List of Famous people who died at 81

Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters.

Giuseppe Campora was an Italian operatic tenor.

Zhang Junsheng was a Chinese optical engineer, politician, and academic administrator. He spent 25 years as an engineering professor at Zhejiang University and won two national science and technology awards, before entering politics and being sent to Hong Kong in 1985 to prepare for the British colony's return to China. During his tenure as Beijing's chief spokesman in Hong Kong, he fiercely clashed with Chris Patten, the last British governor in Hong Kong, over the latter's effort to implement political reforms over Beijing's objection. Their public dispute dominated news headlines in Hong Kong. After the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, Zhang returned to Zhejiang University to serve as its Party Secretary. He oversaw the school's merger with three other universities and used his Hong Kong connections to raise funds for the university.

Victor Brooks was a prolific English film and television actor. He specialised in character roles, police inspectors in particular, in British thrillers such as Cover Girl Killer (1959), Witchcraft (1964), and Devils of Darkness (1965). In 1961, he narrated the fifteen minute instructional Short, 'The Warden, His Duties and Training'. He also appeared in eight of the thirty-two episodes of 1964's 'Open House', playing himself, and The Host.

Ljiljana Jovanović was a Serbian actress. She appeared in more than sixty films from 1948 to 2012.

Charles Edward Underdown was an English theatre, cinema and television actor. He was born in London and educated at Eton College in Berkshire.

Eduard Neumann was a German philologist who specialized in Germanic studies.