- Jan 7 Robert [Harriot] Barrat, American actor (Bad Lands, Go West, Distant Drums), dies at 80
- Jan 19 Hal March [Harold Mendelson], American comedian, actor and TV host ($64,000 Question; Outrage), dies of lung cancer at 49
- Jan 25 Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese television writer and producer (Ultraman) (b. 1901)
- Jan 30 Malcolm Keen, British actor (The Lodger, The Manxman, The Murder Party), dies at 82
- Feb 2 Lawrence Gray, American actor, dies at 71
- Feb 6 Roscoe Karns, American actor (Capt Shafer-Hennesey), dies at 78
- Feb 11 H. M. Bateman, British cartoonist (The Man Who... series), dies at 82
- Feb 24 Conrad Nagel, American actor (All That Heaven Allows, Celebrity Time), dies at 72
- Mar 6 William Hopper, American actor (Perry Mason, The Bad Seed, Rebel Without a Cause), dies of pneumonia following a stroke at 55
- Mar 10 Vasilis Avlonitis, Greek actor (b. 1904)
- Mar 13 Rick Besoyan, American singer, actor, playwright, composer and director (Little Mary Sunshine), dies of internal hemorrhages at 45
- Mar 15 Josef Martin Bauer, German writer (including Nazi propaganda), radio dramatist, and novelist (As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me), dies at 68
- Mar 23 Del Lord, Canadian director (Three Stooges films), dies at 75
- Mar 29 Lev Kuleshov, Russian filmmaker and film theorist (Po Zakonu, founder of Moscow film school), dies at 71
- Apr 4 Byron Foulger, American actor (Capt Nice, Petticoat Junction), dies at 70
- Apr 9 Gustaf Tenggren, Swedish-American artist and chief illustrator for The Walt Disney Company during the 1930s (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi, Pinocchio), dies at 73
- Apr 10 Charles Paton, British actor (Freedom of the Seas), dies of a heart attack at 96
- Apr 11 Cathy O'Donnell [Ann Steely], American film noir actress (Miniver Story, Man from Laramie), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 46
- Apr 23 Herb Shriner, American humorist & TV host (Herb Shriner Show), dies at 51
- Apr 25 Anita Louise, American actress (The Little Princess; Gorilla; My Friend Flicka), dies from a stroke at 55
- Apr 26 "Gypsy" Rose Lee [Hovick], American burlesque actress (Gypsy), dies of lung cancer at 59
- Apr 27 Arthur Shields, Irish actor ("The River"; "Enchanted Island"), dies at 74
- Apr 28 Ed Begley, American actor (12 Angry Men, The Unsinkable Molly Brown), dies at 69
- Apr 30 Inger Stevens, actress (Katy-Farmer's Daughter), commits suicide at 35
- May 10 Mari Blanchard, American actress and femme fatale (Kathy-Klondike), dies of cancer at 47
- May 14 (Mary) "Billie" Burke, American radio, stage, silent and sound film actress (Zieigfield Follies; The Wizard of Oz; Merrily We Live), dies at 85
- May 21 Vinton Hayworth, American actor (Gen Schaeffer-I Dream of Jeannie), dies at 63
- May 23 Nydia Westman, actress (Going My Way, Young Mr Bobbins), dies at 68
- Jun 2 Albert Lamorisse, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1922)
- Jun 4 Menasha Skulnik, comedian (Menasha the Magnificent), dies at 78
- Jun 4 Sonny Tufts [Bowen Charleton Tufts III], American actor (The Seven Year Itch, Variety Girl), dies from pneumonia at 58
- Jun 11 Frank Silvera, Jamaican-American actor (High Chaparral, Killer's Kiss, Fear and Desire), accidentally electrocutes himself at 55
- Jun 16 Brian Piccolo, American NFL football running back, 1965-69 (Chicago Bears), and subject of the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song", dies of cancer at 26
- Jul 6 Marjorie Rambeau, American stage, silent and sound screen actress (Primrose Path; Torch Song), dies at 80
- Jul 7 Sylvester Wiere, Czech-American vaudeville comedian (Wiere Brothers; Oh! Those Bells), dies at 60
- Jul 14 Preston Foster, American actor (Waterfront, Gunslinger), dies at 69
- Jul 17 Juano Hernandez, Puerto Rican stage and film actor (St Louis Blues; Stars In My Crown), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 73
- Jul 19 Barry Wood [Louis Rappaport], American singer (Your Hit Parade), and television producer, dies at 61
- Jul 23 Leith Stevens, American pianist, composer and conductor of scores for radio (Suspense), film (The Wild Ones; War of the Worlds), and television (Climax!), dies of a heart attack (upon learning his wife was killed in a car accident) at 60
- Jul 26 Claud Allister, British actor (Kiss Me Kate, Quartet, Bulldog Drummond), dies at 81
- Aug 1 Frances Farmer, American actress (Son of Fury, Flowing Gold, Among the Living), dies from esophageal cancer at 56
- Aug 17 Rattana Pestonji, Thai filmmaker and cinematographer (Tang), dies at 62
- Aug 29 Mary Clare, British actress, dies at 78
- Aug 30 Del Moore, American comedian and actor (Life With Elizabeth; Bachelor Father - "Cal"; Cinderfella), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 54
- Sep 11 Chester Morris, American actor (Diagnosis: Unknown), dies at 69
- Sep 23 Bourvil [André Robert Raimbourg], French actor and singer (Le Corniaud, La Grande Vadrouille), dies of Kahler's syndrome at 53
- Sep 29 Edward Everett Horton, American vaudeville, stage, silent and sound screen character actor (Top Hat), and narrator (Fractured Fairy Tales - The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show), dies of cancer at 84
- Sep 30 Patrick Aherne, British actor (Green Dolphin Street, Rocketship X-M, The Court Jester), dies at 69
- Oct 8 Mitr Chaibancha, Thai film actor (b. 1934)
- Oct 17 Vola Vale, American actress (b. 1897)
- Oct 20 Patrick Wymark [Cheeseman], British actor (Skull, Tomb of Ligeia), dies of a heart attack at 44
- Nov 17 Naunton Wayne, Welsh actor (Quartet, Hidden Room, Double Confession), dies at 69
- Dec 23 Charlie Ruggles, American actor (Bringing Up Baby, The Patchwork Girl of Oz), dies at 84
- Dec 29 Marie Menken, American experimental filmmaker and socialite, dies at 61
- Dec 30 Lenore Ulric, American silent film and Broadway actress (Notorious, Better Woman), dies at 78
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