Deaths in 1998

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1998. Names are listed under the date of death and not the date it was announced. Names under each date are listed in alphabetical order by family name.

Deaths of notable animals (that is, those with their own Wikipedia articles) are also reported here.

A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship and reason for notability, established cause of death, reference (and language of reference, if not English).

January 1998

Vladimir Prelog

• January 1 – Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (born 1905)
• January 2 – Tommy J. Smith, Australian racehorse trainer (born 1916)
• January 4 – Mae Questel, American actress (born 1908)
• January 5 – Sonny Bono, American singer, actor, and politician (born 1935)
• January 5 – David Bairstow, English cricketer (born 1951)
• January 7 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)
• January 8 – Michael Tippett, English composer (born 1905)
• January 9 – Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)
• January 11 – Ellis Rabb, American director and actor (born 1930)
• January 11 – Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (born 1926)
• January 12 – Kyle W. Dinkheller, American policeman (born 1975)
• January 12 – Phyllis Nelson, American singer (born 1950)
• January 15 – Junior Wells, American harmonica player (born 1934)
• January 16 – Emil Sitka, American actor (born 1914)
• January 16 – Hermann Wedekind, artistic director Festspiele Balver Höhle (born 1910)
• January 18 – Monica Edwards, British writer (born 1912)
• January 19 – Carl Perkins, American guitarist (born 1932)
• January 21 – Jack Lord, American actor (born 1920)
• January 23 – Alfredo Ormando, Italian writer (born 1958)
• January 28 – Shotaro Ishinomori, Japanese Manga artist, "Father of Henshin heroes" (born 1938)

February 1998

Ernst Jünger

• February 2 – Haroun Tazieff, French volcanologist and geologist (born 1914)
• February 2 – Raymond Cattell, British and American psychologist (born 1905)
• February 3 – Fat Pat, American rapper (born 1970)
• February 3 – Karla Faye Tucker, Texas murderer (born 1959)
• February 6 – Falco, Austrian musician (born 1957)
• February 6 – Carl Wilson, American musician (born 1946)
• February 6 – Nazim al-Kudsi, former President and Prime Minister of Syria (born 1906)
• February 7 – Lawrence Sanders, American author (born 1920)
• February 7 – Roger Nicholas Angleton, American murderer (born 1942)
• February 8 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)
• February 8 – Enoch Powell, British politician (born 1912)
• February 8 – Julian Lincoln Simon, American economist and author (born 1932)
• February 9 – Maurice Schumann, former French Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1911)
• February 13 – José Barraquer, Spanish ophthalmologist (born 1916)
• February 14 – Manuel Pérez Martínez, Colombian guerrilla leader (born 1943)
• February 16 – Fernando Abril Martorell, former Spanish Deputy Prime Minister (born 1936)
• February 17 – Ernst Jünger, German writer (born 1895)
• February 17 – Bob Merrill, American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist and screenwriter (born 1921)
• February 18 – Harry Caray, American television and radio broadcaster (born 1914)
• February 22 – Red Reeder, U.S. Army officer and author (born 1902)
• February 22 – Abraham Alexander Ribicoff, American Democratic Party politician (born 1910)
• February 22 – Athol Rowan, South African cricketer (born 1921)
• February 22 – José María de Areilza, former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1909)
• February 23 – Raman Lamba, Indian cricketer (born 1960)
• February 23 – Sean A. Moore, American writer (born 1965)
• February 24 – Henny Youngman, English-born comedian (born 1906)
• February 26 – Theodore Schultz, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)
• February 27 – George H. Hitchings, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1905)
• February 27 – J. T. Walsh, American actor (born 1943)
• February 28 – Todd Duncan, American opera singer (born 1903)
• February 28 – Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (born 1952)

March 1998

Lloyd Bridges

• March 2 – Darcy O'Brien, American author (born 1939)
• March 3 – Fred W. Friendly, American television journalist and executive (born 1915)
• March 7 – Bernarr Rainbow, historian of music education, organist, and choir master, (born 1914)
• March 8 – Ray Nitschke, American football player (Green Bay Packers) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (born 1936)
• March 10 – Lloyd Bridges, American actor (born 1913)
• March 12 – Judge Dread, English musician (born 1945)
• March 12 – Beatrice Wood, American artist and ceramicist (born 1893)
• March 12 – Jozef Kroner, Slovak actor (The Shop on Main Street) (born 1924)
• March 13 – Tim Flock, American racecar driver and member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame (born 1924)
• March 13 – Bill Reid, Canadian artist (born 1920)
• March 13 – Risen Star, American racehorse (born 1985)
• March 15 – Benjamin Spock, American athlete, pediatrician, and author (born 1903)
• March 15 – Dušan Pašek, Slovak ice hockey player (born 1960)
• March 15 – Tim Maia, Brazilian singer (born 1942)
• March 16 – Sir Derek Barton, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)
• March 20 – George Howard, American jazz saxophone musician (born 1956)
• March 25 – Daniel Massey, English actor (born 1933)
• March 27 – Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, Austrian auto designer and businessman (born 1909)
• March 30 – Sir Frank King, British army general (born 1919)
• March 31 – Bella Abzug, American politician (born 1920)

April 1998

Xin Fengxia

• April 1 – Gene Evans, American actor (born 1920)
• April 1 – Rozz Williams, 34, American singer, suicide by hanging.
• April 2 – Rob Pilatus, member of the pop group Milli Vanilli (born 1965)
• April 3 – Charles Lang, American cinematographer (born 1901)
• April 5 – Cozy Powell, English rock drummer (born 1947)
• April 6 – Wendy O. Williams, American singer (born 1949)
• April 6 – Tammy Wynette, American singer (born 1942)
• April 11 – Rodney Harvey, American actor and model (born 1967)
• April 12 – Xin Fengxia, Chinese pingju opera performer (born 1927)
• April 13 – Patrick de Gayardon, French skydiver and skysurfing pioneer (born 1960)
• April 15 – Rose Maddox, American singer (born 1925)
• April 15 – Pol Pot, Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader (born 1925)
• April 16 – Marie-Louise Meilleur, oldest living person at the time of her death (born 1880)
• April 16 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (born 1913)
• April 17 – Linda McCartney, American photographer and musician (born 1941)
• April 17 – Muhammad Metwally Al Shaarawy, Egyptian Muslim jurist (born 1911)
• April 19 – Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)
• April 21 – Peter Lind Hayes, American entertainer (born 1915)
• April 21 – Irene Vernon, American actress (born 1922)
• April 22 – Kitch Christie, South African rugby coach (born 1940)
• April 23 – Constantine Karamanlis, Greek politician (born 1907)
• April 23 – James Earl Ray, American assassin (born 1928)
• April 25 – Wright Morris, American photographer and writer (born 1910)
• April 26 – Joan Mary Wayne Brown, British author who the pseudonyms Mary Gervaise, Hilary Wayne and Bellamy Brown (born 1906)
• April 27 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born American anthropologist and author (born 1925)
• April 27 – Pauline Réage, French writer (born 1907)

May 1998

File:Frank Sinatra2, Pal Joey.jpg

Frank Sinatra

Barry Goldwater

• May 1 – Eldridge Cleaver, American activist (born 1935)
• May 2 – Kevin Lloyd, British actor (born 1949)
• May 2 – Justin Fashanu, British footballer (born 1961)
• May 2 – hide, Japanese musician (born 1964)
• May 2 – Gene Raymond, American actor (born 1908)
• May 7 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South African–born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1924)
• May 7 – Eddie Rabbitt, American musician (born 1941)
• May 9 – Alice Faye, American entertainer (born 1915)
• May 9 – R. J. G. Savage, British palaeontologist (born 1927)
• May 14 – Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (born 1915)
• May 14 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas, American conservationist and writer (born 1890)
• May 15 – Earl Manigault, American basketball player (born 1944)
• May 19 – Sosuke Uno, Prime Minister of Japan (born 1922)
• May 22 – John Derek, American actor and film director (born 1926)
• May 22 – José Enrique Moyal, mathematical physicist (born 1910)
• May 28 – Phil Hartman, Canadian-born artist, writer, actor, and comedian (born 1948)
• May 29 – Barry Goldwater, American politician (born 1909)

June 1998

Maureen O'Sullivan

• June 1 – Darwin Joston, American actor (born 1937)
• June 2 – Junkyard Dog, American pro wrestler (born 1952)
• June 2 – Dorothy Stickney, American actress (born 1896)
• June 3 – Poul Bundgaard, Danish actor and singer (born 1922)
• June 5 – Jeanette Nolan, American actress (born 1911)
• June 7 – James Byrd, Jr., American murder victim (born 1949)
• June 8 – President Sani Abacha of Nigeria (born 1943)
• June 8 – Jackie McGlew, South African cricketer (born 1929)
• June 10 – Hammond Innes, English author (born 1914)
• June 11 – Catherine Cookson, English author (born 1906)
• June 12 – Theresa Merritt, American actress (born 1924)
• June 13 – Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (born 1911)
• June 18 – Felix Knight, American actor and tenor (born 1908)
• June 20 – Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (born 1942)
• June 22 – Benny Green, British writer, radio broadcaster and saxophonist (born 1927)
• June 23 – Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (born 1911)
• June 25 – Lounès Matoub, Berber Kabyle singer (born 1956)

July 1998

Alan Shepard

• July 3 – Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (born 1949)
• July 3 – George Lloyd, British composer (born 1913)
• July 5 – Stephen Austin, British Drum and Bass MC (born 1967)
• July 5 – Sid Luckman, American football player (Chicago Bears) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (born 1916)
• July 6 – Roy Rogers, American singer and actor (born 1911)
• July 7 – Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, A popular Nigerian Yoruba businessman, politician and aristocrat, presumed winner of the inconclusive Nigerian President Elections 1993 (Born 24 August 1937)
• July 13 – Red Badgro, American football player (New York Giants) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (born 1902)
• July 17 – Marc Hunter, New Zealand lead vocalist of rock band Dragon (born 1953)
• July 17 – Joseph Maher, Irish actor (born 1933)
• July 19 – Elmer Valo, Slovak Major League Baseball player (born 1921)
• July 20 – Anatoliy Betekhtin, Russian army general (born 1931)
• July 21 – Alan Shepard, American astronaut (born 1923)
• July 21 – Robert Young, American actor (born 1907)
• July 22 – Hermann Prey, German bass-baritone (born 1929)
• July 27 – Binnie Barnes, English actress (born 1903)
• July 27 – Russell M. Carneal, American politician and judge (born 1918)
• July 29 – Howard Keltner, American comics creator and indexer (born 1928)
• July 29 – Jerome Robbins, American choreographer and director (born 1918)
• July 29 – Jorge Pacheco Areco, Uruguayan politician, President of the Republic 1967-1972 (born 1920)
• July 30 – Buffalo Bob Smith, American children's television host (born 1917)
• July 30 – Jorge Russek, Mexican actor (born 1932)

August 1998

Todor Zivkov

• August 1 – Eva Bartók, Hungarian actress (born 1927)
• August 2 – Shari Lewis, American ventriloquist (born 1933)
• August 3 – Alfred Schnittke, Russian-born composer (born 1934)
• August 4 – Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut (born 1930)
• August 5
  • Otto Kretschmer, German submarine commander and Bundesmarine admiral (b. 1912)
  • Todor Zivkov, former president of Bulgaria (born 1911)
• August 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (born 1906)
• August 9 – Frankie Ruiz, Puerto Rican singer (born 1958)
• August 13 – Julien Green, French-born American writer (born 1900)
• August 16 – Phil Leeds, American actor (born 1916)
• August 18 – Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress (born 1948)
• August 28 – Lu Dadong, Chinese politician, Governor of Sichuan province (born 1915)
• August 31 – Shigezō Sasaoka, Japanese voice actor (born 1948)

September 1998

George Wallace

Betty Carter

• September 1 – Cary Middlecoff, American golfer (born 1921)
• September 2 – Jackie Blanchflower, Irish footballer (born 1933)
• September 2 – Allen Drury, American writer (born 1918)
• September 5 – Fernando Balzaretti, Mexican actor (born 1946)
• September 5 – Leo Penn, American actor and director (born 1921)
• September 6 – Akira Kurosawa, Japanese screenwriter, producer, and director (born 1910)
• September 8 – Leonid Kinskey, Russian-born actor (born 1903)
• September 9 – Lucio Battisti, Italian singer (born 1943)
• September 10 – Carl Forgione, British actor (born 1944)
• September 11 – Dane Clark, American actor (born 1912)
• September 13 – George Wallace, American politician (born 1919)
• September 13 – Necdet Calp, Turkish civil servant and politician (chairman of Halkçı Parti)
• September 14 – Johnny Adams, American musician (born 1932)
• September 14 – Yang Shangkun, former President of the People's Republic of China (born 1907)
• September 17 – Gustav Nezval, Czech actor (born 1907)
• September 20 – Muriel Humphrey, Wife of Vice President Hubert Humphrey (born 1912)
• September 21 – Florence "Flo-Jo" Griffith-Joyner, American runner (born 1959)
• September 23 – Mary Frann, American actress (born 1943)
• September 26 – Betty Carter, American jazz singer (born 1929)
• September 27 – Narita Bryan, Japanese racehorse (born 1991)
• September 27 – Doak Walker, American football player (Detroit Lions) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (born 1927)
• September 30 – Dan Quisenberry, baseball player (born 1953)
• September 30 – Bruno Munari, Italian-born industrial designer (born 1907)
• September 30 – Pavel Štěpán, Czech pianist (born 1925)
• September 30 – Robert Lewis Taylor, American author (born 1912)

October 1998

Roddy McDowall

• October 2 – Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, Mongolian politician, leader of revolution (born 1962)
• October 2 – Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and sports team owner (born 1907)
• October 2 – Olivier Gendebien, Belgian race car driver (born 1924)
• October 3 – Roddy McDowall, British actor (born 1928)
• October 6 – Mark Belanger, American baseball player (born 1944)
• October 8 – Zhang Chongren, Chinese artist (born 1907)
• October 9 – Ian Johnson, Australian cricketer (born 1917)
• October 10 – Tommy Quaid, Irish hurler (born 1957)
• October 10 – Marvin Gay, Sr., American Pentecostal minister and father/murderer of Marvin Gaye (born 1914)
• October 10 – Konstantin Petrzhak, Soviet physicist (born 1907)
• October 11 – Richard Denning, American actor (born 1914)
• October 12 – Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (born 1976)
• October 13 – Jeremy Vargas Sagastegui, American criminal (born 1970)
• October 13 – General Gérard Charles Édouard Thériault, Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff (born 1932)
• October 14 – Frankie Yankovic, American musician (born 1916)
• October 16 – Jon Postel, American Internet pioneer (born 1943)
• October 17 – Joan Hickson, British actress (born 1906)
• October 17 – Hakim Mohammed Said, Pakistani scholar and philanthropist (born 1920)
• October 22 – Eric Ambler, British writer (born 1909)
• October 28 – Ghulam Ahmed, Indian former cricket captain (born 1922)
• October 28 – James Goldman, American writer (born 1927)
• October 28 – Ted Hughes, English poet (born 1930)
• October 30 – Bulldog Turner, American football player (Chicago Bears) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (born 1919)

November 1998

Jean Marais

• November 3 – Bob Kane, American comic book creator (born 1915)
• November 8 – Jean Marais, French actor (born 1913)
• November 10 – Hal Newhouser, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (born 1921)
• November 10 – Mary Millar, British actress (born 1936)
• November 13 – Valerie Hobson, English actress (born 1917)
• November 13 – Michel Trudeau, Canadian outdoorsman, son of Pierre Trudeau (born 1975)
• November 13 – Doug Wright, English cricketer (born 1914)
• November 16 – J.D. Sumner American gospel singer (born 1924)
• November 17 – Weeb Ewbank, American football coach (Baltimore Colts, New York Jets) and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (born 1907)
• November 17 – Kenneth McDuff, American serial killer (born 1946)
• November 17 – Esther Rolle, American actress (born 1920)
• November 19 – Alan J. Pakula, American film director (born 1928)
• November 22 – Harlan Parker Banks, American paleobotanist (born 1913)
• November 22 – Stu Unger, Professional poker player (born 1953)
• November 23 – Abdul Majid Zabuli, Founder of Afghanistan's banking system (born 1896)
• November 25 – Flip Wilson, American actor and comedian (born 1933)
• November 28 – Kerry Wendell Thornley, American counterculture figure and writer (born 1938)
• November 29 – Martin Ruane, British wrestler best known as Giant Haystacks and later, The Loch Ness Monster (born 1947)
• November 29 – Frank Latimore, American actor (born 1925)

December 1998

Martin Rodbell

• December 1 – Freddie Young, British cinematographer (born 1902)
• December 2 – Mikio Oda, Japanese athlete (born 1905)
• December 2 – Brian Stonehouse, English painter and World War II secret agent (born 1918)
• December 6 – César Baldaccini, French sculptor (born 1921)
• December 7 – Michael Craze, British actor (born 1942)
• December 7 – Martin Rodbell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1925)
• December 11 – Lynn Strait, vocalist for band Snot (born 1968)
• December 12 – Lawton Chiles, U.S. Senator from Florida and Governor of Florida (born 1930)
• December 13 – Lew Grade, British impresario (born 1906)
• December 14 – Norman Fell, American actor (born 1924)
• December 14 – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas (born 1924)
• December 16 – William Gaddis, American writer (born 1922)
• December 17 – Claudia Benton, Peruvian-born child psychologist (born 1959)
• December 18 – Lev Demin, cosmonaut (born 1926)
• December 20 – Irene Hervey, American actress (born 1910)
• December 20 – Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1914)
• December 21 – Roger Avon, British actor (born 1914)
• December 22 – Michelle Thomas, American actress (born 1969)
• December 23 – David Manners, Canadian-American actor (born 1900)
• December 25 – John Pulman, English snooker player (born 1923)
• December 26 – Hurd Hatfield, American actor (born 1917)
• December 28 – Robert Rosen, American biologist (born 1934)
• December 30 – Keisuke Kinoshita, Japanese film director (born 1912)
• December 30 – George Webb, British actor (born 1911)