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The following is a list of notable deaths in March 1988.

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.

March 1988

1

Joe Besser, 80, American actor, comedian and musician, heart failure.^[1]
Tommy Breen, 75, Irish international footballer.
George B. Harper, 69, American politician, member of the New Jersey Senate.
Yoshi Katō, 75, Japanese stage and film actor.
Luis Márquez, 62, Puerto Rican Major League baseballer, murdered.
Tommy Potter, 69, American jazz double bassist.
Jean Le Poulain, 63, French stage actor and director.^[2]

2

Raymond Hewitt, 47, American civil rights activist, leader of the Black Panther Party, heart attack.
Harry Lundahl, 82, Swedish international footballer and manager.
Thomas Vezzetti, 59–60, American politician, mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, heart attack.^[3]

3

Harold Langley, 84, British triple jumper and Olympian.
Henryk Szeryng, 69, Polish-Mexican violinist, cerebral hemorrhage.^[4]
Lois Wilson, 93, American silent-screen actress, pneumonia.^[5]
Sewall Wright, 98, American geneticist.

4

James Peter Davis, 83, American Roman Catholic bishop.^[6]
Bobby Etheridge, 54, English footballer and first-class cricketer.
J. Brooke Mosley, 72, American bishop.
Franco Scalamandré, 89, Italian-American textile designer, co-founder of Scalamandré Inc.

5

Ron Coe, 91, English professional cyclist.
Santosh Dutta, 62, Bengali actor.
Lewis J. Fields, 78, American lieutenant general in U.S. Marine Corps.
János Németh, 81, Hungarian water polo player and Olympic gold medalist.
Alberto Olmedo, 54, Argentine comedian and actor, fall from building.
Mathilde Pincus, 70–71, American music supervisor.^[7]
Rudolph Schaeffer, 101, American arts educator and artist.

6

Jeanne Aubert, 88, French singer and actress.
Mairéad Farrell, 31, member of Provisional Irish Republican Army, shot by British army.
Joan Hassall, 82, English wood engraver and book illustrator.
Daniel McCann, 30, member of Provisional Irish Republican Army, shot by British army.
Dick Ricketts, 54, American Major League baseballer and NBA basketballer, leukemia.
Seán Savage, 23, member of Provisional Irish Republican Army, shot by British army.

7

Edmund Berkeley, 79, American computer scientist.
Guido Celano, 83, Italian actor, voice actor and film director.
Divine, 42, American singer, actor and drag queen, heart failure.^[8]
Martin Finn, 70, Irish politician.
Robert Livingston, 83, American film actor.^[9]
Joe Loco, 66, Puerto Rican Latin jazz and pop pianist and arranger.
Prakash Mehrotra, 63, Indian politician.
Olof Stahre, 78, Swedish Army officer, horse rider and Olympic gold medalist.

8

Gordon Carpenter, 68, American basketballer and Olympic gold medalist.
Amar Singh Chamkila, 27, Indian singer and musician, gunned down.
Ken Colyer, 59, English jazz trumpeter and cornetist.
Werner Hartmann, 76, German physicist, complications after prostate surgery.
Frank Osborne, 91, South-African-English international footballer.
Lala Abdul Rashid, 65, Pakistani hockey player and Olympic gold medalist.

9

Ronald Cove-Smith, 88, English international rugby union player, vice-president of British Medical Association.
Milton Galamison, 64, American Presbyterian minister.^[10]
Kurt Georg Kiesinger, 83, West German politician, Chancellor of Federal Republic of Germany.^[11]
M. E. Aldrich Rope, 96, English stained-glass artist.
M. B. Sreenivasan, 62, Indian music director, heart attack.

10

Glenn Cunningham, 78, American middle-distance runner and Olympic medalist.^[12]
Andy Gibb, 30, English singer, songwriter and performer, myocarditis.^[13]
Svetislav Glišović, 74, Yugoslavian international footballer and manager.
Phạm Hùng, 75, Vietnamese politician, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.^[14]
Nikolay Karakulov, 69, Soviet sprinter and European champion.
Abdul Khaliq, 54, Pakistani sprinter.
Jock Semple, 84, Scottish-American runner and sports official, cancer of the liver and pancreas.
Joey Sternaman, 88, American NFL footballer.
William Wordsworth, 79, English composer.

11

Rashid Bakr, 54, Sudanese politician, Prime Minister of Sudan.
Christianna Brand, 80, British crime writer and children's author.
Khurshid Hasan Khurshid, 64, Indian-Pakistani politician, President of Azad Kashmir, road accident.
Jackie O'Driscoll, 66, Irish international footballer.

12

Samaresh Basu, 63, Indian writer.
Romare Bearden, 76, American artist, author and songwriter, complications from bone cancer.^[15]
Arnold Bell, 86, British actor.
DeWitt Bodeen, 79, American film screenwriter and television writer.
Charles Cochran Kirkpatrick, 80, American rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
Alvin McCoy, 84, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner.
Bernard Rudofsky, 82, Austrian-American writer and architect.^[16]
Karen Steele, 56, American actress and model, cancer.

13

Dino Bovoli, 73, Italian footballer and coach.
Olive Carey, 92, American film and television actress.^[17]
John Holmes, 43, American pornographic film actor, cardio-respiratory arrest and encephalitis due to AIDS.^[18]
Patesko, 77, Brazilian international footballer.
Vladimir Sakson, 60, Soviet painter, book illustrator and stage designer.
Steno, 71, Italian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.

14

Abbas Abbasi, 63, Pakistani hereditary leader, Nawab and Amir of Bahawalpur State.
Willi Apel, 94, German-American musicologist and author.
Bruno Balz, 85, German songwriter.
Rudolf Gramlich, 79, SS officer and German international footballer.
Henrik Malyan, 62, Georgian-Armenian film director and writer.
Saul Weingeroff, 72, American professional wrestling manager.

15

Ron Camm, 73, Australian politician, member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Chevene Bowers King, 64, American attorney and civil rights leader, prostate cancer.
Ruth Crosby Noble, 91, American author and herpetologist.^[19]
Frank Perkins, 79, American song composer.
Dmitri Polyakov, 66, Ukrainian-Soviet operative and spy for the United States, executed by shooting.
William J. Porter, 73, British-American diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Algeria, South Korea, Canada and Saudi Arabia, cancer.^[20]
Victor Wickersham, 82, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

16

Dorothy Adams, 88, American actress of stage, film and television.
António Augusto Peixoto Correia, 74, Portuguese colonial governor of Cape Verde, Governor-general of Guinea-Bissau.
Rollie Dotsch, 75, American football coach, pancreatic cancer.
Paul Kohner, 85, Austro-Hungarian–born American talent agent and producer, heart attack.^[21]
Albert Kónya, 70, Hungarian physicist and politician, Minister of Education.
Erich Probst, 60, Austrian international footballer.
Dannie Richmond, 56, American jazz drummer, heart attack.^[22]
Jigger Statz, 90, American Major League baseballer.
Luther Merritt Swygert, 83, United States circuit judge.
Mickey Thompson, 59, American auto racing builder and promoter, gunned down.

17

Bruce C. Clarke, 86, United States Army general, stroke.^[23]
Roland Drew, 87, American actor.^[24]
Leif Granli, 78, Norwegian politician, President of the Storting.
Reg Halton, 71, English footballer and Minor Counties cricketer.
Franz-Otto Krüger, 70, German film and television actor.
Tan Siew Sin, 71, Malaysian politician, Minister of Finance.

18

Gerald Abraham, 84, English musicologist, editor and music critic.
Billy Butterfield, 71, American jazz bandleader, trumpeter, flugelhornist and cornetist.^[25]
Waldemar Sjölander, 80, Swedish painter, printmaker and sculptor.
Percy Thrower, 75, British gardener, horticulturist, broadcaster and writer.

19

Reyner Banham, 66, English architectural critic and writer.^[26]
Sabino Barinaga, 65, Spanish footballer and manager, heart disease.
Philip Birnbaum, 83, American religious author and translator.^[27]
John Otis Brew, 81, American archaeologist.
Bun Cook, 84, Canadian ice hockey player and coach.
Máirtín Ó Direáin, 77, Irish poet.
Suzy Frelinghuysen, (a.k.a. Suzy Morris), 76, American abstract painter and opera singer, stroke.^[28]
Sid Harkreader, 90, American fiddle player and string band leader.

20

Dick Bell, 74, Canadian politician, member of the Canadian Parliament.
Gil Evans, 75, Canadian-American jazz pianist, composer and bandleader, peritonitis from prostate surgery.^[29]
Samuel W. Reynolds, 97, United States senator.
Agnes Wright Spring, 94, American journalist, writer and historian.

21

Virginia Axline, 76, American psychologist.
Marie Burke, 93, English actress of stage, cinema and television.
Walter Fricke, 72, German professor of theoretical astronomy, mathematician and cryptanalyst, cancer.
Edd Roush, 94, American Major League baseballer.
Charley Shipp, 74, American NBA basketballer and coach.
Sigfrit Steiner, 81, Swiss actor.
Patrick Steptoe, 74, English obstetrician and gynaecologist, pioneer of in-vitro fertilisation.^[30]

22

Gudmund Harlem, 70, Norwegian physician and politician.
Rudolf Matz, 86, Croatian composer.
Lester Rawlins, 63, American stage, screen and television actor, cardiac arrest.^[31]
P. B. A. Weerakoon, 88, Sri Lankan educator and politician, member of the Ceylon Parliament.

23

Jimmy Jacobs, 58, American handball player, leukemia.
Isaiah L. Kenen, 83, Canadian-American journalist, lawyer and philanthropist.
Murder of Deborah Linsley, 22, English murder victim.
Dayton Lummis, 84, American film, television and theatre actor.
Geoff McInnes, 79, Australian rules footballer.
Pash, 37, Indian poet, gunned down.

24

Heinrich Aigner, 63, German politician.
Turhan Feyzioğlu, 65–66, Turkish academic and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey.
Abdullahi Issa, 67, Somali politician, Prime Minister of Italian Somalia.
William Moseley Jones, 82, American attorney, speaker of the California State Assembly.
Roger Loyer, 80, French motorcycle road racer.

25

James J. Howard, 60, American educator and politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, heart attack.^[32]
Robert Joffrey, 57, American dancer, teacher, producer and choreographer, organ failure.
Thomas William Lyons, 64, American Roman Catholic bishop, hepatitis from transfusion.
Al Schwartz, 77, American screenwriter, television producer and director, brother of Sherwood Schwartz.

26

Miguel Abuelo, 42, Argentine rock musician and singer, cardiac arrest.
Julian Pierce, 42, American lawyer and activist, murdered (body found on this date).

27

Renato Salvatori, 55, Italian actor, liver cirrhosis.
Charles Willeford, 69, American writer, heart attack.

28

Alan Crawford, 72, Australian rules footballer.
Frans Peeraer, 75, Belgian international footballer.
S. N. Tripathi, 75, Indian composer.

29

Maurice Blackburn, 73, Canadian composer and conductor.
Arkady Bochkaryov, 57, Soviet basketballer and Olympic medalist.
Ted Kluszewski, 63, American Major League baseballer, heart attack.
Dulcie September, 52, South African anti-Apartheid activist, assassinated.^[33]

30

Ranulph Bacon, 81, British police officer, Inspector-General of Police of British Ceylon.
Edgar Faure, 79, French politician, lawyer and historian, Prime Minister of France.^[34]
John Clellon Holmes, 62, American author, poet and professor, cancer.^[35]
Jimmy McGuigan, 64, Scottish footballer and manager.
Doris Pawn, 93, American silent-screen actress.
Luis Ravaschino, 85, Argentinian international footballer.
Senerath Somaratne, 58, Sri Lankan politician.

31

Vincent Madeley Harris, 74, American Roman Catholic bishop.
Sir William McMahon, 80, Australian politician, Prime Minister of Australia.^[36]

References

^ "Joe Besser, 80, od rhw 3 Stooges". The New York Times. March 2, 1988. p. A 20. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Steven Greenhouse, Special To the New York Times (March 3, 1988). "Jean Le Poulain, Actor, Dies at 63; Director of the Comedie Francaise". The New York Times. p. D 20. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Thomas Vezzetti, 59, Hoboken Mayor, Dies". The New York Times. March 3, 1988. p. D 20. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Krajowa Agencja Informacyjna (Poland) (1988). Biuletyn informacyjny. p. 5.
^ "Lois Wilson, Actress of Stage, Television and Silent-Film Era". New York Times. Associated Press. March 10, 1988. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
^ "James Peter Davis, Retired Archbishop, 83". The New York Times. March 8, 1988. p. D 31. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Mathilde Pincus Dies; Music Supervisor, 71". The New York Times. March 8, 1988. p. D 31. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Bernard Jay (August 10, 1994). Not Simply Divine. Simon and Schuster. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-671-88467-3.
^ "Robert Livingston, 83, An Actor in 100 Films". The New York Times. March 10, 1988. p. D 22. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Glenn Fowler (March 11, 1988). "Milton Galamison, Leader in a Dispute Over the Schools, 65". The New York Times. p. D 18. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Wolfgang Saxon (March 10, 1988). "Kurt Kiesinger, 60's Bonn Leader And Former Nazi, Is Dead at 83". The New York Times. p. D 22. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Thomas Rogers (March 11, 1988). "Glenn Cunningham, 78, Premier Miler of 1930's". The New York Times. p. D 18. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Gibb's Death Tied to Natural Causes". LA Times. UPI. March 12, 1988. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
^ Summary of World Broadcasts: The Far East. Part III. Monitoring Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. 1988. pp. 7–10.
^ C. Gerald Fraser (March 13, 1988). "Romare Bearden, Collagist and Painter, Dies at 75". The New York Times. p. 1 36. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Maura Reynolds (March 13, 1988). "Bernard Rudofsky, 82, Architect And 'Outspoken' Social Analyst". The New York Times. p. 1 36. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Olive Carey Dies at 92; Longtime Film Actress". The New York Times. March 17, 1988. p. B 10. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "John Holmes, 43, Dies; Was Star of Sex Films". The New York Times. March 15, 1988. p. B 8. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Ruth Crosby Noble, Author, 91". The New York Times. March 31, 1988. p. B 11. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
^ "William Porter, 73, U.S. Delegate At Vietnam Peace Talks, Is Dead". The New York Times. March 17, 1988. p. B 10. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Andrew Yarrow (March 19, 1988). "Paul Kohner, Hollywood Agent And Film Producer, Is Dead at 85". The New York Times. p. 1 33. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Dannie Richmond, 56, Drummer With Mingus". The New York Times. March 18, 1988. p. D 23. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Marvine Howe (March 20, 1988). "Gen. Bruce C. Clarke Dies at 86; Ex-Army Commander in Europe". The New York Times. p. 1 36. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Roland Drew; Actor, 87". The New York Times. March 19, 1988. p. 1 33. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Billy Butterfield, 71, Big-Band Trumpeter On Shaw's 'Stardust'". The New York Times. March 19, 1988. p. 1 33. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Paul Goldberger (March 22, 1988). "Reyner Banham, Architectural Critic, Dies at 66". The New York Times. p. B 5. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Ari L. Goldman (March 22, 1988). "Philip Birnbaum, 83, Author of Books For Jewish Liturgy". The New York Times. p. B 5. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ "Suzy Frelinghuysen, Artist, Is Dead at 76". The New York Times. March 23, 1988. p. D 27. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Peter Watrous (March 22, 1988). "Gil Evans, a Key Jazz Composer And Orchestrator, Is Dead at 75". The New York Times. p. B 4. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Walter Sullivan (March 23, 1988). "Dr. Patrick Steptoe Is Dead at 74; Opened Era of 'Test Tube' Babies". The New York Times. p. D 27. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Jennifer A. Kingson (March 29, 1988). "Lester Rawlins, 63, Stage TV Actor; Won Tony for 'Da'". The New York Times. p. D 25. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Clifford D. May, Special To the New York Times (March 26, 1988). "James Howard, Congressman, Is Dead at 60". The New York Times. p. 1 38. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Hilton Hamann (2001). Days of the Generals. Zebra. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-86872-340-9.
^ The Annual Obituary. St. Martin's. 1988. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-55862-050-6.
^ John T. McQuiston (March 31, 1988). "John Clellon Holmes, 62, Novelist And Poet of the Beat Generation". The New York Times. p. B 11. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
^ Asia Yearbook. Review Publishing Company. 1989. p. 254. ISBN 978-962-7010-33-3.

1980s deaths by month

1989	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1988	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1987	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1986	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1985	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1984	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1983	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1982	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1981	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1980	Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

1960s ← 1970s ← Lists of deaths by year → 1990s → 2000s