Deaths in 1984
January
- January 1
- Alexis Korner, British blues musician and broadcaster (b. 1928)
- Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1903)
- January 5 – Giuseppe Fava, Italian writer (b. 1925)
- January 6 – Ernest Laszlo, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1898)
- January 7 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- January 9 – Sir Deighton Lisle Ward, 4th Governor-General of Barbados (b. 1909)
- January 11 – Jack La Rue, American actor (b. 1902)
- January 14
- Saad Haddad, Lebanese military officer and militia leader (b. 1936)
- Ray Kroc, American entrepreneur (b. 1902)
- January 17 – George Rigaud, Argentinian actor (b. 1905)
- January 20 – Johnny Weissmuller, 79, Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor, pulmonary edema.
- January 21
- Archduke Gottfried of Austria (b. 1902)
- Jackie Wilson, American singer (b. 1934)
- January 29 – Frances Goodrich, American screenwriter (b. 1890)
- January 30 – Luke Kelly, lead singer of Irish band The Dubliners (b. 1940)
- January 31 – George Harmon Coxe, American writer (b. 1901)
February
- February 5 – El Santo, Mexican professional wrestler and actor (b. 1917)
- February 6 – Jorge Guillén, Spanish poet (b. 1893)
- February 8
- Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (b. 1903)
- Philippe Ariès, French medievalist and historian (b. 1914)
- February 9 – Yuri Andropov, 69, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, kidney failure.
- February 12
- Anna Anderson, Pretender to the Russian throne (b. 1896)
- Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
- Elmer Keith, American rancher, author, and firearms enthusiast (b. 1899) [1]
- February 13
- Pierre Brambilla, French road cyclist (b. 1919)
- Naomi Uemura, Japanese adventurer (b. 1941)
- February 15 – Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (b. 1908)
- February 16 ― Kenny Williams, American game show announcer { Hollywood Squares ) {b. 1914)
- February 20 – Giuseppe Colombo, Italian scientist (b. 1920)
- February 21 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- February 23 – Maurice Tabard, French photographer (b. 1897)
- February 27 – Ana Rosa Tornero, bolivian writer (b.1907)
March
- March 1 – Jackie Coogan, American actor (b. 1914)
- March 5
- Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone (b. 1913)
- William Powell, American actor (b. 1892)
- March 6
- Martin Niemöller, German theologian and Lutheran pastor (born 1892) [2]
- Henry Wilcoxon, British actor (b. 1905)
- March 10 – June Marlowe, American actress (b. 1903)
- March 12 – Arnold Ridley, English playwright and actor (b. 1896)
- March 14 – Aurelio Peccei, Italian industrialist and philanthropist, co-founder of the Club of Rome (b. 1908)
- March 15
- Ken Carpenter, American Olympic athlete (b. 1913)
- Konstantin Badygin, Soviet Naval officer and explorer (b. 1910)
- March 18 – Paul Francis Webster, American lyricist (b. 1907)
- March 23 – Peter Kolosimo, Italian journalist and writer (b. 1922)
- March 24 – Sam Jaffe, American actor (b. 1891)
- March 26 – Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinean politician, 1st President of Guinea (b. 1922)
- March 27 – Jack Donohue, American film screenwriter and director (b. 1908)
- March 28 – Benjamin Mays, American Baptist minister and civil rights leader (b. 1894) [3]
- March 30 – Karl Rahner, German Jesuit priest and theologian (b. 1904) [4]
April
- April 1
- Marvin Gaye, 44, American singer, murdered by his father.
- Elizabeth Goudge, English writer (b. 1900)
- April 5
- Sir Arthur Harris, British air marshal (b. 1892)
- Giuseppe Tucci, Italian scholar (b. 1894)
- April 7 – Frank Church, American politician (b. 1924) [5]
- April 8 – Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1894)
- April 9 – Willem Sandberg, Dutch typographer (b. 1897)
- April 12 – Edward Sokoine, 2nd Prime Minister of Tanzania (b. 1938)
- April 15
- Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedian and magician (b. 1921)
- William Empson, English poet and critic (b. 1906)
- April 16 – Byron Haskin, American film and television director (b. 1899)
- April 17 – Mark W. Clark, American general (b. 1896)
- April 19 – Machito, Cuban jazz musician (b. 1908)
- April 20 – Otto Arosemena, 32nd President of Ecuador (b. 1925)
- April 21 – Marcel Janco, Romanian-Israeli artist (b. 1895)
- April 22 – Ansel Adams, American photographer (b. 1902)
- April 23 – Roland Penrose, English artist, historian and poet (b. 1900)
- April 26
- Count Basie, American musician and composer (b. 1904)
- May McAvoy, American actress (b. 1899)
- April 27
- Richard Durham, American radio scriptwriter and civil rights activist (b. 1917)
- April 30 – Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Colombian lawyer and politician (b. 1946)
May
- May 2
- Jack Barry, American game show host ( The Joker's Wild ) (b. 1918), heart attack.
- Bob Clampett, American cartoonist (b. 1913)
- May 4 – Diana Dors, English actress (b. 1931)
- May 6 – Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (b. 1904) [6]
- May 15 – Lionel Robbins, Baron Robbins, British economist (b. 1898)
- May 16
- Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
- Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
- May 19 – Sir John Betjeman, English diplomat and poet (b. 1906)
- May 20 – Ólafur Jóhannesson, 15th Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1913)
- May 21
- Andrea Leeds, American actress (b. 1914)
- Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)
- May 22
- Rambai Barni, Queen consort of King Prajadhipok of Thailand (b. 1904)
- Karl-August Fagerholm, 20th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1901)
- John Marley, American actor (b. 1907)
- May 24 – Vincent J. McMahon, American professional wrestling promoter (b. 1914)
- May 28
- Eric Morecambe, British comedian (b. 1926)
- D'Urville Martin, American actor and director (b. 1939)
June
- June 2 – François de Menthon, French politician and professor of law (b. 1900).
- June 5 – Ahmad Fuad Mohieddin, 42nd Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1926)
- June 6 – Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Sikh theologian (b. 1947)
- June 11 – Enrico Berlinguer, General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (b. 1922)
- June 15
- Ned Glass, Polish-born American actor (b. 1906)
- Meredith Willson, American composer (b. 1902)
- June 16 –Sir John Randall, English physicist (b. 1905) [7]
- June 19 – Lee Krasner, American painter (b. 1908)
- June 20 – Estelle Winwood, English actress (b. 1883)
- June 22 – Joseph Losey, American film director (b. 1909)
- June 24 – William Keighley, American film director (b. 1889)
- June 25 – Michel Foucault, French philosopher (b. 1926)
- June 26 – Carl Foreman, American screenwriter (b. 1914)
- June 28
- Yigael Yadin, Israeli archeologist, politician and Military Chief of Staff (b. 1917)
- Claude Chevalley, French mathematician (b. 1909)
- June 30
- Henri Fabre, French aviator & inventor (b. 1882)
- Lillian Hellman, American playwright (b. 1905)
July
- July 1 – Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainian founder of the Feldenkrais Method (b. 1904)
- July 3 – Raoul Salan, French general (b. 1899)
- July 4 – Starke R. Hathaway, American psychologist (b. 1903)
- July 7 – Dame Flora Robson, English actress (b. 1902)
- July 8
- Brassaï, Hungarian-French photographer (b. 1899)
- Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, Spanish historian and politician (b. 1893)
- July 14 - Philippe Wynne, American singer (b. 1941)
- July 15 - Enrique Godoy Sayán, Cuban business magnate and banker (d. 1984) [8]
- July 16 – Karl Wolff, German Nazi SS Officer (b. 1900)
- July 19 – Faina Ranevskaya, Soviet and Russian actress (b. 1896)
- July 25 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer (b. 1926)
- July 26 – George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (b. 1901)
- July 27 – James Mason, English actor (b. 1909)
- July 28 – Bess Flowers, American actress (b. 1898)
- July 29 – Fred Waring, American bandleader, choral director, radio and television personality (b. 1900)
August
- August 2 – Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (b. 1896)
- August 4
- Walter Burke, American actor (b. 1908)
- Mary Miles Minter, American actress (b. 1902)
- August 5 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor (b. 1925)
- August 8
- Richard Deacon, American actor (b. 1922)
- Denis Johnston, Irish playwright (b. 1901) [9]
- Ellen Raskin, American author, The Westing Game (b.1928)
- August 9
- Christine Hargreaves, English actress (b. 1939) [10]
- Walter Tevis, American author and screenwriter (b. 1928)
- August 11
- Yosef Greenwald, Hungarian rabbi (b. 1903) [11]
- Alfred A. Knopf Sr., American publisher (b. 1892) [12]
- Paul Felix Schmidt, Estonian–German chess player (b. 1916)
- August 13
- Clyde Cook, Australian actor (b. 1891)
- Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (b. 1929)
- August 14 – J. B. Priestley, British novelist and playwright (b. 1894)
- August 22 – Charley Foy, American actor (b. 1898) [13]
- August 25
- Truman Capote, American writer (b. 1924)
- Viktor Chukarin, Russian Olympic gymnast (b. 1921)
- Henry Lynn, Polish-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1895)
- August 28 – Mohammed Naguib, 30th Prime Minister of Egypt and 1st President of Egypt (b. 1901)
- August 29 – Pierre Gemayel, Lebanese politician, founder of the Kataeb Party (b. 1905)
- August 31 – Edward J. York, American air force colonel, participant of the Doolittle Raid (b. 1912) [14]
September
- September 1 – Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset, Duchess of Parma (b. 1898)
- September 5
- Adam Malik, 3rd Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1917)
- Jane Roberts, American writer (b. 1929)
- September 6 – Ernest Tubb, American singer (b. 1914)
- September 7 – Joe Cronin, American baseball player (b. 1906)
- September 9 – Yılmaz Güney, Palme d'Or award-winning Kurdish film director, scenarist, actor, novelist and activist (b. 1937)
- September 12 – Yvon Petra, French tennis player (b. 1916)
- September 14
- Richard Brautigan, American author (b. 1935)
- Janet Gaynor, American actress (b. 1906)
- September 17 – Richard Basehart, American actor (b. 1914)
- September 20 – Steve Goodman, American folk musician and songwriter (b. 1948)
- September 24 – Neil Hamilton, American actor (b. 1899)
- September 25 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (b. 1897)
October
- October 1
- Walter Alston, American baseball player and manager (b. 1911)
- Blagoje Marjanović, Yugoslav football player and manager (b. 1907)
- October 4 – Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (b. 1901)
- October 5 – Leonard Rossiter, British actor (b. 1926)
- October 6 – George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist (b. 1902)
- October 9 – Heinz von Cleve, German actor (b. 1897)
- October 14 – Sir Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1918)
- October 16 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (b. 1932)
- October 17 – Alberta Hunter, American singer (b. 1895)
- October 18 – Jon-Erik Hexum, American actor (b. 1957)
- October 19
- Jin Yuelin, Chinese philosopher (b. 1895)
- Henri Michaux, Belgian writer and painter (b. 1899)
- Jerzy Popiełuszko, Polish Roman Catholic priest (b. 1947)
- October 20
- Carl Ferdinand Cori, Czech-American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
- Paul Dirac, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- October 21 – François Truffaut, French film director (b. 1932)
- October 23 – Oskar Werner, Austrian actor (b. 1922)
- October 25 – Pascale Ogier, French actress (b. 1958)
- October 30 – June Duprez, English actress (b. 1918)
- October 31
- Eduardo De Filippo, Italian actor (b. 1900)
- Indira Gandhi, Indian politician and political figure, 3rd Prime Minister of India (b. 1917)
November
- November 11 – Martin Luther King Sr., American Baptist pastor, missionary, and figure in the civil rights movement (b. 1899)
- November 16
- Vic Dickenson, American trombonist (b. 1906)
- Leonard Rose, American cellist (leukemia) (b. 1918)
- November 20
- Trygve Bratteli, Norwegian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1910)
- Carlo Campanini, Italian actor (b. 1906)
- November 23 – Jean-Raymond Tournoux, French journalist (b. 1914)
December
- December 5 – Cecil M. Harden, American politician (b. 1894) [15]
- December 7
- Jeanne Cagney, American actress (b. 1919)
- Jack Mercer, American voice artist (b. 1910)
- December 8 – Luther Adler, American actor (b. 1903)
- December 11 – George Waggner, American film director (b. 1894)
- December 14 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
- December 15 – Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
- December 20
- Stanley Milgram, American psychologist (b. 1933)
- Dmitriy Ustinov, Soviet Army officer and Minister of Defense (b. 1908)
- December 24
- Ian Hendry, English actor (b. 1931)
- Peter Lawford, English-American actor and socialite (b. 1923)
- December 28
- Peter Kihss, American journalist [16]
- Sam Peckinpah, American film director (b. 1925)
- December 29 – Leo Robin, American composer (b. 1900)