List of Famous people who died at 71

Jean Giraud was a French mathematician, a student of Alexander Grothendieck. His research focused on non-abelian cohomology and the theory of topoi. In particular, he authored the book Cohomologie non-abélienne and proved the theorem that bears his name, which gives a characterization of a Grothendieck topos.

Mahbubey Alam was a Bangladeshi politician, designated senior counsel, and Attorney General of Bangladesh. He was appointed attorney general on 13 January 2009. He was a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He had served earlier as additional attorney general from 15 November 1998 to 4 October 2001.

Lakshmiswar Sinha was an Esperanto Indian education handicrafts teacher in Santiniketan, Bengal. He was a disciple and friend of Tagore, perhaps the most famous Asian Esperantist if one excludes Japan.

Robert L. May was the creator of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Gísli Halldórsson was an Icelandic actor of theatre, radio, film and television, and one of the most popular Icelandic actors of the late twentieth century. He is known internationally for playing the lead role in Children of Nature, which was nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign language film in 1992.

Bert Schneider was a Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from Austria. His best years were in 1962 when he finished fourth place in the 500 cc world championship, and in 1964 when he finished fourth in the 125 cc world championship. He won one Grand Prix race during his career, the 1963 125 cc Belgian Grand Prix.