January
- 2: [Rolf Liebermann]?, aged 88, composer
- 14: [Aldo van Eyck]?, aged 80, architect
February
- 5: Hussein?, aged 63, king of Jordan (cancer)
- 8: [Iris Murdoch]?, aged 79, writer
- 22: William Bronk, (1918-1999), poet
March
- 2: [Dusty Springfield]?, aged 59, singer
- 4: Karel van het Reve, aged 77, Dutch writer
- 7: Stanley Kubrick, aged 70, movie director
- 8: [Joe DiMaggio]?, aged 84, baseball player
- 12: [Yehudi Menuhin]?, aged 82, violin player/director ([heart attack]?)
April
- 25: [Lord Killanin]?, aged 84, chairman of the IOC
May
- 8: [Dana Plato]?, age 34, actress
- 10?: Shel Silverstein, aged 68, childrens poet
June
- 17: [Basil Hume]?, aged 76, archbishop of Westminster?
- 27: [Jorgos Papadopoulos]?, aged 80, dictator of Greece
July
- 1: [Joshua Nkomo]?, aged 83, Zimbabwian politician
- 2: [Mario Puzo]?], aged 78, writer ([The Godfather]?)
- 17: [John Kennedy jr.]?, aged 38, publisher, son of John F. Kennedy (airplane crash)
- 23: [Hassan II]?, aged 70, king of Morocco (heart attack)
August
- 13: [Ignaz Bubis]?, aged 72, leader German Jewish community
- 28: [Dom Helder Camera]?, aged 90, Brazilian bishop and human rights activist
September
- 10: Alfredo Kraus, (1927-1999), Opera tenor singer.
- 20: Raïsa Gorbachev, aged 67, wife of Soviet president [Mikhail Gorbachev]?
October
- 3: [Heinz G. Konsalik]?, aged 78, writer
- 6: [Amalia Rodrigues]?, aged 79, Portuguese singer
- 14: [Julius Nyerere]?, aged 77, Tanzanian politician
- 19: [Harry Bannink]?, aged 70, Dutch songwriter
- 26: [Rex Gildo]?, aged 63, German singer
November
- 18: Doug Sahm, aged 58, Country and Rock musician
December
- 10: [Rick Danko]?, aged 56, rock singer (The Band)
- 11: [Franjo Tudjman]?, aged 77, president of Croatia
- 12: [Joseph Heller]?, aged 76, writer (Catch-22)
- 17: [Grover Washington]?, aged 56, saxophone player
- 19: [Desmond Llewelyn]?, aged 85, actor (Q in the James Bond movies)
- 26: [Curtis Mayfield]?, aged 57, singer/composer