- May 2 Hal LeRoy [John LeRoy Schotte], American vaudeville, Broadway and film dancer (Ziegfeld's Follies of 1931), dies at 71 after surgery
- May 2 Larry Clinton, American trumpeter and bandleader, dies at 75
- May 6 Julie Vega, Filipina child actress and singer, dies at 16
- May 8 Karl Marx, German composer and conductor, dies at 87
- May 9 Reginald Dixon, British theatre organist, dies at 80
- May 17 Abe Burrows [Borowitz], American Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning songwriter, composer and writer (Guys and Dolls), dies from Alzheimer's disease at 74
- May 24 Joe Darensbourg, Cajun-American dixieland-style jazz clarinetist (Jelly Roll Morton; Louis Armstrong), dies at 78
- May 27 (Clifton) "Skeeter" Best, American jazz guitarist (Erskine Hawkins; Earl Hines; Oscar Pettiford; Ray Charles; Milt Jackson), dies at 70
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