- Jan 1 Margot Grahame [Margaret Clark], British actress (The Three Musketeers, Criminal Lawyer), dies from chronic bronchitis at 70
- Jan 1 Paul Belmondo, French sculptor (Bathing Woman, Orleans), dies at 83
- Jan 1 Victor Buono, American actor (Man from Atlantis: The, Untouchables; Batman - "King Tut"), dies at 43
- Jan 3 Derek Sealy, West Indian cricket batsman (11 Tests; youngest West Indian Test player 17:122), dies at 69
- Jan 5 Edmund Herring, Australian military commander, Lieutenant Governor of Victoria (b. 1892)
- Jan 5 Hans Conried, American actor (Peter Pan; Bullwinkle Show; Make Room for Daddy - "Uncle Tonoose"; The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T), dies from a heart ailment at 64
- Jan 5 Harvey Lembeck, American stage and screen actor (The Phil Silvers Show; Stalag 17; Beach Party films), dies of a heat attack at 58
- Jan 7 Bert Oosterhuis, Dutch motor racer (Paris-Dakar), dies in a race crash at 41
- Jan 7 Eugene Wegmann, Swiss geologist (Le Jura plisse), dies at 85
- Jan 8 Grégoire Aslan, American actor (The Return of the Pink Panther, King of Kings), dies of a heart attack at 73
- Jan 8 Reta Shaw, American actress (Ghost & Mrs Muir, Mary Poppins, Picnic), dies of emphysema at 69
- Jan 10 Lazar Weiner, Russian-born American composer, dies at 84
- Jan 10 Paul Lynde, American comedian and actor (The Hollywood Squares, Uncle Arthur-Bewitched), dies after a heart attack at 55
- Jan 13 Marcel Camus, French film director (Orfeu Negro), dies at 69
- Jan 15 Red Smith, American sportscaster and columnist (Pulitzer 1976, Fight Talk), dies at 76
- Jan 16 Harald Søltoft Agersnap, Danish cellist, pianist, conductor, and composer (Royal Danish Theatre, 1931-66), dies at 82
- Jan 18 Burnet Corwin Tuthill, American composer (Laurentia), dies at 93
- Jan 18 Trent Lehman, American child actor (Butch-Nanny & the Professor), commits suicide at 20
- Jan 19 Elis Regina (Costa), Brazilian pop-samba-bossa nova singer ("Arrastão" - "Pull the Trawling Net"), dies from cardiac arrest after consuming alcohol, cocaine and tranquilizers at 36
- Jan 19 Leopold Trepper, Polish-Israeli spy (founded CP Palestina), dies at 77
- Jan 20 Marc Demeyer, Belgian road racing cyclist (Paris-Brussels 1974), dies at 31
- Jan 22 Eduardo Frei Montalva, president of Chile (1964-70), dies at 71
- Jan 22 Tommy Tucker [Robert Higginbotham], American R&B singer-songwriter, and piano player ("Hi-Heel Sneakers"), dies due to a poorly ventilated home improvement project at 48
- Jan 23 Hope Hampton, actress (Star Dust, Lawful Larcency), dies at 83
- Jan 24 Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian president and dictator (b. 1918)
- Jan 25 Mikhail Suslov, Soviet party ideologist and statesman, dies at 79
- Jan 27 Iris Korn, American actress (Widder-Palmerstown USA), dies at 60
- Jan 30 Félix Labisse, French painter (libidoscaphes), dies at 76
- Jan 30 Riccardo Nielsen, Italian composer (99th Psalm; La via di Colombo), dies at 73
- Jan 30 Stanley Holloway, English comedian (My Fair Lady, Our Man Higgins), dies at 91
Lightnin Hopkins (1912-1982)
Jan 30 American blues musician (Ball of Twine), dies of esophageal cancer at 69
- Jan 31 Jiří Srnka, Czech classical and film score composer, dies at 74
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning