Deaths in September 1983

Contents

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The following is a list of notable deaths in September 1983.

Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.

September 1983

1

• Henry M. Jackson, 71, American lawyer and politician, he represented Washington's 2nd congressional district from 1941 until 1953,^[1] he served as a senator from Washington from 1953 until his death in 1983, he led two failed presidential campaigns in 1972 and 1976, he suffered a heart attack a few hours after his final news conference^[2][3]

4

• Jon Brower Minnoch, 41, American taxi driver and owner of his own taxi company,^[4] cardiac arrest, with respiratory failure and restrictive lung disease as contributing factors,^[5] considered the heaviest recorded human in history, weighing approximately 1,400 lb (635 kilograms; 100 stone) at his peak.^[6]

5

• Ken Carter, 44–45, Canadian stunt driver, killed in a failed stunt with a rocket-powered car, when his car overshot its target^[7][8]
• John Gilpin, 53, English ballet dancer and actor, heart attack^[9][10]
• Yale Gracey, 73, American layout artist, special effects designer, and Disney Imagineer, he designed many of the special effects for the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland,^[11][12] murdered in his sleep by an unidentified intruder in his cabana^[13][14]
• Lloyd Piper, 59, Australian cartoonist and art teacher, served as a graphic design teacher at the National Art School from 1970 until 1983,^[15][16][17] died in a car accident^[18][19]

7

• Georgia Backus, 81, American character actress, writer, director and producer of radio dramas, dramatic director of the Columbia Broadcasting System^{[20][21][22][23]}

8

• Ibrahim Abboud, 82, Sudanese military officer and political figure, he served as the head of state of Sudan between 1958 and 1964, and briefly as President of Sudan in 1964,^[24][25] veteran of World War II in Egypt and Iraq.^[26]

10

Felix Bloch

• Felix Bloch, 77, Swiss-American theoretical physicist, he made fundamental theoretical contributions to the understanding of ferromagnetism and electron behavior in crystal lattices, he is also considered one of the developers of nuclear magnetic resonance,^[27][28] he served as CERN's first director-general^[29]

11

• Brian Lawrance, 74, Australian singer, violinist, and bandleader, considered one of the leading British dance band vocalists of the 1930s, who drew a large radio audience^[30][31]

12

• Ranjan, 65, Indian actor, singer, and journalist, cardiac arrest^[32]

14

• Robert C. Dennis, 67, Canadian-born American pulp fiction writer, scriptwriter for both radio and television,^[33] co-created the character King Tut for the television series Batman^[34]

15

• Johnny Hartman, 60, American jazz singer, lung cancer^[35]
• Beverley Nichols, 85, English playwright, mystery writer, and non-fiction writer on the topics of house maintenance and gardening^[36][37]
• LeRoy Prinz, 88, American choreographer, director, and producer, directed dance sequences for dozens of films for Paramount Pictures between 1933 and 1941, when he left to become the dance director of Warner Brothers,^[38] he staged all of Warner's musical sequences for 16 years, he worked on over 150 films as a choreographer^[39][40]

16

• Danny Webb, 77, American voice actor, comedian, and vaudeville performer, served as the voice of the animated characters Egghead, Elmer Fudd, Goofy,^[41][42] and Woody Woodpecker,^[43] assistant producer for NBC's Wide Wide World^[44]

17

• Humberto Sousa Medeiros, 67, Portuguese-American cleric of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Boston from 1970 until his death in 1983, a cardinal since 1973, heart failure during open heart surgery^[45]

21

• Birgit Tengroth, 68, Swedish actress^[46]

25

• Jim O'Brien, 43, American newscaster, sports anchor and weather reporter,^[47] killed in a skydiving accident caused by a collision with another skydiver^[48][49][50]

26

• Tino Rossi, 76, French actor and singer^[51]

29

• Alan Moorehead, 73, Australian war correspondent in World War II, popular historian, and biographer,^[52][53] first recipient of the Duff Cooper Memorial Award for his book on the Gallipoli campaign (1915–1916)^[54][55]

30

• William Elliott, 49, American actor and jazz musician, heart attack^[56][57]
• Freddy Martin, 76, American bandleader and tenor saxophonist, stroke^[58][59]

References

1. Biographical directory of the United States Congress : 1774–2005 ; the Continental Congress, Sept. 5, 1774 to Oct. 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States from the First through the One Hundred Eighth Congresses, March 4, 1789 to Jan. 3, 2005 inclusive ([2005 ed., closing date of compilation, January 3, 2005] ed.). Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O. 2005. ISBN 0160731763.
2. Muhstein, Julia (May 30, 2012). "The day Jackson died began with shocking news". The Everett Herald. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
3. "Senator Henry M. Jackson Is Dead at 71". The New York Times. September 3, 1983. p. 10. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
4. "Deaths". Evening Independent. Associated Press. September 16, 1983. p. 13A. OCLC 2720408. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
5. Certificate of Death, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, retrieved June 3, 2023
6. Multiple sources:
   • Newsholme, Eric; Leech, Anthony (September 9, 2011). Functional Biochemistry in Health and Disease. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-119-96524-4. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The heaviest person recorded in the Guinness Book of Records was John Brower Minnoch...
   • Wright, James D. (May 11, 2018). Lost Souls: Manners and Morals in Contemporary American Society (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781351011617. ISBN 978-1-351-01159-4. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The heaviest person ever documented was Jon Brower Minnoch, who died in 1983. At his peak, Minnoch stood 6'1'' tall and weighed about 1400 pounds...
   • Hamid, Tarek K. A. (2009). Thinking in Circles About Obesity. New York: Springer. p. 321. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09469-4. ISBN 978-0-387-09468-7. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The fattest human on record, Jon Minnoch of Bainbridge Island, Washington, weighed an estimated 1400 lb...
   • Olds, Tim (2015). "Superphysiques". Australasian Science. 36 (5): 40. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The heaviest person who ever lived, American John Minnoch (1941–83), weighed 635 kg.
   • Williams, David R. (October 31, 2007). What is Safe?: Risks of Living in a Nuclear Age. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-84755-236-5. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The world's heaviest man weighed 100 stone (J.B. Minnoch, 1983, in USA)...
   • Bondeson, Jan (2018). The Lion Boy and Other Medical Curiosities. Stroud, UK: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-7629-6. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The world's heaviest person, the American Jon Brower Minnoch (1941-1983) weighed in at 100 stone...
7. "Stuntman Ken Carter dies in rocket-car wreck". Ottawa Citizen. September 6, 1983 – via Google News.
8. McAleer, Brendan (December 6, 2016). "Ken Carter was Canada's Evel Knievel, but more bonkers". Auto Focus. Archived from the original on April 29, 2017.
9. "John Gilpin". Oxford Reference. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
10. Kisselgoff, Anna (September 6, 1983). "JOHN GILPIN, 53, BALLET DANCER WITH LONDON FESTIVAL TROUPE". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
11. "The Wizard of WED: Yale Gracey".
12. Bright, Randy (1987). Disneyland : inside story. New York: H.N. Abrams. p. 193. ISBN 0-8109-0811-5.
13. UPI, 1983, Sept. 6, Executive Shot to Death at Exclusive Beach Club, The Montreal Gazette, p. 105
14. Ex-Disney Special Effects Expert Slain, Toledo Blade, 7 September 1983, page 14. Last retrieved 21 April 2023.
15. Kerr, Joan (2007). "Lloyd Piper". Design and Art Australia Online. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
16. John Ryan (1979). Panel By Panel: an Illustrated History of Australian Comics. Cassell. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-7269-7376-9.
17. Yardley, Nick (November 22, 1981). "Ginger's 60 Years Old". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 13.
18. "Cartoonist Dies". The Sydney Morning Herald. September 9, 1983. p. 2.
19. "In Brief – Ginger Meggs". Canberra Times. ACT: National Library of Australia. September 12, 1983. p. 10. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
20. "Georgia Backus". Radio Dial, May 28, 1931, page 3.
21. "Brunet Abandons Career On Stage to Guide New Art of Radio Drama". The Sedalia Capital, January 20, 1931, page 6.
22. "Georgia Backus". Chicago Tribune library photo held by MMG Photo Archive. Archived from the original on November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2014. Date stamp on reverse side of publicity photo announcing the appointment reads December 4, 1930.
23. Ancestry.com. California Death Index, 1940–1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2000.
24. Biography of El Ferik Ibrahim Abboud at bookrags.com
25. Treaster, Joseph (September 9, 1983). "IBRAHIM ABBOUD, 82, WAS SUDAN'S LEADER FROM 1958 TO 1964". The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
26. The International Who's Who 1972–73. London: Europa Publications. 1972. p. 2. ISBN 0900362480.
27. Hofstadter, Robert (March 1984). "Obituary: Felix Bloch". Physics Today. 37 (3): 115–116. Bibcode:1984PhT....37c.115H. doi:10.1063/1.2916128. Archived from the original on September 30, 2013.
28. Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 Archived 19 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. royalsoced.org.uk
29. "People and things : Felix Bloch". CERN Courier. CERN. 1983. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
30. "Obituary for Brian Vinrance LAWRANCE". The Sydney Morning Herald. September 13, 1983. p. 19. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
31. "Obituary: Brian Lawrance". The Daily Telegraph. October 13, 1983. p. 16. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
32. Mariappan, V. (March 14, 2022). "Ranjan, a superstar that never was". Inmathi. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
33. "Robert C. Dennis Obituary". The New York Times. September 17, 1983. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
34. p.146 Presnell, Don Wandering The Wild Wild West: A Critical Analysis of the CBS Television Series McFarland & Company, 12 November 2021
35. "Johnny Hartman, Jazz Singer; Album Was >TO>". The New York Times. Associated Press. September 16, 1983.
36. "Mr Beverley Nichols". The Times. September 17, 1983. p. 8 – via The Times Digital Archive.
37. Connon, Bryan (1991). Beverley Nichols: A Life. Constable. ISBN 1604690445.
38. Pryor, Thomas M. (June 17, 1945). "The Peripatetic Mr. Prinz: A Dance Director Who Bristles at Being Called a 'Dancing Man,' Recounts His Adventures as a Soldier of Fortune". The New York Times. p. X3.
39. Bronzini, Tom (September 20, 1983). "LeRoy Prinz, Movie Choreographer, Dies". Los Angeles Times. p. E23.
40. Sagolla, Lisa Jo (2003). The Girl Who Fell Down: A Biography of Joan McCracken. Boston: Northeastern University Press. pp. 89–91. ISBN 1-55553-573-9.
41. Canemaker, John (2006). Paper Dreams: The Art And Artists Of Disney Storyboards. Disney Edition. p. 86. ISBN 978-0786863075. "After four years, Walt apparently forgave Colvig for he returned to Disney to record Goofy's voice for the next 26 years. (During his absence Goofy was recorded by a Colvig imitator named Danny Webb)"
42. Hischak, Thomas S. (September 15, 2011). Disney Voice Actors: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland. ISBN 9780786486946.
43. ""GUESS WHO??" Voice Artists in the Woody Woodpecker Cartoons |".
44. Variety, Mar. 13, 1957, p. 22.
45. "Cardinal Medeiros of Boston Dies After Coronary Bypass Operation", The New York Times, September 18, 1983.
46. "Birgitta (Birgit) Eva Tengroth". Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
47. Fox, Tom. "Jim O'Brien was a winner by the numbers, too." Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 1983, p. 1 (subscription required).
48. Sayers, Bernard (December 17, 2004). "The Death of Jim O'Brien". aicommand.com. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
49. Preston, David Lee, Paul Horvitz and William W. Sutton Jr. "O'Brien's colleagues 'devastated': 'He was the best friend many of us had'." Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 1983, p. 10A (subscription required).
50. Wilkinson, Gerry. "Jim O'Brien" (biography). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, retrieved online August 30, 2023.
51. "Tino Rossi, 76, Singer; Recorded 2,000 Songs". The New York Times. September 28, 1983.
52. Clive James, Cultural Amnesia, p. 521
53. "Alan McCrae Moorehead (1910–1983)". Alan McCrae Moorehead (1910–1983) by John Lack. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
54. ""Alan Moorehead"". The Australian Media Hall of Fame. May 31, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
55. "1956–2016". The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
56. Otfinoski, Steven (2010). African Americans in the Performing Arts. Infobase Publishing. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-4381-2855-9.
57. Warwick, Dionne; Wooley, David Freeman (November 22, 2011). My Life, as I See It: An Autobiography. Simon and Schuster. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4391-7135-6.
58. Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 1628. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
59. Townsend, Dorothy (1983). "Big-Band Leader Freddy Martin Dies in Newport". Los Angeles Times.

External links

• List of September 1983 deaths at IMDb