- Dec 1 J. B. S. Haldane, British-Indian geneticist (primordial soup theory), dies at 72
- Dec 3 Ernst Ginsberg, writer, dies
- Dec 3 George Brown, English cricket wicketkeeper/batsman (7 Tests; Hampshire), dies at 77
- Dec 5 Remy Angenot, Flemish actor (Met den helm geboren, Patriot, Idiot), dies at 70
- Dec 6 Consuelo Vanderbilt (b. 1877)
- Dec 9 Edith Sitwell, English poet and author (Wheels), dies at 77
- Dec 11 Percy Kilbride, American actor (Egg & I, Ma & Pa Kettle), dies at 76
- Dec 11 Sam Cooke, American singer and entrepreneur described as "the inventor of soul music" (You Send Me), shot to death at 33
- Dec 12 H I "Sailor" Young, cricketer (left-arm bowler Eng v Aust 1899), dies
- Dec 14 William Bendix, American actor (Lifeboat, Babe Ruth Story, Life of Riley), dies from lobar pneumonia at 58
- Dec 17 Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1883)
- Dec 21 Carl Van Vechten, American writer famous for the controversial novel "Nigger Heaven", dies at 84
- Dec 21 Algernon Kingscote, English tennis player (Australasian C'ship 1919), dies at 76
- Dec 22 Bonifacio Gil Garcia, Spanish composer and folklorist, dies at 66
- Dec 23 Arrigo Pedrollo, Italian composer, dies at 86
- Dec 25 Cheerio Meredith, actress (One Happy Family), dies at 74
- Dec 29 Bernard von Brentano, German writer (Big Cats), dies at 63
- Dec 29 Miroslav Krejčí, Czech composer, dies at 73
- Dec 30 Andrés Soriano, Spanish Filipino industrialist (San Miguel Brewery, Philippine Airlines), dies of pancreatic cancer at 66
- Dec 31 Gertrude Michael, American actress (Cleopatra, Menace, Club Havana, caged), dies from undisclosed causes at 53
- Dec 31 Ólafur Thors, Icelandic Prime Minister (5 times between 1942-63), dies at 72
- Dec 31 Bobby Byrne, baseball player (b. 1884)