Deaths in April 1985

The following is a list of notable deaths in April 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.

• Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, 78, German conductor.
• Frank Bykowski, 70, American football player and coach.
• Alec Clifton-Taylor, 77, English architectural historian and television presenter.
• Gerald Gregg, 78, American book cover artist.
• Gregorio Sciltian, 84, Russian Armenian-Italian painter.^[1]
• Alexander Severance, 79, American basketball and baseball coach, heart attack.^[2]
• Larry Shaw, 60, American science fiction author and literary agent, cancer.
• Julian Thornton-Duesbery, 82, British academic administrator and Anglican prelate.
• Douglass Wallop, 65, American novelist (The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant) and playwright.^[3]

• Kelly Alexander Sr., 69, American civil rights activist, chair of the NAACP (1983–1984).^[4]
• S. Omar Barker, 90, American politician and poet, member of the New Mexico House of Representatives (1924–1926).
• Dame Doris Fitton, 87, Australian actress and theatre director.
• Witold Gieras, 87, Polish footballer.
• John Richardson, 76, English cricketer.
• Alexandre Rignault, 84, French actor.
• Bernard Shore, 89, English viola player.
• William Stevenson, 84, American diplomat, academic administrator and Olympic track and field athlete (1924).^[5]
• John-Michael Tebelak, 35, American playwright, heart attack.^[6]
• Paul Wohl, 84, German-American journalist.^[7]

• Hugo Balzer, 90, German conductor.
• Leo Douglass, 84, American football player.
• Jimmy Kelly, 70, Irish hurler.
• Helmut Niedermayr, 69, German racing driver.
• Frode Onarheim, 85, Norwegian military officer and businessman.
• Oreco, 52, Brazilian footballer.
• Dan Ormsbee, 101, American architect.
• Ganapati Ram, 58, Indian politician, MP (1952–1967).
• Leo Riemens, 74, Dutch musicologist.
• Toivo Sariola, 70, Finnish Olympic sprinter (1936).
• Frazier Thomas, 66, American television personality (Garfield Goose and Friends), stroke.^[8]
• William Twaits, 74, Canadian oil executive.
• Bazyli Wójtowicz, 86, Polish sculptor.
• Hsien-wen Wu, 85, Chinese zoologist.

• Dinara Asanova, 42, Soviet Kyrgyzstani film director, heart disease.
• Raymond Briggs, 90, English general.
• Bob Chitty, 68, Australian footballer.
• Mildred Cram, 95, American author and screenwriter.
• Ramón Alva de la Canal, 92, Mexican artist, heart attack.
• Calvin S. Hall, 76, American psychologist.
• Hanon Izakson, 76, Soviet mechanical engineer.
• Yisrael Mendel Kaplan, 71, American Orthodox Jewish rabbi.
• Roy Long, 70, Australian footballer.
• Mary Elizabeth Sharpe, 100, American architect and philanthropist.
• Hannes Sirola, 94, Finnish Olympic gymnast (1912).
• William B. Stansbury, 62, American politician, traffic collision.^[9]
• Hermann Strasburger, 75, German historian.
• Georg von Boisman, 74, Swedish Olympic pentathlete (1936).

• Ernie Coward, 69, Australian footballer.
• Charis Frankenburg, 93, British author.
• Tyrell Johnson, 68, Trinidadian cricketer.
• Philip Jongeneel, 91, Dutch Olympic rower (1920).
• Connie Kelly, 36, Irish hurler.
• Bill Kern, 78, American football player and coach.
• Lo Man-wai, 89-90, Hong Kong politician and lawyer.
• Emil Milan, 62, American woodcarver.
• Arthur Negus, 82, British television personality and antiques expert.
• Fran Polsfoot, 57, American football player and coach, brain cancer.^[10]
• Hannes Schroll, 75, Austrian ski racer.
• Hal Totten, 83, American sportscaster.
• Margaret Trowell, 80-81, British artist.
• Gerhard Wilck, 86, German soldier.

• Edward Cleary, 71, Australian cricketer.
• Arnold Daghani, 76, Romanian-English diarist.
• Mark Lothar, 82, German composer.
• André Néron, 62, French mathematician.
• Terence Sanders, 83, British Olympic rower (1924).
• Maria Stencel, 85, Polish nurse.
• Stanisław Zaczyk, 61, Polish actor.

• Bajou Baijnauth, 68, Guyanese cricketer.
• Michael Blees, 22, Australian footballer.
• Torstein Børte, 85, Norwegian politician.
• Paul Fayman, 63, Polish-born Australian property developer.
• Geoffrey Loney, 91, Australian cricketer.
• David Loveday, 88, British Anglican prelate.
• Willie McRae, 61, Scottish activist, lawyer and politician, suicide by gunshot.
• Luther Metke, 100, American poet.
• Jack Mitchell, 87, American banker and businessman (United Airlines).^[11]
• Carl Schmitt, 96, German political theorist.

• J. Fred Coots, 87, American songwriter ("Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town").^[12]
• Rosa Estiarte, 25, Spanish Olympic swimmer (1976), suicide.
• Julieta Kirkwood, 49, Chilean feminist activist and sociologist.
• Eugen König, 88, German general.
• Phonse Kyne, 69, Australian footballer.
• Helen Moses, 79, American Olympic swimmer (1920).
• Wilf Nixon, 102, English footballer.
• Adam Smith, 81, American Olympic swimmer (1924).
• Joe Sullivan, 74, American baseball player, lung cancer.
• Charlie Wilson, 79, English footballer.

• Gordon Clark, 82, American philosopher and theologian.
• Mary Beth Dolin, 49, American-born Canadian politician, breast cancer.
• Ella Ehlers, 80, German educator and activist.
• Donald B. Fullerton, 92, American missionary and evangelist.
• Arthur C. Hohmann, 89, American police officer.
• Sana'a Mehaidli, 16, Lebanese militant, suicide bombing.
• Şaziye Moral, 81-82, Turkish actress.
• Allan K. Smith, 96, American attorney.
• Ernie Taylor, 59, English footballer.

• David Blair, 67, Scottish golfer.
• Cora Coralina, 95, Brazilian author.
• Angelo Donghia, 50, American interior designer, pneumonia.^[13]
• Alfredo Duhalde, 86, Chilean politician, vice president and acting president (1946).
• Dame Annis Gillie, 84, British physician.
• Charles William Johnson, 93, Canadian politician.
• Robert Maragh, 50, Jamaican cricketer.
• C. S. Schilbred, 78, Norwegian genealogist and historian.
• Klaus Scholder, 55, German historian.
• Eusebio Sempere, 62, Spanish artist.
• Zisis Verros, 104, Greek guerrilla fighter.

• Bunny Ahearne, 84, British ice hockey administrator.
• Jackie Bestall, 84, English footballer.
• Arthur Carson, 89, American academic administrator.
• André de Dienes, 71, Hungarian-American photographer.
• Susan Ertz, 98, English author.
• Tullio Favali, 38, Italian missionary, shot.^[14]
• Gennady Galkin, 50, Soviet Olympic diver (1956, 1960).
• John Gilroy, 86, English artist and illustrator.
• Enver Hoxha, 76, Albanian dictator, first secretary (since 1941) and prime minister (1944–1954), arrhythmia.^[15]
• Samuel K. McConnell Jr., 84, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1944–1957).
• Enid McLeod, 88-89, British cultural diplomat.
• Peter Alsing Nielsen, 77, Danish painter.
• Ram Narayan Sharma, 69, Indian politician and independence activist.
• Catherine Stermann, 35, French actress, suicide.
• Olga Tufnell, 80, British archaeologist.
• Fred Uhlman, 84, German-English writer and painter.
• Henriëtte van den Brandeler, 100, Dutch composer.
• Gunnar Westman, 70, Danish sculptor.
• Bela Zaboly, 74, Hungarian-American cartoonist (Popeye), heart disease.

• Édouard Baumann, 90, French footballer.
• Louise Seaman Bechtel, 90, American author and book editor.^[16]
• Thomas Dixon, 79, Irish cricketer.
• Cecil Manning, 92, British politician, MP (1944–1950).
• Seiji Miyaguchi, 71, Japanese actor.
• Vicenç Sasot, 67, Spanish football player and manager.
• Herman Alfred Schmid, 74, American general.
• Floyd Theard, 40, American basketball player and coach, heart attack.^[17]
• Ramavtar Tyagi, 60, Indian poet.
• Ron Walden, 77, Australian footballer.

• Mahmut Bajraktarević, 75, Yugoslav Bosnian mathematician.
• Justin W. Brierly, 79, American educator and lawyer.
• Jack Buckley, 81, English footballer.
• Sir Clavering Fison, 92, English politician and businessman, MP (1929–1931).
• Kit Klein, 75, American Olympic speed skater (1932).
• Margarete Hielscher, 85, German doctor and war criminal.
• Maurits Lieftinck, 81, Dutch entomologist.
• Oscar Nemon, 79, Croatian-born English sculptor.^[18]
• Nancy V. Rawls, 59, American diplomat.^[19]

• Elvin Barr, 76, Australian footballer.
• Everett Busch, 92, American general.^[20]
• Noele Gordon, 65, English actress, stomach cancer.
• Takis Miliadis, 62, Greek actor, injuries sustained in a traffic collision.
• Kate Roberts, 94, Welsh author.
• Glyn Samuel, 67, Welsh cricketer.
• Fred Stammers, 66, Australian footballer.

• Zarifa Aliyeva, 60, Soviet Azerbaijani ophthalmologist, cancer.
• Sir Raphael Cilento, 91, Australian medical practitioner.
• Chick Davies, 85, American basketball coach.^[21]
• Sambhu Nath De, 70, Indian virologist and toxicologist.
• C. Sydney Frost, 91, Canadian banker.
• Buck Giles, 81, American baseball player.
• Frank Ingram, 79, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Bernabe Lovina, 63, Filipino Olympic sprinter (1948).
• Elisa Martínez Contreras, c. 85, Guatemalan socialite, first lady (1945–1951).
• Jack Medica, 70, American Olympic swimmer (1936), heart attack.
• Sir Frank Meere, 89, Australian public servant.
• Myles Murray, 78, Canadian politician.
• Hedevig Rasmussen, 82, Danish Olympic swimmer (1924).
• Inés Rodena, 79, Cuban radio and television writer.
• Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, 75, French film director.
• Sam Weaver, 76, English footballer.
• Moehadji Widjaja, 54, Indonesian politician, heart attack.

• Tadeusz Bartosik, 59, Polish actor.
• Scott Brady, 60, American actor (Shotgun Slade), respiratory failure.^[22]
• George A. Cincotta, 70, American politician, member of the New York State Assembly (1959–1978), heart attack.^[23]
• Katharina Kern, 84, German anti-Nazism activist.
• Ed McGinley, 85, American football player and coach.
• Robert Cotton Money, 96, British general.
• T. L. Sherred, 69, American science fiction author.
• Benny Zientara, 67, American baseball player.

• John Selwyn Bromley, 71-72, British naval historian.
• Basil Bunting, 85, British poet.^[24]
• Reginald Craig, 68, Australian cricketer.
• Lula Owl Gloyne, 93, American nurse.
• Mario Mazzacurati, 81, Italian racing driver.
• Evadne Price, 96, Australian-British writer, actress and astrologer.
• Germaine Sablon, 85, French singer and actress.
• Walter Weir, 55, Canadian politician, heart attack.^[25]

• James Briley, 28, American convicted serial killer, execution by electric chair.^[26]
• Gertrude Caton Thompson, 97, English archaeologist.
• Friedrich Kiefer, 87, German zoologist.
• D. I. Suchianu, 89, Romanian essayist.
• Josip Weissgerber, 62, Yugoslav Croatian philosopher and missionary.

• Pavel Batov, 87, Soviet general.
• Jack Broome, 84, American-born British naval officer.
• Józef Gromek, 53, Polish chess player, heart attack.
• Willie Mabon, 59, American R&B musician.
• John Manifold, 69, Australian poet.
• Bruce R. McConkie, 69, American Mormon apostle.^[27]
• Ivan Menzies, 89, English actor and singer.
• Anthony Murmu, 54, Indian politician, MP (1977–1980), shot.
• Chabela Romero, 48, Mexican professional wrestler.
• Richard Rudgard, 83, British Anglican prelate.
• Jacques Sauthier, 79-80, Swiss Olympic boxer (1924).
• Sergei Tokarev, 85, Russian ethnologist.

• Michel Bernheim, 77, French filmmaker.
• Harry C. Butcher, 83, American radio broadcaster, complications from Alzheimer's disease.^[28]
• James Smoot Coleman, 66, American political scientist, heart attack.
• Mervyn Twynam Davis, 68, Australian landscape architect.
• Rudolf Gnägi, 67, Swiss politician, president (1971, 1976), heart attack.^[29]
• Jack Horsell, 70, Australian cricketer.
• Kehos Kliger, 80, Russian-Argentine poet.
• Anton Løkkeberg, 57, Norwegian footballer.
• Pierre de Muralt, 88, Swiss Olympic equestrian (1928).
• William O'Grady, 60, Irish footballer.
• Jerome F. O'Malley, 53, American general, plane crash.^[30]
• Vasco Peeples, 79, American politician, member of the Florida House of Representatives (1929).
• André Rollet, 79, French footballer.
• Harold Smallwood, 70, American Olympic sprinter (1936).
• Joseph Stampf, 65, American basketball player and coach.^[31]
• Scoop Usher, 71, American politician, member of the Missouri House of Representatives (1974–1979).
• Sir Ian Wark, 85, Australian chemist.
• Cornelis Zwikker, 84, Dutch chemist and physicist.

• Astrid Hjertenæs Andersen, 69, Norwegian poet.
• John Dutton, 75, British trade unionist.
• Francis Eaton, 4th Baron Cheylesmore, 91, British hereditary peer.
• Rudi Gernreich, 62, Austrian-born American fashion designer, cancer.^[32]
• Foster Hewitt, 82, Canadian radio broadcaster, complications from Alzheimer's disease.^[33]
• Jaroslav Košnar, 54, Czechoslovak footballer.
• Irving Mills, 91, Russian-born American music publisher.^[34]
• Ghost Mulenga, 31, Zambian footballer, malaria.
• Władysław Nadratowski, 92, Polish Olympic rower (1924).
• Tancredo Neves, 75, Brazilian politician, president-elect, prime minister (1961–1962).^[35]
• Oddvar Nygaard, 65, Norwegian accordionist.
• Paul Pascon, 53, Moroccan sociologist, traffic collision.
• Alfred Powell, 76, English cricketer.
• Riva Ridge, 16, American Thoroughbred racehorse, heart attack.^[36]
• Bernie Smith, 57, Australian footballer.
• Sir Owen Temple-Morris, 88, British politician and barrister, MP (1931–1942).
• John Welsh, 70, Irish actor.
• Carl A. Wiley, 66, American engineer and mathematician.

• Paul Hugh Emmett, 84, American chemist, Parkinson's disease.
• Jacques Ferron, 64, Canadian physician and author, heart attack.
• A. C. Gimson, 67, English phonetician.
• Basile Khoury, 84, Lebanese Greek Catholic prelate.
• Vladimir Kvarchelia, 65-66, Soviet Abkhazian politician.
• Yelena Lyubimova, 59-60, Soviet geologist.
• Parelius Mentsen, 82, Norwegian trade unionist.
• Sir Thomas Parry, 80, Welsh writer and academic.
• Syd Scott, 71, English golfer.
• Sō Takeyuki, 77, Japanese aristocrat and academic.

• Wilfrid S. Bronson, 90, American author and artist.
• Jack Bryan, 88, English cricketer.
• Joan Croydon, 76, American actress.
• Leônidas da Selva, 58, Brazilian footballer.
• Fred Doederlein, 78, German actor.
• Sam Ervin, 88, American politician, member of the U.S. Senate (1954–1974) and House of Representatives (1946–1947), emphysema.^[37]
• Frank Farrell, 67, Australian rugby player, heart attack.
• Herbert Graetz, 92, Australian Olympic rower (1924).
• Eddie Heron, 74, Irish Olympic diver (1948).
• Sarah T. Hughes, 88, American judge and lawyer.^[38]
• Billy Sanders, 29, Australian speedway racer, suicide.
• Kent Smith, 78, American actor, heart failure.^[39]
• David H. N. Spence, 59, Scottish botanist.
• Asbjørn Sunde, 75, Norwegian politician.
• Joe Vlasits, 64, Hungarian-Australian football player and manager.
• Patrick Wilkinson, 77, English classical scholar.
• Bob Wilson, 60, American baseball player.
• Whitey Wistert, 73, American football and baseball player.
• Sergei Yutkevich, 80, Soviet filmmaker.

• Paolo Borghese, 80, Italian nobleman.
• Jack Cutting, 61, English footballer.
• Kenneth Golding, 63, Singaporean Olympic sailor (1956).
• Bernt Ingvaldsen, 82, Norwegian politician, MP (1945–1973).
• Yitzhak Kahan, 71, Austrian-Israeli jurist.
• Alan McCrory, 67, Australian footballer.
• Al Minns, 65, American jazz dancer, cancer.^[40]
• Hans Neij, 63, Swedish general, drowned.^[41]
• Yoichi Okamoto, 69, American photographer, suicide by hanging.^[42]
• Mildred W. Pelzer, 95, American artist.
• Václav Procházka, 80, Czechoslovak Olympic equestrian (1936).
• H. M. S. Richards, 90, American evangelist (Voice of Prophecy) and author.
• Mark Starr, 90, British-American labor historian, pneumonia.^[43]
• Albert Turner, 84, English footballer.
• Katharine Elkus White, 78, American politician and diplomat.^[44]

• Hugo Miguel Arrambide, 57, Argentine Olympic equestrian (1964, 1968, 1972).
• Ioan Dragomir, 79, Romanian Greek Catholic prelate.
• Edna Duge, 82, American educator.
• Richard Haydn, 80, British actor (The Sound of Music, Alice in Wonderland, Please Don't Eat the Daisies) and comedian, heart attack.^[45]
• Zoltán Horusitzky, 81, Hungarian composer.
• Viktor Kupradze, 81, Soviet Georgian mathematician.
• Bennie Lunn, 79, Australian footballer.
• Uku Masing, 75, Soviet Estonian theologian and polymath.
• Murray Matheson, 72, Australian-American actor, heart failure.^[46]
• Dorothy Nickerson, 84, American color scientist.
• Erich Schumann, 87, German physicist.
• Francis Parker Shepard, 87, American sedimentologist.
• Ellen Savage, 72, Australian nurse.
• Ernie Smith, 75, American football player.
• Sidney Smith, 56, English cricketer.
• Henk van der Meer, 69, Dutch Olympic rower (1948).

• Roberto Caló, 72, Argentine pianist and composer.
• Roman Czerniawski, 75, Polish-British air force officer and Allied double agent.
• Yvonne Degraine, 85, French Olympic swimmer (1920).
• Gitta Gradova, 80, American pianist.^[47]
• Kåre Martin Hansen, 71, Norwegian politician, MP (1961–1969).
• David Sinton Ingalls, 86, American flying ace.^[48]
• Björn Jónsson, 68, Icelandic politician.
• Lauri Kennedy, 88, Australian cellist.
• Adolf Maislinger, 81, German anti-Nazism activist.
• Albert Maltz, 76, American screenwriter and playwright, member of the Hollywood Ten, complications from a stroke.^[49]
• Alex Mengel, 30, Guyanese-born American serial killer, shot.^[50]
• Savitri Sahni, 82, Indian paleobotanist.
• Terry Woodgate, 65, English footballer.

• Wilhelm Abel, 80, German economist.
• Ubaidullah Anwar, 58, Pakistani Islamic scholar.
• Alexander Armstrong, 68, Australian politician.
• James Dunn, 59, British politician, MP (1964–1983).
• William G. East, 77, American judge.
• Heinrich Gattineau, 80, German economist and businessman.
• Friedrich Märker, 92, German writer and theatre critic.
• Pierre Kamel Medawar, 97, Israeli Greek Catholic prelate.
• Placid J. Podipara, 85, Indian Syriac Catholic priest and scholar.
• Gordon Ross, 67-68, English sports journalist.
• Fred Wampler, 61, American golfer, leukemia.
• Leon Wiśniewski, 48, Polish field hockey player.
• Tommy Woodcock, 79, Australian racehorse trainer.

• Rockin' Dave Allen, 43, American blues musician, pneumonia.
• Cougar Annie, 96, American-born Canadian gardener.
• Carlos Dante, 79, Argentine singer.
• Rahim Gul, 60-61, Pakistani writer and filmmaker, kidney failure.
• Jean L'Hôte, 56, French filmmaker.
• Hoyt Ming, 82, American fiddler.
• Anthony Mark Spencer, 29-30, Australian outlaw biker, suicide by hanging.
• Marjorie Steel, 81, British social worker.
• Zhang Tianyi, 78, Chinese author and writer.

• Robert J. Brown, 80, American football player.
• Carmen da Silva, 65, Brazilian journalist and feminist activist.
• King-Sun Fu, 54, Taiwanese-American computer scientist.
• James Macholtz, 58, American football coach, heart attack.
• James F. Prendergast, 68, American politician, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1959–1978).^[51]

• Verlin Adams, 66, American football player.
• Sir Max Aitken, 2nd Baronet, 75, Canadian-British flying ace.
• Sofía Álvarez, 71, Colombian-Mexican actress and singer.
• Alberto Bragaglia, 89, Italian painter.
• David Cummings, 36, Canadian Olympic wrestler (1976), plane crash.
• Ida Daly, 83, American disability activist.
• Hazen Hansard, 79-80, Canadian lawyer.
• Mickey Katz, 75, American musician and comedian, kidney failure.^[52]
• Edgar Mountain, 84, British Olympic runner (1920, 1924) and geologist.
• Franco Ressel, 60, Italian actor.
• Mike Sangster, 44, British tennis player, heart attack.^[53]
• Albert Gerard Schatz, 63, American judge.
• Hans Speth, 87, German general.
• Scot Symon, 73, Scottish football player and manager.
• Sándor Török, 81, Hungarian author and journalist.
• Jules White, 84, Austrian-born American film director and producer.

• List of April 1985 deaths at IMDb