The following is a list of notable deaths in January 1996.

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.

• Arleigh Burke, 94, United States Navy admiral.^[1]
• Dori Dorika, 82, Russian-Italian actress.
• Alifa Rifaat, 65, Egyptian author.
• Arthur Rudolph, 89, German rocket engineer.^[2]
• Jessie Vihrog, 89, South African-born German film actress.
• Virgil W. Vogel, 76, American television and film director.^[3]
• Sergei Yakovlev, 70, Soviet/Russian actor.^[4]

• Michel Berto, 56, French actor.^[5]
• Viatcheslav Nazarov, 43, Russian musician, traffic collision.^[6]
• Karl Rappan, 90, Austrian football player and coach.^[7]

• Julià Reig Ribó, 84, Andorran politician. 

• Efua Theodora Sutherland, 71, Ghanaian writer.

• Aníbal Pinto Santa Cruz, 76-77, Chilean economist, heart attack.
• Terence Cuneo, 88, British artist.^[8]
• Paul Lipson, 82, American stage actor.^[9]
• Connie Ryan, 75, American baseball player and coach.^[10]
• Ričardas Vaitkevičius, 62, Soviet/Lithuanian rower and Olympian.^[11]

• Anna Amalie Abert, 89, German musicologist.^[12]
• Tino Bianchi, 90, Italian actor, pneumonia.
• Jean Feyte, 92, French film editor.
• Bob Flanagan, 43, American writer, performance artist, poet, musician, and comic, cystic fibrosis.^[13]
• Zhou Mingzhen, 77, Chinese paleontologist.
• Steve Raines, 79, American actor (Rawhide).
• Ramón Vinay, 84, Chilean opera singer.^[14]

• Yahya Ayyash, 29, Palestinian chief bombmaker of Hamas, homicide.
• Gus Bivona, 80, American musician.^[15]
• Václav David, 85, Czechoslovak politician.
• Lincoln Kirstein, 88, American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, and philanthropist.^[16]
• Knut Løfsnes, 77, Norwegian resistance member during World War II and politician.
• Thung Sin Nio, 93, Indonesian-Dutch women's rights activist, physician, economist and politician.
• Elmer Singleton, 77, American baseball player.^[17]

• Henry Hopkinson, 1st Baron Colyton, 94, British politician.
• Jan Willem de Pous, 75, Dutch politician and economist.^[18]
• William J. Dyess, 66, American diplomat, cancer.^[19]
• Duane Hanson, 70, American sculptor.^[20]
• Johnnie Johnston, 80, American actor and singer.^[21]
• Maude Kegg, 91, American Ojibwe traditionalist, bead artist, and author.
• John Philipps Kenyon, 68, British historian.^[22]
• Kim Kwang-seok, 31, South Korean musician, suicide.
• Kurt Schmücker, 76, German politician.
• Chubby Wise, 80, American bluegrass fiddler.^[23]

• William H. Clothier, 92, American cinematographer.^[24]
• John A. Gronouski, 76, American diplomat.^[25]
• Károly Grósz, 65, Hungarian politician, kidney cancer.^[26]
• V. Kumar, 61, India film score composer.
• Seton Lloyd, 93, British archaeologist.^[27]
• Harold Norman Moldenke, 86, American botanist and taxonomist.
• Tarō Okamoto, 84, Japanese artist, art theorist, and writer, Parkinson's disease.^[28]
• Bienvenido Santos, 84, Filipino writer.^[29]
• Heinrich Scheel, 80, German historian of modern age.
• Aaron Stell, 84, American film and television editor.

• Paul Cleary, 73, American gridiron football player.^[30]
• Carmen Conde, 88, Spanish poet, novelist, literary critic, Alzheimer's disease.^[31]
• Teobaldo Depetrini, 81, Italian football player and coach.^[32]
• John Hargreaves, 50, Australian actor, AIDS-related complications.^[33]
• Fernand Leblanc, 78, Canadian politician.
• Joyce McCartan, 65, Northern Irish community worker and peace activist.^[34]
• Norrie McCathie, 34, Scottish football player, carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Michiya Mihashi, 65, Japanese singer, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.^[35]
• Harlan Mills, 76, American computer scientist and academic.^[36]
• François Mitterrand, 79, French statesman and President of France, prostate cancer.^[37]
• Howard Taubman, 88, American theatre critic.^[38]
• Paul Vialar, 97, French writer.^[39]
• Sadao Watanabe, 83, Japanese printmaker.^[40]

• Abdullah al-Qasemi, 89, Saudi Arabian writer and intellectual, cancer.
• Moe Becker, 78, American basketball player.^[41]
• Ronnie Bell, 88, British physical chemist.^[42]
• Howie Braun, 83, American basketball player and coach.
• Roger Freed, 49, American baseball player, heart problems.^[43]
• Félix González-Torres, 38, American artist, AIDS-related complications.^[44]
• Metin Göktepe, 27, Turkish photojournalist, beaten to death.
• M. Larry Lawrence, 69, American diplomat.^[45]
• Walter M. Miller, 72, American fiction writer, suicide.^[46]
• Fearless Nadia, 88, Australian-Indian actress and stuntwoman.
• Sultan Rahi, 57, Pakistani actor, producer and screenwriter, ballistic trauma.
• Özdemir Sabancı, 54, Turkish businessman, murdered.
• Jack Smith, 79, American journalist, author, and newspaper columnist.
• Mike Synar, 45, American politician, brain cancer.^[47]
• Louis William Tordella, 84, American mathematician and deputy director of the National Security Agency.^[48]
• Danni Xtravaganza, 34, American member of the ballroom scene, AIDS-related complications.

• Ivan Deryugin, 67, Soviet/Russian modern pentathlete and Olympic champion.^[49]
• Raymond H. Fogler, 103, American politician.
• Dean McAdams, 78, American gridiron football player.^[50]
• Egidio Ortona, 85, Italian diplomat.^[51]
• Don Richardson, 77, American television director (Lost in Space, The Adventures of Ellery Queen, Bonanza).
• Joseph Charles Schultz Jr., 77, American baseball player, manager, and coach.^[52]

• Harold Walter Bailey, 96, British scholar of Asian languages.
• Tato Bores, 70, Argentine actor.
• Roger Crozier, 53, Canadian ice hockey player, cancer.^[53]
• Eric Hebborn, 61, English painter, draughtsman, art forger and author, homicide.^[54]
• Ike Isaacs, 76, Burmese-English jazz guitarist.^[55]

• Eduard Haken, 85, Czech actor, doctor and opera singer.
• Edmund Happold, 65, British engineer and activist.
• Jonas Jonsson, 92, Swedish sport shooter.^[56]
• Joseph Kuzmin, 85, Russian politician.
• Jon Pattis, American engineer imprisoned in Iran, congestive heart failure.^[57]
• John Howard Purnell, 70, Welsh chemist.
• Fouad Sedki, 70, Egyptian football player.^[58]
• Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, 92, Dutch mathematician and mathematics historian.^[59]
• Dai Ward, 61, Welsh football player.^[60]

• Denise Grey, 99, Italian-French actress.^[61]
• Mark Herron, 67, American actor, cancer.
• Dean Kelley, 64, American basketball player.^[62]
• Ester Krumbachová, 72, Czech filmmaker.^[63]
• Bobby Langton, 77, English football player and manager.^[64]
• Aliou Mahamidou, 48, Nigerien politician and Prime Minister.
• Sam Merwin, Jr., 85, American writer.^[65]
• Elina Pohjanpää, 62, Finnish actress, oral cancer.
• Jorge Sapelli, 70, Uruguayan politician.

• Annie Broadbent, 87, British artistic gymnast.^[66]
• Umberto Drei, 70, Italian racing cyclist.^[67]
• Jacques Lebrun, 85, French sailor.
• Onno Tunç, 47, Turkish composer, plane crash.

• Les Baxter, 73, American musician, singer, and composer.^[68]
• Richard Cobb, 78, British historian, essayist, and professor.^[69]
• Gerhard Huttula, 93, German cinematographer and film director.^[70]
• Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho, 57, King of Lesotho, traffic collision.^[71]
• Edward Makula, 65, Polish aviator.
• Mohsin Naqvi, 48, Pakistani poet, murdered.
• Max Varnel, 70, French film director.^[72]
• Rudolf Wanderone, 82, American pool player.^[73]

• Marcia Davenport, 92, American author and music critic.^[74]
• Richard Kermode, 49, American keyboardist.^[75]
• Harry Potts, 75, English football player and manager.^[76]
• Kurt Svanström, 80, Swedish football player.

• Arnold Anderson, 83, New Zealand sprinter.
• Barbara Jordan, 59, American politician, pneumonia.^[77]
• Charles Madge, 83, English poet, journalist and sociologist.^[78]
• Harry Robertson, 63, Scottish musician, bandleader, and composer.^[79]
• Juan Luis Segundo, 70, Uruguayan priest and theologian.^[80]
• Xuefan Zhu, 90, Chinese politician.

• Osro Cobb, 91, American lawyer and politician.^[81]
• Leonor Fini, 87, Argentine painter, designer and writer.^[82]
• John Hope, 1st Baron Glendevon, 83, British politician.^[83]
• N. T. Rama Rao, 72, Indian actor, producer, director, and politician, heart attack.^[84]
• Alberto Ruschel, 77, Brazilian actor, producer, and director.^[85]

• Upendranath Ashk, 85, Indian novelist, short story writer and playwright.^[86]
• Bernard Baily, 79, American comic book artist.
• A. G. Gaston, 103, American businessman.^[87]
• Kasım Gülek, 91, Turkish politician.^[88]
• Byron Keith, 78, American actor (77 Sunset Strip, Batman, The Stranger), heart attack.
• Anton Myrer, 73, American author, leukemia.^[89]
• Donny Schmit, 29, American motorcycle racer, aplastic anemia.
• Don Simpson, 52, American film producer (Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, The Rock), heart failure.^[90]
• Lucien Theys, 68, Belgian long-distance and steeplechase runner.^[91]
• Harold Wolpe, 70, South African political economist.

• Buster Benton, 63, American blues guitarist and singer, diabetes.^[92]
• Tom Dimitroff, Sr., 60, American and Canadian football player and coach.^[93]
• Sidney Korshak, 88, American lawyer and "fixer" for the Chicago Mafia.^[94]
• Joseph Mermans, 73, Belgian football player.
• Gerry Mulligan, 68, American jazz baritone saxophonist, arranger and composer, liver cancer.^[95]
• Lo Wei, 77, Chinese film director, heart failure.^[96]

• Jordan Christopher, 55, American actor (Secrets of Midland Heights) and singer.
• Roman Cieślewicz, 66, Polish artist, laryngeal cancer.^[97]
• Herbert McEver, 89, American sportsman and coach.
• Peter Stadlen, 85, British pianist.^[98]
• Henry Serrano Villard, 95, American diplomat and author, pneumonia.^[99]

• William Cantrell, 87, American powerboat and racecar driver.
• Israel Eldad, 85, Israeli philosopher.^[100]
• Dick Rand, 64, American baseball player.^[101]
• Petro Shelest, 87, Soviet/Ukrainian politician.

• Cliff Griffith, 79, American racecar driver.
• Norman MacCaig, 85, Scottish poet and teacher.^[102]
• Richard Sakakida, 75, American intelligence agent.
• Horst Wende, 76, German musician.^[103]
• Art White, 80, American gridiron football player.^[104]

• Jimmy Davidson, 70, Scottish football player.
• Sándor Iharos, 65, Hungarian long-distance runner.^[105]
• Tom Tracy, 61, American gridiron football player.^[106]
• Wim Umboh, 62, Indonesian film director.
• Seigo Yamaguchi, 71, Japanese aikido instructor and Aikikai teacher.

• Billy Bailey, 49, American murderer, execution by hanging.^[107]
• Ruth Berghaus, 68, German stage director of opera, cancer.^[108]
• Antonio Buenaventura, 91, Filipino composer and musician.
• Ángel García, 76, Cuban sprinter.^[109]
• Jack Haden, 81, American gridiron football player.^[110]
• Mian Shaukat Hussain, 67, Pakistani tabla player.
• Jonathan Larson, 35, American composer and playwright (Rent, Tick, Tick... Boom!), aortic dissection.^[111]
• Yuri Levitansky, 74, Russian poet and writer.^[112]

• Gerrit Cornelis Berkouwer, 92, Dutch theologian.^[113]
• Harold Brodkey, 65, American short-story writer and novelist, AIDS-related complications.^[114]
• Saul Goodman, 88, American timpanist.^[115]
• Yawara Hata, 85, Japanese politician and lawyer.
• Frank Howard, 86, American gridiron football player and coach.^[116]
• Charles Jewtraw, 95, American speed skater.^[117]
• Jiří Kotalík, 75, Czech art historian and gallery director.^[118]
• Henry Lewis, 63, American conductor, heart attack.^[119]
• Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg, 74, German noble.
• Bob Pastor, 82, American boxer.^[120]
• Allan Robert Phillips, 81, American ornithologist, cancer.
• Stevie Plunder, 32, Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter, suicide.
• Dave Schultz, 36, American wrestler and murder victim, shot.^[121]
• Hormasji Maneckji Seervai, 89, Indian lawyer.
• John Albert Taylor, 36, American murderer, execution by firing squad.^[122]
• Dimitri Zaitz, 78, American shot putter.^[123]

• Olga Havlová, 62, Czech activist and first wife of president Václav Havel, cancer.^[124]
• Vyacheslav Lemeshev, 43, Olympic boxer.^[125]
• Patrick Ludlow, 92, British actor.^[126]
• Thomas Mitchell, 93, English cricket player.
• Vsevolod Sanayev, 83, Russian/Soviet actor.^[127]
• Barbara Skelton, 79, English memoirist, novelist and socialite.^[128]
• Ralph Yarborough, 92, American politician and lawyer.^[129]

• Dev Kant Baruah, 81, Indian politician.
• Joseph Brodsky, 55, Russian-American poet, heart attack.^[130]
• Burne Hogarth, 84, American cartoonist.^[131]
• Piero Palermini, 70, Italian actor.
• Jerry Siegel, 81, American comic book artist, co-creator of Superman, heart attack.^[132]
• Geo Widengren, 88, Swedish historian and academic.^[133]
• San Yu, 77, Burmese general, politician, and president of Myanmar.^[134]

• Julius Posener, 91, German architectural historian and author.^[135]
• Terence Reese, 82, British bridge player and writer.^[136]
• Bill Sorensen, 63, New Zealand rugby player, coach and administrator.
• Jamie Uys, 74, South African film director, film producer, and screenwriter, heart attack.^[137]

• Friedrich Benfer, 90, German actor.
• Guy Doleman, 72, New Zealand actor (Thunderball, The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin), lung cancer.^[138]
• Gino Gallagher, 33, Irish republican and member of the Irish National Liberation Army, shot.
• Bob Thiele, 73, American record producer and music executive, kidney failure.^[139]

• E. C. L. During Caspers, 61, Dutch archaeologist.^[140]
• Olle Hallberg, 92, Swedish long jumper and Olympian.^[141]
• Rufus G. Herring, 74, United States Navy Medal of Honor recipient.
• Wolf Karni, 84, Finnish football referee.
• Gustave Solomon, 65, American mathematician and electrical engineer.^[142]