List of Famous people who died at 81

Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Altman is known as a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, comparable to such directors as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Sidney Lumet and David Lynch. Altman was considered a "maverick" in making films with a highly naturalistic but stylized and satirical aesthetic, unlike most Hollywood films. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema.

João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo was a Brazilian military leader and politician who was the 30th President of Brazil, the last of the military regime that ruled the country following the 1964 coup d'état. He was chief of the Secret Service (SNI) during the term of his predecessor, Ernesto Geisel, who appointed him to the presidency at the end of his own mandate. He took the oath of office on March 15, 1979, serving until March 14, 1985.

William John "Bill" Crawford was a United States Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II. The Medal of Honor award was believed to be posthumous, even though he was a prisoner of war at the time. He was also a career U.S. Army enlisted soldier, reaching the rank of master sergeant. After retirement from the military, he became a janitor at the United States Air Force Academy, where he received the Medal of Honor award from President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz was a member of the French Resistance and served as president of ATD Quart Monde. Her uncle was General Charles de Gaulle.

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years until his death in 1989. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during the Second World War he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.

Tatsuo Umemiya was a Japanese actor, tarento, and businessman. He was represented by the agency Pickles. His daughter is model and tarento Anna Umemiya.

Rainier III was the Prince of Monaco from 9 May 1949 to his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest ruling monarchs in European history.

Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, FRS was a German-born British biologist, physician and biochemist. He was a pioneer scientist in the study of cellular respiration, a biochemical process in living cells that extracts energy from food and oxygen and makes it available to drive the processes of life. He is best known for his discoveries of two important sequences of chemical reactions that take place in the cells of humans and many other organisms, namely the citric acid cycle and the urea cycle. The former, often eponymously known as the "Krebs cycle", is the key sequence of metabolic reactions that provides energy in the cells of humans and other oxygen-respiring organisms; and its discovery earned Krebs a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1953. With Hans Kornberg, he also discovered the glyoxylate cycle, which is a slight variation of the citric acid cycle found in plants, bacteria, protists, and fungi.

Valerie Hobson was an Irish-born actress who appeared in a number of films during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a government minister who became the subject of a sensational sex scandal in 1963.

Mel Blanc (born Melvin Jerome Blank was an American voice actor and radio personality. After beginning his over-60-year career performing in radio, he became known for his work in animation as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and most of the other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons during the golden age of American animation.