The following is a list of notable deaths in March 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
- Freddie Green, 75, American swing jazz guitarist, heart attack.[1]
- Bertrand de Jouvenel, 83, French philosopher and political economist.[2]
- Don MacBeth, 37, Canadian jockey, cancer.[3]
- Vern Partlow, 76, American newspaper reporter and folk singer, blacklisted during McCarthy era, cancer.[4]
- Wolfgang Seidel, 60, German Formula 1 racing driver, heart attack.
3
- Danny Kaye, 76, American singer, actor, dancer and comedian, internal bleeding and hepatitis.[6]
- Cyril Pearl, 82, Australian journalist, author and television personality.[7]
- Rafael M. Salas, 58, Filipino head of United Nations Population Fund, heart attack.[8]
- Hana Vítová, 73, Czechoslovakian film actress.[9]
4
- Georges Arnaud, 69, French author, heart attack.[10]
- Maria Jolas, 94, American pacifist, one of the founding members of transition in Paris.[11]
- Seibo Kitamura, 102, Japanese sculptor.[12]
- Eliseo Moreno, 27, American spree killer, executed.[13]
5
- James W. Blanchard, 83, American submarine commander and rear admiral, respiratory arrest.[14]
- John Brooke, 64, Northern Irish politician, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.[15]
- Albert Costain, 76, British politician, Member of Parliament.[16]
- Abdulgani Dahiwala, 78, Indian Gujarati poet.
- Harry Dudkin, 78, American politician and judge, clerk of the New Jersey General Assembly, murdered.[17]
- Andrey A. Fedorov, 78, Soviet biologist, botanist and taxonomist.
- Joe Purcell, 63, American politician, acting Governor of Arkansas.[18]
- Don Yenko, 59, American car dealer and racecar driver, aeroplane crash.[19]
6
- Inder Raj Anand, Indian film dialogue and screenwriter.
- Mel Boozer, 41, American university professor and LGBT activist, AIDS.[20]
- Edward Carson, 67, British politician, Member of Parliament.[21]
- Eddie Durham, 80, American jazz guitarist, trombonist and composer, fall.[22]
- J. Spencer Trimingham, 82, English scholar on Islam in Africa.[23]
- Edward Zorinsky, 58, American politician, U.S. Senator, heart attack.[24]
7
- Yuri Chulyukin, 57, Soviet film director, actor and songwriter.
- Henri Decaë, 71, French cinematographer.[25]
- Evelyn Dove, 85, British singer and actress, pneumonia.[26]
- Paul R. Evans, 55, American-furniture designer, sculptor and artist, heart attack.[27]
- Waldo Salt, 72, American screenwriter (Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home), lung cancer.[28]
9
- Zeke Bonura, 78, American Major League baseballer (Chicago White Sox).[31]
- Ronald W. Clark, 70, British author, cerebral hemorrhage.[32]
- Donald Jay Grout, 84, American musicologist, author of (A Short History of Opera).[33]
- Allan Jaffe, 51, American jazz tubist, cancer.[34]
- Andrew Kayiira, 42, leader of the Uganda Freedom Movement, murdered.[35]
- Yusuf al-Khal, 69, Lebanese-Syrian poet, journalist and publisher.[36]
- Richard F. Kneip, 54, American diplomat and politician, governor of South Dakota, stomach cancer.[37]
- Bobby Locke, 69, South African professional golfer, meningitis.[38]
- Fred W. Thompson, 86, Canadian-American labour organizer and historian.[39]
- Arthur Tolcher, 64, British harmonica player.
10
- Dwight W. Burney, 95, American politician, Governor of Nebraska.[40]
- Robert Colby, 64, American songwriter, music publisher and theatrical producer, cancer.[41]
- George Glamack, 68, American professional basketballer (Rochester Royals).[42]
- Jeannette Mirsky, 83, American writer.[43]
- Daniel Morgan, 37, British private investigator, victim of unsolved murder.[44]
- Johannes Quasten, 86, German Roman Catholic theologian.[45]
12
- Woody Hayes, 74, American college football coach (Ohio State), heart attack.[47]
- Micheline Kahn, 97, French harpist and pianist.
- Richard Levinson, 52, American screenwriter and producer (Columbo), heart attack.[48]
- Jack Marks, 92, English performer and screenwriter, lung cancer.
13
- Edward Peck Curtis, 90, American World War I flying ace, Air Service Major General, pneumonia.[49]
- Hafizur Rahman Wasif Dehlavi, 77, Indian Muslim scholar and poet.
- Bernhard Grzimek, 77, German zoo director, author and animal conservationist, heart attack.[50]
- Peter Henrici, 63, Swiss mathematician (numerical analysis).[51]
- David Lewis, 83, American Hollywood film producer, pneumonia.[52]
- Gerald Moore, 87, English classical pianist.[53]
- Hugh Roberton, 86, Australian politician, Minister for Social Services, Australian Ambassador to Ireland.[54]
- Fela Sowande, 81, Nigerian musician and composer.[55]
14
- Peter Beter, 65, American attorney and financier.
- Tex Fletcher, 77, American singing cowboy, actor and radio & television personality.[56]
- Rushdi al-Kikhya, 87–88, Syrian political leader, Speaker of the Parliament of Syria.
- Ivor Preece, 66, English international rugby union footballer (Coventry, England).
- Ali Muhammad Rashidi, 81, Pakistani journalist, politician and diplomat.
- Gerard Steenson, appr. 29, Irish republican paramilitary commander, ambushed and killed.[57]
- Ian MacAlister Stewart, 91, Scottish military officer, brigadier in the British Army.[58]
15
- Douglas Abbott, 87, Canadian Member of Parliament, justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.[59]
- W. Sterling Cole, 82, American politician, lawyer, and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, cancer.[60]
- Red Dutton, 89, Canadian NHL ice hockey player (Montreal Maroons), coach and executive.[61]
- Léon Fleuriot, 64, French linguist and Celtic scholar.
- Don Gant, 44, American singer, songwriter and record producer, boating accident.
16
- Bob Kline, 77, American Major League baseballer (Boston Red Sox).[62]
- Vivian Martin, 93, American stage and silent-screen actress.[63]
- Scott McKay, 71, American actor, kidney failure.[64]
- Juan Gómez Millas, 86, Chilean fascist politician.
- Allan Perry-Keene, 88, English officer in the Royal Air Force, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Pakistan Air Force.[65]
- Joseph E. Schaefer, 68, American soldier in the U.S. Army, recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in World War II.[66]
- Samuel H. Shapiro, 79, American politician, Governor of Illinois.[67]
- Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, 57, Danish architect, designed the Grande Arche near Paris.[68]
17
- Tom Cothran, 39, American musicologist and composer, AIDS.
- Georg Lammers, 81, German sprinter and Olympic medalist.[69]
- Antonio Lopez, 44, Puerto Rican fashion illustrator, complication of AIDS.[70]
- Ron Saggers, 69, Australian Test cricketer.[71]
- Derief Taylor, 76, Jamaican first-class cricketer and coach.[72]
- Salvatore Toma, 35, Italian poet, suicide.
- Santo Trafficante Jr., 72, American Mafia boss, allied with Sam Giancana.[73]
18
- Milorad Arsenijević, 80, Yugoslavian footballer and manager, and Olympian (BSK Beograd, Yugoslavia)).[74]
- Bil Baird, 82, American puppeteer, pneumonia and cancer.[75]
- Claude I. Bakewell, 74, American lawyer, member of U.S. House of Representatives, emphysema.[76]
- Lewis Bandt, 77, Australian car designer, designed and built the first utes, car accident.[77]
- Elizabeth Poston, 81, English composer, pianist and writer.[78]
19
- Punaloor Balan, 60, Indian writer and a poet, cancer.[79]
- Louis de Broglie, 94, French physicist contributing to quantum theory and Nobel laureate in Physics.[80]
- Robert-Jean Longuet, 85, French lawyer, journalist and militant socialist.[81]
- Juan Mascaró, 89, Spanish translator.[82]
- Ruth Meiers, 61, American politician, Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota, cancer.[83]
- Emile Meyer, 76, American actor.[84]
- Arch Oboler, 79, American playwright, novelist and director (Lights Out), heart failure.[85]
- Harold Rosenthal, 69, English music critic, writer and opera broadcaster.[86]
- Tony Stratton Smith, 53, English rock music manager, founded record label Charisma Records, pancreatic cancer.[87]
20
- Warren G. Brown, 66, American rodeo cowboy, prostate cancer.
- Licio Giorgieri, 61, Italian air force general, murdered.[88]
- Norman Harris, 39, American guitarist and songwriter, cardiovascular disease.
- Russell Ohl, 89, American scientist, patented the modern solar cell.[89]
- Rita Streich, 66, German opera singer.[90]
- Kenneth Threadgill, 77, American country singer and tavern owner, pulmonary embolism.[91]
- Harry Windsor, 72, Irish-Australian cardiac surgeon.[92]
21
- Walter L. Gordon, 81, Canadian accountant, businessman, politician and writer, President of the Privy Council, heart attack.[93]
- Dean Paul Martin, 35, American pop singer and actor, air crash.[94]
- Robert Preston, 68, American actor and singer (The Music Man), lung cancer.[95]
- Jacob Taubes, 64, Austrian rabbi, philosopher and scholar of Judaism.[96]
22
- Louis M. Hacker, 88, American economic historian, professor of economics.[97]
- Charlie Jarzombek, 44, American race car driver, racing accident.[98]
- Bill McGuffie, 59, British pianist, film composer and conductor, cancer.
- Joan Shawlee, 61, American film and television actress (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Some Like It Hot), breast cancer.[99]
23
- Emilio Giuseppe Dossena, 83, Italian painter.
- Maurice Dunand, 89, French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East.
- Walter Walford Johnson, 82, American businessman and politician, governor of Colorado.
- Edward Lamb, 85, American businessman, broadcasting executive and labour lawyer.[100]
- Reg Lye, 74, Australian actor.
- John Mariucci, 70, American ice hockey player, administrator and coach, cancer.[101]
- Morton Minsky, 85, American burlesque owner, co-owner of Minsky's Burlesque, cancer.[102]
- Tony Pacheco, 59, Cuban-born baseballer and Major League coach (Houston Astros).
- Herald F. Stout, 83, American admiral in the U.S. Navy.[103]
- Ilse Totzke, 73, German musician, survivor of the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
24
- Vicente Calderón, 73, Spanish businessman, president of Atlético Madrid.
- Alan Gale, 56, Australian rules footballer (Fitzroy) and commentator, heart attack.[104]
- Takeru Higuchi, 69, American chemist, invented time-release medication capsule.[105]
- Sarah Goddard Power, 51, American political activist, suicide by jumping.[106]
25
- Carolin Babcock, 74, American tennis player, U.S. Open doubles champion, stroke.[107]
- Gusta Fučíková, 83, Czechoslovakian publicist, editor and politician.
- Ivan Ivanov-Vano, 87, Soviet animator and screenwriter.[108]
- John Kloss, 49, American fashion designer, known for lingerie and sleepwear, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.[109]
- Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr., 83, American diplomat and statesman, and Executive Director of UNICEF, cancer.[110]
- Moustache, 58, French actor and jazz drummer, car accident.
26
- Walter Abel, 88, American actor, myocardial infarction.[111]
- Henrieta Delavrancea, 89, Romanian architect.[112]
- Ohene Djan, 63, Ghanaian sports administrator and politician, member of the Legislative Assembly.
- Robert Gwyn Macfarlane, 79, English hematologist.[113]
- Georg Muche, 91, German painter, architect and author.[114]
- Eugen Jochum, 84, German conductor.[115]
- Mary Odette, 85, French-born British silent-screen actress.
- Michael Stancliffe, 70, English Anglican priest, Dean of Winchester.
27
- Giuseppe Ambrosoli, 63, Italian Catholic priest, renal failure.[116]
- Rudolph Anders, 91, German-born American actor.
- William Bowers, 71, American reporter, playwright and screenwriter, respiratory failure.[117]
- Tim Lee Carter, 76, American politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives, anaemia.[118]
- Erich Clar, 84, Austrian organic chemist.[119]
- Olha Franko, 90, Ukrainian writer, creator of the first Ukrainian cookbook.
- Luis Chávez y González, 85, El Salvadoran Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of San Salvador.[120]
- Lloyd Goodrich, 89, American art historian, cancer.[121]
- Stane Kavčič, 67, Prime Minister of Slovenia.
- Tonny Koeswoyo, 51, Indonesian rock musician and leader of the group Koes Plus.
- Peter Mason, 65, English-born Australian physicist and science communicator.[122]
- Hans-Georg von der Osten, 91, German World War I flying ace and Luftwaffe commander during World War II.
- Martin Provensen, 70, American illustrator, heart attack.[123]
28
- Horace M. Albright, 97, American conservationist, director of the National Park Service.[124]
- Alphonse Alley, 56, Beninese military officer, President of Dahomey (Benin).
- Oliver K. Kelley, 82, Finnish-born American engineer, developed the automatic transmission.[125]
- Lê Văn Kim, 68–69, South Vietnamese army general.[126]
- Maria von Trapp, 82, Austrian matriarch of the Trapp family, heart failure.[127]
- Patrick Troughton, 67, English actor (Doctor Who), heart attack.[128]
29
- Richard Aaron, 85, Welsh philosopher.[129]
- Lawrence Anini, appr. 26, Nigerian bandit, executed.
- Jakob Nacken, 81, German-born American circus performer.
- Akaki Shanidze, 100, Georgian linguist and philologist.
- John Wiley, 60, South African cricketer and politician, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, suicide by gunshot.[130]
- Richard Wilson, 66, American science fiction writer.[131]
30
- Pyotr Gusev, 82, Russian ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer.[132]
- Veniamin Levich, 69, Soviet-born American chemist (Levich equation), cardiac arrest.[133]
- Clint Murchison Jr., 63, American businessman, founder of the Dallas Cowboys football team, pneumonia.[134]
- Giorgio Pini, 88, Italian politician and journalist.
- Dorothy Ward, 96, English actress.[135]
- Lynn Townsend White Jr., 79, American historian, heart failure.[136]