- Oct 1 David Vickerman Bedford, British composer and educator, dies at 74
- Oct 1 Johnny Schmitz, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1946, 48; NL saves leader 1946), dies at 90
- Oct 1 Sven Tumba, Swedish ice hockey center, football winger, golfer, golf course designer, dies of a hip infection at 80
- Oct 5 Bert Jansch, Scottish folk musician (Pentangle), dies of lung cancer at 67
- Oct 5 Charles Napier, American actor (Night Stalker, Rambo), dies at 75
- Oct 5 Derrick Bell, American legal scholar and civil rights advocate (b. 1930)
Fred Shuttlesworth (1922-2011)
Oct 5 American civil rights activist, dies at 89
- Oct 5 Graham Dilley, English cricket fast bowler (41 Tests, 138 wickets; Kent CCC, Worcestershire CCC), dies from oesophageal cancer at 52
Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Oct 5 American computer entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple, dies of respiratory arrest related to cancer at 56
- Oct 6 Brad Felt, American jazz tuba and euphonium player, composer, and bandleader, dies of pancreatic cancer at 55
- Oct 6 Diane Cilento, Australian actress (Agony & Ecstasy, Wicker Man), dies at 79
- Oct 7 George Baker, Bulgarian-born British actor (I, Claudius, Goodbye Mr Chips, Curse of the Fly), dies at 80
- Oct 7 John Alderson, English police officer, introduced community policing (Chief Constable Devon & Cornwall), dies at 89
- Oct 7 Ramiz Alia, Communist leader and first President of Albania (1982-92), dies at 85
Al Davis (1929-2011)
Oct 8 American businessman and NFL executive (owner Oakland Raiders), dies of heart failure at 82
- Oct 8 Antonio Iglesias Álvares, Spanish pianist, composer, educator and critic, dies at 93
- Oct 8 Mikey Welsh, American bass player (Weezer, 1998-2001 - "Island In The Sun"), dies of a drug overdose at 40
- Oct 8 Roger Williams [Louis Jacob Weertz], American popular music pianist ("Born Free"), dies of pancreatic cancer at 87
- Oct 9 Mark Kingston, English actor (Intimate Contact), dies at 77
- Oct 9 Pavel Karelin, Russian ski jumper (b. 1989)
- Oct 10 Jagjit Singh, Indian Musician, Ghazal Maestro, Padma Bhusan awardee (b. 1941)
- Oct 12 Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist (created C programming language, helped developed Unix), dies at 70
- Oct 12 Heinz Bennent, German actor (Possession, The Serpent's Egg), dies at 90
- Oct 12 Joel "Taz" DiGregorio, American country-rock keyboardist (Charlie Daniels Band), killed in a car accident at 67 [1]
- Oct 12 Patricia Breslin, American television and film actress dies at 80
- Oct 12 Peter Hammond, British actor and director (The Buccaneers, King of the Castle), dies at 87
- Oct 13 Barbara Kent, Canadian born - U.S. silent film actress and WAMPAS Baby Stars (b.1907)
- Oct 14 Chuck Ruff, American rock drummer (Edgar Winter Group - "Frankenstein"), dies after a long illness at 60
- Oct 14 Reg Alcock, Canadian politician (b. 1948)
- Oct 15 Elizabeth "Betty" Driver, British singer and actress (Coronation Street; Pardon the Expression), dies from pneumonia at 91
- Oct 15 Matthew G. Martinez, American politician (Rep-D+R-CA, 1982-2001), dies at 82
Dan Wheldon (1978-2011)
Oct 16 British race car driver (Indianapolis 500, 2005 & 2011), dies in multi car crash at IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas, Nevada at 33
- Oct 16 Pete Rugolo, American bandleader and arranger (Fugitive), dies at 95
- Oct 17 Carl Lindner, Jr., Cincinnati businessman and one of the world's richest people (b. 1919)
- Oct 18 Kent Hull, American football center (First-team All-Pro 1990, 91; Pro Bowl 1988, 89, 90; Buffalo Bills), dies from chronic liver disease at 50
- Oct 18 Norman Corwin, American screenwriter for radio drama, dies at 101
- Oct 20 Barry Feinstein, American portrait photographer and album cover designer (Bob Dylan; Peter, Paul & Mary; Janis Joplin; George Harrison), dies at 80
- Oct 20 Moatassem Gaddafi, Son of Moammar Gaddafi and National Security Adviser of Libya (b. 1977)
Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011)
Oct 20 Libyan revolutionary, political theorist and dictator (1969-2011), beaten to death in captivity by a Misratan militia at about 69
- Oct 20 Tone Pavček, Slovenian poet and translator (b. 1928)
- Oct 21 Edmundo Ros, Trinidadian-Venezuelan musician and arranger, dies at 100
- Oct 22 Karl-Heinz Köper, German conductor, and composer (Tuba-Tabu; Pop Corn Concerto), dies at 84
- Oct 22 Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Crown Prince (2005-11), dies at 82 or 83
- Oct 23 Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician whose models for determining the chemical crystal structures vital for life revolutionized chemistry (Nobel 1985), dies at 94
- Oct 23 Marco Simoncelli, Italian motorcycle racer (250cc World Championship 2008), dies in a track accident at 24
John McCarthy (1927-2011)
Oct 24 American computer scientist (coined the term "artificial intelligence," created the Lisp programming language), dies at 84
- Oct 25 Anna van Beers [Graeve], Dutch actress (A Woman like Eve, Diary of a Hooker), dies at 95
- Oct 25 Howard Wolpe, American politician (Rep-D-MI, 1979-93), dies at 71
- Oct 27 James Hillman, American psychologist, and educator (C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich), dies from bone cancer at 85
- Oct 28 Beryl Davis, British-American cabaret and big band singer (Quintette du Hot Club de France, Glenn Miller's US Army Air Force Orchestra), dies of complications from Alzheimer's disease at 87
- Oct 29 Jimmy Savile, British entertainer and suspected sexual predator, dies at 84
- Oct 31 Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer (European Footballer of the Year 1967), dies at 70
- Oct 31 Liz Anderson, American country music singer-songwriter (Mama Spank, The Game of Triangles), dies of heart and lung disease at 81
- Oct 31 Manfred Mayrhofer, Austrian Indo-European philologist (Indo-Iranian languages), dies at 85
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide