Deaths in 1985


The following is a list of notable deaths in 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. Deaths in 1985

January

 January 2 – Gabriel Elorde, Filipino professional boxer (b. 1935)
 January 4 – Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)
 January 5 – Robert L. Surtees, American cinematographer (b. 1906)
 January 11 – Sir William McKell, 12th Governor-General of Australia (b. 1891)
 January 14 
 Jetta Goudal, Dutch actress (b. 1891)
 Anagarika Govinda, German buddhist lama (b. 1898)
 January 18 – Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, Sudanese religious thinker (b. 1909)
 January 19 – Eric Voegelin, German-American philosopher (b. 1901)
 January 22 – Mikhail Gromov, Soviet aviator (b. 1899)
 January 26 – Kenny Clarke, American jazz drummer and bandleader (b. 1914)

February 

 February 3 – Frank Oppenheimer, American particle physicist (b. 1912)
 February 4 – Jesse Hibbs, American film director (b. 1906)
 February 6 – Neil McCarthy, English actor (b. 1932)
 February 8
 William Lyons, British automobile engineer and designer (b. 1901)
 Marvin Miller, American actor (b. 1913)
 February 11 – Henry Hathaway, American film director (b. 1898)
 February 12 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (b. 1924)
 February 20 – Clarence Nash, American actor (b. 1904)
 February 21
 Ina Claire, American actress (b. 1893)
 Louis Hayward, British actor (b. 1909)
 John G. Trump, American electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist (b. 1907)
 February 22
 Efrem Zimbalist, Russian-American violinist (b. 1889)
 Alexander Scourby, American film, television, and voice actor (b. 1913)
 February 26 – Tjalling Koopmans, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
 February 27
 Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American politician (b. 1902)
 J. Pat O'Malley, English actor (b. 1904)

March

 March 3 – Iosif Shklovsky, Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1916)
 March 7 – George Schick, Czechoslovakian conductor and music educator (b. 1908)
 March 8 – Edward Andrews, American actor (b. 1914)
 March 10
 Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1911)
 Bob Nieman, American baseball player (b. 1927)
 March 11
 Tom Adams, Barbadosian politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1931)
 Nazem Akkari, Lebanese politician, 19th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1902)
 March 12 – Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American conductor (b. 1899)
 March 13 – Mabel Alvarez, American painter (b. 1891)
 March 15 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian (b. 1921)
 March 16 – Roger Sessions, American composer (b. 1896)
 March 21 – Sir Michael Redgrave, British actor (b. 1908)
 March 23
 Doctor Richard Beeching, Chairman of British Rail (b. 1913)
 Zoot Sims, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1925)
 March 28 – Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter (b. 1887)
 March 29
 The Singing Nun (Jeannine Deckers), Belgian nun and singer (b. 1933)
 Gerhard Stock, German Olympic athlete (b. 1911)
 March 30 – Shizuko Kasagi, Japanese singer (b. 1914)
 March 31 
 Michel Georges-Michel, French painter, journalist, novelist (b. 1883)
 Richard McKeon, American philosopher (b. 1900)

April

 April 4 – Kate Roberts, Welsh-language author (b. 1891)
 April 5 – Paul Hugh Emmett, American chemical engineer (b. 1900)
 April 6 – Terence Sanders, British Olympic rower – coxless fours (b. 1901)
 April 7 – Carl Schmitt, German jurist, political theorist and professor of law (b. 1888)
 April 10 – Alfredo Duhalde, Chilean statesman (b. 1898)
 April 11 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian Communist politician, leader of the Party of Labour 22nd Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1908)
 April 14 – Noele Gordon, British actress (b. 1919)
 April 15 – Jack Medica, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1914)
 April 16 – Scott Brady, American actor (b. 1924)
 April 17 – Evadne Price, Australian-British writer, actress and astrologer (b. 1888)
 April 18 – Gertrude Caton–Thompson, English archaeologist (b. 1888)
 April 19 – Sergei Aleksandrovich Tokarev, Russian ethnologist (b. 1899)
 April 21
 John Welsh, Irish actor (b. 1914)
 Tancredo Neves, Brazilian elected president and former Prime Minister (b. 1910)
 April 26 – Albert Maltz, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1908)

May

 May 1 – Denise Robins, (akas: Francesca Wright, Ashley French, Harriet Gray, Julia Kane) British romance novelist (b. 1897)
 May 4 – Clarence Wiseman, 10th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1907)
 May 5 – Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (b. 1901)
 May 6
 Pete Desjardins, American Olympic diver (b. 1907)
 Julie Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (b. 1968)
 May 7 – Dawn Addams, British actress (b. 1930)
 May 8
 Karl Marx, German composer and music teacher (b. 1897)
 Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (b. 1918)
 Dolph Sweet, American actor (b. 1920)
 May 9 – Edmond O'Brien, American actor (b. 1915)
 May 10
 Tahar Ben Ammar, Tunisian politician, 8th Prime Minister of Tunisia (b. 1889)
 Florizel von Reuter, American violinist and composer (b. 1890)
 May 11 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist, creator of Dick Tracy (b. 1900)
 May 12 – Jean Dubuffet, French artist (b. 1901)
 May 13 – Leatrice Joy, American actress (b. 1893)
 May 14 – Barbara Yung, Hong Kong actress (b. 1959)
 May 16 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
 May 18 
 Penn Nouth, Cambodian politician, 7-time Prime Minister of Cambodia (b. 1906)
 Hilding Rosenberg, Swedish composer b. 1892)
 May 19 – Maqbular Rahman Sarkar, Bangladeshi academic (b. 1928)
 May 22 
 Charles Murphy, American architect. (b. 1890)
 Wolfgang Reitherman, German animator, director and producer (b. 1909)

June

 June 5 – Lord George-Brown, British politician (b. 1914)
 June 6
 Norman W. Walker, British businessman (b. 1886)
 Vladimir Jankélévitch, French philosopher and musicologist (b. 1903)
 June 7
 Georgia Hale, American actress (b. 1905)
 Stanley Skinner, professional ice hockey player (b. 1893)
 June 9 – Clifford Evans, British actor (b. 1912)
 Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Japanese novelist (b. 1899)
 June 10 – George Chandler, American actor (b. 1898)
 June 11 – Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (b. 1954)
 June 12 – Helmuth Plessner, German philosopher and sociologist (b. 1892)
 June 15 
 Percy Fender, English cricketer (b. 1892)
 Andy Stanfield, American Olympic athlete (b. 1927)
 June 17 
George Jackson, English footballer (b. 1893)
 John Boulting, English filmmaker (b. 1913)
Kirill Moskalenko, Soviet military commander (b. 1902)
 Either June 18 or June 19 - Bonnie Nettles, American religious leader (b. 1927)
 June 21 – Tage Erlander, Swedish politician, 25th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1901)
 June 27 – Elias Sarkis, Lebanese lawyer, 27th President of Lebanon (b. 1924)
 June 28 – James Craig, American actor (b. 1912)
 June 30 – Haruo Remeliik, Palauan politician, 1st President of Palau (b. 1933)

July

 July 1 – Pauli Murray, American civil rights activist, lawyer, author and priest (b. 1910)
 July 3 – Erik Ågren, Swedish boxer (b. 1916)
 July 4 – Jan de Quay, Dutch politician and psychologist, 31st Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1901)
 July 8
 Phil Foster, American actor (b. 1913)
 Simon Kuznets, American economist (b. 1901)
 July 9 
 Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
 Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1896)
 July 14 – Lluís Solé, Spanish geographer and academic (b. 1908)
 July 15 – Rama Devi, Indian nationalist leader (b. 1889)
 July 16 – Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
 July 17 – Margo, Mexican-American actress (b. 1917)
 July 19
 Janusz Zajdel, Polish writer (b. 1938)
 Louisa Ghijs, Belgian stage actress and wife of Johannes Heesters (b. 1902)
 July 21 – Alvah Cecil Bessie, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1904)
 July 22 – Matti Järvinen, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1909)
 July 23
 Kay Kyser, American bandleader (b. 1905)
 Mickey Shaughnessy, American actor (b. 1920)
 July 25 – Grant Williams, American actor (b. 1931)
 July 26 – Grace Albee, American printmaker and wood engraver. (b. 1890)
 July 27 – John Scarne, American magician and card expert (b. 1903)

August

 August 1 – D. H. Turner, British art historian and museum curator (b. 1931)
 August 2 – Frank Faylen, American actor (b. 1905)
 August 5 – Arnold Horween, Harvard Crimson and NFL football player (b. 1898)
 August 6
 Forbes Burnham, Guyanese political leader, 1st Prime Minister of Guyana and 2nd President of Guyana (b. 1923)
 John Harmon, American actor (b. 1905)
 August 8 – Louise Brooks, American actress (b. 1906)
 August 9 – Clive Churchill, Australian rugby league player and coach (b. 1927)
 August 10 – Kenny Baker, American actor and singer (b. 1912)
August 11 – Hector Grey, Scottish street trader and company director (b. 1904)
 August 12
 Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (b. 1941)
 Manfred Winkelhock, German racing driver (b. 1951) 
 August 14 – Gale Sondergaard, American actress (b. 1899)
 August 15 – Lester Cole, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1904)
 August 20 – Donald O. Hebb, Canadian neuropsychologist (b. 1904)
 August 22 – Paul Peter Ewald, German-American crystallographer and physicist (b. 1888)
 August 24 – Morrie Ryskind, American dramatist (b. 1895)
 August 25
 Paul Harris, American actor (b. 1917)
 Samantha Smith, American schoolgirl activist (b. 1972)
 August 28 
 Ruth Gordon, American actress, screenwriter, and playwright (b. 1896)
 Miguel Otero Silva, Venezuelan writer (b. 1908)
 August 29 
 Evelyn Ankers, British actress (b. 1918)
 Patrick Barr, British actor (b. 1908)
 Paul Kligman, Canadian actor (b. 1923)
 August 30 – Taylor Caldwell, Anglo-American writer (b. 1900)
 August 31 – Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

September

 September 1 
 Stefan Bellof, German racing driver and 1984 World SportsCars (Group C) Champion (b. 1957). Saunders Lewis, Welsh writer and founder of the Welsh National Party (Plaid Cymru) (born 1893)
 September 4
 Isabel Jeans, British actress (b. 1891)
 George O'Brien, American actor (b. 1899)
 September 6 – Rodney Robert Porter, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1917)
 September 7
 Bruiser Kinard, American football player (Brooklyn Dodgers) and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (b. 1914)
 José Zabala-Santos, Filipino cartoonist (b. 1911)
 George Pólya, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1887)
 September 8 – John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1897)
 September 9 – Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
 September 10
 Ernst Öpik, Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1893)
 Jock Stein, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1922)
 September 11
 William Alwyn, English composer (b. 1905)
 Henrietta Barnett, British Women's Royal Air Force officer (b. 1905)
 Masako Natsume, Japanese actress (b. 1957)
 September 13 – Augusto Rademaker, Brazilian admiral and former military junta member (b. 1905)
 September 14 
 Julian Beck, American actor (b. 1925)
 John Holt, American writer and educator (b. 1923)
 September 17 – Laura Ashley, Welsh designer (b. 1925)
 September 19 – Italo Calvino, Italian writer (b. 1923)
 September 22 – Axel Springer, German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG (b. 1912)
 September 27 – Lloyd Nolan, American actor (b. 1902)
 September 30
 Floyd Crosby, American cinematographer (b. 1899)
 Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist, creator of the Richter magnitude scale (b. 1900)
 Simone Signoret, French actress (b. 1921)

October

 October 1 – E. B. White, American writer (b. 1899)
 October 2
 Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)
 George Savalas, American actor (b. 1924)
 October 5 – Abdus Sattar, Bangladeshi statesman, 8th President of Bangladesh (b. 1906)
 October 6 – Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (b. 1921)
 October 9 – Emílio Garrastazu Médici, Brazilian general and statesman, 28th President of Brazil (b. 1905)
 October 10
 Yul Brynner, Russian actor (b. 1920) 
 Orson Welles, American actor and director (b. 1915)
 October 12 – Ricky Wilson, American guitarist (b. 1953)
 October 13 – Francesca Bertini, Italian actress (b. 1892)
 October 14 – Emil Gilels, Soviet pianist (b. 1916)
 October 17 – Abdelmunim Al-Rifai, Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1917)
 October 21 – Dan White, American politician and murderer (Moscone–Milk assassinations) (b. 1946)
 October 22 – Thomas Townsend Brown, American inventor (b. 1905)
 October 24 – László Bíró, Hungarian inventor of the ballpoint pen (b. 1899)
 October 29 – John Davis Lodge, American actor and politician (b. 1903)

November

 November 1 – Phil Silvers, American entertainer (b. 1911)
 November 5
 Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895)
 Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist (b. 1898)
 November 6 – Sanjeev Kumar, Indian actor (b. 1937)
 November 8 – Nicolas Frantz, Luxembourgian cyclist (b. 1899)
 November 9 – Marie-Georges Pascal, French actress (b. 1946)
 November 11
 James Hanley, British novelist, playwright and writer (b. 1897)
 Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish Professional Hockey goaltender (b. 1959)
 Arthur Rothstein, American photographer (b. 1915)
 November 13
 William Pereira, American architect (b. 1909)
 George Robert Vincent, American sound recording pioneer (b. 1898)
 November 14 – Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (b. 1888)
 November 16 – John Sparkman, American politician (b. 1899)
 November 17
 Lon Nol, Cambodian general and statesman, 32nd Prime Minister of Cambodia and 7th President of Khmer Republic (b. 1913)
 Jimmy Ritz, American actor (b. 1904)
 November 19 – Stepin Fetchit, American actor (b. 1902)
 November 24 – Big Joe Turner, American blues singer (b. 1911)
 November 25 – Geoffrey Grigson, British poet, writer, critic (b. 1905)
 November 27 – Fernand Braudel, French historian (b. 1902)

December

 December 2 – Philip Larkin, English poet and novelist (b. 1922)
 December 7
 Robert Graves, English writer (b. 1895)
 Potter Stewart, American Supreme Court Justice (b. 1915)
 December 12
 Anne Baxter, American actress (b. 1923)
 Ian Stewart, Scottish rock musician (b. 1938)
 Phil Karlson, American film director (b. 1908)
 December 14 – Roger Maris, American baseball player (New York Yankees) (b. 1934)
 December 15
 Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, 1st Prime Minister of Mauritius (b. 1900)
 Carlos Romulo, Filipino diplomat (b. 1899)
 December 16 – Paul Castellano, American Mafia boss (b. 1915)
 December 20 – Coral Buttsworth, Australian tennis champion (b. 1900)
 December 22 – D. Boon, American singer, songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
 December 23
 Ferhat Abbas, Algerian nationalist, 1st president of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (b. 1899)
 Prince Bira, Prince of Siam and Formula One driver (b. 1914)
 December 24 – Erich Schaedler, Scottish footballer (b. 1949)
 December 26 – Dian Fossey, American biologist (b. 1932)
 December 27
 Harry Hopman, Australian tennis player and coach (b. 1906)
 Harold Whitlock, British Olympic athlete (b. 1903)
 December 28 – Renato Castellani, Italian director (b. 1913)
 December 31
 Ricky Nelson, American actor and musician (b. 1940)
 Sam Spiegel, Polish-American film producer (b. 1903)

References

1985 deaths
Lists of deaths in 1985
Deaths in 1985