Deaths in 1980


The following is a list of notable deaths in 1980. 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. Deaths in 1980

January

 January 1 
 Adolph Deutsch, American composer (b. 1897)
 Pietro Nenni, Italian politician (b. 1891)
 Frank Wykoff, American Olympic athlete (b. 1909)
 January 3 – Joy Adamson, Austrian conservationist and author (b. 1910)
 January 6 – Piersanti Mattarella, President of Sicily (b. 1935)
 January 7 – Simonne Mathieu, French tennis champion (b. 1908)
 January 8 – John Mauchly, American physicist and inventor (b. 1907)
 January 11 – Barbara Pym, English novelist (b. 1913)
 January 13 – Andre Kostelanetz, Russian conductor and arranger (b. 1901)
 January 18 – Sir Cecil Beaton, English photographer (b. 1904)
 January 23
 Shōjirō Iida, Japanese general (b. 1888)
 Lil Dagover, German actress (b. 1887)
 January 27 – Peppino De Filippo, Italian actor (b. 1903)
 January 28 – Franco Evangelisti, Italian composer (b. 1926)
 January 29 – Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer and comedian (b. 1893)
 January 30 – Professor Longhair, American musician (b. 1918)

February

 February 2
 Hanna Rovina, Russian-Israeli actress (b. 1889)
 William Howard Stein, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
 February 7 – Sir Richard Williams, Royal Australian Air Force officer (b. 1890)
 February 8
 Nikos Xilouris, Greek pop singer (b. 1936)
 Francesco Zucchetti, French Olympic cyclist (b. 1902)
 February 11 – R. C. Majumdar, Indian historian (b. 1884)
 February 13 – David Janssen, American actor (b. 1931)
 February 17 – Graham Sutherland, English artist (b. 1903)
 February 19
 Robert Morrison, British Olympic rower (b. 1902)
 Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian rock singer (AC/DC)  (b. 1946)
 February 20 – Alice Roosevelt Longworth, American writer and socialite (b. 1884)
 February 22 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter and poet (b. 1886)
 February 23 – Enrico Celio, Swiss politician, 49th President of the Swiss Confederation (b. 1889)
 February 26 – Mario Mattoli, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1898)
 February 29 – Yigal Allon, Israeli politician and army general (b. 1918)

March

 March 1
 Dixie Dean, English football player (b. 1907)
 Wilhelmina Cooper, Dutch-American model and owner of model agency (b. 1940)
 March 5 – Jay Silverheels, Canadian actor (b. 1912)
 March 9 
 Nikolay Bogolyubov, Soviet and Russian actor (b. 1899)
 Olga Chekhova, Russian-German actress (b. 1897)
 March 13 – Roland Symonette, 1st Premier of the Bahamas (b. 1898)
 March 14
 Anna Jantar, Polish singer (b. 1950)
 Mohammad Hatta, Indonesia's first vice president (b. 1902)
 Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish naturalist and television presenter (b. 1928)
 March 17 – Boun Oum, 4th Prime Minister of Laos (b. 1911)
 March 18
 Erich Fromm, German-American psychologist and philosopher (b. 1900)
 Tamara de Lempicka, Polish painter (b. 1898)
 March 24
 Pierre Etchebaster, French real tennis player (b. 1893)
 Óscar Romero, Salvadorian Roman Catholic archbishop (b. 1917)
 March 25
 Erminio Macario, Italian actor (b. 1902)
 Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (b. 1913)
 Milton H. Erickson, American psychiatrist (b.1901)  
 March 26 – Roland Barthes, French literary critic and writer (b. 1915)
 March 28 – Dick Haymes, Argentine actor and singer (b. 1918)
 March 29 – Mantovani, Anglo-Italian conductor and arranger (b. 1905)
 March 30 – Tôn Đức Thắng, 2nd President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) (b. 1888)
 March 31
 Vladimír Holan, Czech poet (b. 1905)
 Jesse Owens, American Olympic athlete (b. 1913)

April

 April 10 – Kay Medford, American actress and singer (b. 1919)
 April 12 – William Tolbert, 20th President of Liberia (b. 1913)
 April 15 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
 April 20
 Katherine Kennicott Davis, American composer (b. 1892)
 Helmut Käutner, German film director (b. 1908)
 April 21 – Sohrab Sepehri, Persian poet and painter (b. 1928)
 April 22 
 Jane Froman, American singer and actress (b. 1907)
 Fritz Strassmann, German chemist (b. 1902)
 April 24 – Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904)
 April 26 – Cicely Courtneidge, British actress (b. 1893)
 April 27 – Mario Bava, Italian director (b. 1914)
 April 29 – Alfred Hitchcock, British film director (b. 1899)
 April 30 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican journalist, politician and statesman (b. 1898)

May

 May 2 
Clarrie Grimmett, New Zealand-born Australian cricketer (b. 1891)
 George Pal, Hungarian-American animator and producer (b. 1908)
 May 4 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav communist military and political leader, 19th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and 1st President of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)
 May 5 – Isabel Briggs Myers, American psychological theorist and co-creator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (b. 1897)
 May 12 – Lillian Roth, American actress (b. 1910)
 May 14
Carl Ebert, German theatre and opera director (b. 1887)
Hugh Griffith, Welsh actor (b. 1912)
Fatmawati, inaugural First Lady of Indonesia (b. 1923)
 May 16 – Marin Preda, Romanian writer (b. 1922)
 May 18
 David A. Johnston, American volcanologist (b. 1949)
 Ian Curtis, English musician and singer (b. 1956)
 Reid Blackburn, American photojournalist (b. 1952)
 Harry R. Truman, American businessman, bootlegger and prospector (b. 1896)
 May 21 – Ida Kamińska, Polish actress, playwright and translator (b. 1899)
 May 28 – Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (b. 1895)

June

 June 7
 Philip Guston, American painter (b. 1913)
 Henry Miller, American writer (b. 1891)
 Marian Spychalski, Polish architect and politician, former head of State (b. 1908)
 June 8
 Ernst Busch, German singer and actor (b. 1900)
 Alfredo Brilhante da Costa, Brazilian football player (b. 1904)
 June 12 – Masayoshi Ōhira, Japanese politician, 43rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1910)
 June 13 – Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure (b. 1942)
 June 18 – Terence Fisher, British director (b. 1904)
 June 21 – Bert Kaempfert, German orchestra leader and songwriter (b. 1923)
 June 23
 Clyfford Still, American painter (b. 1904)
 V. V. Giri, Indian politician and 4th President of India (b. 1894)
 June 24 – Boris Kaufman, Russian cinematographer (b. 1897)
 June 26 – Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Jacob III (b. 1912)
 June 28 – José Iturbi, Spanish conductor and musician (b. 1895)
 June 29 – Jorge Basadre, Peruvian historian (b. 1903)

July

 July 1 – C. P. Snow, British physicist and novelist (b. 1905)
 July 3
 Deng Hua, Chinese general (b. 1910)
 Abdelhamid Sharaf, 51st Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1939)
 July 4 – Gregory Bateson, British anthropologist, anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, semiotician and cyberneticist (b. 1904)
 July 6 – Gail Patrick, American actress (b. 1911) 
 July 7 – Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia (b. 1901)
 July 9 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian writer, poet and diplomat (b. 1913)
 July 13 – Seretse Khama, 1st President of Botswana (b. 1921)
 July 17 – Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician (b. 1890)
 July 19 – Nihat Erim, Turkish politician and jurist, 30th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1912)
 July 20 – Lado Gudiashvili, Soviet painter (b. 1896)
 July 21 – Salah al-Din al-Bitar, Syrian politician, 2-time Prime Minister of Syria (b. 1912)
 July 24 – Peter Sellers, British comedian and actor (b. 1925)
 July 25 – Vladimir Vysotsky, Soviet singer-songwriter, poet and actor (b. 1938)
 July 26 – Kenneth Tynan, English theatre critic (b. 1927)
 July 27 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (b. 1919)
 July 31 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist (b. 1902)

August

 August 1 – Patrick Depailler, French racing driver (b. 1944)
 August 9 – Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906)
 August 10 
 Gareth Evans, British philosopher (b. 1946)
 Yahya Khan, Pakistani general and statesman, 3rd President of Pakistan (b. 1917)
 August 14 – Dorothy Stratten, Canadian actress and model (b. 1960) 
 August 15 – William Hood Simpson, American general (b. 1888)
 August 19 – Otto Frank, German father of Jewish diarist Anne Frank (b. 1889)
 August 20 – Joe Dassin, American-French singer-songwriter (b. 1938)
 August 22 – Gabriel González Videla, 24th President of Chile (b. 1898)
 August 25 – Gower Champion, American theatre director, choreographer and dancer (b. 1919)
 August 26 – Tex Avery, American animator and director (b. 1908)
 August 29 – Franco Basaglia, Italian psychiatrist and professor (b. 1924)

September

 September 3
 Barbara O'Neil, American actress (b. 1909)
 Dirch Passer, Danish actor (b. 1926)
 September 8 – Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
 September 12 – Lillian Randolph, American actress (b. 1898)
 September 14 – Domingo Acedo, Spanish football player (b. 1898)
 September 15 – Bill Evans, American jazz pianist (b. 1929)
 September 16 – Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (b. 1896)
 September 17 – Anastasio Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua (b. 1925)
 September 18 – Katherine Anne Porter, American author (b. 1890)
 September 19 – Sol Lesser, American film producer (b. 1890)
 September 23 – Jacobus Johannes Fouché, 5th President of South Africa (b. 1898)
 September 25
 John Bonham, British rock drummer (Led Zeppelin) (b. 1948)
 Lewis Milestone, American film director (b. 1895)
 Marie Under, Estonian poet (b. 1883)

October

 October 2 – Sir John Kotelawala, Sri Lanka soldier and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Ceylon (b. 1895)
 October 6 – Hattie Jacques, British actress (b. 1922)
 October 12 – Alberto Demicheli, Uruguayan political figure, former president of Uruguay (de facto) (b. 1896)
 October 15 – Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark (b. 1908)
 October 18 – Hans Ehard, German lawyer and politician (b. 1887)
 October 21
 Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician after whom Asperger syndrome was named (b. 1906)
 Valko Chervenkov, Bulgarian Communist leader and statesman, 34th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1900)
 Edelmiro Julián Farrell, Argentine general, 28th President of Argentina (b. 1887)
 October 23 – Mariano Suárez, Ecuadorian politician, 27th President of Ecuador (b. 1897)
 October 25
 Virgil Fox, American organist (b. 1912)
 Víctor Galíndez, Argentine boxer (b. 1948)
 Sahir Ludhianvi, Urdu/Hindustani poet and Hindi film lyricist (b. 1921)
 October 26 – Marcelo Caetano, Portuguese politician and scholar, 101st Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1906)
 October 27
 Steve Peregrin Took, British rock musician (b. 1949)
 John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
 October 29 – Giorgio Borġ Olivier, Maltese politician and statesman, 7th Prime Minister of Malta (b. 1911)
 October 31 
 Elizebeth Smith Friedman, American cryptographer (b. 1892)
 Jan Werich, Czech actor, playwright and writer (b. 1905)

November

 November 4 – Johnny Owen, Welsh professional boxer (b. 1956)
 November 7 – Steve McQueen, American actor (b. 1930)
 November 16 – Imogen Hassall, English actress (b. 1942)
 November 20
 Avtandil Gogoberidze, Soviet football player (b. 1922)
 Sir John McEwen, Australian politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1900)
 November 21 – Sara García, Mexican actress (b. 1895)
 November 22 – Mae West, American actress (b. 1893)
 November 24 – George Raft, American actor (b. 1901)
 November 25 – Herbert Flam, American tennis player (b. 1928)
 November 26 – Rachel Roberts, British actress (b. 1927)
 November 29 – Dorothy Day, American journalist and social activist (b. 1897)

December

 December 2 – Romain Gary, Lithuanian-French writer (b. 1914)
 December 3 – Sir Oswald Mosley, British fascist leader (b. 1896)
 December 4
 Francisco de Sá Carneiro, Portuguese lawyer, 109th Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1934)
 Stanisława Walasiewicz, Polish runner (b. 1911)
 December 7 – Darby Crash, American rock songwriter, singer (b. 1958)
 December 8 – John Lennon, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
 December 10 – Patriarch Benedict I of Jerusalem (b. 1892)
 December 14 – Nichita Smochină, Moldovan activist (b. 1894)
 December 16
 Colonel Sanders, American fast-food entrepreneur (b. 1890)
 Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (b. 1900)
 Peter Collinson, British film director (b. 1936)
 December 18
 Alexei Kosygin, Soviet politician, Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1904)
 Sir Albert Margai, 2nd Prime Minister of Sierra Leone (b. 1910)
 December 19 – Héctor José Cámpora, Argentine Peronist politician, 38th President of Argentina (b. 1909)
 December 21 – Marc Connelly, American playwright (b. 1890)
 December 24
 Karl Dönitz, German admiral and 4th President of Germany (b. 1891)
 Heikki Liimatainen, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1894)
 December 26 – Richard Chase, American serial killer & cannibal (b. 1950)
 December 29 – Tim Hardin, American musician (b. 1941)
 December 31
 Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author and professor (b. 1911)
 Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)

References

1980 deaths
Lists of deaths in 1980
Deaths in 1980