List of Famous people who died in 1971

François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became totalitarian and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute, indiscriminately killed Duvalier's opponents; the Tonton Macoute was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing any form of dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult.

Howard Duane Allman was an American rock guitarist, session musician, and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band.

Roy Oliver Disney was an American businessman and co-founder of The Walt Disney Company. He was the older brother of Walt Disney.

Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya was a Polish ballerina from a Polish noble family Krzesiński. Her father Feliks Krzesiński and her brother both danced in Saint Petersburg. She was a mistress of the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia prior to his marriage, and later the wife of his cousin Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia.

Dietrich Klagges was a Nazi Party politician and from 1933 to 1945 the appointed premier (Ministerpräsident) of the now abolished Free State of Brunswick. He also went by the pseudonym Rudolf Berg.

Lucie Adelsberger was a German Jewish physician who was imprisoned during the Second World War at Auschwitz and Ravensbrück concentration camps, where she provided medical care to other prisoners. She specialised in immunology.

Robert Tyre Jones Jr. was an American amateur golfer who was one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport; he was also a lawyer by profession. Jones founded and helped design the Augusta National Golf Club, and co-founded the Masters Tournament. The innovations that he introduced at the Masters have been copied by virtually every professional golf tournament in the world.

Pedro Rodríguez de la Vega was a Mexican Grand Prix motor racing driver. He was the older brother of Ricardo Rodríguez. His most notable successes were in Formula One, where he won the 1967 South African Grand Prix driving a Cooper-Maserati and the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix in a BRM, and in the World Sportscar Championship where he was a principal Porsche factory driver in winning both the 1970 and 1971 titles. He was killed on 11 July 1971 while competing in a Ferrari during an Interserie sports car race in Nuremberg, West Germany.

William Griffith Wilson, also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

Violet Constance Jessop was an Argentine ocean liner stewardess, memoirist and nurse who is known for surviving the disastrous sinkings of RMS Titanic in 1912 and her sister ship HMHS Britannic in 1916. In addition, she had been onboard RMS Olympic, the eldest of the three sister ships, when it collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke, in 1911.