Deaths in April 1998

The following is a list of notable deaths in April 1998.

Contents
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
← March	April	May →

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 1998

1

• Gene Evans, 75, American actor, heart failure.[1]
• Lucille Norman, 76, American actress, mezzo-soprano and radio personality.
• Robert Ogle, 69, Canadian Roman Catholic priest and politician.
• Rozz Williams, 34, American singer, poet and artist, suicide by hanging.[2]

2

• Joan Austin, 95, British tennis player.
• Benjy F. Brooks, 79, American pediatric surgeon.
• Sir Dai Davies, 88, Welsh trade unionist.
• Eberhard Rees, 89, German-American rocketry pioneer and NASA executive.[3]

3

• Mary Cartwright, 97, British mathematician.[4]
• Elmer Iseler, 70, Canadian choir conductor and choral editor.
• Charles Lang, 96, American cinematographer, pneumonia.
• Harkisan Mehta, 69, Indian author and journalist, heart attack.
• Rob Pilatus, 32, German model, dancer and singer (Milli Vanilli), accidental overdose.[5]
• Herbert B. Powell, 94, United States Army general and diplomat.[6]
• John W. Sweeterman, 91, American newspaperman.[7]
• Alvin Tyler, 72, American R&B and jazz musician.[8]
• Wolf Vostell, 65, German painter and sculptor.

4

• Harry W. Bass Jr., 71, American businessman, coin collector and philanthropist.[9]
• George Berry, 84, Australian politician.[10]
• Käthe Bosse-Griffiths, 87, German-born Egyptologist.
• Kay Hughes, 84, American actress.
• Mahendra Kasippillai, 70, Sri Lankan first-class cricketer.
• Ganesh Prasad Rijal, 77, Nepali politician, cardiac arrest.

5

• Frederick Charles Frank, 87, British theoretical physicist.
• Mick Miller, 61, Australian Aboriginal activist and politician, heart seizure.[11]
• Elizabeth Mitchell, 79, New Zealand fencer.
• Maurice O'Doherty, 65, Irish broadcaster.
• Cozy Powell, 50, English rock drummer (Rainbow, Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell, Black Sabbath), car crash.[12]

6

• Reuben Berry, 63, American gridiron football coach.
• Rudy Dhaenens, 36, Belgian road bicycle racer, car accident.[13]
• Heinz Neuhaus, 71, German boxer and heavyweight champion.
• Stanley Radwan, 89, Polish-American strongman and professional wrestler.
• Wendy O. Williams, 48, American singer, songwriter, and actress, suicide by gunshot.[14]
• John Wyatt, 63, American baseball player, heart attack.
• Tammy Wynette, 55, American country music singer-songwriter, heart arrhythmia.[15]

7

• Muhammad Karam Shah Al-Azhari, 79, Pakistani Islamic scholar.
• John Larking, 76, English cricketer.
• James McIntosh Patrick, 91, Scottish painter.[16]
• Alex Schomburg, 92, Puerto Rican comic-book artist and painter.
• S. V. Venkatraman, 86, Indian actor, singer and music director.

8

• Charlie Drinkwater, 83, English football player and manager.
• Lee Elias, 77, British-American comics artist.
• Florence Virginia Foose Wilson Mayberry, 91, American writer and Baháʼí Faith convert.[17]
• Marcel Jacobo Laniado de Wind, 70, Ecuadorian businessman and politician.

9

• Tom Cora, 44, American cellist and composer, malignant melanoma.[18]
• Mihai Grecu, 81, Moldovan painter.
• Vishnu Bhikaji Kolte, 89, Indian writer.
• John Tate, 43, American heavyweight boxer, car accident.[19]
• Frank Treasure, 73, Australian rules footballer, mesothelioma.
• David Vigor, 58, Australian politician, heart attack.

10

• A. Durai Arasan, 75, Indian politician.
• Alan Burgess, 83, English RAF pilot and author.[20]
• Dieter Erler, 58, German footballer.[21]
• Basil James, 77, American jockey.
• Zezé Moreira, 90, Brazilian footballer and coach.
• C. K. Nagaraja Rao, 82, Indian writer, director, journalist and social activist.

11

• Lillian Briggs, 65, American rock 'n roll performer and musician, lung cancer.
• Francis Durbridge, 85, English playwright and author.[22]
• Tex Geddes, 78, Scottish author and adventurer.[23]
• Rodney Harvey, 30, American actor, model and dancer, drug overdose.[24]
• Victoria Hernández, 101, Puerto Rican music entrepreneur.
• Stanisław Zarakowski, 90, Polish military prosecutor.

12

• Kenneth O. Emery, 83, Canadian-American marine geologist.
• Xin Fengxia, Chinese pingju opera performer, cerebral hemorrhage.
• Robert Ford, 83, Canadian poet and diplomat.
• Dorothea Jameson, 77, American cognitive psychologist, lung cancer.
• Felicitas Mendez, Puerto Rican-American civil right activist, heart failure.[25]
• Charles Sibley, 80, American ornithologist and molecular biologist.
• Marvin Wolfgang, 73, American sociologist and criminologist.[26]

13

• Alec Albiston, 80, Australian rules footballer.
• George A. Eddy, 90, American economist.
• Patrick de Gayardon, 38, French skydiver and skysurfing pioneer, skydiving accident.
• Bahi Ladgham, 85, Tunisian politician and Prime minister.[27]
• Pat Rainey, 72, American singer and actress.[28]

14

• Weldon Humble, 76, American gridiron football player.[29]
• Harry Lee, 90, British tennis player.
• Dorothy Squires, 83, Welsh singer, lung cancer.[30]
• Maurice Stans, 90, American civil servant and politician, congestive heart failure.[31]

15

• William Congdon, 86, American painter.[32]
• Kenny Duckett, 38, American football player (New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys), renal failure.[33]
• William K. Jones, 81, United States Marine Corps lieutenant general.
• Rose Maddox, 72, American country singer-songwriter.[34]
• Pol Pot, 72, Cambodian politician.[35]

16

• Kazimieras Antanavičius, 60, Lithuanian economist and politician.
• Alberto Calderón, 77, Argentinian mathematician.[36]
• Fred Davis, 84, English snooker and billiards player.[37]
• Marie-Louise Meilleur, 117, Canadian supercentenarian, oldest living person at the time of her death.[38]
• Rose Naftalin, 101, American chef and cookbook author.
• Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit, 71, Ukrainian Hutsul artist, folk writer and -scientist, ethnographer and dialectologist.

17

• Michael Ashikodi Agbamuche, 77, Nigerian Attorney General and politician.
• Geraldo de Barros, 75, Brazilian painter and photographer.[39]
• Frances Clark, 93, American pianist, pedagogue, and academic.[40]
• Ayyub Huseynov, 81, Azerbaijani artist.
• Linda McCartney, 56, American musician, photographer and animal rights activist, breast cancer.[41]
• Eddie Sweat, 58, American groom in Thoroughbred horse racing, leukemia.

18

• Jake Colhouer, 76, American gridiron football player.
• William Edmondson, 91, American sound engineer.
• Johan Richter, 73, Danish architect and engineer.
• Terry Sanford, 80, American university administrator and politician.[42]
• Linda Schele, 55, American Mesoamerican archaeologist, pancreatic cancer.[43]

19

• Gardner Dickinson, 70, American golfer.[44]
• J. C. Harrington, 96, American archaeologist.
• Denis Howell, Baron Howell, 74, British politician.
• Octavio Paz, 84, Mexican diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate, cancer.[45]
• Vladimir Sokolov, 70, Russian scientist.
• Liam Sullivan, 74, American actor and singer, heart attack.[46]

20

• Trevor Huddleston, 84, English Anglican bishop.[47]
• Yoshio Inaba, 77, Japanese actor.
• Alfredo Palacio Moreno, 85, Ecuadorian sculptor and painter.

21

• Peter Lind Hayes, 82, American vaudeville entertainer, songwriter and actor, vascular problems.[48]
• Vernon Holland, 49, American gridiron football player (Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions and New York Giants), heart attack.
• Egill Jacobsen, 87, Danish painter.
• Jean-François Lyotard, 73, French philosopher and sociologist, leukemia.[49]
• Irene Vernon, 76, American actress, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease.

22

• Kitch Christie, 58, South African rugby coach.
• Guy Henn, 88, Australian doctor and politician.
• Vadym Hetman, 62, Ukrainian statesman and banker, murdered.
• Shalimar Seiuli, 21, American-Samoan transgender dancer, accidental fall.[50]
• Marvin Worth, 72, American film producer, screenwriter and actor, lung cancer.[51]

23

• Konstantinos Karamanlis, 91, Greek politician and former Prime Minister and President.[52]
• James Earl Ray, 70, American convict and assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., liver failure.[53]
• Thanassis Skordalos, 77, Greek musician.
• Red Stacy, 86, American gridiron football player.

24

• Froduald Karamira, 50, Rwandan politician, execution by firing squad.
• Yakov Malkiel, 83, Russian-American etymologist and philologist.
• Mel Powell, 75, American composer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, liver cancer.[54]
• Christiane Rochefort, 80, French feminist writer.
• Leslie Stevens, 74, American producer, writer and director, angioplasty.[55]

25

• Jorge Dominichi, 51, Argentine football player and manager.
• Wright Morris, 88, American novelist, photographer and essayist, esophageal cancer.[56]
• Christian Mortensen, 115, Danish-American supercentenarian.[57]
• Don Petersen, 70, American playwright and screenwriter.
• Evelyn Raymond, 90, American sculptor.
• Dave Ross, 80, Australian rugby footballer.

26

• Alan Boxer, 81, British Royal Air Force officer.
• Joan Mary Wayne Brown, 92, British author.
• Juan José Gerardi Conedera, 75, Guatemalan Roman Catholic bishop and human rights activist, assassinated.[58]
• David Fasold, 59, United States Merchant Marine officer and salvage expert, cancer.
• Gabe Paul, 88, American Major League Baseball executive.[59]

27

• John Bassett, 82, Canadian media proprietor and politician.[60]
• Carlos Castaneda, 72, American author, hepatocellular cancer.[61]
• Anne Desclos, 90, French journalist and novelist.
• Edris Eckhardt, 93, American artist.
• Nguyễn Văn Linh, 82, Vietnamese revolutionary and politician, liver cancer.[62]
• Louis S. Peterson, 75, American playwright, actor, screenwriter and professor, lung cancer.[63]
• Ralph Raphael, 77, British organic chemist, ischaemic heart disease.[64]
• Browning Ross, 74, American long-distance runner and Olympian.[65]
• Geoffrey Serle, 76, Australian historian.

28

• Ramakant Desai, 58, Indian cricket player, complications following cardiac arrest.
• Sir Stanley Krusin, 89, British lawyer and parliamentary draftsman.
• Dorothy Lovett, 83, American film actress.[66]
• Reed C. Rollins, 86, American botanist and professor.
• Mum Shirl, 76, Australian Wiradjuri humanitarian activist.

29

• Mary Castle, 67, American actress, lung cancer.
• Mário de Castro, 92, Brazilian footballer.
• V. Gopalakrishnan, Indian actor.
• Hal Laycoe, 75, Canadian ice hockey player and coach.[67]
• Eddie Lovette, 55, American reggae musician, lung cancer.

30

• Guy Anderson, 91, American painter.[68]
• Curly Chalker, 66, American pedal steel guitarist, brain tumor.[69]
• Lise Gervais, 64, Canadian abstract painter and sculptor.[70]
• Daniel V. Jones, 40, American maintenance worker, suicide by gunshot.[71]
• Nizar Qabbani, 75, Syrian diplomat, poet and publisher.[72]
• Giovanni Ravalli, Italian officer and war criminal.

References

1. The Associated Press (1998). "Gene Evans, Actor, 75", obituary. The New York Times, April 4, 1998. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
2. "Rozz Williams Biography", rozznet.com. Retrieved 15 October 2019
3. Ford Burkhart (April 4, 1998). "Eberhard Rees, Rocketry Pioneer, Dies at 89". The New York Times. p. A 14. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
4. "Obituary: Mary Cartwright". The Times. 1998. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
5. Strauss, Neil (April 7, 1998). "Robert Pilatus, 33, Performer in Disgraced Band Milli Vanilli". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
6. Wolfgang Saxon (April 7, 1998). "Gen. Herbert B. Powell, 94, Ambassador and Army Leader". The New York Times. p. A 25. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
7. Eric Pace (April 6, 1998). "John Sweeterman Dies at 91; A Washington Post Publisher". The New York Times. p. A 21. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
8. "Alvin 'Red' Tyler", rockabilly.nl, Retrieved 15 October 2019
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10. George William Berry – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
11. Natasha Case et al (1998) "Recent Happenings" Aboriginal Law Bulletin 50, Retrieved 15 October 2019
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13. Samuel Abt (April 9, 1998). "Dhaenens:A Modest, Unselfish Cyclist". The New York Times. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
14. Neil Strauss (April 9, 1998). "Wendy O. Williams, 48, Star Of Explosive Punk Rock Act". The New York Times. p. B 10. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
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61. Applebome, Peter (August 19, 1998). "Mystery Man's Death Can't End the Mystery; Fighting Over Carlos Castaneda's Legacy". The New York Times. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
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67. Richard Goldstein (May 2, 1998). "Hal Laycoe, 75, N.H.L. Player Whose High Stick Led to Riot". The New York Times. p. B 8. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
68. Updike, Robin (May 2, 1998). "Guy Anderson embodied Northwest point of view; painter who rarely left his home state dies at 91". The Seattle Times. p. A1. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
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