Deaths in 1983

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1983. 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



 * January 11
 * Gerhard Barkhorn, German World War II fighter ace (b. 1919)
 * Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist and educator (b. 1894)
 * Tikhon Kiselyov, Belarusian statesman in the Soviet Union, the de facto leader of the Byelorussian SSR from 1980 to 1983 (b. 1917)
 * January 12 – Nikolai Podgorny, Soviet politician, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1965 to 1977 (b. 1903)
 * January 15 – Meyer Lansky, American gangster (b. 1902)
 * January 16 – Doodles Weaver, American comedian (b. 1911)
 * January 18 – Arturo Umberto Illia, Argentine politician and physician, 34th President of Argentina (b. 1900)
 * January 20 – Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (b. 1933)
 * January 23 – Marcolino Gomes Candau, Brazilian medical doctor, 2nd Director-General of World Health Organization (b. 1911)
 * January 24
 * Carmen Clemente Travieso, Venezuelan journalist and activist (b. 1900)
 * George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)
 * Juan Carlos Zabala, Argentine Olympic athlete (b. 1911)
 * January 26 – Bear Bryant, American football player and coach (b. 1913)
 * January 27
 * Georges Bidault, French Resistance leader and politician, 82nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1899)
 * Louis de Funès, French actor (b. 1914)
 * January 28
 * Frank Forde, Australian politician, 15th Prime Minister of Australia, leader of the World War II (b. 1890)
 * Billy Fury, British musician (b. 1940)
 * January 29 – Stuart H. Ingersoll, American admiral (b. 1898)

February



 * February 4 – Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (The Carpenters) (b. 1950)
 * February 12
 * Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1887)
 * February 13 – Lorenzo Bianchi, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1899)
 * February 14 – Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
 * February 19 – Alice White, American actress (b. 1904)
 * February 22 – Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
 * February 23 – Herbert Howells, English composer (b. 1892)
 * February 25 – Tennessee Williams, American playwright (b. 1911)
 * February 27 – Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, Russian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1908)
 * February 28 – Winifred Atwell, British pianist (b. 1914)

March

 * March 1
 * Hideo Kobayashi, Japanese author (b. 1902)
 * Arthur Koestler, Austrian writer (b. 1905)
 * March 3 – Hergé, Belgian comics creator (b. 1907)
 * March 6 – Donald Maclean, British spy (b. 1913)
 * March 7 – Igor Markevitch, Ukrainian conductor (b. 1912)
 * March 8
 * Sir William Walton, English composer (b. 1902)
 * Chabuca Granda, Peruvian singer and composer (b. 1920)
 * March 9
 * Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)
 * Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
 * March 14 – Maurice Ronet, French film actor and director (b. 1927)
 * March 15
 * Dame Rebecca West, British writer (b. 1892)
 * Josep Lluís Sert, Spanish architect and urbanist (b. 1902)
 * March 16 – Arthur Godfrey, American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer (b. 1903)
 * March 17 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
 * March 18 – Umberto II of Italy, 4th and last King of Italy (b. 1904)
 * March 20
 * Maria Babanova, Soviet and Russian actress (b. 1900)
 * Ivan Vinogradov, Russian mathematician (b. 1891)
 * March 26 – Anthony Blunt, British spy and art historian (b. 1907)
 * March 27 – Elsie Eaves, American civil engineer (b. 1898)
 * March 30 – Lisette Model, Austrian-American photographer (b. 1901)

April



 * April 3 – Jimmy Bloomfield, English football player and manager (b. 1934)
 * April 4
 * Jacqueline Logan, American actress (b. 1902)
 * Gloria Swanson, American actress (b. 1899)
 * April 11 – Dolores del Río, Mexican actress (b. 1904)
 * April 12
 * Desmond Bagley, English novelist (b. 1923)
 * Jørgen Juve, Norwegian football player and journalist (b. 1906)
 * April 13 – Gloria Marín, Mexican actress (b. 1919)
 * April 15
 * Gyula Illyés, Hungarian poet and novelist (b. 1902)
 * Corrie ten Boom, Dutch resistance fighter (b. 1892)
 * April 19 – Jerzy Andrzejewski, Polish author (b. 1909)
 * April 20
 * Walther Nehring, German general (b. 1892)
 * Pedro Quartucci, Argentine boxer and actor (b. 1905)
 * April 21 – Walter Slezak, Austrian-American actor (b. 1902)
 * April 22 – Earl "Fatha" Hines, American musician (b. 1903)
 * April 23
 * Buster Crabbe, American actor and athlete (b. 1908)
 * Suzanne La Follette, American libertarian feminist (b. 1893)
 * Selena Royle, American actress and writer (b. 1904)
 * April 30
 * George Balanchine, Russian-American dancer and choreographer (b. 1904)
 * Muddy Waters, American musician (b. 1913)

May

 * May 1
 * George Hodgson, Canadian Olympic swimmer (b. 1893)
 * Joseph Ruttenberg, Russian-American cinematographer (b. 1889)
 * May 2
 * Pridi Banomyong, Thai politician and professor, 7th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1900)
 * Ernesto de la Guardia, 32nd President of Panama (b. 1904)
 * May 5 – John Williams, British actor (b. 1903)
 * May 8 – John Fante, American writer (b. 1909)
 * May 14 – Miguel Alemán Valdés, 46th President of Mexico (b. 1900)
 * May 18 – Frank Aiken, Irish politician (b. 1898)
 * May 19 – Jean Rey, 2nd President of the European Commission (b. 1902)
 * May 21 – Kenneth Clark, British art historian (b. 1903)
 * May 22
 * Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
 * King Idris of Libya (b. 1889)
 * May 25 – Sid Daniels, British merchant marine worker, last surviving crewmember of the RMS Titanic (b. 1895)
 * May 29 – Arvīds Pelše, Latvian historian, Soviet politician and functionary (b. 1899)
 * May 31 – Jack Dempsey, American heavyweight champion boxer (b. 1895)

June

 * June 1
 * Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, regent of Belgium (b. 1903)
 * Anna Seghers, German writer (b. 1900)
 * June 2
 * Stan Rogers, Canadian musician (b. 1949)
 * Julio Rosales, Filipino Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1906)
 * June 5 – Kurt Tank, German aeronautical engineer (b. 1898)
 * June 8 – Miško Kranjec, Slovenian writer (b. 1908)
 * June 11 – G.D. Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian and educationalist (b. 1894)
 * June 12 – Norma Shearer, Canadian-American actress (b. 1902)
 * June 15 – Mario Casariego y Acevedo, Spanish-Guatemalan Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1909)
 * June 17 – Peter Mennin, American composer and teacher (b. 1923)
 * June 18 – Marianne Brandt, German industrial designer (b. 1893)
 * June 23 – Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, Cuban politician, 21st President of Cuba (b. 1919)
 * June 25 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (b. 1916)

July



 * July 1 – Buckminster Fuller, American architect (b. 1895)
 * July 2 – László Budai, Hungarian footballer (b. 1928)
 * July 4 – John Bodkin Adams, British suspected serial killer (b. 1899)
 * July 5 – Harry James, American musician and band leader (b. 1916)
 * July 7 – Herman Kahn, American futurist (b. 1922)
 * July 10
 * Werner Egk, German composer (b. 1901)
 * Estrellita Castro, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1908)
 * July 11 – Ross Macdonald, American-Canadian writer (b. 1915)
 * July 12 – Chris Wood, British rock musician, lead singer and guitarist of the band Traffic (b. 1944)
 * July 14 – Jack MacBryan, English cricketer (b. 1892)
 * July 16
 * Michel Micombero, Burundian military officer and statesman, 8th Prime Minister and 1st President of Burundi (b. 1940)
 * Samson Raphaelson, American screenwriter (b. 1894)
 * July 17 – Roosevelt Sykes, American blues musician (b. 1906)
 * July 23 – Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)
 * July 26 – Charlie Rivel, Spanish Catalan circus clown (b. 1896)
 * July 29
 * Luis Buñuel, Spanish filmmaker (b. 1900)
 * Rocco Chinnici, Italian judge (b. 1925)
 * Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
 * David Niven, British soldier and actor (b. 1910)
 * July 30 – Lynn Fontanne, British actress (b. 1887)

August

 * August 2 – James Jamerson, American musician (b. 1936)
 * August 3
 * Carolyn Jones, American actress (b. 1930)
 * Jobriath, American rock musician and actor (b. 1946)
 * August 5
 * Bart Bok, Dutch-American astronomer (b. 1906)
 * Judy Canova, American actress (b. 1913)
 * August 6 – Klaus Nomi, German singer and performance artist (b. 1944)
 * August 10
 * José Baptista Pinheiro de Azevedo, 104th Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1917)
 * Ruben Rausing, Swedish entrepreneur, founder of Tetra Pak (b. 1895)
 * August 11 – Mamie Phipps Clark, American psychologist (b. 1917)
 * August 16
 * Earl Averill, American baseball player and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1902)
 * Heinz Warneke, American sculptor (b. 1895)
 * August 17 – Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)
 * August 18 – Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, German-British art historian (b. 1902)
 * August 21 – Ninoy Aquino, Filipino politician (b. 1932)
 * August 28
 * Jan Clayton, American actress and singer (b. 1917)
 * José Bergamín, Spanish writer (b. 1895)
 * August 29 – Simon Oakland, American actor (b. 1915)

September

 * September 1
 * Otto Hulett, American actor (b. 1898)
 * Henry M. Jackson, American politician (b. 1912)
 * September 8 – Ibrahim Abboud, 3rd Prime Minister and 1st President of Sudan (b. 1900)
 * September 10
 * Felix Bloch, Swiss-American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
 * Jon Brower Minnoch, heaviest man who ever lived (b. 1941)
 * John Vorster, 8th Prime Minister of South Africa and 5th President of South Africa (b. 1915)
 * September 12 – Sabin Carr, American Olympic athlete (b. 1904)
 * September 15 – LeRoy Prinz, American choreographer, director and producer (b. 1895)
 * September 16 – Gunnar Olsson, Swedish actor (b. 1904)
 * September 17 – Humberto Sousa Medeiros, Portuguese-American Roman Catholic clergyman (b. 1915)
 * September 19 – Bruno Pittermann, Austrian Social Democratic politician, 19th Vice-Chancellor of Austria (b. 1905)
 * September 20 – Ángel Labruna, Argentine footballer and manager (b. 1918)
 * September 21 – Xavier Zubiri, Spanish philosopher (b. 1898)
 * September 25 – King Leopold III of Belgium (b. 1901)
 * September 26 – Tino Rossi, French singer (b. 1907)
 * September 29 – Alan Moorehead, Australian-English war correspondent and historian (b. 1910)

October



 * October 4 – Andrés Córdova, acting President of Ecuador (b. 1892)
 * October 5 – Earl Tupper, American businessman (b. 1907)
 * October 6 – Terence Cooke, American cardinal (b. 1921)
 * October 7
 * George O. Abell, American astronomer (b. 1927)
 * Christophe Soglo, 3rd President of Dahomey (b. 1909)
 * October 8
 * Joan Hackett, American actress (b. 1934)
 * Ruben Rausing, Swedish entrepreneur, founder of Tetra Pak (b. 1895)
 * October 10 – Sir Ralph Richardson, British actor (b. 1902)
 * October 14 – Paul Fix, American actor (b. 1901)
 * October 15 – Pat O'Brien, American actor (b. 1899)
 * October 17 – Raymond Aron, French philosopher, sociologist and political scientist. (b. 1905)
 * October 19
 * Maurice Bishop, Grenadian politician and revolutionary, 2nd Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1944)
 * Dorothy Stuart Russell, Australian-born British pathologist (b. 1895)
 * Carel Willink, Dutch painter (b. 1900)
 * October 26 – Alfred Tarski, Polish-American logician and mathematician (b. 1901)
 * October 28 – Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (b. 1892)
 * October 31 – George Halas, American football player and coach (b. 1895)

November

 * November 7 – Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (b. 1892)
 * November 8 – Betty Nuthall, English tennis champion (b. 1911)
 * November 11 – Arno Babajanyan, Armenian composer and pianist (b. 1921)
 * November 13 – Aliagha Aghayev, Azerbaijani actor (b. 1913)
 * November 15 – John Le Mesurier, British actor (b. 1912)
 * November 19 – Tom Evans, English musician and songwriter (b. 1947)
 * November 20
 * Marcel Dalio, French actor (b. 1900)
 * Richard Loo, Chinese-American actor (b. 1903)
 * November 22 – Michael Conrad, American actor (b. 1925)
 * November 23 – Waheed Murad, Pakistani actor, film producer, writer and director (b. 1938)
 * November 27
 * Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Mexican novelist and playwright (b. 1928)
 * Ángel Rama, Uruguayan writer and literary critic (b. 1926)
 * November 28 – Christopher George, American actor (b. 1931)
 * November 30
 * George Headley, West Indian cricketer (b. 1909)
 * Richard Llewellyn, British writer (b. 1906)

December

 * December 2 – Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian-American actress and singer (b. 1904)
 * December 5
 * Robert Aldrich, American film director (b. 1918)
 * John Robinson, British Anglican bishop (b. 1919)
 * December 6
 * Lucienne Boyer, French singer (b. 1903)
 * Gul Khan Nasir, Baloch politician and poet from Pakistan (b. 1914)
 * December 7 – Fanny Cano, Mexican actress and producer (b. 1944)
 * December 8
 * Sir Keith Holyoake, New Zealand politician, 26th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1904)
 * Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919)
 * December 11 – Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (b. 1897)
 * December 13
 * Leora Dana, American actress (b. 1923)
 * Mary Renault, English author (b. 1905)
 * December 20
 * Prince Moulay Abdallah of Morocco (b. 1935)
 * Bill Brandt, German-British photographer and photojournalist(b. 1904)
 * December 21 – Paul de Man, Belgian-American literary critic (b. 1919)
 * December 25 – Joan Miró, Spanish painter (b. 1893)
 * December 26 – Violet Carson, British actress (b. 1898)
 * December 28
 * William Demarest, American actor (b. 1892)
 * Jimmy Demaret, American golf champion (b. 1910)
 * Dennis Wilson, American singer, songwriter and drummer (b. 1944)