List of Famous people who died at 81

William Patrick "W. P." Kinsella was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, known for his novel Shoeless Joe (1982), which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and other Canadian issues.

Anna Chromy was a painter and sculptor of czech-german descent. At the end of World War II, Chromy's family was expelled from Bohemia to Vienna, Austria. Her family did not have enough money for her to attend art school however, so only after she married and moved to Paris was it possible. She received her education at the École des Beaux-Arts. It was here she realised an interest in Salvador Dalí and other surrealists, and began using the soft colours of William Turner in her paintings.

Peter Fitz was a German stage and film actor.

Betty Ann Bobbitt was an American actress, director, singer, and playwright based in Australia, with a career that spanned over 60 years encompassing theatre, television and film.

Pierre François Marie Louis Boulle was a French novelist best known for two works, The Bridge over the River Kwai (1952) and Planet of the Apes (1963), that were both made into award-winning films.

Paul Cronin was an Australian actor who played roles in the Australian television series Matlock Police and The Sullivans. He won the Silver Logie five times, including three years consecutively from 1978, the most awarded actor in Australia, alongside Martin Sacks.

Reginald Roy Inwood, VC was an Australian soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that can be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces. Inwood enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914, and along with the rest of the 10th Battalion, he landed at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915. He fought at Anzac until being evacuated sick to Egypt in September. He remained there until he rejoined his unit on the Western Front in June 1916. In August, he fought in the Battle of Mouquet Farm.

Édgar José Perea Arias was a Colombian politician and football radio and television commentator. In a country where soccer is the national pastime, Perea was considered one of Colombia's greatest sportscasters. He was known in Colombia for his thunderous voice and for the way he intoned the traditional Spanish-style "Goooooooool!" sound when a goal had been scored. Perea commentated on eight football World Cups, fifteen World Series for CBS Spanish Radio, seven Olympics, many boxing matches and thousands of soccer matches in Colombia and abroad. He became so successful as a sportscaster that he transcended himself into a national politician. Perea was Afro-Colombian and broke down many barriers that kept black Colombians from gaining admiration and respect in Colombian pop culture and in entering the ritzy social scenes of Colombian society. After gaining popularity for his picturesque way of narrating football matches, Perea joined the Colombian Liberal Party with the support of then presidential candidate Horacio Serpa and ran for the senate. In 2009 he was appointed Ambassador to Colombia in South Africa.

Odile Rodin, was a French actress and covergirl before she became the fifth and last wife of Porfirio Rubirosa. She adopted the artistic name of Odile Rodin due to the beauty of her body, alluding to the French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

Sir William Gerald Golding, was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he would go on to publish another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983.