Deaths in 1986

	Contents
January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
← 1985	1986	1987 →

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1986. 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.

Deaths in 1986

January

January 4
- Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)
- Phil Lynott, Irish musician, lead singer and bassist (Thin Lizzy) (b. 1949)
January 5 – Ilmari Salminen, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1902)
January 6 – Una Merkel, American actress (b. 1903)
January 7 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (b. 1917)
January 10 – Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
January 12 – Juan Carlos Corazzo, Uruguayan football player (b. 1907)
January 13 – Abdul Fattah Ismail, Leader of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) (b. 1939)
January 14 – Donna Reed, American actress (b. 1921)
January 16 – Herbert W. Armstrong, founded the Worldwide Church of God (b. 1892)
January 17 – Abdul Majid Kubar, 4th Prime Minister of Libya (b. 1909)
January 23 – Willard Van Dyke, American filmmaker and photographer (b. 1906)
January 24
- Sir Victor Crutchley, British admiral (b. 1893)
- L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)^[1]
- Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
January 27
- Nikhil Banerjee, Indian classical sitarist (b. 1931)
- Lilli Palmer, German actress (b. 1914)
January 28 – In the Challenger disaster:
- Gregory Jarvis, American astronaut (b. 1944)
- Christa McAuliffe, American astronaut and teacher (b. 1948)
- Ronald McNair, American astronaut (b. 1950)
- Ellison Onizuka, American astronaut (b. 1946)
- Judith Resnik, American astronaut (b. 1949)
- Dick Scobee, American astronaut (b. 1939)
- Michael J. Smith, American astronaut (b. 1945)
January 29 – Leif Erickson, American actor (b. 1911)

February

February 1
- Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1902)
- Ida Rhodes, American mathematician, pioneer in computer programming (b. 1900)
February 6 – Minoru Yamasaki, Japanese architect, designed the twin towers of the World Trade Center (b. 1912)
February 7 – Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician (b. 1923)
February 10 – Brian Aherne, British actor (b. 1902)
February 11 – Frank Herbert, American author (b. 1920)
February 14 – Edmund Rubbra, British composer (b. 1901)
February 16 – Howard da Silva, American actor (b. 1909)
February 17
- Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (b. 1895)
- Paul Stewart, American actor (b. 1908)
February 19
- Francisco Mignone, Brazilian classical music composer (b. 1897)
- Barry Seal, American smuggler of drugs and arms, aircraft pilot, and money launderer and former Trans Worlds Airlines pilot (b. 1939)
- Adolfo Celi, Italian actor and director (b. 1922)
February 20 – Bert Schneider, Canadian boxer (b. 1897)
February 21
- Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
- Mart Stam, Dutch architect (b. 1899)
February 24 – Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician and "Father of medicare" in Canada (b. 1904)
February 25 – Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italian screenwriter, film director and novelist (b. 1927)
February 27 – Jacques Plante, Canadian hockey player (b. 1929)
February 28 – Olof Palme, Swedish politician, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)

March

March 4
- Richard Manuel, Canadian musician (The Band) (b. 1943)
- Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (b. 1936)
March 6
- Adolph Caesar, American actor (b. 1933)
- Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist (b. 1887)
- Zhu Guangqian, Chinese esthetician, modern literary theorist, and scholar (b.1897)
March 10 – Ray Milland, Welsh-American actor and director (b. 1907)
March 13 – Eugen Gerstenmaier, German politician, 20 July Plotter (b. 1906)
March 15 – Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez, Mexican Roman Catholic archbishop and cardinal (b. 1895)
March 17 – John Bagot Glubb, British soldier (b. 1897)
March 18 – Bernard Malamud, American writer (b. 1914)
March 19 – Jon Lormer, American actor (b. 1906)
March 22
- Charles Starrett, American actor (b. 1903)
- Martin Harlinghausen, German air force general (b. 1902)
March 23
- Moshe Feinstein, Orthodox rabbi (b. 1895)
- Anastasia Zuyeva, Soviet actress (b. 1896)
March 24 – Michael, Prince of Montenegro (b. 1908)
March 28 – Virginia Gilmore, American actress (b. 1919)
March 29 – Harry Ritz, American actor (b. 1907)
March 30 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (b. 1899)
March 31 – Jerry Paris, American actor and director (b. 1925)

April

April 1 – Erik Bruhn, Danish ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1928)
April 3 – Sir Peter Pears, English tenor (b. 1910)
April 7 – Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
April 8 – Yukiko Okada, Japanese idol singer (b. 1967)
April 14
- Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (b. 1908)
- Jole Bovio Marconi, Italian archaeologist and prehistorian (b. 1897)
April 15
- Jean Genet, French writer (b. 1910)
- Tim McIntire, American actor (b. 1944)
- Robert Marjolin, French economist and politician, 1st Secretary-General of the OECD (b. 1911)
April 17
- Paul Costello, American Olympic rower – double sculls (b. 1894)
- Marcel Dassault, French aircraft industrialist (b. 1892)
- Bessie Head, South African writer (b. 1937)
April 19 – Alvin Childress, American actor (b. 1907)
April 20 – Aleksei Arbuzov, Soviet playwright (b. 1908)
April 21 – Teodoro Casana Robles, Peruvian lawyer, historian, journalist, archaeologist, photographer and geographer (b. 1900)
April 22 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religions and writer (b. 1907)
April 23
- Harold Arlen, American music composer (b. 1905)
- Jim Laker, English cricketer (b. 1922)
- Otto Preminger, Austrian-American film director (b. 1905)
April 24 – The Duchess of Windsor (b. 1896)
April 26
- Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)
- Bessie Love, American actress (b. 1898)
- Hermann Gmeiner, Austrian educator (b. 1919)
- Valery Khodemchuk, Soviet engineer, working at Chernobyl reactor 4 (b. 1951)
April 27 – J. Allen Hynek, American ufologist (b. 1910)
April 30 – Robert Stevenson, English film director (b. 1905)

May

May 2 – Henri Toivonen, Finnish rally car driver (b. 1956)
May 3 – Robert Alda, American actor (b. 1914)
May 7 – Herma Szabo, Austrian figure skater (b. 1902)
May 9
- Herschel Bernardi, American actor (b. 1923)
- Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa (b. 1914)
May 11
- Vladimir Pravik, Soviet firefighter (b. 1962)
- Aleksandr Akimov, Soviet engineer who was the shift supervisor during the events of the Chernobyl disaster (b. 1953)
May 12
- Elisabeth Bergner, Austrian actress (b. 1897)
- Alicia Moreau de Justo, Argentine physician, politician, pacifist and human rights activist (b. 1885)
May 13 – Vasily Ignatenko, Soviet firefighter who responded to the Chernobyl disaster (b. 1961)
May 15
- Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (b. 1958)
- Theodore White, American writer (b. 1915)
May 20 – Helen B. Taussig, American cardiologist (b. 1898)
May 22 – Georgie Nokes, American child actor (b. 1936)
May 23
- Sterling Hayden, American actor (b. 1916)
- Altiero Spinelli, Italian political theorist and European federalist (b. 1907)
May 24 – Yakima Canutt, American actor and stuntman (b. 1895)
May 25 – Chester Bowles, American politician (b. 1901)
May 26 – Gian-Carlo Coppola, American film producer (b. 1963)
May 28 – Lurene Tuttle, American actress (b. 1907)
May 30 – Perry Ellis, American fashion designer (b. 1940)
May 31 – James Rainwater, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)

June

June 3 – Dame Anna Neagle, English actress (b. 1904)
June 5 – Bryan Grant, American tennis champion (b. 1909)
June 11 – Chesley Bonestell, American painter (b. 1888)
June 13 – Benny Goodman, American jazz musician (b. 1909)
June 14
- Alan Jay Lerner, American lyricist (b. 1918)
- Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (b. 1899)
June 16 – Maurice Duruflé, French composer (b. 1902)
June 17 – Kate Smith, American singer (b. 1907)
June 19
- Len Bias, American basketball player (b. 1963)
- Coluche, stage name of Michel Colucci, French comedian and humorist (b. 1944)
June 23 – Sir Moses Finley, British classicist (b. 1912)
June 26 – Kunio Maekawa, Japanese architect (b. 1905)
June 27 – Don Rogers, American football player (b. 1962)
June 28 – Mary Anderson, American actress (b. 1897)