List of Famous people who died at 85

Mikhail Davydovich Volpin was a Soviet screenwriter. He is known for his professional partnership with Nikolai Erdman, with whom he was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1950.

Franco Modigliani was an Italian-American economist and the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. He was a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Carnegie Mellon University, and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Paul Monash was an American television and film producer and screenwriter.

Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.

A. Peter van Walsum was a Dutch diplomat. He served as the permanent representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations and the United Nations Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara. He was appointed to the position by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July 2005 and left the position in September 2008 when his mandate expired.

Judson Pentecost Philips was an American writer who wrote more than 100 mystery and detective novels under the pseudonyms Hugh Pentecost and Philip Owen, as well as under his own name. As Judson Philips, he also wrote numerous pulp sports novels in the 1930s.

María Teresa León Goyri was a Spanish writer, activist and cultural ambassador. Born in Logroño, she was the niece of the Spanish feminist and writer María Goyri. She herself was married to the Spanish poet Rafael Alberti. She contributed numerous articles to the periodical Diario de Burgos and published the children's books Cuentos para soñar and La bella del mal amor.