Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.

Famous Deaths on August 27

  • 542 Saint Caesarius of Arles
  • 827 Pope Eugene II, Italian Pope (824-827)
  • 1208 Irene Angelina, daughter of Isaac II Angeles, dies

Arthur II (1262-1312)

Duke of Brittany (1305-12), dies at 50

  • 1394 Chokei, Emperor of Japan (b. 1343)
  • 1450 Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr, English politician (b. 1395)
  • 1521 Josquin Des Prez, French composer, dies between 66 and 71 [birthdate uncertain]
  • 1522 Giovanni A Amadei/Amadeo, Italian sculptor/architect, dies at about 75
  • 1545 Piotr Gamrat, Polish Catholic archbishop (b. 1487)
  • 1576 Titian [Tiziano Vecelli], Italian painter, dies of plague
  • 1590 Pope Sixtus V [Felice Piergentile], Pope of the Catholic Church (1585-90), dies at 68
  • 1608 Hendrik van Kinschot Dutch lawyer (lawyer for the Council of Brabant), dies at 66
  • 1611 Tomés L de Victoria, Spanish composer, singer, organist, and priest, dies at about 53
  • 1635 Lope Félix de Vega Carpio, Spanish playwright and poet (Angelica, Arcadia), dies at 72
  • 1651 Jacob Backer, Dutch painter, dies at about 43
  • 1664 Francisco Zurbarán, Spanish painter, dies at 65
  • 1667 Adriaen Millaert [Melar], Flemish engraver, dies at 33
  • 1727 Aert de Gelder, Dutch painter (King David), dies at 81
  • 1746 Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, German-Bohemian organist, and baroque composer, dies at about 89
  • 1748 James Thomson, Scottish poet (Rule, Britannia), dies at 47
  • 1758 Barbara of Portugal [Maria Madalena Bárbara Xavier Leonor Teresa Antónia Josefa], Queen of Spain, dies at 46
  • 1827 Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff, Austrian diplomat and statesman (ruled the Netherlands for Holy Roman Emperor), dies at 78
  • 1828 Eise J Eisinga, constructed planetarium at Franeker, dies at 84
  • 1830 Louis Henri, Prince of Condé, commits suicide at 74
  • 1840 William Kneass, 3rd US chief engraver (1824-40), dies in office
  • 1841 Ignaz von Seyfried, Austrian composer, dies at 65
  • 1846 Franciszek Ścigalski, Polish composer, dies at 64
  • 1846 Gottfied Wilhelm Fink, German composer, dies at 63
  • 1855 Francisco Eduardo da Costa, Portuguese composer, dies at 36
  • 1857 Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American poet, literary critic and editor, dies of tuberculosis at 42
  • 1865 Józef Nowakowski, Polish pianist and composer, dies at 64
  • 1865 Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian novelist (The Clockmaker; or, The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville), dies at 68
  • 1868 Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee, Swiss composer, dies at 82
  • 1871 William Whiting Boardman, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut), dies at 76
  • 1874 Johan George Schwartze, painter, dies
  • 1874 John Henry Foley, Irish sculptor (Prince Albert Memorial), dies at 56
  • 1875 William Chapman Ralston, American banker (b. 1826)

Rowland Hill (1795-1879)

English inventor who introduced 1st adhesive postage stamp (1840), dies at 84

  • 1883 August Friedrich Pott, German violinist, composer, and music professor, dies at 76
  • 1887 Wilhelm Volkmar, German composer, dies at 74
  • 1898 John Hopkinson, British physicist and electrical engineer (Hopkinson's Law), dies with three of his children in a mountaineering accident in the Pennine Alps, Switzerland at 49
  • 1910 Clement of Maasdijk, 1st Dutch aircraft death

Louis Botha (1862-1919)

Boer general and statesman, 1st Prime Minister of South Africa (1910-19), dies at 56

  • 1922 Carl Fuchs, German composer, dies at 83
  • 1924 William Maddock Bayliss, British physiologist, co-discoverer of hormones, dies at 64
  • 1929 Herman Potočnik, Slovenian rocket scientist, dies at 36
  • 1930 Didericus van Epen, Dutch genealogist (Dutch Patriarch, dies at 62
  • 1931 Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (b. 1846)
  • 1931 Frank Harris, Irish-American journalist and writer (My Life & Loves), dies at 75
  • 1931 Willem Hubert Nolens, Dutch Catholic priest, politician (MP, 1896-1931) and law professor (University of Amsterdam, 1909-26), dies at 70
  • 1937 John Russell Pope, American architect (Jefferson Memorial, National Archives and Records Administration), dies at 63
  • 1943 Otto Selz, German psychologist, dies at 62
  • 1944 Georg von Boeselager, German nobleman (b. 1915)
  • 1948 Charles Evans Hughes, American statesman, Republican politician and 11th Chief Justice of Supreme Court (1930-41), dies at 86
  • 1948 Oley Speaks, American composer (On the Road to Mandalay), dies at 74
  • 1948 Oscar Lorenzo Fernández, Brazilian conductor and composer (Imbapara), dies at 50
  • 1949 Arthur Chesney [Kellaway], British stage and screen character actor (The Lodger; Chelsea Life), dies of a stroke at 68
  • 1950 Cesare Pavese, Italian writer (Fuoco Grande), commits suicide at 41
  • 1953 Nicolai Berezowsky, Russian-American composer, dies at 53
  • 1955 Joachim Wach, philosopher/sociologist (Sociology of Religion), dies
  • 1958 Ernest Lawrence, American nuclear scientist and inventor (Cyclotron - Nobel 1939), dies at 57
  • 1961 Gail Russell, American actress (The Uninvited, Moonrise, Unseen), dies from complications of alcohol abuse at 36 [1]
  • 1962 Carlos Lavín, Chilean composer (Lamentaciones Huiliches), and ethnomusicologist, dies at 79
  • 1963 Allama Mashriqi, Pakistani scholar and politician (b. 1888)

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

American civil rights activist, writer (Souls of Black Folk) and co-founder of the NAACP, dies in Accra, Ghana, at 95

  • 1964 Aleksey Semyonovich Zhivotov, Russian composer, dies at 59
  • 1964 Gracie Allen, American actress and comedienne (Burns & Allen), dies at 62
  • 1965 Edmond of Dooren, Flemish painter, dies at 68
  • 1965 Gerald Bond, South African cricketer (South Africa 1938-39), dies at 56

Le Corbusier (1887-1965)

Swiss French architect, city planner and artist (Urbanisme), dies at 77

  • 1965 Otto Reinhold, German composer, dies at 66

Brian Epstein (1934-1967)

English music entrepreneur and manager (Beatles), dies of an accidental barbiturate overdose at 32

  • 1967 Henri-Georges Adam, French painter/cartoonist/sculptor, dies at 63
  • 1968 Marina, Princess of Greece and Denmark, Duchess of Kent, wife of Prince George of England, dies at 61
  • 1969 Claire Whitney, silent film actress (Blind Fools), dies at 79
  • 1969 Erika Mann, German-American author (Other Germany) and daughter of Thomas Mann, dies at 63
  • 1969 Henri EJA de Page, Belgian lawyer, dies
  • 1969 Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (Manservant and Maidservant), dies at 85
  • 1971 Bennett Cerf, American publisher (Random House) and panelist (What's My Line), dies at 73
  • 1971 Jim Turnesa, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1952; Ryder Cup 1953), dies of lung cancer at 58
  • 1971 Lillian "Lil" Hardin Armstrong, American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader, dies at 73
  • 1971 Margaret Bourke-White, American photographer, 1st female LIFE staff photographer, dies at 67
  • 1975 Bob Scholl, American doo-wop vocalist (Mello-Kings - "Tonite, Tonite"), dies in a boating accident at 41

Haile Selassie (1892-1975)

Emperor of Ethiopia (1930-74), dies of suspected assassination by strangulation at 83

  • 1976 Mukesh [Mathur], Indian "playback singer" for Bollywood films, dies of a heart attack at 53
  • 1977 George Merritt, English actor (I Monster, Canterbury Tale), dies at 86
  • 1979 Bolesław Szabelski, Polish organist and composer, dies at 82

Lord Mountbatten (1900-1979)

British naval officer and statesman, last Viceroy of India (1947), assassinated by an IRA bomb on his boat in Ireland at 79

  • 1979 Nicholas Mountbatten, Lord Mountbatten's grandson, murdered by the IRA at 14
  • 1980 Douglas Kenney, American humorist (co-founded the magazine National Lampoon), dies at 33
  • 1980 Sam Levenson, American humorist (Sam Levenson Show, Masquerade Party), dies at 68
  • 1981 Joan Edwards, American pop singer on radio (Your Hit Parade) and television (Joan Edwards Show), dies of a heart attack at 62
  • 1981 Valery Kharlamov, Soviet ice hockey player (b. 1948)
  • 1982 Anandamayi Ma [Nirmala Sundari], Indian spiritual leader, dies at 86
  • 1983 William Hitzig, Austrian Maxwell physician, dies at 78
  • 1984 Bernard Youens [Popley], British actor (Coronation Street, Somewhere in Politics), dies from a heart attack at 69
  • 1984 Billy Sands, American actor (Phil Silvers Show, McHale's Navy), dies at 73
  • 1987 Charlie Smalls, American Tony Award-winning composer and songwriter (The Wiz), dies of a burst appendix at 43
  • 1987 Scott La Rock [Sterling], American hip-hop DJ (Boogie Down Productions), shot to death at 25
  • 1988 Mario Montenegro, Filipino actor (The Rites of May), dies at 60
  • 1988 Max Black, Azerbaijan-born British-American philosopher (analytical philosophy), dies at 79
  • 1990 Raymond St Jacques, American actor, director and producer, who was the 1st African-American to hold a regular role in a western series (Simon Blake in "Rawhide"), dies of cancer at 60

Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954-1990)

American blues guitarist (Texas Flood; "Pride And Joy"; David Bowie - "Let's Dance"), dies in a helicopter crash at 35

  • 1991 Gordon Heath, actor (Sapphire, Staircase, Animal Farm), dies
  • 1991 Vince Taylor [Brian Holden], British rock and roll singer (Brand New Cadillac), dies of lung cancer at 52
  • 1992 Daniel K. Ludwig, American shipping magnate, founded Exportadora de Sal, dies at 95
  • 1993 Bob Verstraete, Dutch actor/screenwriter/director (Alicia), dies at 71
  • 1994 Roberto Goyeneche [El Polaco], Argentine tango singer (Maria), dies at 68
  • 1995 Dick Bentley, Australian comedian and actor (The Glums), dies at 88
  • 1995 Marty Paich, American jazz pianist, conductor, producer and arranger (Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson), dies of colon cancer at 70
  • 1996 Abram Games, British graphic artist ("Blonde Bombshell" ATS poster), dies at 82
  • 1996 Alexander Lanusse, military President of Argentina (1971-73), dies
  • 1996 Greg Morris, American actor (Mission: Impossible), dies of a brain tumor at 62
  • 1996 Waldo Wedel, American Archaeologist (Great Plains prehistoric cultures), dies at 87
  • 1997 Brandon Tartikoff, American TV executive and president of NBC (1981-91), dies from Hodgkin lymphoma at 48
  • 1997 Jeep Swenson, American actor (Batman & Robin), dies of heart failure at 40
  • 1999 Hélder Câmara, Brazilian Roman Catholic archbishop (b. 1909)
  • 2001 Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (assassinated) (b. 1938)
  • 2001 Michael Dertouzos, Greek internet pioneer, Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science (b. 1936)
  • 2002 Dr. Edwin Louis Cole, "Father of the Modern Day Men's Movement," Founder of the Christian Men's Network (CMN)
  • 2003 Jinx Falkenburg [Eugenia], American actress and well-known US cover-girl model throughout 1930s-40s, dies at 84
  • 2003 Pierre Poujade, French politician (b. 1920)
  • 2004 Willie Crawford, American baseball player (Los Angeles Dodgers), dies at 57
  • 2005 Bert Farber, American orchestra leader (Arthur Godfrey; Vic Damone), dies at 92
  • 2005 Seán Purcell, Gaelic footballer (b. 1929)
  • 2006 Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Indian film director (b. 1922)
  • 2006 Jesse Pintado, Mexican-American guitarist (Napalm Death), dies of liver failure at 37
  • 2006 Maria Capovilla, oldest woman alive from 2004-2006 (b. 1889)
  • 2007 Douglas "Doug" Riley [Dr Music], Canadian musician and musical director (Famous People Players), dies of a heart attack at 62
  • 2007 Driss Basri, Moroccan politician (Interior Minister 1979-99), dies at 68
  • 2007 Emma Penella, Spanish actress, dies at 76
  • 2008 Mark Priestley, Australian actor (b. 1976)
  • 2009 Sergey Mikhalkov, Soviet writer and poet, dies at 96
  • 2009 Virgilio Savona, Italian jazz singer and composer (Quartetto Cetra - "Un bacio a mezzanotte"; "Crapa pelada"), dies of complications from Parkinson's disease at 89
  • 2010 Anton Geesink, Dutch judoka (first non-Japanese world champion, Olympic gold 1964), dies at 76
  • 2010 Luna Vachon, Professional Wrestler (b. 1962)
  • 2011 Nico Minardos, Greek-American actor (The Twilight Zone; Twelve Hours to Kill), dies at 81
  • 2011 Norman Frederick Simpson, British playwright (One Way Pendulum), dies at 92
  • 2013 Carl Graffunder, American mid-century modernist architect in Minnesota, dies at 94
  • 2013 Zelmo Beaty, American Basketball HOF center (2 × NBA All-Star; 3 × ABA All-Star; St Louis Hawks, Utah Stars, LA Lakers), dies at 73
  • 2014 (Alexander) "Sandy" Wilson, British theatrical composer and lyricist (The Boy Friend; Divorce Me, Darling!), dies at 90
  • 2014 Yehezkel Braun, Israeli composer (Shir ha-shirim), dies of natural causes at 92
  • 2015 Darryl Dawkins, American basketball center (Philadelphia 76ers, NJ Nets; NBA breaking a backboard rule), dies of a heart attack at 58
  • 2015 George Cleve, Austrian-American conductor (Winnipeg Symphony, 1968-70; San Jose Symphony, 1972-92; San Francisco Midsummer Mozart Festival, 1974-2015), dies of liver failure at 79
  • 2019 Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Gambian Prime Minister (1962-70) and 1st President of the Gambia (1970-94), dies at 95
  • 2019 Jessi Combs, American auto racer, television personality (women’s land speed class record [4 wheels] 2013, 16), dies in jet-powered high-speed race car crash at 39
  • 2020 'Bullet' Bob Armstrong, American pro wrestler (WWE Hall of Fame), dies from bone cancer at 80
  • 2020 David Bryant, English lawn bowler (World Outdoor C'ship singles 1966, 80, 88; 4 x C'wealth Games gold singles), dies at 88
  • 2020 David Mercer, Welsh television sports presenter (BBC tennis; Eurosports) and tennis umpire (Wimbledon men's final 1984), dies at 70
  • 2020 Dick Ritger, American ten-pin bowler (Tournament of Champions 1970, 79 runner-up; 20 career PBA Tour titles), dies at 81
  • 2020 Lute Olson, American Basketball Hall of Fame coach (Uni of Iowa 1974-83; NCAA Division I Tournament 1997, Uni of Arizona 1983-2008), dies from stroke complications at 85
  • 2021 Siegfried Matthus, German composer, and opera director (Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, 1991-2018), dies at 87
  • 2022 Milutin Šoškić, Serbian soccer goalkeeper (50 caps Yugoslavia; FK Partizan, 1. FC Köln), dies at 84
  • 2022 Mogens Palle, Danish boxing promoter (International Boxing Hall of Fame 2008) and manager (European manager Sonny Liston), dies at 88
  • 2023 Franne Lee (née Newman), American Tony Award-winning costume designer (Sweeny Todd; SNL, 1975-80), dies at 81
  • 2023 Jonathan E. Sheppard, English HOF thoroughbred horse racing trainer (winningest trainer in American steeplechase racing history 1,242 victories), dies of lyme disease at 82
  • 2023 Jonathan Sheppard, English-born American Thoroughbred Hall of Fame horse racing trainer (4X Breeder's Cup Grand National Steeplechase; Steeplechase, record 1,242 steeplechase victories), ), dies at 82
  • 2023 Pat Corrales, American baseball catcher (Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, SD Padres) and manager (Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians), dies at 82
August 27 Highlights