List of Famous people who died at 61

Johannes Hendrikus (Hein) Donner was a Dutch chess grandmaster (GM) and writer. Donner was born in The Hague and won the Dutch Championship in 1954, 1957, and 1958. He took part in the Internacional Chess Tournament (1956), Donner came third, behind Larsen and Darga. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded him the GM title in 1959. He played for the Netherlands in the Chess Olympiads 11 times. He was the uncle of the former Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, Piet Hein Donner.

Richard Benjamin Haymes was an American actor and singer, born in Argentina. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes who was an actor, television host, and songwriter.

Alain Oulman was a Portuguese songwriter. He was responsible for some of the biggest hits of Amália Rodrigues.

Zamanbek Qalabayuly Nurkadilov was a Kazakh politician who served as the head of Almaty in Kazakhstan and Minister of Emergency Situations in the Nazarbayev administration. In March 2004, he began to strongly criticize President Nursultan Nazarbayev. On 11 November 2005, three weeks before the 2005 presidential election, someone shot him twice in the chest and once in the head. The Government of Kazakhstan ruled his death a suicide, but Radio Free Europe alleges he is the victim of an assassination. Which led people many believe that Nazarbayev was responsible for the assassination.

Norris Church Mailer was an American novelist, actress, artist, and model. Norris published two novels, Windchill Summer and Cheap Diamonds, and a memoir, A Ticket to the Circus, which focuses on her nearly thirty-year marriage to Norman Mailer.

Claudio Villa, was an Italian singer and actor.