- Dec 2 Sabu [Dastagir], Indian actor (The Thief of Bagdad, Elephant Boy, Drum), dies of a heart attack at 39
- Dec 5 Herbert H Lehman, (Gov-D-NY), dies
- Dec 5 Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1892)
- Dec 5 Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer, dies at 58
- Dec 6 Jozef Goossenaerts, Flem philologist (Language Boundary), dies at 81
- Dec 8 Field Marshal Sarit Dhanarajata, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1908)
- Dec 12 Yasujiro Ozu, Japanese film director (b. 1903)
- Dec 13 Hubert ME Pierlot, Belgian advocate/premier (1939-45), dies at 79
- Dec 13 Stan Jones, American singer-songwriter ("Ghost Riders in the Sky"), and actor (Rio Grande; Ten Who Dared), dies of cancer at 49
- Dec 14 Dinah Washington [Ruth Lee Jones], American jazz, blues, pop, and R&B singer ("What a Diff'rence a Day Makes": "September In The Rain"), dies of sleeping pill overdose at 39
- Dec 14 Erich Ollenhauer, German politician, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (1952-63), dies at 62
- Dec 18 Winfried Zillig, German opera composer, and conductor (Fantasia Irica), dies at 58
- Dec 20 Paul Constantinescu, Romanian composer (Ballad of the Outlaw for cello and orchestra), and pedagogue, dies at 54
Jack Hobbs (1882-1963)
Dec 21 English cricket batsman (61 Tests, 5,410 runs @ 56.94, 15 x 100s; leading 1st-class run-scorer [61,760] and century-maker [199]; Surry), dies at 81
- Dec 24 Raphaël Verwilghen, Belgian architect, and urban planner, dies at 78
- Dec 25 Tristan Tzara [Samuel Rosenfeld] Romanian-French poet (Approximate Man), dies at 67
- Dec 26 "Gorgeous George" Wagner, American wrestler, dies of a heart attack at 48
- Dec 28 Abbott Joseph Liebling, American journalist/writer, dies
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide