- Jan 3 Heather Sears, English actress (Room at the Top), dies of cancer at 58
- Jan 4 R. D. Burman, Indian film score composer (1942: A Love Story), dies at 54
- Jan 5 Brian Johnston, British cricket commentator (BBC 1946-94) and cake connoisseur, dies from a heart attack at 81
- Jan 5 William Raynor, American screenwriter (Gomer Pyle; Get Smart; McDuff, The Talking Dog; Dukes of Hazzard), dies at 73
- Jan 7 Llewellyn Rees, British theatre actor (A Fish Called Wanda, Invisible Creature), dies at 92
- Jan 7 Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Italian actor (Cafe Express, Octopus), dies of heart failure at 52
- Jan 8 Edward Duke, actor (Decadence, Silver Bears), dies of cancer at 40
- Jan 8 Pat Buttram, American actor (Mr Haney-Green Acres), dies of kidney failure at 78
- Jan 10 Michael Aldridge, British actor (Last of the Summer Wine, Murder in Cathedral), dies at 73
- Jan 12 Robert Horen, American stage and screen actor, dies of cancer at 68
- Jan 12 Samuel Bronston, Romanian-American film producer (El Cid), dies at 85
- Jan 14 Esther Ralston, American actress (Tin Pan Alley, San Francisco Docks), dies at 91
- Jan 15 Martin Kosleck, German actor (Pursuit to Algiers; Agent for H.A.R.M.), dies at 89
- Jan 22 (Aristotelis) "Telly" Savalas, American actor (Kojak; On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and singer ("If"), dies of prostate cancer at 72
- Jan 22 Jean-Louis Barrault, French stage actor, director and producer (Les Enfants du Paradis), dies at 83
- Jan 23 Brian Redhead, English journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
- Jan 23 Sherry Mathis, American actress (Search for Tomorrow), dies of cancer at 44
- Jan 27 Claude Akins, American character actor (B. J. and the Bear; The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo; Movin' On), dies of cancer at 67
- Jan 27 Joe Mays, American character actor (Mr. Saturday Night; The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd), dies of AIDS at 45
- Jan 28 Hal Smith, American actor (The Andy Griffith Show-Otis Campbell), dies at 77
- Jan 29 Nick Cravat [Nicholas Cuccia], American actor (Twilight Zone - "Gremlin" in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode), dies of lung cancer at 82
- Jan 29 Yevgeny Leonov, Russian actor (Gentlemen of Fortune; Mimino), dies at 67
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