Deaths in May 2015 facts for kids

This article is about famous people who passed away in May 2015. For information about notable deaths in other months of 2015, you can check the previous months section.

Grace Lee Whitney (1930-2015)

Ruth Rendell (1930-2015)

Maya Plisetskaya (1925-2015)

Jim Wright (1922-2015)

Elizabeth Wilson (1921-2015)

B.B. King (1925-2015)

Happy Rockefeller (1926-2015)

John Forbes Nash, Jr. (1928-2015)

Anne Meara (1929-2015)

Vicente Aranda (1926-2015)

Nils Christie (1928-2015)

Betsy Palmer (1926-2015)

Doris Hart (1925-2015)

Beau Biden (1969-2015)

Remembering Notable People in May 2015

• May 1 - David Day, 63, was an Australian radio host.
• May 1 - María Elena Velasco, 74, was a Mexican actress and comedian. She was known for her character La India María.
• May 1 - Pete Brown, 80, was an American professional golfer. He passed away from heart failure and a stroke.
• May 1 - Stephen Milburn Anderson, 67, was an American movie director and writer. He died from throat cancer.
• May 1 - Grace Lee Whitney, 85, was an American actress. She was famous for her role in Star Trek.
• May 1 - Gary Liddell, 60, was a Scottish footballer.
• May 1 - Geoff Duke, 92, was a British motorcycle racer.
• May 1 - Vafa Guluzade, 74, was an Azerbaijani diplomat.
• May 1 - Beth Whittall, 78, was a Canadian Olympic swimmer. She won two Pan American championships in 1955.
• May 1 - Harry Geisinger, 81, was an American politician. He served in the Georgia House of Representatives.
• May 1 - Ray Ceresino, 86, was a Canadian ice hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
• May 2 - Ruth Rendell, 85, was an English crime novelist. She was known for her Inspector Wexford series.
• May 2 - Maya Plisetskaya, 89, was a Russian ballet dancer. She passed away from a heart attack.
• May 2 - Guy Carawan, 87, was an American folk singer and civil rights activist.
• May 2 - Dave Goldberg, 47, was an American business executive.
• May 2 - Sarah Correa, 22, was a Brazilian swimmer. She was hit by a car.
• May 2 - Michael Blake, 69, was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote Dances with Wolves.
• May 2 - Konstantin K. Kuzminsky, 75, was a Russian performance poet.
• May 2 - Stuart Archer, 100, was a British hero who received the George Cross.
• May 2 - Philip S. Goodman, 89, was an American director and producer.
• May 2 - Ryan McHenry, 27, was a Scottish movie director. He died from bone cancer.
• May 2 - Norman Thaddeus Vane, 86, was an American screenwriter and movie director.
• May 2 - John Mahaffy, 96, was a Canadian ice hockey player. He played for the Montreal Canadiens.
• May 3 - Abdul Wahid Aresar, 65, was a Pakistani politician.
• May 3 - Revaz Chkheidze, 88, was a Georgian movie director.
• May 3 - Danny Jones, 29, was a Welsh rugby league player. He passed away from cardiac arrest.
• May 3 - Harry Martin, 95, was an American judge.
• May 3 - John Elders, 84, was an English rugby union player.
• May 4 - Ellen Albertini Dow, 101, was an American actress. She appeared in The Wedding Singer.
• May 4 - Jesús Hermida, 77, was a Spanish journalist. He died from a stroke.
• May 4 - Andrew Lewis, 44, was a Guyanese boxer. He died in a traffic accident.
• May 4 - Joshua Ozersky, 47, was an American food writer.
• May 4 - Zhivko Gospodinov, 57, was a Bulgarian footballer.
• May 5 - Jon Castañares, 90, was a Spanish economist and politician. He was the Mayor of Bilbao.
• May 5 - Hans Jansen, 72, was a Dutch politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament.
• May 5 - Oscar Holderer, 95, was an American engineer. He worked on the Saturn V rocket project.
• May 5 - Craig Gruber, 63, was an American rock musician. He died from prostate cancer.
• May 5 - Brian Sedgemore, 78, was a British politician. He passed away after a fall.
• May 6 - Errol Brown, 71, was a British singer from the band Hot Chocolate. He died from liver cancer.
• May 6 - Jerome Cooper, 68, was an American jazz drummer. He died from multiple myeloma.
• May 6 - Jim Wright, 92, was an American politician. He served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
• May 7 - Józef Pazdur, 90, was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop.
• May 7 - John Dixon, 86, was an Australian cartoonist. He died from a stroke.
• May 7 - Maurice Flanagan, 86, was a British businessman. He helped found Emirates airline.
• May 7 - Frank DiPascali, 58, was an American financier. He died from lung cancer.
• May 8 - Zeki Alasya, 72, was a Turkish actor and director. He died from liver disease.
• May 8 - Atanas Semerdzhiev, 90, was a Bulgarian politician. He was Vice President of Bulgaria.
• May 8 - Martin Nag, 88, was a Norwegian writer. He passed away from a stroke.
• May 8 - Menashe Kadishman, 82, was an Israeli artist. He won the Israel Prize.
• May 8 - Phil Skoglund, 77, was a New Zealand lawn bowls player. He was a triple world champion.
• May 8 - Rutger Gunnarsson, 69, was a Swedish bassist. He played with ABBA.
• May 8 - Joanne Carson, 84, was an American model.
• May 8 - Two diplomats were killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan:
  • Leif Holger Larsen, 61, was the Norwegian Ambassador to Pakistan.
  • Domingo Lucenario, Jr., 54, was the Filipino Ambassador to Pakistan.
• May 9 - Lo Wing-lok, 60, was a Hong Kong politician. He died from lung cancer.
• May 9 - Odo Marquard, 87, was a German philosopher.
• May 9 - Michael MacKellar, 76, was an Australian politician.
• May 9 - Igor Gorynin, 89, was a Russian metallurgist.
• May 9 - Kenan Evren, 97, was a Turkish military officer. He served as the President of Turkey.
• May 9 - Johnny Gimble, 88, was an American country music fiddler.
• May 9 - Ragne Tangen, 88, was a Norwegian children's television presenter.
• May 9 - Elizabeth Wilson, 94, was an American actress. She appeared in The Birds and The Graduate.
• May 10 - Ninad Bedekar, 65, was an Indian historian and writer.
• May 10 - Luiz Henrique da Silveira, 75, was a Brazilian politician. He died from a heart attack.
• May 10 - Kim Kyok-sik, 76, was a North Korean military officer. He died from acute respiratory failure.
• May 11 - Jef Geeraerts, 85, was a Belgian author. He passed away from a heart attack.
• May 11 - Stan Cornyn, 81, was an American record label executive.
• May 11 - Sir John Watts, 93, was a Grenadian politician.
• May 12 - William Zinsser, 92, was an American writer. He wrote On Writing Well.
• May 12 - Suchitra Bhattacharya, 65, was an Indian novelist. She died from cardiac arrest.
• May 12 - Bill Guthridge, 77, was an American college basketball coach.
• May 12 - Peter Gay, 91, was an American historian and writer.
• May 13 - Derek Davis, 67, was an Irish broadcaster.
• May 13 - Gainan Saidkhuzhin, 77, was a Russian Olympic cyclist. He died from a heart attack.
• May 13 - Anna Levinson, 76, was a German zoologist.
• May 14 - Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr., 93, was a Polish art historian.
• May 14 - B.B. King, 89, was an American blues guitarist and singer. He was famous for "The Thrill Is Gone". He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• May 15 - John Stephenson, 91, was an American actor. He voiced characters in The Flintstones. He died from Alzheimer's disease.
• May 15 - Garo Yepremian, 70, was an American football player for the Miami Dolphins. He died from brain cancer.
• May 15 - Donald Wrye, 77, was an American movie director.
• May 15 - Jackie Brookner, 69, was an American artist. She died from cancer.
• May 16 - Yeung Kwong, 89, was a Hong Kong activist. He died from heart failure.
• May 16 - Jackie Basehart, 63, was an American-born Italian actor.
• May 16 - Dean Potter, 43, was an American rock climber. He died in a BASE-jumping accident.
• May 16 - Moshe Levinger, 80, was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi.
• May 16 - Flora MacNeil, 86, was a Scottish Gaelic singer.
• May 16 - John Templeton, Jr., 75, was an American doctor and philanthropist. He died from cancer.
• May 16 - Elias Gleizer, 81, was a Brazilian actor. He died from circulatory failure.
• May 17 - Chinx, 31, was an American rapper.
• May 17 - Margaret Dunning, 104, was an American philanthropist. She died from complications after a fall.
• May 17 - Michael Alfred Peszke, 83, was a Polish-born American psychiatrist and historian.
• May 18 - Raymond Gosling, 88, was a British scientist.
• May 18 - Halldór Ásgrímsson, 67, was an Icelandic politician. He was the Prime Minister of Iceland. He died from a heart attack.
• May 19 - Happy Rockefeller, 88, was an American socialite. She was the Second Lady of the United States.
• May 19 - Edmond J. Gong, 84, was an American politician. He served in the Florida House and Senate.
• May 19 - Robert S. Wistrich, 70, was a British-Israeli history professor. He died from a heart attack.
• May 19 - Ahmad Alasgarov, 79, was an Azerbaijani footballer and manager.
• May 19 - Burhan Muhammad, 57, was an Indonesian diplomat. He died from burns after a helicopter crash.
• May 19 - Dale D. Myers, 93, was an American aerospace engineer. He was the Deputy Administrator of NASA.
• May 19 - Gerald Götting, 91, was a German politician.
• May 20 - Sudha Shivpuri, 77, was an Indian actress. She died from multiple organ failure.
• May 20 - Bob Belden, 58, was an American musician. He died from a heart attack.
• May 21 - Joaquim Durão, 84, was a Portuguese chess player.
• May 21 - Twinkle, 66, was a British singer-songwriter. She died from cancer.
• May 21 - Louis Johnson, 60, was an American bassist. He played with Michael Jackson.
• May 21 - Annarita Sidoti, 44, was an Italian race walker. She was a world champion in 1997. She died from breast cancer.
• May 22 - Marques Haynes, 89, was an American basketball player for the Harlem Globetrotters.
• May 22 - Aminah Robinson, 75, was an American artist. She died from heart failure.
• May 22 - Terry Sue-Patt, 50, was a British actor. He was known for Grange Hill.
• May 22 - Radomir Naumov, 68, was a Serbian politician.
• May 23 - John Forbes Nash, Jr., 86, was an American Nobel Prize-winning mathematician. He died in a car accident.
• May 23 - Anne Meara, 85, was an American comedian and actress. She was part of the duo Stiller and Meara.
• May 24 - Tanith Lee, 67, was a British science fiction and fantasy writer.
• May 24 - Marcus Belgrave, 78, was an American jazz trumpeter. He died from heart failure.
• May 25 - John M. Murphy, 88, was an American politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• May 25 - Mary Ellen Mark, 75, was an American photographer. She died from myelodysplastic syndrome.
• May 25 - Bill O'Herlihy, 76, was an Irish sports broadcaster.
• May 26 - Vicente Aranda, 88, was a Spanish movie director.
• May 26 - Les Johnson, 90, was an Australian politician.
• May 26 - Dayton Waller, 90, was an American politician.
• May 26 - Rocky Frisco, 77, was an American pianist. He played with the JJ Cale Band.
• May 26 - Bob Hornery, 83, was an Australian actor.
• May 26 - Robert Kraft, 87, was an American astronomer.
• May 27 - Erik Carlsson, 86, was a Swedish rally driver.
• May 27 - Nils Christie, 87, was a Norwegian criminologist.
• May 28 - Reynaldo Rey, 75, was an American actor and comedian. He died from a stroke.
• May 29 - Ed Gilligan, 55, was an American financial executive. He was the President of American Express.
• May 29 - Doris Hart, 89, was an American tennis player.
• May 30 - L. Tom Perry, 92, was an American apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He died from thyroid cancer.
• May 30 - Lennie Merullo, 98, was an American baseball player for the Chicago Cubs.
• May 30 - Beau Biden, 46, was an American politician. He was the Attorney General of Delaware. He died from brain cancer.
• May 30 - Julie Harris, 94, was a British costume designer.
• May 30 - Tony McNamara, 85, was an English footballer. He played for Everton and Liverpool.
• May 31 - Rochelle Shoretz, 42, was an American civil servant. She founded the organization Sharsheret. She died from complications of breast cancer.
• May 31 - Karl Wlaschek, 97, was an Austrian executive. He founded the Billa supermarket chain.
• May 31 - Mario Saliwa, 31, was a South African cricketer.
• May 31 - Slim Richey, 77, was an American guitarist. He died from lymphoma.

Previous months

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Fallecidos en mayo de 2015 para niños