Famous People Who Died In 1981

Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who sold 20 million records in his career. He was the first international star to come from the ‘Third World’ and is considered one of the forerunners of reggae. A fusion of reggae, ska and rocksteady was his music’s hallmark. Marley died due to cancer at the age of 36.

Terry Fox was a popular cancer research activist and humanitarian. Despite suffering from cancer and having lost one of his legs to cancer, he embarked on a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research. Although he died at the age of 22, his efforts resulted in a worldwide legacy and gave rise to the annual Terry Fox Run.

William Holden is best known for his Academy Award-winning performance in Stalag 17 and his Emmy-winning role in the TV film The Blue Knight. He also appeared in the films Sunset Boulevard and The Bridge on the River Kwai, and on Lux Radio Theatre. He was also a wildlife conservationist.

TV personality, actor, emcee, and game show host Allen Ludden is best remembered for hosting various incarnations of the game show, Password, for almost two decades. He also hosted other game shows and wrote a series of books for young readers. A much-beloved personality, he was the recipient of the 1961 Horatio Alger Award.

Jack Albertson was an eminent American actor having presence in films and plays alike, as evident from his successful performances in The Subject Was Roses both on the stage and on the big screen. The winner of Tony, Oscar and Emmy awards had such a passion for his career that he continued his acting despite being diagnosed for colorectal cancer.

Robert Gerard Sands, better known as Bobby Sands, was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, who died during a 1981 hunger strike, along with nine other strikers, protesting against the removal of Special Category Status from IRA prisoners. He had helped plot the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing.

Born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, military leader/politician Moshe Dayan, grew up to be an revered for his exploits against Israel’s Arab neighbors. His invasion of the Sinai peninsula is etched in his memoir, Diary of the Sinai Campaign. Following his death, his eye patch was sold on eBay for US$75,000.

Robert Montgomery was an American actor, producer, and director. Renowned for his versatility, Montgomery received two nominations for the prestigious Academy Award under the Best Actor category. Robert Montgomery was awarded a couple of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film and TV industries.

William Wyler was a Swiss-German-American film producer and director. He is remembered for winning the Oscar for Best Director on three occasions. Wyler holds a record 12 nominations for the Oscar for Best Director. He is credited with helping numerous actors achieve stardom. Fourteen performers, including Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, and Olivia de Havilland won Oscars under William Wyler's direction.

Robert Moses was an American public official. Often referred to as the master builder, Moses is credited with influencing the creation of the modern suburbs of Long Island, which in turn influenced a generation of urban planners, architects, and engineers. Robert Moses is widely regarded as one of the most polarizing personalities in urban development history in the US.

Psychologist Harry Harlow proved that monkeys raised without their mothers exhibited abnormal psychological development. He had a long association with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he conducted most of his experiments. He was criticized for using dramatic names, such as “pit of despair,” for his experimental devices.

Melvyn Douglas was an American actor who achieved popularity in the 1930s. Over the course of his illustrious acting career, Douglas won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, and an Emmy Award, becoming one of the few actors to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. Melvyn Douglas also won several other awards, including the prestigious Golden Globe Award. 

Will Durant was an American writer, philosopher, and historian. He is credited with writing The Story of Philosophy which helped popularize philosophy in the USA. Will is also remembered for co-writing an 11-volume set of books titled The Story of Civilization along with his wife Ariel. Will and Ariel were awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Harold Urey was an American physical chemist best remembered for his pioneering work on isotopes. He is credited with the discovery of deuterium, for which he received the prestigious Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934. Harold Urey also played a key role in the development of the infamous atom bomb.

Born to an ENT surgeon in Germany, Hans Adolf Krebs followed in his father’s footsteps and studied medicine. After fleeing Nazi Germany, he went to England, where he joined the University of Cambridge as a researcher. The Nobel Prize-winning scientist is remembered for his groundbreaking discovery of cellular respiration.

Ziaur Rahman was a Bangladeshi Army officer and politician. He served as the President of Bangladesh from 21 April 1977 to 30 May 1981. He played a major role in the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. Ziaur Rahman is also credited with founding the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. 

Apart from being a renowned Russian ballerina, Lydia Lopokova was also the wife of well-known economist John Maynard Keynes and was thus known as Lady Keynes. She toured across Europe and America and appeared in plays such as The Lady of the Slipper and Age of Reason.

Frederica, princess of Hanover, Great Britain, Ireland, and Brunswick-Lüneburg, later became the Queen consort of the Hellenes, by her marriage to King Paul of Greece. Following the fall of the Greek monarchy, and the rise of a democratic republic, she was exiled in Spain, where she died following a cataract surgery.

George Voskovec was a Czech actor, dramatist, writer, and director. He acted in 72 films, out of which only the first five were Czech and the rest were either American or English. In the USA, George Voskovec became known for his portrayal of Juror 11 in the 1957 courtroom drama film 12 Angry Men.