List of Famous people who died at 81

John Grinham Kerr was an American actor and attorney. He began his professional career on Broadway, earning critical acclaim for his performances in Mary Coyle Chase's Bernardine and Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy, before transitioning into a screen career. He reprised his role in the film version of Tea and Sympathy, which won him a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and portrayed Joseph Cable in the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical South Pacific. He subsequently appeared in number of television series, including a starring role on the primetime soap opera Peyton Place.

Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango was a Congolese politician. He was an army officer who became Congo-Brazzaville's first general and served as Head of State of the People's Republic of the Congo from 1977 to 1979. He was the President of the Rally for Democracy and Development (RDD), a political party, and served as Prime Minister from 1993 to 1996. He was in exile from 1997 to 2007.

Kenneth Douglas Taylor, was a Canadian diplomat, educator and businessman, best known for his role in the 1979 covert operation called the "Canadian Caper" when he was the Canadian ambassador to Iran. With the cooperation of the American Central Intelligence Agency, Taylor helped six Americans escape from Iran during the Iran hostage crisis by procuring Canadian passports for the Americans to deceive the Iranian Revolutionary guard by posing as a Canadian film crew scouting locations. Before the escape, the six Americans spent several weeks hiding in the homes of Taylor and another Canadian diplomat, John Sheardown.

Pernell Elven Roberts Jr. was an American stage, film and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest-starring in over 60 television series, he was best known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son Adam Cartwright on the Western television series Bonanza (1959–1965), and as chief surgeon Dr. John McIntyre, the title character on Trapper John, M.D. (1979–1986).

Ferdy Mayne was a German-British stage and screen actor. Born in Mainz, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 1930s to escape the Nazi regime. He resided in the UK for the majority of his professional career. He was best known as a character actor, often portraying aristocratic villains and eccentrics in films like The Fearless Vampire Killers, Where Eagles Dare, Barry Lyndon, and Benefit of the Doubt.

Vladislav Petrovich Krapivin was a Russian children's books writer.

Eva Saxl (1921–2002) was a self-taught manufacturer of insulin and an advocate for people with diabetes. Saxl was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Samvel Vladimirovich Gasparov was a Russian film director and short story writer. He worked for some time at the Odessa Film Studio. He was buried at Khovanskoye Cemetery.

Hulusi Kentmen was a Turkish actor.

Jakob Hudson Nacken or Jacob Nacken was a German circus performer active in Europe and the United States. He began his career as an exceptionally tall person while a teenager, performing in a traveling circus, and appeared in the 1939 New York World's Fair. Nacken was the tallest soldier in the German Army during World War II at a height of seven feet three inches (2.21 m). He was employed as a giant Santa Claus and appeared on American television as a figure of high stature and in freak shows as the World's Tallest Man.