Deaths in 1981

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1981. 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, reason for notability, cause of death, and reference.

Deaths in 1981

January

January 1
* Ceferino Garcia, Filipino boxer, workld middleweight champion
* Hephzibah Menuhin, American-Australian pianist, writer, and human rights campaigner
* Kazimierz Michałowski, Polish archaeologist
* Mauri Rose, American race car champion
January 3
* Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria
* Felton Jarvis, American record producer of Elvis, Willie Nelson, and other musicians and a singer
* Marvin Opler, American anthropologist
January 4 – Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and songwriter
January 5
* Guy Paquinet, French jazz trombonist
* Harold Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher, poet and activist
January 6 – A. J. Cronin, Scottish novelist
January 7
* Jose Ardevol, Cuban composer and conductor of Spanish derivation
* Alvar Lidell, English radio announcer and newsreader for the BBC and compere
January 9
* Donald H. Bochkay, 64, American Air Force pilot and flying ace
* Obdulio Morales, Cuban pianist, conductor, composer and ethnomusicologist
* Kazimierz Serocki, Polish composer and one of the founders of the Warsaw Autumn contemporary music festival
January 10
* Katherine Alexander, American actress
* Richard Boone, American actor
* Fawn M. Brodie, American biographer and history professors at UCLA
January 11 – Beulah Bondi, American actress
January 12
* Isobel Elsom, English film, theatre, and television actress
* Sir John Nicoll, British colonial administrator, governor of Singapore
January 15
* David E. Lilienthal, American attorney and public administrator
* Emanuel Celler, American Democratic politician from New York
January 16 – Bernard Lee, English actor
January 17 – Loukas Panourgias, Greek athlete and footballer
January 19 – Francesca Woodman, American photographer
January 21 – Allyn Joslyn, American actor
January 22 – Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani nationalist historian and playwright
January 23
* Samuel Barber, American composer
* Bobby Sherwood, American guitarist, trumpeter, bandleader, actor and radio host
* Olin E. Teague, American politician and member of the United States House of Representatives from 1946 to 1978
January 25 – Adele Astaire, American dancer and actress
January 29
* Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer
* Lajos Korányi, Hungarian footballer
January 30 – John Gordon, Irish Roman Catholic bishop
January 31 – Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer

February

February 1
* Donald Wills Douglas Sr., American industrialist
* Wanda Hendrix, American actress
* Ernst Pepping, German composer
* Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer
February 2 –
* Hugh J. Addonizio, Italian-American politician and Mayor of Newark
* Louise Lorraine, American actress
February 3 –
* J Harlen Bretz, American geologist
*Jan Donner, Dutch politician
February 4 – Mario Camerini, Italian film director and screenwriter
February 5
* Ella Grasso, American politician and member of the Democratic Party
* Kuda Bux, magician and firewalker
February 6 –
* Frederica of Hanover, Queen Consort of the Hellenes and wife of King Paul of Greece
* Hugo Montenegro, American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks
February 7 – Hermann Esser, German journalist and editor of the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter
February 9 – Bill Haley, American rock musician, member of Bill Haley & The Comets
February 12 – Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape, British admiral
February 13 – Jack Crapp, English cricketer
February 15
* Karl Richter, German conductor
* Mike Bloomfield, American blues guitarist
February 17 – David Garnett, English novelist and writer
February 18
* Jack Northrop, American airplane manufacturer
* Ibrahim Abdel Hady Pasha, Egyptian politician, 28th Prime Minister of Egypt
February 20
* Bernard B. Brown, American sound engineer and composer
* Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, French magazine editor and playboy
February 22
* Michael Maltese, American screenwriter
* Curtis Bernhardt, German film director
February 25
* Leonard Howell, Founder of Rastafari
* Gunichi Mikawa, Japanese admiral
February 26
* Robert Aickman, English writer and conservationist
* Howard Hanson, American composer
February 27 – Jacob H Gilbert, American lawyer and politician

March

March 1 – Roberto Francisco Chiari Remón, 14th President of Panama
March 2
* Brenda de Banzie, British actress
* Janear Hines, American actress and Earl Hines' daughter
* Tony Gulotta, American racing driver
March 4 – Torin Thatcher, American actor
March 5 –
* Yip Harburg, American lyricist
* Paul Hörbiger, Austrian theatre and film actor
* Red Saunders, American jazz drummer and bandleader
March 6 – George Geary, English cricketer
March 7
* Peter Birch, Irish Roman Catholic bishop
* Jon Gnagy, self-taught artist remembered for being America's original television art instructor
* Kirill Kondrashin, Russian conductor
* Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling, German-Danish tennis player
March 9 – Max Delbrück, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
March 10 – Flavio Calzavara, Italian director and screenwriter
March 11 – Kazimierz Kordylewski, Polish astronomer
March 14
* Ken Barrington, English international cricketer
* Paolo Grassi, Italian actor
March 15 – René Clair, French film director
March 16 – Liuba Chișinevschi, Romanian communist activist
March 17 – Paul Dean, American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher
March 19 – Frank Lane, American executive in professional baseball
March 20 – Gerry Bertier, American college football player
March 21 – Mark Donskoy, Russian Soviet film director
March 22
* Jumbo Elliott, American track and field coach
* John S. McCain Jr., American admiral
* Gil Puyat, Filipino businessman and politician, Senator of the Philippines and Senate President
March 23
* Sir Claude Auchinleck, British field marshal
* Mike Hailwood, English motorcycle racer
* Beatrice Tinsley, English astronomer
March 26 – Cyril Dean Darlington, English biologist, geneticist and eugenicist,
March 27 – Mao Dun, Chinese novelist, cultural critic, and minister of culture
March 29 – Eric Williams, 1st Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
March 30
* Sherman Edwards, American songwriter
* Noel Harford, New Zealand cricketer
* Douglas Lowe, British Olympic athlete
* DeWitt Wallace, American magazine publisher
March 31
* Enid Bagnold, British writer and playwright
* Frank Tieri, American gangster

April

April 1 – Eua Sunthornsanan, singer, Thai composer and bandleader of the Suntaraporn Band
April 2 – Delfo Cabrera, Argentine athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1948 Summer Olympics
April 3
* Juan Trippe, American airline entrepreneur
* Leo Kanner, Austrian-American psychiatrist, physician, and social activist
April 5
* Lucile Godbold, American Olympic athlete
* Bob Hite, American musician
* Maurice Zbriger, Canadian violinist, composer and conductor
April 7
* Kit Lambert, British producer, record label owner and manager of The Who
* Norman Taurog, American film director
April 8 – Omar Bradley, American army general
April 10
* George Carlyle Marler, Canadian politician, notary and philatelist
* Howard Thurman, American author, philosopher, theologian, Christian mystic, educator, and civil rights leader
April 11
* Caroline Gordon, American novelist and literary critic
* Marie Ney, British character actress
April 12
* Hendrik Andriessen, Dutch composer
* Prince Yasuhiko Asaka of Japan
* Joe Louis, American boxer
* Hans Chemin-Petit, German composer, conductor and music educator
April 13 – Ivan Galamian, Armenian-American violin teacher
April 15
* John Thach, American naval aviator and admiral
* Lorenzo Guerrero, former President of Nicaragua
April 16 –
* Eric Hollies, English cricketer
* Effa Manley, American sports executive
April 18 – James H. Schmitz, German-American writer
April 19 – Ernst Levy, Swiss musicologist, composer, pianist and conductor
April 21 – Eddie Sauter, American composer and arranger
April 23 – Josep Pla, Spanish journalist and author
April 26
* Jim Davis, American actor
* Madge Evans, American actress
* Muhammad Lafir, Sri Lankan snooker player
April 27 – John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist
April 28
* Cliff Battles, American football player and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
* Mickey Walker, American professional boxer
April 30 – Peter Huchel, German poet and editor

May

May 1 – Barry Jones, American actor
May 3 – Nargis, Indian actress
May 4 – Paul Green, American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
May 5 – Bobby Sands, Irish republican hunger striker
May 6
*Auguste Cornu, French Marxist philosopher and historian of philosophy
*Frank O'Grady, Australian public servant
May 7 – Hiromichi Yahara, Imperial Japanese Army officer
May 8
* Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia
* Uri Zvi Greenberg, Israeli poet and journalist
May 9
* Nelson Algren, American author
* Margaret Lindsay, American actress
* Nip Pellew, Australian cricketer
May 10 – Ismail of Johor, Malaysian sultan
May 11
* Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Bob Marley, Jamaican singer, songwriter and musician
* Hoyt W. Fuller, American editor, educator, critic, and author during the Black Arts Movement
May 12 – Benjamin Sheares, Singaporean politician and professor, 2nd President of Singapore
May 13
* Ben Andrews, American actor
May 14 – J. Posadas, Argentine politician
May 16
* Ezra Dotan, Israeli fighter pilot and flying ace
* Ernie Freeman, American pianist, organist, bandleader, and arranger
May 17 –
* Hugo Friedhofer, German-American film composer
* Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, American high-altitude balloonist, and in later life an Episcopal priest
May 18
* Eleonore Baur, German Nazi and only woman to participate in Munich Beer Hall Putsch
*Richard Hale, American singer and actor
* Arthur O'Connell, American actor
* William Saroyan, American author
May 20 – Dositej II, Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia
May 21
* Raymond McCreesh, Irish volunteer in the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
* Patsy O'Hara, Irish republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army
* Yuki Shimoda, American actor
* Charles W. Yost, American diplomat
May 22 – Boris Sagal, Ukrainian-American television and film director
May 23
* George Jessel, American actor
* Donald Macintyre, British naval officer and naval historian
* Rayner Heppenstall, British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC radio producer
May 24
* Jaime Roldós Aguilera, 33rd President of Ecuador
* Jack Warner, British actor
May 25
* Rosa Ponselle, American soprano
* Ruby Payne-Scott, Australian radio astronomer
* A. Thiagarajah, Sri Lankan Tamil teacher and politician
* Fredric Warburg, British publisher, who in 1935 founded the company Secker & Warburg
May 28
* John Bryan Ward-Perkins, British archaeologist
* Mary Lou Williams, American jazz pianist
* Stefan Wyszyński, Polish Roman Catholic prelate, archbishop and Servant of God
* Lem Billings, American businessman
May 29 – Soong Ching-ling, Acting head of State of the People's Republic of China
May 30
* Don Ashby, Canadian ice hockey player
* Gwendolyn B. Bennett, American writer
* Peter Lindgren, Swedish actor
* Ziaur Rahman, 7th President of Bangladesh
May 31
* Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, British economist
* Gyula Lóránt, Hungarian footballer and manager
* Giuseppe Pella, Italian politician, 31st Prime Minister of Italy

June

June 1 – Carl Vinson, American politician
June 2 – Rino Gaetano, Italian musician and singer-songwriter
June 5 – Miguel Contreras Torres, Mexican actor, director, producer and screenwriter
June 9 – Allen Ludden, 63, American television host, stomach cancer.
June 10
* Jenny Maxwell, American actress
* Phelps Phelps, 38th Governor of American Samoa, United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic
June 11 – Botak Chin, Malaysian criminal and gangster
June 12 – Mahmoud Fawzi, Egyptian diplomat and political figure, 35th Prime Minister of Egypt
June 13 – George Walsh, American actor
June 14 – Hayyim Schirmann, Russian-born Israeli professor of medieval Spanish Jewish poetry
June 16 – Sir Thomas Playford, Australian politician, Premier of South Australia
June 17 – Sir Richard O'Connor, British general
June 19 – Lotte Reiniger, German silhouette animator
June 22
* Henri Bouillard, French Jesuit theologian
* Lola Lane, American actress and singer
June 23 – Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer
June 27 – Sean Flanagan, child actor
June 28
* Mohammad Beheshti, Chief Justice of Iran
* Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist

July

July 1
* Marcel Breuer, Hungarian-American architect
* George Voskovec, Czech-American actor, writer, dramatist and director
July 3 – Ross Martin, American actor
July 7 – Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi, South Yemenite socialist leader, 1st President of South Yemen
July 8
* Jugah Barieng, Malaysian politician
* Joe McDonnell, Irish republican hunger striker
July 10 – Giorgio De Lullo, Italian actor and director
July 16 – Harry Chapin, American singer and songwriter, traffic collision
July 26 – Stafford L. Warren, American physician and radiologist; inventor of the mammogram
July 27 – William Wyler, German-born American movie director
July 28 – Stanley Francis Rother, American priest, martyr, and Blessed
July 29
* Robert Moses, American urban planner
* Sydney Kyte, British bandleader
July 31 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian leader

August

August 1 – Paddy Chayefsky, American screenwriter
August 2
* Delfo Cabrera, Argentine athlete
* Stefanie Clausen, Danish diver
August 4 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor
August 14 – Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor
August 15 – Karl Gero, Duke of Urach, Lichtenstein noble
August 18
* Robert Russell Bennett, American composer and arranger
* Anita Loos, American screenwriter
August 19 – Jessie Matthews, English dancer, singer and actress
August 22 – Glauber Rocha, Brazilian filmmaker
August 27
* Irmgard Bartenieff, German-American dancer, physical therapist and pioneer of dance therapy
* Valeri Kharlamov, Soviet ice hockey player
August 28 – Béla Guttmann, Hungarian football player and coach
August 29 – Lowell Thomas, American writer and broadcaster
August 30
* Mohammad-Ali Rajai, 47th Prime Minister of Iran and 2nd President of Iran
* Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, Iranian theologian and politician, 48th Prime Minister of Iran
* Vera-Ellen, American actress and dancer

September

September 1
* Ann Harding, American actress
* Albert Speer, German Nazi architect and war minister
September 2 – Dame Enid Lyons, Australian politician
September 5 – Donald Sinclair, British naval officer and hotel owner, inspiration for Fawlty Towers
September 7
* Christy Brown, Irish writer and painter
* Edwin Albert Link, American inventor
September 8
* Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Roy Wilkins, American civil rights activist
September 9
* Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist
* Ricardo Balbín, Argentine politician, leader of the Radical Civic Union
* Sir Robert Askin, premier of New South Wales
September 11
* Harold Bennett, British actor
* Frank McHugh, American actor
September 12 – Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
September 14 – Charles L. Melson, American admiral
September 15 – Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet virtuoso
September 17 – Sir Milton Allen, Governor of Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla
September 18 – Lyle Goodhue, American chemist, inventor and entomologist
September 21 – Nigel Patrick, English actor
September 22 – Harry Warren, American songwriter
September 23 – Chief Dan George, Canadian actor and writer, tribal chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation
September 24 – Patsy Kelly, American actress
September 27 – Robert Montgomery, American actor and director
September 28
* Rómulo Betancourt, 2-time President of Venezuela
* Sir Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth, British Conservative cabinet minister
September 29
* Javad Fakoori, Iranian military officer, former minister of Defence
* Mousa Namjoo, Iranian military officer, minister of Defence
* Bill Shankly, British football manager

October

October 2
* Harry Golden, American journalist
* Hazel Scott, American jazz singer and pianist
October 3 –
Chrysostom Blashkevich, Soviet Benedict monk
October 4 –Freddie Lindstrom, American baseball player and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame
October 5 – Gloria Grahame, 57, American actress, breast cancer.
October 6
* Blanche Noyes, American aviator
* Anwar Sadat, 37th Prime Minister of Egypt and 3rd President of Egypt, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, assassinated.
October 13
* Antonio Berni, Argentine painter
October 16
* Stanley Clements, American actor
* Moshe Dayan, Israeli general
October 19 – Nils Asther, Danish-Swedish actor
October 22
* Michael Granger, American actor
* Lily Pincus, German-British social worker
October 24 – Edith Head, American costume designer
October 25 – Barbara Bedford, American actress
October 27 – John Warburton, British actor
October 29 – Georges Brassens, French singer and songwriter

November

November 2 – Wally Wood, American cartoonist
November 5 – Jean Eustache, French film director
November 7 – Will Durant, American philosopher and writer
November 10 – Abel Gance, French film director
November 12 – William Holden, 63, American actor, bleeding.
November 13 – Gerhard Marcks, German sculptor
November 15
* Walter Heitler, German physicist
* Enid Markey, American actress
November 21 – Ejner Federspiel, Danish actor
November 22
* Jack Fingleton, Australian cricketer
* Sir Hans Krebs, German-born British biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
November 25
* Jack Albertson, American actor and comedian
* Morris Kirksey, American athlete
November 26 – Max Euwe, Dutch chess grandmaster
November 27 – Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress
November 29 – Natalie Wood, 43, American actress, drowning.

December

December 2
* Wallace Harrison, American architect
* Francis Hunter, American tennis player
December 4 – Jovette Bernier, Canadian journalist, author and radio show host
December 6 – Harry Harlow, American psychologist
December 7 – William Edmunds, Italian stage and screen character actor
December 8 – Ferruccio Parri, Italian partisan and politician, 29th Prime Minister of Italy
December 13 – Cornelius Cardew, English composer
December 15
* Catherine T. MacArthur, American philanthropist
* Karl Struss, American cinematographer
December 17
* Franz Dahlem, German politician
* Mehmet Shehu, Albanian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Albania
December 18 – Juan Miles, Argentine polo player
December 23
* Luther H. Evans, American political scientist and librarian, 3rd Director General of the UNESCO
* Reg Ansett, Australian businessman and aviator
December 26 – Suat Hayri Urguplu, Turkish politician, 11th Prime Minister of Turkey
December 27 – Hoagy Carmichael, American jazz composer
December 28 – Allan Dwan, Canadian-American film director