- May 5 Eddie Dunn, comedian (Face to Face, Spin the Picture), dies at 54
Leo Diegel (1899-1951)
May 5 American golfer (PGA C'ship 1928-29), dies of throat and lung cancer at 52
- May 6 Élie Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1869)
- May 6 Henri Carton de Wiart, Belgian count and politician (Prime Minister of Belgium 1920-21), dies at 82
Warner Baxter (1889-1951)
May 7 American actor (In Old Arizona; Cisco Kid), dies at 62
- May 9 Marie Ault [Mary Cragg], English actress (The Lodger), dies at 80
- May 12 Oscar DePriest, American politician (Rep-D-Ill), dies at 80
- May 13 Marianne Philips, Dutch author (Issue Beukennoot), dies at 65
- May 17 Karl Heinrich David, composer, dies at 66
- May 20 Jan Ingenhoven, Dutch composer and conductor, dies at 74
- May 25 Paula von Preradović, Croatian-Austrian poet and writer, dies at 63
- May 26 Lincoln Ellsworth, Arctic explorer, dies at 71
- May 27 Thomas Blamey, Australian general (WWI, WWII), dies at 67
- May 29 Dimitrios Levidis, Greek composer, dies at 66
Fanny Brice (1891-1951)
May 29 American singing comedian (Ziegeld Follies, Baby Snooks), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 59
- May 29 Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Czech organist and composer, dies at 91
- May 29 Robert Kahn, German composer, dies at 85
- May 30 Hermann Broch, Austrian novelist (Sleepwalkers, Bewitchment), dies at 64
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning