- Oct 2 Bola de Nieve [Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández], Cuban singer, pianist and songwriter, dies at 60
- Oct 3 Leah Baird, writer (Jungle Bride), dies of anemia at 88
- Oct 3 Seán Ó Riada, Irish composer, dies at 40
- Oct 4 Edit Angold, German actress (Suspense, Molly, Blue Angel), dies at 76
- Oct 8 Christopher Dark [Alfred Francis DeLeo], American actor, (World Without End, The Time Tunnel), dies of a heart attack at 51
- Oct 8 Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman, Dutch composer, dies at 79
- Oct 10 John Cawte Beaglehole, New Zealand historian (b. 1901)
- Oct 11 Chester Conklin, American actor (Every Day's a Holiday, Greed), dies at 85
- Oct 11 Chesty Puller, US Marine Corps lieutenant general and the most decorated Marine in history, dies at 73
- Oct 12 Dean Acheson, American statesman and U.S. Secretary of State (1949-53), dies at 78
- Oct 12 Gene Vincent [Vincent Eugene Craddock], American rock guitarist and vocalist ("Be-Bop-A-Lula"), dies of bleeding ulcers at 36
- Oct 13 Stafford Smythe, Canadian NHL executive (President Toronto Maple Leafs 1961–69, 1970-71), dies from an acute stomach ulcer at 50
- Oct 14 Norman Steenrod, American mathematician (algebraic topology), dies at 61
- Oct 15 Sylvester Magee, last living American slave and oldest person who ever lived, dies at 130
- Oct 19 Alberto Pirelli, Italian industrialist, dies at 89
- Oct 19 Betty Bronson, actress (Naked Kiss), dies after brief illness at 64
- Oct 21 Raymond Hatton, American actor (Girls in Prison, Lady Killer), dies of heart attack at 84
- Oct 24 Carl Ruggles, American composer (Evocations), dies at 95
- Oct 24 Chuck Hughes, Detroit Lion collapses during game & later, dies
- Oct 24 Fernand Quinet, Belgian composer/conductor (Guerre), dies at 73
- Oct 25 Albert van Dalsum, Dutch actor and director (Wilton's Zoo; Little Rascal), dies at 82
- Oct 26 Robert Gordon director/writer (Loveless), dies at 76
- Oct 26 Vincent Coleman, American actor (For the Freedom of Ireland, Salome), dies at 71
- Oct 28 Yves de La Casiniere, composer, dies at 74
- Oct 29 Duane Allman, American rock guitarist (The Allman Brothers Band), dies in a motorcycle accident at 24
- Oct 30 Osvald Chlubna, Czech organist, composer, and musicologist, dies at 78
- Oct 31 Gerhard von Rad, German old testament expert, dies at 70