List of Famous people who died at 85

Henry Farrell was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known as the author of the renowned gothic horror story What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, which was made into a film starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

Colonel Frank Allen Kurtz, Jr. was an American Olympic diver and an aviator in the United States Army Air Forces.

Harold Arthur Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson, was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation between 1955 and 1959 and a cabinet member as Minister of Defence between 1959 and 1962, when he was sacked in the Night of the Long Knives. In 1964 he was ennobled as Viscount Watkinson.

Maxwell Davenport Taylor was a senior United States Army officer and diplomat of the mid-20th century. He served with distinction in World War II, most notably as commander of the 101st Airborne Division, nicknamed "The Screaming Eagles."

Vali Rácz was a successful Hungarian singer and film actress, the darling of the Hungarian public. She finished the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest 1932. Between 1933 and 1934, she played at City Theatre and then at Hungarian Theatre. In 1936, she sang at 'Terézkörúti Színpad' and at City Theatre for three years. After 1945 she was a member of Royal Revue-theatre, Medgyaszay Theatre, then Kamara Varieté. She acted in twenty films, but was primarily a chanteuse, giving solo concerts at the Music Academy and Vigadó concert hall, as well as appearing regularly at the Hangli Kioszk nightclub. She left Hungary with her husband Peter Halász and children, Mónika and Valér, in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. She lived in New York City, later in London, and in 1975 settled in Munich, Germany. On 25 May 1992, she was honoured as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, for having saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust. She died at the age of 85 in 1997.

Frederick Charles Gordon Lennox, 9th Duke of Richmond, 9th Duke of Lennox, 9th Duke of Aubigny, 4th Duke of Gordon was a British peer, engineer, racing driver, and motor racing promoter.

Erich Paul Hubert Correns was a German chemist and president of the National Front of the German Democratic Republic.

Edward James McShane was an American mathematician noted for his advancements of the calculus of variations, integration theory, stochastic calculus, and exterior ballistics. His name is associated with the McShane–Whitney extension theorem. McShane was professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia, president of the American Mathematical Society, president of the Mathematical Association of America, a member of the National Science Board and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.