Events from the year 1983 in the United States.

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← 1982 1981 1980 1983 in the United States → 1984 1985 1986
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	History of the United States (1980–1991) Timeline of United States history (1970–1989) List of years in the United States

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• May 14 – Portland Winter Hawks become the First American team to win the Memorial Cup by defeating the Oshawa Generals 8 to 3. The Final game is played at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon

• January 2 – Edward Howard, Roman Catholic prelate and venerable (b. 1877)
• January 7 – Fred Church, actor (b. 1889)^[8]
• January 8
  • Tom McCall, journalist and politician, 30th Governor of Oregon (b. 1913)
  • Gale Page, radio and screen actress (b. 1910)
• January 10 – Roy DeMeo, Mafia hitman (b. 1942)
• January 16 – Doodles Weaver, actor, comedian, musician (b. 1911)
• January 24 – George Cukor, film director and producer (b. 1899)
• January 26 – Bear Bryant, American football coach (b. 1913)
• February 4
  • Jim Ameche, actor (b. 1915)
  • Karen Carpenter, pop singer and drummer (b. 1950)
• February 12 – Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (b. 1887)
• February 25 – Tennessee Williams, playwright and screenwriter (b. 1911)
• March 3 – Peter Ivers, musician (b. 1946)
• March 16 – Arthur Godfrey, radio personality and entertainer (b. 1903)
• March 18 – Catherine Marshall, author (b. 1914)
• April 4 – Gloria Swanson, actress (b. 1899)
• April 15 – John Engstead, photographer and journalist (b. 1909)
• April 17 – Felix Pappalardi, music producer and musician (b. 1939)
• April 21 – Walter Slezak, Austrian-born actor (b. 1902)
• April 22 – Earl Hines, jazz pianist and bandleader (b. 1903)
• April 23 – Buster Crabbe, Olympic swimmer, and actor (b. 1908)
• April 26 – Henrietta Buckmaster, activist, journalist and author (b. 1909)
• April 30
  • George Balanchine, ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1904 in Russia)^[9]
  • Joel Henry Hildebrand, physical chemist (b. 1881)^[10]
  • Muddy Waters, blues singer-songwriter (b. 1915)^[11]
• May 1 – Arthur Dewey Struble, admiral (b. 1894)^[12]
• May 8 – John Fante, writer (b. 1909)
• May 31 – Jack Dempsey, boxer (b. 1895)
• June 1 – Ernest Graves, actor (b. 1919)
• June 6 – James E. Casey, businessman and founder of UPS (b. 1888)^[13]
• June 12 – Norma Shearer, Canadian-born actress (b. 1902 in Canada)
• June 23 – Glen Harmeson, American football player and coach (b. 1908)
• June 24 – William E. Miller, politician, Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1964 U.S. presidential election (b. 1914)
• June 30 – Leonard B. Jordan, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1962 to 1973 (b. 1899)
• July 1 – Buckminster Fuller, architect (b. 1895)
• July 5 – Harry James, musician and bandleader (b. 1916)
• July 7 – Vicki Morgan, mistress to Alfred S. Bloomingdale (b. 1952)
• July 20 – Frank Reynolds, television journalist (b. 1923)
• July 29 – Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
• July 30 – Lynn Fontanne, English actress (b. 1887)
• August 3
  • Carolyn Jones, actress (b. 1930)
  • Jobriath, musician and actor (b. 1946)
• August 6 – Klaus Nomi, German singer (b. 1944)
• August 7 – David Ford, actor (b. 1925)
• August 13 – Bob Bailey, actor (b. 1913)
• August 17 – Ira Gershwin, lyricist (b. 1896)
• August 26 – Mike Kellin, actor (b. 1922)
• August 27
  • Harry A. deButts, railroad executive^[14][15]
  • Bobby Griffith, suicide (b. 1963)
• Simon Oakland, actor (b. 1915)
• September 1
  • Henry M. Jackson, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1953 to 1983 (b. 1912)
  • Larry McDonald, U.S. Representative from Georgia from 1975 to 1983 (b. 1935)
• September 2 – Toni Mannix, actress and dancer (b. 1906)
• September 25 – Paul Jacobs, pianist (b. 1930)
• October 5 – Earl Tupper, businessman and inventor (b. 1907)
• October 7 – George O. Abell, astronomer, professor at UCLA, science popularizer, and skeptic (b. 1927)
• October 8 – Joan Hackett, actress (b. 1934)
• October 12 – Ernie Roth, wrestling manager (b. 1926)
• October 14 – Paul Fix, actor (b. 1901)
• October 15 – Pat O' Brien, actor (b. 1899)
• October 16 – George Liberace, musician and television performer (b. 1911)
• October 18 – Willie Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)
• October 20 – Merle Travis, country musician (b. 1917)
• October 23 – Jessica Savitch, journalist (b. 1947)
• October 28 – Otto Messmer, cartoonist (b. 1892)
• October 30 – Lillian Gordy Carter, nurse and mother of Jimmy Carter (b. 1898)
• November 8 – Robert Agnew, actor (b. 1899)
• November 13 – Junior Samples, comedian (b. 1926)
• November 22 – Michael Conrad, actor (b. 1925)
• November 28 – Christopher George, actor (b. 1931)
• December 5 – Robert Aldrich, film director, producer, screenwriter (b. 1918)
• December 8 – Slim Pickens, actor and rodeo performer (b. 1919)
• December 21 – Rod Cameron, actor (b. 1910)
• December 27 –Walter Scott, performer (b. 1943)
• December 28
  • William Demarest (b. 1892)
  • Dennis Wilson, musician (b. 1944)

• 1983 in American television
• List of American films of 1983
• Timeline of United States history (1970–1989)