- Jan 1 Eugene Wigner, Hungarian-American physicist and mathematician (1963 Nobel Prize for Physics), worked on the Manhattan Project, dies at 92
- Jan 1 Frederick "Fred" West, British contractor and serial killer (12 charges of murder), commits suicide in his prison cell at 53
- Jan 1 Jess Stacy, American jazz pianist (Benny Goodman, 1935-39; the Great Gatsby), dies at 90
- Jan 1 Ted Hawkins, American singer and guitarist (The Next Hundred Years), dies of a stroke at 58
- Jan 2 Graham Sharp, British figure skater (World C'ship, European C'ship 1939), dies at 77
- Jan 2 Manuel Rivera, Spanish painter and co-founder (El Paso), dies at 67
- Jan 2 Nancy Kelly, American child actress and model (The Bad Seed, Double Exposure, Jesse James), dies at 73
- Jan 2 Siad Barre, Somalia politician (President, 1969-91), dies at 84
- Jan 3 Al Duncan, American blues drummer, dies at 68
- Jan 3 Byron MacGregor, Canadian newscaster, dies of pneumonia at 46
- Jan 3 Gerard W. Taylor, South African-British surgeon, dies at 74
- Jan 3 Robert Nesbitt, English theatre impresario (Royal Variety Show), dies at 88
- Jan 4 Brooks Stevens, American automotive designer (1949 Hydra-Glide Harley; 1963 Jeep Wagoneer), dies at 84
- Jan 4 Dorothy Granger, American actress (Hog Wild, Dentist), dies at about 80
- Jan 4 Eduardo Mata, Mexican conductor (Improvisaciones), dies in air crash at 52
- Jan 4 Leonard Hirsch, British violinist and conductor (BBC Empire Orchestra), dies at 92
- Jan 4 Robert Clifford Latham, English Pepys scholar, dies at 82
- Jan 4 Sol Tax, American anthropologist (founded the journal Current Anthropology), dies at 87
- Jan 5 Francis Lopez, Basque-French chanson and operetta composer (La Belle de Cadiz; Andalousie; The Three Musketeers), dies at 78
- Jan 5 Mansour Sattari, Iranian Brigadier General and commandant (Iran Air Force), dies at 46
- Jan 5 Somerset de Chair, British writer, politician and poet, dies at 83
- Jan 6 Edward Sutcliffe, British judge (British Central Criminal Court), dies at 77
- Jan 6 James Clay, American jazz tenor saxophonist, dies at 59
- Jan 6 Joe Slovo, Latvian/South African attorney/sect-gen (SACR), dies at 68
- Jan 6 Karl Guttmann, Austrian-Dutch playwright and director (Pinter), dies at 81
- Jan 7 Arthur Leavins, British violinist, dies at 77
- Jan 7 Harry Golombek, British chess grandmaster, author (3-time British champion), dies at 83
- Jan 7 Larry Grayson, British comedian (Generation Game), dies at 71
- Jan 7 Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926)
- Jan 7 Viktor Vorobyov, Russian general-major, dies in battle during war in Chechnya
- Jan 8 Carlos Monzón, Argentine boxer (Undisputed world middleweight champion 1970-74, 76-77), dies in a car accident at 52
- Jan 8 Joyce McCartan, Irish peace campaigner, dies at 68
- Jan 9 Gisela Mauermeyer, German discus thrower (Olympic gold 1936), dies at 81
- Jan 9 Peter Cook, British comic and actor (Bedazzled: Yellowbeard; The Princess Bride), dies of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at 57
- Jan 9 Souphanouvong, President of Laos (1975-87), dies at 85
- Jan 10 Elaine Greene, American-British literary agent (Arthur Miller, Dr Seuss), dies at 74
- Jan 10 Fred Böhler, Swiss jazz bandleader, pianist, and early proponent of the Hammond organ, dies at 82
- Jan 10 Halton Kathleen Tynan, writer, dies at 57
- Jan 11 John Gere, English art historian (Keeper of Prints and Drawings British Museum), dies at 73
- Jan 11 Josef Gingold, Russian-American violinist (Primrose Quartet; Cleveland Orchestra, 1947-60) and pedagogue (Indiana University, 1960-95), dies following a heart attack at 85
- Jan 11 Onat Kutlar, Turkish screenplay/producer (Hazal), murdered at 59
- Jan 12 George Price, American cartoonist (New Yorker), dies at 93
- Jan 12 Marion Herbst, German-Dutch visual artist and jewelry designer, dies at 50
- Jan 13 Arnold Smith, painter (Vigelius Prize 1935), dies at 89
- Jan 13 Arthur Mervyn Stockwood, Anglican bishop (Southwark England), dies at 81
- Jan 13 Maxwell Henley Harris, Australian poet and publisher (Critics), dies at 73
- Jan 14 Alexander Gibson, British conductor and founder of the Scottish Opera, dies at 68
- Jan 14 Mark Finch, English LGBT film festival organizer, commits suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge at 33
- Jan 14 Ruby Starr [Constance Henrietta Mierzwiak], American rock singer (Black Oak Arkansas), dies of a brain tumor at 44
- Jan 14 Stafford William Somerfield, British newspaper editor, dies at 84
- Jan 15 Sollie McElroy, American R&B singer (The Flamingos. 1953-54 - "Golden Teardrops"), dies at 61
- Jan 16 William Dillard, American jazz trumpeter and Broadway singer dies from complications of Lupus, at 83 [1]
- Jan 17 Isador Caplan, British lawyer and Aldeburgh Festival pioneer, dies at 82
- Jan 17 Urias Nooteboom, Dutch journalist/critic (The Time), dies at 54
- Jan 18 Adolf Butenandt, German biochemist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1939 for work on sex hormones), dies at 91
- Jan 18 Charles Baskerville, American pop vocalist (Shep and the Limelites - "Daddy's Home"), dies at 54
- Jan 18 Joseph Kagan, Lithuanian-British businessman, and inventor (Gannex raincoats), dies at 79
- Jan 18 Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire in the American League (1969-79), dies at 57
- Jan 19 Eugene Fuller, polymath/linguist, dies at 80
- Jan 19 Gene MacLellan, Canadian singer-songwriter ("Snowbird"; "Put Your Hand in the Hand"), takes his own life at 56
- Jan 20 Mehdi Bazargan, director Iranian oil corp/premier (1979), dies at 86
- Jan 21 Flavio "Negao" Pires da Conceicao, drug Trafficker, dies at 25
- Jan 21 John Halas, Hungarian-American cartoonist and animator (Animal Farm), dies at 82
- Jan 21 Philippe Casado, Moroccan-French bicyclist, dies at 30
- Jan 22 Christopher Francis Palmer, British composer, orchestrator, and musicologist, dies of AIDS complications 48
- Jan 22 Jerry Blackwell, American professional wrestler, dies at 45
- Jan 22 Mahmoud Sayed Selim, Egyptian moslim leader, shot to death at 29
- Jan 22 Margaret Barbara Lambert, British historian (Saar), dies at 88
- Jan 22 Nico Adriaans, Dutch AIDS activist, founder of Rotterdam Junkiebond, dies of AIDS at 37
- Jan 22 Ronald Harris, British 1st Church Estates Commissioner, dies at 81
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890-1995)
Jan 22 American matriarch, mother of JFK, RFK & Ted, dies at 104
- Jan 23 Bill Horton, American doo-wop singer (The Silhouettes - "Get A Job"), dies at 65
- Jan 23 Harold Collett Dent, British journalist and educationist, dies at 100
- Jan 23 Ken Hill, English playwright and director, dies at 57
- Jan 23 Peter Luke, British playwright, dies at 75
- Jan 24 David Cole, American songwriter ( C+C Music Factory - "Gonna Make You Sweat"), and record producer (Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, James Brown), dies at 32
- Jan 24 Ian Prestt, English ornithologist, dies at 65
- Jan 24 Victor Reinganum, English artist and illustrator, dies at 87
- Jan 24 Wim Sinnige, Dutch politician (PvdA) (Amsterdam Alderman of Finance, 1973-80), and arts administrator, dies at 60
- Jan 25 John Smith, American actor (Cimarron City, Laramie, 7 Angry Men), dies at 63
- Jan 25 Peter Black, English TV critic, dies at 82
- Jan 25 Tom Brugman, Dutch puppeteer (Brave Dodo), dies at 62
- Jan 25 William Sylvester, American actor (2001: A Space Odyssey, Gemini Man), dies at 72
- Jan 26 Bernardo Leighton, Chilian politician (1964-70), dies
- Jan 26 Geoffrey Parsons, Australian piano accompanist, dies at 65
- Jan 26 Louis Heren, English foreign correspondent and journalist, dies at 65
- Jan 26 Vic Buckingham, English soccer player and trainer (Ajax), dies at 79
- Jan 27 Geoffrey Parsons, Australian-British concert pianist, accompanist, and harpsichord player. dies of cancer at 65
- Jan 27 Halsey S. Colchester, British SAS officer, MI6-spy and priest, dies at 76
- Jan 27 Jean Tardieu, French dramatist, dies at 91
- Jan 27 Raphael M. Robinson, American mathematician, dies at 83
- Jan 27 Willem R "Wim" van der Zee, General Secretary of the Council of Churches of the Netherlands, dies at 64
- Jan 28 Barrie Wilson, Canadian religious scholar (How Jesus Became Christian), dies at 59
- Jan 28 George Woodcock, Canadian writer of political biography and history (Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements), dies at 82
- Jan 28 James P. Grant, American director of UNICEF (1980-95), dies at 72
- Jan 28 Jim Gilbert, British artist and criminal, dies at 61
- Jan 28 Philip Burton, Welsh theater director, acting teacher and mentor to Richard Burton, dies at 90
- Jan 28 Walter Allen, English writer and literary critic, dies at 83
- Jan 29 Chris de Marigny, British dance administrator, dies at 52
- Jan 29 Dickie Burnell, British rower (Olympic gold double sculls 1948), dies at 77
- Jan 29 Guy Clutton-Brock, English social worker (declared a national hero in Zimbabwe), dies at 88
- Jan 29 Kuldar Sink, Estonian composer, dies at 52
- Jan 29 Ray Cecil, British architect, dies at 69
- Jan 30 George James, American jazz saxophonist, dies at 88
- Jan 30 George Poyser, English soccer defender (Brentford) and manager (Notts County, Manchester City), dies at 84
- Jan 30 Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, zoologist and author (My Family and Other Animals), dies at 70
- Jan 31 George Abbott, American theater producer and film director (Damn Yankees; The Pajama Game), dies at 107
- Jan 31 George Stibitz, American mathematician and scientist (father of the modern digital computer), dies at 90 [1]
- Jan 31 James Johnson, English MP (Labour, 1950..83), dies at 86
- Jan 31 Sir John Smith, English soccer administrator (chairman Liverpool F.C. 1973-90), dies at 74
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning