1988 deaths

American theoretical physicist (1918–1988)

American author and aeronautical engineer (1907–1988)

American physicist (1898–1988)

Soviet politician (1902–1988)

American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor (1911–1988)

Indian film actor, producer and director

Chancellor of West Germany (1966–1969)

Italian racing driver and entrepreneur (1898–1988)

German physicist (1906–1988)

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 192417 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer and politician who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also served as the second chief of the army staff of the Pakistan Army from 1976 until his death. The country's longest-serving de facto head of state and chief of the army staff, Zia's political ideology is known as Ziaism.

American musician

Dutch Zoologist, ethologist (1907-1988)

American artist (1960-1988)

5th President of Italy (1898-1988)

Dutch politician (1886–1988)

penman, poet, screenwriter, novelist, prose writer, teacher, short story writer (1938-1988)

Christa Päffgen (; 16 October 1938 – 18 July 1988), known by her stage name Nico, was a German singer, songwriter, actress and model.

American jazz trumpeter and vocalist (1929-1988)

Irish politician and human rights activist (1904-1988)

6th and 7th President of Republic of China

French physiologist (1895–1988)

Pashtun independence activist against British rule in India

Japanese association football player (born 1932)

German politician (1915-1988)

South African writer and activist (1903-1988)

Mexican architect (1902-1988)

French poet (1907–1988)

American radical feminist and author (1936-1988)

British dancer and choreographer (1904–1988)

KGB mole for the Soviet Union (1912–1988)

Soviet nuclear chemist, chief of the commission investigating the Chernobyl disaster (1936-1988)

Hungarian author and explorer (1912–1988)

John Carradine was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theater, most notably portraying Count Dracula in House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966), and Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula (1979). Among his other notable roles was "Preacher Casy" in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath. In later decades of his career, he starred mostly in low-budget B-movies. In total, he holds 351 film and television credits, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking film and television actors of all time.

Japanese politician (1907-1988)

Romanian-born British–American actor and film producer (1902–1988)

English film, stage and television actor (1913–1988)

German-born British theoretical physicist and atomic spy (1911-1988)

American actor, singer and drag queen (1945–1988)

Australian politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (1908–1988)

American novelist and short story writer (1908–1988)

German actor (1913-1988)

French politician (1908-1988)

Romanian biologist and physician (1897–1988)

American basketball player

Soviet mathematician (1908–1988)

Judith Eva Barsi was an American child actress. She began her career in television, making appearances in commercials and television series, as well as the 1987 film Jaws: The Revenge. She also provided the voices of Ducky in The Land Before Time and Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven, both released after her death. She and her mother, Maria, were killed in July 1988 in a double murder–suicide committed in their home by her father, József Barsi.

American actress (1975–1988)

Austrian writer (1921–1988)

Swiss Catholic theologian (1905–1988)

Jewish poet from the Bukowina writing in German and English (1901-1988)

German mechanical engineer, inventor of the Wankel engine (1902-1988)

American actress (1929-1988)

British philosopher

former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907–1988)

Soviet Russian conductor, pianist, and music pedagogue (1903–1988)

Welsh scholar, author, and Marxist literary critic (1921–1988)

American pornographic actor

Hillel Slovak was an Israeli-American musician, best known as an early guitarist of the Los Angeles rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he recorded two albums. His guitar work was rooted in funk and hard rock, and he often experimented with other genres, including reggae and speed metal. He is considered to have been a major influence on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' early sound.

American psychotherapist & non-fiction author

American boxer (1912–1988)