Famous Deaths on October 8

• 705 Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, fifth Umayyad caliph, dies in Damascus at about 58 (approximate date)
• 976 Jelena of Zadar, Croatian queen
• 1094 Relics of St Mark the Evangelist (c. 12 A.D.- 68 A.D.) placed in a crypt at new Basilica di San Marco in the Serene Republic of Venice

• 1286 John I of Dreux, Duke of Brittany (b. 1217)
• 1317 Fushimi, 92nd Emperor of Japan (1287-98) who abdicated, retired to a monastery and became a Cloistered Emperor, dies at 52
• 1606 John VI the Elder, Count of Nassau, father of 24, dies at 69
• 1613 Sebastián de Covarrubias, Spanish lexicographer and cryptographer (Treasury of Castilian or Spanish Language), dies at 74
• 1621 Antoine de Montchrétien, French dramatist and economist, killed as part Huguenots rebellion
• 1647 Christian Sørensen Longomontanus, Danish astronomer, dies at 85
• 1651 Isaac Elsevier, Dutch book publisher (House of Elzevir), dies at 55
• 1652 John Greaves, English mathematician and astronomer (attempted to survey the pyramids) (b. 1602)
• 1656 John Georg I, Elector of Saxony (1611-56, Peace of Prague), dies at 71
• 1657 Dilras Banu Begum, Persian princess and chief consort of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, dies of childbirth complications at about 35
• 1659 Jean de Quen, French Jesuit missionary to New France, dies in Quebec City at about 56
• 1680 Elisabeth, Princess of Bohemia and abbess of Herford who corresponded with Descartes, dies at 61
• 1683 Philipp Friedrich Boddecker, German composer and organist, dies at 76

• 1686 Adriaen Paets, Rotterdam regent and diplomat, dies at about 55
• 1728 Anne Danican Philidor, French composer (Concert Spirituel), dies at 47
• 1735 Yongzheng, 4th Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1722-35), dies at 56
• 1754 Henry Fielding, English novelist (Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones), dies at 47
• 1772 Jean-Joseph Cassenea de Mondonville, French composer and violinist, dies at 60

• 1795 Andrew Kippis, English non-conformist clergyman and biographer, dies at 70
• 1800 Salawat Yulayev, Bashkir poet and national hero who led the Pugachev’s Rebellion, dies in penal servitude at 46
• 1803 Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet and playwright (Filippo), dies at 54
• 1809 James Elphinston, Scottish philologist, dies at 87
• 1820 Henri Christophe, President of Haiti (1807-11) and King of Haiti (1811-20), dies at 53
• 1834 François-Adrien Boieldieu, French opera composer known as ‘the French Mozart’ (La dame blanche – The White Lady), dies at 58
• 1842 Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, Danish organist and composer (Ludlam’s Hule), dies at 68
• 1856 Théodore Chassériau, Dominican-French Romantic painter, muralist, and youngest artist exhibited at the Louvre museum, dies at 37
• 1862 James Streshley Jackson, American attorney and Brigadier General (Union Army), dies in battle at 39
• 1862 William Rufus Terrill, American Union brigadier general, dies in battle at 28
• 1864 Thomas Jonathan Coffin Amory, US Union-brigadier general, dies at about 34
• 1865 Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, Moravian violinist and composer, dies at 51

• 1879 Miguel Grau Seminario ‘Gentleman of the Seas’, Peruvian Admiral, dies during the Battle of Angamos at 45
• 1886 Austin F. Pike, American politician (Rep and Senator for New Hampshire), dies at 66
• 1888 Jules d’Anethan, Belgian politician, Prime Minister of Belgium (1870-71), dies at 85
• 1894 Norbert Rillieux, American chemical engineer and inventor (sugar refiner), dies at 88
• 1895 Charles Oberthür, German composer and harpist, dies at 76
• 1895 Empress Myeongseong, Empress of Korea, powerful consort of Korean monarch Gojong, assassinated by Japanese agents at 43
• 1895 William Mahone, American railway engineer and Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 68
• 1897 Alexei Savrasov, Russian painter, dies at 67
• 1897 Martin Pluddemann, German composer, dies at 43
• 1904 Gustav Ratzenhofer, Austrian sociologist and general, dies at 62
• 1907 Alfred, Liechtensteins noble of Austrian Herrenhaus, dies at 65
• 1911 Joseph Sickman Corsen, Dutch Antillean pianist, composer, and poet, dies at 57
• 1912 Wilhelm Kuhe, German composer, dies at 88
• 1914 Adelaide Crapsey, American poet, invented poetic form the cinquain, dies of tuberculosis at 36 [1]
• 1919 Eugene Demolder, Belgian writer (Sous la Robe), dies at 58
• 1925 Abraham Pieter Cornelis van Karnebeek, Dutch Foreign Minister (Liberal, 1918-27), dies at 89
• 1927 Mary Webb, English writer (Gone to Earth), dies at 46
• 1928 Larry Semon, American silent film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (The Wizard of Oz (1925)), dies of pneumonia and tuberculosis at 39
• 1931 John Monash, Australian military general during WWI (Gallipoli, Western Front), dies at 66
• 1936 William Henry Stark, American timber industry leader, dies ta 85
• 1940 Robert Emden, Swiss astronomer and astrophysicist (Gaskugeln), dies at 78
• 1941 Gus Kahn, German-American lyricist (“It Had to Be You”; “Makin’ Whoopee”; “I’ll See You in My Dreams”), dies of a heart attack at 54
• 1942 Sergei Chaplygin, Russian physicist and engineer, dies at 73
• 1944 Wendell Wilkie, American Republican candidate for president (1940), dies of a heart attack at 52

• 1945 Herman Theodoor Colenbrander, Dutch historian, dies at 73
• 1946 Rose Melville, American stage actress (Sis Hopkins), dies at 73
• 1948 Sven Holger Körling, Swedish organist, music teacher, and composer of children’s songs, dies at 69
• 1949 Leonor Michaelis, German biochemist and physician, known for the Michaelis–Menten equation, dies at 74
• 1953 Kathleen Ferrier, English contralto singer (Orfeo Ed Evridice), dies of cancer at 41
• 1953 Nigel Bruce, British actor (Rebecca, Suspicion, Sherlock Holmes), dies from a heart attack at 58
• 1954 George W. Mason, American industrialist and CEO of the Kelvinator Corporation (1928-37), dies at 63
• 1954 Morten Korch, Danish author, dies at 78
• 1958 Ran Bosilek, Bulgarian author (b. 1886)
• 1959 Balthasar van der Pol, Dutch physicist (Comparison of Van der Pol), dies at 70
• 1961 Tom Howard, American photo-journalist (Chicago Sun-Times), dies at 67
• 1963 Remedios Varo, Spanish-Mexican surrealist artist (Eyes on the table, Useless Science or the Alchemist), dies of a heart attack aged 54 [1]
• 1964 Charles Hodge, American NYU professor at NYU (Answers for Americans), dies at 69
• 1966 Célestin Freinet, French pedagogue & educational reformer, dies at 69

• 1967 Vernon Watkins, Welsh poet (Ballad of Mari Lwyd), dies at 61
• 1969 Eduardo Ciannelli, Italian actor (Foreign Correspondent, Gunga Din), dies at 80
• 1970 Jean Giono, French writer (Le Hussard Sur le Toit), dies at 75
• 1970 Lucien Goldmann, Romanian-French sociologist and philosopher, dies at 57
• 1970 Mitr Chaibancha, prolific Thai actor in 266 films, dies from helicopter film stunt at 36
• 1971 Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman, Dutch composer, dies at 79
• 1973 Gabriel Marcel, French philosopher and writer, dies at 83
• 1974 Harry Carney, American tenor and baritone jazz saxophonist (Duke Ellington Orchestra, 1927-74), dies at 64
• 1975 Alberto Hemsi, Turkish born composer and collector of Sephardic Jews music, dies at 78
• 1977 Giorgos Papasideris, Greek country singer, composer and lyricist, dies at 75
• 1978 Jim Gilliam, American MLB player and coach (LA Dodgers), dies of a brain hemorrhage at 49
• 1978 Karl Swenson, American actor (Lars Hanson-Little House on the Prairie), dies of a heart attack at 70
• 1978 Tibor Serly, Hungarian violinist and composer (American Elegy), dies at 76
• 1979 Edith Sampson (née Spurlock) American lawyer, judge, and the first Black U.S. delegate appointed to the United Nations, dies at 77
• 1979 Jayaprakash Narayan, Indian freedom fighter and political leader, dies at 76
• 1979 June Nash, American actress (Strange Cargo, Dynamite), dies at 68
• 1980 Maurice Martenot, French cellist, WWI radio telegrapher, and instrument inventor (ondes Martenot), dies at 81 [1]
• 1981 Heinz Kohut, Austrian-American psychoanalyst who opposed Freud and created the theory of self-psychology, dies of congestive heart failure at 68
• 1982 Fernando Lamas, Argentine American actor and director (Lost World, You look marvelous), dies of cancer at 67
• 1982 Philip Noel-Baker, British politician and disarmament advocate (Nobel 1959), dies at 92
• 1983 Joan Hackett, American stage and screen actress (Will Penny; Only When I Laugh; Mourning Becomes Electra), dies of cancer at 49
• 1984 Frederick Brisson, Danish-born film and theater producer, dies at 71 after a stroke
• 1985 Leon Klinghoffer, American murdered by hijackers of the Achille Lauro when they threw him off the boat at 69
• 1985 Malcolm Ross, American balloonist and atmospheric physicist, dies at 65
• 1985 Ricardo Bacchelli, Italian playwright and poet (Il malino del Po), dies at 94
• 1986 Walter Burkemo, American golfer (PGA C’ship 1953), dies at 67
• 1987 Konstantinos Tsatsos, Greek politician and 2nd President of Greece (1975-1980), dies at 88
• 1988 Ernst Hermann Meyer, German composer, dies at 82
• 1990 B.J. Wilson, British session and touring rock drummer (Procol Harum, 1967-77; Joe Cocker), dies of a drug overdose complications and pneumonia at 43
• 1991 Natalia Ginzburg, Italian writer (Sounds of the Night), dies at 75
• 1992 Jane Ewart-Boggs, Baroness Ewart-Biggs, British (Labour) spokesperson on Home Affairs, and peace activist, dies of cancer at 63

• 1993 Manke Nelis [Cornelis Pieters], Dutch singer (Aunt Saar), dies at 73
• 1994 Brian Hartley, British mathematician specialising in group theory, dies at 55
• 1994 Diana Churchill, English actress (Spider, Sally Bishop, Housemaster), dies at 81
• 1995 Christopher Keene, American conductor and musician, dies at 48
• 1995 Frederick Harry Baines, English figurative painter, dies at 85
• 1995 John Cairncross, British civil servant and spy (5th man – Cambridge Five), dies at 82
• 1996 Geoffrey Finsberg, British politician and conservative MP for Hampstead (1970-83), dies at 70
• 1996 Joseph Roy George Ralston, pilot, dies at 81
• 1996 Susan Gautier-Smith, British TV producer, dies of heart failure at 33
• 1996 Watkins Shaw, British musicologist, dies at 85
• 1996 William Prince, American actor (Spies Like Us, The Stepford Wives, City in Fear), dies at 83
• 1997 Bertrand Goldberg, American architect, known for Marina City, dies at 84
• 1997 Brown Meggs, CEO (Capitol Records), dies of a brain hemorrhage at 66
• 1997 Robin Lee, American figure skater, dies at 77
• 1998 Anatol Vieru, Romanian-Jewish composer (Ultimele zile, ultimele ore/The Last Days, the Last Hours), and pedagogue, dies at 72
• 1999 John McLendon, American basketball coach (b. 1915)
• 2001 Javed Iqbal, Pakistani serial killer (murderer of 100 boys), commits suicide in prison at 45
• 2002 Jacques Richard, French Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1952)
• 2002 Phyllis Calvert [Bickle], British actress (Crash of Silence, The Man in Grey), dies at 87
• 2004 Jacques Derrida, French philosopher associated with post-structuralism, dies at 74
• 2004 James Chace, American historian (b. 1931)
• 2007 Constantin Andreou, Brazilian-Greek sculptor (Egg-Family) and founder of the Costas Andreou Foundation, dies at 90 [1]
• 2008 Bob Friend, British newscaster (BBC, 1969-89; Sky News, 1989-2003), dies from a brain tumor at 70
• 2008 Eileen Herlie [Herlihy], Scottish-American actress (All My Children; The Angel with the Trumpet), dies of complications from pneumonia at 90
• 2008 George E. Palade, Romanian-American cell biologist (ribosomen, Nobel 1974), dies at 95
• 2008 Gidget Gein [Bradley Stewart], American hard rock bassist (Marilyn Manson), dies of a suspected drug overdose at 39
• 2010 Frank Bourgholtzer, American television correspondent (b. 1919)

• 2011 Antonio Iglesias Álvares, Spanish pianist, composer, educator and critic, dies at 93
• 2011 Mikey Welsh, American bass player (Weezer, 1998-2001 – “Island In The Sun”), dies of a drug overdose at 40
• 2011 Roger Williams [Louis Jacob Weertz], American popular music pianist (“Born Free”), dies of pancreatic cancer at 87
• 2013 Andy Pafko, American MLB player (Chicago Cubs; Milwaukee Braves), dies at 92
• 2013 Larry Verne, American novelty song singer (Mr. Custer), dies of heart failure at 77
• 2013 Paul Desmarais, Canadian businessman (Power Corporation of Canada), and philanthropist, dies at 86
• 2013 Philip Chevron [Ryan], Irish Celtic-punk guitarist (The Pogues – “If I Should Fall from Grace with God’, “Fairy Tale of New York City”), dies from esophageal cancer at 56
• 2013 Rod Grams, American politician (Senator-R-Minnesota 1995-2001, Rep-R-Minnesota 1993-95), and television anchor, dies from cancer at 65
• 2015 Hugh Scully, British TV presenter (The Antiques Roadshow), dies at 72
• 2015 Jim Diamond, Scottish singer-songwriter (I Should Have Known Better), dies at 64
• 2015 Paul Prudhomme, American cajun chef (K-Paul), dies at 75
• 2016 Dickie Jeeps, English rugby union halfback (England 24, British & Irish Lions 13 Tests; Northampton Saints RU) and executive (chairman Sports Council), dies at 84
• 2016 Don Ciccone, American singer-songwriter (The Critters – “Mr. Dieingly Sad”; The Hit Men), dies of a heart attack at 70
• 2017 Grady Tate, American jazz drummer (Oliver Nelson, Lalo Schifrin, Quincy Jones, Jimmy Smith), and singer, dies of complications from Alzheimer disease at 85 [1]
• 2017 Jerry Kleczka, American politician (Rep-D-WI, 1984-2005), dies at 73

• 2019 (Malcolm) “Molly” Duncan, Scottish saxophonist (Average White Band, 1972-83 – “Pick Up the Pieces”), dies of cancer at 74
• 2020 Charles Moore, American 400m hurdler (Olympic gold & silver 1952), dies at 91
• 2020 Jim Dwyer, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, dies of cancer at 63
• 2020 Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Iranian classical singer, dies at 80 [1]

• 2021 Everett Morton, Nevisian-born English drummer and percussionist (English Beat), dies at 71
• 2022 Gerben Karstens, Dutch road cyclist (Olympic gold 100km team trial 1964; 6 x stages Tour de France, 14 x stages Vuelta a España, 1 x stage Giro d’Italia), dies of stroke complications at 80
• 2023 Agneta Andersson, Swedish sprint canoer (Olympic gold K-1 500 1984, K-2 500 1984, 96; World C’ship gold K-2 500 1993), dies from cancer at 62
• 2023 Alcides Báez, Paraguayan soccer goalkeeper (16 caps; FC Cerro Porteño, FC Libertad), dies at 76
• 2023 Burt Young [Gerald DeLouise or Richard Morea], American character actor (Rocky; Convoy; The Choirboys), screenwriter (Uncle Joe Shannon), and visual artist, dies at 83 [1]
• 2023 Stewkey [Robert Antoni], American power pop-rock vocalist and keyboard player (Nazz – “Open My Eyes”, “Hello It’s Me), dies of cancer at 75
• 2024 Don Marshall, Canadian ice hockey left-wing (Stanley Cup 1956, 57, 58, 59, 60 Montreal Canadiens; 7 x NHL All-Star), dies at 92
• 2024 Luis Tiant, Cuban baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1968, 74, 76; Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox HOF), dies at 83 [1]
• 2024 Pat Fischer, American football cornerback (First-team All-Pro 1964, 69;
  Pro Bowl 1964, 65, 69; St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Redskins), dies at 84
• 2024 Tim Johnson, American Democratic politician and senator from South Dakota (1997-2015), dies at 77 [1] [2]

October 8 Highlights