The following is a list of notable deaths in October 1987.
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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.
1
- Richard Blackburn, 69, Australian judge, legal academic and military officer.
- Douglas Cleverdon, 84, English radio producer and bookseller.
- June Clyde, 77, American actress, singer and dancer.
- Valeriya Golubtsova, 86, Soviet scientist, director of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute.
- Geoffrey Jackson, 72, British diplomat and writer, kidnapped by guerrillas and released after eight months of captivity.[1]
- Zina Morhange, 78, Polish-French physician, member of the French Resistance.
- Abdur Rahim, 69, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar politician.
2
- Madeleine Carroll, 81, English actress, pancreatic cancer.[2]
- Sir Peter Medawar, 72, Brazilian-British biologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
- Russell Rouse, 73, American screenwriter, director and producer.
- Hryhoriy Vasiura, 72, Soviet officer in the Red Army and in the German Schutzmannschaft, executed.
3
- Jean Anouilh, 77, French dramatist and screenwriter, heart attack.[3]
- Catherine Bramwell-Booth, 104, English Salvation Army officer, granddaughter of Salvation Army founder.[4]
- Hans Gál, 97, Austrian-Scottish composer, teacher and author.
- Maria Ivogün, 95, Hungarian soprano singer.
- Kalervo Palsa, 40, Finnish artist, pneumonia.
4
- Mercer Cook, 84, American diplomat and professor, U.S. Ambassador to the Gambia, Senegal and Niger, pneumonia.
- Eric Gandar Dower, 92–93, Scottish politician and businessman.
- Mian Arshad Hussain, 77, Pakistani politician and diplomat, Foreign Minister of Pakistan and Pakistan's Ambassador to Sweden.
- Eloise Wilkin, 83, American illustrator, cancer.
- Hubert Yencesse, 87, French sculptor.
7
- Charles J. Carney, 74, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives.[5]
- Phil Flanagan, 77, American NFL footballer.
- John Fletcher, 46, English tubist and French Horn player, cerebral haemorrhage.
- Greta Granstedt, 80, American film and television actress.
- Cedric Phatudi, 75, South African politician, Chief Minister of Lebowa.[6]
- Sarkes Tarzian, 87, Ottoman-American engineer, inventor and broadcaster.
- Bobby Walston, 58, American NFL footballer.[7]
8
- Spencer Gordon Bennet, 94, American film producer and director.
- Alberto Segismundo Cruz, 87, Filipino poet, short story writer and novelist.
- Mona Douglas, 89, British Manx cultural activist, folklorist, poet, novelist and journalist.
- Rolf Dudley-Williams, 79, British aeronautical engineer and politician, Member of Parliament.
- Roger Lancelyn Green, 68, British biographer and children's writer.
- Nader Mahdavi, 24, Persian Revolutionary Guard Corps naval commander.
- Donald McWhinnie, 66, British BBC executive and director.
- Konstantinos Tsatsos, 88, Greek diplomat, professor of law and politician, President of Greece.
9
- Mohammad Farhad, 49, Bangladeshi guerrilla force commander during the Bangladesh independence war, heart attack.
- Guru Gopinath, 79, Indian actor and dancer.
- Clare Boothe Luce, 84, American politician, U.S. Ambassador to Italy, member of U.S. House of Representatives, brain cancer.[8]
- William P. Murphy, 95, American physician, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
- Henry Studholme, 88, British politician, Member of Parliament.
- Carlos Volante, 81, Argentinian international footballer.
10
- Carlos Ancira, 58, Mexican film actor.
- Behice Boran, 77, Turkish Marxist-Leninist politician, author and sociologist, heart disease.
- Jaroslav Bouček, 74, Czechoslovakian international footballer.
- Gretl Braun, 72, German sister of Eva Braun.
- Peter Clyne, 60, Austrian-Australian lawyer, businessman, tax consultant and author.
- Oretha Castle Haley, 48, American civil rights activist, cancer.
- Malathi, 20, Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers fighter, died in combat.
11
- Uwe Barschel, 43, German politician, Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein, suicide by drug overdose.
- Eske Brun, 83, Danish high civil servant and governor of Greenland.
- Jaime Pardo Leal, 46, Colombian lawyer, union leader, and politician, assassinated.
- Niall Macpherson, 79, Scottish politician, Minister of Pensions and National Insurance.
- Alan McNicoll, 79, Australian senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and diplomat.
- Koldo Mitxelena, 71–72, Spanish Basque linguist, reconstructed Proto-Basque language.
- Fritz Rössler, 75, German neo-Nazi politician.
12
- Fahri Korutürk, 84, Turkish admiral, diplomat and politician, President of Turkey.
- Alf Landon, 100, American oil man and politician, Republican candidate in 1936 presidential election.[9]
- Russ Letlow, 74, American NFL footballer.
- Philleo Nash, 77, American government official, anthropologist and politician, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.[10]
- Gustavo Baz Prada, 93, Mexican politician and medical doctor, governor of the State of Mexico.
13
- Walter Houser Brattain, 85, American physicist at Bell Labs, Nobel laureate in Physics, Alzheimer's disease.[11]
- Kishore Kumar, 58, Indian actor and playback singer, heart attack.
- Nilgün Marmara, 29, Turkish poet, suicide by jumping.
- Lucy Monroe, 80, American operatic soprano and dancer, cancer.[12]
- Walter Fraser Oakeshott, 83, Transvaal-British vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, known for discovering the Winchester Manuscript of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
- Anwar Kamal Pasha, 62, Pakistani film director and producer.
15
- Arthur Benson, 79, British colonial administrator and governor, governor of Northern Rhodesia.
- Thomas Andrew Donnellan, 73, American Roman Catholic prelate, archbishop of Atlanta, stroke.[13]
- Juda Hirsch Quastel, 88, British-Canadian biochemist.
- Thomas Sankara, 37, Burkinabe politician, Prime Minister and President of Burkina Faso, assassinated.
- Donald Wandrei, 79, American science fiction and fantasy writer, poet and editor.
16
- Joseph Höffner, 80, German Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Cologne.
- Nazir Hussain, 65, Indian actor, director and screenwriter.
- Margo Lee, 64, Australian actor and singer of radio, stage, film and TV.
- Aleksandr Sery, 59, Soviet film director, suicide by gunshot.
- Dana Suesse, 75, American musician, composer and lyricist, stroke.[14]
17
- Ruby Dandridge, 87, American actress, heart attack.
- Roderich Menzel, 80, Czech-German amateur tennis player and writer.
- Peter Pund, 80, American college football player.
- Hirsch Schwartzberg, 79, Lithuanian-leader of holocaust survivors.
- Abdul Malek Ukil, 63, Bangladeshi politician, speaker of Jatiya Sangsad.
18
- Theodore Brameld, 83, American philosopher and educator.[15]
- Pete Carpenter, 73, American jazz trombonist and arranger, lung cancer.
- Adriaan Ditvoorst, 47, Dutch film director and screenwriter.
- Prince Emanuel of Liechtenstein, 78, member of the sovereign family of Liechtenstein.
- Sol Goldman, 70, American real estate investor and philanthropist.[16]
- Philip Levine, 87, Belorus-American immuno-hematologist.[17]
- Louis Miriani, 90, American politician, mayor of Detroit, Michigan.[18]
19
- Hermann Lang, 78, German racing driver.
- Igor Newerly, 84, Polish novelist.
- Jacqueline du Pré, 42, British cellist, multiple sclerosis.
- Ben Stahl, 77, American artist, illustrator and author.
- Ernie Toseland, 82, English footballer.
20
- Georges Douking, 85, French stage, film and television actor.
- Andrey Kolmogorov, 84, Russian mathematician.
- Mecha Ortiz, 87, Argentinian actress.
- Lars-Erik Sjöberg, 43, Swedish international ice hockey player, cancer.
21
- Igor Chernat, 20–21, Soviet serial killer, executed.
- Pál Gábor, 55, Hungarian film director and screenwriter.
- T. Krishna, 36, Indian film director and screenwriter.
- Bob Simmons, 64, English actor and stunt man.
- Albert Western, 64, Australian rules footballer.
- He Yingqin, 97, Chinese politician, Premier of the Republic of China.
22
- K. G. Adiyodi, 60, Indian politician, member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
- Archduke Anton of Austria, 86, Austrian noble.
- John H. Masters, 74, American major general in the U.S. Marine Corps.
- Taylor Scott, 40, English Fleet Air Arm pilot and test pilot for British Aerospace, test flight accident.
- Andrey Starostin, 81, Soviet footballer and author.
- Lino Ventura, 68, Italian-French actor.[19]
23
- Constantin Alajalov, 86, Armenian-American painter and illustrator.[20]
- Fred Hughson, 73, Australian rules footballer.
- Raymond W. Ketchledge, 67, American engineer, known for contributions to first computerized telephone switching control systems, cancer.[21]
- Barry Levinson, 54–55, American film producer.
- A. L. Morton, 84, English Marxist historian.
- Jimmy Mullen, 64, English international footballer.
- Della H. Raney, 75, American nurse in the Army Nurse Corps.
- Gene Rodgers, 77, American jazz pianist, composer and arranger.
- Alejandro Scopelli, 79, Italian Argentine international footballer and coach.
- Ted Taylor, 53, American blues singer, car crash.
25
- Ivan Beshoff, appr. 104, Russian mutineer in 1905 on the battleship Potemkin.
- Cecil Brown, 80, American journalist and war correspondent.[22]
- Marta Feuchtwanger, German-exile to America who devoted her life to promoting the work of her deceased writer husband.
- Maxwell Finland, 85, American scientist and medical researcher, expert on infectious diseases.[23]
- Louis Guttman, 71, American sociologist and professor of Social and Psychological Assessment.[24]
- Willis Jackson, 55, American jazz tenor saxophonist.[25]
- Gerald Pearson, 82, American physicist, worked on silicon rectifiers.
- J. A. Ratcliffe, 84, British radio physicist.
- Kate L. Turabian, 94, Armenian-American educator and author.[26]
26
- Herbert Anaya, 32–33, El Salvadoran president of the NGO Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, assassinated.
- Greg Bautzer, 76, American attorney who represented famous clients, heart failure.
- Aldo Boffi, 72, Italian international footballer.
- Edith Luckett Davis, 99, American film and stage actress, mother of Nancy Reagan, stroke.
- Victor Ganz, 74, American business owner and art collector, lung cancer.
- Carolus Lassila, 65, Finnish diplomat, Finnish Ambassador to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Spain and Morocco, flash flood.
- Bjørge Lillelien, 60, Norwegian sports journalist and commentator, cancer.
- Adam Wolanin, 67, Polish American international footballer.
27
- Jorge Dalto, 39, Argentine-American pianist.
- Jean Hélion, 83, French painter.
- John Oliver Killens, 71, American fiction writer, cancer.[27]
- Kosaraju, 82, Indian lyricist and poet.
- Vijay Merchant, 76, Indian test cricketer.
- Mario Merola, 65, American Bronx County District Attorney, stroke.
- John C. Young, 75, Chinese American businessman.
29
- Albert P. Crary, 76, American polar geophysicist and glaciologist.[28]
- William Davis, 86, British Royal Navy admiral.
- Robert Heber-Percy, 75, English eccentric.
- Woody Herman, 74, American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader.[29]
- Kamal el-Mallakh, 69, Egyptian archaeologist.
- Ram Awtar Sharma, 79, Indian politician, Member of Parliament.
- Frederic M. Wheelock, 85, American Latin professor.[30]
30
- Thomas G. Bergin, 82, American scholar of Italian literature.[31]
- Joseph Campbell, 83, American writer on comparative mythology and comparative religion, esophageal cancer.[32]
- Sydney Vernon Petersen, 73, South African poet and author.
- Chaudhary Dalbir Singh, 61, Indian politician, Member of Parliament.
- Grady B. Wilson, 67–68, American evangelist, congestive heart failure.[33]
31
- Paul D. Adams, 81, American general in the U.S. Army.
- Raj Chandra Bose, 86, Indian-American mathematician and statistician.
- Ruel Vance Churchill, 87, American mathematician.
- Josef Erber, 90, Nazi German SS-Oberscharführer at Auschwitz concentration camp, traffic accident.
- Jimmy Jewell, 33–34, British rock climber, climbing accident.
- Hans Sommer, 73, Nazi German member of the Sicherheitsdienst.
Unknown date
- Filippo Buccola, 101, Italian-American mobster, member of the Patriarca crime family.