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The following is a list of notable deaths in February 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.

February 1988

1

• Marcel Bozzuffi, 58, French film actor.
• John Grist Brainerd, 83–84, American electrical engineer.^[1]
• Jean Paul Guhel, 57, French ice dancer.
• Ted Hill, 72, Australian barrister, lawyer and communist activist.
• Thomas Francis Johnson, 78, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, car crash.
• Heather O'Rourke, 12, American child actress (Poltergeist), congenital stenosis of intestine.
• Stephen Taylor, 77, British physician, civil servant, politician and educator.

2

• Quamrul Hassan, 66, Bengali artist, heart attack.
• Normie Smith, 79, Canadian ice hockey player.
• G. Mennen Williams, 76, American politician, governor of Michigan, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines.^[2]

3

• Ronald Bladen, 69, Canadian-American painter and sculptor.^[3]
• Robert Duncan, 69, American poet.^[4]
• Radamés Gnattali, 82, Brazilian composer.
• René Massigli, 99, French diplomat.
• Michael Nott, 71, British Anglican priest.
• Jocko Thompson, 71, American Major League baseballer.
• Sewall Wright, 98, American geneticist, fall.^[5]

4

• Frank Giacoia, 63, American comics artist.
• Dhamma Jagoda, 47, Sri Lankan theatre and television play director and actor.
• Krzysztof Sitkowski, 52, Polish basketballer and Olympian.

5

• Ove Arup, 92, English engineer, design engineer for Sydney Opera House.
• Dorothy Lewis Bernstein, 73, American mathematician.
• Stefan Dittrich, 75, German politician.
• Tommy Doyle, 72, Irish hurler.
• Clement Hurd, 80, American artist, Alzheimer's disease.
• Emeric Pressburger, 85, Hungarian-British film director and producer.^[6]

6

• Gary Berland, 37, American professional poker player, blood disorder.
• Richard Bock, 61, American jazz record producer.
• Marghanita Laski, 72, English journalist, radio panelist and novelist, lung disease.^[7]
• Nick Pietrosante, 50, American NFL footballer, prostate cancer.^[8]
• Barclay Plager, 46, Canadian ice hockey player, brain cancer.^[9]
• Carmen Polo, 87, Spanish wife of Francisco Franco.^[10]

7

• Lin Carter, 57, American author of science fiction and fantasy.
• Ray Martin, 69, Austrian-British orchestra leader, cancer.

8

• Pietro Arcari, 78, Italian footballer.
• Dolores Camarillo, 77, Mexican film, television and theatre actress.
• Allan Cuthbertson, 67, Australian-British actor.
• Ralph Flanagan, 69, American swimmer and Olympic medalist.
• Alfréd Wetzler, 69, Austro-Hungarian–born Czechoslovakian writer.
• Helen Wood, 70, American film and radio actress.

9

• Kurt Herbert Adler, 69, Austrian-American conductor.
• Ermal Allen, 69, American NFL footballer, cancer.
• Henry Burrell, 83, Australian navy commander, Vice Admiral of Royal Australian Navy.
• Israel Nathan Herstein, 64, Polish-American mathematician, cancer.^[11]
• Charles Moses, 88, British-Australian administrator, general manager of Australian Broadcasting Commission.

10

• Nat Cohen, 82, British film producer, heart attack.^[12]
• Yuri Illichev, 60, Soviet coach of Iraq and Iceland national football teams.
• Don Patterson, 51, American jazz organist.
• Chaya Mushka Schneerson, 86, Russian-American wife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Jewish spiritual leader.
• Aram Ter-Ghevondyan, 59, Egyptian-Armenian historian.

11

• Marion Crawford, 78, Scottish governess to Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth.
• Frederick Easson, 82, Scottish Episcopal Church bishop.
• René Hall, 75, American guitarist, heart disease.

12

• Adolf Bieringer, 59, German politician, member of the Bundestag.
• Robert Coin, 86, French sculptor and engraver.
• Jacques Colombier, 86–87, French art director and film set designer.

13

• John Curulewski, 37, American musician, original member of Styx, brain aneurysm.
• Ron Embleton, 57, British illustrator and comics artist, heart attack.
• Léon Goossens, 90, English oboist.^[13]

14

• Frederick Loewe, 86, German-American composer, cardiac arrest.^[14]
• Cal Niday, 73, American racecar driver, heart attack.
• Lynette White, 20, Welsh murder victim.
• Slavko Zagorac, 78, Austro-Hungarian–born Yugoslav footballer and manager.

15

• Al Cohn, 62, American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer, liver cancer.^[15]
• Richard Feynman, 69, American theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate in Physics, kidney failure.^[16]
• Jay Leyda, 78, American filmmaker and film historian.^[17]
• Gardiner Means, 91, American economist.
• Arthur Mizener, 80, American professor of English and literary critic.^[18]

16

• Charles Delaunay, 77, French author and jazz expert, Parkinson's disease.^[19]
• Vijaya Kumaratunga, 42, Sri Lankan actor, singer and politician, assassinated.
• Ye Shengtao, 93, Chinese writer, journalist, educator, publisher and politician.
• Oskar Skogly, 80, Norwegian trade unionist and politician, member of the Norwegian Parliament.

17

• John M. Allegro, 65, English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, heart attack.
• Alexander Bashlachev, 27, Soviet poet, singer-songwriter and guitarist, probable suicide.
• Yuri Ovchinnikov, 53, Soviet bio-organic chemist.
• Alain Savary, 69, French politician.^[20]
• Karpoori Thakur, 64, Indian politician.
• Reginald Uren, 81, New Zealand architect.

18

• Mahmood-ul Hassan, 63, Pakistani hockey player and Olympian.
• Abderrahman Ibrir, 68, Algerian footballer and manager, drowning.
• Giovanni Savonuzzi, 77, Italian automobile designer.

19

• Isabel Bishop, 85, American painter and graphic artist.^[21]
• René Char, 80, French poet, member of the French resistance, heart attack.^[22]
• André Frédéric Cournand, 92, French-American physician, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine.^[23]
• William W. Eagles, 93, American officer, Major General in the U.S. Army.^[24]
• Walerian Kisieliński, 80, Polish international footballer.
• Walter Ohmsen, 76, German officer in the Kriegsmarine during World War II.
• S. V. Sahasranamam, 74, Indian actor and director, heart attack.

20

• Bob O'Farrell, 91, American Major League baseballer.
• Mildred Seydell, 98, American journalist.^[25]
• Roger J. Williams, 94, American biochemist.^[26]
• Jim Woods, American Major League baseball sportscaster, cancer.

21

• Angie Debo, 98, American historian.^[27]
• Bert Lucas, 65, Australian rules footballer.
• Aidan McAnespie, 23, Irish murder victim.
• Aleksandar Tomašević, 79, Serbian international footballer and manager.
• Martin Winter, 32, East German rower and Olympic gold medalist.

22

• Edward Vaughan Bevan, 80, British rower and Olympic gold medalist.
• Albert Collier, 78, Australian rules footballer.
• Eugen Iordache, 65, Romanian international footballer and manager.
• Cecil Ramage, 93, Scottish barrister, actor and politician, Member of Parliament.
• Larry Shay, 90, American songwriter.^[28]

23

• Pete Donohue, 87, American Major League baseballer.
• Jack Dugger, 65, American NFL footballer and NBL basketballer.

24edit

• Rose Coyle, 73, Miss America 1936.
• James H. Douglas Jr., 88, American lawyer, senior official in U.S. Government, Secretary of the Air Force, cancer.^[29]
• Asoka Karunaratne, 72, Sri Lankan politician and philanthropist, heart attack.
• Loretta McNeil, 81, American sprinter and Olympic medalist.
• Mamdouh Salem, 69, Prime Minister of Egypt.^[30]
• Memphis Slim, 72, American blues pianist, singer and composer, renal failure.^[31]
• Bluma Zeigarnik, 87, Soviet psychologist.

25edit

• Bernard Ashmole, 93, British archaeologist and art historian.
• Louis Zhang Jiashu, 94, Chinese Catholic Jesuit priest.
• Kurt Mahler, 84, German mathematician.
• Peck Morrison, 68, American jazz bassist.
• Dori Seda, 37, American artist, influenza.

26edit

• Jaú, 78, Brazilian international footballer.
• Joseph Kiselewski, 87, American sculptor.
• Tom Oliver, 85, American Major League baseballer and rugby player.
• Satyawati Suleiman, 67, Indonesian historian and archaeologist.

27edit

• Basil Boothroyd, 77, English humorous writer.
• Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers, 89, French excommunicated Catholic bishop.
• Doug Holmquist, 46, American baseballer and Major League coach, heart attack.
• Franck Lavaud, 85, Haitian general and politician, President of Haiti.
• Gene de Paul, 68, American pianist, composer and songwriter.
• Kenneth Peach, 84, American cinematographer.

28edit

• Harvey Kuenn, 57, American Major League baseballer, complications from heart disease and diabetes.^[32]
• Mikhail Naimy, 98, Lebanese poet, novelist and philosopher, pneumonia.^[33]
• Asakazu Nakai, 86, Japanese cinematographer.
• Kylie Tennant, 75, Australian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, biographer, and historian.

29edit

• Robert H. Brower, 64, American professor of Far East Language and Literature.
• Beatriz Guido, 65, Argentinian novelist and screenwriter.

Unknown dateedit

• Cyril Jackson, 84, South African astronomer.
• Émile Lachapelle, 82, Swiss rower and Olympic gold medalist.
• Lolette Payot, 77, Swiss-French tennis player.
• John Smith, 49, English footballer.
• Ethel Venton, 96–97, English secularist, councillor and animal welfare activist.

Referencesedit