Deaths in May 2008

Deaths in 2008 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - →

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2008.

31

• Carlos Alhinho, 59, Portuguese international footballer, elevator accident. [1] (Portuguese)
• Joe Axelson, 80, American NBA Sacramento Kings executive and general manager. [2]

30

• Harry Brautigam, Nicaraguan president of the BCIE since 2003, heart problem after air crash. [3]
• Lorenzo Odone, 30, American ALD patient portrayed in the film Lorenzo's Oil. [4]
• Boris Shakhlin, 76, Russian-born Ukrainian gymnast, winner of seven Olympic gold medals for the Soviet Union. [5]

29

• José Alejandro Bernales, 59, Chilean director general of Carabineros de Chile, helicopter crash. [6]
• Luc Bourdon, 21, Canadian ice hockey player, motorcycle accident. [7]
• Romeo A. Brawner, 72, Filipino appeals court judge (1995–2005), election commissioner (2005–2008), heart attack. [8]
• Barry Dunnery, 56, British guitarist (Violinski, Necromandus), cancer. [9]
• Harvey Korman, 81, American actor and comedian (Blazing Saddles, The Carol Burnett Show), abdominal aortic aneurysm. [10]

28

• Beryl Cook, 81, British painter. [11]
• Sven Davidson, 79, Swedish tennis player. [12]
• Lechosław Goździk, 77, Polish leader of 1956 workers' protests. [13] (Polish)
• Robert H. Justman, 81, American television and film producer (Star Trek), Parkinson's disease. [14]
• Gerhard Konzelmann, 75, German journalist. [15] (German)
• David Mitton, 69, British animation director, heart attack (death announced this day). [16] [17]
• Dianne Odell, 61, American author and polio victim, power failure to iron lung. [18]

27

• Valmae Beck, 64, Australian child murderer, complications of heart surgery. [19]
• Franz Künstler, 107, German World War I veteran, last known surviving veteran of the Central Powers and Austria-Hungary. [20]
• Mick Nolan, 58, Australian footballer, cancer. [21]
• Abram Raselemane, 30, South African footballer, apparent suicide. [22]
• Sung Chuen-sau, 78, Taiwanese film director, Parkinson's disease. [23] (Chinese)

26

• Dolly Aglay, 41, Filipino journalist, cancer. [24]
• Howlin' Dave, 52, Filipino radio disc jockey and proponent of Pinoy rock, stroke. [25]
• Earle Hagen, 88, American composer of film and television theme music (The Andy Griffith Show, The Mod Squad). [26]
• Rudy Kay, 65, Canadian professional wrestler, virus. [27]
• Sydney Pollack, 73, American film director (The Way We Were, Tootsie, Out of Africa) and actor, cancer. [28]
• Alan Renouf, 89, Australian head of DFAT, ambassador to United States (1977–1979), France and Yugoslavia, leukemia. [29]
• Jhamu Sughand, 57, Indian film producer, cardiac arrest. [30]

25

• Aloysius Atuegbu, Nigerian footballer (Enugu Rangers, Nigeria), stroke. [31]
• Geremi González, 33, Venezuelan MLB baseball player, lightning strike. [32]
• James Griffin, 78, American mayor of Buffalo, New York (1978–1994). [33]
• Bukhuti Gurgenidze, 74, Georgian chess grandmaster. [34]
• Ako Kawada, 29, Japanese television presenter, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. [35]
• Thomas McHale, 45, American football player (Tampa Bay Buccaneers). [36]
• Mitch Mullany, 39, American comedian and actor (Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher), diabetes-related stroke. [37]
• László Nedeczky, 95, Hungarian fencer. [38] (Hungarian)
• Alfredo Saramago, 70, Portuguese gourmet and historian. [39] (Portuguese)
• J. R. Simplot, 99, American businessman, original McDonald's french fries supplier. [40]
• Clémentine Solignac, 113, French supercentenarian, verified world's fourth oldest person. [41] (French)
• Ernst Stuhlinger, 94, German-born American rocket scientist. [42]
• Camu Tao, 30, American rapper-producer, lung cancer. [43]
• Dommy Ursua, 72, Filipino flyweight boxer. [44]

24

• Adam Baruch, 63, Israeli journalist, writer and art critic, diabetes complications. [45]
• Tano Cimarosa, 86, Italian actor. [46] (Italian)
• Rob Knox, 18, British actor, stabbed. [47]
• Eugenio Garza Lagüera, 84, Mexican businessman, former president of FEMSA, natural causes. [48]
• Isaac Lipschits, 77, Dutch political scientist and historian, natural causes. [49] (Dutch)
• Dick Martin, 86, American comedian (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), respiratory complications. [50]
• Jimmy McGriff, 72, American jazz and blues organist, multiple sclerosis. [51]

23

• Alan Brien, 83, British journalist and critic. [52]
• Cornell Capa, 90, American photographer, founder of the International Center of Photography. [53]
• Roberto Freire, 81, Brazilian writer and psychiatrist, created somatherapy. [54] (Portuguese)
• Dritan Hoxha, 39, Albanian businessman, car accident. [55]
• Thelma Keane, 82, Australian-born American who inspired husband Bil's comic strip The Family Circus, Alzheimer's disease. [56]
• Heinz Kwiatkowski, 81, German footballer, member of 1954 FIFA World Cup-winning team. [57]
• Peter Milne, 73, British boat designer. [58]
• Jefferson Peres, 76, Brazilian senator from Amazonas, heart attack. [59] (Portuguese)
• Utah Phillips, 73, American folk singer and political activist, heart failure. [60] [61]
• Earl Root, 46, American heavy metal guitarist (Aesma Daeva), complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. [62]
• Chief White Owl, 72, American professional wrestler. [63]

22

• Robert Asprin, 61, American science fiction and fantasy writer (MythAdventures), heart attack. [64]
• Charlie Booth, 104, Australian athlete, inventor of the starting block. [65]
• Jack Mildren, 58, American football player, Oklahoma's lieutenant governor (1990–1995), stomach cancer. [66]
• Paul Patrick, 58, British gay rights activist, chronic lung condition. [67]
• Boris Tropanets, 44, Moldovan football player, coach of national youth team, after long illness. [68] [69] (Russian)

21

• Daniel Guzmán-García, 111, Colombian supercentenarian. [70]
• Brian Keenan, 66, Irish IRA commander, cancer. [71] [72]
• Michelle Meldrum, 39, American rock guitarist (Phantom Blue, Meldrum), cystic growth on the brain. [73]
• Siegmund Nissel, 86, German-born British violinist (Amadeus Quartet). [74]
• Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, 77, Portuguese artist and engraver, long illness. [75] (Portuguese)
• Torcato Sepúlveda, 57, Portuguese journalist. [76] (Portuguese)

20

• Iona Banks, 87, British actress (Pobol y Cwm). [77]
• Crispin Beltran, 75, Filipino congressman and labor leader, head injuries from a fall. [78]
• Viktor Bortsov, 73, Russian actor, intestinal cancer. [79] (Russian)
• Margot Boyd, 94, British actress (Marjorie Antrobus on The Archers). [80]
• Thomas Burlison, Baron Burlison, 71, British footballer and trade unionist. [81]
• Howard Dill, 73, Canadian award-winning agriculturalist, liver cancer. [82] [83]
• Joachim Erwin, 58, German politician, mayor of Düsseldorf, colorectal cancer. [84]
• Herb Hash, 97, American baseball pitcher (Boston Red Sox), stroke. [85]
• Zelma Henderson, 88, American last surviving plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education, pancreatic cancer. [86]
• Barclay Howard, 55, British golfer, leukemia. [87]
• Hamilton Jordan, 63, American politician, Jimmy Carter's White House chief of staff (1979–1980), mesothelioma. [88][89]
• Martin Kelly, 42, British plastic surgeon, husband of Natascha McElhone, heart attack. [90]
• Cy Leonard, 82, Canadian ventriloquist. [91]
• Jan Hird Pokorny, 93, Czech-born American architect. [92]
• Gellért Raksányi, 82, Hungarian actor. [93] (Hungarian)
• Oscar Ratnoff, 91, American hematologist, physician and researcher. [94] [95]
• Ali Sadikin, 80, Indonesian politician, governor of Jakarta (1966–1977), liver cancer. [96] [97]
• Jeheskel Shoshani, 65, Israeli-born American elephant expert, bus explosion. [98]
• S. K. Trimurti, 96, Indonesian journalist, first minister of labor and employment, natural causes. [99] (Indonesian)

19

• Nigel Cassidy, 62, British footballer. [100]
• Dai Davies, 69, British journalist and golf correspondent. [101]
• Jack Duffy, 81, Canadian comedian, natural causes. [102]
• Chaim Flom, Israeli scholar and rosh yeshiva. [103]
• William Hall, 72, British film critic. [104]
• Huntington Hartford, 97, American businessman and philanthropist. [105]
• Rimma Kazakova, 76, Russian poet. [106]
• Kjell Kristian Rike, 63, Norwegian sports commentator. [107]
• Vijay Tendulkar, 80, Indian playwright, myasthenia gravis. [108]

18

• Pietro Cascella, 87, Italian contemporary artist. [109]
• Irma Córdoba, 94, Argentine actress, natural causes. [110] (Spanish)
• Lloyd Moore, 95, American NASCAR driver (1949–1955). [111]
• Elemore Morgan, Jr., 76, American landscape artist. [112]
• Joseph Pevney, 96, American television and film director (Bonanza, Star Trek, The Paper Chase, Trapper John, M.D.). [113]

17

• Nicholas Baker, 49, British yacht broker, cancer. [114]
• Jolyon Brettingham Smith, 58, British composer, musicologist and radio presenter. [115] (German)
• John Fitzsimmons, 68, British Roman Catholic priest and broadcaster, after long illness. [116]
• Thomas Flatley, 76, American real estate tycoon and philanthropist, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. [117]
• Zélia Gattai, 91, Brazilian writer and novelist, wife of Jorge Amado. [118] (Portuguese)
• Wilfrid Mellers, 94, British composer and author. [119]
• D. Aubrey Moodie, 99, Canadian politician. [120]
• Jack Rayner, 87, Australian rugby league player. [121]
• Sophan Sophiaan, 64, Indonesian actor and politician, motorcycle accident. [122]
• Joyce Trimmer, 80, Canadian politician, mayor of Scarborough, Ontario (1988–1994), cancer. [123]
• Lionel Van Deerlin, 93, American politician and journalist, representative from California (1963–1981).[124]

16

• William Blease, Baron Blease, 93, British politician. [125]
• Henry Canoy, 84, Filipino businessman, founder of Radio Mindanao Network. [126]
• Sandy Howard, 80, American film and television producer (A Man Called Horse), Alzheimer's disease. [127]
• Robert Mondavi, 94, American winemaker, benefactor of the Mondavi Center, member of the California Hall of Fame. [128]
• Jimmy Slyde, 80, American tap dancer. [129]

15

• Del Ankers, 91, American cinematographer and photographer (Muppets commercials). [130]
• Tommy Burns, 51, Scottish football player and manager (Celtic, Kilmarnock, Reading), melanoma. [131]
• Tove Billington Bye, 79, Norwegian politician. [132] (Norwegian)
• Alexander Courage, 88, American orchestrator and film composer. [133]
• Robert Dunlop, 47, British motorcycle racer, chest injuries. [134]
• Will Elder, 86, American comic book artist (Mad, Little Annie Fanny), Parkinson's disease. [135] [136]
• Bob Florence, 75, American jazz composer and arranger, pneumonia. [137]
• Youssef Idilbi, 32, Dutch actor, suicide. [138] (Dutch)
• Willis Lamb, 94, American physicist, Nobel laureate in physics (1955), complications of gallstone disorder. [139]
• Earl Leggett, 75, American football player and coach. [140]
• Jim Nelson, 78, American aerospace entrepreneur, cancer. [141]
• Flip Schulke, 77, American photographer, heart failure. [142]
• Astrid Zachrison, 113, Swedish supercentenarian, oldest Swede ever. [143] [144]

14

• Frith Banbury, 96, British stage director and actor, liver cancer. [145]
• Arthur Burks, 92, American mathematician and computer pioneer, Alzheimer's disease. [146]
• Warren Cowan, 87, American publicist, cancer. [147]
• Derek Goodwin, 88, British ornithologist. [148]
• Jay Morago, 90, American governor of the Gila River Indian Community (1954–1960), cancer. [149]
• Fred Moselen, 67, New Zealand Scouting national secretary, cancer. [150]
• Yuri Rytkheu, 78, Russian Chukchi language writer. [151]
• Mário Schoemberger, 56, Brazilian film, television and stage actor, cancer. [152] (Portuguese)
• Wander Taffo, 53, Brazilian musician, heart failure. [153] (Portuguese)

13

• Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, 78, Kuwaiti emir (2006). [154]
• Lucius D. Battle, 89, American ambassador to Egypt (1964–1967), Parkinson's disease. [155]
• Bernardin Gantin, 86, Beninese cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. [156]
• John Phillip Law, 70, American actor (Barbarella). [157]
• Larry McKeon, 63, American politician, first openly gay member of the Illinois General Assembly, stroke. [158]
• Muriel More, 89, British pianist. [159]
• Colea Răutu, 95, Romanian actor, cirrhosis. [160]
• Ron Stone, 72, American news anchor (KHOU, KPRC in Houston), prostate cancer. [161]
• Costică Toma, 80, Romanian football goalkeeper (Romania, Steaua Bucureşti). [162]

12

• Penny Banner, 73, American professional wrestler, cancer. [163]
• Seamus Casey, 27, New Zealand opera singer, car accident. [164]
• Leo Garibaldi, 78, American professional wrestler, Alzheimer's disease. [165]
• Oakley Hall, 87, American novelist (Warlock), kidney disease and cancer. [166]
• Beverly Rae Kimes, 68, American writer and automobile historian. [167]
• James Lemkin, 81, British lawyer and political philosopher. [168]
• Lidiya Masterkova, 81, Russian-born French painter. [169] (Russian)
• Robert Rauschenberg, 82, American pop artist, heart failure. [170]
• Irena Sendler, 98, Polish humanitarian, saved 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. [171]
• Irene Vilar, 77, Portuguese sculptor. [172] (Portuguese)

11

• Sam Dauya, 70, Zimbabwean founder of Dynamos F.C. football team. [173]
• Eugen Jesser, 62, Austrian director of the Vienna Boys' Choir. [174]
• Alema Leota, 80, American alleged organized crime leader, 1978 candidate for governor of Hawaii, injuries from car accident. [175]
• Raymattja Marika, 49, Australian Yolngu scholar, linguist, educator and cultural advocate, heart attack. [176]
• Bruno Neves, 27, Portuguese cyclist, crash during race. [177]
• Dottie Rambo, 74, American gospel singer, bus crash. [178]
• Bill Rankin, 84, American UCLA basketball player and high school basketball coach, Parkinson's disease. [179]
• John Rutsey, 55, Canadian drummer (Rush), heart attack. [180]
• Heather Stohler, 29, American model for Calvin Klein, fire. [181]
• Dick Sutcliffe, 90, American animator, creator of Davey and Goliath, stroke. [182]
• Jeff Torrington, 72, British novelist (Swing Hammer Swing), Parkinson's disease. [183]
• Curtis Whitley, 39, American football player (San Diego Chargers, Carolina Panthers, Oakland Raiders). [184] [185]

10

• Leyla Gencer, 79, Turkish soprano opera singer, respiratory and cardiac failure. [186]
• Paul Haeberlin, 84, French chef and restaurateur (L'Auberge de l'Ill). [187]
• Jessica Jacobs, 17, Australian actress and singer, fell under train. [188] [189]
• Liao Feng-Teh, 57, Taiwanese incoming interior minister, heart attack. [190]
• Peter Thurnham, 69, British MP for Bolton North East (1983–1997), pancreatic cancer. [191]

9

• Jack Gibson, 79, Australian rugby league player and coach, selected as "Coach of the Century". [192]
• Judy Grable, 82, American female professional wrestler. [193]
• Shmuel Katz, 93, Israeli writer, historian and journalist. [194]
• Arthur Kroeger, 76, Canadian civil servant (1958–1992), academic and chancellor of Carleton University (1993–2002). [195]
• Nuala O'Faolain, 68, Irish journalist and author, lung cancer. [196] [197]
• Ronald A. Parise, 56, American astronaut, brain tumor. [198]
• Esteban Robles Espinosa, Mexican police commander, shot. [199]
• Pascal Sevran, 62, French television presenter and producer, lyricist and writer, lung cancer. [200]
• Sinan Sofuoğlu, 25, Turkish motorcycle racer, training crash. [201]
• Artur da Távola, 72, Brazilian journalist, writer and politician, heart disease. [202] (Portuguese)

8

• Eddy Arnold, 89, American country music singer. [203]
• Willem Brakman, 85, Dutch author. [204] (Dutch)
• Ian Brodie, 72, British foreign correspondent (The Daily Telegraph). [205]
• Jose Feria, 91, Filipino supreme court justice (1986–1987). [206]
• Murray Jarvik, 84, American academic and co-inventor of the nicotine patch, heart failure. [207]
• Larry Levine, 80, American Grammy-winning audio engineer (Wall of Sound), emphysema. [208]
• Luigi Malerba, 81, Italian writer. [209]
• Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, 41, Mexican federal police anti-drug coordinator, shot. [210]
• François Sterchele, 26, Belgian footballer (Belgium, Club Brugge), car accident. [211]

7

• Phil Armstrong, New Zealand radio producer (Paul Holmes Breakfast Show), stomach cancer. [212]
• LonPaul Ellrich, 37, American multi-instrumentalist (Marmoset, Sardina). [213]
• Clifford Jones, 80, American politician, Pennsylvania Republican Party chairman, prostate cancer. [214]
• Fred J. Taylor, 89, British angler and writer. [215]
• Thijs Wöltgens, 64, Dutch politician, mayor of Kerkrade (1994–2000), senator (1995–2005). [216] (Dutch)

6

• Judith Bailey, 73, British deputy director of Cambridge University's computer laboratory (1970–1988). [217]
• John Jay Iselin, 74, American public television innovator, descendent of John Jay, pneumonia. [218]
• Franz Jackson, 95, American saxophonist. [219]
• Harvey Karman, 84, American psychologist and women's reproductive health advocate, inventor of the Karman cannula, stroke. [220]
• Ray Michie, Baroness Michie of Gallanach, 74, British Liberal Democrat politician, cancer. [221]
• John Reames, 65, British football manager and administrator, cancer. [222]
• Philipp von Schoeller, 86, Austrian horse-riding champion and member of the International Olympic Committee. [223]

5

• Giuseppe Attardi, 84, American molecular biologist. [224]
• Sam Aubrey, 85, American basketball player and coach (Oklahoma State Cowboys). [225]
• Thomas Boggs, 63, American drummer (Box Tops), owner of Huey's Restaurants. [226]
• Hugh Bradner, 92, American scientist credited with inventing the wetsuit. [227]
• Lucien Jeunesse, 89, French radio game presenter (Le Jeu des 1000 Francs). [228] (French)
• Park Kyung-ni, 82, South Korean novelist, lung cancer. [229]
• Irv Robbins, 90, American businessman, co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain. [230] [231]
• Alma Hogan Snell, 85, American Crow tribal nation historian, herbalist, granddaughter of Pretty Shield. [232]
• Jerry Wallace, 79, American country music singer, heart failure. [233]
• Witold Woyda, 68, Polish fencer, double gold medallist at the 1972 Summer Olympics, lung cancer. [234]

4

• John Altieri, 38, American actor (Jersey Boys), pneumonia. [235]
• Fred Baur, 89, American chemist, inventor of the Pringles can. [236]
• Joaquim Carlos, Portuguese football player (Portugal, SL Benfica), after long illness. [237] (Portuguese)
• Alvin Colt, 92, American Tony Award–winning costume designer (On the Town, Guys and Dolls, Pipe Dream, Li'l Abner). [238]
• Jaime Gómez, 78, Mexican footballer, goalkeeper for Guadalajara (1956–1970), pancreatic cancer. [239]
• John Greenwood, 57, British businessman and catering executive, motor neurone disease. [240]
• Fred Haines, 72, American screenwriter and film director, lung cancer. [241]
• Richard Holme, Baron Holme of Cheltenham, 71, British Liberal Democrat politician, cancer. [242]
• Roger Leney, 85, British World War II radio operator (SOE). [243]
• Kishan Maharaj, 84, Indian musician, leading exponent of the Benares gharana tabla, stroke. [244]
• Robert Marsh, 83, American president of American Telecast, heart failure. [245]
• Colin Murdoch, 79, New Zealand inventor of the disposable hypodermic syringe and the tranquilizer gun, cancer. [246]
• Judit Trethon, 57, Hungarian publicist, car accident. [247] (Hungarian)
• F. R. Wallace, Jr., 91, American mayor of Chesterfield, New Jersey (1975–1981), natural causes. [248]

3

• Charles Caccia, 78, Canadian politician, environmentalist, Liberal MP for Davenport (1968–2004), complications of stroke. [249]
• Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, 82, Spanish prime minister (1981–1982), natural causes. [250]
• Eight Belles, 3, American racehorse, 2008 Kentucky Derby 2nd place finisher, euthanized. [251]
• Martin Finnegan, 27, Irish motorbike racer, race crash. [252]
• Lynne Cooper Harvey, 92, American radio producer, Radio Hall of Fame member, wife of Paul Harvey, leukemia. [253]
• Ted Key, 95, American cartoonist (Hazel), bladder cancer and stroke. [254]
• R. R. Knudson, 75, American sports writer. [255]
• Morgan Sparks, 91, American engineer, inventor of the first practical bipolar junction transistor. [256]

2

• Robert Brachtenbach, 77, American jurist, Washington State Supreme Court justice (1972–1994), throat cancer. [257]
• Carole Dekeijser, 48, Belgian painter, lung cancer. [258] (French)
• Dominic Dim Deng, Sudanese politician, defence minister for Southern Sudan, plane crash. [259]
• Robert M. Isaac, 80, American politician, mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado (1979–1997), pneumonia. [260]
• Mildred Loving, 68, American civil rights pioneer, challenged Virginia interracial marriage law (Loving v. Virginia). [261]
• Ilyas Malayev, 72, Uzbekistani musician and poet, pancreatic cancer. [262]
• Beverlee McKinsey, 72, American soap opera actress (Guiding Light), complications from kidney transplant. [263]
• Alastair Michie, 86, British painter, sculptor and illustrator. [264]
• Izold Pustylnik, 70, Ukrainian-born Estonian astronomer. [265]
• Daniel Sekhoto, 37, South African football player. [266]
• Mike Titcomb, 75 , British rugby union referee, kidney failure. [267]
• Frank Y. Whiteley, Jr., 93, American thoroughbred racehorse trainer (Ruffian). [268]
• Justin Yak, Sudanese politician, minister for cabinet affairs for Southern Sudan (2006–2007), plane crash. [269]

1

• Nasimuddin Amin, 54, Malaysian entrepreneur and founder of Naza, lung cancer. [270]
• Bernard Archard, 91, British actor. [271]
• Buzzie Bavasi, 93, American baseball executive (Dodgers, Angels, Padres). [272]
• Mary Berry, 90, British musicologist and nun. [273]
• Philipp von Boeselager, 90, German World War II anti-Hitler conspirator. [274]
• Nirmala Deshpande, 78, Indian peace activist, after brief illness. [275]
• Elaine Dundy, 86, American writer and actress. [276]
• Aden Hashi Farah, Somali leader of Al-Shabab insurgent group, air strike. [277]
• Jim Hager, 61, American country music singer and television actor (Hee Haw), heart attack. [278]
• Mark Kendall, 49, British footballer (Tottenham Hotspur, Newport County, Wolverhampton Wanderers). [279]
• Sir Anthony Mamo, 99, Maltese politician, first president of the Republic of Malta. [280]
• Alberto Estima de Oliveira, 74, Portuguese poet. [281] (Portuguese)
• Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, American escort agency proprietor, suicide by hanging. [282] [283]