1998 deaths

Ronald Johnson (November 25, 1935 – March 4, 1998) was a poet from Ashland, Kansas, whose significant works include a number of experimental long poems such as The Book of the Green Man, RADI OS, and his magnum opus ARK. Johnson graduated from Columbia University 1960, wandered in Appalachia and Britain for a number of years, then settled in San Francisco for twenty-five years before returning to Kansas, where he died. Writer and critic Guy Davenport once referred to Johnson as America's greatest living poet, while poet Robert Creeley considered Johnson was "one of the defining peers of [his] own imagined company of poets."

Jean Marie Julien Balland (26 July 1934 in Bué, Cher, France – 1 March 1998 in Lyon) was a Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Lyon.

Walter Carr (1 April 1925 – 30 May 1998) was a Scottish actor and comedian.He played the servant, Jack, in the Edinburgh Gateway Company's Edinburgh International Festival production of Robert McLellan's historical comedy The Flouers o Edinburgh in August 1957, and was in the cast of its production of All for Mary by Kay Bannerman and Harold Brooke in February 1958. He played one of the Vices in Tyrone Guthrie's Edinburgh Festival production of Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites at the Church of Scotland's Assemby Hall in August 1959, and Sandy the scout in the 1960 Festival production of Sydney Goodsir Smith's The Wallace. In 1963, he gave a memorable comedy performance as the imagined invalid in the Gateway's production of The Hypochondriack, Victor Carin's translation into Scots of Molière's Le malade imaginaire.Possibly his best known role was as the mate Dougie in the TV series The Vital Spark (1965–67).He played Shooey in Lex MacLean's TV series. Other television roles included Davy McNeil in The Dark Island (1962), James Pigg in Mr. John Jorrocks (1966), and Advocate Fife in Weir of Hermiston (1973).
He had a minor part as the school teacher in the cult film The Wicker Man (1973), and played a jeweller in the comedy The Girl in the Picture (1985).

Franciscus Johannes Gijsbertus van den Berg (15 December 1919, in Rotterdam – 6 November 1998, in Fleurac) or just Johfra Bosschart was a Dutch modern artist. Johfra and his wife, Ellen Lórien, established in Fleurac (Dordogne - France) in 1962. They lived in the Netherlands before that. Johfra described his works as "Surrealism based on studies of psychology, religion, the Bible, astrology, antiquity, magic, witchcraft, mythology and occultism."

Federico Zeri (12 August 1921 – 5 October 1998) was an Italian art historian specialised in Italian Renaissance painting. He wrote for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, and was a well known television-personality in Italy.Zeri was born in central Rome, and graduated from Sapienza University of Rome in 1945. Not wishing to enter the academic world, he worked in the Ministry of Public Education until 1952. In 1948 he was nominated director of Galleria Spada in Rome.In 1963 Zeri was among the founding members of the Getty Villa's board of trustees. He left in 1984, after his argument that the Getty kouros was a forgery and should not be bought, was rejected.Following this episode, Zeri became notorious for denouncing forgeries and misattributions. In 1984, when four students in Livorno hoaxed both the city and Modigliani experts into believing that a group of sculptures they have made were authentic, he was one of the few who called on their amateurish style. Zeri also argued that some of the frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, were made by Pietro Cavallini and not Giotto. Zeri's insistence that a painting can be attributed to an artist, by means of a careful examination or connoisseurship, without resort to external evidence such as documents or dates, met controversial responses.Zeri edited and researched catalogues of the collections of many institutions, including the Frederick Mason Perkins collection in the Sacro Convento in Assisi; Accademia Carrara; Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, La Spezia; Galleria Spada, Rome; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. and Narodna Galerija in Ljubljana (with Ksenija Rozman).
Zeri died at the age of 77, in his villa in Mentana on 5 October 1998. He bequeathed his estate to the University of Bologna, complete with his library and papers, a collection of about 400 ancient inscriptions and a grand collection of photographs. Most photographs documented artworks from Italy and elsewhere, some done by himself and some acquired from other collections, including part of the collection of Evelyn Sandberg-Vavalà. The collections and accompanying database are managed, partly digitized, by the Federico Zeri Foundation.All through his life, Zeri maintained close connections with Bernard Berenson, Roberto Longhi, and his teacher Pietro Toesca. He taught art history at the University of Rome, and had visiting positions at Harvard, where he delivered a series of lectures on Lauro De Bosis in 1962, and at the Columbia University in New York.

Lucia Valentini Terrani (29 August 1946 in Padua – 11 June 1998 in Seattle) was an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with Rossini roles.

Luciano Pezzi (7 February 1921, Russi, Province of Ravenna – 26 June 1998) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. He was born in Russi and died in Bologna at age 77.

Nino Agostino Arturo Maria Ferrari (Italian pronunciation: [ˈniːno aɡoˈstiːno arˈtuːro maˈriːa ferˈraːri]), known as Nino Ferrer (15 August 1934 – 13 August 1998), was an Italian-born French singer-songwriter and author.

Chantal Mauduit (24 March 1964 – 13 May 1998) was a French alpinist.

Anne Cécile Desclos (23 September 1907 – 27 April 1998) was a French journalist and novelist who wrote under the pen names Dominique Aury and Pauline Réage. She is best known for her erotic novel Story of O (1954).