Musicians Who Died on October 25

  • 1878 Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, German-Russian violinist, composer, and conductor, dies at 89
  • 1895 Charles Hallé, Anglo-German pianist, conductor and founder (Halle Orchestra), dies at 76
  • 1904 Teresa Milanollo, Italian composer, dies at 77
  • 1907 Edmund Hart Turpin, English composer, dies at 72
  • 1910 Hermann Kipper, German music teacher and composer, dies at 84
  • 1926 Frederick Zech, Jr., American pianist and composer, dies at 68
  • 1952 Sergei Bortkiewicz, Ukranian composer, dies at 75
  • 1960 José Padilla, Spanish composer and pianist (La Violetera - City Lights; Ça c'est Paris - Moulin Rouge), dies at 71
  • 1963 Abu-Bakr Khairat, Egyptian composer, dies at 53
  • 1968 Rudolf Forster, Austrian actor (Threepenny Opera), dies at 83
  • 1980 Virgil Fox, American organist, dies at 68
  • 1983 Hermann Ambrosius, German composer, dies at 86
  • 1984 Pascale Ogier, actress (Ghost Dance), dies of a heart attack at 24
  • 1985 (John) Morton Downey, American pop tenor, known as "The Irish Nightengale", songwriter, radio and television host, dies at 83
  • 1988 Johnnie Richardson, American R&B musician (Johnnie & Joe), dies at 53
  • 1991 Bill Graham, [Wulf Grajonca], German-American impresario and rock concert promoter (Fillmore; Winterland Ballroom; Live-Aid), dies in a helicopter crash in California at 60
  • 1991 Margo J. Sylvia (née Lopez), American pop singer (Tune Weavers - "Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby"), dies of heart attack and stroke at 55

Roger Miller (1936-1992)

American country singer-songwriter ("King of the Road"; "Dang Me"), dies at 56

  • 2000 Don Frank Brooks, American session and touring blues harmonica player (Waylon Jennings; Ken Burns' "The Civil War"), dies of leukemia at 53
  • 2001 Yoritsune Matsudaira, Japanese composer, dies at 94

Richard Harris (1930-2002)

Irish actor (A Man Called Horse, This Sporting Life) and singer ("MacArthur Park"), dies of Hodgkin's disease at 72

  • 2003 Robert Strassburg, American composer, conductor and educator (Leaves of Grass: A Choral Symphony), dies at 88
  • 2010 Gregory Isaacs, Jamaican reggae musician, dies of lung cancer at 59
  • 2014 Jack Bruce, Scottish bassist and singer-songwriter (Cream - "White Room"), dies at 71
  • 2017 John Manduell, British-based South African composer and educator (Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, 1973-96), dies at 89
  • 2018 Sonny Fortune [Cornelius Fortune], American jazz saxophonist, dies at 79
  • 2019 Chou Wen-chung, Chinese-American composer (Mode of Shang), dies at 96
  • 2022 Jules Bass, American director, producer, lyricist (Rankin/Bass Productions -The Year Without A Santa Claus; Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer; Frosty The Snowman), and cookbook author, dies at 87
  • 2023 Zdeněk Mácal, Czech conductor (Milwaukee Symphony, 1986-95; New Jersey Symphony, 1992-2003; Czech Philharmonic, 2003-07), dies at 87 [1]