- Dec 1 Sam Levene, American Broadway actor (Purple Heart, Designing Women), dies at 75
- Dec 2 Romain Gary, Lithuanian-born French writer (b. 1914)
- Dec 2 Richard Pindle Hammond, American composer dies at 83
- Dec 3 Oswald Mosley, British politician and founder of British Union of Fascists, dies at 84
- Dec 4 Stanislawa Walasiewicz [Stella Walsh], Polish-born American athlete (Olympic gold 100m 1932), dies when shot during an armed robbery, at 69
- Dec 4 Francisco Sá Carneiro, 109th Prime Minister of Portugal, dies at 46
- Dec 7 Darby Crash, American Punk rocker (Germs), dies of an overdose at 22
John Lennon
Dec 8 John Lennon, British musician, pop star and member of The Beatles (Imagine), shot and murdered outside of his home in NYC by Mark David Chapman at 40
- Dec 12 Jean Lesage, Canadian politician (19th Premier of Quebec), dies at 68
- Dec 13 Harm van Riel, Dutch Liberal Party politician, dies at 73
- Dec 14 Elston Howard, American baseball catcher (12 × MLB All-Star; 6 × World Series; AL MVP 1963; first African-American NY Yankee), dies from myocarditis at 59
- Dec 14 Richard Gurley Drew, American inventor (created masking tape and cellophane at 3M), dies at 81
- Dec 15 Rudolph Cleveringa, Dutch anti-nazi lawyer and professor of Law at Leiden University, dies at 86
Colonel Sanders
Dec 16 Colonel Harland Sanders, American founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, dies at 90
Marc Connelly
Dec 21 Marc Connelly, American playwright (One Minute Please), dies at 90
Karl Dönitz
Dec 24 Karl Dönitz, German admiral and last leader of Nazi Germany, dies of heart attack at 89
- Dec 24 Siggie Nordstrom, American singer (The Nordstrom Sisters), dies at 87
- Dec 24 Alec Wilder, American classical, jazz, and pop music composer (The Churkendoose), and musicologist (American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950), dies at 73 [1]
- Dec 25 Fred Emney, British actor (Let the People Sing; Adventures of a Private Eye; Lilac Domino), dies at 80
- Dec 25 (Ludwig) "Louis" Neefs, Belgian pop singer (Eurovision, 1967 & 1969), dies, along with his wife, in a car accident at 43
- Dec 26 Tony Smith, American sculptor (b. 1912)
- Dec 28 Amir Elahi, Pakistani cricket spin bowler (1 Test India, 5 Tests Pakistan), at 72
- Dec 28 Jersey calf, lived 222 days with an artificial heart
- Dec 29 Roy Engle, American writer and actor (The Man from Planet X, The Wild Wild West, My Favorite Martian), dies from meningitis at 67
- Dec 29 Tim Hardin, American singer (If I Were a Carpenter, Reason to Believe), dies of a drug overdose at 39
- Dec 29 Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer (b. 1899)
- Dec 31 Arthur Wellard, English cricket all-rounder (2 Tests, 7 wickets, BB 4/81; Somerset CCC), dies at 78
Marshall McLuhan
Dec 31 Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer and 'prophet of the digital age' (the medium is the message), dies at 69
