Deaths in 1988


The following is a list of notable deaths in 1988. 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. Deaths in 1988

January

 January 2 – E. B. Ford, British geneticist (b. 1901)

 January 3
 Gaston Eyskens, Belgian politician, 35th Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1905)
 Rose Ausländer, German poet (b. 1901)
 January 5 – Pete Maravich, American basketball player (b. 1947)
 January 7 – Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913)
 January 11 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1898)
 January 13 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, 3rd President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
 January 14 – Georgy Malenkov, Soviet politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (b. 1902)
 January 15 – Seán MacBride, Irish Republican Army leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1904)
 January 20 – Philippe de Rothschild, French vineyard owner (b. 1902)
 January 25 – Colleen Moore, American actress (b. 1899)
 January 28 – Klaus Fuchs, German-British physicist and spy (b. 1911)
 January 29 – Seth Neddermeyer, American physicist (b. 1907)

February

 February 5 – Emeric Pressburger, Hungarian-British film producer (b. 1902)
 February 6 – Carmen Polo, wife of Francisco Franco (b. 1900)
 February 13 – Léon Goossens, British oboist (b. 1897)
 February 14 – Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (b. 1901)
 February 15 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
 February 19
 René Char, French poet (b. 1907)
 André Frédéric Cournand, French-American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)

March

 March 3 – Lois Wilson, American actress (b. 1894)
 March 7 – Divine, American singer and actor (b. 1945)
 March 8 – Henryk Szeryng, Polish-Maxican violinist (b. 1918)
 March 9 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German politician, 28th Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) (b. 1904)
 March 10
 Andy Gibb, English singer, songwriter, performer, and teen idol (b. 1958)
 Phạm Hùng, 3rd Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1912)
 March 11
 Rashid Bakr, 10th Prime Minister of Sudan (b. 1930)
 Abdullahi Issa, Somalian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Somalia (b. 1922)
 March 29 – Dulcie September, South African ANC activist (b. 1935; assassinated). March 30 – Edgar Faure, French politician, 69th Prime Minister of France (b. 1908)
 March 31 – Sir William McMahon, Australian politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)

April

 April 12 – Alan Paton, South African author (b. 1903)
 April 17 – Louise Nevelson, Ukrainian-American sculptor (b. 1899)
 April 18 – Pierre Desproges, French humorist (b. 1939)
 April 21
 I. A. L. Diamond, American screenwriter (b. 1920)
 Princess Nadejda Petrovna of Russia (b. 1898)
 April 22 – Irene Rich, American actress (b. 1891)
 April 23 – Michael Ramsey, British Anglican bishop, 100th Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1904)
 April 26
 Valerie Solanas, American author (b. 1936)
 Valery Legasov, Soviet chemist, chief of the Chernobyl disaster investigation commission (b. 1936)
 April 28 – Fenner Brockway, British politician and anti-war activist (b. 1888)

May

 May 3 
 Premendra Mitra, Indian poet, writer and film director (b. 1904)
 Lev Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
 May 8 – Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction author (b. 1907)
 May 10 – Shen Congwen, Chinese writer (b. 1902)
 May 11 – Kim Philby, British spy (b. 1912)
 May 13 – Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1929)
 May 14 – Willem Drees, Dutch politician and historian, 30th Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1886)
 May 15 – Greta Nissen, Norwegian-American actress (b. 1905)
 May 21 – Dino Grandi, Italian politician (b. 1895)
 May 27 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
 May 29 – Siaka Stevens, 3rd Prime Minister of Sierra Leone and 1st President of Sierra Leone (b. 1905)
 May 30 – Ella Raines, American actress (b. 1920)

June

 June 2 – Raj Kapoor, Indian actor, producer and director (b. 1924)
 June 10 – Louis L'Amour, American writer (b. 1908)
 June 11 – Giuseppe Saragat, Italian politician, 5th President of Italy (b. 1898)
 June 25 - Hillel Slovak, guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers (b. 1962)
 June 26 – Hans Urs von Balthasar, Swiss theologian and Catholic priest (b. 1905)
 June 27 – Aparicio Méndez, former President of Uruguay (b. 1904)

July

 July 8
 Ray Barbuti, American athlete (b. 1905)
 Ranjit Khanwilkar, Indian cricketer (b. 1960)
 July 9 – Barbara Woodhouse, British dog trainer and TV personality 
 July 12 – Joshua Logan, American stage and film director (b. 1908)
 July 18 – Nico, German rock musician, fashion model, actress and Warhol socialite (b. 1938)
 July 27 
 Brigitte Horney, German actress (b. 1901)
 Frank Zamboni, American inventor (b. 1901)

August

 August 1
 Florence Eldridge, American actress (b. 1901)
 Georges Wambst, French cyclist (b. 1902)
 August 2 – Raymond Carver, American short-story writer and poet (b. 1938)
 August 6 – Anatoly Levchenko, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1941)
 August 9 – Ramón Valdés, Mexican actor, comedian, songwriter and entrepreneur (b. 1923)
 August 10 – Arnulfo Arias, Panamanian politician, 3-time President of Panama (b. 1901)
 August 11 – Anne Ramsey, American actress (b. 1929)
 August 12 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American musician/graffiti painter (b. 1960)
 August 14 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian car maker (b. 1898)
 August 17 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, 6th President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
 August 19 – Sir Frederick Ashton, choreographer (b. 1904)
 August 20 – Lazarus Salii, 3rd President of Palau (b. 1936)
 August 25 – Françoise Dolto, French physician and psychoanalyst (b. 1908)
 August 28 – Paul Grice, British philosopher (b. 1913)
 August 30 – Jack Marshall, 28th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1912)

September

 September 1 – Luis Walter Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
 September 5 – Gert Fröbe, German actor (b. 1913)
 September 12 – Roger Hargreaves, English author (b. 1935)
 September 18 – Alan Watt, Australian public servant (b. 1901)
 September 28 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist (b. 1912)
 September 30 – Trường Chinh, Vietnamese political leader, 3rd President of Vietnam (b. 1907)

October

 October 2
 Hamengkubuwono IX, 9th Sultan of Yogyakarta and 2nd Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1912)
 Alec Issigonis, Greek-British engineer (b. 1906)
 October 3 – Franz Josef Strauss, German politician (b. 1915)
 October 9
 Jackie Milburn, English footballer (b. 1924)
 Felix Wankel, German mechanical engineer (b. 1902)
 October 10 – Juan Pujol García ('Garbo'), Spanish double agent (b. 1912)
 October 11 – Bonita Granville, American actress (b. 1923)
 October 16 – Queen Farida of Egypt, consort of King Farouk of Egypt (b. 1921)
 October 19 – Son House, American musician (b. 1902)
 October 22 – Henry Armstrong, American boxer (b. 1912)
 October 29 
 Thomas Cooray, Sri Lankan Roman Catholic archbishop and servant of God (b. 1901)
 Nataša Gollová, Czech actress (b. 1912)
 October 31 – John Houseman, Romanian-American actor and producer (b. 1902)

November

 November 4 – Hermann Graf, German fighter ace (b. 1912)
 November 13 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian conductor (b. 1906)
 November 14 – Takeo Miki, Japanese politician, 41st Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1907)
 November 15 – Mona Washbourne, English actress (b. 1903)
 November 19 – Christina Onassis, American shipping magnate (b. 1950)
 November 22
 Luis Barragán, Mexican architect (b. 1902)
 Raymond Dart, Australian anatomist and anthropologist (b. 1893)
 November 24 – Irmgard Seefried, German operatic soprano (b. 1919)
 November 25 
 Alphaeus Philemon Cole, American artist, engraver, etcher and supercentenarian (b. 1876)
 Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi prince (b. 1910)
 November 27
 John Carradine, American actor (b. 1906)
 Takieddin el-Solh, Lebanese politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1908)
 Sir Victor Tait, Canadian-born British airman and businessman (b. 1892)

December

 December 6 – Roy Orbison, American rock musician (b. 1936)
 December 10 – Richard S. Castellano, American actor (b. 1933)
 December 21 – Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1907)
 December 22 – Chico Mendes, Brazilian environmental activist (murdered) (b. 1944)
 December 27 – Hal Ashby, American film director (b. 1929)
 December 31 - Wes Flowers, knuckleball pitcher in Major League Baseball (b. 1913)

References

1988 deaths
Lists of deaths in 1988
Deaths in 1988