List of Famous people who died in 1971

William E. "Bill" Garity was an American inventor and audio engineer who attended the Pratt Institute before going to work for Lee De Forest around 1921. Garity worked with DeForest on the Phonofilm sound-on-film system until 1927, when Pat Powers hired Garity to develop a sound system that Powers called Powers Cinephone.

Robert Herbert Planck was an American cinematographer. He was nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Best Cinematography for the films Anchors Aweigh, The Three Musketeers, Little Women and Lili. Planck died in October 1971 in Camarillo, California, at the age of 69. He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

Hugh Van Lynden Otter-Barry, was the son of Isabel Louisa née Wolryche-Whitmore (1847–1905) and Robert Melvil Barry Otter, later Otter-Barry (1845–1917), and great-grandson of William Otter, Bishop of Chichester. He was Bishop of Mauritius from 1931 to 1959.

Arthur Stoll was a Swiss biochemist.

Joseph Paul Anthony Selmersheim, known as Tony Selmersheim was a French architect and decorator.