Hean, Singaporean politician and 5th Senior Minister of Singapore December 28 Gayle King, African-American television personality, journalist, and author Lanny Poffo, American professional wrestler Denzel Washington, African-American actor December 29 Wang Huanyu, Chinese astrophysicist (d. 2018) Albrecht Böttcher, German mathematician Roger Voudouris, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2003) December 31 – Alex Salmond, Scottish politician Date not known Marek Smurzyński, Polish translator, Persian language speaker and translator (d. 2009) Deaths January January 5 Rabbit Maranville, American baseball player (Boston Braves) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1891) Lillian Rich, English actress (b. 1900) January 8 – Eduard Wiiralt, Estonian artist (b. 1898) January 11 John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, British politician (b. 1873) Oscar Straus, Austrian composer (b. 1870) January 12 William H. P. Blandy, American admiral (b. 1890) Elmer H. Geran, American politician (b. 1875) January 18 – Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879) January 20 – Fred Root, English cricketer (b. 1890) January 30 John Murray Anderson, Canadian theater director and producer (b. 1886) Dorothy Price, Irish physician (b. 1890) January 31 Edwin Howard Armstrong, American electrical engineer (b. 1890) Florence Bates, American actress (b. 1888) February February 6 – Maxwell Bodenheim, American poet and novelist (murdered) (b. 1892) February 8 – Laurence Trimble, American actor (b. 1885) February 9 – Mabel Paige, American actress (b. 1880) February 11 – Thomas Pierrepoint, British executioner (b. 1870) February 12 – Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (b. 1896) February 19 – Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp, 24th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1883) February 21 – William K. Howard, American film director (b. 1899) March March 7 Otto Diels, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876) Will H. Hays, Namesake for the Hays Code (b. 1879) March 9 – Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer (b. 1874) March 12 – Marianne Weber, German sociologist and suffragist (b. 1870) March 13 – Cesar Klein, German painter (b. 1876) March 24 – Thành Thái, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1879) March 26 – Louis Silvers, American film composer (b. 1889) March 30 Horatio Dresser, American writer (b. 1866) Fritz London, German physicist (b. 1900) April April 2 Hoyt Vandenberg, U.S. Air Force general (b. 1899) Maud Barger-Wallach, American tennis player (b. 1870) April 3 – Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat and humanitarian (b. 1885) April 7 – Saburō Kurusu, Japanese diplomat (b. 1886) April 8 Winnifred Eaton, Canadian author (b. 1875) Fritzi Scheff,