1985 deaths

Georges-Henri Rivière (1897–1985) was a French museologist, and innovator of modern French ethnographic museology practices.

Ferdinand Alquié (French: [alkje] ; 18 December 1906 – 28 February 1985) was a French philosopher and member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques from 1978.
In the years 1931 to 1945 he was a professor in various provincial and Parisian lycees, and later at the University of Montpellier and Sorbonne where he worked until he retired in 1979.

Gaspare Ambrosini (24 October 1886 in Favara, Sicily – 17 August 1985 in Rome) was an Italian jurist and statesman.

Edgard De Caluwé (1 July 1913 in Denderwindeke – 16 May 1985 in Geraardsbergen) was a Belgian cyclist.
He had twenty victories as a professional from 1933 to 1947. He won the Paris-Brussels and Bordeaux-Paris in 1935. He finished second in the Tour of Flanders in 1936 and won it in 1938. He had already won the Tour of Flanders in 1933, but as an independent.
His career was interrupted by World War II. He also won some victories after the war, but his best years were before it.
He also participated in the Tour de France twice, without much success.
The Grote Prijs Beeckman-De Caluwé in Ninove has been named after him.

Jeanne-Paule Marie "Jeannine" Deckers (17 October 1933 – 29 March 1985), better known as Sœur Sourire (French for 'Smiling Sister') and often called The Singing Nun in English-speaking countries, was a Belgian singer-songwriter and a member of the Dominican Order in Belgium as Sister Luc Gabriel. She acquired widespread fame in 1963 with the release of the Belgian French song "Dominique", which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and other charts, along with her debut album. Owing to confusion over the terms of the recording contract, she was reduced to poverty, and also experienced a crisis of faith, quitting the order, though still remaining a Catholic. She died by suicide with her lifelong partner, Annie Pécher.

Anna Banti (born Lucia Lopresti; 27 June 1895 – 2 September 1985) was an Italian writer, art historian, critic, and translator.

Pierre Tal-Coat (real name Pierre Louis Jacob; 1905–1985) was a French artist considered to be one of the founders of Tachisme.

Helmut Thielicke (German: [ˈhɛlmuːt ˈtiːlɪkə]; 4 December 1908 in Wuppertal – 5 March 1986 in Hamburg) was a German Protestant theologian and rector of the University of Hamburg from 1960 to 1978.

José Gomes Ferreira, GOSE, GOL (9 July 1900 – 1985) was a Portuguese poet and fiction writer with a vast work of varied influences. Gomes Ferreira was also a political activist who participated in the resistance against the dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar, becoming later a member of the Portuguese Communist Party. In the late 1970s he held the presidency of the Portuguese Writers Association.
A native of Porto, Ferreira graduated in law in 1924 and became a consul in Norway in the late 1920s. Soon after, he became a journalist and published his works in several progressive magazines. After the rise of the right-wing dictatorship led by Salazar, Ferreira he acquainted himself with the democratic resistance movements. During the later years of the regime, he continued publishing and saw his poetic work recognized by his peers. After the Carnation Revolution, Ferreira joined the Communist Party and continued his work until the mid-1980s.
His artistic work was representative of his concern with social problems, a mirror of his leftwing ideology. His poetry had varied influences, ranging from neorealism to surrealism, in a dialectic relation between his own ego and the need to share other people suffering.

Sandy Block, also credited as Sid Block (January 16, 1917 – October 1985) was an American jazz bassist.