The following is a list of notable deaths in 2009.

January 

 January 1 - Johannes Mario Simmel, 84, Austrian writer.
 January 1 - Helen Suzman, 91, South African politician and activist.
 January 1 - Aarne Arvonen, 111, Finnish supercentenarian and Finnish Civil War veteran.
 January 1 - Nizar Rayan, 49, Palestinian military commander, airstrike.
 January 2 - Ryuzo Hiraki, 77, Japanese footballer.
 January 2 - Maria de Jesus, 115, Portuguese supercentenarian and oldest-living person, septic shock.
 January 3 - Pat Hingle, 84, American actor (Splendor in the Grass, Hang 'Em High, Batman), blood cancer.
 January 3 - Olga San Juan, 81, American actress, kidney failure.
 January 5 - Adolf Merckle, 74, German industrialist, suicide.
 January 6 - Ron Asheton, 60, American rock guitarist.
 January 9 - Rene Herms, 26, German athlete.
 January 9 - Dave Dee, 67, British musician, prostate cancer.
 January 10 - Bill Stone, 108, British World War I veteran.
 January 10 - Rob Gauntlett, 21, British mountaineer, climbing accident.
 January 11 - Pio Laghi, 86, Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
 January 12 - Claude Berri, 74, French movie director.
 January 12 - Arne Naess, 96, Norwegian philosopher.
 January 12 - Friaca, 84, Brazilian footballer, multiple organ failure.
 January 13 - Patrick McGoohan, 80, American-Irish actor, short illness.
 January 14 - Ricardo Montalban, 88, Mexican-American actor, heart failure.
 January 15 - Said Seyam, 50, Palestinian government official, airstrike.
 January 16 - Andrew Wyeth, 91, American painter, short illness.
 January 18 - Tony Hart, 83, British artist and television presenter.
 January 18 - Zenonas Petrauskas, 58, Lithuanian lawyer and politician.
 January 19 - Beatrice Farve, 113, American supercentenarian.
 January 20 - Stephanos II Ghattas, 89, Patriarch of Egyptian Coptic Church.
 January 24 - Kay Yow, 66, American basketball coach, breast cancer.
 January 25 - Mamadou Dia, 98, 1st Prime Minister of Senegal.
 January 27 - Mino Reitano, 64, Italian singer, after long illness.
 January 27 - John Updike, 76, American writer, lung cancer.
 January 27 - R. Venkataraman, 98, 8th President of India, multiple organ failure.
 January 28 - Billy Powell, 56, American musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd).
 January 29 - John Martyn, 60, British singer and songwriter, pneumonia.
 January 30 - Ingemar Johansson, 76, Swedish boxer.
 January 30 - Sune Jonsson, 78, Swedish photographer and writer.

February 

 February 1 - Lukas Foss, 86, German-born American composer and conductor, heart attack.
 February 2 - Paul Birch, 46, British footballer, lung cancer.
 February 4 - Lux Interior, 62, American singer, songwriter and musician, aortic dissection.
 February 5 - Dana Vavrova, 41, Czech-born German actress, cancer.
 February 5 - Albert Barille, 88, French television screenwriter and producer.
 February 6 - James Whitmore, 87, American actor, lung cancer.
 February 8 - Marian Cozma, 26, Romanian handball player, stabbed.
 February 9 - Eluana Englaro, 38, Italian patient in right-to-die case, removal of nutrition.
 February 10 - Jeremy Lusk, 24, American motocross racer, brain injury.
 February 12 - Giacomo Bulgarelli, 68, Italian footballer, after long illness.
 February 16 - Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, 86, South Korean archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church.
 February 18 - Tayeb Saleh, 80, Sudanese writer.
 February 18 - Kamila Skolimowska, 26, Polish hammer thrower.
 February 20 - Antonio De Rosso, 68, Italian religious leader.
 February 23 - Seppo Kolehmainen, 76, Finnish actor, after long illness.
 February 23 - Sverre Fehn, 84, Norwegian architect.
 February 25 - Philip Jose Farmer, 91, American writer.
 February 26 - Ruth Drexel, 78, German actress.
 February 26 - Wendy Richard, 65, British actress, breast cancer.
 February 27 - Manea Manescu, 92, former Prime Minister of Romania.
 February 28 - Paul Harvey, 90, American radio host.

March 

 March 1 - Ken Henry, 80, American speed skater.
 March 2 - João Bernardo Vieira, 69, President of Guinea-Bissau, killed.
 March 2 - Ernst Benda, 84, German politician.
 March 3 - Sebastian Faisst, 20, German handball player.
 March 3 - Flemming Flindt, 72, Danish choreographer, after short illness.
 March 6 - Francis Magalona, 44, Filipino actor and rapper, leukemia.
 March 6 - Susan Tsvangirai, 50, wife of the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai, car accident.
 March 7 - Tullio Pinelli, 100, Italian screenwriter.
 March 12 - Leonore Annenberg, 91, American philanthropist, natural causes.
 March 13 - Andrew Martin, 33, Canadian professional wrestler, accidental overdose.
 March 14 - Alain Bashung, 61, French singer, composer and actor, lung cancer.
 March 15 - Ron Silver, 62, American actor and political activist, esophageal cancer.
 March 17 - Clodovil Hernandes, 71, Brazilian fashion stylist, politician and television presenter, stroke.
 March 18 - Glenn Sundby, 87, American gymnast.
 March 18 - Natasha Richardson, 45, British actress, epidural hematoma.
 March 19 - Gertrud Fussenegger, 96, Austrian writer.
 March 19 - Paul Angelis, 66, English actor.
 March 20 - Abdellatif Filali, 81, former Prime Minister of Morocco.
 March 21 - Walt Poddubny, 49, Canadian ice hockey player.
 March 22 - Jade Goody, 27, British celebrity, cervical cancer.
 March 24 - George Kell, 86, American baseball player
 March 25 - Yukio Endo, 72, Japanese gymnast, esophageal cancer.
 March 26 - Arnold Meri, 89, Estonian military officer.
 March 26 - Arne Bendiksen, 82, Norwegian singer, composer and record producer, heart failure.
 March 28 - Janet Jagan, 88, American-born President of Guyana, abdominal aortic aneurysm.
 March 29 - Maurice Jarre, 84, French movie composer.
 March 29 - Helen Levitt, 95, American photographer, respiratory failure.
 March 29 - Vladimir Fedotov, 66, Russian footballer and coach.
 March 31 - Hong Song-nam, 79, North Korean politician.
 March 31 - Jarl Alfredius, 66, Swedish journalist, cancer.
 March 31 - Raul Alfonsin, 82, former President of Argentina, lung cancer.

April 

 April 1 - Arne Andersson, 91, Swedish runner.
 April 4 - Gonzalo Olave, 25, Chilean actor, motorcycle accident.
 April 7 - Dave Arneson, 61, American game designer (Dungeons and Dragons), cancer.
 April 11 - Gerda Gilboe, 94, Danish actress.
 April 12 - Marilyn Chambers, 56, American pornographic actress, erotic dancer and politician, heart disease.
 April 12 - Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, 58, American writer and critical theorist, breat cancer.
 April 13 - Stefan Brecht, 84, German poet, after long illness.
 April 14 - Maurice Druon, 90, French novelist.
 April 15 - Clement Freud, 84, German-born British writer, politician and broadcaster.
 April 15 - Laszlo Tisza, 101, Hungarian-born American physicist.
 April 19 - J. G. Ballard, 78, British writer and novelist, prostate cancer.
 April 22 - Ken Annakin, 94, British movie director.
 April 22 - Jack Cardiff, 94, British cinematographer, natural causes.
 April 22 - Alex Lees, 97, British planner of the Great Escape in World War II.
 April 25 - Beatrice Arthur, 86, American actress.
 April 26 - Pupuke Robati, 84, Cook Islands physician, politician and Prime Minister.
 April 27 - Feroz Khan, 69, Indian actor, cancer.
 April 28 - Ekaterina Maximova, 70, Russian ballet dancer.

May 

 May 1 - Karst Tates, 38, Dutch attempted assassin, injuries.
 May 2 - Augusto Boal, 78, Brazilian dramatist and theatre director, respiratory failure.
 May 2 - Jack Kemp, 73, American football player and politician, cancer.
 May 4 - Dom DeLuise, 75, American actor and entertainer.
 May 6 - Valentin Varennikov, 85, Russian general.
 May 8 - Dom DiMaggio, 92, American baseball player, pneumonia.
 May 9 - Chuck Daly, 78, American basketball coach, cancer.
 May 13 - Achille Compagnoni, 94, Italian mountaineer.
 May 13 - Waldemar Levy Cardoso, 108, Brazilian field marshal and World War I-era veteran.
 May 17 - Mario Benedetti, 88, Uruguayan writer.
 May 18 - Wayne Allwine, 62, American voice actor, complications from diabetes.
 May 18 - Dolla, 21, American rapper, shot.
 May 18 - Velupillai Prabhakaran, 54, Sri Lankan leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, missile attack.
 May 19 - Robert F. Furchgott, 92, American scientist and Nobel Prize winner.
 May 20 - Lucy Gordon, 28, British actress, suicide.
 May 23 - Roh Moo-hyun, 62, former President of South Korea, suicide.
 May 25 - Haakon Lie, 103, Norwegian politician.
 May 27 - Clive Grainger, 74, British economist.
 May 29 - Karine Ruby, 31, French snowboarder, fall.
 May 30 - Luis Cabral, 78, 1st President of Guinea-Bissau.
 May 30 - Ephraim Katzir, 93, Israeli biochemist, politician and former President of Israel.
 May 30 - Gaafar Nimeiry, 79, former President of Sudan.
 May 31 - Millvina Dean, 97, survivor of the RMS Titanic.
 May 31 - Danny La Rue, 81, Irish-British female-impersonator and singer, prostate cancer.
 May 31 - George Tilley, 67, American physician and abortion provider, shot.

June 

 June 1 - Silvio Barbato, 50, Italian-Brazilian opera conductor and composer, Air France Flight 447 crash.
 June 2 - David Eddings, 77, American fantasy writer.
 June 3 - David Carradine, 72, American actor.
 June 3 - Koko Taylor, 80, American blues musician, complications from gastrointestinal surgery.
 June 6 - Jean Dausset, 92, French immunologist and Nobel Prize winner.
 June 7 - Baron Vaea, 88, former Prime Minister of Tonga, after short illness.
 June 8 - Omar Bongo, 73, President of Gabon.
 June 10 - Helle Virkner, 83, Danish actress, cancer.
 June 12 - Felix Malloum, 76, former President of Chad, cardiac arrest.
 June 13 - Mitsuharu Misawa, 46, Japanese professional wrestler, spinal chord surgery.
 June 14 - Ivan Della Mea, 68, Italian singer-songwriter and writer, after long illness.
 June 17 - Ralf Dahrendorf, 80, German-born British politician, philosopher and social critic, after long illness.
 June 19 - Tomoji Tanabe, 113, Japanese supercentenarian and oldest-living man.
 June 20 - Neda Agha-Soltan, 27, Iranian student, shot.
 June 23 - Hanne Hiob, 86, German actress.
 June 23 - Ed McMahon, 86, American television host and announcer.
 June 24 - Romeo LeBlanc, 81, former Governor-General of Canada, Alzheimer's disease.
 June 25 - Farrah Fawcett, 62, American actress, anal cancer.
 June 25 - Michael Jackson, 50, American singer, songwriter, and entertainer, acute propofol intoxication.
 June 25 - Sky Saxon, 71, American musician, heart failure.
 June 28 - Lucia Lauria Vigna, 113, Italian supercentenarian.
 June 28 - Billy Mays, 50, American pitchman and television host (Pitchmen), hypertensive heart disease.
 June 30 - Pina Bausch, 68, German choreographer.

July 

 July 1 - Mollie Sugden, 86, British actress, natural causes.
 July 1 - Karl Malden, 97, American actor.
 July 3 - Jorge Enrique Adoum, 83, Ecuadorean poet and writer.
 July 4 - Allen Klein, 77, American music manager.
 July 5 - Takeo Doi, 89, Japanese psychoanalyst.
 July 6 - Vasily Aksyonov, 76, Russian writer.
 July 6 - Bleddyn Williams, 86, Welsh rugby player, after long illness.
 July 6 - Robert McNamara, 93, American politician.
 July 10 - Ebba Haslund, 81, Norwegian writer.
 July 11 - Arturo Gatti, 37, Canadian boxer, strangulation.
 July 15 - Natalya Estemirova, 51, Russian Human rights activist, shot.
 July 17 - Meir Amit, 87, Israel military commander and politician.
 July 17 – Walter Cronkite, 92, American television news anchor, cerebrovascular disease.
 July 17 - Leszek Kolakowski, 81, Polish philosopher.
 July 18 - Henry Allingham, 113, British veteran of World War I, supercentenarian and oldest-living man.
 July 19 - Frank McCourt, 78, Irish-American writer, melanoma.
 July 19 - Henry Surtees, 18, British racing driver, racing crash.
 July 21 - Heinz Edelmann, 75, Czech-German illustrator and designer, heart disease and renal failure.
 July 22 - Herbert Morris, 94, American rower.
 July 25 - Harry Patch, 111, British veteran of World War I and supercentenarian.
 July 26 - Merce Cunningham, 90, American choreographer.
 July 27 - Sybil, British Downing Street cat, after short illness.
 July 28 - Leela Naidu, 69, Indian actress, after long illness.
 July 29 - Zhuo Lin, 93, Chinese widow of Deng Xiaoping.
 July 30 - Peter Zadek, 83, German theatre director.
 July 31 - Bobby Robson, 76, English footballer and football manager, lung cancer.

August 

 August 1 - Corazon Aquino, 76, President of the Philippines (1986 – 1992), complications from colon cancer.
 August 1 - Princess Felicitas of Prussia, 75, German noblewoman and great-granddaughter of Wilhelm II of Germany.
 August 1 - Naomi Sims, 61, American model and writer, breast cancer.
 August 4 - Svend Auken, 66, Danish politician, prostate cancer.
 August 4 - Joseph Msika, 85, Vice President of Zimbabwe.
 August 5 - Budd Schulberg, 95, American screenwriter, playwright and novelist, natural causes.
 August 6 - Riccardo Cassin, 100, Italian mountaineer.
 August 6 - Willy DeVille, 58, American singer-songwriter, pancreatic cancer.
 August 6 - John Hughes, 59, American movie director, screenwriter and producer, heart attack.
 August 6 - Murali, 55, Indian actor, heart attack.
 August 7 - Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf, 80, Iraqi politician and former Vice President.
 August 8 - Daniel Jarque, 26, Spanish footballer, heart attack.
 August 10 - Francisco Valdes, 66, Chilean footballer, heart failure.
 August 11 – Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, American activist, founder of the Special Olympics, sister of John F. Kennedy.
 August 13 – Les Paul, 94, American guitarist and inventor, complications from pneumonia.
 August 17 - Tiffany Simelane, 21, Swazi beauty pageant contestant, suicide by poisoning.
 August 18 - Kim Dae-jung, 85, former President of South Korea and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
 August 18 - Hildegard Behrens, 72, German operatic soprano, aortic aneurysm.
 August 19 - Don Hewitt, 86, American television producer, pancreatic cancer.
 August 20 - Larry Knechtel, 69, American musician, heart attack.
 August 22 - Muriel Duckworth, 100, Canadian feminist and activist, complications from a fall.
 August 23 - Anna-Maria Mueller, 60, German luger.
 August 24 - Toni Sailer, 73, Austrian skier, laryngeal cancer.
 August 25 - Mande Sidibe, 69, Maliian economist, politician and Prime Minister, after short illness.
 August 25 – Ted Kennedy, 77, American politician, Senator from Massachusetts (1962–2009), brain cancer.
 August 26 - Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, 56, Iraqi politician, lung cancer.
 August 26 - Dominick Dunne, 83, American writer and investigative journalist, bladder cancer.
 August 27 - Sergey Mikhalkov, 96, Russian writer.
 August 28 - Adam Goldstein, 36, American club disc jockey and musician, suspected drug overdose.
 August 28 - Guenter Kiessling, 83, German general.
 August 30 - Simon Thirgood, 46, British biologist and ecologist, building collapse.
 August 31 - John Choi Young-su, 67, South Korean archbishop.

September 

 September 1 - Erich Kunzel, 74, American conductor, cancer.
 September 2 - Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, 60, Indian politician and Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, helicopter crash.
 September 4 - Allan Ekelund, 91, Swedish movie producer.
 September 8 – Aage Niels Bohr, 87, Danish physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics (1975).
 September 10 - Gertrude Noone, 110, American supercentenarian.
 September 11 - Yoshito Usui, 51, Japanese manga artist, mountaineering accident.
 September 11 - Zakes Mokae, 75, South African actor, complications of a stroke.
 September 11 - Juan Almeida Bosque, 82, Cuban revolutionary and politician, cardiac arrest.
 September 11 - Gertrude Baines, 115, American supercentenarian and oldest-living person, suspected heart attack.
 September 12 - Dominick Brunner, 50, German businessman and manager, blunt trauma.
 September 12 - Jack Kramer, 88, American tennis player, cancer.
 September 12 - Willy Ronis, 99, French photographer.
 September 12 - Norman Borlaug, 95, American agronomist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
 September 14 - Keith Floyd, 65, British chef, heart attack.
 September 14 – Patrick Swayze, 57, American actor, singer-songwriter and dancer, pancreatic cancer.
 September 15 – Timothy Bateson, 83, British actor.
 September 16 - Mary Travers, 72, American singer, leukemia.
 September 17 - Noordin Mohammad Top, 41, Malaysian Islamist militant, shot.
 September 18 - Irving Kristol, 89, American political commentator.
 September 19 - Eduard Zimmermann, 80, German journalist and television presenter.
 September 22 - Lucy Vodden, 46, British song inspiration, lupus.
 September 23 - Ertugrul Osman, 97, Turkish head of the Ottoman dynasty, lung and kidney failure.
 September 24 - Nelly Arcan, 35, Canadian novelist, suicide.
 September 24 - Susan Atkins, 61, American murderer, brain cancer.
 September 25 - Alicia de Larrocha, 86, Spanish pianist.
 September 25 – Clifton Maloney, 71, American businessman, husband of U.S. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, mountaineering accident.
 September 25 – Bob Stupak, 67, American casino owner (Vegas World, Stratosphere Las Vegas), leukemia.
 September 27 - William Safire, 79, American speechwriter for Richard Nixon and political columnist for the New York Times
 September 28 - Guillermo Endara, 73, former President of Panama.
 September 28 - Ulf Larsson, 53, Swedish actor and stage director.
 September 29 - Pavel Popovich, 78, Soviet-Ukrainian cosmonaut.
 September 30 - Pentti Airikkala, 64, Finnish rally driver, prostate cancer.

October 

 October 2 - Marek Edelmann, 87, Polish social activist.
 October 2 - Rolf Ruessmann, 58, German footballer, prostate cancer.
 October 3 - Fatima, 98, former Queen of Libya.
 October 3 - Reinhard Mohn, 88, German entrepreneur and publisher.
 October 4 - Shoichi Nakagawa, 56, Japanese politician, suicide.
 October 4 - Mercedes Sosa, 74, Argentine singer.
 October 4 - Guenther Rall, 91, German Luftwaffe pilot.
 October 5 - Giselher Klebe, 84, German composer.
 October 5 - Israel Gelfand, 96, Russian mathematician.
 October 6 - Werner Maihofer, 90, German politician.
 October 7 - Irving Penn, 92, American fashion photographer.
 October 9 - Horst Szymaniak, 75, German footballer.
 October 10 - Stephen Gately, 33, Irish singer (Boyzone).
 October 13 - Al Martino, 82, American singer and actor.
 October 14 – Lou Albano, 76, American professional wrestler and manager, and actor (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!), natural causes.
 October 14 – Bruce Wasserstein, 61, American investment banker and businessman.
 October 14 – Collin Wilcox, 74, American actress (To Kill a Mockingbird), brain cancer.
 October 15 – George Tuska, 93, American Golden Age comic book artist (Iron Man).
 October 16 – Bob Davis, 77, American politician, U.S. Representative for Michigan (1979–1993), heart and kidney failure.
 October 17 - Rosanna Schiaffino, 69, Italian movie actress, cancer.
 October 17 – Jay W. Johnson, 66, American U.S. Representative for Wisconsin (1997–1999), U.S. Mint Director (2000–2001), heart attack.
 October 18 – Jasper Howard, 20, American football player, stabbed.
 October 18 – Leonard B. Keller, 62, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient, motorcycle accident.
 October 18 – Nancy Spero, 83, American artist, heart failure.
 October 19 - Howard Unruh, 88, American spree killer.
 October 19 - Joseph Wiseman, 91, Canadian actor.
 October 20 – Clifford Hansen, 97, American politician, Governor of Wyoming (1963–1967) and U.S. Senator (1967–1978).
 October 22 – Soupy Sales, 83, American comedian.
 October 23 - Lou Jacobi, 95, Canadian actor.
 October 23 - Shiloh Pepin, 10, American medical figure, pneumonia.
 October 25 - Camillo Cibin, 83, Italian former commander of the Corps Gendarmerie of Vatican City.
 October 28 - Taylor Mitchell, 19, Canadian singer, injuries from coyote attack.
 October 29 - Norman Painting, 85, British radio actor, heart failure.
 October 30 - Claude Levi-Strauss, 100, French anthropologist.
 October 31 - Qian Xuesen, 97, Chinese scientist.

November 

 November 2 - Mark Smith, 49, British musician (The Waterboys) and record producer.
 November 3 - Francisco Ayala, 103, Spanish novelist, natural causes.
 November 4 - Hubertus Brandenburg, 85, German-born Swedish bishop.
 November 6 - Manuel Solis, 91, former President of Panama, pulmonary edema.
 November 8 - Vitaly Ginzburg, 93, Russian physicist and Nobel Prize winner.
 November 10 - Robert Enke, 32, German footballer, suicide by train impact.
 November 10 – John Allen Muhammad, 48, American serial killer, lethal injection.
 November 11 - John Jay O'Connor, 79, American lawyer, husband of Sandra Day O'Connor, Alzheimer's disease.
 November 12 - Bernard Kolelas, 76, former Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo.
 November 15 - Pierre Harmel, 98, former Prime Minister of Belgium.
 November 15 - Pavle, Serbian Patriarch, 95, Serbian religious leader.
 November 16 - Edward Woodward, 79, British actor.
 November 16 - Olivia Patricia Thomas, 114, American supercentenarian.
 November 18 - Jeanne-Claude, 74, French artist, ruptured brain aneurysm.
 November 20 - Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, 78, Pakistani politician and former Prime Minister.
 November 21 - Konstantin Feoktistov, 83, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut and aerospace engineer.
 November 24 - Samak Sundaravej, 74, former Prime Minister of Thailand, liver cancer.
 November 24 - José Arraño, 88, Chilean writer.
 November 24 - Abe Pollin, 85, American, Owner of Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, corticobasal degeneration.
 November 27 - Erich Boehme, 79, German journalist, cancer.
 November 28 - Tony Kendall, 73, Italian actor, after short illness.
 November 29 - Prince Alexander of Belgium, 67, Belgian royal, pulmonary embolism.
 November 30 - Paul Naschy, 75, Spanish actor, screenwriter and director, pancreatic cancer.
 November 30 - Milorad Pavic, 80, Serbian writer, heart failure.

December 

 
 December 1 - Ramses Shaffy, 76, Dutch singer and actress.
 December 2 - Aaron Schroeder, 83, American songwriter and music producer.
 December 2 - Maggie Jones, 75, British actress.
 December 3 - Richard Todd, 90, Irish-born British actor, cancer.
 December 4 - Vyacheslav Tikhonov, 81, Russian actor.
 December 4 - Eddie Fatu, 36, Samoan-American professional wrestler, heart attack.
 December 5 - Alfred Hrdlicka, 81, Austrian architect and draughtsman.
 December 5 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, 82, German politician.
 December 9 - Gene Barry, 90, American actor, heart failure.
 December 9 - Kjell Eugenio Laugerud Garcia, 79, former President of Guatemala, cancer.
 December 13 - Paul Samuelson, 94, American economist, winner 1970 Nobel Prize in Economics.
 December 15 - Oral Roberts, 91, American evangelist, complications from pneumonia.
 December 16 - Yegor Gaidar, 53, Russian politician.
 December 16 - Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, 69, South African politician, complications from a liver transplant.
 December 16 - Roy E. Disney, 79, American entertainment executive, stomach cancer.
 December 17 - Amin al-Hafiz, 88, former President of Syria.
 December 17 - Jennifer Jones, 90, American actress.
 December 19 - Hossein-Ali Montazeri, 87, Iranian cleric and dissident, natural causes.
 December 19 - Kim Peek, 58, American savant, heart attack.
 December 20 - Brittany Murphy, 32, American actress.
 December 21 - Edwin G. Krebs, 91, American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner.
 December 22 - Luis Francisco Cuellar, 69, Colombian politician, murdered.
 December 23 - Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, 99, Tibetan politician.
 December 24 - Rafael Caldera, 93, Venezuelan President.
 December 25 - Vic Chesnutt, 45, American musician, muscle relaxant overdose.
 December 25 - Knut Haugland, 92, Norwegian explorer and last-surviving member of the Kon-Tiki expedition.
 December 28 - James "The Rev" Sullivan, 28, American musician (Avenged Sevenfold), accidental overdose.
 December 29 - Akmal Shaikh, 53, British drug trafficker, executed.
 December 29 - "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, 49, American professional wrestler, throat cancer.
 December 30 - Abdurrahman Wahid, 69, 4th President of Indonesia.
 December 31 - Rashidi Kawawa, 83, former Prime Minister of Tanganyika and Tanzania.
 December 31 - Cahal Daly, 92, Irish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

References