List of Famous people who died in 1991

Harry Glicken was an American volcanologist. He researched Mount St. Helens in the United States before and after its 1980 eruption, and was very distraught about the death of fellow volcanologist David A. Johnston, who had switched shifts with Glicken so that the latter could attend an interview. In 1991, while conducting avalanche research on Mount Unzen in Japan, Glicken and fellow volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft were killed by a pyroclastic flow. His remains were found four days later, and were cremated in accordance with his parents' request. Glicken and Johnston remain the only American volcanologists known to have died in volcanic eruptions.

Aldo Ray was an American actor of film and television. He began his career as a contract player for Columbia Studios before achieving stardom through his roles in The Marrying Kind, Pat and Mike, Let's Do It Again, and Battle Cry. His athletic build and gruff, raspy voice saw him frequently typecast in "tough guy" roles throughout his career, which lasted well into the late 1980s. Though the latter part of his career was marked by appearances in low-budget B-movies and exploitation films, he still starred occasionally in higher-profile features, including The Secret of NIMH (1982) and The Sicilian (1987).

Col. James Benson Irwin, USAF was an American astronaut, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force pilot. He served as Apollo Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, the fourth human lunar landing. He was the eighth person to walk on the Moon and the first, and youngest, of those astronauts to die.

Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright, stage director and lyricist. He collaborated with composer Alan Menken on several works and is most widely known for his work on feature films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, for which Ashman wrote the lyrics and Menken composed the music. Ashman and Menken began their collaboration with the musical God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979), for which Ashman directed and wrote both book and lyrics. Their next musical, Little Shop of Horrors (1982), for which Ashman again directed and wrote both book and lyrics, became a long-running success and led to a 1986 feature film. At Disney, the duo worked on the films The Little Mermaid (1989), which began what is considered to be the "Disney Renaissance", and Beauty and the Beast (1991). After his death, some of Ashman's songs were included in another Disney film, Aladdin (1992).

Paul Eugene Brown was an American football coach and executive in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Brown was both the co-founder and first coach of the Cleveland Browns, a team named after him, and later played a role in founding the Cincinnati Bengals. His teams won seven league championships in a professional coaching career spanning 25 seasons.

Julissa D'Anne Gomez was an American gymnast whose rapid rise through the ranks of elite gymnastics in the mid-1980s was cut short by a vaulting accident in 1988 that left her a quadriplegic. She eventually died from her injury. She was being coached by Al Fong, and had previously been coached by Bela Karolyi.

Michael Westphal was a male tennis player from West Germany.

Kevin Peter Hall was an American actor best known for his roles as the title characters in the first two films in the Predator franchise and the title character of Harry in the film and television series, Harry and the Hendersons. He also appeared in the television series Misfits of Science and 227, along with the film Without Warning.

Marcus Aurelius Goodrich was an American screenwriter and novelist. He was the first husband of the actress Olivia de Havilland. Their only son Benjamin was born on September 27, 1949. He was married beforehand to Elizabeth Norton, Henriette Alice McCrea-Metcalf, Caroline Sleeth, and Renee Oakman.

Yana Stanislavovna "Yanka" Dyagileva was a Russian poet and singer-songwriter and one of the most popular figures of her time in Russia's underground punk scene. She both played solo and performed with others, including Yegor Letov and bands Grazhdanskaya Oborona and Velikiye Oktyabri. Dyagileva was greatly influenced by Letov and Alexander Bashlachev, who were her friends. Her songs explored themes of desperation and depression, punk-style nihilism, and folk-like lamentations. Her tragic death in 1991 has been considered as a symbolic end to the Siberian punk scene.