January 4 - Sir Brian Horrocks, British general
February 8 - Marvin Miller, American actor
February 20 - Clarence Nash, American actor
March 10 - Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet politician
March 12 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor
March 21 - Sir Michael Redgrave, English actor
March 28 - Marc Chagall, Russian-born painter (b. 1887)
March 29 - Jeanine Deckers, Belgian nun and singer
April 8 - J. Fred Coots, American songwriter
April 11 - Enver Hoxha, Albanian dictator
April 21 - Tancredo Neves, Brazilian elected president (b. 1910)
April 22 - Paul H. Emmett, American chemical engineer
April 30 - George Pravda, Czechoslovakian actor
May 4 - Clarence Wiseman, the 10th General of The Salvation Army
May 5 - Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (b. 1901)
May 6 - Julie Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (b. 1968)
May 8 - Theodore Sturgeon, American writer
May 9 - Edmond O'Brien, American actor
May 10 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist
May 12 - Jean Dubuffet, French artist
May 16 - Margaret Hamilton, American actress
May 17 - Abe Burrows, American songwriter, composer, and writer
May 22 - Wolfgang Reitherman, American animator
June 12 - Hua Luogeng, Chinese mathematician
June 15 - Andy Stanfield, American athlete
July 2 - David Purley, British race car driver
July 9 - Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous
July 19 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
July 27 - John Scarne, American magician and card expert
August 6 - Forbes Burnham, President of Guyana
August 12 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver
August 12 - Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer, well known by his most famous song, "Sukiyaki", killed in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123
August 14 - Gale Sondergaard, American actor
August 25 - Samantha Smith, American schoolgirl activist
August 31 - Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
September 1 - Stefan Bellof, race car driver and 1984 World SportsCars (Group C) Champion (b. 1957)
September 6 - Isabel Cox-Meighen, wife of Canadian prime minister Arthur Meighen (b. 1882)
September 6 - Little Brother Montgomery, American musician
September 7 - Rodney Robert Porter, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
September 8 - John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
September 9 - Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
September 11 - William Alwyn, English composer
September 17 - Laura Ashley, Welsh designer
September 19 - Italo Calvino, Italian writer
October 1 - E.B. White, American writer
October 2 - Rock Hudson, American actor
October 2 - George Savalas, American actor, brother of Telly Savalas
October 6 - Nelson Riddle, American bandleader
October 10 - Yul Brynner, American actor
October 10 - Orson Welles, American film director
October 12 - Johnny Olson, American game show announcer
October 22 - Thomas Townsend Brown, American scientist
October 31 - Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor
November 1 - Quick Draw Rick McGraw, American professional wrestler
November 5 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
November 5 - Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist
November 13 - William Pereira, American architect
November 13 - George Robert Vincent, American sound recording pioneer
November 24 - Big Joe Turner, American blues singer
December 7 - Robert Graves, English writer
December 12 - Anne Baxter, American actress
December 12 - Ian Stewart, Scottish rock musician
December 22 - D. Boon, American singer and guitarist
December 23 - Ferhat Abbas, Algerian nationalist
December 26 - Dian Fossey, American biologist
December 31 - Ricky Nelson, American singer and actor
