List of Famous people who died in 1955

Barbara Elaine Graham was an American criminal convicted of murder. She was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison on the same day as two convicted accomplices, Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins, all of whom were involved in a robbery that led to the murder of an elderly widow. Nicknamed "Bloody Babs" by the press, Graham was the third woman in California to be executed by gas.

Horatio Nelson Jackson was an American physician and automobile pioneer. In 1903, he and driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first people to drive an automobile across the United States.

Ruth Ellis was a British escort and nightclub hostess. She was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom after being convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely.

Robert Charles Francis was an American actor. He appeared in only four Hollywood films, all with military themes, before he was killed at age 25 in the crash of a small airplane he was piloting.

Helmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling was a German general during World War II. He was the last commander of the Berlin Defence Area during the Battle of Berlin, and led the defence of the city against Soviet forces, finally surrendering just before the end of World War II in Europe.

David Blair was a British merchant seaman with the White Star Line, which had reassigned him from the RMS Titanic just before its maiden voyage. Due to his hasty departure, he accidentally kept a key to a storage locker believed to contain the binoculars intended for use by the crow's nest lookout. The absence of any binoculars within the crow's nest is believed to be one of the main contributory factors in the Titanic’s ultimate demise.

Johannes Peter "Honus" Wagner, sometimes referred to as "Hans" Wagner, was an American baseball shortstop who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1897 to 1917, almost entirely for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wagner won his eighth batting title in 1911, a National League record that remains unbroken to this day, and matched only once, in 1997, by Tony Gwynn. He also led the league in slugging six times and stolen bases five times. Wagner was nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman" due to his superb speed and German heritage. This nickname was a nod to the popular folk-tale made into a famous opera by another Wagner.

John David Dingell Sr. was an American politician who represented Michigan's 15th congressional district from 1933 to 1955. He was a member of the Democratic Party. He was the father of the longest-serving member of Congress, former U.S. Representative John Dingell.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair "Paddy" Mayne, was a British Army soldier from Newtownards, capped for Ireland and the British Lions at rugby union, lawyer, amateur boxer and a founding member of the Special Air Service (SAS).

Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin was a Soviet Russian Major-General who served as the chief executioner of the Stalinist NKVD under the administrations of Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Yezhov, and Lavrentiy Beria.