Famous People Who Died in 1954

Publish date: 2024-08-18

1954 Calendar

Jan 27 Paul-Marie Masson, French musicologist (L’Opéra de Rameau), and composer, dies at 71
Jan 31 Edwin H. Armstrong, US radio inventor (FM), commits suicide at 63
Jan 31 Florence Bates, American actress (Kismet, I Remember Mama), dies at 65
Feb 1 Henry Leveson-Gower, English cricket batsman and captain (3 Tests; Surrey CCC, Oxford University CC), dies at 80
Feb 1 Julius P. Hoste, Belgian journalist, daily newspaper publisher (Last News), and politician (Minister of Education, 1936-38; Senator 1949-54), dies at 69
Feb 2 Theodor Rogalski, Romanian composer, dies at 52
Feb 4 Václav Vačkář, Czech composer, known for his marches, conductor, and musicologist, dies at 72
Feb 5 Vittorio Gnecchi, Italian composer, dies at 77
Feb 7 Jan Maklakiewicz, Polish composer, chiefly of choral music (Kołysanka - Lullaby; Ave Maria), conductor, and educator, dies at 54
Feb 9 Mabel Paige, American actress (Lucky Jordan), dies at 73
Feb 10 Wilhelm Schmidt, German anthropologist and linguist (Anthropos), dies at 86
Feb 11 Adolph M. Christianson, justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court, dies at 76
Feb 12 Dziga Vertov [Denis Kaufman], Russian influential film director (Man with a Movie Camera, 3 Songs of Lenin), dies at 58
Feb 13 Anges Macphail, Canadian politician (first woman to be elected to Canada's House of Commons), dies at 63 [1]
Feb 13 Frederick Lewis Allen, American social historian and editor of Harper's Magazine, dies at 63

Feb 17 Evert Gorter, Dutch children's pioneering paediatrician founder of Dutch medical child care), dies at 72
Feb 26 William Inge, English author, theologist and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, dies at 93
Mar 1 Halsey William Wilson, American reference book publisher (Readers' Guide, Cumulative Book Index, Book Review Digest), dies at 85
Mar 4 Georg Göhler, German composer (Rückert), dies at 79
Mar 4 Noel Gay [Reginald Moxon Armitage], British composer (Who's Been Polishing the Sun), dies at 55
Mar 5 Julian Coolidge, American mathematician (Study-Segre school), dies at 80
Mar 6 Jan Kalf, Dutch art historian and literary scholar (Monument Conservation), dies at 80
Mar 6 Louis Zimmermann, Dutch violinist (1st concert master of Amsterdam Symphony), composer, and educator, dies at 80
Mar 7 Otto Diels, German organic chemist (1950 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for cyclic organic compounds), dies at 78
Mar 9 Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, German astronomer who studied variable stars, dies at 41
Mar 9 V. Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer, dies at 79
Mar 12 Bob Quinn, American baseball executive (owner Boston Red Sox 1923–33; part owner Boston Braves 1936–45; President National Baseball Hall of Fame 1948–51), dies at 84
Mar 14 Fred Herd, Scottish golfer (US Open 1898), dies at 80
Mar 14 Ludomir Michał Rogowski, Polish composer, dies at 72
Mar 17 Victor Rousseau, Belgian sculptor, dies at 88

Mar 18 Walter Mead, cricketer (one Test for England 1899), dies
Mar 19 Walter Braunfels, German composer (Die Vögel -The Birds), dies at 71
Mar 21 Harry Lawrence Freeman, American opera composer (Epthelia), composer, teacher, and impresario (Freeman Opera Company), known as the 'Black Wagner', dies of a heart ailment at 84
Mar 28 Francis Brett Young, British physician and writer (Man About the House), dies at 69
Apr 2 Maud Barger-Wallach, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1908), dies at 83
Apr 2 Pudge Heffelfinger, American College Football Hall of Fame guard (3 x All American, Yale; first professional player 1892) and coach (Cal, Lehigh, Minnesota), dies at 86
Apr 4 Frederick Lonsdale, British playwright (Balkan Princess), dies at 73
Apr 5 Claude Delvincourt, French composer and pianist, dies at 66
Apr 9 Philip Greeley Clapp, American composer and educator (University of Iowa, 1919-54), dies at 65
Apr 10 Auguste Lumière, French engineer and filmmaker who made the 1st movie (Workers Leaving Lumière Factory), dies at 81
Apr 10 Ludwig Curtius, German archaeologist (Die antike Kunst), dies at 79
Apr 10 Oscar Mathisen, Norwegian speed skater (5-time World Champion all-round), dies at 65
Apr 12 Pim Mulier, Dutch sports organizer, founded the Dutch Football and Athletics Association, Koninklijke HFC, established hockey in the Netherlands and President of the International Skating Union (1892-94), dies at 89
Apr 13 Angus Lewis Macdonald, Canadian politician, Liberal premier of Nova Scotia (1933-40), dies in office at 63
Apr 14 Lillian "Lil" Green, American blues singer and songwriter ("Romance In The Dark"), dies at 39 [or 57, or 48 - year of birth disputed]
Apr 15 Arthur Fickenscher, American microtonal composer, and educator (University of Virginia, 1920-41), dies at 82
Apr 15 Juan Vicente Lecuna, Venezuelan diplomat and composer, dies at 54
Apr 17 Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, Romanian communist activist and sociologist, dies at 53
Apr 25 Joseph Hergesheimer, novelist (Java Head), dies

Apr 27 Torsten Ralf, Swedish operatic tenor (Daphne - "Apollo"), dies at 53
Apr 28 Léon Jouhaux, French socialist and co-founder UN's ILO (Nobel Peace Prize 1951), dies at 74
Apr 29 Ernst Heldring, Dutch ship owner and financier, dies at 82
May 1 Tom Tyler [Vincent Markowski], American actor (Stagecoach; She Wore a Yellow Ribbon), dies from heart failure at 50
May 2 Pauline Manifarges, Dutch contralto singer, dies at 82
May 4 Pauline de Haan-Manifarges, Dutch concert and opera contralto singer, dies at 82
May 10 George Hirst, English cricketer (36,323 1st-class runs, 2739 wickets), dies at 82
May 14 Heinz Guderian, German Army General (WWII - developed Panzer Division, advocated 'blitzkrieg'), and memoirist (Panzer Leader), dies at 65
May 15 William March, American writer (Company K), dies at 60
May 16 Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor (Vienna State Opera; Berlin State Opera), dies at 61
May 16 Werner Bischof, Swiss photographer (Magnum), dies accidentally in a road accident at 38
May 19 Aart A. van Schelven, Dutch church historian (Willem of Orange), dies at 73

May 21 János Hammerschlag, Hungarian composer, dies at 68
May 22 Charles "Chief" Bender, American Baseball HOF pitcher (only indigenous American in BHOF; World Series 1910, 11, 13; no-hitter 1910; Philadelphia A's), dies at 70
May 23 H R Bromley-Davenport, cricketer (batted in 4 Tests for England), dies

May 26 Franz Pfemfert, German journalist and writer, dies at 74
May 26 Lionel Conacher, Canadian Hockey HOF defenceman (Stanley Cup 1934 Chicago Black Hawks, 1935 Montreal Maroons) and politician (MP Trinity), dies from a heart attack at 54
May 27 Herzmanovsky-Orlando, writer, dies
May 28 Achille Longo, Italian composer and pedagogue, dies at 54
May 30 Ahmad Amin, Egyptian historian and author (My Life), dies at 67
Jun 1 Martin Andersen Nexø, Danish writer (Pelle Erobreren), dies at 84
Jun 4 Harold Hoffman, American politician (Governor of New Jersey 1935-38), dies at 58

Jun 9 Alain LeRoy Locke, African-American writer and philosopher “Father of the Harlem Renaissance”, dies at 68
Jun 10 Will Rossiter, British-American songwriter, music publisher, and composer (as W.R. Williams), dies at 87
Jun 13 Nikolai Obukhov, Russian composer, dies at 62
Jun 15 William Ewart Berry, British peer and newspaper publisher (The War Illustrated, The Sunday Times), dies at 74
Jun 17 Donato "Danny" Cedrone, American guitarist and bandleader (The Esquires; Bill Haley & His Comets - "Rock Around The Clock"), died of broken neck suffered falling down a staircase at 33
Jun 18 Albert Patterson, American politician and attorney, asassinated in Phenix City, Alabama, shortly after his designation as the Democratic candidate for Alabama Attorney General, at 60
Jun 21 Gideon Sundback, Swedish-American inventor, perfected the zipper, dies at 74 [1]
Jun 22 Don Hollenbeck, newscaster (CBS Weekend News), dies at 49
Jun 22 Karl Taylor Compton, American physicist and 9th President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dies at 66
Jun 25 Eduard M. Meijers, Dutch lawyer (Civil Code), dies at 74
Jun 27 Francis L Casadesus, French violinist, composer and conductor, dies at 83
Jun 28 Red Deer, in Milwaukee Zoo, oldest known deer, dies at 26 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Jul 3 Siegfried Handloser, German military physician (WWI; WWII - Chief of Armed Services Medical Services, 1942-44), and convicted Nazi war criminal, dies of cancer at 69
Jul 6 Dirk Verbeek, Dutch actor and director (Hofstad Stage), dies at 70
Jul 7 Vincas Krevė-Mickevičius, Lithuanian poet, philologist and playwright (founder of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences), dies at 71
Jul 9 Henri Dillon, French composer (Arlequin), dies in combat in Indo-China at 41
Jul 10 Calogero Vizzini, Sicilian Mafia boss, dies at 76

Jul 13 Mexican painter who explored questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender and race in Mexican society, dies of a pulmonary embolism at 47

Jul 13 Grantland Rice, American sportswriter (New York Herald Tribune 1914-30, Colliers 1925-37), dies from a stroke at 73
Jul 13 Irving Pichel, American actor and director ("Madame Butterfly"; "Oliver Twist"), dies at 63
Jul 14 Jacinto Benavente y Martinez, Spanish playwright (Nobel Prize for Literature 1922), dies at 87 [1]
Jul 14 Jackie Saunders, American silent screen actress (b. 1892)
Jul 17 Dirk Berend Nanninga, Dutch painter, dies at 85

Jul 19 Jean Roger-Ducasse, French composer, dies at 81
Jul 20 Blair Moody, American journalist (US Senator (D)-Michigan, 1951-52), dies at 52
Jul 24 Mary Church Terrell, American educator and civil rights activist (co-founder and President National Association of Colored Women, dies at 90
Jul 26 Ruth Bryan Owen, American politician (first woman appointed as a U.S. ambassador, Denmark 1933-36), dies at 68
Jul 29 Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (World Alllround Speed Skating champion 1905), dies at 75
Jul 31 Onofre Marimón, Argentine racing driver (b. 1923)
Aug 1 Charles-A Cingria, writer, dies
Aug 2 Rene Amengual, Chilean pianist, composer and educator, dies at 42

Aug 3 French author, novelist (Gigi, La Vagabonde) and actress, dies at 81

Aug 6 David Fairchild, American botanist and explorer (introduced over 200,000 plants to US), dies at 85
Aug 6 Theo Van Reijn, Dutch sculptor and lithograph, dies at 70
Aug 8 Gino Tagliapietra, Italian pianist and composer (Antologia di musica antica e moderna per pianoforte), dies at 67
Aug 11 Santo Trafficante, Sr., Sicilian-American mobster, dies at 68
Aug 13 Hermann W. S. Waltershausen, German musicologist and composer, dies at 71

Aug 17 Billy Murray, American singer (Denver Nightengale), dies at 77
Aug 19 Alcide de Gasperi, 30th Prime Minister of Italy (1945-53), dies at 73

Sep 3 Eugene Pallette, American actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Mark of Zorro), dies at 65
Sep 5 Eugen Schiffer, German lawyer and liberal politician, dies at 94
Sep 7 Bud Fisher, American cartoonist (Mutt and Jeff), dies at 69
Sep 9 Alfred Gradstein, Polish composer, dies at 49
Sep 10 Peter Anders, German opera singer, dies at 46
Sep 11 Licinio Refice, Italian priest and composer (Cecilia), dies at 69
Sep 19 Tibor Harsányi, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor who settled Paris, France, dies at 56
Sep 21 Kōkichi Mikimoto, Japanese inventor and entrepreneur (cultured pearls), dies at 96
Sep 24 Edward Pilgrim, British homeowner who committed suicide due to housing bureaucracy scandal, hangs himself at 53
Sep 25 Eugenio d'Ors, Spanish Catalan essayist and philosopher, dies at 71
Sep 26 Ellen Roosevelt, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1890), dies at 86
Sep 27 Maximilian von Weichs, German aristocrat and army officer (WWII Field Marshal; WWI Cavalryman), dies at 72
Sep 28 Bert Lytell, American actor (One Man's Family), dies at 69
Sep 28 George Harrison Shull, American plant geneticist, dies at 80
Sep 29 William John Gruffydd, Welsh poet and scholar, dies at 73
Oct 3 Herbert Prior, British actor (Caught Short, Slave of Desire), dies at 87
Oct 5 Flor Alpaerts, Flemish composer (Tyl Uilenspiegel, Pallieter), dies at 78
Oct 5 Oscar Charleston, American Baseball HOF CF (NgL Triple Crown 1921 St. Louis Giants, 1924, 25 Harrisburg Giants) and manager (NgL WS 1933, 35, 36 Pittsburgh Crawfords), dies of a stroke at 57
Oct 6 Hakon Børresen, Danish composer, dies at 78
Oct 8 Morten Korch, Danish author, dies at 78
Oct 9 Robert H. Jackson, American lawyer and politician (84th Supreme Court justice 1941-54), dies at 62
Oct 12 George Welch, American World War II flying ace (Medal of Honor nominee) and test pilot, dies in a plane crash of his experiential F-100 Super Sabre at 36
Oct 19 Hugh Duffy, American Baseball HOF outfielder (Triple Crown & MLB record .440 batting average, single season 1894 Boston Beaneaters), dies from heart failure at 87
Oct 20 Wilbur Shaw, American auto racer (Indianapolis 500 1937, 39, 40; Motorsports Hall of Fame of America 1991), dies in an airplane crash at 51
Oct 22 Jibanananda Das, Bengali poet (b. 1899)
Oct 22 Oswald de Andrade, Brazilian author (one of the modernist Group of Five), dies at 64
Oct 22 Prosper Cocquyt, Belgian brewer and pilot, dies at 54
Oct 23 Henri Zagwijn, Dutch composer and musicologist, dies at 76 [1]
Oct 25 Marika Stiernstedt, Swedish author (Ulla Bella), dies at 79
Oct 26 Floris Prims, Flemish priest (historian (archivist of Antwerp), dies at 72
Oct 27 Franco Alfano, Italian opera composer (Puccini's Turandot), dies at 78
Oct 27 Frank Druce, English cricket batsman (5 Tests, 1 x 50; Surrey CCC), dies at 79
Oct 27 Sydney Horler, English detective writer (Checkmate), dies at 66

Nov 4 Stig Dagerman, Swedish author (Burned Child), dies at 31
Nov 5 Oran "Hot Lips" Page, American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader, dies at 46
Nov 10 Édouard Le Roy, French mathematician and philosopher, dies at 84
Nov 10 Hussein Fatemi, Iran Foreign minister, executed
Nov 11 J. Rosamond Johnson, American composer ("Lift Every Voice And Sing"), dies at 81
Nov 13 Fay Baker, actress (Sorority Girl), dies at 60
Nov 13 Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German general (led the "blitzkrieg", 1st Panzer Group on Eastern Front), dies in a Russian prison at 73

Nov 15 American actor (It's A Wonderful Life; Dr. Kildare (films); Key Largo), dies at 76

Nov 16 Albert Francis Blakeslee, American botanist, dies at 80
Nov 19 Walter Bartley Wilson, English founding member of Cardiff City F.C., dies at 84
Nov 20 Clyde Cessna, American aviator and airplane manufacturer, dies at 74
Nov 21 Karol Rathaus, German-Austrian composer, dies at 59
Nov 21 Werner Elert, German Lutheran theologian, dies at 69
Nov 22 Andrej J. Vysjinski, Russian lawyer and UN ambassador, dies at 70
Nov 22 Moroni Olsen, American actor (Annie Oakley, Black Gold, Snow White), dies at 65
Nov 22 Roderick McMahon, Professional Wrestling/Boxing Booker (b. 1882)
Nov 26 Bill Doak, American baseball pitcher (NL ERA leader 1914, 21; St. Louis Cardinals), dies at 63

Nov 28 Italian-American nuclear physicist, gone fission, fermium (Nobel Prize 1938), dies of stomach cancer at 53

Nov 29 George Robey, English musical theatre actor and comedian, dies at 85
Nov 29 Ollie "Dink" Johnson, American Dixieland jazz clarinetist, pianist, and drummer, dies at 62
Nov 30 Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor and composer, dies at 68
Dec 1 Fred Rose, American songwriter and music publishing executive (Nashville's Acuff-Rose Music), dies of a heart attack at 57
Dec 3 Enrique Soro, Chilean composer, dies at 70
Dec 4 Nina Varzar, wife of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, dies at 46
Dec 8 Gladys George, American actress (Roaring Twenties), dies at 50
Dec 9 Bill McGowan, American Baseball HOF umpire (AL 1925-54; 8 x World Series; 4 x MLB All-Star Games), dies from a heart attack at 58
Dec 13 John Raymond Hubbell, American writer (b. 1879)
Dec 20 Emilis Melngailis, Latvian choral composer, folklorist, and conductor (Latvian Song and Dance Festival), dies at 80
Dec 20 James Hilton, English novelist and screenwriter (Goodbye Mr Chips, Lost Horizon), dies at 54
Dec 23 René Iché, French sculptor (b. 1897)
Dec 25 Johnny Ace, American rhythm and blues singer, accidentally shoots himself in the head at 25
Dec 25 Liberty Hyde Bailey, American botanist, horticulturalist and writer (Hortus), dies at 96
Dec 25 Rosario Scalero, composer, dies at 84
Dec 31 Peter Van Anrooy, Dutch conductor and composer (Piet Hein Rhapsodie), dies at 75

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Famous People Who Died in 1954