Famous People Who Died in May a to z

Singing with two of his brothers as the Bee Gees, Robin Gibb scored numerous hits in the 1970s, including "Stayin' Alive" and "How Deep Is Your Love."

John Gielgud was a prolific Shakespearean actor known for his varied film and TV work as well, including Arthur and Prospero’s Books.

Joseph Goebbels was minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. He presented a favorable image of the Nazi regime to the Germans.

Barry Goldwater was an American politician best known as a senator from Arizona and the Republican candidate for president in 1964.

Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, and the best-selling writer of popular science books.

Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness was the grandson of Arthur Guinness, the founder of Guinness Brewery. Benjamin Guiness made the stout beer brand famous.

Art Hanes was mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, between 1961 and 1963. He actively opposed racial integration.

World Wrestling Federation fans knew Owen Hart as "the Rocket" or "the Blue Blazer." He died tragically during a pre-match publicity stunt when he fell 90 feet.

Canadian-born American actor Phil Hartman is best known for his performances on Saturday Night Live.

Coleman Hawkins was an influential tenor saxophone player and one of the first prominent jazz musicians to be known for the instrument.

Over the course of his 106 symphonies, Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn became the principal architect of the classical style of music.

American film actress Rita Hayworth is best known for her stunning explosive sexual charisma on screen in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Henry IV was King of France 1589–1610. The first monarch of France’s Bourbon Dynasty, he issued The Edict of Nantes, granting religious freedom to Protestants.

Henry V served as joint king of Germany with Henry IV until he forced his father to abdicate the throne. Holy Roman emperor from 1111 to 1125, he was the last of the Salian line.

Jim Henson was an American puppeteer best known for creating TV characters, including the Muppets, and for his work on the popular children's show Sesame Street.

Escaped slave and minister Josiah Henson became involved in the Underground Railroad, leading slaves to freedom and developed his own Afro-Canadian community.

American biologist A.D. Hershey won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1969 for his research done on viruses that infect bacteria.

James J. Hill was a railroad magnate responsible for greatly expanding railways into the U.S. northwest during the late 19th century.

Heinrich Himmler was commander of Hitler's Schutzstaffel, and later of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. After World War II, he committed suicide to escape capture.

H.H. Holmes was the alias of one of America's first serial killers. During the 1893 Columbian Exposition, he lured victims into his elaborate "murder castle."

German Communist Erich Honecker oversaw the building of the Berlin Wall, then watched it be torn down. He was forced to resign as head of East Germany in 1989.

As director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover had rabid anti-Communist and anti-subversive views and used unconventional tactics to monitor related activity.

Actor/director Dennis Hopper came to fame with 1969's Easy Rider. Later films like Blue Velvet and River's Edge cemented his legend.

Artist Edward Hopper is the painter behind the iconic late-night diner scene Nighthawks (1942).

Actress and singer Lena Horne was one of the most popular performers of her time, known for films such as The Wiz and her trademark song, "Stormy Weather."

Moe Howard was the leader of the vaudeville and film comedy team, The Three Stooges.

Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, and playwright whose African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Poet, playwright and novelist Victor Hugo was the heart of French Romanticism, with works such as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables.

Psychologist Clark L. Hull performed a study and produced the dominant learning theory of the 1940s and 1950s, that learning was based on “habit strength."

Exiled Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, the latter of which featured one of theater's most notorious characters.

Stonewall Jackson was a leading Confederate general during the U.S. Civil War, commanding forces at Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

Martyr, saint and military leader Joan of Arc, acting under divine guidance, led the French army to victory over the British during the Hundred Years' War.

Entertainer, author and famous transsexual Christine Jorgensen, made headlines in the early 1950s for having a sex change from a man to a woman.

Believe it or not, comedian Andy Kaufman was banned from Saturday Night Live, but beloved for his portrayal of Latka Gravas on the sitcom Taxi.

Andrew Kehoe was a mass murderer who went on a 1927 killing spree that included dynamiting the Bath, Michigan Consolidated School, killing 37 children.

Chris Kelly is best known for making up one half of the rap duo Kris Kross, who had a No. 1 hit with their 1992 song "Jump."

Mary (Richardson) Kennedy, an architect focusing on philanthropy and the environment, was the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

William Kidd is one of the most famous pirates in history, remembered for his execution for piracy on the Indian Ocean.

Alan King was a Jewish-American stand-up comedian who honed his skills in vaudeville, and went on to perform a number of memorable film and television roles.

Jerzy Kosinksi was a Polish-American novelist. He wrote Being There in 1971, which was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1979.

Stanley Kunitz was an American poet who served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1974; 2000). He won the Pulitzer Prize for his work Selected Poems 1928-1958 (1958).

Irish dramatist Lady Gregory, also known as Isabella Augusta, collaborated with William Butler Yeats and J.M. Synge to found the Irish National Theater and the Abbey Theater company.

T. E. Lawrence was a British Army officer during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule. He became known as Lawrence of Arabia, based on the 1962 film.

Timothy Leary was an American psychologist and author who was a leading advocate for the use of LSD and other psychoactive drugs.

Leopold I was Holy Roman emperor during whose lengthy reign Austria emerged from a series of struggles to become a great European power.

David Livingstone was a Scottish missionary, abolitionist and physician known for his explorations of Africa, having crossed the continent during the mid-19th century.

Activist and lawyer Belva Lockwood was the first woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Louis XV was king of France from 1715 to 1774. He is best known for contributing to the decline of royal authority that led to the French Revolution in 1789.

Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler became popular in the late 19th century for his emotionally charged and subtly orchestrated symphonies.

Theodore H. Maiman was a physicist, company leader, consultant and author who created the first working laser in 1960.

Jamaican singer, musician and songwriter Bob Marley served as a world ambassador for reggae music and sold more than 20 million records throughout his career—making him the first international superstar to emerge from the so-called Third World.

Playwright, poet. Christopher Marlowe was a poet and playwright at the forefront of the 16th-century dramatic renaissance. His works influenced William Shakespeare and generations of writers to follow.

French explorer Jacques Marquette is best known as the first European to see and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.

A poet and a journalist, José Martí spent his short life fighting for Cuban independence. He died in 1895 during a failed attempt to win freedom for Cuba.

William McGuffey was a 19th-century educator remembered chiefly for his series of elementary readers.

Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel written by an American black to that time.

Ida McKinley was the wife of 25th U.S. President William McKinley. She served as first lady from 1897 until McKinley's assassination in 1901.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French philosopher and man of letters, the leading exponent of phenomenology in France.

John Stuart Mill, who has been called the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the 19th century, was a British philosopher, economist, and moral and political theorist. His works include books and essays covering logic, epistemology, economics, social and political philosophy, ethics, and religion, among them A System of Logic, On Liberty, and Utilitarianism.

Italian physician Maria Montessori was a pioneer of theories in early childhood education, which are still implemented in Montessori schools all over the globe.

Actress Elizabeth Montgomery made magic on TV's top-rated sitcom Bewitched from 1964 to 1972.

Roh Moo-hyun was a lawyer and human rights activist who was the president of South Korea from 2003-'08.

The most decorated U.S. soldier of World War II, Audie Murphy returned home a hero and became an actor, starring in his own story, To Hell and Back.

Actor George Murphy starred in more than 45 films, including Little Miss Broadway opposite Shirley Temple. In 1964, he was elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate.

Nobel Prize-winning Swedish economist and sociologist Gunner Myrdal is regarded as a major theorist of international relations and developmental economics.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi’s father, was a leader of India’s nationalist movement and became India’s first prime minister after its independence.

St. Philip Neri was best known as an Italian priest who helped his congregation and others in need. He was canonized in 1622.

Eliot Ness was a law enforcement official in Chicago, best known for his efforts to enforce Prohibition as head of "The Untouchables."

Daniel O'Connell was a 19th century Irish political leader. He worked to repeal of the Act of Union which combined Ireland and Great Britain.