List of Famous people who died at 61

Martha Silvana Montaner Formoso was a Uruguayan politician of the Colorado Party.

Robert Mack was an Austrian ice hockey player. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Mário Henrique Simonsen was a Brazilian economist, who served as Brazil's finance minister from 1974 to 1979.

Roman Denisovich Tkachuk was a Soviet theatre and film actor.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Troyepolsky was a journalist and media manager for both Soviet and modern Russia. He was deputy CEO of the holding information All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, CEO and president of the TV channel 2×2 (1991–97), director-general of NTV Plus (1997–98), and JSC Petersburg – Channel 5 (2008–09). He was also a member of the Russian Television Academy (2007–16).

Ông Io̍k-tek was a Taiwanese scholar and early leader of the Taiwan independence movement. He is considered to be an authority on the Min Nan language family and the Taiwanese language.

Kumba Ialá Embaló, also spelled Yalá, was a Bissau-Guinean politician who was president from 17 February 2000 until he was deposed in a bloodless military coup on 14 September 2003. He belonged to the Balanta ethnic group and was President of the Social Renewal Party (PRS). In 2008 he converted to Islam and took the name Mohamed Ialá Embaló. He was the founder of the Party for Social Renewal. In 2014, Ialá died from a cardiopulmonary arrest.

Shamshi Kaldayakov was a Kazakhstani composer. He was born Shamshi Donbaiev, but ran away from school and changed his name to avoid the police. He started playing music aged 17 and mainly wrote songs in a waltz style, but in 1956, he composed the music to the patriotic song My Kazakhstan. It was adopted in 2006 to be the Kazakhstan national anthem by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after a few modifications in the lyrics.

Gregory Ballard was an American professional basketball player and NBA assistant coach. A collegiate All-American at Oregon, Ballard averaged 12.4 points and 6.1 rebounds over an eleven season NBA career with the Washington Bullets, Golden State Warriors and briefly, the Seattle Supersonics.

Iccho Itoh was a Japanese politician who served as the mayor of Nagasaki from 1995 to 2007.