1997 deaths

Alba de Céspedes y Bertini (11 March 1911 – 14 November 1997) was a Cuban-Italian writer.

Paul G. Hahnemann (31 October 1912 in Strasbourg – 23 January 1997 in Munich) sometimes known as "Nischen-Paule", was a leading director at BMW between 1961 and 1972.

Helen Foster Snow (September 21, 1907 – January 11, 1997) was an American journalist who reported from China in the 1930s under the name Nym Wales on the developing Chinese Civil War, the Korean independence movement and the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Snow's family moved often throughout her youth and she ended up living in Salt Lake City with her grandmother in her teenage years, until she decided to move to China in 1931. There, she married American journalist Edgar Snow and became a correspondent for several publications. While she and her husband were sympathetic to the revolutionaries in China, whom she compared favorably to the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, she was never a card-carrying Communist.
While living in Beijing, the Snows befriended leftist leaders of the 1935 December 9th Movement, who arranged for first Edgar, then Helen to visit the communist wartime capital, Yan'an, in 1937, where she interviewed Chinese Communist leaders, including Mao Zedong. The Snows also conceptualized the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, known as the Gung-Ho movement, which provided jobs and stability. In 1940, Snow returned to the United States, where she and Edgar divorced. She continued to support the Cooperatives and write books based on her experiences in China. In the late 1940s, critics grouped her with the China Hands as one of those responsible for the "loss of China" who went beyond sympathy to active support of Mao's revolution.

Dorothy Kathleen Gulliver (September 6, 1908 – May 23, 1997) was an American silent film actress, and one of the few to make a successful transition when films began using sound.

Kendall Day Garff (July 18, 1906 – March 14, 1997) was a Utah businessman who owned several automobile dealerships along the Wasatch Front.

Alexander Young (28 December 1938 – 4 August 1997), better known as George Alexander, was a Scottish singer, songwriter, saxophonist, bassist, guitarist and session musician. He was an elder brother of George Young, the rhythm guitarist and founding member of the Easybeats, as well as Malcolm and Angus Young, founding members of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC, and the younger brother of Stephen Young, the father of Stevie Young, who is also a member of AC/DC.

Leif Longum (19 November 1927 – 5 May 1997) was a Norwegian essayist and literary researcher. He was born in Oslo. He was assigned to the Nansen Academy from 1960 to 1972, and the University of Bergen from 1972 to 1995; from 1992 as a professor. He published the textbook Å lese skuespill in 1976. His principal work is an analysis of the "cultural radicalism" in Norway in the interwar years, with particular focus on the troika Sigurd Hoel, Helge Krog and Arnulf Øverland. He published the essay collection Å krysse sine spor in 1995, while the collection På fallrepet was published posthumously in 1998.

Marino Marini (11 May 1924 – 20 March 1997) was an Italian musician who achieved international success in the 1950s and 1960s.

Alberto Manzi (Italian pronunciation: [alˈbɛrto ˈmandzi]; Rome, 3 November 1924 – Pitigliano, 4 December 1997) was an Italian school teacher, writer and television host, best known for being the art director of Non è mai troppo tardi (Italian for It's never too late), an educational TV programme broadcast between 1959 and 1968.

Lauritz Jenssen Dorenfeldt (3 February 1909 – 15 April 1997) was a Norwegian jurist.