Famous Deaths on September 29

• 716 Ceolfrith, Anglo-Saxon abbot of Bede, dies on route to Rome, accompanied by 80 monks and the Codex Amiatinus, his gift to the Pope and now the oldest surviving copy of the Vulgate Bible
• 855 Lotharius I, Romanian-French emperor (signed Treaty of Verdun), dies
• 1360 Joan I, Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne, Queen of France by marriage to King John II, dies at 34

• 1364 Charles, Duke of Brittany (“the Saint” beatified 1904), killed in the Battle of Auray at 44 or 45
• 1530 Andrea del Sato [d’Agnolo di Franceszo], Italian painter, dies at 44

• 1598 Floris van Pallandt, Dutch Count of Culemborg, dies at about 61
• 1619 Hans Lippershey, Dutch spectacle maker, credited inventor of the telescope, buried aged 48 or 49
• 1637 Lorenzo Ruiz, Filipino-Chinese saint, dies of trial by torture by Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan at 42
• 1642 René Goupil, French Jesuit missionary and first canonized Catholic martyr in Canada, killed by Mohawks at 34 [1]
• 1703 Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier who fled to exile in England, essayist and man of letters, dies at 90
• 1800 Michael Denis, Austrian poet, bibliographer and lepidopterist, dies at 71
• 1804 Michael Hillegas, American merchant and first Treasurer of the United States (1775-89), dies at 75
• 1825 Daniel Shays, American officer in the American Revolution and leader of Shay’s Rebellion, dies at 78

• 1839 Friedrich Mohs, German mineralogist and creator of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, dies at 66
• 1860 Chapin A. Harris, American dentist who founded the America Society of Dental Surgeons, dies at 54
• 1862 William “Bull” Nelson, Union general-major, murdered after an argument by fellow Union officer General Jefferson C. Davis at 38
• 1864 Hiram Burnham, American Union army officer (Chancellorsville), dies in Battle of Chaffin’s Farm at 49 or 50
• 1867 Sterling “Old Pap” Price, American lawyer, U.S. Army Brigadier General and politician (11th Governor of Missouri), dies at 58
• 1873 John Ancrum Winslow, American naval officer (Mexican–American War), dies at 61
• 1886 James Bowen, American president of Erie Railroad and Union Army General, dies at 78
• 1887 Bernhard von Langenbeck, German surgeon and founder of Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery, dies at 76
• 1889 Louis Faidherbe, French general and colonel administrator in Senegal, dies at 71
• 1900 Samuel Fenton Cary, American politician and temperance movement leader (Rep-IR-Ohio), dies at 86

• 1902 William McGonagall, Scottish-Irish poet infamous as an extremely bad poet and considered the worst in British history (The Tay Bridge Disaster, The Famous Tay Whale), dies at 77
• 1908 Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer (Epitaph of a small winner), dies at 69
• 1910 Winslow Homer, American painter known for his marine scenes (Breezing Up), dies at 74

• 1914 Jean Bouin, French middle distance runner (Olympic silver 1912), dies fighting in WWI at 25
• 1915 Luther Orlando Emerson, American composer, dies at 95
• 1915 Rudi Stephan, German composer (Die ersten Menschen), dies fighting in World War I at 28
• 1918 Frank Luke Jr., American World War I pilot with 19 aerial victories and the first US pilot to receive the Medal of Honor, killed in action at 21
• 1925 Léon-Victor-Auguste Bourgeois, French Prime Minister (1895-96), Nobel Peace Prize 1920 as President of Council of the League of Nations ), dies at 74
• 1925 Runar Schildt, Finnish writer (Galgmannen), dies at 36
• 1927 Arthur Achleitner, German writer, dies at 69
• 1927 Willem Einthoven, Dutch physiologist and inventor of the electrocardiodiogram (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1924), dies at 67
• 1928 Ernst Steinitz, German mathematician, dies at 57
• 1928 Lido Manetti [Arnold Kent], Italian-born American actor, dies in a car accident at 29
• 1929 Giitji Tanaka, Japanese baron, general and Premier (1927-29), dies at 66

• 1933 Margaret Talmadge, American actress, dies at 72
• 1937 Ray Ewry, American track and field athlete (8 Olympic golds 1900, 04, 08), dies at 63
• 1939 Samuel Dickstein, Polish mathematician, dies in WWII bombing at 88
• 1941 Friedrich Angel, German mathematician (group theory), dies at 79
• 1950 Balthazar Huibrecht Verhagen, Dutch dramatist and writer, dies at 69
• 1950 Clara Ford, American suffragette supporter and wife of industrialist Henry Ford, dies at 84
• 1951 Bradley Barker, American silent actor and film director, dies at 68
• 1951 Thomas Cahill, American soccer coach and administrator (first coach US men’s national team), dies at 86
• 1952 John Cobb, British auto racer (World Land Speed Record 1938-39, 47), dies attempting to break world Water Speed Record at Loch Ness, Scotland, at 52
• 1954 William John Gruffydd, Welsh poet and scholar, dies at 73
• 1959 Bruce Bairnsfather, British cartoonist (Old Bill), dies at 72
• 1959 Harold Huber [Huberman], American radio, stage, a,d screen actor (I Cover Times Square), dies at 49
• 1960 Franz Arnold, German writer, dies at 82
• 1961 Reinhard Herbig, German archaeologist (Etruscan, Ancient Greece and Rome), dies at 63
• 1962 Patrick Corry, developed self-rotating rock drill, dies in the Bronx
• 1962 Robert Burton, American actor (The Big Heat, Compulsion, A Man Called Peter), dies from cancer at 67
• 1967 Carson McCullers, American author (Heart is a Lonely Hunter), dies of a brain hemorrhage at 50
• 1967 Ludwig Donath, Austrian actor (Torn Curtain, Sirocco, Jolson Sings Again), dies of leukemia at 67
• 1968 Eddie Wilcox, American jazz pianist, arranger, and bandleader (Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra), dies at 59
• 1968 Paul Radmilovic, Welsh swimmer (Olympic gold GB 4×200m freestyle 1908; gold GB water polo 1908, 12, 20), dies at 82
• 1970 Edward Everett Horton, American vaudeville, stage, silent and sound screen character actor (Top Hat), and narrator (Fractured Fairy Tales – The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show), dies of cancer at 84
• 1973 W. H. Auden [Wystan Hugh Auden], British-American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (The Age of Anxiety; Funeral Blues), dies of heart failure at 66

• 1977 Alexander Tcherepnin, Russian pianist and composer, dies at 78
• 1979 Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Russian microtonal composer, dies at 86
• 1980 Bindo Maserati, Italian auto engineer and businessman (manager Maserati Racing; founder O.S.C.A. Racing), dies at 97
• 1981 Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (Liverpool, 1959-74), dies of a heart attack at 68
• 1982 Monty Stratton, American baseball pitcher (MLB All Star 1937 Chicago WS; played minor leagues with prosthetic leg; 1949 film The Stratton Story), dies from cancer at 70
• 1982 Slinger Nitschke, Australian cricketer (2 Tests for Australia 1931-32), dies at 77
• 1984 Marnix Gijsen [Jan-Albert Goris], Belgian writer (Lament for Agnes), dies at 85
• 1985 Benjamin Markarian, Armenian astrophysicist (Markarian galaxies), dies at 71
• 1986 Betty Kean, American actress (Amy Tucker-Leave it to Larry), dies at 69
• 1987 Henry Ford II, American automotive industry businessman, grandson of Henry Ford, and son of Edsel Ford (Ford Motor Company President, 1945-60 and CEO, 1947-79), dies of pneumonia at 70
• 1988 Charles Addams, American artist and cartoonist (New Yorker, The Addams Family) known for darkly humorous and macabre characters, dies of a heart attack at 76
• 1989 August A. “Gussie” Busch Jr., American brewing magnate (chairman Anheuser-Busch 1946-75) and baseball executive (owner St. Louis Cardinals 1953-89), dies at 90
• 1991 Sam Ntuli, South African trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist, assassinated
• 1991 Zapata Jaw [Nelson Renfrum], Surinamese jazz musician, dies
• 1992 Paul Jabara, American singer-songwriter and actor (Last Dance), dies of AIDS at 44
• 1993 Ghuslam Wyne, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Punjab, murdered at 60
• 1993 Gordon Douglas [Brickner], American film director (Our Gang; Laurel and Hardy; Young At Heart; Way…Way Out; Tony Rome; They Call Me Mister Tibbs!), dies of cancer at 85
• 1994 Cheb Hasni, Algerian singer, murdered at 26
• 1994 Don Watson, Australian race car driver, dies in an accident at a practice for the Bathurst 1000 at 43
• 1994 John Heddle Nash, English operatic singer, dies at 68
• 1994 Mehmet Topac, Turkish minister of Justice, murdered
• 1995 Francis Johnson, British architect (country homes, churches, historic restorations), dies at 84
• 1995 George Chesterman Phillips, British naval officer and WWII submarine commander, dies at 90
• 1995 Gerd Bucerius, German lawyer, newspaper publisher (Die Zeit, 1946-95), and politician, dies at 89
• 1995 Madalyn Murray O’Hair, American atheist who opposed prayer in school, murdered at 76 along with her son Jon by David Waters
• 1995 Seger Ellis, American jazz pianist, pop vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader, dies at 91 [1]
• 1995 Susan Fleetwood, British actress (Chandler & Co”, The Buddha of Surburbia”), dies of cancer at 51
• 1996 Ethel Jane Cain, British telephonist and original UK Speaking Clock voice, dies at 87
• 1996 Leslie Crowther, English comedian and TV host (The pPrice is Right), dies at 63
• 1996 Shūsaku Endō, Japanese writer (Sea & Poison, Silence), dies at 73
• 1997 Bobby Campbell, Scottish journalist and musician, dies at 55
• 1997 Milner Gray, British graphic designer, dies at 97
• 1997 Roy Lichtenstein, American pop artist (Drowning Girl), dies of pneumonia at 73
• 1997 Sven-Eric Emanuel Johanson, Swedish composer, dies at 77

• 1998 Valston Hancock, Australian air force commander (Chief of Air Force Staff 1961-65), dies at 91
• 2001 Frank Gasparro, American chief engraver of the US Mint (1965-81), dies at 92
• 2001 Mabel Fairbanks, Seminole-African American figure skater and coach (US Figure Skating Hall of Fame), dies at 85 [1]

• 2002 Edmund Trebus, British hoader, (A Life of Grime), dies at 83
• 2004 Richard Sainct, French motorcycle rally rider, dies in a crash at 44
• 2005 Austin Leslie, American chef, the “Godfather of Fried Chicken” (b. 1934)
• 2005 Gennady Sarafanov, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 15), dies at 63
• 2006 Jan Werner Danielsen, Norwegian singer, dies of heart failure at 30
• 2006 Khalique Ibrahim Khalique, Pakistani journalist and Urdu poet and critic (b. 1926)
• 2006 Louis-Albert Cardinal Vachon, Canadian Catholic Archbishop of Quebec, dies at 94
• 2006 Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy SEAL (posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor), killed in Iraq at 25
• 2006 Walter Hadlee, New Zealand cricket batsman (11 Tests, 1 x 100, 2 x 50; Canterbury; father of Richard, Dayle & Barry), dies from a stroke at 91
• 2007 Cees Slinger, Dutch jazz pianist, composer and bandleader, dies at 79
• 2007 Lois Maxwell [Hooker], Canadian actress (Goldfinger, Dr. No, Miss Moneypenny), dies at 80
• 2008 Hayden Carruth, American poet (The Crow and the Heart), dies at 87
• 2008 Relus ter Beek, Dutch Labour Party politician (House of Representatives, 1971-89; Minister of Defense, 1989-94; Queen’s Commissioner of Drenthe, 1995-2008), dies of lung cancer at 64
• 2009 Greg Ladanyi, Hungarian-American record producer and recording engineer, dies of injuries sustained in a fall at 57
• 2009 Pavel Popovich, Ukrainian cosmonaut (Vostok IV; Soyuz 14), dies at 78
• 2009 Sperantza Vrana, Greek actress (b. 1926 or 1932)
• 2010 Georges Charpak, Polish-French physicist who invented and developed subatomic particle detectors (Nobel 1992), dies at 86
• 2010 Greg Giraldo, American comedian (Comedy Central Roast), dies of an overdose at 44

• 2011 Hella Haasse, ‘Grande Dame of Dutch Literature’ (Oeroeg, The Tea Lords), dies at 93
• 2011 Sylvia Robinson, American singer (Mickey & Sylvia – “Love Is Strange”; solo – “Pillow Talk”), record producer, and record label executive (Sugar Hill Records), dies of congestive heart failure at 76
• 2012 Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Sr., American newspaper publisher (NY Times. 1963-92), dies at 86
• 2013 Dov Noy, Polish-born Jewish scholar of Jewish folklore, dies at 92 [1]
• 2013 L. C. Greenwood, American NFL football player (Pittsburgh Steelers – 4 x Super Bowl champion, 6 x Pro Bowl), dies from kidney failure at 67
• 2014 Dan Goossen, American boxing promoter (Michael Nunn, Terry Norris, James Toney), dies of liver cancer at 64
• 2015 Phil Woods, American jazz saxophonist and composer (Steely Dan’s “Doctor Wu”; Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are”), dies of emphysema at 83
• 2016 Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Filipino politician, scholar, judge, and Senator of the Philippines (1995-2001, 2004-16), dies from cancer at 71
• 2017 Dmitry Smolsky, Belarusian orchestral, choral, theater and pop music composer, and teacher (Belarusian State Academy of Music, 1962-2014), dies at 80
• 2017 Ludmila Belousova, Russian figure skater (Olympic gold USSR pairs 1964, 68; World C’ship gold pairs 1965, 66, 67, 68 [Oleg Protopopov]), dies at 81
• 2018 James “Big Jim” Wright, American Grammy and Dove Award-winning keyboardist, composer, arranger, and record producer (Sound of Blackness; Mariah Carey), dies at 52
• 2018 Otis Rush, American blues musician (Right Place, Wrong Time), dies from complications from an earlier stroke at 83
• 2019 Larry Willis, American jazz pianist and composer, dies of an aneurysm at 76
• 2020 (Francis) Rocco Prestia, American funk-rock bassist (Tower of Power), dies at 69
• 2020 19-year-old Indian Dalit rape victim dies two weeks after being gang raped by upper-caste men in Hathras district, ignites widespread protest
• 2020 Aster Berkhof [Louis Van de Bergh], Flemish writer (Furious Christ), dies at 100
• 2020 Doyle Royal, American collegiate soccer coach (NCAA C’ship 1968; University of Maryland 1946-73) and tennis coach (U of Maryland 1954-80), dies at 101
• 2020 Helen Reddy, Australian-American rock vocalist (“I Am Woman”; “You And Me Against The World”), dies at 78 [1]
• 2020 Isidora Žebeljan, Serbian classical, opera, and film composer, dies at 53
• 2020 John Whittaker, New Zealand rugby league utility back (26 Tests; Wellington; Warrington), dies from cancer at 70
• 2020 Justin Connolly [D’Arcy-Dawson], British classical and electro-acoustic composer (Diaphony; The Garden of Forking Paths), dies at 87
• 2020 Mac Davis, American country music singer-songwriter (“Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me”; “In The Ghetto”; “I Believe In Music”) and actor (North Dallas Forty), dies following heart surgery at 78 [1]
• 2020 Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, 5th Emir of Kuwait (2006-2020), Commander of the Kuwait Military Forces, dies at 91
• 2021 Bronius Kutavičius, Lithuanian composer (The Gates of Jerusalem; Lokys) and teacher (Čiurlionis School of Art, 1975-2000), dies at 89
• 2021 Dom Alexandre José Maria dos Santos, Mozambican Roman Catholic Cardinal, Mozambique’s 1st black priest, dies at 97 [1]
• 2021 Glyn Moses, Welsh rugby league fullback (2 caps Wales. 9 Great Britain; Salford, St. Helens), dies at 93
• 2021 Heiko Salzwedel, German cycling coach (est. Australian Institute of Sport Road Cycling/MTB program; German, Danish, British Cycling), dies at 64
• 2024 Martin Lee [Barnes], British pop singer (Brotherhood of Man – “Save Your Kisses For Me”), dies of heart failure at 77
• 2024 Ron Ely [Ronald Pierce], American actor (Tarzan; Doc Savage), dies at 86

September 29 Highlights