Deaths in October 1997

The following is a list of notable deaths in October 1997.

Contents
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← September	October	November →

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 1997

1

• Francisco Aramburu, 75, Brazilian footballer.[1]
• George Kisevalter, 87, American operations officer of the CIA.
• Jerome H. Lemelson, 74, American engineer, inventor and patent holder, liver cancer.[2]
• Neil O'Connor, 80, Australian experimental psychologist, traffic incident.
• Inbal Perlmuter, 26, Israeli rock musician, singer, composer and lyricist, car accident.

2

• Carybé, 86, Argentine-Brazilian artist, historian and journalist, heart failure.
• Douglas Fairbairn, 70, American author.
• William J. Maguire, 81, American politician.
• Guillermo Meza, 80, Mexian painter.[3]

3

• Michael Adekunle Ajasin, 88, Nigerian politician.
• John Ashley, 62, American actor, producer and singer, heart attack.[4]
• Helen Brook, 89, British family planning adviser and author.
• Richard Gilkey, 72, American painter, suicide[5]
• Verna Hillie, 83, American film actress, stroke.
• Jarl Kulle, 70, Swedish actor and director, bone cancer.
• Blake Wayne Van Leer, 71, United States Navy officer.
• Hadassah Rosensaft, 85, Polish holocaust survivor, liver failure.[6]
• A. L. Rowse, 93, British historian and author.[7]
• George Urban, 76, Hungarian writer.

4

• Romano Amerio, 92, Roman Catholic theologian.
• Nelson C. Nye, 90, American author and editor.
• Otto Ernst Remer, 85, German Wehrmacht officer during World War II.
• Anne Strachan Robertson, 87, Scottish archaeologist, numismatist and writer.
• Gunpei Yokoi, 56, Japanese video game designer and creator of the Game Boy, traffic collision.[8]

5

• Babatunde Kwaku Adadevoh, 64, Nigerian physician.
• Chitta Basu, 70, Indian politician, cardiac arrest.
• Andrew Keir, 71, Scottish actor.[9]
• Dave Marr, 63, American golfer and sportscaster.[10]
• Brian Pillman, 35, American professional wrestler, heart attack.
• Tommy Ring, 67, Scottish footballer.
• Larisa Rozanova, 78, Soviet/Ukrainian pilot and navigator during World War II.
• Arthur Tracy, 98, American vocalist and actor.[11]

6

• Orlando Ramón Agosti, 73, Argentine general and part of the military junta.[12]
• George T. Barclay, 87, American football player and coach.
• Warren Louis Boudreaux, 79, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, heart failure.
• Robert Endean, 71, Australian marine scientist.[13]
• Adrienne Hill, 60, English actress.
• Yevgeny Khaldei, 80, Soviet naval officer and photographer.[14]
• Debbie Linden, 36, Scottish model and actress, heroin overdose.
• Johnny Vander Meer, 82, American baseball player, abdominal aneurysm.[15]
• Georgi Yumatov, 71, Soviet/Russian film actor.

7

• Felicisimo Ampon, 76, Filipino tennis player.
• Johnny Darrell, 57, American country music artist, diabetes.[16]
• Wan Laiming, 97, Chinese animator.
• Gus Marker, 92, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Aldo Sebben, 77, American football, cross country, and track and field coach.

8

• William H. Amoss, 60, American politician.
• Henryk Bista, 63, Polish actor.
• Albert Blumberg, 91, American philosopher and political activist.[17]
• Bertrand Goldberg, 84, American architect and industrial designer.[18]
• Ricky Lee Green, 36, American serial killer, execution by lethal injection.
• Robin Lee, 77, American figure skater.
• Brown Meggs, 66, American writer and music executive.[19]
• Desmond J. Scott, 79, New Zealand flying ace during World War II.
• William B. Spong Jr., 77, American politician.[20]

9

• Michael Cummings, 78, British newspaper cartoonist.[21]
• Monty Hoyt, 53, American figure skater, melanoma.
• Arch Johnson, 75, American actor, cancer.
• Jean Pasqualini, French/Chinese journalist.[22]
• Joel Pritchard, 72, American politician, lymphoma.

10

• D. J. Ambalavanar, 69, Sri Lankan Tamil bishop.[23]
• Phyllis Arkle, 87, English children's author.[24]
• Marjorie Harris Carr, 82, American scientist and environmental activist.
• Michael J. S. Dewar, 79, American theoretical chemist.[25]
• Anne Marriott, 83, Canadian writer, stroke.
• Dencio Padilla, 69, Filipino actor and comedian.
• Thomas Whiteside, 79, American journalist, heart failure.[26]

11

• Paul Doughty Bartlett, 90, American chemist.[27]
• Arnold Beck, 81, British scientist and electrical engineer.
• Patrick McTaggart-Cowan, 85, Canadian meteorologist.
• Ivan Yarygin, 48, Soviet / Russian heavyweight freestyle wrestler, car crash.[28]

12

• John Denver, 53, American musician and activist, plane crash.[29]
• Draga Garašanin, 76, Serbian archaeologist.
• Kenneth Hahn, 77, American civil servant, heart failure.[30]

13

• Alexandru Bârlădeanu, 86, Romanian politician.
• Ian Stuart Black, 82, British novelist, playwright and screenwriter.
• Adil Çarçani, 75, Albanian politician.[31]
• Joyce Compton, 90, American actress.
• Richard Mason, 78, British novelist.[32]
• Marian Pepler, 93, British architect and textile designer.
• Raf, 68, Spanish comic author, heart disease.
• William Staveley, 68, Royal Navy officer, heart attack.[33]

14

• Hy Averback, 76, American actor, producer and director.[34]
• Piedade Coutinho, 77, Brazil Olympic swimmer.
• George Forrest, 72, British classicist and academic, cancer.
• Harold Robbins, 81, American writer.[35]
• Barbara Slater, 76, American film actress.
• Ian Tampion, 59, Australian scientologist and sportsman, cancer.

15

• Peter J. Dalessandro, 79, United States Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient.
• Walter Fritzsch, 76, German football player and manager.
• Bill McKay, 76, Irish rugby player.

16

• A. H. Armstrong, 88, English educator and author.
• Dick Cavalli, 74, American cartoonist, heart attack.
• Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, 94, Greek princess.[36]
• Noel Ferrier, 66, Australian comedian, actor, and theatrical producer.
• Adam Kennedy, 75, American actor, novelist, and painter, heart attack.
• Audra Lindley, 79, American actress, leukemia.[37]
• James A. Michener, 90, American author.[38]
• Jackie O'Connell, 85, Irish hurler.

17

• Carlos Escaleras, 39, Honduran politician and environmental activist, shot.
• Larry Jennings, 64, American magician.
• Ben Welden, 96, American actor.[39]
• Fang Yi, 81, Chinese Communist revolutionary, diplomat, and politician.

18

• Ramiro Castillo, 31, Bolivian footballer, suicide by hanging.
• Walter William Curtis, 84, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, pneumonia.[40]
• Nancy Dickerson, 70, American radio and television journalist.[41]
• Vince Gironda, 79, American bodybuilder, personal trainer and author.
• Roberto Goizueta, 65, Cuban businessman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, cancer.[42]
• Natalia Magnat, 42, Soviet / Russian translator, Crohn's disease.
• William Rotsler, 71, American artist, cartoonist, pornographer and author.
• Paul Edwin Zimmer, 54, American poet and author, heart attack.[43]

19

• Donald R. Bensen, 70, American editor and science fiction writer.
• Glen Buxton, 49, American guitarist and composer, complications from pneumonia.[44]
• Claudia Drake, 79, American actress and singer.
• Harold French, 100, English film director, screenwriter and actor.
• William J. McGill, 75, American psychologist and author.
• Pilar Miró, 57, Spanish screenwriter and film director, heart attack.

20

• Frank Worth Elliott Jr., 72, United States Air Force Major General.
• John Jacobs, 50, American student and anti-war activist, complications from melanoma.[45]
• Frank Robert Miller, 89, Canadian air chief marshal.
• Manush Myftiu, 78, Albanian politician.
• Omar August Pinson, 79, American robber and murderer.
• Ron Tarr, 60, British actor, cancer.
• Henry Vestine, 52, American guitarist, heart and respiratory failure.[46]
• Robin Woods, 83, English Anglican bishop.

21

• Dolph Camilli, 90, American baseball player.[47]
• John Whitney Hall, 81, American Japanologist.[48]
• Lorenzo Sumulong, 92, Filipino politician.
• Waldemar F. A. Wendt, 85, United States Navy admiral.
• Dick Wilkins, 72, American gridiron football player.

22

• Leonid Amalrik, 92, Soviet animator.
• Stratton Hammon, 93, American architect.
• Reinhard Lauck, 51, German footballer.
• Mian Mohammed Sharif, 79, Pakistani mathematician.
• Quentin Smythe, 81, South African sergeant and recipient of the Victoria Cross.[49]
• Matthew Trupiano, 58, American mobster.

23

• Alfredo II, 77, Brazilian footballer.
• Scrappy Blumer, 80, American pilot during World War II, leukemia.
• Alan Broadley, 77, Australian footballer.
• Hedley Bunton, 91, Australian missionary in China.
• Ann Devroy, 49, American political journalist, uterine cancer.[50]
• Claire Falkenstein, 89, American visual artist, stomach cancer.[51]
• Barbara Goette, 89, German/British/Australian academic.
• Bert Haanstra, 81, Dutch filmmaker, Alzheimer's disease.
• Kim Lim, 61, Singaporean-British sculptor and printmaker.
• Bob Manning, 71, American big band singer, pneumonia.[52]
• Leticia Ocharan, Mexican artist.
• Georges Pianta, 85, French politician .
• Babette Rosmond, 75, American author.
• Luther Simjian, 92, Armenian-American inventor and entrepreneur.[53]
• Trevor Smith, 87, English footballer and manager.

24

• Skip Alexander, 79, American golfer.
• Michael Balfour, 79, English actor.
• Don Messick, 71, American voice actor, stroke.[54]

25

• William J. Hirsch, 88, American Hall of Fame trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses.
• Tina Lattanzi, 99, Italian actress and voice actress.
• Jamie Livingston, 41, American photographer and film maker, brain tumor.[55]
• Mina Rees, 95, American mathematician.[56]
• Firudin Shushinski, 72, Azerbaijani musicologist and scholar.

26

• Georg Adelly, 78, Swedish film actor.
• Donald Ray Matthews, 90, American politician.
• William B. Hutchinson, 88, American physician.[57]
• Rankin M. Smith Sr., 72, American businessman and philanthropist.[58]

27

• Mahala Andrews, 58, British vertebrae palaeontologist.
• Achim Gercke, 95, German Nazi politician.
• Jane McCarty Mauldin, 61, American Choctaw artist, brain tumor.
• Vladimir Sokoloff, 84, American pianist and accompanist.[59]
• François-Henri de Virieu, 65, French journalist and television presenter, pancreatic cancer.

28

• Walter Capps, 63, American politician, heart attack.
• Toni Carabillo, 71, American feminist, graphic designer, and historian, lung cancer.[60]
• Doraiswamy Iyengar, 77, Indian musician.
• Paul Jarrico, 82, American screenwriter.[61]
• Marian Koshland, 76, American immunologist, lung cancer.[62]
• Bryan Lefley, 49, Canadian ice hockey player and coach, car accident.
• Klaus Wunderlich, 66, German musician, heart attack.

29

• Len Beurton, 83, English communist and Soviet agent.
• H. C. Coombs, 91, Australian economist and public servant.[63]
• Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten, 97, German junker, businessman and author.
• Andreas Gerasimos Michalitsianos, 50, Greek-American astronomer and astrophysicist, brain tumor.
• Anton LaVey, 67, American author, musician, and occultist, pulmonary edema.[64]
• Big Nick Nicholas, 75, American jazz saxophonist and singer, heart failure.[65]
• Anthony Velonis, 86, American painter and designer.

30

• Mary Syme Boyd, 87, Scottish artist and sculptor.
• Samuel Fuller, 85, American screenwriter, novelist, and film director.[66]
• Barney Martin, 74, American baseball player.
• Sydney Newman, 80, Canadian film and television producer, heart attack.[67]

31

• Zubeida Agha, 75, Pakistani artist.
• Bram Appel, 75, Dutch footballer.
• Hans Bauer, 70, German footballer.
• Sidney Darlington, 91, American electrical engineer.[68]
• Wilfrid Oulton, 86, British Royal Air Force officer, cancer.[69]

References

1. Seleção brasileira: 1914-2006, ISBN 9788574781860, p.242 (Google Books)
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3. "Meza, Guillermo Benezit Dictionary of Artists". oxfordartonline.com. 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00122112.
4. Lentz, Harris M. (1997). Obituaries in the Performing Arts. McFarland. p. 9.
5. Updike, Robin (8 October 1997). "Richard Gilkey Is Dead; One Of NW's Leading Artists". Seattle Times. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
6. Eric Pace (8 October 1997). "Hadassah Rosensaft, 85, Dies; Saved Auschwitz Inmates". The New York Times. p. B 7. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
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8. "Classic Gaming: 10th Anniversary of Gunpei Yokoi's Death". www.rfgeneration.com. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
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11. Mel Gussow (8 October 1997). "Arthur Tracy, 98, Musical Star Known as the Street Singer". The New York Times. p. B 7. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
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