- Oct 1 Audouin Dollfus, French Astronomer (discovered Janus, a moon of Saturn), dies at 85
- Oct 1 Ian Buxton, English football forward (Derby County) and cricket all-rounder (Derbyshire captain), dies at 72
- Oct 2 Kwa Geok Choo, wife of Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew (b. 1920)
- Oct 3 Abraham Sarmiento, Sr., Filipino Supreme Court jurist (1987-91), dies at 88
- Oct 3 Ben Mondor, Canadian baseball executive who was International League Executive of the Year 1978, 99 Pawtucket Red Sox, dies at 85
- Oct 4 Norman Wisdom, English comedian (Kraft Music Hall, Trouble In Store), dies at 95
- Oct 5 Bernard Clavel, French novelist (b. 1923)
- Oct 5 Mary Leona Gage, American beauty pageant winner and actress (b. 1939)
- Oct 5 Steve Lee [Stefan Alois], Swiss rock musician and vocalist (Gotthard), dies in a vehicle crash at 47
- Oct 6 Antonie Kamerling, Dutch actor and singer (b. 1966)
- Oct 6 Colette Renard, French actress and singer (b. 1924)
- Oct 6 David Rowbotham, Australian poet and journalist, dies at 86
- Oct 6 Lex van Delden, Dutch actor (Soldier of Orange), dies at 63
- Oct 7 (Terry) "T" Lavitz, American jazz-fusion keyboardist (Dixie Dregs; Jazz Is Dead), dies at 54
- Oct 7 Antonie Kamerling, Dutch actor (b. 1966)
- Oct 7 Milka Planinc, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (1982-86), dies at 85
- Oct 8 Frank Bourgholtzer, American television correspondent (b. 1919)
- Oct 10 Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian operatic soprano, known as 'La Stupenda' (Metropolitan Opera debut 1961), dies at 83
- Oct 10 Solomon Burke [McDonald], American soul singer ("Cry To Me"; "Diamond In Your Mind"), dies at 70
- Oct 12 Belva Plain, American novelist (b. 1919)
- Oct 12 Woody Peoples, American football player (b. 1943)
- Oct 13 General Johnson, American soul singer and songwriter (Chairmen of the Board - "Give Me Just a Little More Time"), and songwriter ("Patches"; "Want Ads"), dies of lung cancer at 69
- Oct 13 Khoisan X [Benny Alexander], South African activist (Secretary-General for the Pan-Africanist Movement), dies of a stroke at 55
- Oct 13 Vernon Biever, American photographer (b. 1923)
- Oct 14 Benoît Mandelbrot, Polish-French-American mathematician (proved Zipf's law, discovered the Mandelbrot set), dies at 85
- Oct 14 Carla Del Poggio [Maria Luisa Attanasio], Italian stage and screen actress (Variety Lights; Immortal Melodies), dies at 84
- Oct 14 Simon MacCorkindale, English actor (Falcon Crest, Manimal), dies of bowel cancer at 58
- Oct 15 Johnny Sheffield, American actor (Boy-Tarzan Finds a Son), dies at 79
- Oct 15 Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and pro-life activist (b. 1926)
- Oct 15 Richard C. Miller, American photographer (b. 1912)
- Oct 16 Barbara Billingsley, American actress (Leave it to Beaver), dies at 94
- Oct 16 Eyedea [Micheal Larsen], American poet and rapper (Eyedea & Abilities), dies from opiate induced respiratory depression at 28
- Oct 18 Marion Brown, American jazz alto saxophonist, (Marion Brown Quartet; John Coltrane -"Ascension"; Artie Schepp), avant garde composer, writer, and ethnomusicologist, dies at 79
- Oct 19 Graham Crowden, Scottish stage, screen, and radio actor (O Lucky Man!; A Very Peculiar Practice), dies at 87
- Oct 19 Tom Bosley, American actor (Howard-Happy Days, Murder She Wrote, Fiorello!), dies at 83
Bob Guccione (1930-2010)
Oct 20 American publisher (Penthouse, Omni), dies of lung cancer at 79
- Oct 20 Farooq Leghari, 8th President of Pakistan (1993-97), dies at 70
- Oct 20 Harvey Phillips, American tubist (NYC Ballet Orchestra), dies at 80
- Oct 20 Parthasarathy Sharma, Indian cricket batsman (5 Tests, 1 x 50), dies at 62
- Oct 23 Leo Cullum, American cartoonist (The New Yorker), dies at 68
- Oct 24 Joseph Stein, American playwright (Fiddler on the Roof), dies at 98
- Oct 24 Lamont Johnson, American television director (b. 1922)
- Oct 25 Gregory Isaacs, Jamaican reggae musician, dies of lung cancer at 59
- Oct 25 Lisa Blount, American actress and producer (b. 1957)
- Oct 25 Vesna Parun, Croatian poet (b. 1922)
- Oct 26 Glen "Frosty" Little, American circus clown (Ringling Brothers, 1968-91), and instructor (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, 1980-87), dies at 84
- Oct 26 John King, American rock drummer (Steve Miller Band, 1972-74), dies at 63
- Oct 26 Mbah Maridjan, Mount Merapi gatekeeper (b. 1927)
- Oct 26 Romeu Tuma, Brazilian politician (b. 1931)
- Oct 27 Denise Borino, American actress (b. 1964)
- Oct 27 James Wall, American actor and stage manager (b. 1917)
- Oct 27 Néstor Kirchner, Argentine politician, President of Argentina (2003-2007), dies of heart failure at 60
- Oct 27 Owen B Pickett, American politician (Rep-D-Virginia 1987-2001), dies at 80
- Oct 28 Ehud Netzer, Israeli archaeologist (b. 1934)
- Oct 28 Gerard Kelly, Scottish actor (b. 1959)
- Oct 28 James MacArthur, American actor (Danny Williams-Hawaii 5-0), dies at 72
- Oct 28 Jonathan Motzfeldt, Greenlander statesman (b. 1938)
- Oct 28 Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist (b. 1932)
- Oct 28 Michael Sharvell-Martin, British stage and screen character actor (Dave Allen At Large), dies of esophageal cancer at 66
- Oct 29 George Hickenlooper, American documentary filmmaker, dies at 47
- Oct 30 Édouard Carpentier, French-Canadian pro wrestler (NWA 1956-57, WWA heavyweight champion), dies of a heart attack at 84
- Oct 30 Harry Mulisch, Dutch writer (Message to King Rat), dies at 83
- Oct 31 Maurice Lucas, American basketball player, dies at 58
- Oct 31 Theodore Sorenson, American presidential advisor to JFK and author (Kennedy), dies at 82
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide