- Feb 1 Blaz Arnic, composer, dies at 69
- Feb 1 Alfréd Rényi, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1921)
- Feb 2 Bertrand Russell, philosopher, British MP, dies in Merioneth at 97
- Feb 2 Jaroslav Vogel, Czech composer and conductor, dies at 76
- Feb 2 Lawrence Gray, American actor, dies at 71
- Feb 5 Rudy York, American baseball player (b. 1913)
- Feb 6 Roscoe Karns, actor (Capt Shafer-Hennesey), dies at 78
- Feb 11 Emil Abranyi, composer, dies at 87
- Feb 12 Andre Souris, composer, dies at 79
- Feb 13 Herbert Strudwick, cricketer (28 Tests for England, ct 60 stp 12), dies
- Feb 15 Sir Hugh Dowding, commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain (b. 1882)
- Feb 17 Alfred Newman, US composer, dies at 69
- Feb 17 Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Jewish novelist (Nobel 1966), dies at 81
- Feb 18 Desiderius A Stracke, Flemish jesuit/literature historian, dies at 94
- Feb 19 Ralph Edward Flanders, (Sen-VT), dies at 89
- Feb 20 Albert Louis Wolff, composer, dies at 86
- Feb 20 Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (b. 1885)
- Feb 20 Café Filho, 18th Brazilian President (1954-1955) dies aged 71
- Feb 23 Hirsch Jacobs, American thoroughbred horse trainer and owner (b. 1904)
- Feb 24 Conrad Nagel, American actor (All That Heaven Allows, Celebrity Time), dies at 72
- Feb 25 Mark Rothko, abstract expressionist (Green on Blue), dies at 66
- Feb 26 Ethel Leginska, composer, dies at 83
- Feb 27 Robert Bruce Lockhart, diplomat/writer, dies
- Feb 27 Marie Dionne, one of the French Canadian Dionne quintuplets (b. 1934)