Deaths in July 1983

The following is a list of notable deaths in July 1983.

Contents

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• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
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• 29
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• 31

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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.

July 1983

1

• Buckminster Fuller, 87, American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist, heart attack^[1][2]

4

• John Bodkin Adams, 84, British general practitioner, convicted fraudster, and suspected serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, 163 of his patients died while in comas, which was deemed to be worthy of investigation, ^[3]chest infection while hospitalized for a fractured hip^[4]

5

• Harry James, 67, American bandleader, trumpeter, and actor, lymphatic cancer^[5][6][7]

7

• Herman Kahn, 61, American physicist and futurist, he posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War, for which he was one of the historical inspirations for the title character of Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy film satire Dr. Strangelove,^[8] stroke^[9]

• Alexander Fu Sheng, 28, Hong Kong martial arts actor,^[10]chest injuries and shock as a passenger in a car accident^[11][12]

9

• Robert Dawn, 61, American make-up artist and fighter pilot during World War II, earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for his wartime service^[13]

10

• Paul Blaisdell, 55, American painter, sculptor and visual effects creator, created the effects for several science fiction and horror fiction B movies, cancer^[14][15]
• Estrellita Castro, 75, Spanish singer and actress^[16]

11

• Ross Macdonald, 67, American-Canadian crime fiction writer, representative of the hardboiled genre, creator of the character Lew Archer, Alzheimer's disease^[17][18]

12

• Chris Wood, 39, British rock musician, founding member of the rock band Traffic, liver disease^[19][20]

13

• Gabrielle Roy, 74, Canadian novelist and sketch artist^[21]

15

• Eddie Foy Jr., 78, American actor and vaudeville performer, pancreatic cancer^[22]

16

• Michel Micombero, 42, Burundian military officer and politician, ruled the country as a de facto military dictator from 1966 until 1976, heart attack^[a][25][23]

17

• Byron Kennedy, 33, Australian film producer, co-creator of the media franchise Mad Max, killed in a helicopter crash^[26][27]

18

• George Lichty, 78, American cartoonist, creator of the daily strip and Sunday strip Grin and Bear It, heart attack^[28]

20

• Frank Reynolds, 59, American television journalist for CBS and ABC News,^{[29][30][31][32]}acute viral hepatitis^[29][33]
• Ann Tyrrell, 74, American actress and dialectician, heart attack^[34][35]

22

• Jack Rickard, 61, American illustrator and comics artist, key contributor to Mad, cancer^[36]

25

• Jerome Moross, 69, American composer, complications of a stroke and congestive heart failure^[37]

28

• Katharine Bard, 66, American actress, cancer^[38][39]

29

• Luis Buñuel, 83, Spanish-born Mexican filmmaker, representative of surrealist cinema,^[40]diabetes complications^{[41][42][43][44]}
• Rocco Chinnici, 58, Italian anti-Mafia magistrate, creator of the Antimafia Pool,^[45]killed by a car bomb^[46]
• Raymond Massey, 86, Canadian actor, pneumonia^[47][48]
• David Niven, 73, English actor, soldier, raconteur, memoirist and novelist, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)^{[49][50][51][52][53]}

30

• Howard Dietz, 86, American publicist, lyricist, and librettist, specialist in musical revues,^[54][55]Parkinson's disease^[56]
• Lynn Fontanne, 95, English actress, pneumonia^[57]