List of Famous people who died in 1961

Charles Max Mason, better known as Max Mason, was an American mathematician. Mason was president of the University of Chicago (1925–1928) and president of the Rockefeller Foundation (1929–1936).

Thomas Fearnley was a Norwegian shipping magnate, sports executive and philanthropist. He was a prominent figure in Norwegian shipping in the first half of the 20th century.

Sergio Osmeña Sr. was a Filipino politician who served as the fourth President of the Philippines from 1944 to 1946. He was Vice President under Manuel L. Quezon. Upon Quezon's sudden death in 1944, Osmeña succeeded him at age 65, becoming the oldest person to assume the Philippine presidency until Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016 at age 71. A founder of the Nacionalista Party, Osmeña was also the first Visayan to become president.

Gustav Schädler was a politician from Liechtenstein and Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 1922 to 1928.

Frederick Alvin "Fred" Kelsey was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter.

William Joseph Shields, known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor. In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Going My Way (1944), None but the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Quiet Man (1952). For Going My Way (1944), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and was simultaneously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields. In 2020, he was listed at number 11 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Carlos Cruz Gemora, commonly known as Charles Gemora, was a Hollywood makeup artist renowned as "the King of the Gorilla Men" for his prolific appearances in many Hollywood films while wearing a gorilla suit.