- Dec 2 Ernest Hayes, cricketer (Surrey bat played 5 Tests for England), dies
- Dec 2 Francis Picabia, French avante-garde artist, writer and typographist (Amorous Parade), dies at 74
- Dec 2 Reginald "Snowy" Baker, Australian athlete and actor (The Sword of Valor), dies at 69
- Dec 4 Daniel Gregory Mason, composer, dies at 80
- Dec 5 Jorge Negrete [Moreno], Mexican singer and actor (The Rebel, La madrina del diablo), dies of hepatitis at 42
- Dec 6 Konstanty I Galczynski, Polish poet (Zielona Ges), dies at 48
- Dec 10 Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian-born scholar and translator (b. 1872)
- Dec 15 Kishio Hirao, composer, dies at 46
Robert A. Millikan
Dec 19 Robert A. Millikan, American physicist (Nobel 1923), dies at 85
Robert A. Millikan
- Dec 19 Rudolf Leonhard, writer, dies
- Dec 20 Henry Horatio Dixon, Irish Biologist (cohesion-tension theory in plants), dies at 84
- Dec 23 Lavrenti P Beria, soviet minister of internal security, executed
- Dec 25 Patsy Donovan, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1865)
- Dec 25 Lee Shubert, American theatre producer (theatres in NY & LA named after him), dies at about 80
- Dec 27 Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (b. 1894)
- Dec 29 Violet MacMillan, American Broadway theatre actress(b. 1887)
- Dec 31 Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer/founder (KLM), dies at 64