List of Famous people who died in 1961

Oswaldo Goeldi was a Brazilian artist and renowned engraver. He was the son of Swiss naturalist Émil Goeldi.

Zoltan Korda was a Hungarian-born motion picture screenwriter, director and producer. He made his first film in Hungary in 1918, and worked with his brother Alexander Korda on film-making there and in London. They both moved to the United States in 1940 to Hollywood and the American film industry.

Cayetano Ordóñez y Aguilera is the patriarch of the Ordóñez family of bullfighters.

Jacoba Johanna (Coba) Ritsema, was a portrait painter from the Netherlands.

Field Marshal His Highness Shree Shree Shree Maharaja Sir Padma Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana was the hereditary prime minister of Nepal and Maharaja of Lamjung and Kaski from 29 November 1945 to 30 April 1948 as the head of the Rana dynasty. He was one of the first prime ministers of Nepal in over a century to advocate for social development, and even proclaimed himself to be "A servant of the nation".

Ettore Meini was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. Meini has won 5 stages in the Giro d'Italia, and one stage in the 1934 Tour de France.

Hilda Doolittle was an American poet, novelist, and memoirist, associated with the early 20th-century avant-garde Imagist group of poets, including Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington. She published under the pen name H.D.

Piet van der Hem was a Dutch painter, cartoonist, and illustrator. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics, the 1932 Summer Olympics, and the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Adnan Menderes was a Turkish politician. He was the Turkish Prime Minister between 1950 and 1960. He was one of the founders of the Democrat Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He was tried and hanged under the military junta after the 1960 coup d'état, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. One of the accusations brought against him was of him ordering the Istanbul Pogrom against citizens of Greek ethnicity. He was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup and is also one of the four political leaders of the Turkish Republic to have had a mausoleum built in his honor.