List of Famous people who died at 71

Seán Francis Lemass was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1959 to 1966. He also served as Tánaiste from 1957 to 1959, 1951 to 1954 and 1945 to 1948, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1957 to 1959, 1951 to 1954, 1945 to 1949 and 1932 to 1939 and Minister for Supplies from 1939 to 1945. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1924 to 1969.

Otto Johannes Brendel was a German art historian and scholar of Etruscan art and archaeology.

Alexander "Alec" Brassey Jonathan Scott was a British horse rider who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Mungo David Malcolm Murray, 7th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield, styled Lord Scone from 1906 to 1935, was a Scottish Unionist Party politician.

Elli Schmidt was a German communist political activist with links to Moscow, where as a young woman she spent most of the war years. She returned in 1945 to what later became the German Democratic Republic where she pursued a successful political career till her fall from grace: that came as part of a wider clear out of comrades critical of the national leadership in the aftermath of the 1953 uprising. She was formally rehabilitated on 29 July 1956, but never returned to mainstream politics.

Achille Peretti, was a French politician.

Francis Bebey was a Cameroonian writer and composer.

Hanno Drechsler was the Lord Mayor of the City of Marburg, Germany between 1970 and 1992, and the instigator of its restoration after urban renewal; he was also an important Social Democratic politician and political scientist.

Tadeusz Janczar was a Polish film actor. He appeared in 26 films between 1952 and 1983.

Viktor Arsenevich Kapitonov was a Soviet road cyclist who competed at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics. In 1956 he finished 32nd individually and 6th with the Soviet team. In 1960 he won the individual road race and finished third in the 100 km team time trial. His gold medal was the first for Soviet cyclists. At the end of the race Kapitonov mistakenly sprinted for the finish with one lap to go, surprising his main rival Livio Trapè. In the last lap Trapè sprinted first, but Kapitonov caught him up in the last few meters.