Deaths in 1982
January
- January 1
- Victor Buono, American actor (b. 1938)
- Margot Grahame, English actress (b. 1911)
- January 3
- Erwin Canham, American journalist (b. 1904)
- Derek Sealy, West Indian cricketer (b. 1912)
- January 5
- Hans Conried, American actor (b. 1917)
- Edmund Herring, senior Australian Army officer during the WWII (b. 1892)
- January 7 – Kay Hammond, American actress (b. 1901)
- January 8
- Reta Shaw, American actress (b. 1912)
- Grégoire Aslan, Armenian actor (b. 1908)
- January 10
- Lazar Weiner, Imperial Russian-born, American-naturalized composer (b. 1897)
- Paul Lynde, American comedian, actor and game show panelist (b.1926)
- January 11
- A. W. Haydon, American inventor (b. 1906)
- Jiro Horikoshi, Japanese aircraft designer (b. 1903) [1]
- Paul Lynde, American actor and comedian (b. 1926)
- January 13 – Marcel Camus, French film director (b. 1912)
- January 15 – Red Smith, American sportswriter (b. 1905)
- January 16 – Harald Agersnap, Danish composer, conductor, cellist, and pianist (b. 1899)
- January 18
- Juan O'Gorman, Mexican painter and architect (b. 1905)
- Burnet Corwin Tuthill, American conductor, composer and musicologist (b. 1888)
- Trent Lehman, American child actor (b. 1961)
- January 19
- Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (b. 1945) [2]
- Leopold Trepper, Polish Communist and career Soviet agent of the Red Army Intelligence (b. 1904)
- January 20 – Marc Demeyer, professional road racing cyclist (b. 1950)
- January 22
- Eduardo Frei Montalva, 27th President of Chile (b. 1911)
- Tommy Tucker, American blues singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1933)
- January 23 – Hope Hampton, American silent motion picture actress and producer (b. 1897)
- January 24 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian military officer, 48th President of Bolivia (b. 1918)
- January 25 – Mikhail Suslov, senior Soviet Communist Party official (b. 1902)
- January 27
- Trần Văn Hương, 3rd President of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and 3rd Prime Minister of South Vietnam (b. 1902)
- Félix Labisse, French Surrealist painter, illustrator, and designer (b. 1905)
- January 30
- Stanley Holloway, British actor (b. 1890)
- Lightnin' Hopkins, American blues musician (b. 1912) [3]
- Helen Lynd, American sociologist and philosopher (b. 1896)
- January 31 – Jiří Srnka, Czech composer (b. 1907)
February
- February 3
- John A. Hilger, American air force general and participant of the Doolittle Raid (b. 1909) [4]
- Efraín Huerta, Mexican poet and journalist (b. 1914)
- February 4
- Sue Carol, American actress (b. 1906)
- Alex Harvey, Scottish musician (b. 1935)
- February 5 – Neil Aggett, South African labor leader (suicide) (b. 1953)
- February 6
- Ioan Beldiceanu, Romanian general (b. 1892)
- Ben Nicholson, English painter (b. 1894)
- February 9 – Marthe Richard, French prostitute, spy and politician (b. 1889) [5]
- February 11
- Eleanor Powell, American dancer and actress (b. 1912)
- Takashi Shimura, Japanese actor (b. 1905) [6]
- February 12 – Victor Jory, Canadian actor (b. 1902)
- February 17
- Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist (b. 1917) [7]
- Lee Strasberg, Polish-American actor and acting coach, co-founder of method acting (b. 1901)
- February 18 – Dame Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand crime fiction writer (b. 1895) [8]
- February 19 – Dame Margery Perham, English Africanist (b. 1895)
- February 21 – Gershom Scholem, German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and historian (b. 1897)
- February 24 – Virginia Bruce, American actress (b. 1910)
March
- March 1 – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (b. 1903) [9]
- March 2 – Philip K. Dick, American author (b. 1928) [10]
- March 3 – Georges Perec, French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. (b. 1936) [11]
- March 5
- John Belushi, American comedian, actor and singer (b. 1949)
- Gertraud Winkelvoss, German politician (b. 1917) [12]
- March 6 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American author (b. 1905) [13]
- March 8
- Rab Butler, British statesman (b. 1902)
- Hatem Ali Jamadar, Bengali politician (b. 1872) [14]
- March 18 – Vasily Chuikov, Marshal of the Soviet Union during WWII (b. 1900) [15]
- March 19 – Randy Rhoads, American guitarist (b. 1956) [16]
- March 21 – Harry H. Corbett, English actor and comedian (b. 1925)
- March 22 – Pericle Felici, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1911)
- March 24 – Ken Harris, American animator (b. 1898)
- March 25 – Goodman Ace, American actor, comedian and writer (b. 1899) [17]
- March 26
- Sultan al-Atrash, Syrian nationalist and general (b. 1891)
- Sam Kydd, Irish-born English actor (b. 1915)
- March 27 – Fazlur Rahman Khan, Bangladeshi-born American architect (b. 1929)
- March 28 – William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- March 29
- Carl Orff, German composer (b. 1895) [18]
- Walter Hallstein, German diplomat, 1st President of the European Commission (b. 1901)
- Helene Deutsch, Polish-American psychoanalyst (b. 1884)
April
- April 3 – Warren Oates, American actor (b. 1928)
- April 5 – Abe Fortas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1910)
- April 6 – Gabriel Auphan, French admiral and politician (b. 1894) [19]
- April 9 – Robert Havemann, chemist and East German dissident (b. 1910)
- April 12
- Lenny Baker, American actor (b. 1945)
- Vitaly Goryaev, Soviet artist (b. 1910)
- April 13 – John P. Metras, American coach of Canadian football (b. 1909)
- April 15 – Arthur Lowe, British actor (b. 1915)
- April 20 – Archibald MacLeish, American poet (b. 1892)
- April 24 – Ville Ritola, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1896)
- April 25
- Boris Andreyev, Soviet and Russian actor (b. 1915)
- Dame Celia Johnson, British actress (b. 1908) [20]
- April 29
- Kassim Al-Rimawi, 52nd Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1918)
- Elmer Ripley, American basketball coach (b. 1891)
May
- May 1
- Hussein ibn Nasser, 36th Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1902)
- William Primrose, Scottish violist (b. 1904)
- May 3 – Mohammed Seddik Benyahia, Algerian politician (b. 1898)
- May 8
- Salomea Andronikova, Georgian-Russian socialite (b. 1888)
- Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (racing accident) (b. 1950)
- May 10 – Peter Weiss, German writer and artist (b. 1916) [21]
- May 12 – Humphrey Searle, English composer (b. 1915)
- May 13
- Aleksandr Borisov, Soviet and Russian actor (b. 1905)
- Renzo Rossellini, Italian composer (b. 1908)
- May 14 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor (b. 1909)
- May 15 – Gordon Smiley, American race car driver (racing accident) (b. 1946)
- May 20 – Merle Tuve, American physicist (b. 1901) [22]
- May 22 – Cevdet Sunay, Turkish army officer and political leader, 5th President of Turkey (b. 1899)
- May 24 – Stanisława Perzanowska, Polish actress (b. 1898)
- May 26 – Guillermo Flores Avendaño, acting President of Guatemala (b. 1894)
- May 28 – Lt Col H. Jones, VC, British soldier (Falklands War) (b. 1940)
- May 29 – Romy Schneider, German-French actress (b. 1938)
- May 30 – Albert Norden, German politician (b. 1904)
June
- June 2
- Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician, 5th President of Pakistan (b. 1904)
- Shah Abdul Wahhab, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar (b. 1894) [23]
- June 8 – Satchel Paige, American Negro league baseball player and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1906) [24]
- June 9 – Mirza Nasir Ahmad, 3rd Caliph of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam (b. 1909)
- June 10
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1945) [25]
- Gala Dalí, Russian-Spanish muse, wife of Paul Éluard and Salvador Dalí (b. 1894)
- June 11
- Santosh Kumar, Pakistani actor (b. 1925)
- H. Radclyffe Roberts, American entomologist (b. 1906) [26]
- Anatoly Solonitsyn, Soviet and Russian actor (b. 1934)
- June 12
- Karl von Frisch, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
- Marie Rambert, Polish-English dancer and pedagogue (b. 1888)
- June 13
- King Khalid of Saudi Arabia (b. 1913)
- Riccardo Paletti, Italian Formula 1 driver (racing accident) (b. 1958)
- June 15 – Art Pepper, American musician (b. 1925)
- June 17 – Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (b. 1920)
- June 18
- Djuna Barnes, American novelist (b. 1892) [27]
- John Cheever, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1912) [28]
- Curd Jürgens, German actor (b. 1915) [29]
- June 25 – Edward Hamm, American Olympic athlete (b. 1906)
- June 29
- Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer (b. 1914)
- Michael Brennan, British actor (b. 1912)
- Henry King, American film director (b. 1886)
July
- July 2 – DeFord Bailey, American country musician (b. 1899)
- July 4
- Terry Higgins, early British casualty of AIDS (b. 1945)
- Antonio Guzmán Fernández, Dominican businessman and politician, 46th President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1911)
- July 6 – Alma Reville, English screenwriter (b. 1899)
- July 7
- Irene Craigmile Bolam, American Amelia Earhart look-alike/believed alias (b. 1904)
- Bhakti Hridaya Bon, Indian guru and religious writer (b. 1901)
- July 8
- Gunnar Eriksson, Swedish Olympic cross-country skier (b. 1921)
- Isa Miranda, Italian actress (b. 1905)
- Albert White, American Olympic diver (b. 1895)
- Virginia Hall, American spy (b. 1906)
- July 10 – Maria Jeritza, Czechoslovak soprano (b. 1887)
- July 12 – Kenneth More, English actor (b. 1914)
- July 16
- C. R. Swart, last Governor-General and 4th President of South Africa (b. 1894)
- Patrick Dewaere, French actor (b. 1947)
- July 18
- Roman Jakobson, Russian-American linguist and literary theorist (b. 1896)
- Quirico Pignalberi, Italian Roman Catholic priest and venerable (b. 1891)
- July 19 – Hugh Everett III, American physicist (b. 1930) [30]
- July 23
- Vic Morrow, American actor and director (b. 1929)
- Betty Parsons, American artist, art dealer and collector (b. 1900) [31]
- Erik Wilén, Finnish sprinter (b. 1898)
- July 28 – Vladimir Smirnov, Soviet fencer (b. 1954)
- July 29 – Vladimir K. Zworykin, Russian-born inventor (b. 1889)
August
- August 1 – T. Thirunavukarasu, Sri Lankan Tamil politician (b. 1933)
- August 2 – Cathleen Nesbitt, British actress (b. 1888)
- August 6 – S. K. Pottekkatt, Indian writer (b. 1913) [32]
- August 12
- Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905) [33]
- Tomás Romero Pereira, 41st President of Paraguay (b. 1886)
- Salvador Sánchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
- August 13 – Charles Walters, American film director (b. 1911)
- August 15
- Maurice Gallay, French footballer (b. 1902) [34]
- Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- August 18 – Beverly Bayne, American actress (b. 1894)
- August 20
- Ulla Jacobsson, Swedish actress (b. 1929)
- Edward Ludwig, Russian-born American director (b. 1899)
- George David Woods, American banker, 4th President of the World Bank (b. 1901)
- August 21 – King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (b. 1899)
- August 23
- Alberto Cavalcanti, Brazilian film director (b. 1897) [35]
- Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- August 25 – Anna German, Polish singer (b. 1936) [36]
- August 26 – Teresa Iżewska, Polish actress (b. 1933)
- August 27 – Anandamayi Ma, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1896)
- August 29
- Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (b. 1915)
- Nahum Goldmann, Russian-born Zionist (b. 1895) [37]
September
- September 1
- Ludwig Bieberbach, German mathematician (b. 1886)
- Isabel Cristina, Brazilian student victim of femicide; honored in Catholicism as blessed (b. 1962) [38]
- Władysław Gomułka, Polish Communist politician, former First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (b. 1905)
- Charles Hartmann, American jazz trombonist (b. 1898)
- September 2
- Tom Baker, American actor (b. 1940)
- Jay Novello, American actor (b. 1904) [39]
- September 3 – Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, Italian general (assassinated) (b. 1920)
- September 4 – Jack Tworkov, American painter (b. 1900)
- September 5 – Sir Douglas Bader, British fighter pilot and leader during the Battle of Britain (b. 1910) [40]
- September 7 – Ken Boyer, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals) (b. 1931)
- september 8 - Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was an Indian politician who played a central role in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir.
- September 9 – Tee Tee Luce, Burmese philanthropist (b. 1895)
- September 10 – Jane Ingham, English botanist and scientific translator (b. 1897)
- September 11
- Wifredo Lam, Cuban artist (b. 1902) [41]
- Jovan Miladinović, Serbian footballer (b. 1939)
- September 12 – Federico Moreno Torroba, Spanish composer and conductor (b. 1891)
- September 14
- Kristján Eldjárn, 3rd President of Iceland (b. 1916)
- Bachir Gemayel, President-elect of Lebanon (b. 1947)
- Grace Kelly, American actress; Princess of Monaco (b. 1929) [42]
- September 16 – Rolfe Sedan, American actor (b. 1896)
- September 19 – Ted Badcock, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1897)
- September 21 – Ivan Bagramyan, Soviet and Armenian military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1897)
- September 23 – Weeratunge Edward Perera, Malaysian educator, businessman and social entrepreneur (b. 1898)
- September 24 – Sarah Churchill, British actress, daughter of Winston Churchill (b. 1914)
- September 28 – Mabel Albertson, American actress (b. 1901)
- September 29 – Letitia Chitty, English aeronautical engineer (b. 1897) [43]
October
- October 3 – Vivien Merchant, British actress (b. 1929)
- October 4
- Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, 25th Prime Minister of Iraq and 4th President of Iraq (b. 1914)
- The Amazing Criswell, American psychic, entertainer (b. 1907)
- Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (b. 1932)
- Leroy Grumman, American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and industrialist. (b. 1895)
- Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1898)
- October 5 – François Simon, Swiss actor (b. 1917)
- October 8
- Philip Noel-Baker, Canadian-born peace activist; recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
- Fernando Lamas, Argentine-born actor (b. 1916)
- October 9
- Anna Freud, Austrian psychoanalyst (b. 1895)
- Herbert Meinhard Mühlpfordt, German historian (b. 1893)
- October 10 – Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (b. 1908)
- October 16 – Hans Selye, Canadian endocrinologist (b. 1907)
- October 17 – Youssef Wahbi, Egyptian actor and film director (b. 1898)
- October 18
- Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (b. 1885)
- Dwain Esper, American director (b. 1892)
- Pierre Mendès France, French politician, 93rd Prime Minister of France (b. 1907)
- Nellie Mae Rowe, African-American folk artist (b. 1900) [44]
- October 20 – Jimmy McGrory, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1904)
- October 21 – Sylvia Lance Harper, Australian tennis player (b. 1895)
- October 22 – Savitri Devi, French-born writer and philosopher (b. 1905) [45]
- October 25 – Arvid Wallman, Swedish diver (b. 1901)
- October 26 – Giovanni Benelli, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1921)
- October 27 – Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, Guatemalan general, 21st President of Guatemala (b. 1895)
- October 29 – William Lloyd Webber, British organist and composer (b. 1914)
- October 30 – Wolfgang Heinz, German actor (b. 1900)
- October 31 – Dick Merrill, American aviation pioneer (b. 1894)
November
- November 1
- James Broderick, American actor (b. 1927)
- King Vidor, American film director (b. 1894)
- November 3 – E. H. Carr, English historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist (b. 1892)
- November 4 – Dominique Dunne, American actress (b. 1959)
- November 5 – Jacques Tati, French filmmaker (b. 1907)
- November 10
- Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (b. 1906)
- Elio Petri, Italian filmmaker (b. 1929)
- Helen Sharsmith, American biologist and educator (b. 1905) [46]
- November 11 – S. A. Ashokan, Indian Tamil actor (b. 1931)
- November 12
- Dorothy Round Little, English tennis champion (b. 1908)
- Patrick Cowley, American disco and Hi-NRG dance music composer and recording artist (b. 1950)
- November 13 – Chesney Allen, British entertainer and comedian (b. 1894)
- November 15
- Vinoba Bhave, Indian educator (b. 1895)
- Dick Randall, Australian public servant (b. 1906) [47]
- Allen Woodring, American runner, Olympic champion (1920) (d. 1982) [48]
- November 16 – Peter Forster, British actor (b. 1920)
- November 17
- Ruth Donnelly, American actress (b. 1896)
- Duk Koo Kim, South Korean boxer (b. 1955)
- Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer (b. 1905)
- November 19 – Erving Goffman, Canadian-American sociologist and psychologist (b. 1922)
- November 21 – Lee Patrick, American actress (b. 1901)
- November 22
- Jean Batten, New Zealand aviator (b. 1909)
- Stanisław Ostrowski, Polish politician, 3rd President of Poland in exile (b. 1892)
- November 24 – Barack Obama Sr., Kenyan economist (b. 1934)
- November 25 – Hugh Harman, American cartoon animator (b. 1903)
- November 26 – Juhan Aavik, Estonian composer (b. 1884)
- November 28 – Helen of Greece and Denmark, Queen Mother of Romania (b. 1896)
- November 29
- Hermann Balck, German general (b. 1893)
- Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (b. 1908)
December
- December 2 – Marty Feldman, British comedian and writer (b. 1934)
- December 7 – Will Lee, American actor (b. 1908)
- December 8
- Encarnación Fuyola, Spanish teacher and activist (b. 1907)
- Marty Robbins, American singer, songwriter and racing driver (b. 1925) [49]
- December 10 – Freeman Fisher Gosden, American actor (b. 1899)
- December 12 – Phil Karlson, American film director (b. 1908)
- December 15 – Prince Adalberto, Duke of Bergamo (b. 1898)
- December 16 – Colin Chapman, British designer, inventor and builder in the automotive industry (b. 1928)
- December 17 – Homer S. Ferguson, American politician (b. 1889)
- December 18 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German World War II dive bomber pilot (b. 1916)
- December 19 – Frederick Terman, American electrical engineer and academic administrator (b. 1900)
- December 20 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born pianist and conductor (b. 1887)
- December 21
- Charles Hapgood, American college professor (b. 1904)
- Gladys Henson, Irish actress (b. 1897)
- December 23 – Jack Webb, American actor (b. 1920)
- December 24 – Louis Aragon, French poet and writer (b. 1897) [50]
- December 25 – Helen Foster, American actress (b. 1906)
- Raphael Girard, Swiss-Guatemalan ethnographer (b. 1898)
- December 27 – Jack Swigert, American astronaut (b. 1931)
- December 28 – Arthur Hughes, American actor (b. 1894)
- December 30 – Giuseppe Aquari, Italian cinematographer (b. 1916)
- December 31
- John Collins, British Anglican priest and venerable (b. 1905)
- Kurt Otto Friedrichs, German-born American mathematician (b. 1901)