Deaths in August 1987

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The following is a list of notable deaths in August 1987.

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.

August 1987

1

• Benson Fong, 70, American actor, stroke. ^[1]
• Howdy Forrester, 65, American bluegrass fiddler.
• S. Marshall Kempner, 88, American investment banker, founder of the French Bank of California. ^[2]
• Pola Negri, 90, Polish-American stage and film actress and singer, pneumonia secondary to a brain tumour. ^[3]

2

• Mohammad Choucair, 70, Lebanese politician, assassinated.
• Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, 66, President of Bangladesh, Chairman of U.N. Commission on Human Rights, heart attack. ^[4]
• Tom Doerr, 39–40, American gay activist.
• Jaime Ferrer, 70, Filipino lawyer, guerrilla and politician, Secretary of Local Government, assassinated.
• Clement Howell, 51, Turks and Caicos politician, aircraft disappearance and presumed crash.
• David N. Johnson, 65, American organist, composer and choral clinician.
• Nandadasa Kodagoda, 67, Sri Lankan medical doctor, Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo.
• David A. Martin, 50, American founding member and original bass player for the rock group Sam the Sham, heart attack.
• Mangkunegara VIII, 62, Indonesian politician, last ruler of Mangkunegaran, Java.
• Myron Stout, 78–79, American abstract painter, lung cancer. ^[5]
• Yves Volel, 52–53, Haitian lawyer, activist and presidential candidate, assassinated.

3

• Garrick Agnew, 56, Australian competition swimmer, businessman and dual Olympian, heart attack.
• Edward Cowart, 62, American circuit judge, heart attack.
• Joseph Desch, 80, American electrical engineer and inventor.
• Dorothy Hammerstein, 88, Australian-American interior designer and decorator, wife of Oscar Hammerstein II.
• William S. Moorhead, 64, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, lung cancer. ^[6]
• Ivan Mykolaichuk, 46, Ukrainian actor, producer and screen writer.
• Ivan Svanidze, 59, German-Soviet academic specialising in agriculture and African Studies.

4

• Dick Farney, 65, Brazilian jazz pianist, composer and singer.
• Kenny Price, 56, American country music singer, songwriter and actor, heart attack.
• Jesse M. Unruh, 64, American politician, minority leader and speaker of the California Assembly, prostate cancer.
• John W. Wydler, 63, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives.

5

• Anatoli Papanov, 64, Soviet stage, film and voice actor, heart attack.
• Salvador Flores Rivera, 67, Mexican composer and singer.
• Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, 59, Japanese novelist, art critic and translator of French literature, ruptured carotid aneurysm.

6

• Abbas Babaei, 36, Iranian pilot, brigadier-general in Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force during Iran-Iraq War, shot down.
• Sherwood Bailey, 64, American child actor and civil engineer, cancer.
• Paula Bauersmith, 78, American actress, cancer. ^[7]
• Ira C. Eaker, 91, U.S. Army Air Forces general during World War II. ^[8]
• Lena Küchler-Silberman, 77, Polish member of the Jewish resistance.
• Myles Lane, 83, American NHL ice hockey player.
• Léon Noël, 99, French diplomat, politician and historian.

7

• Mihailo Apostolski, 80, Macedonian general, politician and historian.
• Jeanne Boitel, 83, French film actress.
• Camille Chamoun, 87, President of Lebanon, heart attack.
• Andrew D. Holt, 82, American educator, president of the University of Tennessee.
• Nobusuke Kishi, 90, Japanese politician, Prime Minister of Japan. ^[9]
• Jaap van Praag, 77, Dutch football administrator, chairman AFC Ajax, traffic accident.

8

• Danilo Blanuša, 83, Yugoslavian mathematician, physicist and engineer, professor at the University of Zagreb.
• Julián Gorkin, 86, Spanish revolutionary socialist.
• Laurence Hyde, 73, English-Canadian film maker, painter and graphic artist.
• Nirmal Mahto, 36, Indian political activist, murdered.
• Trevor O'Keeffe, 18–19, Irish man murdered while hitchhiking in France.
• Irwin Schiff, 50, New York City businessman and mob associate, murdered.

9

• Rudolf Broby-Johansen, 86, Danish art historian, communist activist and writer.
• Leon Keyserling, 79, American economist and lawyer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
• August Miete, 78, Nazi German SS functionary, sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Henry Morgan, 80, Irish first-class cricketer.

10

• Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas, 94, Greek poet, lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Greece.
• Casey Donovan, 43, American pornographic actor, AIDS-related pulmonary infection.
• Edmund Germer, 85, German inventor, father of the fluorescent lamp.
• Uys Krige, 77, South African writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays.
• Patrick O'Boyle, 91, American Roman Catholic prelate.
• Prince Yamashina Takehiko, 89, Japanese head of the Yamashina-no-miya.
• Raquel Torres, 78, Mexican-American film actress, heart attack. ^[10]

11

• Eugene Bordinat, 67, American automobile designer and corporate executive. ^[11]
• Živko Čingo, 51, Yugoslavian writer.
• F. Herrick Herrick, 85, American film director and philatelist.
• Walter Herrmann, 76, German nuclear physicist and mechanical engineer.
• Clara Peller, 85, Russian-American manicurist and television personality, congestive heart failure. ^[12]
• Alexander Ziegler, 43, Swiss author and actor, suicide.

12

• Crystal Bennett, 68, British archaeologist.
• Lester Gaba, 80, American sculptor and writer, colon cancer. ^[13]
• Dmitri Klebanov, 69, Ukrainian composer.
• Sally Long, 85, American dancer and actress.
• Fatime Sokoli, 39, Albanian folk music singer.

13

• Thomas B. Manuel, 88, American community leader and politician, heart attack.

14

• Sydney Bromley, 78, English actor, cancer.
• Bernard Fagg, 71, British archaeologist and museum curator.
• Mary-Louise Hooper, 80, American heiress and activist in the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements.
• Narayana Kasturi, 89, Indian writer, professor and journalist.
• Brewster Mason, 64, English stage, film and television actor, injuries from a fall.
• Vincent Persichetti, 72, American composer and pianist. ^[14]
• Edgar Rosenberg, 61, German-British film and television producer, suicide by overdose. ^[15]
• Shigeo Sasaki, 74, Japanese mathematician working on differential geometry Sasakian manifolds.

15

• Konstantin Aleksandrov, 67, Soviet sailor and Olympian.
• Hanna Greally, 63, Irish writer.
• Ubaldo Ragona, 70, Italian film director and screenwriter.
• Dan Sandifer, 60, American NFL player, heart disease.
• Robert Leonard Ewing Scott, 90, American convicted murderer.
• Louis Scutenaire, 82, Belgian French-language poet and anarchist.
• K. K. Shetty, 86, Indian politician, Member of Parliament.

16

• Pepe Cáceres, 52, Colombian bullfighter.
• Dorothy Hughes, 77, English-Kenyan architect, politician, social reformer and disability activist.
• Sumiko Kurishima, 85, Japanese actress, master of traditional Japanese dance.
• Samuel Lubell, 75, American public opinion pollster, journalist and author, stroke. ^[16]
• Edwin Barnard Martin, 68, Canadian member of the British Free Corps in Nazi Germany.
• Andrei Mironov, 46, Soviet stage and film actor, complications from wrongly administered drug.
• Peter Schidlof, 65, Austrian-British violist, co-founder of the Amadeus Quartet. ^[17]
• Nick Vanos, 24, American NBA basketballer, plane crash.
• Charles H. Wesley, 95, American historian, minister and author.

17

• Leon Berkowitz, 75, American artist.
• Frank Beswick, 75, British politician, deputy leader of the House of Lords.
• Clarence Brown, 97, American film director, kidney failure. ^[18]
• Gary Chester, 62, American studio drummer and author.
• Carlos Drummond de Andrade, 84, Brazilian poet and writer.
• Rudolf Hess, 93, German Nazi official, Deputy Führer, ostensibly suicide by hanging. ^[19]
• Harold McCluskey, 75, American chemical operations technician and radiation survivor, coronary artery disease.
• Shaike Ophir, 58, Israeli film and theatre actor, comedian, playwright, screenwriter and director, lung cancer.
• Antti Rantamaa, 52, Finnish priest, member of Finnish Parliament and author.
• Tjilik Riwut, .
• Heinz Schubert, 73, German SS officer during World War II.
• Tillit Sidney Teddlie, 102, American singing teacher, composer, publisher and minister.

18

• Keerthisena Abeywickrama, 53, Sri Lankan politician, member of parliament, grenade attack.
• Shichirō Fukazawa, 73, Japanese author and guitarist.
• Ralph Haver, 71–72, American architect (Haver Homes).
• Dambudzo Marechera, 35, Zimbabwean novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet, AIDS-related pulmonary disorder.

19

• Michael Bowes-Lyon, 58, British nobleman and peer.
• Laxmi Narayan Mishra, 83, Indian Hindi play writer.
• Sachin Nag, 67, Indian swimmer and water polo player, Olympian.
• Hayden Rorke, 76, American actor, played Colonel Alfred Bellows in I Dream of Jeannie, multiple myeloma. ^[20]
• Paul Schlack, 89, German chemist.
• Harold Sherman, 89, American writer and \"parapsychologist\".
• Yidnekatchew Tessema, 65, Ethiopian international footballer.

20

• Winifred Bryson, 94, American stage and silent-screen actress.
• José Bueno y Monreal, 82, Spanish cardinal, Roman Catholic archbishop of Seville.

21

• Frances Mary Albrier, 88, American civil rights activist.
• Bombolo, 56, Italian actor and comedian.
• Dorothy Adlington Cadbury, 94, English botanist and director of confectionery company Cadbury.
• Steve Davis, 58, American jazz bassist (John Coltrane Quartet).
• Li Fang-Kuei, 85, Chinese linguist.
• Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, 78, Italian composer of film scores.
• Glesca Marshall, 80, American actress.
• Irving Thalberg Jr., 56, American author, son of actress Norma Shearer, cancer. ^[21]

22

• Arne Brustad, 75, Norwegian international footballer.
• Leonard Caston, 70, American blues pianist and guitarist, heart disease.
• Mary Dobkin, 84, American amateur sports coach, stroke. ^[22]
• Joseph P. Lash, 77, American radical political activist, journalist and writer. ^[23]
• Ted Sherdeman, 78, American radio producer, television writer and screenwriter (My Favorite Martian, The Flying Nun, Bewitched).
• John Milton Bryan Simpson, 84, American circuit judge.

23

• Griselda Allan, 81, English artist.
• Siegfried Borris, 80, German composer.
• Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., 84, American politician, mayor of Baltimore, member of U.S. House of Representatives.
• Sheila van Damm, 65, British motor rally driver, owner of Windmill Theatre in London.
• Malcolm Kirk, 51, English professional wrestler, died in the ring.
• Paulo Navalho, 20, Angolan-Portuguese footballer, acute myocardial infarction during a game.
• Didier Pironi, 35, French racing driver and power boat racer, powerboat racing accident.
• Stéphanos I Sidarouss, 83, Egyptian priest of the Coptic Catholic Church.

24

• Michèle Alfa, 76, French stage and film actress, hider of leaders of the French Resistance.
• Douglas Byng, 94, English comic singer and songwriter.
• Carlos Cossio, 84, Argentinian militant university reformer, jurist, lawyer, legal philosopher and professor.
• Wayne Hansen, 58, American NFL footballer, bone cancer.
• W. W. Keeler, 79, American engineer and oilman, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
• Bayard Rustin, 75, American civil and gay rights activist, perforated appendix. ^[24]

25

• Héctor Abad Gómez, 66, Colombian medical doctor, university professor and human rights leader.
• Otto Höfler, 86, Austrian philologist specialising in Germanic studies.
• Sam Kahn, 75, South African politician, member of parliament.
• John Ortell Kingston, 68, American Trustee of the Davis County Cooperative Society in Davis County, Utah.
• Victor Stafford Reid, 74, Jamaican writer.
• Fernando Ramos da Silva, 19, Brazilian actor, police shootout.

26

• Vern Gardner, 62, American basketballer, stroke.
• John Goddard, 68, Barbadian cricketer, captain of West Indies Test team.
• Marcelo Ramos Motta, 56, Brazilian writer, heart attack.
• Alberto Socarras, 78, Cuban-American flautist.
• Georg Wittig, 90, German chemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry. ^[25]

27

• Ben Branch, 59, American entrepreneur, jazz tenor saxophonist and bandleader.
• Joan Haythorne, 72, British actress.
• Scott La Rock, 25, American hip-hop disc jockey and music producer, murdered.
• Peter Mehringer, 77, American freestyle wrestler and Olympic gold medalist.
• Charlie Smalls, 43, American composer and songwriter, burst appendix. ^[26]

28

• Lillian Chase, 93, Canadian physician, researcher in the treatment of diabetes.
• John Huston, 81, American film director, screenwriter and actor, pneumonia as a complication of lung disease. ^[27]
• Hoàng Cơ Minh, 52, Vietnamese Navy commodore-admiral, leader of anti-communist resistance.
• Harold Samuel, 75, British founder of Land Securities.
• Jack Young, 62, Australian motorcycle speedway rider, Speedway World Champion.

29

• Naji al-Ali, 48–49, Palestinian cartoonist, assassinated.
• Archie Campbell, 72, American comedian and writer, heart attack.
• Bernadene Hayes, 75, American film and television actress (Some Like It Hot, Dick Tracy's Dilemma.
• Lee Marvin, 63, American film and television actor (The Dirty Dozen, The Big Heat), heart attack. ^[28]
• John R. Napier, 70, British primatologist, paleoanthropologist and physician.
• Jean Schlumberger, 80, French jewellery designer.
• Phillip Hagar Smith, 82, American electrical engineer (Smith chart).

30

• Wade H. McCree, 67, American legal scholar and judge, Solicitor General of the United States, bone cancer.
• George Mikes, 75, Hungarian-British journalist, humorist and writer.
• Vic Silayan, 58, Filipino actor, heart attack.
• John C. Sjogren, 71, American soldier in the United States Army, Medal of Honor recipient.
• Frank Stojack, 75, Canadian-NFL footballer and wrestler, world light-heavyweight champion, Alzheimer's disease.
• Dick Young, 69, American sportswriter. ^[29]

31

• Thomas Agro, 55, American gangster with the Gambino crime family.
• Lenore Lonergan, 59, American stage and film actress, cancer. ^[30]

Unknown date

• Wylie Sypher, 81, American non-fiction writer.

References

1. "Benson Fong Is Dead at 70; Was in Film and TV 40 Years" . The New York Times . August 4, 1987. p. B 9. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
2. "S. Marshall Kempner Dead; Longtime Investment Banker" . The New York Times . August 4, 1987. p. B 4. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
3. Albin Krebs (August 3, 1987). "Pola Negri, a Vamp of the Silent Screen, Dies at 88" . The New York Times . p. D 11. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
4. "Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, 66; Was President of Bangladesh" . The New York Times . August 3, 1987. p. D 11. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
5. Michael Brenson (August 8, 1987). "Myron Stout, Abstract Artist And Minimalist, Is Dead at 79" . The New York Times . p. 1 50. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
6. Warren Weaver Jr.special To the New York Times (August 4, 1987). "William S. Moorhead Is Dead; Held House Seat for 22 Years" . The New York Times . p. B 4. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
7. "Paula Bauersmith, 78, Dies; Actress on TV and the Stage" . The New York Times . August 12, 1987. p. D 22. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
8. Robert D. McFadden (August 8, 1987). "Ira C. Eaker, 91, Is Dead; Helped Create Air Force" . The New York Times . p. 1 32. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
9. Clyde Haberman, Special To the New York Times (August 8, 1987). "NOBUSUKE KISHI, EX-TOKYO LEADER" . The New York Times . p. 1 32. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
10. "RAQUEL TORRES" . The New York Times . August 13, 1987. p. B 8. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
11. "EUGENE BORDINAT Jr" . The New York Times . August 14, 1987. p. D 18. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
12. "Clara Peller, the Actress In 'Where's the Beef?' TV Ad" . The New York Times . August 12, 1987. p. D 22. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
13. "Lester Gaba, Mannequin Artist" . The New York Times . August 14, 1987. p. D 18. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
14. "Persichetti Memorial Oct. 5" . The New York Times . September 26, 1987. p. 1 34. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
15. "Edgar Rosenberg, Husband And Colleague of Joan Rivers" . The New York Times . August 15, 1987. p. 1 33. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
16. Ronald Smothers (August 21, 1987). "Samuel Lubell Is Dead at 76; Predicted Election Outcomes" . The New York Times . p. B 7. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
17. Michael Kimmelman (August 17, 1987). "Peter Schidlof Is Dead at 65; The Amadeus Quartet Violist" . The New York Times . p. B 6. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
18. "Clarence Brown, a Director And Six-Time Oscar Nominee" . The New York Times . August 20, 1987. p. B 15. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
19. "Rudolf Hess Is Dead in Berlin; Last of the Hitler Inner Circle" . The New York Times . August 18, 1987. p. A 1. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
20. "Hayden Rorke, Actor In Film, Plays and TV" . The New York Times . August 21, 1987. p. B 7. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
21. "IRVING G. THALBERG JR" . The New York Times . August 24, 1987. p. D 9. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
22. "Mary Dobkin Is Dead at 84; A Patron of Needy Children" . The New York Times . August 25, 1987. p. B 7. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
23. David E. Pitt (August 23, 1987). "REPORTER AND BIOGRAPHER" . The New York Times . p. 1 40. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
24. Eric Pace (August 25, 1987). "Bayard Rustin Is Dead at 75; Pacifist and a Rights Activist" . The New York Times . p. A 1. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
25. "Georg Wittig, 90, Dies; Winner of Nobel Prize" . The New York Times . August 28, 1987. p. A 17. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
26. "Charlie Smalls Is Dead; Composer of 'The Wiz'" . The New York Times . September 4, 1987. p. D 15. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
27. Peter B. Flint (August 29, 1987). "John Huston, Film Director, Writer and Actor, Dies at 81" . The New York Times . p. 1 1. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
28. Dennis Hevesi (August 31, 1987). "Lee Marvin, Movie Tough Guy, Dies" . The New York Times . p. A 17. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
29. James Barron (September 1, 1987). "Dick Young Dies; Sports Columnist" . The New York Times . p. B 7. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
30. "Lenore Lonergan, Actress, 59" . The New York Times . September 1, 1987. p. B 6. Retrieved April 27, 2024.