Deaths in May 2008

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The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2008.

May 2008

1

• Nasimuddin Amin, 54, Malaysian entrepreneur and founder of Naza, lung cancer.
• Bernard Archard, 91, British actor.
• Buzzie Bavasi, 93, American baseball executive (Dodgers, Angels, Padres).
• Mary Berry, 90, British musicologist and nun.
• Philipp von Boeselager, 90, German World War II anti-Hitler conspirator.
• Nirmala Deshpande, 78, Indian peace activist, after brief illness.
• Elaine Dundy, 86, American writer and actress.
• Aden Hashi Farah, Somali leader of Al-Shabab insurgent group, air strike.
• Jim Hager, 61, American country music singer and television actor (Hee Haw), heart attack.
• Mark Kendall, 49, British footballer (Tottenham Hotspur, Newport County, Wolverhampton Wanderers).
• Sir Anthony Mamo, 99, Maltese politician, first president of the Republic of Malta.
• Alberto Estima de Oliveira, 74, Portuguese poet. (Portuguese)
• Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, American escort agency proprietor, suicide by hanging.

2

• Robert Brachtenbach, 77, American jurist, Washington State Supreme Court justice (1972–1994), throat cancer.
• Carole Dekeijser, 48, Belgian painter, lung cancer. (French)
• Dominic Dim Deng, Sudanese politician, defence minister for Southern Sudan, plane crash.
• Robert M. Isaac, 80, American politician, mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado (1979–1997), pneumonia.
• Sergio Lauricella, 86, Italian Olympic bronze medal-winning (1948) composer.
• Mildred Loving, 68, American civil rights pioneer, challenged Virginia interracial marriage law (Loving v. Virginia).
• Ilyas Malayev, 72, Uzbekistani musician and poet, pancreatic cancer.
• Beverlee McKinsey, 72, American soap opera actress (Another World, Guiding Light), complications from kidney transplant.
• Izold Pustylnik, 70, Ukrainian-born Estonian astronomer.
• Daniel Sekhoto, 37, South African football player.
• Mike Titcomb, 75, British rugby union referee, kidney failure.
• Frank Y. Whiteley, Jr., 93, American thoroughbred racehorse trainer (Ruffian).
• Justin Yak, Sudanese politician, minister for cabinet affairs for Southern Sudan (2006–2007), plane crash.

3

• Charles Caccia, 78, Canadian politician, environmentalist, Liberal MP for Davenport (1968–2004), complications of stroke.
• Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, 82, Spanish prime minister (1981–1982), natural causes.
• Eight Belles, 3, American racehorse, 2008 Kentucky Derby 2nd-place finisher, euthanized.
• Martin Finnegan, 27, Irish motorbike racer, race crash.
• Fay Gale, 75, Australian cultural geographer.
• Lynne Cooper Harvey, 92, American radio producer, Radio Hall of Fame member, wife of Paul Harvey, leukemia.
• Ted Key, 95, American cartoonist (Hazel), bladder cancer and stroke.
• Hanon Reznikov, 57, American playwright.
• Morgan Sparks, 91, American engineer, inventor of the first practical bipolar junction transistor.
• Ngugi wa Mirii, 57, Kenyan playwright, car accident.

4

• Roger Aeschlimann, 84, Swiss cyclist.
• John Altieri, 38, American actor (Jersey Boys), pneumonia.
• Fred Baur, 89, American chemist, inventor of the Pringles can.
• Alvin Colt, 92, American Tony Award–winning costume designer (On the Town, Guys and Dolls, Pipe Dream, Li'l Abner).
• John Greenwood, 57, British businessman and catering executive, motor neurone disease.
• Fred Haines, 72, American screenwriter and film director, lung cancer.
• Richard Holme, Baron Holme of Cheltenham, 71, British Liberal Democrat politician, cancer.
• Kishan Maharaj, 84, Indian musician, leading exponent of the Benares gharana tabla, stroke.
• Colin Murdoch, 79, New Zealand inventor of the disposable hypodermic syringe and the tranquilizer gun, cancer.

5

• Sam Aubrey, 85, American basketball player and coach (Oklahoma State Cowboys).
• Thomas Boggs, 63, American drummer (Box Tops), owner of Huey's Restaurants.
• Hugh Bradner, 92, American scientist credited with inventing the wetsuit.
• Park Kyung-ni, 82, South Korean novelist, lung cancer.
• Irv Robbins, 90, American businessman, co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain.
• Alma Hogan Snell, 85, American Crow tribal nation historian, herbalist, granddaughter of Pretty Shield.
• Jerry Wallace, 79, American country music singer, heart failure.
• Witold Woyda, 68, Polish fencer, double gold medallist at the 1972 Summer Olympics, lung cancer.

6

• John Jay Iselin, 74, American public television innovator, descendent of John Jay, pneumonia.
• Franz Jackson, 95, American saxophonist.
• Harvey Karman, 84, American psychologist and women's reproductive health advocate, inventor of the Karman cannula, stroke.
• William Earl Lynd, 53, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection.
• Ray Michie, Baroness Michie of Gallanach, 74, British Liberal Democrat politician, cancer.
• D.C. Minner, 73, American blues musician.
• John Reames, 65, British football manager and administrator, cancer.

7

• William Douglas Allen, 94, British physicist and electrical engineer.
• Neeraj Grover, 26, Indian television executive and producer (Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?), beaten.
• Rachel Hoffman, 23, American police informant, murdered.
• Clifford Jones, 80, American politician, Pennsylvania Republican Party chairman, prostate cancer.
• Thijs Wöltgens, 64, Dutch politician, mayor of Kerkrade (1994–2000), senator (1995–2005). (Dutch)
• Gernot Zippe, 90, Austrian engineer.

8

• Eddy Arnold, 89, American country music singer.
• Willem Brakman, 85, Dutch author. (Dutch)
• Ian Brodie, 72, British foreign correspondent (The Daily Telegraph).
• John Earle, 64, Irish saxophonist.
• Jose Feria, 91, Filipino supreme court justice (1986–1987).
• Murray Jarvik, 84, American academic and co-inventor of the nicotine patch, heart failure.
• Larry Levine, 80, American Grammy-winning audio engineer (Wall of Sound), emphysema.
• Luigi Malerba, 81, Italian writer.
• Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, 41, Mexican federal police anti-drug coordinator, shot.
• François Sterchele, 26, Belgian footballer (Belgium, Club Brugge), car accident.

9

• James Atkinson, 92, British physicist.
• Firoz Dastur, 89, Indian Hindustani classical musician (Kirana Gharana), anaemia.
• Jack Gibson, 79, Australian rugby league player and coach, selected as "Coach of the Century".
• Judy Grable, 82, American female professional wrestler.
• Shmuel Katz, 93, Israeli writer, historian and journalist.
• Arthur Kroeger, 76, Canadian civil servant (1958–1992), academic and chancellor of Carleton University (1993–2002).
• Nuala O'Faolain, 68, Irish journalist and author, lung cancer.
• Ronald A. Parise, 56, American astronaut, brain tumor.
• Esteban Robles Espinosa, Mexican police commander, shot.
• Pascal Sevran, 62, French television presenter and producer, lyricist and writer, lung cancer.
• Sinan Sofuoğlu, 25, Turkish motorcycle racer, training crash.
• Artur da Távola, 72, Brazilian journalist, writer and politician, heart disease. (Portuguese)

10

• Sir John Barraclough, 90, British air marshal.
• Leyla Gencer, 79, Turkish soprano opera singer, respiratory and cardiac failure.
• Paul Haeberlin, 84, French chef and restaurateur (L'Auberge de l'Ill).
• Jessica Jacobs, 17, Australian actress and singer, fell under train.
• Liao Feng-Teh, 57, Taiwanese incoming interior minister, heart attack.
• Eusebio Ríos, 73, Spanish international footballer and coach. (Spanish)
• Mario Schiano, 74, Italian jazz saxophonist, after long Illness.
• Peter Thurnham, 69, British MP for Bolton North East (1983–1997), pancreatic cancer.

11

• Sir Austin Bide, 92, British chemist and industrialist.
• Sam Dauya, 70, Zimbabwean founder of Dynamos F.C. football team.
• Alema Leota, 80, American alleged organized crime leader, 1978 candidate for governor of Hawaii, injuries from car accident.
• Raymattja Marika, 49, Australian Yolngu scholar, linguist, educator and cultural advocate, heart attack.
• Bruno Neves, 27, Portuguese cyclist, crash during race.
• Dottie Rambo, 74, American gospel singer, bus crash.
• John Rutsey, 55, Canadian drummer (Rush), heart attack.
• Heather Stohler, 29, American model for Calvin Klein, fire.
• Dick Sutcliffe, 90, American animator, creator of Davey and Goliath, stroke.
• Jeff Torrington, 72, British novelist (Swing Hammer Swing), Parkinson's disease.
• Curtis Whitley, 39, American football player (San Diego Chargers, Carolina Panthers, Oakland Raiders).

12

• Penny Banner, 73, American professional wrestler, cancer.
• David Daniels, 74, American poet.
• Oakley Hall, 87, American novelist (Warlock), kidney disease and cancer.
• Lidiya Masterkova, 81, Russian-born French painter. (Russian)
• Robert Rauschenberg, 82, American pop artist, heart failure.
• Irena Sendler, 98, Polish humanitarian, saved 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

13

• Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, 78, Kuwaiti emir (2006).
• Jill Adams, 77, British actress, cancer.
• Lucius D. Battle, 89, American ambassador to Egypt (1964–1967), Parkinson's disease.
• Bernardin Gantin, 86, Beninese cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
• John Phillip Law, 70, American actor (Barbarella).
• Larry McKeon, 63, American politician, first openly gay member of the Illinois General Assembly, stroke.
• Colea Răutu, 95, Romanian actor, cirrhosis.
• Ron Stone, 72, American news anchor (KHOU, KPRC in Houston), prostate cancer.
• Costică Toma, 80, Romanian football goalkeeper (Romania, Steaua Bucureşti).
• Maheswary Velautham, Sri Lankan lawyer and activist, shot.

14

• Frith Banbury, 96, British stage director and actor, liver cancer.
• Arthur Burks, 92, American mathematician and computer pioneer, Alzheimer's disease.
• Warren Cowan, 87, American publicist, cancer.
• John Forbes-Robertson, 80, British actor.
• Derek Goodwin, 88, British ornithologist.
• Roy Heath, 81, Guyanese writer.
• Jay Morago, 90, American governor of the Gila River Indian Community (1954–1960), cancer.
• Tonderai Ndira, 33, Zimbabwean political dissident, murdered.
• Yuri Rytkheu, 78, Russian Chukchi language writer.
• Mário Schoemberger, 56, Brazilian film, television and stage actor, cancer. (Portuguese)
• Richard David Vine, 82, American diplomat, ambassador to Switzerland (1979–1981).

15

• Del Ankers, 91, American cinematographer and photographer (Muppets commercials).
• Henry Austin, 88, Indian diplomat and politician, ambassador to Portugal.
• Tommy Burns, 51, Scottish football player and manager (Celtic, Kilmarnock, Reading), melanoma.
• Tove Billington Bye, 79, Norwegian politician. (Norwegian)
• Alexander Courage, 88, American orchestrator and film composer.
• Anthony Denness, 71, English cricketer.
• Walt Dickerson, 80, American vibraphonist, cardiac arrest.
• Robert Dunlop, 47, British motorcycle racer, chest injuries.
• Will Elder, 86, American comic book artist (Mad, Little Annie Fanny), Parkinson's disease.
• Bob Florence, 75, American jazz composer and arranger, pneumonia.
• Youssef Idilbi, 32, Dutch actor, suicide. (Dutch)
• Willis Lamb, 94, American physicist, Nobel laureate in physics (1955), complications of gallstone disorder.
• Earl Leggett, 75, American football player and coach.

16

• William Blease, Baron Blease, 93, British politician.
• Henry Canoy, 84, Filipino businessman, founder of Radio Mindanao Network.
• Sandy Howard, 80, American film and television producer (A Man Called Horse), Alzheimer's disease.
• David Mitton, 69, British animation director, heart attack.
• Robert Mondavi, 94, American winemaker, benefactor of the Mondavi Center, member of the California Hall of Fame.
• Igor Polyakov, 95, Russian rower, 1952 Olympic silver medalist. (Russian)
• Jimmy Slyde, 80, American tap dancer.
• Peter Rolfe Vaughan, 73, English scientist, heart attack.

17

• Jolyon Brettingham Smith, 58, British composer, musicologist and radio presenter. (German)
• John Fitzsimmons, 68, British Roman Catholic priest and broadcaster, after long illness.
• Thomas Flatley, 76, American real estate tycoon and philanthropist, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
• Zélia Gattai, 91, Brazilian writer and novelist, wife of Jorge Amado.
• Wilfrid Mellers, 94, British composer and author.
• D. Aubrey Moodie, 99, Canadian politician.
• Jack Rayner, 87, Australian rugby league player.
• Sophan Sophiaan, 64, Indonesian actor and politician, motorcycle accident.
• Joyce Trimmer, 80, Canadian politician, mayor of Scarborough, Ontario (1988–1994), cancer.
• Lionel Van Deerlin, 93, American politician and journalist, representative from California (1963–1981).

18

• Pietro Cascella, 87, Italian contemporary artist.
• Irma Córdoba, 94, Argentine actress, natural causes. (Spanish)
• Jonathan James, 24, American cyber criminal.
• John Lucas, 85, Barbadian-born Canadian cricketer.
• Lloyd Moore, 95, American NASCAR driver (1949–1955).
• Elemore Morgan, Jr., 76, American landscape artist.
• Joseph Pevney, 96, American television and film director (Bonanza, Star Trek, The Paper Chase, Trapper John, M.D.).

19

• Randy Acord, 89, American aviation historian.
• Nigel Cassidy, 62, British footballer.
• Larry Coutre, 80, American football player.
• Jack Duffy, 81, Canadian comedian, natural causes.
• Chaim Flom, Israeli scholar and rosh yeshiva.
• Huntington Hartford, 97, American businessman and philanthropist.
• Barclay Howard, 55, British golfer.
• Rimma Kazakova, 76, Russian poet.
• Mariam McGlone, 92, American dancer and choreographer.
• Kjell Kristian Rike, 63, Norwegian sports commentator.
• Vijay Tendulkar, 80, Indian playwright, myasthenia gravis.

20

• Iona Banks, 87, British actress (Pobol y Cwm).
• Crispin Beltran, 75, Filipino congressman and labor leader, head injuries from a fall.
• Viktor Bortsov, 73, Russian actor, intestinal cancer. (Russian)
• Margot Boyd, 94, British actress (Marjorie Antrobus on The Archers).
• Thomas Burlison, Baron Burlison, 71, British footballer and trade unionist.
• Joachim Erwin, 58, German politician, mayor of Düsseldorf, colorectal cancer.
• Herb Hash, 97, American baseball pitcher (Boston Red Sox), stroke.
• Harald Hein, 58, German Olympic fencer.
• Zelma Henderson, 88, American last surviving plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education, pancreatic cancer.
• Hamilton Jordan, 63, American politician, Jimmy Carter's White House chief of staff (1979–1980), mesothelioma.
• Baine Kerr, 88, American lawyer and oil executive.
• Cy Leonard, 82, Canadian ventriloquist.
• Ali Sadikin, 80, Indonesian politician, governor of Jakarta (1966–1977), liver cancer.
• Jeheskel Shoshani, 65, Israeli-born American elephant expert, bus explosion.
• S. K. Trimurti, 96, Indonesian journalist, first minister of labor and employment, natural causes. (Indonesian)

21

• Mel Casson, 87, American cartoonist (Redeye).
• Brian Keenan, 66, Irish IRA commander, cancer.
• Ted Lanyon, 68, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Michelle Meldrum, 39, American rock guitarist (Phantom Blue, Meldrum), cystic growth on the brain.
• John Aloysius Morgan, 98, Australian Roman Catholic prelate.
• Siegmund Nissel, 86, German-born British violinist (Amadeus Quartet).
• Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, 77, Portuguese artist and engraver, long illness.
• Torcato Sepúlveda, 57, Portuguese journalist. (Portuguese)

22

• Robert Asprin, 61, American science fiction and fantasy writer (MythAdventures), heart attack.
• Charlie Booth, 104, Australian athlete, inventor of the starting block.
• Harry Lange, 77, German astronautical illustrator and film production designer (2001: A Space Odyssey).
• Jack Mildren, 58, American football player, Oklahoma's lieutenant governor (1990–1995), stomach cancer.
• Paul Patrick, 58, British gay rights activist, chronic lung condition.
• Hana Maria Pravda, 90, Czech actress and Holocaust survivor.

23

• Alan Brien, 83, British journalist and critic.
• Cornell Capa, 90, American photographer, founder of the International Center of Photography.
• Roberto Freire, 81, Brazilian writer and psychiatrist, created somatherapy.
• Dritan Hoxha, 39, Albanian businessman, car accident.
• Thelma Keane, 82, Australian-born American who inspired husband Bil's comic strip The Family Circus, Alzheimer's disease.
• Heinz Kwiatkowski, 81, German footballer, member of 1954 FIFA World Cup-winning team.
• Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, 40, Spanish mountaineer and alpinist, pulmonary edema while climbing Annapurna.
• Jefferson Peres, 76, Brazilian senator from Amazonas, heart attack. (Portuguese)
• Utah Phillips, 73, American folk singer and political activist, heart failure.

24

• Adam Baruch, 63, Israeli journalist, writer and art critic, diabetes complications.
• Bob Beck, 63, Guamanian zoologist and conservationist, worked to save Guam rail native birds.
• Tano Cimarosa, 86, Italian actor. (Italian)
• Reg Flewin, 87, British footballer.
• Rob Knox, 18, British actor (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), stabbed.
• Eugenio Garza Lagüera, 84, Mexican businessman, president of FEMSA, natural causes.
• Isaac Lipschits, 77, Dutch political scientist and historian, natural causes. (Dutch)
• Dick Martin, 86, American comedian (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), respiratory complications.
• Jimmy McGriff, 72, American jazz and blues organist, multiple sclerosis.
• Sonny Okosun, 61, Nigerian musician, colon cancer.

25

• Louise Firouz, 74, American horse breeder.
• George Garrett, 78, American novelist and poet, cancer.
• Geremi González, 33, Venezuelan MLB baseball player, lightning strike.
• James D. Griffin, 78, American mayor of Buffalo, New York (1978–1994), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
• Bukhuti Gurgenidze, 74, Georgian chess grandmaster.
• Ítalo Argentino Lúder, 91, Argentine acting president (1975). (Spanish)
• Tom McHale, 45, American football player (Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
• Mitch Mullany, 39, American comedian and actor (Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher), diabetes-related stroke.
• J. R. Simplot, 99, American businessman, original McDonald's french fries supplier.
• Clémentine Solignac, 113, French supercentenarian, verified world's fourth oldest person.
• Ernst Stuhlinger, 94, German-born American rocket scientist.
• Camu Tao, 30, American rapper-producer, lung cancer.
• Kenneth H. Wood, 90, American author and administrator, editor of the Adventist Review, heart failure.

26

• Dolly Aglay, 41, Filipino financial journalist, cancer.
• Jerry C. Begay, 83, American Navajo code talker and World War II veteran.
• Earle Hagen, 88, American composer of film and television theme music (The Andy Griffith Show, The Mod Squad).
• Howlin' Dave, 52, Filipino radio disc jockey and proponent of Pinoy rock, stroke.
• Roy Koerner, 75, British polar scientist and explorer.
• Yuriy Konovalov, 78, Soviet-born Azerbaijani Olympic track athlete, 4 x 100m relay silver medallist (1956 and 1960). (Russian)
• Donald L. Pilling, 64, American admiral, Vice Chief of Naval Operations (1997–2000), leukemia.
• Sydney Pollack, 73, American film director (The Firm, Tootsie, Out of Africa) and actor, stomach cancer.
• Alan Renouf, 89, Australian head of DFAT, ambassador to United States (1977–1979), France and Yugoslavia, leukemia.
• Kermit Scott, 71, American philosophy professor, namesake of Kermit the Frog.
• Robert G. Voight, 87, American academic.

27

• Valmae Beck, 64, Australian child murderer, complications of heart surgery.
• Tony Hussein Hinde, 55, Australian-born Maldivian surfer, heart attack.
• Franz Künstler, 107, German World War I veteran, last known surviving veteran of the Central Powers.
• Hubert Macey, 87, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Per Nielsen, 88, Danish Olympic shooter.
• Mick Nolan, 58, Australian footballer, cancer.
• Neal Potter, 93, American politician.
• Abram Raselemane, 30, South African footballer, apparent suicide.
• Alejandro Romualdo, 82, Peruvian poet. (Spanish)
• Keith Rosewarne, 83, Australian footballer.

28

• Beryl Cook, 81, British painter.
• Sven Davidson, 79, Swedish tennis player.
• Robert H. Justman, 81, American television and film producer (Star Trek), Parkinson's disease.
• Elinor Lyon, 86, British children's writer.
• Danny Moss, 80, British jazz tenor saxophonist.
• Dianne Odell, 61, American author and polio victim, power failure to iron lung.
• Erin Spanevello, 21, Canadian fashion model, drug overdose.

29

• Paula Gunn Allen, 68, Native American poet, novelist, and activist, lung cancer.
• José Alejandro Bernales, 59, Chilean director general of Carabineros de Chile, helicopter crash.
• Luc Bourdon, 21, Canadian ice hockey player, motorcycle accident.
• Romeo A. Brawner, 72, Filipino appeals court judge (1995–2005), election commissioner (2005–2008), heart attack.
• Len Devine, 84, Australian politician, MP for East Sydney (1963–1969).
• Harvey Korman, 81, American actor and comedian (Blazing Saddles, The Carol Burnett Show, The Flintstones), abdominal aortic aneurysm.

30

• Harry Brautigam, 59, Nicaraguan president of the BCIE since 2003, heart problem after air crash.
• Campbell Burnap, 68, British jazz trombonist, cancer.
• Harlan Cleveland, 90, American diplomat, educator and author, ambassador to NATO (1965–1969), natural causes.
• Rodney Gordon, 75, British architect.
• Graeme Miller, 67, Australian cricketer.
• Noel Moore, 79, British civil servant, leader of decimalisation project, brain tumour.
• Chris Morgan, 55, British journalist, apparent suicide in front of a train.
• William Eldridge Odom, 75, American Army Lieutenant General and director of the National Security Agency.
• Lorenzo Odone, 30, American ALD patient portrayed in the film Lorenzo's Oil.
• Mike Scott, 75, British television producer and presenter.
• Boris Shakhlin, 76, Russian-born Ukrainian gymnast, winner of seven Olympic gold medals for the Soviet Union, cardiac arrest.
• Suprakash Som, 60, Indian cricketer.
• Nat Temple, 94, British bandleader.

31

• Carlos Alhinho, 59, Portuguese international footballer, fall.
• Joe Axelson, 80, American executive and general manager of the National Basketball Association Sacramento Kings.
• Nusret Çolpan, 56, Turkish painter and architect. (Turkish)
• Detlef Gromoll, 70, American mathematician, brain hemorrhage.
• Nelly Láinez, 88, Argentine actress, urinary infection.
• Per-Erik Larsson, 79, Swedish skier. (Swedish)
• Charles Moskos, 74, American sociologist, architect of the US military DADT gay and lesbian policy, cancer.
• Paul Thomson, 91, American botanist, co-founder of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association.