- Sep 1 Doris Kenyon, American silent screen actress (Alexander Hamilton), dies at 81
- Sep 2 Felix Aylmer, British actor (Anastasia, Hamlet, Iron Duke, Macbeth, St Joan), dies at 90
- Sep 2 Otto P. Weyland, American military figure (b. 1903)
- Sep 4 Jef van de Wiele, Belgian politician, dies at 76
- Sep 4 Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (b. 1904)
- Sep 5 Alberto di Jorio, former head of the Vatican Bank and secretary of the 1958 conclave (b. 1884)
- Sep 6 Ronald Binge, British composer (Elizabethan Serenade, Sailing By), dies at 69
- Sep 9 Solon Michaelides, composer, dies at 73
- Sep 10 Agostinho Neto, poet/1st President of Angola, dies at 56
- Sep 10 Stanislav Pylypovych Lyudkevych, composer, dies at 99
- Sep 12 Denis Smith, cricketer (England left-handed batsman 1935), dies
- Sep 14 Raymond Loucheur, composer, dies at 80
- Sep 15 Tommy Leonetti, singer/actor (Gomer Pyle USMC), dies at 50
- Sep 15 Caro van Eyck [Gerarda Taytelbaum], Dutch actress (De stille Kracht, Medea), dies at 63
- Sep 16 Nur Mohammed Taraki, president of Afghanistan (1978-79), killed
- Sep 17 Miloslav Kabelac, composer, dies at 71
- Sep 18 Gene Kelly, sportscaster (Sportsreel), dies at 60
- Sep 20 Ludvik Svoboda, Czech general and politician, dies at 83
- Sep 21 John McQuade, actor (Charlie Wild Private Detective), dies at 73
- Sep 23 Catherine Lacey, actress (October Man, Carnival), dies at 75
- Sep 25 Tapio Rautavaara, Finnish athlete, actor, and singer (Me tulemme taas, Rion yö), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 64
- Sep 26 Arthur Hunnicutt, American actor (El Dorado, Big Sky, Apache Uprising), dies from mouth cancer at 69
- Sep 26 John Cromwell, American actor and director (Spitfire, Of Human Bondage), dies at 91
- Sep 26 Seymour Shifrin, composer, dies at 53
- Sep 27 Jimmy McCulloch, Scottish songwriter and guitarist (Wings), dies at 26