Died on Sunday, 11th May – Famous Deaths

11/05/2024

Susan Backlinie, American actress and stuntwoman (born 1946)

Susan Jane Backlinie was an American actress and stuntwoman. She was known for playing Chrissie Watkins, the shark attack victim in the opening beach party scene of Steven Spielberg's 1975 film Jaws.

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11/05/2021

Colt Brennan, American quarterback (born 1983)

Colton James Brennan was an American football quarterback. He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes, Saddleback Gauchos, and Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. With the Rainbow Warriors, he was a two-time third-team All-American and two-time NCAA passing leader. Brennan was selected by the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL draft, but never played in a regular season NFL game.

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Norman Lloyd, American actor, producer and director (born 1914)

Norman Nathan Lloyd was an American actor, producer, director, and centenarian with a career in entertainment spanning nearly a century. He worked in every major facet of the industry, including theatre, radio, television, and film, with a career that started in 1923. Lloyd's final film, Trainwreck, was released in 2015, after he turned 100. Lloyd remained the oldest-living male actor from Classic Hollywood until his death in 2021.

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11/05/2020

Jerry Stiller, American comedian, actor (born 1927)

Gerald Isaac Stiller was an American comedian and actor. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015. Stiller saw a late-career resurgence starting in 1993, playing Frank Costanza on the sitcom Seinfeld, a part which earned him an Emmy nomination. In 1998, Stiller began his role as Arthur Spooner on the CBS comedy series The King of Queens, another role that garnered widespread acclaim.

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11/05/2019

Peggy Lipton, American actress, model, and singer (born 1946)

Margaret Ann Lipton was an American model, actress, and singer. She made appearances in many of the most popular television shows of the 1960s before she landed her defining role as flower child Julie Barnes in the crime drama The Mod Squad (1968–1973), for which she was nominated for four Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama in 1970.

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Thomas Silverstein, American murderer (born 1952)

Thomas Edward Silverstein was an American criminal who spent the last 42 years of his life in prison after being convicted of three separate murders, with a fourth murder conviction being overturned and Silverstein being implicated in a fifth, while imprisoned for armed robbery. Silverstein spent the last 36 years of his life in solitary confinement for killing corrections officer Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities described him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintained that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons at the time of his death. Correctional officers refused to talk to Silverstein out of respect for Clutts.

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11/05/2011

Robert Traylor, American basketball player (born 1977)

Robert DeShaun "Tractor" Traylor was an American professional basketball player. He got his nickname because of his hulking frame. Traylor was the sixth pick in the 1998 NBA draft and played seven seasons in the league. He averaged 4.8 points per game, mainly as a reserve center and power forward.

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11/05/2010

Doris Eaton Travis, American dancer and vaudevillian (born 1904)

Doris Eaton Travis was an American dancer, stage and film actress, dance instructor, owner and manager, writer, and rancher, who was the last surviving Ziegfeld Girl, a troupe of acclaimed chorus girls who performed as members in the Broadway theatrical revues of the Ziegfeld Follies.

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11/05/2009

Abel Goumba, Central African physician and politician, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (born 1926)

Abel Nguéndé Goumba was a Central African politician. During the late 1950s, he headed the government in the period prior to independence from France, and following independence he was an unsuccessful candidate for President of the Central African Republic four times. Goumba, who was President of the Patriotic Front for Progress (FPP) political party, served under President François Bozizé as Prime Minister from March 2003 to December 2003 and then as Vice President of the Central African Republic from December 2003 to March 2005. Subsequently, he was appointed to the official post of Ombudsman.

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Claudio Huepe, Chilean economist and politician, Chilean Minister Secretary-General of Government (born 1939)

Claudio Huepe García was a Chilean politician, engineer and economist, member of the Christian Democrat party, who occupied several government and political positions. During his career, he was the provincial intendant of Arauco, a member of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, a government minister, and the Chilean ambassador to Venezuela. He was also among the first in his party to reject the 1973 coup by Pinochet and was exiled by the military dictatorship from 1975 until 1984.

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Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda, Indian admiral (born 1915)

Admiral Sardarilal Mathradas "Charles" Nanda, PVSM, AVSM was an Indian Navy admiral who served as the 6th Chief of the Naval Staff from 1 March 1970 until 28 February 1973. He led the Indian Navy during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and successfully executed a naval blockade of both West and East Pakistan, helping India achieve an overwhelming victory during the war. For the important role he played in the war, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. Nanda is recognised as one of the most notable commanders in the history of the Indian Navy.

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11/05/2008

John Rutsey, Canadian drummer (born 1953)

John Howard Rutsey was a Canadian musician best known as a founding member and original drummer of Rush. He performed on the band's 1974 debut album, but left shortly after its release due to health problems which limited his ability to tour with the band. He was subsequently replaced by Neil Peart, who remained Rush's drummer until 2015.

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11/05/2007

Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoan ruler (born 1913)

Malietoa Tanumafili II was a Samoan paramount chief and politician who was O le Ao o le Malo of Samoa from its independence in 1962, and the Malietoa titleholder from 1940, until his death in 2007.

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11/05/2006

Floyd Patterson, American boxer and actor (born 1935)

Floyd Patterson was an American professional boxer who competed from 1952 to 1972, and twice reigned as the world heavyweight champion between 1956 and 1962. At the age of 21, he became the youngest boxer in history to win the title, and was also the first heavyweight to regain the title after losing it. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He has been named among the top 15 heavyweights of all time.

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11/05/2005

Léo Cadieux, Canadian politician, 17th Canadian Minister of National Defence (born 1908)

Léo Alphonse Joseph Cadieux was a Canadian politician.

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Horton Davies, Welsh minister and historian (born 1916)

Horton Marlais Davies was a Welsh Protestant minister, historian of Christianity, and painter. After receiving degrees from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford, he became the minister of Wallington and Carshalton Congregational Church in London in 1942, holding that position through World War II. From 1945 to 1946, he worked in Germany as a director of education for the YMCA, affiliated with the British Army of the Rhine.

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11/05/2003

Noel Redding, English bass player (born 1945)

David Noel Redding was an English rock musician, best known as the bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and guitarist/singer for Fat Mattress.

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11/05/2002

Renaude Lapointe, Canadian journalist and politician (born 1912)

Louise Marguerite Renaude Lapointe, was a Canadian journalist and a Senator. She was among the first Canadian women to work as a professional journalist and the first French-Canadian woman to preside over the Senate.

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Bill Peet, American animator and screenwriter (born 1915)

William Bartlett Peet was an American children's book illustrator and a story writer and animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios.

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11/05/2001

Douglas Adams, English novelist and screenwriter (born 1952)

Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, humourist, and screenwriter. He was best known as the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a 1978 radio comedy series which he adapted into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 14 million copies in his lifetime. He also adapted it into a 1981 television series, a 1984 video game and a 2005 feature film.

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11/05/1994

Timothy Carey, American actor, director, and producer (born 1928)

Timothy Agoglia Carey was an American film and television character actor who was typically cast as manic or violent characters who are driven to extremes. He is particularly known for his collaborations with Stanley Kubrick in the films The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957), and for appearing in the two John Cassavetes directed films Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976). Other notable film credits include Crime Wave (1954), East of Eden (1955), One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Head (1968) and The Outfit (1973).

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11/05/1991

Ulyana Barkova, Russian farm worker (born 1906)

Ulyana Spiridonovna Barkova was a Russian dairy farmer who was the forewoman at the Karavaevo state farm in the Kostroma Oblast who was twice awarded the title of Heroine of Socialist Labour.

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11/05/1990

Stratos Dionysiou, Greek Singer, composer and lyricist (born 1935)

Stratos Dionysiou, nicknamed "To Geraki tis Pistas", was a Greek singer, composer and lyricist.

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11/05/1988

Kim Philby, British-Soviet double agent (born 1912)

Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secrets to the Soviets during World War II and in the early stages of the Cold War. Of the five, Philby is widely considered to have been the most successful in providing secret information to the Soviets.

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11/05/1987

James Jesus Angleton, CIA counterintelligence leader (born 1917)

James Jesus Angleton was an American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who served as chief of the counterintelligence department of the CIA from 1954 to 1975. According to director of central intelligence Richard Helms, Angleton was "recognized as the dominant counterintelligence figure in the non-communist world".

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11/05/1986

Fritz Pollard, American football player and coach (born 1894)

Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was an American professional football player and coach. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first two African-American players in the NFL in 1920. He is also recognized as the first Black quarterback in NFL history, playing the position for the Hammond Pros in 1923. Football pioneer Walter Camp called Pollard "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."

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11/05/1985

Chester Gould, American cartoonist, created Dick Tracy (born 1900)

Chester Gould was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains.

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11/05/1983

Zenna Henderson, American writer (born 1917)

Zenna Chlarson Henderson was an American elementary school teacher and science fiction and fantasy author. Her first story was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1951. Her work is cited as pre-feminist, often featuring middle-aged women, children, and their relationships, but with stereotyped gender roles. Many of her stories center around human aliens called "The People", who have special powers. Henderson was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1959 for her novelette Captivity. Science fiction authors Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Connie Willis, Dale Bailey, and Kathy Tyers have cited her as an influence on their work.

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11/05/1981

Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)

Odd Hassel was a Norwegian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate.

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Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1945)

Robert Nesta Marley was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady, and was renowned for his distinctive vocal and songwriting style. Marley increased the visibility of Jamaican music worldwide and became a global figure in popular culture. He became known as a Rastafarian icon, and he infused his music with a sense of spirituality. Marley is also considered a global symbol of Jamaican music, culture and identity and was controversial in his outspoken support for democratic social reforms. Marley also supported the legalisation of cannabis and advocated for pan-Africanism.

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11/05/1980

Dyre Vaa, Norwegian sculptor and painter (born 1903)

Dyre Vaa was a Norwegian sculptor and painter.

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11/05/1979

Lester Flatt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1914)

Lester Raymond Flatt was an American singer, bluegrass guitarist, and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the duo Flatt and Scruggs.

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11/05/1967

James E. Brewton, American painter (born 1930)

James Edward Brewton was an American painter and printmaker who synthesized expressionism, graffiti and Pataphysics.

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11/05/1964

Janne Mustonen, Finnish politician (born 1901)

Johannes Aadolfinpoika Mustonen was a Finnish politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Communist Party of Finland and the Finnish People's Democratic League, he represented Oulu Province between April 1945 and February 1962 and between December 1963 and May 1964. Prior to being elected, he was imprisoned for eight years for political reasons.

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11/05/1963

Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888): 169

Herbert Spencer Gasser was an American physiologist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers while on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, awarded jointly with Joseph Erlanger.

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11/05/1960

John D. Rockefeller Jr., American businessman and philanthropist (born 1874)

John Davison Rockefeller Jr. was an American financier and philanthropist. Rockefeller was the fifth child and only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in Midtown Manhattan known as Rockefeller Center, making him one of the largest real estate holders in the city at that time. Towards the end of his life, he was famous for his philanthropy, donating over $500 million to a wide variety of different causes, including educational establishments. Among his projects was the reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. He was widely blamed for having orchestrated the Ludlow Massacre and other offenses during the Colorado Coalfield War. Rockefeller was the father of six children: Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop, and David.

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11/05/1955

Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer (born 1874)

Gilbert Laird Jessop was an English cricket player, often reckoned to have been one of the fastest run-scorers cricket has ever known. He was Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1898 and compiled the fastest century ever for England.

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11/05/1946

Seán McCaughey, Irish Republican, died on hunger strike (born 1915)

Seán McCaughey was an Irish militant and Republican activist. He was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader in the 1930s and 1940s and hunger striker.

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11/05/1938

George Lyon, Canadian golfer and cricketer (born 1858)

George Seymour Lyon was a Canadian golfer, an Olympic gold medalist in golf, an eight-time Canadian Amateur Championship winner, and a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. He worked in the insurance industry.

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11/05/1929

Jozef Murgaš, Slovak-American priest, architect, botanist, and painter (born 1864)

Jozef Murgaš was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter and Roman Catholic priest. He contributed to radio development, which at the time was commonly known as "wireless telegraphy".

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11/05/1927

Juan Gris, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1887)

José Victoriano González-Pérez , better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic genre Cubism, his works are among the movement's most distinctive.

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11/05/1920

James Colosimo, Italian-American mob boss (born 1878)

Vincenzo Colosimo, known as James "Big Jim" Colosimo or as "Diamond Jim", was an Italian-American Mafia crime boss who emigrated from Calabria, Italy, in 1895 and built a criminal empire in Chicago based on prostitution, gambling and racketeering. He gained power through petty crime and heading a chain of brothels. From 1902 until his death in 1920, he led a gang known after his death as the Chicago Outfit. Colosimo was assassinated on May 11, 1920, and no one was ever charged with his murder. Johnny Torrio, an enforcer whom Colosimo imported in 1909 from New York, seized control of Colosimo's businesses after his death. Al Capone, a close associate of Torrio, has been accused of involvement in Colosimo's murder but was not yet in Chicago at the time.

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William Dean Howells, American novelist, literary critic, and playwright (born 1837)

William Dean Howells was an American realist novelist, literary critic, playwright, and diplomat, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as well as for the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria, and the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", which was adapted into a 1996 film of the same name.

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11/05/1918

George Elmslie, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Victoria (born 1861)

George Alexander Elmslie was an Australian politician who served as the 25th and shortest serving Premier of Victoria, and the first Labor Premier.

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11/05/1916

Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist (born 1873): xix

Karl Schwarzschild was a German physicist and astronomer.

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11/05/1908

Charles Kingston, Australian politician, 20th Premier of South Australia (born 1850)

Charles Cameron Kingston was an Australian politician. From 1893 to 1899 he was Premier of South Australia, leading a coalition of Radicals supported by the Labor Party.

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11/05/1889

John Cadbury, English businessman and philanthropist, founded the Cadbury Company (born 1801)

John Cadbury was an English Quaker and businessman, who founded the Cadbury chocolate company in Birmingham, England. He was also involved in activism and philanthropy, championing workers' rights, environmental and industrial reform, temperance, animal welfare, education, and healthcare, while actively opposing cruelty, exploitation, and indulgent practices.

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11/05/1882

Frederick Innes, Scottish-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Tasmania (born 1816)

Frederick Maitland Innes was Premier of Tasmania from 4 November 1872 to 4 August 1873.

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11/05/1849

Juliette Récamier, French businesswoman (born 1777)

Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier, known as Juliette, was a French socialite whose salon drew people from the leading literary and political circles of early 19th-century Paris. An icon of neoclassicism, Récamier cultivated a public persona as a great beauty, and her fame quickly spread across Europe. She befriended many intellectuals, sat for the finest artists of the age, and spurned an offer of marriage from Prince Augustus of Prussia.

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11/05/1848

Tom Cribb, English boxer (born 1781)

Tom Cribb was an English bare-knuckle boxer of the 19th century. He was All England Champion from 1808 to 1822.

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11/05/1812

Spencer Perceval, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1762)

Spencer Perceval was a British statesman and barrister who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. He is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated, and the only solicitor-general or attorney-general to have become prime minister.

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11/05/1779

John Hart, American lawyer and politician (born 1711)

John Hart was an American Founding Father and politician in colonial New Jersey. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Hart signed the Declaration of Independence. He died several years before the end of the Revolutionary War while still active in patriotic efforts.

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11/05/1778

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (born 1708)

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him "Chatham" or "Pitt the Elder" to distinguish him from his son William Pitt the Younger, who also served as prime minister. Pitt was also known as "the Great Commoner" because of his long-standing refusal to accept a title until 1766.

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11/05/1610

Matteo Ricci, Italian priest and mathematician (born 1552)

Matteo Ricci was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See declared its recognition of Ricci's heroic virtues, thereby bestowing upon him the honorific of Venerable.

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11/05/0912

Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine Emperor, the second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (born 866)

Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise, was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty, he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During his reign, the renaissance of letters, begun by his predecessor Basil I, continued; but the empire also saw several military defeats in the Balkans against Bulgaria and against the Arabs in Sicily and the Aegean. His reign also witnessed the formal discontinuation of several ancient Roman institutions, such as the separate office of Roman consul.

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