Notable Deaths in 1958

Links will open in a new window.

Gridley Adams -- U.S. flag authority -- June 23, in Brewster, New York
Samuel Hopkins Adams -- novelist -- November 16, in Beaufort, South Carolina
Zoe Akins -- Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (1935) -- October 29, in Los Angeles, California
Kurt Alder -- Nobel Prize winning chemist (1950) -- June 20, in Cologne, Germany
Alexander III -- Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East -- June 17, in Damascus, Syria
Margaret Anglin -- actress -- January 7, in Toronto, Canada
Alcibiades Arosema -- former President of Panama -- April 8, in Panama City, Panama

Norman G. Baker -- "quack doctor" -- September 10, in Miami, Florida
Mary Ritter Beard -- historian -- August 14, in Phoenix, Arizona
Henri Béraud -- novelist -- October 24, in Ars-En-Ré, France
Claude Gernande Bowers -- historian and diplomat -- January 21, in New York City, New York
Carl Brisson -- (real name Carl Pedersen) stage and night club entertainer -- September 26, in Copenhagen, Denmark
Lew Brown -- (real name Louis Brownstein) song writer -- February 5, in New York City, New York
Alfred Bryan -- lyricist -- April 11, in Morristown, New Jersey

James Branch Cabell -- author -- May 5, in Richmond, Virginia
José Maria Cardinal Caro Rodríguez -- Archbishop of Santiago, Chile -- December 4, in Santiago, Chile
Elaine Sterne Carrington -- radio script writer -- May 4, in New York City, New York
Edgar Algernon Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood -- winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Peace -- November 24, in London, England
Claire Lee Chennault -- U.S. Army Air Force Lieutenant best known as the leader of the "Flying Tigers" -- July 27, in New Orleans, Louisiana
Art Cohn -- film script writer -- in a plane crash near Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 22, along with show business tycoon Mike Todd
Harry Cohn -- founder and president of Columbia Pictures Corporation -- February 27, in Phoenix, Arizona
Ronald Colman -- actor -- May 19, in Santa Barbara, California
Morton Cooper -- baseball player -- November 17, in Little Rock, Arkansas
Edward J. Cronin -- Massachusetts Secretary of State -- November 25
Rachel Crothers -- playwright -- July 5, in Danbury, Connecticut
André Crotti -- surgeon -- January 31. in Columbus, Ohio
Jean Crotti -- painter -- July 31, in Paris, France
Robert Emmett Crowe -- chief prosecutor of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb -- January 18, in Chicago, Illinois
James Michael Curley -- Mayor of Boston, Governor of Massachusetts, and U.S. Congressman -- November 12, in Boston, Massachusetts

Joseph E. Davies -- diplomat -- May 9, in Washington, D.C.
Eddie Davis -- (real name Edward Danziger) musical comedy librettist -- July 30, in New York City, New York
Elmer Davis -- radio news broadcaster and commentator -- May 18, in Washington, D.C.
Gordon Dean -- former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission -- one of 24 persons killed in an August 15 plane crash near Nantucket, Massachusetts
Clinton Davisson -- Nobel Prize winning physicist (1937) -- February 1, in Charlottesville, Virginia
Paul A. Dever -- former Governor of Massachusetts -- April 9
James Drummond Dole -- founder of Hawaii's pineapple industry -- May 14, in Honolulu, Hawaii
Robert Donat -- actor -- June 9, in London, England, just after completion of The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
James H. Doolittle, Jr. -- U.S. Air Force officer -- April 9, in Austin, Texas

Frank Eaton -- deputy U.S. Marshall known as "Pistol Pete" -- April 8, in Perkins, Oklahoma
Harry Einstein -- comedian known by the stage name Parkyakarkas -- of a heart attack in Hollywood, California, on November 24
Arthur B. Eisenhower -- banker, brother of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower -- January 26, in Kansas City, Missouri
Eulalia -- aunt of King Alfonso XIII of Spain -- March 8, in Irun, Spain

King Faisal II of Iraq -- assassinated by a rebel officer who broke into the royal palace in Baghdad during a rebellion on July 16
Henri Farman -- French aviation pioneer -- July 18, in Paris, France
Lion Feuchtwanger -- historical novelist -- December 21, in Los Angeles, California
Herbert Fields -- librettist -- March 24, in New York City, New York
George Fingold -- Attorney General of Massachusetts and Republican nominee for Governor -- of a heart attack on August 17
Dorothy Canfield Fisher -- novelist -- November 9, in Arlington, Vermont
Pierre-Etienne Flandin -- Premier of France 1934-1935 -- June 13, in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France
Lt. Col. George A. Flint -- chairman of the UN Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission -- by Israeli-Jordanian crossfire on Mount Scopus, Israel, on May 26
Harry Frechtel -- fashion designer -- May 15, in Palm Springs, California
Walter Freitag -- German union leader -- June 7, in Herdegee, Germany
Joe Frisco -- (real name Louis W. Joseph) comedian -- February 16, in Hollywood, California

Maurice Gustave Gamelin -- Supreme Commander of the French Forces, 1939-1940 -- April 18, in Paris, France
Alfred Thomas Goldie Gardner -- British auto racer -- August 25, in Eastbourne, England
Norman Bel Geddes -- stage and industrial designer and theatrical producer -- May 8, in New York City, New York
Wolcott Gibbs -- drama critic for The New Yorker -- August 16, in Ocean Beach, New York
Franks C. Goodman -- gambler turned evangelist -- July 11, in Amityville, New York
Petru Groza -- president of the Romanian Grand National Assembly's Presidium -- January 7

William Christopher Handy -- song writer -- March 28, in New York City, New York
Ernst Heikel -- German aircraft designer -- January 30, in Stuttgart, Germany
John Held, Jr. -- cartoonist -- March 2, in Belmar, New Jersey
Frederick Hugh Herbert -- playwright -- May 17, in Los Angeles, California
Burton Holmes -- creator of the motion picture travelogue -- July 22, in Hollywood, California
Camillien Houde -- Canadian politician -- September 11, in Montreal, Canada
Robert Earl Hughes -- 1,041-pound carnival sideshow attraction -- July 10, in Bremen, Indiana

Juan Ramón Jiménez -- Nobel Prize winning poet (1956) -- May 29, in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie -- Nobel Prize winning physicst (1935, for Chemistry) -- August 14, in Paris, France
Ernest Jones -- psychoanalyst -- February 11, in London, England

Michael T. Kelleher -- Boston, Massachusetts, civic leader -- Octber 31, in New York City, New York
Charles F. Kettering -- inventor and General Motors Corporation executive -- November 25, in Dayton, Ohio
Frank Kierdorf -- labor union official -- August 7, in Pontiac, Michigan, of burns suffered when he set fire to a dry cleaning establishment in Flint
Iven C. Kincheloe, Jr. -- U.S. Air Force pilot who flew the Bell X-2 to a record altitude of 126,200 feet -- July 26, nearEdwards Air Force Base, California
Charles Herbert Klein -- baseball player -- March 28, in Indianapolis, Indiana

Jesse Louis Lasky -- motion picture producer -- January 13, in Beverly Hills, California
Ernest Orlando Lawrence -- Nobel Prize winning physicist (1939) -- August 27, in Palo Alto, California
Lucien Lelong -- fashion designer -- May 10, in Biarritz, France
George Sherman Long -- U.S. Congressman from Louisiana -- January 22

Rose Macaulay -- novelist -- October 30, in London, England
Betty MacDonald -- author -- February 7, in Seattle, Washington
Roger Martin Du Gard -- Nobel Prize winning author (1937) -- August 22, in Bellême, Frane
Sir Douglas Mawson -- Antarctic explorer -- October 14, in Melbourne, Australia
Edward Francis Cardinal Mooney -- Archbishop of Detroit, Michigan -- October 25, in Rome, Italy
Luigi Musso -- racecar driver -- July 6, in Rheims, France

Imre Nagy -- Premier of Hungary, 1953-1955 and 1956 -- executed in Budapest, Hungary, on June 17
George Jean Nathan -- drama critic -- April 8, in New York City, New York
Marshall Neilan -- motion picture director and producer -- October 26, in Woodland Hills, California
Jack Norton -- (real name Mortimer J. Naughton) comedian -- October 15, in Saranac Lake, New York
Alfred Noyes -- poet -- June 28, in Ventor, Isle of Wight

Pat O'Connor -- racecar driver -- in a first-lap crash during the Indianapolis 500 on May 30
Melvin Thomas Ott -- baseball player -- November 21, in New Orleans, Louisiana, of injuries suffered in an automobile accident

José Pancetti -- artist -- January 25, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Clyde Pangborn -- aviation pioneer -- March 29, in New York, New York
Franklin Panghorn -- actor -- July 20, in Santa Monica, California
Dame Christabel Pankhurst -- women's suffragist turned evangelist -- February 14, in Santa Monica, California
Elliot Paul -- author -- April 7, in Providence, Rhode Island
Wolfgang Pauli -- Nobel Prize winning physicist (1945) -- December 15, in Zürich, Switzerland
Javier Pereira -- self-proclaimed world's oldest man (168 years) -- March 30, in Monteria, Colombia
Isidor Philipp -- pianist -- February 20
Pope Pius XII -- October 9
Tyrone Power -- actor -- of a heart attack during the filming of a duel scene that was to appear in Solomon and Sheba, on November 15 in Madrid, Spain
Henry Fowles Pringle -- Pulitzer Prize-winning author -- April 7, in Washington, D.C.
Edna Purviance -- actress -- January 13, in Hollywood, California

Harry Revels -- composer of popular songs -- November 3, in New York, New York
Mary Roberts Rinehart -- mystery writer -- September 22, in New York City, New York
Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson -- dramatist -- October 14, in Dublin, Ireland
Artur Rodzinski -- symphony orchestra conductor -- November 27, in Boston, Massachusetts
Georges Rouault -- painter -- February 13, in Paris, France
Sharry Rubin -- model -- November 17, in East Meadow, New York

Robert William Service -- poet -- September 11, in Lancieux, France
Alexander Malcolm Smith -- Alaskan explorer -- June 24, in San Jose, California
Tristram E. Speaker -- baseball player -- December 8, in Whitney, Texas
Marie Carmichael Stopes -- physician -- October 2, in Norbury Park, England
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom -- Prime Minister of South Africa -- August 24, in Capetown, South Africa
Samuel Alphonsus Cardinal Stritch -- Archbishop of Chicago -- of a stroke on May 27, in Rome, Italy
Herbert Bayard Swope -- Pulitzer Prize winning journalist (1917) -- June 20, in New York City, New York

Mike Todd -- (real name Avram Hirsch Goldbogen) show business tycoon -- in a plane crash near Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 22, along with biographer Art Cohn
Henry Major Tomlinson -- author -- February 5, in London, England
Chief Earl Two Bears -- former Choctaw scout for "Buffalo Bill" Cody -- January 29, in Brooklyn, New York

Ralph Vaughan Williams -- composer -- August 26, in London, England
Alessandro Cardinal Verde -- March 29, in Rome, Italy
Maurice de Vlaminck -- painter -- October 11, in Paris, France

Harry Warner -- co-founder of Warner Brothers -- July 25, in Bel-Air, California
John Broadus Watson -- psychologist -- September 25, in New York City, New York
Charles Werly -- inventor -- electrocuted while demonstrating an electrical device for curing rheumatism, on July 14, in Lausanne, Switzerland
Edward Weston -- photographer -- January 1, in Carmel, California
Sir George Hubert Wilkins -- polar explorer -- December 1, in Framingham, Massachusetts
Otto Witte -- self-proclaimed King of Albania for five days in 1913 -- August 13, in Hamburg, Germany

Robert Ralph Young -- railroad tycoon -- of a self-inflicted shotgun wound on January 25, in Palm Beach, Florida

Mikhail Zoshchenko -- author -- July 22, in Leningrad, Russia

Questions or comments about this page?