List of Famous people who died at 81

Chang Chun-yen was a Taiwanese electrical engineer and professor who served as President of National Chiao Tung University (NCTU). He was a member of Academia Sinica and a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Engineering. Considered a founder of Taiwan's semiconductor industry, he was awarded the TWAS Prize for Engineering Sciences in 2006 and the Nikkei Asia Prize for Science in 2007.

Brendan Bowyer was an Irish singer best known for fronting the Royal Showband and The Big Eight, and who had five number one hits in Ireland. He was also renowned for having The Beatles open for the Royal Showband at a concert on 2 April 1962 at the Pavilion Theatre, Liverpool, England, some six months before the release of The Beatles first single "Love Me Do", in October 1962. Bowyer was regarded as one of the first headlining Elvis impersonators. Elvis Presley himself was a big fan of Bowyer's performances and would often attend Bowyer's concerts in the Stardust Resort & Casino, Las Vegas during the 1970s.

Eknath Gaikwad was an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress (INC) political party. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha and the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He died from Covid-19 in 2021.

Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley was an American educator and activist. She was the mother of Emmett Till, who was murdered in Mississippi on August 28, 1955 at the age of 14, after allegedly offending a white cashier woman, Carolyn Bryant, at the grocery store. For her son's funeral in Chicago, Mamie Till insisted that the casket containing his body be left open, because, in her words, "I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby." Born in Mississippi, Till-Mobley moved with her parents to the Chicago area during the Great Migration. After her son's murder she became an educator and activist in the Civil Rights Movement.

Muhammad Shahrour was a Syrian philosopher and author. He was an Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Damascus who wrote extensively about Islam. Shahrour was trained as an engineer in Syria, the former Soviet Union and Ireland. He referred to the book of the Islamic prophet Mohammad as "The Book", not the Quran; which casts him in direct contradiction with all other Islamic thinkers and traditional scholars. Yet similar to Quraniyoon Muslims, he did not consider Hadith as a divine source; however, he did not belong to the same school as Ahmed Subhy Mansour.

Héctor Ortega Gómez was a Mexican film, television, and theater actor. He was also a screenwriter and a director.

Yevgeny Semyonovich Matveyev was a Soviet and Russian actor and film director who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1974. He is best known as Nagulnov in Podniataya Tselina, based on Mikhail Sholokhov's novel; and Nekhludov in Resurrection, based on Leo Tolstoy's novel.

William Dennis Weaver was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, best known for his work in television and films from the early 1950s until just before his death in 2006. Weaver's two most famous roles were as Marshal Matt Dillon's trusty partner Chester Goode/Proudfoot on the CBS western Gunsmoke and as Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud on the NBC police drama McCloud. He starred in the 1971 television film Duel, the first film of director Steven Spielberg. He is also remembered for his role as the twitchy motel attendant in Orson Welles's film Touch of Evil (1958).

John Wesley Mack was an American activist in the civil rights movement. He was the executive director of the National Urban League chapter in Flint, Michigan, from 1964 to 1969. He served as the president of its Los Angeles chapter from 1969 to 2005, and as a member of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners from 2005 to 2013. He was an advocate for equal opportunities in education, law enforcement and economic empowerment for blacks and other minorities.

Barbara Anita Meek was an American actress best known to television viewers for playing the character of Ellen Canby for two seasons on Archie Bunker's Place. Since 1968, Meek was an active member of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, and appeared in more than 100 Trinity Rep stage productions.