- Jan 2 Ross Alexander, American stage and film actor (Captain Blood, Boulder Dam), commits suicide by gunshot at 29
- Jan 13 Martin Elmer Johnson, American adventurer and filmmaker, dies at 52
- Jan 21 Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)
- Feb 3 Marija Leiko, Latvian film actress (b. 1887)
- Mar 6 Frank Vosper, British actor (The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rome Express), dies at sea at 37
- Apr 29 William Gillette, American stage and silent film actor (Sherlock Holmes), and playwright (Secret Service), dies at 83
- May 1 Snitz Edwards [Edward Neumann], Hungarian-American stage and silent film actor ("Phantom of the Opera"; "College"), dies at 69
- May 10 William Tedmarsh, British silent movie actor (Two Beds and No Sleep), dies at 61
Jean Harlow (1911-1937)
Jun 7 American actress and 1930s' sex goddess (Dinner at 8; Bombshell), dies from gallbladder infection at 26
- Jun 18 Al Boasberg, American vaudeville, radio and film comedy writer (Jack Benny; Bob Hope; The Marx Brothers), dies of a heart attack at 44
- Jun 25 Colin Clive, British actor (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love), dies from complications of tuberculosis at 37
- Aug 28 Frederick Burr Opper, American pioneering cartoonist (Happy Hooligan), dies at 80
- Sep 2 Esther de Farmer-of Rich, actress (Kniertje-On hope of blessing), dies
- Sep 15 Clifford Heatherley, English actor (For Love or Money, Cash), dies at 48
- Oct 15 James Marcus, American actor (The Eagle, The Lonely Trail), dies from a heart attack at 70
- Nov 6 Johnston Forbes-Robertson, British actor and theatre director (Kathleen), dies at 84
- Nov 10 Nikolai Batalov, Russian actor (Tretya meshchanskaya, Mother), dies from tuberculosis at 37
- Nov 13 Mrs. Leslie Carter, American actress and writer (Rocky Mountain Mystery, The Heart of Maryland), dies at 75
- Dec 12 Alfred Abel, actor (Dr Mabuse, Metropolis), dies at 57
- Dec 21 Ted Healy [Ernest Nash], American vaudeville, stage, and screen actor, comedian (Mad Love, San Francisco, Soup to Nuts), and developer of the Three Stooges, dies from complications of alcoholism at 41
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