List of Famous people who died at 81

Prince Karl Gero Albrecht Joseph Wilhelm Anton Maria of Urach, Count of Württemberg, 3rd Duke of Urach was the head of the morganatic Urach branch of the House of Württemberg.

Hans Klering was a German actor, director, voice actor, graphic designer and author. He joined the Communist Party and went into exile in the Soviet Union in 1931, returning to Germany in 1945. In 1946, he became a co-founder of DEFA, the East German state-owned film studio, as well as one of its directors and board members.

Svetlana Velmar-Janković was a Serbian novelist, essayist, chronicler of Belgrade, and first female laureate of the Isidora Sekulić Award. She was considered to be one of the most important Serbian female authors of her time. In 2001, the French President Jacques Chirac honored her with the Chevalier medal of Legion of Honor because she always took care to preserve the humanist values which unite her and her country with the rest of Europe.

Lewis Maitland Allen was an American film producer and Tony Award winning Broadway producer. He was married to screenwriter Jay Presson Allen. Allen was nominated for seven Tony Awards and won three, for Annie (1977), I'm Not Rappaport (1986) and Master Class (1996).

Jean Royer was a French Canadian writer and poet.

Kanji Higuchi , better known as Joe Higuchi was a Japanese professional wrestler, road agent, on-air personality and referee best known for his tenures with the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) and All Japan Pro-Wrestling. The first official Japanese referee in the NWA, he was known as one of the best referees in the business and the most popular referee in Japanese Puroresu history.