- Oct 2 Madeleine Carroll, English actress (39 Steps, Secret Agent), dies at 81
- Oct 2 Peter Medawar, British biologist (1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance"), dies at 72
- Oct 3 Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (Ball of the Voleurs), dies at 77 (b. 1910)
- Oct 8 Konstantinos Tsatsos, Greek politician and 2nd President of Greece (1975-1980), dies at 88
- Oct 9 Guru Gopinath, Indian classical dancer, dies at 79
- Oct 9 Clare Boothe Luce, American politician and U.S. ambassador to Italy, dies at 84
- Oct 12 Alfred M Landon, former Kansas Gov, dies at his Topeka home at 100
- Oct 12 Philleo Nash, US Bureau of Indian Affairs (1961-67), dies at 77
Walter Houser Brattain
Oct 13 Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist (transistors, Nobel 1956), dies at 85
Walter Houser Brattain
- Oct 13 Kishore Kumar, Indian singer and actor, dies at 58
- Oct 14 Rodolfo Halffter, composer, dies at 86
- Oct 15 Thomas Sankara, Burkinabé revolutionary and politician, President of Burkina Faso (1983-87), assassinated in a coup at 37
- Oct 16 Dana Suesse, American musician and songwriter (You Ought to be in Pictures), dies at 77
- Oct 17 Abdul Malek Ukil, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1925)
- Oct 17 Ruby Dandridge [Ruby Jean Butler], American actress (Father of the Bride), dies at 87
- Oct 18 Theodore Brameld, author (Use of Explosive Ideas), dies at 83
- Oct 19 Jacqueline du Pre, British cellist, dies at 42
- Oct 19 Hermann Lang, German race car driver (b. 1909)
- Oct 20 Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (theory of probability), dies at 84
- Oct 21 Ying-Chin Ho, Taiwan government official, dies at 88
- Oct 22 Angiolino "Lino" Ventura, Italian actor (Happy New Year, Pain in the A--), dies of a heart attack at 68
- Oct 24 Constantin Alajalov, Armenian-American artist (Ditters & Jitters), dies at 86
- Oct 25 Cecil Brown, American war correspondent (worked closely with Edward R. Murrow during WW II), dies at 80
- Oct 27 Vijay Merchant, Indian cricketer (Test average 47 72, 1st-class avg 71), dies at 76
- Oct 28 Andre Masson, French surrealist artist (Labyrinth), dies at 91
- Oct 29 Kamal El Mallakh, dies at 57
- Oct 29 Woody Herman, American jazz clarinetist and composer (Thundering Herds), dies at 74
- Oct 31 Joseph Campbell, mythologist (Mythic Image), dies at 83