The following is a list of notable deaths in January 1987.
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.
January 1987
1
- Gustavo Teixeira , Portuguese footballer
2
- Hazel Daly, American actress
- Arthur Gould-Porter, English actor
- Jean de Gribaldy , French road racing cyclist and sports executive
3
- Rodolfo Kuhn , Argentine film director, screenwriter and producer
4
- Grace Williams, American actress
5
- Geoffrey Mason , US bobsledder
- Ambrogio Portalupi , Italian road bicycle racer
- Frank Stack, Canadian ice speed skater
7
- Jesús Narro , Spanish footballer
8
- Arthur Lake, American actor
- Håkan Malmrot, Swedish swimmer
- Arnaldo Rivera , Italian lecturer, entrepreneur and partisan
11
- Jacques Hérold, Romanian painter
12
- Giuseppe Asquini , Italian politician
- André Tassin , French footballer
13
- Igor Ilyinsky , Soviet actor and director
- Anatoly Ėfros , Soviet film director
14
- Douglas Sirk, German film director
15
- Ray Bolger , American actor
- Mark Mitin , Soviet philosopher
- Aníbal Muñoz Duque , Colombian Catholic cardinal and archbishop
16
- Rolando Hammer, Chilean basketball player
- Joyce Jameson, American actress
- María Dhialma Tiberti, Argentine writer
- Earl Wilson, American journalist and author
17
- Mario Checcacci, Italian rower
- Hugo Fregonese, Argentine film director, screenwriter and journalist
- Gu Zhutong, Chinese general and politician
- Giuseppe Spinelli, Italian politician
18
- Renato Guttuso , Italian painter and politician
19
- Josef Henselmann, German sculptor
- Harry Keller, American film director, editor and producer
- Lawrence Kohlberg, American psychologist and philosopher
21
- Ikki Kajiwara, Japanese cartoonist
22
- Georges Buchard, French fencer
- Budd Dwyer, US Politician
23
- Neo Chwee Kok, Singaporean swimmer
24
- Tetsuji Murakami, Japanese karateka
25
- Asim Ferhatović , Yugoslav footballer
- Sven Lindqvist , Swedish footballer
- Mihrişah Sultan , Ottoman princess
- Piero Vida, Italian actor
26
- Charles Wolcott, US composer
27
- Norman McLaren , Scottish film director
28
- Galo Plaza, Ecuadorian politician
29
- Carlo Cassola, Italian writer, essayist and partisan
- Emvin Cremona, Maltese artist
- Vincent Impellitteri, Italian politician
- Gerhard Klopfer, German politician
- Hiroaki Zakoji, Japanese composer
31
- Yves Allégret, French director and screenwriter