- Aug 1 Frances Farmer, American actress (Son of Fury, Flowing Gold, Among the Living), dies from esophageal cancer at 56
- Aug 1 Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physician (Nobel-1931), dies at 86
- Aug 6 Ingolf Dahl [Marcus], German-American pianist and composer (Allegro and Arioso), dies at 56
- Aug 7 Harold Haley, American judge, shot dead in courthouse shootout in San Rafael at 67
- Aug 7 James McClain, US African American activist, shot dead
- Aug 7 Jonathan Jackson, US African American activist, shot dead in a shootout at 17
- Aug 7 William Christmas, US African American activist, shot dead
- Aug 8 Johnny Goodman, American golfer (US Open 1933), dies at 60
- Aug 10 Bernd-Alois Zimmermann, German composer (The Soldiers Requiem), commits suicide at 52
- Aug 10 Alexander Gode, German-American linguist, dies at 63
- Aug 12 Glenn Hartranft, American athlete (discus WR 47.89m 1925; Olympic silver shot putt 1924), dies at 68
- Aug 13 Viktor Nikolayevich Trambitsky, composer, dies at 75
- Aug 14 Vano Il'ich Muradeli, composer, dies at 62
- Aug 15 Karl August Andersen, composer, dies at 66
- Aug 17 Rattana Pestonji, Thai filmmaker and cinematographer (Tang), dies at 62
- Aug 19 Paweł Jasienica, Polish historian, dies at 60
- Aug 20 Hildo Krop, modernistic sculptor, dies at 86
- Aug 21 Timothy Mather Spelman, American composer, dies at 79
- Aug 22 Richard Frank Donovan, composer, dies at 78
- Aug 22 Vladimir Propp, Russian structuralist scholar (b. 1895)
- Aug 23 Nel Rose, Dutch dance teacher, dies at 55
- Aug 29 Mary Clare, British actress, dies at 78
- Aug 30 Anna Casati, Italian marchesa, murdered at 41
- Aug 30 Del Moore, American comedian and actor (Cal-Bachelor Father), dies at 53