List of Famous people who died in 1940

Julius Caldeen Gunter was the 21st Governor of Colorado from January 9, 1917 until his term ended on January 14, 1919.

George Sebastian Silzer served as the 38th Governor of New Jersey.

Walter Jodok Kohler Sr., was a member of the Kohler family of Wisconsin, and was an American businessman and politician. He was an innovative and highly successful Wisconsin industrialist. The Kohler Company was founded by his father, John Michael Kohler. Walter Kohler served as the company's president from 1905 to 1937. Walter Kohler was elected the 26th Governor of Wisconsin as a Republican, serving one term from 1929 to 1931. A moderate, pro-business Republican who admired Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, Kohler sparred with the Left and Right in his party before and during the Great Depression. His son, Walter J. Kohler Jr., also served as governor, from 1951 to 1957.

John Wray was an American character actor of stage and screen.

Isidro Gomá y Tomás was the Bishop of Tarazona in the province of Zaragoza. He was also later made Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo and was Primate of Spain. Gomá was an integrista, in the technical sense in believing in the necessity of a 'Confessional State' that imposes upon all its subjects the profession and practice of the Roman Catholic religion and prohibits all others.

Marcel Granet was a French sociologist, ethnologist and sinologist. As a follower of Émile Durkheim and Édouard Chavannes, Granet was one of the first to bring sociological methods to the study of China. Granet was revered in his own time as a sociological sinologist, or sinological sociologist, and member of the Durkheimian school of sociology.

Wehib Pasha also known as Vehip Pasha, Mehmed Wehib Pasha, Mehmet Vehip Pasha, was a general in the Ottoman Army. He fought in the Balkan Wars and in several theatres of World War I. In his later years, he acted as a military advisor to the Ethiopian army in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

George William Reginald Victor Coventry, 10th Earl of Coventry was the son of George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst, and Virginia Daniel. As his father predeceased his grandfather, 10th Earl was his grandfather's heir to the earldom. George Coventry inherited both the earldom and the viscountcy on 13 March 1930. He was educated at Ludgrove School and Eaton College.

Ferdinando "Nando" Minoia was an Italian racing driver with an exceptionally long, distinguished and varied career. In 1907, he won the Coppa Florio driving an Isotta Fraschini. In 1923, he drove the world’s first mid-engine Grand Prix car, the Benz Tropfenwagen. In 1927, he won the inaugural Mille Miglia driving an OM. Finally, in 1931 he became the first ‘European Champion’, driving for Alfa Romeo, but without winning a single event.