Notable Deaths on October 31

October 31 has 109 recorded notable deaths across history, from 932 to 2023. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Sean Connery

2020 — Sean Connery

Scottish actor (born 1930)

By · Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 109 source records 932 – 2023

Major events on October 31

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1968 Vietnam War October surprise: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1. Source
  2. 2000 Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been crewed continuously since then. Source

Did you know about Sean Connery

Connery was the first actor to portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond in motion pictures, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983.

Did you know about Indira Gandhi

Gandhi also served as chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) from 1983 to 1984, becoming the first Indian to hold the position.

Did you know about Otto Rank

Born in Vienna, he became one of Sigmund Freud's closest collaborators, served as secretary of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and edited leading psychoanalytic journals while publishing studies of myth and creativity.

Did you know about Ring Lardner

After enjoying early success in Hollywood, he was subpoenaed in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he refused to answer whether he was a member of the Communist Party.

Did you know about Joseph Papp

Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director.


More major people who died on October 31

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1984 Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi

Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (born 1917)
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian stateswoman who twice served as the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and only female prime minister, and a central figure in Indian politics as the leader of the Indian National Congress (INC). Gandhi also served as chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) from 1983 to 1984, becoming the first Indian to hold the position. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, and the mother of Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her as prime minister. Her cumulative tenure of 15 years and 350 days, spanning four terms, makes her the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father and the longest-serving female head of government at the time of her death.
1939 Otto Rank

Otto Rank

Austrian psychologist, author, and educator (born 1884)
Otto Rank was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he became one of Sigmund Freud's closest collaborators, served as secretary of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and edited leading psychoanalytic journals while publishing studies of myth and creativity. His book The Trauma of Birth (1924) proposed that the anxiety of separation at birth precedes the Oedipus complex, coined the term "pre-Oedipal," and triggered a decisive break with Freud's father-centered developmental theory. Rank established psychotherapy practices in Paris and New York, where he promoted a relationship-based way of being that called for the therapist to show authenticity, empathy and unconditional respect for the client. He influenced existential, interpersonal and humanistic therapy, social work, and action learning, and his ideas on creativity and the double continue to inform psychological and cultural criticism to the present.
2000 Ring Lardner

Ring Lardner

Jr., American journalist and screenwriter (born 1915)
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner Jr. was an American screenwriter and novelist. After enjoying early success in Hollywood, he was subpoenaed in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he refused to answer whether he was a member of the Communist Party. He was declared in contempt of Congress, blacklisted by the film studios as one of the "Hollywood Ten", and sentenced to a year in federal prison. Lardner's next screenplay credit, using his own name, was not until The Cincinnati Kid in 1965. He went on to win an Academy Award for his M*A*S*H (1970) screenplay.
1991 Joseph Papp

Joseph Papp

American stage director and producer (born 1921)
Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp is a pioneering figure in American theater, known for creating Shakespeare in the Park, which aimed to make classical theater accessible to all people by producing free-of-charge performances. He was a known advocate for non-traditional and diverse casting practices. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Eventually, one of the six performance spaces inside the Public Theater was renamed Joe's Pub in honor of Joseph Papp. It continues to host live performances across a wide range of art forms. Among numerous examples of these were the works of David Rabe, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Charles Gordone's No Place to Be Somebody, and Papp's production of Michael Bennett's Pulitzer Prize–winning musical A Chorus Line. Papp also helped to develop other off-Broadway theatres and worked to preserve the historic Broadway Theatre District.
1972 Bill Durnan

Bill Durnan

Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1916)
William Ronald Durnan was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played with the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1943 and 1950. He was one of the best goaltenders in his time, winning the Vezina Trophy for fewest goals allowed six times, being named First All-Star team as best goaltender six times, and helping the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup twice. Durnan retired in 1950, citing the stress of playing professional hockey. However, in his final season he suffered a severe laceration of the scalp, but was only sidelined 12 days and returned heroically for the playoffs. When the series was all but lost, he stepped away from the game. He served as the captain of the Canadiens in 1948, the last goaltender to be allowed to do so. In 1964 Durnan was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and in 2017 he was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
2007 Erdal İnönü

Erdal İnönü

Turkish physicist and politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1926)
Erdal İnönü was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician who served as the interim prime minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the deputy prime minister of Turkey from 1991 to 1993 and as the minister of foreign affairs from March to October 1995. He served as the leader of the Social Democracy Party (SODEP) from 1983 to 1985 and later the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) from 1986 to 1993. He was the son of the second president of Turkey, İsmet İnönü.
1944 Joseph Hubert Priestley

Joseph Hubert Priestley

British botanist (born 1883)
Joseph Hubert Priestley was a British lecturer in botany at University College, Bristol, and professor of botany and pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Leeds. He has been described as a gifted teacher who attracted many graduate research students to Leeds. He was the eldest child of a Tewkesbury head teacher and the elder brother of Raymond Priestley, the British geologist and Antarctic explorer. He was educated at his father's school and University College, Bristol. In 1904, he was appointed a lecturer in botany at the University College and published research on photosynthesis and the effect of electricity on plants. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1910, he was appointed consulting botanist to the Bath and West and Southern Counties Society.
1925 Thomas Henry Tracy

Thomas Henry Tracy

Canadian architect and alderman (born 1848)
Thomas Henry Tracy was a Canadian architect and alderman. Born in London, Upper Canada, to Irish immigrants, Tracy was apprenticed to William Robinson for five years beginning in 1864; after spending time working for Kivas Tully and Thomas Fuller, Tracy returned to Robinson in 1873, and he took control of the firm after the latter's 1878 retirement. Tracy left private practice in 1882, with George F. Durand assuming control of the firm and Tracy serving as full-time city engineer. Tracy moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1891, to assume the position of city engineer. In that capacity, he helped design the city's waterworks; he also served five years as an alderman.
1517 Fra Bartolomeo

Fra Bartolomeo

Italian artist (born 1472)
Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo, also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di San Marco, Bartolomeo di Paolo di Jacopo del Fattorino, and his original nickname Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. He spent all his career in Florence until his mid-forties, when he travelled to work in various cities, as far south as Rome. He trained with Cosimo Rosselli and in the 1490s fell under the influence of Savonarola, which led him to become a Dominican friar in 1500, renouncing painting for several years. Typically his paintings are of static groups of figures in subjects such as the Virgin and Child with Saints.
1768 Francesco Maria Veracini

Francesco Maria Veracini

Italian violinist and composer (born 1690)
Francesco Maria Veracini was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. As a composer, according to Manfred Bukofzer, "His individual, if not subjective, style has no precedent in baroque music and clearly heralds the end of the entire era", while Luigi Torchi maintained that "he rescued the imperiled music of the eighteenth century", His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that "he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist". The asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him.
994 Wolfgang of Regensburg

Wolfgang of Regensburg

German bishop and saint (born 934)
Wolfgang of Regensburg was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death. He is a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He is regarded as one of the three great German saints of the 10th century, the other two being Ulrich of Augsburg and Conrad of Constance. Towards the end of his life Wolfgang withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot, in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria. Soon after Wolfgang's death many churches chose him as their patron saint, and various towns were named after him.
1997 George Roth

George Roth

American gymnast (born 1911)
George Helm Roth was an American gymnast and Olympic champion who competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won a gold medal in club swinging, or Indian Clubs as they were often known. He later became a petroleum geologist who in 1954 founded the petroleum consulting company George H. Roth and Associates in Hollywood, California. Managing the company for nearly thirty years, he and his associates helped discover many new California oil fields.
2010 Ted Sorensen

Ted Sorensen

American lawyer, 8th White House Counsel (born 1928)
Theodore Chaikin Sorensen was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser. He was the primary speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, as well as one of his closest advisers. President Kennedy once called him his "intellectual blood bank". With Sorensen's assistance, Kennedy would later pen Profiles in Courage, for which he won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. He also assisted in Kennedy's inaugural address; wrote the majority of his 1962 address to Rice University ; and drafted Lyndon Johnson's "Let Us Continue" speech following Kennedy's assassination.
1984 Eduardo De Filippo

Eduardo De Filippo

Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1900)
Eduardo De Filippo OMRI, also known mononymously as Eduardo, was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan works Filumena Marturano and Napoli milionaria. Considered one of the most important Italian artists of the 20th century, De Filippo was the author of many theatrical dramas staged and directed by himself first and later awarded and played outside Italy. For his artistic merits and contributions to Italian culture, he was named senator for life by the President of the Italian Republic Sandro Pertini.
1879 Joseph Hooker

Joseph Hooker

American general (born 1814)
Joseph Hooker was an American Civil War general for the Union, chiefly remembered for his decisive defeat by Confederate general Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. Hooker had served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican–American War, receiving three brevet promotions, before resigning from the Army. At the start of the Civil War, he joined the Union side as a brigadier general, distinguishing himself at Williamsburg, Antietam and Fredericksburg, after which he was given command of the Army of the Potomac.
2002 Raf Vallone

Raf Vallone

Italian footballer and actor (born 1916)
Raffaele "Raf" Vallone was an Italian actor and footballer. One of the top male Italian stars of the 1950s and 1960s, he first became known for his association with the neorealist movement, and found success in several international productions. On stage, he was closely associated with the works of Arthur Miller. He played the role of Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge several times, including Sidney Lumet's 1962 film adaptation, for which he won the David di Donatello for Best Actor.
1214 Eleanor of England

Eleanor of England

queen consort of Castile (born 1163)
Eleanor of England, was Queen of Castile and Toledo as the wife of Alfonso VIII of Castile. She was the sixth child and second daughter of Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She served as Regent of Castile during the minority of her son Henry I for 26 days between the death of her husband and her own death in 1214. Her great-granddaughter and namesake, Eleanor of Castile, married the future Edward I of England in 1254.
1869 Charles A. Wickliffe

Charles A. Wickliffe

American politician, 14th Governor of Kentucky (born 1788)
Charles Anderson Wickliffe was an American politician who was the 11th U.S. postmaster general from 1841 to 1845. He served as the 14th governor of Kentucky from 1839 to 1840 and as a U.S. representative from Kentucky from 1861 to 1863. He also served as Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives. Though he consistently identified with the Whig Party, he was politically independent, and often had differences of opinion with Whig founder and fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay.
1916 Huang Xing

Huang Xing

Chinese revolutionary leader and statesman (born 1874)
Huang Xing or Huang Hsing was a Chinese revolutionary leader and politician, and the first commander-in-chief of the Republic of China. As one of the founders of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Republic of China, his position was second only to Sun Yat-sen. Together they were known as Sun-Huang during the Xinhai Revolution. He was also known as the "Eight Fingered General" because of wounds sustained during war. His tomb is on Mount Yuelu, in Changsha, Hunan, China.

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