- Oct 3 William Bishop, American stage and screen actor (Black Eagle; Adventures in Silverado; It's a Great Life), dies of cancer at 41
- Oct 6 Bernard Berenson, American art critic (Italian Painters of the Renaissance), dies at 94
- Oct 7 Mario Lanza [Alfredo Arnold Cocozza], Italian-American actor and singer (Great Caruso, Toast of New Orleans), dies of a heart attack at 38
- Oct 8 Balthasar van der Pol, Dutch physicist (Comparison of Van der Pol), dies at 70
- Oct 10 Prince Friedrich Aloys Johannes Maria, Prince of Liechtenstein, dies at 88
- Oct 11 Bert Bell, American Pro Football HOF executive (NFL Commissioner 1946-59; owner Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers), dies from a heart attack at 64
- Oct 12 Arnoldt Bronnen, writer, dies at 63
- Oct 13 Rudolf Mengelberg, Dutch composer and musicologist (Concert Amsterdam), dies at 67
Errol Flynn (1909-1959)
Oct 14 Australian actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood), dies of a heart attack at 50
- Oct 15 Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1880)
Stepan Bandera (1909-1959)
Oct 15 Ukrainian nationalist, leader of the terrorist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), anti-communist fighter who both courted and was persecuted by Nazi Germany, assassinated via cyanide gas at 50 by the KGB in Munich, West Germany
George C. Marshall (1880-1959)
Oct 16 American general and US Secretary of State (1947-49) who authored the Marshall Plan (Nobel 1953), dies at 78
- Oct 18 Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete (Olympic gold marathon 1928), dies of gun wounds at 61
- Oct 19 Stanley Bate, English composer, dies at 45
- Oct 20 Werner Krauss, German actor (Joyless Street), dies at 75 (b. 1884)
- Oct 23 Gerda Lundequist 'The Swedish Sarah Bernhardt', Swedish stage actress, dies at 88
- Oct 25 Bob Murphy, TV host (RFD America), dies at 42
- Oct 28 Abe Waddington, English cricket fast bowler (2 Tests, 1 wicket; Yorkshire CCC), dies at 66
- Oct 28 Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary (b. 1932)
- Oct 28 Egon Kornauth, Austrian classical pianist, composer, and teacher, dies at 68
- Oct 30 Blonde Dolly [Sybille A J Niemans], Dutch prostitute, murdered at 33
- Oct 31 Jean Cabannes, French physicist (b. 1885)
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide