Famous People Who Died in 1966

Deaths 1 - 200 of 290

• Jan 1 Vincent Auriol, French politician (President of France 1947-53), dies at 82
• Jan 3 Rex Lease, American actor (Fast Bullets, Sunny Skies, Custer's Last Stand), dies at 62
• Jan 4 Marcel Tabuteau, French-American oboist (Philadelphia Orchestra, 1915-54), dies at 78

• Jan 5 George Duckworth, English cricket wicket-keeper (24 Tests, 60 dismissals), dies at 64

• Jan 9 Haro Levoni Step'anian, Armenian composer, dies at 68
• Jan 10 Fen Cresswell, New Zealand cricket slow bower (3 Tests, 13 wickets; Wellington, Central Districts), dies from suicide at 50
• Jan 10 Hermann Kasack, German writer (Die Stadt hinter dem Strom), dies at 69
• Jan 11 Alberto Giacometti, Swiss-French painter and sculptor, dies at 64
• Jan 11 Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner (Olympic gold 1912), dies at 76
• Jan 11 Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indian politician and Prime Minister of India (1964-66), dies under suspicious circumstances at 61
• Jan 14 Bill Carr, American athlete (Olympic gold 400m, 4 x 400m 1932), dies at 56

• Jan 16 Margarete Susman, German-Jewish writer, dies at 91
• Jan 17 Vincent J. Donehue, American stage and screen director (Lonelyhearts), dies of Hodgkin's at 50
• Jan 18 Kathleen Norris, American novelist and newspaper columnist, dies at 85
• Jan 19 Frank Foyston, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame center (Stanley Cup 1914 Toronto Blueshirts, 1917 Seattle Metropolitans, 1925 Victoria Cougars), dies at 74
• Jan 22 Herbert Marshall, English actor (Trouble in Paradise; The Little Foxes), dies at 75
• Jan 24 Homi J. Bhabha, Indian nuclear physicist, dies at 56
• Jan 29 Josef Winckler, German dentist and writer (Tolle Bomberg), dies at 84
• Jan 29 Pierre Mercure, Canadian composer, dies in an accident at 38
• Jan 31 Elizabeth Patterson, American stage, silent and sound screen character actress (The Boy Friend; Intruder in the Dust; I Love Lucy - "Mrs. Trumbull"), dies of pneumonia at 91

• Feb 1 Hedda Hopper [Elda Furry], American gossip columnist, dies at 75
• Feb 1 William Harrigan, American actor (Invisible Man, Girl in 419), dies at 71
• Feb 3 June Walker, American actress (War Nurses), dies at 65
• Feb 4 Gilbert H. Grosvenor, American geographer and 1st full-time editor of National Geographic Society (1899-1954), dies at 90
• Feb 6 Algot Haquinius, Swedish pianist, and composer, dies at 79
• Feb 6 Narcisa de León, Filipino film mogul, dies at 88
• Feb 9 Sophie Tucker [Kalish], Russian-born American singer and actress (My Yiddish Mama) known as "last of the red hot mammas", dies at 79

• Feb 13 Elio Vittorini, Italian writer (Conversations in Sicily), dies at 57
• Feb 13 Marguerite Long, French concert pianist (Ravel) and teacher (Paris Conservatoire, 1906-40), dies at 91
• Feb 15 Camillo Torres, Colombian priest/guerrilla fighter, dies
• Feb 15 Gerard Ciołek, Polish architect, dies at 56
• Feb 16 Hendrik Tilanus, Dutch artillery officer and political leader (CHU 1939-63), dies at 81
• Feb 17 Frank Pettingell, English actor (Becket, Up the Creek), dies at 75
• Feb 17 Gail Kane, American actress (White Sister, Arizona), dies at 81
• Feb 17 Hans Hofmann, German-American painter (Search for the Real), dies at 85
• Feb 18 Casimir von Paszthory, composer, dies at 79
• Feb 18 Grigori Grigoyevich Nelyubov, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 31
• Feb 18 Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and film director (All the King's Men, The Hustler), dies at 57

• Feb 21 Paul Comtois, French Canadian politician, dies at 70
• Feb 22 Paul de Keyser, Flemish philologist and folklorist, dies at 74
• Feb 25 James D. Norris, American sports businessman (Chicago Black Hawks), dies at 59
• Feb 26 Minerva Urecal [Dunnock], American stage, radio, and screen character actress (Accent on Love; The Adventures of Tugboat Annie; Peter Gunn; The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao), dies of a heart attack at 71
• Feb 26 Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Indian independence activist and writer (The Indian War of Independence), dies at 82
• Feb 28 Charles A Bassett II, American US Air Force Captain, and NASA astronaut, dies in a crash of T-38 jet at 34
• Feb 28 Elliot McKay See Jr., American engineer and NASA astronaut, dies at 38 in T-38 jet crash
• Feb 28 Jonathan Hale [Hatley], Canadian-American, actor (Blondie films; The Saint films), shoots himself at 74
• Mar 1 Fritz Houtermans, Dutch-Austrian physicist, dies at 63
• Mar 3 Alice Pearce, American Emmy Award-winning comedienne and actress (On the Town; Bewitched - "Mrs. Kravitz" (the 1st one)), dies from ovarian cancer at 48
• Mar 3 William Frawley, American vaudeville, silent and sound screen actor (I Love Lucy - "Fred"; My Three Sons - "Bub"; Miracle on 34th Street), dies of a heart attack at 79
• Mar 4 Jānis Mediņš, Latvian composer, dies at 75
• Mar 5 Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (Poem Without a Hero), dies at 76
• Mar 5 Enrique Ecker, Curacaos-American bacteriologist (Rees-Ecker method for platelet counting), dies at 79
• Mar 6 Richard Hageman, Dutch born American pianist, composer and conductor (Caponsacchi), dies at 84
• Mar 7 Mike Millward, English musician (The Fourmost), dies of leukemia at 23
• Mar 9 Pablo Birger, Argentine racing driver (b. 1924)
• Mar 10 Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, invented phase-contrast microscope (Nobel 1953), dies at 77
• Mar 10 Mari Sandoz, American author (Cheyenne Autumn), dies at 64
• Mar 12 Estelita Rodriguez, Cuban actress (Rio Bravo, Cuban Fireball, Havana Rose), dies of influenza at 37
• Mar 15 Abe Saperstein, British-American sports entrepreneur (founder of Harlem Globetrotters), dies of a heart attack at 63
• Mar 15 Heinrich Lemacher, German composer, dies at 74
• Mar 17 Walter Lang, Swiss composer, dies at 69
• Mar 23 Johannes W Elsensohn, Dutch actor/writer (Arie), dies at 82
• Mar 24 Lola Beltrán, Mexican ranchera singer ("Priscila elque se fue"; "Paloma Negra") and actress (El revólver sangriento), dies of a pulmonary embolism at 64
• Mar 24 Virginia Hill, American organized crime figure (girlfriend of Bugsy Siegel), supposedly commits suicide at 49
• Mar 25 Colin Campbell, Scottish actor (High Bright Sun, Leather Boys), dies at 83
• Mar 30 Erwin Piscator, German theater and film director (Nathan the Wise; Revolt of the Fishermen), dies at 72
• Mar 30 Maxfield Parrish, American painter and illustrator, dies at 95
• Mar 30 Newbold Morris, American politician, dies at 64
• Apr 1 Flann O'Brien [Brian O'Nolan], Irish novelist (At Swim-Two-Birds; The Third Policeman), playwright, and satirist, dies of a heart attack at 54
• Apr 1 Karl Adam, German theologist (Jesus Christ), dies at 89
• Apr 2 C. S. Forester, English historical novelist (Horatio Hornblower), dies at 66
• Apr 3 Battista Farina, Italian automobile designer and founder of Pininfarina company, dies at 72
• Apr 3 Russel Crouse, American playwright (Life with Father) and journalist, dies at 73
• Apr 5 Slats Gill, Basketball Hall of Fame coach (36 seasons Oregon State 1928-64), dies of stroke at 64
• Apr 5 Svend Fleuron, Danish writer, dies at 91
• Apr 6 Julia Faye, actress (10 Commandments. Samson & Delilah), dies at 73
• Apr 8 George Creten, Belgian sculptor and painter, dies at 79
• Apr 9 Sutan Sjahrir, Indonesian politician and revolutionary leader (1st prime Minister of Indonesia 1945-47), dies in exile at 57
• Apr 10 Christian J Modeste, Dutch king of gypsies, dies at 71
• Apr 10 Evelyn Waugh, British writer (Black Mischief), dies at 62
• Apr 12 Sumokil, president of Republic South Moluccas, executed
• Apr 13 Abdul Salam Arif, Iraqi politician and President of Iraq (1963-66), killed in a plane crash at 45
• Apr 13 Georges Duhamel, French author (Vie et aventures de Salavin, 5 vol.), dies at 81
• Apr 15 Joseph Crehan, American actor (The Roaring Twenties, Meeting at Midnight), dies of stroke at 82
• Apr 16 Nandalal Bose, Indian pioneering modern artist (illustrated Constitution of India), dies at 83
• Apr 25 Maurice Roelants, Flemish novelist and poet (Komen en gaan, Prayer for a Good End), dies at 70
• Apr 28 Ralph Bunker, American actor (Ghost Goes West), dies of a stroke at 77
• Apr 29 Eugene O'Brien, American actor (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), dies at 85
• Apr 30 Richard Fariña, American folk singer-songwriter ("Birmingham Sunday"), and novelist ("Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me"), dies in a motorcycle crash on his 29th birthday
• May 3 Wylie Watson, dies at 77
• May 4 Juan María Thomas Sabater, Spanish composer, dies at 69
• May 9 Alfred Mendelsohn, Romanian composer, and conductor (Romanian National Opera, 1944-63), and teacher, dies at 56
• May 9 Wilhelmus Marinus Bekkers, Dutch Roman Catholic bishop of Hertogenbosch, dies at 58
• May 12 Felix Martin Julius Steiner, German Heer and Waffen-SS officer (b. 1896)
• May 13 Henk [Hendrik M] Randwijk, Dutch poet and editor in chief (Vrij Nederland), dies at 56
• May 14 Georgia BD Camp Johnson, American poet/playwright, dies at 88
• May 14 Megan Lloyd George, English politician (1st female MP for Welsh - Carmarthen), dies at 64
• May 15 Kathryn Forbes, American short story writer (mama's bank account), dies at 58
• May 16 Randy Turpin, British boxer (NYSAC, NBA and The Ring middleweight titles 1951-53), shot dead in his home at 37
• May 18 Paul Althaus, German theologist (That Christian Wahrheit), dies at 78
• May 19 Tortoise, reportedly given to Tonga's King by Captain James Cook in 1773, dies at around 193
• May 21 Pat O'Malley, silent film actor (Wild One, Quiet Man), dies at 75
• May 22 Tom Goddard, English cricket off-spin bowler (8 Tests; 22 wickets @ 26.72; Gloucestershire), dies at 65
• May 23 Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician (b. 1902)
• May 23 Ruth Gates, Denton TX, actress (Aunt Jenny-Mama), dies at 79
• May 24 Emil Fahrenkamp, German architect (Shell-Haus in Berlin), dies at 80

• May 25 Ricardo Castillo, Guatemalan composer, dies at 71
• May 26 Don Castle, American actor (Born to Speed; The Invisible Wall), and television producer (Lassie), dies of accidental pain medication overdose at 48
• May 26 Neal Dodd, actor (Only Women, You Belong to Me), dies at 86
• May 30 Bob Thompson, African American painter, dies of a drug overdose at 28
• Jun 1 Papa Jack Laine, American musician and pioneering bandleader, dies at 92
• Jun 3 Alice Calhoun, American silent film actress (Flowing Gold; Between Friends; Pampered Youth), and movie theater owner, dies of cancer at 65
• Jun 4 Blanche Knopf, American publisher, president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., dies at 71
• Jun 5 Natacha Rambova [Winifred Shaughnessy], American film costume designer, 2nd wife of Rudolph Valentino (1923-25), and Egyptologist, dies of a heart attack at 69
• Jun 6 Claudette Orbison, wife of singer Roy, dies in a motorcyle crash at 27
• Jun 7 (Hans) "Jean" Arp, German-French sculptor, artist and poet, dies at 78
• Jun 8 Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (b. 1890)

• Jun 11 Ethel Clayton, American actress (Warning Shadows), dies at 82
• Jun 11 Wallace Ford [Samuel Jones Grundy], British actor (Freaks, Harvey, Spellbound, Deputy), dies of a heart attack at 68
• Jun 12 Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (Winterthur Symphony Orchestra, 1922-50), and music theorist (Lehrbuch des Dirigierens - Treatise on Conducting), dies at 74
• Jun 12 Thomas Chalmers, American opera singer, actor, and filmmaker (Blind Alleys, Outrage), dies at 81
• Jun 16 German Galynin, Russian composer, dies at 44
• Jun 19 Ed Wynn [Isaiah Edwin Leopold], American comedian (Ed Wynn Show), dies at 79
• Jun 19 Marjan Kozina, Slovene composer, dies at 59
• Jun 20 Georges Lemaître, Belgian Catholic Priest, astronomer and physics professor, who initially proposed the universe expansion and big-bang theories, dies at 71
• Jun 21 Anthony Craxton, British TV producer, dies at 48
• Jun 22 Roger Blunt, New Zealand cricket all-rounder and broadcaster (9 Tests; BBC), dies at 65
• Jun 27 Arthur D Waley [Schloss], British sinology/poet (Monkey), dies
• Jun 29 Arthur Meulemans, Belgian composer, dies at 82
• Jun 29 Isabel Dawn, American screenwriter, dies at 68
• Jun 29 Ronald Shiner, British actor (Dry Rot, Carry on Admiral, Keep it Clean, Aunt Clara), dies at 63
• Jun 30 Giuseppe Farina, Italian auto racer (World F1 champion 1950), dies in a domestic car accident at 59
• Jun 30 Margery Allingham, English detective writer (one of 'four 'Queens of Crime'), dies at 62
• Jul 1 Pauline Boty, English artist, dies of cancer at 29
• Jul 2 Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (The Beetle), dies at 67
• Jul 3 (Joseph) Deems Taylor, American music critic (New York World), composer (Through The Looking Glass; Peter Ibbetson), and promoter of classical music (Fantasia), dies at 80
• Jul 3 André Gailhard, French classical music composer, dies at 81
• Jul 3 Kees Boeke, Dutch reformist educator (Cosmic View), dies at 81
• Jul 4 Dorothy Aldis, American children's writer, dies at 70
• Jul 5 George de Hevesy, Hungarian radiochemist (Nobel Prize in Chemistry -1943), dies at 80 [1]
• Jul 6 "Sad" Sam Jones, American baseball pitcher (no-hitter 1923; World Series 1918, 23; Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees), dies at 73
• Jul 6 Ann Nagel [Anna Marie Dolan], American actress (Don Winslow of the Navy, The Green Hornet), dies of cancer at 50
• Jul 7 Carmelita Geraghty, dies of a heart attack at 65
• Jul 9 Mule Suttles, American Baseball HOF infielder (5 x NgL All Star; NL batting champion 1926, 28; NgL Triple Crown 1926; St. Louis Stars), dies of cancer at 65
• Jul 11 Delmore Schwartz, American poet, short story writer and critic (Shenandoah), dies at 52
• Jul 12 D. T. Suzuki, Zen Japanese-American Buddhist scholar, dies in Tokyo, Japan at 96
• Jul 13 Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, dies at 82
• Jul 14 Julie Manet, French painter (b. 1878)
• Jul 17 August Baeyens, Flemish composer (Piranesi Suite), dies at 71
• Jul 18 Bobby Fuller, American rock singer and guitarist ("I Fought The Law"), found dead in his car at 23
• Jul 18 German Germanovich Galynin, Russian composer, dies at 44
• Jul 20 Julien Carette, French actor (Sylvia & the Phantom), dies of burns at 68
• Jul 22 Edward Gourdin, American athlete (long jump WR 7.69 m 1921; Olympic silver 1924) and jurist, dies at 68
• Jul 23 Donald Novis, British singer and actor (Monte Carlo; The Singing Plumber), dies at 60
• Jul 23 Douglass Montgomery, American actor (Forbidden, Harmony Lane), dies from spinal cancer at 56
• Jul 23 Montgomery Clift, American actor (From Here to Eternity, Judgement at Nuremberg), dies of a heart attack at 45
• Jul 24 Tony Lema, American golfer (British Open 1964), dies in a plane crash at 32
• Jul 25 Frank O'Hara, American writer and poet, dies after being hit by a car at 40
• Jul 26 Howard Kinsey, American tennis player (French Open doubles 1924, US Open doubles 1926; Wimbledon singles 1926 runner-up), dies at 66
• Jul 29 Pal Jardanyi, Hungarian composer, dies at 44
• Jul 30 Edward Gordon Craig, British modernist actor, director and theorist (On the art of theatre), dies at 94
• Jul 31 Alex von Falkenhausen, German general (China, WW II), dies at 87
• Aug 1 Charles Whitman, former marine, kills 16 at U of Texas, shot by cops
• Aug 1 Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell, American jazz pianist and composer, dies at 41
• Aug 3 Lenny Bruce [Leonard Schneider], American comedian, dies of a morphine overdose at 39
• Aug 5 Austin Diamond, Australian cricketer (Australian captain to America 1913), dies at 92
• Aug 6 Cordwainer Smith [Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger], American sci-fi author (Space Lords), dies at 53
• Aug 8 Ed "Strangler" Lewis, American professional wrestler, dies at 75
• Aug 8 Pierre Charles, Belgian heavyweight boxer, dies at 63
• Aug 9 Gösta Nystroem, Swedish composer, dies at 75
• Aug 10 (Jacobus) "J.C." Bloem, Dutch poet (Sintels - Embers), dies at 79
• Aug 10 Felix Andries Vening Meinesz, Dutch geophysicist (black force), dies at 79
• Aug 11 Frank Nelson, English politician and civil servant (head of the Special Operations Executive, 1940-42), dies at 83
• Aug 14 Duke Slater, American College/Pro Football HOF tackle (Uni of Iowa; 5 × First-team All-Pro; Milwaukee Badgers, Rock Island Independents, Chicago Cardinals), dies of stomach cancer at 67
• Aug 14 Tip Snooke, South African cricket all-rounder and captain (26 Tests 1905-23, 35 wickets), dies at 85
• Aug 15 Gerhart Pohl, German broadcaster, writer (The Crazy Ferdinand; Flüchtburg), and publisher, dies at 64
• Aug 15 Jan Kiepura, Polish vocalist and actor (Her Wonderful Lie; Give Us this Night), dies of a heart attack at 64
• Aug 15 Seena Owen, American silent screen actress and screenwriter (Queen Kelly), dies at 71
• Aug 16 Jack Mather, actor (Cisco Kid), dies of a heart attack at 58
• Aug 17 Archibald Palm, South African cricketer (Test South Africa v England 1927-28), dies at 65
• Aug 17 Ken Miles, British-American auto racer and engineer (USAC Road Racing C'ship 1961; 24 Hours of Daytona 1966), dies in practice accident at 47
• Aug 17 Michael Garrison, American TV producer (Crowded Sky), dies after a fall at 43
• Aug 18 Isaac Keesing, Dutch publisher and founder (System Keesing), dies at 80
• Aug 18 Watze Cuperus, Frisian author (Struggle & Blessing), dies at 75
• Aug 22 Apolinary Szeluto, Polish pianist and composer, dies at 82
• Aug 23 Francis X. Bushman, American silent film actor (Sabrina, Ben-Hur), dies at 83
• Aug 26 Art Baker, American TV host (You Asked For It), dies at 68
• Aug 29 Sayyid Qutb, Egyptian theoretician (b. 1906)
• Aug 31 Kasimir Edschmid, German writer, dies at 75
• Sep 5 Dezső Lauber, Hungarian competitive athlete (Ice skating, golf, tennis, cycling), and architect, dies at 87
• Sep 6 Hendrik Verwoerd, South African Prime Minister (1958-66), assassinated at 64 by Dimitri Tsafendas
• Sep 6 Luigi Perrachio, Italian pianist, composer (Nove Poemetti; 25 Preludi), and pedagogue (Liceo Musicale Torino), dies at 83

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