- Oct 1 Jan van Tongeren, painter, dies
- Oct 2 Dimitrios I, patriarch/primus interparis orthodox Christians, dies
- Oct 2 Jan H Christianse, political chairman (CDA), dies
- Oct 3 Max Cantor, journalist, dies
- Oct 4 Leonard C Odell, wrote 7,000 Burma Shave poems, dies at 83
- Oct 6 Lincoln Demyan, dies at 66
- Oct 6 Wendell Phillips, dies at 83 [or 10/13]
- Oct 8 Natalia Ginzburg, Italian writer (Sounds of the Night), dies at 75
- Oct 10 Stephen J Falat, dies after long illness at 34
- Oct 11 Steven Jesse Bernstein, American underground poet (suicide) (b. 1950)
- Oct 12 Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky, Soviet-Russian sci-fi author (Tale of the Troika), dies at 66
- Oct 13 Daniel Oduber Quiros, president of Costa Rica (1974-1978), dies
- Oct 15 Hotze de Roos, carpenter/kid book writer (Chameleon series), dies
- Oct 23 Lance Baker, dies at 31
- Oct 24 Leon Clements, journalist (Interlijnen), dies at 43
- Oct 26 Lori Rae Matthews, crushed to death by an artist's 485 lb umbrella
- Oct 27 Pyke F C Koch, realistic painter, dies
- Oct 27 George Barker, English poet (b. 1913)
- Oct 28 Dudley McConnell, headed NASA's Earth Science Division, dies
- Oct 28 G L Vitto entertainer, dies at 69
- Oct 28 Lydia Hodson Copeland, America's Jr Miss (1972), dies at 37
- Oct 29 Donald Churchill, playwright, dies of heart attack at 60
- Oct 29 Harry Thomas, founder (Flower Festival, Dutch Homofielen Party), dies
- Oct 29 Mario Scelba, PM of Italia (1954-55), dies
- Oct 30 Johan Mekkink, painter, dies
- Oct 30 Ken Hardin, producer, dies at 62
- Oct 30 William Shea, (Shea Stadium namesake), dies at 84
- Oct 31 James Marshall, American illustrator and author (George and Martha, The Stupids), dies at 50
- Oct 31 Joseph Papp, Broadway producer (A Chorus Line), dies of cancer at 70