Notable Deaths on May 19

Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States, where he had a highly successful Hollywood film career. Colman starred in silent films and successfully transitioned to sound, aided by his distinctive, pleasing voice. He was most popular during the 1930s and 1940s. Colman received Oscar nominations for Bulldog Drummond (1929), Condemned (1929), and Random Harvest (1942). He starred in several classic films, including A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). Colman also played the starring role in the Technicolor classic Kismet (1944), with Marlene Dietrich. In 1947, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film A Double Life.

José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was a political activist and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence on, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt.

Coleman Randolph Hawkins, nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: "There were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn." Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches". Hawkins denied being first and noted his contemporaries Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins's virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, Vido Musso, Herschel Evans, Buddy Tate, and Don Byas, and through them the later tenormen, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Ike Quebec, Al Sears, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While Hawkins became known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.

Alcuin of York, also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was an Anglo-Saxon scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria, who was active in the Carolingian Empire in the 8th century. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s. Before that, he was also a court chancellor in Aachen. "The most learned man anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, he is considered among the most important intellectual architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.

Phillip John Lamason, was a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War, who rose to prominence as the senior officer in charge of 168 Allied airmen taken to Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, in August 1944. Raised in Napier, he joined the RNZAF in September 1940, and by April 1942 was a pilot officer serving with the Royal Air Force in Europe. On 8 June 1944, Lamason was in command of a Lancaster heavy bomber that was shot down during a raid on railway marshalling yards near Paris. Bailing out, he was picked up by members of the French Resistance and hidden at various locations for seven weeks. While attempting to reach Spain along the Comet line, Lamason was betrayed by a double agent within the Resistance and seized by the Gestapo.

Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Quran, called The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. His translation of the Quran is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world. A convert from Christianity to Islam, Pickthall was a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as journalists, political and religious leaders. He declared his conversion to Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on 'Islam and Progress' on 29 November 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London.

Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax was a British politician and poet. He was the grandson of the 1st Earl of Manchester and was eventually ennobled himself, first as Baron Halifax in 1700 and later as Earl of Halifax in 1714. As one of the four members of the so-called Whig Junto, Montagu played a major role in English politics under the reigns of King William III and Queen Anne. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1694 to 1699 and as First Lord of the Treasury from 1714 until his death the following year. He was also president of the Royal Society and a patron of the scientist Isaac Newton.

Jeffrey Catherine Jones was an American artist whose work is best known from the late 1960s through the 2000s. Jones created the cover art for more than 150 books through 1976, as well as venturing into fine art during and after this time. Fantasy artist Frank Frazetta supposedly described Jones as "the greatest living painter" and she included the quote on her website, but the source of the quote is unknown and Frazetta denied ever having said it when asked. Although Jones first achieved fame as simply Jeff Jones and later as Jeffrey Jones, she transitioned to female and added Catherine as a middle name in 1998.

Arthur Shrewsbury was an English cricketer and rugby football administrator. He was widely rated as competing with W. G. Grace for the accolade of best batsman of the 1880s; Grace himself, when asked whom he would most like in his side, replied simply, "Give me Arthur". An opening batsman, Shrewsbury played his cricket for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and played 23 Test matches for England, captaining them in 7 games, with a record of won 5, lost 2. He was the last professional to be England captain until Len Hutton was chosen in 1952. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1890. He also organised the first British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888.

Vincent Gordon Harding was an African-American pastor, historian, and scholar of various topics with a focus on American religion and society. A social activist, he was perhaps best known for his work with and writings about Martin Luther King Jr., whom Harding knew personally. Besides having authored numerous books such as There Is A River, Hope and History, and Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero, he served as co-chairperson of the social unity group Veterans of Hope Project and as Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. When Harding died on May 19, 2014, his daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, publicly eulogized him on the Veterans of Hope Project website.

Jesús Luis Ocaña Pernía was a Spanish road bicycle racer who won the 1973 Tour de France and the 1970 Vuelta a España. During the 1971 Tour de France he launched an amazing solo breakaway that put him into the Yellow Jersey and stunned the rest of the main field, including Tour champion Eddy Merckx, but he abandoned in the fourteenth stage after a crash on the descent of the Col de Menté. Ocaña would abandon many Tours, but he finished every Vuelta a España he entered except for his first, and finished in the top 5 seven times in a row.

Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis was the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. She redefined the previously mostly ceremonial role into a platform for arts and culture by hosting multiple high-profile events at the White House and leading its restoration into being a historical site. Through her fashion and cultural literacy, she improved the global standing of the United States during the politically volatile Cold War. Her personal style became known as the "Jackie Look", which inspired worldwide fashion trends during the 1960s.

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar was an Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marathi. His Marathi plays established him as a writer of plays with contemporary, unconventional themes. He is best known for his plays Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1967), Ghashiram Kotwal (1972), and Sakharam Binder (1972). Many of Tendulkar's plays derived inspiration from real-life incidents or social upheavals, which provide clear light on harsh realities. He has provided guidance to students studying "play writing" in US universities. Tendulkar was a dramatist and theatre personality in Maharashtra for over five decades.

Alan Young was a British actor. Young is best known for portraying Wilbur Post in the television comedy Mister Ed (1961–1966) and voicing Disney's Scrooge McDuck for over 40 years, beginning in the 1974 Disneyland Records album An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players. He again voiced Scrooge in the Academy Award-nominated short film Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and continued in the role in various other films, television series and video games up until his death. He was considered by TV Guide to be "the Charlie Chaplin of television".

Christian Malanga Musumari was a Congolese-American-French politician, businessman, and military officer. He was leader of the United Congolese Party (UCP), a national political party he formed in the United States after his experiences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's widely disputed parliamentary elections in 2011. In 2017, he established the New Zaire Government in Exile and proclaimed himself its president. Malanga attempted to overthrow the government of the DR Congo on 19 May 2024. The attempt failed with Malanga being shot and killed and many other assailants, including his son Marcel, arrested.

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov was a Russian lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident. On 26 September 1983, three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to four more. Petrov correctly judged the reports to be a false alarm.

García Hurtado de Mendoza y Manrique, 5th Marquis of Cañete was a Spanish Governor of Chile, and later Viceroy of Peru. He is often known simply as "Marquis of Cañete". Belonging to an influential family of Spanish noblemen, Hurtado de Mendoza successfully fought in the Arauco War during his stay as Governor of Chile. The city of Mendoza is named after him. In his later position as Viceroy of Peru he sponsored Álvaro de Mendaña's transpacific expedition of 1595, who named the Marquesas Islands after him.

Garret Desmond FitzGerald was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist, and barrister who served twice as Taoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987. He served as Leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987 and was twice Leader of the Opposition between 1977 and 1982; he was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1977. FitzGerald served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1969 to 1992 and was a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1965 to 1969.

Button Gwinnett was a British-born American Founding Father who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. Gwinnett was briefly the provisional president of Georgia in 1777, and Gwinnett County was named for him. He was named in honor of his mother’s cousin, Barbara Button, who became his godmother. Gwinnett was killed in a duel by rival Lachlan McIntosh following a dispute after a failed invasion of East Florida.