Did you know about Peter Ustinov
In 1992, Ustinov was awarded with the British Academy Britannia Award.
Notable Deaths on March 28
March 28 has 95 recorded notable deaths across history, from 193 to 2026. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2004 — Peter Ustinov
English-Swiss actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
95 source records
193 – 2026
Today in history
Major events on March 28
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor.
Did you know about Joseph Edward Duncan
Joseph Edward Duncan III was an American convicted serial killer and child molester who was on death row in federal prison following the 2005 kidnappings and murders of members of the Groene family of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Did you know about Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century.
Did you know about James Brudenell
Lieutenant-General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan was a British Army officer who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, leading its disastrous charge at the Battle of Balaclava.
More major people who died on March 28
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1943
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1873)
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness, dense contrapuntal textures, and rich orchestral colours. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output and he used his skills as a performer to fully explore the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument.
2021
Joseph Edward Duncan
American serial killer (born 1963)
Joseph Edward Duncan III was an American convicted serial killer and child molester who was on death row in federal prison following the 2005 kidnappings and murders of members of the Groene family of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He was also serving 11 consecutive sentences of life without parole for the 1997 murder of Anthony Martinez of Beaumont, California. Additionally, he confessed to—but had not been charged with—the 1996 murder of two girls, Sammiejo White and Carmen Cubias, in Seattle, Washington. At the time of the attack on the Groene family, Duncan was on the run from a child molestation charge in Minnesota.
1994
Eugène Ionesco
Romanian-French playwright and critic (born 1909)
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco instigated a revolution in ideas and techniques of drama, beginning with his "anti play", The Bald Soprano, which contributed to the beginnings of what is known as the Theatre of the Absurd. He wrote a number of plays that, following the ideas of the philosopher Albert Camus, explore concepts of absurdism and surrealism. He was made a member of the Académie française in 1970, and was awarded the 1970 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and the 1973 Jerusalem Prize.
1868
James Brudenell
7th Earl of Cardigan, English lieutenant and politician (born 1797)
Lieutenant-General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan was a British Army officer who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, leading its disastrous charge at the Battle of Balaclava. Throughout his life in politics and his long military career, Cardigan characterised the arrogant and extravagant aristocrat of the period. His progression through the British army was marked by many episodes of extraordinary incompetence, but also by generosity to the men under his command and genuine bravery. As a member of the aristocracy, he had actively and steadfastly opposed any political reform in Britain but, in the last year of his life, he relented and came to acknowledge that such reform would bring benefit to all classes of society.
1947
Karol Świerczewski
Polish general (born 1897)
Karol Wacław Świerczewski was a Polish and Soviet Red Army general and statesman. He was a Bolshevik Party member and served in the Soviet Red Army during the Russian Civil War and participated in the wars against the Polish and Ukrainian Republics. He also participated alongside the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. At the start of World War II In 1939, he participated in the Soviet invasion of Poland. At the end of the war he was installed as one of leaders of the Soviet-sponsored Polish Provisional Government of National Unity. Soon later, Świerczewski died in a country-road ambush shot by the militants from OUN-UPA. He was an icon of communist propaganda for the following several decades.
1974
Dorothy Fields
American songwriter (born 1905)
Dorothy Fields was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote more than 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Her best-known pieces include "The Way You Look Tonight" (1936), "A Fine Romance" (1936), "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1930), "Don't Blame Me" (1948), "Pick Yourself Up" (1936), "I'm in the Mood for Love" (1935), "You Couldn't Be Cuter" (1938) and "Big Spender" (1966). Throughout her career, she collaborated with various influential figures in the American musical theater, including Jerome Kern, Cy Coleman, Irving Berlin, Arthur Schwartz, and Jimmy McHugh. Along with Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, Bernice Petkere, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood female songwriters.
2009
Janet Jagan
6th President of Guyana (born 1920)
Janet Rosenberg Jagan was an American-born Guyanese politician who served as the 6th President of Guyana from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female president of Guyana, and the first American-born woman to serve as a head of state. She previously served as the first female Prime Minister of Guyana from 17 March 1997 to 19 December 1997. The wife of Cheddi Jagan, whom she succeeded as president, she was awarded Guyana's highest national award, the Order of Excellence, in 1993, and the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for Women's Rights in 1998.
2013
Gus Triandos
American baseball player and scout (born 1930)
Gus Triandos was an American professional baseball player and scout. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher and a first baseman, most prominently as a member of the Baltimore Orioles where he was a four-time All-Star player. He also played for the New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers of the American League (AL) and the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros of the National League (NL). In 1981, he was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame. Triandos is notable for being the first catcher in MLB history to catch a no-hitter in both the American League and the National League, catching a no-hitter by Hoyt Wilhelm in 1958 while on the Orioles in the AL and Jim Bunning's perfect game while on the Phillies in the NL.
1942
Miguel Hernández
Spanish poet and playwright (born 1910)
Miguel Hernández Gilabert was a 20th-century Spanish-language poet and playwright associated with the Generation of '27 and the Generation of '36 movements. Born and raised in a family of low resources, he was self-taught in what refers to literature, and struggled against an unfavourable environment to build up his intellectual education, such as a father who physically abused him for spending time with books instead of working, and who took him out of school as soon as he finished his primary education. At school, he became a friend of Ramón Sijé, a well-educated boy who lent and recommended books to Hernández, and whose death would inspire his most famous poem, Elegy.
1690
Emmanuel Tzanes
Greek Renaissance painter (born 1610)
Emmanuel Tzanes, also known as Bounialis, Emmanuel Tzane-Bounialis, Emmanuel Zane, or Emmanuel Tzane, was a Greek Renaissance iconographer, author, clergyman, and educator. He spent the latter half of his life in Venice, where he was parish priest of the church of San Giorgio dei Greci and a member of the Flanginian School run by the city's Greek Confraternity. Tzanes painted icons in the style of the Cretan school, influenced by contemporary trends in Venetian painting. His known extant works, over 130 in number, can be found in public foundations, private collections, churches and monasteries in Greece. The most popular of these is The Holy Towel, finished in 1659. Tzanes was a collaborator with Philotheos Skoufos, and brothers with the painter Konstantinos Tzanes and the poet Marinos Tzanes.
2015
Gene Saks
American actor and director (born 1921)
Gene Saks was an American director and actor. An inductee of the American Theater Hall of Fame, his acting career began with a Broadway debut in 1949. As a director, he was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning three for his direction of I Love My Wife, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues. He also directed a number of films during his career. He was married to Bea Arthur from 1950 until 1978, and subsequently to Keren Saks from 1980 to his death in 2015.
1884
Georgios Zariphis
Greek banker and financier (born 1810)
Georgios Y. Zariphis, also known as Yorgo Zarifi, was a prominent Ottoman Greek banker and financier. He was also well known as a prominent benefactor of his time. Zariphis met Sultan Abdul Hamid II when the latter was a shahzade with a low expectation of ascending to the throne. The prince, having financial troubles, called on the expertise of Zariphis to manage his personal wealth. After Abdul Hamid II became sultan, he continued to utilize Zarifi's advisory services during the First Constitutional Era.
1958
W. C. Handy
American trumpet player and composer (born 1873)
William Christopher Handy was an American composer and musician who referred to himself as the Father of the Blues. He was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States. One of many musicians who played the distinctively American blues music, Handy did not create the blues genre but was one of the first to publish music in the blues form, thereby taking the blues from a regional music style with a limited audience to a new level of popularity.
1934
Mahmoud Mokhtar
Egyptian sculptor and educator (born 1891)
Mahmoud Mukhtar was an Egyptian sculptor. He attended the College of Fine Arts in Cairo upon its opening in 1908 by Prince Yusuf Kamal, and was part of the original "Pioneers" of the Egyptian Art movement. Despite his early death, he greatly impacted the realization and formation of contemporary Egyptian art. His work is credited with signaling the beginning of the Egyptian modernist movement, and he is often referred to as the father of modern Egyptian sculpture.
2012
Addie L. Wyatt
African American labor leader (born 1924)
Addie L. Wyatt was a leader in the United States Labor movement and a civil rights activist. Wyatt is known for being the first African-American woman elected international vice president of a major labor union, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union. Wyatt began her career in the union in the early 1950s and advanced in leadership. In 1975, with the politician Barbara Jordan, she was the first African-American woman named by Time magazine as Person of the Year.
2023
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Japanese composer, record producer, and actor (born 1952)
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his YMO bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. As a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Academy Award (Oscar), BAFTA, Grammy and two Golden Globe Awards.
2026
Marinella
Greek singer (born 1938)
Kyriaki Papadopoulou, known by her stage name Marinella, was a Greek folk singer whose career spanned several decades. Marinella was well regarded due to her impressive vocal range. Since the beginning of her professional singing career in 1956, she released 66 solo albums, and was also featured on many albums by other musicians. She represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, marking the country's first entry in the contest.
2006
Caspar Weinberger
American captain, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Defense (born 1917)
Caspar Willard Weinberger was an American politician and businessman who served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades as a Republican, most notably as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987. During the Iran–Contra investigation, he was indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing government investigations but was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush before facing trial.
592
Guntram
French king (born 532)
Saint Gontrand, also called Gontran, Gontram, Guntram, Gunthram, Gunthchramn, and Guntramnus, was the king of the Kingdom of Orléans from AD 561 to AD 592. He was the third-eldest and second-eldest-surviving son of Chlothar I and Ingunda. On his father's death in 561, he became king of a fourth of the Kingdom of the Franks, and made his capital at Orléans. The name "Gontrand" denotes "War Raven".