The following is a list of notable deaths in May 2007.
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.
May 2007
1 Wiley Harker, 92, American actor (The Straight Story, City Heat, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead). Temira Pachmuss, 79, Russian-American philologist. Winifred Pennington, 91, British limnologist. Fermín Trueba, 92, Spanish road cyclist.
2 Phillip Carter, 44, British businessman, founder of Carter & Carter, helicopter crash.Wealthy fan and son die in crash Maurice Jacob, 74, French theoretical particle physicist. Abdul Sabur Farid Kohistani, 54–55, Afghan legislator and Prime Minister (1992), assassination by gunshot. Brad McGann, 43, New Zealand film director (In My Father's Den), cancer. Juan Valdivieso, 96, Peruvian football goalkeeper and manager, heart failure.
3 Alex Agase, 85, Iranian-born American football coach. J. Robert Bradley, 87, American gospel singer, diabetes. Leonard Eron, 87, American psychologist, congestive heart failure. Warja Lavater, 93, Swiss artist and illustrator.Curriculum Vitae Pat O'Shea, 76, Irish writer. Wally Schirra, 84, American astronaut in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects, heart attack. Knock Yokoyama, 75, Japanese comedian and politician, throat cancer. Mamadou Zaré, 42, Ivorian footballer.Asec legend Mamadou Zare dies
4 Russell W. Kruse, 85, American auctioneer, stroke. Jeremias Nguenha, 35, Mozambican political musician who sang in Shangaan. José Antonio Roca, 78, Mexican football player and manager. Gábor Takács, 47, Hungarian Olympic sprint canoer.
5 Prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 64–65, Saudi politician, governor of Mecca. José Aponte de la Torre, 65, Puerto Rican mayor, respiratory complications. Tom Hutchinson, 65, American football wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns 1964 NFL champions. Theodore Maiman, 79, American physicist who built the first laser, systemic mastocytosis. Anthony Mitchell, 39–40, British journalist, plane crash. Edwin H. Simmons, 85, American Marine Corps historian. Gusti Wolf, 95, Austrian actress. John Zamet, 74, British periodontist.
6 Alvin Batiste, 74, American jazz musician, heart attack. Carey Bell, 70, American blues harmonica player, heart failure. Lesley Blanch, 102, British writer and fashion editor. Enéas Carneiro, 68, Brazilian politician, leukemia. Tamás Gábor, 75, Hungarian Olympic fencer. Curtis Harrington, 80, American film director. Kazuo Kitamura, 80, Japanese actor (Tora! Tora! Tora!, Black Rain, Shinobi: Heart Under Blade), pneumonia.Veteran actor Kazuo Kitamura dies at 80 Maurice Marsac, 92, French actor (King of Kings, The Jerk, Robert Kennedy and His Times), cardiac arrest.French actor, croquet champ Marsac dies Đorđe Novković, 63, Croatian songwriter. Bernard Weatherill, Baron Weatherill, 86, English Speaker of the British House of Commons (1983–1992), after short illness.
7 Isabella Blow, 48, British fashion journalist and stylist, suicide by poisoning. Quentin Brooks, 86, American Olympic shooter. Fulton Burley, 84, Canadian performer, heart failure. Diego Corrales, 29, American world champion boxer, motorcycle accident. Shirl Conway, 90, American actress. George Dawson, 45, British politician, Northern Ireland Assembly member, cancer. Donald Ginsberg, 73, American physicist, melanoma. Tomasi Kulimoetoke II, 88, Wallisian King of Wallis ('Uvea). Raffi Lavie, 70, Israeli artist, pancreatic cancer. Emma Lehmer, 100, Russian-born American mathematician. Sonny Myers, 83, American professional wrestler. Octavian Paler, 81, Romanian writer and journalist, heart attack. Nicholas Worth, 69, American actor (Darkman, Heartbreak Ridge, Night Court), heart failure. Yahweh ben Yahweh, 71, American religious cult leader (Nation of Yahweh) and convicted felon, prostate cancer.
8 Mark Burns, 71, English actor (Exodus, House of the Living Dead, By the Sword Divided), cancer.Mark Burns Philip R. Craig, 74, American mystery writer. Velma Dunn, 88, American diver who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics, stroke. Abdullah bin Faisal Al Saud, 85, Saudi prince, writer and businessman, after long illness. David Farquhar, 79, New Zealand composer. John Henry, 68, British toxicologist, haemorrhage. René Lamps, 91, French politician.Amiens. René Lamps Jagdish Narain Sapru, 74, Indian former chairman of ITC Limited and BOC India. Carson Whitsett, 62, American composer, musician and record producer, brain tumor.
9 Donald Alexander, 79, Scottish medical researcher. Charlie Ane Jr., 76, American football player (Detroit Lions), pneumonia. Alfred D. Chandler Jr., 88, American economic historian. Gino Pariani, 79, American soccer player (1950 World Cup), bone cancer. George Seddon, 80, Australian environmental scholar. Dwight Wilson, 106, Canadian centenarian, second-to-last surviving World War I veteran. Philip Workman, 53, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
10 John K. Lattimer, 92, American urologist who developed a cure for renal tuberculosis. Sir Oliver Millar, 84, British Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures (1972–1988) and Director of the Royal Collection (1987–1988). Robert Oelman, 97, American chief executive of NCR Corporation (1962–1973), co-founder of Wright State University. Chuck Riley, 66, American voice actor.
11 Norman Frank, 82, American producer and political strategist. Bernard Gordon, 88, American screenwriter, named on the Hollywood blacklist, cancer. Stanley Holden, 79, British ballet dancer, complications from heart problems and colon cancer. Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, 71, Nigerian Igbo highlife musician. Malietoa Tanumafili II, 94, Samoan politician, head of state.
12 Mullah Dadullah, 41, Afghan militant, Taliban military commander, shot. Teddy Infuhr, 70, American child actor.Teddy Infuhr (1936–2007) Kai Johansen, 66, Danish footballer (Greenock Morton F.C. and Rangers), cancer. Henri Klein, 87, French Olympic athlete. Edy Vásquez, 23, Honduran footballer, car accident.
13 Zaka Ullah Bhangoo, 58–59, Pakistani army brigadier general and aviator, plane crash.Bond sailor in death crash 'was no spy' Alexander Buchanan Campbell, 92, Scottish architect. *Chen Xiaoxu, 41, Chinese actress (Dream of the Red Mansion) and Buddhist nun, breast cancer. Mendel Jackson Davis, 64, American politician, U.S. Representative from South Carolina (1971–1981), emphysema. Gomer Hodge, 63, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Luis María Mendía, 82, Argentine naval officer. Kate Webb, 64, New Zealand journalist and foreign correspondent, bowel cancer.
14 Orlando Bobo, 33, American-born Canadian football player (Winnipeg Blue Bombers), heart and liver failure. Ülo Jõgi, 86, Estonian anti-communist. Sir Edward Jones, 70, British Army general, Black Rod (1996–2001), heart attack. Nancy McDonald, 72, American politician, member of the Texas House of Representatives (1984–1995), ovarian cancer. Aaron McMillan, 30, Australian classical pianist, bone cancer. Jean Saubert, 65, American dual medalist in slalom (1964 Winter Olympics), breast cancer. Sir Colin St John Wilson, 85, British architect, designer of the British Library.
15 Giorgio Cavaglieri, 95, Italian-born American architect, founder of New York City's urban preservation movement. Jerry Falwell, 73, American minister, television evangelist, and conservative activist, founder of the Moral Majority, cardiac arrhythmia. Karen Hess, 88, American culinary historian and author, stroke. Yolanda King, 51, American activist and actress, daughter and first-born child of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Duncan Macrae, 92, British rugby football player, (Scotland Rugby Union Team). Angus McBride, 76, British illustrator. Lauren Terrazzano, 39, American journalist, chronicled her battle with cancer, lung cancer.
16 Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin, 91, American creole accordionist. Dame Mary Douglas, 86, British social anthropologist. Gohar Gasparyan, 83, Armenian soprano opera singer. Allan Hird Sr., 88, Australian footballer and academic, President of Essendon Football Club (1969–1975), Victorian Director-general of Education. Peter Marner, 71, British cricketer, youngest player to represent the Lancashire County Cricket Club. C. Timothy O'Meara, 64, American film editor (The Rose, Hoosiers, Conan the Barbarian).C. Timothy O'Meara Obituary (1943-2007) Terry Ryan, 60, American writer (The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio), cancer.
17 Lloyd Alexander, 83, American author (The Chronicles of Prydain), cancer. Petro Balabuyev, 76, Ukrainian aircraft designer, including world's largest aeroplane, the An-225. Don Burton, 87, Australian politician, member of the New South Wales Legislative Council (1976–1984).Mr Donald Ross Burton (1920–2007) Egmont Foregger, 84, Austrian jurist, official and politician, severe illness. John Gonzaga, 74, American football player with the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions and Denver Broncos. Kawika Kapahulehua, 76, American captain of the Hokulea's first voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti. Sir John Nicholls, 80, British air marshal. Eugen Weber, 82, Romanian-born American historian, pancreatic cancer. Bill Wight, 85, American MLB pitcher and scout. Wiktor Zin, 82, Polish architect and graphic artist.
18 Roy De Forest, 77, American artist and professor at University of California, Davis. Nikolai Galushkin, 85, Soviet military sniper Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, 74, French physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991. Cornelius R. Hager, 93, American educator, President of Asbury University. Saud Memon, 44, Pakistani businessman implicated in the murder of Daniel Pearl, tuberculosis and meningitis. Les Schwab, 89, American tire tycoon. Mika Špiljak, 90, Croatian politician, chairman of the Collective Presidency of Yugoslavia (1983–1984). Yoyoy Villame, 69, Filipino musician and comedian, heart attack.
19 Derek Cooper, 94, British army officer and refugee campaigner. Miroslav Deronjić, 52, Bosnian Serb politician and convicted war criminal, natural causes. Willie Ferguson, 67, South African racing driver.Willie Ferguson Jack Findlay, 72, Australian Grand Prix motorcycle racer. Frank Guida, 84, Italian-born American record producer. Ron Hall, 43, American football player (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions). Marian Radke-Yarrow, 89, American researcher in child psychology, leukemia. Scott Thorkelson, 49, Canadian member of the House of Commons (1988–1993), heart attack. Michel Visi, 52, Vanuatuan Catholic bishop. Hans Wollschläger, 72, German author and translator. Carl Wright, 75, American actor (Big Momma's House, Barbershop, Soul Food), cancer.
20 Bobby Ash, 82, British-born Canadian television host (The Uncle Bobby Show), heart attack. Dame Jean Herbison, 84, New Zealand academic, first N.Z. female chancellor (University of Canterbury, 1979–1984). Baruch Kimmerling, 67, Israeli sociologist and historian. Valentina Leontyeva, 84, Russian television presenter, one of the first television presenters in the Soviet Union. Sir George Macfarlane, 91, British scientist and engineer. Tod H. Mikuriya, 73, American psychiatrist and medical marijuana advocate, cancer. Stanley Miller, 77, American chemist and biologist, known for the Miller–Urey experiment into the origins of life, heart failure. William Peters, 85, American journalist and documentarian of race issues, Alzheimer's disease. Guram Sharadze, 66, Georgian philologist and politician, shot. Norman Von Nida, 93, Australian golfer. Ben Weisman, 85, American musician and songwriter, wrote nearly 60 songs for singer Elvis Presley, stroke.
21 Clark Adams, 37, American secular humanist leader and activist. Frank William Gay, 86, American businessman, senior corporate aide to Howard Hughes. Peter Hayes, 58, Australian lawyer.