- Oct 1 Oswald Garrison Villard, American journalist and editor of the New York Evening Post, dies at 77
- Oct 2 Frank Schulte, American baseball outfielder (NL MVP 1911; Chicago Cubs), dies at 67
- Oct 4 Edmund Eysler, Austrian composer, mostly of operettas (Bruder Straubinger; The Golden Mistress), dies from injuries from falling off of a stage at 75
- Oct 6 Robert Lynd, Irish writer and critic (News Chronicle), dies at 70
- Oct 9 Viktor Alexandrovich Uspensky, Russian composer, dies at 70
- Oct 16 Hale A. VanderCook, American composer, dies at 85
- Oct 24 Joaquín Nin, Cuban composer and pianist, father of Anaïs Nin, dies at 70
- Oct 27 Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (b. 1916)
- Oct 27 Ginette Neveu, French violinist (b. 1919)
- Oct 29 G. I. Gurdjieff, Armenian mystic (b. 1872)
- Oct 31 Edward Stettinius Jr. 48th US Secretary of State (1944-45) and diplomat, dies at 49