Died on Wednesday, 5th November – Famous Deaths

05/11/2024

Ben Baldanza, American economist and business executive (born 1961)

Basil Ben Baldanza Jr. was an American business executive who was the chief executive officer and president of Spirit Airlines from 2005 to 2016, a period in which he led the transformation of the company into an ultra-low-cost carrier.

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Elwood Edwards, American voice actor (born 1949)

Elwood Hughes Edwards Jr. was an American voice actor. He was best known as the voice of various soundmarks for the Internet service provider America Online which he first recorded in 1989. This included AOL's trademark "You've got mail" greeting.

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05/11/2023

Pat E. Johnson, American martial artist and actor (born 1939)

Patrick E. Johnson was an American martial artist and actor. He was a 9th degree black belt in American Tang Soo Do and was the president of the National Tang Soo Do Congress, which was originally created by Chuck Norris in 1973.

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05/11/2022

Aaron Carter, American singer-songwriter, rapper, dancer and actor (born 1987)

Aaron Charles Carter was an American singer and rapper. He came to fame as a teen pop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among preteen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 2000s, with his four studio albums.

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05/11/2021

Marília Mendonça, Brazilian singer (born 1995)

Marília Dias Mendonça was a Brazilian singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, posthumously recognized in Brazil as the Queen of Sofrência, a subgenre of sertanejo music, and has been recognized for her contribution to female empowerment by revolutionizing the universe of sertanejo music.

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05/11/2020

Geoffrey Palmer, English actor (born 1927)

Geoffrey Dyson Palmer was an English actor. His roles in British television sitcoms include Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983) and Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By (1992–2005).

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05/11/2015

George Barris, American engineer and car designer (born 1925)

George Barris was an American designer and builder of Hollywood custom cars. Barris designed and built the Hirohata Merc. Barris's company, Barris Kustom Industries, designed and built the Munster Koach and DRAG-U-LA for The Munsters; and the 1966 Batmobile for the Batman TV series and film.

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Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer (born 1923)

Nora Brockstedt was a Norwegian singer. She was the first person ever to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest, appearing as the Norwegian entrant in 1960 and 1961.

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Soma Edirisinghe, Sri Lankan businesswoman and philanthropist (born 1939)

Soma Edirisinghe was a Sri Lankan corporate executive, film producer, philanthropist and social worker. She was born in Meegoda, Sri Lanka on 5 July 1939 to a family of nine daughters, and died on 5 November 2015 at a private hospital in Colombo. She was married to EAP Edirisinghe and they had four children: three sons, Jeewaka, Nalaka and Asanka, and a daughter, Deepa.

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Czesław Kiszczak, Polish general and politician, 11th Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Poland (born 1925)

Czesław Jan Kiszczak was a Polish general, communist-era interior minister (1981–1990) and prime minister (1989).

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Hans Mommsen, German historian and academic (born 1930)

Hans Mommsen was a German historian, known for his studies in German social history, for his functionalist interpretation of the Third Reich, and especially for arguing that Adolf Hitler was a weak dictator. Descended from Nobel Prize-winning historian Theodor Mommsen, he was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

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05/11/2014

Manitas de Plata, French guitarist (born 1921)

Ricardo Baliardo, better known as Manitas de Plata, was a French flamenco guitarist of Catalan Gitano descent, born in southern France.

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Lane Evans, American lawyer and politician (born 1951)

Lane Allen Evans was an American attorney and politician who served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2007, representing the 17th district of Illinois. Evans announced that he would not seek reelection in November 2006 and retired at the end of the 109th Congress, due to the increasingly debilitating effects of Parkinson's disease.

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Wally Grant, American ice hockey player (born 1927)

Wallace Daniel Grant was an American ice hockey player. Grant helped the University of Michigan win the first NCAA National Championship in 1948. He was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1987 and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1994.

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Abdelwahab Meddeb, Tunisian-French author, poet, and scholar (born 1946)

Abdelwahab Meddeb was a French-language writer and cultural critic, and a professor of comparative literature at the University of Paris X-Nanterre.

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05/11/2013

Habibollah Asgaroladi, Iranian politician (born 1932)

Habibollah Asgaroladi Mosalman was a leading senior Iranian conservative and principlist politician who was the leader of Islamic Coalition Party, a highly influential conservative political party in Iran. He was also a Vice President and two-time presidential candidate, first in July 1981 and next in 1985. During his 1981 bid, he was the target of a failed assassination attempt that killed his bodyguard but left him mostly unharmed.

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Juan Carlos Calabró, Argentinian actor and screenwriter (born 1934)

Juan Carlos Calabró was an Argentine actor and comedian.

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Tony Iveson, English soldier and pilot (born 1919)

Thomas Clifford "Tony" Iveson DFC AE was a Royal Air Force pilot and veteran of the Second World War, and one of the Few.

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Charles Mosley, English genealogist and author (born 1948)

Charles Gordon Mosley was a British genealogist who specialised in British nobility. He was an author, broadcaster, editor, and publisher, best known for having been Editor-in-Chief of Burke's Peerage & Baronetage —its first update since 1970—and of the re-titled 107th edition, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage (2003).

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Charlie Trotter, American chef and author (born 1959)

Charlie Trotter was an American chef and restaurateur. His best-known restaurant, Charlie Trotter's, was open in Chicago from 1987 to 2012.

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Stuart Williams, Welsh footballer and manager (born 1930)

Stuart Grenville Williams was a Welsh international footballer who played as a defender. He played his club football for Wrexham, West Bromwich Albion and Southampton.

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05/11/2012

Olympe Bradna, French-American actress and dancer (born 1920)

Antoinette Olympe Bradna was a French dancer and actress, who emigrated to the United States where she lived for the rest of her life.

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Elliott Carter, American composer and academic (born 1908)

Elliott Cook Carter Jr. was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-modernism" into a distinctive style with a personal harmonic and rhythmic language, after an early neoclassical phase. His compositions are performed throughout the world, and include orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. Carter was the recipient of many awards – he was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his string quartets. He also wrote the large-scale orchestral triptych Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei.

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Leonardo Favio, Argentinian actor, singer, director and screenwriter (born 1938)

Fuad Jorge Jury, better known by his stage name Leonardo Favio, was an Argentine singer, actor and filmmaker. He is considered one of Argentina's best film directors and one of the country's most enduring cultural figures, as well as a popular singer-songwriter throughout Latin America.

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Bob Kaplan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 30th Solicitor General of Canada (born 1936)

Robert Philip "Bob" Kaplan, was a Canadian politician and lawyer.

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Louis Pienaar, South African lawyer and diplomat, Minister of Internal Affairs (born 1926)

Louis Alexander Pienaar was a South African lawyer and diplomat. He was the last white Administrator of South-West Africa, from 1985 through Namibian independence in 1990. Pienaar later served as a minister in F W de Klerk's government until 1993. He married Isabel Maud van Niekerk on 11 December 1954.

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05/11/2011

Bhupen Hazarika, Indian singer-songwriter, director, and poet (born 1926)

Bhupen Hazarika BR, widely known as Sudha Kantha, was an Indian singer, songwriter, writer, filmmaker and politician from Assam. He wrote songs mainly in the Assamese language, which are marked by humanity and universal brotherhood. His songs have been translated into many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi.

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05/11/2010

Jill Clayburgh, American actress and singer (born 1944)

Jill Clayburgh was an American actress known for her work in theater, television, and cinema. She received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her breakthrough role in Paul Mazursky's comedy drama An Unmarried Woman (1978). She received a second consecutive Academy Award nomination for Starting Over (1979) as well as four Golden Globe nominations for her film performances, and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her television work.

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Adrian Păunescu, Romanian poet, journalist, and politician (born 1943)

Adrian Păunescu was a Romanian writer, publisher, cultural promoter, translator, and politician. A profoundly charismatic personality, a controversial and complex figure, the artist and the man are almost impossible to separate. On the one hand he stands accused of collaboration with the Communist regime, but on the other hand he was persecuted and ostracised by the regime when he started to confront its failures, and when his influence started to be considered dangerous.

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Shirley Verrett, American soprano and actress (born 1931)

Shirley Verrett was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles making her a Soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s; she was particularly known for performing works by Giuseppe Verdi and Gaetano Donizetti.

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05/11/2009

Félix Luna, Argentinian lawyer, historian, and academic (born 1925)

Félix César Luna was an Argentine writer, lyricist and historian.

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05/11/2007

Nils Liedholm, Swedish footballer and manager (born 1922)

Nils Erik Liedholm was a Swedish football midfielder and coach. Il Barone, as he is affectionately known in Italy, was renowned for being part of the Swedish "Gre-No-Li" trio of strikers along with Gunnar Gren and Gunnar Nordahl at AC Milan and the Sweden national team, with which he achieved notable success throughout his career.

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05/11/2006

Bülent Ecevit, Turkish journalist and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1925)

Mustafa Bülent Ecevit was a Turkish statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974-2002. He served as Prime Minister in 1974, 1977, 1978–79, and 1999–2002. Ecevit was Chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP) between 1972-80, and in 1987 he became Chairman of the Democratic Left Party (DSP).

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05/11/2005

John Fowles, English novelist (born 1926)

John Robert Fowles was an English novelist, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others.

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Virginia MacWatters, American soprano and actress (born 1912)

Virginia MacWatters was an American coloratura soprano and university professor.

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Link Wray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1929)

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 instrumental single "Rumble" reached the top 20 in the United States, and was one of the earliest songs in rock music to use distortion and tremolo.

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05/11/2004

Donald Jones, American-Dutch actor, singer, and dancer (born 1932)

Donald Towe Jones was an American-Dutch actor, singer and dancer; born in Harlem, he went to the Netherlands in his early twenties and became one of the first Dutch black stars.

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05/11/2003

Bobby Hatfield, American singer-songwriter (born 1940)

Robert Lee Hatfield was an American singer. He and Bill Medley performed together as the Righteous Brothers. He sang the tenor part for the duo and sang solo on the group's 1965 recording of "Unchained Melody".

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05/11/2001

Roy Boulting, English director and producer (born 1913)

John Edward Boulting and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting, known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company, Charter Film Productions, which they founded in 1937.

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Milton William Cooper, American radio host, author, and activist (born 1943)

Milton William "Bill" Cooper was an American conspiracy theorist, radio broadcaster, and author known for his 1991 book Behold a Pale Horse, in which he warned of multiple global conspiracies, some involving extraterrestrial life. Cooper also described HIV/AIDS as a man-made disease used to target blacks, Hispanics, and homosexuals, and that a cure was made before it was implemented. He has been described as a "militia theoretician". Cooper was killed in 2001 by sheriff's deputies after he shot at them during an attempted arrest.

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05/11/2000

Jimmie Davis, American singer-songwriter and politician, 47th Governor of Louisiana (born 1899)

James Houston Davis was an American singer, songwriter, and Democratic Party politician. After achieving fame for releasing both sacred and country songs, Davis served as the 47th governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964.

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Bibi Titi Mohammed, Tanzanian politician (born 1926)

Bibi Titi Mohammed was a Tanzanian politician and activist. She was born in June 1926 in Dar es Salaam, at the time the capital of former Tanganyika. She first was considered a freedom fighter and supported the first president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere. Bibi Titi Mohammed was a member of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), the party that fought for the independence of Tanzania, and held various ministerial positions. In October 1969, she was sentenced for treason, and, after two years in prison, received a presidential pardon.

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05/11/1999

James Goldstone, American director and screenwriter (born 1931)

James Goldstone was an American film and television director whose career spanned over thirty years.

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Colin Rowe, English-American architect, theorist and academic (born 1920)

Colin Rowe was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician and teacher. He is acknowledged to have been a major theoretical and critical influence in the second half of the twentieth century on world architecture and urbanism. During his life he taught briefly at the University of Texas at Austin and, for one year, at the University of Cambridge in England. For most of his life he was a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Many of Rowe’s students became important architects and extended his influence throughout the architecture and planning professions. In 1995 he was awarded the Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects, its highest honor. He was also awarded the Athena Medal from the Congress for the New Urbanism posthumously in 2011.

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05/11/1997

James Robert Baker, American author and screenwriter (born 1946)

James Robert Baker was an American author of sharply satirical, predominantly gay-themed transgressional fiction. A native Californian, his work is set almost entirely in Southern California. After graduating from UCLA, he began his career as a screenwriter, but became disillusioned and started writing novels instead. Though he garnered fame for his books Fuel-Injected Dreams and Boy Wonder, after the controversy surrounding publication of his novel, Tim and Pete, he faced increasing difficulty having his work published. According to his life partner, this was a contributing factor in his suicide.

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Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-English historian, author, and academic (born 1909)

Sir Isaiah Berlin was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks were sometimes recorded and transcribed, and many of his spoken words were converted into published essays and books, both by himself and by others, especially by his principal editor from 1974, Henry Hardy.

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Peter Jackson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster (born 1964)

Peter Jackson was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. Nicknamed 'Jacko', he was an Australia national and Queensland State of Origin representative centre or five-eighth. Jackson played club football in the Brisbane Rugby League for the Souths Magpies, before moving to the New South Wales Rugby League and playing for the Canberra Raiders, Brisbane Broncos and North Sydney Bears. He also played in the Rugby Football League for English club Leeds. Jackson worked in the media following his retirement in 1993, and died as the result of a drug overdose in 1997.

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05/11/1996

Eddie Harris, American saxophonist (born 1934)

Eddie Harris was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-known compositions are "Freedom Jazz Dance", popularized by Miles Davis in 1966, and "Listen Here".

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05/11/1992

Adile Ayda, Russian-Turkish engineer and diplomat (born 1912)

Adile Ayda was the first woman career diplomat of Turkey, but is today better remembered as an Etruscologist. She became interested in Etruscan studies while stationed in Rome as the Minister-Counsellor of the Turkish Embassy, did research on the subject during her stay in Italy and wrote down her findings in a number of books, in Turkish and in French. She proposed that the Etruscans were a Turkic-speaking people, a proposal which never enjoyed wide support and has since been discredited.

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Arpad Elo, American physicist and chess player (born 1903)

Arpad Emmerich Elo was a Hungarian-American physics professor who created the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess.

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Jan Oort, Dutch astronomer and academic (born 1900)

Jan Hendrik Oort was a Dutch astronomer who made significant contributions to the understanding of the Milky Way and who was a pioneer in the field of radio astronomy. The New York Times called him "one of the century's foremost explorers of the universe"; the European Space Agency website describes him as "one of the greatest astronomers of the 20th century" and states that he "revolutionised astronomy through his ground-breaking discoveries." In 1955, Oort's name appeared in Life magazine's list of the 100 most famous living people. He has been described as "putting the Netherlands in the forefront of postwar astronomy".

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05/11/1991

Robert Maxwell, Czech-English captain, publisher, and politician (born 1923)

Ian Robert Maxwell was a Czechoslovak-born British-French media proprietor and politician. He was the father of socialite and child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

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Fred MacMurray, American actor and businessman (born 1908)

Frederick Martin MacMurray was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film leading man began in 1935, but his most renowned role was in Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir Double Indemnity. From 1959 to 1973, MacMurray appeared in numerous Disney films, including The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Follow Me, Boys!, and The Happiest Millionaire. He starred as Steve Douglas in the television series My Three Sons.

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05/11/1989

Vladimir Horowitz, Ukrainian-American pianist and composer (born 1903)

Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian and American pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all time, he was known for his virtuoso technique, timbre, and the public excitement engendered by his playing.

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05/11/1987

Eamonn Andrews, Irish radio and television host (born 1922)

Eamonn Andrews was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority, which oversaw the introduction of a state television service in Ireland. He is perhaps best remembered as the UK host of This Is Your Life from its inception in 1955 until his death in 1987.

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05/11/1986

Adolf Brudes, German race car driver (born 1899)

Adolf Brudes von Breslau was a Formula One driver from Germany and a member of German nobility. He started racing motorcycles in 1919. As an owner of a BMW and Auto Union dealership in Breslau, he had the opportunities to go racing, which he did from 1928 onwards, initially in hillclimbs. After World War II wiped out his business, he moved to Berlin and for a while became a mechanic, wherever he could find jobs. However he soon was back racing, and he continued until 1968, in hillclimbs. He participated in one World Championship Grand Prix, the 1952 Großer Preis von Deutschland, but scored no championship points. He also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races.

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Claude Jutra, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1930)

Claude Jutra was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

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Bobby Nunn, American singer (born 1925)

Ulysses B. "Bobby" Nunn Sr. was an American R&B singer with the musical groups The Robins and original bass vocalist of The Coasters. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California, U.S.

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05/11/1985

Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist and philologist (born 1898)

Arnold Stephanes dze Chikobava was a Georgian linguist and philologist best known for his contributions to Caucasian studies and for being one of the most active critics of Nicholas Marr's controversial monogenetic "Japhetic" theory of language.

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Spencer W. Kimball, American religious leader, 12th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1895)

Spencer Woolley Kimball was an American religious leader who was the twelfth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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05/11/1981

Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, Tibetan spiritual leader (born 1924)

The 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje was the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa and the spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He is of the oldest line of reincarnate lamas in Vajrayana Buddhism, known as the Karmapas whose coming was predicted by the Buddha in the Samadhiraja Sutra. The 16th Karmapa was considered to be a "living Buddha" and was deeply involved in the transmission of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism to Europe and North America following the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He was known as the "King of the Yogis", and is the subject of numerous books and films.

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05/11/1980

Louis Alter, American musician (born 1902)

Louis Alter was an American pianist, songwriter and composer. At 13, he began playing piano in theaters showing silent films. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Stuart Mason.

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05/11/1979

Al Capp, American cartoonist (born 1909)

Alfred Gerald Caplin, better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner, which he created in 1934 and continued writing and drawing until 1977. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam (1954). He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year, and their 1979 Elzie Segar Award, posthumously for his "unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning".

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05/11/1977

René Goscinny, French author and illustrator (born 1926)

René Goscinny was a French comic editor and writer, who created the Asterix comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Born in France to a Jewish family from Poland, he spent his childhood in Argentina where he attended French schools and later lived in the United States for a short period of time. There he met Belgian cartoonist Morris. After his return to France, they collaborated for more than 20 years on the comic series Lucky Luke.

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Guy Lombardo, Canadian-American violinist and conductor (born 1902)

Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo was a Canadian and American bandleader, violinist, and hydroplane racer whose unique sweet jazz style remained popular with audiences for nearly five decades.

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Alexey Stakhanov, Russian-Soviet miner, the Stakhanovite movement has been named after him (born 1906)

Alexei Grigoryevich Stakhanov was a Soviet miner, Hero of Socialist Labour (1970), and a member of the CPSU (1936).

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05/11/1975

Edward Tatum, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1909)

Edward Lawrie Tatum was an American geneticist. He shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 with George Beadle for showing that genes control individual steps in metabolism. The other half of that year's award went to Joshua Lederberg. Tatum was an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Lionel Trilling, American critic, essayist, short story writer, and educator (born 1905)

Lionel Mordecai Trilling was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. One of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century, he analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, and political implications of literature. He and his wife, Diana Trilling, were members of the New York Intellectuals and contributors to the Partisan Review.

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05/11/1972

Alfred Schmidt, Estonian weightlifter (born 1898)

Alfred Schmidt was an Estonian featherweight weightlifter who won a silver medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

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05/11/1971

Sam Jones, American baseball player (born 1925)

Samuel "Toothpick" Jones was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers and the Baltimore Orioles between 1951 and 1964. He batted and threw right-handed.

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05/11/1964

Buddy Cole, American pianist and conductor (born 1916)

Edwin LeMar "Buddy" Cole was a jazz pianist, organist, orchestra leader, and composer. He played behind a number of pop singers, including Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby.

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Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (born 1893)

Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 5th congressional district for seven terms from 1939 to 1953. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

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05/11/1963

Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet and critic (born 1902)

Luis Cernuda Bidón was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. During the Spanish Civil War, in early 1938, he went to the UK to deliver some lectures and this became the start of an exile that lasted till the end of his life. He taught in the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge before moving in 1947 to the US. In the 1950s he moved to Mexico. While he continued to write poetry, he also published wide-ranging books of critical essays, covering French, English and German as well as Spanish literature. He was frank about his homosexuality at a time when this was problematic and became something of a role model for this in Spain. His collected poems were published under the title La realidad y el deseo.

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05/11/1960

Ward Bond, American actor (born 1903)

Wardell Edwin Bond was an American character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series Wagon Train from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert the cop in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Captain Clayton in John Ford's The Searchers (1956).

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Donald Grey Barnhouse, American pastor and theologian (born 1895)

Donald Grey Barnhouse, was an American Christian preacher, pastor, theologian, radio pioneer, and writer. He was pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1927 to his death in 1960. The Bible Study Hour, his pioneering radio program continues, now known as Dr. Barnhouse & the Bible.

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August Gailit, Estonian author and poet (born 1891)

August Gailit was an Estonian writer.

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Johnny Horton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1925)

John LaGale Horton was an American country, honky tonk, and rockabilly musician during the 1950s. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narrative country saga songs that became international hits. His 1959 single "The Battle of New Orleans" was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 ranked number 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century". His first number-one country song was in 1959, "When It's Springtime in Alaska ".

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Mack Sennett, Canadian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1880)

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.

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05/11/1956

Art Tatum, American pianist and composer (born 1909)

Arthur Tatum Jr. was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever. From early in his career, fellow musicians acclaimed Tatum's technical ability as extraordinary. Tatum also extended jazz piano's vocabulary and boundaries far beyond his initial stride influences, and established new ground through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.

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05/11/1955

Maurice Utrillo, French painter (born 1883)

Maurice Utrillo was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. From the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre to have been born there.

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05/11/1951

Reggie Walker, South African runner (born 1889)

Reginald Edgar Walker was a South African athlete and the 1908 Olympic champion in the 100 metres.

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05/11/1950

Mary Harris Armor, American suffragist (born 1863)

Mary Elizabeth Harris Armor was an American temperance leader. She was the Georgia state president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and is often credited for the passing of prohibition legislature in Georgia.

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05/11/1946

Joseph Stella, Italian-American painter (born 1877)

Joseph Stella was an Italian-born American Futurist painter best known for his depictions of industrial America, especially his images of the Brooklyn Bridge. He is also associated with the American Precisionist movement of the 1910s–1940s.

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05/11/1944

Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1873)

Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist who spent most of his scientific career in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. He invented the first perfusion pump with Charles Lindbergh opening the way to organ transplantation. In later time however, it was acknowledged that Carrel and Lindbergh's version of the perfusion pump, which initially had media prominence, was impractical and difficult to use, and would lose influence by the 1940s. Carrel was also a pioneer in tissue culture, transplantology and thoracic surgery. He is known for his leading role in implementing eugenic policies in Vichy France.

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05/11/1942

George M. Cohan, American actor, singer, composer, author and theatre manager/owner (born 1878)

George Michael Cohan was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.

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05/11/1941

Arndt Pekurinen, Finnish activist (born 1905)

Arndt Juho Pekurinen was a Finnish pacifist and conscientious objector.

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05/11/1939

Mary W. Bacheler, American physician and Baptist medical missionary (born 1860)

Mary Washington Bacheler was an American physician and Baptist medical missionary in India.

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05/11/1938

Thomas Dewing, American painter and educator (born 1851)

Thomas Wilmer Dewing was an American painter working at the turn of the 20th century. Schooled in Paris, Dewing was noted for his figure paintings of aristocratic women. He was a founding member of the Ten American Painters and taught at the Art Students League of New York. The Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution has a collection of his works. He was the husband of fellow artist Maria Oakey Dewing.

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05/11/1933

Texas Guinan, American actress and businesswoman (born 1884)

Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan was an American actress, producer, and entrepreneur. Born in Texas to Canadian immigrant parents, Guinan decided at an early age to become an entertainer. After becoming a star on the New York stage, the repercussions of her involvement in a weight loss scam motivated her to switch careers to the film business. Spending several years in California appearing in numerous productions, she eventually formed her own company.

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Walther von Dyck, German mathematician and academic (born 1856)

Walther Franz Anton von Dyck, born Dyck and later ennobled, was a German mathematician. He is credited with being the first to define a mathematical group, in the modern sense in. He laid the foundations of combinatorial group theory, being the first to systematically study a group by generators and relations.

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05/11/1931

Konrad Stäheli, Swiss target shooter (born 1866)

Konrad Stäheli was a Swiss sports shooter who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century and participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics and the 1906 Intercalated Games.

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05/11/1930

Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1858)

Christiaan Eijkman was a Dutch physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of antineuritic vitamins (thiamine). Together with Sir Frederick Hopkins, he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for the discovery of vitamins.

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Luigi Facta, Italian politician, journalist and Prime Minister of Italy (born 1861)

Luigi Facta was an Italian politician, lawyer and journalist and the last prime minister of Italy before the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.

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05/11/1928

Vlasios Tsirogiannis, Greek general (born 1872)

Vlasios Tsirogiannis was a Hellenic Army officer who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General.

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05/11/1923

Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, French author and poet (born 1880)

Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen was a French novelist and poet. His life forms the basis of a fictionalised 1959 novel by Roger Peyrefitte entitled The Exile of Capri.

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05/11/1879

James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist and mathematician (born 1831)

James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism achieved the second great unification in physics, where the first one had been realised by Isaac Newton. Maxwell was also key in the creation of statistical mechanics.

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05/11/1876

Theodor von Heuglin, German explorer and ornithologist (born 1824)

Martin Theodor von Heuglin, was a German explorer and ornithologist. It is principally by his zoological, and more especially his ornithological, labours that Heuglin has taken rank as an independent authority.

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05/11/1872

Thomas Sully, English-American painter (born 1783)

Thomas Sully was an English-American portrait painter. He was born in England, became a naturalized American citizen in 1809, and lived most of his life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, including in the Thomas Sully Residence. He studied painting in England under Benjamin West. He painted in the style of Thomas Lawrence and has been referred to as the "Sir Thomas Lawrence of America".

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05/11/1807

Angelica Kauffman, painter (born 1741)

Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann, usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, Kauffman was a skilled portraitist, landscape and decoration painter. She was, along with Mary Moser, one of two female painters among the founding members of the Royal Academy of Art in London in 1768.

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05/11/1758

Hans Egede, Norwegian-Danish bishop and missionary (born 1686)

Hans Poulsen Egede was a Norwegian Lutheran priest and missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Danish-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for about 300 years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk.

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05/11/1752

Carl Andreas Duker, German scholar and jurist (born 1670)

Carl Andreas Duker was a German classical scholar and jurist.

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05/11/1714

Bernardino Ramazzini, Italian physician and academic (born 1633)

Bernardino Ramazzini was an Italian physician.

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05/11/1701

Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, French-English colonel and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire (born 1659)

Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, was an English peer, soldier and MP.

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05/11/1660

Alexandre de Rhodes, French missionary and lexicographer (born 1591)

Alexandre de Rhodes, SJ, also Đắc Lộ, was an Avignonese Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, the first trilingual Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary, published in Rome, in 1651.

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Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle (born 1599)

Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle was an English courtier known for her beauty and wit. She was involved in many political intrigues during the English Civil War.

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05/11/1605

Nyaungyan Min, Birmese king (born 1555)

Nyaung-yan Min or Neow-ram Min, personal name Shin Thissah (ရှင်သစ္စာ), courtesy name Min-Yeh Nandamate (မင်းရဲနန္ဒိမိတ်), was king of the Toungoo dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1599 to 1605. He is also referred to as the founder of the restored Toungoo dynasty or Nyaungyan dynasty for starting the reunification process following the collapse of the First Toungoo Empire.

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05/11/1559

Kanō Motonobu, Japanese painter and educator (born 1476)

Kanō Motonobu was a Japanese painter and calligrapher. He was a member of the Kanō school of painting. Through his political connections, patronage, organization, and influence he was able to make the Kanō school into what it is today. The system was responsible for the training of a great majority of painters throughout the Edo period (1603–1868). After his death, he was referred to as Kohōgen (古法眼).

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05/11/1515

Mariotto Albertinelli, Italian painter and educator (born 1474)

Mariotto di Bindo di Biagio Albertinelli was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence. He was a close friend and collaborator of Fra Bartolomeo.

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05/11/1459

John Fastolf, English soldier (born 1380)

Sir John Fastolf was a late medieval English soldier, landowner, and knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War from 1415 to 1439, latterly as a senior commander against Joan of Arc, among others. He has enjoyed a more lasting reputation as the prototype, in some part, of Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff, although their careers are very different. Many historians argue, however, that he deserves to be famous in his own right, not only as a soldier, but as a patron of literature, a writer on strategy and perhaps as an early industrialist.

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05/11/1450

John IV, Count of Armagnac (born 1396)

John IV was Count of Armagnac, Fézensac, and Rodez from 1418 to 1450. He was involved in the intrigues related to the Hundred Years' War and in conflicts against the King of France.

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05/11/1370

Casimir III the Great, Polish king (born 1310)

Casimir III the Great reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, retaining the title throughout the Galicia–Volhynia Wars. He was the last Polish king from the Piast dynasty.

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05/11/1235

Elisabeth of Swabia, queen consort of Castile and León (born 1205)

Elisabeth of Swabia, was a member of the House of Hohenstaufen who became Queen of Castile and Leon by marriage to Ferdinand III.

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05/11/1176

Diego Martínez de Villamayor, Castilian nobleman

Diego Martínez de Villamayor was a noble of the Kingdom of Castile from the house of the counts of Bureba, who was very influential at court. He was the advisor of Alfonso VII and Sancho III, and treasurer of Alfonso VIII.

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05/11/1011

Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (born 949)

Mathilde was Abbess of Essen Abbey from 973 to her death. She was one of the most important abbesses in the history of Essen. She was responsible for the abbey, for its buildings, its precious relics, liturgical vessels and manuscripts, its political contacts, and for commissioning translations and overseeing education. In the unreliable list of Essen Abbesses from 1672, she is listed as the second Abbess Mathilde and as a result, she is sometimes called "Mathilde II" to distinguish her from the earlier abbess of the same name, who is meant to have governed Essen Abbey from 907 to 910 but whose existence is disputed.

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05/11/0964

Fan Zhi, chancellor of the Song Dynasty (born 911)

Fàn Zhi, formally the Duke of Lu (魯國公), was a Chinese essayist, historian, jurist, and politician who served under 12 emperors of 6 dynasties during imperial China's Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the subsequent Song dynasty. He was the Later Zhou chancellor from 951 until 960, and the Song dynasty chancellor from 960 until 964, not long before his death. A strict adherent to legal guidelines, he had influenced Later Zhou and Song rulers to rely more on civil administration in an age dominated by the military. Fàn was a member of the elite Fàn family.

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05/11/0425

Atticus, archbishop of Constantinople

Atticus of Constantinople was an archbishop of Constantinople, succeeding to the episcopal throne in March 406. He is known for having been an opponent of John Chrysostom whom he helped depose, and having rebuilt the small church that was located on the site of the later Hagia Sophia. He was an opponent of the Pelagians, which helped increase his popularity among the citizens of Constantinople, and he contributed to the theological framework for the developing cult of the Virgin Mary.

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