Deaths in 1983
January
- January 11
- Gerhard Barkhorn, German World War II fighter ace (b. 1919)
- Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist and educator (b. 1894)
- Tikhon Kiselyov, Belarusian statesman in the Soviet Union, the de facto leader of the Byelorussian SSR from 1980 to 1983 (b. 1917)
- January 12 – Nikolai Podgorny, Soviet politician, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1965 to 1977 (b. 1903)
- January 15 – Meyer Lansky, American gangster (b. 1902)
- January 16 – Doodles Weaver, American comedian (b. 1911)
- January 18 – Arturo Umberto Illia, Argentine politician and physician, 34th President of Argentina (b. 1900)
- January 20 – Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (b. 1933)
- January 23 – Marcolino Gomes Candau, Brazilian medical doctor, 2nd Director-General of World Health Organization (b. 1911)
- January 24
- Carmen Clemente Travieso, Venezuelan journalist and activist (b. 1900)
- George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)
- Juan Carlos Zabala, Argentine Olympic athlete (b. 1911)
- January 26 – Bear Bryant, American football player and coach (b. 1913)
- January 27
- Georges Bidault, French Resistance leader and politician, 82nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1899)
- Louis de Funès, French actor (b. 1914)
- January 28
- Frank Forde, Australian politician, 15th Prime Minister of Australia, leader of the World War II (b. 1890)
- Billy Fury, British musician (b. 1940)
- January 29 – Stuart H. Ingersoll, American admiral (b. 1898)
February
- February 4 – Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (The Carpenters) (b. 1950)
- February 12
- Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1887)
- February 13 – Lorenzo Bianchi, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1899)
- February 14 – Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
- February 19 – Alice White, American actress (b. 1904)
- February 22 – Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
- February 23 – Herbert Howells, English composer (b. 1892)
- February 25 – Tennessee Williams, American playwright (b. 1911)
- February 27 – Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, Russian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1908)
- February 28 – Winifred Atwell, British pianist (b. 1914)
March
- March 1
- Hideo Kobayashi, Japanese author (b. 1902)
- Arthur Koestler, Austrian writer (b. 1905)
- March 3 – Hergé, Belgian comics creator (b. 1907)
- March 6 – Donald Maclean, British spy (b. 1913)
- March 7 – Igor Markevitch, Ukrainian conductor (b. 1912)
- March 8
- Sir William Walton, English composer (b. 1902)
- Chabuca Granda, Peruvian singer and composer (b. 1920)
- March 9
- Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)
- Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- March 14 – Maurice Ronet, French film actor and director (b. 1927)
- March 15
- Dame Rebecca West, British writer (b. 1892)
- Josep Lluís Sert, Spanish architect and urbanist (b. 1902)
- March 16 – Arthur Godfrey, American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer (b. 1903)
- March 17 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- March 18 – Umberto II of Italy, 4th and last King of Italy (b. 1904)
- March 20
- Maria Babanova, Soviet and Russian actress (b. 1900)
- Ivan Vinogradov, Russian mathematician (b. 1891)
- March 26 – Anthony Blunt, British spy and art historian (b. 1907)
- March 27 – Elsie Eaves, American civil engineer (b. 1898)
- March 28 – Suzanne Belperron, French jewellery designer (b. 1900) [1]
- March 30 – Lisette Model, Austrian-American photographer (b. 1901)
April
- April 3 – Jimmy Bloomfield, English football player and manager (b. 1934)
- April 4
- Jacqueline Logan, American actress (b. 1902)
- Gloria Swanson, American actress (b. 1899)
- April 11 – Dolores del Río, Mexican actress (b. 1904)
- April 12
- Desmond Bagley, English novelist (b. 1923)
- Kenneth Callow, British biochemist (d. 1983) [2]
- Jørgen Juve, Norwegian football player and journalist (b. 1906)
- April 13 – Gloria Marín, Mexican actress (b. 1919)
- April 15
- Gyula Illyés, Hungarian poet and novelist (b. 1902)
- Corrie ten Boom, Dutch resistance fighter (b. 1892)
- April 19 – Jerzy Andrzejewski, Polish author (b. 1909)
- April 20
- Walther Nehring, German general (b. 1892)
- Pedro Quartucci, Argentine boxer and actor (b. 1905)
- April 21 – Walter Slezak, Austrian-born American actor (b. 1902)
- April 22 – Earl "Fatha" Hines, American musician (b. 1903)
- April 23
- Buster Crabbe, American actor and athlete (b. 1908)
- Suzanne La Follette, American libertarian feminist (b. 1893)
- Selena Royle, American actress and writer (b. 1904)
- April 30
- George Balanchine, Russian-American dancer and choreographer (b. 1904)
- Muddy Waters, American musician (b. 1913)
May
- May 1
- George Hodgson, Canadian Olympic swimmer (b. 1893)
- Joseph Ruttenberg, Russian-American cinematographer (b. 1889)
- May 2
- Pridi Banomyong, Thai politician and professor, 7th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1900)
- Ernesto de la Guardia, 32nd President of Panama (b. 1904)
- May 5 – John Williams, British actor (b. 1903)
- May 8 – John Fante, American writer (b. 1909)
- May 14
- Miguel Alemán Valdés, 46th President of Mexico (b. 1900) [3]
- Roger J. Traynor, American judge (b. 1900)
- May 18 – Frank Aiken, Irish politician (b. 1898)
- May 19 – Jean Rey, 2nd President of the European Commission (b. 1902)
- May 21 – Kenneth Clark, Baron Clark, British art historian (b. 1903)
- May 22
- Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
- King Idris of Libya (b. 1889)
- May 25 – Sid Daniels, British merchant marine worker, last surviving crewmember of the RMS Titanic (b. 1895)
- May 29 – Arvīds Pelše, Latvian historian, Soviet politician and functionary (b. 1899)
- May 31 – Jack Dempsey, American heavyweight champion boxer (b. 1895)
June
- June 1
- Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, regent of Belgium (b. 1903)
- Sarah Kafrit, Israeli politician (b. 1900) [4]
- Anna Seghers, German writer (b. 1900) [5]
- June 2
- Stan Rogers, Canadian musician (b. 1949)
- Julio Rosales, Filipino Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1906)
- June 5 – Kurt Tank, German aeronautical engineer (b. 1898) [6]
- June 8
- Rachel Baes, Belgian painter (b. 1912)
- Miško Kranjec, Slovenian writer (b. 1908)
- June 11 – G.D. Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian and educationalist (b. 1894) [7]
- June 12 – Norma Shearer, Canadian-American actress (b. 1902)
- June 15 – Mario Casariego y Acevedo, Spanish-Guatemalan Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1909)
- June 17 – Peter Mennin, American composer and teacher (b. 1923)
- June 18 – Marianne Brandt, German industrial designer (b. 1893) [8]
- June 23 – Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, Cuban politician, 21st President of Cuba (b. 1919)
- June 25 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (b. 1916)
- June 28 – Dorothy Annan, English painter, potter, and muralist (b. 1900) [9]
July
- July 1 – Buckminster Fuller, American architect (b. 1895)
- July 2 – László Budai, Hungarian footballer (b. 1928)
- July 4 – John Bodkin Adams, British suspected serial killer (b. 1899)
- July 5 – Harry James, American musician and band leader (b. 1916)
- July 7 – Herman Kahn, American futurist (b. 1922)
- July 10
- Werner Egk, German composer (b. 1901) [10]
- Estrellita Castro, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1908)
- July 11 – Ross Macdonald, American-Canadian writer (b. 1915)
- July 12 – Chris Wood, British rock musician, lead singer and guitarist of the band Traffic (b. 1944)
- July 14 – Jack MacBryan, English cricketer (b. 1892)
- July 16
- Michel Micombero, Burundian military officer and statesman, 8th Prime Minister and 1st President of Burundi (b. 1940)
- Samson Raphaelson, American screenwriter (b. 1894)
- July 17 – Roosevelt Sykes, American blues musician (b. 1906)
- July 23 – Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899) [11]
- July 26 – Charlie Rivel, Spanish Catalan circus clown (b. 1896)
- July 29
- Luis Buñuel, Spanish filmmaker (b. 1900)
- Rocco Chinnici, Italian judge (b. 1925)
- Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
- David Niven, British soldier and actor (b. 1910)
- July 30 – Lynn Fontanne, British actress (b. 1887)
August
- August 2 – James Jamerson, American musician (b. 1936)
- August 3
- Carolyn Jones, American actress (b. 1930)
- Jobriath, American rock musician and actor (b. 1946)
- August 5
- Bart Bok, Dutch-American astronomer (b. 1906)
- Judy Canova, American actress (b. 1913)
- August 6 – Klaus Nomi, German singer and performance artist (b. 1944) [12]
- August 10
- José Baptista Pinheiro de Azevedo, 104th Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1917)
- Ruben Rausing, Swedish entrepreneur, founder of Tetra Pak (b. 1895)
- August 11 – Mamie Phipps Clark, American psychologist (b. 1917)
- August 16
- Earl Averill, American baseball player and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1902)
- Heinz Warneke, American sculptor (b. 1895)
- August 17 – Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)
- August 18 – Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, German-British art historian (b. 1902)
- August 21 – Ninoy Aquino, Filipino politician (b. 1932) [13]
- August 28
- Jan Clayton, American actress and singer (b. 1917)
- José Bergamín, Spanish writer (b. 1895)
- August 29 – Simon Oakland, American actor (b. 1915)
September
- September 1
- Otto Hulett, American actor (b. 1898)
- Henry M. Jackson, American politician (b. 1912)
- September 8 – Ibrahim Abboud, 3rd Prime Minister and 1st President of Sudan (b. 1900)
- September 10
- Felix Bloch, Swiss-American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- Jon Brower Minnoch, heaviest man who ever lived (b. 1941)
- John Vorster, 8th Prime Minister of South Africa and 5th President of South Africa (b. 1915)
- September 12 – Sabin Carr, American Olympic athlete (b. 1904)
- September 15 – LeRoy Prinz, American choreographer, director and producer (b. 1895)
- September 16 – Gunnar Olsson, Swedish actor (b. 1904)
- September 17 – Humberto Sousa Medeiros, Portuguese-American Roman Catholic clergyman (b. 1915)
- September 19 – Bruno Pittermann, Austrian Social Democratic politician, 19th Vice-Chancellor of Austria (b. 1905)
- September 20 – Ángel Labruna, Argentine footballer and manager (b. 1918)
- September 21 – Xavier Zubiri, Spanish philosopher (b. 1898)
- September 25 – King Leopold III of Belgium (b. 1901)
- September 26 – Tino Rossi, French singer (b. 1907)
- September 29 – Alan Moorehead, Australian-English war correspondent and historian (b. 1910)
October
- October 4 – Andrés Córdova, acting President of Ecuador (b. 1892)
- October 5 – Earl Tupper, American businessman (b. 1907)
- October 6 – Terence Cooke, American cardinal (b. 1921)
- October 7
- George O. Abell, American astronomer (b. 1927)
- Christophe Soglo, 3rd President of Dahomey (b. 1909)
- October 8
- Joan Hackett, American actress (b. 1934)
- Ruben Rausing, Swedish entrepreneur, founder of Tetra Pak (b. 1895)
- October 10 – Sir Ralph Richardson, British actor (b. 1902)
- October 14 – Paul Fix, American actor (b. 1901)
- October 15 – Pat O'Brien, American actor (b. 1899)
- October 17 – Raymond Aron, French philosopher, sociologist and political scientist. (b. 1905)
- October 19
- Maurice Bishop, Grenadian politician and revolutionary, 2nd Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1944)
- Dorothy Stuart Russell, Australian-born British pathologist (b. 1895)
- Carel Willink, Dutch painter (b. 1900)
- October 26 – Alfred Tarski, Polish-American logician and mathematician (b. 1901)
- October 28 – Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (b. 1892)
- October 31 – George Halas, American football player and coach (b. 1895)
November
- November 7 – Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (b. 1892)
- November 8 – Betty Nuthall, English tennis champion (b. 1911)
- November 11 – Arno Babajanyan, Armenian composer and pianist (b. 1921)
- November 13 – Aliagha Aghayev, Azerbaijani actor (b. 1913)
- November 15 – John Le Mesurier, British actor (b. 1912)
- November 19 – Tom Evans, English musician and songwriter (b. 1947)
- November 20
- Marcel Dalio, French actor (b. 1900)
- Richard Loo, Chinese-American actor (b. 1903)
- November 22 – Michael Conrad, American actor (b. 1925)
- November 23 – Waheed Murad, Pakistani actor, film producer, writer and director (b. 1938)
- November 27
- Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Mexican novelist and playwright (b. 1928)
- Ángel Rama, Uruguayan writer and literary critic (b. 1926)
- November 28 – Christopher George, American actor (b. 1931)
- November 30
- George Headley, West Indian cricketer (b. 1909) [14]
- Richard Llewellyn, British writer (b. 1906)
December
- December 2 – Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian-American actress and singer (b. 1904)
- December 5
- Robert Aldrich, American film director (b. 1918)
- John Robinson, British Anglican bishop (b. 1919)
- December 6
- Lucienne Boyer, French singer (b. 1901)
- Gul Khan Nasir, Baloch politician and poet from Pakistan (b. 1914)
- December 7 – Fanny Cano, Mexican actress and producer (b. 1944)
- December 8
- Sir Keith Holyoake, New Zealand politician, 26th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1904)
- Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919)
- December 11 – Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (b. 1897)
- December 13
- Leora Dana, American actress (b. 1923)
- Mary Renault, English author (b. 1905)
- December 20
- Prince Moulay Abdallah of Morocco (b. 1935)
- Bill Brandt, German-British photographer and photojournalist(b. 1904)
- December 21 – Paul de Man, Belgian-American literary critic (b. 1919)
- December 25 – Joan Miró, Spanish painter (b. 1893)
- December 26 – Violet Carson, British actress (b. 1898)
- December 28
- William Demarest, American actor (b. 1892)
- Jimmy Demaret, American golf champion (b. 1910)
- Dennis Wilson, American singer, songwriter and drummer (b. 1944)