January • January 2 – Irving Johnson, American sailor and author (b. 1905) • January 3 – Luke Appling, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1907) • January 5 – Johnny Eck, American entertainer (b. 1911) • January 6 – Alan Wiggins, American baseball player (b. 1958) • January 7 – Everett Bidwell, American politician (b. 1899) • January 11 – Carl David Anderson, American physicist (b. 1905) • January 12 – Mary Francis Shura, American writer (b. 1923) • January 18 – Hamilton Fish III, American soldier and politician (b. 1888) • January 19 – John Russell, American actor (b. 1921) • January 28 – Red Grange, American football player (b. 1903) • January 29 – John McIntire, American actor (b. 1907) • January 30 • John Bardeen, American physicist (b. 1908) • Clifton C. Edom, American photojournalism educator (b. 1907) February • February 1 – Carol Dempster, American actress (b. 1901) • February 2 – Pete Axthelm, American sportswriter (b. 1943) • February 3 • Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921) • Ed Russenholt, first US weather presenter (b. 1890) • February 5 – Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903) • February 6 – Danny Thomas, American singer, comedian, and actor (b. 1912) • February 9 – James Cleveland (b. 1931) • February 10 – Bernard Lee, American civil rights activist (b. 1935) • February 14 • John A. McCone, American politician (b. 1902) • Neta Snook, American aviator (b. 1896) • February 15 – Arturo Islas, American professor and novelist (b. 1938) • February 21 – John Sherman Cooper, American politician (b. 1901) • February 24 • George Gobel, American comedian (b. 1919) • Webb Pierce, American musician (b. 1921) • Jean Rogers, American actress (b. 1916) March • March 1 – Edwin H. Land, American scientist and inventor (b. 1909) • March 3 – Arthur Murray, American dancer and dance instructor (b. 1895) • March 7 – Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player (b. 1903) • March 14 • Howard Ashman, American lyricist (b. 1950) • Doc Pomus, American composer (b. 1925) • March 15 – George Sherman, American film director (b. 1908) • March 16 – Latasha Harlins, American teenage homicide victim (b. 1976) • March 18 – Vilma Bánky, Hungarian-born actress (b. 1901) • March 21 • Nan Britton, American secretary, mistress of Warren G. Harding (b. 1896) • Leo Fender, American instrument maker (b. 1909) • March 23 – Margaret Atwood Judson, historian and author (b. 1899) • March 27 – Aldo Ray, American actor (b. 1926) • March 29 – Lee Atwater, American political consultant and strategist (b. 1951) April • April 1 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1894) • April 3 – Charles Goren, American bridge player, writer, and columnist (b. 1901) • April 4 – John Heinz, American politician (b. 1938) • April 5 • Sonny Carter, American astronaut (b. 1947) • John Tower, American politician (b. 1925) • April 7 – Ruth Page, American ballerina and choreographer (b. 1899) • April 9 – Forrest Towns, American Olympic athlete (b. 1914) • April 10 • Kevin Peter Hall, American actor (b. 1955) • Natalie Schafer, American actress (b. 1900) • April 11 – Dick Manning, Russian-born American songwriter (b. 1912) • April 20 – Don Siegel, American film director (b. 1912) • April 23 – Johnny Thunders, American musician (b. 1952) • April 26 • Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor (b. 1910) • Emily McLaughlin, American actress (b. 1928) • William Andrew Paton, founder of the American Accounting Association in 1916, (b. 1889) • April 28 • Ken Curtis, American actor and singer (b. 1916) • Paul E. Klopsteg, American physicist (b. 1889) • Floyd McKissick, American lawyer and civil rights activist (b. 1922) • Lee Wulff, American conservationist and fisherman (b. 1905) May • May 1 – Richard Thorpe, American film director (b. 1896) • May 3 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American writer (b. 1933) • May 4 – Dennis Crosby, American singer and actor (b. 1934) • May 6 – Wilfrid Hyde-White, British actor (b. 1903) • May 22 – Derrick Henry Lehmer, American mathematician (b. 1905) • May 24 – Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter (b. 1944) • May 26 – Tom Eyen, American writer and director (b. 1940) • May 27 – Konerak Sinthasomphone, One of Jeffrey Dahmer's Victim (b. 1976) • May 29 – Coral Browne, Australian actress (b. 1913) June • June 1 – David Ruffin, American singer (b. 1941) • June 3 • Eva Le Gallienne, English-born actress (b. 1899) • Andy Milligan, American playwright, actor, and filmmaker (b. 1929) • June 4 – MC Trouble, American rapper (b. 1970) • June 5 • Evelyn Boucher, British silent film actress (b. 1892) • Min Chueh Chang, Chinese-born American reproductive biologist (b. 1908) • Larry Kert, American actor (b. 1930) • June 6 – Stan Getz, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1927) • June 8 – Bertice Reading, American actress and singer (b. 1933) • June 9 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (b. 1903) • June 15 – Happy Chandler, governor of Kentucky and commissioner of Major League Baseball (b. 1898) • June 18 • Vivion Brewer, American desegregationist (b. 1900) • Joan Caulfield, American actress (b. 1922) • June 19 – Jean Arthur, American actress (b. 1900) • June 25 – Michael Heidelberger, American immunologist (b. 1888) July • July 1 – Michael Landon, American actor (b. 1936) • July 2 – Lee Remick, American actress (b. 1935) • July 4 – Henry Koerner, Austrian-born American painter and graphic designer (b. 1915) • July 5 • Mildred Dunnock, American actress (b. 1901) • Howard Nemerov, American poet (b. 1920) • July 8 – James Franciscus, American actor (b. 1934) • July 15 • Bert Convy, American actor, singer, game show host and television personality (b. 1933) • Roger Revelle, American scientist and scholar (b. 1909) • July 16 – Robert Motherwell, American painter (b. 1915) • July 17 – Arthur Raymond Brooks, American World War I fighter ace (b. 1895) • July 21 – Theodore Wilson, American actor (b. 1943) August • August 1 – Chris Short, American baseball pitcher (b. 1937) • August 5 • Paul Brown, American football coach (b. 1908) • Sam Goodman, American gospel singer (b. 1931) • August 6 – Harry Reasoner, American journalist and newscaster (b. 1923) • August 8 • Julissa Gomez, American gymnast (b. 1972) • James Irwin, American astronaut (b. 1930) • August 11 – J.D. McDuffie, American NASCAR driver (b. 1938) • August 13 – James Roosevelt, American businessman and politician (b. 1907) • August 14 – Richard A. Snelling, American politician (b. 1927) • August 22 • Colleen Dewhurst, Canadian-born American actress (b. 1924) • Jane Stafford, American medical writer and chemist (b. 1899) • August 23 • Florence B. Seibert, American biochemist (b. 1897) • Mildred Trotter, American forensic anthropologist (b. 1899) • August 25 – Niven Busch, American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1903) September • September 3 – Frank Capra, Italian-born American film director (b. 1897) • September 4 • Charlie Barnet, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1913) • Tom Tryon, American actor and writer (b. 1926) • Dottie West, American singer (b. 1932) • September 6 – Donald Henry Gaskins, American serial killer (b. 1933) • September 7 – Edwin McMillan, American chemist (b. 1917) • September 8 • Brad Davis, American actor (b. 1949) • Alex North, American film composer (b. 1910) • Nell Donnelly Reed, American fashion designer and businesswoman (b. 1889) • September 12 – Chris Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1969) • September 13 – Joe Pasternak, Hungarian-born film director (b. 1901) • September 14 • Russell Lynes, American art historian, photographer, and author (b. 1910) • Lisa Michelson, American voice actress (b. 1958) • September 15 – John Hoyt, American actor (b. 1905) • September 17 – Frank H. Netter, American artist, physician, and medical illustrator (b. 1906) • September 24 – Dr. Seuss, American author (b. 1904) • September 25 – Barbara Rose Johns, American civil rights activist (b. 1935) • September 28 – Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1926) • September 29 – Grace Zaring Stone, American writer (b. 1891) October • October 6 – Florence B. Seibert, American biochemist (b. 1897) • October 7 – Leo Durocher, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1905) • October 9 – Thalmus Rasulala, American actor (b. 1939) • October 11 – Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (b. 1922) • October 12 • Aline MacMahon, American actress (b. 1899) • Regis Toomey, American actor (b. 1898) • October 17 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer (b. 1919) • October 24 – Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (b. 1921) • October 25 – Bill Graham, American promoter (b. 1931) • October 27 – Howard Kingsbury, American Olympic rower – Men's eights (b. 1904) • October 28 – Sylvia Fine, American lyricist (b. 1913) • October 31 – Joseph Papp, American theater director and producer (b. 1921) November • November 2 • Irwin Allen, American film and television producer (b. 1916) • Mort Shuman, American singer, pianist and songwriter (b. 1938) • November 3 – Chris Bender, American musician (b. 1972) • November 5 – Fred MacMurray, American actor (b. 1908) • November 6 – Gene Tierney, American actress (b. 1920) • November 8 – John Kirkpatrick, American pianist and music scholar (b. 1905) • November 14 – Tony Richardson, English film and theater director (b. 1928) • November 19 – Reggie Nalder, Austrian actor (b. 1907) • November 21 – Daniel Mann, American film director (b. 1912) • November 23 – Klaus Kinski, German actor (b. 1926) • November 24 • Eric Carr, American drummer (b. 1950) • Anton Furst, American art director (b. 1944) • November 25 – Eleanor Audley, American actress (b. 1905) • November 26 • Carl G. Fenner, American botanist (b. 1899) • Ed Heinemann, American aircraft designer (b. 1908) • Bob Johnson, American ice hockey coach (b. 1931) • November 29 • Ralph Bellamy, American actor (b. 1904) • Frank Yerby, American novelist (b. 1916) December • December 1 – George Stigler, American economist (b. 1911) • December 5 – Richard Speck, American mass murderer (b. 1941) • December 9 – Berenice Abbott, American photographer (b. 1898) • December 10 – Greta Kempton, American artist (b. 1901) • December 11 – Robert Q. Lewis, American radio and television personality (b. 1920) • December 12 – Eleanor Boardman, American actress (b. 1898) • December 19 – Howie Dallmar, American basketball player (b. 1922) • December 21 – Sheldon Mayer, American author and illustrator (b. 1917) • December 24 – Marguerite Williams, African American geologist (b. 1895) ==See also==

1991 in the United States