Deaths in May 2000

The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2000.

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 2000

1

• Cláudio Christovam de Pinho, 77, Nicknamed “Manager”.
• John Emery, 84, British paediatric pathologist.
• Gil Fates, 85, American television producer.
• David J. Mahoney, 76, American businessman and philanthropist, heart disease.
• Gibby Mbasela, 37, Zambian footballer.
• Steve Reeves, 74, American actor, lymphoma.
• Nora Swinburne, 97, British actress.
• Jukka Tapanimäki, 38, Finnish game programmer, heart failure.
• Gérard Théberge, 69, Canadian Olympic ice hockey player, bronze medalist (1956)

2

• Laurie Calvin Battle, 87, American politician.
• Belva Cottier, 79, American Sioux activist and social worker.
• Bob Homme, 81, American-Canadian television actor, known for his role as The Friendly Giant, prostate cancer.
• Bobbi Martin, 56, American country and pop music singer, songwriter, and guitarist, cancer.
• Billy Munn, 88, British jazz pianist.
• Harry Newman, 90, American football player.
• Sundar Popo, 56, Trinidadian and Tobagonian musician.
• Christina Marie Riggs, 28, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
• Teri Thornton, 65, American jazz singer, bladder cancer.
• Norman Wainwright, 85, English competition swimmer and Olympian.

3

• Lewis Allen, 94, British film and television director.
• Richard Friederich Arens, 81, American mathematician.
• Obie Baizley, 82, Politician in Manitoba, Canada.
• Ed Chapman, 94, American baseball player.
• William Keys, 77, Australian Army officer.
• Mamuka Kikaleishvili, 39, Georgian actor and film director.
• Bryan Lobb, 69, English cricket player.
• Yoshinao Nakada, 76, Japanese composer, colorectal cancer.
• John Joseph O'Connor, 80, American Roman Catholic prelate, brain cancer.
• Shakuntala Paranjpye, 94, Indian writer, actress and a social worker.
• Jon Vincent, 38, American pornographic actor, suicide.
• Edward J. Sponga, 82, American Jesuit priest in the Society of Jesus.

4

• Sir Derick Ashe, 81, British diplomat.
• Hendrik Casimir, 90, Dutch physicist known for the Casimir effect.
• Humberto Donoso, 61, Chilean football player.
• Jacques Gerschwiler, 101, Swiss figure skater and coach.
• Alwyn Kurts, 84, Australian drama and comedy actor, liver failure.
• Kieran Nugent, Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer, cardiovascular disease.
• Diana Ross, 89, English children's author.
• Sugi Sito, 73, Mexican wrestler known as El Orgullo de Oriente.

5

• Edward Ashley-Cooper, 93, Australian actor, congestive heart failure.
• Gino Bartali, 85, Italian racing cyclist.
• Jan Firbas, 79, Czech linguist.
• Don Kindt, 74, American football player.
• Rolf Magener, 89, German escapee from India during World War II.
• Bill Musselman, 59, American basketball coach, stroke.

6

• Benoy Choudhury, Indian freedom fighter and politician.
• Eleazar Jiménez, 71, Cuban chess master.
• Gordon McClymont, 79, Australian agricultural scientist and ecologist.
• Lee Moore, 61, Saint Kitts and Nevis politician.
• Roger von Norman, 91, Hungarian-born German film editor and director.
• John Clive Ward, 75, British-Australian physicist, respiratory illness.
• Sir Peter William Youens, 84, British diplomat and colonial administrator, pneumonia.

7

• Dov Bar-Nir, 88, Belgium-Israeli politician.
• Douglas Fairbanks Jr., 90, American actor and the son of Douglas Fairbanks, heart attack.
• Hideo Hamamura, 71, Japanese marathon runner and Olympian.
• Ferrel Harris, 59, American NASCAR racecar driver.
• Henry Laskau, 83, American Olympic racewalker.
• José Luis López de Lacalle, Spanish journalist and trade unionist, killed by the ETA.
• Homer Thompson, 93, Canadian classical archaeologist.
• Timmy Payungka Tjapangati, 58, Aboriginal Australian artist.
• Masaru Shintani, 72, Japanese-Canadian master of karate, heart attack.

8

• Pita Amor, 81, Mexican poet.
• Stanley Boxer, 73, American abstract artist.
• X Brands, 72, German-American actor.
• Glen Bredon, 67, American mathematician.
• William C. Brennan, 81, American lawyer and politician.
• Dédé Fortin, 37, Canadian musician, suicide.
• Hubert Maga, 83, Dahomey politician.
• Henry Nicols, 26, American HIV/AIDS activist.

9

• György Csordás, 71, Freestyle swimmer from Hungary.
• Arthur Davis, 94, American animator and a director.
• Chris Evans, 53, Canadian ice hockey player.
• William Fairchild, 82, English author, playwright, director and screenwriter.
• Todor Nikolov, 54, Bulgarian football player.
• John Nucatola, 92, American basketball player, coach and referee.
• Carmen Romano, 74, First Lady of Mexico (1976-1982).
• Zheng Weishan, 84, Chinese general and politician.

10

• Raymond Eddé, 87, Lebanese statesman.
• Martin Farndale, 71, British army general.
• Carden Gillenwater, 82, American baseball player.
• Margaret Harris, 95, British costume designer.
• Kiyoshi Kuromiya, 57, Japanese-American author and civil rights activist, cancer.
• Virgil W. Raines, 89, American thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
• Kaneto Shiozawa, 46, Japanese voice actor, cerebral contusion.
• Dick Sprang, 84, American comic book artist and penciller.
• Craig Stevens, 81, American actor, cancer.

11

• Verna Aardema, 88, American writer.
• David Bretherton, 76, American film editor, pneumonia.
• Dale Jennings, 82, American LGBT rights activist, playwright and author.
• René Muñoz, 62, Cuban actor and screenwriter, cancer.
• Albert Roberts, 91, British politician.
• Hanny Thalmann, 83, Swiss women's rights activist and politician.
• Paula Wessely, 93, Austrian actress, bronchitis.

12

• Pete Abele, 83, American politician (U.S. Representative for Ohio's 10th congressional district, Alzheimer's disease.
• Dave Crowe, 66, New Zealand cricket player.
• Dong Kingman, 89, Chinese American artist and watercolor master.
• Adam Petty, 19, American race car driver, car crash.

13

• Paul Bartel, 61, American actor, writer and director, liver cancer, heart attack.
• Olivier Greif, 50, French composer.
• Stanley Korchinski, 71, Canadian politician.
• Boško Perošević, 43, Serbian politician.
• Jumbo Tsuruta, 49, Japanese professional wrestler known as Jumbo Tsuruta, complications from liver transplant.
• Cesare Valletti, 77, Italian operatic tenor.

14

• Urda Arneberg, 71, Norwegian actress.
• Johnny Cook, 51, American gospel singer formerly of the Happy Goodman Family.
• Garrett Eckbo, 89, American landscape architect.
• C. Eric Lincoln, 75, American scholar, diabetes.
• Bob Maza, 60, Australian actor and playwright.
• Keizō Obuchi, 62, Japanese politician and Prime Minister, stroke.
• Rodman Rockefeller, 68, American businessman and philanthropist.
• Karl Shapiro, 86, American poet.

15

• Roberto Benedicto, 83, Filipino lawyer, diplomat and banker.
• Geoff Goddard, 62, English songwriter, singer and instrumentalist, heart attack.
• Robert Lee Knous, 82, American politician.
• Alfred Kuchevsky, 68, Soviet ice hockey defenceman.
• George Marshall, 96, American conservationist and political activist.
• Gösta Prüzelius, 77, Swedish actor, leukemia.
• Anthony Squire, 86, British screenwriter and director.

16

• Bodacious, "World's Most Dangerous Bull" World Champion title holder.
• Frido Frey, 78, German basketball player.
• Evald Hermaküla, 58, Estonian actor and director, suicide.
• Ghulam Ali Okarvi, 80, Pakistani Islamic scholar and jurist.
• Andrzej Szczypiorski, 72, Polish novelist and politician.
• Ronald Jay Williams, 72, Trinidadian businessman and politician.

17

• Donald Coggan, 90, English Anglican and 101st Archbishop of Canterbury.
• Hümeyra Hanımsultan, 82, Ottoman princess.
• Elsie Lessa, 86, Brazilian journalist and writer of American descent.
• William H. Poteat, 81, American philosopher, scholar and professor.
• Sajjan, 79, Indian actor.
• Angelina Stepanova, 94, Soviet and Russian stage and film actress, teacher.

18

• Domingos da Guia, 87, Brazilian football player and manager, stroke.
• Bruno Fait, 75, Italian racewalker and Olympian.
• Denis Gifford, 72, British writer, broadcaster and journalist.
• Doyle Lade, 79, American baseball player.
• Yusuf Ludhianvi, 67/68, Pakistani Muslim scholar, author and muhaddith, murdered.

19

• Lee Brewster, 57, American drag queen and transvestite activist, cancer.
• John Grigas, 79, American gridiron football player.
• Evgeniy Vasilievich Khrunov, 66, Soviet cosmonaut, heart attack.
• Larry Lamb, 70, British newspaper editor.

20

• Adelaide Aglietta, 59, Italian politician.
• Charles Antenen, 70, Swiss football player.
• Edward Bernds, 94, American director.
• Dick Brown, 74, Canadian football player.
• Loyd Jowers, 73, American restaurateur, heart attack.
• David Pearce, 41, Welsh heavyweight boxing champion.
• Jean-Pierre Rampal, 78, French flautist, heart failure.
• Malik Sealy, 30, American basketball player, traffic collision.

21

• Jules Alfonse, 88, American gridiron football player.
• Barbara Cartland, 98, English novelist.
• Buzzy Drootin, 80, American jazz drummer.
• John Gielgud, 96, English actor.
• Dulcie Holland, 87, Australian composer and music educator.
• Mark R. Hughes, 44, American entrepreneur and founder of Herbalife, accidental overdose.
• Erich Mielke, 92, German communist official.
• Zhao Puchu, 92, Chinese religious leader and calligrapher.
• Mahmoud Zuabi, Syrian politician and Prime Minister, suicide (disputed).

22

• Bahadoor, Indian actor.
• Krzysztof Boruń, 76, Polish physicist, journalist and science fiction writer.
• David Brookman, 83, Australian politician, traffic collision.
• Eldridge Dickey, 54, American gridiron football player, stroke.
• Davie Fulton, 84, Canadian politician and judge.
• Gary Kerkorian, 70, American football player.
• Bennie Lee Sinclair, 61, American poet, novelist, and short story writer, heart attack.
• David Chadwick Smith, 68, Canadian economist.
• José Rafael Molina Ureña, 79, President of the Dominican Republic.

23

• Eddy Blondeel, 94, Belgian commander of the SAS during WWII.
• Roger Garrett, 59, American actor.
• Jack Halliday, 71, American gridiron football player.
• Mishari bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi prince as member of the House of Saud.

24

• Kevin Lyons, 77, Australian politician.
• Kurt Schork, 53, American reporter and war correspondent, homicide.
• Majrooh Sultanpuri, 80, Indian Urdu poet and lyricist.
• Cliff Sutter, 89, American tennis player.
• Oleg Yefremov, 72, Soviet/Russian actor and theatre producer, lung disease.

25

• Ken Bousfield, 80, British golfer.
• Nicholas Clay, 53, British actor, liver cancer.
• Elizabeth Durack, 84, Australian artist and writer.
• Seymour S. Kety, 84, American neuroscientist.
• Francis Lederer, 100, Austrian-American actor.
• Jaya Pathirana, 79, Sri Lankan Supreme Court justice.

26

• Sandra Gwyn, 65, Canadian journalist and writer.
• William McCaughey, 70, American sound engineer.
• Hamp Pool, 85, American football player, coach and scout, heart failure.
• Max Schellenberg, 72, Swiss racing cyclist.
• Samuel A. Taylor, 87, American playwright and screenwriter, heart failure.
• Vernon Crompton Woodward, 83, Canadian fighter pilot and flying ace during World War II.
• Sō Yamamura, 90, Japanese actor and film director, heart attack.

27

• Inga Abel, 53, German actress, cancer.
• Prince Gonzalo de Bourbon, 62, Spanish aristocrat, leukemia.
• Kazimierz Leski, 87, Polish engineer, fighter pilot, and (counter-)intelligence officer.
• Murray MacLehose, 82, British diplomat, Governor of Hong Kong.
• Maurice Richard, 78, Canadian hockey player, cardiovascular disease.

28

• George Irving Bell, 73, American scientist and mountaineer.
• Donald Davies, 75, Welsh computer scientist.
• Maraden Panggabean, 77, Indonesian Army general and Defense Minister, cerebrovascular disease.
• Vincentas Sladkevičius, 79, Lithuanian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Eric Turner, 31, American gridiron football player, stomach cancer.
• Francisco Vestil, 86, Filipino basketball player and Olympian.
• Heleen Sancisi Weerdenburg, 56, Dutch historian.

29

• Clement Isong, 80, Nigerian banker and politician.
• Robert T. Oliver, 90, American author and lecturer.
• Aubrey Richards, 79, British actor.
• Anthony Spinelli, 73, American actor and producer.
• Doreen Young Wickremasinghe, 93, British communist politician.

30

• Tex Beneke, 86, American bandleader and musician (Glenn Miller Orchestra).
• Iko Carreira, 66, Angolan army general and politician.
• Robert P. Casey, 68, American lawyer and politician, amyloidosis.
• Doris Hare, 95, Welsh actress.
• Daisuke Inoue, 58, Japanese singer and composer, suicide.
• Ram Vilas Sharma, 87, Indian academic, poet and writer.
• Bill Thomas, 78, American costume designer.

31

• John Coolidge, 93, American businessman and son of President Calvin Coolidge.
• Andrew Faulds, 77, British actor and Lpolitician.
• Erich Kähler, 94, German mathematician.
• Petar Mladenov, 63, Bulgarian communist diplomat and politician.
• Nikolaos Oikonomides, 66, Greek byzantinist.
• Rodolfo Pini, 73, Uruguayan football player.
• Tito Puente, 77, American musician, songwriter ("Oye Como Va") and record producer, cardiac surgery.
• Joe Puma, 72, American jazz guitarist.
• Hank Ruszkowski, 74, American baseball player.
• Walter Sparrow, 73, English film and television actor.
• Johnnie Taylor, 66, American singer, heart attack.
• A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, 72, Sri Lankan Tamil academic, historian and author.

References

Preceded by Deaths in 1999

Deaths by year

Succeeded by Deaths in 2001