List of Famous people who died in 1961

Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest and he wrote on perception, art, politics, religion, psychology, psychoanalysis, language, nature, and history. He was the lead editor of Les Temps modernes, the leftist magazine he established with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in 1945.

Wallingford Constantine Riegger was an American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores. He was born in Albany, Georgia, but lived much of his life in New York City. He is noted for being one of the first American composers to use a form of twelve-tone technique.

Mario Roques was a French scholar, professor of history of medieval literature and renowned Romance philologist. He translated and edited Le Roman de Renart.

Alessandro Fantini was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. Fantini died after a crash at the end of the sixth stage of the 1961 Tour of Germany.

Werner Richard Heymann, also known as Werner R. Heymann was a German-Jewish composer active in Germany and in Hollywood.

Harriet Sofie Bosse was a Swedish–Norwegian actress. A celebrity in her day, Bosse is now most commonly remembered as the third wife of the playwright August Strindberg. Bosse began her career in a minor company run by her forceful older sister Alma Fahlstrøm in Kristiania. Having secured an engagement at the Royal Dramatic Theatre ("Dramaten"), the main drama venue of Sweden's capital Stockholm, Bosse caught the attention of Strindberg with her intelligent acting and exotic "oriental" appearance.

Joseph Connolly was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician.

Lala Achint Ram was an Indian freedom fighter, Gandhian and a member of the Indian National Congress party.

Joseph Michael Schenck was a Russian-born American film studio executive.