- Oct 2 Valentin Varlamov, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 46
- Oct 6 Josephine "Hattie" Jacques, British comedy actress (Carry on films, Hancock's Half Hour), dies of a heart attack at 58
- Oct 6 Ray Walker, actor (Baby Take a Bow), dies
- Oct 6 Jean Robic, French cyclist (b. 1921)
- Oct 8 Maurice Martenot, French cellist, WWI radio telegrapher, and instrument inventor (ondes Martenot), dies at 81
- Oct 10 Walter Keeton, cricketer (opening bat in 2 Test for Eng 1934-39), dies
- Oct 10 William "Billie" Thomas, American child actor (Buckwheat- Our Gang), dies of a heart attack at 49
- Oct 13 Philip "Gabby" Pahinui, Hawaiian slack-key guitarist and singer, dies of a heart attack at 59
- Oct 14 S N Banerjee, cricketer (one Test for India), dies
- Oct 14 Oscar Alemán, Argentine jazz and swing guitarist, and singer ("Rosa Madreselva"), dies at 71
- Oct 15 Mikhail Lavrentyev, Russian hydrodynamicist and mathematician, dies at 79
- Oct 15 Apostolos Nikolaidis, Greek footballer and volleyball player (b. 1896)
- Oct 16 Carl PM Romme, Dutch minister of Social Affairs (KVP), dies at 83
- Oct 21 Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician and eponym of Asperger syndrome, dies at 74
- Oct 24 Leonid Georiyevich Ivanov, Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz 33), dies at 30
- Oct 25 Virgil Fox, American organist, dies at 68
- Oct 25 Víctor Galíndez, Argentine boxer (WBA light heavyweight title 1974-79), dies in stock-car race pit area accident at 31
- Oct 26 Marcello Caetano, last Portuguese prime minister of the Estado Novo regime (1968-1974), dies in exile of a heart attack at 74
- Oct 27 Steve Peregrin Took, English musician (Tyrannosaurus Rex), dies of a drug overdose at 31
- Oct 27 Judy LaMarsh, Canadian politician, author and broadcaster (b. 1924)
- Oct 27 John Van Vleck, American physicist, mathematician, and Nobel Laureate who pioneered the modern quantum mechanical theory of magnetism, dies at 81
- Oct 28 Leon Janney (Ramon), American actor (Charly, Stolen Paradise, Hawk), dies of cancer at 63