The following is a list of notable deaths in 1982. 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
  • Victor Buono, American actor (b. 1938)
  • Margot Grahame, English actress (b. 1911)
• January 3
  • Erwin Canham, journalist (b. 1904)
  • Derek Sealy, West Indian cricketer (b. 1912)
• January 5
  • Hans Conried, American actor (b. 1917)
  • Edmund Herring, senior Australian Army officer during the WWII (b. 1892)
• January 7 – Kay Hammond, American actress (b. 1901)
• January 8
  • Reta Shaw, American actress (b. 1912)
  • Grégoire Aslan, Armenian actor (b. 1908)
• January 10
  • Lazar Weiner, Imperial Russian-born, American-naturalized composer (b. 1897)
  • Paul Lynde, American comedian, actor and game show panelist (b.1926)
• January 11
  • A. W. Haydon, American inventor (b. 1906)
  • Jiro Horikoshi, Japanese aircraft designer (b. 1903)^[1]
  • Paul Lynde, American actor and comedian (b. 1926)
• January 13 – Marcel Camus, French film director (b. 1912)
• January 15 – Red Smith, American sportswriter (b. 1905)
• January 16 – Harald Agersnap, Danish composer, conductor, cellist, and pianist (b. 1899)
• January 18
  • Juan O'Gorman, Mexican painter and architect (b. 1905)
  • Burnet Corwin Tuthill, American conductor, composer and musicologist (b. 1888)
  • Trent Lehman, American child actor (b. 1961)
• January 19
  • Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (b. 1945)^[2]
  • Leopold Trepper, Polish Communist and career Soviet agent of the Red Army Intelligence (b. 1904)
• January 20 – Marc Demeyer, professional road racing cyclist (b. 1950)
• January 22
  • Eduardo Frei Montalva, 27th President of Chile (b. 1911)
  • Tommy Tucker, American blues singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1933)
• January 23 – Hope Hampton, American silent motion picture actress and producer (b. 1897)
• January 24 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian military officer, 48th President of Bolivia (b. 1918)
• January 25 – Mikhail Suslov, senior Soviet Communist Party official (b. 1902)
• January 27
  • Trần Văn Hương, 3rd President of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and 3rd Prime Minister of South Vietnam (b. 1902)
  • Félix Labisse, French Surrealist painter, illustrator, and designer (b. 1905)
• January 30
  • Stanley Holloway, British actor (b. 1890)
  • Lightnin' Hopkins, American blues musician (b. 1912)^[3]
  • Helen Lynd, American sociologist and philosopher (b. 1896)
• January 31 – Jiří Srnka, Czech composer (b. 1907)

• February 3
  • John A. Hilger, American air force general and participant of the Doolittle Raid (b. 1909)^[4]
  • Efraín Huerta, Mexican poet and journalist (b. 1914)
• February 4
  • Sue Carol, American actress (b. 1906)
  • Alex Harvey, Scottish musician (b. 1935)
• February 5 – Neil Aggett, South African labor leader (suicide) (b. 1953)
• February 6
  • Ioan Beldiceanu, Romanian general (b. 1892)
  • Ben Nicholson, English painter (b. 1894)
• February 9 – Marthe Richard, French prostitute, spy and politician (b. 1889)^[5]
• February 11
  • Eleanor Powell, American dancer and actress (b. 1912)
  • Takashi Shimura, Japanese actor (b. 1905)^[6]
• February 12 – Victor Jory, Canadian actor (b. 1902)
• February 17
  • Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist (b. 1917)^[7]
  • Lee Strasberg, Polish-American actor and acting coach, co-founder of method acting (b. 1901)
• February 18 – Dame Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand crime fiction writer (b. 1895)^[8]
• February 19 – Dame Margery Perham, English Africanist (b. 1895)
• February 21 – Gershom Scholem, German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and historian (b. 1897)
• February 24 – Virginia Bruce, American actress (b. 1910)

• March 2 – Philip K. Dick, American author (b. 1928)^[9]
• March 3 – Georges Perec, French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. (b. 1936)^[10]
• March 5
  • John Belushi, American comedian, actor and singer (b. 1949)
  • Gertraud Winkelvoss, German politician (b. 1917)^[11]
• March 6 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American author (b. 1905)^[12]
• March 8
  • Rab Butler, British statesman (b. 1902)
  • Hatem Ali Jamadar, Bengali politician (b. 1872)^[13]
• March 19 – Randy Rhoads, American guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne (b. 1956)^[14]
• March 21 – Harry H. Corbett, English actor and comedian (b. 1925)
• March 22 – Pericle Felici, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1911)
• March 24 – Ken Harris, American animator (b. 1898)
• March 25 – Goodman Ace, American actor, comedian and writer (b. 1899)^[15]
• March 26
  • Sultan al-Atrash, Syrian nationalist and general (b. 1891)
  • Sam Kydd, Irish-born English actor (b. 1915)
• March 27 – Fazlur Rahman Khan, Bangladeshi-born American architect (b. 1929)
• March 28 – William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
• March 29
  • Carl Orff, German composer (b. 1895)^[16]
  • Walter Hallstein, German diplomat, 1st President of the European Commission (b. 1901)
  • Helene Deutsch, Polish-American psychoanalyst (b. 1884)

• April 3 – Warren Oates, American actor (b. 1928)
• April 5 – Abe Fortas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1910)
• April 6 – Gabriel Auphan, French admiral and politician (b. 1894)^[17]
• April 9 – Robert Havemann, chemist and East German dissident (b. 1910)
• April 12
  • Lenny Baker, American actor (b. 1945)
  • Vitaly Goryaev, Soviet artist (b. 1910)
• April 15 – Arthur Lowe, British actor (b. 1915)
• April 20 – Archibald MacLeish, American poet (b. 1892)
• April 24 – Ville Ritola, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1896)
• April 25
  • Boris Andreyev, Soviet and Russian actor (b. 1915)
  • Dame Celia Johnson, British actress (b. 1908)^[18]
• April 29
  • Kassim Al-Rimawi, 52nd Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1918)
  • Elmer Ripley, American basketball coach (b. 1891)

• May 1
  • Hussein ibn Nasser, 36th Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1902)
  • William Primrose, Scottish violist (b. 1903)
• May 3 – Mohammed Seddik Benyahia, Algerian politician (b. 1898)
• May 8
  • Salomea Andronikova, Georgian-Russian socialite (b. 1888)
  • Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (racing accident) (b. 1950)
• May 10 – Peter Weiss, German writer and artist (b. 1916)^[19]
• May 12 – Humphrey Searle, English composer (b. 1915)
• May 13
  • Aleksandr Borisov, Soviet and Russian actor (b. 1905)
  • Renzo Rossellini, Italian composer (b. 1908)
• May 14 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor (b. 1909)
• May 15 – Gordon Smiley, American race car driver (racing accident) (b. 1946)
• May 22 – Cevdet Sunay, Turkish army officer and political leader, 5th President of Turkey (b. 1899)
• May 24 – Stanisława Perzanowska, Polish actress (b. 1898)
• May 26 – Guillermo Flores Avendaño, acting President of Guatemala (b. 1894)
• May 28 – Lt Col H. Jones, VC, British soldier (Falklands War) (b. 1940)
• May 29 – Romy Schneider, German-French actress (b. 1938)
• May 30 – Albert Norden, German politician (b. 1904)

• June 2
  • Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician, 5th President of Pakistan (b. 1904)
  • Shah Abd al-Wahhab, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar (b. 1894)^[20]
• June 8 – Satchel Paige, American Negro league baseball player and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1906)^[21]
• June 9 – Mirza Nasir Ahmad, 3rd Caliph of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam (b. 1909)
• June 10
  • Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1945)^[22]
  • Gala Dalí, Russian-Spanish muse, wife of Paul Éluard and Salvador Dalí (b. 1894)
• June 11
  • Santosh Kumar, Pakistani actor (b. 1925)
  • H. Radclyffe Roberts, American entomologist (b. 1906)^[23]
  • Anatoly Solonitsyn, Soviet and Russian actor (b. 1934)
• June 12
  • Karl von Frisch, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
  • Marie Rambert, Polish-English dancer and pedagogue (b. 1888)
• June 13
  • King Khalid of Saudi Arabia (b. 1913)
  • Riccardo Paletti, Italian Formula 1 driver (racing accident) (b. 1958)
• June 17 – Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (b. 1920)
• June 18
  • Djuna Barnes, American novelist (b. 1892)^[24]
  • John Cheever, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1912)^[25]
  • Curd Jürgens, German actor (b. 1915)^[26]
• June 25 – Edward Hamm, American Olympic athlete (b. 1906)
• June 29
  • Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer (b. 1914)
  • Michael Brennan, British actor (b. 1912)
  • Henry King, American film director (b. 1886)

• July 4
  • Terry Higgins, early British casualty of AIDS (b. 1945)
  • Antonio Guzmán Fernández, Dominican businessman and politician, 46th President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1911)
• July 6 – Alma Reville, English screenwriter (b. 1899)
• July 7 – Bhakti Hridaya Bon, Indian guru and religious writer (b. 1901)
• July 8
  • Gunnar Eriksson, Swedish Olympic cross-country skier (b. 1921)
  • Isa Miranda, Italian actress (b. 1905)
  • Albert White, American Olympic diver (b. 1895)
  • Virginia Hall, American spy (b. 1906)
• July 10 – Maria Jeritza, Czechoslovak soprano (b. 1887)
• July 12 – Kenneth More, English actor (b. 1914)
• July 16
  • C. R. Swart, last Governor-General and 4th President of South Africa (b. 1894)
  • Patrick Dewaere, French actor (b. 1947)
• July 18
  • Roman Jakobson, Russian-American linguist and literary theorist (b. 1896)
  • Quirico Pignalberi, Italian Roman Catholic priest and venerable (b. 1891)
• July 19 – Hugh Everett III, American physicist (b. 1930)^[27]
• July 23
  • Vic Morrow, American actor and director (b. 1929)
  • Erik Wilén, Finnish sprinter (b. 1898)
• July 26 – Teresa Iżewska, Polish actress (b. 1933)
• July 28 – Vladimir Smirnov, Soviet fencer (b. 1954)
• July 29 – Vladimir Zworykin, Russian-born inventor (b. 1889)

• August 1 – T. Thirunavukarasu, Sri Lankan Tamil politician (b. 1933)
• August 2 – Cathleen Nesbitt, British actress (b. 1888)
• August 6 – S. K. Pottekkatt, Indian writer (b. 1913)^[28]
• August 12
  • Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905) ^[29]
  • Tomás Romero Pereira, 41st President of Paraguay (b. 1886)
  • Salvador Sánchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
• August 13 – Charles Walters, American film director (b. 1911)
• August 15 – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
• August 18 – Beverly Bayne, American actress (b. 1894)
• August 20
  • Ulla Jacobsson, Swedish actress (b. 1929)
  • Edward Ludwig, Russian-born American director (b. 1899)
  • George David Woods, American banker, 4th President of the World Bank (b. 1901)
• August 21 – King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (b. 1899)
• August 23
  • Alberto Cavalcanti, Brazilian film director (b. 1897)^[30]
  • Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
• August 25 – Anna German, Polish singer (b. 1936)^[31]
• August 27 – Anandamayi Ma, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1896)
• August 29
  • Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (b. 1915)
  • Nahum Goldmann, Russian-born Zionist (b. 1895)^[32]

• September 1
  • Ludwig Bieberbach, German mathematician (b. 1886)
  • Isabel Cristina, Brazilian student victim of femicide; honored in Catholicism as blessed (b. 1962)^[33]
  • Władysław Gomułka, Polish Communist politician, former First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (b. 1905)
  • Charles Hartmann, American jazz trombonist (b. 1898)
• September 2 – Tom Baker, American actor (b. 1940)
• September 3 – Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, Italian general (assassinated) (b. 1920)
• September 4 – Jack Tworkov, American painter (b. 1900)
• September 5 – Sir Douglas Bader, British fighter pilot and leader during the Battle of Britain (b. 1910)^[34]
• September 7 – Ken Boyer, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals) (b. 1931)
• September 9 – Tee Tee Luce, Burmese philanthropist (b. 1895)
• September 10 – Jane Ingham, English botanist and scientific translator (b. 1897)
• September 11
  • Wifredo Lam, Cuban artist (b. 1902)^[35]
  • Jovan Miladinović, Serbian footballer (b. 1939)
• September 12 – Federico Moreno Torroba, Spanish composer and conductor (b. 1891)
• September 14
  • Kristján Eldjárn, 3rd President of Iceland (b. 1916)
  • Bachir Gemayel, President-elect of Lebanon (b. 1947)
  • Grace Kelly, American actress; Princess of Monaco (b. 1929)^[36]
• September 16 – Rolfe Sedan, American actor (b. 1896)
• September 19 – Ted Badcock, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1897)
• September 21 – Ivan Bagramyan, Soviet and Armenian military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1897)
• September 23 – Weeratunge Edward Perera, Malaysian educator, businessman and social entrepreneur (b. 1898)
• September 24 – Sarah Churchill, British actress, daughter of Winston Churchill (b. 1914)
• September 28 – Mabel Albertson, American actress (b. 1901)
• September 29 – Letitia Chitty, English aeronautical engineer (b. 1897)^[37]

• October 3 – Vivien Merchant, British actress (b. 1929)
• October 4
  • Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, 25th Prime Minister of Iraq and 4th President of Iraq (b. 1914)
  • The Amazing Criswell, American psychic, entertainer (b. 1907)
  • Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (b. 1932)
  • Leroy Grumman, American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist. (b. 1895)
  • Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1898)
• October 5 – François Simon, Swiss actor (b. 1917)
• October 8
  • Philip Noel-Baker, Canadian-born peace activist; recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
  • Fernando Lamas, Argentine-born actor (b. 1916)
• October 9
  • Anna Freud, Austrian psychoanalyst (b. 1895)
  • Herbert Meinhard Mühlpfordt, German historian (b. 1893)
• October 10 – Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (b. 1908)
• October 16 – Hans Selye, Canadian endocrinologist (b. 1907)
• October 17 – Youssef Wahbi, Egyptian actor and film director (b. 1898)
• October 18
  • Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (b. 1885)
  • Dwain Esper, American director (b. 1892)
  • Pierre Mendès France, French politician, 93rd Prime Minister of France (b. 1907)
• October 20 – Jimmy McGrory, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1904)
• October 21 – Sylvia Lance Harper, Australian tennis player (b. 1895)
• October 22 – Savitri Devi, French-born writer and philosopher (b. 1905)^[38]
• October 25 – Arvid Wallman, Swedish diver (b. 1901)
• October 26 – Giovanni Benelli, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1921)
• October 27 – Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, Guatemalan general, 21st President of Guatemala (b. 1895)
• October 29 – William Lloyd Webber, British organist and composer (b. 1914)
• October 30 – Wolfgang Heinz, German actor (b. 1900)
• October 31 – Dick Merrill, American aviation pioneer (b. 1894)

• November 1
  • James Broderick, American actor (b. 1927)
  • King Vidor, American film director (b. 1894)
• November 3 – E. H. Carr, English historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist (b. 1892)
• November 4 – Dominique Dunne, American actress (b. 1959)
• November 5 – Jacques Tati, French filmmaker (b. 1907)
• November 10
  • Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (b. 1906)
  • Elio Petri, Italian filmmaker (b. 1929)
• November 11 – S. A. Ashokan, Indian Tamil actor (b. 1931)
• November 12
  • Dorothy Round Little, English tennis champion (b. 1908)
  • Patrick Cowley, American disco and Hi-NRG dance music composer and recording artist (b. 1950)
• November 13 – Chesney Allen, British entertainer and comedian (b. 1894)
• November 15
  • Vinoba Bhave, Indian educator (b. 1895)
  • Dick Randall, Australian public servant (b. 1906)^[39]
  • Allen Woodring, American runner, Olympic champion (1920) (d. 1982)^[40]
• November 16 – Peter Forster, British actor (b. 1920)
• November 17
  • Ruth Donnelly, American actress (b. 1896)
  • Duk Koo Kim, South Korean boxer (b. 1955)
  • Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer (b. 1905)
• November 19 – Erving Goffman, Canadian-American sociologist and psychologist (b. 1922)
• November 21 – Lee Patrick, American actress (b. 1901)
• November 22
  • Jean Batten, New Zealand aviator (b. 1909)
  • Stanisław Ostrowski, Polish politician, 3rd President of Poland in exile (b. 1892)
• November 24 – Barack Obama Sr., Kenyan economist (b. 1934)
• November 25 – Hugh Harman, American cartoon animator (b. 1903)
• November 26 – Juhan Aavik, Estonian composer (b. 1884)
• November 28 – Helen of Greece and Denmark, Queen Mother of Romania (b. 1896)
• November 29
  • Hermann Balck, German general (b. 1893)
  • Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (b. 1908)

• December 2 – Marty Feldman, British comedian and writer (b. 1934)
• December 7 – Will Lee, American actor who played Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street (b. 1908)
• December 8
  • Encarnación Fuyola, Spanish teacher and activist (b. 1907)
  • Marty Robbins, American singer, songwriter and racing driver (b. 1925)^[41]
• December 10 – Freeman Fisher Gosden, American actor (b. 1899)
• December 12 – Phil Karlson, American film director (b. 1908)
• December 15 – Prince Adalberto, Duke of Bergamo (b. 1898)
• December 16 – Colin Chapman, British designer, inventor and builder in the automotive industry (b. 1928)
• December 17 – Homer S. Ferguson, American politician (b. 1889)
• December 18 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German World War II dive bomber pilot (b. 1916)
• December 20 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born pianist and conductor (b. 1887)
• December 21
  • Charles Hapgood, American college professor (b. 1904)
  • Gladys Henson, Irish actress (b. 1897)
• December 23 – Jack Webb, American actor (b. 1920)
• December 24 – Louis Aragon, French poet and writer (b. 1897)^[42]
• December 25 – Helen Foster, American actress (b. 1906)
• December 27 – Jack Swigert, American astronaut (b. 1931)
• December 28 – Arthur Hughes, American actor (b. 1894)
• December 30 – Giuseppe Aquari, Italian cinematographer (b. 1916)
• December 31
  • John Collins, British Anglican priest and venerable (b. 1905)
  • Kurt Otto Friedrichs, German-born American mathematician (b. 1901)