- 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 pro-Nazi politician, dies at 76
- Sep 4 Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (b. 1904)
- Sep 5 Alberto di Jorio, Italian Cardinal and former head of the Vatican Bank, dies at 95
- Sep 6 Ronald Binge, British composer (Elizabethan Serenade, Sailing By), dies at 69
- Sep 7 Ivor Armstrong Richards, English literary critic (The Meaning of Meaning), dies at 86
- Sep 7 Janardan Navle, Indian cricketer (India's 1st Test wicket-keeper), dies at 76
- Sep 9 Solon Michaelides, Cypriot composer, and musicologist, dies at 73
- Sep 9 Wilbur Ware, American jazz double bassist (Riverside Records; Thelonious Monk; Sonny Rollins), included in photographer Art Kane's photo "A Great Day In Harlem", dies of emphysema at 56
- Sep 9 Norman "Norrie" Paramor, British composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader, and record producer (Cliff Richard: The Shadows; Helen Shapiro), dies at 65
- Sep 10 Agostinho Neto, 1st President of Angola (1975-79), dies at 56
- Sep 10 Stanyslav Lyudkevych, Ukranian composer, and musicologist, dies at 100
- Sep 10 Stanislaw Lyudkevich, Ukranian composer, dies at 100
- Sep 12 Denis Smith, cricketer (England left-handed batsman 1935), dies
- Sep 14 Raymond Loucheur, French composer, dies at 80
- Sep 15 Tommy Leonetti [Tomaso Lionetti], American singer ("Free"), songwriter ("My City of Sydney"), and actor (Gomer Pyle, USMC), dies of cancer at 50
- Sep 15 Caro van Eyck [Gerarda Taytelbaum], Dutch actress (De stille Kracht, Medea), dies at 63
- Sep 16 Nur Mohammed Taraki, Communist president of Afghanistan (1978-79), murdered by order from his successor, Hafizullah Amin, at 62
- Sep 17 Miloslav Kabeláč, Czech composer, dies at 71
- Sep 20 Ludvík Svoboda, Czech general and politician (8th President of Czechoslovakia, 1968-75), 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, American composer (Satires of Circumstance), dies at 53
- Sep 27 Gracie Fields, English music hall/vaudeville performer and actress (Queen of Hearts), dies at 81
- Sep 27 Jimmy McCulloch, Scottish songwriter and guitarist (Wings), dies at 26
- Sep 28 John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist, and space researcher, dies at 58