- Dec 1 Chief Thundercloud [Victor Daniels], Cherokee actor (The Lone Ranger, Colt .45), dies from stomach cancer at 57
- Dec 3 Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport, American boogie-woogie and blues musician, dies of hardening of the arteries at 61
- Dec 5 Paul Harvey, American actor (Spellbound, Calamity Jane, Heldorado, Jamboree), dies at 73
Honus Wagner
Dec 6 Honus Wagner, American Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop (8-time NL batting champion), dies at 81
Honus Wagner
- Dec 8 Jacques Handschin, Swiss musicologist (Der Toncharakter), dies at 69
- Dec 9 Hermann Weyl, German mathematician and philosopher, dies at 70
- Dec 11 Franz Adolf Syberg, Danish composer, dies at 51
- Dec 11 Johan C. Altorf, sculptor (October 3 Monument), dies at 79
- Dec 13 Egas Moniz, Portuguese psychiatrist and neurosurgeon, Nobel laureate (b. 1874)
- Dec 21 Dorothy Bernard, actress (Margaret-Life With Father), dies at 65
- Dec 22 Len Braund, cricketer (23 Tests for England 987 runs 47 wkts), dies
- Dec 24 Nana Bryant, American stage and screen actress (Ladies of the Chorus; Our Miss Brooks - "Mrs. Nestor"), dies at 67
- Dec 27 Alfred Carpenter, English Royal Navy soldier, dies at 74
- Dec 30 Rex Ingamells, Australian poet (b. 1913)