Notable Deaths on September 23

Pio of Pietrelcina, widely known as Padre Pio, Latin: Pater Pius) was an Italian friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, priest, stigmatist and mystic. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, and the Palmarian Church; his feast day is celebrated on 23 September.

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).

Clifford Charles Arquette was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for performing comedic routines as his alter-ego Charley Weaver on numerous television and radio shows.

Robert Albert Bloch was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror, and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small amount of science fiction. His writing career lasted 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film. He began his professional writing career immediately after graduation from high school, aged 17. He is best known as the writer of the novel Psycho (1959), the basis for the 1960 film Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. He was a protégé of H. P. Lovecraft, who was the first to seriously encourage his talent. However, while he started emulating Lovecraft and his brand of cosmic horror, he later specialized in crime and horror stories, often emphasizing psychological aspects of the characters within.

Robert Lee Pettit Jr. was an American professional basketball player. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), all with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks (1954–1965). In 1956, he became the first recipient of the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award and he won the award again in 1959. He also won the NBA All-Star Game MVP award four times. As of the end of the 2025–2026 regular season, Pettit is still the only regular season MVP in the history of the Hawks. Pettit is the Hawks' franchise leader for most career rebounds (12,849), and most rebounds per game with 16.2.

Chief Dan George was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band whose Indian reserve is located on Burrard Inlet in the southeast area of the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He also was an actor, musician, poet and author. The Chief's best-known written work is My Heart Soars. As an actor, he is best remembered for portraying Old Lodge Skins opposite Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man (1970), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and for his role in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), as Lone Watie, opposite Clint Eastwood.

Sir Charles Kuen Kao was a Hong Kong electrical engineer who contributed to the development and use of fibre optics in telecommunications. In the 1960s, Kao created various methods to combine glass fibres with lasers in order to transmit digital data, which laid the groundwork for the evolution of the Internet and the eventual creation of the World Wide Web.

Juliette Gréco was a French singer and actress. She often sang tracks with lyrics written by French poets such as Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian, as well as singers like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. Her 60-year career concluded with her final worldwide tour titled "Merci", which was held between 2015–16.

Cornelius Johannes Sanders was a South African professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2008. He won the WBO heavyweight title in 2003 after knocking out Wladimir Klitschko in two rounds, which was considered one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight boxing history; The Ring magazine named it the Upset of the Year. In 2004, having vacated the WBO title, Sanders faced Wladimir's brother Vitali Klitschko in an unsuccessful challenge for the vacant WBC and Ring heavyweight titles. He also held the WBU heavyweight title from 1997 until 2000 and the South Africa national heavyweight title in 1991.

Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold was an English composer and conductor. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also composed scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for that year.

General James Alward Van Fleet was a United States Army officer who served during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Van Fleet was a native of New Jersey, who was raised in Florida and graduated from the United States Military Academy. He served as a regimental, divisional and corps commander during World War II and as the commanding general of United States Army and other United Nations forces during the Korean War.

Lyman Wesley Bostock Jr. was an American professional baseball player. He played Major League Baseball for four seasons, as an outfielder for the Minnesota Twins (1975–77) and California Angels (1978), with a lifetime average of .311. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a renunciate monk of the Hindu Saraswati order of sannyasa. He was also known as Pujya Swamiji and was a traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta. He was the founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulams in Pennsylvania, USA; Rishikesh, Uttarakhand and Coimbatore Tamil Nadu, India. He was also the spiritual Guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan,, for his service to the nation in the field of spirituality in 2016.

Elinor Glyn was a British novelist and scriptwriter who specialised in romantic fiction, which was considered scandalous for its time, although her works are relatively tame by modern standards. She popularized the concept of the "it girl", and had tremendous influence on early 20th-century popular culture and, possibly, on the careers of notable Hollywood stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson and, especially, Clara Bow.

Gary Douglas Kurtz was an American film producer whose list of credits includes American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Dark Crystal (1982) and Return to Oz (1985). Kurtz also co-produced the 1989 science fiction adventure film Slipstream, which reunited him with Star Wars star Mark Hamill.

Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev, sometimes transliterated as Grachov or Grachyov, was a Russian Army General and the Defence Minister of the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996; in 1988 he was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union gold star.

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was a Puerto Rican secessionist who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army, also known as Los Macheteros, and its predecessor, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN). In 1990, Ojeda Ríos became a fugitive of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), wanted for his role in the 1983 Águila Blanca heist, which netted more than US$7 million, as well as a bail bond default on September 23 of that year. On September 23, 2005, he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents after they surrounded the house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano was a Mexican political figure, diplomat, lawyer, and politician who served as the 36th President of Mexico from May 25 to November 6, 1911 during the Mexican Revolution, following the resignations of President Porfirio Díaz and Vice President Ramón Corral. He previously served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs for one month during the Díaz administration and again from 1913 to 1914 under President Victoriano Huerta. He was known to conservatives as "The White President" or the "Pure President".

Prosper Mérimée was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, an important figure in the history of architectural preservation. He is best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera of the same name. He learned Russian, a language for which he had great affection, before translating the work of several notable Russian writers, including Pushkin and Gogol, into French. From 1830 until 1860 he was the inspector of French historical monuments, responsible for the protection of many historic sites, including the medieval citadel of Carcassonne and the restoration of the façade of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. Along with the writer George Sand, he discovered the series of tapestries called The Lady and the Unicorn, arranging for their preservation. He was instrumental in the creation of Musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris, where the tapestries now are displayed. The official database of French monuments, the Base Mérimée, bears his name.

Abdul Hamid Sarraj was a Syrian military officer and politician. When the union between Egypt and Syria — the United Arab Republic (UAR) — was declared in 1958, Sarraj, a staunch Arab nationalist and supporter of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, played a key role in the leadership of the Syrian region of the UAR. Due to the repression by the UAR of the Syrian communists he was nicknamed Sultan Abdul Hamid referring to the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II. He is alleged to have founded the initial absolute security regime in Syria, constructing the framework of a police state and introducing systematized torture during his tenure as head of the Military Intelligence in 1955, which held the authority to interfere in all facets of political and civil life.

Albert William Suomi was an American ice hockey player, who played 5 games in the National Hockey League with the Chicago Black Hawks during the 1936–37 season. Although he did not aspire to play at a professional level, Suomi nevertheless spent his young life playing hockey and was eventually scouted while playing with friends. Suomi began his career playing for the Chicago Baby Ruth team in 1934, a marketing ploy started by the company that produced the candy of the same name. In 1936, he joined a minor league team in Detroit, Michigan and, based on his experiences with the Chicago Baby Ruth team, was deemed too professional to be eligible for the 1936 United States Olympic ice hockey team.

William Tulip Reay was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. Reay played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1943 to 1953, winning two Stanley Cups. He then coached from 1957 to 1959 in the NHL and again from 1963 to 1977, primarily with the Chicago Black Hawks, who he coached to the Stanley Cup Final three times. While he did not win a Cup as a coach, Reay won over 500 games as a head coach, and he was the second coach to win 500 games with one team. When he retired, he was second in NHL history in wins, and he currently is one of thirty coaches to have won 500 games.

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, knight, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the Prose Edda, which is a major source for what is today known about Norse mythology and alliterative verse, and Heimskringla, a history of the Norse kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egil's Saga. He was assassinated in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of the King of Norway.

Tibor Sekelj, also known as Székely Tibor according to Hungarian orthography, was a Hungarian born polyglot, explorer, author, and 'citizen of the world.' In 1986 he was elected a member of the Academy of Esperanto and an honorary member of the World Esperanto Association. Among his novels, travel books and essays, his novella Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo, a children's book about the life of Brazilian Indians, was translated into seventeen languages, and in 1987 it was voted best Children's book in Japan. In 2011 the European Esperanto Union declared 2012 "The Year of Tibor Sekelj" to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Jacobus Johannes Fouché, also known as J. J. Fouché, was a South African politician who served as the second state president of South Africa from 1968 to 1975.

Aurelio Rodríguez Ituarte, Jr., sometimes known by the nickname "Chi Chi", was a Mexican professional baseball player, who spent the bulk of his Major League career with the Detroit Tigers. Known for his powerful throwing arm, he was one of the great defensive third basemen of his generation. His career range factor of 3.215 per nine innings at third base ranks second in major league history, and his 4,150 assists at the position ranked fifth in major league history at the time of his retirement.

Hale Holden was president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) from 1914 to 1918 and 1920 to 1929, and chairman of the board of directors for Southern Pacific Railroad from 1932 to 1939. He was one of the lawyers working for James J. Hill's defense team in the Minnesota Rate Cases. In later years he served as a director for a number of large companies including American Telephone & Telegraph, New York Life Insurance Company and the Chemical Bank & Trust.

Werner Voss was a World War I German flying ace credited with 48 aerial victories. A dyer's son from Krefeld, he was a patriotic young man while still in school. He began his military career in November 1914 as a 17‑year‑old Hussar. After turning to aviation, he proved to be a natural pilot. After flight school and six months in a bomber unit, he joined a newly formed fighter squadron, Jagdstaffel 2 on 21 November 1916. There he befriended Manfred von Richthofen.

Louis-Joseph Papineau, born in Montreal, Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the seigneurie de la Petite-Nation. He led the reformist Patriote movement, organized boycotts against British imports, and then led the unsuccessful Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838. He later served two terms as member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. His father was Joseph Papineau, also a Quebec politician. Papineau was the grandfather of the journalist Henri Bourassa, founder of the newspaper Le Devoir.

Justin McCarthy "Sam" Barry was an American collegiate coach who achieved significant accomplishments in three major sports - football, baseball, and basketball. He remains one of only three coaches to lead teams to both the Final Four and the College World Series. Barry, and four of his USC players, have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as coaches; Sharman was also inducted as a player.

Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī al-Kindī, commonly known as al-Mutanabbi, was an Abbasid-era Arab poet at the court of the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, for whom he composed 300 folios of poetry. His poetic style earned him great popularity in his time and many of his poems are not only still widely read in today's Arab world but are considered to be proverbial.

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer of the early Romantic era famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings. A central figure of the bel canto era, he was admired not only by the public but also by many composers who were influenced by his work. His songs balanced florid embellishment with a deceptively simple approach to lyric setting.

John Dorman Elliott was an Australian businessman and state and federal president of the Liberal Party. He had also been president of the Carlton Football Club. He frequently provoked controversy due to his political affiliations, his brushes with the law, and his abrasive personal style.

Donato Álvarez was an Argentine general. He fought in the battle of Vuelta de Obligado under the command of Lucio Mansilla. He joined Justo José de Urquiza in his conflict against Juan Manuel de Rosas, and fought in the battle of Caseros. He also fought in the Paraguayan War and the Conquest of the Desert. He died in Buenos Aires on September 23, 1913.

Antonino Vaccarella was an Italian sports car racing and Formula One driver from the island of Sicily. He was considered a specialist for the main local race, the Targa Florio, then the world's oldest automobile race, introduced in 1906. It was run over 72km of mountain roads that were hard to memorize, giving locals an advantage.

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright known especially for The Woman in White (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre.

Robert IV de Sablé was Lord of Sablé, the eleventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1191 to 1192 and Lord of Cyprus from 1191 to 1192. He was known as the Grand Master of the Knights Templars and the Grand Master of the Holy and Valiant Order of Knights Templars.

Gilbert Lynel Dozier, was an attorney, businessman, farmer, and rancher who served from 1976 to 1980 as the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry. A Democrat, Dozier's political career ended with felony convictions and imprisonment for nearly four years. Most of his adult life was spent in and about Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Herman Boerhaave was a Dutch chemist, botanist, Christian humanist, and physician. He is sometimes regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital along with Venetian physician Santorio Santorio (1561–1636). Boerhaave introduced the quantitative approach into medicine, along with his pupil Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777).

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy was an Austrian-born chemist. He was known for his research in colloids, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1925, as well as for co-inventing the slit-ultramicroscope, and different membrane filters. The crater Zsigmondy on the Moon is named in his honour.

Emmanuel Benner was a French Academic painter and draughtsman. The son of the painter Jean Benner-Fries, he was twin to fellow artist, Jean Benner, and the uncle of the painter Emmanuel Michel Benner, Jean's son. Like his twin brother, he was portrayed by fellow Alsatian, Jean-Jacques Henner.

Sam Sniderman, was a Canadian businessman best known as the founder of the Canadian record shop chain Sam the Record Man. Sniderman was also a major promoter of Canadian music including involvement in pushing for the Canadian content (CANCON) broadcast regulations and creating the Juno Awards.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies arising from conflicts in the psyche through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency it posits.

Roberto Muñoz Rodríguez was a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, and Chicago Cubs. He played in the United States under the name of Roberto Rodriguez.

Beatrice of Naples, also known as Beatrice of Aragon, was twice Queen of Hungary and of Bohemia by marriage to Matthias Corvinus and Vladislaus II. She was the daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples and Isabella of Clermont.

Johan Ernst Gunnerus was a Norwegian bishop and botanist. Gunnerus was born at Christiania. He was bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros from 1758 until his death and also a professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen.

John I was the Duke of Lorraine from 1346 to his death. As an infant of six months, he succeeded his father, Rudolph, who was killed in the Battle of Crécy. His mother was Marie of Blois.

Ruth Myrtle Patrick was an American botanist and limnologist specializing in diatoms and freshwater ecology. She authored more than 200 scientific papers, developed ways to measure the health of freshwater ecosystems and established numerous research facilities.

Beatrice of Provence, was the ruling Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1245 until her death, as well as Countess of Anjou and Maine and Queen of Sicily by marriage to Charles I of Naples.

Émilie Tavernier Gamelin was a Canadian Catholic social worker and religious sister best known as the founder of the Sisters of Providence of Montreal. In 2001, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Stanisław Jan Cyganiewicz, better known by his ring name Stanislaus Zbyszko, was a Polish strongman, catch wrestler, and professional wrestler. He was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion in the United States during the 1920s.

John Ainsworth Horrocks was an English pastoralist and explorer who was one of the first European settlers in the Clare Valley of South Australia where, in 1840, he established the village of Penwortham.

William Marsh Rice was an American businessman and entrepreneur who made his fortune in Texas. He is best known for leaving his fortune to fund the establishment of Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Carl Thomas Rowan was an American journalist, author and government official whose columns were syndicated across the U.S. At one point, he was the highest ranking African American in the United States government.

Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics.

Lucie Madeleine Renaud was a French actress best remembered for her work in the theatre. She did though appear in several films directed by Jean Grémillon including Remorques and Lumière d'été.

Charles, Prince of Viana, sometimes called Charles IV of Navarre, was the eldest son of King John II of Aragon and Queen Blanche I of Navarre. He pre-deceased his father.

Carl Jerome Barber was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour. He had seven wins on tour, including a major title, the PGA Championship in 1961.

Ælfwald I was king of Northumbria from 779 to 788. He is thought to have been a son of Oswulf, and thus a grandson of Eadberht Eating.

Paul Burgess Fay Jr. was the Acting United States Secretary of the Navy in November 1963, and a close confidant of President John F. Kennedy.

Wenceslaus I, called One-Eyed, was King of Bohemia from 1230 to 1253.

Adolph I of Cleves was the second Count of Cleves and the fourth Count of Mark.

Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg was Queen of Sweden as the first wife of Gustav I from 1531 until her death in 1535.

John Jewel of Devon, England was Bishop of Salisbury from 1559 to 1571.

Azai Hisamasa was a son of Azai Sukemasa and the second head of the Azai clan.

Valentin Conrart was a French writer, and as a founder of the Académie Française, the first occupant of seat 2.

Christian Thomasius was a German jurist and philosopher. The German Enlightenment "supposedly" began with him.

Robert Dodsley was an English bookseller, publisher, poet, playwright, and miscellaneous writer.

José Gervasio Artigas Arnal was a soldier and statesman who is regarded as a national hero in Uruguay and the Father of the Nation.

Jakob Schaffner was a leading Swiss novelist who became a supporter of Nazism.

Jacob Nicol, was a Canadian lawyer, newspaper publisher, and politician. He became Senator under Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Robert Broderick James McIntosh was a Scottish drummer from Dundee who was a founder-member of the Average White Band (AWB).

Catherine Lacey was an English actress of stage and screen.

Glendon Fred Swarthout was an American writer and novelist.

Mary Frann was an American stage, film, and television actress.

Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich was a Soviet physician, voyager, scientist, and Candidate of Sciences.

Etta Baker was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina.

Peter Antony Leonard was an Australian journalist and newsreader.

Donald J. Manoukian was an American football guard and professional wrestler of Armenian descent from Reno, Nevada.