The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1996.

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.

May 1996

1

• Herbert Brownell, 92, American politician, cancer.^[1]
• Billy Byers, 69, American jazz trombonist and arranger.^[2]
• François Chalais, 76, French journalist, leukemia.
• Jim Gleeson, 84, American baseball player.^[3]
• Eric Houghton, 85, English football player and manager.^[4]
• David M. Kennedy, 90, American diplomat, cardiovascular disease.^[5]
• Luana Patten, 57, American actress (Song of the South, Johnny Tremain, Joe Dakota), respiratory failure.^[6]

2

• Emile Habibi, 73, Palestinian-Israeli writer and communist politician, cancer.^[7]
• Danny Kamekona, 60, American actor (The Karate Kid Part II, Problem Child, Honeymoon in Vegas).
• María Luisa Ponte, 77, Spanish actress.
• Henri Rust, 90, Dutch film editor.
• Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby, 97, British politician.^[8]

3

• Guy Casaril, 62, French film director.^[9]
• Donald G. Fink, 84, American engineer.^[10]
• Tim Gullikson, 44, American tennis player and coach, brain cancer.^[11]
• Alex Kellner, 71, American baseball player.^[12]
• Hermann Kesten, 96, German writer.^[13]
• Detlev Kittstein, 52, German field hockey player.^[14]
• Patsy Montana, 87, American country music singer-songwriter.^[15]
• Ray Stevens, 60, American professional wrestler, heart attack.
• Jack Weston, 71, American actor (Dirty Dancing, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Ritz), lymphoma.^[16]
• Keith Daniel Williams, 48, American murderer, execution by lethal injection.^[17]

4

• Jean Crépin, 87, French Army officer during World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War.^[18]
• Edward E. Haddock, 84, American politician.
• Gus Keriazakos, 64, American baseball player.^[19]
• Eduardo Franco Raymundo, 62, Spanish chess player.

5

• Gaëtan Duval, 65, Mauritian politician.^[20]
• David Lasser, 94, American writer and political activist.^[21]
• Rodney M. Love, 87, American politician.
• Jokūbas Minkevičius, 75, Lithuanian politician.
• Ai Qing, 86, Chinese poet.^[22]
• Salli Terri, 73, Canadian-American singer and arranger.^[23]
• Charles H. Zimmerman, 88, American aeronautical engineer.^[24]

6

• Donald T. Campbell, 79, American psychologist and scholar.^[25]
• Geoffrey S. Dawes, 78, British fetal physiologist.
• Ed Love, 85, American animator.^[26]
• Hamlet Mkhitaryan, 33, Soviet/Russian football player, brain cancer.
• Wally Nightingale, 40, British musician, drug-related illness.
• Suzanne Ridgeway, 78, American film actress.
• Leo Joseph Suenens, 91, Belgian Roman Catholic cardinal, thrombosis.^[27]

7

• William Copley, 77, American painter, writer, and gallerist.
• Don McNeill, 88, American radio personality.^[28]
• Albert Meltzer, 76, British anarchist.^[29]
• Narciso G. Reyes, 82, Filipino diplomat and author.
• José Lázaro Robles, 72, Brazilian football player.
• Howard Smith, 76, British diplomat.

8

• Beryl Burton, 58, English racing cyclist, heart attack.^[30]
• Serge Chermayeff, 95, Russian-British architect, industrial designer, and writer.^[31]
• Luis Miguel Dominguín, 69, Spanish bullfighter, cerebral hemorrhage.^[32]
• Robert Geib, 84, Luxembourgish football player.^[33]
• Ludwig Hoelscher, 88, German composer, musician and music educator.^[34]
• Bill Naito, 70, American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist, cancer.
• Celedonio Romero, 83, Spanish musician.^[35]
• Karl Ullrich, 85, German SS officer during World War II.
• Garth Williams, 84, American children's illustrator.^[36]

9

• Khaptad Baba, 1995, Nepalese spiritual saint.
• Lu Dingyi, 89, Chinese politician.
• Carl Fallberg, 80, American cartoonist and artist.^[37]
• Gustave Gingras, 78, Canadian physician.
• Calvin Waller, 58, United States Army lieutenant general, complications from a heart attack.^[38]

10

• Jože Babič, 79, Slovenian filmmaker.
• Poul Borum, 61, Danish poet and writer.
• Joe Holden, 82, American baseball player, manager and scout.^[39]
• Ethel Smith, 93, American organist.
• Curt Teichert, 91, German-American palaeontologist and geologist.^[40]

11

• Nnamdi Azikiwe, 91, President of Nigeria.^[41]
• Rodney Culver, 26, American football running back, plane crash.^[42]
• Ademir de Menezes, 73, Brazilian football player and manager.
• Øivind Johannessen, 71, Norwegian football player.
• Sam Ragan, 80, American poet.^[43]
• Vittorio Sala, 77, Italian screenwriter and film director.^[44]
• Princess Maria de los Dolores of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, 86, Sicillian princess.^[45]
• Mikheil Tumanishvili, 75, Soviet theatre director.
• Merrill B. Twining, 93, United States Marine Corps general.^[46]
• Ivan Vyshnevskyi, 39, Ukrainian football player, melanoma.
• Margaret Wright, 76, American politician and community activist.
• Notable climbers killed in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster^[47]
  • Scott Fischer, 40, American mountaineer.
  • Rob Hall, 35, New Zealand mountaineer.
  • Yasuko Namba, 47, Japanese businesswoman.
  • Andy Harris, 31, New Zealand mountain guide.

12

• Ghazaleh Alizadeh, 47, Iranian poet and writer, suicide.
• Richard Kendall Brooke, 66, South African ornithologist.
• Homer Keller, 81, American composer of contemporary classical music.^[48]
• Mohamed Abdel Rahman, 81, Egyptian fencer.
• Martin Roman, 86, German jazz pianist.^[49]

13

• Harry Hyde, 71, American NASCAR crew chief, myocardial infarction.
• William Hughes Mulligan, 78, American judge.^[50]
• Morris Edward Opler, 89, American anthropologist.^[51]
• Chaim Menachem Rabin, 80, Israeli linguist.^[52]

14

• Marian Barone, 72, American gymnast and olympian.^[53]
• Vera Chapman, 98, British writer.
• Edward Gurney, 82, American attorney and politician.^[54]
• Jan Hertl, 67, Czech football player.
• Sridharan Jeganathan, 44, Sri Lankan cricket player.
• Ludwig Preiß, 85, German politician.^[55]
• Dick Randall, 70, American filmmaker.
• Adone Stellin, 75, Italian association football player.^[56]
• Kumi Sugai, 77, Japanese painter, sculptor and printmaker.
• Usilaimani, 62, Tamil actor.
• Leopold Šťastný, 84, Czechoslovak soccer player and coach.

15

• Nordine Ben Ali, 76, Algerian-French football player and manager.^[57]
• Javier del Granado, 83, Bolivian writer.
• Newt V. Mills, 96, American politician.
• Paul Nogier, 87, French neurologist and physician.^[58]
• Virgil Walter Ross, 88, American animator.

16

• Danilo Alvim, 75, Brazilian football player and manager, pneumonia.^[59]
• Jeremy Michael Boorda, 56, American admiral, suicide.^[60]
• Claude Gordon, 80, American trumpeter, band director, educator, and author, cancer.^[61]
• Olga Madar, 80, American labor unionist.^[62]

17

• Scott Brayton, 37, American open-wheel racing driver, racing accident.
• Willis Conover, 75, American radio producer, lung cancer.^[63]
• Mary Haas, 86, American linguist.^[64]
• Rusi Modi, 71, Indian cricket player.
• Nick Origlass, 88, Australian Trotskyist politician.^[65]
• Johnny "Guitar" Watson, 61, American musician and singer-songwriter, myocardial infarction.^[66]

18

• Czesław Bobrowski, 92, Polish politician and economist.
• Mario Braggiotti, 90, American pianist, composer and raconteur.^[67]
• Dawee Chullasapya, 81, Thai Air Force air marshal.
• Chet Forte, 60, American television director and sports radio talk show host, heart attack.^[68]
• Kevin Gilbert, 29, American musician, accidental asphyxiation.
• Yosef Porat, 86, German-Israeli chess player.
• T. B. Werapitiya, 71, Sri Lankan cricket player.

19

• John Beradino, 79, American baseball player and actor, pancreatic cancer.^[69]
• Herbert Büchs, 82, German Air Force officer.
• Jake Ford, 50, American basketball player.^[70]
• Hideji Hōjō, 93, Japanese author, novelist, and playwright.
• Janaki Ramachandran, 72, Indian actor and politician, cardiac arrest.
• Margaret Rawlings, 89, English actress.^[71]
• Charles Verlinden, 89, Belgian medievalist.
• Zygmunt Ziembiński, 75, Polish legal philosopher and logician.

20

• Jean-Jacques Delbo, 87, French actor.^[72]
• Dean Harens, 75, American actor.
• Jon Pertwee, 76, English actor, comedian, cabaret performer and TV presenter, heart attack.^[73]
• Janez Vidic, 73, Slovene painter and illustrator.

21

• Vladimir Belyakov, 78, Soviet gymnast.^[74]
• Paul Delph, 39, American musician.
• Raffaele di Paco, 87, Italian road racing cyclist.^[75]
• Karl Hoffmann, 81, German Indologist.
• Fernando Volio Jiménez, 71, Costa Rican politician.
• Lash LaRue, 78, American actor, pulmonary emphysema.^[76]
• Fritz Ligges, 57, German equestrian, heart attack.^[77]

22

• Robert Christie, 82, Canadian actor and director.
• Cuthbert Hurd, 85, American computer scientist and entrepreneur.^[78]
• Seymour H. Knox III, 70, American sports executive.
• Veikko Lavi, 84, Finnish singer, songwriter and writer.
• Maurice Piot, 83, French fencer.^[79]
• George H. Smith, 73, American writer.
• Wong Peng Soon, 78, Malaysian badminton player, pneumonia.

23

• Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, 46, Egyptian al-Qaeda leader, drowned.
• Patrick Cargill, 77, English actor, brain cancer.^[80]
• Dorothy Hyson, 81, American actress, stroke.^[81]
• Sim Iness, 65, Athletics competitor.^[82]
• Evert Karlsson, 75, Swedish ski jumper.^[83]
• Bernhard Klodt, 69, German football player, heart attack.
• Kronid Lyubarsky, 62, Soviet dissident, heart attack.
• Tanju Okan, 57, Turkish recording artist; singer, cirrhosis.
• Peter Pasetti, 79, German actor, cancer.

24

• John Abbott, 90, English actor.^[84]
• Jorge Bolaños, 51, Ecuadorian football player.
• Harry Campion, 91, British statistician and director.
• Thomas Connolly, 86,United States Navy admiral , aviator, gymnast and Olympic medalist.^[85]
• José Cuatrecasas, 93, Spanish-American pharmacist and botanist.
• Jacob Druckman, 67, American composer, lung cancer.^[86]
• Enrique Álvarez Félix, 62, Mexican actor, heart attack.
• Johan Kraag, 82, President of Suriname.
• Joseph Mitchell, 87, American writer.^[87]
• Kshitindramohan Naha, 64, Indian geologist and professor.
• Lois Pereiro, 38, Poet; writer, AIDS-related complications.
• Norman René, 45, American director, AIDS-related complications.^[88]
• Roland Varno, 88, Dutch-American actor and secret agent.^[89]

25

• Renzo De Felice, 67, Italian historian.^[90]
• John Morrison, 1st Baron Margadale, 89, British politician.
• Guy Mazeline, 96, French writer.
• Bradley Nowell, 28, American musician and the lead singer and guitarist of Sublime, opioid overdose.
• Vladimir Ukhov, 72, Russian racewalker.^[91]
• Barney Wilen, 59, French saxophonist.^[92]
• Dimitar Yordanov, 66, Bulgarian football player.

26

• Ole Berntsen, 81, Danish sailor.^[93]
• Don Bollweg, 75, American baseball player.^[94]
• Haika Grossman, 76, Israeli politician and member of Knesset.
• Gerard Hallock, 90, American ice hockey player.
• Stefan Jędrychowski, 86, Polish journalist and communist politician.
• Ovidiu Papadima, 86, Romanian literary critic, folklorist, and essayist.^[95]
• Milan Ribar, 66, Yugoslav/Croatian football manager.
• Heije Schaper, 89, Dutch lieutenant general of the Royal Netherlands Air Force and politician.^[96]
• Mike Sharperson, 34, American baseball player, accident.^[97]

27

• George Boolos, 55, American philosopher and mathematical logician, pancreas cancer.^[98]
• Pud Brown, 79, American jazz reed player.^[99]
• Aksel Bonde Hansen, 77, Danish rower.^[100]
• Philip B. Healey, 74, American politician.^[101]

28

• Walter Brandi, 68, Italian actor.
• Nirmala Devi, 68, Indian film actress and singer.
• George Kojac, 86, American swimmer and Olympic champion.^[102]
• Rollin Prather, 70, Canadian football player.
• Jimmy Rowles, 77, American jazz pianist, vocalist, and composer.^[103]

29

• Jennings Lang, 81, American actor, pneumonia.^[104]
• Isidro Maiztegui, 90, Argentinian composer.
• Antonín Mrkos, 78, Czech astronomer.
• Hrant Shahinyan, 72, Soviet/Armenian gymnast.^[105]
• Jeremy Sinden, 45, British actor, lung cancer.
• Tamara Toumanova, 77, Russian ballet dancer.^[106]

30

• John Cameron, Lord Cameron, 96, Scottish judge.^[107]
• Heather Canning, 63, English actress.
• William Dally, 88, American rower.^[108]
• Léon-Étienne Duval, 92, French catholic prelate and cardinal.^[109]
• François Genoud, 80, Swiss Nazi collaborator, suicide.^[110]
• John Kahn, 48, American bass guitarist.
• Alo Mattiisen, 35, Estonian composer.
• Arthur "T-Boy" Ross, 47, American singer-songwriter.
• Natividad Vacío, 83, American actor.

31

• Walter C. Beckham, 80, United States Army Air Forces fighter ace and nuclear scientist.
• Ton de Leeuw, 69, Dutch composer.^[111]
• Luciano Lama, 74, Italian politician and trade unionist.^[112]
• Timothy Leary, 75, American psychologist and writer, prostate cancer.^[113]
• Thomas Francis Xavier Smith, 67, American politician, cancer.^[114]