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Famous People Who Died in 1970

Deaths 1 - 200 of 324

  • Jan 2 Piotr Rytel, Polish composer, dies at 85
  • Jan 3 Gladys Aylward, British missionary in China; portrayed by Ingrid Bergman in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (b. 1902)
  • Jan 4 Jean-Étienne Valluy, French general (Director of Colonial Forces in Indochina), dies at 70
  • Jan 5 Cyril Fagan, Irish astrologer and author, dies at 73
  • Jan 5 Max Born, German physicist (quantum mechanics, Nobel 1954), dies at 87
  • Jan 5 Roberto Gerhard, Spanish Catalan composer (The Plague), dies of heart disease at 73
  • Jan 7 Robert [Harriot] Barrat, American actor (Bad Lands, Go West, Distant Drums), dies at 80
  • Jan 8 Georges Guibourg, French performer (b. 1891)
  • Jan 10 Charles Olson, American poet (The Maximus Poems), dies of liver cancer at 59
  • Jan 10 Pavel Belyayev, Soviet fighter pilot and cosmonaut (Voskhod II), dies at 44
  • Jan 12 Blanche Stuart Scott, US pilot, dies at 84
  • Jan 14 John J "Johnny" Murphy, American baseball pitcher (NY Yankees), dies at 61
  • Jan 14 William Feller, Croatian-American mathematician known for probability theory, dies at 63
  • Jan 15 Vytautas Bacevičius [Bacewicz], Lithuanian avant garde composer (Della Guerra Symphony), dies at 64
  • Jan 16 Armijn Pane, Indonesian writer (Djinak-djinak merpati), dies at 61
  • Jan 17 Billy Stewart, American singer ("I Do Love You"), dies in auto-accident at 32
  • Jan 17 Robert Lindley Murray, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1917-18), dies at 77
  • Jan 17 Simon Kovar, Russian-American bassoonist (b. 1890)
  • Jan 18 David O. McKay, 9th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, dies at 96
  • Jan 19 Hal March [Harold Mendelson], American comedian, actor and TV host ($64,000 Question; Outrage), dies of lung cancer at 49
  • Jan 24 Caresse Crosby, American poet (b. 1891)
  • Jan 24 James "Shep" Shepherd, American R&B singer-songwriter (The Heartbeats - "One Thousand Miles"; Shep & Limelites - "Daddy's Home"), beaten to death in a robbery at 34
  • Jan 25 Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese television writer and producer (Ultraman) (b. 1901)
  • Jan 25 Eunice Hunton Carter, 1st African American female district attorney (NY), dies at 70
  • Jan 25 Jane Bathori, French mezzo-soprano, dies at 92
  • Jan 27 Probir Sen, Indian cricket wicketkeeper (14 Tests, 31 dismissals; Bengal), dies at 43
  • Jan 27 Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (b. 1908)
  • Jan 28 Tommy Andrews, Australian cricketer (16 Tests 1921-26, 592 runs), dies
  • Jan 29 B. H. Liddell Hart, English military historian and publicist (The Rommel Papers), dies at 74
  • Jan 30 Malcolm Keen, British actor (The Lodger, The Manxman, The Murder Party), dies at 82
  • Jan 31 Slim Harpo [James Moore], American blues musician (I'm a King Bee, Baby Scratch My Back), dies of a heart attack at 46
  • Feb 1 Alfréd Rényi, Hungarian mathematician, dies at 48
  • Feb 1 Blaž Arnič, Slovenian composer (Ples čarovnic (The Dance of the Witches)), and pedagogue, dies in a car crash at 69

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

Feb 2 English mathematician and philosopher (Nobel 1950), dies at 97

  • Feb 2 Dave Franklin, American composer (The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down), dies at 74
  • Feb 2 Jaroslav Vogel, Czech composer and conductor (Brno Philharmonic, 1959-62; Ostrava Orchestra 1919- 43), dies at 76
  • Feb 2 Lawrence Gray, American actor, dies at 71
  • Feb 4 Louise Bogan, American poet (Sleeping Fury) and critic, dies at 72
  • Feb 5 Rudy York, American baseball player (b. 1913)
  • Feb 6 Roscoe Karns, American actor (Capt Shafer-Hennesey), dies at 78
  • Feb 7 Abe Attell, American boxer known as "The Little Hebrew" and World Featherweight Champion (1906-12), dies at 86
  • Feb 11 Emil Ábrányi, Hungarian composer, conductor, and opera director, dies at 87
  • Feb 11 H. M. Bateman, British cartoonist (The Man Who... series), dies at 82
  • Feb 12 André Souris, Belgian composer, dies at 79
  • Feb 13 Herbert Strudwick, English cricket wicketkeeper (28 Tests, 73 dismissals; Surrey CCC), dies at 90
  • Feb 15 Hugh Dowding, commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, dies at 87
  • Feb 17 Alfred Newman, American film music arranger, conductor and composer, winner of 9 Academy Awards (The Robe; How The West Was Won; Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing), dies at 69
  • Feb 17 Shmuel Agnon, Israeli writer (Day Before Yesterday, Nobel Prize for Literature 1966), dies at 81 [1]
  • Feb 18 Desideer Stracke, Flemish jesuit and literature historian, dies at 94
  • Feb 19 Ralph Flanders, American politician (Senator-Vermont), dies at 89
  • Feb 20 Albert Louis Wolff, French conductor and composer, dies at 86
  • Feb 20 Café Filho, 18th Brazilian President (1954-1955), dies aged 71
  • Feb 20 Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist, dies at 84
  • Feb 23 Hirsch Jacobs, American thoroughbred horse trainer and owner (b. 1904)
  • Feb 24 Conrad Nagel, American actor (All That Heaven Allows, Celebrity Time), dies at 72
  • Feb 25 Mark Rothko [Marcus Rothkovich], Latvian-American abstract expressionist (Green on Blue), takes his own life at 66
  • Feb 26 Ethel Leginska [Liggins], British pianist, conductor, composer, and music educator, dies of a stroke at 83
  • Feb 27 Marie Dionne, one of the French Canadian Dionne quintuplets (b. 1934)
  • Feb 27 Robert Bruce Lockhart, diplomat/writer, dies
  • Mar 1 Ed Hoornik, Dutch writer and poet (Na jaren), dies at 59
  • Mar 1 Lucille Hegamin, American blues singer ("Jazz Me Blues", "Arkansas Blues"), and entertainer, dies at 75
  • Mar 2 Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Quebecoise painter dies at 81
  • Mar 2 Paul Christman, American College Football Hall of Fame quarterback (University of Missouri; All-Pro 1946, 47; Chicago Cardinals, Green Bay Packers), dies from a heart attack at 51
  • Mar 6 William Hopper, American actor (Perry Mason, The Bad Seed, Rebel Without a Cause), dies of pneumonia following a stroke at 55
  • Mar 10 Vasilis Avlonitis, Greek actor (b. 1904)

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970)

Mar 11 American detective writer (Perry Mason), dies at 80

  • Mar 13 Rick Besoyan, American singer, actor, playwright, composer and director (Little Mary Sunshine), dies of internal hemorrhages at 45
  • Mar 14 Fritz Perls, German-American psychiatrist and psychotherapist (father of Gestalt therapy), dies at 76
  • Mar 15 Josef Martin Bauer, German writer (including Nazi propaganda), radio dramatist, and novelist (As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me), dies at 68
  • Mar 15 Mary Ann Ganser, American pop singer (The Shangri-Las - "Leader of the Pack"), dies of a drug overdose at 22
  • Mar 15 Tarjei Vesaas, Nowegian poet and author (Isslottet), dies at 72
  • Mar 16 Arthur Adamov, Russian-French playwright (Paolo Paoli), dies at 61
  • Mar 16 Tammi Terrell, American soul singer (You're All I Need; with Marvin Gaye - Ain't No Mountain High Enough), dies of a brain tumor at 24
  • Mar 17 Fernand Crommelynck, Belgian playwright (Chaud et Frois), dies at 83
  • Mar 21 Manolis Chiotis, Greek bouzouki virtuoso and Greek rebetiko and laiko songwriter, dies of heart problems on his 49th birthday
  • Mar 21 Marlen Haushofer, Austrian writer (The Wall), dies at 49
  • Mar 23 Del Lord, Canadian director (Three Stooges films), dies at 75
  • Mar 26 Fritz Ascher, German Expressionist artist, dies at 76
  • Mar 29 Anna Louise Strong, American communist journalist (b. 1885)
  • Mar 29 Lev Kuleshov, Russian filmmaker and film theorist (Po Zakonu, founder of Moscow film school), dies at 71
  • Mar 30 Heinrich Brüning, German politician and Chancellor of Germany (1930-32), dies at 84
  • Mar 31 Semyon Timoshenko, Russian military officer (Marshal of the Soviet Union, held commands during Soviet-Finnish War and on WWII Eastern Front), dies at 75
  • Apr 4 Byron Foulger, American actor (Capt Nice, Petticoat Junction), dies at 70
  • Apr 4 Victor Otto Stomps, German writer and publisher, dies at 72
  • Apr 5 Alfred Henry Sturtevant, American geneticist, dies at 78
  • Apr 5 Jacob H "Jaap" Stotijn, Dutch oboist, and conductor (Residence Orchestra), dies at 78
  • Apr 6 Maurice Stokes, American Basketball HOF power forward (NBA All-Star 1956, 57, 58; NBA Rookie of the Year 1956; Rochester/Cincinnati Royals), dies from a heart attack at 36
  • Apr 6 Sam Sheppard, American accused murderer (b. 1923)
  • Apr 7 Josina Machel, Mozambican independence activist, and wife of Mozambique's 1st president Samora Machel, dies at 25
  • Apr 8 Felix, of Bourbon-Parma and Prince consort of Luxemburg, dies at 76
  • Apr 9 Gustaf Tenggren, Swedish-American artist and chief illustrator for The Walt Disney Company during the 1930s (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi, Pinocchio), dies at 73
  • Apr 10 Charles Paton, British actor (Freedom of the Seas), dies of a heart attack at 96
  • Apr 11 Cathy O'Donnell [Ann Steely], American film noir actress (Miniver Story, Man from Laramie), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 46
  • Apr 11 John O'Hara, American short story writer and novelist (Appointment at Samarra; Pal Joey; BUtterfield-8), dies of cardiovascular disease at 65
  • Apr 13 William H. Johnson, African-American artist of the Harlem Renaissance (Flowers; Training for War), dies of pancreatic hemorrhage at 67
  • Apr 15 Ripper Collins, American baseball first baseman (MLB All-Star 1935, 36, 37; World Series 1931, 34; NL HR leader 1934; St Louis Cardinals), dies at 66
  • Apr 16 Richard Neutra, Austrian-American modernist architect (Kaufmann Desert House - Palm Springs, CA; Moore House - Ojai, CA; Hassrick House - Philadelphia, PA), dies at 78
  • Apr 17 Sergei Aleksi [Alexy], patriarch of Russian-Orthodox church, dies at 92
  • Apr 20 Paul Celan [Antschell], German-Romanian poet (Collected Prose), drowns himself at 49
  • Apr 20 Shakeel Badayuni, Indian poet and lyricist, dies at 53
  • Apr 21 Earl Hooker, American blues slide guitar player ("Blue Guitar"), dies of tuberculosis at 40
  • Apr 23 Herb Shriner, American humorist & TV host (Herb Shriner Show), dies at 51
  • Apr 24 Otis Spann, American blues pianist and singer (The Blues Never Die!), dies of liver cancer at 40 [or perhaps, 46; birth date disputed]
  • Apr 25 Anita Louise, American actress (The Little Princess; Gorilla; My Friend Flicka), dies from a stroke at 55
  • Apr 26 "Gypsy" Rose Lee [Hovick], American burlesque actress (Gypsy), dies of lung cancer at 59
  • Apr 26 Erik Bergman, Swedish pastor, dies at 83
  • Apr 26 John Knittel, Swiss writer, dies at 79
  • Apr 26 Paul Celan, Romanian-born writer, dies at 49
  • Apr 27 Arthur Shields, Irish actor ("The River"; "Enchanted Island"), dies at 74
  • Apr 28 Ed Begley, American actor (12 Angry Men, The Unsinkable Molly Brown), dies at 69
  • Apr 29 Forrest DeBernardi, American Basketball HOF center (5 × AAU C'ship; 5 × AAU All-American Westminster College), dies at 71
  • Apr 30 Hall Johnson, American composer (Hall Johnson Choir), dies at 82
  • Apr 30 Inger Stevens, actress (Katy-Farmer's Daughter), commits suicide at 35
  • Apr 30 Jacob Presser, Dutch historian and writer (Ashes in the Wind), dies at 71
  • May 1 Yi Un, last Crown Prince of Korea, dies at 72
  • May 3 Candelario Huízar, Mexican violist, horn player, and classical and canción composer ("Surco"), dies at 82
  • May 4 Allison Beth Krause, American student, killed by soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard at Kent State University while protesting against US military at 19
  • May 4 Jeffrey Miller, American student, killed by soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard at Kent State University while protesting against US military, at 20
  • May 4 Sandra Scheuer, American student, killed by soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard at Kent State University while protesting against US military, at 20
  • May 4 William Schroeder, American student, killed by soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard at Kent State University while protesting against US military at 20
  • May 6 Wharton Esherick, American artist and sculptor who worked primarily in wood, dies at 82
  • May 7 Carlos Estrada, Uruguayan composer and conductor, dies at 60
  • May 9 Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician, dies at 86
  • May 9 Percy Brier, Australian composer, dies at 84
  • May 9 Walter P. Reuther, American worker's union leader & president of the CIO, dies in a plane crash at 62
  • May 10 Mari Blanchard, American actress and femme fatale (Kathy-Klondike), dies of cancer at 47
  • May 11 Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist, dies at 62

Nelly Sachs (1891-1970)

May 12 German-Swedish poet and playwright (O the Chimneys - Nobel Prize for Literature 1966), dies at 78

  • May 12 Wladyslaw Anders, Polish army general (WWI and WWII), and politician (Parliament-in exile), dies at 78
  • May 13 William Dobell, Australian portrait artist, dies at 70
  • May 14 (Mary) "Billie" Burke, American radio, stage, silent and sound film actress (Zieigfield Follies; The Wizard of Oz; Merrily We Live), dies at 85
  • May 17 Nigel Balchin, English author (My Executioner), dies at 61
  • May 19 Ray Schalk, American Baseball Hall of Fame catcher (World Series 1917; Chicago White Sox) and manager (Chicago White Sox 1927-28), dies from cancer at 78
  • May 19 Tadeusz Breza, Polish writer (The Bronze Gate), dies at 64
  • May 21 E. L. Grant Watson, Australian biologist (b. 1885)
  • May 21 Vinton Hayworth, American actor (Gen Schaeffer-I Dream of Jeannie), dies at 63
  • May 22 Joseph W Krutch, American writer (Measure of Man), dies at 76
  • May 23 Nydia Westman, actress (Going My Way, Young Mr Bobbins), dies at 68
  • May 27 Emmy van Lokhorst, Dutch writer and literary critic, dies at 78
  • May 29 Eve Hesse, German born Jewish American sculptor dies of a brain tumor aged 34
  • May 29 John Gunther, American author and host (John Gunther's High Road), dies at 68

Terry Sawchuk (1929-1970)

May 31 Canadian Hockey HOF goaltender (Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs) who was a 4-time Vezina Trophy winner (Stanley Cup: 1952, 54, 55, 67), dies from liver injuries at 40

  • Jun 1 Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian poet (Hermeticism) and journalist, dies at 82
  • Jun 2 Albert Lamorisse, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1922)
  • Jun 2 Bruce McLaren, New Zealand car racer and founder of eponymous race team, dies in a car crash at 32
  • Jun 3 Adrian Conan Doyle, youngest son of Arthur Conan Doyle, dies at 59
  • Jun 3 Douwe Hermans Kiestra, Frisian farmer and writer, dies at 70
  • Jun 3 Hjalmar Schacht, German economist, banker and politician (co-founder German Democratic Party), dies at 93
  • Jun 4 Emmett J. Culligan, American entrepreneur (founder of water treatment organization Culligan Inc.), dies at 77
  • Jun 4 Hjalmar Schcacht [Horace Greeley], Nazi minister, dies
  • Jun 4 Jopie [Johan A] Pengel, premier Suriname, dies
  • Jun 4 Menasha Skulnik, comedian (Menasha the Magnificent), dies at 78
  • Jun 4 Sonny Tufts [Bowen Charleton Tufts III], American actor (The Seven Year Itch, Variety Girl), dies from pneumonia at 58
  • Jun 5 "Jopie" Pengel [Johan A], Premier of Suriname (1963-69), dies at 54
  • Jun 5 Jay Irving, American cartoonist (Draw Me a Laugh), dies at 69

E. M. Forster (1879-1970)

Jun 7 English writer and novelist (A Room With A View; Maurice; A Passage to India), dies at 91

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Jun 8 American psychologist (Maslow's hierarchy of needs), dies of a heart attack at 62

  • Jun 10 Earl Grant, American pop pianist, organist, and singer ("Ebb Tide"; "Winter Wonderland"), dies in a car crash in New Mexico at 39
  • Jun 11 Aleksander Kerensky, Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government (1917), dies at 89
  • Jun 11 Camille Bombois, French circus wrestler and naïve painter, dies at 87
  • Jun 11 Frank Laubach, American missionary and educator (taught reading through phonetics), dies at 85
  • Jun 11 Frank Silvera, Jamaican-American actor (High Chaparral, Killer's Kiss, Fear and Desire), accidentally electrocutes himself at 55
  • Jun 11 William 'Billy Batts' Devino, American crime figure (b. 1921)
  • Jun 16 Brian Piccolo, American NFL football running back, 1965-69 (Chicago Bears), and subject of the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song", dies of cancer at 26
  • Jun 16 Elsa Triolet [Ella Kagan], Russian-French writer and Resistance fighter, dies at 73
  • Jun 16 Heino Eller, Estonian composer (Koit (Dawn); Videvik (Twilight)), pedagogue (Tallinn Conservatory, 1940 -70), and teacher of Arvo Pärt, dies at 83
  • Jun 17 Matthew Henderson, New Zealand cricket fast bowler (1 Test; New Zealand's first-ever Test match 1930), dies at 74

Sukarno (1901-1970)

Jun 21 1st President of Indonesia (1945-67), dies from kidney failure while under house arrest at 68

  • Jun 23 Roscoe Turner, American aviator and racer (b. 1895)
  • Jun 24 Man Singh II, Maharajah of Jaipur State, dies at 57
  • Jun 27 Daniel Kinsey, American hurdler (b. 1902)
  • Jun 29 Roman Ingarden, Polish philosopher (Studia philosophica), dies at 77
  • Jun 29 Stefan Andres, German writer (Wir sind Utopia), dies at 64
  • Jul 2 Jessie Street, Australian suffragette and aboriginal rights fighter, dies at 81
  • Jul 3 Frances Parkinson Keyes, American novelist (Dinner at Antoine's), dies at 84
  • Jul 4 Barnett Newman, American abstract expressionist painter (Black Fire I), dies at 65
  • Jul 4 Harold Vanderbilt, American yachtsman and America's Cup winner (1930, 34, 37), dies at 85
  • Jul 6 Marjorie Rambeau, American stage, silent and sound screen actress (Primrose Path; Torch Song), dies at 80
  • Jul 7 Allen Lane, English publisher and founder of Penguin Books, dies at 67
  • Jul 7 Dame Laura Knight, English impressionist artist, dies at 92
  • Jul 7 Louise Harrison, mother of Beatle George, dies at 59
  • Jul 7 Sylvester Wiere, comedian (Wiere Brothers-Ford Festival), dies at 60
  • Jul 10 Bjarni Benediktsson, 13th Prime Minister of Iceland (1963-70), dies at 62

Leslie Groves (1896-1970)

Jul 13 American army engineer who directed the Manhattan Project and construction of the Pentagon, dies of a heart attack at 73

  • Jul 14 Preston Foster, American actor (Waterfront, Gunslinger), dies at 69
  • Jul 17 Juano Hernandez, Puerto Rican stage and film actor (St Louis Blues; Stars In My Crown), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 73
  • Jul 18 Lucien d'Azambuja, French astronomer (studied the solar chromosphere), dies at 86
  • Jul 19 Barry Wood [Louis Rappaport], American singer (Your Hit Parade), and television producer, dies at 61
  • Jul 20 Iain Macleod, Conservative Party Politician and Chancellor of Exchequer at time of his death (b. 1913)
  • Jul 21 Bob Kalsu, American NFL football player, 1968 (Buffalo Bills), and US Army officer, killed in action in Vietnam at 25
  • Jul 21 Mikhail Gerasimov, Russian anthropologist and sculptor (b. 1907)
  • Jul 22 George Johnston, Australian journalist and novelist (b. 1912)
  • Jul 23 Leith Stevens, American pianist, composer and conductor of scores for radio (Suspense), film (The Wild Ones; War of the Worlds), and television (Climax!), dies of a heart attack (upon learning his wife was killed in a car accident) at 60
  • Jul 24 Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman and philanthropist, dies at 73
  • Jul 26 Claud Allister, British actor (Kiss Me Kate, Quartet, Bulldog Drummond), dies at 81
  • Jul 26 Robert Taschereau, French Canadian lawyer and Chief Justice of Canada, dies at 73

António de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970)

Jul 27 Dictator of Portugal (1932-68) who founded and controlled the Estado Novo (New State), dies from a cerebral hemorrhage at 81

  • Jul 29 (Giovanni) "John" Barbirolli, British cellist, and conductor (New York Philharmonic, 1936-43; Hallé Orchestra, 1943-1970; Houston Symphony, 1961-67), dies of a heart attackat 70
  • Jul 29 Jonel Perlea, Romanian opera conductor, dies at 69
  • Jul 30 George Szell, Hungarian-born American conductor (Cleveland Orchestra, 1946-70), dies at 73