The following is a list of notable deaths in October 1985.

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.

• William Allen, 66, Canadian politician.
• J. Grant Anderson, 88, Scottish theatre director and actor.
• Warren Ashby, 65, American philosopher.
• Michele Avila, 17, American murder victim, drowned.
• Barney Brown, 77, American baseball player.
• Bland Cox Bruns, 84, American politician, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives (1950–1956).^[1]
• Terry Duffy, 63, British trade unionist.
• George Gooma, 67, Australian cricketer.
• Charlotte Posenenske, 54, German artist.
• Ninian Sanderson, 60, Scottish racing driver, leukemia.^[2]
• Bill Springsteen, 85, American football player.
• Gordon Strutt, 73, English Anglican prelate.
• Giovanni Tosi, 86, Italian Olympic sprinter (1920).
• Earl Vann, 71, American politician, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1967–1976).
• Kong Visudharomn, 78, Thai physical educator.
• Emil Vogel, 91, German general.
• E. B. White, 86, American author (Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan), complications from Alzheimer's disease.^[3]

• Harry Bohrer, 69, Czechoslovak journalist (Der Spiegel), heart failure.^[4]
• Rebecca Caudill, 86, American author (Tree of Freedom).^[5]
• Sidney Clute, 69, American actor (Cagney & Lacey, McCloud), cancer.^[6]
• Noel Cox, 74, American politician.
• Rock Hudson, 59, American actor (Giant, Pillow Talk, McMillan & Wife), AIDS.^[7]
• Salomón Ibarra Mayorga, 98, Nicaraguan lyricist ("Salve a ti, Nicaragua").
• Eric Jones, 70, English footballer.
• Alex Möller, 82, German politician.
• George Savalas, 60, American actor (Kojak), leukemia.^[8]
• Daramyn Tömör-Ochir, 64, Mongolian politician, murdered.

• Charles Collingwood, 68, American journalist, cancer.^[9]
• Maurice Copeland, 74, American actor.
• Harry Cowans, 52, British politician, MP (since 1976).
• Arthur Froehlich, 76, American architect, cancer.^[10]
• John Pallett, 64, Canadian politician, MP (1954–1962).
• Yngve Stoor, 73, Swedish singer.

• Josie Bennett, 82, American rodeo manager.
• Arthur J. Bidwill, 82, American politician, member of the Illinois Senate (1934–1935, 1938–1972).^[11]
• Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria, 87, Bulgarian royal.
• Fred Foster, 39, American basketball player.
• Enzo Giudici, 65, Italian literary scholar.
• Norm Harris, 79, Australian footballer.
• Jozef Herda, 75, Czechoslovak Olympic wrestler (1936).
• François Hertel, 80, Canadian Olympic writer (1948).
• Ludvig Lindblom, 75 Swedish Olympic wrestler (1932, 1936).
• Franklin Merrell-Wolff, 98, American esoteric philosopher.
• Laurence Reavell-Carter, 71, English Olympic discus thrower (1936, 1948).
• Jim Robertson, 82, Australian footballer.
• Geoffrey Sladen, 81, English rugby player and naval officer.
• Werner Stark, 75, Austrian-English sociologist.
• Gleb Strizhenov, 60, Soviet actor.
• Frederic Virtue, 88, British Olympic boxer (1920).
• Trond Halvorsen Wirstad, 81, Norwegian politician.

• Caroline Bancroft, 85, American journalist.
• Harald Cramér, 92, Swedish mathematician.
• Cyril Edge, 68, English cricketer.
• Joachim Helbig, 70, German fighter pilot, traffic collision.
• Glynn Isaac, 47, South African archaeologist.^[12]
• Serge Jaroff, 89, Russian-born American choir conductor (Don Cossack Choir).^[13]
• Ben Jeby, 75, American boxer.
• Brian Keenan, 42, American drummer (The Chambers Brothers), heart attack.^[14]
• Joseph Kushner, 62, Polish-born American real estate developer.
• Liang Xingchu, 72, Chinese general.
• Karl Menger, 83, Austrian-American mathematician.
• Vic Nankervis, 66, Australian footballer.
• Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim, 85, German-born American theoretical physicist.
• Sayyid Ahmedullah Qadri, 76, Indian writer.
• Walter Wallace Sackett Jr., 79, American politician, member of the Florida House of Representatives (1972–1976).^[15]
• Abdus Sattar, 79, Bangladeshi politician, president (1981–1982).^[16]
• Holbrook Working, 90, American economist.

• Torsten Aminoff, 75, Finnish politician.
• Roy Atkins, 77, Australian footballer.
• Fred Colledge, 70, Scottish cricketer.
• Enrique Fernández, 73, Uruguayan footballer.
• Lola Gjoka, 75, Albanian pianist.
• Walter Gordy, 76, American physicist.^[17]
• Jack Harkness, 78, Scottish footballer.
• Vilém Klíma, 79, Czechoslovak electrical engineer.
• Lauri Kokkonen, 67, Finnish playwright.
• James Chalmers McRuer, 95, Canadian judge.
• Nelson Riddle, 64, American songwriter and composer, heart and kidney failure.^[18]
• Martha Schlamme, 62, Austrian-born American actress and singer, complications from a stroke.^[19]
• Karl Zischek, 75, Austrian footballer.

• Leopold Bode, 91, Austrian footballer.
• Frank Curran, 75, Australian rugby player.
• Lucile Czarnowski, 90, American dance educator.
• Albert Downs, 80, Australian footballer.
• Joe Flanagan, 87, Australian footballer.
• Leroy Holmes, 72, American baseball player.
• John A. Kent, 71, Canadian-English flying ace.
• Wolfgang Kieling, 61, German actor.
• Kaare Langlo, 72, Norwegian meteorologist.
• Dmitry Lukyanov, 85, Soviet general.
• Noah Mozes, 73, Israeli newspaper publisher.
• Cemal Reşit Rey, 80, Turkish pianist and composer.
• Gordon Arthur Riley, 74, American marine biologist.
• Silvestre Vargas, 83, Mexican mariachi musician.
• Len Webster, 78, Australian footballer.

• Riccardo Bacchelli, 94, Italian writer.^[20]
• Kenneth Bagshaw, 64, Australian cricketer.
• Roger Blough, 81, American steel executive.^[21]
• William L. Borden, 65, American congressional staffer (United States Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy), heart attack.^[22]
• Subby Byas, 75, American baseball player.
• Diatome, 23, British Thoroughbred racehorse.
• Amalia Celia Figueredo, 90, Argentine aviator.
• Theresa Harris, 78, American actress.
• Marcelino Huerta, 60, American football player and coach, heart attack.^[23]
• Leon Klinghoffer, 69, American businessman, shot.^[24]
• Marta Lynch, 60, Argentine writer, suicide.
• Pedro Mathey, 57, Peruvian Olympic cyclist (1948).
• August Mortelmans, 84, Belgian racing cyclist.
• Malcolm Ross, 68, American balloonist.
• Giorgio Santelli, 87, Italian-American Olympic fencer (1920).^[25]
• Francesco Saverio Starrabba Barbera, 84, Italian lawyer and politician.
• John Wesley Snyder, 90, American businessman and politician, secretary of the treasury (1946–1953).^[26]
• Clive Sullivan, 42, Welsh rugby player, cancer.
• Gordon Welchman, 79, English-American mathematician.

• John Kameaaloha Almeida, 87, American musician.^[27]
• Cecil Closenberg, 78, South African cricketer.
• Ludo Coeck, 30, Belgian footballer, complications from a traffic collision.
• Karel De Baere, 60, Belgian racing cyclist.
• Lionel George Higgins, 94, British lepidopterist.
• Edward Highton, 61, English cricketer.
• Dar Hutchins, 69, American basketball player.
• Manuel Flores Leon Guerrero, 70, Guamanian politician, governor (1963–1969).
• Emílio Garrastazu Médici, 79, Brazilian politician, president (1969–1974), kidney failure.^[28]
• Rusty Yarnall, 82, American baseball player.

• S. S. Apte, 78, Indian journalist.
• Vera Bogetti, 83, British actress.
• Yul Brynner, 65, Russian-born American actor (The Ten Commandments, The King and I, The Magnificent Seven), lung cancer.^[29]
• Bettina Ehrlich, 82, Austrian-English painter and illustrator.
• Hedley Powell Jacobs, 81, English-Jamaican journalist and writer.
• Alice Melin, 85, Belgian politician.
• Doris Reynolds, 86, British geologist.
• Don Schlundt, 52, American basketball player.
• Suvadhana, 80, Thai royal, princess consort (1925).
• David Van Alstyne, 88, American politician, member of the New Jersey Senate (1943–1953), heart attack.^[30]
• Hans Vatne, 62, Norwegian newspaper editor.
• Orson Welles, 70, American actor, director (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil), and broadcaster ("The War of the Worlds"), heart attack.^[31]

• Frank G. Anderson, 93, American football player and coach.
• Todd Andrews, 84, Irish public servant.
• Blanche Charlet, 87, French Allied spy.
• Viktor Gurjev, 71, Estonian opera singer.
• Jussi Jalas, 77, Finnish composer.
• Alex La Guma, 61, South African novelist, heart attack.^[32]
• Sew Leeka, 78, American basketball player.
• Edward Lowinsky, 77, American musicologist.^[33]
• Ted Mitchell, 80, American football player.
• Ingvard Nørregaard, 71, Danish Olympic canoeist (1952).
• Alex Odeh, 41, Palestinian peace activist, assassination by bombing.
• Dorothy O'Grady, 87, English saboteur.
• Bernard Privat, 70, French writer.
• Elwood Ullman, 82, American writer.
• Tex Williams, 68, American singer ("Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)"), pancreatic cancer.^[34]

• Blind John Davis, 71, American musician.^[35]
• Duke Dinsmore, 72, American racing driver.
• Paul DuCharme, 68, American basketball player.
• Grant Heckenlively, 69, American football player and coach.
• Norman James, 77, English footballer.
• Judy Lee Klemesrud, 46, American journalist, breast cancer.^[36]
• Numa F. Montet, 93, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1929–1937).^[37]
• Johnny Olson, 75, American radio and television announcer (The Price Is Right, What's My Line?, Match Game), stroke.^[38]
• Sergei Osipov, 70, Soviet artist.
• Victor Salazar, 74, American politician.
• Ricky Wilson, 32, American guitarist (The B-52s), AIDS.

• Herb Aach, 62, German-born American painter.
• Maurice Austin, 68, Australian soldier and military historian.
• Francesca Bertini, 93, Italian actress.
• Mieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz, 91, Polish general.
• Tage Danielsson, 57, Swedish actor and comedian, skin cancer.
• Paolo De Stefano, unknown, Italian mobster, murdered.
• Theodore Epp, 78, American radio evangelist.
• Sir Neville Faulks, 77, English barrister
• Richard E. Ferrario, 54, American politician, member of the Minnesota Senate (1959–1964).
• Pierre-Étienne Guyot, 80, French sports executive.
• Calvin D. Johnson, 86, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1943–1945).
• Eiji Kanie, 43, Japanese actor and voice actor, stroke.
• Florence Luscomb, 98, American architect and suffragist.^[39]
• Saul Mielziner, 80, American football player.
• Herbert Nebe, 86, German racing cyclist.
• Tassos, 71, Greek engraver.
• Jack Wilson, 64, Australian cricketer.

• Ossie Bluege, 84, American baseball player and manager, stroke.^[40]
• Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock, 77, British barrister.
• Artur Dyson, 73, Portuguese footballer.
• Harry Friedauer, 58, German singer and actor.
• Parimal Ghosh, 68, Indian politician and diplomat, MP (1967–1971).
• Emil Gilels, 68, Soviet pianist.^[41]
• Paul B. Johnson Jr., 69, American politician, governor of Mississippi (1964–1968), heart attack.^[42]
• Ludwig Landen, 76, German Olympic canoeist (1936).
• Emil Naclerio, 70, American surgeon.
• Doris Odlum, 95, English psychiatrist.
• Sir Gerald Reece, 88, British colonial administrator, governor of British Somaliland (1948–1954).
• Mustafa Selimov, 75, Soviet politician and civil rights activist.
• Floyd E. Shurbert, 84, American politician.
• Pál Teleki, 79, Hungarian footballer.
• Edwin B. Wheeler, 67, American general, heart attack.

• Sandro Angiolini, 65, Italian cartoonist.
• Alice C. Browning, 77, American writer.^[43]
• Bruno Fattori, 94, Italian poet.
• Gus Rivers, 75, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Frank Shoofey, 44, Canadian lawyer, shot.
• Ted Steele, 68, American bandleader.
• Damon Wetzel, 74, American football player.
• Max Zaslofsky, 59, American basketball player and coach, leukemia.^[44]

• Khalekdad Chowdhury, 78, Bangladeshi writer.
• Antoni Gronowicz, 72, Polish-American novelist, heart attack.^[45]
• James Hutton, 79, Scottish rugby player.
• Sir Bruce Levy, 93, New Zealand botanist.
• Franklin Milton, 78, American sound engineer (Ben-Hur, Doctor Zhivago, How the West Was Won).
• Archie McQuilken, 52, Northern Irish cricketer, traffic collision.
• George Odey, 85, British politician and businessman, MP (1947–1955).
• Fred L. Peterson, 89, American politician, mayor of Portland, Oregon (1953–1957).
• Alexander Doniphan Wallace, 80, American mathematician.
• Burton Wilkinson, 85, American-born English cricketer.
• Paul A. Zahl, 75, American biologist.

• Trevor Aston, 60, British historian, drug overdose.
• Omero Bonoli, 76, Italian Olympic gymnast (1932).
• Asbjørn Engen, 67, Norwegian newspaper editor.
• John Ericksen, 82, American Olympic skier (1932).
• Jimmy Fowler, 70, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Ottar Gravås, 63, Norwegian politician.
• Helmi Juvonen, 82, American artist, diabetes.
• Wiktor Kemula, 82, Polish electrochemist.
• Simone Le Bargy, 108, French actress.
• Peeter Pedaja, 54, Estonian-born Australian sculptor and sailor, liver failure.
• Abdelmunim Rifai, 68, Jordanian politician, prime minister (1969, 1970).
• Joseph Rosenstock, 90, Polish-American conductor.^[46]
• Bud Sheely, 64, American baseball player.

• Stefan Askenase, 89, Polish-Belgian pianist.^[47]
• George Darling, 80, British politician, MP (1950–1974).
• Medardo Galli, 78, Italian Olympic rower (1928).
• Bryn Jones, 73, Welsh footballer.
• Jack Kent, 65, American cartoonist (King Aroo), leukemia.
• Benjamin Moloise, 30, South African poet and political activist, execution by hanging.
• Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 84, Austrian royal.
• K. R. Ramsingh, 70, Indian actor.
• Tish Sommers, 71, American author and feminist, cancer.^[48]
• Jun Tazaki, 72, Japanese actor.
• Janwillem van den Berg, 64, Dutch speech scientist.

• Jean-Roger Caussimon, 67, French singer and actor.
• Anton Christoforidis, 68, Greek boxer, heart attack.
• Charlie Hazelton, 68, Australian rugby league footballer.
• Lincoln LaPaz, 88, American astronomer.
• Aage Nielsen-Edwin, 87, Danish sculptor.
• Alfred Rouleau, 70, Canadian businessman.
• Johnny Williams, 79, American drummer.

• Granny Alston, 77, English cricketer.
• Hal Goldsmith, 87, American baseball player.
• Abraham M. Halpern, 71, American linguist and anthropologist.
• Knut Hultgren, 75, Norwegian actor.
• Mary Aquinas Kinskey, 91, American religious sister and pilot, heart attack.^[49]
• Knud Børge Overgaard, 67, Danish footballer.
• Jean Riboud, 65, French oil executive, cancer.^[50]
• Kirio Urayama, 54, Japanese filmmaker.
• Harry Wragg, 83, British jockey and horse trainer.

• Victor Barthélemy, 79, French political activist.
• Creed Burlingame, 80, American naval admiral.^[51]
• Florence Jaffy, 68, American economist.
• Jens Lambæk, 86, Danish Olympic gymnast (1920).
• Masuiyama Daishirō I, 65, Japanese sumo wrestler.
• Hillman Howard Sersland, 79, American politician, member of the Iowa House of Representatives (1952–1965).
• Diane Thomas, 39, American screenwriter (Romancing the Stone), traffic collision.^[52]
• Dan White, 39, American politician and convicted murderer (Moscone–Milk assassinations), suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.^[53]

• Anthony T. Augelli, 83, American judge.^[54]
• Leo Baron, 69, British lawyer and jurist.
• Arthur Coadou, 88, French WW1 flying ace.
• Edward William Day, 84, American judge.
• Dorothy Hartley, 92, English social historian and author (Food in England).
• Les Hughson, 78, Australian footballer.
• Albena Lake-Hodge, 64-65, Anguillan politician and educator.
• Norbert Poehlke, 34, German serial killer, suicide by gunshot.
• Stefano Satta Flores, 48, Italian actor and dubber (Star Wars, Alien), leukemia.
• Viorica Ursuleac, 91, Romanian singer.
• Richard G. Weede, 74, American general.
• Xu Shiyou, 78-79, Chinese general.

• Bernhard Bauknecht, 85, German politician.
• Thena Mae Farr, 57, American rodeo rider.
• Robert George, 92, French ice hockey player.
• Norman Lind, 64, Norwegian-British military officer, plane explosion.
• Mario Prassinos, 69, French writer and painter.
• Don Quartermain, 77, Australian footballer.
• Bruno Gustav Scherwitz, 89, German politician.
• John Greenlees Semple, 81, British mathematician.
• Barbara Thorne Stevenson, 75, American singer.
• Merle Watson, 36, American guitarist, traffic collision.^[55]
• Martin Wierstra, 57, Dutch racing cyclist.

• László Bíró, 86, Hungarian-Argentine inventor of the ballpoint pen.^[56]
• Gábor Bódy, 39, Hungarian filmmaker.
• Richie Evans, 44, American racing driver, racing crash.^[57]
• Muhammad Mustafa Jauhar, 90, Pakistani religious scholar.
• William Rudolph Kanne, 72, American physicist.
• Wilhelm Klemm, 89, Polish chemist.
• Masaichi Nagata, 79, Japanese film producer (Rashomon, Gamera, the Giant Monster).^[58]
• Daniele Pace, 50, Italian composer and songwriter, heart attack.
• Maurice Roy, 80, Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal.
• Hermann Teuber, 91, German painter.

• Brian Barker, 77, British journalist.
• Felixberto Camacho Flores, 64, Guamanian Roman Catholic prelate.
• Morton Downey, 83, American singer, stroke.^[59]
• Ann Forrest, 90, Danish-born American actress.
• Jimmy Frew, 90, Scottish footballer.
• Gary Holton, 33, British musician (Heavy Metal Kids), drug overdose.
• Huub Huizenaar, 76, Dutch Olympic boxer (1924).
• Doug Johnstone, 82, Australian footballer.
• Blair Lee III, 69, American politician, acting governor of Maryland (1977–1979), lung cancer.^[60]
• Viktor Makeyev, 61, Soviet rocket scientist.
• Olier Mordrel, 84, French Breton nationalist and Nazi collaborator.
• Ludwig Ott, 79, German theologian.
• Hans Trauttenberg, 76, Austrian ice hockey player.
• Fritz Konrad Ernst Zumpt, 77, German entomologist.

• Cecil Langley Doughty, 71, British illustrator.
• Sheldon Fitts, 85, American football player and lawyer.^[61]
• Emilio Guinea, 78, Spanish botanist.
• Dimitri Jorjadze, 87, Georgian aristocrat, hotelier and racing driver.
• Kikuko Kawakami, 81, Japanese writer.
• Liu Woying, 78-79, Chinese politician.
• Neil O'Reilly, 60, Australian footballer.
• Svetozar Popović, 83, Yugoslav footballer.
• Mieczysław Połukard, 55, Polish racing cyclist, racing collision.
• Bob Scheffing, 72, American baseball player and manager.^[62]
• J. Norman Shade, 83, American politician, member of the Illinois House of Representatives (1954–1970)
• Louis Weichardt, 91, South African politician and fascist organizer (South African Gentile National Socialist Movement).

• Thomas Townsend Brown, 80, American electrical engineer.
• Andreas Gruentzig, 46, German cardiologist, plane crash.^[63]
• Robert Jephson Jones, 80, British soldier.
• Tola Mankiewiczówna, 85, Polish singer and actress.
• William C. Perry, 85, American jurist.
• Walter Segal, 78, German-English architect.
• Phoney Smith, 80, American football player.
• Kurt Vogel, 97, German mathematics historian.

• William McPherson Allen, 85, American aviation executive, complications from Alzheimer's disease.
• William Bramley, 57, American actor.^[64]
• Elga Brink, 80, German actress.
• Eric Coy, 74, Canadian Olympic discus thrower (1948).
• Harold Davies, Baron Davies of Leek, 81, British politician, MP (1945–1970) and member of the House of Lords (since 1970).
• Joseph L. Donovan, 92, American politician.
• Arletta Duncan, 70, American actress.
• Horace Gillom, 64, American football player, heart attack.
• Leslie Harris, 70, Welsh cricketer.
• Carry Hauser, 90, Austrian painter and stage designer.
• Joachim Knychała, 33, Polish serial killer, execution by hanging.
• Ruby Hart Phillips, 86, American journalist.^[65]
• Paul Edwin Roth, 67, German actor.
• Axel Thue, 81, Norwegian actor.
• Ángel Zubieta, 67, Spanish footballer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

• Sjur Bygd, 96, Norwegian novelist.
• Michael Carey, 70, English Anglican priest.
• Robert Edward Chambliss, 81, American terrorist (16th Street Baptist Church bombing).^[66]
• Charles Douglas-Home, 48, Scottish journalist, cancer.^[67]
• Lucien Dugas, 87, Canadian politician.
• Evgeny Lifshitz, 70, Soviet physicist.
• John Davis Lodge, 82, American politician, diplomat and actor, governor of Connecticut (1951–1955), member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1947–1951), heart attack.^[68]
• Lola Prusac, 90, Polish-born French fashion designer.
• Alice Roberts, 79, Belgian actress.
• Pavle Stefanović, 84, Yugoslav writer and philosopher.

• Lucien Berthelot, 81, French philatelist.
• Edgar Bruun, 80, Norwegian racewalker.
• Aimé Dossche, 83, Belgian racing cyclist.
• Kirby Grant, 73, American actor (Sky King), traffic collision.^[69]
• Vic Grigg, 64, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Raul Hellberg, 84, Finnish racing cyclist.
• Nils Hjelmtveit, 93, Norwegian educator and politician.
• Fazle Lohani, 56, Bangladeshi journalist and television presenter.
• David Oxley, 64, English actor, stroke.
• Guy Pentreath, 83, British Anglican priest and academic administrator.

• Ellis Ashton, 65, English theatre historian.
• Nikos Engonopoulos, 78, Greek painter.^[70]
• Frank Handley, 75, English Olympic runner (1936).
• Harry N. Jonah, 89, Canadian politician.
• Qanate Kurdo, 76, Soviet philologist.
• Hardit Malik, 90, Indian diplomat.^[71]
• John H. Michaelis, 73, American general, heart failure.^[72]
• Poul Reichhardt, 72, Danish actor.
• Bill Schwartau, 59, American recording engineer.
• Bill Spokes, 72, Australian footballer.
• Jamasie Teevee, 75, Canadian Inuit artist.
• Rosalie Van der Gucht, 77, British-South African theatre director.