List of Famous people who died at 81

Tingye Li was a Chinese-American scientist in the fields of microwaves, lasers and optical communications. His innovative work at AT&T pioneered the research and application of lightwave communication, and has had a far-reaching impact on information technology for over four decades.

Georges Poubennec, better known under the name Georges Aber, was a French singer-songwriter.

Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include Goodbye to Berlin (1939), a semi-autobiographical novel which inspired the musical Cabaret, A Single Man (1964) adapted as a film by Tom Ford in 2009, and Christopher and His Kind (1976), a memoir which "carried him into the heart of the Gay Liberation movement".

Thomas Ernest Bennett "Tibby" Clarke was a movie scriptwriter who wrote several of the Ealing Studios comedies. His elder brother Dudley Clarke was notable as a military deception pioneer.

Harold Hankins "Jerry" Hopper was an American film and television director, active from the mid-1940s through the early 1970s.