Notable Deaths on May 18

Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American actress whose career spanned five decades in film, stage and television. She portrayed the good witch Samantha Stephens on the popular television series Bewitched, which earned her five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations.

James Nathaniel Brown was an American professional football player, civil rights activist, and actor. He played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1965. Widely considered one of the greatest running backs of all time, as well as one of the greatest players in NFL history, Brown was selected to a Pro Bowl and All-Pro team every season he was in the league, and was recognized as the AP NFL Most Valuable Player three times. Brown won an NFL championship with the Browns in 1964. He led the league in rushing yards in eight out of his nine seasons, and by the time he retired, he held most major rushing records. In 1999, he was named the greatest professional football player ever by The Sporting News and the Associated Press.

Ian Kevin Curtis was an English singer, songwriter and musician. He was the lead vocalist, songwriter, and occasional guitarist of the band Joy Division, with whom he released the albums Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980).

Gustav Mahler was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect, which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 his compositions were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.

Charles Sidney Grodin was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. Known for his deadpan delivery and often cast as a put-upon straight man, Grodin became familiar as a supporting actor in many Hollywood comedies. After a small part in Rosemary's Baby in 1968, he played the lead in Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid (1972) where he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Grodin also starred in 11 Harrowhouse (1974), for which he also wrote the adaptation.

Thomas Kane Roberts was an American voice actor. He was known for his work in animation and video games, most notably the Star Wars franchise, voicing established characters Yoda, Admiral Ackbar, Boba Fett, Qui-Gon Jinn, and C-3PO. Other notable roles include Professor Utonium, Talking Dog, and HIM in The Powerpuff Girls, Darwin Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys, Mr. Herriman in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Woodhouse in Archer, taking the role over from George Coe following his death in 2015.

Roger Eugene Ailes was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's 1989 New York City mayoral election. In July 2016, he left Fox News after allegations of sexually harassing female Fox employees, including on-air hosts Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Andrea Tantaros.

Kenneth Charles Osmond was an American actor and police officer. Beginning a career as a child actor at the age of four, Osmond played the role of Eddie Haskell on the late 1950s to early 1960s television situation comedy Leave It to Beaver and reprised it on the 1980s revival series The New Leave It to Beaver. Typecast by the role, he found it hard to get other acting work and became a Los Angeles police officer. After retiring from police work, he resumed his acting career.

Velupillai Prabhakaran was an Eelam Tamil nationalist, revolutionary and guerrilla leader. A major figure of Tamil nationalism, he founded and led the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE was a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka in reaction to the oppression of the country's Tamil population by the Sri Lankan government. Under his direction, the LTTE undertook a military campaign against the Sri Lankan government for more than 25 years.

David Smith was an English professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring names Davey Boy Smith and The British Bulldog.

Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. was an American character actor famed for his work in film noir. He played cheerful, brainy collegiates until he was cast against type as the bug-eyed baby-faced killer Wilmer Cook in the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon. He went on to play deceptively mild-mannered villains. Cook's acting career spanned more than 60 years, with roles in productions including The Big Sleep, Shane, The Killing, House on Haunted Hill and Rosemary's Baby.

Steve Forrest was an American actor who was well known for his role as Lt. Hondo Harrelson in the hit television series S.W.A.T., which was broadcast on ABC from 1975 to 1976. He was also known for his performance in Mommie Dearest (1981).

Alexander Borisovich Godunov was a Soviet and American ballet dancer and film actor. A member of the Bolshoi Ballet, he became the troupe's premier danseur, and received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1976. Three years later, he defected to the United States. While continuing to dance, he also began working as a supporting actor in Hollywood films. He had prominent roles in films such as Witness (1985) and Die Hard (1988).

Ernest R. Davis was an American college football player who was a halfback for the Syracuse Orangemen and won the Heisman Trophy in 1961. He was the award's first black recipient. Davis was selected first overall by the Washington Redskins in the 1962 NFL draft but was almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns. He was diagnosed with leukemia that same year, and died shortly after at age 23 without ever playing in a professional game. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979 and was the subject of the 2008 film The Express: The Ernie Davis Story.

Stephen Austin Eubanks was an American motivational speaker on addiction and recovery. He was one of the best known survivors of the Columbine High School massacre, both in its immediate aftermath and in post-event commentary.

Mary McLeod Bethune was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, and proceeded to establish the Aframerican Women's Journal, which was the flagship journal of the organization. She presided over other Black American women's organizations, including the National Association for Colored Women. Shortly after joining the National Youth Administration in 1935, Bethune became the first Black woman to lead a federal agency when she was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the head of a department within the NYA.

David Alexander Johnston was an American United States Geological Survey (USGS) volcanologist who was killed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington. A principal scientist on the USGS monitoring team, Johnston was killed in the eruption while manning an observation post six miles (10 km) away on the morning of May 18, 1980. He was the first to report the eruption, transmitting "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" before he was swept away by a lateral blast; despite a thorough search, Johnston's body was never found, but state highway workers discovered remnants of his USGS trailer in 1993.

Wayne Anthony Allwine was an American voice actor, sound effects editor, and foley artist. He was best known as the third official voice of Mickey Mouse in English and the first official casting following the establishment of Disney Character Voices International in 1988. To date, he holds the record for the longest-running voice actor to play Mickey Mouse, having performed the role for 32 years. He was notably married to Russi Taylor in 1991, who voiced Minnie Mouse until her death in 2019.

Túpac Amaru II was an Indigenous cacique who led a large Andean rebellion against the Spanish in Peru as self-proclaimed Sapa Inca of the new Inca Empire. He was later elevated to a mythical status in the Peruvian struggle for independence and indigenous rights movement, as well as an inspiration to myriad causes in Spanish America and beyond.

William Saroyan was an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer of Armenian descent. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. When the studio rejected his original 240-page treatment, he turned it into a novel, The Human Comedy.

Elvin Ray Jones was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such albums as My Favorite Things, A Love Supreme, Ascension, and Live at Birdland. After 1966, Jones led his own trio, and later larger groups under the name the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. His brothers, Hank and Thad, were also celebrated jazz musicians with whom he occasionally recorded. Elvin was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1995. In his The History of Jazz, jazz historian and critic Ted Gioia calls Jones "one of the most influential drummers in the history of jazz". He was also ranked at Number 23 on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time".

Jeannette Pickering Rankin was an American politician and women's rights advocate who became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana in 1916 for one term, then was elected again in 1940. Rankin remains the only woman ever elected to Congress from Montana.

Roderick Anthony Burton II better known by his stage name Dolla, was an American rapper from Atlanta, Georgia. Burton embarked on his music career in 2003, with hip hop group Da Razkalz Cru, under the pseudonym Bucklyte. The group quickly disbanded, and Burton went on to work as a model for the Sean John clothing line. In mid 2006, Burton signed to Akon's Konvict Muzik label. Burton released three singles from 2007 to 2010. The first, his commercial debut single "Who the Fuck Is That?", featuring T-Pain and Tay Dizm, charted on the Billboard Hot 100, along with his second single "Make a Toast", featuring Lil Wayne charting on the charts Hot 100 as well.

Sir Anthony John Francis O'Reilly was an Irish businessman and international rugby union player. He was known for his try scoring in rugby, his involvement in the Independent News & Media Group, which he led from 1973 to 2009, and as CEO and chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company. He was the leading shareholder of Waterford Wedgwood and a founder and major supporter of The Ireland Funds. A citizen of both Ireland and the United Kingdom, he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor for his services to Northern Ireland.

Arthur Joseph O'Connell was an American stage, film and television actor, who achieved prominence in character roles in the 1950s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both Picnic (1955) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish virtuoso composer, conductor, and pianist. He is one of the foremost composers of the post-romantic era who also exerted a significant influence on his contemporaries and younger composers. He is best known for his piano works that incorporate Spanish folk music idioms and elements. His compositions, particularly his suite Iberia (1905–1908), are considered masterpieces and have influenced both European classical music and Spanish nationalism. Isaac Albéniz was close to the Generation of '98.

George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first, his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but Meredith gradually established a reputation as a novelist. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859) briefly scandalised Victorian literary circles. Of his later novels, the most enduring is The Egoist (1879), though in his lifetime his greatest success was Diana of the Crossways (1885). His novels were innovative in their attention to characters' psychology, and also portrayed social change. His style, in both poetry and prose, was noted for its syntactic complexity; Oscar Wilde likened it to "chaos illumined by brilliant flashes of lightning". Meredith was an encourager of other novelists, as well as an influence on them; among those to benefit were Robert Louis Stevenson and George Gissing. Meredith was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.

Jacques Marquette, sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Ignace. In 1673, Marquette, along with Louis Jolliet, an explorer born near Quebec City, explored and mapped the northern portion of the Mississippi River Valley.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Rogers was a British Army officer and frontiersman. Born in Methuen, Massachusetts, he fought in King George's War, the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. During the French and Indian War, Rogers raised and commanded Rogers' Rangers, a light infantry unit trained for carrying out asymmetric warfare.

Dorothy Ruth Pirone was the biological daughter of the American baseball player George H. (Babe) Ruth and his mistress Juanita Jennings, born Juanita Grenandtz. She was adopted by Babe and his first wife Helen Woodford Ruth of Boston, Massachusetts. She wrote a 1988 memoir of her father, titled My Dad, the Babe.

Reid Turner Blackburn was an American photographer killed in the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. A photojournalist covering the eruption for a local newspaper—the Vancouver, Washington, The Columbian—as well as National Geographic magazine and the United States Geological Survey, he was caught at Coldwater Camp in the blast.

Elias Ashmole was an English antiquary, politician, astrologer and alchemist. Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Ashmole fought as a Royalist officer during the English Civil War, serving in the artillery of Lord Astley's regiment at the rank of captain. Following the Stuart Restoration of Charles II in 1660 Ashmole was rewarded with several lucrative offices. In his later years, he collected notes on his life in diary form to serve as source material for a biography. His diary was posthumously published in 1717.

Werner Sombart was a German economist, historian and sociologist. Head of the "Youngest Historical School," he was one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century. The term "late capitalism" is accredited to him. The concept of "creative destruction" associated with capitalism is also of his coinage.

Pope John I was the bishop of Rome from 13 August 523 to his death on 18 May 526. He was a native of Siena, in Italy. Pope John I played a pivotal role in standardizing how the Western Church calculated the date of Easter, with the help of the monk Dionysius Exiguus, in 525. He was sent on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople by the Ostrogoth King Theoderic to negotiate better treatment for Arians. Although John was relatively successful, upon his return to Ravenna, Theoderic had him imprisoned for allegedly conspiring with Constantinople. The frail pope died of neglect and ill-treatment.

Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music."

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French playwright and diplomat of the Age of Enlightenment. Best known for his three Figaro plays, at various times in his life he was also a watchmaker, inventor, musician, spy, publisher, arms dealer, and revolutionary.

Raymond George Gosling was a British scientist. While a PhD student at King's College, London he worked under the supervision of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin. The crystallographic experiments of Franklin and Gosling, together with others by Wilkins, produced data that helped James Watson and Francis Crick to infer the structure of DNA.

Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was a Russian filmmaker. A member of the European Film Academy, he began his career by creating mostly arthouse pictures and music videos but gained significant mainstream popularity in action crime drama movies Brother (1997) and Brother 2 (2000), both of which starred Sergei Bodrov, Jr. Later, Balabanov directed the films Cargo 200 (2007), Morphine (2008), and A Stoker (2010), which also received critical recognition.

İbrahim Kaypakkaya was a Turkish Maoist revolutionary who founded the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML) and started the Maoist insurgency in Turkey. He is revered by many today as a symbol of resistance and as an aggregator of the ideas of other major leaders and thinkers in Marxism–Leninism and Maoism. Kaypakkaya was captured after being wounded in an engagement with the Turkish military in Tunceli Province in 1973, and died in Diyarbakır Prison four months later.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music. One of the most famous Lieder performers of the post-war period, he is best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly "Winterreise" of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.

Saint Erik, also called Eric IX or Erik Jedvardsson was King of Sweden from c. 1156 until his death in 1160. The Roman Martyrology of the Catholic Church names him as a saint memorialized on 18 May. He was the founder of the House of Erik, which ruled Sweden with interruptions from c. 1156 to 1250.

Pauline Viardot was a French dramatic mezzo-soprano, composer and pedagogue of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, she came from a musical family and took up music at a young age. She began performing as a teenager and had a long and illustrious career as a star performer.

Rupert of the Palatinate, a member of the House of Wittelsbach, was Elector Palatine from 1398 and King of the Romans from 1400 until his death.

Elijah Craig was an American Baptist preacher, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He has sometimes, although rather dubiously, been credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey.

Eliza Orzeszkowa was a Polish novelist and a leading writer of the Positivism movement during the foreign Partitions of Poland. In 1905, together with Henryk Sienkiewicz, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Jean de Lorraine was the third son of the ruling Duke of Lorraine, and a French cardinal, who was archbishop of Reims (1532–1538), Lyon (1537–1539), and Narbonne (1524–1550), bishop of Metz, and Administrator of the dioceses of Toul, Verdun, Thérouanne, Luçon, Albi, Valence, Nantes and Agen (1538–1550). He was a personal friend, companion, and advisor of King Francis I of France. Jean de Lorraine was the richest prelate in the reign of Francis I, as well as the most flagrant pluralist. He is one of several cardinals known as the Cardinal de Lorraine.

Wubbo Johannes Ockels was a Dutch physicist and astronaut with the European Space Agency who, in 1985, became the first Dutch citizen in space when he flew on STS-61-A as a payload specialist. He later became professor of aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology.

Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran was a French physician who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1907 for his discoveries of parasitic protozoans as causative agents of infectious diseases such as malaria and trypanosomiasis. Following his father, Louis Théodore Laveran, he took up military medicine as his profession. He obtained his medical degree from University of Strasbourg in 1867.

Chukwuedu Nathaniel II Nwokolo was a Nigerian physician specialist in tropical diseases. He was recognised for discovering and mapping out the area of paragonimiasis lung disease in Eastern Nigeria, with a study of the disease in Africa and clinical research for its control. He founded SICREP: Sickle Cell Research Programme to effectively fight the disease in Nigeria and globally.

Clarkson Frederick Stanfield was an English artist best known for his large-scale paintings of marine art and landscapes. A former sailor he became celebrated for his Romantic seascapes. Like his friend and colleague David Roberts he initially achieved recognition for his role as a scenic designer working at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane during the Regency era.

Chen Qimei, courtesy name Yingshi (英士), was a Chinese revolutionary activist. He was a key figure of the Green Gang, a close political ally of Sun Yat-sen, and an early mentor of Chiang Kai-shek. He was one of the founders of the Republic of China, and the uncle of CC Clique leaders Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu.

Hans-Peter Dürr was a German physicist. He worked on nuclear and quantum physics, elementary particles and gravitation, epistemology, and philosophy, and he advocated responsible scientific and energy policies. In 1987, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his profound critique of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and his work to convert high technology to peaceful uses".

Kaiketsu Masateru was a Japanese sumo wrestler, who reached the second highest rank of ōzeki on two occasions. He also won two top division tournament championships. After his retirement in 1979 he became a coach under the name of Hanaregoma-oyakata and established Hanaregoma stable. He was also chairman of the Japan Sumo Association from 2010 to 2012.

Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky was a Baltic German chess master and theoretician, known for his contributions to chess theory, as well for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, known as the "Immortal Game". Kieseritzky's name became associated with several openings and opening variations, such as the Kieseritzky Gambit, Kieseritzky Attack, and the Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit.

Harold Homer Chase, nicknamed "Prince Hal", was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position. During his career, he played for the New York Highlanders (1905–1913), Chicago White Sox (1913–1914), Buffalo Blues (1914–1915), Cincinnati Reds (1916–1918), and New York Giants (1919).

Maurice William Tate was an English cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s and the leader of England's Test bowling attack for a long time during this period. He was also the first Sussex cricketer to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket.

Vladislaus II of Opole, nicknamed Naderspan, was Duke of Opole from 1356, Count palatine of Hungary (1367–1372), Duke of Wieluń (1370–1392), Governor of Ruthenia (1372–1378), Count palatine of Poland (1378) as well as Duke of Dobrzyń, Inowrocław (1378–1392), Krnov and Kuyavia (1385–1392).

Admiral Sir Charles Hardy was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain between 1764 and 1780. He served as governor of New York from 1755 to 1757.

Jo Benkow was a Norwegian politician and writer, notable for being an important person in the Conservative Party of Norway, and President of the Parliament 1985–1993. He was also President of the Nordic Council in 1983.

Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid was a German chess grandmaster. He was born in Radebeul in Saxony into a family who were the co-owners of the Karl May Press, which published the German Karl May adventure novels.

Jean Gaspard Félix Lacher Ravaisson-Mollien was a French philosopher, 'perhaps France's most influential philosopher in the second half of the nineteenth century'. He was originally and remains more commonly known as Félix Ravaisson.

Halldór Ásgrímsson was an Icelandic politician, who served as prime minister of Iceland from 15 September 2004 to 15 June 2006 and was the leader of the Progressive Party from 1994 to 2006.

Stephen M. "Steve" Wolownik was a pioneer in the Russian and Eastern European music community in the United States. He was a co-founder of the Balalaika and Domra Association of America.

Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo was an English engineer who was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine.

Francis Henry Walsh was an Australian politician who was the 34th Premier of South Australia from 1965 to 1967, representing the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Domenico di Pace Beccafumi was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter active predominantly in Siena. He is considered one of the last undiluted representatives of the Sienese school of painting.

Sir Louis-Napoléon Casault was a Quebec lawyer, judge, professor and political figure. He represented Bellechasse in the 1st Canadian Parliament from 1867 to 1870 as a Conservative member.

Stephen I of Constantinople, called the Macedonian, was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 886 to 893.

Frederick of Lower Lorraine was a younger son of Frederick, Lord of Gleiberg.

Stanisław Lubieniecki was a Polish Socinian theologist, historian, astronomer, and writer. He is the eponym of the lunar crater Lubiniezky.

Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov-Rymniksky, Prince of Italy was a Russian general and military theorist in the service of the Russian Empire.

John Douglas was a Scottish scholar and Anglican bishop.

Isabella Glyn was a well-known Victorian-era Shakespearean actress.

Ōnishiki Daigorō was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler. He was the sport's 28th yokozuna.

Jacob Fichman, also transliterated as Yakov Fichman, was an acclaimed Hebrew poet, essayist and literary critic.

Jill Dorothy Ireland was an English actress.

Obaidullah Aleem was a Pakistani poet of Urdu language.

Elizabeth R. Schwartz was an American athlete and winner of the first Olympic 100 metres for women.

Jaan Eilart was an Estonian phytogeographer, landscape ecologist, cultural historian and conservationist.

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes was a French physicist and the Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 1991.

Joseph Pevney was an American film and television director.

Dobrica Ćosić was a Yugoslav and Serbian writer, politician and political theorist.

Jacque Fresco was an American futurist and self-described social engineer. Self-taught, he worked in a variety of positions related to industrial design.

Alice Elizabeth Stewart was an American communications director who worked on five Republican presidential campaigns before joining CNN as a commentator.