- Jan 4 Willem Bruynzeel, Dutch timber/lumber/wood manufacturer, dies at 76
- Jan 6 John D. MacArthur, American insurance billionaire, dies at 80
- Jan 6 Burt Munro, New Zealand motorcycle racer, dies at 78 (b. 1899)
- Jan 6 Francine York, American actress (Slattery's People), dies at 80
- Jan 8 Walter Keirnan, TV panelist (I've Got a Secret), dies at 75
- Jan 9 Eddie Gilbert, cricket (Aboriginal Qld quick got Don for a duck), dies
- Jan 10 John D. Rockefeller III, US billionaire/philanthropist, dies at 71
- Jan 10 Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, of La Prensa, assassinated in Managua
- Jan 10 Zeb Turner, country-rock performer (Chew Tobacco Rag), dies at 62
- Jan 10 Don Gillis, American composer (Symphony 5½ - A Symphony for Fun), dies at 65
- Jan 11 Michael Bates, English actor (Clockwork Orange, Salt & Pepper), dies at 57
- Jan 11 Ibn-e-Insha, Pakistani humorist and Urdu poet (b. 1927)
Hubert Humphrey
Jan 13 Hubert Humphrey, American politician, 38th Vice President of the United States (1965-69), and 1968 Presidential candidate, dies of bladder cancer at 66
- Jan 13 Joe McCarthy, American Baseball Hall of Fame manager (World Series 1932, 36–39, 41, 43; New York Yankees), dies at 96
- Jan 14 Blossom Rock [Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald], American actress (Grandmamma-The Addams Family), dies at 81
- Jan 14 Robert Heger, composer, dies at 91
- Jan 14 Harold Abrahams, British athlete (Olympic gold 100m, silver 4x100m 1924; depicted in film "Chariots of Fire"), dies at 78
- Jan 14 Kurt Gödel, Austrian-American mathematician (Gödel's incompleteness theorems), dies at 71
- Jan 15 Margaret Bowman & Janet Levy, Chi Omega, FSU, killed by Ted Bundy
- Jan 15 Jack Jackson, British trumpeter, dance band leader, and influential BBC disc jockey, dies at 71
- Jan 16 Virginia Pope, American fashion editor (New York Times), dies at 92
- Jan 18 Carl Betz, American actor (The Donna Reed Show, Love of Life), dies of lung cancer at 56
- Jan 18 Ivan Ivonovich Dzerzhinsky, Russian composer, dies at 68
- Jan 18 Hasan Askari, Pakistani philosopher, critic and writer, dies at 58
- Jan 18 Walter H. Thompson, English Scotland Yard detective, bodyguard of Winston Churchill, dies of cancer at 77
- Jan 21 Freda Utley, British scholar and author. (b. 1898)
- Jan 22 Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer (54 Tests for England 4555 runs), dies at 83
- Jan 22 Oliver Leese, British World War II general, dies at 83
- Jan 23 Jack Oakie, American actor (The Great Dictator, 1974 Photoplay Award), dies at 74
- Jan 23 Terry Kath, American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist (Chicago - "Make Me Smile"), accidentally shoots himself in head at 31
- Jan 23 Vic Ames, American singer (Ames Brothers - "Tammy"), dies in a car accident at 52
- Jan 24 Herta Oberheuser, German doctor (b. 1911)
- Jan 25 Tango Duke, dies in Australia at 42; oldest known thoroughbred horse
- Jan 26 Leo Genn, British lawyer and actor (Mourning Becomes Electra, Moby-Dick, Affair in Monte Carlo), dies at 72
- Jan 27 Marguerite Canal, composer, dies at 87
- Jan 27 Oscar Homolka, Hungarian actor (Sabotage, The Seven Year Itch, Ball of Fire, I Remember Mama), dies at 79
- Jan 29 Tim McCoy, American actor (Arizona Bound) and soldier, dies at 86