Golda Meir (1898-1978)
Dec 8 Israeli teacher, stateswoman and 4th Prime Minister of Israel (1969-74) known as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics, dies in of lymphatic cancer at 80
- Dec 9 Ed Healey, NFL tackle (Rock Island Independents, Chicago Bears), dies at 83
- Dec 10 Ed Wood, American filmmaker and director (Plan 9 from Outer Space), dies of heart failure at 54
- Dec 10 Miura Isshu, Zen teacher, Hakuin Rinzai line, dies at 75
- Dec 11 Paul O'Dea, American baseball player (b. 1920)
- Dec 11 Vincent du Vigneaud, American chemist and (1955 Nobel Prize for Chemistry - for work on sulphur compounds), dies at 77
- Dec 12 Clifton Chenier, American blues singer (Bayou Blues), dies at 53
- Dec 12 Fay Compton [Virginia Compton-Mackenzie], British stage and screen actress (Hamlet; The WInter's Tale; Othello; The Haunting), dies at 84
- Dec 13 Frits Slomp, Dutch pastor and resistance fighter (aided people in hiding during WWII), dies at 80
- Dec 14 Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo, Spanish writer (Englishmen, Frenchmen, Spaniards) and diplomat, dies at 92
- Dec 15 Chill Wills, American actor (Frontier Circus, Rounders), dies at 75
- Dec 16 Blanche Calloway, American jazz vocalist, bandleader (Twelve Clouds of Joy), civil rights activist, and broadcaster, dies of breast cancer at 76
- Dec 17 Don Ellis, American avant garde jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and Grammy Award-winning film score composer (The French Connection), dies of a heart attack at 44
- Dec 21 Roger Caillois, French writer and scholar (Les Jeux et les Hommes, championed South American writers), dies at 65
- Dec 24 Franz Johannes Weinrich [Heinrich Lerse], German writer (Himmlisches), dies at 81
- Dec 26 Fritz Büchtger, German composer, educator, and modern music proponent (Association for Contemporary Music; Studio for New Music), dies at 75
- Dec 27 Bob de Lange [Jacob Bernard de Lange], Dutch actor and director (Daniel), dies at 62
- Dec 27 Chris Bell, American rock guitarist (Big Star - "In The Street"), dies in a car crash at 27
- Dec 27 Houari Boumédiènne, President of Algeria (1965-78), dies at 51
- Dec 28 Harry Winston, US jeweler for the "rich & famous", dies at 82
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide