List of Famous people who died in 1940

Boruch Dov Leibowitz, known as Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz, or just Reb Boruch Ber was a rabbi famed for his Talmudic lectures, particularly in that they were rooted styled in the method of his teacher Chaim Soloveitchik. He is known for leading Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak in Slabodka and Kaminetz.

Cecil Hart was a head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

Celestino Endrici was an Italian Catholic archbishop, from 1904 to 1940.

Charles J. Richman was an American stage and film actor who appeared in 66 films between 1914 and 1939. Long before entering films Richman, in his youth one of the handsomest men on the stage, achieved a tremendous amount of stardom and success in the legitimate theatre. Most certainly film acting was an afterthought in his long and distinguished stage career. In Hollywood, he often played supporting roles as a dignified authoritarian figures like General Tufto in the first Technicolor film Becky Sharp (1935) and Judge Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938).

Prince Saionji Kinmochi was a Japanese politician, statesman and twice Prime Minister of Japan. He was elevated from marquis to prince in 1920. As the last surviving member of Japan's genrō, he was the most influential voice in Japanese politics from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s.

Earl Hurd was a pioneering American animator and film director. He is noted for creating and producing the silent Bobby Bumps animated short subject series for early animation producer J.R. Bray's Bray Productions. Hurd and Bray are jointly responsible for developing the processes involved in cel animation, and were granted patents for their processes in 1914.

Gustave Umbdenstock was a French architect; most familiar for his railway stations.

Edward Bernard Collins was an American comedian, actor and singer. He is best remembered for voicing Dopey in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and for portraying Tylo The Dog in the Shirley Temple film The Blue Bird (1940).