January:
- 4: Pakistani politician Salman Taseer, shot at age 66.
- 24: Mexican Bishop Samuel Ruiz, who fought for the rights of indigeneous people. At age 87 in Mexico City.
- 30: British composer John Barry, who wrote the music for a string of James Bond films, at age 77 in New York.
February:
- 3: Maria Schneider, French actress who played in the 1972 film "Last Tango in Paris". At age 58 in Paris.
- 5: John Paul Getty III, grandson of an American oil billionaire, at age 54 in Britain. As a teenager, he had been held hostage by Italian criminals who cut off one of his ears.
- 27: Frank Buckles, last surviving US veteran of World War I, at age 110 at his home in West Virginia.
- 28: US actress Jane Russell, co-star of Marilyn Monroe in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", at 89 in Los Angeles.
March:
- 11: Donny George, Iraqi who fought to recover items looted from his Baghdad museum after the invasion of 2003. At age 60 in Canada.
- 18: Warren Christopher, US secretary of state under Bill Clinton, at 85 in Los Angeles.
- 23: Elizabeth Taylor, iconic US actress, at 79 in Los Angeles.
- 29: Bhawani Singh, last maharajah of Jaipur in Rajashtan, western India, at age 79.
April:
- 9: US film director Sydney Lumet, at 86 in New York.
- 24: Indian religious leader and guru Sathya Sai Baba, at 85 in a hospital in his hometown of Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh.
- 24: Tran Le Xuan, alias "Madame Nhu", a leading figure in the US-backed South Vietnam regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in the 1960s. In her late 80s in a Rome hospital.
May:
- 2: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, shot dead by US forces who raided the house he was hiding out in near the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Aged around 54, he had been sought worldwide since the September 2001 attacks against the United States.
- 5: Claude Choules, last surviving Briton who fought in World War I. At 110 in Australia.
- 7: Severiano Ballesteros, Spanish golfer, at age 54 after a brain tumour operation.
June:
- 2: Albertina Sisulu, South African activist whose husband Walter spent years in jail with Nelson Mandela. At age 92 in Johannesburg.
- 3: Jack Kervorkian, advocate of assisted suicide who was often referred to as "Doctor Death". At 83 of natural causes in a Chicago hospital.
- 18: Yelena Bonner, human rights activist of both Soviet and post-Soviet Russia and the widow of the dissident Andrei Sakharov, at 88 in her adopted home of Boston, Massachusetts.
- 18: British anti-war protester Brian Haw, who held a vigil near London's Houses of Parliament. At age 62 of cancer.
- 23: US actor Peter Falk, best-known in his TV role as police detective Columbo. At his Beverly Hills home aged 83.
July:
- 4: Otto Habsburg, once-heir to the defunct Habsburg Empire. In Germany at age 98.
- 5: US abstract painter Cy Twombly, at age 83 in southern France.
- 9: Argentinian-born singer and songwriter Facundo Cabral, shot dead at age 74 after performing in Guatemala.
- 12: Ahmed Wali Karzai, younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Shot at age 49 in his home city of Kandahar.
- 20: Lucian Freud, British painter and grandson of Sigmund Freud, in London at age 88.
- 23: English popular singer Amy Winehouse, 27, found dead in her north London flat.
August:
- 7: Nancy Wake, an Australian who fought with the French anti-Nazi resistance in World War II. At 98 in a London hospital.
September:
- 5: Cambodian painter Vann Nath, one of the few survivors of the Tuol Sleng torture centre during the Khmer Rouge dictatorship of the 1970s. At age 66 in Phnom Penh.
- 7: Practically the entire squad of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, one of Russia's top ice hockey teams. They were among the 43 dead when their plane crashed near Yaroslavl.
- 20: Burhanuddin Rabbani, one-time president of Afghanistan, assassinated aged 71 by a suicide bomber in Kabul.
- 25: Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist who became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Died at age 71 in a Nairobi hospital.
October:
- 5: US entrepreneur Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and the driving force behind devices such as the iPod and the iPhone. At age 56 of cancer in Palo Alto, California.
- 20: Ousted Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, lynched at age 69 by the country's new rulers who captured him during the battle for his hometown of Sirte. Following Kadhafi's death the new authorities announced their country "liberated".
- 21: Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia and longtime defence minister. Believed to be aged 80, he died of cancer in a New York hospital.
November:
- 4: Alfonso Cano, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group. Killed at age 63 during an anti-guerrilla operation.
- 7: Joe Frazier, US heavyweight boxer at age 67 in Philadelphia.
- 22: Lana Peters, born Svetlana Stalin and daughter of the late Soviet dictator. At 85 in the United States.
- 26: Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the leader of the Biafra secession movement that sparked civil war in Nigeria in the late 1960s. At age 78 in London.
- 27: British film director Ken Russell, at age 84 in London.
December:
- 1: Christa Wolf, leading author from the former East Germany, at 82 in Berlin.
- 3: Dev Anand, legendary Indian film star, at 88 in London.
- 4: Former Brazil fooball captain Socrates, aged 57.
