82, American basketball coach.
Ethel Maynard, 74, American politician, activist and nurse, member of the Arizona House of Representatives (1967–1973), heart failure.^[64]
Sir Oscar Morland, 76, British diplomat.
Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko, 59, Soviet medic, pneumonia.
Hannes Volotinen, 68, Finnish politician.
Jack Walsh, 67, Australian cricketer.
Reginald Woodman, 74, English cricketer.
Sir Vincent Ziani de Ferranti, 87, English businessman (Ferranti).

21

Frank Croucher, 65, American baseball player.
George Grebenstein, 95, American basketball player.^[65]
Sir Cornelius Greenfield, 74, Rhodesian civil servant.
Árpád Henney, 84, Hungarian politician.
Hiroshi Inagaki, 74, Japanese filmmaker (Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto), liver disease.^[66]
Ida Kamińska, 80, Polish actress and playwright, cardiovascular disease.^[67]
Glenn Roberts, 67, American basketball player.^[68]
Charles Sergel, 69, Brazilian-born British physician and Olympic rower (1932).
Arnim O. Sundet, 76, American politician and businessman.
Pearl Swanson, 84, American nutritionist.
Arthur Tofte, 77, American science fiction author, cancer.
Roberto Wachholtz, 80, Chilean politician.
Paul Zimmermann, 84, German Nazi official.

22

Bengala, 73, Brazilian football player and manager.
Luke Cuni, 68, Albanian-Australian community leader, shot.^[69]
Reginald Foort, 87, English organist.^[70]
Len Janiak, 64, American football player.
Louise Elisabeth de Meuron, 97, Swiss aristocrat.
T. B. Tennekoon, 68, Sri Lankan politician, MP (1956–1977).
Mahavir Tyagi, 80, Indian politician.

23

Jens Enevoldsen, 72, Danish chess player.
Terry Furlow, 25, American basketball player, traffic collision.^[71]
Munir Sarhadi, 48–49, Pakistani musician.
Frank Sundstrom, 79, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1943–1949).^[72]

24

Ronald Burroughs, 62, British diplomat.
Wilfred Clouston, 64, New Zealand flying ace, complications from a fall.
Margaret B. Freeman, 80, American art historian and curator.^[73]
Jorge González Camarena, 72, Mexican artist, stroke.
Kim Jae-gyu, 56, South Korean general and politician, assassin of Park Chung Hee, execution by hanging.^[74]
Ada Perkins, 20, Puerto Rican model, traffic collision.
Raymond Francis Robbins, 68, American painter.
Loftus Dudley Ward, 74, Canadian politician.

25

Jesse Brown, 65, American baseball player.
Alan Chadwick, 70, English gardener and agriculturalist.
Paco Goyoaga, 60, Spanish Olympic equestrian (1956, 1960, 1964).
Herbert Nachbar, 50, German novelist and playwright.^[75]
Klaus Samelson, 61, German mathematician and computer scientist.
Marquardt Slevogt, 71, German Olympic ice hockey player (1928, 1932).
George West, 86, British Anglican prelate and missionary.

26

Franz Bachelin, 84, German art director.
Norah Balls, 93, British suffragette and magistrate.
Adolfo Costa du Rels, 88, Bolivian diplomat and writer.
Haldane Douglas, 86, American art director.
Haig P. Manoogian, 64, American film professor and producer (Who's That Knocking at My Door).^[76]
Ron McLean, 66, New Zealand environmentalist.
Niels J. Mürer, 81, Norwegian journalist and writer.
Emil Ochyra, 43, Polish Olympic fencer (1960, 1964).
Sir Geoffrey Oliver, 82, British naval admiral.
Ted Shapiro, 80, American pianist and songwriter.
Charlotte Wilder, 81, American poet.^[77]

27

Halfdan Olaus Christophersen, 77, Norwegian historian.
Austin E. Cofrin, 96, American industrialist.
Ted DeVita, 17, American aplastic anemic boy, inspiration for The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, transfusion hemosiderosis.^[78]
Sadao Iguchi, 80, Japanese diplomat, pneumonia.^[79]
Harold Masters, 84, New Zealand rugby player.
John O'Brien, 71, Australian general.
Gün Sazak, 48, Turkish politician, shot.
Earl Sprackling, 89, American football player.
Kintaro Usuda, 73, Japanese Olympic boxer (1928).
Yoon Sang-won, 29, South Korean political activist, shot.

28

Albert Brough, 84, English rugby player and footballer.
Jack Greenhalgh, 71–72, British trade unionist.
Henriette H. Lannes, 80, French educator.
Rolf Nevanlinna, 84, Finnish mathematician.
Lowell Fitz Randolph, 85, American botanist and geneticist.
Miroslav Šašek, 63, Czech writer and illustrator.
Frederic H. Smith Jr., 71, American general.^[80]
Walter Tobagi, 33, Italian journalist, shot.^[81]
Mirabel Topham, 88, British businesswoman, cancer.^[82]

29

Albert Beckaert, 69, Belgian racing cyclist.
Maximiano de Sousa, 62, Portuguese singer.^[83]
Harvey L. Dueholm, 70, American politician, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1959–1979), cancer.^[84]
Martin B. Lohmann, 98, American politician, member of the Illinois House of Representatives (1922–1932) and Senate (1932–1952).
Robert Paterson, 63, English cricketer.
Les Roberts, 79, English footballer.

30

Otome Amatsu, 74, Japanese actress and entertainer.
Alexei Khomich, 60, Soviet footballer.
Charles Holland Locke, 92, Canadian jurist.^[85]
Carl Radle, 37, American bassist (Derek and the Dominos, Gary Lewis & the Playboys), kidney failure.
Walter Silz, 85, American linguist and literary scholar.
Matei Socor, 71, Romanian composer and communist activist.

31

Sonny Burke, 66, American composer and bandleader, cancer.^[86]
Patrick Graham, 65, British naval admiral.
Charlie Meyer, 83, South African rugby player.
Juliusz Miller, 84, Polish footballer.
Petrus Kanisius Ojong, 59, Indonesian journalist and businessman.
Richard Trauner, 79, Austrian dentist and oral surgeon.

References

Sources

Footnotes

External links

List of May 1980 deaths at IMDb

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