Dead People Server
Celebrities and Notable People Who Died in the Year 1998
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1997 * * 1999
January
Mae Questel (actress) -- Dead. Alzheimer's. Died January 4, 1998. Born September 13, 1908. (Voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, seen in commercials as Aunt Bluebell.) IMDb
Sonny Bono (politician/performer) -- Dead. Skiing accident. Died January 5, 1998. Born February 16, 1935. (Part of a duo with Cher, then a Republican representative from California.) IMDb
Walter Diemer (inventor/accountant) -- Dead. Congestive heart failure. Died January 8, 1998. Born 1904. (Invented bubble gum accidentally in 1928.)
Emil Sitka (actor) -- Dead. Stroke. Died January 17, 1998. Born 1915. (In many Three Stooges shorts, famous for the tipsy "Now hold hands, you lovebirds" line.) IMDb
Carl Perkins (country singer) -- Dead. Cancer/strokes. Died January 19, 1998. Born April 9, 1932. (Elvis popularized his "Blue Suede Shoes")
Jack Lord (actor) -- Dead. Heart failure. Died January 21, 1998. Born December 30, 1920. (Book 'im, Dano) IMDb
Jay Monahan (lawyer) -- Dead. Colon cancer. Died January 24, 1998. Born January 9, 1956. (MSNBC legal analyst, married to Katie Couric.)
Walter Edmonds (writer) -- Dead. Died January 26, 1998. Born 1904. (Most famous work: Drums Along the Mohawk.)
Shinichi Suzuki
(music educator) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died January 26, 1998. Born October 17, 1899. Developed the "Suzuki Method" which taught violin and other instruments to children as young as four.
February
Falco (singer) -- Dead. Jeep crash. Died February 6, 1998. Born February 19, 1957.
(Austrian singer who brought us "Rock Me Amadeus")
IMDb
Carl Wilson (rock 'n' roller) -- Dead. Lung cancer. Died February 6, 1998. Born December 21, 1946. Beach Boys, Beach Boys Greatest Hits IMDb
Buddy (movie star) -- Dead. Cancer. Died February 10, 1998. Born circa 1988. (Air Bud.)
Jo Clayton (author) -- Dead. Cancer. Died February 13, 1998. Born February 15, 1939. (Drums of Chaos.)
Martha Gellhorn (journalist) -- Dead. Died February 15, 1998. Born November 8, 1908. (One of the first female war correspondents, one of Hemingway's wives.)
Harry Caray (long-time Cubs baseball announcer) -- Dead. Heart attack/coma. Died February 18, 1998. Born March 1, 1920.
Bob Merrill (songwriter) -- Dead. Suicide (and chronic illness). Died February 18, 1998. Born May 17, 1921. (Lyricist for Funny Girl.) IMDb
Grandpa Jones (country comic/banjo wizard) -- Dead. Complications of strokes. Died February 19, 1998. Born October 20, 1913. (A Boston radio station gave him his nickname while he was in his 20s! Hee Haw: "What's fer supper?") IMDb
Philip Abbott (actor) -- Dead. Cancer. Died February 23, 1998. Born March 21, 1923. (Arthur Ward in The FBI) IMDb
Henny Youngman (comedian) -- Dead. Pneumonia. Died February 24, 1998. Born March 16, 1906 (No longer a young man...) IMDb
Sybil (real name: Shirley Ardell Mason) (artist/teacher) Dead. Died February 26, 1998. Born January 25, 1923. (Subject of Sybil, a best-seller which covered her treatment for multiple-personality disorder.)
J. T. Walsh (actor) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died February 27, 1998. Born September 28, 1943. (A Few Good Men, Hope) IMDb
March
Lloyd Bridges (actor) -- Dead. Old age. Died March 10, 1998. Born January 15, 1913. (Father of Jeff and Beau Bridges, star of one of the only TV shows about scuba divers.) IMDb
Dr. Benjamin Spock (pediatrician/writer/activist/Olympic rower) -- Dead. Heart disease. Died March 15, 1998 Born May 2, 1903. (Not to be confused with Mr. Spock, who died but came back anyway.)
Casey Cisyk (jingle singer) -- Dead. Breast cancer. Died March 29, 1998. Born 1953. ("Have you driven a Ford lately?" "Come see the softer side of Sears..." and many others over the last 20 years.) IMDb
Bella Abzug (feminist/Congressional representative) -- Not buying hats. Complications of heart surgery. Died March 31, 1998. Born July 24, 1920. (This woman's place was in the House...)
April
Rob Pilatus (lip-syncher) -- Dead. Stupidity (drugs). Died April 2, 1998. Born circa 1966. (Half of Milli Vanilli, just out of drug rehab when he died in Germany.)
Wendy O. Williams (shock rocker) -- Dead. Suicide (shot herself). Died April 6, 1998. Born May 28, 1949. (Punk rocker and lead singer of the Plasmatics.)
Tammy Wynette (singer) -- Dead. Probable blood clot. Died April 6, 1998. Born May 5, 1942. (She stood by her men...)
Alex Schomberg (artist) -- Dead. Old age. Died April 7, 1998. Born 1906. AwardWeb
Rodney Harvey (actor) -- Dead. Stupidity (heroin). Died April 11, 1998. Born July 31, 1967. (Second actor from My Own Private Idaho to die from drug-related causes.) IMDb
Marie-Louise Febronie Meilleur (for about a year, the oldest well-documented person) -- Dead. Extreme old age. Died April 16, 1998. Born August 29, 1880.
Linda McCartney (photographer) -- Dead. Cancer. Died April 17, 1998. Born September 24, 1941. (A Wing...)
Terry Sanford (poltician) -- Dead. Complications of cancer. Died April 18, 1998. Born August 20, 1917. (Former governor of, and later a senator from North Carolina)
Octavio Paz (writer) --Dead. Old age. Died April 19, 1998. Born March 31, 1914. (Nobel-prize winner)
Jerome Bixby (screenwriter/writer) -- Dead. Following heart surgery. Died April 28, 1998. Born circa 1923. (Wrote for the original Twilight Zone and Star Trek.) IMDb
May
Otto Bettman
(archivist/writer) -- Dead. Died May 1, 1998.
Born October 15, 1903. An academic who fled Nazi Germany with 2 trunks of photos and started the Bettmann archive in his New York apartment, wrote The Good Old Days - They Were Rotten!.
IMDb
Don Harrison (Headline News anchor) -- Dead. Kidney cancer. Died May 2, 1998. Born 1936.
Gene Raymond (actor) -- Dead. Pneumonia. Died May 2, 1998. Born August 13, 1908. (Bit player in the movies, probably best-known for marrying Jeanette MacDonald in real life (no, she wasn't ever married to Nelson Eddy!).) IMDb
Eddie Rabbitt (singer) -- Dead. Lung cancer. Died May 7, 1998. Born November 27, 1941. ("I Love a Rainy Night" and "Just You and I")
Alice Faye (actress/singer) -- Dead. Cancer. Died May 9, 1998. Born May 5, 1915. (Many '30s and '40s movies, including several with Shirley Temple, was married to Phil Harris for over 50 years, first wife of Tony Martin) IMDb
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (environmentalist, author) -- Dead. Extreme old age. Died May 14, 1998. Born April 7, 1890. ("First Lady of the Everglades")
Frank Sinatra (singer) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died May 14, 1998. Born December 12, 1915. (He did it his way - an ex-husband of Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow) IMDb
John Derek (actor/director) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died May 22, 1998. Born August 12, 1926. (Married to many beautiful women including Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Bo Derek.) IMDb
Phil Hartman (comic) -- Dead. Murdered with a gun by his wife (who then shot herself). Died May 28, 1998. Born September 24, 1948. (SNL and News Radio.) IMDb
Barry Goldwater (politician) -- Dead. Stroke. Died May 29, 1998. Born January 1, 1909. (Ran for president in 1964, longtime Arizona senator.)
June
Jeanette Nolan (actress) -- Dead. Stroke. Died June 5, 1998. Born December 30, 1911. Ended a very long career with a performance as Robert Redford's mother in The Horse Whisperer, married to John McIntire IMDb
Theresa Merritt (actress) -- Dead. Died June 12, 1998. Born September 24, 1922. (That's My Mama.) IMDb
Maureen O'Sullivan (actress) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died June 22, 1998. Born May 17, 1911. (Starred in old Tarzan movies, mother of Mia Farrow.) IMDb
July
Roy Rogers (actor) -- Dead. Congestive heart failure. Died July 6, 1998. Born November 5, 1911, survived by his wife, Dale Evans. IMDb
Hugh Reilly (actor) -- Dead. Emphysema. Died July 17, 1998. Born 1916. (Played Timmy's dad on Lassie in the early '60s.) IMDb
Alan Shepard (astronaut) -- Dead. Leukemia. Died July 21, 1998. Born November 18, 1923. First American in space, first golfer on the moon. (Moon Shot)
Robert Young (actor) - Dead. Respiratory failure. Died July 21, 1998. Born February 22, 1907. (Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby, born same day as Sheldon Leonard.) IMDb
Jerome Robbins (Broadway choreographer) -- Dead. Stroke. Died July 29, 1998. Born October 11, 1918. West Side Story IMDb
"Buffalo" Bob Smith (TV personality) -- Dead. Cancer. Died July 30, 1998. Born November 27, 1917. The Howdy Doody Show. IMDb FindAGrave
August
Shari Lewis (puppeteer) -- Dead. Pneumonia/ovarian cancer. Died August 2, 1998. (Voice of Lamb Chop and many more, prolific storyteller) IMDb
Phil Leeds (actor) -- Dead. Pneumonia. Died August 16, 1998. Born April 6, 1916. (Last seen as a judge on Ally McBeal.) IMDb
Dorothy West (writer/editor) -- Dead. Old age, effects of an aneurysm. Died August 16, 1998. Born June 2, 1907. (The Wedding)
Persis Khambatta (actress) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died August 18, 1998. Born October 2, 1950. (Former Miss India who shaved her head to co-star in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.) IMDb
E.G. Marshall (actor) -- Dead. Old age. Died August 24, 1998. Born June 18, 1910. (The Caine Mutiny and The Defenders) IMDb
Marshall Barer (lyricist) -- Dead. Cancer. Died August 25, 1998. Born February 19, 1923. Wrote the words for the musical Once Upon a Mattress and wrote the Mighty Mouse theme song "Here I Come to Save the Day!". IBDB IMDb Obituary
Lewis Powell (Supreme Court Justice) -- Dead. Pneumonia. Died August 25,1998. Born September 19, 1907. (Swing vote for 15 years.)
September
Mary-Lou Clements-Mann (AIDS expert) -- Dead. Crash of SwissAir flight 111. Died September 2, 1998. Born 1947.
Dr. Jonathan Mann (AIDS expert) -- Dead. Crash of SwissAir flight 111. Died September 2, 1998. Born 1947.
Allen Drury (author/journalist) -- Dead. Heart failure. Died September 2, 1998. Born September 2, 1918. (Advise and Consent)
Leo Penn (director) -- Dead. Lung cancer. Died September 5, 1998. Born August 27, 1921. Directed many TV shows, particularly Trapper John, MD and Ben Casey, married to Eileen Ryan, father of Chris, Sean and Michael Penn. IBDB IMDb FindAGrave
Akira Kurosawa (director) -- Dead. Old age. Died September 6, 1998. Born March 23, 1910. (Rashomon) IMDb
Leonid Kinskey (actor) -- Dead. Stroke. Died September 8, 1998. Born April 18, 1903. (Obscure actor with a great bit-part as Sascha the bartender in Casablanca) IMDb
John Holliman (CNN journalist) -- Dead. Car crash. Died September 12, 1998. Born 1948. (Survived Baghdad and Tiennamen Sq. to be killed on his way home from the store.)
George Wallace (politician) -- Dead. Heart failure. Died September 13, 1998. Born August 25, 1919. (Ironically, died the same night that Gary Sinese won an Emmy for portraying him - a segregationist who said he recanted.)
Florence Griffith Joyner (stylish runner) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died September 21, 1998. Born December 21, 1959. (FloJo - Dazzling track star at the 1988 Olympics.)
Mary Frann (actress) -- Dead. Natural causes(?). Died September 23, 1998. Born February 27, 1943. (Newhart and Days of Our Lives.) IMDb
Jeffrey Moss (writer, composer) -- Dead. Colon cancer. Died September 24, 1998. Born 1942. (He was a writer of Sesame Street, and wrote the classics "Rubber Duckie" and "I Love Trash.")
Tom Bradley (mayor) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died September 29, 1998. Born December 29, 1917. (First black mayor of LA.)
October
Gene Autry
(actor, singing cowboy, businessman) -- Dead. Cancer. Died October 2, 1998. Born September 29, 1907. Multi-talented man who may be best-known for songs like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Back in the Saddle Again"; he also wrote "The Cowboy Code," a surprisingly rational set of rules for life.
IMDb
Obituary
FindAGrave
Roddy McDowall (actor/photographer) -- Dead. Cancer. Died October 3, 1998. Born September 17, 1928. (How Green Was My Valley and four of the Planet of the Apes movies.) IMDb
Clark Clifford (lawyer/DC insider) -- Dead. Old Age. Died October 10, 1998. Born December 25, 1906.
Richard Denning (actor) -- Dead. Cardiac arrest. Died October 11, 1998. Born March 27, 1914. (Many movie bit parts, the governor in Hawaii Five-O.) IMDb
Cleveland Amory (writer) -- Dead. Old age. Died October 14, 1998. Born September 2, 1917. (Animal activist and editor, The Compleat Cat)
Frankie Yankovic (polka king) -- Dead. Died October 14, 1998. Born July 15, 1915. (Not related to Weird Al, but they did play together.) IMDb
Jon Postel
("Father of the Internet") -- Dead. Following heart surgery. Died October 16, 1998.
Born August 6, 1943. Helped to build the communications underlying the Internet
Joan Hickson (actress) -- Dead. Old age. Died October 17, 1998. Born August 5, 1906. (Miss Marple for the BBC.) IMDb
Dr. Mary Calderone (doctor/writer) -- Dead. Old age. Died October 24, 1998. Born July 1, 1904. (Wrote several books including Talking With Your Child About Sex, a founder of SIECUS.)
November
Mary Millar (actress) -- Dead. Cancer. Died November 10, 1998. Born July 26, 1936. (Rose in Keeping Up Appearances.) IMDb
Esther Rolle (actress) -- Dead. Complications of diabetes. Died November 17, 1998. Born November 8, 1920. Good Times, Driving Miss Daisy,
youngest sister of Estelle Evans and Rosanna Carter
Wikipedia
IBDB
IMDb
Obituary
FindAGrave
Kwame Ture (activist) -- Dead. Prostate cancer. Died November 15, 1998. Born June 29, 1941. (Born Stokely Carmichael, he led a number of black organizations in the US and coined the phrase Black Power before emmigrating to Africa.)
Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita (scientist) -- Dead. Old age. Died November 19, 1998. Born October 23, 1920. (Created the Fujita Scale which rates the strength of tornados and developed microburst theory.)
Alan J. Pakula (director, producer) -- Dead. Car accident. Died November 19, 1998. Born April 7, 1928. (Directed Sophie's Choice and All the President's Men, produced To Kill a Mockingbird.) IMDb
Henry Hampton (documentary maker) -- Dead. Bone marrow disease. Died November 22, 1998. Born January 8, 1940. (Eyes on the Prize.) IMDb
Flip Wilson (comic) -- Dead. Liver cancer. Died November 25, 1998. Born December 8, 1933. (Geraldine and the Rev. Leroy.) IMDb
Johnny Roventini (diminutive pitchman) -- Dead. Facial infection. Died November 30, 1998. Born 1912. (In many Phillip Morris radio and TV ads and dozens of '50s and '60s TV shows.)
December
Lord Lew Grade (producer) -- Dead. Old age. Died December 12, 1998. Born 1907. (Produced a wide range of entertainment, from The Saint to The Muppet Show to Raise the Titanic.) IMDb
Mo Udall (politician) -- Dead. Parkinson's Died December 12, 1998. Born June 15, 1922. Longtime Congressman, championed environmental causes, briefly ran for president. IMDb
Norman Fell (actor) -- Dead. Cancer. Died December 14, 1998. Born March 24, 1924. (Many TV characters, especially Mr. Roper in Three's Company.) IMDb
Adelaide Hawley Cumming (Betty Crocker) -- Dead. Kidney failure. Died December 20, 1998. Born 1905. (Played Betty Crocker in the '50s and early '60s on TV, taught English-as-a-second language until three days before her death.)
Virginia Graham (talk show host/writer) -- Dead. Heart disease. Died December 22, 1998. Born July 4, 1912. (A talk show trail-blazer and a founder of the Cerebral Palsy Association.) IMDb
Michelle Thomas (actress) -- Dead. Stomach cancer. Died December 22, 1998. Born September 23, 1968. (Myra on Family Matters, on The Young and the Restless just before her death.) IMDb
Hurd Hatfield (actor) -- Dead. Died December 25, 1998. Born December 7, 1918. (Picture of Dorian Gray, Crimes of the Heart.) IMDb
Richard Paul (actor) -- Dead. Cancer. Died December 25, 1998. Born June 6, 1940. (Played Jerry Falwell several times, most notably in The People Vs. Larry Flynt.) IMDb