Famous Deaths on July 26

• 796 Offa, Anglo-Saxon King of Mercia (the Midlands of England) (ruled 757-796)
• 811 Nicephorus I, Byzantine Emperor (802-11), dies at the Battle of Pliska
• 1342 Charles I, King of Hungary (1307-42) who reunited and enriched the country, dies

• 1380 Kōmyō, 2nd Japanese Emperor of the Northern Court (1336-48), dies at 58
• 1471 Pope Paul II [Pietro Barbo], Italian Pope (1464-71), dies at 54

• 1592 Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, French soldier (b. 1524)
• 1611 Horio Yoshiharu, Japanese warlord (b. 1542)
• 1615 Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, Spanish Armada commander, dies at 64
• 1630 Charles Emanuel I, the Great, Italian Duke of Savoy (Peace of Lyon), dies at 68
• 1667 Michael Franck, German composer, poet and baker, dies at 58 [1]
• 1680 John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet (A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind) and courtier of King Charles II, dies of a sexually transmitted infection at 33

• 1712 Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (Lord President of the Council, 1689-99; Lord High Treasurer, 1673-79), helped bring William and Mary to the throne), dies at 80
• 1719 Johann Georg Christian Störl, German organist, kappelmeister, and composer, dies at 43
• 1723 Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman, dies at 62
• 1728 John Friend, physician/politician, dies
• 1770 Michael Scheuenstühl, German composer, dies at 65
• 1801 Daniel Dal Barba, Italian composer, dies at 86
• 1826 Friedrich Wilhelm Weis, German physician and composer, dies at 82
• 1834 Jonathan Jennings, American politician (Governor of Indiana, 1816-22; Congressman for Indiana, 1822-31), dies at 50
• 1836 José Melchor Gomis, Spanish Romantic composer, dies of tuberculosis at 45 [some source date death as 4 August]

• 1867 King Otto of Greece (1832-62), dies in exile at 52
• 1872 Michele Carafa, Italian-French opera composer, and educator (Paris Conservatoire, 1840-58), dies at 84
• 1881 George Borrow, English writer (The Romany Rye), dies at 78
• 1900 Henry G. Blasdel, American politician (1st Governor of Nevada, 1864-71), and miner, dies at 75
• 1910 Philippus Jacobus Hoedemaker, Dutch theologist, dies at 71
• 1915 James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and philologist (Oxford English Dictionary), dies at 78
• 1916 Gellio Benevenuto Coronaro, Italian pianist and composer, dies at 52
• 1916 Sally Louisa Tompkins, American nurse and philanthrophist, only commissioned woman in US Confederate Army, dies at 82
• 1918 Eduard “Mick” Mannock, British WW I flying ace (Victoria Cross), killed in action at 31
• 1919 Edward Poynter, British painter, President of the Royal Academy, dies at 83
• 1920 Carlos Troyer, American composer, dies at 83
• 1925 Antonio Ascari, Italian auto racer (winner 4 x F1 Grand Prix), dies in a racing accident during French GP at 36
• 1925 Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and logician (Begriffsschrift), dies at 76

• 1926 Robert Todd Lincoln, American politician, lawyer, Captain (Union Army), diplomat, businessman, and son of President Abraham Lincoln, dies in his sleep at 82
• 1933 Charles Tindley, American gospel music composer (I’ll Overcome Someday), and Methodist minister, dies at 82
• 1934 Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (Little Nemo), dies at 63
• 1937 Gerda Taro (Gerta Pohorylle), German-born war photojournalist, dies covering Spanish Civil War aged 26
• 1939 Billy Murphy, New Zealand boxer (world featherweight champion 1890; first world champion in any class from NZ), dies at 75
• 1941 Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist (the relation of language to thinking and cognition), dies at 44
• 1941 Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (Lebesgue integration), dies at 66
• 1941 Marx Dormoy, French socialist, killed by a time bomb
• 1942 Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (The Seven Madmen), dies at 42
• 1942 Titus Brandsma, Dutch Roman Catholic priest, philosopher (spoke out against Nazi ideology), and saint, murdered by Nazis at Dachau concentration camp at 61

• 1946 Morris Hirshfield, Polish-American painter, dies (b. 1872)
• 1950 “Count” Guido Deiro, Italian accordionist, vaudevillian, recording artist, and composer (“Kismet”), dies of congestive heart failure at 63
• 1950 Hans Lodeizen [Johannes Frederik], Dutch poet (Het innerlijk behang (The Inner Wallpaper)), dies of leukemia at 26

• 1953 Nikolaos Plastiras, Greece politician and general (Prime Minister of Greece 1945-50, 51-2), dies at 69
• 1954 Ruth Bryan Owen, American politician (first woman appointed as a U.S. ambassador, Denmark 1933-36), dies at 68
• 1956 Miguel Bernal Jiménez, Mexican organist, composer and pedagogue (Tata Vasco; Tres Cartas de México), dies of a heart attack at 46
• 1957 Carlos Castillo Armas, Dictator and President of Guatemala (1954-57), assassinated by a palace guard with leftist sympathies at 42
• 1959 Manuel Altolaguirre, Spanish poet and publisher (Amor), dies at 54
• 1960 Cedric Gibbons, American art director for the film industry, dies from illness at 70
• 1960 Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist known for the Michaelis–Menten equation for enzyme kinetics, dies at 81
• 1964 Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe, British politician, naval officer and auto racer (1931 Le Mans), dies at 80
• 1966 Howard Kinsey, American tennis player (French Open doubles 1924, US Open doubles 1926; Wimbledon singles 1926 runner-up), dies at 66
• 1967 Matthijs Vermeulen, Dutch classical composer, critic, and musicologist dies at 79
• 1969 Raymond Walburn, American actor (Christmas in July), dies after illness at 81
• 1970 Claud Allister, British actor (Kiss Me Kate, Quartet, Bulldog Drummond), dies at 81
• 1970 Robert Taschereau, Canadian lawyer and Chief Justice of Canada, dies at 73
• 1971 Diane Arbus [Nemerov], American photographer (Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar), commits suicide at 48 [1]
• 1973 Hans Albert Einstein, Swiss-American professor and engineer, dies of a heart attack at 69
• 1974 Arthur K. Watson, American businessman (IBM), and US Ambassador to France (1970-72), dies from injuries suffered in a fall at 55 [1]
• 1975 Leigh Whipper, American actor (Hidden Eye, Jungle Queen), dies at 98
• 1977 Gena Branscombe, Canadian pianist and composer, dies at 95
• 1977 Hans-Otto Borgmann, German film score composer under the Third Reich, dies at 75
• 1977 Karac Plant, son of Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, dies of respiratory failure at 6
• 1980 Allen Hoskins, American child actor (Our Gang), dies of cancer at 59
• 1980 François Louis Ganshof, Belgian medieval historian, dies at 85
• 1980 Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani fiction writer and Urdu poet, dies at 52
• 1981 Donald Lybbert, American composer (Zap; Lines for the Fallen), and educator, dies at 58
• 1982 Betty Walker, American actress and comedienne, dies of pancreatic cancer at 53

• 1986 W. Averell Harriman, American politician (Gov-D-NY) and ambassador to USSR (1943-46), dies at 94
• 1987 Jim Bishop, American journalist and author (The Day Lincoln was Shot), dies at 79
• 1987 Joe Liggins [Theodro Elliott], American jazz, R&B, and jump blues pianist, songwriter, and vocalist (“The Honeydripper”; “Pink Champagne”), dies after a stroke at 71
• 1988 Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani modernist scholar, dies at 68
• 1990 Brent Mydland, American rock keyboardist and vocalist (Grateful Dead – “Hell In A Bucket”; “I Will Take You Home”), dies of a cocaine and morphine “speedball” overdose at 38
• 1992 Mary Wells, American pop and soul singer (“My Guy”), dies of laryngeal cancer at 49
• 1993 Daniel Fuchs, American screenwriter (Hard Way), dies at 84
• 1993 Matthew Ridgway, American general (World War II, Korean War, NATO Supreme Commander) and Chief of Staff of the US Army (1953-55), dies of cardiac arrest at 98
• 1994 Marino Iandiorio, Italian canned tomato pioneer, dies at 64
• 1994 Owen “Terry” Scott, British actor and comedian (Terry and June, Carry On Films), dies of cancer at 67
• 1994 Thomas Davis, US movie editor/son of MGM-chief Frank D, dies at 26
• 1995 Eleanore Griffin, screenwriter, dies
• 1995 George W. Romney, American politician (Gov-R-Michigan, US Secretary of HUD 1969-73), dies of a heart attack, dies at 88
• 1995 Jaime de Mora y Aragón, Spanish actor and publicist (Last Judgement), dies at 70
• 1995 Laurindo Almeida, Brazilian classical, jazz and Latin guitarist and composer (developed bossa nova), dies of leukemia at 77
• 1995 Raymond Mailloux, Quebec politician (b. 1918)
• 1996 Arthur McDonald, Royal Air Force officer and radar pioneer, dies at 93
• 1996 Evelyn Levine, American composer (“Scarlet Ribbons”), dies at 94
• 1998 (David Allan) “Chico” Ryan, American rock bassist and singer (Sha Na Na, 1973-98), dies at 50
• 2000 John Tukey, American mathematician and statistician, (Cooley–Tukey algorithm, Fast Fourier Transform), dies of a heart attack at 85 [1]
• 2001 Josef Klaus, Austrian conservative politician (Minister of Finance, 1961-63; Chancellor, 1966-70), dies at 90
• 2001 Peter von Zahn, German journalist, writer, and film maker, dies at 88
• 2001 Rex Barber, American WWII aviator (b. 1917)
• 2002 Jutta Hecker, German writer, dies at 97
• 2002 Tony Anholt, British actor known for “Howard’s Way”, dies of a brain tumor at 61
• 2004 Sipho Gumede, South African jazz legend, lung cancer (birthdate unknown)
• 2005 Alexander Golitzen, American art director known for his work for Universal Studios (Spartacus, To Kill A Mockingbird), dies at 97 [1]
• 2005 Betty Astell, British actress (b. 1912)
• 2005 Gilles Marotte, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1945)
• 2005 Jack Hirshleifer, American economist (b. 1925)
• 2007 John Normington, English actor (b. 1937)
• 2007 Lars Forssell, Swedish writer, member of the Swedish Academy (b. 1928)
• 2007 Skip Prosser, American basketball coach (only coach to take 3 schools to NCAA Tournament in first year; Loyola [MD], Xavier, Wake Forest), dies from heart attack at 56
• 2009 Marcey Jacobson, American photographer (b. 1911)
• 2009 Merce Cunningham, American choreographer (Acrobat in Every Soul is a Circus), dies at 90
• 2010 Al Goodman, American pop-soul singer (Ray, Goodman, Brown – “Special Lady”), dies of post-surgical heart failure at 67
• 2010 Ben Keith [Schaeufele], American musician and record producer (Neil Young; Great Speckled Bird), dies at 73
• 2010 Sivakant Tiwari, senior legal officer of the Singapore Legal Service (b. 1945)
• 2011 Margaret Olley, Australian still-life and interior painter, dies at 88
• 2012 Franz West, Austrian artist, dies at 65
• 2013 J. J. Cale, American rock guitarist and songwriter (“After Midnight”: “Call Me The Breeze”; “Cocaine”), dies of a heart attack at 74
• 2013 Rolf Haufs, German writer, dies at 77
• 2013 Shafiga Akhundova, Azerbaijani opera composer (Galin gayasi (Bride’s rock)), dies at 89
• 2014 Roland Verhavert, Flemish screenwriter (Sea Gulls Die in the Harbor; Chronicle of a Passion), dies at 87
• 2015 Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, dies in a coma at 22
• 2015 Wolfgang Gönnenwein, German choral director and educator, and artistic director (Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, 1972-2004), dies at 82
• 2016 Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer (Kaivos), dies at 87
• 2016 Forrest E. Mars Jr., American Candy Manufacturer (Mars, Inc.), dies at 84
• 2016 Miss Cleo [Youree Dell Harris], American psychic (Psychic Readers Network), dies of colon cancer at 53
• 2016 Sandy Pearlman, American lyricist; music producer, artist manager (Blue Öyster Cult), music journalist and record company executive, dies form complications of a stroke at 72
• 2017 June Foray, American voice actress (Rocky the Flying Squirrel; Cinderella, Cindy Lou Who), dies at 99
• 2017 Patti Deutsch, American actress and Match Game panelist, dies of cancer at 73
• 2017 Paul Angerer, Austrian violist, violinist, conductor (Concilium Musicum Wien), harpsichordist, composer and radio host, dies at 90
• 2017 Peter Whalley, British television screenwriter (Coronation Street), and author, dies of cancer at 71
• 2018 Simegnew Bekele, Ethiopian dam engineer (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam), murdered at 53
• 2019 Bryan Magee, British philosopher, politician (Member of Parliament, 1974-83), writer (Modern British Philosophy), and broadcaster (Thinking Aloud), dies at 89
• 2019 Russi Taylor, American voice actress (6th Minnie Mouse, 1986-2019), dies at 75
• 2020 Bill English, American computer engineer who helped develop the computer mouse and the revolutionary NLS computer system, dies of respiratory failure at 91
• 2020 Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician (leader of West Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD), 1987-91; Minister of Justice, 1974-84; Mayor of Munich, 1962-72), dies at 94

• 2021 Albert Bandura, Canadian-American psychologist (social learning theory, Bobo doll experiment), dies at 95
• 2021 Ally Dawson, Scottish soccer defender (5 caps; Glasgow Rangers) and manager (Hamilton Academical), dies at 63
• 2021 Colin Southgate, English businessman (Thorn EMI, Chairman of the Royal Opera House), dies at 83
• 2021 Ivan Toplak, Serbian soccer striker (1 cap; Red Star Belgrade) and manager (Red Star Belgrade, San Jose Earthquakes, Yugoslavia), dies at 89
• 2021 Joey Jordison, American drummer (Slipknot, 1995-2013 – “All Hope Is Gone”), dies at 46
• 2021 Mike Enzi, American accountant, and politician (US Senator for Wyoming (R), 1997-2021), dies from injuries in a bicycling accident at 77
• 2021 Rick Aiello, American character actor (Officer Long- Do the Right Thing), dies of pancreatic cancer at 65
• 2022 David Ireland, Australian author (The Unknown Industrial Prisoner), dies at 94
• 2022 Joan Kenmore, American child actress (The Wizard of Oz), dies at 90
• 2022 Ronald Allison, British journalist and press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II (1973-78), dies at 90 [1]

• 2023 Randy Meisner, American rock bassist and vocalist (Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band; Linda Ronstadt; The Eagles, 1971-77 – “Take It To The Limit”), dies of complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease at 77

• 2024 Benjamin Luxon, British operatic baritone (Owen Wingrave), dies at 87 [1]
• 2024 Geir Karlsen, Norwegian soccer goalkeeper (31 caps; Rosenborg, Dunfermline, Vålerengen, Odd), dies at 75

July 26 Highlights