List of Famous people who died at 71

Aleksei Stepanovich Petrov was a Russian cyclist. He competed in the road race and 100 km team time trial at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics. In the time trial he won a bronze medal in 1960 and finished in fifth place in 1964; in the road race he finished 62nd in 1964.

John Myrick Dawson was an American computational physicist and the father of plasma-based acceleration techniques. Dawson earned his degrees in physics from the University of Maryland, College Park: a B.S. in 1952 and Ph.D. in 1957. His thesis "Distortion of Atoms and Molecules in Dense Media" was prepared under the guidance of Zaka Slawsky.

Başar Sabuncu, was a Turkish film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and occasional actor.

Ulrich Schöllkopf was a German chemist and together with Georg Wittig discovered the Wittig reaction in 1956. Later in 1981 he published the synthesis method for amino acids known as the Bislactimether method or Schöllkopf method.

Milo B. Lory was an American sound editor. He was best known for his work on the film Ben-Hur (1959), which earned him an Academy Award. He was also nominated in the same category for his work on the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).