- Aug 3 Peter Collins, English auto racer (British GP 1958), dies in race accident at German GP at 26
- Aug 4 Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (b. 1883)
- Aug 5 Joseph Holbrooke, English pianist, conductor and composer (3 Blind Mice), dies at 80
- Aug 9 Felipe Boero, Argentine composer, dies at 74
- Aug 10 Frank Demaree, American baseball outfielder (MLB All Star 1936, 37; Chicago Cubs, NY Giants), dies of internal haemorrhage at 48
- Aug 13 Otto Witte, acrobat and, purportedly, King of Albania (b. 1868)
- Aug 14 "Big" Bill Broonzy, American blues singer and guitarist (Blues by Broonzy), dies of cancer at 65
- Aug 14 Gladys Presley, mother of Elvis, dies at 46
Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900-1958)
Aug 14 French nuclear physicist (Nobel Prize for Physics 1936 for discovery of artificial radioactivity), dies at 58
- Aug 14 Konstantin von Neurath, German diplomat (b.1873)
- Aug 14 Mary Ritter Beard, American historian, dies at 82
- Aug 16 Paul Panzer, German-American silent film actor (The Perils of Pauline, Mildred Pierce, Hotel Berlin), dies at 85
- Aug 17 Florent Schmitt, French composer (La tragédie de Salome; Psalm 47), and music critic (Le Temps), dies at 87
- Aug 21 Stevan Hristić, Serbian composer (Legend of Ohrid; Opeleo), conductor (Belgrade Philharmonic, 1923-34; Belgrade Opera, 1925-35), and pedagogue (Belgrade Music Academy, 1937-50), dies at 73
- Aug 21 Walter Schumann, American choral director (Ford Show) and film and television composer (Night Of The Hunter; Dragnet theme), dies at 44
- Aug 22 Roger Martin du Gard, French novelist (Nobel Prize for Literature 1937), dies at 77
- Aug 23 Martin du Gard, writer, dies
- Aug 24 John G. Strijdom, South African politician and nationalist, Prime Minister of South Africa (1954-58), dies at 65
- Aug 24 Kenneth Leighton, British pianist and composer, dies of esophageal cancer at 58
- Aug 24 Leo Blech, German opera composer and conductor, (Königliches Opernhaus, 1906-37; Städtische Oper, 1949-53). dies at 87
- Aug 24 Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist, dies at 82
- Aug 26 Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (Hugh the Drover), dies at 85
- Aug 27 Ernest Lawrence, American nuclear scientist and inventor (Cyclotron - Nobel 1939), dies at 57
- Aug 28 Nikolay Golovanov, Soviet composer, dies at 67
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide