Deaths in 1985

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1985. Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.

Deaths in 1985

January

• January 2 – Gabriel Elorde, Filipino professional boxer (b. 1935)
• January 4 – Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)
• January 5 – Robert L. Surtees, American cinematographer (b. 1906)
• January 11 – Sir William McKell, 12th Governor-General of Australia (b. 1891)
• January 14
  • Jetta Goudal, Dutch actress (b. 1891)
  • Anagarika Govinda, German buddhist lama (b. 1898)
• January 18 – Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, Sudanese religious thinker (b. 1909)
• January 19 – Eric Voegelin, German-American philosopher (b. 1901)
• January 22 – Mikhail Gromov, Soviet aviator (b. 1899)
• January 23 – Rubén Rabanal, Argentine politician (b. 1935)
• January 26 – Kenny Clarke, American jazz drummer and bandleader (b. 1914)

February

• February 3 – Frank Oppenheimer, American particle physicist (b. 1912)
• February 4 – Jesse Hibbs, American film director (b. 1906)
• February 6 – Neil McCarthy, English actor (b. 1932)
• February 8
  • William Lyons, British automobile engineer and designer (b. 1901)
  • Marvin Miller, American actor (b. 1913)
• February 11 – Henry Hathaway, American film director (b. 1898)
• February 12 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (b. 1924)
• February 20 – Clarence Nash, American actor (b. 1904)
• February 21
  • Ina Claire, American actress (b. 1893)
  • Louis Hayward, British actor (b. 1909)
  • John G. Trump, American electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist (b. 1907)
• February 22
  • Efrem Zimbalist, Russian-American violinist (b. 1889)
  • Alexander Scourby, American film, television, and voice actor (b. 1913)
• February 26 – Tjalling Koopmans, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
• February 27
  • Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American politician (b. 1902)
  • J. Pat O'Malley, English actor (b. 1904)

March

• March 3 – Iosif Shklovsky, Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1916)
• March 7 – George Schick, Czechoslovakian conductor and music educator (b. 1908)
• March 8 – Edward Andrews, American actor (b. 1914)
• March 10
  • Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1911)
  • Bob Nieman, American baseball player (b. 1927)
• March 11
  • Tom Adams, Barbadian politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1931)
  • Nazem Akkari, Lebanese politician, 19th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1902)
• March 12
  • Earle Clements, American politician, governor of Kentucky (b. 1896)
  • Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American conductor (b. 1899)
• March 13 – Mabel Alvarez, American painter (b. 1891)
• March 15 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian (b. 1921)
• March 16 – Roger Sessions, American composer (b. 1896)
• March 21 – Sir Michael Redgrave, British actor (b. 1908)
• March 23
  • Doctor Richard Beeching, Chairman of British Rail (b. 1913)
  • Zoot Sims, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1925)
• March 28 – Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter (b. 1887)
• March 29
  • The Singing Nun (Jeannine Deckers), Belgian nun and singer (b. 1933)
  • Gerhard Stock, German Olympic athlete (b. 1911)
• March 30 – Shizuko Kasagi, Japanese singer (b. 1914)
• March 31
  • Michel Georges-Michel, French painter, journalist, novelist (b. 1883)
  • Richard McKeon, American philosopher (b. 1900)

April

• April 5 – Paul Hugh Emmett, American chemical engineer (b. 1900)
• April 6 – Terence Sanders, British Olympic rower – coxless fours (b. 1901)
• April 7 – Carl Schmitt, German jurist, political theorist and professor of law (b. 1888)
• April 8 – John Frederick Coots, American songwriter (b. 1897)
• April 10 – Alfredo Duhalde, Chilean statesman (b. 1898)
• April 11 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian Communist politician, leader of the Party of Labour 22nd Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1908)
• April 14
  • Noele Gordon, British actress (b. 1919)
  • Kate Roberts, Welsh-language author (b. 1891)
• April 15 – Jack Medica, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1914)
• April 16 – Scott Brady, American actor (b. 1924)
• April 17 – Evadne Price, Australian-British writer, actress and astrologer (b. 1888)
• April 18 – Gertrude Caton–Thompson, English archaeologist (b. 1888)
• April 19 – Sergei Aleksandrovich Tokarev, Russian ethnologist (b. 1899)
• April 21
  • John Welsh, Irish actor (b. 1914)
  • Tancredo Neves, Brazilian elected president and former Prime Minister (b. 1910)
• April 26 – Albert Maltz, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1908)

May

• May 1 – Denise Robins, British romance novelist (b. 1897)
• May 4 – Clarence Wiseman, 10th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1907)
• May 5 – Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (b. 1901)
• May 6
  • Pete Desjardins, American Olympic diver (b. 1907)
  • Julie Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (b. 1968)
• May 7 – Dawn Addams, British actress (b. 1930)
• May 8
  • Karl Marx, German composer and music teacher (b. 1897)
  • Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (b. 1918)
  • Dolph Sweet, American actor (b. 1920)
• May 9 – Edmond O'Brien, American actor (b. 1915)
• May 10
  • Tahar Ben Ammar, Tunisian politician, 8th Prime Minister of Tunisia (b. 1889)
  • Florizel von Reuter, American violinist and composer (b. 1890)
• May 11 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist, creator of Dick Tracy (b. 1900)
• May 12 – Jean Dubuffet, French artist (b. 1901)
• May 13 – Leatrice Joy, American actress (b. 1893)
• May 14 – Barbara Yung, Hong Kong actress (b. 1959)
• May 16 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
• May 18
  • Penn Nouth, Cambodian politician, 7-time Prime Minister of Cambodia (b. 1906)
  • Hilding Rosenberg, Swedish composer (b. 1892)
• May 19 – Maqbular Rahman Sarkar, Bangladeshi academic (b. 1928)
• May 22
  • Charles Murphy, American architect. (b. 1890)
  • Wolfgang Reitherman, German animator, director and producer (b. 1909)

June

• June 5 – Lord George-Brown, British politician (b. 1914)
• June 6
  • Norman W. Walker, British businessman (b. 1886)
  • Vladimir Jankélévitch, French philosopher and musicologist (b. 1903)
• June 7
  • Georgia Hale, American actress (b. 1905)
  • Stanley Skinner, professional ice hockey player (b. 1893)
• June 9 – Clifford Evans, British actor (b. 1912)
  • Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Japanese novelist (b. 1899)
• June 10 – George Chandler, American actor (b. 1898)
• June 11 – Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (b. 1954)
• June 12 – Helmuth Plessner, German philosopher and sociologist (b. 1892)
• June 15
  • Percy Fender, English cricketer (b. 1892)
  • Andy Stanfield, American Olympic athlete (b. 1927)
• June 17
  • George Jackson, English footballer (b. 1893)
  • John Boulting, English filmmaker (b. 1913)
  • Kirill Moskalenko, Soviet military commander (b. 1902)
• June 19 – Bonnie Nettles, American religious leader (b. 1927)
• June 21 – Tage Erlander, Swedish politician, 25th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1901)
• June 27 – Elias Sarkis, Lebanese lawyer, 27th President of Lebanon (b. 1924)
• June 28 – James Craig, American actor (b. 1912)
• June 30 – Haruo Remeliik, Palauan politician, 1st President of Palau (b. 1933)

July

• July 1 – Pauli Murray, American civil rights activist, lawyer, author and priest (b. 1910)
• July 3 – Erik Ågren, Swedish boxer (b. 1916)
• July 4 – Jan de Quay, Dutch politician and psychologist, 31st Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1901)
• July 8
  • Phil Foster, American actor (b. 1913)
  • Simon Kuznets, American economist (b. 1901)
• July 9
  • Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
  • Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1896)
• July 14 – Lluís Solé, Spanish geographer and academic (b. 1908)
• July 15 – Rama Devi, Indian nationalist leader (b. 1889)
• July 16 – Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
• July 17 – Margo, Mexican-American actress (b. 1917)
• July 19
  • Janusz Zajdel, Polish writer (b. 1938)
  • Louisa Ghijs, Belgian stage actress and wife of Johannes Heesters (b. 1902)
• July 21 – Alvah Cecil Bessie, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1904)
• July 22 – Matti Järvinen, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1909)
• July 23
  • Kay Kyser, American bandleader (b. 1905)
  • Mickey Shaughnessy, American actor (b. 1920)
• July 25 – Grant Williams, American actor (b. 1931)
• July 26 – Grace Albee, American printmaker and wood engraver. (b. 1890)
• July 27 – John Scarne, American magician and card expert (b. 1903)

August

• August 1 – D. H. Turner, British art historian and museum curator (b. 1931)
• August 2 – Frank Faylen, American actor (b. 1905)
• August 5 – Arnold Horween, Harvard Crimson and NFL football player (b. 1898)
• August 6
  • Forbes Burnham, Guyanese political leader, 1st Prime Minister of Guyana and 2nd President of Guyana (b. 1923)
  • John Harmon, American actor (b. 1905)
• August 8 – Louise Brooks, American actress (b. 1906)
• August 9 – Clive Churchill, Australian rugby league player and coach (b. 1927)
• August 10 – Kenny Baker, American actor and singer (b. 1912)
• August 11 – Hector Grey, Scottish street trader and company director (b. 1904)
• August 12
  • Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (b. 1941)
  • Manfred Winkelhock, German racing driver (b. 1951)
• August 14 – Gale Sondergaard, American actress (b. 1899)
• August 15 – Lester Cole, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1904)
• August 20 – Donald O. Hebb, Canadian neuropsychologist (b. 1904)
• August 22 – Paul Peter Ewald, German-American crystallographer and physicist (b. 1888)
• August 24 – Morrie Ryskind, American dramatist (b. 1895)
• August 25
  • Paul Harris, American actor (b. 1917)
  • Samantha Smith, American schoolgirl activist (b. 1972)
• August 28
  • Ruth Gordon, American actress, screenwriter, and playwright (b. 1896)
  • Miguel Otero Silva, Venezuelan writer (b. 1908)
• August 29
  • Evelyn Ankers, British actress (b. 1918)
  • Patrick Barr, British actor (b. 1908)
  • Paul Kligman, Canadian actor (b. 1923)
• August 30 – Taylor Caldwell, Anglo-American writer (b. 1900)
• August 31 – Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

September

• September 1
  • Stefan Bellof, German racing driver and 1984 World SportsCars (Group C) Champion (b. 1957).
  • Saunders Lewis, Welsh writer and founder of the Welsh National Party (Plaid Cymru) (born 1893)
• September 4
  • Isabel Jeans, British actress (b. 1891)
  • George O'Brien, American actor (b. 1899)
• September 6 – Rodney Robert Porter, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1917)
• September 7
  • Bruiser Kinard, American football player (Brooklyn Dodgers) and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (b. 1914)
  • José Zabala-Santos, Filipino cartoonist (b. 1911)
  • George Pólya, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1887)
• September 8 – John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1897)
• September 9 – Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
• September 10
  • Ernst Öpik, Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1893)
  • Jock Stein, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1922)
• September 11
  • William Alwyn, English composer (b. 1905)
  • Henrietta Barnett, British Women's Royal Air Force officer (b. 1905)
  • Masako Natsume, Japanese actress (b. 1957)
• September 13 – Augusto Rademaker, Brazilian admiral and former military junta member (b. 1905)
• September 14
  • Julian Beck, American actor (b. 1925)
  • John Holt, American writer and educator (b. 1923)
• September 17 – Laura Ashley, Welsh designer (b. 1925)
• September 19 – Italo Calvino, Italian writer (b. 1923)
• September 22 – Axel Springer, German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG (b. 1912)
• September 27 – Lloyd Nolan, American actor (b. 1902)
• September 30
  • Floyd Crosby, American cinematographer (b. 1899)
  • Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist, creator of the Richter magnitude scale (b. 1900)
  • Simone Signoret, French actress (b. 1921)

October

• October 1 – E. B. White, American writer (b. 1899)
• October 2
  • Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)
  • George Savalas, American actor (b. 1924)
• October 5 – Abdus Sattar, Bangladeshi statesman, 8th President of Bangladesh (b. 1906)
• October 6 – Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (b. 1921)
• October 9 – Emílio Garrastazu Médici, Brazilian general and statesman, 28th President of Brazil (b. 1905)
• October 10
  • Yul Brynner, Russian actor (b. 1920)
  • Orson Welles, American actor and director (b. 1915)
• October 12
  • Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (The Price Is Right) (b. 1910), cerebral hemorrhage.
  • Ricky Wilson, American guitarist (b. 1953)
• October 13 – Francesca Bertini, Italian actress (b. 1892)
• October 14 – Emil Gilels, Soviet pianist (b. 1916)
• October 17 – Abdelmunim Al-Rifai, Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1917)
• October 18 – Stefan Askenase, Polish-Belgian classical pianist and pedagogue (b. 1896)
• October 21 – Dan White, American politician and murderer (Moscone–Milk assassinations) (b. 1946)
• October 24 – László Bíró, Hungarian inventor of the ballpoint pen (b. 1899)
• October 27 – Thomas Townsend Brown, American inventor (b. 1905)
• October 29 – John Davis Lodge, American actor and politician (b. 1903)
• October 31 – Hardit Malik, Indian fighter pilot and diplomat (b. 1894)

November

• November 1 – Phil Silvers, American entertainer (b. 1911)
• November 5
  • Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895)
  • Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist (b. 1898)
• November 6 – Sanjeev Kumar, Indian actor (b. 1937)
• November 8 – Nicolas Frantz, Luxembourgian cyclist (b. 1899)
• November 9 – Marie-Georges Pascal, French actress (b. 1946)
• November 11
  • James Hanley, British novelist, playwright and writer (b. 1897)
  • Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender (b. 1959)
  • Arthur Rothstein, American photographer (b. 1915)
• November 13
  • William Pereira, American architect (b. 1909)
  • George Robert Vincent, American sound recording pioneer (b. 1898)
• November 14 – Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (b. 1888)
• November 16 – John Sparkman, American politician (b. 1899)
• November 17
  • Lon Nol, Cambodian general and statesman, 32nd Prime Minister of Cambodia and 7th President of Khmer Republic (b. 1913)
  • Jimmy Ritz, American actor (b. 1904)
• November 19 – Stepin Fetchit, American actor (b. 1902)
• November 22 – María Sabina, Mexican curandera (b. 1894)
• November 24 – Big Joe Turner, American blues singer (b. 1911)
• November 25 – Geoffrey Grigson, British poet, writer, critic (b. 1905)
• November 27 – Fernand Braudel, French historian (b. 1902)

December

• December 2 – Philip Larkin, English poet and novelist (b. 1922)
• December 6 – Carroll Cole, American serial killer (b. 1938)
• December 7
  • Robert Graves, English writer (b. 1895)
  • Potter Stewart, American Supreme Court Justice (b. 1915)
• December 12
  • Anne Baxter, American actress (b. 1923)
  • Ian Stewart, Scottish rock musician (b. 1938)
  • Phil Karlson, American film director (b. 1908)
• December 14 – Roger Maris, American baseball player (New York Yankees) (b. 1934)
• December 15
  • Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, 1st Prime Minister of Mauritius (b. 1900)
  • Carlos Romulo, Filipino diplomat (b. 1899)
• December 16 – Paul Castellano, American Mafia boss (b. 1915)
• December 20 – Coral Buttsworth, Australian tennis champion (b. 1900)
• December 22 – D. Boon, American singer, songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
• December 23
  • Ferhat Abbas, Algerian nationalist, 1st president of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (b. 1899)
  • Prince Bira, Prince of Siam and Formula One driver (b. 1914)
• December 24 – Erich Schaedler, Scottish footballer (b. 1949)
• December 26 – Dian Fossey, American biologist (b. 1932)
• December 27
  • Harry Hopman, Australian tennis player and coach (b. 1906)
  • Harold Whitlock, British Olympic athlete (b. 1903)
• December 28 – Renato Castellani, Italian director (b. 1913)
• December 31
  • Ricky Nelson, American actor and musician (b. 1940)
  • Sam Spiegel, Polish-American film producer (b. 1903)

References