Deaths in 1984

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1984. Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.

• January 1
  • Alexis Korner, British blues musician and broadcaster (b. 1928)
  • Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1903)
• January 5 – Giuseppe Fava, Italian writer (b. 1925)
• January 6 – Ernest Laszlo, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1898)
• January 7 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• January 9 – Sir Deighton Lisle Ward, 4th Governor-General of Barbados (b. 1909)
• January 11 – Jack La Rue, American actor (b. 1902)
• January 14
  • Saad Haddad, Lebanese military officer and militia leader (b. 1936)
  • Ray Kroc, American entrepreneur (b. 1902)
• January 17 – George Rigaud, Argentinian actor (b. 1905)
• January 20 – Johnny Weissmuller, Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
• January 21
  • Archduke Gottfried of Austria (b. 1902)
  • Jackie Wilson, American singer (b. 1934)
• January 29 – Frances Goodrich, American screenwriter (b. 1890)
• January 30 – Luke Kelly, lead singer of Irish band The Dubliners (b. 1940)
• January 31 – George Harmon Coxe, American writer (b. 1901)

• February 5 – El Santo, Mexican professional wrestler and actor (b. 1917)
• February 6 – Jorge Guillén, Spanish poet (b. 1893)
• February 8
  • Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (b. 1903)
  • Philippe Ariès, French medievalist and historian (b. 1914)
• February 9 – Yuri Andropov, 69, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, kidney failure.
• February 12
  • Anna Anderson, Pretender to the Russian throne (b. 1896)
  • Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
  • Elmer Keith, American rancher, author, and firearms enthusiast (b. 1899)^[1]
• February 13
  • Pierre Brambilla, French road cyclist (b. 1919)
  • Naomi Uemura, Japanese adventurer (b. 1941)
• February 15 – Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (b. 1908)
• February 16 ― Kenny Williams, American game show announcer {Hollywood Squares) {b. 1914)
• February 20 – Giuseppe Colombo, Italian scientist (b. 1920)
• February 21 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• February 23 – Maurice Tabard, French photographer (b. 1897)
• February 27 – Ana Rosa Tornero, bolivian writer (b.1907)

• March 1 – Jackie Coogan, American actor (b. 1914)
• March 5
  • Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone (b. 1913)
  • William Powell, American actor (b. 1892)
• March 6
  • Martin Niemöller, German theologian and Lutheran pastor (born 1892)^[2]
  • Henry Wilcoxon, British actor (b. 1905)
• March 10 – June Marlowe, American actress (b. 1903)
• March 12 – Arnold Ridley, English playwright and actor (b. 1896)
• March 14 – Aurelio Peccei, Italian industrialist and philanthropist, co-founder of the Club of Rome (b. 1908)
• March 15
  • Ken Carpenter, American Olympic athlete (b. 1913)
  • Konstantin Badygin, Soviet Naval officer and explorer (b. 1910)
• March 18 – Paul Francis Webster, American lyricist (b. 1907)
• March 23 – Peter Kolosimo, Italian journalist and writer (b. 1922)
• March 24 – Sam Jaffe, American actor (b. 1891)
• March 26 – Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinean politician, 1st President of Guinea (b. 1922)
• March 27 – Jack Donohue, American film screenwriter and director (b. 1908)
• March 28 – Benjamin Mays, American Baptist minister and civil rights leader (b. 1894)^[3]
• March 30 – Karl Rahner, German Jesuit priest and theologian (b. 1904)^[4]

• April 1
  • Marvin Gaye, 44, American singer, murdered by his father.
  • Elizabeth Goudge, English writer (b. 1900)
• April 5
  • Sir Arthur Harris, British air marshal (b. 1892)
  • Giuseppe Tucci, Italian scholar (b. 1894)
• April 7 – Frank Church, American politician (b. 1924)^[5]
• April 8 – Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1894)
• April 9 – Willem Sandberg, Dutch typographer (b. 1897)
• April 12 – Edward Sokoine, 2nd Prime Minister of Tanzania (b. 1938)
• April 15
  • Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedian and magician (b. 1921)
  • William Empson, English poet and critic (b. 1906)
• April 16 – Byron Haskin, American film and television director (b. 1899)
• April 17 – Mark W. Clark, American general (b. 1896)
• April 19 – Machito, Cuban jazz musician (b. 1908)
• April 20 – Otto Arosemena, 32nd President of Ecuador (b. 1925)
• April 21 – Marcel Janco, Romanian-Israeli artist (b. 1895)
• April 22 – Ansel Adams, American photographer (b. 1902)
• April 23 – Roland Penrose, English artist, historian and poet (b. 1900)
• April 26
  • Count Basie, American musician and composer (b. 1904)
  • May McAvoy, American actress (b. 1899)
• April 27
  • Richard Durham, American radio scriptwriter and civil rights activist (b. 1917)
• April 30 – Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Colombian lawyer and politician (b. 1946)

• May 2
  • Jack Barry, American game show host (The Joker's Wild) (b. 1918), heart attack.
  • Bob Clampett, American cartoonist (b. 1913)
• May 4 – Diana Dors, English actress (b. 1931)
• May 6 – Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (b. 1904)^[6]
• May 15 – Lionel Robbins, Baron Robbins, British economist (b. 1898)
• May 16
  • Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
  • Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
• May 19 – Sir John Betjeman, English diplomat and poet (b. 1906)
• May 20 – Ólafur Jóhannesson, 15th Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1913)
• May 21
  • Andrea Leeds, American actress (b. 1914)
  • Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)
• May 22
  • Rambai Barni, Queen consort of King Prajadhipok of Thailand (b. 1904)
  • Karl-August Fagerholm, 20th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1901)
  • John Marley, American actor (b. 1907)
• May 24 – Vincent J. McMahon, American professional wrestling promoter (b. 1914)
• May 28
  • Eric Morecambe, British comedian (b. 1926)
  • D'Urville Martin, American actor and director (b. 1939)

• June 2 – François de Menthon, French politician and professor of law (b. 1900).
• June 5 – Ahmad Fuad Mohieddin, 42nd Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1926)
• June 6 – Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Sikh theologian (b. 1947)
• June 11 – Enrico Berlinguer, General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (b. 1922)
• June 15
  • Ned Glass, American actor (b. 1906)
  • Meredith Willson, American composer (b. 1902)
• June 19 – Lee Krasner, American painter (b. 1908)
• June 20 – Estelle Winwood, English actress (b. 1883)
• June 22 – Joseph Losey, American film director (b. 1909)
• June 24 – William Keighley, American film director (b. 1889)
• June 25 – Michel Foucault, French philosopher (b. 1926)
• June 26 – Carl Foreman, American screenwriter (b. 1914)
• June 28
  • Yigael Yadin, Israeli archeologist, politician and Military Chief of Staff (b. 1917)
  • Claude Chevalley, French mathematician (b. 1909)
• June 30
  • Henri Fabre, French aviator & inventor (b. 1882)
  • Lillian Hellman, American playwright (b. 1905)

• July 1 – Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainian founder of the Feldenkrais Method (b. 1904)
• July 3 – Raoul Salan, French general (b. 1899)
• July 4 – Starke R. Hathaway, American psychologist (b. 1903)
• July 7 – Dame Flora Robson, English actress (b. 1902)
• July 8
  • Brassaï, Hungarian-French photographer (b. 1899)
  • Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, Spanish historian and politician (b. 1893)
• July 14 - Philippe Wynne, American singer (b. 1941)
• July 15 - Enrique Godoy Sayán, Cuban business magnate and banker (d. 1984)^[7]
• July 16 – Karl Wolff, German Nazi SS Officer (b. 1900)
• July 19 – Faina Ranevskaya, Soviet and Russian actress (b. 1896)
• July 25 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer (b. 1926)
• July 26 – George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (b. 1901)
• July 27 – James Mason, English actor (b. 1909)
• July 28 – Bess Flowers, American actress (b. 1898)
• July 29 – Fred Waring, American bandleader, choral director, radio and television personality (b. 1900)

• August 2 – Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (b. 1896)
• August 4
  • Walter Burke, American actor (b. 1908)
  • Mary Miles Minter, American actress (b. 1902)
• August 5 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor (b. 1925)
• August 8
  • Richard Deacon, American actor (b. 1922)
  • Denis Johnston, Irish playwright (b. 1901)^[8]
  • Ellen Raskin, American author, The Westing Game (b.1928)
• August 9
  • Christine Hargreaves, English actress (b. 1939)^[9]
  • Walter Tevis, American author and screenwriter (b. 1928)
• August 11
  • Yosef Greenwald, Hungarian rabbi (b. 1903)^[10]
  • Alfred A. Knopf Sr., American publisher (b. 1892)^[11]
  • Paul Felix Schmidt, Estonian–German chess player (b. 1916)
• August 13
  • Clyde Cook, Australian actor (b. 1891)
  • Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (b. 1929)
• August 14 – J. B. Priestley, British novelist and playwright (b. 1894)
• August 22 – Charley Foy, American actor (b. 1898)^[12]
• August 25
  • Truman Capote, American writer (b. 1924)
  • Viktor Chukarin, Russian Olympic gymnast (b. 1921)
  • Henry Lynn, Polish-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1895)
• August 28 – Mohammed Naguib, 30th Prime Minister of Egypt and 1st President of Egypt (b. 1901)
• August 29 – Pierre Gemayel, Lebanese politician, founder of the Kataeb Party (b. 1905)
• August 31 – Edward J. York, American air force colonel, participant of the Doolittle Raid (b. 1912)^[13]

• September 1 – Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset, Duchess of Parma (b. 1898)
• September 5
  • Adam Malik, 3rd Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1917)
  • Jane Roberts, American writer (b. 1929)
• September 6 – Ernest Tubb, American singer (b. 1914)
• September 7 – Joe Cronin, American baseball player (b. 1906)
• September 9 – Yılmaz Güney, Palme d'Or award-winning Kurdish film director, scenarist, actor, novelist and activist (b. 1937)
• September 12 – Yvon Petra, French tennis player (b. 1916)
• September 14
  • Richard Brautigan, American author (b. 1935)
  • Janet Gaynor, American actress (b. 1906)
• September 17 – Richard Basehart, American actor (b. 1914)
• September 20 – Steve Goodman, American folk musician and songwriter (b. 1948)
• September 24 – Neil Hamilton, American actor (b. 1899)
• September 25 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (b. 1897)

• October 1
  • Walter Alston, American baseball player and manager (b. 1911)
  • Blagoje Marjanović, Yugoslav football player and manager (b. 1907)
• October 4 – Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (b. 1901)
• October 5 – Leonard Rossiter, British actor (b. 1926)
• October 6 – George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist (b. 1902)
• October 9 – Heinz von Cleve, German actor (b. 1897)
• October 14 – Sir Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1918)
• October 16 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (b. 1932)
• October 17 – Alberta Hunter, American singer (b. 1895)
• October 18 – Jon-Erik Hexum, American actor (b. 1957)
• October 19
  • Jin Yuelin, Chinese philosopher (b. 1895)
  • Henri Michaux, Belgian writer and painter (b. 1899)
  • Jerzy Popiełuszko, Polish Roman Catholic priest (b. 1947)
• October 20
  • Carl Ferdinand Cori, Czech-American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
  • Paul Dirac, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• October 21 – François Truffaut, French film director (b. 1932)
• October 23 – Oskar Werner, Austrian actor (b. 1922)
• October 25 – Pascale Ogier, French actress (b. 1958)
• October 30 – June Duprez, English actress (b. 1918)
• October 31
  • Eduardo De Filippo, Italian actor (b. 1900)
  • Indira Gandhi, Indian politician and political figure, 3rd Prime Minister of India (b. 1917)

• November 11 – Martin Luther King Sr., American Baptist pastor, missionary, and figure in the civil rights movement (b. 1899)
• November 16
  • Vic Dickenson, American trombonist (b. 1906)
  • Leonard Rose, American cellist (leukemia) (b. 1918)
• November 20
  • Trygve Bratteli, Norwegian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1910)
  • Carlo Campanini, Italian actor (b. 1906)

• December 5 – Cecil M. Harden, American politician (b. 1894)^[14]
• December 7
  • Jeanne Cagney, American actress (b. 1919)
  • Jack Mercer, American voice artist (b. 1910)
• December 8 – Luther Adler, American actor (b. 1903)
• December 11 – George Waggner, American film director (b. 1894)
• December 14 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
• December 15 – Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
• December 20
  • Stanley Milgram, American psychologist (b. 1933)
  • Dmitriy Ustinov, Soviet Army officer and Minister of Defense (b. 1908)
• December 24
  • Ian Hendry, English actor (b. 1931)
  • Peter Lawford, English-American actor and socialite (b. 1923)
• December 28
  • Peter Kihss, American journalist^[15]
  • Sam Peckinpah, American film director (b. 1925)
• December 29 – Leo Robin, American composer (b. 1900)