The following is a list of notable deaths in August 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.

• Sandy Bell, 79, South African cricketer.
• Alois Carigiet, 82, Swiss artist and illustrator.^[1]
• F. N. Cook, 80, Australian naval officer.
• Jack Dootson, 71, American politician, member of the Washington House of Representatives (1941–1943, 1951–1953, 1963–1967).
• Helene Engelmann, 87, Austrian Olympic pair skater (1924).
• Edward McClaren, 83, American physician.
• Manuel Meana, 83, Spanish footballer.
• Lawrence D. Miles, 81, American engineer.
• Harry Mittleman, 85, American building contractor and real estate developer.
• Jules Moch, 92, French politician.^[2]
• Victoria Mxenge, 43, South African anti-apartheid activist, shot.
• Al Overton, 73, American sound engineer (Diamonds Are Forever).
• Fernando Previtali, 78, Italian conductor.
• Dorothy Burney Richards, 91, American conservationist (Beaversprite).
• James L. Shaver, 83, American politician, lieutenant governor of Arkansas (1943–1947).
• Andy Stynchula, 46, American football player, traffic collision.^[3]
• D. H. Turner, 54, English historian and museum curator.
• Joseph Walker, 92, American cinematographer (It's a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night).^[4]
• Patty Willis, 75, American aviator.

• Curt F. Bühler, 80, American librarian and literary scholar.
• María Caviglia, 90, Argentine politician.
• Philip Don Estridge, 48, American computer engineer, plane crash.^[5]
• Frank Faylen, 79, American actor, respiratory disease.^[6]
• Rose Goldsen, 68, American sociologist.
• Bob Holt, 56, American voice actor (The Great Grape Ape Show, The Incredible Hulk, The Lorax), heart attack.
• John S. Rice, 86, American politician and diplomat, ambassador to the Netherlands (1961–1964), member of the Pennsylvania Senate (1933–1940).^[7]
• Karl Heinz Stroux, 77, German actor and theatre director.
• Richard Walker, 67, English angler and fishing writer.
• Ralph Younger, 81, British general.

• Eileen Beldon, 83, English actress.
• Mosco Carner, 80, Austrian-born British musicologist and conductor.^[8]
• Gordon Churchill, 86, Canadian politician, MP (1951–1968).
• Banarasi Das, 73, Indian politician.
• George Dempsey, 79, Australian Olympic racing cyclist (1924).
• Coleman Dowell, 60, American writer, suicide by jumping.^[9]
• Miranda Downes, 35, Australian screenwriter, murdered.
• Ludwig Jetzinger, 93, Austrian footballer.
• Alphonse Leboulanger, 79, French racing cyclist.
• Cloy Mattox, 82, American baseball player.
• R. Hunter Middleton, 87, Scottish-born American typeface designer.
• Harry Phillips, 76, American jurist, injuries sustained in a traffic collision.^[10]

• Mario Dubsky, 46, English artist, AIDS.
• Fritz Eikemeier, 77, German police officer.
• Michel Jourdan, 59, French actor.
• Max Krook, 72, American astrophysicist and mathematician.^[11]
• William F. Leonard, 71, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient.
• Maurice Petherick, 90, British politician, MP (1931–1945).
• Orange Phelps, 98, American politician and theater executive, mayor of Hillsboro, Oregon (1929–1935).
• Ivan Radoev, 83, Bulgarian footballer.
• Mitch Sutton, 34, American football player.
• Zbyněk Vostřák, 65, Czechoslovak composer.
• Don Whillans, 52, English mountaineer, heart attack.
• Q. V. Williamson, 66, American politician, respiratory failure.^[12]
• Pierre Young, 59, French-born British engineer and mathematician.

• Ernest Adam, 85, Belgian politician.
• Lorne Betts, 67, Canadian composer.
• Aub Charleston, 83, Australian footballer.
• Sir Lionel Denny, 88, British politician, Lord Mayor of London (1965–1966).
• Chester Wilson Emmons, 84, American mycologist.
• Arnold Horween, 87, American football player and coach.
• Olav Kielland, 83, Norwegian composer.
• Ted Kimball, 75, American radio broadcaster.
• Charles Pruitt, 55, American politician, member of the Tennessee House of Representatives (since 1970), heart attack.
• Mona Richardson, 38, American singer and actress.
• Gladys Byram Shepperd, 83, American educator.
• Francis Xavier Thomas, 79, Australian Roman Catholic prelate.
• Arnold Wilkins, 78, British radar developer.

• Krystyna Ankwicz, 78, Polish actress.
• William Anstruther-Gray, Baron Kilmany, 80, Scottish politician, MP (1931–1945, 1951–1956).
• Leon Bogues, 57, American politician, lung cancer.^[13]
• Forbes Burnham, 62, Guyanese politician, president (since 1980) and prime minister (1964–1980), heart failure.^[14]
• Ninni Cassarà, 38, Italian police officer, shot.^[15]
• Juanita Craft, 83, American civil rights activist and politician.
• Ramón Ernesto Cruz Uclés, 82, Honduran politician, president (1971–1972).
• Karl Diebitsch, 86, German artist and SS weapon designer.
• Ken Ernst, 67, American cartoonist.^[16]
• Ann Govednik, 69, American Olympic swimmer (1932, 1936).
• John Harmon, 80, American actor.
• Jeanne Helbling, 82, French actress.
• Johann Kurz, 71, Austrian Roman Catholic prelate.
• George Leite, 64, American author.
• Ronald Melville, 82, English botanist.
• Dorothy Pantin, 89, Manx surgeon.
• Enrico Ruberti, 70, Italian Olympic rower (1948).

• Joanne Cole, 51, British artist and illustrator (Bod), cancer.
• Alan Fitch, 70, British politician, MP (1958–1983).
• Irene Gilbert, 76-77, Irish fashion designer.
• Grayson Hall, 62, American actress (The Night of the Iguana, One Life to Live, Dark Shadows), lung cancer.^[17]
• Barrington Hill, 70, English cricketer.
• Edward Mowinckel-Larsen, 90, Norwegian engineer.
• Juan Nelson, 94, Argentine Olympic polo player (1924, 1936).
• David Robertson, 84, Scottish-American footballer.
• Johnny Rucker, 68, American baseball player.
• Gábor Szegő, 90, Hungarian-American mathematician.^[18]

• Benny Barnes, 51, American singer.
• Louise Brooks, 78, American actress (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, Beggars of Life), heart attack.^[19]
• Alfredo De Marsico, 97, Italian politician.
• Roddie Edmonds, 65, American soldier and humanitarian.
• Milton H. Greene, 63, American photographer, lymphoma.
• Sayed Houda, 84, Egyptian footballer.
• Les Jago, 77, Australian footballer.
• Louis Meeuwessen, 81, Dutch Olympic boxer (1924).
• Edward Pimental, 20, American soldier, shot.
• Gennaro Vitiello, 55, Italian actor and director.
• Leo Weisgerber, 86, German linguist.

• Fred Åkerström, 48, Swedish singer and guitarist.
• Mario J. Cariello, 78, American politician and jurist, cancer.^[20]
• Clive Churchill, 58, Australian rugby player and coach.
• Garrett W. Hagedorn, 74, American politician, member of the New Jersey Senate (since 1968), heart attack.^[21]
• Willem Kremer, 89, Dutch theologian.
• Lance McCaskill, 85, New Zealand conservationist.
• Florence Mophosho, 64, South African anti-apartheid activist.
• Mauri Sariola, 60, Finnish novelist.
• Thelma Van Norte, 73, American medical librarian.^[22]

• Kenny Baker, 72, American singer and actor, heart attack.^[23]
• Nate Barragar, 78, American football player.
• Louise Landry Gadbois, 88, Canadian painter.^[24]
• Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, 85-86, Ukrainian-born Israeli rabbi.^[25]
• Beryl H. Potter, 84, American astronomer.
• Edward Ernest Swanstrom, 82, American Roman Catholic prelate.^[26]

• Frank Birkenhead, 87, English comedian (Morris and Cowley).
• Kurt Bühligen, 67, German flying ace.
• Nick Ceroli, 45, American drummer, heart attack.^[27]
• Manuel Conde, 69, Filipino actor and filmmaker.
• János Drapál, 37, Hungarian racing cyclist, racing crash.
• Sir John Grace, 80, New Zealand diplomat.
• Hector Grey, 81, Scottish businessman.
• Helen Webb Harris, 85, American educator, golfer and playwright.^[28]
• Pavel Korovkin, 72, Soviet mathematician.
• Manuel António Vassalo e Silva, 85, Portuguese colonial administrator.^[29]

• Billy Devore, 74, American racing driver.
• Folke Fridell, 80, Swedish writer.
• Sir Harry Godwin, 84, English botanist.
• Patrick Hines, 55, American actor, heart attack.^[30]
• Alfons Luczny, 91, German general.
• Jack Manke, 68, American politician, member of the South Dakota Senate (since 1981), heart attack.^[31]
• Jim Pender, 73, Australian footballer.
• Kyu Sakamoto, 43, Japanese singer ("Sukiyaki"), plane crash.
• Kåre Stokkeland, 67, Norwegian politician.
• Masanori Tsuji, 39, Japanese Olympic racing cyclist (1964), plane crash.
• Manfred Winkelhock, 33, German racing driver, racing crash.^[32]
• Xiao Hua, 69, Chinese general.

• Slobodan Aligrudić, 50, Yugoslav actor.
• Albert Bonzano, 80, French Olympic rower (1924, 1928).
• Cecil Browne, 89, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Edwin Duerr, 81, American theatre director.
• Josef Fath, 73, German footballer.
• Ida Lough, 82, New Zealand weaver.
• J. Willard Marriott, 84, American business executive (Marriott Corporation), heart attack.^[33]
• Marion Martin, 76, American actress.
• Shiva Naipaul, 40, Trinidadian-British novelist and journalist, heart attack.^[34]
• Paul Edward Paget, 84, English architect.
• Åse Gruda Skard, 79, Norwegian psychologist.
• Nelson B. Tinnin, 79, American politician, member of the Missouri Senate (1961–1985).

• Manuel Armanqué, 84, Spanish Olympic water polo player (1920).
• Bobbie Barwell, 89, New Zealand photographer.
• Marie Bell, 84, French actress and theatre director.
• Józef Chlebowczyk, 61, Polish historian.
• Dick Crayne, 72, American football player.
• María Olimpia de Obaldía, 93, Panamanian poet.
• Nazlı Ecevit, 85, Turkish painter.
• Sergio Galeotti, 40, Italian architect and businessman (Armani), heart attack.^[35]
• Alfred Hayes, 74, American poet and screenwriter.^[36]
• Lina Heydrich, 74, German memoirist.
• Walter C. Langsam, 79, American academic administrator.^[37]
• Murray Shelton, 92, American football player.
• Merwin H. Silverthorn, 88, American general.^[38]
• Gale Sondergaard, 86, American actress (Anthony Adverse, Anna and the King of Siam, The Mark of Zorro).^[39]

• Cecil Boswell, 75, English cricketer.
• Joe Carveth, 67, Canadian ice hockey player.
• Lester Cole, 81, American screenwriter, part of the Hollywood Ten, heart attack.^[40]
• Donald Ferguson, 64, American Olympic racing cyclist (1956).
• Ivan Gronsky, 90, Soviet writer.
• Christian Alusine Kamara-Taylor, 68, Sierra Leonean politician, prime minister (1975–1978).
• Bernard Loomer, 73, American theologian.^[41]
• Robert Maxwell, 83, American Olympic runner (1928).
• Leon Prima, 78, American trumpeter.
• Sidney A. von Luther, 60, American politician, member of the New York State Senate (1971–1974).^[42]
• Richard Yardumian, 68, American composer, heart attack.^[43]

• John Brent, 47, American comedian and actor.
• Dick Drott, 49, American baseball player, stomach cancer.^[44]
• Philip J. Lewis, 84, Canadian politician.
• Mario Majoni, 75, Italian Olympic water polo player (1948).
• Géza Toldi, 76, Hungarian footballer.
• Joseph Henry Wegstein, 63, American computer scientist.

• Gaspare Ambrosini, 98, Italian politician and jurist.
• Nicholas Eden, 2nd Earl of Avon, 54, British politician and hereditary peer.^[45]
• Matsuo Kishi, 78, Japanese filmmaker.
• Honesto Mayoralgo, 51, Filipino basketball player and coach.
• Henriette Mertz, 89, American fringe archaeologist.^[46]
• Anatoly Timofeyev, 97, Russian Olympic fencer (1912).
• Joseph T. White, 23, American soldier and defector to North Korea, drowned.^[47]

• Edward Johnston Alexander, 84, American botanist.
• Sir Herbert Andrew, 75, English civil servant.
• Julia Arévalo de Roche, 87, Uruguayan politician.
• Arthur E. Baird, 89, American radio game show host (Professor Quiz).
• Irene Caroline Diner Koenigsberger, 88, American chemist.^[48]
• Michael Long, 56, British jurist.
• Josip Primožič, 85, Yugoslav Olympic gymnast (1924, 1928).

• Herbert Kenneth Airy Shaw, 83, English botanist.
• Arthur Ashwell, 77, English cricketer.
• Edward Cooper, 89, English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient.
• Nate Harlan, 57, American football player and coach.
• Robert W. Hasbrouck, 89, American general, heart failure.^[49]
• Rose Angela Horan, 90, American Roman Catholic nun and philosopher.
• Jānis Matulis, 74, Soviet Latvian Lutheran prelate.
• Bobby Reynolds, 54, American college football player, stroke.^[50]
• Curtis Howe Springer, 88, American radio evangelist.
• Cedric Wallace, 76, American jazz musician.
• Hōdai Yamazaki, 70, Japanese poet.

• Syed Murtaza Fazl Ali, 64, Indian jurist.
• Chow Ching-Wen, 76-77, Chinese human rights activist.
• Clarence Fieber, 71, American baseball player.
• Donald O. Hebb, 81, Canadian neuropsychologist.
• Russ Hoogerhyde, 79, American archer.
• Kenneth Kennedy, 71, Australian Olympic speed skater (1936).
• Harchand Singh Longowal, 53, Indian politician, shot.^[51]
• Wilhelm Meendsen-Bohlken, 88, German naval admiral.
• Basil Nicholson, 72, English rugby player.
• Václav Rais, 75, Czechoslovak Olympic fencer (1936).
• William T. Stockton Jr., 66, American politician, member of the Florida Senate (1967–1968).

• E. Richard Barnes, 79, American politician, member of the California State Assembly (1963–1973).
• Sverre Berglie, 74, Norwegian footballer.
• Joseph Eidelberg, 69, Ukrainian-born Israeli linguist and biblical scholar.
• Fernand Guindon, 68, Canadian politician.
• Trygve Heltveit, 71, Norwegian philologist.
• Roy Luebbe, 84, American baseball player.
• David Olère, 83, Polish-born French artist.
• Gheorghe Pintilie, 82, Soviet-Romanian politician and intelligence agent.
• David Reed, 13, American murder victim.
• Maxwell Shaw, 56, British actor.
• Suhaim bin Hamad Al Thani, 51-52, Qatari royal, heart attack.^[52]
• István Szendeffy, 85, Hungarian Olympic rower (1924).

• Burton Y. Berry, 83, American diplomat.^[53]
• Octavian Cotescu, 54, Romanian actor.
• Douglas Darby, 74, Australian politician.
• Leo Dean, 70, Australian footballer.
• Paul Peter Ewald, 97, German physicist and crystallographer.
• Charles Gibson, 65, American historian and anthropologist.^[54]
• Christian H. Kahl, 80, American politician.
• Aleksandra Khokhlova, 87, Soviet actress and theatre director.
• Peter Torleivson Molaug, 82, Norwegian politician.
• Jerry O'Sullivan, 45, Irish hurler, heart attack.
• Alice Piper, 76, American Paiute activist.
• Turgut Uyar, 58, Turkish poet, cirrhosis.

• Ginty Lush, 71, Australian cricketer.
• Luís Matoso, 83, Brazilian footballer.
• Arne Nic. Sandnes, 65, Norwegian politician.
• Wang Kunlun, 83, Chinese politician.

• Robert P. Alexander, 80, American philatelist.
• William V. Banks, 82, American lawyer and radio station proprietor.
• Paul Creston, 78, American composer.^[55]
• Colin Crompton, 54, English comedian, lung cancer.
• L.C. Green, 63, American blues musician.
• Adolphe Groscol, 81, Belgian Olympic sprinter (1928).
• Storm Herseth, 87, Norwegian chess player.
• Svend Holm, 89, Danish footballer.
• B. J. Kaston, 79, American arachnologist.
• Noel Martin, 92, British golfer and soldier.
• Boots McClain, 86, American baseball player.
• John Reid, 84, New Zealand diplomat.
• Morrie Ryskind, 89, American screenwriter, playwright, and political activist.^[56]
• Soledad Salvador, 28, Filipino activist, beheaded.

• Robin Andrew, 72, New Zealand lawn bowler.
• Ernst Aust, 62, German political activist.
• Rudi Blesh, 86, American jazz critic, heart attack.^[57]
• Arthur Chresby, 77, Australian politician, MP (1958–1961).
• Eugenio Della Casa, 84, Italian Olympic water polo player (1924).
• Paul Harris, 67, American actor.
• Lloyd Hyde, 65, Canadian politician.
• Jee Yong-ju, 36, South Korean boxer, stabbed.
• Robert D. Morrow Sr., 90, American politician.^[58]
• Ellis E. Patterson, 87, American politician, lieutenant governor of California (1939–1943), member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1945–1947), cancer.^[59]
• Austin Punch, 91, Australian cricketer.
• Fred Raul, 72, Austrian actor.
• Fabri Salcedo, 71, Spanish-born American footballer.
• Samantha Smith, 13, American peace activist and actress (Lime Street), plane crash.^[60]
• Hermann Tunner, 72, Austrian Olympic discus thrower (1948).
• Dick Wakefield, 64, American baseball player.
• Pino Zac, 55, Italian cartoonist, stroke.

• Chang Ch'i-yun, 83, Chinese politician and historian.
• Stu Clarke, 79, American baseball player.
• Norman Douglas, 75, New Zealand politician, MP (1960–1975).
• Åke Fridell, 66, Swedish actor.
• Fred Louis Lerch, 83, Austrian-German actor.
• Per Monsen, 72, Norwegian newspaper editor.
• Sir Edward Paris, 96, British scientist and civil servant.
• Leopoldo Querol, 85, Spanish pianist.
• Ole Rømer Aagaard Sandberg, 85, Norwegian politician.
• Charles W. Sandman Jr., 63, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1967–1975), complications from a stroke.^[61]
• Norman Schneider, 96, Canadian politician, MP (1952–1958).

• John Albrechtson, 49, Swedish Olympic sailor (1968, 1972, 1976), suicide.
• Rogelio Crespo, 90, Cuban baseball player.
• John Hurley, 91, Australian politician.
• Johnny Lindell, 68, American baseball player, lung cancer.^[62]
• Emile Touma, 66, Israeli journalist and historian.
• J. Stafford Wright, 80, British theologian.

• Ruth Gordon, 88, American actress (Rosemary's Baby, Inside Daisy Clover) and screenwriter (Adam's Rib).^[63]
• Berry Johnson, 79, New Zealand rower.
• Iván Marino Ospina, 45, Colombian guerrilla militant, co-founder of the 19th of April Movement, shot.^[64]
• Hugh Norman-Walker, 68, British colonial administrator.
• Miguel Otero Silva, 76, Venezuelan writer and politician, heart disease.^[65]
• Vince Oliver, 69, American basketball and football player.
• F. Mason Sones, 66, American physician, lung cancer.
• Surya Wonowidjojo, 62, Indonesian cigarette company executive.

• Alexander Abramsky, 87, Soviet composer.
• Evelyn Ankers, 67, British-American actress (The Wolf Man), ovarian cancer.^[66]
• George Bagby, 78, American novelist, cancer.^[67]
• Patrick Barr, 77, English actor.
• Lise Børsum, 76, Norwegian World War II resistance member.
• Homer Chase, 68, American communist activist.^[68]
• Michael Codd, 69, American police commissioner, heart attack.^[69]
• Leo Freisinger, 69, American Olympic speed skater (1936).^[70]
• Earl Goheen, 90, American sports coach.
• Paul Kligman, 62, Canadian voice actor (Spider-Man, The Marvel Super Heroes, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), heart failure.
• Michel Pécheux, 74, French Olympic fencer (1936, 1948).
• M. K. Radha, 74, Indian actor.
• Marco Rigau Gaztambide, 66, Puerto Rican jurist.
• Gholamreza Rouhani, 88, Iranian poet.
• Marguerite Engler Schwarzman, 93, American educator.

• Paul Bryar, 75, American actor.
• Taylor Caldwell, 84, British-born American novelist, respiratory failure.^[71]
• José Cubero Sánchez, 21, Spanish bullfighter, gored.^[72]
• Tom Howard, 75, British special effects artist (2001: A Space Odyssey).
• Gerhardt W. Hyatt, 69, American general.
• Philly Joe Jones, 62, American jazz drummer, heart attack.^[73]
• Douglas Eric Kimmins, 80, British entomologist.
• Josy Koelsch, 58, French Olympic canoer (1952).
• Paul H. Landis, 84, American sociologist.
• Nora Fry Lavrin, 87-88, English illustrator.
• Euan Miller, 88, British general.
• Yvonne Netter, 96, French feminist activist.
• Tatiana Proskouriakoff, 76, Russian-born American archaeologist.^[74]
• Erwin Righter, 88, American football and basketball player.
• Tatsu Tanaka, 93, Japanese politician.

• Sir Macfarlane Burnet, 85, Australian virologist, Nobel Prize recipient (1960), colorectal cancer.^[75]
• Vasily Golubev, 60, Soviet painter.
• Boris Kovzan, 63, Soviet fighter pilot.
• Tom Morrison, 72, New Zealand rugby player.
• No Robbery, 25, American Thoroughbred racehorse.
• John Patric, 83, American writer (National Geographic).
• Clyde Smoll, 71, American baseball player.^[76]
• Joseph Carmine Zavatt, 84, American jurist.