- Dec 1 Byron Webster, British-American actor (That Man Bolt), dies of AIDS at 58
- Dec 1 George Joseph Stigler, US economist (Nobel Prize 1982), dies at 80
- Dec 2 George Lott, American tennis player (12 Grand Slam doubles titles), dies at 85
- Dec 3 Casey Walters, American actor (True Story of Lynn Stuart), dies after a stroke at 75
- Dec 4 Alex Graham, Scottish cartoonist who created the comic strip "Fred Basset", dies at 78
- Dec 5 Aad Mansfield, soccer player/trainer (ADO/Feyenoord/FC Utrecht), dies
- Dec 5 Jill Browne, dies at 54
- Dec 5 Richard Speck, American mass murderer (raped and killed 8 student nurses in 1966), dies a day before his 50th birthday
- Dec 5 Robert Karvelas, American actor (Get Smart -"Larabee"), dies at 70
- Dec 6 Ann Sorg Coston, actress (Anna-Aldrich Family), dies at 62
- Dec 6 Jack Hunter [John Averona], American big band vocalist (Elliot Lawrence Orchestra - "Apple Blossom Time"), dies at 72
- Dec 7 Michael Taylor, Male Model (b. 1913)
- Dec 8 (Wilbur) "Buck" Clayton, American jazz trumpet player (Count Basie; Billie Holiday; Lester Young), and bandleader, dies at 80
- Dec 8 Kimberly Bergalis, got AIDS from health care worker, dies at 23
- Dec 9 Berenice Abbott, American photographer (The World of Atget; Changing New York), dies at 93
- Dec 10 Greta Kempton, American artist (b. 1901)
- Dec 10 Headman Tshabalala, South African singer (Ladysmith Black Mambazo), shot and killed at 44
- Dec 11 Artur Lundkvist, Swedish writer and professor (Swedish Academy), dies at 85
- Dec 11 Robert Q. Lewis, American TV host (Masquerade Party, Robert Q Lewis Show), dies at 71
- Dec 11 Simon Scott, American actor, dies of Alzheimer's disease at 71
- Dec 12 (Albert Ronald) "Ronnie" Ross, Scottish jazz and session baritone saxophonist, dies of cancer at 58
- Dec 12 Eleanor Boardman, actor (Crowd), dies in at 93
- Dec 12 Ken Keltner, American MLB baseball third baseman, 1937-50 (Cleveland Indians; Boston Red Sox), dies of a heart attack at 75
- Dec 12 Lex Karsemeijer, Dutch tenor and choral director (Sweet 16, Pro Musica), dies
- Dec 13 Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues, French writer (La Marge), dies at 82
- Dec 14 John Arlott, British cricket commentator and writer (BBC), dies of emphysema at 77
- Dec 14 Robert Eddison, British actor (Uncle Silas), dies at 83
- Dec 15 Horatio Luro, American horse trainer (43 x stakes winners; Decidedly, Northern Dancer), dies from pancreatic cancer at 90
- Dec 15 Ray Smith, British actor (And Then You Die), dies at 55
- Dec 16 Ferdinando Orlandi, Italian actor (The House with Laughing Windows), dies at 66
- Dec 16 Fred Scott, American actor and singing cowboy, known as "The Silvery-Voiced Buckaroo" (Melody of the Plains), dies at 89
- Dec 17 Armand Frappier, French Canadian physician and microbiologist, dies at 87
- Dec 17 John Blatnik, (Rep-Minnesota, 1947-75), dies at 80
- Dec 18 George Abecassis, English Formula 1 driver (b. 1913)
- Dec 18 June Storey, Canadian-born American actress (South of the Border), dies of cancer at 73
- Dec 19 Ernest K Gann, US adventure novelist, dies at 81
- Dec 19 Joe Cole, American roadie (Black Flag, Rollins Band), shot and killed at 30
- Dec 19 Paul Maxwell, Canadian actor (Aliens, City of Fear, Freedom to Die), dies at 70
- Dec 20 Albert Van Vlierberghe, Belgian cyclist (b. 1942)
- Dec 20 Andries Dirj Copier, Dutch glass designer (the Guild glass), dies at 90
- Dec 20 Fop I Brouwer, Dutch biologist, radio presenter, and writer (Everything That Lives and Grows), dies at 79
- Dec 20 Helene Heigh, American actress (Undercover Woman; Teen Age Thunder; 9 to 5), dies at 86
- Dec 20 Sam Rabin [Rabinowitz], British sculptor, artist, actor and freestyle wrestler (Olympic bronze middleweight 1928), dies at 88
- Dec 20 Simone Beck, French chef, teacher, and cookbook author (with Julia Child - Mastering the Art of French Cooking), dies at 87
- Dec 20 Stephen Birnbaum, American tourism writer, dies at 54
- Dec 20 Walter Chiari [Annicchiarico], Italian actor (Bellissima; The Little Hut), dies of a heart attack at 67
- Dec 22 Ernst Krenek, Austrian-American concert, opera, and electronic music composer (Johnny Spielt Auf: Orpheus and Eurydike; Fibonacci-Mobile), dies at 91
- Dec 23 Byron Q Griffith, producer/actor, dies at 73
- Dec 23 Rosa Jackson Lumpkin, among the oldest people in the world, dies at 115
- Dec 24 Walter Hudson, 1,025 lb man, dies at 46
- Dec 25 Curt Bois, actor (Great Waltz, Boat is Full), dies at 90
- Dec 25 Mahmood Hussain, Pakistan cricket swing bowler (27 Tests, 68 wickets; Karachi, Pakistan Universities), dies from diabetes mellitus at 59
- Dec 25 Orane Demazis, French actress (Marius, Fanny et Caesar), dies at 87
- Dec 25 Sal Provenza, entertainer, dies of lymphoma at 45
- Dec 25 Tom Newman, American actor (Cape Fear (1962); Tales From The Dark Side), dies of a heart attack at 60
- Dec 27 Edward M Love, American Broadaway dancer and choreographer, dies of AIDS at 43
- Dec 27 John Morgan Evans, actor, dies after lengthy illness at 49
- Dec 27 W Hudson, US "strongest man to the world" (540 kg), dies
- Dec 28 Cassandra Harris [Sandra Waites], Australian actress (For Your Eyes Only), dies of ovarian cancer at 43
- Dec 28 Jacques Aubuchon, actor (Hoax, Thunder Road), dies of heart failure
- Dec 29 Harry Brannon, American popular radio singer of the 1940s (WOR- New York), and later clergyman, dies of Alzheimer's disease at 71
- Dec 29 Julia McCarthy, Scottish actress (London Belongs To Me), dies of cancer at 64
- Dec 31 Felicja Blumental, Polish-Brazilian concert pianist (Villa-Lobos' Piano Concerto No. 5; Penderecki's Partita for Harpsichord), dies at 83
- Dec 31 Georges Poulet, French-Belgian critic (Temps Humain), dies at 89
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide