- Sep 1 Leonor Sullivan, (Rep-D-Missouri, 1955-77), dies at 86
- Sep 3 Riccardo Torriani, Swiss ice hockey player, luger (Olympic bronze 1928, 48; took the Olympic oath 1948), dies at 76
- Sep 5 Gert Fröbe [Karl Gerhart Fröbe], German actor (Goldfinger, Lover's Wood, Upper Hand), dies from a heart attack at 75
- Sep 5 Lawrence Brown, American trombonist (Duke Ellington Orchestra), dies at 81
- Sep 6 Leroy Brown, professional wrestler (b. 1950)
- Sep 11 George Alpert, railroad executive, dies at 90
- Sep 11 Luis Alvarez, American physicist (subatomic particles, Nobel 1968), dies of cancer at 77
- Sep 11 John Sylvester White, American actor (b. 1919)
- Sep 11 Roger Hargreaves, English author and illustrator of children's books (Mr. Men and Little Miss), dies of a stroke at 53
- Sep 12 Alan Bible, American lawyer and politician (Sen-D-Nev, 1954-74), dies at 78
- Sep 12 Lauris Norstad, American general (NATO commander) and CEO (Owens-Corning Fiberglass), dies at 71
- Sep 14 Louis Quinn, actor (Unholy Rollers), dies at 73 of cancer
- Sep 14 Melle Weersma, Dutch jazz arranger and composer ("Penny Serenade"), dies at 80
- Sep 19 Oren Lee Staley, 1st President of National the Farmers Organization (1955-79), dies at 65
- Sep 20 Roy Kinnear, actor (Casanova, Pirates, Scrooge, Help!), dies at 54
- Sep 21 Christine Norden, British actress (Little Shop of Horrors, Night Beat), dies from pneumonia at 63
- Sep 21 Henry Koster, director, dies
- Sep 21 Robert Gwathmey, artist, dies at 85
- Sep 21 Glenn Robert Davis, American politician, dies at 73
- Sep 21 Walter Vogt, Swiss writer (Wüthrich) and psychiatrist, dies at 61
- Sep 22 Rais Amrohvi, Pakistani poet and psychoanalyst, dies at 74
- Sep 22 Rezso Sugar, Hungarian composer, dies at 68
- Sep 23 Arwel Hughes, Welsh composer, dies at 79
- Sep 23 Tibor Sekelj, Croatian explorer (b. 1912)
- Sep 25 Billy Carter, brother of US President Jimmy Carter, dies of cancer at 51
- Sep 27 William V. Shannon, American journalist and ambassador to Ireland (1977-81), dies at 61
- Sep 28 Ethel Grandin, silent screen actress (Deserter), dies at 94
- Sep 28 Marjorie Bonner Lowry, actress (Reno, Poor Girls), dies at 83
- Sep 29 Charles Addams, American artist and cartoonist (New Yorker, The Addams Family) known for darkly humorous and macabre characters, dies of heart attack at 76
- Sep 30 Joachim Prinz, German-American Zionist leader, author and Rabbi of Berlin (1926-37), dies at 86
- Sep 30 Chick Chandler [Fehmer Chandler], American actor (Seven Doors to Death, One Happy Family), dies at 83