List of Famous people who died in 1998

Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. He was mayor of Palm Springs, California from 1988 to 1992, and the Republican congressman for California's 44th district, elected during the Republican Revolution and serving from 1995 until his death in 1998.

Painganadu Venkataraman Gopalan was an Indian career civil servant who served as Director of Relief Measures and Refugees in the Government of Zambia, especially the exodus of Refugees from Southern Rhodesia. While in Zambia, he later served as Advisor to the president of Zambia. He served as Joint Secretary to the Government of India in 1960s.

Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was an Irish-American actress. She was best known for playing Jane in the Tarzan series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. In 2020, she was listed at number 8 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. She was also the mother of actress Mia Farrow. When told Frank Sinatra wanted to marry Mia, she famously remarked "At his age, he should marry me."

Friedrich Paul ‘Fritz’ Honka was a German serial killer. Between 1970 and 1975 he killed at least four women from Hamburg’s red light district, keeping the bodies in his flat.

Justinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu was an English footballer who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997. He was known by his early clubs to be gay, and came out publicly later in his career, becoming the first professional footballer to be openly gay. He was also the first black footballer to command a £1 million transfer fee, with his transfer from Norwich City to Nottingham Forest in 1981, but had little success as a player afterwards, although he continued to play at senior level until 1994.

Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the first American to travel into space, and in 1971, he walked on the Moon.

Master Sergeant Raul Perez "Roy" Benavidez was a member of the United States Army Special Forces and retired United States Army master sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for his valorous actions in combat near Lộc Ninh, South Vietnam on May 2, 1968.

Clara Reisenberg Rockmore was a Lithuanian classical violin prodigy and a virtuoso performer of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument. She was the sister of pianist Nadia Reisenberg.

Tim Maia was a Brazilian musician, songwriter and businessman known for his iconoclastic, ironic, outspoken, and humorous musical style. Maia contributed to Brazilian music within a wide variety of musical genres, including soul, funk, bossa nova, disco, romantic ballads, pop, rock, jazz, baião and MPB. He introduced the soul style on the Brazilian musical scene. Along with Jorge Ben, Maia pioneered MPB's samba rock genre, combining samba, soul, and funk. He is internationally recognized as one of the biggest icons in Brazilian music.

Teresa Velázquez was a Mexican actress. She appeared in 86 films and television shows between 1957 and 1996. She starred in the film Young People, which was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival. She died on 7 January 1998 in Mexico City after a long battle with colon cancer.