The following is a list of notable deaths in March 1989.

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 1989

1

• Annie Ackerman, 75, American political activist, cancer.
• Mukul Dey, 93, Indian pioneer of drypoint-etching.
• Vasantdada Patil, 71, Indian politician, Governor of Rajasthan.
• Odie Payne, 62, American Chicago blues drummer.
• Frank W. Preston, 92, English-American engineer, ecologist and conservationist.
• Mark M. Ravitch, 78, American surgeon, colon and prostate cancer.^[1]

2

• John Bryans, British actor.
• Tamás Kertész, 59, Hungarian international footballer.

3

• Ned McGehee, 81, American football and baseball coach.
• Richard B. Morris, 84, American historian, melanoma.^[2]
• Dong Qiwu, 89, Chinese general in the People's Liberation Army.
• Pauline Toner, 53, Australian politician, cabinet minister Victorian Parliament, cancer.

4

• Tiny Grimes, 72, American jazz and R&B guitarist, meningitis.
• E. Wilson Lyon, 84, American diplomatic historian, president of Pomona College.^[3]
• Edward Makuka Nkoloso, 69–70, member of Zambian resistance movement.
• Randolph Rose, 87, New Zealand middle-distance runner.
• Lewis K. Sillcox, 102, American president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

5

• Prithvi Singh Azad, 96, Indian independence activist.
• Richmond Barthé, 88, American sculptor.
• Emory Hines, 76, American football and baseball coach.
• Ray Hunt, 70, Australian rules footballer.

6

• Harry Andrews, 77, English actor.^[4]
• John Green, 67, American NFL footballer.
• Franca Marzi, 62, Italian film actress.
• Jim MacDonald, 71, Australian politician.

7

• Paul Boesch, 76, American professional wrestler and promoter, heart attack.
• Jean Colin, 83, English actress.
• Norman Saunders, 82, American commercial artist.
• Karel Velebný, 57, Czech jazz musician, composer, arranger, actor and writer.

8

• Elisaveta Bykova, 75, Soviet chess player and dual Women's World Chess Champion.
• Stuart Hamblen, 80, American singer, actor, radio show host and songwriter, brain cancer.^[5]
• Robert Lacoste, 90, French politician.

9

• André Hornez, 83, French lyricist and screenwriter.
• Robert Mapplethorpe, 42, American photographer, complications from AIDS.^[6]
• Sam Melville, 52, American film and television actor, heart failure.
• Hilda Strike, 78, Canadian track athlete and Olympic medalist.

10

• Selwyn Jepson, 89, English mystery and detective author and screenwriter.
• Maurizio Merli, 49, Italian film actor, myocardial infarction.

11

• William Challee, 84, American actor.
• James Kee, 71, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives.^[7]
• John J. McCloy, 93, American lawyer, diplomat, banker and presidential advisor, pulmonary edema.^[8]

12

• Maurice Evans, 87, English actor, heart failure.^[9]
• Sarge Ferris, 60, American professional poker player.
• John Baptist Lucius Noel, 99, British mountaineer and filmmaker.
• Chet Soda, 80, American businessman.
• Luigi Tosi, 73, Italian actor.

13

• Carl Dahlhaus, 60, German musicologist, kidney failure.
• James G. O'Hara, 63, American soldier and politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, lung cancer.
• Fahrettin Özdilek, 90–91, Turkish military officer and politician, acting Prime Minister of Turkey.

14

• Edward Abbey, 62, American author, environmentalist and anarchist, complications from surgery.^[10]
• Stephen Bechtel Sr., 88, American president of Bechtel Corporation.
• Francesco Paolo Bonifacio, 65, Italian politician and jurist, Minister of Justice, tumour.
• Zita of Bourbon-Parma, 96, last Queen of Hungary and Empress of Austria.
• Murder of Mark Kilroy, 21, American kidnapped and murdered in Mexico.
• Gladys Pyle, 98, American educator and politician, United States Senator.

15

• Henry Cass, 85, British director.
• Manlio Di Rosa, 74, Italian fencer and dual Olympic gold medalist.
• Charles Schultz, 73, American NFL footballer.

16

• Eddie Buczynski, 42, American archaeologist, parasitic infection.
• Jesús María de Leizaola, 92, Spanish politician, President of the Basque government in exile.
• Marcus Morris, 73, English Anglican priest.
• Charlie Vaughan, 67, English footballer.

17

• Beulah Ream Allen, 92, American nurse and physician, civilian physician during World War II.
• Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, 69, Indian Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, consequence of surgery.
• Merritt Butrick, 29, American actor, toxoplasmosis complicated by AIDS.
• Jacob Pieter Den Hartog, 87, Dutch-American mechanical engineer.
• Farman Karimzade, 52, Azerbaijani writer, screenwriter, film director and film producer, heart attack.

18

• Ian Begg, 78, Scottish Anglican prelate.
• Harold Jeffreys, 97, British geophysicist, opponent of plate tectonics.
• Ryūzō Kikushima, 75, Japanese writer and film producer.
• Piet Kruiver, 51, Dutch international footballer.
• George P. Mahoney, 87, American politician.
• Duane Purvis, 76, American footballer and javelin thrower.
• Max Tishler, 82, American organic chemist, emphysema.^[11]

19

• Alan Civil, 59, British horn player, liver and kidney failure.^[12]
• Juliette Compton, 89, American actress.
• Ethel Hays, 97, American syndicated cartoonist.
• Charles Lamb, 88, British stage, film and television actor.

20

• Archie Bleyer, 79, American song arranger, bandleader and record company executive.^[13]
• Alan Gifford, 78, American-actor who worked mainly in the UK.
• Nelson Lemmon, 80, Australian politician, played a key role in establishing the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
• Mogens Lüchow, 70, Danish fencer and dual Olympian.
• Dina Sfat, 50, Brazilian actress.

21

• Otis Douglas, 77, American NFL footballer and coach.^[14]
• Louis Dupree, 63, American archaeologist and anthropologist, lung cancer.^[15]
• Milton Frome, 80, American actor, congestive heart failure.^[16]
• John Kenneth Hilliard, 87, American acoustical and electrical engineer.
• Samuel Sezak, 82, American football and basketball coach.

22

• Park Am, 64, South Korean actor.
• Ivan Antonov, 68, Russian sniper in the Red Navy.
• Wally Heider, 66, American recording engineer and recording studio owner.^[17]
• Margaret Kidd, 89, Scottish legal advocate, editor and politician.
• Russ Meredith, 91, American NFL player and politician.

23

• F. W. S. Craig, 69, Scottish psephologist.
• George Marthins, 83, Indian hockey player and gold medalist.

24

• Robert Arundell, 84, British diplomat, Governor of the Windward Islands and Barbados.
• Arnett Cobb, 70, American tenor saxophonist.^[18]
• Reuben David, 76, Indian zoologist.
• Edward P. Hurt, 89, American football, basketball and track coach.

25

• Sa`id Al-Mufti, 90, Jordanian politician, Prime Minister of Jordan.
• C. L. Anandan, 55, Indian actor and producer.
• Reginald Le Borg, 86, Austrian film director, heart attack.

26

• Albert Guérisse, 77, Belgian resistance member.
• Marina Ried, 67, Russian-German stage and film actress.
• Asbjørn Ruud, 69, Norwegian ski jumper, Olympian and World Champion.
• Lewis William Walt, 76, United States Marine Corps four-star general.

27

• May Allison, 98, American stage and silent screen actress.
• Malcolm Cowley, 90, American writer, editor, historian, poet and literary critic, heart attack.^[19]
• Cláudio Santoro, 69, Brazilian composer, conductor and violinist.
• Jack Starrett, 52, American actor and film director, kidney failure.

28

• Nick Bremigan, 43, American Major League baseball umpire.^[20]
• Fang Chih, 93, Chinese politician, diplomat, author and Kuomintang official.
• William D. Cox, 79, American businessman and sports executive.
• Ian Dalrymple, 85, British screenwriter, and film director, editor and producer.
• Richard H. Ellis, 69, United States Air Force general.
• Josiah Zion Gumede, 69, president of unrecognised state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.
• Ippei Kaneko, 76, Japanese politician, finance minister.
• Madeleine Ozeray, 80, Belgian stage and film actress, cancer.
• Antonín Rýgr, 67, Czech international footballer and manager.
• Patrick Vallençant, 42, French alpinist and skier, pioneer in ski mountaineering, abseiling accident.
• Lockwood West, 83, British actor, cancer.
• Robert J. Wilke, 74, American film and television actor.

29

• Bernard Blier, 73, French actor.^[21]
• Aleksandr Prokopenko, 35, Soviet international footballer, choking.
• Xiao Jinguang, 86, Chinese Commander of People's Liberation Army Navy, colon cancer.
• Nicolae Steinhardt, 76, Romanian writer, Orthodox monk and lawyer.
• Charles Taylor, 78, English businessman and politician.

30

• Alan Albon, 68, British anarchist, pacifist and publisher.
• Bill Chappell, 67, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, bone cancer.^[22]
• Mike Sekowsky, 65, American comics artist.
• Arto Tolsa, 43, Finnish footballer.

31

• Piotr Belousov, 76, Ukrainian and Russian graphic artist and painter.
• Karl Fuchs, 68, German politician.
• Stan Penberthy, 82, Australian rules footballer.
• Francis H. Russell, 84, United States Ambassador to Tunisia, Ghana and New Zealand, heart attack.^[23]
• Millard Sheets, 81, American artist and architectural designer.